Professor Norman Luxenburg has this guest opinion in the Press-Citizen regarding the fuzzy math surrounding the fake rainforest in Coralville, Iowa. He attended the town meetings on the issue, and got a front row seat to see the project leaders tap dance around the issues. Apparently, they not only believe that they're actually going to get 1.5 million visitors per year (4100 per day), they also feel that they will get at least 5 million in research grants. The article compares the fake rainforest to Arizona's Biosphere, to demonstrate why those estimates are literally laughed at by biologists. Another point made - do they really expect us to believe their estimates of $199 million spent by "visitors to the area" actually equal tourist dollars?

Um, yeah, I'm always running into vacationers from NY, Chicago, California. . . .