Thursday, August 09, 2007

Segway Hype Update

Most of us are familiar with the Segway scooter. This Dean Kamen invention was going to “revolutionize” personal transportation.  On February 25, 2003, I posted a piece regarding the Segway and Dean Kamen titled Talking Out of Both Sides of Their Mouth, wherein I noted Mr. Kamen’s first eschewing government intervention, and then lobbying for government intervention through one of his VP mouthpieces. On July 30, 2003, in a post I titled Novelty Item, I also mentioned the Segway scooter, noting that it was, a novelty item.  I also mentioned goings on about the Segway here in February 2004, and here in September 2006.

Today, I read this.

The device that was supposed to revolutionize urban transportation seems unable to even hold on to a proper fan club.

The Segway Enthusiasts Group of America is disbanding because of inactivity and an absence of candidates for its board of directors, said the group’s treasurer, Fred Kaplan.

The Segway, from the beginning, was all hype, and it will end that way also.

Segway Fan Club Disbands Due to Lack of Interest

Via the Wall Street Journal’s Best of the Web.

Posted by John Venlet on 08/09 at 12:26 PM
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Trapped Utah Miners and the Police

The six miners trapped deep underground in the Crandall Canyon mine are much in the news, and I can understand why this is so.

What I cannot understand, is why the rescue effort requires the services of the Emery County Sherrif’s Office and the Utah Highway Patrol.

Take a look at photos #10, #12, and #13 at this link.

Note the sherrif’s trailer in photo #10, and in photos #12 and #13 the highway patrolman and sherrif’s office Sgt. standing around supposedly “guarding” the entrance to the mine.  Why, exactly, are Utah individuals’ tax dollars being spent here?  There has been no crime committed, nor, I would assume, are either the sherrif’s office or Utah Highway Patrol qualified to actually provide any meaningful rescue assistance.

I can guarantee, though, that both the Emery County Sherrif’s Office and the Utah Highway Patrol will be submitting large bills for services rendered in the rescue effort, though they will have done nothing.

Posted by John Venlet on 08/09 at 09:48 AM
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Headline Laugh of the Day

Madison police capture wanted monkey

Sounds like a classic Keystone Kops episode.

Posted by John Venlet on 08/09 at 06:52 AM
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Hillary "Der Rodham" Clinton and the New Amerikan Komsomol

I wonder if Hillary’s suggestion to create ”...a national training “academy” for bureaubots”., as Billy Beck noted and stated in post titled Formally: American Apparachiki, and Paul Weyrich also notes at Townhall.com in a piece titled A Dangerous Proposal: Government Academies for Public Service, will be modeled along the indoctrinating lines of Russia’s Nashi which was reported on by the New York Times here and by the Daily Mail here.

Posted by John Venlet on 08/09 at 06:30 AM
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Subprime Meltdown Understatement of the Day

Here’s Jack Malvey, the chief global fixed income strategist for Lehman Brothers, commenting on the subprime mortgage market meltdown, as quoted in a New York Times piece titled The Loan Comes Due.

“The magnitude of risk was significantly underappreciated.”

Ya think?  Brilliant, just brilliant.

Posted by John Venlet on 08/09 at 04:58 AM
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That's Brutal, Dude

I don’t watch alot of teevee, and only receive five channels, but I often hear it in the background when other individuals in the house tune in this or that show.  Mostly I overhear commercials, for some reason, and the Alltel commercial I overheard, for the second time last night, surprises me.

I cannot find the actual commercial I overheard on YouTube, but it follows the format of this Alltel van commercial, where four competing cell phone carrier dorks kidnap the Alltel dork and confront him in a van.

In the commercial, the four competing carrier dorks want the Alltel dork to stop offering some service and threaten to “do something bad” to the Alltel dork if the offending service is not stopped.

In previous versions I’ve seen of this Alltel commercial, which is linked above, the “something bad” was pinching the Alltel dork, which is no big deal and actually quite stupid, but in the version I overheard last night, when the four dorks threaten to “do something bad” to the Alltel dork, the Alltel dork says “Like what?”, and one of the four dorks replies “We’ll beat you with a tubesock full of wood screws.”

Initially, I thought that the line was kinda funny, but actually, it’s just plain brutal, and I’m wondering how, in this day and age, it even made it on the air.

Posted by John Venlet on 08/09 at 04:19 AM
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