In the US, the president has recently been accused of covering up an act of treason. By the standards of this administration -- which has also been accused of sanctioning torture and illegally spying on its own citizens -- this is barely a blip, and it's not even front page news.

Meanwhile in the UK, some junior officials accidentally lost two CDs containing names, addresses, national insurance numbers and bank details for an admittedly staggering 25m people. There is no indication that this was intentional or that this information has fallen into the wrong hands -- it just seems to have been literally lost, in an office move. This scandal is leading to speculation about whether it will bring down the government.

Is there some island in the middle of the Atlantic where people neither over- nor under-react to scandals?