One tool for putting valuations into perspective is the market's earnings yield.

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Putting this number into perspective, during a similar selling period (150 days), the acclaimed GALAXY S II, launched in 2011, globally sold 10 million devices.

ENGADGET: Samsung's Galaxy S III crosses 30 million sold (Update: More stats!)

Putting that growth into perspective, nominal GDP expanded at 4.6% in the year through the first quarter of 2007, 4.1% the following year, contracted in the year through the first quarter of 2009 and advanced by just 2.9% in the 12 months through the first quarter of this year.

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Putting the iPad launch into perspective.

FORBES: Analyst: Apple Sold More than 600,000 iPads On Day One

It has the effect of putting their own lives and problems into perspective.

CNN: What really makes people happy

In response to Tony Hayward's June 4 op-ed " What BP Is Doing about the Gulf Gusher": It is time that the publicity spin that BP is putting on this disaster is put into perspective.

WSJ: The Oil Disaster Is About Human, Not System, Failure

Though, like any myth, all three contain some truth, none is much help for parents in gauging actual risks to children or in putting the limits of their own responsibilities into any useful perspective.

ECONOMIST: The silence of the lambs