Baseball Quiz: Name the pitchers who finished their career in the
1960s or later and threw at least 50 shutouts. Answer below.
March 28, 1979
50 years ago, in 1954, the Atomic Energy Act made possible for
the first time the wide commercial use of atomic energy, but
utilities refrained from making any large commitments because
of an abundance of conventional fuels and unresolved safety
issues. Then by the mid-60s, nuclear power development began
to surge for reasons such as an expanding electrical grid and
intensifying concerns over air pollution generated from fossil-
fuel units.
Attitudes began to change again, though, and in the 1970s safety
concerns came back to the forefront of debate and by the end of
the decade orders for new plants had dropped dramatically.
Coupled with the release of a movie early in 1979, “The China
Syndrome,” that addressed the potentiality of a meltdown at a
nuclear power facility, the stage was set for a real life drama.
Three Mile Island was a nuclear plant on the banks of the
Susquehanna River, near Harrisburg. On March 28, 1979, at
about 4:00 AM, maintenance workers accidentally blocked the
flow of water into the reactor core, meaning temperatures could
build up to dangerous levels, possibly causing a core meltdown,
the China syndrome.
The reactor did shut down automatically, however, the
emergency pumps were employed and the workers thought they
would be resuming normal operations within a span of a few
hours. Only one problem; the instruments they were reading
were faulty and didn’t reflect the fact that two of the valves were
shut, preventing water from reaching the core, while another
valve allowing water to drain from the core remained open.
Harrisburg, we have a problem.
Temperatures in the core were soaring to 5,000 degrees and half
of the 36,800 fuel rods melted with the mass sinking to the
reactor floor. The danger was that it would set off a chain
reaction whereby the core would melt through the concrete and
into the ground. If the molten rock then hit a water table, it could
have erupted in a deadly radioactive geyser, spewing radiation all
over central Pennsylvania.
After a while, officials at Three Mile Island announced to the
surrounding community, “Remain in your homes and stay off the
street…this is a stage one emergency.” As workers frantically
tried to right the situation, including a new buildup of hydrogen
gas in the reactor that, if combined with oxygen, could also have
led to an explosion, the order went out to evacuate children and
women who were pregnant. Eventually, anywhere from 50-
140,000 left, whether they were required to or not, but by this
time engineers had brought the situation under control.
No one died or was injured, and just a minimal amount of
radiation was released, but there is no doubt it was close to being
an authentic disaster. Of course a result of the mishap was a
screeching halt in all nuclear power plant construction and today
there are only about 100 still operating across the land.
But I thought I’d include a few passages from the March 31,
1979 edition of the New York Times that convey the confusion
surrounding the incident. For starters, this was the screaming
headline on the front page.
“U.S. Aides See A Risk Of Meltdown At Pennsylvania Nuclear
Plant; More Radioactive Gas Is Released”
“The Nuclear Regulatory Commission told Congress today that
the risk of a reactor core meltdown had arisen at the crippled
Three Mile Island atomic power plant at Middletown, Pa., an
event that could necessitate a general evacuation of the
surrounding area.”
Separately:
“When an air raid siren shrieked what turned out to be an
unauthorized alert near the state Capitol here before noon today
(March 30), setting off an unscheduled midday traffic jam of
jittery state employees, it was only the most dramatic result of
three days of conflicting and sometimes flatly contradictory
statements…
“The alert was variously said to have been a malfunction or to
have been sounded by a Civil Defense official who
misinterpreted Gov. Dick Thornburgh’s widely misreported
early-morning decision to prepare for, but not to carry out, a
mass evacuation.
“Mr. Thornburgh acted after receiving reports of what he called
an ‘uncontrolled’ release of radioactivity from the nuclear plant.
And again…the public was receiving information that was at
loggerheads with other reports.
“While the Governor, after four hours’ sleep, said he was
preparing to act ‘in the interest of taking every precaution’
against radiation injuries, the power plant’s top nuclear engineer,
citing radiation readings far lower than those reported by Mr.
Thornburgh, insisted at a news briefing that the hazards were
‘miniscule,’ ‘negligible’ and certainly unworthy of evacuation.”
John G. Herbein, an official of the company operating Three
Mile Island:
“ ‘We don’t see any reason for emergency procedures,’ he said,
repeating the company’s contention that the level of radiation
released from the plant was ‘less than that of a dental X-ray,’ and
adding: ‘I am here today to try to ease the level of panic. No
evacuation is needed.’”
But then Herbein later admitted there were conflicting readings.
“Reporters grew angry when Mr. Herbein went on to defend the
company’s repeated emissions of radioactive material, including
400,000 gallons of slightly radioactive water dumped into the
Susquehanna at midnight yesterday (March 30), without prior
announcement.
“At one point he replied sharply, ‘I don’t know why we need to
tell you each and every thing we do.’” [Ben Franklin / New York
Times]
Oops. Pretty dumb statement, Mr. Herbein. And it was reported
that a public relations spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission denied reports then moving on wire services that
water containing low-level radioactivity would be piped into the
river. In reading other stories, I see that Herbein had said only
180 to 360 fuel rods had overheated, when it turned out it was
about 18,000.
In other words, Three Mile Island was close to being a true
disaster. Luckily, enough of the safety equipment held up and
engineers solved the problem. But the response on the part of
both public and private officials was miserable. It’s certainly a
great case study on how to handle a product or government crisis
in the future. And to cut Governor Thornburgh some slack, he
had to basically just rely on the information of experts.
