Have any fellow Dopers heard anything about a movement afoot to replace GMT with Mecca Time??
I’m asking this question because I heard just the final part of this on the radio, and I haven’t heard or seen anything else about this since then.
This. It’s not going to happen, so don’t worry about it. (Not that there would be anything wrong with it, except for the pointless transition costs, but, well, they are pointless transition costs)
Incidentally, I’m not sure what those quoted in the article base their claim on, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and note that the idea that Mecca is somehow the “true center of the Earth” is ridiculous. (The idea that the true center of the Earth is somewhere on its surface instead of in its core is pretty weird to begin with, and the idea that it has a particular longitude? Bah!..)
My Google-fu tells me that this notion comes from an obscure conference of Muslim scholars in Qatar. It looks like it is making the rounds because it is thought to be an interesting sound bite. I doubt if there is much interest from the international community.
(on preview: what** Indistinguishable **said)
Since it wouldn’t make any practical difference anyway, I just say fuck 'em.
I fully agree with you! This reminds me so much of those who refuse to participate in DST (how they manage to do that, I’ve no idea) because “It’s messing around with God’s time!” I love to look them in the eye and ask them, “Well, then, why aren’t you using High Noon to set your clocks to 12 every day?”
You sure have a masterly command of the English language.
But yeah, fuck 'em 
Let me know when all of this is going to occur so I can set it according to my Swatch watch Internet time.
I think the probability for success = the probability of the Western world adopting the Jewish calendar.
The center of the Earth is in the Mediterranian.
To a people living their lives in reference to Mecca (ie, having to face Mecca to pray five times a day), it makes a certain amount of sense to have time zones that are variated off MMT (Mecca Mean Time), just as we vary our current time zones off GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), such as mine, Central (GMT -6:00).
It really is not a big deal, just something else to calculate for in variance from other standards, like we already do with various calendar systems.
The center of the Earth is in the center of the Earth. If you mean zero degrees latitude/zero degrees longitude is in the Mediterranean, you’re closer but still wrong. The Prime Medirian and Equator intersect in the Gulf of Guinea, just off the coast of Africa.
As for the article linked in Indistinguishable’s post:
I’m pretty sure this is ridiculous because magnetic north moves, and is moving. But I don’t know the geologist’s definition of “perfect alignment.” You can draw a straight line from any point on the globe to any other point.
Presumably, what they meant by “perfect alignment” was that Mecca was on the exact same line of longitude as magnetic north, which is not in itself such a silly thing to say, except for, as you note, the fact that magnetic north moves and is moving.
Of course, that’s just a quirk of where we arbitrarily chose to set the Prime Meridian; if we had set it on the longitude of Mecca, then, by Jove, zero and zero degrees would be exactly longitudinally aligned with Mecca. The arbitrariness of a reference longitude just goes to support the position that there’s no good reason to consider any point on the surface of the Earth to be at the center; as you said, essentially, the only really natural center is the one way down in the core.
Just make sure they’re facing east when you do.
Absolutely true, and they’re right that it’s a colonial artifact. I’m all for getting rid of that kind of stuff if there is a better alternative. But Muslims can get their own watches and things if needed; while several billion more of us would only be inconvenienced if GMT was replaced.
That’s what I figured they meant to, but Mecca isn’t anywhere close to the same longitude as the present magnetic north.
Good point. I would be confused, but actually, I think I’m going to assume those spouting this are just that misinformed.
I’m pretty sure Napier was making a pun about the fact that “Mediterranean” means “middle of the earth[ean].”
If the number of members in the OIC increases much more then it will introduced.
With Mecca at 40° 13’ East converted to 0° it will mean that travellers from the main part of the US will cross the new International Date Line into tomorrow every time they go to Alaska or Hawaii.
It shouldn’t inconvenience more than a few million people.