Comments on: The freewheeling Bush-Segway connection

The freewheeling Bush-Segway connection

Carlos Quevedo — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 17:37:10 -0800

Something's wrong with the Segway if even the leader of the Free World and his noble father can't dominate it. Or could it be vice-versa?

By: tdstone

tdstone — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 17:43:49 -0800

perhaps he should have taken the tennis racquet out of his hand before mounting this complex transportation device.

By: Carlos Quevedo

Carlos Quevedo — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 17:49:55 -0800

Another complex device. Which one could be next?

By: Argyle

Argyle — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 17:52:54 -0800

Naw. As much as I may disagree with the President on some issues, I feel for him on the Segway thing. The first few moments on a Segway are awkward and strange. You see, I crashed a Segway too. At the time, they we still unavailable to the public and going for $100,000+ on eBay. If you want to see the video of it a coworker made of the crash, check out my homepage via my profile and look for Segway HT Adventure. I'm not about to make it easy for thousands of MeFites to suck up all my bandwidth with the 3MB d/l by posting a direct link.

By: moonbiter

moonbiter — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 17:54:49 -0800

Tease.

By: Armitage Shanks

Armitage Shanks — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 18:01:48 -0800

Drudge can always be depended upon for the correct spin: SEGWAY FAILS PRESIDENTIAL TEST.... (Nicely balanced by the rich-Democrat-expensive-haircut-French-stylist drivel on the other side of the page.)

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 18:02:18 -0800

Can't those things go like 30 mph? I wonder what the worst Segway accident to date has been? I wonder who, what, where, and when the first deadly car crash was? Oh yeah, and guess what my Argentinian friend....Busted!! That is all.

By: gsalad

gsalad — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 18:07:29 -0800

Me fell Segway?... that's unpossible!

By: matteo

matteo — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 18:26:03 -0800

Tease. no offense, but there's no need to be a tease for that little movie. if you were expecting -- like I was -- something marginally funny, like a Jackass stunt, it's not. the admittedly very minor collision lacks speed, excitement -- no blood spilled, no shirtless cackling drunks in sight. pretty dull. cool shirt, tho

By: Witty

Witty — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 18:27:51 -0800

Those things disgust me.

By: MzB

MzB — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 18:37:04 -0800

Other gaffes from around the world (some old, some new): Canada, UK.

By: swerve

swerve — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 19:09:47 -0800

Aside from the cool factor (intuitive gadgetry), what exactly is the point of a Segway?

By: Postroad

Postroad — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 19:21:33 -0800

Has Gera;d Ford tried it yet?

By: jonson

jonson — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 19:22:51 -0800

Well... I think possibly the theory was that it would replace cabs in densely populated urban settings, cutting down gridlock, lowering pollution levels and increasing the area one could cover "on foot", so to speak. Except that it only goes 12 miles an hour, costs more than a motorcycle, and is not really sidewalk safe nor street legal. There are, undoubtedly, problems with the execution.

By: goethean

goethean — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 19:59:36 -0800

Except that it only goes 12 miles an hour ...and how often do cabs go that fast?

By: Akuinnen

Akuinnen — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 20:12:09 -0800

Reason #3782 I can't be president. I would probably fall off a Segway and people would laugh and post the pictures all over the net. The only difference is that I would be drunk. So it's kind of related to reason #2.

By: krunk

krunk — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 20:25:01 -0800

I think Dean Kamen needs to fire his head of marketing.

By: Wingy

Wingy — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 20:48:35 -0800

Or his head of inventing.

By: filchyboy

filchyboy — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 20:52:53 -0800

Of course it may have helped if he turned the damn thing on before he mounted. No wait, I'm not referring to Laura.

By: the fire you left me

the fire you left me — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 21:00:34 -0800

Why do the Clinton years seem so halcyon? By the way, didn't George Bush Sr. vomit all over a group of Chinese officials? Sigh.

By: eatitlive

eatitlive — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 21:18:58 -0800

Yeah, but did you see the slut monkey?

By: pejamo

pejamo — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 21:22:11 -0800

speaking of halcyon.... Yes he did vomit. In the Japanese primer minister's lap. There is a video. I have searched for this video, and I find it both sinister and unsurprising that it seems to have been purged from the face of earth. Can anyone hook me up?

By: konolia

konolia — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 21:23:12 -0800

I thought the presidential puking occured in Japan.

By: eatitlive

eatitlive — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 21:25:13 -0800

The slut monkey, dammit. Look at the slut monkey.

