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Benin

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Posts posted by Benin

  1. Parks, Rides And Coaster News

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    In perhaps the weirdest news story of the year, PETA are planning on sueing Sea World because they treat the whales like slaves, using the American Amendment what-not...

    The animal rights group PETA filed their official complaint against SeaWorld Inc. early Wednesday morning for allegedly violating the thirteenth amendment rights of orca whales.The official complaint submitted to the US District Court for Southern California lists five SeaWorld orcas as collective plaintiffs in the case, according to the complaint. Three of those whales live in the San Diego SeaWorld park. The other two live in the Orlando location."The Thirteenth Amendment prohibits slavery, and these orcas are, by definition, slaves," said PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk in a statement.PETA alleges that the two SeaWorld locations restrained and kept the whales in “constant involuntary physical confinement,” with no means to escape. The complaint also accuses SeaWorld of depriving the whales of “their ability to live in a manner of their choosing,” and for “intentionally subjugating” the whales’ “wills, desires, and/or natural drives and needs of [seaWorld Inc.’s] own will and whims.”A spokesperson for SeaWorld Inc. stated that the claims were “baseless and offensive.” The statement added that any performances are intended to educate the public and promote conservation of marine animals."PETA has once again showed that it prefers publicity stunts to the hard work of caring for, rescuing and helping animals," the statement said.PETA’s complaint lists a number of qualities that orca whales possess, such as their problem-solving abilities and understanding of cooperative networks. The orcas are capable of displaying “physiological and behavioral indicators of stress and trauma,” the complaint reads, and can communicate the stress of living in captivity:“[seaWorld’s] confinement of [the orcas] suppresses [the orcas’] cultural traditions and deprives them of the ability to make conscious choices and of the environmental enrichment.”Under current law, animals are still considered property, according to the Associated Press.Should the PETA case against SeaWorld succeed, it could potentially bring other cases to zoological institutions that house animals.Public relations director for the San Diego Zoo Christina Simmons said such a case would cause concern for the preservation of animals.“We would be concerned with anything that would prevent us with our work to conserve species,” said Christina Simmons, the San Diego zoo public relations director.Simmons also said PETA could have a different agenda.“We have to look to the motives of the organization,” she said.The San Diego Zoo participates in a number of conservation efforts and animal preservation organizations, and Simmons said the zoo maintains the animals in the best situation possible.“There’s a long list of species that would no longer be around if they hadn’t been in zoological organizations,” she said.

    Source...Quite simply, reminds me of a Weird Al Yankovic song...

  4. Chessington Trip Reports

    in Your Planned Trips and Reports

    Posted

    No-one been to Chessie since August? Bout time for some Halloween mentions then...So I went to Chessie with the mob known as Coasterforce yesterday, after 3 years of not going with them for the annual Halloween meet-up due to several factors including uni and some annoying people, I found myself lacking a thing to do on Tuesday, so popped home solely for Chessie...The park never changes, even for Halloween, and it looked the same with all the usual cobwebs, witches, spiders and voodoo dolls we all saw last year (and for most of it, before as well), but it does look good and the fact they make an effort across the entire park for extra bits and bobs makes it more superior to Towers (which has theming in two areas) and Thorpe's nooses...The park itself was rather busy, and after an hour of faff, Vampire happened, and a 50 minute queue on two trains in half term is quite alright to me... Interaction from the Vampire in Black Forest Haunt and some of the peasant ones who walked through the entire queue was heavily approved of as well... Still the usual ride and mess around in the station though... Bubbleworks was next, and involved a mass dance in the station on the stairs... I forgot how often enthusiast groups get more insaner in larger numbers, and needless to say the staff were amused by the entire staircase dancing simultaneously...For some reason we did Seastorm then lunch... Me and John (of Italy trip fame) went off to the hotel, and both had the sausages and watched the Zebras... Such a tasty (and empty) restaurant during the day... Especially with the £10 for 2 courses deal they do... Noticed the new Fennec Foxes enclosure having netting around it... But they weren't to be seen which depressed me... Charlie was out though and all was well... Off to Dragon Falls!The trip consists of a Raffle (Faffle) were random theme park tat from many parks is given away... Always entertaining to see what gets given away, such as Greenwood mints, Vampire dummy, Gardaland dragon, and the best prize, a Rainbow Magicland mousemat and mouse set... I won something for the first time ever, which made me happy...After a jaunt on Falls, we headed towards Tomb Blaster, which was open yet closed, as apparently the 80 minute queue it had gained ( :mellow:) meant the staff wanted to put the 5th train on, so closed off the queue, got everyone through the queue and got it on... Surely the park should have been running such rides at full capacity already, considering it's half term? Oh well, Rameses was called upon to fill the void...As always with CF, something breaks down, and this time it was Rameses mid-cycle... After a LOT of faff and strange things going on, people got off, and we headed to Mexicana for a Runaway Train and Rattlesnake double bill... Nearly all of Rattle's queue theming is working again, but they need to redo the cave part of the queue... Because it is VILE...Light was falling, but we headed off to Wild Asia and the Tuk Tuks were first to be ridden as Swinger was closed due to sick (really?)... As Kobra's queue looked bleh and it was being unreliable, we elected for the new addition of the Krypt...This part of the review is in spoilers...

