BeemerBoy

First of all, thanks to all involved on an excellent discussion. The Good Samaritan Law mentioned here is exactly what I had in mind when I mentioned the fact that these cases are more about humanity than worrying about a resulting lawsuit. Although I understand how management could be leary of untrained or immature ops attending to guests in an emergency, I also think the guest's best interests supercede any onsite secondguessing at the time of the emergency. This law is very important, as it proves that in the moment of any emergency, all human beings should be able to help their fellow man without need to worry about repercussions resulting from good intentions. In simplest terms, if you were the victim, would you be worrying about who was or wasn't qualified to attend to you if there was virtually "fool proof" equipment onsite which could extend your life until trained professionals arrived? I know I wouldn't be picky. They say there's a silver lining to everything. Many are quick to condemn the family for suing Disney over the Mission: Space death. However, a tragedy like that, and now this unfortunate incident (as well as many others around the whole that don't receive the same attention) may prompt officials and park executives to rethink simple safety training and equipment issues at parks around the world. Again, for those who may miss the point here, AED's and great ride op training won't save everyone in any situation, but things like these don't hurt matters any. Here's a couple links. The second one proves that ride ops don't necessarily need to feel the weight of the world on them. Saving a human's life doesn't always need to fall on the person running the ride. www.ncsl.org/programs/health/aed.htm content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/347/16/1242

Don't feel too dumb. I was on a computer earlier where the screen sucked and I couldn't even make out the logo. Kind of made my Wild Adventures guess seem stupid too.

^ Nice job, eddie. Well, kinda nice job, apollo too. If I said anything after either one of your guesses, it would have sealed it. So yes, it's Walt's old desk at Disney-MGM studios in the "Walt Disney: One Man's Dream" exhibit. And BlackHole, you kind of closed the deal on it.....so nice collaborative effort guys.

Blue Octane?

Okay, I'll give it a try. Here's one for ya.....

Nice pics, Chris. When I saw this picture, oddly enough the first thing to come to mind was....."More bars in more places. That's the goal of the ALLOVER™ network from Cingular." Of course, being in Japan, that may not be familiar to you, but I'm sure someone will pick up on what I saw though. Right? Scott "I've seen too many commercials lately" B.

Dorney

dubaidave, I hate to make assumptions on these types of things, but it seems as though the boy's father may be a fairly intelligent man. I mean, having served in a special forces unit, I'm sure he's fairly familiar with the forces the human body is subjected to in fighter planes. Therefore, if they had known about his son's condition, chances are they would not have allowed him to ride, much less be at the park until they had his condition treated. Also, remember, there's no mistaking what the ride does. It's not a hidden secret to anyone. You clearly stand in full view of the train's launch while waiting in line. A decision to ride or not can be made by everyone.

42 new park benches and 10 new trash cans.

^ I'm guessing it won't be too long before it's running again. A couple days, perhaps?

^ The cheapest one. 80,000 ft.??? Are you sure about that? I think 30-35k is about right.

^ She hasn't said yes yet. Just kidding, bro. Congrats from me as well.

Wild Adventures?

Wow, excellent breakdown there, rollermonkey. Thanks. Between the insight from you and Elissa, I've got a little better idea of what the country has to offer. Elissa, I don't wanna steal the thunder from you guys and your Japan trip itinerary announcement or anything, but between you and roller's list, what percentage of those "favorite" coasters would you guess will be included? I'm not even sure if we'll make the Japan trip, but the thought of visiting the country just happened to coincide with you and Robb mentioning a two week trip, so now I'm kinda curious. If I'm jumping the gun a bit, I apologize, I was just trying to read up a bit about the country, and get a ballpark idea. Anyway,thanks again, guys.

