A: Electrons that carry the power in electric circuits work something like the links in a bicycle chain, says Giri Venkataramanan, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UW-Madison.
A: Light rays can change direction when they encounter small particles, a phenomenon called scattering.
The terrace is the heart and soul of UW-Madison?s Memorial Union. Apparently this isn?t enough to prevent the design committee from significantly altering it to add a lobby and lounge to the Union Theater. Arguments about square footage or sunset views miss the point – the experience of being on the terrace will be radically changed, and not for the better.
Six months after some UW Health doctors wrote questionable sick notes for protesters rallying against Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to limit public sector collective bargaining, UW-Madison hasn?t finished disciplining the doctors.
A: The Bucky Wagon, which carried the Spirit Squad to Camp Randall on Badger football game days, was deemed unsafe in 2001. The Athletic Department was concerned about the 1932 LaFrance fire engine running over band members and being easy to fall from, but it?s now undergoing repairs and will emerge more eco-friendly. Students from UW-Madison?s College of Engineering are working to make the wagon electric, said Glenn Bower, an automotive faculty advisor at UW working on the project.
Billy Garcia, 19, a UW-Madison student from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was at a friend?s house near the Capitol on Sunday and dreaded the long walk back to his dorm. He looked at the B-cycle docking station at Wisconsin Avenue and East Mifflin Street and discovered it was free. He had read about the bike sharing program in other cities before. “I just assumed it would be a matter of time until they installed these here,” he said, noting that Madison is one of the most bike-friendly cities he?s seen.
Very little sparks fear faster than being alone in the early morning hours on a dark street with a stranger coming from behind. Footsteps quicken. The heart races. Waves of terror crash in unabated. Often, the episode proves harmless and the fear gene subsides as quickly as it arose. Sadly, sometimes that?s not the case and violence occurs. Too often on Madison streets people are accosted, beaten or sexually assaulted.
Badger football returns this week with a glow from last season?s conference title and Rose Bowl appearance, the electricity of a night crowd, the promise of an accomplished quarterback ? and the first $100 game ticket in school history.
The view from Picnic Point is going from barely there to panoramic. Work began this month along the popular peninsula to clear out invasive plants, opening up expansive views of Lake Mendota, Downtown Madison and campus.
Nervous parents and their excited offspring will be swarming all over the UW-Madison campus beginning Thursday during the annual migration known as Move-In Day. By the time it?s all over next Wednesday, more than 7,000 students will unpack boxes and set up speakers in the university residence halls, according to the UW-Madison news service.
In this column last month, former UW-Madison chancellor John Wiley paid homage to Donna Shalala, a predecessor as Madison chancellor. We were talking about Biddy Martin?s recent resignation from the same post. Wiley, not prone to effusive praise, glowingly described Shalala?s Madison years.
If the University of Wisconsin football team had to play a game today, redshirt freshman Joe Brennan would be the backup quarterback behind senior Russell Wilson. The question now is whether that scenario will continue throughout much of the season. There is legitimate concern around the program concerning the status of sophomore quarterback Jon Budmayr, who is scheduled to see a nerve specialist on Thursday due to continued numbness in two fingers on his throwing hand.
Millions of people up and down the East Coast were rocked by Tuesday afternoon?s 5.8-magnitude earthquake, and, believe it or not, the ground rumbled here in Madison as well, 700 miles away from the quake?s epicenter.
“The windows shook, kind of rattled a little bit,” said James Lustig, who works at the Carbone Cancer Center on the sixth floor at UW Hospital. “I thought, ?That?s kind of weird, my window doesn?t open.?”
Dear people of Madison and beyond: Forty-one years is a long time to wait to say ?thank you,? to express my gratitude for the ways, known and unknown, that you have touched my life. It has taken me this long to come to a place where I recognize the gift my life has been, and how I have not gotten here alone. Forty-one years ago, early one morning, my father was killed in the bombing of Sterling Hall on the University of Wisconsin campus.
….I may never fully know who all of you are and the many ways you have touched my life. What I can offer you is my heartfelt gratitude, and the knowledge that within even the greatest tragedy is the opportunity of the gift, even if it takes a lifetime to see it.
