THE ART OF SMUGGLING: ANIMALS AND HISTORIC TREASURES

Last month at the San Ysidro border, a U.S. man was caught trying to smuggle 52 reptiles from Mexico.

It was at 3AM and he was driving a truck, but a quick search revealed 43 horned lizards and nine snakes inside his clothes.

Ten years ago, officials at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport found inside a German couple's clothes 200 tarantulas and other insects.  They were returning from Peru.

Twelve years ago a German man was caught trying to sneak 44 endangered geckos and skinks out of New Zealand found in pouches sewn into his underpants.  Each could be sold for $2000.

From 2010 to 2012 six others were caught attempting to sneak out these same reptiles out of the South Island of New Zealand, including Manfred Bachmann, a German from Uganda, who was only sentenced to 15 weeks in jail for 16 jewelled geckos packed in tubes.  Also arrested were Thomas Benjamin Price of Switzerland and Gustavo Toledo-Albarran of Mexican for catching these geckos on Otago Peninsula, passing them on to Bachmann.  Nine of the sixteen were pregnant, and each was said to be worth $200,000.

In 2005 a woman was stopped at the Melbourne Airport wearing a specially designed apron-like garment with 15 containers for 15 tropical fish.

Authorities are careful about avocados, for they sometimes contain cocaine.

In 2010 this 70 million-year old Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton was smuggled out of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia to the U.S. in pieces and auctioned for over $1 million.  The Feds caught the Florida fossils dealer and sent the bones back to Mongolia, which will become the centerpiece for a new dinosaur museum.

All the above leads to the current crisis of what museums throughout the world are doing about artifacts stolen from Egypt and other areas of the world, and when they will be returned.  According to a report commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron, 90% of African cultural property resides in European museums.

Mighty museums such as the Metropolitan in New York, the Getty, the Louvre, the British Museum and the Humboldt Forum in Berlin have locked up the precious legacy of other lands taken in wars of aggression or by theft or duplicity. They have refused demands to return them although many were taken by colonial armies in the course of what would now be regarded as crimes against humanity. They argue that they are entitled to keep "the spoils of war" -- although that doctrine is now rejected by international law -- or else rely on that school playground philosophy of "finders' keepers" no matter how unconscionable the finding.

How much is all the above to be returned worth?  Priceless.  For example, just the Queen's Crown Jewels with Kohinoor Diamond is said to be valued between $10 billion and $12 billion.

Another British Museum artifact is the Rosetta Stone, which was stolen by the French from Egypt, then confiscated by the British after defeating Napoleon, ending up in the British Museum in 1802.  How can you calculate the worth of something like this created in 197 BC, so steeped in history, never to be sold?  And perhaps never to be returned.

-

HOW MUCH DO YOU MAKE?

        From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

          DAY  USA  WORLD    Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82

July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572

Aug    12      1504     6556         1242        835     130

Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82

Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85

Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118

Dec    30       3880    14748       1224       299      465

Jan     14       4142    15512       1151      189       712

Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398

Mar     2        1989     9490        1726       110      194

April   6         906     11787         4211       631       37

May    4         853    13667        3025       3786      59 

June   1         287    10637         2346      3205      95

 July   7          251      8440        1595        817     411

Aug    4          656    10120        1118         532     423 

Sept  22       2228      9326          839        279     124

Oct    6         2102      8255          543        315       59

Nov   3         1436      7830         186         458       23

Dec    1        1633      8475          266        477       28

Jan    7         2025      6729         148        285      140

       28          2732   10,516         779        862      133

Feb  2           2990   12,012         946        991      175

        24         1823     9,809         996        304        40

Mar    2        1778      7,756         335        173        28

         11        1022      6002         465           88       28

         16         982      5579          354           59       40

         18         721       5214         380           69       39

         23         771       4695         294           67         6 

         24         649      5008          300           82       33

         31          676      4287         276           28       44

Apr     1          439     4056          290           52       12 

           7          409      3554         253           44         5 

          14         331      3383         158           21       16

          21         299      3347           86           54       65 

          27         311      2703          224          39         3

          28         247      2783          124          60         4

Summary:

