GRBs are real. And badass. Just ask MC Hawking. No doubt about it.

But this article distorts the reality. First, if we did get hit with one, the effects are roughly as stated. But guess what? Existence proof that the 100 MYr claim is wrong. We have not been hit by one since at least the Cambrian, over 550 Million years ago. We've had an unbroken chain of complex animal life from the same thread ever since then. Even the worst ever Permian extinction was nothing compared to a GRB hit.

Astrophysicists now realize that the GRB burst emissions are somewhat focused and these beamed emissions have less total energy than surmised. You don't want to be in the beam but the fact that it IS beamed decreases the probability of being hit, radically.

I'm much more concerned about some fanatic raghead blowing up my family or destroying our culture than about a GRB.

-p