BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...

Subject: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: GUEST,Enemiesofeinstein?
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 05:28 PM

This just in...

Teen killed by roller coaster
Sun Jun 29, 2008 3:51pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 17-year-old boy was killed by a roller coaster at a Six Flags Inc amusement park in Georgia on Saturday after entering a restricted area, park officials said.

The teen, visiting from Springfield, South Carolina, with his church group, was struck and killed instantly by the Batman roller coaster after scaling 6-foot fences marked by danger signs with another boy, Six Flags spokeswoman Hela Sheth said in a statement.

"The areas where the individuals entered were clearly marked with signs that stated 'Restricted area/Authorized personnel only' and a sign on a locked gate that read 'Danger zone. Do not enter,'" Sheth said in the statement."

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: Amos
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 06:53 PM

Mooooo.



A

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: Sorcha
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 07:11 PM

Stupid is as stupid does. Suicide by roller coaster?

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: Don Firth
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 07:19 PM

The pity of it is that it isn't even a sufficiently brilliant piece of stupidity to qualify for a Darwin Award.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: Mrrzy
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 07:21 PM

And I thought this was going to be about foot-and-mouth disease...

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 07:34 PM

Well, I guess he got his drugs and wanted to go WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.................

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: GUEST,EOE?
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 07:50 PM

One night, after a long evening of drinking, Jim was thrown out of the bar as usual. On his way home he spotted a nun walking down the road.

After looking at her twice he ran over and tackled her, then proceeded to beat the living shit out of her.

Some people passing by spotted this and called the police.

As the police were pulling him away in handcuffs he looked back and said, "I thought you'd be tougher than that, Batman."

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 08:08 PM

People do foolish things. Kids don't usually believe they could die. This is a tragic, unnecessary, very sad news story.

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: maeve
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 08:12 PM

And that Guest at 8:08 pm was me sans cookie.

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 08:18 PM

I fail to see why this thread was even started, much less commented on, except for maeve's posting, which I agree with. How sick is it to joke about the loss of someone's child, regardless of the circumstances. This thread should be closed, in my opinion.

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: Dave Roberts
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 11:21 PM

I have to agree. It really isn't funny. Suppose he was your son.

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Jun 08 - 08:36 AM

It's a sad story and while I understand why people laugh at cartoon violence (and why my first reaction is to laugh as well), this incident involved the real lose of life.

Of course, I composed a song about a cow that sank a Japanese fishing trawler. No cows or crew members were injured in composing the song but I do worry at times that someone will try to emulate what happened in my comic song.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: SharonA
Date: 30 Jun 08 - 06:28 PM

I saw s TV news story on this where the church's pastor (?) (or youth leader?) was on camera saying that the church group had left the park and convened outside for a picnic lunch, and then some of the young people had gone back in ahead of the group's scheduled return to the park.

The AP says the boy's name was Asia LeeShawn Ferguson IV and that he was decapitated by the roller coaster. The other kid who'd climbed the fences with him (his cousin, age 19), and the people on the coaster, were not injured.

Why comment on this thread? Perhaps to open a dialogue about the things that teenagers do without thinking, that can get them seriously injured or killed. Perhaps to talk about ways to prevent them from doing those things until their brains have developed sufficiently to consider the consequences of their actions... or perhaps to conclude, as the original poster did, that such accidents might serve the purpose of "culling" from society those who won't follow its simplest rules designed for their protection and safety.

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: SharonA
Date: 30 Jun 08 - 06:33 PM

The latest from the AP: "Police said Monday [today] that they have ruled out reports from witnesses who said Ferguson jumped the fences to retrieve a hat he lost while riding the coaster. All authorities know is that the teen hopped the fences to take the shortest route to the Batman ride from where he was, said Cobb County police Sgt. Dana Pierce."

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: SharonA
Date: 30 Jun 08 - 06:50 PM

Here's another reason to talk about accidents like this: their effect can go far beyond the scope of a family tragedy....

Six Flags stock plunges after fatality at Georgia park

From this source   Six Flags Inc., the second-biggest U.S. theme-park operator, fell as much as 16 percent after the weekend death of a teenager who was struck and killed by a roller-coaster ride at its Six Flags Over Georgia park.

Six Flags sank 16 cents to $1.19 at 1:50 p.m. Central in New York Stock Exchange composite trading after dropping as low as $1.13, the largest decline since Nov. 9...

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 30 Jun 08 - 09:13 PM

Six Flags stock is only for people who love roller coasters. It has fallen more than 70% in the past year, prior to the accident (which its insurers will probably handle), and in past years it has fallen as much as 57% in one day. Price of gas and low consumer confidence can do that to it.

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 30 Jun 08 - 09:17 PM

(I'm sorry for the boy. I'm often amazed that I lived through that stage.)

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: John O'L
Date: 30 Jun 08 - 09:31 PM

I agree, heric. When I think of some of the things I did as a teenager, I feel a hot flush of amazement that I got through them at all, and some were easily as reckless as what this kid seems to have done.

