Googleblogging

Blogger has apparently been acquired by Google, and one of the new features is the ability to label posts. I labelled the last one as "politics". I guess if a reader really likes ones take on politics but could give a crap about, say, guitar playing or Joe Pez, they can have a listing of all those posts just a click away. I guess the possibilities are endless. I am guessing that the labels will also be endless. I hope it makes your blog-reading experience even more enjoyable.

Doomsday Approacheth

I was not aware of it exists, but there is such a thing as a Doomsday Clock, and it's been moved closer to midnight. As of right now, it's five minutes 'til "nuclear" midnight. Like any good clock, it's not constrained to any linear definition of time, as it's been as close 11:58 (the height of thermonuclear testing in 1953), to the downright comfy spread of 17 minutes when it was set to 11:43 following the fall of the Soviet Empire in 1991. According to the referenced articles,

The major new step reflects growing concerns about a "Second Nuclear Age" marked by grave threats, including: nuclear ambitions in Iran and North Korea,
unsecured nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere, the continuing
"launch-ready" status of 2,000 of the 25,000 nuclear weapons held by the U.S.
and Russia, escalating terrorism, and new pressure from climate change for
expanded civilian nuclear power that could increase proliferation risks

I say nuclear war is less of a threat to our civilization than climate change and natural resource reduction will be in the not-too-distant future. For sure more wars are to follow the current skirmish. I just don't have them pegged as "Nuclear".