    Located in the Hospitality Tent, I had no idea what to expect from this attraction, but one thing was for certain, it is themed extremely well... And that's just the inside part of the queueline (half being outside)...Batched into groups of 10, you are led into a chamber by an explorer, where he tells you about the krypt and the curse, when a kobra head goes RAWR at you and sprays mist... Providing a decent jump and sogginess to follow... Around the corner we are faced with some excessively weird walls, which either have an extra pressing through the spongey material, or just animatronics... Either way, one member of the group didn't notice and walked right into the arms of the wall, providing much amusement...Another corridor, we are told to stop and the explorer mentions that there have been lots of scarabs seen, cue things being dumped on our heads (later to be discovered as rice) with some air pops as well... Well done feature tbh... We are then handed over to a new explorer who leads us into a dead ended chamber with no windows, or no doors... He lights up a wall to reveal a riddle, and we work it out using our awesome skills and push open a way out... Into a tomb no less... Naturally inquisitive (and in the presence of Cheryl Cole (excellent joke by the actor)) he opens the coffin to reveal a mummy jumping up and off we run into the arms of a 3rd explorer...He tells us to conga line up and off we go into the dark maze portion of the attraction... For eagle eyed members, it is the same layout (ish) as Twilight Zone, and in a shipping container as well... Good old Merlin... Still cool with all the additional spider webs but could have maybe done with a few extra features such as pistons or bits that light up? Either way we got out and into the extremely foggy jungle... Inching deeper into the fog, we are greeted by a giant gorilla head and run out into the exit and the light/dark of day...Whilst not the scariest thing ever, for Chessie, it's perfect... Fits the adventure theme, has a good mix of things throughout, rather good actors... I think the ending could have done with some work as it didn't really have a finale like feel, as the majority (including ourselves) just ambled out with very little screaming or scares... Perhaps having something akin to the gorilla of Carnival of Screams actually running at the group could help to provide something a bit more interesting, especially as the exit is right next to the queue... But maybe a bit too unsuitable for Chessie... It's a tricky one, but it's certainly an excellent addition to the Halloween line-up...

    After our journey, we headed back to the group and glowsticks! These are the big thing about this trip, and several hundreds of them appear every year... After faff with them, we headed to the Fury queue which was fast-moving and provided us with much entertainment... Fury itself was brilliant... Good spinning and just reminding how amazing it really is... Loved it...With only 15 minutes left, we legged it to Vampire (missing out on the annual Buccaneer in the dark, but for valid reasons this year) and enjoyed the dark queue atmosphere it always provides... The ride again was typical Vampire... I do really like it because it provides an extremely fun ride no matter what, even with the bumpiness... And the darkness as per all rides, really makes a difference...And that concludes my 2011 season... It was a very good end to the year for me, Chessie being it's usual self really and the group being entertaining... Although didn't do every ride (Tomb and Buccaneer) it was still a fab day out for me...Roll on next year then...And in case anyone cares, I have some pics up on the Book of Face HERE!!!

