For centuries, an astronomy observatory in Greenwich, London — the namesake of Greenwich Mean Time — has been the reference point for lines of longitude, ships’ navigation on the world’s seas and the time zones used today.
But Saudi Arabia wants to change that. It’s building what it calls the largest clock in the world, atop the second-largest skyscraper in the world, in the Islamic holy city of Mecca — in hopes of replacing GMT with “Mecca Time.”
The clock dwarfs London’s Big Ben, with four huge faces each about 130 feet in diameter and inscribed with the Arabic words “God is greatest.” Only one of the clock’s faces has been completed so far, covered with 98 million pieces of glass mosaics. Details were first released by the Saudi official news agency and picked up by several foreign media.
It’s still under construction atop a nearly 2,000-foot-tall building overlooking Mecca’s Grand Mosque, the point where Muslims around the world turn toward during their five daily prayers. Millions of faithful visit the site as part of the Muslim hajj voyage and other pilgrimages each year.
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Replacing GMT, ha-ha.
But this does sound like a cool clock, I’d like to see it. Except that it’s in Mecca, in the middle of Saudi Arabia, which is in the middle of freaking nowhere.
It’s a Liberal conspiracy!
– What, has nobody said this yet?
Shouldn’t this be placed at ground zero instead?
I wonder if they hand out chin straps for their burkas. No one wants to see a jew fro eye brow.
“Except that it’s in Mecca, in the middle of Saudi Arabia, which is in the middle of freaking nowhere.”
Not only that, but Its also off-limits to non-Muslims by Saudi law.
“God is greater”????
Greater than what? Money?
Excuse me. Actually, “God is greatest”….
Mecca Time – It is so thoughtful of the Islamists to help all our children and grandchildren remember when to pray to Allah.
“It’s still under construction atop a nearly 2,000-foot-tall building”.
I wonder if they built their structure to withstand the impact and fire from a fully-fueled 767? Oh wait, that’s right, George Bush imploded those buildings, so the Saudis have nothing to worry about.
I’m surprised it took seven comments before anyone found a way to bash Obama from this post. Naturally it was Pedro.
It won’t happen. Well, the clock might get built, but it won’t replace Greenwich Mean Time. Oh, wait, Greenwich Mean Time has already been replaced by “Coordinated Universal Time” inexplicably abbreviated “UTC”.
Oh, and fat chance of having the time standard in a place where Jewish or female scientists aren’t permitted!
And, you can’t run the aviation industry and thus, fly your planes into buildings, if you don’t have a proper world wide time standard.
I thought we used “arabic” numerals (as opposed to roman numerals). But, the only numbers I recognize on that clock are 1, 9, and 10 (and 11).
Too bad they set the date on their clock to the year 1235, which seems to be the year their heads are stuck in.
This was brought up a couple of years ago when some big Islamic blowhard in the KSA demanded that the Prime Meridian be moved east to run through the the Kaaba, since they consider it the center of the universe.
The Islamist should have brought this issue up about 150 years ago. The PM and IDL was officially recognized in 1884 at the International Meridian Conference in Washington DC. Too late now!
The beauty of the current PM is that it runs the IDL down the only longitude on the planet that impacts the least number of nations. Frankly, there is no other longitude like that.
And if the Islamist have a problem with it, then they should complain to God who put the earth’s landmasses where they are at the time Man needed to establish a PM for navigation purposes.
“For centuries, an astronomy observatory in Greenwich… has been the reference point for lines of longitude, ships’ navigation on the world’s seas and the time zones used today.”
Partly correct. It didn’t become a time zone standard until about 150 years ago.
# 14 spsffan said,”Greenwich Mean Time has already been replaced by “Coordinated Universal Time” inexplicably abbreviated “UTC”.”
Actually UTC is still based on the prime meridian which is Greenwich. And the “inexpicable” isn’t really. Universal time is a measurement dependent on astronomical observations. As such there are several UTs and they are enumerated UT0, UT1, etc. until they are, well, coordinated and you get UTC. Quite logical, actually.
Not to lose track of the revealed issue here: the Muslim want to take over “everything”/every aspect of everyone’s life including things as tangential and settled as GMT.
Takes a certain kind of Hubris not to take a maniac at his word. Even more difficult when the maniac is a large group with the inherent variation ((about a mean)) that a religion represents.
I think we are 2-3 generations away from seeing Islamic revolution in a Western State. France? Spain?
It would be so much easier to infect their society with the virus of Freedom now before their exposure is overcome by manifest destiny. Like the Borg, they just need some “individuality” injected. I suggest requiring them to set their women free when they place foot in non-Muslim ground.
Yes, active discrimination regarding Religion. They aren’t all the same.
