One of my favorite quotes of all time - "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.". I'm quite misanthropic, so no, the examples you are giving do not make my heart warm. They are the achievements of few exceptional individuals, despite the rest of humanity, not thanks to the rest of humanity. The majority of us simply take credit for belonging to the same species and want to feel included. Whether our existence would be of interest to hypothetical intelligent extraterrestrial life is a philosophical question with many aspects so I'd refrain myself from making any assumptions.

That's exactly what I'm saying. :)

Not my life. My existence is meaningless. My conscience forms an idea as to what is meaningful - find cure for cancer, smoke weed all day, kill all the Jews, etc. and then it it motivates me to act accordingly. Meaning is a human construct.

IMHO "meaning" is a human concept. We simply exist and that's it. Everything else attached to it is simply ego trippin. When you are dead does it matter that you have known?

Exactly my point. If the planet dies tomorrow in a fiery explosion, the Universe will not be a bit different. Noone will notice and noone will care. I think that sending a plaque with (pathetic and preachy) pictures in orbit is arrogant and self centered. I don't even want to raise the question about space junk and how would "aliens" differentiate between debris and inspirational plaques.

Why do people love stroking their ego so much? Is it so hard to comprehend that in terms of the universe our lives are completely meaningless?

The time has not yet come. If we switch to electric what are the Persian Gulf countries and Russia going to eat? Rocks? They are quite pesky when they are rich, imagine what will happen if they are poor and desperate.

Provided that eating is the only thing that makes you happy. I used to think just like you but at some point your body starts giving up and your life gets miserable despite the feasts.

The thing is that OSX and Linux are not direct competitors. It's like saying cars killed bikes. The two are very different and they offer completely different benefits and experience.

Because they play for the same team. And you and I are not on that team. :)

Of course they won't settle. One should never negotiate with terrorists.

The Linux desktop is not dead. I've been using one for the past 10 years. The community is more alive and vibrant than ever, there is a virtually unlimited choice. I really find these discussions completely pointless and the product of sulking disillusioned developers. For a largely free, community driven project, Linux is a wild success. I love it and will continue to use it until the day comes when we'll no longer be allowed to choose what software or hardware to use.

Tommy from "Trainspotting" died from Toxoplasmosis. "It's like an abcess in your brain." Pretty nasty. One of the greatest movies of all time though.

Yes, you, the United States are the spoiled kid, holding the gun. Keep beating your chest but the facts are that your country is practically bankrupt, you have no industry, you live in a police state, you have mostly a supporting role in the fields of science and innovation and the association that the rest of the world makes about you is "stupid american". You spend all your money on weaponry to hold the world hostage and make sure nobody is above you. Just like Apple does. The world does not exist to satisfy your historical inferiority complexes.