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The Doomsday Clock Just Ticked Closer To Midnight (usatoday.com)
Scientists moved the hands of the symbolic "Doomsday Clock" closer to midnight on Thursday amid increasing worries over nuclear weapons and climate change. From a report: The clock is now two minutes to midnight. "Because of the extraordinary danger of the current moment, the Science and Security Board today moves the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock 30 seconds closer to catastrophe," said Rachel Bronson, president of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. "This is the closest the Clock has ever been to Doomsday, and as close as it was in 1953, at the height of the Cold War." Each year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a non-profit group that sets the clock, decides whether the events of the previous year pushed humanity closer or farther from destruction. The symbolic clock is now the closest it's been to midnight since 1953. It was also two minutes to midnight in 1953 when the hydrogen bomb was first tested.
I thought it was almost lunchtime.
Have gnu, will travel.
Attention-seeking peaceniks is more like it.
They are a graphic for about a half dozen logic fallacies.
love is just extroverted narcissism
I think this idea of the Doomsday clock being soooo close to midnight reveals just how useless a measurement of crisis it actually is. They're suggesting that a global nuclear holocaust has never been more likely? More likely than during the Cuban Missile Crisis? Than when the president of China urged President Nixon to join him in nuking Russia? Closer than when Pakistan and India took turns testing nukes underground in the early 2000's? All of those years of the cold war where both the US and USSR had nuclear-armed bombers flying all around?
The only location where a nuclear event is likely to take place would be in North Korea: If any event took place, it would have to be a limited attack by the North Korea, prompting a US response. But that isn't to suggest an entire global nuclear winter would necessarily follow.
This is nothing but attention-seeking for the organization behind the clock and in no way measures the actual threat of a nuclear doomsday.
Hippies practicing scare tactics aren't scientists. From the weather through volcanology history has shown that people predicting the future are not scientists of any merit.
Where was the clock then ?
>> This is the closest the Clock has ever been to Doomsday, and as close as it was in 1953, at the height of the Cold War
Hmmm...2 away minutes = global nuclear destruction in 1953 but 2 away minutes = incremental climate changes and a possible limited exchange (over North Korea, etc.) in 2018. Why are the goalposts moving?
Maybe if more people listened to and learned from Iron Maiden we would not be in this mess
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
Really, so now is the time where the Doomsday Clock is the closest to midnight in its whole history? Really?
More than those WW3 close calls? : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Elok
To hell with this 2 minutes and 2 seconds to midnight. Lets just roll the damn thing right on up to midnight and see what happens! Common Hippies, make my day! Lets set that fucker right on midnight!.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
I think that their problem is that they continually wanted to protest some action and kept pushing the clock closer, only now they've run out of room and look damned foolish because all of these little political statements have add up to what we see now. As you point out when you look at it in a historical context, it makes you roll your eyes quite a bit.
They clearly need to walk the clock back quite a bit and do so periodically when whatever new thing they're worried about fails to come to pass or lead to new cause for concern.
and he's going to be up for reelection at some point. And it's not just Trump, it's all his 'the best people'. We handed nukes to a bunch of grifters who grew up with silver spoons in their mouths. If it were me I'd have shaved at least a minute off the clock.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
The danger of nuclear weapons is overblown. They can devastate cities, but you literally need hundreds of thousands of them to destroy a civilization. To destroy destroy a large country you need a thousand nukes minimum. Most nukes are in the range of 10 to 100 kilotons of TNT strength. To destroy a major city you need at least a 10 megaton nuke which is 100 times the power of any nuke Kim Jong Un has. Basically if he were to somehow have perfect aim, he could only destroy 1% of any major US city.
Right, because several thousand nuclear warheads ready to be sent from the hand of a man who does not say the same things from day to day, mistrusts his own security agencies and acts like a five year old with countries that are itching to start a war with us or out allies is "stabilizing"
You are like the frog in a pot of water that is slowly being heated, you end up boiled dead while shouting distraction to everybody else in the pot
Question. If the missiles do start flying who is going to be left to set the thing to midnight? I doubt the cockroaches and rats will give a shit ether way.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
Pretty sure they also use it for climate change and other crazy shit instead of just nuclear war.
"This is the closest the Clock has ever been to Doomsday, and as close as it was in 1953, at the height of the Cold War."
