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I live on the third floor, so it's definitely plastic for me because it allows me to carry everything up in one trip.

Painful? Since when are B&M sit down loopers painful? Maybe if you're comparing a B&M floorless to an Arrow looper that might make sense, but otherwise I'm missing something.

You're clearly easier to please than I am if you're excited to go to a park that features: Vekoma SLC Vekoma Boomerang CCI Hybrid Woodie with G-trains It's gonna take a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONGGGGGGGGGG time to get this dump up to Dollywood standards.

As much as I'd like to be optimistic and hope that's what they do, it's not looking good so far. Firing the maintenance staff seems like a really bad move. Those guys knew the quirks of all the rides and did an awesome job of keeping them all running very well. For me, Indiana Beach isn't about how fresh the paint is. That's Holiday World's approach. Indiana Beach is about letting loose with a lot of really great rides in a unique, laid back environment that is free of the safety fascism that pervades most corporate parks. IB does have a bit of a run down feel, but I always loved that about the place. I'm just getting the feeling that the new owners don't "get" the park. They've already made it so IB has no more night time operating hours, which just plain SUCKS.

It's a good amount since they'll never have to fork over a dime. If they're so serious about the issue, why not make a prize that someone could win? It just seems scummy, but PETA is a pretty hypocritical and awful organization when it comes down to it. My beef with them? They're anti-medical research.

Honestly, a very basic out and back hyper with a ton of air would kick the CRAP out of everything else at KI.

Negotiate? No, he went over there to beg. And the Saudis told him to get bent.

Actually, their $1 million prize is a pittance compared to how much this research is going to cost. PETA has a lot of money and should pony up more if they're serious about this. Also, the conditions of their prize along with the deadline mean that nobody could possibly win it. http://www.slate.com/id/2189693/ Artificial meat is an inevitable eventually. As biotechnology improves, so will the quality of fake meat.

Floorless coasters are OK, but nothing spectacular. For some reason I really enjoyed Medusa SFGAdv much more than Scream. Maybe I just got lucky with a few really great cycles, but the ride just seemed flawless when I rode it, especially in the dive loop.

I agree with this, but only to an extent. Sure a great photographer can take great pictures with a crappy camera, and an awful photographer can take horrible pictures with a great camera, but having a higher quality camera allows you to do a lot more. I have a Sony Cybershot and while I can take great pictures with it in the sun or in a bright room, it takes awful pictures in poorly lit rooms or areas with tungsen lighting. Using the flash would produce a picture where everything looked greasy/dirty, and diffusing it didn't make much difference. I tried everything, thinking it was my skill set that was limiting me, but even my photographer friends couldn't make it work. As soon as I switched to a Canon Digital Rebel XTi, problem solved. My daylight photos also improved because I had way more options with the settings. I'm still no great photographer, but I'm having a lot more fun with the XTi and can do a lot more with my photos. The variety in lenses also makes a huge difference. You couldn't do those close-ups that Hanno took on the Midwest trip, or the ones monkeypants(sorry if that's the wrong username) took at Cedar Point without a good zoom lens. Anyway, my point is that in many cases the equipment does make a huge difference. I second the recommendation for Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. Great book! Oh, I'm not denying that certain situations demand certain equipment. Like point-and-shoots suck for trying to photograph things in motion. My point is merely that the photographer's skill is 99% of the game. Giving a monkey a Stradivarius will not make him into a fine violinist. http://www.kenrockwell.com/dv/index.htm He took most of those shots with a $3 camera. All of them are WAY better than anything I've done.

That's awesome, but my only real concern about smoking is the jerks who try to smoke in line. Those people should definitely be booted.

Not to mention Holiday World marketing themselves as a family park with three highly aggressive woodies.

Still looking forward to this park and coaster though.

Your description of Knoebels is pretty accurate. The foliage is dense and it is basically in their back yard. And yeah that is the pool. Guess they have to clean that up a bit before they open it up.

One thing that ride does not need is less capacity. I think I've only been on it one time because the lines are always horrific. I can't imagine what the lines will be like with 1/3rd less capacity.

Eh, maybe it'll run better later in the season after the new sections have worn in a little bit. Also, it might run better later in the day. We used to spend the last hour or so that that park was open riding nothing but the Racer. Sometimes we'd get lucky and the fireworks would start shooting off right as we hit the turn around.

This statement is guilty of the same thing that you keep pointing out. Most US cities have neighborhoods where the vast majority of their crime is concentrated. Because these areas have so many problems they statistically drag down the whole metropolitan area with them. If you live elsewhere, you are probably quite safe. So while your area might be safer than Inglewood, East St. Louis, or South Chicago, it's probably no safer than your average upper middle class neighborhood in the US.

Built in safer neighborhoods or not, this is an obscenely high risk venture. An American-owned amusement park is certainly a high profile target for the Al-Qaeda types operating in Iraq. As others have said, this project is almost guaranteed to never make it past the planning phase.

One thing is sure: Behemoth has better restraints.

There is comedy in the notion of installing a half a billion dollar amusement park into a war zone

I'd rather Kings Island get a GCII called "Evel Knievel" than have his son jump over some trucks at an event that's free to anyone inside the park. UGH. Free events tend to bring out the worst in people and the park that day will be atrociously crowded.

I heard they're taking the loops out of Thunderhead because a bunch of people died in the loop last week.

One thing about this is certain: These people have cojones. I wish them all the luck in the world. They're going to need it!

^Be careful with formal photography classes. A lot of them teach stuff like dark room techniques, which is worthless to people just looking to take better photos with their digital cameras. There are many websites with good free help, like the following: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech.htm That guy is a little bit out there. I think he writes articles specifically to annoy shutterbugs. But he's a first class photographer and that site is loaded with good stuff.

Do it in that exact order.