Give Any One Species Too Much Rope And They'll Fuck It Up

Well, I've been active haven't I? Absolutely loads has happened , and I've been dying to post it, and -

Yes, ok, that's bullshit. What has happened? Nothing out of the norm; death, arguments, Fidel Castro stepping down (ok - not quite within the norm, but it deserved a mention nonetheless), no news of a Pink Floyd reunion.

However, the first point on the list, "death", unfortunately is the most common. The media is reporting that 17 teenagers have commit suicide in 13 months in a town near me, Bridgend. Admittedly, I don't think I've ever actually been there, but that's not the point - I haven't been to the Middle East either.

But it lets me talk about suicide - what a delightful subject - and its stupidity. In what way does suicide solve any problems? Am I missing something, or does it only make things worse? Oh no, I'm really sad, things aren't going my way - let's be really stupid and kick the bucket! I'll pass all the sadness on to others and waste my life. This isn't a video game; game over really is, game over.

Not to mention the selfishness of it. What a wonderfully nice thing to do - fill your friends and family with grief. Well done - not only have you wasted your won life, you've ruined someone else's as well. Aren't you going to popular in heaven.

Oh, wait. There is no heaven. Too many religions, too many different ideas, the chances that one idea is right are so slim you might as well give up trying to say what comes next. So when you've got the rope out, tied yourself nice and tight, rest assured that the bacteria can have a nice meal. And death is supposed to be making things better?

How many planets have we found? How many stellar systems? And how many have life? Let's not waste this opportunity - by the most improbable of chances, it is this set of people that have survived this long. Everyone who's (not) reading this has won one race already - and there are no races harder to win that that one. And consider the chances when you add the probability for your parents to turn out exactly like that, you realise that this life - however crap it may seem - is rare. Incomprehensibly rare.

I thought people liked preserving rare things?