• The 7-day average numbers are continuing to decline, with exceptions.
• #1 in new deaths yesterday was the UK with 248, USA #2 with 247 and Germany #3 with 239.
• #1 in new cases yesterday was Germany with 119,832, #2 Italy with 69,204 and France #3 with 59,760.
• However, consider that the U.S. population is much higher than those European countries, so on a per capita basis, we are in relatively good shape.
• Finland, for example, had 22,541 new cases, but with a population of 5.6 million had 4009 new cases/million.  The U.S. came in with 55,692 new cases, but with a population of 334 million, came in at 167 new cases/million.  Other countries in new cases/million yesterday, showing that new hotspots are appearing in the Caribbean and South Pacific.
• World  50
• USA  167
• New York  509
• California  60
• Vermont  630
• Hawaii  259  (our positivity is still a little high at 9%)
• Puerto Rico  1316  (the Caribbean is now a hotspot)
• Germany  1427
• Andora  4200
• South Korea  1126
• Japan  363
• Taiwan  480
• Australia  1774
• New Zealand  1825
• South Africa 68
• Canada  404
• Barbados  1440
• Grenada  973
• Saint Martin  4578
• Montserrat  5400
• St. Barth  11,200 
• Samoa  3220
• Tonga  1045
• India  3  (is noted for grossly underestimating)
• China  1
• But they don't count the asymptomatic, which happens to be somewhere around 98%.
• Thus their new cases/million yesterday was probably closer to 50, which is is still quite low, at less than a third of the U.S.
• China closed more businesses and residential compounds today in Beijing.  Everyone, of course, is tracked wherever you go throughout the country.  Here is a typical text sent out in Beijing:

"Hello citizens! You have recently visited the beef noodles & braised chicken shop in Guanghui Li community," one such text read. "Please report to your compound or hotel immediately, stay put and wait for the notification of nucleic acid testing."

• Shanghai has been locked down for a month and resentment is mounting.
• 46 cities are in full or partial lockdown, affecting 343 million people, and these account for 89% of China's economic output.
• You think, maybe, the leadership is overreacting?

Okay, enough of COVID.  About my topic of the day, let's say you're going to college and want to make a lot of money after you graduate.  What should be your major?  When I went to school, chemical engineers tended to have the highest starting salaries.  It was coincidental that I am a biochemical engineer.

According to U.S. News and World Report:

• The weekly starting salary of a U.S. bachelor's degree is $1305/week, or $67,860.
• A high school diploma only gets $781/week, or $40,612/year.
• #1  Chemical engineering  $75,301/year
• #2  Computer engineering $75,022
• #3  Electrical engineering  $72,540
• #4  Aerospace/aeronautical engineering  $71,350
• #5  Materials engineering  $70,958
• The next three are also engineers.
• #9  Physics  $67.541
• #10  Applied mathematics  $67,112
• Hard to believe that #9 and #10 make less than the average bachelor's degree.  Why study so hard?

Fortune has another list:

1. Computer Engineering: $74,000
2. Computer Science: $70,000
3. Aerospace Engineering: $70,000
4. Chemical Engineering: $70,000
5. Electrical Engineering: $70,000
6. Industrial Engineering: $69,000
7. Mechanical Engineering: $68,000
8. Miscellaneous Engineering: $65,000
9. Civil Engineering: $63,000
10. General Engineering: $62,000
11. Economics: $60,000
12. Construction Services: $60,000
13. Business Analytics: $60,000
14. Finance: $60,000
15. Physics: $55,000

Ah, but Fortune says that engineering majors earn the highest median wages at mid-career, placing chemical engineers at the top with $111,000/year.

