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And now the station is coming down.

BD finally full circuit testing (courtesy of coasterlifeau instagram) bd test.mp4

Going past this morning, none of the tower sections are on site anymore, so the only bit remaining is the station.

For sure - if science, evidence and critical thinking trumped belief, the Church of Scientology would be f*cked. Tim Minchin said that, and I reckon that holds up just as well as when he first coined it over a decade ago. COVID-19 isn't an exercise in beliefs, it's an exercise in science and evidence. All pandemics are, and we didn't beat any of them by believing they weren't real, so why should this one be any different? I'll leave with you another one of his quotes that I think is pertinent given the context of the debate.

Talk about putting people in a position where they have to defend themselves. https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/7news.com.au/news/wa/perth-anti-vaxxers-charged-after-confronting-schoolchildren-getting-jab-at-joondalup-shopping-centre-c-4624545.amp

With a little bit of a delay, here is the interview with Intamin. The Swiss supplier executives discuss design & engineering of many projects: Big Dipper, Velocicoaster, Kondaa, All Speeds (Taron clone), Light of Revenge (Cheetah Hunt inspired LSM coaster)... Both Sascha Czibulka and Daniel Schoppen provided long, insightful replies. Really Intamin takes the time to welcome media and fans at expos, despite their busy activity there.

Interesting to see the final braking system use tyres and not the conventional magnets (well for me it is anyway)...

That's hauling. Also, I never fully appreciated the exit bridge would be right next to the corkscrew at eye level.

Shockwave is facing supply chain issues relating to parts coming out of Europe which explains why maintenance on it has been delayed

Is "identity politics" the word of the month? Of course your ideas are apart of who you are. People are not robots, and it isn't black & white that you can stick in one box. Many people don't believe in science. If you go to a religious school, you are taught a whole different way of the world and nothing has to do with science. Anyway you have a right of reply. This is going to keep going around in circles and it's not what people go to Parkz for, so I'm going to end my part in this now.👍

The inference here is that you’re suggesting people would be making commentary about me as a person, not my ideas. As I’ve mentioned, it’s a discussion of ideas, not identity. Ergo, if someone feels attacked, it’s more often than not because their identity is probably too intertwined with their ideas. If folks got the identity politics out of the road and just listened to the science, there’d actually be no discussion.

with all the rain we are going to have this summer it might be an interesting idea to pause for 3 months until after the school holidays even if I am fully vaxxed.

I agree with this. What, however, is wrong with asking those who have chosen differently to you “why”? What is wrong with well reasoned, supported by evidence discussions to ensure those choices are being made based off of the best possible Information? if Joe Rogan can give his views, why can’t I? I’m just as qualified..

I'm really sorry hear what happened to your Grandma Skeeta, I really am, but what you mentioned is a wary conclusion compared to an unnecessary exaggeration. You mention that you distrust science and medicine because of what happened to your Grandma, but the equivalent comparison for Dreamworld would be distrusting all theme parks and rides forever no matter what because of what happened there. We all know that isn't case for industry, and it's the same for medicine. All medicine involves risk, but correlation is not causation. People survive cancer despite being told they're going to die, whilst others pass away from simple dental operations. We can calculate chance, but we can't calculate outcomes, and for the individual it's a roll of the dice. Just because something tragic happened to somebody close to you does not mean that it will happen to you ad nauseam into the future and the proven benefits of medicine and science should not be given disregard because of rare complications. When the Dreamworld incident occurred we didn't close down every theme park in country, just as we don't take every car off the road when there is a car accident. Risk and tragedy are unfortunately part of life, but thankfully they are rarer than the benefits. All of us here had a choice after the Dreamworld incident to never get on another theme park attraction again, but many of us decided against it because we figured the rare tragic event was not enough to stop us from enjoying the thrill and joy of theme parks. I won't try persuade you into anything, but this is your Dreamworld tragedy moment. Do you stay outside and observe from a distance with your perceived safety, or take the risk and re-enter the gates? I don't think it's that simple. Firstly you can only minimally influence the community if you're unelected so there is that to consider. Also making the vaccines compulsory would not be the right thing to do. People should still have a choice, just as you can't be forced to have a medical procedure without your consent, but people should be able to use the resources available to them to decide whether the procedure is right for them. Browsing credible sources shows that the risk with the vaccine is insanely low, but the medical officials and the government can't control those sources unfortunately. If somebody decides to explore non-credible sources, misinformation or agenda-based skepticism, then it is up to the person to decide whether that information is right for them and this gets muddled when merged with emotions and personal agenda.

