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Re:Leap-second decision delayed by eight years by jepler on Saturday November 21, 2015 @10:23PM (#10608951)
There is no "0AD", and if you don't have leap seconds then the number of seconds per repeat of the Gregorian calendar is not fixed—just have a look at the graph at http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/leapsecs/deltat.html

There may be at least 8 different answers to "how many seconds have elapsed since 1972-01-01 until now" depending on legal jurisdictions: http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/leapsecs/epochtime.html

[ed: added second link]

Re:Leap-second decision delayed by eight years by urbit on Saturday November 21, 2015 @10:43PM (#10608991)
TLDR: if you define a bunch of complexity into your definition of time, you'll have a very complex model of time.

Eg, if you define the Gregorian calendar as a function of the position of the planets, rather than a function from atomic-clock seconds to a string, then the Gregorian calendar is not fixed. I suppose Pope Gregory designed it as a function of astronomy, so who are we to roll our own?