By: konolia

konolia — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 21:27:41 -0800

Ah, I need to type faster. I don't know where you could find the video, but I can't imagine why you'd want it-I remember seeing the clip back when it happened, and once was enough for me. Hopefully we all have enough of the milk of human kindness around here to at least have some sympathy for the man. Jet lag plus the flu plus an unavoidable banquet-I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

By: wendell

wendell — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 22:31:05 -0800

Eatitlive, why do Bushites like you always bring up Monica... huh? It's a different slut monkey? Nevermind. Bygones. My bad. D'oh! And konolia, I didn't know W. tried to ride a Segway with jet lag and the flu at a banquet... huh? The other Bush? Geez, this MetaFilter thing is hard to keep up with...

By: shadow45

shadow45 — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 22:40:48 -0800

i'm really surprised he didn't fall flat on his face. did anyone see his daughter's picture in the press recently? send her to prep or something, that girl's got some baddd posture. these bushes really aren't sports-like people. i've met a few.. they like golf. :)

By: daver

daver — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 23:29:17 -0800

Swerve: Ass Farming.

By: tomorama

tomorama — Sat, 14 Jun 2003 00:04:21 -0800

The way the two of them look while riding their segways, they look like... lame ducks or something. Not the Bushes in particular, but just how a person looks riding a sewgway. I'm further convinced that I'll never buy one of those things. Leave it to the Americans to come up with a motor vehicle to remove the tedious task of walking. We're just going to get even fatter.

By: wendell

wendell — Sat, 14 Jun 2003 00:32:49 -0800

Here's a story from one of them liberal medias that included the statement: "...the president rode it around. He picked up how to use it right away, Kamen said. " Now ABC News wouldn't lie to us would they? Via Dvorak on BoingBoing's guestbar

By: crasspastor

crasspastor — Sat, 14 Jun 2003 04:17:12 -0800

The last thing Dean Kamen needed were those photos of the Blechers riding around on one of his "civilization transforming" devices. I'm turned off on Ginger as ever now. A couple'a pallid warmongering elitist tweaks skatin' around on something that looks supremely stoopid (what tomorama said). Yeah right, like the Segway's gonna revolutionize shit now. I also highly doubt these are some sort of hidden camera photos either. I know their blurryness would suggest such. Yet what would hide an assasin from that distance, if in fact, these photos were not meant to get out at all?

By: crasspastor

crasspastor — Sat, 14 Jun 2003 04:28:43 -0800

Don't get me wrong, I see that the photo is credited and all. What I mean is that this seems to be a very indy-publicity leary administration and reading meaning into whatever "photo-ops" in whatever form they take is an interesting endeavor these days.

By: jpoulos

jpoulos — Sat, 14 Jun 2003 08:41:32 -0800

Now ABC News wouldn't lie to us would they? Of course they would, but wouldn't Kamen also want to portray the Segway as easy to ride?

By: Witty

Witty — Sat, 14 Jun 2003 09:37:05 -0800

And I'm sure part of the conspiracy was for George to fall off the damn thing so he would seem more like a "regular guy"... er sumthin'. C'mon crasspastor.

By: holycola

holycola — Sat, 14 Jun 2003 10:41:54 -0800

Cripes he handles it just like he does foreign policy. And domestic policy, for that matter.

By: Lord Chancellor

Lord Chancellor — Sat, 14 Jun 2003 13:33:32 -0800

You handled a Segway before, Holycola?

By: Oriole Adams

Oriole Adams — Sat, 14 Jun 2003 13:50:03 -0800

Aside from the cool factor (intuitive gadgetry), what exactly is the point of a Segway? Didn't the Postal Service buy a zillion Segways for some purpose? And I seem to recall some of the auto companies investing in the gadgets so that supervisors can scoot from one end of a mile-long plant to another in record time in order to whip the troops into shape. Other than that, it seems like a rich man's toy/gadget, like those self-contained air conditioning neck things you see at Sharper Image.

By: adnanbwp

adnanbwp — Sun, 15 Jun 2003 11:24:14 -0800

At my work, we fit the Segway with an IP camera, wireless network access point, a tablet PC, two bags on the sides for stuff, and a custom box for a power source to power the tablet pc and the camera. There is no difficulty involved in keeping your balance will all the added weight. It works wonderful and is a key element in the technology we are bringing together. The learning curve on a Segway is way better than a bicycle. The only reason the president fell down is maybe that he wasnt holding on to his ride properly.

By: DakotaPaul

DakotaPaul — Mon, 16 Jun 2003 12:42:07 -0800

If you want to see the video of it a coworker made of the crash, check out my homepage via my profile and look for Segway HT Adventure. Wow, Argyle, you mean you actually paid $29 for that shirt?

By: Dreama

Dreama — Mon, 16 Jun 2003 13:50:36 -0800

I'm fairly sure that filchyboy said all that needed to be said on this topic three days ago. The internal balancing mechanisms of a Segway that's been properly powered up should make a fall like that impossible. We don't have the whole story. All of this is just blah blah blah blah.