Then again, Phil Plait is taking about much lesser effects like damaged satellites. He calculates this could happen at 5,000 light years from a magnetar; that i

Then again, Phil Plait is taking about much lesser effects like damaged satellites. He calculates this could happen at 5,000 light years from a magnetar; that implies (flipping my calculation around) that a GRB could do that all the way from another galaxy (..if it's a "nearby" galaxy).