Teen unemployment is triple the average … the doomsday clock is reset … and TV can kill you.

In This Economy, Teens Go Jobless — Though economists say the economy is slowly crawling out of recession, jobs are still mighty tough to find—particularly for teens. “The numbers are incredible,” says Andrew Sum, head of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. “Proportionally, more kids have lost jobs in the last few years than the entire country lost in the Great Depression.” Last October, the teen unemployment rate hit 28 percent—nearly triple what the overall unemployment rate is hovering at, and the highest ever recorded since the government began tracking such things. The reason? Older workers, also desperate for jobs, have been squeezing youth out of the workplace. Adults are taking gigs at fast-food restaurants. Older adults who normally would’ve retired by now are sticking around longer. Says 17-year-old Delaney Allen-Mills of McLean, Va., “A few years ago, I went to the mall with an older friend, and she got a job right away. Now the stores aren’t even giving out applications.” (Time)

Doomsday Clock Moves Backward — What kind of world are youth inheriting from their elders? According to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists board, a more hopeful one. The scientists moved the minute hand of the fabled Doomsday Clock to six minutes before midnight — a minute earlier than it had previously been set. Some find it odd that these scientists think things are looking up, what with countries like Iran and North Korea cobbling together their own nuclear programs so many of their brethren so concerned with climate change. But these scientists believe that there’s hope for worldwide collaboration on both nuclear and environmental fronts. Scientists have kept the Doomsday Clock since 1947. (Daily Mail)

Television Can Be Deadly — Too much television can kill you. That’s what some Australian scientists say, anyway. Over the course of a six-and-a-half-year study, researchers followed 8,800 men and women over the age of 25 and tracked their television viewing habits. Folks who watched more than four hours of television daily were 46 percent more likely to die during the study than those who watched two hours or less. Granted, some of these television-watching subjects naturally didn’t get a lot of exercise, what with them spending so much time on the couch and all. But some actually got quite a bit of exercise, and when scientists weeded out variables such as age, health and other factors, they found that people who watched a lot of TV still were more likely to die during the study. Researchers believe that exercise doesn’t completely offset the affects that sitting down for a substantial part of the day. And that goes for youth, too. For couch potatoes, sitting on your duff is hazardous to your health,” says Dr. Prediman Shah, director of the cardiology division of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in California. “The bottom line is keep moving.” (Los Angeles Times)

Anti-Energy Drinks Take Market By … Um, Drizzle? — Too much Red Bull? OD’ing on Mountain Dew? The beverage industry has the answer: Anti-energy drinks. The drinks have names like Slow Cow, Ex Chill and Mary Jane’s Relaxing Soda, and they’ve already taken a mellow hold on Los Angeles. Most contain the ingredient kava, a root from the South Pacific that’s said to be a natural relaxant, and makers hope to make inroads in other markets, too — when they get around to it. The drinks (which are also reported to, paradoxically, help users concentrate better) have no age limitations on them: Six-year-olds can drink them legally, if they so wish and their mothers let them. But some experts say kava can cause liver problems. (Los Angeles Times)

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