Dear Editor: At one time having a state job was considered a good thing, but now the times have changed. We?ve gone four years without raise, our insurance premiums are being increased, and we have to pay 5 percent of our pay toward our retirement benefits. The state used furlough days as a way to save costs and we see where that landed us.
Cody A. Blomgren, age 16, of Arlington, passed away on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2011, at University Hospital, as a result of an automobile accident. He had worked for the UW Arlington Agricultural Research Farm.
Raymond “Ray” Wirsbinski passed away on Monday, Aug. 22, 2011, at the age of 87 years, one month and seven days. In 1959 Ray became business manager of residence halls for UW-Madison. While this was initially a temporary position, it became his life’s work, the work he did for nearly 40 years.
Beatrice C. “Bea” Bice, age 86, of Verona, passed away peacefully on Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011, at her home in Willow Pointe Assisted Living. In 1966, she began her career at UW-Madison, working as an instructor in the Department of Anatomy and as a Behavioral Disabilities graduate advisor before her retirement in 1991.
….this September?s Screening Room schedule at Sundance Cinemas, announced over the weekend, is a reunion of sorts for the two filmmakers. Fans of the series, indie, documentary and foreign flicks for which the usual Sundance amenities fees are waived, will be happy to see the upcoming schedule contains good films, and a lot of them. Most weeks have two new Screening Room movies opening, including favorites from this year’s Wisconsin Film Festival like the A Tribe Called Quest documentary “Beats, Rhymes and Life” and “Shut Up, Little Man,” a documentary made by two UW-Madison grads.
Only 18 days away from the 10th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in American history, Madison on Wednesday is quietly commemorating the 41st anniversary of one of its darkest days: the bombing of Sterling Hall on the UW campus. Early in the morning of Aug. 24, 1970, four anti-Vietnam War radicals ? Karleton Armstrong, his brother Dwight Armstrong, David Fine and Leo Burt ? used a van filled with almost a ton of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil to bomb Sterling Hall, killing researcher Robert Fassnacht and injuring three others.
Homicide investigators have launched a new project that aims to bring closure to Wisconsin cold cases through the use of playing cards. Some of the cases are more than 50 years old. One case included in the program is the Madison disappearance and slaying of University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student Kelly Nolan.
Among the unsolved murders of UW-Madison students are those of Brittany Zimmermann (2008), Donna Mraz (1982), and Christine Rothschild (1968).
UW-Madison has a new director of its Environment, Health and Safety Department. Paul F. Umbeck, who founded a University Research Park-based consulting firm on biosafety and biosecurity issues, will be in charge of general campus safety.
The early morning sexual assault of a young woman near the UW-Madison campus has prompted police to issue another warning to area residents to keep their personal safety a high priority.
The abrupt retirement earlier this year of the dean and campus executive officer of the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley was due to misconduct on a study-abroad trip to Africa, Gannett Wisconsin Media is reporting.
The abrupt retirement earlier this year of the dean and campus executive officer of the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley was due to misconduct on a study-abroad trip to Africa, Gannett Wisconsin Media is reporting.
Madison police are looking for two men wanted in connection with a sexual assault early Monday morning on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Police said the incident happened just after 3 a.m. on Monday in the 1000 block of West Dayton Street. According to police, the victim was walking near the corner of State and Frances streets when two men began to follow her. Police said she tried to run from them, but they were able to keep up.
A 20-year-old Madison woman was sexually assaulted early Monday morning while walking downtown, police say. The assault was reported at 3:12 a.m. Monday. According to the police incident report, the victim was near State and Frances streets when two suspects began following her.
A 20-year-old downtown resident suffered a broken ankle and possible head injury early Friday morning when he fell off a fire escape trying to get into his apartment.
Madison Police spokesman Joel DeSpain told madison.com this incident should serve as a reminder to college students heading back to campus in a few weeks not to take chances if out drinking, such as climbing fire escapes, balconies, etc.
A 21-year-old UW-Madison student suffered a broken jaw early Friday morning when he was punched in an apparent unprovoked attack on State Street, police reported.
