PASSED: Repeal "Universal Standard Time Act"

[Progresstan]

Whilst it's entirely possible for this repeal to pass - I'd like to outline my position against it:

- In an increasing era of globalisation, international trade and international diplomacy, removal of a standardised system of something as fundamental as time will wreak havoc on the international system - With the amount of countries in our world, each having no limit as to the amount of timezones they possess, there is a potentially infinite range of time measurements available if this resolution is repealed, which may lead to even greater difficulties if fundamental factors such as the length of a day are changed - Throwing out calendars.
- This will cause extreme difficulties in international trade, cross cultural exchange and the like - I mean, consider international travel?
- It is also extremely inefficient from a economic perspective, as any situation would require and extra level of "due diligence", simply to determine time differences.

As far as I'm concerned, this is a proposal that, as for the above reasons, amongst others, should be rejected, and the status quo upheld.

[Kostemetsia]

The Commonwealth's delegation takes the floor to explain why it supports this repeal.

The original proposal contains this language:

FORMS the World Assembly Time Board (WATB), tasked with regulating UT around all nations to be synchronized within half a second (0.5 seconds or 500 milliseconds) of a master atomic clock started once this resolution is passed. The atomic precision master clock shall be kept to match a chosen observatory's time as defined below. It will use a second defined as 9,192,631,770 transitions between the two hyperfine ground states of a caesium-133 atom, thereby making the master clock an atomic clock.

Our first objection to the language of this paragraph is that it requires precise synchronisation. Let us now note that the planet of Kostemetsia, the capital of the Commonwealth, is approximately twenty thousand light years from Earth, on which the World Assembly Time Board's headquarters will presumably be. There is no form of faster-than-light communication, or ansible, known to us which can synchronise a clock on Kostemetsia to a clock on Earth within the required accuracy. This means that every time the clock on Kostemetsia drifts out of adequate synchronisation, it will require a three-week journey to Earth to be resynchronised.

Not only does this leave the Commonwealth without a WATB-standard indicator of WAUT for six weeks, thus causing costly confusion, it also deprives the Commonwealth of at least one ship. As some of you may be aware, the Commonwealth is a newly post-revolutionary state and minor player in the dangerous arena of interstellar politics, and is liable to need any or all of its warships at any given time, so a warship will not be used. This leaves the option of a freighter. A freighter will not be able to defend itself against, for example, anyone who might see the destruction of the Commonwealth's atomic clock as a useful opportunity to cause economic havoc. The same freighter could also be used to recoup many times over the lack of profit which the Commonwealth's economy is presumably experiencing in the absence of a universal time standard.

Parts of the objection above are logically applicable to the wider category of post-revolutionary states. Other parts of the objection are applicable to the wider category of spacefaring states. A significant number of states meet either or both of these criteria. By not repealing this resolution, the WA would be causing more damage to those states, and others that the Commonwealth has not considered, than a universal time standard would remedy.

Our second objection to the language of that paragraph is that it defines a second as '9,192,631,770 transitions between the two hyperfine ground states of a caesium-133 atom'. Clockwork was replaced by the atomic clock in 1949, and some new technological innovation may replace the atomic clock in a majority of states in some day yet to come. Binding states to a low-resolution standard when they have progressed beyond the atomic clock may also cause more damage than it remedies. This would be forgivable if it were not for this language in the terminating paragraph ...

Please note that the clock in question needs to be a caesium-133 atomic clock.

... binding states to lesser technologies than they necessarily own.

In summary, the side effects of enforcing the resolution will be significantly more inconvenient to a large number of states than the side effects of not having it at all. In the interests of those states, the Commonwealth casts its vote for this repeal.

[Retired WerePenguins]

... With the amount of countries in our world, ...

There is a simple rule of thumb: The WA is not the UN, and NS is not "The Earth." Currently there are a plethora of worlds that lay claim to NS nations throughout the known "multiverse." While some of these extreemes can be safely ignored the basic argument is that you cannot simply confine your wordview to the world alone. (In fact, there is a daily issue about colonizing the moon ... that in and of itself ruins this resolution ... atomic clocks on the earth and moon will never remain in sync for long, gravity and variable velocities with respect to each other will screw that up almost immediately. Even having a nation of flying deligables ... as in Girl Genius ... causes problems.) I'm not going to even start the past/present/future tech paradox that already exists in the WA. (Queen Victoria, for example, finds the notion of having to buy a atomic clock absurd.)

[Lordieth]

In principle I wasn't really against the original idea, although UT took accuracy to the extremes here. What I particularly objected to was the fact that every nation had to have a redundant atomic clock - why? Two would be more than enough, every Nation have having one was grossly wasteful, and pretty inefficient. I voted against the original proposal, and I will be voting for this repeal.

Not everyone blindly votes yes to everything posted in the WA. I do think there are some people however who don't read the proposals, or just skim them.

[Honorable Citizens]

I don't understand how we passed the Universal Time Act the first time and then are going to repeal it a couple of days later. It's the same people voting, so how did this happen? I think becuase everyone wants to vote on the winning side, so when the first couple of thousand people voted for the repeal, everyone else jumped on that bandwagon. Do not be a hypocrite and vote for the repeal!

