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Theme Park Review
Photo TR: Condor's Audacious Travels
Updated - Six Flags Fiesta Texas - p7
By Condor,
July 6, 2018 in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Taylor Finn 12
Taylor Finn
When I grow up, I want to breed donkeys!
Great pictures! I only got around to visiting Fushimi-Inari and it was an incredible experience. One detail I will always remember is that there were vending machines on the way up the trail and the cost of a drink kept increasing as we continued. Also, there were no garbage cans, but also no trash anywhere. And this spot is mostly visited by tourists, so it is just an example of folks adapting to the culture they're immersed in. I know it is the most touristy of the options in Kyoto, but I only had a half day to spend. I am super grateful to have spent any time at all there.
I really loved Kyoto Station as well and it was certainly my favorite station. There will always be something memorable about some of the large stations in Tokyo and Osaka and how absolutely massive they are on the inside. I never really felt lost in them, but it was impressive how much walking you might need to do to transfer lines or just exit where you intend.
Condor 46 posts
Canobie Coaster 17 posts
bert425 15 posts
Nrthwnd 10 posts
Day 4—Kemah Boardwalk The midpoint of our October trip was a morning flight from Orlando to Houston. While I have always liked Houston, we would not stay for long on this trip. The plan was to go
Six Flags Fiesta Texas At some point in the last decade Fiesta Texas quietly became a sleeper pick for best Six Flags Park. It feels like it happened overnight. Before we all knew it, what was a
Florida & Texas October 2020 This trip was the result of the most convoluted planning process I have ever gone through. Before the pandemic, it was supposed to be a full week hitting all the
Canobie Coaster 73
Canobie Coaster
Wiener Dog Aficionado
Great report! I really need to check out Kyoto when I return to Japan.
Condor 15
2 + 2 = donkey!
Location: Huntington Beach
I was going to comment on the lady taking your food photo. It happened to me in DisneySea, back in 2011.
I was taking a rest, sitting in the front of one of those "Main Street vehicles." They stay in place, but you can climb on or in them and just relax. This one was opposite Big Band Beat. A minute or so later, this little old woman climbs up next to me. She points to her and me - then to her friend taking the photo. Huh, I thought.
I oblige. Photo is taken. THEN she motions to me to STAY THERE. And so, every one of her FIVE friends got an indi-photo with me, LOL! I had a big smile on my face afterwards, and sort of when 'huh' at the cultural moment shared with them.
Wow that's the kind of thing that would be quite awkward if the Japanese weren't so genuine and friendly!
I think Fushimi Inari was the right choice if you only had time for one thing. It's the most popular spot, but for good reason!
Part 9: Nagashima Spa Land
When you plan a long vacation like this one, it seems incomprehensible that'll you'll one day arrive at the end of it, yet here we were at the last park of our trip. This was actually the day before Kyoto and we started the morning by boarding a Shinkansen from Tokyo bound for Nagoya. From Nagoya Station we then took a bus direct to Nagashima Spa Land. Unlike the Fuji-Q bus, the Meitetsu bus we took did not require reservations. They leave for the park at regular intervals.
Nagashima doesn't carry the bad rap that Fuji-Q Highland does so I was curious to see how they compared after enjoying Fuji-Q so much more than expected. Park grounds were immaculate and all but one of the coasters and most of the flat rides were operating. The only coaster not running was the jet coaster. Not that this was a credit I had been salivating over or anything, but none of the other parks we visited had a jet coaster so I was looking forward to experiencing at least one example of the type here.
Like Fuji-Q, Nagashima seemed smaller than equivalent parks in the U.S. As the pictures show, it's far from a concrete wasteland, but rather than the park following a loop or a hub-and-spoke layout, it's more of a free-for-all with coasters and flats plunked down wherever they fit with paths filling the gaps. It's a park with a distinctly RCT feel to it.
The most surprising fault I found was the operations. Call me crazy, but from what I saw, Fuji-Q's guest service and dispatches were better. Nagashima's staff weren't awful, but they were less courteous and professional than their Fuji-Q counterparts. I found it interesting that Fuji-Q's slowness was not due to poor training or service, but instead the fault of their hyper-cautious policies and procedures. The Nagashima employees were more like what I expected Fuji-Q's to be. Ride ops were quiet, withdrawn, and sometimes appeared to not be paying attention. They also made little-to-no effort to fill in empty seats with single riders, something both Fuji-Q and Yomiuriland did relatively well.
This is not to say we disliked Nagashima. We had another great day here, we loved the rides, and would both gladly go back. But if Fuji-Q greatly exceeded our expectations, Nagashima at best met them.
On the bus from Nagoya Station I saw a pair of hotels that, as an enthusiast, made me chuckle.
I'm genuinely curious how the name 'Luna Park' came up in Japan.
In the distance, is that—yes I see it—the lift hill of the world's most gradually sloping giga coaster!
The ride up to the park sure did build up our anticipation.
"Hey look! A whale!"
The entrance the bus dropped us off at was certainly not busy.
This should give you an idea of how close together many of Nagashima's attractions are.
Carlos hit his 400th credit on a coaster slightly grander than my 400th.
Steel Dragon 2000 might not be the park's alpha anymore, but it's still a landmark, bucket list coaster that my younger self never imagined I'd get to ride one day.
The first drop has exactly the same amount of airtime you get on Morgan's hyper coasters… None!
Despite notices about a maximum height limit I was right on the verge of, no one questioned me and I boarded without issue. The coaster itself is obviously massive. It spans the entire length of the park from Hakugei on one end to the water park on the other.
But unlike Morgan's hypers where you still don't get any airtime on the return bunny hills, on Steel Dragon 2000 you do!
I wonder how much the ride experience changed when it replaced the Morgan trains with B&M.
The MCBR is usually the airtime death knell on Steel Force or Mamba, but not on this!
This is an over 8,000 foot long coaster with a slow lift and only 2 trains. Even then, the wait never exceeded 45 minutes. The park wasn't busy enough for massive queues on anything but Hakugei.
The tunnels are very effective, just like those on Magnum.
I had flashbacks to hitting my hand on Blue Fire's first tunnel at Europa Park and with the fact that SD2000 has a height limit in mind, I kept my hands down in the tunnels.
From some angles SD doesn't necessarily look like a giga coaster. Without the steeper lifts and drops of the others, it doesn't have the same awe-factor when looking at it in profile.
Steel Dragon 2000
I rate this coaster somewhere between Steel Force/Mamba on the low end and Superman: El Ultimo Escape on the high end, but closer to the latter. The three big hills feel just like what you'd get on Mamba. There's no airtime or strong positive g's so it's all about speed and appreciating the views and scale. The first incline spiral is also a bit tame and has a slight vibration. Things improve starting with the second spiral. The B&M trains look like they ride slightly higher than the original Morgan ones and it made me wonder if it puts the rider's heartline above where it would have been placed during the design process. I thought about this because the second spiral pulls some surprising laterals that just felt different somehow, though I can't explain why. These mix with positives that mount first, then subside as the turn radius widens. It feels completely different than the first spiral.
The MCBR trims off a little speed but doesn't grab you the way the two similar hypers do. This means you get good, strong, floater on every one of the bunny hills back to the station. They had a similar feel to the ending hills on Goliath at SFOG. You start to float as you crest, then get yanked down the descent. Steel Dragon is a very good coaster that would be great if the first half matched the tone of the second. Superman at Six Flags Mexico takes the good qualities of Steel Dragon and makes a full ride out of them. If we're comparing Japanese coasters I also like Fujiyama and Bandit better, but the gap between them is not wide. 8/10
As for the gigas I've done:
1.	Fury 325
2.	Intimidator 305
3.	Millennium Force
4.	Steel Dragon 2000
I have not been impressed with the S&S Free Spin coasters Six Flags has built. Batman at SFFT gave me one good lap out of two and I found all of the Jokers to be pretty lackluster. Arashi is a different animal entirely. I could not believe how many inversions it pulls. The spinning on it is just so intense. However Nagashima calibrated or placed the magnets on Arashi is a model every other park who builds one should follow. I usually have to force myself to ride free spins for the credit when I see them while I thought Arashi was one of the most fun coasters in Japan. 8/10
Hey buddy, hurry up and wait, will ya?
Hakugei has presence just like Steel Vengeance does. But where Steel Vengeance is all about intimidation, Hakugei's presence is majestic.
It is truly the nicest of the RMC hybrids aesthetically.
Footers remain from the old helixes. My dream version of Hakugei would have retained one helix out of the two White Cyclone had and would have included some insane outward banking.
The 90+ degree drops RMC is doing are great, but don't think the on-ride result is any better than an 80 degree drop like Hakugei's. Once you get past 80-85 I don't think the difference is even noticeable unless you do a B&M dive or Gerstlauer style profile with a holding brake.
This section felt like an improved and enlarged version of the turnaround on the green side of Twisted Colossus.
My favorite airtime moment on the ride.
You don't feel like you slow down over these hills at all as we've come to expect from RMC.
Hakugei has my favorite stall out of the RMCs I've ridden.
We got to the park slightly too late to beat the rush to Hakugei at opening, but we still got three rides on it with fast passes. The line was a consistent 60-90 minutes all day.
The Hakugei crew's dispatches were dreadfully slow to the point where I gave up waiting on trains for photos. It only broke down once that I was aware of, which is kind of impressive given my RMC experiences elsewhere.
The track banks slightly past 90 degrees here. Another great moment on a ride full of them.
Hakugei
This is a really, really good coaster that surprised a lot of us this year, including me. During construction I recall posting that it looked like RMC was trying to reach a median between New Texas Giant and Steel Vengeance with it. The first reviews immediately put that idea to bed and I think most people have put it in the very top rung of RMCs. So do I. The only ones that I feel confident I prefer are Steel Vengeance and Medusa Steel Coaster. By the way, Medusa is Carlos's home RMC, so he'd have as much pride in it as anyone and he actually liked Hakugei better.
This one isn't the kind of blitzkrieg that SV or Twisted Timbers are. Hakugei has more measured pacing, but only slightly. You're already going at a good clip when you plunge down the first drop, so you fly with more ejector airtime than Isoroku Yamamoto in '43. From that point on, the next two-thirds of the layout reminded me of a grander, more finetuned Twisted Colossus. Every airtime moment hits with perfection. Even the section of track with the semi-wave turn in place of White Cyclone's second helix manages ejector and that was a section many of us thought would be unexciting.
Only after the first barrel roll did it feel like Hakugei let its foot off the gas a little. There's one more good airtime hill, then a pair of left turns that don't really do anything, two good but not great airtime pops, and a second barrel roll which felt slower than the first. I am not saying Hakugei has a lackluster ending. It's good from start to finish. It just goes from being all-out insane to a half-step below crazy. This may not be a trending opinion, but as great as Hakugei is, I don't think it's the best coaster in Japan. It slightly misses eclipsing Flying Dinosaur and Eejanaika for me. 9/10
My updated RMC list:
1.	Steel Vengeance
2.	Medusa Steel Coaster
3.	Hakugei
4.	Twisted Timbers
5.	Wicked Cyclone
6.	Outlaw Run
7.	Railblazer
8.	Twisted Colossus
9.	Iron Rattler
10.	New Texas Giant
11.	Twisted Cyclone
12.	Joker
13.	Goliath
It's not often that a clone gets the kind of deluxe theming/landscaping job Acrobat did.
Manta's setting at Sea World Orlando is nicer, but this is great for a park like Nagashima that normally doesn't flesh-out the areas around its coasters like this at all.
It has a very Bahamas feel to it.
I like Manta and Acrobat, but they aren't in the same league as Flying Dinosaur.
Nagashima has a very good big 3 with Acrobat, Hakugei, and Steel Dragon.
If you ride in the front two cars you get the same surprise burst of airtime entering the pretzel that you do on Manta, something I haven't found on Flying Dino, Tatsu, or the Supermen.
I have always been a big fan of Manta at Sea World Orlando. I had it ranked neck-and-neck with Tatsu for years. But Flying Dinosaur may have changed B&M flying coasters for me. Tatsu still has the size and terrain to remain its own thing, but Manta's clone, Acrobat, just did not excite me after riding its superior neighbor just a few hours west. It's a good, comfortable, enjoyable coaster I simply had no real desire to ride again after getting the credit. Granted if it was a one-off and not a clone, I probably would have gone for a second spin, but for this visit I was content. This layout was designed in the middle of B&M's "tame period" and despite this, it still manages to bring some unique qualities to the table. I'll always enjoy it and its Florida brother for that. 7.5/10
A quality Schwarzkopf is always good for a few laps, especially since they rarely build up queues these days. Looping Star was our go-to coaster once Hakugei and Steel Dragon's queues closed 45 minutes early.
It felt like a slightly bigger and faster version of Scorpion at Busch Gardens Tampa.
I'm pretty sure Nagashima Spa Land has the only two operating Schwarzkopfs in Japan.
Trees and shrubbery have grown in nicely around it. It's like a quick, afternoon jog through a public park.
Looping Star
I was impressed with this. It's not the most intense Schwarzkopf but it still pulls all of those weird, idiosyncratic g-forces that only Anton could design. There are some pretty tight clearances with supports that startled me on the first lap. Nagashima is lucky to have this and I hope they keep it for years to come. 7.5/10
Shuttle Loop… Looping Star… Corkscrew… Wild Mouse… Jet Coaster… Ultra Twister… I guess Nagashima just went with catalogue names for all their coasters before White Cyclone.
This was my third shuttle loop after Montezooma's Revenge and Cascabel.
Shuttle Loop runs alongside the park's main entrance. This one is the "real" front gate. The bus dropped us off at what we now knew was a side entrance.
Know how to tell if a shuttle loop is traveling forwards or backwards in a photo?
Neither do I but tell me if you know.
Shuttle Loop
Hmmmm……… 7/10
Sheriff Nagashima! The
John Wayne has played an Asian!
The Hakugei sign is so cool. I can't wait to buy a t-shirt, mug, or shot glass with that logo on it. Oh, wait, this is a Japanese park not named Fuji-Q, so that's definitely not going to exist! (there's a polo with a microscopic whale logo near the bottom no one will ever notice, but I'm not counting that)
Jet Coaster was closed for refurbishment ahead of expected high ridership coinciding with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Okay, I lied. It's not.
Nagashima has a great selection of family rides. We rode one of the bigger swinging ships rather than this regular-size model. It was surprisingly dull with less "air" than the smaller ones.
Children Coaster. It's a coaster for children.
Arrow corkscrew models usually make great photos at the very least. This one wasn't too bad. There are certainly rougher Arrows out there. The original at Silverwood remains the smoothest.