A former UW-Madison researcher and physician who pioneered the use of bone marrow transplants ? now conducted on tens of thousands people each year ? died Sunday at his home near Boston. He was 77.
Dr. Fritz Bach was 31 years old and an assistant professor at UW-Madison in 1965 when he began developing techniques to help people survive organ transplants. The test he developed allowed doctors to find the family member who would be the closest match in an organ transplant, in order to avoid transplant rejection.
A man was walking a woman to her car Thursday morning but then reportedly grabbed her purse from the car and ran, police said.The theft was reported at 4:41 a.m. Thursday at West Washington Avenue and Bedford Street, the Madison Police Department reported.The 21-year-old Madison woman met the guy at a downtown nightclub, police said.
Not only are more women enrolling and graduating from college than men these days, but a national survey released Wednesday also indicates women have a more positive view than men about the value and benefits of higher education.
To get to University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema, you have to go through Lisa Powell.
?The governor scored a lot of victories this year, but they have come with real political costs,? said Charles Franklin, UW-Madison political science professor and polling expert. ?He is a little less comfortable than he was before, and he needs to convince independent voters to come back to him.?
Motorists on West Dayton Street will have to deal with more construction for the near future, probably up to the first Wisconsin Badgers football game on Sept. 1.
Since 2007, when a campus-area fire in a home with disabled smoke detectors killed a 23-year-old man, the city has been on a mission to require tamper-resistant or hard-wired smoke detectors in apartment buildings and homes. That effort culminated in 2009 with a city ordinance that officials say has helped prevent any fire deaths since. But a proposed state law could wipe that ordinance off the books, according to Madison Fire Marshal Ed Ruckriegel.
Even as the Big Ten grew from 10 to 12 schools, it was palatable because the conference expanded incrementally. And when the Big Ten couldn?t come up with anything better than Leaders and Legends for its division names, at least the opponents were familiar. If, however, Texas A&M moves from the Big 12 to the SEC as many expect it to do, decorum in college athletics will be lost forever. The resulting land grab will dramatically alter the NCAA landscape, and not for the better.
Zak Showalter sat in Bo Ryan?s office at the Kohl Center earlier this week and listened as the University of Wisconsin men?s basketball coach made a proposal. Ryan said he couldn?t offer a scholarship ? at least not right away ? but that he really wanted Showalter in the program. That was all the Germantown senior needed to hear.
University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez and members of his family filed claims for at least $1 million from convicted Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro, the Associated Press reports. Alvarez is not the focus of the AP article, which instead zeroes in on an NCAA investigation examining Shapiro?s connections with the University of Miami Hurricanes? football program.
After getting sacked by the economy in 2008, a hotel project in downtown Madison hopes to score success by catering to Camp Randall clientele and beyond. While its name may be Hotel Red, this new business hopes to be running in the black soon. After being in the works for three years, the hotel opened to the public on Tuesday.
Dear Editor: ?Chancellor vacancies aplenty,? read the headline in the Wisconsin State Journal. This is a particularly unfortunate time for my alma mater, UW-Madison, to be looking for a chancellor. What academic of any integrity would want to come to the state of Wisconsin with its red-neck governor, know-nothing Legislature and rogue Supreme Court?
Wisconsin students who attend public universities and colleges in Minnesota will start paying more for their education in years to come under a new tuition reciprocity agreement between the states that was announced Monday. The good news is Wisconsin students currently going to school in Minnesota, and even those enrolling this fall, won?t be hit by the tuition hike.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is slotted 19th in this year?s Academic Ranking of World Universities, which is compiled by Jiaotong University in Shanghai. UW-Madison is the top-ranked Big Ten Conference school, with the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor next at No. 22. However, UW-Madison dropped two spots from a year ago, when it was 17th.
A 21-year-old Madison woman was sexually assaulted early Saturday morning while she was walking on West Dayton Street, Madison police reported. Police said the assault happened around 3 a.m. in the 500 block of West Dayton Street and was reported about 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
Techies in the Madison area will have a cavalcade of activities over the next couple of weeks to promote – and cheer – their industry. The Forward Technology Festival will be held Aug. 18-27, with as many as 2,000 people expected to participate.
