The anniversary of the Metric Conversion Act passed again recently with little notice from most Americans. We buy two-liter bottles of pop, and can look down to see kilometers marked on our speedometers — but the act passed in 1975 calling for the voluntary conversion to the metric system has had little impact on the U.S. University of Northern Iowa math professor Catherine Miller says there was an initial effort in education to make the change, but she says Americans were unwilling to accept the move. She says it shows how much we come to count on the familiar things in our lives.She says there was a resistance to change the English measuring system that had been with us for generations. She says the metric system is a science-based system, but it illustrates how hard it is sometimes to change. Miller says the metric system hasn’t been shunned entirely in the U.S.Miller says U.S. companies involved in foreign trade use the metric system when dealing with other countries that use it. She says those companies use the traditional English within the states and switch between the two depending on who they’re dealing with at the time. While we still measure home runs in feet and buy gas by the gallon, Miller says the metric movement hasn’t lost all its steam.She says in some economic circles there’s still a push. She says the European Union has tried to pressure Great Britain to change to the metric system, but she says there’s not a day-to-day push in our lives to make the switch. Miller says the textbooks of the late 70s and early 80s give a good indication of how the metric movement started, and then stalled in the U.S.
ISU plans update on Mad Cow disease
Iowa farmers and consumers will get up update on Mad Cow disease this week, with a satellite program being offered by the Iowa Beef Center. Director John Lawrence says since the first news about the disease in Britain, American farmers have used safe procedures like using only animal feed that contains no slaughterhouse scraps. In 1997 a ban went into effect on feeding cow parts back to other “ruminants”, though you can still feed slaughterhouse remnants to pigs and chickens, a centuries-old way to use material that would otherwise go to waste. Lawrence says a new USDA ban on meatpackers slaughtering so-called “downer” animals will not have much effect on Iowa farmers with a herd to take to market.He says the reason is simple economics — such animals slow down the whole chain, and only small packing plants like the one in Washington that turned up the sick animal take them, processing just a few animals a day. He says it’ll have little impact on the industry and on Iowa livestock. Lawrence praises media coverage of the single U.S. case of Mad Cow and says consumers don’t seem to be going into any kind of panic over the nation’s meat supply. Lawrence says while prices have remained strong, consumers can hope to see sales at the meat counter in coming weeks. He says it may be some time before Japan lifts a ban it’s put on imports of U.S. beef. He expects to see Mexico, another of our 3 top trading partners, reopen imports first, as they joined the US already in resuming imports of Canadian beef last September. Dr. Lawrence says to resume trade with Japan, the U.S. may have to tighten its packing-plant operations further. He says the U.S. is the major supplier of high-quality, grain-fed beef to japan and in time consumers will demand the reopening of imports. Farmers and consumers can see Wednesday’s satellite broadcast at local extension offices and on the satellite and cable farm channel “RFD-TV.” The information, and the panel’s answers to viewer questions, will be posted on the center’s website at http://www.iowabeefcenter.org/
High Definition radio comes to Cedar Rapids
Iowa’s first in the nation status isn’t just for politics. The world’s first-ever H-D radio station is now broadcasting in Cedar Rapids. Most of us have seen or heard of H-D or high-definition TV. The fledgling H-D radio promises to bring listeners much richer experience in terms of quality, content and information, according to Jeff Jury, chief operating officer of the Maryland-based iBiquity Digital, which developed the technology. Jury says H-D radio provides crystal-clear C-D quality F-M broadcasts, while making A-M sound like F-M does now. He says H-D radio also pumps all sorts of data to the small L-E-D screen on the face of the radio itself. For music stations, the data includes things like the name of the song, the artist and local concert information. For the news format, it includes more information on the topic of the day and other services. While KZIA-FM in Cedar Rapids is now the only station broadcasting in H-D, Jury says more than 300 stations nationwide are licensed for it and he expects that to be nearly a thousand by year’s end. Of course to hear any of them, you’ll have to buy a special H-D radio. The first H-D radio receiver is also going on sale today at a Cedar Rapids electronics store. A basic unit will cost about 550-dollars installed, but that price is expected to drop significantly in the coming months.
