[time-nuts] Parking Time - was US New Year countdown - accurate?

[J. Forster]

It's a sneaky way of raising taxes without seeming to raise taxes.

How much money is similarily wasted on prepaid credit or gift cards? You
either buy something more expensive and use the card for only part of the
bill, or just throw away the remaining money.

Either way, it's a scam.

-John

============




> Hi Jim,
> Well done, on the parking. Earlier this year I noticed that a new "pay and
> display" meter in the city center (Cambridge UK) has what appears o be a
> GPS patch antenna on top. Presumably a GPS receiver is cheaper than
> manually setting time or arguing it out in court. Anyone got information
> on this application? I suppose it could also be a data antenna.
> My pet parking hate is "pay and display" meters that charge odd amounts
> for fixed time periods and no change. e.g. 80p for 1/2 hour, £1.60 for an
> hour. If you only have a pound coin you get 1/2 hour, not 37 minutes.
>  
> Robert G8RPI.
>  
>
>
> ________________________________
>  From: Jim Palfreyman <jim77742 at gmail.com>
> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
> <time-nuts at febo.com>
> Sent: Monday, 2 January 2012, 1:46
> Subject: [time-nuts] US New Year countdown - accurate?
>
> Hi folks,
>
> Ignoring the travesty of a lyric change on John Lennon's classic song, did
> anyone check to see if the clock countdown in Times Square was actually
> accurate?
>
> In times gone past countdowns have been notoriously off (worst I saw was a
> tv personality using his own watch and it was 25 seconds out).
>
> Oh and why we're at it here is my worst time-nut story...
>
> Pulled up in a "Loading Zone 8-6pm" at 18:00:10. Got out, came back 4
> minutes later to find a parking officer giving me a ticket.
>
> Me: "Look at the time (showing my watch) - it's 6:04"
>
> Him: "Not by my watch" (which said 5:59 at that point).
>
> Me (massive sarcasm voice): "So. Let me get this straight. Despite
> worldwide time standards keeping clocks accurate to billionths of a second
> and costing millions of dollars, all that is now been binned and we now
> keep world official time by your watch. Is that right?".
>
> Him: "Bu..."
>
> Me (interrupting and pulling out mobile): "Let's listen to the national
> time standard shall we?" (I dial and put on speaker - his watch is a good
> solid 5 minutes slow).
>
> Him: Walks off screwing up ticket.
>
> The sheer arrogance of the "Not by my watch" comment irks me to this day.
>
> Jim
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