#19 bobbo, I agree with what you said here. Islam is a poison to all that is decent. It’s a poison to freedom, civil rights, science, democracy, and science. Islamic women are treated like chattel by their families and husbands, they are sold, and even killed.
Islam wants to control every aspect of life, even religious life. Islam is not just a religion, but it is a form of government, a way to control your diet, a political system, and an education system.
Well, thank you Benjamin. I hope our little reality group can be joined by more than malcontents and sci-fi writers?
Too many say that “the majority of Muslims are peace loving and ecumenical.” Studies show that ain’t exactly true==like everything else, its how you ask the questions. But the fact is, groups are controlled by its most radical elements, just see the meltdown of the Puke Party for a current example of that. To hone that a bit: the most radical element of a group controls when that radicalness is CONSISTENT with the wishes/desires of the masses who may or may not even consciously be aware of their own motivations. While there is great variation, crazy Hindu’s spend a life time growing ear hair. Crazy Christians drink koolaide waiting for a space ship. Crazy Protestants kill doctors for aborting kiddies. You don’t even have to be crazy to be a Muslim and fly airplanes into buildings, or blow up airplanes over Lockerbe. No, those actions, crazy in our society, are HERO’S to the Muslim religion.
The writing is clearly on the wall but christians are just crazy enough to lie down with those dogs and worship the fleas they wake up with. Not that hard to go from one kind of crazy to another.
Silly Hoomans.
If I wanted to live in the 12th Century….. I’d move to Saudi Arabia!
Sorry, nothing against Islam, but why let a group, whose calendar year is 11 days out of sync with the solar year, decide the world standard clock?
IIRC Greenwich England is the former home of Isaac Newton.
A conspiracy of jealous French and Americans already moved the meridian about 160m from Greenwich (which confuses tourists looking at their iphone)
# 21 bobbo, “…crazy Hindu’s spend a life time growing ear hair.”
I once treated the chief of a small village near Huambo in Angola. He was about five feet tall, almost totally bald and had prodigious amounts of ear hair which one of his wives combed for him. He was not Hindu, he was Roman Catholic (used to be a Portuguese territory) though oddly practiced in the forest and looked like he was from elf-land. Anyway, he told me massive ear hair was a sign of wisdom then he touched my ear and said, “Maybe someday.”
Animby==just a variation on Samson eh? Now, what connection does hair have on wisdom? Strength and well fed I can see. Seems to me the wisdom would be to keep it short and free of bugs, but I am full of Western bias.
Angola? I’ve been to the Congo, Morocco, Egypt, and Ethiopia. Once again, you just make me jealous. But if you think you can wipe your ass with a monkey – – maybe not. And thinking about the Congo, I’m not exactly heartbroken about Angola either!
What will they do when the oil runs out and no one travels to that God forsaken desert except the zealots of a wacky religion.
# 27 bobbo, “…what connection does hair have on wisdom?”
They say get wiser with age. And I do seem to have more hair in my ears these days.
“Angola? …you just make me jealous.” No need. I was there for three years during the war and it wasn’t fun. Interesting country, though. It was good to work in a place where I spoke the official language (Portuguese)and even learned a bit of the two main local languages (k’konga & m’bundu). I was a little surprised recently to see ads for Angolan tourism on CNN.
“…if you think you can wipe your ass with a monkey…” Not difficult. You just have to get them to run through your legs with their tail in the air. You do have to take care with your low hanging fruit…
So many idiots commenting here acting like they know islam or saudi arabia or anything similar like that. i challenge you racists and monkey brains to pin point exactly where is Saudi Arabia. And by the way, this is Mecca city home to millions of people visited by millions of people around the clock for centuries, and you call it middle of nowhere, idiots.
Hey Zorker…
You do know that the heart of Mecca is banned to non Muslims, right? If you are visiting KSA and you don’t have the right papers certifying you are a good Muslim, and you want to go see the Grand Mosque, you get arrested, perhaps prosecuted, and deported.
Way to be friendly and open. Guess what? You can visit the Vatican even if you aren’t Roman Catholic.
And the Muslims wonder why we don’t understand them.
#31–zorkor==like all madmen, you post, but you never respond. Can’t hold an argument.
I’ve been to KSA and the whole place actually is in the middle of no where, and Mecca is slightly north of the middle of KSA (from memory). Hard to tell what is in the most abundance: sand, ignorance, sun, ignorance.
Maybe ignorance?
Pedro==as always, you take a good point and hone it to absolute brilliance. I am in your debt.
#31 it is the middle of no where. A place that wouldn’t mean a flying fuck to most of the world if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s sitting a oil. Isalmic nations seems to be capable of producing only three things well: oil, starving children and nut-job terrorists.