With doctoral or professional degree:

• #1 - #10  Physicians at $208,000
• #12 - #14  Other doctors, with pediatricians at $177,100
• #15  Airline pilots, copilots and flight engineers  $161,000
• #16  Dentists  $158.900
• #17  Computer/Information systems managers  $158,900
• #18  Architectural/Engineering managers  $149,500
• #19  Marketing managers  $142,200
• #20  Judges, etc.  $141,100
• #22  Petroleum engineers with B.S. degree  $137,300
• #23  Podiatrist  $134,300
• #28  Physicists  $129,900
• #29  Pharmacists  $128.700
• #30  Lawyers  $126,900

However, from Ty Doyle, who studied at Stanford Law School in Quora:

As of right now, the starting salary for first year associates at major firms in large US cities is $190,000; most such firms give their youngest associates a year-end bonus of $15,000, although the bonus is typically prorated since first-year associates usually don’t begin working until September or October following graduation and taking the bar exam. This means that a new BigLaw lawyer will likely make about $195,000 in their first year of work.

Just about all major firms—whether they’re located in New York or Chicago or Dallas or Atlanta or Los Angeles—have settled on the $190k starting salary. However, that doesn’t mean that there’s agreement about salaries in later years. The most competitive and expensive markets in the country, e.g., New York and San Francisco, tend to have fairly standardized “big law” salary and bonus charts that grow up to total compensation of about $400k by the time a lawyer is a senior associate (~8 years), but in other parts of the country, there’s often more “compression” of salary growth and more variation, as well. For example, you might start at $190k + $15k prorated bonus and be making $215k + $15k 4 years later, while across the street, someone is making a “New York” salary of $250k +$50k bonus.

In any event, these kinds of jobs are not just reserved for Harvard/Stanford/Yale graduates, although attending such a school makes it much easier to land one. Generally speaking, Harvard/Stanford/Yale types who can walk and chew gum at the same time can find such work, but the requirements for admission to the club increase the lower the ranking of one’s law school, and with lower-ranked schools, only the very top of the class will have a shot.

Another list for bachelor's degree averaging various media reports:

• Engineering  $69,188
• Computer Science  $67,539
• Business  $57,657
• Social Sciences $57,310
• Humanities  $56,651
• Agriculture  $55,750
• Communications  $52,056
•  
• 
  
• Music  $48,686
• Neuroscience  $48,190
• Various types of Arts  $41,762 -$45,613
• Early Childhood Education  $39,097

Further:

• 17% earn average $85,000 just after graduating.
• 50% are stressed about finding a job today.
• Men get more than women.
• Males
• bachelor's degree $900,000 more in a lifetime than a high school graduate
• with a master's degree, $1.5 million more
• Females
• bachelor's degree $630,000 more in a lifetime than a high school graduate
• with a master's degree, $1.1 million more
• Unemployment rate
• associate degree  2.7%
• bachelor's degree  $2.2%
• master's degree  2%
• professional degree  1.6%, and earns $760,000 more than a master's holder

Here is an an interesting site from CNN Business to compare how you do relative to the average annual wage in your country, and relative to the world average.  For example, I just typed-in $100,000/year, and found that I was earning 222% more than the $44,952 average in the U.S., and 492% higher than the world average, which is $20,328.

So are wages in the USA higher than anywhere else?  No, but not bad, in average income per year:

• #1    Monaco  $186,080
• #2    Bermuda  $112,240
• #3    Switzerland  $82,620
• #4    Luxembourg  $80,620
• #5    Norway  $78,290
• #6    Macao  $75,690
• #7    Ireland  $65,620
• #8    USA  $64,530 (So how come that CNN Business comparison says that the average U.S. salary is $44,952?  This site indicates that the median household income in the U.S. in 2019 was $68,703.  Thus, the CNN version much be per person, while the numbers in this section are per household.)
• #10  Singapore  $54,920
• #20  New Zealand  $41,550
• #50  Indonesia  $3,870
• #69  Afghanistan  $500

A few words about Monaco.

