I heard some interesting speculation the other day (PBS?) about those mysterious gamma ray bursts (GRB).

It was assumed that the phenomena is generally far away (old) because local events generally have not been detected yet. Thus, we seemed a safe distance from them.

However, the newer speculation is that GRB appear so strong because they are *focused* by some speculative phenom in star collapses or collisions. Thus, it is not that they are huge relative outputs, as previously thought, but simply a focusing of energy to a high concentration in a particular direction.

Under this, it is not that GRB are only far off, but that they perhaps simply rarely point to us except when large distances are factored in.

Thus, one could possibly go off in our neighborhood and happen to point toward us. It is estimated that such radiation would be more harmful to life on Earth than typical Dinosaur-killing asteroids.

Beetlejuice (A huge red star) is due to go off any second now. It might be able to generate focused GRB. Anybody sell Beetlejuice insurance?

We have Bins on the surface and GRB's above. We're doomed!