Bottom of the News… Friday, March 28, 2008

Good morning my fellow Rotarians… Well, it’s the end of another month and as we head into spring, the warm weather seems to bring out the best in people.

And so, to begin, I want to recognize and thank Bart Woods for filling in as our honorary Rotary Reporter of the bottom of the news last week. He assured me that he would “follow the script” and I’m told he did exactly that. So, Bart, as a token of our appreciation please accept this Honorary Rotary Reporter certificate… (read certificate and give to Bart).

Who Ya Gonna Call? Ghostbusters!

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Johnson County officials have given their informal OK for ghost hunters to check out a one-time insane asylum to see if any spirits live there. The Johnson County Board of Supervisors took the initial action on the request from the local Historical Society, which gives tours of the 153-year-old building.

Brandon Cochran, museum operations assistant for the Historical society, said there have never been reports of ghosts or bizarre happenings at the building and that bringing in a paranormal team is "kind of taking the pre-emptive approach.” Cochran wants an Iowa-based investigative team to come in for one night, but yet hopes they don't find any paranormal activity so the investigation can put to rest any speculation.

As in the movie Ghostbusters, this special team will use thermal imaging equipment and voice recording systems. Biggest concern for the county is potential liability issues before supervisors can formally approve the request.

The building, built in 1855, originally housed insane mentally ill patients and today it houses people with physical and mental disabilities. Officials of the current building do not want the paranormal team disturbing their current residents with their Ghost buster approach. As one county employee noted, “Seems our board in their quest to find “paranormal” activities, seems a bit too paranoid in their approach.”

We have a notable event on this day in history… TMI Accident

The Three Mile Island nuclear accident occurred in Harrisburg, PA, in 1979. Plant operators accidently turned off the water cooling system when a valve failed to close causing a dangerous overheating of the nuclear reactor core, which could have led to a meltdown. A meltdown is the worst case scenario, which is what happened at Chernobyl in Russia in 1986.

TMI was a state-of-the-art reactor lauded for generating affordable and reliable energy in a time of the 70’s energy crisis. Conflicting reports didn’t clarify if the accident was life-threatening, causing the Governor to issue an evacuation of pregnant women and children within a five-mile radius of the plant. Officials tried to calm people’s fears, however, many panicked with more than 100,000 people fleeing the area during the ensuing 48 hours.

President Carter, a trained nuclear engineer, visited TMI with the aim of calming the fears of local residents and the nation. On April 1st it was determined that the accident was minor and that a few plant workers were exposed to unhealthy levels of radiation, but very little radiation had escaped the plant. Nonetheless, the incident greatly eroded our country’s faith in nuclear power. TMI is still shut down to this day and not a single new nuclear power plant has been built since in the United States. FYI, the Chernobyl, Russia accident from half way around the world, actually exposed Harrisburg, PA to more radiation than the incident from Three Mile Island, which was only 10 miles away.

Where did Wireless Phones Begin?

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA: New York scientists recently reported after having dug to a depth of 10 yards recently, that they found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors had developed a telephone network more than 100 years ago.

Not to be outdone by the New Yorkers, in the weeks that followed, California scientists dug to a depth of 20 yards, and shortly after, headlines in the LA Times read: 'California archaeologists find traces of 200 year old copper wire and conclude that their ancestors had a high-tech communications network 100 years earlier than New Yorkers.

One week later, in Cedar Rapids Iowa, their local paper, the Gazette, reported that Louie Voleska, a self-taught archaeologist, said he found absolutely nothing after digging as deep as 30 yards down in corn fields near Palo, IA. Voleska therefore concluded that 300 years ago, Iowa had already gone wireless.

And there you have it the Bottom of the News on this Friday, March 28, 2008. ###