[The Magical Mischief Tour]

So the question I need answered is...

Do I need to go buy a new microwave, or just toss my TV dinner up on the roof and bring the dog inside?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Swift's measurements showed that the burst emitted 143,000 X-ray photons per second during its short period of greatest brightness. That's more than 140 times brighter than the brightest continuous X-ray source in the sky – a neutron star that releases a steady 10,000 X-ray photons per second.

How does this math work? And does this mean emitted in all directions all told or per so much angular area or at the telescope or what?

[KoRn]

/mark

[doorgunner69]

It’s cool, I keep[ my tin-foil cap close at hand for just these moments............

[blueplum]

so the light or the gamma rays impacted our satellite (and us) on Summer Solstice, June 21st? that date is quite a coincidence! any crop circles predict it? (thumbing through calendar to see where dogs were that day....)

[raybbr]

Light from this explosion traveled through space for 5 billion years before slamming into Swift, overwhelming its X-ray camera. The observatory, launched in November 2004, was designed specifically to hunt for gamma-ray bursts, though scientists didn't count on a blast quite so strong.

How could they possibly know the date of origin?

[Errant]

So that’s why my solar cells have really been cranking out the watts...

[CharlesWayneCT]

So, are we all sterile now?

[The Duke]

Of course the explosion probably happened 20 million years ago.

[samtheman]

a signal so bright it temporary blinded the NASA space telescope assigned to spot it

How could they "assign" a telescope to "spot" a signal before it arrives... when it arrives at the speed of light?

What was their advance notice, a remnant of quantum entanglement left over from the inflationary epoch?

Pssst... look over there.

[jesseam]

There is a Wolf Rayet star WR 104 some 8000 LY distant that is in a pre-super nova stage. The disturbing feature is that it appears to make a perfect spiral like we are looking down the barrel of a gun aimed at our planet . When it does go super nova and it could have done so within the last 8000 years it will blast earth with an incredible gamma ray burst (grb)that would literally cook us. Hopefully it is not aimed right at us so the GRB will miss but time will tell if it is on target. There is evidence that some of the mass die offs in the past could have been related to GRB’s that did not miss. Sleep well.

[silverleaf]

which way is it headed?

[dfwgator]

"Where's the Ka-Boom? There was supposed to be an Earth-Shattering Ka-Boom!"