Uhhhhh……… 5/10
For some reason this is the only shot I took of Ultra Twister. It deserves better.
Ultra Twister
Some people really love this ride. I kind of get it. It has a breed of unique, clunky airtime and intensity you can't duplicate on a conventional coaster. The steep first drop off the vertical lift has a nice, sudden pullover and the hill that follows is so much shorter it can't help but deliver a crazy burst of airtime. The rate of rotation on the heartline rolls is as fast as I've seen on any coaster. You get a couple of serious jolts when the car brakes at the end of the forwards run though its easy to brace for them once you know they're coming. It's a good fun ride, but still chiefly a novelty for me. 7/10
Wild Mouse (no photos apparently)
So……… 5/10
For our next installment of 'Never in America' we go back to the Nagoya Station bus that picked us up from the park. Once every seat was filled, they folded down additional seats that took up all the aisle space. I'm genuinely curious what an evac procedure is on one of these.
Spirit Airlines and Ryanair should look into this!
My only glimpse of Nagoya at night came from the Shinkansen platform back at the station.
Our bullet-chariot to Kyoto awaits.
With all of our Japanese parks for this trip complete, here's my Japan top 10:
1.	Flying Dinosaur
2.	Eejanaika
4.	Fujiyama
5.	Takabisha
6.	Bandit
8.	Do-Dodonpa
9.	Hollywood Dream/Backdrop
10.	Arashi
And using my CoasterPoll list, here's my overall top 20 and how other Japanese coasters rank:
1. Skyrush – Hersheypark
2. Steel Vengeance – Cedar Point
3. Voyage – Holiday World
4. Expedition GeForce – Holiday Park
5. Maverick – Cedar Point
6. El Toro – Six Flags Great Adventure
7. Medusa Steel Coaster – Six Flags Mexico
8. Fury 325 – Carowinds
9.	Flying Dinosaur – Universal Studios Japan
10. Superman the Ride – Six Flags New England
11. Eejanaika – Fuji-Q Highland
12. Intimidator 305 – Kings Dominion
13. Millennium Force – Cedar Point
14. Kumba – Busch Gardens Tampa
15. Goliath – Six Flags Over Georgia
16. Boulder Dash – Lake Compounce
17. Hakugei – Nagashima Spa Land
18. Twisted Timbers – Kings Dominion
19. Wicked Cyclone – Six Flags New England
20. Outlaw Run – Silver Dollar City
(31). Fujiyama – Fuji-Q Highland
(58). Takabisha – Fuji-Q Highland
(61). Bandit – Yomiuriland
(62). Steel Dragon 2000 – Nagashima Spa Land
(77). Do-Dodonpa – Fuji-Q Highland
(93). Hollywood Dream/Backdrop – Universal Studios Japan
Now I'll jump ahead past Kyoto to my departure day. My flight home from Kansai was not until 5:45pm, so I had plenty of time to take a final Shinkansen trip west from Kyoto to the city of Himeji to visit Japan's greatest surviving castle. Exiting the train station, you are greeted with the sight of Himeji Castle at the end of the main road.
Unlike Osaka Castle, Himeji Castle is not a concrete reproduction. This is the real thing. The structure is built entirely of wood and has been maintained over the centuries using authentic 17th Century construction techniques.
Much of the Himeji Castle complex was built in the 1530s and the main keep seen here was completed in 1609.
Himeji Castle was a must-see for me. I was worried there wouldn't be time since our schedule was packed and Himeji is further west than we needed to be for anything else. My flight was just late enough that I had the perfect block of time to make the trip and do the two-hour English guided tour.
There was another castle from the 1300s, which our guide referred to as the "Black Castle" on the same site that predated the current castle. Much of its materials were reused including repurposing its roofing tiles into drainage gutters.
The lower half of the stone foundation has received 400 years of rain and weathering the upper half was shielded from.
After missing out on being able to enter Osaka Castle, I was glad to tour the interior of Himeji.
Himeji Castle was used as an armory. The wall-mounted racks are for swords and muskets.
This load-bearing pillar is one of two that extend from the foundation all the way to the top floor. It is made from a single tree.
You may know Himeji Castle from the Bond film, You Only Live Twice… or—if you want to try to impress people who travel in pretentious filmgoer circles, Akira Kurosawa's Ran!
View from the top floor back down the main road to the train station.
Himeji Castle goes through a full restoration every 50 years to keep knowledge of its construction techniques alive. Something tells me this beam might not be here after the next one!
A wooden scale model of the structure used to aid in the 1960s restoration.
Mothra sighting!
A few lower portions of the structure are still undergoing work right now.
Every Edo Period Japanese castle needs a hero.
The grounds around Himeji Castle are vast. I only had time to see a small portion of them.
I would visit Himeji Castle and take the tour again. Definitely another one of the highlights of the trip.
Boeing 787-10 credit!
robbalvey 83
robbalvey
Why do I still have a donkey title???
But if Fuji-Q greatly exceeded our expectations, Nagashima at best met them.
The polar opposite of every single visit we've had to both of these parks over the past 16 years, but hey, parks are allowed to have their best days and their worst days. So maybe you just got lucky and experienced both of these in the opposite form of what we are used to.
I still stand by Fuji-Q having the worst most ridiculous policies like that time they made me taking something off my wrist, put it in a locker, and then handed me a key to the locker to put around my wrist.
Edited December 26, 2019 by robbalvey
bert425 66
bertimus-maximus-mermaidus
Great pics, and so happy you got to go to Himeji Castle (our tickets included the gardens too. . but we didnt' have a lot of time and so I bypassed the gardens to spend more time going all the way to the top of the Castle).
as to Nagashima Spaland- we actually had a fantastic day there, with some great ops on everything.
I agree with a lot of what you say (tho I got to ride Jet Coaster, but missed out on Shuttle Loop that was closed for maintenance on the day we were there. . ya didn't miss much, tho the gigantic fish in the pond under Jet coaster were amazing to watch when you dropped food to them. . think I grabbed some pics of that feeding frenzy).
I loved Hakugei, and rank it easily as my top RMC. while I really liked every element you listed (the double up, that incredible stall). . my favorite is something you also got a picture of: the overbank outwards after the double-up. . . I came *thisclose* to orgasm at that element on every ride. yeah, it's THAT good.
Steel Dragon 2000? I felt the same way you do about it - during the daytime rides.
Riding at night? kicked it up a few notches, and I would put it slightly above most other Gigas I've been on.
if we consider the night rides? my list would be:
Millennium Force
Fury 325 (close to a tie with night rides on SD2K. . .but at night that's SLIGHTLY better)
large gap. . . Steel Force (LOL)
Arashi was amazing. . I loved it so much, I bought an Arashi shirt! (like the Hakugei one, the logo is only on the lower portion of the shirt. . but couldn't pass it up, as I loved the coaster so much).
I did NOT like Acrobat (which is strange, as I love Manta). . it may just be where we were placed? but I only rode it once, even with skip the line passes, I didn't go back, as it almost made me pass out in the Dive loop.. .I seriously felt the Gs and did not like it.
if you get a chance to go back, the Haunted House walkthru, and the Shooting Dark ride were both incredible.
thanks for sharing the pics, and glad you had such a great trip!
Great report! I found Nagashima's staff friendly on my lone visit, but I do agree dispatches were slow mostly due to the loose article policy.
I actually found the first half of Steel Dragon to have some floater (I find most Morgans do). But I agree wholeheartedly it's the airtime of the second half that makes the ride.
I find myself on the opposite end of folks on Arashi. I got a bit ball-busted on my ride and it was a one and done despite having the opportunity for some more rides.
I ended up really loving Nagashima. The bobkarts were a blast, loved getting on an Ultra Twister finally, the two Schwarzkopfs were solid as ever, and the place had a better vibe than Fuji Q. I would say that Fuji Q had a real solid day when we were there, but the place just stressed me out a bit. Announcements over the loud speaker about rain and wind shutting rides down, announcements warning people they may not get to ride things even if they are in line. BUT. They had Auntie Anne's at Fuji Q. Which was neat. And it was cheaper than any of the ones in the states.
I loved seeing all your pictures and am glad to see you got to experience a good bit of culture mixed in with the parks. When I return, I would likely only visit Disney plus maybe a first time visit to Yomimuriland and maybe a return to Hirakata or Nagashima (whichever made more sense for us). My girlfriend likes her amusement parks, but ultimately, going and visiting parks was the ultimate thing for me to do once. Now I feel like I could easily go back and spend multiple full days just taking in the culture a bit more.
Nrthwnd 53
Nrthwnd
BAYSIDE STATION!
Now that's a Japanese sign, to be sure. So polite it is.
By the way, GREAT ONGOING REPORT! Love the non-Disney stuff of Japan. I love Japan.
jedimaster1227 76
jedimaster1227
Tron Carter
Hakugei looks fantastic and Nagashima Spaland really seems like an excellent park to experience. I'll try to make my way out there at some point. Thanks for sharing!
Erik Johnson 7
Erik Johnson
I was able to spend an afternoon/evening in the far west side of Kyoto in the Arashiyama area. You can find a ton of monkeys at the Arashiyama Monkey Park. It is basically a mountain that you climb that has a bunch of monkeys at the top. You do get a nice view of Kyoto. The Arashiyama Bamboo Forest is nearby as well and worth the visit. Thanks for your photos.
oriolat 4
oriolat
Coaster nerd from Barcelona
I really like the way you are reviewing Japan, because it's not just about the parks but also about the cities.
As for Kyoto, I much prefer it to Tokyo as it is busy, but still manageable, and has plenty of traditional shrines. I also did the Fushimi Inari tori trail but it was mid-summer and it was exhausting and had me completely dehydrated! I also agree that Arashiyama is a nice area to visit while in Kyoto: I visited the bamboo forest and got to experience hot springs (I seemed to be the only foreigner venturing them lol). If you are into railways, Kyoto had a very large and interactive railway museum some 20 minutes away from the main station.
Regarding Nagashima Spaland, I completely agree: FujiQ exceeded my expectations too and Nagashima just met them. The park was nice but a bit too bland, perhaps. Operations were much better at FujiQ than Nagashima in my case. As for Arashi, it was completely insane. I had been on Joker at SFGAdv but nothing could prepare me for the sheer madness Arashi was. It was like being on a top spin on an insane German-run cycle on wheels. In my case, they did something really weird: they were running 3 trains BUT only loading one side (so they still had a ride op checking empty restraints on a side which was roped off to the public), just to make the line for Arashi appear longer than it was, thus fostering FP sales...
Thanks for your pictures and detailed descriptions!
Gav 0
A zonkey is a cross between a zebra and a donkey.
I was in Japan over Christmas just now, and yeah I was quite surprised too that Fuji Q was better than expected and Nagashima seemed worse in terms of operations.
When I arrived at Fuji Q, the park was under a blanket of snow, and coasters didn't start opening till 1pm (Though sadly Eejanaika never opened, I got a couple of laps on the rest, plus the minor rides like Fuji Airways, the Naruto dark ride, the hospital, Duncan, the Thomas treasure hunt, rapids etc) But I was impressed how hard they worked to clear snow from the tracks and get rides testing.
At Nagashima, I barely got 1 lap on each coaster (Except Ultra twister because it was closed), and that was relying on express passes, because of silliness like only running 1 side of Arashi (so 4 seats per dispatch!), 1 train/station on Acrobat etc.
The park closed 5:30 but queues shut for SD2000 and Hakugei before 4, so frustratingly only 1 go on each….I sprinted to Acrobat and got a 2nd lap on that at least, using an express pass just before they closed the queue for that one too.
On the other coasters, ops were slow, eg on the Corkscrew, the op would get in a couple of people, they'd deposit their items, take their seats, then the next couple of people would follow and so on. So what looked like a 10 min wait ended up being 30.
The park, was alright, tidy and good rides, but the staff seemed lethargic.
Surpisingly, outside of Disney and Universal, I thought the quickest and most courteous ops were at Legoland Japan!
Pennsylvania & Maryland July 2020
You're never going to believe this, but my 2020 theme park itinerary did not work out as planned.
Way back in January I made plans as follows: (1) a ten-day, seven park road trip from Indiana to Virginia in July, and (2) a seven-day, seven park retreat to Orlando in October. The summer trip gradually eroded and morphed into a four-day weekend to Pennsylvania and Maryland in late July and I'm currently cobbling together a trip to Tennessee and Texas for the fall.
Hersheypark was already one of my favorite parks in the country and is among the fortunate few to debut their new for 2020 coaster, so it was an easy choice to anchor my trip. And while in the area, there was simply no way I could pass up a visit to Knoebels, even with two of their coasters closed for the season. I flew into Washington Dulles on Thursday and had a late afternoon return flight that Sunday, which seemed like the perfect amount of time for my first visit to Six Flags America on the way to the airport.
The whole thing turned out pretty well. Hershey and Knoebels had the lightest crowds I've seen, but still felt lively enough to not seem too far out of the ordinary, and SFA was practically empty for two of the three hours I spent there. I won't comment much about mask-wearing and social distancing. I work in the hospitality industry so I'm already used to wearing a mask all day and being around throngs of people who either won't wear one or wear them incorrectly. Seeing it at a theme park made no difference to me. At no point at any of the three parks did I feel at greater risk than I do every day at work.
Hersheypark now has an entrance befitting a park of its stature.
The new plaza fits so naturally it feels like it's always been here. I'm always a fan of seeing a park's skyline from the the front gate.
Day 1—Hersheypark
I have long felt that Hersheypark had the second best coaster collection in the United States after Cedar Point. They are the only two parks with lineups I enjoy enough from top to bottom to spend two full days at without resorting to extended marathons on just one or two coasters. I don't think Candymonium makes Hershey's collection any qualitatively better, but as the saying goes, "quantity has a quality all its own." After four rides on it, I'd rank it in the middle of the pack among Hershey's adult thrill coasters. What it does is add yet one more perfectly enjoyable and visually striking coaster to spread the day out even better.
Soaring over the midway makes Candymonium's finale more exciting both on and off-ride.
The Brothers Hyper.
I think Candymonium and Skyrush are a superior complementary pairing than the B&M hyper + B&M giga duos Cedar Fair has been going with lately. You can really see the Cedar Fair influence on the park's new entrance plaza, "Chocolatetown." The placement of the B&M is different, set farther back from the gates than Fury 325 or Gatekeeper, but the effect is similar. I might even like Hersheypark's approach better. While I like seeing the CF coasters soaring over the entrance as much as anyone, Candymonium's distance from it creates a picturesque vista that will only improve as the landscape around it fills in. So how do I think it rides?
Candymonium