UNI women lose to Indiana State
The UNI women fell behind early and never led in a 72-61 loss at Indiana State. The Panthers hurt their own cause with 15 first half turnovers.UNI coach Tony Dicecco says eight or nine of them were unforced turnovers, as he says the team was a little tight for some reason. Amy Swisher led the Panthers with 22-points but Alex Cook and Emily Berry were held below their averages. He says for them to be successful they have to have more balanced scoring and more support. Swisher says the Panthers must stop falling behind at halftime. She says they were getting satisfied even though they were down by four. She says they have to get more fight. The Panthers play their next three games at home.
Cold wave moves into Iowa
Forecasters say tonight’s temperatures across Iowa could easily be the coldest in many months and wind chill factors will likely enter the danger zone. National Weather Service meteorologist Craig Cogil says very frigid weather is upon us and it’ll only get more bitterly cold this evening.While a wind chill advisory covers much of the state, Cogil says it’s something everyone should pay attention to, from kids playing in the snow to motorists and anyone else who’ll be outside and exposed to the severe cold winds.The wind chill indices may hit between 20 and 30-below zero tonight, easily cold enough to cause frostbite or more serious problems. Sunday’s snowstorm brought a white blanket to much of the state, after temperatures reached the 50s on Friday. Cogil says southern Iowa got the most snow from this winter storm, with many areas getting six to nine inches, and the town of Leon in Decatur County reported the deepest snow at ten inches. Parts of central Iowa got three to six inches of snow but it tapered off in the north to an inch or less. He says much of Iowa should see more seasonable temperatures in the 20s by week’s end.
Former legislator to run for Congress
A former state legislator is launching a campaign to unseat first term Republican Congressman Steve King who represents the 32 western Iowa counties. Fifty-five-year-old Gene Blanshan of Panora is a democrat who served 10 years in the Iowa House, representing the Jefferson area. During his tenure in the legislature, Blanshan was chairman of the State Government Committee and dealt with sticky issues like riverboat gambling. He’s proudest of the legislation he helped write after a financial investment debacle over a decade ago known as the “Iowa Trust” scandal lost millions for local governments. He says he’s proud of rewriting the investment laws and for combining the pension systems of police and firemen, as he says it save cities thousands of dollars. Blanshan has a degree from Morningside College in Sioux City and for three years he taught history and economics at Scranton High School. For the rest of his career, he’s been a farmer in the Jefferson/Scranton area. He’ll formally announce his candidacy this evening with stops in Panora, Greenfield and Creston. Blanshan says King must go because he’s not taking the right kind of steps to boost the economy of western Iowa. Blanshan says King’s been voting for tax cuts for the wealthy, while residents in the 32 county region of the fifth congressional districts have one of the lowest average incomes in the nation. On Tuesday, Blanshan plans stops in Shenandoah, Council Bluffs, Onawa, Sioux City, LeMars, Cherokee, Storm Lake and Carroll.
Injured Iowa Guardmember denied access to club
An Iowa National Guardsman who was critically wounded in Iraq says he was denied access to a central Iowa tavern over the weekend. Specialist Robert Jackson of Des Moines had both legs amputated below the knee after a rocket-propelled grenade hit his humvee in Iraq back in August. After much therapy, the 21-year-old is able to walk now on two prosthetic legs. But when he tried to walk into a bar in the Des Moines suburb of Clive on Saturday night with his wife and another couple, they were stopped and told to turn around. The bouncers said the tennis shoes on Jackson’s prosthetics didn’t meet the dress code. The owner of the bar Crush now says it was all a misunderstanding that was blown out of proportion and he wants to apologize to the soldier.
