I wish they hadn’t changed their name from the more evocative “International Earth Rotation Service”. It used to make me think, “What if we stopped paying them and they stopped cranking?”

More seriously though, it should remind us all of what a web of relationships and interdependence we have. Those clowns who blithely say “We should just fire half of the civil service” don’t even understand how things (barely) work. Its only thanks to the quiet efforts of others (in this case halfway around the world) we can do our own things.