Because of an editing error, an article on Thursday about disagreement among countries over whether to abolish the leap second omitted an element of the leap year cycle.
In Geneva, 700 delegates from about 70 nations attending a meeting of a United Nations telecommunications agency will decide whether to abolish the leap second.
Recently, 700 delegates from 70 nations met in Geneva to decide whether to keep or abolish the "leap second," an extra second tacked on once every few years to synchronize atomic clocks with Earth's rotational cycle.
An internal ITU poll, conducted last year, found that, of the 16 countries (out of 192) that bothered to reply, 13 were in favour of abolishing leap seconds, whereas only three thought to be Britain, Canada and China wanted to keep them.
Abolishing the leap second "removes one potential source of catastrophic failure for the world's computer networks," said Geoff Chester, a spokesman for the United States Naval Observatory, the nation's primary timekeeper.
"People here abolish history.
We shall abolish orgasm".
Next step: abolish authorisation".
(Also, abolish that emoji).
It doesn't abolish poverty.
