VBVW for October 10, 2008: Collision Course

• The Very Best

A meteoroid known as 2008 TC3 hit the Earth, gaining notoriety as the first such object to be discovered and identified prior to impact. This provides hope that science will be able to stop a really big asteroid before it turns us into a bad sci-fi flick like Armageddon or Deep Impact.

O.J. Simpson was found guilty of robbery and fraud, giving the American justice system a .500 batting average against the Juice, which qualifies it–finally-for the All Star Team.

German farmer Karl Merk has become the world’s first man to have both arms successfully transplanted, having lost his own pair six years ago in a corn shredder. Medical science has now proven that we can, in fact, “give him a hand.”

• The Very Worst

The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s “Red List,” an inventory of biodiversity, reported that half the world’s 5,487 known mammals are declining in population, and a quarter are at risk of disappearing forever. We’ll miss all the humans, gorillas, dogs, and ponies; squirrels, manatees, and politicians, not so much.

In other unnerving nature news, a study commissioned by the EU has determined that the impact of deforestation costs the global economy between $2 and $5 trillion ever year. That means we lose more capital every year by killing trees than we will in the current banking crisis.

After spending half a million dollars on a resort getaway, AIG execs asked Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson for $38 billion dollars more, and he gave it to them.