No need to panic over nuclear meltdowns in Japan

The air is understandably thick with fear, as the on-going crises surrounding the damage sustained by Japanese nuclear power plants resulting from the recent monster earthquake unfolds. The prospect of a catastrophic reactor meltdown and the possible release, as a result, of radioactive material into the atmosphere was described in an early news report as a disaster that could possibly affect a large swath of the Asia-Pacific region. Images of the plight of survivors of nuclear disasters such as the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster tend to come up whenever the word "radiation" is heard or read.

Egypt: the trouble with being too geeky about protest movements

A brewing protest movement in Egypt was reportedly "fueled by blogs and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook". Apparently, a perceived dependence on these sites to disseminate information vital to the cause -- and presumably underwrite its success -- is what is behind social media chatter expressing "indignation" over the shutting of the Net out of Egypt. Indeed, social media geeks make it sound like the shut down of the Internet in Egypt is such a rotten development for the brewing anti-government movement there.