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Jun 08 - 11:12 PM

I think this thread was started for entirely the wrong reasons by someone who apparently has never posted here before and probably won't be back. He can take his horses-laugh elsewhere. A few folks have managed to bring this around to a reasonable discussion, so I will add my two cents:

When I was a ranger in Brooklyn at Prospect Park, they had a zoo. Small, but popular with the neighborhood folks. Ted and Lucy were polar bears who had a moat and walls and rocks and iron fences to keep them in and people out, but nonetheless, a couple of years after I left that park a boy managed to climb in, and Lucy killed him. I think he was 12--clearly old enough to know he was doing something wrong. It was heartbreaking that he was killed, but he had to work really hard to get in that far. What was the city response? Destroy the bears.*

This kid at Six Flags was even older, and he saw the danger signs. It's horrible that he was killed for the sake of retrieving an object as replaceable as a hat. Mourn not only the loss of this youth, but look with incredulity at the value system that said a hat was worth risking his life.

A few months ago I had a conversation with my 16-year-old about a friend who was robbed at a gas station, and ran around the building in pursuit. Someone hiding back there hit him so hard he was knocked unconscious for four hours. He finally came to on his own and staggered into the store. He'd been out of the range of the cameras, both his car and his body, for all that time. We argued about how stupid it would be, if it should happen to him, to chase those guys, and my son protested "but it's my stuff!"

This was a topic of discussion here this evening. I compared the stupidity of going after the hat with the stupidity of going after muggers, or putting up a fight for something so inconsequential as a cell phone or wallet. Stuff can be replaced, if it is important enough.

There is a conundrum here: My kids lose lots of things, especially things that were important and hard to replace. They don't seem to notice or care, they feel ENTITLED to have these things so expect them to be replaced if they go missing. I don't like it the way kids (not just my kids) today seem to not understand the value of a dollar and lose things right and left, but I also don't like the undue importance placed on things. Where is the middle ground--to have a few things and take good care of them, but not loose all perspective if something like a burglary happens, or the hat flies off one's head?

SRS

*Personally, I think it was as senseless to kill the bears as it would be to dismantle the roller coaster this youth was killed by. They could take "revenge" on animals, but they won't discomfit stockholders who own their share of the theme park.

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: Riginslinger
Date: 30 Jun 08 - 11:54 PM

(I'm sorry for the boy. I'm often amazed that I lived through that stage.)


                      Yeah, that's the way I feel. I truly am amazed.

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: frogprince
Date: 01 Jul 08 - 10:46 AM

I really doubt that this happened because a kid was so conditined by materialistic culture that he was compelled to go back for a hat. I think John O'L and Riginslinger have the truth of it. Young people generally haven't the least notion that they are mortal, nor the maturity to pause and evaluate a dangerous situation. A perfectly intelligent kid can also happen to be a little immature "for his age" at the time. Most of us got away with scrapes and bruises, maybe a broken arm. But the moments happen when someone ends up standing over a broken body. So some sorry sonofabitch gets his kicks by making a little joke of it, on a forum where he's never been heard from before.

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: Wesley S
Date: 01 Jul 08 - 11:05 AM

I'm suprised that 6 Flags is saying that "no one else was injured". So you're riding in a roller coaster and you see a young mans head get chopped off. That image is not an injury? Sad to say that there are going to be a lot of lawsuits over this event. And all of them were preventable.

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: Bee
Date: 01 Jul 08 - 11:37 AM

Entirely avoidable injuries and deaths happen to (mostly) young men and boys all the time, for reasons noted in several posts. They don't think anything can happen to them. They don't think they can die. They take ridiculous risks. It is in the nature of most young males to be this way, always has been, and all you can do is tell them over and over to be careful and hope they reach maturity in one piece.

This incident gets widely noticed because a roller coaster and a macabre death are involved. More often, it is a car that kills young men, or a boating accident, or a fall, and these only make the local news.

As for the guest that started this: I really wonder what motivates people to post such threads in a forum they don't use themselves. This story isn't even controversial; it's just sad and horrifying.

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 01 Jul 08 - 02:44 PM

Wesley S said, in part:

a lot of lawsuits over this event. And all of them were preventable.

Preventable by whom?   Only by the fool kid. I am not saying "He deserved what he got", because nobody does. But he certainly brought it on himself, and nobody could reasonably have prevented it.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: Wesley S
Date: 01 Jul 08 - 02:49 PM

Exactly. The only person to blame is the kid. That won't prevent others from getting a piece of the lawsuit pie.

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: Naemanson
Date: 02 Jul 08 - 06:44 AM

And here I thought it was a post about the internet comic, Kevin and Kell. In the comic Kell works for Herdthinners, Inc.

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: Peace
Date: 02 Jul 08 - 11:44 AM

"I really wonder what motivates people to post such threads in a forum they don't use themselves."

Because they can.

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Jul 08 - 02:39 PM

Or because that's what they want you to think...that they don't use it themselves. Like as not, it was a member who started it.

Subject: RE: BS: And in Herd Thinning News Today...
From: Muswell Hillbilly
Date: 02 Jul 08 - 02:43 PM

Here's another reason to talk about accidents like this: their effect can go far beyond the scope of a family tragedy....

Six Flags stock plunges after fatality at Georgia park

From this source   Six Flags Inc., the second-biggest U.S. theme-park operator, fell as much as 16 percent after the weekend death of a teenager who was struck and killed by a roller-coaster ride at its Six Flags Over Georgia park.

Six Flags sank 16 cents to $1.19 at 1:50 p.m. Central in New York Stock Exchange composite trading after dropping as low as $1.13, the largest decline since Nov. 9...


I suppose this is important if you have stock in Six Flags, but otherwise it's irrelevant.

The only important issue here is the tragic loss of life.