So they honestly feel as though the world is this close to nuclear war?
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Was there ever a time in history when two idiot presidents openly boasted about the "size" of their launch buttons or how readily available the buttons are? Nope.
Or do they just keep forgetting to adjust for leap seconds.
Any fool can see they are 3 seconds off...
The methodology is so transparent and the calculation is easily understood and not controversial in the least....
5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy
There was a time when America prided itself in it's technological prowess. A time when we believed science had the potential to solve our problems and propel us into the future. It's sad that we've gone the other way, clutching superstition and paranoia, as a great thinker once predicted: https://www.goodreads.com/quot...
This has historically been a "pro tech" site, which be definition and education should include individuals educated in science... but alas, it's just more politicized, polarized arse holes too willing to jump on the reichwinger "blame libs for all evils" bs....
Your prizes:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news...
https://worldtop20.org/2017-wo...
http://thehill.com/policy/inte...
And the cherry, the US, the Country FOUNDED on the principles of freedom, drops to 21....well done....
http://theweek.com/speedreads/...
Go suck your thumb in the corner
If you went back in time and wiped out the people who eventually created the doomsday clock.
The world would be a lot safer.
Because before the clock they invented nukes.
More likely than during the Cuban Missile Crisis? Than when the president of China urged President Nixon to join him in nuking Russia? Closer than when Pakistan and India took turns testing nukes underground in the early 2000's? All of those years of the cold war where both the US and USSR had nuclear-armed bombers flying all around?
With the exception of the cold war, Those are all one-off, incidents that lasted a short period of time. The cuban missile crisis lasted for 10 days? The clock isn't moved that often, it's more of a long term idea. During the cold war the clock was set rather close to midnight, and after the fall of the soviet union and massive arms reduction, it went back as far as it's ever been.
Also, this isn't supposed to me some kind of accurate metric, like the temperature. It's a political tool to persuade people of the dangers of the political climate and nuclear war.
And yes, I'd happen to agree that we're possibly closer than we've ever been. The situation with NK is quite bad, and the US relationship with Russia isn't so great either. We have the ruskies meddling in Elections across the world, and a Russia that seems to want to grab land wherever they can.
This is nothing but attention-seeking for the organization behind the clock and in no way measures the actual threat of a nuclear doomsday.
Not everything in the world has these nice, completely object ways to measure everything. As I said, this isn't a damn temperature gauge. It's a political tool. It's "attention seeking" if the attention is directed towards the problem of nuclear war.
It's kind of like when your teacher/parent demanded you do something by the time they counted down from 10. But when you still hadn't done it by the time they got to 1, they started with ever smaller fractions.
It's only the astonishing arrogance and incompetence of Hilary Clinton that made it possible.
I think the superpowered votes of yokels (electoral college) and Russian propaganda deserve some credit.
We get it, you don't like Trump. Seriously, we've heard you. Can you please be quiet now? The adults are trying to talk.
"The clock is now two minutes to midnight."
Iron Maiden has been waiting for this sponsorship opportunity for a long damn time.
Time to elect Eddie to Head up the position of Doomsday Czar.
Fifty-three ?
I wonder how much money has been wasted on this snake oil crap over the last 7 decades. Seriously, astrology is more credible.
Yes, this must be the closest we've ever been to total annihilation.
Not.
This is what happens when you move it for pointless shit. In 5 years it will be one minute closer. Then they will start doing seconds.
They clearly need to walk the clock back quite a bit and do so periodically when whatever new thing they're worried about fails to come to pass or lead to new cause for concern.
Admit they were wrong? Never. Better to keep up the facade that the end is nigh. Personally, I like the Dr. Manhattans view on the Doomsday clock. " I would only agree that a symbolic clock is as nourishing to the intellect as photograph of oxygen to a drowning man. ".
Why it's almost as useful as the DHS's color coded national terrorism advisory system.
BTW, are there any actual atomic scientists in the organization?
Symbolism != Fact
It's all "ooohhhh" followed quickly by hand-wringing. The fact is the Doomsday Clock does not mean shit and does not correlate to any actual outcomes, the whole idea is a subjective stress-inducing mess.
