As you've probably heard, an asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier will be passing very close to our planet tonight. Don't panic! Even though this is the closest approach by an asteroid of this magnitude that scientists have known about in advance—and if it hit us it would make a crater four miles wide and 1,700 feet deep, creating a shock equivalent to a magnitude seven earthquake—there is no cause for alarm. In this video, a scientist on the government's payroll explains why everything's going to be just fine, addressing humanity from what appears to be a windowless, climate-controlled bunker: more ›

Mayor Bloomberg sought to calm worried parental units at a City Hall press conference yesterday, telling the press that most of the people going to the hospital with swine flu symptoms aren't sick, just scared: "While there are an abnormal number of people going to the hospital who are worried, virtually none, a very tiny percentage of them, have any symptoms whatsoever." But the mayor's downplaying of the outbreak comes as the city closes an additional three schools (bringing the current total to 25), and mourners bid farewell to Queens assistant principal Mitchell Wiener, swine flu's first city victim. more ›