The freewheeling Bush-Segway connection

June 13, 2003 5:37 PM

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?
posted by Carlos Quevedo (39 comments total)

perhaps he should have taken the tennis racquet out of his hand before mounting this complex transportation device.
posted by tdstone at 5:43 PM on June 13, 2003

Another complex device. Which one could be next?
posted by Carlos Quevedo at 5:49 PM on June 13, 2003

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.
posted by Argyle at 5:52 PM on June 13, 2003

Tease.
posted by moonbiter at 5:54 PM on June 13, 2003

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.)
posted by Armitage Shanks at 6:01 PM on June 13, 2003

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.
posted by dgaicun at 6:02 PM on June 13, 2003

Me fell Segway?... that's unpossible!
posted by gsalad at 6:07 PM on June 13, 2003

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
posted by matteo at 6:26 PM on June 13, 2003

Those things disgust me.
posted by Witty at 6:27 PM on June 13, 2003

Other gaffes from around the world (some old, some new): Canada, UK.
posted by MzB at 6:37 PM on June 13, 2003

Aside from the cool factor (intuitive gadgetry), what exactly is the point of a Segway?
posted by swerve at 7:09 PM on June 13, 2003

Has Gera;d Ford tried it yet?
posted by Postroad at 7:21 PM on June 13, 2003

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.
posted by jonson at 7:22 PM on June 13, 2003

Except that it only goes 12 miles an hour

...and how often do cabs go that fast?
posted by goethean at 7:59 PM on June 13, 2003

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.
posted by Akuinnen at 8:12 PM on June 13, 2003

I think Dean Kamen needs to fire his head of marketing.
posted by krunk at 8:25 PM on June 13, 2003

Or his head of inventing.
posted by Wingy at 8:48 PM on June 13, 2003

Of course it may have helped if he turned the damn thing on before he mounted. No wait, I'm not referring to Laura.
posted by filchyboy at 8:52 PM on June 13, 2003

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.
posted by the fire you left me at 9:00 PM on June 13, 2003

Yeah, but did you see the slut monkey?
posted by eatitlive at 9:18 PM on June 13, 2003

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?
posted by pejamo at 9:22 PM on June 13, 2003

I thought the presidential puking occured in Japan.
posted by konolia at 9:23 PM on June 13, 2003

The slut monkey, dammit. Look at the slut monkey.
posted by eatitlive at 9:25 PM on June 13, 2003

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.
posted by konolia at 9:27 PM on June 13, 2003

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...
posted by wendell at 10:31 PM on June 13, 2003

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. :)
posted by shadow45 at 10:40 PM on June 13, 2003

Swerve: Ass Farming.
posted by daver at 11:29 PM on June 13, 2003

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.
posted by tomorama at 12:04 AM on June 14, 2003

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
posted by wendell at 12:32 AM on June 14, 2003

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?
posted by crasspastor at 4:17 AM on June 14, 2003

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.
posted by crasspastor at 4:28 AM on June 14, 2003

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?
posted by jpoulos at 8:41 AM on June 14, 2003

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.
posted by Witty at 9:37 AM on June 14, 2003

Cripes he handles it just like he does foreign policy. And domestic policy, for that matter.
posted by holycola at 10:41 AM on June 14, 2003

You handled a Segway before, Holycola?
posted by Lord Chancellor at 1:33 PM on June 14, 2003

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.
posted by Oriole Adams at 1:50 PM on June 14, 2003

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.
posted by adnanbwp at 11:24 AM on June 15, 2003

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?
posted by DakotaPaul at 12:42 PM on June 16, 2003

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.
posted by Dreama at 1:50 PM on June 16, 2003