Editing 1655: Doomsday Clock
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | The {{w|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 {{w|nuclear war}}), so how close the clock is to midnight is a scale of the world's current state of risk. Its setting | + | {{Incomplete|More detail on what is happening in the comic, and more history of the clock}} |
+ | The {{w|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 {{w|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). | ||
− | {{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 | + | {{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 {{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 {{w|Dr. Strangelove|''Dr. Strangelove''}}- | + | [[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 {{w|Dr. Strangelove|''Dr. Strangelove''-esque}} [https://youtu.be/NFkryh6hC-k?t=23s nuclear apocalypse], with the typical mushroom cloud shape, with a ring around the stem, which is also displayed in the Wikipedia page on {{w|nuclear weapons}}. |
− | + | The title text continues on this same theme, with the digital doomsday clock (apparently it has now been replaced by a digital one, maybe Cueball broke the old analog 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 in and out of the Doomsday Clock's midnight, so nuclear explosions thus naturally appear and disappear in sync with the clock. | |
− | + | This once more underlines the entire point of this comic, that it makes no sense to have such a clock. Many people also believe that DST also makes little sense today, so maybe this is why the two are connected in this comic? | |
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− | This once more underlines the entire point of this comic, that it makes no sense to have such a clock. Many people | ||
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==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | ||
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[[Category:Time]] | [[Category:Time]] | ||
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