Greenwich Mean Time is being challenged by a new clock being built in Mecca

Originally posted by TheLoneArcher
As has been stated in many books, due to the centre of the greatest land mass on the globe, the meridian should run through Cario, in fact through the pyramids.
...
If the Muslim world wants their own, let them have it. It will change nothing....

Exactly. In fact, Russia at one time had its own time zones that weren't "in synch" with the rest of the world (the zones were larger or something similar.) It didn't cause time zones across the world to change. The rest of the world is still going to use GMT as the basis for telling when programs begin and so forth.

Computers won't base their clocks off anything else. The international time signal won't change format and time. Star maps won't be rewritten.

I doubt Muslims will even change watches to show the different time, though they may keep a second clock or a watch with two time zones on it. And if you ask them what time it is, you're not going to get some weird Mecca based time answer. You'll get local time.

Originally posted by Firefly_
Only an idiot would totally dismiss the possibility the intentions behind this are nefarious.

It is no secret that Islam wants to engulf the entire globe and force all to follow its beliefs. They have attempted it before. They will probably do it again.

So does Christianity, hon. They want everyone to be Christian and they won't stop till they've converted the whole world and driven out every other religion AND atheism AND agnosticism.

...and this is different from Islam...how? Besides the fact that you're probably Christian, that is.

That's fine.

They can use any standard they want.

The rest of the world will continue to use our standard.

reply to post by Indellkoffer

But using some Mecca standard instead of GMT WON'T change the time at all. The time will be exactly the same, no matter what standard you use. You don't need a second watch.

If you say "The house is 50 metres from the tree" instead of "The house is 32 metres from the stream", does that change the location of the house?

In the same way, if it is 2pm in Spain, it'll be 2pm in Spain whether you use the Greenwich Mean Time, or some Mecca Standard Time. The place of comparison doesn't change the time itself!

[edit on 13-8-2010 by babloyi]

Originally posted by Indellkoffer

Originally posted by Firefly_
Only an idiot would totally dismiss the possibility the intentions behind this are nefarious.

It is no secret that Islam wants to engulf the entire globe and force all to follow its beliefs. They have attempted it before. They will probably do it again.

So does Christianity, hon. They want everyone to be Christian and they won't stop till they've converted the whole world and driven out every other religion AND atheism AND agnosticism.

...and this is different from Islam...how? Besides the fact that you're probably Christian, that is.

And if you'd bothered to read my follow up posts to the replies, then you'd know you are just making assumptions based on ignorance!

reply to post by 4nsicphd


I do not think GMT was totally abandoned in 1972, it was still the benchmark for all planetary and siderial navigation calculations at that time. Without GMT you cannot have Hours, minutes and seconds of time and therefore you cannot convert to degrees, minutes and seconds of arc and thus find Greenwich & Local Hour Angles and in turn Longitude.

Finding Latitude during navigation is no problem but to find Longitude on todays charts, maps and with todays almanacs and nav tables, you, me and everybody else needs "GMT"

PEACE.
RK