A team involved in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey has lowered the estimate for a planet killing asteroid hitting Earth in the next century from 1-in-1500 to 1-in-5000. The decreased risk came from a decrease in the estimate of asteroids large enough to do that kind of damage. Their paper will appear in the November 2001 issue of Astronomical Journal. Stories at CNN and BBC.

The 2001 UN report on world population. [via anfin]

OpenCores: Open source hardware [via jerrykindall]

The story of Schroedinger's cat, cast as poetry. [via jerrykindall]

It's now been proven that sheep can recognize faces. A letter to NPR's All Things Considered today pointed out the next step: showing them photos of terrorists and putting them in airports to provide security.

The Continental Drift Cam: You can now watch the continents drift in real-time. [via The Fruitlog]

Mame! Don't forget your quarters. [via Memepool]