“The brakes are off and that?s our system of government now,” observes Andrew Kersten, a University of Wisconsin-Green Bay labor historian. Kersten?s new book is titled, “The Battle for Wisconsin: Scott Walker and the Attack on the Progressive Tradition.” Kersten has been asking why wealthy donors in and out of Wisconsin seem so relentless.
Although the market for single-family homes and condominiums remains slow, developers continue to move forward with new apartment construction.
….Meanwhile, construction continues on a couple of other major apartment projects, one on the west end of the UW-Madison campus and another in the ‘Miffland’ neighborhood.
A $76.8 million building project on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus that once was slated to house space for the College of Engineering and contain a sports medicine clinic in conjunction with UW Hospital now is solely going to benefit the university?s athletic department and its student athletes.
The Groundhog Blizzard of 2011 was very costly to local units of government but some relief has come this way through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. More than $1.4 million in federal aid has been paid to 51 local governments and six school districts in Dane County to cover some of the costs stemming from the the Jan. 31 and Feb. 1-2 storms that dumped more than 18 inches of snow in the Madison area.
….The county joined 52 out of 61 local units of government in Dane County, UW-Madison and nine school districts in requesting more than $1.5 million from FEMA.
The movement to go green has hit the student move out. This weekend, Downtown Madison will undergo its annual transformation into piles of sofa cushions, overflowing trash cans and used microwaves as students move out of their apartments on Sunday and start new leases Monday. But this year, a new campus group is trying to reduce the amount of unwanted household goods going to the landfill by donating the items to charity.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison reported a violation to federal officials last month related to the operation of its campus nuclear test reactor, but officials say no one was endangered. According to university officials, students were performing routine safety checks on the reactor on July 14.
Dear Editor: As we have seen from the debt debate debacle, there is no easy way to fix the financial crisis we have gotten ourselves into. This is going to be tough and we need true innovators and leaders in our Congress….As a struggling college student, I?d like to eat healthy, to help my brain function and to perform my best, but with these big ag subsidies, overly sugared groceries are all that I can afford. Where do our priorities as a nation lie when a bag of carrots costs more than a six-pack of Ramen noodles?
R
It didn?t garner much press coverage locally, but Supreme Court Justice Shirley Abrahamson gored a sacred cow recently in calling for a legislative review of the tax-exempt status of Wisconsin hospitals and their expanding network of clinics.
Rain could dampen the throng of UW-Madison students moving out of their apartments on Friday or Saturday, but those waiting until Sunday likely will have to worry more about sunburn.
W. J. “Tip” Tyler passed away peacefully on Monday, Aug. 8, 2011, at his home. Tip, a dairy geneticist, spent his career teaching dairy cattle reproduction and doing research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Agriculture Department. His students remember his quick humor and entertaining exam questions.
R
Newell J. Smith, the head of University Housing for 30 years and the namesake of a University of Wisconsin-Madison residence hall, died on Friday at age 93, the university announced in a news release.
The months of protests over Gov. Scott Walker?s budget and collective bargaining measures around the state Capitol are expected to cost the state more than $8 million to reimburse nearly 200 law enforcement agencies and seven state agencies brought in to provide around-the-clock security.
Moving away from home for the first time and starting college can be difficult for many young adults. It?s not always an easy time for parents, either. On Thursday, the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Parent Program is hosting a live web chat designed for parents of first-year students.
The Spring Harbor Neighborhood Association is telling the developer of University Crossing, the proposed $100 million mixed-use redevelopment of 14 acres at University Avenue and Whitney Way, that it can?t back the project until it gets more information and time to review it. Specifically, the neighbors want information on traffic projections and storm water management plans, a commitment on monitoring of contaminants during construction and clarification on options for tax increment financing.
Ahh, August. The month that brings the hustle and bustle of UW-Madison students moving in and out of their Downtown apartments. And with it, comes the garbage. This year, there will be a few locations for people to donate unwanted items to community groups during the hectic August shuffle. The idea is minimize the amount of materials going into landfills.
