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July 1, 2024

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More efforts are underway to limit social media. How do you separate good from bad?

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Heather Kirkorian is a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who studies how kids and parents interact with digital media. Warning labels are good for raising awareness, she said, but “my sense is that most teens and parents have heard about the potential risks and are aware that that might be a concern.” Treating social media “as analogous to cigarettes is unhelpful, because there are potential benefits of using social media as well, and I don’t think we can make that same argument for smoking cigarettes.”

Athletics

UW Experts in the News

With the RNC coming to blue Milwaukee, historical tensions brew in the background

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Republicans are having a harder time when it comes to picking a city for their national conventions. Big cities have become more Democratic in recent years and the GOP’s messaging is increasing about the ills of big cities, including problems like crime, culture and failing schools,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center. “Being in a big city is an opportunity for Republicans to emphasize their arguments about Democrats having failed to govern urban centers effectively.”

How ‘Rural Studies’ Is Thinking About the Heartland

The New York Times

Another scholar who disagreed with Mr. Frank’s diagnosis was Kathy Cramer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But like Mr. Frank, she was interested in the question of how social class shaped politics, and thought that the way to get an accurate picture was through fieldwork. Over five years, starting in 2007, she visited 27 small towns in Wisconsin.

The World of Luxury Fruit: Does a $156 Melon Taste Sweeter?

The New York Times

Some of the fruits have long been given as gifts, especially in Japan and Korea. That trend is catching on in the United States, as is the taste for flawless berries and melons that travelers may have tried overseas, produce experts said. And as the luxury goods industry has grown, so too has the interest in luxury fruit, said Soyeon Shim, a scholar of consumer and financial behavior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The market has become much more global,” she said. Ms. Shim added, “you can buy anything you want.”

The Big Winners of This Supreme Court Term

The Atlantic

In a famous 1974 paper titled “Why the Haves Come Out Ahead,” the University of Wisconsin law professor Marc Galanter argued that litigation systematically favors repeat players with the wherewithal to take fullest advantage of the courts. Key to his argument was the point that courts are “reactive”: They only do something when someone asks them to. That favors “the claimant with the information, ability to surmount cost barriers, and skill to navigate restrictive procedural requirements.” And most repeat players, Galanter said, tend to be “larger, richer and more powerful” than single-shotters.

Black Americans’ Responses To Trump’s Notion Of ‘Black Jobs’

Forbes

Inequitable access to high-quality education plays a role in systematically routing young Black Americans into a narrow set of jobs. “Although our schools should be preparing all students for well-paid satisfying work, far too many of our Black and Brown students are relegated to poorly resourced schools,” says Gloria Ladson-Billings, the Kellner Family Distinguished Professor Emerita of Urban Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wetlands may be the key to saving the Mekong River

National Geographic

But those habitats are often understudied. While the stretch of river in northern Cambodia has been designated a Ramsar site—a wetlands area of international importance—little research has assessed the ecological damage to the flooded forest there. “What we have is basically interviews with people,” says Ian Baird, a geographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has studied fisheries across the border in Laos for several decades.

Obituaries

William C. Zarnstorff

Wisconsin State Journal

He went on to complete his PhD in Physiology in 1970, and joined the UW faculty. Over the course of his career, he advanced engineering applications in medicine, taught, and mentored graduate students in Medical Physics, Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Radiology. He retired as Professor Emeritus in 1994.

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