CSotD: Risk Assessment 101 (plus the latest from WRJ)
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Signe Wilkinson cuts to the heart — and lungs and other bodily parts — of the Japanese radiation scare.
This isn't to entirely downplay the potential impacts of poorly designed, poorly managed nuclear generators, but, with the initial and perfectly rational concerns over the Fukushima plant answered by the successful prevention of a core meltdown, the chatter that has followed is simply annoying. Having grown up in a place where entire lakes were killed by the drifting crap from coal-fired generators 500 miles away in the midwest, I'm not losing a lot of sleep over marginally elevated background radiation from a nuke on the other side of the world.
At least, not at a moment when the "clean coal" people — apparently former employees of the Tobacco Institute — would no doubt love to see us all lose sleep over Fukushima.
And I'll listen to this fretting from people who don't smoke, don't drink more than a glass or two of wine before dinner, who assiduously avoid junk food and who filter their tap water, who work out regularly and who keep their BMI within the good-to-excellent range. But not unless it is couched in terms of adding to the many other hazards — most of them significantly more threatening — that they can't avoid.
Everybody else needs to get a grip. I've done my time listening to silly people.
I'm old enough to remember people who were afraid Skylab's deteriorating orbit was going to cause it to hit them on the head. Including at least one who was genuinely frightened but honestly believed that staying indoors would eliminate the danger.
At least she was a non-smoker.
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News of local, and of comics geek, interest: Comics Reporter reporter Tom Spurgeon recently visited the Center For Cartoon Studies, which is about five miles from where I'm sitting. He filed this highly detailed report. CCS is comic-book-oriented rather than comic-strip-oriented and their choice of White River Junction is kind of an indication of the intensity of their desire to attract mass audiences for what they are doing at any given moment. However, they do bring people like Joe Sacco to town and, when they do this in conjunction with the local college, I find out about it and get to attend presentations. They are nice people doing good work.
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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