What I've Learned

In 1990 when my combat engineer unit deployed to Saudi Arabia (and from there into Iraq), we didn't have GPS systems to guide us in our desert travels. To help us maneuver in a featureless landscape, we turned, as the ancient mariners did, to the stars.

Never have I seen such skies as I did in the wilds of Saudi Arabia. With no cities nearby, there was no artificial light to interfere with the Milky Way and the constellations. And with no trees, the sky was big.

My favorite nighttime buddy was Orion with his belt and his bow. Whenever I looked up at him, my eyes would be drawn to his right shoulder, to the bright red star there.

That star, in case you don't already know, is Betelgeuse, and is pronounced--in case you never saw the movie — Beetle Juice.

I get tired of fear-mongering in the media, and now my good friend Orion and his shoulder-star, Betelgeuse, have been thrown into the mix of panic inducers.

Some bozo has added Betelgeuse to the brouhaha over 2012 and the supposed end of the world that will occur then.

Betelgeuse is nearing the end of its star life and is swollen and red. If we could put Betelgeuse in the place of our Sun, it would reach almost to Jupiter. That's how big it is.

If Betelgeuse blows up — goes supernova — next year, guess what? Because it is 640 light years away, light from that explosion wouldn't get here for 640 years.

"Well, perhaps," some are saying, "it blew up 640 years ago and the light from that explosion will get here in 2012 and fry us all."

Beat me to tears.

A supernova would have to be 25 light years away to do us any harm, and Betelgeuse is 25 times that distance— 25 times 25 being 625— so for Pete's sake, find something more plausible to fear-monger about.

When Betelgeuse does go supernova--and it will, probably some time in the next 100,000 years--it will be lovely to look at from Earth, as bright as a full moon.

As for fear-mongering, one of my favorite websites, informationisbeautiful.net, put together a chart called Mountains Out of Molehills, A Timeline of Media Scare Stories. It shows scare stories, how much attention each was given in the media (by number of mentions), and how many world-wide deaths have resulted from the subject.

The results are laughable.

Mobile Phones and Tumors, Killer WIFI, Autism and Vaccinations, Asteroid Collisions, The Millennium Bug, and Violent Video Games, despite their high media mention, have resulted in zero confirmed deaths.

Mad Cow Disease, since 2001, has killed 204 people worldwide. SARS, 770. Bird Flu, 260.

Swine Flu, which got the greatest media coverage, has killed 18,000 people. That may sound like a lot, but 18,000 out of a world population of six billion is hardly a blip. Also, good old, regular, seasonal flu kills more than 250,000 people a year. Want to be concerned about something, be concerned about regular flu. The media, however, doesn't consider regular flu sexy enough to fear-monger over.

Back to Betelgeuse. I would love for it to flare up in my lifetime so I could see it. The odds, however, are against me, despite what you may see on the news.