# Can Anyone Tell Me The Time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 22, 2001, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-the-time/83187 "2001-09-22T09:00:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2001, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-the-time/83187/1 "2001-09-22T09:00:29Z")
There is plenty of information available regarding the history of the [Doomsday Clock](http://www.bullatomsci.org/clock.html). It was designed by Martyl Langsdorf in 1947 at which point the time was deemed to be 7 minutes to 12. The closest we have been to 12 o’clock is 2 minutes, in 1953 following H-Bomb testing by the US and the Soviet Union. In 1991 the time read 17 minutes to 12 after the US and Russia signed the START treaty. Following nuclear testing by India and Pakistan in 1998, the clock read 9 minutes to 12. This appears to be the latest available reading. So what is the time now? ---
**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2001, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-the-time/83187/2 "2001-09-22T09:27:40Z")
That is the time, right up there on the page, 9 min to midnight. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2001, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-the-time/83187/3 "2001-09-22T11:25:04Z")
Oh yes. Silly me. There remains a possibility, however small, that the hands of the Doomsday Clock as shown on that page represent the 1998 update referred to earlier, and that time has edged marginally closer to the witching hour since the events of 11 September. Any advance on 9 minutes to 12? ---
**Author:** ![Bluepony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Bluepony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bluepony)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2001, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-the-time/83187/4 "2001-09-22T12:21:50Z")
Hmmm…my Doomsday Clock is reading “6:27 AM” and, for some reason, someone changed the alarm/radio setting to an easy listening station. ---
**Author:** ![maralinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@maralinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maralinn)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2001, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-the-time/83187/5 "2001-09-22T15:49:47Z")
The decision to move the hands is made by the board of the Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science; it doesn’t happen automatically. One assumes that if they decide to move the hands again, they’ll publish it in the Bulletin and the webpage will get updated. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-the-time/83187/6 "2001-09-23T23:45:56Z")
Thank you **maralinn**. I am not so foolish as to believe that the Doomsday Clock operates in the same manner as a normal clock, and I am by no means a Merchant of Doom, but I consider the Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science is guilty of tardiness in this matter, and the clock is now running slow, but I accept that this particular timepiece cannot be updated on a daily basis. We shall see. ---
**Author:** ![tavalla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tavalla/32/89_2.png) [@tavalla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavalla)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-the-time/83187/7 "2001-09-24T14:07:18Z")
I was passing curious about this, so I contacted one Cat Auer, using an email link on the page you provided. The email I got back says > [@](#): > > The hands have not been changed; they still stand at nine minutes to > midnight. So that’s where we stand.