I waited twenty-five minutes for my first backseat ride at opening, the longest queue I waited in all day. While I avoid judging a major coaster on a single ride, let alone before it has warmed up, I wasn't particularly impressed. Excluding the gigas, I have two B&M hypers I really like (Goliath @ SFOG and Nitro), two I really don't (Sitting Bull and Intrimidator), and all the rest are grouped together somewhere in the middle. I'm much too sardonic in most situations to dare call myself an optimist, but I kind-of-sort-of expected Candymonium to be in that upper tier and it just wasn't. The first and second drops were great and that was about it. The rest of it felt a lot like Diamondback, like it was just going through the motions in typical late B&M fashion. But I've done a complete 180 on new coasters before and that's exactly what happened.
I came back to Candymonium in the afternoon and rode once up front and twice more in back, and predictably, giving it time to warm up made a noticeable difference. First the hammerhead whipped a little harder. There's nothing that can be done about the trim that follows—it kills the subsequent cammelback no matter what. On the speed hill after the camelback is where I really noticed a change, feeling for a moment like I was back on SFOG's Goliath being vaulted up into my clamshell. The upward helix pulls just hard enough to be interesting and the banked drop and bunny hop had strong floater air, though not as strong as the speed hill. Candymonium is still not an elite B&M to me, but I ended the day a much bigger fan of it than I started. It feels the most similar to Mako, but Candymonium finishes strong whereas Mako kind of meanders through the final third of its layout. 8.5/10
The first drop is very good. It feels exactly like Mako's.
It's a minor touch, but I'm glad to see B&M tinkering with their established formula even in small ways like the extra banking here.
The trim on this hill never harmed it much, something that cannot be said about the first trim earlier in the layout.
Real men ride the Reese's train.
There's lots of room for Chocolatetown to grow or landscaping to fill in around Candymonium. Hersheypark could probably relocate some of its older, smaller attractions here to free up more water park space in the back.
B&M hypers ranked:
1.	Goliath (SFOG)
2.	Nitro
3.	Candymonium
4.	Mako
5.	Silver Star
6.	Diamondback
7.	Apollo's Chariot
8.	Hollywood Dream
9.	Raging Bull
10.	Intimidator
The hillside behind the railing at left leads to what used to be the Skyrush path along the creek. There is still space to pave and reconnect it if the park chooses to do so in the future. Hopefully they do.
Skyrush
Still my number-one coaster. I've expounded at length about Skyrush in past installments, so I won't break it down element-by-element here. It's the kind of coaster that screams in your face, "There are two kinds of riders in this world—those who work out their quads—and those who don't!" There are however several ways to improve your comfort level with a little practice. For one, I scoot forward a couple of inches in my seat as I go up the lift to position the lap bar higher up on my thighs. Second, I place my hands on my knees and lean forward during the low-ground turns. Skyrush can vibrate and this mostly alleviates it. And if you're a real Skyrush masochist like I am, you can sit on a wing seat and plant your inside foot on the floor of the seat beside you on the pullouts to keep the lapbar up. Getting a good, comfortable ride on Skyrush is like a game and while some may hate that, it's part of why I love it. There aren't many coasters out there that can make seasoned enthusiasts brace and hold on for dear life, and of those that do, Skyrush is king. That's why it remains my favorite. 10/10
Skyrush is like the last of Intamin's old guard. The last major coaster they built that alarmed people with its intensity. After 2012 they still built plenty of excellent coasters, but seemed to dial the aggression down a notch, probably the right move for them.
The lack of the Skyrush path has turned what used to be one of the most photogenic, easily photographed coasters into one that is now especially difficult.
My favorite airtime moment in the world.
Candymonium's banking transitions have nothing on Skyrush's.
Another coaster I found underwhelming the first time I rode it, but over time my esteem for Fahrenheit has steadily risen to the point where I now consider it the second best coaster in the park, even when Storm Runner is operating. While I think the general enthusiast opinion of it has similarly risen, it still occasionally gets a bad rap as a rare blemish on Intamin's record from the 2000s. "If Intamin built a B&M," is a phrase you might see crop up every so often. It's certainly not Intamin's most intense work, but it might be their most well-rounded from that period. Ejector air beyond-vertical drop? One of only two Norwegian loops in the world? More airtime on the exit of said Norwegian loop? A uniquely forceful cobra roll? Snappy, actually worthwhile corkscrews? An ejector air bunny hop finale? Check the box for them all please. 9/10
Fahrenheit looks like a small child's drawing of a roller coaster from some angles.
I appreciate it more and more every time I visit.
The Norwegian Loop is a great inversion. A little side-to-side shimmy at the top, positive g's on the bottom, and airtime on the way back down. I'd like to see more of them.
Most corkscrews are usually duds, but not Fahrenheit's.
It packs a diverse set of elements and forces into a tight layout. This ejector airtime hill is the perfect finale for an inversion-focused layout.
Great Bear
To any Pennsylvania enthusiasts who like to complain that Great Bear's layout is incomplete, I'd like to propose a trade. I'll give you Silver Bullet for it, straight up… Any takers? Okay, I'll also throw in your pick of Sierra Sidewinder, Coast Rider, or Pony Express. Any takers now…? Didn't think so. Sure, the bear's layout could be more fleshed out than it is, but I argue its myriad idiosyncrasies are part of what makes it special, it's mimicry of IOA's Pteranodon Flyers at the end included. A brief stretch of track to admire scenery and reflect on the ride experience can actually be a meaningful element not enough coasters take the time to include. It helps too that Great Bear's big moments are pretty intense in the old school B&M way. The helix, first drop, and four inversions all deliver and I think the swooping drop/turn between the zero-g-roll and corkscrew is an underrated airtime moment if you catch it at the right time in the back row. 8.5/10
Great Bear is an excellent example of how space constraints can lead to some very creative solutions.
I would have loved to see the elevated helix into a drop duplicated at Knott's Berry Farm.
Great Bear was built after several big 1990s inverts like Montu and Alpengeist, but to me it feels most like one of the earlier, smaller ones, Flight Deck.
Great Bear will gladly accept all of your favorite camera angles Skyrush was forced to give up this year.
I enjoy the low-to-the-ground straightaways on Great Bear and Raptor. Some might see it as wasted track, but to me its adds character and an instant to take in and appreciate what you're experiencing.
Lightning Racer
I apparently took no photos of Lightning Racer, which actually makes a lot of sense given that it's a coaster I've long felt completely indifferent towards. In terms of ride experience, I've always seen it as the point where GCI began the switch from its original formula as shown by Wildcat, Gwazi, and the Roar twins, to its later design philosophy starting with Ozark Wildcat and Thunderhead, and still being continually refined up through Texas Stingray today. Lightning Racer seems caught in the transition phase between the larger, more drawn-out elements of first group and the lower to the ground, quickly paced elements of the second. If Lightning Racer was firmly in group two, I'd probably like it a lot more. As it is though, I always enjoy it once, but never feel compelled to re-ride. 7/10
And the coaster with the second longest wait of the day was… Wildcat! The 'every other row' socially distanced seating is not friendly to the Millennium Flyers' capacity. The duel tracked Lightning Racer mitigated it, but Wildcat was helpless. It felt exactly the same as I remembered it from two years ago. Rough, but not brutal, and lacking airtime or forces of any kind other than jackhammering. Speculation of eventual RMC treatment isn't going away unless Hersheypark actually goes through with it, but doing so would ironically rob the ride of its one redeeming quality—its aesthetics. 4/10
Rule #1 of GCI aesthetics - the better they look to the eye, the worse they actually ride!
What I mean is that GCI's oldest coasters had an almost poetic flow and symmetry in their structures. You can't really say that about Goldstriker or Mystic Timbers.
But I'll the the function over form approach of Goldstriker any day!
This was running brilliantly in 2018. I even stated it was Hersheypark's best wooden coaster at the time. I could still probably find a way to make that argument in 2020, but Comet was not running nearly as fast this year and I couldn't tell why. Maybe it needs a full train to properly hit its mark and leaving every other row empty left it too light? Maybe it was helped in 2018 by the fact that it was blazing hot that day? Were portions of it retracked two years ago and the PTC trains have spent the last couple of seasons chewing it up again? Hard for me to say. It has a great layout. It reminds me of a longer, more spread-out, terrain version of Phoenix, a fellow Herb Schmeck design. The on-ride experience just wasn't there this time. 6/10
Comet isn't the easiest ride to photograph either.
The other end of the now-closed Skyrush path.
Inside the new two-story retail space at Chocolatetown. The upper level was not yet open when I visited.
Overall, Chocolatetown and Candymonium are a win for Hersheypark.
I made the obligatory stop at Troegs Brewery after the park. As a SoCal craft beer guy, my standards for breweries are high and Troeg's is one of the best.
Interior seating was sparse and socially distanced. The patio was full.
Edited August 13, 2020 by Condor
JG-77 5
JG-77
I just swallowed a whole donkey!
Location: Either riding a train or wishing he was
Nice report! Shame about the fate of Skyrush path. Oddly enough, the park maps on the website still include it! I wonder if that means they plan to reopen it or that it's so much of an afterthought for them that they forgot to remove it. Glad the new additions seem to be a success!
Wonderful report on Hershey, Condor! I have known about this place since years and years ago,
when it originally opened! Always wanted to visit it. Timing and budgeting, were always 'wrong.'
Thanks for a really great, thorough tour of the Park!
bill_s 2
bill_s
The only thing better than a naked woman is a naked donkey!
Location: kings dominion
I don't understand criticisms like this of Lightning Racer. Yes, if was only a single coaster, it would be a 7 or maybe only 6. Racing, and especially my first ride in a while, it's at least 4 times better, and the best surprise in the park -- even having been there twice before and knowing how good it is.
I also love Wildcat, especially with retracking since my last visit. Comet was running great too; it was at least 4:00 by the time I rode it ... 3 times. I also found my later ride, front row, on Candy far better, very good.
Unfortunately I rode the hypers least of any with reasonable lines. Warning, any rain at all and they close them. Would have been doing me a favor but it was still light at that time and I was next to ride. ~Everything else still open.
Great review! I agree with your assessment of Candymonium. The first half feels like Mako, but it finishes stronger.
coasterbill 287
coasterbill
Location: The bar
Great report! I really need to get out and ride Candymonium.
wonderful report, and great pics
(tho I disagree with you on Skyrush, and HATE Wildcat. . but that's one less person in line when you're there )
thanks for posting.
CenturyFlyer 12
CenturyFlyer
I think Intamin should make a donkey!
I did enjoy Wildcat when I rode it... in 2016... at 12 years old.
I also find it hard to like Lightning Racer. The dueling is the best part, but even with that, I don't find it to be a great wooden coaster.
Man, after reading all of these reviews I wish that I had gotten another ride on Candymonium! But I did enjoy myself more at Knoebels that same day, so what's a guy to do?
PKI Jizzman 14
PKI Jizzman
Getting a good, comfortable ride on Skyrush is like a game and while some may hate that, it's part of why I love it.
I'm thankful to be part of a TPR Skyrush hour ERT and I 1000% agree with this. I was pretty intimidated after my first and second ride, it was so wild. But then each ride you can learn how to take the turns, even put your arms up, and then after a dozen rides you are figuring it all out.
There aren't many coasters I stop and think, Oh shit. I haven't been on ____ in a year. I need to get back asap. And Skyrush is definitely one of them. Oh and then there's the entire buffet of amazing coasters and flats Hershey sets out. Nice.
My review may have come across a little harsh, though my 7/10 was meant to show it's a quality coaster that has simply never made a big impression on me. I've noticed racing/dueling makes a bigger difference to some enthusiasts than others. For me it has never mattered much, with Dueling Dragons as the lone exception. Generally if I don't enjoy it as a single coaster, dueling isn't going to change that, but I understand why it would for others.
One great thing about Skyrush is that it often has a one-train wait at most in the evening. So unless you're there on an especially busy day, almost any evening can become a Skyrush ERT hour!
pianojohn 15
pianojohn
Jar-Jar Binks smells like Donkey
Location: Ocoee, FL
I only rode Skyrush once its opening year. Painful. Beyond painful since I have big quads. The sitting on the brake run at the end was pretty much the worst moment I have ever had on a coaster. I could feel the blood clots starting. Why oh why did they design these lap bars so horribly? I've been on tons of other Intamins with no problems whatsoever.
Has it gotten any better? I really will probably never ride it again if they haven't modified their restraints.
Don't ride on a wing and you can sort of brace the restraint with your legs if your feet are on the floor and stop it from closing as tight as it otherwise would. Once I learned how to ride it I started to really like it. I'm on team Skyrush at this point.
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» Guanadrel Sulfate contains not less than 97.0 percent and not more than 103.0 percent of (C10H19N3O2)2·H2SO4, calculated on the dried basis.
Identification— The IR absorption spectrum of a mineral oil dispersion of it exhibits maxima only at the same wavelengths as that of a similar preparation of USP Guanadrel Sulfate RS.
Loss on drying 731 — Dry it at room temperature at a pressure not exceeding 5 mm of mercury for 16 hours: it loses not more than 0.5% of its weight.
Mobile phase— Prepare a filtered and degassed mixture of 530 mL of water and 470 mL of methanol containing about 6.35 g of dl-10-camphorsulfonic acid sodium salt and 0.8 g of ammonium nitrate. Adjust with glacial acetic acid, if necessary, to a pH of between 5.0 and 5.5. Make adjustments if necessary (see System Suitability under Chromatography 621 ).
Standard preparation— Dissolve an accurately weighed quantity of USP Guanadrel Sulfate RS in Mobile phase to obtain a solution having a known concentration of about 10 mg per mL.
Assay preparation— Transfer about 100 mg of Guanadrel Sulfate, accurately weighed, to a container, add 10.0 mL of Mobile phase, and mix.
Resolution solution— Dissolve suitable quantities of USP Guanadrel Sulfate RS and ethylparaben in Mobile phase to obtain a solution having known concentrations of about 10 mg and 12 mg, respectively, in each mL.
Chromatographic system (see Chromatography 621 )—The liquid chromatograph is equipped with a refractive index detector and a 4- to 4.6-mm × 25- to 30-cm stainless steel column containing packing L1. The flow rate is about 1.5 mL per minute. Chromatograph the Resolution solution, and record the peak responses as directed for Procedure: the resolution, R, between guanadrel and ethylparaben is not less than 1.6, and the relative retention times are about 0.8 for guanadrel and 1.0 for ethylparaben. Chromatograph the Standard preparation, and record the peak responses as directed for Procedure: the relative standard deviation for replicate injections is not more than 2.5%.
in which C is the concentration, in mg per mL, of USP Guanadrel Sulfate RS in the Standard preparation; and rU and rS are the peak responses obtained from the Assay preparation and the Standard preparation, respectively.