The clock is war propaganda to get us to pre-emptively invade NK. The very existence of this clock brings the doomsday itself. Albeit only for a small nation of starving peasants, but still.
or rather ...Megadeth?
I think that their problem is that they continually wanted to protest some action and kept pushing the clock closer, only now they've run out of room and look damned foolish because all of these little political statements have add up to what we see now. As you point out when you look at it in a historical context, it makes you roll your eyes quite a bit. They clearly need to walk the clock back quite a bit and do so periodically when whatever new thing they're worried about fails to come to pass or lead to new cause for concern.
It's even more foolish now. The Koreans are talking to each other, the US has postponed their military exercises in Korea until after the Olympics, and the proxy wars in the Middle East are not as hot as they were a year ago. Ukraine and Crimea have "calmed down" in the sense that nobody in the USA cares anymore.
If anything, they should be setting the clock backwards.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
from the way the trolls are foaming at the mouth here, it sounds like they'd give more creedence to the rapture index
He wasn't supposed to win? According to who? Peter Strozk and Lisa Page with their insurance policy?
Last I understood people in elections decide who is supposed to win.
creimer is trying to get you to subscribe automatically to his youtube channel and make money of you!
1) The YouTube subscription confirmation prompt requires a Yes or No answer.
2) You can't make money on YouTube.
3) Creimertard. Mod down.
Chris living in his imaginary world again which most people find weird, twisted and absurd and which Chris accepts as being perfectly normal.
---
Nancy Guerrero
Director
Special Education
Santa Clara County Office of Education
I think it is actually closer for once. I mean come on... there's an actual narcissistic retard in the WH... and he's old enough he doesn't really have to worry about the future either. He's not going to be around long enough to have to live through it.
It's kind of like when your teacher/parent demanded you do something by the time they counted down from 10. But when you still hadn't done it by the time they got to 1, they started with ever larger wooden spoons.
That's how I remember it...
Obviously, Chris confuses his signature and homepage link with an advertisement space!
--
Silvia Bunge
Psychology Department
University of California, Berkeley
I would question that. North Korea is China's puppet. A launch from the DPRK would be done because China (which has been rapidly militarizing, including garrisoned "islands") wants in the war, and retaliation from a North Korean nuke hitting the US would definitely give them an excuse to come in swinging. 24 hours later, Taiwan is overrun, Japan is either nuked or EMP-ed, South Korea is a crater due to Chinese... erm North Korean artillery, and smaller nation-states like Signapore would be blockaded. The US would not retaliate against China, so the territory gains would be definite by them.
China isn't making islands for their military to inhabit because they are lacking resorts on the mainland. They want the Pacific Rim, and it is just a matter of time before all their military buildup is used for something.
Really, we never have. Can you please post some links to illustrate his clueless buffoonery? Credible sources only please.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
You know Iran is still continuing development in secret, we know that country would never adhere to any agreement with anyone. North Korea already has nukes which is almost a guaranteed strike with one sooner or later with such a nut in control as Kim. A country like N. Korea is so unstable anything is possible with that country.
USA foreign policy is causing instability and tension all around the world; this is partly because USA is losing power and its grip on various regions but at the same time it is pursuing a more aggressive behavior to prevent future decline in power. BTW it actually amazes me how gullible the general public are and how terrible the state of affairs are in the world is just looking back 50 years ago, where politicians were able to so easily invoke their citizens into war. I think non-state controlled social media may actually able to prevent that kind of social climate (just imagine the outage if USA was to re-implement the draft now).
I think this idea of the Doomsday clock being soooo close to midnight reveals just how useless a measurement of crisis it actually is. They're suggesting that a global nuclear holocaust has never been more likely? More likely than during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
OK... so time for my smart ass response... of course we're closer to a global nuclear holocaust than the Cuban Missile Crisis- because that event was in the past- any potential nuclear holocaust can only exist in the future... (sorry had to get that out the way- I'm not proud of myself)...
Than when the president of China urged President Nixon to join him in nuking Russia? Closer than when Pakistan and India took turns testing nukes underground in the early 2000's? All of those years of the cold war where both the US and USSR had nuclear-armed bombers flying all around?
The only location where a nuclear event is likely to take place would be in North Korea: If any event took place, it would have to be a limited attack by the North Korea, prompting a US response. But that isn't to suggest an entire global nuclear winter would necessarily follow.
