In the midnight hour...

Boing Boing: Doomsday Clock closer to midnight as nuclear war risk grows

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is moving the minute hand of its famous Doomsday Clock closer to midnight again, the first move since Feb 2002.

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.

It's not always accurate in that it doesn't always manage to keep up with geopolitic (the above diagram of its changes shows it happily running backwards during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, but all the same it's probably only been closer to midnight a couple of times since its inception. Worrying.