More from CCNet:
"Our Government has made lots of noises about taking the cosmic
impact threat seriously but produced little hard cash. In February,
science minister Lord Sainsbury declared that the Government was
seeking to give Britain "a leading role" in tackling the threat. But this is
a Government that typically does nothing until the need to act is staring in its face. Waiting for cosmic Armageddon before announcing a new initiative is hardly an option, however. This week's meteor storm
might be just the shot across the bows needed to make ministers take the cosmic impact threat seriously. For the wrecking of just one multi-
billion pound spy satellite is likely to impress ministers far more than a
scary ancient history lesson."
--Robert Matthews, "Is the World on a Crash Course to
Annihiliation?"
Daily Express, 12 November 2001

"The Sloan Survey measured main belt asteroids and assumed that the
main belt population had the same size dependence as the NEAs. It is by no means clear that this assumption is correct, or that main belt asteroids are a satisfactory surrogate for NEAs. [...] The Sloan Survey is an exciting astrophysics project with great promise in a number of fields of astronomy. It has already contributed to our knowledge of the main belt asteroids. But it has not measured NEAs, and it has not made an independent estimate of the impact frequency. It is therefore probably premature to conclude from these observations of the main belt asteroids that we should revise our estimates of the impact frequency of NEAs or of the magnitude of the impact hazard."
--David Morrison, 9 November 2001
http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/ccc/cc111201.html

And funny part at the bottom:
"(8) AND FINALLY: CHANCE OF BEING EATEN BY WILD ANIMALS GREATLY DOWNGRADED

>From an anonymous CCNet correspondent...

Press Release from the Slone Digital Survey, Princesstown University

The likelihood of the average American being attacked by a wild animal has been shown to be much less than previously estimated, according to new results from the Slone Digital Survey, operated by Princesstown University astronomers.

Records of attack rates compiled by mammal experts had indicated that a large fraction of deaths caused by wild animals in Africa are due to hippopotamus strikes. New observations by the Princesstown researchers, however, show that there are fewer hippopotamuses than earlier counts indicated.

Using their new data they have extrapolated the figures to obtain a kill
rate for inhabitants of North America.

"Although we cannot be sure that our detections were all hippopotamuses -
for example some may have been elephants or wilderbeast - we are convinced that our figures represent a much-improved evaluation of the numbers of large gray-brown mammals in Africa" said a spokesman for the team, Dr Neophobius Snobbs. He continued: "While some detractors have criticized us for not including smaller beasts like lions and hyenas in our analysis, so far as we are aware these do not pose a
danger to humans."

The team have also dismissed the arguments of public safety experts who point to grizzly bears as being a significant risk. "I've never seen a
grizzly bear in Princesstown," countered another member of the team,
"whereas I remember seeing a hippopotamus in Central Park Zoo when I was a kid. And that's only a handful of miles from here."

The purpose of the present project was to capitalize on an earlier press
release, when much publicity was gained by the team's claim that their
detection of a smaller number of main-belt asteroids in the 1-km size range had important implications for the probability of such a projectile hitting the Earth soon. "We were amazed. We never expected the media and the public to be so gullible. Admittedly this is something we know nothing about but, hey, look at all that coverage. So we figured we could pull the same stunt with hippopotamuses"

When asked about polar bears, the Dr Snobbs said that, according to their working definition, white animals cannot be dangerous. "To imagine otherwise would be as silly as thinking that a comet could strike the Earth," he said. "Clearly this makes no sense. We deal with white animals all the time - cats and mice, mostly - and although a cat may scratch you occasionally, they are not life-threatening." When pressed further, he commented that in any case polar bears live only in parts of Canada, not the United States, and Canadians don't count.

Still other critics have argued that, even if there are a few hippopotamuses in zoos, the hazard they represent is tiny. "This shows a profound ignorance of recent scientific advances" said Snobbs. "Global warming is an
established fact. This means that North America will get hotter, and soon will be like the African savannah lands, and so hippopotamuses will flourish in the Midwest." When asked how they would get there, Dr Snobbs said that the time scale involved was some millions of years, over which hippopotamuses would evolve so as to develop wings, just like pigs have now.

"Now we have discounted this absurd notion that bears are dangerous, through our brilliant observations of hippopotamuses, we intend to return to our real interest: pussy cats. These are certainly not dangerous, but they're hugely important. Just think how many cats appear on calendars every year" said the team leader, Professor Felix Catophilus. "Cats are wonderful, and fully justify the billions we persuade governments to spend on feline-related research. At one stage we were a little worried about all this attention being paid to grizzly bear attacks - and, hey, the threat of huge amounts of money being spent on anti-venom to save people bitten by snakes or stung by bees - but now we are confident that attention (and more
important, funding) will remain with us pussy-cat lovers."

The Digital Survey gets its name from the fact that one of its major
purposes is giving a middle finger to researchers in other areas, by
purporting to have uncovered data that detract from the careful work of others.

Contact:
Professor Felix Catophilus: (666) CATS-R-US
Dr Neophobius Snobbs: (911) NO-2-NEOS "

Hmm, it made me smile a bit, reminds me of Ed's sense of humor- and if so, well done, Ed! (Nasty and over the top as ever:)
-gb