University of Wisconsin-Madison?s James Thomson and Kyoto University?s Shinya Yamanaka are co-winners of the 2011 King Faisal International Prize in Medicine.
UW scientist Thomson co-winner of international medicine prize
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Author: jplucas
Cost still a hurdle for biomass energy projects
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Under Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, the red carpet was rolled out for initiatives to burn wood and other forms of biomass to produce energy.
A new administration in Madison, however, is pulling the rug out from under those projects.Doyle spearheaded a plan to burn tree trimmings, wood and plants at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus with an eye toward building a local industry supporting homegrown fuels. And he backed biomass when We Energies unveiled plans in September 2009 to build a wood-burning power plant near Wausau.
Quick Takes: Obama Honors Science Mentor
Inside Higher Education
President Obama on Friday named 11 individuals and 4 organizations as recipients of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, incuding Douglass L. Henderson of the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
U.S. military takes tough line against tobacco (Sacramento Bee)
Quoted: Dr. Michael Fiore, a former major in the U.S. Army and director of the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention at the University of Wisconsin, acknowledged the military?s progress but said it needs to do more.
Thanks to a Sound Health at the UW, music is medicine
Isthmus
A University of Wisconsin-Madison program is bringing live chamber music to hospital patients, families and staff.
The culture and cure behind the wrestler’s cauliflower ear (Medill Reports)
Quoted: ?Sheer? refers to the separation of the cartilage and skin, according to Dr. John Wilson, team physician for the University of Wisconsin-Madison football and wrestling team.
The hunt for neutrinos in the Antarctic
Guardian (UK)
Spencer Klein is holding a thick glass ball the size of a watermelon and it is stuffed with electronics. For 10 minutes or so, he turns it over in his hands and talks through what it does, how it works and the brutal environment it can withstand. This last point turns out to be key. Over the past half-decade, more than 5,000 of these objects have been shipped to the south pole, strung together like beads, and buried deep in the Antarctic ice sheet.
Fund Accepting Donations For Recovering UW Student
WISC-TV 3
The support network is growing for the University of Wisconsin-Madison grad student recovering from a brutal New Years? Day attack.
The truth about adult stem cells
Isthmus
Saul Richman?s prospects were not good. In November 2009, after what he thought was the flu turned out to be leukemia, he underwent a week of 24-hour chemo. When that didn?t work, more chemo sent the cancer into remission, but with an 80% chance that it would return. Richman needed a bone-marrow transplant and, even then, his prospects were grim.
Learning not to booze on campus
Wisconsin Radio Network
Classes were back in session at UW System campuses this week, and so were efforts to get students to be smarter about alcohol. ?I see many students who really do stupid things when they?re drinking,? said Madison alcohol counselor Janet DuBerry. ?We?ve seen a tremendous number of kids end up in detox, just because they drink too much, too fast,? DuBerry said, adding that ?alcohol in Wisconsin is a date rape drug.?
UW-Madison Professor Honored By President Obama
WISC-TV 3
President Barack Obama is honoring 11 people, including a University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering professor, for their mentoring efforts.
Fire Damages UW Health Clinic Ramp
WISC-TV 3
A fire in a University of Wisconsin Health Clinic parking ramp starting Friday after gasoline ignited in the ramp?s basement level.
Fire damages UW Health parking ramp
WKOW-TV 27
Madison firefighters put out a fire in an electrical equipment room at a UW Health parking ramp.
Schools Find Good in Tragedy, but Will Loughner’s Former College Do the Same?
New York Times
In a 12-month period from 2003 to 2004, six New York University students committed suicide. These were very public suicides. ?They were all jumping from buildings, as opposed to quietly hurting themselves in their rooms,? said Zoe Ragouzeos, the university?s director of counseling and wellness.
Public Universities Relying More on Tuition Than State Money
New York Times
For bargain-hunting families, state colleges and universities, supported by tax money, have long been a haven from the high cost of private education.
State cancels plans for UW biomass plant
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Walker administration has canceled plans to build a biomass power plant at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The power plant, a priority of former Gov. Jim Doyle, will burn natural gas instead.
