10 Most Dangerously Theme Park Rides of All Time

The very idea behind theme park rides is to scare people. They attract the thrill-seeking, the naive and the stupid in their millions every year. Remember when you were a kid and you always wondered if the rides really were that dangerous? Well, turns out some of them were.

Neurotics beware: here lie enough horror stories to put you off your local amusement park for good, permanently rendering you one of those jittery guys who watch their friends plummeting through loop-the-loops while they eat corn dogs from the safety of a bench. Yes, we bring you the 10 most dangerous – and ill-conceived – amusement park rides of all time.

10. Cannonball Loop Slide

As this list shows, New Jersey’s Action Park is pretty much the Mecca of bafflingly stupid ride concepts, so it was no surprise – sometime in the ’80s – that some genius at the park’s headquarters decided it would be a smart idea to invent a fully enclosed water slide that incorporated a complete loop-the-loop at the end. The ride was the only one of its kind, and proved so unstable that it was only tested a handful of times, reputedly following the apparent decapitation of a test dummy and, according to some reports, injuries suffered by employees who took the kamikaze plunge on trial runs.

9. Alpine Slide

Alpine slides were seemingly only conceived in order to make use of steep slopes and save tightfisted theme parks some dollars. The concept is very simple: build a breakneck, winding concrete trackway with shallow edges down a huge freakin’ hill and let the general public fly down it on a ludicrously temperamental cart with a mostly useless handbrake. Aside from obvious risks such as grazing one’s body practically to the bone upon bailing, actual deaths aren’t unheard of, with one unfortunate individual at a certain East Coast theme park hitting his head fatally against a rock when his cart derailed. Read more

Skate Park Dream House Packed with Skateable Surfaces

It might drive some people up the walls to live with indoor skateboarders, but for a pro-skater client this is a dream home quickly coming true. The architects of Air Architecture, venturing into new territory with this unique design, modeled aspects of the house ahead of time in order to test their fitness in terms of slopes, angles and materials that would both suit a human abode and be appropriately durable for real skateboarding use.

In the yet-unfinished design, there is hardly a spot in these spaces that one could not grind or skate on or jump or flip from. This includes not only skateboardable walls but also built-in furniture designed specifically to the purpose.

In fact, the final home will have continuous curves, rails and surfaces for skaters to move entirely into, through and around the residence. A complete circuit will weave through the kitchen into living and dining rooms and back out through a bedroom and bathroom (assuming all doors are left open along the route, inside and out). Various local woods, bent and warped as needed, will conform to the needs of the skater client, and make this a truly one-of-a-kind interior (and exterior) house design.

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The Underwater Sculpture Park

The Underwater Sculpture Park is the work of sculptor Jason Taylor from England, who has a passion for creating fantastic and unique pieces of work depicting Grenada’s colourful history and folklore and placing them underwater. All of the sculptures are in beautiful clear shallow water easily accessible by divers and snorkelers. The sculptures end up creating artificial reefs, and enhancing the marine environment.

The response from visitors diving the site has been reported as nothing short of amazement and fascination on the whole concept. “the artist’s interventions promote hope and recovery, and underline our need to understand and protect the natural world.”

The Tightest Parallel Parking – Guinness World Record of 27 cm

You think you’re a pretty awesome at parallel parking, don’t you? Well we all do really, it’s in the blood, but now one kiwi male can actually lay legitimate claim to being the world’s best at parallel parking.

Local hero Peter Bell has parked a Toyota Corolla in a space that’s just 27 cm longer than the car, on the set of the NZ Smashes Guinness World Records TV show at the North Harbour Stadium in Auckland. He didn’t just back it in nice and gentle either, Bell ripped up the handbrake and put the Corolla into a 180-degree spin into the park in one tidy piece of work.

The previous record for the tightest parallel parking was held by the Chinese and it was set at 32 cm, which represents the space remaining between the parked car, and the two vehicles in the front and at the rear. Bell’s first attempt took him to a new tightest parallel parking world record of 31 cm. The following attempts got him even further setting the new Guinness World Record of 27 cm.

Watch the video below to see the record breaking parking and to see the show’s host Mark Ellis almost wet himself with fake excitement.

LEGO Creatures of Habitat at The Philadelphia Zoo

At the Philadelphia Zoo premiered a collection of 31 different animal sculptures, all rendered in Legos, by certified Lego artist Sean Kenney. The exhibition is called Creatures of Habitat and is in place to promote awareness about vanished habitats.

Ten different animals and their habitats have been places around the Zoo. Visit all the stations to learn about why these creatures were chosen for the exhibition as well as what role the Philadelphia Zoo plays in protecting and preserving these animals and their habitats. The Lego animals will be in place until October 31, 2010, so do make sure to get over there between now and then. This is one not to be missed!

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