Change your vote to opposed!!

[Embolalia]

I love how all these people are saying, "everyone blindly voted for the original, so we should all vote blindly against the repeal!" Seriously? You don't see the flaw there?

Yes, people blindly voted for the original. That's all the more reason we should repeal it. The original is crap. We should make clear that crap resolutions are not tolerated here.

[Darenjo]

I love how all these people are saying, "everyone blindly voted for the original, so we should all vote blindly against the repeal!" Seriously? You don't see the flaw there?

Yes, people blindly voted for the original. That's all the more reason we should repeal it. The original is crap. We should make clear that crap resolutions are not tolerated here.

My actual addition to this: Please vote FOR this repeal! The less amount of terrible resolutions voted in by the lemmings, the better! This WA's a terrible resolution, and we are quite happy to support the repeal.

Ad/Spam: In addition, the next proposal to hit the floor will be one to get rid of ANOTHER lemming-passed resolution (OOC: link in sig). I am counting on your support!

Not Spam: But seriously, the Universal Standard Time Act has to go. It's by far one of the worst things that made it to a vote that I've seen.

[Krioval]

Whilst it's entirely possible for this repeal to pass - I'd like to outline my position against it:

- In an increasing era of globalisation, international trade and international diplomacy, removal of a standardised system of something as fundamental as time will wreak havoc on the international system - With the amount of countries in our world, each having no limit as to the amount of timezones they possess, there is a potentially infinite range of time measurements available if this resolution is repealed, which may lead to even greater difficulties if fundamental factors such as the length of a day are changed - Throwing out calendars.
- This will cause extreme difficulties in international trade, cross cultural exchange and the like - I mean, consider international travel?
- It is also extremely inefficient from a economic perspective, as any situation would require and extra level of "due diligence", simply to determine time differences.

As far as I'm concerned, this is a proposal that, as for the above reasons, amongst others, should be rejected, and the status quo upheld.

This repeal does not eliminate any international standards that were in effect before USTA passed, and it does not prevent nations from continuing to use the guidelines established in USTA in their nations, should they prefer to do so. It does remove the effects of the USTA from those nations who do not wish, for one reason or another, to abide by those provisions. This repeal returns the decision to the constituent nations of the WA.

Henrik Søgård
Imperial Chiefdom of Krioval

[Krioval]

I would like to thank the delegations who voted in favor of this resolution. I would also like to thank those who contributed to the debate here.

Henrik Søgård
Imperial Chiefdom of Krioval

[Mousebumples]

I would like to thank the delegations who voted in favor of this resolution. I would also like to thank those who contributed to the debate here.

*tosses confetti*

Your Excellency, it is my most fervent wish that all of your future repeal attempts (*cough* SCfGH *cough*) are as successful.

May your non-WA clocks always be on time and your international business dealings always bear fruit.

Cheers!

[Charlotte Ryberg]

Well done ambassadors. Although we still need some coordinated time I never thought the WA needed to tap into such an issue. Okay, thanks, bye.

- Ms. S. Harper.

[Philimbesi]

Nigel grumbles as he starts changing the time of his watch... "make up their damn minds... " then he yells "Does anybody really know what time it is?!?!?"

[Quadrimmina]

Sorry I was late to the meeting, my new WA standard clock gave me the wrong time somehow?

Advisor whispers in ear
...Oh. What a goddamned waste of money... *smashes clock*

Nice job guys!

[Honorable Citizens]

Vote opposed! People who are for this are hypocrites!

[Leepaidamba]

Vote opposed! People who are for this are hypocrites!

Or in our case, consistent. We're offered a sub-standard system of standardised time-keeping while we already had a great system already that had cost us far too much to have to throw it out.
And the vote's over too.

[Schnubert]

Sorry I was late to the meeting, my new WA standard clock gave me the wrong time somehow?

Advisor whispers in ear
...Oh. What a goddamned waste of money... *smashes clock*

Nice job guys!

That's impossible. Assuming this clock is subscribed to the time-keeping of an NIST-F1, the most accurate atomic clock available to man, it would not keep time on a rhythm, but instead uses two counter-propagating lasers that cool and trap gas of caesium atoms (since 1967, the scientific definition of one second is the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom). Once trapped, two vertical lasers propel the atoms upward inside a microwave chamber. Depending on the exact frequency of the microwaves, the cesium atoms will reach an excited state. Upon passing through a laser beam, the atoms will fluoresce (emit photons). The microwave frequency which produces maximum fluorescence is used to define the second. The clocks uncertainty is 5 x 10^-16.
Your clock would not give or take a second in 60 million years, and would keep the time no matter where you were in the Universe.
So either:
a. You have had that clock for 60 million years, and your clock is off by a second (which is a pretty petty thing to complain about).
b. The clock you have been issued has had the time drawn onto it with marker.
c. You can't read numbers.
Unless you have any other theories, I'm going to suggest it's a, b, or c.