Currently set at 5 minutes to midnight, the Strangeloveian-sounding Doomsday Clock is about to see its first movement in 3 years.  No one’s sure if it’s going to be a tick up (yikes!) or a tick down (whew!), but, thanks to the streaming at TurnBackTheClock, we’ll be able to watch it live as it happens, this Thursday at 10:00 AM EST (barring, of course, entirely possible Wednesday cataclysms like meteor strikes, sudden pole shifts, etc.).

The factors influencing the latest Doomsday Clock change include international negotiations on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, expansion of civilian nuclear power, the possibilities of nuclear terrorism, and climate change.

In December 1945, University of Chicago scientists who had helped to develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project created “The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.”  The Bulletin’s board of directors then in 1947 came up with the idea of a Doomsday Clock to symbolize these threats.  The message is that humans are “a few minutes to midnight,” where midnight represents destruction by nuclear weapons, climate change and emerging technologies in the life sciences.

 
Doomsday Clock To Change This Week

 
(Possibly) coming soon to the UK’s Channel 4, a documentary which will show the process of mummification on a terminally ill volunteer:

Channel 4 and production company Fulcrum TV have advertised in magazines for possible candidates.  The advert reads: ‘We are currently keen to talk to some one who, faced with the knowledge of their own terminal illness and all that it entails, would nonetheless consider undergoing the process of an ancient Egyptian embalming.’  An English scientist claims to have unlocked the secrets of mummification.  His efforts at recreating the work of Egyptians will be the subject of the documentary.

And while this may only yield a doc in the UK, given the rising unemployment and costs of health care here in America, I could easily see this kind of thing taking off as a weekly series.  Let’s see…Embalming the Underinsured?

Channel 4 Seeks Terminally-ill Volunteer To Be Mummified In TV Documentary

 
Julie Newmar: Catwoman, Mayflower descendant, and now, it seems, collector of erotic fantasies.  Meow!

I WANT YOUR STORY
Who was your first turn on?
How old were you two, four, six?
What did he look like?
What was she doing exactly that stopped you dead in your tracks?
That secretly affirmed your romantic future, your love life, the person you married?

Sit down, write one page, re-inspire yourself.

Be part of an exciting book series I’m putting together.

Get to the keyboard and email: Julie Newmar

(Note to myself readers of Dangerous Minds: while Julie Newmar is OK with using Catwoman as “your object of desire,” she’d prefer your fantasy involve something more than claws, whips and leather.)  Ms. Newmar’s very first appearance in the role that came to define her follows below:

 
(via Julie Newmar)

Deerhoof @ Northsix from Jeremy Arambulo on Vimeo.

Here’s a wonderful half hour of high-quality footage from one of the greatest bands of the last decade: the mighty Deerhoof. Compiled from a few shows at Northsix in Brooklyn circa ‘04-‘05, it’s a sweaty good time for all. Greg Saunier has to be the most riveting drummer since Keith Moon and the dual guitar workouts are right up there with Beefheart, Television and uh, Bubble Puppy !

 
I wonder if the left shoe has Biggie on it?
 
For a larger view click here.

 
A report on the LA Now blog indicates that police in So Cal are dealing with a group of criminals who “think different”:

The suspects sought by Manhattan Beach police had a specific method of operation, Brown said. They stake out an Apple store and choose their target. Then they follow their prospective victims when they drive to another shop or a parking spot near their home. If computers are left unattended inside the vehicle, the thieves strike.

His department issued a warning to consumers Tuesday not to leave computers or other expensive items in their vehicles in plain view.

“It’s a highly preventable crime if people don’t leave computers in their cars,” Brown said.

But law enforcement officials said despite the arrests in Orange County, they believe these follow-away burglaries are the work of a larger ring that has taken more than 100 computers in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties.

I was trying to come up with a punchline about Justin Long, but couldn’t and you just don’t want to force these things.

 
Square America has a delightful series of stereo animated gifs titled “The Bar Mitzvah and Other Tales of Living in Stereo.” Totally worth a look.

 
“I do not have a single constructive proposal.”

This is hilarious. It’s poetry, too. This man is a genius. Give him his own TV show!

Here’s what it says about him on WIkipedia:

Koichi Toyama (?

 
It may take 10 minutes for you to see it, but it’s there. Trust me.
 
(via The World’s Best Ever)

 
The cannabis prohibition dominoes keep falling. One by one, they’re falling. This just in from Bloomberg:

New Jersey lawmakers approved a bill that would make it the 14th U.S. state to allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for patients suffering from cancer and other debilitating diseases.

The legislation passed the Assembly 48-16 with one abstention. The measure already cleared the state Senate, which voted 25-13 to approve restrictions in the Assembly version, including a list of ailments for which the drug can be prescribed and a prohibition on the growing of marijuana by patients.

“This is a wonderful beginning,” said Nancy Fedder, 62, of Hillsborough, who spoke outside the Assembly chamber and said she has been illegally smoking marijuana for more than a decade to alleviate pain from multiple sclerosis. “It’s something that needed to happen a long time ago; sometimes I have to go to bed and stay there for days, and when I smoke marijuana the pain comes right down.”

The plan was among 100 today that went before both houses of the Legislature in the final day of its session. The Senate and the Assembly, which are both controlled by Democrats, are getting ready to share power with the first Republican governor elected since 1997.

Tara and I used to live in NJ (don’t ask) and it’s a pretty state, to be sure, but it’s not exactly cool there. When we were living there, just a few years ago, it was still a zero-tolerance state! So this is big news.