Dan Asimov <asimov@msri.org> wrote:

It's still March 31 in my time zone.

It was April 1st where I was, and it was April 1st UTC. Thanks to how the International Date Line meanders, there's no instant when it's April 1st everywhere. You're in the Pacific zone? Fred Lunnon <fred.lunnon@gmail.com> wrote:

Wonder if it will have "USAF" inscribed on the door?

But apparently you're in the Twilight Zone. :-) Okay, I'll try again, so as to send something on the correct date: The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) has been in charge of leap seconds since 1988. Leap seconds are necessary because of the tidal slowing of the Earth's rotation. A constant second is as necessary to our system of units as a constant kilogram and a constant meter. But it's also essential that the time of day remain synchronized with the Earth's rotation. Leap seconds are an ugly kludge that nobody is really happy with. The differences between TAI time, UT0 time, UT1 time, and UTC time complicates timekeeping, software, astronomy, and navigation. And the problem will only grow worse. See the discussion on Wikipedia. Today the IERS voted to petition the United Nations to require all tidal power stations to be run in reverse. The stations will pump water in when the tide would have been low, and will pump it out when it would have been high. This will cause the Earth's rotation to gradually speed up, back to its historic value of 86400 atomic seconds per mean solar day. (The atomic second was based on the length of the mean solar day in the year 1900.) This will consume energy, rather than producing it, but the benefit is considered to be worth the cost. This also has the benefit of keeping the Moon from drifting away, which would have changed the length of the month and thrown lunar calendars out of kilter. And which would have eventually caused an end to total solar eclipses, once the Moon's angular size became less than the Sun's. It also has the benefit of spurring development of alternative energy sources, since plenty of energy will be needed to run the tidal power stations in reverse. Especially since it will probably be necessary to build additional tidal power stations. The petition was co-signed by the Catholic Church (which wants to keep Easter on the correct date), various prominent rabbis, the leaders of the Sunni and Shi'ite Islamic sects, Exxon/Mobil, and OPEC.