Fwd: Ginger: Lots of hype, lots of hot air, [and scientific illiteracy (from "ZD-net")]

[David Lunney <lunney@HYPERLOGIC.NET>]

Dear folks:

It appears that even the hi-tech Internet media in the US are afflicted
with appalling scientific illiteracy.  Note that the last line of the
following extract from  a recent "ZD-net" article says that hydrogen is a
"major component of air."    If they can't get that sort of simple stuff
right, how accurate are they likely to be when they try to discuss complex
technical and scientific issues?

Yours in morbid fascination,
David Lunney



> Ginger: Lots of hype, lots of hot air--and that's a good thing
> By 144, AnchorDesk
> March 6, 2001 9:00 PM PT
> Today we have new word on Ginger, the top-secret brainchild of noted
> inventor Dean Kamen, as investigative teams have narrowed down the
> possibilities of a technology that's been described as "bigger than the
> Internet" by those in the know.
>
> It turns out Ginger may be exactly what I said it was (though not here)
> when the speculation began: A bunch of hot air. Though what I meant and
> what Ginger may be are two different things.
>
> THE KEY TO GINGER may be literally hot air, used to power an ingenious,
> socially responsible new form of transportation. There had already been
> speculation that Ginger was a scooter of some sort; what's new is the
> likelihood that Ginger uses a
> <http://idh.vita.org/pubs/docs/stirling.html>Stirling Engine--the
> so-called "hot air" engine--for power, perhaps using hydrogen, the major
> component of air, as a fuel.