Doomsday clock to be moved by world's top scientists tomorro

[MikeWB]

It's currently set to 5 min to midnight. What do you think they'll set it to tomorrow?

My guess is 3 min to midnight. Maybe 4 min but I think think they'll go to 3. We'll see.

Doomsday clock to be moved by world's top scientists tomorrow

Last updated at 4:14 PM on 13th January 2010

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The minute hand of the famous Doomsday Clock will be moved at 3pm tomorrow afternoon, for the first time in two years.

The timepiece in New York conveys how close humanity is to catastrophic destruction, which is represented by midnight.


Doomsday Clock: Created in 1947 by concerned scientists - it will be changed once more today

It was created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1947, two years after the U.S dropped the first atomic bombs on Japan in World War II. It was originally set at seven minutes to midnight.

The clock has been altered 18 times since then by the Bulletin's scientific board. This now includes Professor Stephen Hawking and 18 other Nobel laureates.

The latest recorded time was two minutes to midnight in 1953 as the Cold War heated up between the U.S and Soviet Union.

In 2007 it was wound on to five minutes to midnight, to reflect the failure to solve problems posed by nuclear weapons.

Today the public can watch the change for the first time via a live web feed.

A spokesman said: 'Factors influencing the latest Doomsday Clock change include international negotiations on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, expansion of civilian nuclear power, the possibilities of nuclear terrorism, and climate change.'

Just last month environmentalists criticised the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, after leaders failed to reach any real consensus.

To watch the clock be altered go to the 'Turn Back The Clock' website

[Christopher Marlowe]

It went backwards!
From Canada.com:

The world has been given another 60 seconds until Armageddon.

In a symbolic gesture reflecting how close humanity teeters on the edge of destruction, scientists turned the hand of the "Doomsday Clock" back one minute on Thursday in New York, citing a more "hopeful state of world affairs."

For the first time in two years, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists changed the setting of the symbolic time piece, moving the clock to six minutes to midnight from five to midnight.

So it's like nuclear daylight savings.

The group, which includes world-famous physicist Stephen Hawking and 19 Nobel laureates, takes into account the threat of nuclear war and other destructive forces, including climate change, when deciding how to set the clock.

On Thursday, the BAS singled out the 2009 agreement between the U.S. and China on reducing carbon emissions, the 2009 meeting between Russia and the U.S. on nuclear arms reduction, and the 2008 election of Barack Obama in general, as reasons for the clock correction.

WTF? Climate change? Obama? The Doomsday clock is officially full of sh*t.

[MikeWB]

Backwards??? They're planning on attacking Iran and Israel's planning on attacking Lebanon again and these guys are moving it back?! Ridiculous.

[LordLindsey]

VERY little of what "the people" see is real, and this is just another example of this literal insanity.  I am at a loss for words, because there is NO legitimate explanation as to how anyone can explain to me that the world is safer now than it was last year.

LIES, LIES, ALL FUCKING LIES.

LINDSEY

[Milton]

World's top scientists, thats an oxymoron.