postgres idle process and other problems

We've had postgresql 7.1.2 and Orion application server 1.4.7 serving our
app successfully for a few months now without any problems on Red Hat 7.1
system.

Recently we found out that our app was not responding. We stopped postgres
and orion and tried starting them. The app wouldn't work. After each site
loaded we find these strange idle postgres processes:

--<snip>--
tcp_da S    pts/1      0:00 postgres: postgres ourapp <our-public-ip>
idle
tcp_da S    pts/1      0:00 postgres: postgres ourapp <our-public-ip>
idle in
transaction
tcp_da S    pts/1      0:00 postgres: postgres designforum <our-public-ip>
idle
in transaction
--</snip>--

After bunch of restarts the app suddenly started working.

In postgres log we see this:

--<snip>--
DEBUG:  database system was shut down at 2001-11-30 21:06:03 EET
DEBUG:  CheckPoint record at (0, 144404276)
DEBUG:  Redo record at (0, 144404276); Undo record at (0, 0); Shutdown
TRUE
DEBUG:  NextTransactionId: 1290155; NextOid: 44983
DEBUG:  database system is in production state
Server process (pid 14764) exited with status 9 at Fri Nov 30 21:12:18
2001
Terminating any active server processes...
Server processes were terminated at Fri Nov 30 21:12:18 2001
Reinitializing shared memory and semaphores
DEBUG:  database system was interrupted at 2001-11-30 21:11:58 EET
DEBUG:  CheckPoint record at (0, 144437508)
DEBUG:  Redo record at (0, 144437508); Undo record at (0, 0); Shutdown
FALSE
DEBUG:  NextTransactionId: 1290586; NextOid: 53175
DEBUG:  database system was not properly shut down; automatic recovery in
progress...
DEBUG:  ReadRecord: record with zero len at (0, 144437572)
DEBUG:  redo is not required
The Data Base System is starting up
The Data Base System is starting up
The Data Base System is starting up
The Data Base System is starting up
DEBUG:  database system is in production state
pq_recvbuf: unexpected EOF on client connection
pq_recvbuf: unexpected EOF on client connection
ERROR:  Bad date external representation 'date(2001-1111-9)'
pq_recvbuf: recv() failed: Connection reset by peer
pq_recvbuf: unexpected EOF on client connection
pq_recvbuf: unexpected EOF on client connection
ERROR:  parser: parse error at or near "k"
ERROR:  parser: parse error at or near "k"
ERROR:  parser: parse error at or near "k"
ERROR:  parser: parse error at or near "k"
pq_recvbuf: unexpected EOF on client connection
pq_recvbuf: unexpected EOF on client connection
--</snip>--

Those pq_recvbuf there is a bunch more in the log.

What are those ERRORs? Any ideas what has happened and is going on?

Regards,
Peter