• on the French Mediterranean coastline surrounded by France.
• Monte Carlo is their luxury town.
• Next to the Vatican as the smallest independent state.
• Only 39,000 people.
• 
  Is a constitutional monarchy.  Remember Princess Grace?  Wonder why she was not a queen?  Their monarchy has no kings and queens.
• Property is more expensive than Hong Kong or Tokyo.
• Unemployment rate of 2%.
• Literacy of 99%.
• More doctors/per capita than anywhere else.
• Life expectancy of 89.5 years.  Japan is supposedly #1 at around 85.
• Only a quarter are citizens.
• No personal taxes.  Thus, the richest people live here.  Thus, the highest income in the world.

Finally, for the U.S.in 2019.

• The median wage/hour was $19.33.  The Federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour.  Democrats are trying raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2025.  Lot's of luck trying to do that.
• The top 1% wage earners contribute 20% to our national income.
• 
  There were 34 million below the poverty line.  The poverty rate was 14.8% in 2014, and dropped to 10.5% in 2019.
• The lowest mean annual pay rate of $22,140 belongs to those preparing/serving food.  They are paid around $10/hour.

• 
  Doctors earn $89/hour, with anesthesiologists at $113/hour and dentists at $77/hour.  Why do anesthesiologists make the most money ($411,000/year)?  Medical training takes 12-13 years. I'm watching a Japanese TV series called Iryu, which also places them at the top of the pecking order.  However, the star (the one with the the biggest head) is a surgeon, and the lead anesthesiologist is that small face below him.
• Average full-time female:  $47,299
• Average full-time male:  $57,456.
• Those 45-54 were in the highest income age group.
• Maryland had the highest median household income, $95,572.
• 10.3% of the population earned over $200,000.
• 30.7% of households earned over $100,000.
• Pew Research said that you were middle-class if your annual income ranged between $53,413 and $106,827.
• Here is something that surprises me:
• The average annual wage in the U.S. was $51,916.
• The median annual wage in the U.S. was $34,248.
• This difference is explained here:

The median wage is the wage “in the middle,” while average refers to the measure of central tendency for all the data. There is a big difference between the average and median wage data. The average numbers are higher because the distribution of workers by wage is highly skewed.

• Surely you understand what they said.

I wish you a great weekend with some colorful birds.

-

IS IT SAFE TO GO ON A CRUISE?

        From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

          DAY  USA  WORLD    Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82

July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572

Aug    12      1504     6556         1242        835     130

Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82

Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85

Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118

Dec    30       3880    14748       1224       299      465

Jan     14       4142    15512       1151      189       712

Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398

Mar     2        1989     9490        1726       110      194

April   6         906     11787         4211       631       37

May    4         853    13667        3025       3786      59 

June   1         287    10637         2346      3205      95

 July   7          251      8440        1595        817     411

Aug    4          656    10120        1118         532     423 

Sept  22       2228      9326          839        279     124

Oct    6         2102      8255          543        315       59

Nov   3         1436      7830         186         458       23

Dec    1        1633      8475          266        477       28

Jan    7         2025      6729         148        285      140

       28          2732   10,516         779        862      133

Feb  2           2990   12,012         946        991      175

        24         1823     9,809         996        304        40

Mar    2        1778      7,756         335        173        28

         11        1022      6002         465           88       28

         16         982      5579          354           59       40

         18         721       5214         380           69       39

         23         771       4695         294           67         6 

         24         649      5008          300           82       33

         31          676      4287         276           28       44

Apr     1          439     4056          290           52       12 

           7          409      3554         253           44         5 

          14         331      3383         158           21       16

          21         299      3347           86           54       65 

          27         311      2703          224          39         3

Summary:

• The U.S. had the most deaths yesterday with 311.
• #2  UK  304
• #3  Germany 245
• #4  Brazil 224
• #5  Italy 186
• #6  Russia 163
• #13  China 48
• China also had 1824 new cases, #24 in the world, compared to #1 Germany with 124,863, #2 Italy with 88,770 and #5 USA with 57,738.
• Germany checks incoming travelers, but has pretty much loosened all restrictions within the country.
• In the U.S. there are spotty restrictions in a few states, but no lockdowns, where states are free to set their own rules.
• China, however, is getting even more cautious, and 168 million in 27 cities, especially Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, are in some phase of lockdown. 
• That 1824 new cases shown above is misleading, as Shanghai itself gets upwards of 10,000 new cases/day.
• China only reports COVID-19 cases where symptoms are somewhat serious.
• They've pretty much tested everyone in Shanghai, and there was a week when the seven-day average showed that 98.4% were asymptomatic.
• Medical specialists say that this high asymptomaticity is because of the low pathogenicity of the Omicron variant and a high vaccination rate.
• While most data centers show that 25% of Americans have been infected by this pandemic virus, the latest data shows that it should be 60%.   This is because of the prevalence of asymptomatic cases.
• 
  Children seem to avoid symptoms, and are rarely tested.  A big surprise is that 75% of this younger group have been infected.
• Unvaccinated children are much more prone to severe symptoms and death.  Thus there is good reason for the imminent approval of Moderna's vaccine for children younger than 6.  I guess a good question, though, is whether children should first be tested to determine their immunity status because of having previously caught this virus.

When first announced two years ago, the CDC assigned colors for cruise ships to show safety:  green (no cases), yellow (not known and awaiting tests) and red (confirmed cases).  Cruise lines must have complained, for the CDC added orange, which is here explained:

The Ruby Princess sailed from San Francisco to Honolulu and back to San Francisco, docking on April 11.  There were 143 confirmed COVID-19 cases.   The scary thing is that 100% of crew and passengers were vaccinated.  Nothing stated about prevalence of boosters.  The good news is that symptoms were mild and ONLY ONE was hospitalized.  This a follow-up to a previous cruise from SFO to Panama in late March, where 70 cases were found on this same ship.  Two years ago the Ruby Princess was allowed to dock in Sydney and spread this infection to Australia.

So should you avoid Princess cruises?  Well, the CDC is investigating outbreaks on more than a dozen Royal Caribbean cruise ships and more than a dozen Norwegian Cruise Line ships, among the 53 ships with COVID-19 outbreaks!!!

Further, note that the Ruby Princess has been in the Orange category from the beginning, which was on April 7.  There are 2200 passengers at full capacity and 900 crew members. Thus 5% of passengers/crew were infected.  According to the above chart, anything higher than 0.3% should elicit a red rating.  Perhaps this color will show next week.

Going on a cruise?  Click here to check the safety status of your ship.  Provided by Cruzely, given the above situation, there are no Red-rated ships.  Hmmm....

On April 26 The Ruby Princess was still given an orange rating.

If you can't read the above, click on THIS.  Note that the percent of NON-GREEN ships ranged from 74% to 78% during the period from April 13 to 26.

So is it safe to go on cruise today?  

• For one, the CDC has completely removed its Travel Health Notice for cruising.  
• But too many actual COVID-19 cases are appearing on most cruise ships.  
• Yet, the Royal Caribben Group have had 1.3 million passengers and 2500 cases, or 0.2% infection rate, good for a overall orange rating.  
• Also too, most new cases are asymptomatic, and as best as I can determine, there have been only a few hospitalizations and no deaths.  
• Per capita COVID-19 cases are LOWER on cruise ships than on land.  The problem in your community is that there surely must be infections occurring in sports and entertainment venues.  Mask mandates can be enforced on ships, something most states are abandoning.
• Cruise lines should raise their vaccination requirement to at least one booster, and maybe even two, for all passengers and crew.  This will significantly drop the potential market, so don't look for this occurring anytime soon.  
• Thus, is it safe to go on a cruise?  If you have had your second booster and don't have a pre-condition, seems safe enough, for apparently cruise ships might actually be safer than not.  If you are immunocompromised or suffer from a weakened immune system, you need to be especially careful, on a ship or on land.

