Abandoned Waterparks , the World's Best Roller Coasters and One Mighty Big Fish tank Blooloop

The typical Telegraph reader is thought to be a retired colonel from Kent and so after this cantankerous figure had spluttered into his Earl Grey on Sunday morning reading about “S&M” (Max Moseleys’ German prison camp/bondage scenario with 5 ladies of the night hogging the headlines this week in the UK) he was treated to a little “B &M” as Blooloop and the TEA got a mention in a high profile piece about the famed Swiss coaster maker. (see Rollercoasters: into the dragon’s lair)

During her research Rose was somewhat taken aback (as was Alicia Peyrano during work on her Discovery Channel show) with the amount of “cloak and dagger” involved in the theme park business, each encountering a degree of secrecy seemingly out of place with such a carefree, fun world and more in keeping with the clandestine culture of military espionage and trysts in car parks with men in dark coats proffering inviting briefcases.

Rose wasn’t driven to the offices blindfolded, but , she says, “I’ve been Googled. The artistic areas – including Bolliger’s office – will be out of bounds, and anything relating to ongoing projects has been removed.”

Interesting feature with a variety or arresting and slightly eerie images on WebUrbanist.com about abandoned buildings, including a couple of waterparks, one in Russia (never completed), the other in Barcelona (La Aquatic Paradis) and a theme park, Opko Land, in South Korea. Fatalities played a major role in the closure/non completion of each.

Dubai: the $1.6Billion Atlantis, The Palm, is taking shape and due to open 24^th September, and is similar to the Bahamas Atlantis though (you guessed it, it’s Dubai here we’re talking about) substantially bigger and more impressive. It’s a mega hotel/waterpark/aquarium/dolphinarium attraction and the amount of water treatment and plumbing involved in keeping 65, 000 , marine animals in tip top condition is mind boggling. Try 75 km of pipes to start with. (See Virtual Underground City in Dubai)

In the news recently another British pier burned down, a sad though not altogether unusual occurrence and on the legal side (with Chad away this week) Merlin are looking to sue a neighbouring (literally, it’s yards away) attraction.

Also last week Lighting and Sound America reported that a "pulsed" laser designed for overhead use only was irresponsibly aimed into the crowd at a July 5 show near Moscow, according to the International Laser Display Association (ILDA) resulting in up to 30 visitors sustaining eye injuries.

Note: I was going to use an image of an abandoned waterpark, weeds growing through cracks in the slides, kiosks crumbling and emblazened with grafitti …but it’s a gloomy , grey day here in the UK so how about an an image of a loved-up young couple sitting on a cardboard moon?