LBV 1806-20 is at least 5 million times brighter than the sun -- in the night sky. Dust particles between Earth and the star block out all of its visible light. Whereas the sun is located only 8.3 light minutes from Earth, the bright star is 45,000 light years away, on the other side of the galaxy.

Luminous blue variable stars are extremely large, with LBV 1806-20 probably at least 150 times larger than the sun. The stars are also extremely young by stellar time. LBV 1806-20 is estimated at less than 2 million years old. The sun in our solar system, by contrast, is 5 billion years old. Typical stars, such as the sun, live 10 billion years.

LBVs have “short and troubled lives,” as Eikenberry put it, because “the more mass you have, the more nuclear fuel you have, the faster you burn it up. They start blowing themselves to bits.”

All very informative, but what I find interesting is that the previous record holder, another of these "luminous blue variables" that have short lives and then blow up, the Pistol Star, can be found in the center of our galaxy, a spot where I expect the big nasty to come from in 2012, if a big nasty is what really hits us. More on the Pistol Star later.

(i KNEW this would happen.)

FDA Clears Implantable Chip for Market in United States The Associated Press Apr 4, 2002 13:40 EST

PALM BEACH, Fla. (Dow Jones/AP) - The Food and Drug Administration has cleared the way for Applied Digital Solutions Inc. to begin selling an implantable chip that would contain personal identification and medical data, the company said Thursday. Applied Digital, Palm Beach, said it had received a letter indicating that the FDA does not consider the chip a medical device under its jurisdiction. VeriChip, a small device about the size of a grain of rice, emits a radio signal and has been derided by some for its "Big Brother" implications. Applied Digital has said it could prove invaluable in emergency situations when a patient is either unconscious or can't otherwise reveal information. VeriChip is expected to sell for about $200. A scanner used to read information contained in the chip would cost between $1,000 and $3,000. Shares of Applied Digital rose 4 cents, or 8 percent, to 52 cents in Thursday midday trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

ap.tbo.com

There are some great articles on this blog but according to my understanding the reason the Mayan's Calendar only goes to the year 2012 is because they believed that this would be the begining of a new cycle.