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August 9, 2022

Research

What Is Proper Drainage And Why Is It So Important For Houseplants?

House Digest

The most likely issue to be experienced with a poorly drained houseplant is root rot. As explained by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Horticulture, this is the common name for any number of diseases that kill off a plant by destroying its roots. Many of these diseases are caused by four different species of fungi, which are commonly found in wet soil: Pythium, Phytophthora, Rhizoctonia solani, and Fusarium.

Campus life

COVID grads face college

AP

Angel Hope looked at the math test and felt lost. He had just graduated near the top of his high school class, winning scholarships from prestigious colleges. But on this test — a University of Wisconsin exam that measures what new students learned in high school — all he could do was guess. It was like the disruption of the pandemic was catching up to him all at once.

State news

Federal food aid in Wisconsin has evolved, but users still face decades-old barriers

PBS Wisconsin

Noted: That is why rather than skyrocketing, food insecurity rates remained largely unchanged during the pandemic, said Judi Bartfeld, project coordinator for the Wisconsin Food Security Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She said the “robust” federal response kept people fed, despite widespread unemployment.

Extension

Athletics

World Juniors 2022: Connor Bedard, Dalibor Dvorsky, Charlie Stramel headline top eligible prospects for the 2023 NHL Draft

Sporting News

If you’ve watched any of the U.S. NTDP games this season, it’s hard not to notice Stramel. Listed at 6-3, 215 lbs, he plays a power forward role, never shying away from the physical aspect of the game. He suited up in 26 games for the national program, recording 22 points, and is set to play at the University of Wisconsin this fall.

Business/Technology

Charter Spectrum pushes large broadband expansion to connect 140,000 homes and businesses in rural Wisconsin

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: The timing of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and other government grants is good for companies like Charter as they transition from legacy cable television service to broadband, according to Barry Orton, professor emeritus of telecommunications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Cable television isn’t going to last forever. People are cutting the cord like crazy,” Orton said. “But what they’re not cutting is their broadband connection.”

UW Experts in the News

‘It’s important to give back’: Organizations are creating habitats to support endangered monarch population

Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: “Making the world better for monarchs is going to bring a lot of other species along for the ride,” said Karen Oberhauser, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum.

Oberhauser was a part of the IUCN team that added monarchs to its “Red List,” which highlights how organisms are threatened and what actions can prevent their extinction.

Are monarch butterflies endangered in the US?

Popular Science

“This is an assessment by an international scientific body that looked at all of the data and said monarchs are endangered,” says Karen Oberhauser, an expert on monarch butterfly biology and conservation and the director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. “That means they’re in danger of their population going so low that it wouldn’t be able to recover.”

Trump wished his military officials were more like ‘German generals’ of Nazi Germany

MSNBC

Even during the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection, many scholars of fascism were sharply divided over whether Trump should be characterized as a fascist based on the vision he articulated — or lack thereof. University of Wisconsin historian Stanley Payne argued that Trump shouldn’t be described as such because, among other things, he never embraced “a coherent new revolutionary ideology.” (Personally I’d call Trump’s first term proto-fascist and say his second presidential run could mark the maturation of that tendency.)