Monday, January 15, 2007
ATOMIC SCIENTISTS DISCOVER BATTERIES DEAD IN DOOMSDAY CLOCK, NOT SURE HOW CLOSE EARTH IS TO ANNIHILATION
CHICAGO - The atomic scientists at the University of Chicago who maintain the Doomsday Clock, the symbolic timekeeper that warns of possible global annihilation, prepared to move the clock's hands for the first time in five years today when they discovered that the batteries have been dead for an indeterminate period of time. In 2002, the last time the batteries were known to be functional, the time was set for seven minutes to midnight, with midnight marking global catastrophe. But with the dead batteries, scientists say they have no idea how close the world really is to total destruction.
"We may be just seconds away," said a grim Dr. Noah Swayne, director of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists that maintains the clock. "For all we know, the world may implode before I finish this sentence."
Posted by Judge Rufus Peckham at Monday, January 15, 2007
