willski

No. She would have turned in her drivers license or credit card as collateral, so I don't think she would've just handed it to you. Flash Passes are really not effective after 3 pm or so, since the virtual lines become longer than the regular lines. It's better to get it right at opening. Often the virtual line for DejaVu will be a walk-on (5 or so minutes) from 10-noon while the actual line is over an hour. Also, it's better value for your money to have it all day. If you're going to drop that much money on something, better to have it all day than half the day. Unless you go on a Saturday in July, you can easily ride everything without a Flash Pass. Actually, you can go on a Saturday in July and still ride everything, just not multiple times. Acrophobia usually has a maximum line of 15 or so minutes, even on a busy day. The most I've ever waited for it is 35 minutes on a Saturday in July during it's opening year. As for Goliath's line, it is usually never is more than 30 minutes, it sometimes can reach 45 minutes to 1 hour on the busiest days.

lololololol pwnt. Wow, people are so lazy and cheap. Why would you waste 5 hours of your life just to save 25 bucks and get into a park for free? Plus, the lines in the park were probably 2+ hours for major rides. Idiots. I have no sympathy, hahaha.

Well good for the French that they can break the record with a specially modified train that is basically empty and runs on straight, modified track. It doesn't matter how fast it goes in a trial, it matters how fast it goes on a route. The first TGV route using this train is from Paris-Stuttgart, and the train will travel with a top speed of only 192 mph and an average speed of around 170 mph. Not a huge improvement, just a method of trying to sell French-made trains through publicity. Still, if they could actually manage to get a train to run this fast reliably, there would be enormous implications for domestic and intra-EU airlines. In fact, a lot of low-cost carriers would probably shut down if you could travel at those speeds, since you wouldn't have to undergo security and the train stations would be more convenient.

^Hope you're being sarcastic. The launch needs to be that long so the train can safely accelerate to its top speed. Besides, if they didn't need that long of a launch, they could've added more track behind/in front of the station.

Wow. Although I'm sure most of your pics were of the nicer, fixed up areas of the park, I must say that this is extremely impressive. No wonder they want to distance themsleves from the Six Flags chain! At first, I wasn't so sure about the cartoony (and almost RCT-ish) look of the park, but it's grown on me and I think it looks great. Just goes to show what a little bit of money spent on the right stuff can do (ahem, Mr. Shapiro, the rest of the chain is waiting).

Some very basic physics yields your answer: If Velocity final=128 mph So, V(f) is approx. 57 m/s. Plug that into V(F)^2=2ad and say that acceleration is constant, even though it most likely isn't. So a= 57/3.5=16.3 m/s2 or 1.66 accelerational g's, which is very high for a rocket coaster (Xcelerator has the most at 1.4, I believe). Okay, plug that in and you get that the minimum distance required for the launch is right around 100m or about 330 ft. This shows that KK does not have a constant acceleration rate, because the launch track is considerably longer than 330ft. At the beginning of the launch, acceleration rate is lower to prevent excessive rider jerk. Once the vehicle is in motion, the acceleration can increase. Also, based on my riding experiences, I would seriously doubt that KK really goes from 0-128 in 3.5 seconds. 4 seconds? Maybe. 3.5? I'm not so sure. Using the same calculations and a four second launch time, the distance is closer to 130m or 425 ft., which I think is a more accurate presentation of the launch, especially with the acceleration dead zone at the end. Figuring in this and other factors, the total launch track length is about 600-650 ft., which seems about right given the ride's 3200 ft. length (or something like that). These are really rough estimates though, as I didn't take into account friction or the fact that the launch must work slightly against gravity (the launch is on an incline of a few degrees, but it is negligible for this basic calculation). You could also use d=.5a(t^2) for the launch distance. Long story short, the launch track is very long so that the accelerational g's are not too extreme. I think the actual figures are near 1.1 or 1.2, which is nowhere near what I had them at (my lowest was 1.46). And to answer the first quesiton, the catch car has a set of magnetic brakes it goes through after train disengagement (or maybe while the train is still attached, not exactly sure).

Erm....no passholder day? If the problem is low attendance, maybe they should advertise it more. That's not good, considering about half of the empty days of the year are already gone. All we have left now is a few weekdays in May and June.

Ummm.....Rage Against the Machine's self-titled album is one of the most revolutionary (pun intended) albums ever. Going from lame 80s rock to that was such a radical change. It should definately be on there. Also, even though they only managed to get out one major record before the lead singer died, Sublime should definately be on there as well. Can you imagine some of the awesome stuff they would have put out in the 1990s and even into the 2000s if he hadn't overdosed? Carole King at #7 and Metallica at #14? Gag me now. Also, Metallica was on there 4 times and CCR wasn't? Is this some sort of a cruel joke? No Third Eye Blind on top of that-their self-titled was amazing as well. This isn't a rock and roll list, this is garbage. Over a quarter of the artists were rappers. Rap=Rock? Errr....no, sorry.