The NFL draft begins at 8PM (EDT), or 2PM in Hawaii, today.  

• The Jacksonville Jaguars have the first choice, and they are expect to select a defensive end, Michigan's Aidan Hutchinson, Georgia's Travon Walker or Oregon's Kayvon Thibodeaux.

• 
  Quarterbacks have been the #1 pick in six of the previous seven drafts.  The exception was defensive end Myles Garrett in 2017 by the Cleveland Browns.  He is currently ranked as the #16 best player in the NFL.

• 
  The last time a QB was not picked in the top 10 was in 2013 when the Buffalo Bills selected EJ Manuel at #16.  He was a bust.
• While no QB was selected in the first round in 1996, this could well happen again this year.  The top QB prospect this year is a relative unknown, Kenny Pickett of Pittsburg.  If not him, then perhaps Malik Willis of Liberty.

The oldest person in world Kane Tanaka passed away at the age of 119.  

Here she is at the age of 32 in 1935 (bottom row, middle).

The new oldest person is Sister Andre (Lucile Randon) of France, who is 118 years old.

She was born in 1904 and lived through the 1918 Spanish Flu.  However, on 16January2021 she tested positive for COVID-19.  Has an active mind.

-

WHAT IS A STAR: Part One

Yesterday I announced my intent to spend future Tuesdays featuring the best of my 14 years of posting this blog.  As Wednesday is my sci-tech day, I will provide a similar alert indicating what science topics I will focus on over next few days and weeks:

• What is a star?  Part 2 will feature dwarf stars, which are relatively small, and rest somewhere between stars and large planets, from a fascinating Scientific American article.

• 
  Chemistry's quantum future.  Many products developed by industry were pure accidents, like teflon.  Chemistry is nearing a phase of being able to bypass this thing called serendipity.
• A possible solution to global warming:  the answer might be within our mantle, as seen in a remote desert of Oman.
• Virus scoreboard:  what can we expect in the future.

• 
  A new understanding of Alzheimer's:  is microglia the real target?
• While only 1% of us stutter, as I once did, we getting closer to better understanding and curing this problem.
• Are hypersonic weapons over-hyped?
• 
  There are almost 10,000 types of birds.  Which one is most prevalent?  The House Sparrow, with 1.1 billion, according to a which study analyzed all the data in the world and came up with that answer.  One problem, for as of April 2022, there are 25.9 billion chickens.  They produced 112 billion eggs for consumption.  Did you know that the average age of a chicken in your market is 40 days?

About my topic today, there is so much out there in space, but we have not yet seen nor measured 94%-95% of it.  Normal matter like bacteria, us and stars only represent 4%-5% of what supposedly exists.

Astro-scientists have been around for a long time and seem to know a lot about stars.  Yet, the science keeps changing.

• 
  One definition of a star is an astronomical spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity.
• You start with a Protostar, a collection of gas that has collapsed down from a giant molecular cloud.  This phase lasts 100,000 years to form a T Tauri Star, which in 100 million years evolves into a Main Sequence Star.  90% of all stars are in that phase, and their size ranges from one-tenth to 200 times the mass of our sun.  Note that mass and diameter are not the same, for some stars are "fuzzy."  Some do not quite become stars and are known as Brown Dwarfs.
• Most stars are around 75% hydrogen and 25% helium, plus other elements.  Our Sun is 71% hydrogen and 27% helium.
• 
  Our Sun is a yellow dwarf star.
• It is 93.55 million miles away from Earth.
• The next nearest star is Proxima Centauri, a Red Dwarf Star, only 4.2465 light years away, or 25 trillion miles.
• While it would take 8.3 minutes for light to get from Earth to the Sun, it would take 4.2465 years to get to Proxima Centauri.

