Burning Daylight

For some, there’s God. For me, it’s the Atomic Scientists.

Tomorrow at 10AM EST, the Keepers of the Doomsday Clock will move its hands for the first time since 2007, when the symbolic timepiece was set to 5 Minutes to Midnight in the wake of stalled disarmament talks.

It’s anyone’s call whether the second hand will be shifted forward or back, although it’s hard not not to read between the lines of a spokesman’s statement to the UK Daily Mail.

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.

In an Internet first, the announcement will be made as part of a live streaming event.

God help the Haitians today. God help us all tomorrow. Don’t forget to synchronize your watches.

Oh, and fuck Pat Robertson with the Steel Commander (per Betty Cracker’s post below).

**UPDATE** It’s now officially 6 Minutes to Doomsday (metaphorically, anyway). Apparently, the Clockmasters are orders-of-magnitude more optimistic about human beings than I am.

Posted by StrangeAppar8us on 01/13/10 at 05:13 PM • Permalink

Categories: News •

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Watchmen reference FTW. I’m finally reading the graphic novel.

Comment by OriGuy on 01/13/10 at 05:31 PM

Hope you dig it, OriGuy. The film did a surprisingly good job of slamming it into a live-action package. But there’s no beating the original.

Comment by StrangeAppar8us on 01/13/10 at 05:56 PM

My New Year’s Eve host had a small part in that movie—he was one of the “McLaughlin Group” commentators, at least judging by the clip he showed. Still haven’t seen the film or read it—to my shame on the latter, I know.

Comment by Oblomova on 01/13/10 at 07:58 PM

What, those Atomic Scientists are at it again? They were forever beating time with their nuclear fuel rods throughout my childhood, moving the clock hands always toward midnight, yet never quite getting there, like Zeno’s arrow.

Teetering on the brink of destruction is nothing new; the challenge is in disguising one’s frantic backward flailing as a stylish dance. That is why I find it helpful always to carry an open parasol in each hand, and hope people think it’s my tribute to Judith Jamison.

And Pat Robertson should only be lucky enough to ride a nuclear rod all the way to the tippy tippy top of his spastic colon.

Comment by Mrs. Polly on 01/13/10 at 10:27 PM

Yay! They moved it BACK one minute!

Comment by Betty Cracker on 01/14/10 at 02:14 PM

Thanks Betty. I was just posting that. They definitely had me fooled.

Bill Gates nuked me with a Windows Vista Update, so I missed the live-stream and I’m just now reconnected with the Universe. It’s good to be back, and now there’s even more time before the End!

Comment by StrangeAppar8us on 01/14/10 at 02:24 PM

Oh, that sneaky little bastard! (Gates, I mean.) He’s why I’m always craftily pretending my computer is “asleep.” The minute I do a hard restart, he’ll blindside me with some fucking update that will blast my deadlines all to hell. Oh well, at least we don’t have to deal with enigmatic Mac question marks of death, eh?