People are blasé. They would forget about it as quickly as they forgot about Shoemaker-Levy hitting Jupiter. It would be a side story for a few weeks - months at most - and then it would be back to some mundane and materialistic focus.

Only if it did fry their cell phones and TVs would it make a real impact. But no one would care about the science - since almost none of them understand the science - they just would be eager to buy another cell phone or tv.

"Earth is the Gilligan's Island of the galaxy and 95% of its population compete for the roles of Gilligan or Ginger." - SDAI-Tech1

;-)

PS And yes, Phil has it right, he only forgot to include that the supernova, and any failing electronics, would be blamed on conservatives and corporate greed that planned and 'designed' existing current goods for such emp obsolescence.