Oh goodie

Slashdot finally has a news item posted that, for a change, does NOT bash India/Indians. This particular comment appeared to me to be quite uncalled for, though.

Is there some value that I'm missing in this? Why does any care that some rich guy made a balloon to take him up 60K ft? Is there some practical application that he is trying to improve this technology for? Or, is he just trying to pump his own ego?

Why does this get reported everywhere / anywhere?