Are you keeping your office betting pool on the DL?
Our 2013 Office Betting Survey results are in, and while there's some confusion about whose company policies' actually allow betting, it seems that the vast majority of workplaces have a pool going regardless.
70% of participants report having participated in office betting of some kind, most commonly March Madness, at 69%. The Super Bowl was another favorite, with 60% of survey takers placing bets on the big game, and the regular NFL season coming in third at 37%.
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Curious what most people chip in? Wondering if you're wasting more time making your picks than most?
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I am available for consultations for personal health and herbal business and speaking engagements for all ages in a variety of topics including, herbal medicine preparation, wild crafting, cooking with herbs and more. My two greatest passions in life are books and plants, and I love to incorporate them into one. Classes I have held doing just that include: Professor Sprouts Herbology 101, The Herbs of Outlander and The Plants of Popular Fiction. Got an idea for a fun class topic? Want to recommend a plant related book? Shoot me a message, I'm always looking for great new ideas!
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Across the bridge from Long Beach, San Pedro is on a hill overlooking the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors. There are many opportunities for harbor and water views, which make living there ideal for fans of coastal living.
Condominiums are often in smaller sized associations of 10-12 units, and less. These complexes are less likely to offer common area amenities such as larger pools and spas. The newer modern lofts located towards the harbor area are larger complexes with many common area features such as exercise rooms, central courtyards and recreational features. Another type of structure are those in converted historic commercial structures, such as a bank, where the interior was completely replaced by new condominiums. These are typically in the original commercial area and offer an architecturally historic exterior design.
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Left prefers to name call and deplatform — easier that debating.
The right calls names too. But nothing like the way the left always insists that Republican presidential candidates are insane or otherwise cognitively challenged.
They did it with Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, John McCain and George W. Bush, and of course they love doing it to Trump.
The respected magazine Atlantic Monthly ran a piece two years ago called "The Mind of Donald Trump," written by psychologist who never met him.
That's just one example of these off-the-cuff diagnoses.
But even though presumed Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden is obviously suffering a decline in his faculties, you won't see the left writing articles like this about him.
The Democrats are clearly hoping that Biden will be a figurehead, and that his vice-president will be the one calling the shots.
After all, it's "working" with Justin Trudeau, isn't it?
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Support to Intelligence Agencies and Security Sector in nations in receipt of development assistance.
This paper sets out why and how HMG should increase efforts to support the reform of intelligence agencies and the security sector in countries in receipt of development assistance.
Intelligence agencies are just as susceptible to poor governance and corruption as other security/state agencies and have a disproportionate impact on the standards of governance as a whole. Thus a comprehensive approach to supporting democratic transition and improving governance should not only include such agencies but have a focus upon them.
To achieve the international community's aims of deep-seated change in developing countries to create fully open, pluralist societies, thorough institutional reform, particularly of agencies that were critical to the preservation of dictatorship, is crucial.
Local ownership and democratisation should be the driver of reform, because the principal mechanism of change is that the sector senses and adapts to the day-to-day demands made on it by citizens.
While wholesale or radical reforms are required, external actors and donors are most likely to successfully gain support for such reforms by offering incremental and flexible support on core 'day to day' operations rather than wholesale top down change.
The fundamental governance challenge for intelligence/security agencies is to invest in an optimal mix of initiatives to facilitate the establishment of systems to motivate their officers to prioritise national security interests over their private interest, or the private interests of regime oligarchs.
External support needs to mitigate the risk that a reform programme will be designed precisely at the moment when local capacity to contribute, and to influence its design, is at its weakest, which might make the process inherently undemocratic.
External support needs to facilitate an architecture that would improve both the ability of the public to make its needs known and the ability of the security providers to take those needs into account in formulating security policies.
External support should focus on being attentive to and nurturing local initiatives and incipient reforms, which are much more context-specific than imported ideas. At the same time, training and capacity-building are essential to enable intelligence officers to generate such initiatives in the first place.
Capacity-building activities must be realistic, relevant to local context and designed to improve accountability as well as effectiveness; in addition, the political ramifications of capacity-building programmes must be understood and incorporated into programme risk management.
In all the countries in receipt of development assistance, the role of intelligence and security agencies will require drastic transformation. They will need to reorient themselves to the proper role of such agencies in a democratic state: protecting national security from serious threats such as terrorism, foreign espionage and major organised crime.
Such a wholesale reorientation faces entrenched challenges. For example, the earlier transition in Iraq has demonstrated the tendency for new democratically elected leaders to seek to recast the newly formed Iraqi National Intelligence Service as an agency of state repression and control on traditional Middle Eastern Mukhābarāt lines. An earlier example that a 'people's revolution' does not necessarily mean change in the nature of security agencies is provided in the case of Iran, where the overthrow of the Shah was partially due to hatred of the notorious SAVAK; the state's intelligence and security agencies now very much resemble SAVAK in their disregard for individual rights.
The policy of the international community, as outlined at the recent G8 summit, is to encourage deep-seated reform in the developing world and the creation of fully open and pluralist societies, as opposed the short-lived democracies that preside over only cosmetic change. Thorough institutional reform, especially of agencies that were critical to the preservation of dictatorship, is thus crucial.
Of course, in addition to the challenge of re-orientation, intelligence organisations of developing nations face dramatic challenges relating to conflict, refugees and illegal migration, activities of local and trans-national criminal networks, political instability, peace building and state building, and democratic consolidation. There are genuine capacity issues in attempting to carry out this multiplicity of responsibilities.
The poorest and most vulnerable sections of society.
In light of this it is the contention of this paper that the support to reform intelligence agencies should be a priority for western assistance to Arab and other countries in transition.
In other countries, the 'emerging and post-conflict' security and intelligence agencies have generally not received the same level of focus from the international security policy community as the defence and law enforcement sectors. This at a time when agencies such as the Department for International Development (DfID) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) have increased their spending on the defence and law enforcement sectors. In DfID's case the increase has been marked and looks set to accelerate over the short to medium term.
The security and intelligence services are just as susceptible to poor governance and corruption as the other states agencies and a comprehensive approach to supporting democratic transition, and improved governance needs to include them.
The traditional reasons for reluctance on the part of agencies involved in aid and international development to engage fully in this arena are easy to understand but the time is now right for HMG to reconsider this stance: not least because the security and intelligence services have access to specialised tools for investigating networks of corrupt practice across the boundaries of host government sectors which could be of particular utility in preventing a slide back into corruption.
Of course security and intelligence agencies differ from other arms of Government in that their officials can view all attempts at reform as disguised attempts to infiltrate their ranks and steal their national security secrets and assets. This section of the paper provides advice on how to mitigate this and other challenges in designing programmes of support for intelligence agencies.
One of the most important implications for intelligence agencies in developing nations is the risk that a reform programme or programmes will be designed precisely at the moment when local capacity to contribute, and to influence its design, is at its weakest, which makes the process inherently undemocratic.
Another key risk is that a reform programme underestimates the local context and its complexities by prioritising the institutional characteristics that the external reformers wish to introduce over those already present in the recipients' societies.
Such shortcomings, and the absence of, or failure of these interactions have been clearly visible in developments in the so-called 'Arab Spring'.
tremendous social upheavals provoked by poverty, the evident injustice of crony capitalism, the rising expectations of the literate and internet-savvy young; and the delayed flowering of civil society.
The Intelligence agencies lacked any semblance of day-to-day anticipation of these local trends.
The sections below consider a range of insight into and approaches for overcoming the challenges and initiating a successful reform process.
This paper argues that a focus on the day-to-day local ownership of intelligence agency reform is appropriate. For success donors should concentrate more on the dynamics of how the agencies respond to local needs and also press them to be less rigid in defining their desired outcomes in advance.
The focus of support should rely less on state level democratic reform and Western democratic rhetoric, and more on common sense and good management at the street level.
The paper suggests a way in which a security sector can evolve, over time, to be more fully responsive to the complexities of local needs which cannot possibly be fully understood in advance by either an external assistor or a member of the local elite.
Instead of seeing "local ownership" as a means to the end of implementing a programme of reform, this approach determines that local ownership and democratisation is the purpose of reform, because the principal mechanism of change is that the sector senses and adapts to the day-to-day demands made on it by citizens.
Developed countries which enjoy well-managed intelligence and security agencies that meet the security demands of their populations have typically reached this stage not through a managed programme of reform activities, but because the social and political environments which influenced the organisations changed over time. Moreover the organisations were willing or compelled to sense these changes and to respond to the new demands of the wider social and political environment by altering their structures, processes and behaviour.
These developments arose not as the result of a long-term strategy to produce a security sector which fulfilled certain criteria; rather, they grew organically in response to the demands of the circumstances and societies in which they were situated.
A top-down strategy of reform rather than a more organic approach can often change formal structures but has less impact on underlying incentives, power politics and culture. The resulting security configurations may therefore be pleasing to Western donors, but may not be sustainable in the long term or effective in areas where the authority of national capitals is at best partial.
Thus external assistance should focus on being attentive to and nurturing local initiatives and incipient reforms, which are much more context-specific than imported ideas. At the same time, training and capacity-building are essential to enable people to generate such initiatives in the first place.
The tricky debate will lie in exactly what the role of these external actors in reform should be. In particular, should they solely facilitate a local process, and with whom, or should they also aim to introduce content and direction?
On the question of 'with whom', it would be possible to work with members of the local elite to implement their plans, which might produce results which were pleasing to the preferences of donors, but cannot be said to be truly representative or rooted in local structures.
Local ownership here is principally a (sometimes effective) consulting tactic and does little to increase democratic representation. Or it would be possible to work with non-state security/justice systems (for example tribal Sheikhs in Yemen) which can be said to be more rooted in local structures, traditions and preferences. For example DfID has supported traditional approaches to security, policing and justice in one of its largest SSR programmes in Sierra Leone for several years.
Leaders of security agencies will be partners in many cases but some of them may be discredited on account of their past activities and thus should not be cooperated with. For those who remain, anti-corruption activities could be an attractive new focus in tune with the new political dynamics. Intelligence agencies often have the technological tools to detect corrupt activities. A greater role in this area could help them regain legitimacy.
Where (transitional) governments and their intelligence and security organs may lack legitimacy and accountability, and civil society itself encompasses a myriad of competing elements, the choice of partner, whether governmental or from civil society, will be a key decision which inevitably favours some groups over others.
By way of an illustration donors might assist in the design and development of a network of security committees at provincial and district levels to bring together security officials and representatives of civil society, and to establish channels of communication with an Office of National Security.
This move would extend the national security coordination function beyond the central government and involve the entire country in national security governance.
The resulting security architecture should provide opportunities for civil society involvement, with the local security committees serving as early warning mechanisms at the community level.
This architecture would improve both the ability of the public to make its needs known and the ability of the security providers to take those needs into account in formulating security policies.
At present throughout the developing nations, little or no account is taken of popular opinion by the decision-makers for the establishment of strategic intelligence/security priorities, or for the allocation of resources or the implementation of security activity.
In none of the nations is there is a way of establishing methodically what sort of security the people want; and no mechanism exists within the decision-making process for the people's view to be incorporated into policy. Whether the people of a particular province feel terrorism is their key concern, or drug crime, or vandalism, or protection rackets, or declining social morality, the top management has no way of knowing: it has become simply a truism that the number one priority is fighting terrorism, or proliferation, or whatever.
Where there remains a requirement for brokering conflict resolution, a programme of external support should focus on creating civilian capability to collect and assess information and intelligence on security, economic, political and social issues in order to balance militia/military influence. The creation of such structures would aim to create the foundations for sophisticated strategic policy assessments and enable highly targeted security actions rather than indiscriminate militia responses. Even if this did not lead instantly to peace, it would at least lead to a lower intensity conflict with improved respect for human rights and fewer civilian casualties.
Where there is enduring conflict, the aim should be to increase the security policy options available to the (transitional) government, so that the pursuit of peace can be characterised by less indiscriminate militia action, more competent pursuit of peace negotiations, and an increasing role for civilian agencies rather than the military in delivering security.
There would be the opportunity for involving a much greater role for the police and for taking intelligence action against financial and procurement networks rather than using brute force against enemy fighters and their civilian neighbours. Political and security action would be carefully constructed to engage moderates and separate them from hardliners, rather than indiscriminately targeting both and increasing the numbers supporting the insurgency. Information, intelligence and good decision making would be critical to achieving all these aims.
For such an approach to work, the agencies must develop a range of capabilities that will often be unfamiliar in a reform environment.
First, the agencies must be able to measure and understand the security needs of the local population.
Second, they must have mechanisms to allocate resources to solving those needs.
Third, if the right initiatives are to be adopted and replicated, the system needs to be able to measure the impact of its operations in terms of delivering human security (not simply in terms of arrests made or insurgents killed).
Finally, the individuals who deliver positive results must be rewarded through an effective human resources system that is based on merit rather than patronage.
One of the stated objectives of SSR (as set out by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) guidelines) is to ensure that decision making and governance in the security sector conform to democratic norms. Much structural reform and legislation for intelligence and security agencies demands that the agencies share intelligence with each other, accept control and coordination from bodies including national security councils and relevant ministries, and provide sufficient information for parliamentary oversight bodies and judicial overseers to be able to discharge their duties.
Such reforms seem obvious and are essential if the agencies are to avoid duplication and if executive control and judicial and parliamentary oversight are to mean anything in practice. However, the provision of confidential materials outside an agency is fraught with dangers for a diligent intelligence or security official. Will the receiving institution protect the material properly? To do so, the receiving institution must use the same level of security protection as the agency — they must vet staff to the same standard, they must use the same system of secure communications, they must even have the same quality of combination locks on their filing cabinets. Thus this is a path down which one must tread very carefully indeed.
respect and consideration for those with whom they work.
A successful programme will require the development of a complex range of building block capacities within the intelligence/security agencies and their overseeing bodies.
Some of these tasks are mundane, such as disciplined and security conscious paper file management; others are extremely complex, such as strategic planning, the creation of locally relevant metrics for human security and the establishment of systems to motivate public servants to prioritise such targets over their private (and possibly corrupt) interests.
Clearly effective incentives will need to create or strengthen, at the level of the individual officer and at the level of the agencies and the system, some willingness to act as public servants and not solely pursue selfish individual needs, seek only to prop up an existing regime or support the interests of one's own socioeconomic or ethnic group.
Implementation requires a fine balance of top-down strategy and bottom-up innovation. Above all, it entails a detailed programme of change management. A great deal of work has been done on such questions of incentives, strategy and change by business schools, economics departments and management consultancies, which have developed a range of well-documented approaches that have been tested in private and public sector organizations.
DfID, for example, has let and managed dozens of major change management and institutional strengthening contracts in the Middle East and elsewhere and DfID's contractors have significant expertise in these areas. This is expertise that has been missing in the intelligence agency to intelligence agency support programmes to date.
The possible ways of creating positive incentives within an institution, or introducing disincentives for undesired behaviour such as corruption are many. But basic good personnel management, in which performance is accurately measured against objective criteria and rewarded by promotion or other means, will clearly point the process in the right direction.
The failure to properly reward merit is often a result of disorganisation and lack of capability rather than a deliberate attempt to reward negative behaviour. It is a further argument for strengthening the basic managerial skills of an institution, even if one does not know exactly how those skills will be used or what sort of organisation they will produce.
Capacity-building activities must be realistic, relevant to local context and designed to improve accountability as well as effectiveness; in addition, the political ramifications of capacity-building programmes must be understood and incorporated into programme risk management. This capacity building 'facilitation' will have a profound effect on the agency's political power lines. Human resource management is a way of ensuring regularised, accountable allocation of people to tasks.
A coherent human resources management system, where job specifications are matched to individuals' competencies and experience within a commonly understood framework, threatens the system of patronage and nepotism on which many developing states' national institutions are based. In short, it is essential that the programme takes account of the effect not only of politics on the reform process, but also of the reform process on the politics.
A balance must be struck in not overburdening the system with new policies and regulations. This is a process of change management. The required change is both institutional and individual, and all agencies need training for this as they go through the reform process. Development of ethics based prevention through raising integrity levels means building clarity and understanding, cooperation, openness and trust, transparency, information- through setting standards, education, training and accountability, and promoting leadership on these matters.
Commitments to honour, duty, and country.
Appropriate Public access to information and appropriate relationships with the Media.
Increase the penalties if convicted.
Whilst these are noble aims, in the short to medium term it will be difficult to achieve them in many countries in receipt of development assistance. An overly theoretical as opposed to pragmatic approach to reform carries the risk of making responsive delivery of security a hostage to progress on more fundamental and complex political reform; or, worse, of encouraging outside actors to build a semblance of a democratic architecture for security institutions to be accountable to, where no genuine democratic legitimacy exists.
Progress may be quicker, and democracy in its true sense might be better served, by increasing the capacity of security forces to respond to the public in a more direct way than at state level, and in a manner which reflects their day-to-day role as public servants.