  10. Chessington Howl'o'ween

    in Chessington World of Adventures

    Posted

    As predicted the park semi-emptied out today, with 20-30 minutes queues on the major rides after 6...Also, has no-one been on Krypt? If so, WHY IS NO-ONE GIVING IT CREDIT? I'll do a proper review tomoz (I WILL this time, promise), but seriously was a really good addition to the line up, shame about the faff involved by I heavily approve...

  15. Canada Creek Railway: The Bear Hunt

    in The Past

    Posted

    It's heading that kind of way tbh. There is a domino effect from this. The more family rides are taking way, the more families realise younger children aren't welcome anymore. The less younger children go, the less small rides like this will be ridden and Thorpe will start to lose money on operational costs like they have here. Then inevitably, more rides will be closed. Give it 10 years, it literally will only be thrills, thrills and thrills.

    Exactly...Problem is, you shun away the families from coming, and you actually lose the most likely audience who will spend massively in comparison to the actual target market Thorpe have...Thorpe is literally going to turn into a massive themed funfair at the rate it's going tbh...

  16. Canada Creek Railway: The Bear Hunt

    in The Past

    Posted

    Might as well have a minimum height restriction at the park entrance nowadays.What's it now? Rapids, Teacups, Rocky Express, Carousel and Banana Boat? I know it doesn't fit the target market, but kids still get taken to Thorpe.CCR was always good for relaxing on at any rate, it had a role at Thorpe in being NOT an intense ride for about 5 minutes sit-down. sigh...

  17. Rant

    in The Real World

    Posted

    People who you don't speak to having a problem with you for no reason.That, and pointless lectures teaching us how to use a library and my FYP supervisor not being in.Urgh, just when I was feeling quite good about life again.

  19. THE SWARM: Construction Updates

    in The Past

    Posted

    In terms of B&M Inverted coasters, Inferno isn't great.But considering that's like saying a Pixar film isn't great, doesn't mean it's as awful as other rides.And Inferno definitely isn't forceless, considering I have greyed out on it numerous times, anything but really. Plus Raptor is definitely better than Stealth, so I reckon this will be better than both.So we now get two great B&Ms to balance out the awful Intamins. Good stuff.

  20. THE SWARM: Construction Updates

    in The Past

    Posted

    The flaming queues for this thing are going to have to be extend out the park gates!!!

    Doubt it because...1 - It has a long queue line, probably enough for 2 hours.2 - It shouldn't be breaking down every 5 minutes3 - It will probably have the best throughput in the park

  21. Chessington Howl'o'ween

    in Chessington World of Adventures

    Posted

    You need to go on Halloween :)

    I do... Regularly... Last year it was dead ALLLLLLL day ;)Year before was packed though and awful... Wasn't in the right mood either... But from working over 2 Halloween periods, it just emptied near enough every day between 5-6... Find out what it's like tomorrow, but I doubt it'll be any different...Aside from Fury, which is ALWAYS queuebound...

  22. Music

    in Stuff

    Posted

    If I ever stereotype (I openly admit that, for the sake of arguments only, I do), it's not in the sense that I wish to wholly offend, or at least, not without a little bit of satire in there for good measure. :) I stereotype mainly because it makes it easier to address as certain 'type', as it were. And in a society (let's take my school, for example) where conformity is converged with expensive branded clothing and a rebellion against anything remotely 'mainstream', it just seems like an easy way of say, 'grouping' certain people so others know whom it is you're referring to. Crude as it sounds, it's not as backhanded as it might seem since the majority of the group I was concerned with are practically identical in appearance and personality, with no real wish to change much of that.

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