This is nothing but attention-seeking for the organization behind the clock and in no way measures the actual threat of a nuclear doomsday.
Serious response time. Obviously we're no more in danger of mutually self-assured mass destruction (in the short term) than we appeared to be during any of those events. Few people would sanely argue that we are. It can change any moment... two major world leaders have a big misunderstanding about something, read a missile launch incorrectly... *boom* - but the plain reality is, that doesn't appear to be any more likely now, than it did during those events.
With that said, I think the doomsday clock has some merit. It's not really scientific, it's not really accurate, it's more subjective than objective, but it still has value. It's a social narrative that says "hey look-here; we need a wake up call, things are going down the wrong path... we don't want to accidentally blow up the earth."
When the newspapers of the world write "doomsday-clock moves closer to midnight" it always makes news around the world and people at least partially pay attention. (we're discussing it now). The problem with this model is...it's not as easy to move backwards as it is to move forwards. You move the hand back and it gives people the wrong impression; the result is you have a hand moving ever closer to *boom*.
Could a better scale be made? Could a better system be put in place?
Absolutely, but this is one the public understands and know about now so it appears to have stuck. Even a broken clock occasionally tells the right time.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Probably if it is an atomic clock!
It's kind of like when your teacher/parent demanded you do something by the time they counted down from 10. But when you still hadn't done it by the time they got to 1, they started with ever larger wooden spoons.
That's how I remember it...
Spoons? You were lucky.
And what the hell is this concept of a parent 'counting down from 10'? We might have had a word of warning, or not, depending on how loud the crying was.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
There is one important difference between the Cuban Missile Crisis and today. Kennedy and Khrushchev were talking to each other. Trump and Kim are not.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Kind of like predictions of Global Warming killing off humanity in N years — for the last 2N years...
Some of the protesters may be scientists, but their protests aren't scientific and thus not any more valid than those by engineers, nurses, or musical directors.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Kim Jong-un nuked my neighbor's poodle! It was unbelievable!
Nice wallotext!
I'd rather have them doing proxy dick waving by comparing launch button sizes than by comparing smoking holes in the ground.
Time to offend someone
Was there ever a time in history when two idiot presidents openly boasted about the "size" of their launch buttons or how readily available the buttons are? Nope.
Thank Bill Clinton for that:
“North Korea will freeze and then dismantle its nuclear program. South Korea and our other allies will be better protected. The entire world will be safer as we slow the spread of nuclear weapons.”
The only location where a nuclear event is likely to take place would be in North Korea: If any event took place, it would have to be a limited attack by the North Korea, prompting a US response. But that isn't to suggest an entire global nuclear winter would necessarily follow.
Assuming the Trump administration is willing to sit there and watch them build bigger bombs and better missiles while throwing insults and bluffs for Kim Jong-il to call. I mean if this was a bar I'd call them fighting words, just looking for an excuse to start swinging fists. And assuming China is willing to just let North Korea fall and be gobbled up by a US-friendly united Korea. My guess is that after the US has leveled Pyongyang and started to prepare for an invasion China would roll in their troops and try to make it a new Tibet.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
and all will be well again.
....are more at odds than ever
Which have more terrorists launching attacks in other countries, these two or NK & SK? Hmm
The problem with proxy dick waving about launch buttons is that you have to escalate the shit talking until you have nowhere to go but to use the button.
Rich Hillaryists sure do hate poor countryfolk.
In Newfoundland the Doomsday clock is at 12:28!
or not... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Minutes_to_Midnight
Not you Tiger, but after 134 comments, not one link?
Hmm. Odd that Wikipedia article you linked to had no mention of a NATO exercise called Able Archer 83, carried out in Nov. 1983.
Historians such as Thomas Blanton, Director of the National Security Archive, and Tom Nichols, a professor at the Naval War College, have since argued that Able Archer 83 was one of the times when the world has come closest to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
and unless I missed something, the only reason Trump was elected was because the Republican party allegedly with overseas help gamed the electoral college system, while Clinton, who was not necessarily the better candidate won the popular vote.
.
And that is how you measure the danger. That's just the public perception. The main reason these doomsday people aren't taken serious is because the public is now completely clueless.