Tip 1: Know your audience's expectations.
You don't want a relationship with a person who isn't in-tune with your needs; why would your readers? Create a lasting relationship with your readers by focusing on their needs.
What are they looking for? What information do they need?
Do keyword research. SEMrush and StoryBase are two great tools we love to use. Keywords can tell you what questions your audience is asking so you can tailor your content appropriately.
Also think about who your audience is. Be sure to write to their reading level. Don't use jargon or words they aren't familiar with, as doing so might tell them your content is intended for another audience. For example, if you are a doctor who uses complex medical terminology on a consumer-facing website, readers might believe your website is intended for other doctors, not patients.
If you're targeting a specific geographic location, localize your content. Reference streets or landmarks in the area or direct them to a local hospital after a car accident, for example.
Tip 2: Help readers accomplish their goals.
Related to knowing your readers is knowing how to help them accomplish their goals. If your readers are purely looking for information and you do nothing but sell to them, it'll turn them off. For example, if you are a lawyer answering a question about the statute of limitations, readers are likely looking for information. That page should answer their question first before you mention your services. If they click on your page in the search results and see nothing but a sales page, they'll likely leave and find another page.
Further, if your page is about what to do after a slip and fall, give your readers a few steps they should take. Help your readers accomplish their goal (take the right steps after their accident), but be sure you show your value while you do it. Give them the information they need, but do so in a way that shows how you can help them.
Know your readers and their goals. Decide how to answer their questions and address their concerns so you speak to them in a manner that is appropriate for in the phase of the sales cycle they are in.
Tip 3: Speak directly to your readers.
Example 1: Insurance companies want to make money. In this quest to do so, they might take advantage of injured parties. XYZ Law Firm handles all communication with insurance companies to help protect their clients' right to compensation.
Example 2: Do you feel like the insurance company is taking advantage of you? It might be. Some insurance companies take advantage of injured people like you. That is why we handle all communication with the insurer. This allows us to protect you and your right to compensation.
Example 2, with its use of we and you, makes the reader to feel like your only focus is them. You care about and want to protect them, not any random client you can get.
As always, consider who your readers are and whether you think they would prefer this type of writing.
Tip 4: Make it personal.
Tell your readers a little bit about yourself. You might tell your readers about where you're from, how you got where you are, your pets, your hobbies, etc. on your About or Bio page.
On other pages, tell a story related to the topic. Talk about your experience as a former insurance adjuster or prosecutor and how that informs your services as an injury or defense lawyer.
Cultivating a relationship with your readers will help you in the long run. By creating a relationship, you make it more likely that your readers will come back. Establishing a strong relationship can convert them into customers for life.
Need help with content writing? Give us a call: 888-521-3880.


