The New Way To Fight Terrorism?

This is a post responding to Truman's post about the Segway. Wikipedia defines a segway as a two wheeled, self-balancing electric vehicle. Computers and motors located in the base of the segway allows the device to keep upright no matter how far a person leans forward or backwards. From a very laid back and lazy person, I see the segway as another device to aid people to become more lazy. The segway is different from a skateboard or a bicycle. Unlike a segway, a bicycle requires a person to pedal for the bicycle to get moving. Similarly a skateboard requires one to push off from the ground for the skateboard to move. The segway does not need any rigorous human motion from a person's legs or arms, just for one to lean forwards for the segway to move.

There have been several advances in human technology that has replaced or made travel more convenient for people such as an escalator and an elevator. An escalator somewhat replaces stairs because one just has to step onto an escalator for a person to move to another level of a building. Just like an escalator, an elevator can take you from the ground floor of a building to the very top floor of a building quicker then an escalator. The segway seems to be following in the footsteps as the escalator and the elevator. The segway is trying to replace walking. It would seem to be more convenient for a person to ride on a segway then walk to your destination, but for some parts of the world, the segway would create more problems. Within the bay area twenty five percent of children are considered medically obese. In the United States, twenty five percent of adults are obese in ten states. I do not believe that the segway will help with the obesity problem in the Uniter States. Segways is not only for civilians, but foreign powers are investigating the use of segways for defense as well


My friend showed me a picture of a police squad all on segways in a tactical formation. I looked up segways and defense on google and found out that China's military are trying out segways as a tool for defense. Chinese military officers demonstrated their skills at balancing and shooting on segways. The segway allows a police officer to hold both hands on their weapon while using their lower body to maneuver the segway. When I saw this picture, I thought the segway was a useless tool for the military. Maneuvering around in a segway leaves a soldier wide open because the soldier has to be at a constant height to move around the segway. From looking at the picture, if a terrorist or rioter gets close enough to an officer on a segway, that violator could easily take down the officer off of the segway and even obtain the officer's weapons. Also the segway can not move left to right and moving diagonally would create awkward and difficult positions for an officer to shoot from. In my opinion, the segway would be an impractically accessory for an officer and would not benefit an officer unless he or she is too lazy to walk around to keep the peace.

Segways have become somewhat popular. Shaquille O'neil was seen on a segway when he was showing is illustrious house on the MTV show Cribs. The segway was seen on the big screen when it was seen being ridden on the movie Iron Man. I believe it is difficult to make the segway popular because I believe it looks scary to ride on and also it is quite costly to purchase. As seen in television shows and movies, it seems that only the rich, famous, and powerful are the owns who are able to purchase segways. This does not mean that the upper class are lazy and buy segways to replace walking, it is that rich people have the money to buy segways and indulge in extraneous items. I personally would never buy a segway because it seems impractically. It would be useful if one were to walk a long distance and use a segway instead, but a car would do the same job faster then riding on a segway. Another reason why I could never purchase a segway is if there were only stairs in a building, a segway would become useless to go up a flight of stairs. Maybe in the future they will create a segway that can go from left to right and even go up stairs, but for now, I would stick to walking instead of using a segway.