Putting Some Perspective Sauce On Past and Present

While I was conferencing at the ISA in Montreal, I did come across a few pieces online that put everything into perspective:

• xkcd.com usually has comics that entertain about technology and such.  This one illustrates the radiation exposure in ordinary times and not so ordinary times.  Aside from the 50 or so technicians trying to deal with the Japanese reactors, this event is not that dangerous to the Japanese public.  It is no Chernobyl.  And will almost certainly come nowhere close to that.
• Speaking of Soviet disasters, this piece on the failed Soyuz 1 launch, with the cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov knowing he was being sent into space in a fundamentally flawed rocket, is incredibly disturbing.  Yes, we have a far greater number of casualties in either Japan or Libya, but putting a brave face on a guy who didn't step aside (knowing his friend and national hero--Gagarin--would be his replacement) brings it home. Even if it happened 44 years ago.

More posts later as I also have to catch up on pop-culture.