From America's Presidential Election to China's 19th Party Congress: Where Do U.S.-China Relations Go From Here?
Ambassador Ahn was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Korea to the United States of America by President Park Geun-hye in May 2013. From 2012 to 2013, he served as First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and before that he served as Korea's Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium and to the European Union. From 2008 to 2011, he was the Deputy Minister for Trade at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during which time he served as President Lee Myung-bak's sherpa to the G-20 and G8 outreach meetings.
Ambassador Christopher Robert Hill is the Dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, a position he has held since September 2010. In addition to overseeing the Josef Korbel School, Ambassador Hill is author of the book Outpost: Life on the Frontlines of American Diplomacy: A Memoir , a monthly columnist for Project Syndicate , and a highly sought public speaker and voice in the media on international affairs.
A panel discussion on the future of Ukraine addressing the far reaching implications of reconstruction aid and development; legal status of the Crimean Peninsula; re-establishment of international frontiers; resettlement of refugee and IDP populations; demobilization of armed forces and militia; reconstruction aid and development and the prosecution of alleged war crimes.


Load your family into the 2016 Chevrolet Trax. With less than 20,000 miles on the odometer, this 4 door sport utility vehicle prioritizes comfort, safety and convenience. Smooth gearshifts are achieved thanks to the efficient 4 cylinder engine, providing a spirited, yet composed ride and drive. The engine breathes better thanks to a turbocharger, improving both performance and economy. Chevrolet infused the interior with top shelf amenities, such as: a trip computer, front bucket seats, air conditioning, power door mirrors, power windows, remote keyless entry, and more. Audio features include an AM/FM radio, steering wheel mounted audio controls, and 6 speakers, enhancing the audio experience throughout the interior. Chevrolet also prioritized safety and security with features such as: dual front impact airbags, front and rear side impact airbags, traction control, brake assist, a panic alarm, onStar, and ABS brakes. Various mechanical systems are monitored by electronic stability control, keeping you on your intended path. We pride ourselves in consistently exceeding our customer's expectations. Stop by our dealership or give us a call for more information.


