So Saudia Arabia built a massive clock and now it's "Mecca Time"
August 12, 2010 - 3:54pm
I found this pretty interesting:
In Saudia Arabia they built a clock in Mecca. A MASSIVE, impressive clock.
Thier goal, according to the article, is to have the time reference point changed to Mecca. So, instead of everything being reference to "Greenwich Mean Time" (GMT) all of our time zones would be +/- x hours "Mecca Mean Time" (MMT).
It makes sense for them to want that, I think, because the daily lives of the practicing muslims involves pointing yourself towards Mecca, regardless of where you are in the world. Why would they not want to orient their time that way as well?
Trying to sort out how I felt about the idea, I came to the conclusion "there's no good reason to change the reference point" but also "there's no good reason NOT to change the reference point."
GMT was defined arbitrarily, just because the British were in power. Reorienting everything would be a pain, but only really in terms of internet/software things where you input your local time as +/- GMT. A change would mean having another "Y2K" scare, but as we all know THAT was no big deal... how hard could it possibly be to change it?
So what do you think, should we all go for Mecca time? Should we defend GMT? Where else would you put the global standard... New York? Tokyo? Somewhere way out in the Pacific so it's completely neutral?
August 12, 2010 - 8:11pm
#2
Henceforth: Time will be defined based on who can build the biggest clock. :)
August 12, 2010 - 10:22pm
#3
It's been pointed out to me that we should use powerful lasers to permanantly display a digital clock on the moon, unfortunatly it would only appear for a few hours every day but it would be AWESOME!!!
August 13, 2010 - 6:20am
#4
It seems crazy to think they could switch the standard time just by building a massive clock. There is some great logic there...................but just imagine the inconvenience if that worked.
August 13, 2010 - 10:54am
#5
Well, maybe there a are a reference point on earth, maybe some point in atlantic ocean, that point that are separating old and new world, maybe some place in the pacific, where the earth sink in his core... i don't know, i think that a neutral and non political point, calculated by scientific means will be a best choice that a social reference point.
August 14, 2010 - 8:34pm
#6
Yes, I like the science angle more than the political, cultural or historical angles.
August 14, 2010 - 1:11pm
#7
Time is an arbitrary thing. It really doesn't matter what the benchmark is, just that it;s consistent. Switching one arbitrary standard for another makes no sense.
But that is a sexy clock.
August 15, 2010 - 7:28pm
#8
This does not mean they are changing our standards, they have their freedom to build what they want. They can not change what we are.
August 16, 2010 - 11:10am
#9
True, but if, say, Mecca time is off GMT by 17.3 minutes, the conversion would be a pain in the ass. Any flights that had a layover in Dubai would be interesting to book.
August 30, 2010 - 9:26pm
#10
Let's shift the Prime Meridian to Los Angeles. That way we can be on HAMMER TIME! 
September 7, 2010 - 1:42am
#11
Greatest GIF of all time right there XD
September 4, 2010 - 1:34pm
#12
Pfft, our proud imperialist brethren didn't go round the world planting flags and civilising natives* just so someone else could take time away from us. Leave time determined by the cross hairs of a telescope in greenwich the way God intended!
*results may have varied, past peformance is not an indicator of future performance, check your ancestors to see if western civilisation is right for you
EDIT: And it occured to me, that by using GMT as Noon - the IDL gets to be out in an unpopulated area (more or less)
I guess I agree that there's no real reason NOT to other than a minor inconvienience. I'm pretty sure that building a big clock isn't reason enough to decide you should set the global standard though. I mean if the US or Canada builds an even bigger one do we change it again?!? the clock is quite impressive though, beautiful.
Blessings, Brian