UW-Madison has mad clout on Twitter (The A.V. Club Madison)
Continuing a proud tradition of high marks on dubious university ranking lists, UW-Madison came in fourth on Klout?s list of the most influential colleges on Twitter, with a Klout Score of 64, just decimal points behind Harvard. As to what the hell a Klout Score even means, Klout has a fairly detailed explanation of how it measures tweets, retweets, follows, follow backs, true reach, and other social media nonsense that only seems relevant because UW is apparently awesome at it. Expect the hashtag #UWSocialMediaHouseParty to surface over the weekend as students celebrate the new title.
Walker kills project to convert power plant to burn biofuels
Wisconsin State Journal
A plan to spend $100 million on a boiler that would burn plant-based fuels at UW-Madison?s Charter Street power plant was axed Thursday by Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch. The DOA is overseeing the rebuild of the plant. Work will continue on outfitting the plant with new natural gas boilers. According to a 2008 university study, converting the plant to burn biofuel was the most expensive of the options considered and would be about twice as expensive as using other coal-burning technologies or natural gas.
Walker rejects biomass boiler for power plant
Madison.com
Gov. Scott Walker scrapped plans Thursday to convert a power plant to run on natural fuels such as wood chips and paper pellets, a move that could save up to $100 million but drew stern criticism from at least one environmental group. The decision affects the Charter Street Heating Plant on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Its coal-fired burners will be retired next year and were to be replaced with two boilers that run on natural gas and a third that would burn biomass, state officials said.
Defining poverty: Measure by measure (The Economist)
The Economist
Quoted: Timothy Smeeding of the University of Wisconsin, long a critic of the old measure, says that the SPM is a massive improvement. Some conservatives, however, are horrified. Most objectionable, according to Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, is that the new measure pegs household expenses at the 33rd percentile of American spending. This, he argues, makes the SPM a relative measure, rather than an absolute one. ?It measures inequality,? Mr Rector insists, adding that it will help advance a misguided anti-poverty agenda.
?Wisconsin is at a crossroads? says UW regents president (Hudson Star-Observer)
UW System Board of Regents President Charles Pruitt and UW-River Falls Chancellor Dean Van Galen outlined plans for the future of the UW System and how to help the state see an increase in the number of college graduates and more jobs.
Green Business: From the West Bank, Fair-Trade Olives (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)
BusinessWeek
Nasser Abufarha was sipping coffee at a Madison (Wis.) café called Michelangelo?s a few years back when it dawned on him how he might help struggling olive growers in his native Palestine. If the crowd could derive virtuous pleasure from mugs of “fair trade” organic coffee, they might be convinced of the superiority of organic oil pressed from West Bank olives.
Abufarha, a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, wrapped up his dissertation on suicide bombers and headed home to the West Bank. The olive farming industry there was in a shambles. Yields were low due to poor soil treatment, and farmers were barely breaking even?leading many to abandon their fields and migrate to Palestinian cities, where unemployment hovered around 40 percent.
Reince Priebus: Fundraising top job as RNC chairman
USA Today
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, called Priebus a “worker bee” who gets along “with the right-to-life and the business factions” of the party.
Hu Flaunts China Power in Chicago’s Friendly Confines (AP)
San Francisco Chronicle
Noted: “Our country is rising,” said Jasmine Feng, 25, a doctoral student in business and management at the University of Wisconsin in Madison who is originally from Xian, China. “The relationship between China and the U.S. is very important for Chinese students,” she said, holding a Chinese flag. “It will influence our decision of whether to stay here or go back to China, so it?s in our interest to have harmony between the two countries.”
Stress overwhelms clear thinking in brain
United Press International
The body?s reaction to stress or danger can interfere with the brain?s ability to think clearly and perform some complex tasks, U.S. researchers suggest.
Stanford University tops Twitter influence list (San Francisco Business Times)
You probably haven?t been lying awake at night wondering what university has the most influence on Twitter.
Walker rejects UW plant biomass boiler (AP)
Wausau Daily Herald
Gov. Scott Walker scrapped plans Thursday to convert a power plant to run on natural fuels such as wood chips and paper pellets, a move that could save up to $100 million but drew stern criticism from at least one environmental group.
Confinement animal-welfare target, but UW vet sees happy cows in freestalls (Ag Weekly)
Ag Weekly (Twin Falls, ID)
Dairy producers talk ?cow comfort.? The non-farm public worries about ?animal welfare.? From the cow?s perspective, those issues are one and the same. Not so with people, warns Nigel Cook, UW-Madison veterinarian, who recently spoke very bluntly about the animal welfare threat to the dairy industry to producers attending a dairy modernization meeting in Abbotsford.
