The Doomsday Clock

One of my first jobs was working in a public library. I shelved books, retrieved archived issues of magazines for patrons and sorted and read shelves for accuracy. It was a great job and I made a number of great friends during the time that I worked there. I was not interested in a job in food service, though a number of my friends did go that route.

I was a history geek (and a bit of a nerd) so working in the library was just right. I remember looking at old issues of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and becoming fixated on the Doomsday Clock, which was featured in each issue. In January 2010, the Doomsday Clock was moved one minute away from midnight - from five to six minutes to midnight.
The Doomsday Clock appeared in the Bulletin first in 1947 at seven minutes to midnight and was an indication of how close mankind was to its own obliteration, particularly to the dangers of nuclear war. It has been adjusted 18 times since its inception - midnight being the point at which the end of the world might occur.

The closest the clock came was two minutes to midnight, in 1953, when the United States pursued plans to develop a hydrogen bomb, in addition to the testing of a nuclear device by the Soviet Union. The furthest the clock ever sat was seventeen minutes to midnight, in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. The clock has also been used to monitor climate change around the world as well as biosecurity issues.

Tidying Up at Year's End

I have a few "starred" items in my Google Reader that I have been meaning to share. So here you are.

• There has been a discussion recently about what my son's first "real" memory will be. Both my wife and I assume it will take place around this time. Here is an article from National Geographic on memory that is pretty interesting.
• In that same vein, research has been done that showed that when people are shown doctored pictures of an event, they can be "persuaded" to remember the event differently. It just goes to show the strength of the image.
• I got a fair number of books for Christmas this year (coming soon, the list of loot!). I am not sure if anyone who bought me a book employed the Marshall McLuhan method, which is to turn to page 69 and read. If you like what you read, buy the book. A blog has been created devoted strictly to that method.
• I don't have any money to travel. But a man can dream. The New York Times put out its list of the "53 Places to Go in 2008." Let me know if you get there. Better yet, if you go, call me, I'll carry your bags.
• Countless hours lost here. Don't click unless you are ready to give up a few hours. But it is definitely helping my geography if not my darts game.
• A very public shout-out to C in DC (yes, I know it's not the written note, is that OK?) in thanks for the Scrabble Page-A-Day calendar for 2008. Were I not going to be a little busy in the month of January, I might consider this event in New York City.
• Oh, and in the "I LOVE Irony" department, this news item from CNN.