The Segway Skateboard
By Rocky Thompson on March 9th, 2007The One-Wheel Balancing Scooter is the first motorized skateboard that doesn’t require any handheld controls—science has finally achieved great success. You can see the guys turning the board by leaning in this video, and it looks like it shuts off when the front gets pushed into the ground. The downside to getting rid of the handheld controller is that you can’t control your speed, but I’m sure you’ll get used to it before heading into traffic.
What could possibly go wrong? ™
This one actually has a chance. Wanna know what doomed the Segway? The way it made you look when you rode it: both feet facing forward, knees slightly bent, arms bent at the elbow extended with both hands in front at chest height. In other words– the exact same stance you had when you looked like a dork waterskiing on two skis when you were 8, or, more accurately, a circus dog begging for treats. (My friend had a black lab that would take this pose when we would say “Okay Spanky, do circus dog!”)
This thing gives the rider the natural sideways laissez-faire devil-may-care repose of the surfer, the skateboarder, the non-chalant observer at a party. Give this guy some money, and watch Dean kamen eat his own hat.
[...] The McFly 2015 Project is what happens when product placement in movies works really, really well. It’s a grass roots movement to get Nike to make their 1989 prediction of what shoes will look like in 2015 as featured in the movie Back to the Future Part 2. These people want to you fill out an online petition saying you’ll buy some of the super-cool auto-lacing kicks. I’m in if they get the hoverboard to work, too. “You can keep it, I got a Bulldog.†By Rocky Thompson [...]