Wikipedia

The first appearance of the Doomsday Clock on the June 1947 cover of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Late last month, Martyl Langsdorf -- the famed painter, designer and native St. Louisan -- died at a hospital in the Chicago area. She was 96 years old and, according to family, fell ill with a lung infection.

Her best-known creation was likely the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic representation of how close the world is to a nuclear war. The minute hand of the clock is moved closer to midnight as the international political climate worsens. Since Langdorf created the image in 1947, the minute hand has been moved twenty times. It is currently five minutes to midnight.

"It's a phenomenon in itself," Langsdorf told an interviewer in 2007. "The clock has a life of its own now. It's amazing."

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In case you missed it, Missouri is, yet again, number one in the nation for meth lab busts, new data shows. This is not much of a surprise to law enforcement officials in the state who deal with this every day -- especially those in Jefferson County, which has the second highest concentration of meth labs in the country.

In honor of Missouri's prestigious title, we thought we'd take a look back at some of the top craziest meth-related crimes in the state in recent memory.

And with methamphetamine, there's a lot of competition -- and very few happy endings. Check out our list below.

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Scientific fact: If your life is like a Cialis commercial, you'll live longer.

In case you need another reason to hate Valentine's Day, the University of Missouri has some exciting news for you. Christine Proulx, an assistant professor in the department of human development and family studies, has discovered that happily married old people are healthier than divorced or widowed old people.

Yep, that's right. If you'd only get married -- and stay married -- you'd be guaranteed a longer, happier, less-neurotic life. If you can't hack it, or if you have the misfortune to have your spouse die on you, you'll find yourself sick and alone and you might as well be banished to the forest to be devoured by wild beasts because nobody loves you.

See also:
-Never-Married Women in Their 30s Are Total Losers, Mizzou Study Finds
-Hate Valentine's Day? Enjoy an Offal (Late) Dinner at Five Bistro

It's been scientifically proven, and who can argue with Science?

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Susan Gibson says she was denied treatment at Castlewood Treatment Center.

The Department of Justice agreed last week that a St. Louis eating disorder clinic discriminated against an HIV-positive woman by intentionally delaying her admittance and denying her treatment. Castlewood Treatment Center for Eating Disorders has been ordered to pay a $140,000 settlement, the second largest in the history of HIV-related discrimination cases.

The patient, Susan Gibson, a retired nurse living in mid-Missouri, spoke to Daily RFT about her health during the seven months of waiting to hear from the facility and her fear that other patients may have been discriminated against.

"It angers me they would treat people like that and for such a stupid reason," she says.

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Dr. Amy Dunbar

Hey, guess what, Chris Higgins? You are no longer the most reviled St. Louisan on Facebook! Your reign was short, though intense, but the torch has now been passed to Dr. Amy Dunbar, an OB/GYN at St. John's Mercy Medical Center in Creve Coeur (aka the Baby Factory), who had the sheer, unmitigated gall to complain to her friends on Facebook about a patient who was three hours late for an appointment. Not just an ordinary checkup, mind you:

Dunbar's friends, many of whom are doctors or RNs, responded sympathetically, albeit crudely, suggesting that the mother-to-be was perhaps hitting up the drive-thru or the bar. It should be noted that the only comment Dunbar made to the thread was to explain that she had not cancelled the appointment because the patient had had a prior stillbirth.

Unfortunately for Dunbar, her Facebook feed was not as private as she thought.

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Admit it: You have some "friends" on Facebook who are, you're sure, raging narcissists or pathological liars and you'd definitely be able to diagnose them and suggest, in the most gentle and friendly manner, that they seek help, if only you had access to a copy of the DSM.

Well guess what? You're not alone. A group of psychologists at the University of Missouri had the exact same idea -- plus they're all fully equipped with copies of the DSM and access to thousands of undergrads enrolled in Psych 101 who will, for course credit, provide access to their Facebook accounts.

And what did they find? About what you might expect: Facebook postings (or lack thereof) can indeed indicate signs of, shall we say, psychological turmoil.

Isn't science grand?

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The national flu map, by Google.

Should we put an exclamation mark after that? As in, "The flu epidemic is here!" Last month we only had Christmas to dread. But now you can look forward to a week in bed, in acute misery. The Center for Disease Control has declared it so.

In case you're curious, Google has prepared a map of the spread of flu across the country. It's not a very exciting map, since 44 of the 50 states have been colored bright red, for "intense." The remaining six are merely orange, for "high." (But which will fall to "intense" next? Our bet is on South Dakota, which is surrounded on all sides.)

Nationally, this appears to be the biggest flu epidemic in the past six years. Missouri is consistent with the national trend (aside from being blessed with an unusual spike in the fall of 2009.)

But how does Google know how many people have the flu? Is it foolish to ask, since Google knows everything?

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The "luxury" seating at MX

Wanna shed some fat in 2013? Be more active? Spend less time gaping at a screen and more time in the bright sunshine?

Then stay clear of Washington Avenue and 6th Street next weekend. Because the new movie theater opening right there in the renovated Mercantile Exchange building is apparently designed to cater to the pasty blob-person you're trying not to be.

How are you going to make it to hot yoga when, according to MX Movies website, you'll be staring slack-jawed at one of "three screens with crystal clear digital projection"?

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Andrew J. Nilsen

Our sister paper SF Weekly has a terrific feature story this week called "Public Influence" on the suicide of Dylan Yount, a Harrisburg native and Mizzou graduate who plummeted to a very public death from his apartment building.

Our own former RFT editorial fellow Albert Samaha tells the sad tale through the eyes of Yount's friends and family, but also through the tweets, Flickr, Yelp and Facebook statuses that documented Yount's final moments. Samaha also poses a disturbing question:

Did shouts from the crowd that gathered below actually convince Yount to jump?

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Mayetta Epps-Miller of East St. Louis died at age 111

Mayetta Epps-Miller of East St. Louis died on New Year's Eve. She was 111 years old.

That made her the oldest person living in Illinois, and also one of our nation's elite supercentenarians (meaning she was at least 110 and a superhero). 

Epps was born in April of 1901. It's hard to get your head around that.

It means she lived more than 40,000 days -- in a row.

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