Posted on 01/16/2014 11:27:07 AM PST by 12th_Monkey
The iconic Doomsday Clock remains poised at five minutes until midnight, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced today (Jan. 14).
The clock is no doomsday device — rather, it's a visual metaphor for the danger of a "civilization-threatening technological catastrophe." Every year, the board analyzes international threats, particularly nuclear arsenals and climate change, and decides where the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock should rest. The closer it is to midnight, the closer the world is to doom.
"As always, new technologies hold the promise of doing great good, supplying new sources of clean energy, curing disease, and otherwise enhancing our lives. From experience, however, we also know that new technologies can be used to diminish humanity and destroy societies," the board wrote. "We can manage our technology, or become victims of it. The choice is ours, and the Clock is ticking."
The Doomsday Clock is the invention of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, a publication started by some of the researchers who worked on the atomic bomb. The wife of one of these researchers, Martyl Langsdorf, was a painter. In 1947, she illustrated the first Bulletin cover to feature the Doomsday Clock — set at that point at 11:53 p.m.
Langsdorf died in March 2013, but her creation lives on. In January 2012, the Bulletin's board set the minute hand of the clock at 11:55 p.m., one minute closer to midnight than the previous year. The decision was made based on the current state of nuclear arsenals around the globe as well as accidents such as the Fukushima nuclear meltdown that occurred in 2011 after a major earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Biosecurity is also taken into account, with the creation of an airborne strain of H5N1 flu worrying scientists in 2012.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Very true.
Perhaps it’s time to change to a mascot that is more fitting the voting majority.
The Dodo Bird
or
the blue footed booby
Ha!
Bust’n out quotes from The Watchmen here on FR of all places.
thanks! Been awhile since I’ve heard Iron Maiden
Lowest was when Bush Sr. was in office? WOW, surprised.
I figured with Mr. “the planet will begin to heal” in charge this sucker would be cranked back to about 55 minutes.
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