One thing I find interesting about this whole debate is the overhyped value of the individual in what is fundamentally a community issue. I completely understand the stance of individuality and pondering the slippery slope of authoritarianism, but I know people personally who take the stance that they will never get vaccinated because they feel it devalues them as an individual. Modern society and culture is a communication through multiple avenues which determines what is best for the community. Almost all levels from government, health care works, business owners, workers, and consumers have decided through that communication that being vaccinated is the best option moving forward. It allows businesses to remain open, consumers the option to shop freely, workers the option to return to their office or place of work that may usually be unsafe, governments the option to relieve restrictions and control over its people, and our hospitals have the opportunity to relax their guard to the looming threat that is COVID. As a whole I value the concept of individualism, but its more nuanced than I feel most people understand when they decide to embrace it. Accepting the community stance does not devalue the individual, just as going against does not bolster it. Individualism is an expression of uniqueness, but there is nothing unique about the refusal of the community stance merely to embrace ones self. you're just taking the opposing community's stance, not your own individual one. The true individuals are the ones that did more than conform. They questioned the necessity of the vaccine, discovered it's benefits or problems and, perhaps despite personal fears, embraced the outcome that it's overall the best option for the community. You can be angry at the situation, you can despise the discourse, you can hate what the government has done during this time, but you can also come to the conclusion that the option presented is the best to get us back to a point where it's fair for the community. Questioning and curiosity are healthy and encouraged, but the outright denial or acceptance of any stance under the grounds of individualism is unhealthy.

Adding to this This is the issue. It's everyone's problem, and thinking even for a second that it's not is ignoring irrefutable evidence at this point, tangental to believing that the earth is flat. I don't want to live in a community where my family's access to life-saving healthcare is at risk because our hospitals are overwhelmed because folks choose to listen to Joe Rogan instead of the thousands of epidemiologists, scientists, doctors, researchers, trusted GPs etc. etc.

Probably because seasonal flu viruses aren't as infectious, don't cause as much death, don't overwhelm the health-care system and don't cause the same long-term symptoms that long-COVID does. I feel like at this point if anyone wants to offer an anti-vaccine opinion you really need to back it up with substantial, credible research. Otherwise it's not a debate principally lead on ideas but merely identity, which is no real debate at all.

I want to be more human for a moment - I had a healthy dose of skepticism towards the vaccine when I got it back in August. I was one of the first people in my age bracket to get it and I was worried about what happens down the line? I felt we didn't have enough time to know and there was a lot of misinformation floating about that made me feel uncomfortable. But I went in and got the jab. Even afterwards I was scared, but in these situations I need to have an element of trust that the people in charge of these things know what they're doing. We place the similar trust into a lot of things. We trust that pilots can fly us overseas, that ride operators can safely get us from point A to point B, that the food we eat is not contaminated, that the cars we drive are built correctly, that the decisions made by our doctors are right for us, and that the buildings we work/live in are built soundly for us. I could have every research paper on the COVID vaccines under the sun and spend my life reading them, but I am not doctor. I am not a research scientist. Everything would be incomprehensible to me because it's not what I've dedicated my life to researching, so I place my trust in the people that have dedicated their lives into doing just that. It's scary because it's unknown. This is a healthy, human reaction. People get it on roller coasters. They cry, scream, faint and freak out because there is a part of them that is telling them they're in legitimate danger... but I'd imagine that almost every person here is passed this stage for theme park rides. We have researched them, we understand the physics and we know that rollercoasters and theme park attractions are fundamentally safe which no longer makes them scary. When our friends/family freak out we encourage them that the parks and rides are not only safe, but enjoyable! We can't all be experts in vaccines, but I implore everybody here to please listen to those experts. It's okay to be scared and afraid of this thing we may not understand, just as before you knew so much about theme park rides you were likely the same, but trust that the experts have it right here because no respectable scientist would dedicate their lives to producing something dangerous just as no respectable engineer would dedicate their career to building dangerous roller coasters.