A few weeks ago I spent a few hours volunteering next to him at the Planetary Society's booth at the National Science & Engineering Fair. He's doing a great service for the Society by drawing big crowds. I must say, though, that it looked absolutely exhausting. Hours of signing autographs and small talk with eager fans. He went well past his allotted time and he was likely starving by the end.
Bill Nye collapses during speech at USC
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Re: Bill Nye collapses during speech at USC
#12"Nobody went to his aid at the very beginning when he first collapsed -- that just perplexed me beyond reason," USC senior Alastair Fairbanks said. "Instead, I saw students texting and updating their Twitter statuses. It was just all a very bizarre evening." I fear for the future.
Most likely it's because he was only out for a few seconds. People fall down all the time, so that's a few seconds of waiting just to see if something is actually wrong or if it's just an odd occurrence. Add a couple more seconds to decide the appropriate course of action, and by the time you're going to respond, Nye is back on his feet acting like everything is fine.
More disturbing to me is that nobody realized during the speech that he was obviously having a stroke.
Re: Bill Nye collapses during speech at USC
#13Nye's current status: "feeling much better". I had feared a stroke, but he's saying that he had just been pushing himself too hard. Whew.
Dug up a story here: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2...
Re: Bill Nye collapses during speech at USC
#14"Nobody went to his aid at the very beginning when he first collapsed -- that just perplexed me beyond reason," USC senior Alastair Fairbanks said. "Instead, I saw students texting and updating their Twitter statuses. It was just all a very bizarre evening." I fear for the future.
I think you're jumping to conclusions. More likely people thought it was part of an act. Here's a comment from that page to support my conjecture:
I was there. Regarding the point of nobody helping him at first, it wasn't immediately clear that it wasn't part of the act.
And here's another one:
The reason as to why nobody went up to help him the first time is because everyone thought it was part of his act. Nobody had any idea that he had fainted. Everyone was just dumbfounded by what had happened and thought it was an odd twist to his show.
The second time around, when people did realize what was going on, those who planned the event rushed to the stage to help him. Food was brought backstage and his manager, agent, and local emergency medical services were immediately contacted.
This nonsense about nobody doing anything is absurd. And the commentary by others on social networking sites accusing staff and event planners of not acting is absolutely baseless. Staff were backstage to monitor and assist in his recuperation from the second he stepped behind the curtains.
Just clarifying.
Re: Bill Nye collapses during speech at USC
#15"Nobody went to his aid at the very beginning when he first collapsed -- that just perplexed me beyond reason," USC senior Alastair Fairbanks said. "Instead, I saw students texting and updating their Twitter statuses. It was just all a very bizarre evening." I fear for the future.
As icegreentea said above, many comments from audience members present things somewhat differently. For example:
"When he first collapsed he was talking about gravity, and the audience believed it was part of his act. The instant he began wavering and fainted a second time he was instantly aided and given a chair and a water bottle."
Re: Bill Nye collapses during speech at USC
#16"Nobody went to his aid at the very beginning when he first collapsed -- that just perplexed me beyond reason," Why didn't she? Perhaps she was in the middle of a row. But often the reason that no one helps is that everyone is expecting someone else to do it -- someone more official or someone better located. If a person needs help, don't look around for who else is moving. Go help. -- A story, while we're on the sub…
You're exactly right. However, I imagine a lot of people in the crowd thought it might be part of the speech.
Re: Bill Nye collapses during speech at USC
#17Nye's current status: "feeling much better". I had feared a stroke, but he's saying that he had just been pushing himself too hard. Whew. Dug up a story here: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2...
That still sounds way too much like a stroke for me to fully believe it wasn't. Maybe it's because I'm a fan of college football, but I don't believe injury reports.
Re: Bill Nye collapses during speech at USC
#18"Nobody went to his aid at the very beginning when he first collapsed -- that just perplexed me beyond reason," USC senior Alastair Fairbanks said. "Instead, I saw students texting and updating their Twitter statuses. It was just all a very bizarre evening." I fear for the future.
When we studying group psychology the first thing my professor said was, "You're about to loose a bit of confidence in humanity" basically what i took away from it, if i'm in a situation where I need help, and there's a group of people around you should "single" a person out.
Re: Bill Nye collapses during speech at USC
#19"Nobody went to his aid at the very beginning when he first collapsed -- that just perplexed me beyond reason," Why didn't she? Perhaps she was in the middle of a row. But often the reason that no one helps is that everyone is expecting someone else to do it -- someone more official or someone better located. If a person needs help, don't look around for who else is moving. Go help. -- A story, while we're on the sub…
As someone who was there (in the 3rd balcony) it was seriously shocking. As dumb as it sounds, I think some people thought it was part of his act, although when he collapsed the second time, it still took about 15 seconds for someone to come to his aid.
None of the 20+ staff at the auditorium came to help immediately either, which was even more shocking, since I hope that they would have some idea of what to do in a situation like that.
Altogether, it was a very scary, confusing situation. I'm just glad he's alright.
Re: Bill Nye collapses during speech at USC
#20"Nobody went to his aid at the very beginning when he first collapsed -- that just perplexed me beyond reason," USC senior Alastair Fairbanks said. "Instead, I saw students texting and updating their Twitter statuses. It was just all a very bizarre evening." I fear for the future.
Indeed, the whole description was very unnerving. It appears the fellow was having a stroke and nobody was inclined to do anything about it. Scary.
No. An entertaining was doing something people assumed was part of his act. Their are also conflicting reports, both here and in the actual comments of the article.
Suffice it to say, it's still too early to know what was going on. But it wasn't just some guy having a stroke and no one doing anything.