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Segway Riders Get High on Mount Washington

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the easier-to-walk dept.

TacticalJack writes "Rob Owen, a retired clown, and two other riders surged up Mount Washington at 12.5 mph, the AP reports. It took the Segway riders two and half hours to complete the 7.6 mile endurance test. The team used six batteries, fought off 50 mph winds and battled bitter cold to reach the 6,288-foot mountain summit. All of which begs the question, why not buy a motorbike?"

4 of 369 comments (clear)

  1. dressed up like a butler by gnurb · · Score: 1, Redundant
    http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/US/Northeast/08/28/offbe at.segway.ap/vert.segway.ap.jpg

    he looks very funny.

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  2. Get a style manual, Register! by Lulu+of+the+Lotus-Ea · · Score: 1, Redundant
    The whole Segway on the mountain bit was amusing. But it's just plain alarming to see not just /., but also _The Register_ make a crudly common English usage error. The phrase "begs the question" DOES NOT mean "demands to be asked." Instead...well, this is such a common error it's easy to research. But quoting from http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/begs.html:
    An argument that improperly assumes as true the very point the speaker is trying to argue for is said in formal logic to "beg the question."
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  3. NO, that does NOT beg the question by gujo-odori · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Don't look now, but "to beg the question" does not at all mean "to invite/ask for/provoke a question." Rather, it means to base a conclusion on the foundation that what is being discussed must be true, although such truth has not been established. In other words, circular logic. Put another way, you beg the question when you assume the truth of whatever it is you're trying to prove.

    "Bet the question" is an English translation from the Latin "petitio principii." Look it up.

    Am I terribly disappointed that a number of /. readers perpetuated the erroneous usage instead of correcting it? Not particularly, because A) This is /. and the standards are low, and B) The truly functionally illiterate are all over at http://www.forwardgarden.com/ (you probably don't want to know; if you go there anyway, don't say I didn't warn you :-)

    Of course, someone will probably mod me as a troll for having the temerity to point out blatantly incorrect English usage, but I don't care. It's not like /. karma actually means anything. That may shock some of you, but it's true. Uh-oh, now I'll get modded as a troll even more for daring to say such a thing :-)

  4. Why not? by pantherace · · Score: 1, Redundant

    because it wouldn't get put on /.!