Slick

It’s like they’re reading the forums, taking our feedback but doubling down in some really strange ways. 😄

It really does.

I just noticed this too. It’s still semi-used throughout the site with food and retail outlets, but for the most part it looks largely abandoned. PS - this website refresh looks really solid.

But not to initially bring the speed right down, that's always been reserved for magnetic brakes and little skids that drop away. But you're right - in the stations of both Jet Rescue & Motocoaster there's no skids, just tyres. TIL.

Totally fine good sir - TIL.

I think for me it's the thought that fundamentally block brake sections have always had a way to physically hold onto a train with great force with some sort of fin being gripped, whereas this is just a bunch of spinning tyres. I'm sure Intamin figured the weight of the train was light enough that with the speed of the train they probably didn't need something with a lot of force to stop the train... 🤷🏻‍♂️ I guess it's just kinda like when companies started doing launches mid-ride - we all kinda thought that was just the stuff you'd see in RollerCoaster Tycoon or No Limits or whatever, now it's everywhere.

Yeah if we’re honest the tyre braking system seems super janky - like something out of no limits you do to get the trains to run. I’m sure it’s not in reality but it’s interesting none the less.

Here's a post with some cool new drone vision. (Dunno why it won't embed, @Richard what's the best way to get Invision to pickup FB video clips?) https://www.facebook.com/dreamworld/videos/200040588958621/

At the end of the day, everyone who is hesitant should speak to a trusted GP about vaccination. With that aside, here's my thoughts. They've been the most closely scrutinised vaccines in human history. Doctor Norman Swan (who's great on CoronaCast) has a great article about it. Billions of doses have been administered now - if there was an issue, we definitely would've seen it by now. We were able to rapidly develop vaccines for a multitude of reasons. Our own TGA (which is one of the strictest in the world) has a knowledge-base about this. We're so lucky to live on an island country. Other countries have not fared as well and countries like Germany with as much resources as us are still struggling. We're really lucky that we feel like COVID-19 won't impact us in Australia because our states, by in large, have done the right thing in using a system of resources to minimise spread and impact until vaccines arrived. Without it, we'd have a lot more deaths (see above) and worse, a lot more people with long-covid, which sounds awful. Every side-effect, every death post vaccination, every reported sniffle is logged and checked. That data is also widely available - nothing is being hidden. This data has been misreported by politicians and fringe circles en masse, circumnavigating our spam and privacy acts in the process. More often than not, opposing, conservative opinions cherry-pick data or publish data in journals that aren't well known and aren't subject to peer review. Our federal government wasn't bothered to build quarantine facilities that it was supposed to by law, it refused to roll-out a national strategy for COVID-19 until it was forced to and absolutely bungled/lied about getting vaccines when we needed it. During that time, they spent millions on an app that didn't use global standards and was essentially a massive failure. And when our states stepped in and did all the leg work, not only did Scott Morrison take credit for it, but when conservative voices rioted and suggested violence against our states, he side-stepped condemning what is absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, abhorrent behaviour. Our federal government couldn't pour water out of a boot if the instructions were on the heel, let alone coerce and force people into getting vaccinated.

Why?

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.

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.

No one forced or coerced you into public discussion though, so that line of thinking is a bit rich in my books. It’s akin to flying nazi propaganda out the front of you local woolies, engaging in discussion about your actions and being upset at people when people aren’t engaging with you the way you’d like them to.

I’m sorry to hear about your grandma, but that logic is akin to saying “I can’t trust anything related to NASA because they caused the space shuttle to explode, and therefore any satellite related to NASA or unrelated is not safe and that’s why I don’t trust my GPS.” Again, the real failure here is that it’s a debate of ideas, not of identity.

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.

Reductive questions like this shift COVID-19 debate away from being the nuanced, evidence-lead discussion that it is into identity politics.

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.

Yeah that’s totally fair, I had no idea and presumed they were native. Maybe some golden wattles?

Closing rocky hollow station makes me sad.

I don't think folks are entitled to a refund, tbh. It's the consequences of a choice. If anything, parks could sell rapid antigen tests at the gate, or if they're feeling super generous, allow guests to pause passes for 8 weeks while they get their two jabs.

Some climbing fig to cover the wall, removing all the rock and replacing it with grass, adding in a few trees (Jacarandas would be amazing down that pathway) combined with some benches along the path would be great, dirt cheap and would elevate the space from being guest hostile and unpleasant into something people would take photos of. It'd also make that part of the train journey real pleasant in the spring. Sidenote, I'd also widen the path where it deviates around the track and add a nice rest area between Giant Drop & Steel Taipan's flyover. I'm thinking something like one of Australia Zoo's many rest areas. Eventually i'd pull through on Craig Davidson's plan, pull the entirety of spaghetti junction down and pop Giant Drop's queue inbetween where the train line will shape down and connect to the new path that runs along Steel Taipan's wall.

Their last report said it was an early December opening, so i'll say 9-10th December.

The choice seemed to be either listening to unsourced misinformation and eventually earn yourself a Herman Cain Award or simply get vaccinated and most folks picked the latter. Let’s keep it on topic now. Covid chat can go in the Covid thread.

Is there a new canopy on it?

Correct. Many years ago I got in touch with the park directly and was told that Space Probe was scrapped.