Greenwich Mean Time

There is a lot of history wrapped up in those 3 words,so much history
that it covers every conceivable topic a person can think of from
invention to astronomy,from timekeeping to adventure,from the
terrestrial sciences to the heritage of nations and so many others but
it is the last one I have chosen to call attention to.

http://books.google.ie/books?id=8roA...emarks&f=false

The exquisite device of John Harrison was more than a match for the
group of people who tried to destroy it,by this I mean the Royal
Society people who had different ideas as to determining longitude
from the simple and effective principles that mesh with a very
complicated chronometer device.Putting the new watch in temperatures
conditions found nowhere on Earth was just one of the unnecessary
indignities visited on Harrison's invention,a similar analogy would be
to see if a computer works underneath water so national pride in the
invention,whatever it exists now, did not exist then and now that
vindictiveness is being paid back in spades.It is not the loss of GMT
per se,it is the loss of all the timekeeping principles which mesh
mechanical timekeeping with planetary dynamics and no greater shame
will be visited on a nation than presiding over the ill-conceived
notion that engineering practicalities outweigh astronomical
principles.

It may have seemed a great idea to institute individual 'leap seconds'
a few decades ago based on John Flaamsteed's ill-conceived notion of
linking stellar circumpolar motion directly to daily rotation or
technically,shifting the rotational designations of AM/PM to right
ascension but in doing so allowed the highly offensive ideology of
1465 rotations in 1461 days take hold.In other words,it was clocks
that were linked directly to stellar circumpolar motion in an attempt
to substitute delicate human reasoning with brute mechanical
conclusions,the core one being -

"... our clocks kept so good a correspondence with the Heavens that I
doubt it not but they would prove the revolutions of the Earth to be
isochronical... " John Flamsteed

I do not portion out fault to those with strictly engineering concerns
and who see the 'leap[ second' as a nuisance without knowing why it
was an illegal ideology in the first place,this is supremely an
astronomical issue regardless of who votes to remove the historical
connections between clocks and the calendar cycle and the calendar
cycle to the encompassing dynamics of the Earth which supplies all the
impetus for astronomical and civil purposes.

I may have been faulted before because of my dedication to the
topic,even knowing that unlike a dedication like Harrison's,there is
no personal reward save the love of the effort of so many people and
so many nations stretching back to remote antiquity and so see it wind
down to where it is now is difficult to bear.That being said,there
would have to be English people who love their own heritage enough to
prevent a genuine human tragedy from continuing,not this 'vote' in a
few months but the flawed reasoning from a few centuries ago that led
to this dismal situations where all the basic astronomical and
planetary facts are in disarray.

Anybody can be forgiven for following that awful mistake which emerged
with accurate clocks in the late 17th century insofar as it represents
either unfamiliarity with the technical details behind the error or
lack of talent to deal with the issues properly and that is the point
of departure for calling attention to a wonderful opportunity to
restore a balance and stability to a matter that has gotten out of
hand.Again,this is not a matter of engineering practicalities as the
'leap second' was a ridiculous and contrived notion to begin with,it
is the larger picture which requires real astronomers hauling back the
notions of people who neither know nor care for astronomical
principles and not only does the British heritage rely on it,it is a
human and global matter.