Somewhat wrong. Research and development (R&D) is a relatively small part of the budgets of the big drug companies.

If this is actually true, I'd like to see some figures or at least a link.

When my laptop's videocard died, I was able to replace it myself for $80, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than a new, decent laptop meant for serious work.

Does anyone find it ironic that the problem was caused when a giant, nuclear electricity plant was damaged by a lack of electricity?

I guess after the Indian Ocean tsunami of '04 they should have considered the possibility...

They did consider the possibility. It was built to withstand a 5.3 meter tsunami, which would have been of record size. Instead, less than half an hour after successfully dealing with the worst earthquake in history, they were hit with a 10 meter tsunami. This knocked out the diesel power to the cooling systems, but backup batteries actually kept it going safely for another 10 hours.

It sounds like the young hire knew something the older professional didn't know, so even if the older person was "intellectually curious", they no longer had the desired qualifications and skills. It sucks, but it's also the case.

Have you ever used a visual diagrammatic code language before, such as LabView? Every scientist I've ever met that had any experience writing code vastly prefers the C based LabWindows to the diagrammatic LabView - diagrammatic is simply a fucking pain in the ass. Reading someone else's program is an exercise in pain, and they are impossible to debug. Black and white, unambiguous plain text coding may not be pretty to look at but it is damn functional. Coding requires expressing yourself in an explicitly clear fashion, and that's what the current languages offer.

Seeing their relationship with the Culinary Institute of America, Alton's alma mater if you will

Alton Brown attended NECI, the New England Culinary Institute, not the CIA.

You can't take something that is non-unique. If you are not deprived of something, I have not stolen anything from you. You are the one splitting hairs using varying definitions of words.