Campaign for the North is a new cross-party organisation working towards a regional government for the North of England. Here, the organisation's campaign director sets out its ambitions. What do you think? Let us know via Twitter @Northern_Soul_or in our comment thread below.


Welcome to our large canvas prints panoramic section. We have wide panel prints in 14 different categories with everything from striking abstracts to relaxing sunsets and seascapes. The Canvas Art Shop use only the best inks and latest printing technology available to make our large canvas art prints.
We are passionate about making large canvas prints that have a professional finish every time. To ensure that the colours in our prints will not fade over time we are pleased to announce we now varnish every large canvas we make. This treatment by our highly trained team seals the colour into the canvas and means that all of our panoramic large canvas prints are scratch proof and water resistant.
We pride ourselves in offering great canvas wall art in a wide variety of frame sizes so that you can find the perfect large canvas prints to suit any space. Thanks for choosing The Canvas Art Shop, we hope you enjoy browsing our great range of large canvas art.


Virtual Receptionist Helps Business | AccessDirect, Inc.
Today's small or start-up business may not always have the funds to hire a receptionist, and the increasingly remote workforce makes the traditional office setting and receptionist position essentially obsolete. These are just a couple of the many reasons to use a virtual receptionist for your business.
Outside of evolving business demands, a virtual receptionist is in general an excellent way to make a good first impression on any individual or organization that comes into contact with it. On a basic level, every single interaction creates a distinct impression on the other party. Without a virtual receptionist, a business can come across as disorganized and even unprofessional. While it may be easy to discredit a single interaction, this is unwise as it can harm a business's reputation.
This speaks to the value that can be realized in each individual phone experience. A personalized approach to customer service through a live receptionist is a great way to give off the impression of a well-run office. However, virtual does not mean a pre-recorded, automated system. In fact, live receptionists are at work for you. AccessDirect's virtual receptionist system is sophisticated, with live support handling business calls in a professional manner.
Not only is the virtual receptionist system beneficial for making good impressions, it's beneficial for making big impressions, too. AccessDirect understands the value of a solid business image and knows how skilled call management can lend the impression of big operations to even the smallest businesses. A virtual phone system provides the same services that Fortune 500 companies spend the big bucks for.
Our skilled receptionists are on hand to deliver call answering and routing services, and the system can be programmed to offer 24/7 services. Our interface features include professional call greeting, call transfer to appropriate extensions and the handling of multiple calls simultaneously without risking line-busy signals.
Another benefit of a virtual receptionist is that businesses can maintain a presence in numerous markets by employing distinct phone lines for each one. Companies can eliminate the costs of additional staffing, reduce the chances for a missed call, enjoy easy connection with remote workforce, save on overhead, decrease the amount of time a caller is left on hold and substantially improve customer support services for their brand. Additional features that may prove particularly valuable include Find-me/Follow-me call forwarding, dial by name, extension and department lines, voicemail, music on transfer, fax to email and voicemail to email.


