As you can see, the heavies are probably members of Hank Scorpio’s diabolical Globex Corporation.
Either that, or they’re Chinese traffic cops.
(If it’s the latter, then we can safely conclude that SOMEONE decided to live dangerously, and didn’t put enough change in the parking meter.)
(Xinhua/Fan Changguo) (nxl)
Not to spoil the surprise, but I hear that after a breakneck Segway chase, Mutt and his companions escape by falling off three waterfalls and swimming through a green algae bloom.
(Green algae? Ewwww)
Still no word as to whether they manage to jump a shark or two along the way.
(Images from the Taipei Times and the Daily Mail.)
UPDATE: Heh. Don’t think of them as Segways — think of them as “Anti-Terror Assault Vehicles”. (Hat tip to Jonah Goldberg)
UPDATE #2: “Who said it wouldn’t be a ‘Green Olympics’?”
UPDATE (Jul 6/08): Whoops. It’s supposed to be “Segway”, with no “d”. Stupid phonetic spelling system!
UPDATE #4: I did not know that: The father of the Segway’s inventor is apparently Jack Kamen, one of the illustrators of the old Tales from the Crypt comic book.
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Man, I wish there was some video of those Anti-Terror Assault Vehicles in action!
LOL!
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This is the closest I could find…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgRftaMS3H0&eurl=http://forum.esforces.com/showthread.php?s=1f480212d37df955363a1725682b0a00&p=891858
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I ran into one of those stories of a crook being apprehended by a cop on a Segway just a few days ago:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/04/chicago-cop-chases-down-gunman-on-segway/
On a final note, I wonder how Dean Kamen feels about his invention being used by the Chinese authorities like this. The guy creates this thing with the noble goal of reducing fuel consumption and traffic congestion. Next thing you know, you see a pic like this and you just know the Chinese are going to employ it against Tiananmen protesters and the like.
I’m just wondering how effective this Segway will be with these cops. Maybe I don’t know enough about the Segway, but I just don’t see how these scooters can be effective against protesters, let alone “terrorists”?
The U.S. is now testing a microwave ray-gun. Now THAT is a serious tool to control protesters! Especially if one of those pesky anti-war protesters can’t get out of the way of the radiation frying his epidermis.
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I suspect the Chinese see it as a useful tool which allows widely-dispersed security forces to more rapidly converge upon a “disturbance”.
Sure does look funny, though.