Timeline of the Inevitable

Recently I've been compiling a list of the different ways Humanity will be destroyed assuming we don't develop the technology to escape Earth.
The list is divided into two columns.
The first column contains all the ways in which we could theoretically be destroyed in plausible, but unlikely ways, like for example an alien attack.
The second column lists all the ways in which we will be destroyed inevitably somewhere down the line due to the reality of the laws of Universe we currently exist in.

This is why I'm a hit at parties folks.

Anyways, sometimes the items destroying us will land into both columns, asteroids for instance.
This has given me reason to rework the list (that and the theoretical list is notably larger in size due to late night contributions that really don't belong on there, i.e. Godzilla).

While reworking the list, and looking over literature covering the last five mass extinctions of the dominant species of the past, I was reminded that the Moon exists.
The Moon is solid, unlike the Earth which we all know has a solid inner core surrounded by a liquid outer core.

The thought of the liquid outer core cooling and solidifying enough to meet the mantle hadn't occurred to me, but now that it has, it's on the list.

However, there's a problem.
The complete cooling of the Earth's liquid core wouldn't happen until after the Sun evolved into a Red Giant, which would engulf our planet. With that in mind, does the cooling of the core actually pose a threat?

Keep in mind that these are events that are bound to happen no matter what. They are on the timeline of the inevitable.

Near Misses and You

The Earth’s orbit intersects with the orbits of many asteroids. NASA estimates “many” to be about 1000 to 4000, that are bigger than half-mile across, which is when an asteroid begins to pose a threat to human civilization (as you may have learned from Armageddon).

Toutatis, an asteroid 2 miles in diameter, passed by Earth January 3, 1993 at approx 2 million miles away. Before Toutais, on March 23, 1989 an asteroid about half a mile across sauntered by at 0.7 million miles (Oh, and 'Guitar Hero' has sparked an 80's comeback).

Now, nearly everyone will agree that an asteroid (or comet) ended the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago with the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, while some will insist that there was no such period and the Earth was created 5000 years ago (or something equally silly).

250 million years ago Trilobites ruled the Earth, until a mass extinction wiped them all out, ending the Permian period.
Is that too far back to concern ourselves with?
How about the Eocene period at 35 million years ago, which ended with the mass extinction of many land mammals? (This just in, Court overturns fine on Jackson's 'wardrobe malfunction')

Whenever I bring up these topics and ruin perfectly good dinner parties I’m always met with an obtuse skepticism, “Well, don’t you think the Universe has tired of these mass extinction antics by now?” or “Certainly humanity has reached a measure of intelligence where we can dispatch any cosmical threat” or there’s those responses I get back from the “5000 years ago” crowd.

I suppose those people are the worst of the bunch, since they have already reached the conclusion that everything is and will always be fine and dandy, that it’s all part of the plan, and communication comes to an abrupt stop (Kim Kardashian has been tapped as the latest celebrity to join the cast of Dancing With The Stars).