[cnvogel]

Wow, that's a pretty bad illustration of leap smearing. I think a much nicer illustration would have been roughly like this (with obvious limitations caused by the ASCII spacing):

    Real: true time, showing the 61st second
    Comp: computer time, only counting 60 seconds

     not smeared,
     time counted at regular speed
      ...--->|                        |<---...
    Real 54  55  56  57  58  59  60  00  01  02  03
    Comp 54  55   56   57  58   59   00  01  02  03
             |<- smearing ----------->| 
              time counting slowed down
              by 20%

[MereInterest]

Also, who the heck decided to call it a "leap smear"? There isn't anything "leap"ing about it anymore. If you are changing from "leap second" to something indicating smearing, "smear second" is the logical choice.

[pdpi]

Well, you're turning a leap into a smear, so "leap smearing" seems like a perfectly apt description.