The danger in Ukraine is increasing, not decreasing. The danger of an unintentional war between Russia and the US has increased massively. Much shorter warning times because the US is on Russia's border (and to much smaller extent the opposite is also true) and an aggressive US policy which feels safe because 'it didn't go wrong before' and a US decision system which is out of control.
I think that their problem is that they continually wanted to protest some action and kept pushing the clock closer, only now they've run out of room...
If they really are physicists then they have a huge amount of room left. 2 minutes is 120 billion nanoseconds and you can gain the same factor again by going to attoseconds. At that point though you are at the accuracy of the most accurate clocks ever made and things like the height of the clock will start to matter due to gravitational time dilation.
Does it measure nuclear crises? No, it measure the likelihood of apocalypse (of any type) that humans have control over. Hence "doomsday" and not "nuclear clock". It doesn't change fast enough to track an individual crisis anyway.
There is no doubt it's closer now than under Obama. He didn't brag about nuking stuff, try to build smaller tactical nukes, didn't get in pissing matches with a nuclear armed leader. Now we have a president that does all those things.
There is no doubt we are closer than the cold war. Now we have a president seemingly pushing in the direction of worsening climate change. The difference between now and the cold war is that we are far, far along the global warming curve to the point we have exploding permafrost holes in Siberia and clathrates bubbling out of deep cold (getting warmer) ocean, it's pretty damn concerning and not something that happened in the cold war. Other data points, half the great barrier reef in serious distress, the opening of the northwest passage due to dropping arctic ice, acceleration of glacial movement in Antarctica, large ice sheets snapping off.
Like it or not a group of scientist have determined we are closer to the edge, and I agree. I'm most certainly not alone either great swathes of the population agree.
1) Since creimer likes numbers so much, how many people subscribed so far? What percentage, creimer? 0%?
2) Another pointless hobby to feed creimer's need for attention.
3) No one is listening to creimer, fat man.
I see you playing only one move ahead. So:
"Sure, the source will things he himself said."
Doesn't matter where.
And what the hell is this concept of a parent 'counting down from 10'?
I'm New Around Here ( 1154723 ). You better start cleaning your room before I count to 10. 1. 2. Skip a few. 9. ... ... ... 9 1/2. 9 3/4. 9 7/8. 10. Dammit. I'm New Around Here ( 1154723 ) you are grounded! Your father will belt you good when he gets home!
You must not be so new around here ;)
I'm not sure that's a good comparison. Trump is currently bluffing , that's his style. He's not afraid of raising the tension and it doesn't mean he won't negotiate. He may well make a shift to negotiations later on, but there is considerable risk that things escalate in the meantime unintentionally. There is far too much confidence.
YOU SUNK MY BAFFLESHIT!
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Yeah, we had this growing up: https://www.rayzist.com/Assets...
SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
In a general sense I think you're right. The US sees much less reason to talk than 50 years ago but that's independent of Trump.
Creimer is breaking out today with multiple on-topic comments and gaining mod points. The Slashdot community is welcoming him back.
I read at +6 !!! With Sigs off !!!
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
And yes, I'd happen to agree that we're possibly closer than we've ever been. The situation with NK is quite bad, and the US relationship with Russia isn't so great either. We have the ruskies meddling in Elections across the world, and a Russia that seems to want to grab land wherever they can.
I guarantee you we are closer than we've ever been. Also, every time you breath, you are one breath closer to death, so I would probably stop doing that. /s
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breathe**
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I think Michael Scott was on to something.
That's some fine propaganda there, comrade. Russia is annexing neighbouring nations, but it's the US that's aggressive and "on their borders".
Ever taken a look at the map where nato was 20 years ago and where it is now? Oh that doesn't count. Let's not forget ,the US has DEFENSE forces, so it's not aggressive . So if for instance it now officially starts pumping weaponry into Ukraine that's not aggressive. By definition,right?
'comrade' is clueless in two ways. one, the spectrum of people who would agree with me includes political realists like Walt and Mearsheimer. Second, current government in Russia is rightwing, not communist. Oh the few communists who are still around somewhere might well take russia's side, because they're anti imperialist.
Exactly.
The problem with the Doomsday clock is that it's... well... a doomsday prediction, so people see it in the same light as other doomsday predictions.
