Monday, March 24, 2008

As for you.

Never forget that of 400 million or so of your father's spermatozoa that scrambled for courtship in your mother’s uterus, you survived a 1 in 400 million chance of being born.
The chance that your mother was ovulating that day: about 2 in 28.
The chance that your father was going to get lucky that night: 1 in 10.
The chance that they would meet in a world of 6.7 billion people: 1 in 3 million.
The chance that in the entire history of all Homo sapiens they would be born in the same timeframe to permit childbirth: 1 in 4 billion.
The chance that Homo sapiens would evolve from primordial gas: 1 in 45 trillion.
The chance that earth would permit life altogether in a universe of uninhabitable planets: 1 in 750 quadrillion.

In the end, you might have had a 1 in 500 trillion gazillion chance of being born. Congratulations. Good show. Bravo.


The chance of you now having a resplendent life is singularly up to you.

-Bill Bryson (Reading of the week)

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