--- On Wed, 5/19/10, OrionWorks - Steven Vincent Johnson
<[email protected]> wrote:
> All good points, Kyle. The only individual I can think of
> that is trying to
> reverse this trend is Dean Kamen, inventor of Segway.
> Segway is also not
> "practical" but it's still an impressive product that has
> found a niche
> market. And who knows...
Kamen's got a hell of a lot more money than I do... United Neko is after all, a
multi-dollar corporation. So far, our best funding source has been the Sofa
Cushion Federal Credit Union (member FDIC, an equal housing lender).
But more seriously..... I went around town telling people about this thing, and
some other stuff I've done/seen. I've seen the polls out there that say
American laypersons are scientifically inept, or don't care about anything to
do with science, etc. I don't know /who/ is being polled, but they were not
like that in Biloxi, Mississippi, and they aren't in Wheatfield, New York. They
eat the stuff up when told about it. A black kid at work today was milling
about the shop as I worked on his car. He struck up a conversation with me.
Most people would expect, from his race and style of dress, that he'd be more
interested in rap than anything else.
Wrong.
I told him about the flame radio. He was there for a long time past what was
required to work on his vehicle, simply because he wanted to know /how
something so simple can pick up radio waves./ We discussed all sorts of things,
including the cancellation of the plans to return to the Moon. Turns out he
wanted to see men walk there again. The discussion he and I had made my day.
There are people, young people included, out there who are willing to grab on
to this stuff. But how are we to get them motivated?
--Kyle
