Difference between revisions of "1655: Doomsday Clock"

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(Explanation: arizona didn't, which i know entirely because kingdom of loathing :v)
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==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
 
{{Incomplete|More detail on what is happening in the comic, and more history of the clock}}
 
{{Incomplete|More detail on what is happening in the comic, and more history of the clock}}
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is an academic journal which has a recurring feature known as the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_Clock Doomsday Clock], which shows the Bulletin's judgment on the current state of the world. The idea is that when the clock hits midnight, the world ends (originally conceived as in a nuclear war), so how close the clock is to midnight is a scale of the world's current state of risk. Its current setting is at "three minutes to midnight" (11:57 PM or 23:57).
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The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is an academic journal which has a recurring feature known as the {{w|Doomsday Clock}}, which shows the Bulletin's judgment on the current state of the world. The idea is that when the clock hits midnight, the world ends (originally conceived as in a nuclear war), so how close the clock is to midnight is a scale of the world's current state of risk. Its current setting is at "three minutes to midnight" (11:57 PM or 23:57).
  
[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Daylight_saving_time&redirect=no Daylight saving time] (DST) is a feature in many countries where in the summer months, everyone moves their clock forward an hour to artificially postpone sunset and thereby have a longer time of sunlight in the afternoon. The day before this comic came out, most of the United States switched from standard time to DST.
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{{w|Daylight saving time}} (DST) is a feature in many countries where in the summer months, everyone moves their clock forward an hour to artificially postpone sunset and thereby have a longer time of sunlight in the afternoon. The day before this comic came out, most of the United States switched from standard time to DST.
  
[[Cueball]] is inside the office of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and comes across the Doomsday Clock, which is apparently an actual clock. Citing a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic mnemonic], "Spring forward, fall back", referring to which direction to move the hour hand in the season when DST begins or ends, he pushes the hour hand forward one hour, so instead of the world being three minutes ''from'' the end of the world, it is now 57 minutes ''into'' it, so the final panel simply shows the world erupting in a [https://youtu.be/NFkryh6hC-k?t=23s ''Dr. Strangelove''-esque] nuclear apocalypse.
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[[Cueball]] is inside the office of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and comes across the Doomsday Clock, which is apparently an actual clock. Citing a {{w|mnemonic}}, "Spring forward, fall back", referring to which direction to move the hour hand in the season when DST begins or ends, he pushes the hour hand forward one hour, so instead of the world being three minutes ''from'' the end of the world, it is now 57 minutes ''into'' it, so the final panel simply shows the world erupting in a [https://youtu.be/NFkryh6hC-k?t=23s ''Dr. Strangelove''-esque] nuclear apocalypse.
  
 
The title text continues on this same theme, with the clock (apparently replaced by a digital one) being reset by a power outage. Many digital clocks blink 00:00 once per second after a power outage, only stopping when the clock is reset. This is interpreted as the world actually blinking out of the Doomsday Clock's midnight, so a nuclear explosion would naturally appear and disappear in sync with the clock.
 
The title text continues on this same theme, with the clock (apparently replaced by a digital one) being reset by a power outage. Many digital clocks blink 00:00 once per second after a power outage, only stopping when the clock is reset. This is interpreted as the world actually blinking out of the Doomsday Clock's midnight, so a nuclear explosion would naturally appear and disappear in sync with the clock.

Revision as of 07:27, 14 March 2016

Doomsday Clock
After a power outage at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the new Digital Doomsday Clock is flashing 00:00 and mushroom clouds keep appearing and then retracting once a second.
Title text: After a power outage at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the new Digital Doomsday Clock is flashing 00:00 and mushroom clouds keep appearing and then retracting once a second.

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: More detail on what is happening in the comic, and more history of the clock
If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is an academic journal which has a recurring feature known as the Doomsday Clock, which shows the Bulletin's judgment on the current state of the world. The idea is that when the clock hits midnight, the world ends (originally conceived as in a nuclear war), so how close the clock is to midnight is a scale of the world's current state of risk. Its current setting is at "three minutes to midnight" (11:57 PM or 23:57).