Actually, there is some better stuff made by Robert Lang. I went to one of his lectures and found it absolutely fascinating. He uses lasers to score the paper based on mathematical equations that he designs himself. He said that he actually makes enough from origami to make a living by doing advertising for companies. He also designed a folding mechanism for a NASA telescope's lense so a larger lense could be carried up to orbit. On top of that, he's one of the top laser physicists in the world. The guy is incredible. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_J._Lang

Oh no, it is a Jew on the message forums! Throw some monies at it! I once hit a Jew with stone from 75m, unchained. I win medal, great honor for Kazakhstan, not Uzbeki assholes. Great success! Yeah, it's a great movie.

Two things: 1. If it's a "nice" swim, then why bother going to the pool? Just fill up your bathtub and soak. 2. If it's for exercise (which is, IMHO not so "nice"), then swim harder the other six days of the week.

Well, I don't know about the shortness of breath, but as for the headaches and blacking out, it happens to me quite frequently on intense rides such as Alpengeist, B:TR, etc. if I re-ride or marathon them a lot. I've found that the main factors in blacking out are: -Amount of sleep you've had (usually this is low for most people, as they got up early to go to the park and went to bed late) -Amount of food you've eaten (I always eat a full breakfast, the blacking out is much worse if I don't) -Level of hydration (you need to constantly hydrate throughout the day, especially if it's hot, which it usually is during park season) -Number of times you've ridden a ride (marathoning an intense coaster will wear you out badly) So, just get 8 hours of sleep, eat breakfast, and stay hydrated throughout the day and you should be fine. If that doesn't work, maybe take a quick break from riding and get in an air-conditioned building (a dark ride like Monster Plantation works well for this on a hot day).

Argh! They need to focus on a new ride, not retheming the best section of the park! That was one of the things I liked most about Lost Continent-it wasn't developed from a comic strip or movie series, it was original and really cool, especially in the early morning when it was still cool and there was some light fog rolling off the lake and no one there but you and the employees. IoA was such a cool park back in 1999....

Geez, those must be some crappy roads or something, because I've gone 350 MILES in that amount of time (4.5 hours). It just depends on how you drive and where you are situated within Rome. If you're on the outskirts of the city (like the airport, except on the other side since the airport is south of Rome), it really shouldn't take that long. We were looking at doing it on our Italy trip and it wouldn't have been much over 3-3.5 hours. Plus, it's almost exactly on the way to Venice, so if you're going that way, it might be a good idea. We ended up flying into Rome and out of Milan though, so that didn't work. Just for those who are conversion-retarded like I am, it's about 210 miles. Also, good luck renting a car in Euope below age 25, it's a huge pain in the ass...

I think it's technically listed as "The type that make us the best wooden coaster designers in the world." I just wish this one was closer to me. Except for two little companies we like to call Intamin AG and The Gravity Group..... But yeah, looks great, too bad I have no chance of riding it this decade.

^haha, yeah... Gwazi is pretty good.

Sold for drug money? Score one for crack dealers!

Uhhh....Endeavor is a lot newer and would be considered the flagship (though Discovery has run more missions). Either way, it's going to suck when we go back to Saturn V-esque rockets. It's pathetic when technology is turned back upon (Space program, Concorde, etc.), especially when replacements are planned (X-33, which cost NASA billions of dollars and was then cancelled becuase the space shuttle was "viable" for another 40 years. Then Columbia happened, and soon we will only have two shuttles left).

Cal poly? You mean Caltech? I don't think a company puts that much emphasis on GPA depending on what school you attend. A lot of the people I met at MIT have terrible GPAs (high 2s and low 3s at best), yet they were immediately hired by firms like Boeing, Ferrari, Northrop-Grumman, etc. for summer jobs. I think the main reason for that is that big name companies understand that MIT is a big name school and that classes are incredibly demanding. Just like college applications, job applications aren't all about numbers-other things can get you the position over someone else.

^Battlefront isn't a FPS.... FPS is where you ARE the character, not looking at the character from behind. Black for PS2 is really cool, I just bought it last night. I recommend that or Call of Duty 2/3. Also, MoH: Frontline is a great game. The new ones are crap compared to CoD, but that one was fantastic.

^Yes! We learned Maple in my diff. equations class in college. I'm actually in high school but I take college math and humanities courses. As a brief aside, what are companies looking for in an engineer? I can do all of the things you listed (with the exception of a programming language, but I am learning). Obviously a college education is preferred, but does the college you attend really matter? I ask this because I'm considering MIT and Georgia Tech right now for engineering (my intent is to become a roller coaster designer), but MIT is incredibly expensive and I'm wondering if it would even be worth the extra expense to attend MIT. So basically my question is this: Would it make a significant difference in my chacnes of getting hired if I attended MIT over Georgia Tech?

Yakety Sax is a must.....

Haha, tiny woodie, haha. Lou, care to comment? Headline: UK Lacks Woodies Next Day's Headline: Pfizer sends 11 cargo ships of Viagra across North Atlantic Can't believe I was the first one immature enough to think of this, some people are obviously not on top of their game (oh another setup, someone just finish it!).

Wes, for the love of God keep this thread going! Ok mr. dragon, just take a step back and look at what you are saying. Don't look at it with your dragon mind, but with your actual, human mind. The fact that you are claiming to be A)Something other than that which you are and B)that something has never existed is probably the most ridiculous/hilarious/frightening thing I have ever heard. I laugh because it is so ridiculous, but I am scared for your mental health, as you seem to think "omgz, I am the dragon from harry potter".

Lieutenant Dan