It's called sarcasm. And it was copied from TFA: http://linuxcrunch.com/content/sneak-preview-coming-kde-sc-45#comment-770

I have dabbled in the art of computers since the late 70's. I helped set up office automation in the Army. I have a "bit of experience" with computers and then get told I need a degree to get a job. 20+ years of experience and a company wants a degree so I can work for them troubleshooting desktops. Also, I am one of those that is getting his IT degree paid for by the gov't/you all - and I thank you! When I graduate I will have a degree that says I "know" what I'm doing and have done for over 20 years!

Well, does it still matter? You're already suspicious if you happen to want to know. While the US may still have its 1st amendment, other countries that don't have such stopgags to the suppression of information are already way ahead.

Lets say you come home from work at a real job and it's your time to do whatever you want. Would you rather work even more for $1/hour or would you rather watch TV (or surf the web or spend time with your family - basically anything you would want to do that doesn't pay cash)? Clearly free time has more value than $1/hour, at least if you aren't destitute to the point of needing that dollar.

In fact the value of free time is a function of how well your material needs and wants are met along with how much free time you already have. If you're unemployed, you're more willing to give up 8 hours of your day for cash than if you were already working 8 hours a day and were asked to give up 8 more.

Those millions are spent on implementations, not on 'concepts and ideas'.

So you're saying that the "Big Pharma's" should do the research? You're post is attacking the man more than the argument I think. I didn't read the article but I got the impression that the drug is cheap because it probably can't be patented for whatever reason. If that's the case I presume there would be nothing to stop another company immediately selling the drug on the back of the "Big Pharma's" research. So it's no surprise then that it's left to a charity to do the research.

Umberto Eco tried to think that one through: On the Impossibility of Drawing a Map of the Empire on a Scale of 1 to 1[pdf].

In this case I'd say it has more to do with the conceptual distance between a price tag for a pendrive and paying an artist. For Hungarians, Slovakian pendrives are simply cheaper. I bet most don't even know why that is.

I just read the same thing in The Science of Discworld. They also recommend building more asphalt roads. You can 'cycle on them, if that makes you feel better'.

I love audio books. I use my phone, which has speakers so I can listen without headphones. Falling asleep with someone reading you a story is perhaps a bit childlike, but I love it.

The narrator matters a lot. I've had good and bad experiences with Librivox. 'Official' audio books (from the publisher) also vary in quality and style. Some narrators are actors who use different voices for different characters. To my own amazement, I actually like this aproach most of the time. Nigel Plainer and Stephen Briggs have done fantastic versions of the Discworld books.

I'm currently listening to the Dark Tower series, which is read by the late Frank Muller, who did an amazing job.

I'm occasionally hired as a stagemanager. I've had dozens of crew t-shirts, four of dwhich I still wear sometimes.

There are a lot of points to be debated regarding TFA and I've seen a lot of them mentioned above.

I'd like to add one, and it's mentioned in the title. The theory that kids who are less capable of reading non-verbal clues from their peers tend to be rejected more seems somewhat obvious. But the title seems to blame these same kids for being bullied! Being rejected and being bullied are very different things. Ignoring kids who act differently is perhaps not the most laudable thing to do, but it certainly isn't malicious. Bullying peers who don't seem to 'get it', however, seems to me to be a social problem of the bullies, not the bullied.

I was going for a BadAnalogyGuy, but he seems to be sleeping. Didn't catch the Southpark reference, though. My humblest apologies.

Well you're mine now, baz.