And on a completely different note....

[patgund]

Muslim call to adopt Mecca time

"Muslim scientists and clerics have called for the adoption of Mecca time to replace GMT, arguing that the Saudi city is the true centre of the Earth.

Mecca is the direction all Muslims face when they perform their daily prayers.

The call was issued at a conference held in the Gulf state of Qatar under the title: Mecca, the Centre of the Earth, Theory and Practice.

One geologist argued that unlike other longitudes, Mecca's was in perfect alignment to magnetic north.

He said the English had imposed GMT on the rest of the world by force when Britain was a big colonial power, and it was about time that changed."

Comments

[jeran.livejournal.com]

Perfect alignment to magnetic north? Someone smack that geologist. For one thing, magnetic north moves. A lot. So if he's talking about Mecca being on the line where magnetic and true north match up, the only guarantee is that in a decade or so it won't be anymore. And WTF does magnetic north have to do with timezones anyway?

Now, he's right in that the zero meridian ended up through Greenwich pretty much because Britain was pretty much running the things that needed a zero meridian and the rest of the world had to either do it their way or suffer massive headaches converting things. But while the only thing important about GMT is that everybody agrees on it, not where exactly it is, everybody does agree on it. Changing it at this point will be a logistical nightmare, assuming you can get everybody to agree on the new zero meridian.

[jecook]

Plus, if said saudi city were to become a glass parking lot in the future, we'd all have to move it again.

Not say that it *will* happen...

[winterlion.livejournal.com]

While the reasoning is amusing, the location of zero time is entirely arbitrary.

Britain won by buying all the votes ;)

(the "aligned with magnetic north" isn't particularly accurate nor will any amount of truthiness in the statement last long....)

[electorprince.livejournal.com]

"True center of the earth"? Wouldn't that be the solid inner core, considering the spherical structure of the planet?