For example, I don't spend a whole lot of time worrying about the second coming of Jesus Christ - from time to time, certain self-proclaimed experts will point to a series of events and say "See, Jesus is coming soon! You'd better get ready!" and sure enough, life will continue more or less exactly as before.
Hear enough of these predictions, over a long enough period of time, and eventually most people will get the idea that they don't really know what they're talking about and stop paying attention. Or to put it another way - this is basically a scientific version of "the boy who cried wolf".
Bonus apathy points in this case because I'm fairly sure nobody who's on this board is actually in a position to directly prevent a nuclear holocaust in the first place. As bullshit as personally believe the Bible to be, at least with the second coming of Christ there's a documented action plan :).
I thought these guys claim to be scientists. Why don't they even attempt to apply the scientific method? Could it be because they have a political agenda instead of an truth agenda?
You might want to take into account that most of the countries added couldn't wait to join NATO and/or EU as soon as they were free to do anything that didn't come on orders from Moscow.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
If creimer actually is on topic, creimer is welcome back.
Make it clear that you have nothing useful to say and while you're at it, let the news sites all know that there is no point reporting on it anymore.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
Why should we bother answering the questions of someone who shows himself to be a liar the instant he posts them?
North Korea is China's puppet.
If this were even remotely the case, NK would not have its own nukes.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
They clearly need to walk the clock back quite a bit...
They should let it just roll over. You know like with Y2K bug or whatever. If they moved it just 3 minutes or so ahead situation will be safe again. You can't escape the future, it simply is.
Our mom and dad never counted to or from any number. They told us to do something, and we got spanked if we didn't.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
The counting would only happen sometimes. If I was in trouble I would get my full name and the belt. Funny why using the full name would denote being in trouble. Never understood that one I just knew that if I heard my full name things were serious and I was probably in trouble.
In every Republican admin they advance the clock, and in liberal admins they ease it back.
When Reagan built up US defenses they advanced their agitprop "clock" and issued their terrifying statements to try to freak-out the "soccer moms" of the western world.... and then he won the cold war without firing a shot.
Putin has been cheating on arms deals and building new treaty-busting nukes, and Obama did nothing to slow the NorK nuke advance and in fact FUNDED the damned Iraninan nuke advance and the BAS response? Nothing.
Trump comes along, and BAS goes, predicably, all bat-guano.
These people are more transparent than glass, and their actions, under the banner of "science" do terrible damage to the reputation of scientists.
Want to know why so many peoploe discount scientuific pronouncements on climate change? Look no further then these clowns, the vegitarian "scientists" always ranting about cow farts, and the slimeballs outed in the "climate gate" emails. Science is being more seriously damaged by political hacks with PhDs than by any knuckle-dragging flat-Earther critics..
The Cuban missile crisis (a.k.a. the "October crisis") began and ended before the doomsday clock's annual review could consider it.
This complaint is silly for exactly the same reason as people claiming that January's cold snap disproves long-term global warming.
Let me translate this for y’all:
A group of people who know absolutely nothing more about the future than any of the rest of us have just issued a message whose only possible impact is to cause people increased worry and stress, since in the event of the assholes in charge deciding to commit mass suicide on behalf of the entire planet, you personally cannot do a single, solitary goddamned fucking thing about it. If you crawl into a shelter in time, assuming you survive, living through the aftermath will make the worst of times today look like a picnic with wine and roses. Also, not to belabor the point, but it either will happen, (in which case we are all 100% fucked,) or it won’t, in which case fretting over it is completely goddamned pointless.
These so-called scientists don’t know if it WILL HAPPEN, OR IF IT WON’T ANY MORE THAN THE REST OF US. There is no precedent to be extrapolated from. No one has ever been in a so-called “Mexican Standoff,” (a term from old Westerns, referring to a group of people pointing guns at other people inside the group,) with everyone in the world’s lives depending on every member of that effectively circular firing squad behaving in a fashion consistent with NOT killing anyone.
