Like Ed I find some consolation in looking outwards -- both in space and time. A BBC4 doc the other week traced the history of our planet back to its beginning, then the birth of the galaxy we inhabit right back to the Big Bang itself. And I was left thinking what an insignificant blip in cosmic history we are, and that our human struggles amount to less than a pimple on a dimple on a flea's left ball. At the end of the programme I actually felt some small relief and consolation that all of this matters not one jot.

5000 years of "civilisation" is an eye-blink in the cosmic story.