28 December: Iowa Admission Day

Today is Iowa Admission Day. On this day 1846, Iowa became the 29th state in the United States of America. Here are a few facts about this state.

1. Iowa is the only US state which has a name beginning with two vowels, and the only one to have two vowels as its state abbreviation (IA).
2. The capital city of Iowa is Des Moines; its nickname is "The Hawkeye State" in honour of the Indian Chief Black Hawk. The state bird is the Eastern Goldfinch, the state flower is the Wild Prairie Rose, The tree is the Bur Oak, the state rock, Geode, and the state fish is the Channel Catfish. There is no state animal, but if they were thinking of instating one, the Pig might be a contender since there are around four times as many pigs as people living there. The pig population of Iowa is bigger than the human population of the entire state of New York. There are a lot of Chickens, too - about 67 million, more than the human population of Texas and California put together.
3. It will come as no surprise then that Iowa is the US's largest producer of pork and Eggs. It also produces a lot of corn, 2.4 billion bushels a year, which is more than the entire country of Mexico produces. It's also a leader in wind power. Iowa has more than 3200 wind turbines and 25% of its Electricity comes from wind power, with plans to make it 40% by 2020. 92% of the state is farmland. Yet, Iowa's population is more urban than rural, with about 61% of the people living in towns and cities. Another thing Iowa produces in abundance is ethanol.
4. The large motorhomes known as Winnebagos are manufactured in Iowa, in a town called Winnebago. Another Iowa invention is sliced Bread. Iowan Otto Frederick Rohwedder invented the bread slicer because he was sick of trying to slice bread so that it would fit in his toaster. The first electronic digital computer was built at Iowa State University in 1937.
5. Famous people from Iowa include Herbert Hoover, the 31st US President and the first to be born west of the Mississippi; actors Donna Reed, John Wayne and Ashton Kutcher; Glenn Miller; and Arabella Mansfield of Burlington, who became the first female lawyer in the United States in 1869. Iowa also has a famous native who hasn't even been born yet: Captain James T Kirk of Star Trek will be born in the future in Riverside. Kirk famously says, in one of the films, to a woman who asks him if he's from outer space, "No, I am from Iowa. I only work in outer space."
6. The state was named after the Ioway people, a Native American tribe that once inhabited the area. The original meaning of the name is uncertain, but it could mean "beautiful", which was how the tribe described the land when they first saw it.
7. Iowa is the only state whose east and west borders are 100% formed by Water, the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, to be exact. Although it is landlocked, Iowa counts an island as part of its territory. The island is called Sabula, which is one mile long and a quarter of a mile wide with a population of around 570 people. It is on the Mississippi River, but it wasn't always an island. It became one in 1939, when the construction of a lock and dam system flooded the lowlands west of the town.
8. Some showbiz facts - the films Field of Dreams and The Bridges of Madison County were both set in Iowa. There were originally 19 covered bridges from the 1800s in the county, but only six remain today, including Holliwell Bridge, the one used in the film. Clear Lake, Iowa, is where "the music died" when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson's plane crashed into a field there in 1959. It's also where Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a Bat. It wasn't his intention to eat a live bat - when a fan threw the unfortunate creature on stage, Ozzy thought it was fake.
9. People often say Iowa is a state people fly over or drive through on the way to somewhere else, but if they cared to stop there is plenty to see there. The house in Grant Wood's famous painting American Gothic is in Eldon, Iowa. He passed through the town, and liked the look of the house, so he sketched it and painted it later. Iowa has more golf courses per capita than any other state in the USA, the highest literacy rate and is considered the safest state to live in. Other things you'll find in Iowa are the only state capitol to feature five domes, a central golden dome surrounded by four smaller domes; the shortest and steepest railroad in the world, the Fenelon Place Elevator in Dubuque which is three feet long; the crookedest street in the world - Snake Alley in Burlington; the largest strawberry and the largest bullhead fish (statues, of course); the largest wooden nickel, 12 feet across, located in a field in Iowa City; The Grotto of the Redemption, a contender for eighth wonder of the world - a religious monument made from minerals, fossils and shells; the Effigy Mounds, large scale Native American sculptures of animals, humans, and religious figures made out of piles of earth and said to be the US's answer to the Nazca Lines; you could drop in at the annual Hobo Festival in Britt, or look for woolly mammoth bones in Mahaska County, where people often stumble upon them by accident.
10. While you're here, bear in mind that kisses must not, by law, last more than five minutes, and if you are a man with a moustache, you're not allowed to kiss a woman in public at all. It's illegal to be in possession of a rotten egg, or let your horse eat a fire hydrant (I'd like to see one try!) If you see a one armed Piano player, give him a large tip, because he is required to perform for free.

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Secrets and Skies

Jack Ward, President of Innovia, owes his life twice over to the enigmatic superhero, dubbed Power Blaster by the press. No-one knows who Power Blaster is or where he comes from - and he wants it to stay that way.

Scientist Desi Troyes has developed a nuclear bomb to counter the ever present threat of an asteroid hitting the planet. When Ward signs the order giving the go ahead for a nuclear test on the remote Bird Island, he has no inkling of Troyes' real agenda, and that he has signed the death warrants of millions of people.

Although the island should have been evacuated, there are people still there: some from the distant continent of Classica; protesters opposed to the bomb test; and Innovians who will not, or cannot, use their communication devices.

Power Blaster knows he must stop the bomb from hitting the island. He also knows it may be the last thing he ever does.

Meanwhile in Innovia, Ward and his staff gather to watch the broadcast of the test. Nobody, not even Troyes himself, has any idea what is about to happen.

Part One of The Raiders Trilogy.

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