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."
inb4 people making jokes of this (Score:4, Insightful)
My condolences to his friends and relatives.
That sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
Alas poor segway, I knew him not so well (Score:5, Insightful)
This will just be another clump of dirt on the corpse of Segway. It actually sucks in a way. It was invented to try to radically mix up society and how we travel, change the way we travel in cities. Use less gas, get people moving, less space for parking, all that cool stuff. Instead it became a toy for Segway Polo, jokes for Mall Cops, and t tours. Never getting the impact it was intended for..
ATVs are dangerous too (Score:4, Insightful)
simple fact:
if you combine
1. off road conditions
2. high speeds
you are basically deciding to do a passionate tango with death
a ruggedized segway? obviously in the same category as an ATV when it comes to "one dead me, please"
Re:That sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
Really? A few dozen people you didn't know died just while you were typing that post. And if you take the time to give thought to those, then even more will have died and you could never keep up.
Re:Alas poor segway, I knew him not so well (Score:5, Insightful)
Bicycles do at least as much as a Segway does for most people, and they're a lot cheaper. The Segway tried to fill a niche that didn't really exist -- it isn't the lack of a small, exposed personal transport machine that keeps people in their cars.
Re:Before anyone says it: (Score:3, Insightful)
Irony is subjective. Almost anything can be considered ironic or not based on a point of view.
English is not a programming language.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Alas poor segway, I knew him not so well (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not the inventor (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Before anyone says it: (Score:4, Insightful)
There are many different definitions of irony, and many people have a pet definition that they think is the 'right' one. Hell, even the oft made fun of Alanis Morissette song has at least a few scenarios that fall under one of the definitions or another. An outcome of events contrary to what was, expected; there is an irony to winning the lottery (and being set for life) and then dying a day later. There's also the definition: as if in mockery of the fitness or rightness of things. A death row pardon two minutes after the execution? Yes, I'd say that's a mockery of the way things should be. Now, a lot of the other scenarios in the song are most definitely not ironic, but there are a few that are.
Re:inb4 people making jokes of this (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Before anyone says it: (Score:3, Insightful)
It's marginal at best. If he'd bought the Segway company to save his life, or to safely be able to navigate near to cliffs, then I'd say it's definitely irony, but just because his actions inadvertently lead to his death doesn't make it ironic.
Re:Not the inventor (Score:4, Insightful)
So do farmers and prostitutes.
Re:inb4 people making jokes of this (Score:5, Insightful)
Love how people can get a laugh out of everything.
So do I. I hope when I die, people don't decide to have a moratorium on enjoying life. If I die in an amusing way and people don't laugh, I'll come back and haunt them.
Re:Not the inventor (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:inb4 people making jokes of this (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The Poor Guy! (Score:2, Insightful)
So foul play is suspected and Disney filmmakers are implicated?
Re:Not the inventor (Score:1, Insightful)
So what - it enables the US troops to continue the illegal war of agression against Afghanistan for example. It's all part of the war machine.
Re:The Poor Guy! (Score:3, Insightful)
Bystanders were alerted to his demise by the sound of "Yakety Sax" playing loudly as he approached the abyss.
Re:Before anyone says it: (Score:5, Insightful)
With spin like that she would have made a good communications major.
Re:The Poor Guy! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Before anyone says it: (Score:4, Insightful)
God, everyone's so busy wanting to limit the definition of irony.
NO. Irony does not require that the result be contrary (much less directly opposite) to the stated intentions of the person whose actions led to the result. It does not require that it be contrary to any specific individual's intentions or expectations.
The definition is that it is contrary to what you might expect, and like it or not that's subjective. Most of us wouldn't expect the owner of a company that makes a given product to be sufficiently ill equipped to use that product safely that it ends up killing him or her.
Re:inb4 people making jokes of this (Score:3, Insightful)
Thank you.
Re:Before anyone says it: (Score:3, Insightful)
(This especially includes all Sheryl Crow fans)
Ironically, you probably meant Alanis Morissette.
No, penguinisto just really thinks poorly of Sheryl Crow fans. All they wanna do is have some fun, they don't concern themselves with things like the definition of irony.
To his credit, there are no Alanis Morissette fans really.
Re:Before anyone says it: (Score:5, Insightful)
To his credit, there are no Alanis Morissette fans really.
I was dragged to one of her shows a year or two ago by my wife, and she and her band put on a shockingly good and rock-like show, not at all what I would have expected. It was almost like watching a metal band fronted by Alanis Morissette cover the works of Alanis Morissette.
I'm a little ashamed to say it reminded me a lot of a Metallica concert, back before Metallica started sucking. AM was even headbanging to the guitar solos.
If that all sounds too surreal to be real, I can only say I would have thought the same thing.
Re:The Poor Guy! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Inventor: yes/no. (Score:3, Insightful)
Can we please get a citation for this, because this is the first I've ever heard of it, and as far as I know, is totally inaccurate. The Segway is based on the technology that Dean Kamen developed for the iBOT, which is a really cool wheelchair that can climb stairs, drive over rocks, sand, etc. The Segway was merely a refinement and repackaging of that wheelchair's technology. I suspect this guy you work with is BSing you (or his own brother BSed him and he fell for it).
Re:Inventor: yes/no. (Score:3, Insightful)
(*whoosh*)