This roller coaster sounds pretty incredible

Rollercoaster Safety with Patrick Warburton - watch more funny videos

Lengthy safety video starring Patrick Warburton for a roller coaster. Via these sites.

*Previously: Gallery of cabin safety cards.

Link roundup

1. NY Times' review of the first Chrome notebook:

How well does Google’s newfangled concept hold up in the real world?

Unfortunately, not very well.

It's ludicrously expensive considering its shortcomings.

2. Did you see earlier this week that a PR company promised to punish sites running negative video game reviews? I couldn't help but think of it in reading the uselessly contradictory conclusion to Destructoid's review of Alice: Madness Returns:

In spite of tedium and technical faults, I quite enjoyed Alice: Madness Returns, which says quite a bit for the extraordinary world McGee has created from the blueprint of Caroll's original tales. Fans of the original Alice find plenty of here to love, and will certainly want to return to Wonderland to work towards a satisfying narrative conclusion. For others, putting up with the game's monotonous design may prove to be a personal spiral into madness they may want to avoid.

UPDATE: To be fair, as the commenter points out, Destructoid gave Duke Nukem a terrible review.

3. There's a theme park in Las Vegas where you can operate excavators and other machinery. But packages start at $400 and no kids under 14, so I can't imagine it lasting.

Image roundup

Fennec fox.



Lightning strike.



Arctic fox and meal.



Soldier after battle.



Wisdom from Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake.




Wire sculpture.



Ferris wheel on a cold winter day.

Decrepit amusement park attractions by Daniel Danger

Decaying theme park attractions by Daniel Danger for his show at Cotton Candy machine. Via.

And speaking of abandoned theme parks, check out this gallery of photos of Gulliver's Kingdom, an abandoned theme park in Japan based on Gulliver's Travels:



Via.

*Buy amusement park collectibles at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Thomas P.M. Barnett applauding the utilization of weaponized drones in Libya:

This sort of response sends a lot more signal than the heavy hardware or brigades. It says America will continue to fight as it always has: by generating more stuff than you can possibly imagine. The old model was big stuff. The new model is small and disposable and unmanned stuff. It comes with willpower attached. It's staying power is its dwell time.

China thinks it has a grip on the future with a carrier killer, but it's protecting itself from the 20th century. The name of the game going forward is what it has been these past two decades: globalization's advance, the remapping of fake states, the liberation of people long oppressed by their conditions and cruel leaders, and the new matrixing of supply chains and labor pools as this magnificent process continues to unfold.

2. Octopus ride. Via.

3. Writer discusses how incredibly easy it was to create a fake photograph of an iPhone 5, and get the photo on the main tech blogs.

*Buy iPads at eBay.

Image roundup

A Reddit user uploaded this photo of his/her grandparents:



And Reddit users added color:







Penguin throats are terrifying.




Jenga on a roller coaster.




Your cat wants you to buy comics.




Possum and babies.




Why does Saturn have a ring?

*Buy My Parents Were Awesome: Before Fanny Packs and Minivans, They Were People Too at Amazon.

Swarovski's crystal-themed museum

The entrance to Swarovski's crystal-themed theme park Kristallwelten/Crystal World features a giant head/fountain. Via.

*Buy Swarovski crystal at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Six Flags is ditching most of its branded rides as a cost-cutting move:

The new-new name will be "Apocalypse" and the coaster itself will stay pretty much the same. But where Six Flags takes one in the pants, is they spent upwards of $1 million on the Terminator-themed intro in the queue. It included several animatronic Terminators and a training video featuring two of the film's stars, Common and Moon Bloodgood.

Six Flags will now remove all the Terminator robots and re-shoot the sequence to match the new Apocalypse theme. The coaster will officially no longer be Terminator: Salvation and bear its new name as of January 8, 2011.

Via.

2. McBess posted a wallpaper-sized version of the (NSFW) illustration he created for the cover of Nobrow 4. (Copies are available at Amazon.)