Walker kills biomass power plant
WKOW-TV 27
As expected, Gov. Scott Walker?s administration kills a plan to use biofuels at a UW power plant.
Alcohol density ordinance back up for discussion
WKOW-TV 27
A recurring issue is back up for discussion in the city of Madison. The Alcohol Licensing Committee is once again talking about the controversial density ordinance.
State Rejects Biomass Boiler For Power Plant
WISC-TV 3
The state has ended plans to convert a Madison power plant to run on biomass fuels such as wood chips.
Big Ten Universities Face Off In Blood Drive Challenge (Channel3000.com)
The Big Ten schools enjoy friendly rivalries and competing on the playing field, but they shared a common cause on Thursday. Students and faculty showed they bleed cardinal and white by stepping up to donate blood during the second annual American Red Cross Big Ten Challenge.
Our nation’s fear of political complexity
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Were the Tucson shootings simply an outcome of a single person?s struggle with mental illness or was the shooter driven – at least in part – by the hostile political climate in the U.S.?
Most likely it was a combination of both those factors and many others. That doesn?t let anyone in the political arena off the hook. But it does highlight the need for a much more nuanced debate than we?ve had so far about this tragedy. Unfortunately, even commentators who tried to reintroduce some reason to the post-shooting debates by pointing to the problem of mental illness did so by offering just another monocausal explanation and relying on the same rhetorical tools that got us to into this mess in the first place. [A column by Dietram A. Scheufele, professor of life sciences communication at UW-Madison]
Now Chryst drawing interest from the 49ers
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Another day, another football team apparently interested in Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst. The latest potential suitor: San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh.
Fund is established to help UW-Madison student who was burned in attack
Wisconsin State Journal
A fund has been established for a UW-Madison graduate student who continues to recover from burns suffered in a New Year?s Day attack in Puerto Rico. Five family members were killed and three others, including Patricia Sanchez Vazquez, were seriously burned after her uncle allegedly set fire to the room with a blowtorch where they had gathered for a family meal in Florida, Puerto Rico.
Chris Rickert: Saga at Glendale Elementary hints at sometimes-positive role of stress in the workplace
Madison.com
Quoted: Maria Triana, a UW-Madison assistant professor of management and human resources.
Dairy experts predict modest recovery in 2011
Madison.com
Quoted: Mark Stephenson, a dairy expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Bob Cropp, a professor emeritus at UW-Madison.
Stop the Silence Op-Ed: Response to Bullying and Teen Suicide (SheWired.com)
Wired.com
I walked into a conversation this afternoon about the latest LGBT bullying related suicide. I quickly found out that it was a Minnesota teen who died on Saturday morning. With these basic facts, my mind immediately went on high alert. I grew up in Minnesota — I know plenty of young people who live there. (Kasandra Brown is a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a student employee at the LGBT Campus Center)
English-only bill is unnecessary but assures Drazkowski’s re-election (TwinCities.com)
St. Paul Pioneer Press
Quoted: Joe Salmons, who heads the German department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, pretty much debunked that often-anecdotal myth.
James Thomson Awarded 2011 King Faisal Prize for Medicine (The Santa Barbara Independent)
James A. ?Jamie? Thomson, co-director of regenerative biology for UC Santa Barbara?s Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering, has been named a co-winner of the 2011 King Faisal International Prize for Medicine. The announcement was made today in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, by Prince Khalid Alfaisal, director of The King Faisal Foundation.
Dairy industry recovery steady, slow (AP)
Appleton Post-Crescent
The nation?s dairy farmers can expect 2011 to be a second straight year of modest growth, according to a report released Wednesday that offers a small dose of optimism to an industry still recovering from a devastating 2009.
UW researchers release predictions for this year’s dairy
WKOW-TV 27
Dairy experts are expecting some gains for America?s dairyland.
Committee Considers Extending So-Called ‘New Bar Ban’
WISC-TV 3
Madison?s Alcohol License Review Committee met Wednesday to consider whether to extend what?s been called a “new bar ban.”
Alcohol density ordinance back up for discussion
WKOW-TV 27
A recurring issue is back up for discussion in the city of Madison. The Alcohol Licensing Committee is once again talking about the controversial density ordinance.
