This is just something I simply came up with.
I was reading the General Digital Cinema section at DVinfo when I remembered those cameras Colorspace announced two years ago. 35mm and 16mm equivalent. If you take a look at the original thread, you'll see the specs for both cameras were at the Assimilate website. Some time later Colorspace stopped developing those cams.
I did know that Scratch was supporting Scarlet, but I didn't remember Colospace cameras having anything to do with Assimilate.
Suddenly I see Colorspace cams discontinued and Assimilate supporting Scarlet... Is it possible that Jim saw the specs for those cams two years ago, liked the design, bought the idea and continued developing the 16mm equivalent cam to be eventually named Scarlet?
Just an idea...



