The Virtual Gigolo

The BBC has published a wonderful story suggesting that at a barely referenced conference an unnamed collection of Muslim “scientists” and clerics have suggested that the world should adopt Mecca time instead of GMT, because GMT was forced upon the world by the British empire (let us ignore the fact that a prime meridian in Europe conveniently allows the international date line to run through the Pacific Ocean) and because Mecca is the centre of the world. One unnamed geologist apparently stated that:

…unlike other longitudes, Mecca’s was in perfect alignment to magnetic north.

Now, it isn’t entirely clear what that means. However, let us assume for a moment that it means the line of longitude that Mecca sits on, and therefore which goes through true North, also passes through magnetic North. Unfortunately, given the current position of magnetic North, this is not the case (once in a while it might be, given that the pole moves, but the same is true of anywhere…). However, Google Earth suggests to me that one city for which this IS true, is Las Vegas. So there you have it, Las Vegas is in perfect alignment (roughly…) to magnetic North. Now we know the true centre of the Earth.