3. Michael Douglas is either dying or well on his way to recovery depending on which gossip magazine you read.

*Buy McBess Dunnys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Six Flags is ditching most of its branded rides as a cost-cutting move:

The new-new name will be "Apocalypse" and the coaster itself will stay pretty much the same. But where Six Flags takes one in the pants, is they spent upwards of $1 million on the Terminator-themed intro in the queue. It included several animatronic Terminators and a training video featuring two of the film's stars, Common and Moon Bloodgood.

Six Flags will now remove all the Terminator robots and re-shoot the sequence to match the new Apocalypse theme. The coaster will officially no longer be Terminator: Salvation and bear its new name as of January 8, 2011.

Via.

2. McBess posted a wallpaper-sized version of the (NSFW) illustration he created for the cover of Nobrow 4. (Copies are available at Amazon.)

3. Michael Douglas is either dying or well on his way to recovery depending on which gossip magazine you read.

*Buy McBess Dunnys at eBay.

New Green Lantern roller coaster looks pretty cool

The new Green Lantern roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain looks pretty cool. You can see it at one minute in. Via these sites.

*Buy Green Lantern costumes at Amazon.

Amusement park photos

Flickr collected roller coaster photos.

*Previously: Roller coaster of the damned.

*Buy amusement park collectibles at eBay.

Mannequins (link roundup)

Mannequins photographed by Hugh Kretschmer. Via these sites.

And a few more links:

1. This week's Fringe was merely slightly better than the last two lackluster episodes, until the end, which turned it into an excellent episode that reminded me why I was watching the series.

2. Mike Krahulik's comments about today's Penny Arcade strip are pretty funny.

3. Website dedicated to theme park maps.

*Previously: Mayan Interdimensional Star Map.

*Buy Tokyo Disney collectibles at eBay.

Sydney amusement park or Hell?

Thomas Aylett posted a great photo gallery of Luna Park in Sydney as it was blanketed by today's dust storm. Via.

*Previously: Hell's Playground features Grimace.

*Buy Designing Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance at Amazon.

Sydney amusement park or Hell?

Thomas Aylett posted a great photo gallery of Luna Park in Sydney as it was blanketed by today's dust storm. Via.

*Previously: Hell's Playground features Grimace.

*Buy Designing Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance at Amazon.

Little plush Moishe (link roundup)

Plush Where the Wild Things Are monster by Kira, who has items on sale at Etsy.

And a few more links:

1. How to ship posters.

2. Here's a new 2D Spore creature creator (created to promote a DS game). Via.

3. A cable snapped on the Xcelerator roller coaster at Knotts Berry Farm in Southern California - - there's video of two people riding it, screaming as debris strikes them. Via.

*Previously: Order figurines of your Spore creature creations.

*Buy concert posters at eBay.

Camel Active; Zombie-Killing Native American Girl

Nik Daum posted another terrific gallery of photos taken in China. Above is a sign for Camel Active, purpose unknown (but a surprisingly popular name?). Below is one of many excellent photos from the Beijing theme park "Happy Valley Amusement Park."



A wild west attraction featuring undead Native Americans? Definitely an underrepresented genre. This video shows off the park's attractions, but I didn't spot any Native-Americans zombies:



Coincidentally, earlier this week I saw this zombie-slaying Native American girl illustration:



Image by Travis King, who has items on sale here. Via.

*Previously: Camel Beauty Contest Canceled.

*Buy Tokyo Disneyland toys at eBay.

Jack and Jill fell down the hill and scared your kids

Idlewild Park in Pennsylvania has a Storybook Forest that's full of creepy fairy-tale-themed sculptures. You can see more photos here. The park also has its own Flickr gallery.

*Previously: Creepy Chinese theme park photos.

*Buy Disneyland posters at eBay.

Chinese theme park photo gallery (link roundup)

Gallery of photos of a Shanghai theme park called Jin Jiang Action Park.

