The Doomsday Clock has been advanced once again.  But by whom?   Who are these people and who put them in charge?

It seems to me that in spite of their pessimistic outlook on life, the clock will never reach midnight.  For if it does, then the world must end.  But since the clock only predicts the destruction of the world and not cause it, a midnight setting would fall into the same category as those who predict the day and time that Christ will return.  When that time is reached and nothing has happened, their credibility is ruined.