Are you suggesting that the existence of madrassahs that produce fundamentalists who are likely to become involved in what we call terrorism is a myth, or simply that the prevalence of such schools is overblown?

I love Hacker News. Even the credibility police hang out here.

He was repeating an argument made by hydrogen proponents.

Hm, re-reading the thing, you might be right -- though I'm still not sure. Anyway, the whole piece seems to be setting up a straw man just to tear it down. Is anyone really that naive about hydrogen?

Yes, many people really are that naïve about hydrogen. My university works closely with General Motors, and every time there's an event a GM fuel cell car shows up. People go nuts over the things, and the GM people are right there with their whole spiel.

Yes, I think we've all seen articles where a dignitary drives the Honda FCX concept car, or other fuel cell vehicle up to a lone hydrogen pump, promised as the 'first of many'.

Meanwhile, a thousand engineers pray that it doesn't pick that moment succumb to metal fatigue and explode.

Not to mention Arnold's hydrogen Hummer...

As the article mentions, the government has given billions of dollars for hydrogen car research in just the last few years. So yes, some people are that naive about hydrogen.