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Nuclear Crisis Stopped Time In Japan

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the now-ramen-twists-the-other-way dept.

angry tapir writes "The problems at Japan's Fukushima-1 nuclear plant have had an unexpected impact on the country's ability to keep time: a transmitter that sends the national time signal to many thousands of clocks and watches has been forced offline making the timepieces a little less reliable than usual."

4 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. a French poem about stopping the time, by georgesdev · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ô temps ! suspends ton vol...
    -- French poem by Lamartine http://astronad.voila.net/Lamartine.htm

  2. Re:Worst headline ever. by Ender_Wiggin · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You mean if I don't synchronize my clock with the atomic clock more than every few days, it will be more than 20 seconds off?

    Most wristwatches I've owned have a disclaimer in the manual that they keep time with a margin of error ±15 seconds per month. Those are the cheap Casios. I'm sure TV stations etc. have a better clock than me.

  3. Re:And? by mcvos · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Good thing there is still GPS, NTP, etc.

    That's what I've been wondering. With constant GPS signal all over the place, what do we need land-based atomic clock synchronisation for?

  4. Re:Worst headline ever. by rubycodez · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I really doubt it. If anything, the near-perfect organisation of Japan has saved countless lives.

    With tens of thousands of suicides a year, I think not. Another example of a modern society self-driven to neurosis.
    The WHO even disputes Japan's definition of suicide that makes the reported numbers an estimated three times lower.