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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

For YOUR pleasure, of course...

Owners of Alton Towers Amusement Park, second in the world ONLY to Disney


Drawing upon the recent decapitation/"Amusement" Park theme that has surfaced since the release of "The Dark Knight", I came across a rather innocuous story with "all in good fun" Big Brother ramifications.


The recent catastrophic wreck of a bus not far from Alton Towers Amusement Park in Staffordshire, England which carried passengers from the amusement park led to a story posted just 5 days prior to the tragic event by RFIDNews.

UK theme park offers RFID-enabled memories

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 in News

With the help of RFID-enabled wristbands and a system of video cameras, UK amusement park Alton Towers is offering its patrons personalized videos chronicling their adventures at the park.

The video souvenir package, called YourDay, begins with an RFID-enabled wristband issued to park-goers. The wristbands activate a system of 36 cameras scattered about the park, which film the guest and store the footage under the appropriate individual’s account. At the end of the day, the guest can choose to purchase a DVD of their trip, with their personal images blended with stock footage of the park. Unclaimed footage is deleted at the end of each day.

A range of video options, from one ride to the entire trip, are available and priced accordingly. Faster rides are filmed in slow motion, and dramatic music and sound effects are added to the mix.

According to the parks website a description of the "Your Day" benefit feature is:

When you arrive at the park, we’ll give you a wristband containing a radio frequency chip, which will identify your footage on all the big rides and as you walk around the park.

As your ride moves along the track, it passes a sensor which tells a video camera just ahead to capture you on film as you pass by. (On high speed rides, the video cameras use super slow motion to capture your footage at its best.) Your personalised footage is then digitally stored on our system.

At the end of the day, bring your wristband into the YourDay shop on Towers Street and, in less than five minutes, our clever software will put your unique footage on a master DVD of the park, producing a professional and totally personalised film souvenir for you to take home and enjoy forever.

Don’t miss the moment!

We delete any unclaimed footage at the end of your visit so, if you don’t buy your personalised DVD before you leave, the moment will be gone forever.


In a related story from roughly the same time period (Spring 2008), Alton Towers decides to enforce a ban on all PDA's from the park. Was there more to this ban than wanting EVERYONE to enjoy the day...like Alton Towers should care who you're texting while the kids are running mad all over the place? maybe something with PDA's were interfering with their ability to record your every move...?

http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2008/05/27/pda-phones-no-longer-a-good-ride-alton-towers-ban-pdas/


6 comments:

Ed said...

Sweet! I can't wait till they come up with the rfid implanted memories, so you can remember having a great time without even going!

David said...

PDAs - not possibly, certainly.

Some fun facts about Alton Towers:

It is built on an estate that goes back to at least 1000 BCE and contains the Iron Age Hill Fort Bunbury Hill.

It used to be the fortress of King
Ceolred of Mercia, recorded by St. Boniface as dying at a banquet while possessed and: 'Gibbering with demons and cursing the priests of God.'

Oh and then there are all the links to of Saint-John of Acre ...

Layth Shusha said...

Some interesting numbers -


It will be 33,333 days since the Fatima vision on 16 October 2008.

The Fatima vision on 16 October 2008 is just three days after the anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun. - an alleged miraculous event witnessed by as many as 100,000 people on 13 October.

Pope John Paul 2 was 31,000 days old when he died. Born and burried under eclipses.

The day before the Fatima's 33,333 day, the pope will have been dead 31,000 hours.

Two weeks prior it will be the popes 9999 th day since the assassination attempt that he believed was prophesised in the Fatima vision.

The day after he died would have been his 9666 th day as Pope.

Finaly, the 33,333 day since the Fatima vision is the very aniversary 20 years to the day of the Pope JP2 starting his Popicy.

Cheers

FilmNoir23 said...

Thanks for all the details David! The wiki entry (as recommended) for it is quite an interesting read.

Kal Dani:
Some very interesting numbers you've been working up...perhaps I will collect some of them and post? Your call, your research...???

Layth Shusha said...

Hi filmnoir id be pleased if you can make some narative or add to the findings.

I dont know quite what to make of the meanings just yet as i am still following things and learning.

So for example i dont know whether something concerning Russia or some other aspect of the Fatima prophecy will be energized around those dates, yet based on current events in Georgia it looks not unlikely at this point in time.

The original graph in my blog is a crude hot off the head draft with an error (July 8 not Aug 8, 2007 for the G8 meeting) otherwise apart from being not so easy to read as it could be i think there are some very strange synchronicities there. Example - 111 days before the G8/shuttle 118 is the allstars match. I didnt notice till after that if you count the numbers on the players shirts in the promo poster they add to 118.

Interesting that you had the article on bus/Asia etc as this 111th day point on my chart is Aug 25th and 1111 days before is the Vietnam war veterans crash on my chart.

Layth Shusha said...

filmnoir, 111 days after the last mentioned in my blog is Jan 16th..nothing except that the next day was the Beijing 777 to London that allmost crashed.

111 days after again nothing except that 5 days later the Chinese earthquake.

The only curious factor in these last two dates is that from the 777 incident to the earthquake is precisely 11,000,000 seconds to the minute.

Checking the exact time of the earthquake to the second till the time to the minute of the crash (ie i do not have the crash to the second) nevertheless it is acurate to +/- 60 seconds.

Considering the fact that the last three dates (most recent being the day after the 888 Olympic games) all have a China flavor and that 1222 days (11 x 111)- {sorry, i made an error last post, it is 1222 not 1111 }- before was the Vietnam bus crash i was struck by the fact that you also picked up on the Asia/bus theme. Indeed, you reported one such crash which was the Vietnamese Christians in a bus accident in the usa.