Author: jplucas

Quoted: Adam Gamoran, director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.

A rush of buildings is set to open in the coming months on the UW-Madison campus ? marking the completion of a spate of major projects on the state?s flagship campus. A $33 million makeover to the UW-Madison education building will be officially unveiled next week. The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery will open next month. Next year will bring a new south campus union, a biochemistry building and the Chazen art museum addition. “In the next three to five years, that big pulse will slow down,” said Alan Fish, associate vice chancellor for facilities, planning and management. “It marshals in an era where focus will be less on new structures and more on maintaining.”

Quoted: There are real-world consequences to this decision for many IT folks. Dave Schroeder, a systems engineer at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, posted an open letter to Jobs, asking that if they have to cancel Xserve, could Apple please allow Mac OS X virtualization on non-Mac hardware?

Noted: HarvestPlus also is developing pumpkin-colored beta-carotene-rich corn. Kevin Pixley of the University of Wisconsin heads the corn research in collaboration with seed companies in Zambia. Orange corn now must go through two years of trials under Zambian regulations. Pixley said they hope to learn from the success story of sweet potatoes when it?s ready for use.

Quoted: The toxicology report describes a THC finding of 4.2 nanograms per milliliter, an impossible amount to generate from secondhand marijuana smoke, according to a University of Wisconsin forensic toxicology expert.”It?s not possible to get those results from passive inhalation,” Laura Liddicoat said. “It could have been one hit off a bong 10 minutes before [his death] or it could have been several joints.”

Noted: The second contract, for up to $1.5 million, was awarded to the University of Wisconsin. The school will help the district begin creating value-added scores for its teachers, termed “academic growth over time.”

Quoted: “I think Governor-elect Scott Walker and the state Legislature will be completely preoccupied initially solving the budget problems,” said Mark Bugher, director of the University Research Park near the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It?s a significant problem they?ve inherited, and it will take a herculean effort to get a balanced budget together and passed by July 1.”

Pressed on the point by one of the journalists in attendance, UW political science professor Charles Franklin admitted that emotions sometimes play a larger role in political elections than facts and logic.

Quoted: At American Family Children?s Hospital here in Madison word of this game is nothing new but they?re dealing with more and more genital injuries to kids. Director of Pediatric Urology Dr. John Kryger says, “Bullying is ultimately a game of control and domination of one person over another and that?s the part of it that really is frustrating as a public health concern and safety in our schools.”

A. Amphibians are at great risk during the winter but employ several strategies for getting through, says Scott Craven, professor of forest and wildlife ecology at UW-Madison.

Q What is La Nina and how does it affect Wisconsin weather?A Both La Nina and El Nino refer to big changes in the sea-surface temperature across much of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. The water temperatures off the west coast of South America are typically 60 to 70 degrees; during a La Nina these waters get as much as 7 degrees colder.

Quoted: Thomas R. Oliver, a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and Charles Franklin, UW-Madison political scientist.

Quoted: ?Rivers around the world really are in a crisis state,? says Peter B. McIntyre, a senior author of the new study and a professor of zoology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Center for Limnology.

Quoted: Researchers voice frustration with school officials? hesitancy. At the National Board for Education Sciences meeting last week, board member Adam Gamoran, the director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, argued that states should be required to share student data with researchers as a condition of receiving federal grants to build databases.

Quoted: “Voters respond to what they think they are getting from their government,” said Charles Franklin, a polling expert and professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.