[Sources: Frederic D. Schwarz / American Heritage; “Oxford
Companion to United States History,” edited by Paul S. Boyer;
“The Century,” Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster; “The New
York Times: Great Stories of the Century”]
Kitty Genovese
I forgot to do this earlier this month, but March represents the
40th anniversary of a famous crime case in New York City
history, the killing of Kitty Genovese.
Early in the morning on March 13, 1964, about 3:00 AM, Kitty
Geneovese was walking to her apartment in Queens from her car.
She saw a man in her path and changed her route. The man
overtook her. Kitty screamed. Residents of nearby apartments
awoke and turned on their lights. Kitty screamed again, “Oh, my
God, he stabbed me! Please help me!”
One man in a window shouted “Let that girl alone.” The attacker
walked away. The lights went off. Kitty staggered towards her
apartment. Then the attacker returned and stabbed her again.
“I’m dying!” she cried. Lights went on, windows opened. The
attacker drove away. The neighbors didn’t do anything.
Kitty crawled inside the front door of an apartment. The attacker
came back a third time and finished her off. At 3:50 AM, a
neighbor called police and they arrived two minutes later to
discover the body.
Kitty Genovese’s name became synonymous with a dark side of
the American character; apathy…too scared to get involved. It
was later discovered that 38 of her neighbors had witnessed at
least one of the attacks, but no one bothered to call the police.
Six days after the murder, police arrested Winston Moseley, a
fellow without a criminal record but who quickly confessed to
killing Kitty plus two other women. He pleaded insanity, but a
jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to die in the electric
chair. Then in 1967 the Court of Appeals reduced it to life in
prison and a year later, while being transported to a Buffalo
hospital for minor surgery, he escaped, obtained a gun, and held
five people hostage, raping one, before the FBI got him to
surrender. I believe he is still alive today.
Michael Dorman wrote a piece in New York Newsday on this
case, from which the above is adapted, and quoted a psychology
professor, Stanley Milgram, who participated in a 1984
conference which looked into the Genovese murder.
“The case touched on a fundamental issue of the human
condition, our primordial nightmare,” Milgram said. “If we need
help, will those around us stand around and let us be destroyed or
will they come to our aid? Are those other creatures out there to
help us sustain our life and values, or are we individual flecks of
dust just floating around in a vacuum?”
Boy, when I observe the actions of some in my own community
today, I’m not sure if anyone would help me if I was in trouble.
Then again, I’ve always been afraid I’ll be squashed crossing a
street by someone tearing down the road in an SUV, talking on
their cellphone, ignoring the stop sign.
Stuff
–Japan is gaga over a freakin’ mare, Haru-urara, that has now
lost 106 consecutive races. Haru has become a cult favorite and
big crowds are turning out to see it lose. The other day Japan’s
leading jockey rode her and Haru still finished 10th out of 11.
–So this guy in Thailand, Boonreung Bauchan, set a world
record back in 1998 for surviving 7 days in an enclosure with
poisonous snakes. But the other day he was doing one of his
snake shows for the locals and he was bit by a mamba. Never
mamba with a mamba, I always say, and Boonreung died.
According to the report, “He took herbal medicine and a shot of
whiskey, and continued with the show until he collapsed.” A
trooper to the end. So quaff an antidote to Boonreung Bauchan.
–TheFort Worth Star-Telegram is reporting that two teens were
taunting Jabari the gorilla before Jabari tried to escape from the
Dallas Zoo. With this knowledge, it’s really a shame Jabari
didn’t fling them around. I’d fling the kids’ parents around, too,
if I could because this crap doesn’t happen if they were raised
properly. That’s just my opinion…
–The FBI and NCAA estimate that $3.5 billion is bet illegally on
the NCAA Tournament. [USA Today] I’m shocked!………………
…………………………………………remember, bet with your
head, not over it.
–Brian Maxwell died. And who was Brian Maxwell, you ask?
Well, back in 1977 he was the #3 rated marathoner in the world
and Canada’s #1. Then in 1983, with his times slipping,
Maxwell and two associates, including a biochemist friend,
started toying with energy bar recipes in Maxwell’s kitchen. The
result? PowerBar. Maxwell put his life savings into his new
company and manufactured 35,000 of these suckers that
generally taste like crap, but PowerBar sales took off and by
2000 he was able to sell his company to Nestle S.A. for an
estimated $375 million. So who had the last laugh? Well,
actually, we did, because Maxwell was waiting in line at a post
office the other day and dropped dead…at age 51. Which is why
we’re supposed to take each day as it comes and live life to the
fullest, boys and girls. Just remember to party responsibly, like
we do here in the world headquarters of StocksandNews.
Top 3 songs for the week of 3/23/74: #1 “Dark Lady” (Cher) #2
“Seasons In The Sun” (Terry Jacks) #3 “Sunshine On My
Shoulders” (John Denver…………at least “Jungle Boogie”
(Kool & The Gang) was at #10 this week)
Baseball Quiz Answer: Pitchers who threw 50 shutouts and
finished their careers in the 1960s or later.
Warren Spahn, 63; Tom Seaver, 61; Nolan Ryan, 61; Bert
Blyleven, 60; Don Sutton, 58; Bob Gibson, 56; Steve Carlton,
55; Gaylord Perry, 53; Jim Palmer, 53; Juan Marichal, 52.
*Don Drysdale, Luis Tiant, and Ferguson Jenkins all had 49,
Sandy Koufax 40. Among active pitchers, in this modern era of
the ‘closer,’ Randy Johnson has 35, Greg Maddux, 34, and Tom
Glavine, 22. I can virtually guarantee Maddux won’t get another
and Johnson will finish with 40. [How’s that for a
prognostication? If I’m right you all have to buy me a beer.]
Next Bar Chat, Tuesday. Wild Bill Hickok.