Erica Garner, Who Became An Activist After Her Father's Death, Dies : The Two-Way : NPR — Erica Garner became a prominent figure calling for an end to police brutality, as her father's last words became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement. She began staging weekly "die-ins" on the sidewalk in front of a beauty supply store in Staten Island, the site where the New York City police officer put her father in the fatal chokehold.
Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System | Pregnancy | Reproductive Health | CDC — CDC initiated national surveillance of pregnancy-related deaths in 1986 because more clinical information was needed to fill data gaps about causes of maternal death.
New York City Launches Committee to Review Maternal… — ProPublica — Amid intensifying concerns about deaths and near-deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth, New York City will review cases in depth to protect mothers and improve data collection.
Erica Garner | The Marshall Project | The New Yorker - YouTube — Content Warning: includes video of the homicide-by-police of Eric Garner. Erica Garner describes the agony of finding out her father was killed while in a chokehold by NYPD officers — and the aftermath of the trial and protests.
Randy Bryce (@IronStache) | Twitter — Democrat for WI-01. Father, Army veteran, Ironworker, Cancer survivor, Wisconsin4ever. Most tweets mine.
Meet Randy Bryce | Randy Bryce for Congress — Randy was raised in southeastern Wisconsin, and went to public schools. After graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, and was posted to Honduras, where he earned the Army Achievement Medal. Randy's father was a police officer, and his mother worked in a doctor's office. His sister is a public school teacher.
Home - Sister Song, Inc — Sistersong's mission is to strengthen and amplify the collective voices of indigenous women and women of color to achieve reproductive justice by eradicating reproductive oppression and securing human rights.
5 Steps To Being A More Effective White Anti-Racist Ally — There has been a lot of discussion surround "white allies" and "white allyship". Most of the mainstream discussions about the topic do not really take into account what people of color need in an ally. This is one Afro-Boricua's take on what White people need to do if they want to be an effective, anti-racist ally.
How to Win Your Next Political Argument — Psychologists who study political belief and persuasion think it's adorable how obsessed argumentative people are with those cute little things called facts. When it comes to winning arguments, truthfulness and details simply don't matter as much as we think they do.
The Subtle Linguistics of Polite White Supremacy — Learn to recognize these; this is what you'll be dealing with more often than not.
Michael Che Hilarious "Black Lives Matters" - YouTube — Michael Che's hilarious but yet true commentary on Black Lives Matter.
Welcome To The Anti-Racism Movement — Here's What You've Missed — Hi! I see you there! Welcome to the anti-racism movement. I know you were kind of hoping to sneak in the back of class in the middle of this semester and then raise your hand in a few days to offer up expert opinion like you've always been here — but you've been spotted, and I have some homework for you, because you've missed A LOT and we don't have the time to go over it all together.
There Is No Middle Ground Between Racism And Justice — I'm going to say something about race that may seem to fly in the face of everything we've been taught about how to handle complicated and divisive adult issues—but, as unproductive as it may sound, it's the truth: There is no compromise. There is no compromise to be had, none whatsoever, when it comes to racial justice. There are no baby steps that are acceptable. There is no middle to meet in. Everything short of racial justice is white supremacy. Everything.
White People: I Want You To Understand Yourselves Better — Your survival has never depended on your knowledge of white culture. In fact, it's required your ignorance.
The Philosopher Song - YouTube — "Good evening Ladies and Bruces!"


text:
Q: xcode preprocessor macros LLVM 4.2 I am trying to set DEBUG_MODE macro for DLOG to work only debug mode but it is not working...
What I tried so far: http://developer.sinnerschrader-mobile.com/llvm-preprocessor-macros-xcode/275/
and naming one more flag as DEBUG_MODE, playing combinations with or without $(inherited) value.
I am all confused, what is green highlighted part stands for? and why is some parts seen empty but when clicked values are seen in it?
How should I configure my macros so that I can really access them for:
#ifdef DEBUG
#   define DLog(fmt, ...) NSLog((@"%s [Line %d] " fmt), __PRETTY_FUNCTION__, __LINE__, ##__VA_ARGS__);
#else
#   define DLog(...) do { } while (0)
#endif

EDIT:
This is become really wicked! I have set all values to DEBUG=0 in release mode. And changed
#if DEBUG
#   define DLog(fmt, ...) NSLog((@"%s [Line %d] " fmt), __PRETTY_FUNCTION__, __LINE__, ##__VA_ARGS__);
#else
#   define DLog(...) do { } while (0)
#endif

still seeing all logs in release...

A: Your Preprocessor macro settings (Debug being DEBUG=1 and Release being DEBUG=0) will cause the first definition of the DLog() macro to be used given you have used #ifdef (if defined) to provide different implementations. This is because the macro will be defined if you define it at all, regardless of what you define it to.
What you need to do is, either:

*

*Remove DEBUG=0 from your Release profile.

*Use #if DEBUG instead of #ifdef DEBUG.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Gyula (; ;  or ) is a town in Békés County, Hungary. The town is best known for its Medieval castle and a thermal bath. Ferenc Erkel, the composer of the Hungarian national anthem, and Albrecht Dürer the Elder, the father of Albrecht Dürer, were also born in Gyula.

Geography
Gyula is located in the Great Hungarian Plain on the River Fehér-Körös,  southeast from Budapest and  from the border with Romania. The Békéscsaba-Gyula-Kötegyán railway line and Highway 44 also cross the town. Highway 44 is a four-lane expressway between Gyula and the county seat Békéscsaba.

Name
Gyula is named after the medieval Hungarian warlord Gyula III. Gyula was also a title among the Hungarian tribes and still a popular given name for boys.

In Turkish, the town is also known as Göle.

History
The first recorded reference to Gyula was in a document dated 1313 which mentions a monastery called Gyulamonostora (Julamonustra in Latin). By 1332 the settlement around the monastery was called Gyula. The construction of Gyula Castle began in the 14th century but finished only in the mid-16th century. It was the property of the Maróthy family and later John Corvinus, the illegitimate son of Matthias Corvinus. Turks conquered Gyula in 1566 and the town remained part of the Ottoman Empire until liberated by Christian troops in 1694. Due to the wars, most of the native Hungarian population fled from Gyula and Békés County became near uninhabited. The landowner János Harruckern invited German, Hungarian, and Romanian settlers, who re-established the town in the early 18th century. In 1881, the town had 18,046 inhabitants, of which 12,103 were Hungarians, 2,608 Romanians, 2,124 Germans, 400 Slovaks and 811 of other ethnicities. Gyula became a popular tourist destination in the 20th century. The thermal bath was established in 1942 and expanded in 1959, and the castle was restored in 1962.

Demographics
According to the 2011 census the total population of Gyula was 31,067, of whom there were 25,895 (83.4%) Hungarians, 974 (3.1%) Romanians, 971 (3.1%) Germans and 102 (0.3%) Romani by ethnicity. In Hungary, people can declare more than one ethnicity, so some people declared Hungarian and a minority one together. Gyula is the center of the small native Romanian community in Hungary. It has its own newspaper published in Gyula, Foaia Românească ("The Romanian Sheet").

In 2011 there were 5,726 (18.4%) Roman Catholic, 5,560 (17.9%) Hungarian Reformed (Calvinist), 606 (2.0%) Orthodox and 507 (1.6%) Lutheran in Gyula. 8,304 people (26.7%) were irreligious and 453 (1.5%) Atheist, while 9,012 people (29.0%) did not declare their religion.

Tourist attractions
Gyula Castle (Gyulai vár)
Thermal bath (Gyulai gyógyfürdő)
100-year-old confectionery (100 éves cukrászda)
Town hall, 1861 (Városháza)
Birth house of Ferenc Erkel (Erkel Ferenc szülőháza)
Saint Michael Cathedral, 1825 (Szent Miklós katedrális)
Roman Catholic church, 1775-1777 (Római katolikus templom)
Roman Catholic chapel, 1738–1752, (Római katolikus kápolna)

Politics
The current mayor of Gyula is Dr. Ernő István Görgényi of the Fidesz-KDNP party.

The local Municipal Assembly has 14+1 members divided into this political parties and alliances:

Notable people

Born in Gyula
 Béla Bánáthy (1919–2003), social scientist and professor
 Zoltán Bay (1900–1992), physicist (born in Gyulavári, now part of Gyula)
 Imre Bródy (1891–1944), physicist
 Albrecht Dürer the Elder (1427–1502), the father of Albrecht Dürer
 Ferenc Erkel (1810–1893), composer
 Imre König (1901–1992), chess player
 László Krasznahorkai (born 1954), novelist and screenwriter
 Mihály Mező (born 1978), singer and musician
 George Pomutz (1818–1882), Romanian-American diplomat and general

Lived in Gyula
 (1974–2013), Hungarian bodybuilding champion
Béla Bartók (1881–1945), Hungarian composer

Burials in Gyula
John Corvin (1473–1504), King of Bosnia, illegitimate son of Matthias Corvinus
Beatrice de Frangepan (1480–1510), wife of John Corvin

Twin Towns - Sister Cities
Gyula is twinned with:

 Arad, Romania (1994)
 Bălți, Moldova
 Budrio, Italy (1965)
 Ditzingen, Germany (1991)
 Droitwich, United Kingdom (2001)
 Krumpendorf, Austria (1995)
 Miercurea-Ciuc, Romania (1993)
 Schenkenfelden, Austria (1997)
 Zalău, Romania (1991)

References

External links

  in Hungarian

Populated places in Békés County
Hungary–Romania border crossings
Thermal baths in Hungary
Romanian communities in Hungary

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Our retreat held at Providence Point in Lanark on November 5-8 was once again enjoyed by all. The food was great—Jeannette goes out of her way to accommodate our needs. We all come away from the retreat having learned some new trick or something pertaining to quilting and we also get to know our fellow Quilters better.
We played a game called strip poker with 2 1/2" strips. The two persons at the end with strips are the winners of all the strips. Our winners were Joyce Murray and Marilyn Erskine. They each walked away with 40 plus strips—a great amount to make a quilt with.
We also had a demo on a small bag by Mary DeVries. Everyone who came went home with some of their projects completed. It is a great time to come and quilt to your hearts content with no interruptions. The food is prepared for you—you just have to go and eat it.