• 
  Or, a jumbo jet would take 19 years to reach the Sun from our planet.  Thus, at this speed, if there is sufficient energy available, it would take a little more than 5 million years to reach Proxima Centauri.  Homo sapiens, us, only began to appear 0.3 million years ago.
• All stars use fusion of hydrogen to produce energy and mostly helium.
• 
  There are more than 100 billion stars in our Milky Way Galaxy.  But there are more than 100 billion galaxies in the Universe.  Multiplying them will give you 10 to the 22nd power stars total.  However, some estimates go up to 10 to the 24th power.
• 
  There are seven main spectral types of stars:

• O (Blue) (10 Lacerta)
• B (Blue) (Rigel)
• A (Blue) (Sirius)
• F (Blue/White) (Procyon)
• G (White/Yellow) (Sun)
• K (Orange/Red) (Arcturus)
• M (Red) (Betelgeuse)

• 
  I should stop here, but this is another star characterization system providing different details:
• Hot Blue Stars (type O) are much more massive than our sun, and burn hotter for a short lifetime, expiring in just a few million years.  An example is Spica in the constellation of Virgo.  Look for the Big Dipper and following the handle, you will first see Arcturus (a Red Giant Star), then Spica.  An extraordinary one is Sirius:
• Which is binary star with a dim white dwarf partner.
• Is only 8.6 light years away.
• Is the brightest star in the sky and twice so than Canopus, and will remain the easiest star to see for another 210,000 years, when Vega becomes #1.
• 
  Red Dwarf Stars are much smaller than our sun and burn cooler, thus living longer, typically hundreds of billion years, and maybe 10 trillion.  This is the most common type of star, but as they're so dim, are hard to see.  Two nearer ones are Proxima Centauri and Barnard's Star.  The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence  has the highest probability of finding interesting exoplanets around this type of star.
• Red Giant Stars have run out of hydrogen, and thus burn hydrogen outside the core and other elements like helium in the core, making the star swell up, leaving a puffy bright object so they can be seen.  Some have enlarged by a factor of 100.
• 
  Red Super Giant Stars are the biggest known.  Antares in the constellation Scorpius is one, and another is  Betelgeuse (right), 1400 times larger than our Sun, forming the shoulder of Orion.  Mu Cephei is 100,000 times brighter than our Sun.  These stars will soon disintegrate.

• Blue Giant Stars are out of the main sequence and rare, with short lives.  Typical is Alcyone in the constellation Taurus.

• 
  Blue Supergiant stars are more massive than the Sun and fall into a mass range from 10 to 100 solar masses.  They start as type-O and early type-B, and leave the main sequence only in a few million years by running out of hydrogen.

• 
  Yellow dwarfs are of spectral type G, with our Sun a good example.  10% of all stars.  They become Red Giants as hydrogen is depleted.
• Orange Dwarfs are K-type and are prime for extraterrestrial life because there is a lot less UV radiation, which destroys DNA.  They remain stable for 30 billion years, compared to G-types like our Sun, which are good for only 10 billion years.  They are four times as common as G stars.
• 
  White Dwarfs have completely run out of fuel in its core.  Fusion has stopped and the star has collapsed.  It will just cool down, taking hundreds of billions of years, so none has yet reached its end, as the Universe is not quite yet 14 billion years old.  White Dwarfs are typically the size of Earth, or a little larger.  They are thus small with a lot their light in the ultraviolet, and are thus difficult to see.  One happens to be orbiting the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, found in the Canis Major constellation.

• 
  Neutron Stars are the collapsed cores of massive stars (10 to 29 solar masses), which have been compressed even smaller than white dwarfs after a supernova explosion.  Composed entirely of neutrons with no electric charge.  What has happened is that protons and electrons were crushed together to form neutrons.
• 
  Black Holes are the end product of a supernova of the most massive stars.  Even light cannot escape.  There are different types.  Supermassive black holes found at the center of galaxies may be a billion times more massive than a typical black hole.  Examples are Cygnus X-1 and Sagittarius A.

Finally, a stellar classification chart:

There will be Part 2 about dwarf stars.

-