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Longer evenings could move a step closer with a government plan to move UK clocks forward an extra hour.
A "tourism strategy" will include a plan to move the clocks in line with most of Europe, bringing lighter evenings but darker mornings.
Tourism chiefs and safety campaigners support the move, but there are fears in Scotland about road accidents.
Ministers want to be satisfied the country backs the plan before giving the go-ahead, the BBC understands.
Last year, Prime Minister David Cameron indicated he was willing to consider a switch.
"The argument will be won when people across the country feel comfortable with the change," he said in August.
So what do people think? I personally would be a fan of longer evenings, since I'd prefer to have my sun when I'm doing leisure actives compared to work in the morning.Longer evenings could move a step closer with a government plan to move UK clocks... more
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By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent, and Martin Beckford
Published: 6:30AM BST 11 Aug 2010
For more than a century, a point on the top of a hill in south-east London has been recognised as the centre of world time and the official starting point of each new day.
But now the supremacy of Greenwich Mean Time is being challenged by a gargantuan new clock being built in Mecca, by which the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims could soon be setting their watches.
Due to start ticking on Thursday as the faithful begin fasting during the month of Ramadan, the timepiece sits atop the Royal Mecca Clock Tower which dominates Islam’s holiest city.
It is at the heart of a vast complex funded by the Saudi government that will also house hotels, shopping malls and conference halls.
Bearing a striking resemblance to both St Stephen’s Tower, which houses the bell of Big Ben, and the Empire State Building, the Saudi upstart aims to outdo its revered British rival in every way.
The clock’s four faces are 151ft in diameter and will be illuminated by 2million LED lights along with huge Arabic script reading: “In the name of Allah”. The clock will run on Arabia Standard Time which is three hours ahead of GMT.
When a glittering spire is added, topped with a crescent to symbolise Islam, the edifice will stand at nearly 2,000 ft, making it the world's second tallest building.
The clock of Big Ben, by comparison, is just 23ft in diameter, while its tower stands at a mere 316ft.
Residents of Mecca will also be reminded that it is time to pray when 21,000 green and white lights, visible at a distance of 18 miles, flash five times a day.
But Islamic scholars hope the clock’s influence will stretch far further than the sands of Saudi Arabia, as part of a plan for Mecca to eclipse the Greenwich Observatory as the “true centre of the earth”.
For the past 125 years, the international community has accepted that the start of each day should be measured from the prime meridian, representing 0 degrees longitude, which passes through the Greenwich Observatory.
A standard time by which other clocks were set was needed to organise global travel and communications, but in the Islamic world the idea that it should be centred on a part of London is seen as a colonial anachronism.
As Mohammed al-Arkubi, manager of one of the hotels in the complex, put it: "Putting Mecca time in the face of Greenwich Mean Time. This is the goal."
According to Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian cleric known around the Muslim world for his popular television show "Sharia and Life", Mecca has a greater claim to being the prime meridian because it is "in perfect alignment with the magnetic north."
This claim that the holy city is a "zero magnetism zone" has won support from some Arab scientists like Abdel-Baset al-Sayyed of the Egyptian National Research Centre who says that there is no magnetic force in Mecca.
"That's why if someone travels to Mecca or lives there, he lives longer, is healthier and is less affected by the earth's gravity," he said. "You get charged with energy."
Western scientists have challenged such assertions, noting that the Magnetic North Pole is in actual fact on a line of longitude that passes through Canada, the United States, Mexico and Antarctica.By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent, and Martin Beckford
Published: 6:30AM... more
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A Hampshire women has no doubt had a rather time-consuming weekend, resetting all 4,000 clocks in her collection, back to Daylight Saving hours.
She keeps them, yup that's all 4,000, displayed in every nook and cranny of her flat, and has even had to resort to keeping them in drawers and cupboards. Speaking on the massive job ahead of her, she said to the Sun:
“It’s a big job — all the clocks have to tell exactly the same time. But I’ve had plenty of practice and I’m a lot quicker than I used to be.”
Her 19-year-old son' bedroom is the only room to escape the tick-tocking, and according to his Dad, he's really not a fan of her collection. “He really does hate them. He curses the clocks when they chime while he’s watching TV. It’s like someone is dropping pennies into a tin can.
“But the rest of the time it’s fine — we’re all used to the ticking.”
Wow.A Hampshire women has no doubt had a rather time-consuming weekend, resetting all... more
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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.
I think we should adopt 'Macca time' and just ask Paul McCartney whenever we want to know what time it is.Muslim scientists and clerics have called for the adoption of Mecca time to replace... more
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Huge Chavez, the Venezuelan President commented,
"I don't care if they call me crazy, the new time will go ahead,"
Chavez justifies the time shift because it allows people to wake up in the morning while it is light and not dark which makes sense I suppose - more power to Chavez and his crazy ways!
I wish more politicians said what they think like Chavez does, he once sang a song to John Snow before an interview....I've got a lot of time for that.
Huge Chavez, the Venezuelan President commented,
"I don't... more
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That's right fellow Brits! Our days are about to be darker... Hopefully you have noticed by now, but the clocks went back last night by one hour. Apparently this means an increase in SAD (seasonal affective disorder) sufferers. Tell us, do the short winter days affect your mood?That's right fellow Brits! Our days are about to be darker... Hopefully you have... more
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