It makes precisely the same amount of sense worrying about this on a day to day basis as it does worrying about some nearby star emitting a Gamma Ray Burst, and sterilizing the Planet Earth with a bath of absolutely deadly radiation that will kill each and every living organism on the planet, wherever it is, instantly, no matter how hardy and/or protected it may happen to be. It either won’t happen or it will, and nothing you do can have any impact on that either, so don’t worry, be happy. It’s not like if it happens, you’ll even notice it. As for things you might be able to do about any of this stuff long-term, like Global Climate Change... consider starting with not voting for anyone who takes corporate or large & anonymous campaign bribes. That’d be the biggest single step in remedying our problems and extending our species’ life-expectancy. Worrying about some bullshit hypothetical Scare You Clock is, by contrast, counterproductive.
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
Same reason you show yourself to be an annoying cunt weasel.
Most academics and the media are hardcore democrats that are (still) scaremongering as much fake news and unjustified paranoia to stir up unrest against the current government, just because they didn't get their way during the election. So what's new?
I even take in account that Russia itself considered joining NATO. I Suppose if Canada and Mexico started piling up Russian missile systems against the US that would not be a problem as long as they did it voluntarily.
lol @ "piling up missile systems"
Good one comrade! That's some fine cold war era propaganda right there.
There's a lot of rage against the clock in this thread, without much in the way of good arguments, and with a lot of name calling.
Personally, I think it's great.
- It's an effective hack of the discourse. After all we're talking about it.
- It's beautiful in that it's a visual metaphore, one which we all get. The angst of getting close to a deadline. Rarely are scientists able to bring across their message in a way that is more emotional than numerical. And that alone should be applauded.
- For me, the position on the clock resonates. Not having experienced the Cuban missile crisis, I can tell you this is the first time in my life that I consider nuclear war as a potential outcome of our current situation and trajectory.
What is wrong with attention seeking peaceniks? Isn't peace what we all want?
Call it "Fear meter" instead.
To be clear you have a colossal idiot bragging about the size of his nuclear button while actively threatening a hostile nuclear capable state that is allied with a very large nuclear capable state.
So for a given rounding error I would say the prediction is pretty damn dire. It may not be worse than the Cuban Missile Crisis, but it sure as hell is worse than some other country simply doing a few tests.
Up the irons! (how many of you will get the reference?
That is total BS.
In the short term, there is no way climate change will end the world or kill all humans.
It will cause severe disruptions in weather patterns and reshape the landscape, potentially leading to a global famine and mass migrations (and probably a few pandemics), however it will not kill off the human race.
On a very very large timescale I suppose it could lead to a runaway effect which could lead to Earth becoming like Venus, which is likely to kill off all life, but this process does not happen overnight or even in the course of a century. And it would likely take a lot more greenhouse gases (like orders of magnitude more) to make this happen and I just do not see us being capable of producing that amount even if we consumed all fossil fuel on Earth.
The only way I can imagine climate change causing a doomsday is perhaps it leads to wars for lands and drinking water which escalates to a nuclear war. But that is 1 of many reasons why a nuclear war could happen, and IMHO one of the less likely scenarios that is immediately threatening us.
Relax, the original scientists that looked at global extinction are long gone. It's now a measure of angry tweets and Starbucks proximity.
I note general hilarity here. You people should be ashamed. The Doomsday Clock broke again on the day they issued a memo with a ranked list placing the threat of "climate change" above "nuclear war".
It is a little known fact that the Doomsday Clock is over 150 years old, and for many years was kept by the Masons and existed in secret at an undisclosed Lodge. On June 30, 1908, much to the surprise of those assembled in its chamber, the Doomsday Clock actually chimed midnight! Scaring the bejeezus out of everyone. Mystified them too because the whole idea of a minutes-to-midnight Doomsday Clock had been an old yarn because they had this broken clock and didn't have the heart to toss it out.
Nervously they dragged the hands back from midnight and their brethren have been flicking it back and forth ever since. Until this old Russian film emerged no one knew why the clock had chimed.
SEE this old Russian film and learn the TRUTH.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I changed the music, its original music was contaminated by heavy metals. Also last year I changed the video's title from "Bedtime Story" to "Bedtime Story - The First 100 Days of A Donald Trump Presidency" to troll for anti-Trump persons.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
and unless I missed something, the only reason Trump was elected was because the Republican party allegedly with overseas help gamed the electoral college system, while Clinton, who was not necessarily the better candidate won the popular vote.
Yes, well, when the rules say that the electoral college decides the President, then you go with what the rules say and don't whine that that's the way the other side played when you lose.