Daylight saving time (DST) is a feature in many countries where in the summer months, everyone moves their clock forward an hour to artificially postpone sunset and thereby have a longer time of sunlight in the afternoon. The day before this comic came out, most of the United States switched from standard time to DST.

Cueball is inside the office of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and comes across the Doomsday Clock, which is apparently an actual clock. Citing a mnemonic, "Spring forward, fall back", referring to which direction to move the hour hand in the season when DST begins or ends, he pushes the hour hand forward one hour, so instead of the world being three minutes from the end of the world, it is now 57 minutes into it, so the final panel simply shows the world erupting in a Dr. Strangelove-esque nuclear apocalypse.

The title text continues on this same theme, with the clock (apparently replaced by a digital one) being reset by a power outage. Many digital clocks blink 00:00 once per second after a power outage, only stopping when the clock is reset. This is interpreted as the world actually blinking out of the Doomsday Clock's midnight, so a nuclear explosion would naturally appear and disappear in sync with the clock.

Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.


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Discussion

Ignoring for the moment that we wouldn't want to deep freeze such a clock, if the scenario is tied only to the hour hand passing vertical the actual sweep of doom is no more than 12h. Perhaps the real problem is that moving the hour hand in this way (unless it can slip) would do some pretty terrible things to the gears. Elvenivle (talk) 05:30, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

Or (I'm very tired, please forgive me) at a time rate change of 3600s/s, playing with Google that's an orbital acceleration to about 1/3 lightspeed, magnificent inertial effects and some exciting drag forces. It's no wonder things start on fire. Elvenivle (talk) 06:11, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

Not only we definitely don't have enough nuclear weapons to destroy the planet, I wouldn't be sure the catastrophe we can do with nuclear weapons would make it into top 10 extinction events. We likely killed more species with deforestation than we would do with nuclear weapons. Especially considering most of those weapons are armed at population centers ... -- Hkmaly (talk) 11:55, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

Is no one talking about the fact that the title text apparently refers to a digital clock with 24-hour display format, the one used by scientists but despised by most of the US? --Troy0 (talk) 12:03, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

Many digital clocks blink 00:00 when they aren't set regardless of whether they are 12-hour or 24-hour format. So the blinking 00:00 doesn't really say anything one way or the other. Non-blinking, 00:00 would mean midnight in 24-hour format, vs 12:00 or 12:00am in 12-hour format. -boB (talk) 18:15, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

Why does Cueball assume that the clock hasn't *already* been moved to DST? 162.158.153.101 13:53, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

Because he happens to arrive at exactly 12:57 the day after DTS and sees a clock showing 11:57. This has now been mentioned in the explanation. Else the way he adjust it would make no sense. --Kynde (talk) 09:28, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

Hasn't Randall said, multiple times, that he hates DST? That was pretty much the first thing I saw. NickOfFørvania (talk) 22:05, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

I would really like to see a citation for that. It would make that part of the explanation true, not just an assumption. DST doesn't make any sense today, if it ever did. People are up all day today, so someone is up using power regardless of what time the clock shows. And it can disturb sleep for many people, especially kids, but also adults, and lack of sleep can be dangerous if you have other problems with your health. I think I have heard people say that it probably "kills" several people every time this adjustment is made, but I have no citation for that... Anyone who know about such allegations? I would vote for stopping this stupid practice. We still have to wait a few weeks for DTS in Europe, as it here happens in the last weekend before April, so this year it will be on Easter Sunday (at 2:00 Am when the time will change to 3:00 AM). --Kynde (talk) 09:28, 15 March 2016 (UTC)
Every year there are cities/municipalities that experiment with no DST, and every time it's shown that there's a clear power savings. There may be people up 24/7, but not enough to make a difference. That being said, DST makes less sense the closer to the equator you are, so it makes more sense in Idaho than in Arizona, for instance. 108.162.214.161 23:14, 18 March 2016 (UTC)
The title text in 1268 refers to DSTHisHighestMinion (talk) 05:36, 16 March 2016 (UTC)