Another musician bites the dust

Whitney Houston and Adam Yauch died earlier this year. Now, Donna Summer, whose music wasn't really that good, has died. This is proof that there is no God. And how is that proof, I hear you ask? Because if there was a god or gods, he/she/they would instead be going after musicians who are actually rubbish, like Justin Bieber or Billy Ray. Music from the likes of those two should be restricted to use as a humane alternative to waterboarding. But rest in peace, Donna Summer. In other news, extraordinarily old, bizarrely low-key bacteria have been found in sediments 100 feet below the sea floor of the Pacific Ocean, far removed from sunlight, fresh nutrients, and what humans would consider anything interesting to do. Some of these organisms, scientists say, could be at least 1,000 years old. Or maybe millions of years. Their strategy for staying alive is to be barely alive at all. Their metabolism is dialed down to almost nothing, an adaptive advantage in a place with so few resources. The bacteria that survive are the ones that can satisfy themselves with minute traces of oxygen and a parsimonious diet of organic material laid down millions of years ago.