Sky Swat

The Sky Swat was a thrill ride which was built by S&S Power of Logan, Utah. It was developed and put onto the market in 2003. Only two Sky Swats have been manufactured since 2003. The first-ever installation of a Sky Swat was at Six Flags AstroWorld in Houston, Texas in 2003. As of March 2013, only one Sky Swat is in operation.

History

In 2003 S&S Worldwide (then S&S Power) introduced the Sky Swat at Six Flags Astroworld as SWAT. On March 26, 2005, Thorpe Park introduced a Sky Swat as Slammer and became the second Sky Swat to be manufactured. Towards the end of the 2005 season, Six Flags AstroWorld closed on October 30, 2005. SWAT and other rides at the past Astroworld were relocated to other Six Flags parks from 2006-2010. In 2006, SWAT was relocated to Six Flags New England and opened as Catapult along with another Astroworld ride, Splash Water Falls. .

In 2010 S&S Worldwide discontinued the Sky Swat. Due to the discontinuing of the attraction, Catapult at Six Flags New England was removed in March 2013 before the start of the new season, leaving Slammer at Thorpe Park the only Sky Swat operating in the world.

SWAT

Special Weapons and Tactics teams are police units in the United States that use specialized or military equipment and tactics. First created in the 1960s for riot control or violent confrontations with gunmen, the number and usage of SWAT teams increased in the 1980s and 1990s during the War on Drugs, and in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. In the United States today, SWAT teams are deployed 50,000-80,000 times every year, 80% of the time in order to serve search warrants, most often for narcotics. SWAT teams are increasingly equipped with military-type hardware and are trained to deploy against threats of terrorism, for crowd control, and in situations beyond the capabilities of ordinary police, sometimes deemed "high-risk." Other countries have developed their own paramilitary police units (PPUs) that are also described as or compared to SWAT police forces.

SWAT units are often equipped with specialized firearms including submachine guns, assault rifles, breaching shotguns, sniper rifles, riot control agents, and stun grenades. They have specialized equipment including heavy body armor, ballistic shields, entry tools, armored vehicles, advanced night vision optics, and motion detectors for covertly determining the positions of hostages or hostage takers, inside enclosed structures.

Freaky Friday (soundtrack)

The 2003 successful motion picture Freaky Friday included a soundtrack which featured songs by various artists. The album was called a "mixed bag" by allmusic, which specifically cited American Hi-Fi's "The Art of Losing," The Donnas' "Backstage", Andrew W.K.'s "She Is Beautiful," and Joey Ramone's "What a Wonderful World" as good, and strongly criticized the rest of the album.

The album was certified Gold and sold over 650,000 to date. In 2004 British girl-band Girls Aloud recorded "You Freak Me Out" for the film and was intended to be added to the soundtrack, however it was decided not to add it to the album, but was included on the re-release of the band's debut album, Sound of the Underground (2004).

Track listing

Ultimate (Boney M. album)

Ultimate is a compilation album of recordings by Boney M. released by BMG-Ariola France. Early 1999 saw the release of "Ma Baker - Somebody Scream" which was a collaboration with Horny United and German band Sash! which peaked at #22 in the UK and was also a Top 30 hit in Germany. In France the single was followed up by compilation Ultimate which in addition to the new remix contained edited versions of the band's hits previously issued on The Magic Of Boney M. - 20 Golden Hits and Fantastic Boney M., an extended version of single "Kalimba De Luna" from Kalimba de Luna - 16 Happy Songs and two tracks from 1993's More Gold - 20 Super Hits Vol. II.

Track listing

The Ultimate (roller coaster)

The Ultimate is a steel roller coaster at Lightwater Valley amusement park, near the small cathedral city of Ripon, in North Yorkshire, England. In 1991, it took the record of longest roller coaster in the world from The Beast at Kings Island. Following the release of Steel Dragon 2000, it became the second longest roller coaster in the world.

History and design

"The Ultimate" represented an investment of £5.2 million and was the concept of the park's original owner, Robert Staveley. Construction work began in early 1990 and took eighteen months to complete before the opening to the public on 17 July 1991.

While "The Ultimate" was designed by Big Country Motioneering, they were not involved with the completion of the project. Lightwater Valley's owner got engineers from British Rail to oversee the construction. A few sections of track on the second half of the ride were redesigned to change their banking. The track was made by "Tubular Engineering".

Set within 44 acres (178,000 m²) of woodland, "The Ultimate" takes passengers on a 7 minute 34 second ride along 7,442-foot (2.3 km) of tubular steel track (an average of 11.2 mph), with two lift hills of 102 and 107-foot respectively (140 when taking the full gradient into effect) which rest on Canadian redwood trestles. It currently runs two trains on a normal day, each of which can hold a maximum of 38 passengers.