Segway UK Boss Dies After Driving Off Cliff 413
necro81 writes "Jimi Heselden, the British multi-millionaire defense contractor and philanthropist, who bought the Segway company last December from inventor Dean Kamen, died yesterday after an accident while riding one of the machines. While using a ruggedized X2 version of the two-wheeled balancing scooter at his estate in North Yorkshire, he apparently drove over the edge of a precipice and into the River Wharfe. He was found later by a passerby and declared dead on the scene."
The Poor Guy! (Score:5, Funny)
But in all seriousness, I'm very sorry for him and his family. If I didn't constantly encounter the damned things on sidewalks and in pedestrian spaces on the National Mall in DC I wouldn't be so quick to lampoon their maker's untimely demise.
Before anyone says it: (Score:2, Funny)
Please look up the definition of irony [reference.com] before posting anything with that particular word in it.
(This especially includes all Sheryl Crow fans)
Thanks in advance.
must've fallen for the hype (Score:5, Funny)
He must have fallen for the pre-launch hype, where the inventor and a variety of major tech figures were claiming that cities would be designed around the things. Maybe he thought it levitated?
Re:Before anyone says it: (Score:5, Funny)
Please look up the definition of irony before posting anything with that particular word in it.
(This especially includes all Sheryl Crow fans)
Ironically, you probably meant Alanis Morissette.
I guess the top secret (Score:5, Funny)
amphibious assault Seguay couldn't keep its head above water
Re:must've fallen for the hype (Score:5, Funny)
He must have fallen for the pre-launch hype
really?
Shameless Marketing Stunt... (Score:5, Funny)
This has to be the worst way to get free press for your product. But I'll give it to the man... He's dedicated.
unfortunate (Score:3, Funny)
not the usual segway death (Score:4, Funny)
And yes, I know I'm going to hell.
Re:Before anyone says it: (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Before anyone says it: (Score:5, Funny)
But it's important to uphold the principals, and not set a bad president.
Re:The Poor Guy! (Score:3, Funny)
It seems slashdotters have also stopped reading the summaries. Perhaps we need some kind of chapta system to check if posters have at least read that!
Question (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Question (Score:5, Funny)
What is the British equivalent to "Hey, Ya'll, watch this!"
"Tally-ho!"
Don't call it a Segway... (Score:5, Funny)
Call it a Segw
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
y
This ground is a way to get round the stupid whitespace filters
Re:Shameless Marketing Stunt... (Score:5, Funny)
This has to be the worst way to get free press for your product. But I'll give it to the man... He's dedicated.
Correction: deadicated.
Re:Before anyone says it: (Score:5, Funny)
If you imagine watching him post in slow-motion in a stage production, then the part where he started typing "Shery..." was a scene with dramatic irony, because the audience knew he was about to complete a tragic error, whereas the character himself was unaware.
Re:Before anyone says it: (Score:5, Funny)
Where's the duc[tk] tape? My head's gonna blow.
Re:This is news for nerds? Stuff that matters? (Score:4, Funny)
I know, there's nothing worse than having to pay attention when you're driving a vehicle.
Re:Inventor: yes/no. (Score:2, Funny)
The Personal Transporter's *actual* inventor is this engineer I've bumped into
Surely he bumped in to you?
This was his segway into the afterlife (Score:2, Funny)
I guess this was his segway into the afterlife!
(* Rimshot! *)
Re:Man. (Score:4, Funny)
Hmmm, he didn't sell enough, clearly.
Re:Inventor: yes/no. (Score:2, Funny)
I'm I not reading this quite right? Because it sounds like your saying the Segway was a more important invention than the insulin pump. I'll grant more complex, but more important?
Wait, I get the logic now! Using the Segway increases the demand for the insulin pump! It gets sold to the customer first, so it must be more important!
Re:Inventor: yes/no. (Score:5, Funny)
He said Kamen's biggest invention was the insulin pump.
I don't see a value judgment there. Just a clarification.
I also think Segways are bigger than insulin pumps.
Parse that as you will.
Re:Before anyone says it: (Score:1, Funny)
I always hold this example up as a paragon of irony:
A protester is picketing a site where an endangered animal's habitat is about to get bulldozed, and the protester gets trampled to death by a stampede of this endangered animal.
Sounds like a Segfault (Score:3, Funny)
Re:must've fallen for the hype (Score:2, Funny)
It was, until he looked down. Maybe that threw off its gyroscopes or something.
Re:Before anyone says it: (Score:5, Funny)
Irony is subjective. Almost anything can be considered ironic or not based on a point of view.
English is not a programming language.
Yes it is. ENGLISH [wikipedia.org]
Is that ironic?
Re:inb4 people making jokes of this (Score:3, Funny)
"Are you going to express your sorrow for everyone or just for those who make the news?"
Option Two for me. If mass media don't think them important I'm certainly too shallow to care.
Re:Shameless Marketing Stunt... (Score:3, Funny)
Word is they found his body standing up perfectly vertical on the segway as it balanced his corpse on the fly...
Re:The Poor Guy! (Score:4, Funny)
Please, anybody who won't even read a three sentence summary certainly won't read a whole chapta.
Re:inb4 people making jokes of this (Score:3, Funny)
Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you drive a Segway off a cliff and die.
(with apologies to Mel Brooks)
Re:The Poor Guy! (Score:4, Funny)
Why is paraphrasing the first sentence of the article (while attempting to contradict something that GP didn't actually say) modded informative?
Here's how it works: most articles have 3-4 actual interesting facts in them. They get extracted and modded up so we don't have to read the article. That saves about 50,000 nerd-hours per day.