‘Apocalyptic’ Budget Plan Sends Waves of Fear Across Texas Higher Education
Chronicle of Higher Education
Texas higher-education officials were reeling on Wednesday after lawmakers released a preliminary budget proposal that would slash financial aid, close four two-year colleges, and eliminate programs aimed at meeting the needs of the state?s growing Hispanic population.
Campus Overload – Stanford has the most ‘klout’ on Twitter
Washington Post
Many colleges and universities have created a Twitter feed to share campus news with students, parents, alums, faculty, sports fans, journalists and everyone else.
This week Klout ranked scores for the most influential universities on Twitter — Stanford University led the list with a score of 70, followed by Syracuse University, Harvard University, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, all of which had a score of 64.
UW football: Chryst is a hot commodity but Alvarez wants to keep him
Madison.com
The immediate aftermath of the Rose Bowl has been dominated by one main topic where the University of Wisconsin football program is concerned.
All Longhorns, All the Time
Inside Higher Education
The imagery couldn?t have been more powerful. On a day that headlines around Texas trumpeted the significant budget cuts that lay ahead for the state?s public colleges — threatening the possible closure of some more-vulnerable institutions — the state?s highest-profile campus announced that it would leverage one of its strongest assets for more visibility and much-needed revenue.
Dairy farmers saw some financial improvement in 2010, but feed prices remain high
Wisconsin State Journal
“2010 for dairy was a mediocre year,” said Ed Jesse, the report?s editor and a professor emeritus in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at UW-Madison. “Milk prices were higher, but feed prices remained high and, as a result, profitability has not been as high as it was in the good years for dairy, 2007, 2008.
Bielema, Chryst agree to pay increases
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema put the finishing touches on his coaching staff Tuesday by elevating two assistants to co-defensive coordinators and hiring a veteran assistant to coach the team?s linebackers.
Yet the bigger news was that offensive coordinator Paul Chryst and Bielema have agreed to new compensation packages, which must be approved by the UW Board of Regents.
Mike Woods column: Former University of Wisconsin Badgers great Ron Dayne remains one of a kind
Appleton Post-Crescent
Ron Dayne was the college star who hardly knew it, or at least wished no one knew, and was a perfect fit at a program that has always thrived on its meat and potatoes image.
Dayne receives Red Smith award
Green Bay Press-Gazette
Despite the fact former University of Wisconsin running back great Ron Dayne hasn?t played in the NFL since 2007, it didn?t stop NFL teams from contacting him to see if he was willing to try it again.
UW football: Bielema lures Central Florida’s coordinator to coach linebackers
Madison.com
Dave Huxtable is a passionate football coach who will occasionally try to liven up a lackluster practice by screaming, “Who loves football?”
Minnesota woman killed in Egypt crash (AP)
Duluth News Tribune
A Minnesota woman is among eight Americans killed in a tour bus crash in southern Egypt. The 61-year-old physical therapist was born in Milwaukee and earned her bachelor?s degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Preliminary Results Show Pneumonia As Cause Of Mass Cattle Death
WISC-TV 3
Noted: The University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Veterinary Diagnostic Lab is studying tissue samples from two of the 200 dead Amherst steers.
Movement to shrink class size falters amid budget austerity
Quoted: ?Class-size reduction policies came into effect because of an economic boom,? says Beth Graue, a professor of early childhood education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ?It was in the ?90s and we had money to spend and it was invested in reducing pupil-teacher ratios.?
The Great Beyond: King Faisal Prize winners announced (Nature)
Chemists George Whitesides, of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Richard Zare, of Stanford University in California, have been announced as winners of this year?s King Faisal International Prize for Science. James Thomson, of the University of Wisconsin, and Shinya Yamanaka, of the University of California, San Francisco, and Kyoto University, Japan, took the prize for medicine for their work on stem cells. Winners receive a medal and share US$200,000 in each category.
UW student Colin Tucker balances snowboards and books
Isthmus
Balance. This is the key to Colin Tucker?s pursuit of a pro snowboarding career while working toward an undergraduate degree in legal studies from UW-Madison. Balance is essential to his competition results but also to chasing twin ambitions ? one academic, the other sporting ? at the same time.
Private schools seeing record enrollment
Wisconsin Public Radio
Wisconsin?s private colleges and universities are reporting strong enrollment figures, despite the sluggish economy. And many are seeing record numbers of first-year undergrads.
UW Wants Pedestrians To Stop Walking In Street
WISC-TV 3
A major construction project on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus is causing a major headache for transportation officials.