I saw this thread and I just had to laugh. Not at you guys though. I actually saw Madonna in '86 @ the Orange Bowl in Miami. I think it was the "Who's That Girl" Tour? Anyway, I think I was in 6th grade at the time, and a friend in class had her mom buy tickets for the whole class and rent a bus to go down and see the show. Was I interested in seeing Madonna? Not particularly, but I wasn't about to pass up a free ticket either...lol. It was actually a pretty good show from what I remember of it. Later that same year, we also saw the Jackson's "Victory Tour" at the OB. At the time, that was actually a pretty cool. Hilarious now, but somewhat cool back then. Heck what sucked was that all I really wanted to see was Springsteen when he played the OB that year. Yeah, missed out on that one. I had to wait another 16 years to see the Boss....well worth it though. Now it's a least cool to say I saw two of the biggest pop legends in their prime, I guess.

^ Okay, fair enough as far as sticky legal issues are concerned. I realize (although I can't understand why really, but...) that ops aren't allowed to even touch a guest in some situations. I was recently at SFNE and by chance looked over, noticed a girl who didn't look too good, and then reached out and caught her as she was about to do a faceplant into the metal bar of the queue line. After she had fainted and her friends helped me lay her down on the ground, we tended to her as the nearest op was alerted. The op called someone, and then continued on with her job. Twelve minutes later (yes, we all counted) medical attention arrived. In the meantime, everyone just basically stepped over the poor girl...sad really. Anyway, my point is more of a humanity issue. Let's face it, after any incident these days, 9 out of 10 times the park is facing a legal battle. So I say prepare as well as possible, and deal with the circumstances later. I understand your argument though.

Yeah, what were we thinking? It would be much too cumbersome to have one of these huge things laying around. No one said you need to have a M.A.S.H. in the queue station, nor was it mentioned that the parks should be prepared for nuclear fallout or anything, just a simple AED may work wonders...or maybe not, but it certainly wouldn't hurt matters any. On a positive note, I will agree that CPR training should be a must for all ride ops. www.early-defib.org/03_06_07.html Scott "sigh" B.

SFOG. End of discussion. And you can stop by Lake Winnie on the way.

^ I'm with you, Julie. This may be one of the only movie series that I wish would go beyond a trilogy. Most die out after the sequel, but the Spiderman series has been done so well, that I believe they could probably make a least a couple more before the well runs dry.

Aerosmith puts on a great show!

To all those who are going on and on about why it doesn't necessarily matter if there's an AED around each ride, I say this. Two words: why not? Yep, why not have them there? I think those of us who have mentioned that it wouldn't hurt the parks to have them available completely understand that they will not solve each and every problem which arises. The simple point that is trying to be made is that even a park like CP which has 16, 17, however many coasters now, will not go bankrupt by purchasing $50,000 worth of medical equipment (based on the $3,000 per unit figure I saw mentioned earlier) to place at each ride. Again, will those units be lifesavers on every occasion. NO. Will it be nice to know they're there? YES. And should a court case come about, the park can then say the did everything in their power to prepare for that type of situation. When you go to the beach, do you need a lifeguard on duty? Most of the time, NO. Is it nice to know they're there? YES. When you're driving to Disney, do you need to be surrounded by the latest in automotive airbag technology? NO. Is it nice to know you are? YES. Anyone notice the trend yet? AED's won't solve every problem, and yes people will still die on occasion, but if technology is available, why not use it? That's our point.

Great pics. And I agree, #7 is by far the best! Old prisons are definitely some of the coolest places to visit. Your pics reminded me a lot of Alcatraz, which is definitely a "can't miss" attraction if you're in the Bay Area, IMHO. Strange thing is, the creepiest thing about the Philly prison was those weird "ghost cats." Strange.

Robb, are you still looking for a T-shirt design? I nominate this work of art immediately. Wes, you are one seriously messed up individual.......

Yeah, I'd venture to guess there will be one on everything from ToT to the parking tram now.

Thank you Mr. Swift. At least they found one sensible person to interview. I wouldn't be surprised if this guy eventually gets blamed: