ytterbiumanalyst

I'm not talking about experience; I'm talking about expertise. I can have experience doing something and not actually know what I'm doing. Conversely I can never have done something before but have expertise because of similar relevant things I've done and learned from.

I think we're going to have to disagree here. I expect anyone who designs anything to have consulted an engineer at some point. I don't care if that's a building, a road, a bridge, a vehicle, an amusement ride--have an engineer look at it at some point. Neither awards nor degrees indicate the presence of expertise, nor does the lack of them prove lack of expertise. However, the indictment specifically states "19. Henry and Schooley lacked the technical expertise to properly design an amusement ride such as Verrückt." If Henry wanted to draw this up on paper and then hire an engineer to make it safe, that would be cool. I have friends who are architects, and though they know a lot about designing things, they still have an engineer weigh in to make it safe. That's not what Henry did. He hired this guy Schooley, who didn't know what he was doing--and that's stated a few times in the indictment. That was reckless. I'm not just now saying it's sketchy. I had never heard of the place before they built the Kansas City one a few years ago, and even was wary enough of that place to decide against going there in favour of Oceans of Fun. I was looking into possibly going to the New Braunfels one because people say it's fun, but I don't know much about the place and I was really just beginning to look into it. So no, it's not a place I've gone to for years and just now started criticising. I've been a staunch supporter of SeaWorld. I saw the Blackfish garbage and thought it terribly unfair. This San Antonio trip is built around going to SeaWorld. I just thought maybe it might be fun to hit up Schlitterbahn while we were in the area, and while I'm researching, this comes out that Verrückt was not an isolated incident, but that there were systemic problems with Schlitterbahn ownership and management. So fuck them, and we'll go have an extra day of fun at SeaWorld instead.

Stan Checketts isn't an engineer either. And honestly, if some of the stuff he designed and tested ever went into actual production like the Sonic Boom, maybe we wouldn't have discussions about what a genius he was. The point here is this: There isn't anyone more experienced in the world at building slides of this sort than Jeff Henry. The problem is that Jeff Henry's interest in Jeff Henry superceded that of the safety of the guests in this instance and there weren't enough people on his team to tell him no any more. Focusing on his "lack of experience" gets into a whataboutism loop that is only going to make you wonder about your safety as a whole in the industry. Maybe we should have that discussion? I don't know. Never heard of Stan Checketts, but I just googled him, and it looks like he was one of the main people at S&S for a while. It doesn't appear to me that either he or S&S as a company have any ties to Schlitterbahn. I'm not sure why you're trying to argue about lack of experience either; my argument was that this company hired a guy who had no idea what he was doing, then pressured him into doing it quickly, then covered up all the problems with the ride for TV ratings. That is a terrible, terrible thing to do, and it's made me rethink my Texas trip. I was thinking about going to the New Braunfels park while in the San Antonio area, but after learning what this company does, I want nothing to do with them. I'm not concerned about my safety as a whole in the industry; I understand that accidents happen and that there is inherent risk in anything. At the same time, I think it's wise not to entrust my safety and my family's safety to people who have behaved this cavalierly for years.

Six Flags St. Louis tomorroe for Namtab!

I have news for you about almost everything at Schlitterbahn including who designed the first Master Blaster (and licensed the tech out). Also: Additional news about everything S&S was building from 1994-2002. Yeah, the fact that this guy was designing everything leads me to wonder what else was treated this carelessly. Did he design stuff for S&S too? Agreed. Despite having Schlitterbahn KC only about 3 hours from my house, we never went there. I thought about it, but it was always "I don't know...let's just go to Oceans of Fun." Feeling very good about that decision now.

So glad they're limiting the number of attendees. This is going to be a great event.

Wow, that's incredible. That they would hire someone with no business designing a ride to be the lead designer says a lot about this company. I was willing to believe this was an accident before, but the indictment has changed my mind. This wasn't an accident; it was inevitable. I'm changing my vacation plans for Texas and we'll be going to Aquatica instead now. I just can't take my family to a place I can't trust to keep us safe.

Daft Punk

And you didn't immediately laugh your ass off at the people who said this?

Horseshoes

Can you imagine how awesome that would take with a splash of gin? So many missed opportunities. I'm imagining it now. It's really too bad Jesus said you can't have gin ever or you're going to hell. [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

We'll be at the park on Sunday, will have pics.

Oh man, the best part of satire is the people who completely miss that it's satire and get all worked up.

Eh, that's mildly funny, but it's no Onion. A bit heavy handed in places. Thanks for sharing it though!

Looks really great! Love the straight airtime hills and also off kilter ones. Should be very fun. Boldikus, enjoy your day tomorrow!

Wow, the transmitter project is really cool! These people think of everything. As a theme park should.

Yeah, that's true. I liked the frozen jalapeño limeade they brought out when Outlaw Run opened. Most of the time we just get water though. Wassail's the only drink I make a point to get.

That's really cool. Great find!

That is awesome.

If you go during the Christmas season, get the wassail. The rest of the year...nah, nothing special. Coke, ICEE, just stuff like that.

Definitely prioritise skillets and cinnamon bread, but pretzel brat is pretty great.

Hopefully. Seriously? Was that really a necessary comment? Quite appropriate I think. There's a very real chance it happened because somebody screwed up. The customer service people are going to tell you it's out of their control because that's what de-escalates the situation, but the fact is that you don't know that, and probably the customer service agent doesn't know that either. Maybe it is, hopefully it is, something that just happened and they are dealing with it the best they could. But we don't know for sure that's what happened, and the very real possibility is that it shouldn't have happened and someone did something or didn't do something they should have, and that's what caused the snafu.

Salami. Been a long time since I've had a bologna. Potato salad or egg salad?

Top Thrill Dragster. Those trains are much better. Ice cream or sherbert?