AGAWAM — With a click . . . click . . . click, the Wicked Cyclone roller coaster car slowly rises 112 feet into nothing but sky. As it levels at the top, riders get a quick view of the Six Flags amusement park and the treetops of Agawam beyond. Then, the car drops at a 64-degree angle, propelling its 24 screaming passengers along a twisting track with two “zero gravity” corkscrew rolls and a turn that banks at an unprecedented 200 degrees.

Once the rickety wooden cousin to the park’s steel coasters, the 32-year-old Cyclone has been remade and renamed. Topped with a new type of metal track, the Wicked Cyclone is one of five such wood-steel hybrid coasters in the country. Now, the ride rivals the park’s sleek Bizarro as a favorite of both casual riders and a community of devotees known as coaster enthusiasts...

• More of the Boston Globe story here. 
• Coaster GoPro video, 2015 
• A 1983 story by Tinker Ready in the Valley Advocate about the construction of the original Cyclones Roller Coaster. 

Can computers save health care? Reformers, including President Obama, are making big promises for what they call Health Information Technology or HIT.  With HIT, computers in hospitals, doctors' offices, labs and patient's homes will be able to share medical records. The system has the potential to cut costs, improve patient care and prevent deadly medical mistakes. The federal government is spending nearly $50 billion in stimulus money to promote electronic health records.

Three towns in Massachusetts decided to volunteer for a four-year experiment in setting up a wired health care system. They knew it wouldn't be easy and they were right.

This story talks about how the effort to wire Newburyport, Mass. ran into obstacles that offer lessons for the push to wire health.

http://home.comcast.net/~tinkerr/RadioTinker/CompuhealthTR.mp3

In her 2004 debate with Democrat Joe Biden, Sarah Palin argued that parents at Saturday soccer games would be quick to express concern about the economy. Here's what some of them had to say.