A novelty company in Snodnonia, north Wales has been awarded a $38,000 Millennium Award to convert sheep droppings into greeting cards and gift items. The BBC reports that Creative Paper Wales was awarded the contract for its Sheep Poo Paper project. The company will collect droppings from surrounding mountains in the region then sterilize it using pressure cookers and recover the washed and undigested fibers.

A group of Australia's most powerful women have honored Tom Cruise with an "Ernie Award. " The award is handed out to companies and public figures who make the most derogatory public statements about women, and the 2006 Celebrity Ernie was bestowed upon Cruise for a comment he made about his girlfriend, Katie Holmes, when she was pregnant. Cruise, who was dropped by Paramount Pictures for his recent public behavior, said during the pregnancy, "I've got Katie tucked away so no one will get to us until my child is born. "

Scientists in Australia have asked farmers to contact them if they have any ugly sheep in their flocks. On Tuesday, the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) said it is looking for "Australia's ugliest merino lambs" so they can study their genetic makeup. Farmers usually send sheep with uneven wool, strange fibers, clumps of wool that fall out, bare patches, no wool, or highly wrinkled skin to the slaughterhouse. But the project's leader, Simon Bawden, says studying unattractive sheep can help improve Australia's $2. 8 billion merino wool industry.

A farmer in Hamburg, Germany is fitting his flock of sheep with miniature Wellington boots to prevent them from getting infections. Businessman Wilhelm Fennen from Boesel designed the PVC shoes for the sheep.