View Full Version : If anyone could fall off a Segway...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/030612/170/4dnhg.html&e=14&ncid=1778
Timemaster Tim
06-12-2003, 08:43 PM
Geez. I though thing was gyroscopically stabilized up the wazoo so that the most unco-ordinated geek could still operate it.
Bullhajj
06-12-2003, 08:44 PM
Yeah, I thought it was impossible to fall. Maybe it has to be powered up for the stablizers to kick in?
TomChick
06-12-2003, 09:03 PM
That's priceless. Gerald Ford, move over!
-Tom
Alan Dunkin
06-12-2003, 09:38 PM
It probably wasn't turned on, so he probably leaned too much and bowled over.. sigh :?
--- Alan\
Aszurom
06-12-2003, 10:45 PM
Well, if he'd broken his ass on it, that would just about end the life of Segway. Luckily he's good at bails.
Sean Tudor
06-12-2003, 10:52 PM
It looks like he broke it. :roll:
Supertanker
06-13-2003, 12:03 AM
Maybe it failed as he boarded it.
Nathan Phoenix
06-13-2003, 05:18 AM
Fool me once
Shame on
Shame on you
Fool me can't get fooled again!
Jason Cross
06-13-2003, 07:29 AM
But...but Dubya can land a jet plane on an aircraft carrier all by himself!
Bullhajj
06-13-2003, 08:04 AM
But...but Dubya can land a jet plane on an aircraft carrier all by himself!
Makes you realize how truly dangerous that stunt was.
Ben Sones
06-13-2003, 08:47 AM
But...but Dubya can land a jet plane on an aircraft carrier all by himself!
He wasn't really flying. The pilot gave him a little toy joystick, sort of like the steering wheel thing that Maggie uses in the opening sequence for the Simpsons. As long as he thinks he's flying the "big vroom vroom," everyone is happy.
Union Carbide
06-13-2003, 12:42 PM
From the looks of it, he had the control column pulled way back when he stepped on the platform, and it looks like it snapped into the upright position and his weight carried it all the way in the other direction.
Kinda hard to tell from still photos tho.
I'll have to chalk it up to "User Error," or as Bush would say, "Usah Errah"
Explanations of how Bush fell off the Segway:
http://www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2003/06/kintisch-e-06-13.html
The Whitehouse says -- "It wasn't on."
Alan Dunkin
06-14-2003, 12:30 PM
Yay, I was right, I must be a Segway expert.
--- Alan
Timemaster Tim
06-14-2003, 02:20 PM
The Whitehouse says -- "It wasn't on."
I take it they were referring to the Segway and not President Bush.
Joe O'Malley
06-16-2003, 09:28 AM
If I were Bush I think I'd fire whatever wonk I'd hired to prep me for new things. My guess is Bush had no idea how to use the thing and just jumped on. The descriptions of "power-assist" and "balance mode" and letting it warm up, etc. sound fairly complicated. I think the president can be assumed to be lacking the time to read many instruction manuals, and relies on folks for overviews of things.
That said, it was pretty funny.
Rywill
06-16-2003, 09:39 AM
Yeah, it's pretty hilarious. After months of hearing how not even the biggest idiot could fall off one, Bush falls off the second he tries to get on it. It's almost too perfect.
DennyA
06-16-2003, 09:50 AM
Nope, he'd actually ridden one before at some event a couple of months ago.
The White House is trying the "it wasn't turned on" spin.
Coulda been worse. If it had been Ford, he wouldn't have recovered from the fall.
SpoofyChop
06-16-2003, 03:05 PM
I just tried a segway out the other day. I almost fell off it too. My wife looked like she was stepping onto a rock. My guess is that different people have different balance sense.
So even if the thing was on, I can imagine falling off of it if you don't have the right instincts for the thing. But of course nobody wants to hear that because this story gives everybody a nice fuzzy feeling of superiority over Bush.
"He's dumb and he falls of a Segway! Guffaw!"
Anyway, my verdict about the Segway is that it is not nearly as amazing as the hype and I don't see it revolutionizing anything in its current incarnation.
Jason McCullough
06-16-2003, 03:08 PM
Celebrity pratfalls are always funny.
DennyA
06-16-2003, 03:17 PM
But of course nobody wants to hear that because this story gives everybody a nice fuzzy feeling of superiority over Bush.
Oh, right, like he has to fall of a Segway for us to have a nice fuzzy feeling of superiority over him.
Bullhajj
06-16-2003, 03:59 PM
But of course nobody wants to hear that because this story gives everybody a nice fuzzy feeling of superiority over Bush.
Oh, right, like he has to fall of a Segway for us to have a nice fuzzy feeling of superiority over him.
Maybe this just gives us all a nice feeling of superiority over Bush and SpoofyChop.
Linoleum
06-16-2003, 04:59 PM
Glass is half-empty: Bush fell off a Segway.
Glass is half-full: Bush fell off a Segway. Got back on and rode it.
Bub, Andrew
06-16-2003, 05:09 PM
Glass is half-empty: Bush fell off a Segway.
Glass is half-full: Bush fell off a Segway. Got back on and rode it.
Glass is for sale: Why is Bush giving Segway free publicity?
SpoofyChop
06-17-2003, 02:33 PM
You guys are funny!
:D
Even if you're ding-dongs.
Also...Bub...by your logic how can the president ever use ANY product without "giving it free publicity?!"
Anders Hallin
06-17-2003, 02:59 PM
Also...Bub...by your logic how can the president ever use ANY product without "giving it free publicity?!"
Most products actually have some conceivable use,
http://images.ucomics.com/comics/tt/2003/tt030618.gif
Met_K
06-18-2003, 09:17 AM
U R teh wittay.
Bullhajj
06-18-2003, 09:36 AM
[snip]
LOL, a freedom fighter by any other name!
Cleve Blakemore
06-19-2003, 06:35 PM
Bush needs a gallon of vodka and a kickstand just to prop him up to read the teleprompter to read neocon speeches.
They should make a proper puppet out of him - hollow out his head from the inside, stuff it with styrofoam peanuts and put a dowel up his arse to control him at the podium. The drunk is one step away from institutionalization and is practically a vegetable as it is. He's the perfect "President" to fool the rubes with when the cameras come on.
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