Joystiq reports that the classic German-style board games Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne are coming to Xbox Live for the 360.

That's fantastic news -- Settlers and the Hunters and Gatherers version of Carcassone are two of my group's favorite games, and they've even proved popular with my non-geek family, including my wife and my mom (ok, well, my mom's more of a proto-geek than a regular mom). While nothing can compare to sitting around the table rolling dice and grumbling about being robbed with friends, being able to play over Xbox Live might prove to be a decent alternative.

It's official -- you can now wax nostalgic with your kids about the days when there used to be nine planets. Space.com reports that Pluto has been demoted from planetary status, leaving the solar system with eight planets. The diminitive body, as well as its moon and dozens of other objects lying beyond the orbit of Neptune, will now be known as dwarf planets.

An earlier proposal to keep Pluto a planet by relegating it to a subcategory called "plutons" proved exceedingly controversial and was ditched in favor of a new definition that downsized the nineth planet.