Press Release for distribution April 1st 2016 8.00 am AEST

To all subscribed Newspaper and Internet News Agencies, on the authority of Dr. Baroque Farceur and Professor Farfelu Tromper, Directeurs Associés of the Comité de Spécification Hora Mundial, Geneva, Switzerland.

Summary Version for English speaking countries :-

The World Time Standards Committee based in Geneva, Switzerland has been debating how to transfer to decimal/binary time to fit in with the 21st Century. For 100s of years we have used an ancient system with numbers such as 60, 24 12 30. This presents an enigma in these modern automated times of decimalization and binary computation.

The World Time Committee is pleased to announce a new Time Standard to be phased in over several years, beginning on April 1st 2032.* The final specification was voted on by the 1,276 delegates and passed 1,275 for and 1 against **.

Currently we have 24 x 60 x 60 seconds in a day - 86,400

Hence, it is only possible to divide what exists into decimal or binary units. The initial thought was decimal only, but with the continuing ingress of digital equipment into our daily lives and increasing familiarity within the general populace of the binary concept, some binary units should and could be considered.

We have 'day' and 'night' - allocate them 10 decimal-hours each making 20 decimal-hours each day. For convenience these will be named dechours. This is also easier for children to understand as they have 10 fingers and 10 toes, one for each dechour in a day.

Each dechour will be divided into 64 binary minutes - to be known as binutes

Each binute will be divided into 64 decimal seconds - to be known as binsecs.

Therefore there are 20 x 64 x 64 binsecs in a day - 81,920

A binsec is about 1.0546875 times longer than the current second. Thus for the average person this has the advantage of being very close to what they are already accustomed to. Similarly 64 is close to the 60 that exists today.

The committee very quickly and almost unanimously** voted on the above. However, the division of the year presented many problems, and for many months there was a very great divergence of opinion in the proposals put forward.

Finally after many recent late nights of wrangling and lobbying by the country delegates, the proposal below was accepted and becomes part of the new specification for time periods. This phase was voted 1,276 for and one abstention **.

There are approximately 365 days in a year. Unfortunately we don't yet have the capacity to change the earth's orbit around the sun to produce a more convenient number, not even to eliminate the requirement for an extra day every four years approximately, let alone change the orbit to 400 days per year.

Currently there are seven days in a week. The closest binary number is 8 and decimal number is 10. The decimal value was considered to be too big a change, thus the binary option of 8 days in a week was finally accepted and approved as the best value, despite the strong early support for 10.

These new weeks will be known as beeks (binary-weeks). The new day that has been added will be know as Binday (Binary Day). It will be inserted between Sunday and Monday and will be considered as a beek-end day. With the constant shortening of the working week by computerization, this will provide the general working populace and extra day for leisure and sporting activities each beek.

Thus there are 365 / 8 beeks per year - 45 beeks and 5 days on average. An extras day per year will added periodically as at present.

Now we come to the point where violent disagreements arose, how many 'new' months in a year, 8 or 10.

The final recommendation was for 10, to be know as decoths (decimal months) Each decoth is about 4.5 beeks or 36.5 days. Presently each month is about 4.345 weeks on average, so the difference is minor. Again disagreements arose over the naming of each new decoth, and the division of days to each decoth. Final resolution called for retaining the existing names of months, but dropping September and November, thus fewer months ending in 'ember. This was to satisfy the 'traditionalist' lobby who were horrified at the thought of losing too many of the previous time period names and thus losing sight of our precious heritage. These will have 'New' added to their name until the final cut-over phase is completed to eliminate confusion between the old and new.

The new 'days per decoth' are as follows :-

37 New_January   1

36 New_February  2

37 New_March     3

36 New_April     4

37 New_May       5

36 New_June      6

37 New_July      7

36 New_August    8

37 New_October   9

36 New_December 10

===

365

 

This makes for easy remembrance and calculation. Odd decoths in the year have an odd number of days i.e. January, March, May etc have 37, evens have 36. As now, the extra day every approximately four years will be added to the end of February making it 37 days on those occasions, and thus an 'odd' decoth, (no pun intended!).

The proposal to number the New_Months from zero thus only requiring one character position was rejected. The feeling was the concept of a zero decoth was too hard for a normal person to comprehend.

A typical January decoth - this example starting on a Monday

Sun Bin Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

        1   2   3   4   5   6  

7   8   9   10  11  12  13  14 

15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22 

23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30 

31  32  33  34  35  36  37     

Note that each day of the beek are either odds or evens throughout the decoth.

A more detailed specification and changeover phasing is being released to industrial companies and scientific communities so they can initiate the changes necessary for the first phase of the cut-over, April 1st 2032. Similarly there are specific releases for the religious communities so they can re-calculate their holy days. It is expected that governments will embrace the new format and plan one public holiday per decoth.

This change is expected to be a far greater challenge than the 'year 2000' problem. Recruitment of programmers, system engineers, analysts and educators is a priority and should begin immediately.

Geneva 2016/04/01

Other languages have their own releases together with their new naming schemes. Please visit http://www.NewTimeStandards.ch/languages" target="_blank">http://www.NewTimeStandards.ch/languages

* It is expected the changeover will take about 25 years - the time for most existing clocks, watches, computers etc to become redundant. At the time of introduction, it is expected all newly purchased personal watches, clocks, mobile phones and the like will have a means of displaying either new or old time. Public clocks should be paired with a newly manufactured clock showing new time, mounted beside the old clock (showing old time). Transport Timetables will have two sections for old and new times. For more details see the 'Cut-over Schedules' available at http://www.NewTimeStandards.ch for more information.

** This negative vote and abstention was made by a tiny nation in the pacific with no electricity and without any computational devices. They saw no reason to change. They are determined to continue with the existing time specification thus obviating the requirement to modify their single sun dial by adding new dechour markings. As boats arriving at the island always arrive at 'pacific time' i.e. somewhere within several hours (decoths) or days of the designated time, there are not expected to be any timetable issues.

N.B. Those without Internet access can call Avrille Phoolé, principal secretary to the World Time Standards Committee, on +69-1-3864-0481, to request a copy of the documents be mailed to them.