And a few more links:

1. Annalee Newitz heaped lavish praise on the external battery donated to the io9 crew.

2. While Ryan Tate mocked a blogger for requesting a free pair of Crocs.

3. And Jason Kottke griped that he didn't get any Mad Men swag.

*Previously: Ferrari is building a theme park in Abu Dhabi.

*Buy amusement park collectibles at eBay.

Clothing designed for autistic kids (link roundup)

SQUEASE is a jacket designed for people with autism:

the jacket allows the wearer to apply deep pressure to their body, so that they can calm themselves and get over the sudden rush of anxiety. The integrated headphones reduce the sound level of high frequency noises like alarm bells or the sound of chairs scraping on a floor; soothing those with hypersensitive hearing. A comfortable cocoon for those with ASD, the SQUEASE is a smart looking jacket and not just therapy aid.

Designed by Sheraz Arif, Andy Brand, Menno Kroezen and Katrien Ploegmakers. Lots of photos here. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Lots of information about the Harry Potter them park being built within Universal Orlando. "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" is expected to open summer 2010. Via.

2. NY Times editor Bill Keller regrets his appearance on The Daily Show. Via.

3. Ad revenue is up 35% over last year at Gawker, which is once again awarding page view bonuses to bloggers. Gawker also pays page view bonuses to tipsters. Via.

4. Relatedly, the "cost of running [Neatorama] runs into the five figures every year."

*Previously: Redesigned Harry Potter book covers.

*Buy Harry Potter posters at eBay.

Logo for Boxee (link roundup)

Boxee's goofy logo.

And a few more links:

1. I loved the dog I had as a boy, but if I lost my dog at sea, found it four months later, and learned it had swum to an island and survived by eating feral goats, I probably would have been a little hesitant to welcome it back into my life.

2. Help Rosemary Travale win an Etsy contest by voting for her "Stop Being Sad, Start Being Rad" print I posted previously (towards the bottom right).

3. "Orchid King" Yang Bin really, really liked Holland, so he built a massive Holland-themed park called "Holland Village" in China. It featured "canals, windmills, and full size replicas of famous Dutch buildings such as the Amsterdam train station and the International Court of Justice at the Hague." However, he was convicted of fraud and other crimes and the park has since been demolished.

4. Will Leitch has a very long profile of the New York Yankees in New York Magazine. Here's a taste of his writing - - a vivid portrait of Nick Swisher:

A lower-profile addition this year, but one who seems determined to make himself into a fan favorite if it kills him, is first-baseman–outfielder–utility man Nick Swisher, a former hot prospect in the A’s system who hit 35 homers three years ago but stumbled to a .219 average with the White Sox last year. Swisher, unlike the other additions, didn’t choose to come here: The Yankees got him on the cheap in November, giving up one Wilson Betemit. Swisher is, to put it mildly, a dervish of noise and look-at-me-I’m-wacky energy. (Sample quote: “As soon as you wake up, it’s a great day, because, hey, I woke up!”) He has a Twitter page, which he uses to tell the world things like “Went out to dinner with some of the guys. We’re doing lots of running ... more than I ever have done before. So great!” and is doing what he can to become Sabathia’s little buddy Gilligan. (He says he signed up to Twitter “because CC did” and used one of his first few tweets to say how much he was looking forward to Sabathia’s arrival in Tampa.) Swisher, suffice it to say, is a ham (and, as the glass of water I was drinking in the Yankees locker room while talking to him can attest, careless with his freshly clipped toenails). Most of the time, reporters follow players around to try to get them to talk to them. With Swisher, the opposite is happening: He’s chasing reporters. He clearly hasn’t been here very long.

Read the whole thing.

*Previously: Natalie Jeremijenko turns Sony Aibos into toxic waste sniffing Feral Robot Dogs.

*Buy minor league bobbleheads at eBay.