For four years, Governor Jim Doyle has been encouraging students to sign the Wisconsin Covenant. The agreement guarantees them entrance into almost any college or university in the state if they maintain a B average, stay out of trouble, and graduate high school. So far, nearly 50,000 eighth graders across the state have signed the agreement.
In the emerging world of e-books, many consumers assume it is only logical that publishers are saving vast amounts by not having to print or distribute paper books, leaving room to pass along those savings to their customers.
For the past week, members of the UW-Madison community have been debating the extent to which denials of the Holocaust, or more specifically, ads that deny the Holocaust constitute free speech. As a scholar in German studies, I want to take a few moments to address a slightly different set of issues.
Student starting school at a University of Wisconsin campus have a new tool to help them evaluate how safe schools are. For the first time, the sex assault statistics that used to be found only in reports that went to the Board of Regents, have been aggregated into one big Web site accessible to all.
Quoted: Michael Dubis, a lecturer in the real estate program at UW-Madison.
Quoted: Michael Dubis, a lecturer on financial planning in the real estate program at UW-Madison.
Quoted: Michael Shank, a history of science professor at UW-Madison.
Noted: UW-Madison research on manure and other issues related to factory farms.
He was named the tournamentâ??s best defenseman, playing spectacularly as he scored as many goals in five Olympic games as he had netted in 57 NHL games this season with the Detroit Red Wings.But, in what was likely the last Olympic appearance for former University of Wisconsin standout Brian Rafalski, he will have to live with the knowledge that he was the man who couldnâ??t stop Sidney Crosby from scoring a goal that will go down as one of the most important in Canadian hockey history.
Martin Damon, age 85, of Monona, passed away unexpectedly on Friday, Feb. 26, 2010. He ushered at UW sporting events for 43 years.
Margaret E. Sande, age 91, passed away on Friday, Feb. 26, 2010. She was employed at the University of Wisconsin’s McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research from 1953 until 1980.
Ruth L. Hine, age 86, died peacefully on Tuesday, February 23, 2010. Dr. Hine was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in zoology at the UW-Madison. Dr. Hine enjoyed a 35-year career with the State of Wisconsin’s Conservation Bureau, later renamed the Department of Natural Resources, ultimately becoming the Chief of the Public Information and Publications section of the DNR Bureau of Research.
Jacob “Jock” Evanson, age 75, died peacefully on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2010. Jock served the UW-Madison as a statistical consultant for many years.
The devastation in Haiti from Januaryâ??s earthquake was still fresh in our minds when another massive quake rocked Chile this weekend with an 8.8 magnitude. UW-Madison Geophysics professor Clifford Thurber says in terms of size, Haiti was a â??run-of-the-millâ? 7.0 quake and Chileâ??s is among the top ten in the last century.
The smile, the laugh, the charisma â?? they were all back Saturday. Oâ??Brien Schofield was himself again. â??You canâ??t sit and mope,â? the former University of Wisconsin defensive end said during a break in the NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. â??Life is full of adversity, and thatâ??s what I like about football. You have so much adversity in a game of football that you can transfer that over to life. You can get through these moments. That shows your character â?? how strong you are mentally as a player and as a person.â?
How do I poison thee? Let me count the ways: arsenic, mercury, strychnine, chloroform, wood alcohol and carbon monoxide. These were just a few of the options available to would-be murderers whose crimes were likely to go unpunished less than a century ago because of bumbling coroners and shoddy methods of chemical detection.
When it comes to biofuels, ethanol is king. But itâ??s not an ideal fuel. Among other drawbacks, it has only about two-thirds of the energy of gasoline. So scientists have been working to turn crops and crop waste into gasoline and other energy-rich hydrocarbons. Now, researchers in Wisconsin have developed a two-step process that can help convert agricultural waste into the liquid hydrocarbons found in gasoline and jet fuel.
Quoted: â??Itâ??s somewhat complicated,â? said Charles Franklin, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. â??I think for all of the White House claims that itâ??s about serious decisions and itâ??s not political grandstanding, it clearly is both parties setting out their view of the health care debate.
Noted: Economists Morris Davis, Andreas Lehnert, and Robert Martin calculated that the rent/price ratio averaged 5.29% from 1960 to 1995. But from 1995 to 2006 a home buying frenzy drove the ratio down to a historically low rate of 3.5%. Davis, an economist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, says the ratio has climbed back to a recent peak of 5% in the first quarter of 2009, and in the fourth quarter of last year it was at 4.85%. Rents may trend lower, with a national rental vacancy rate of nearly 11%, close to a record high. Nevertheless, “the ratio is at its historic average,” says Davis. “Looking at that ratio, you would say that housing prices have stabilized.”
Exerting delicate control over a pair of atoms within a mere seven-millionths-of-a-second window of opportunity, physicists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison created an atomic circuit that may help quantum computing become a reality.
As a professor of science journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Deborah Blum has not lost the skills of good storytelling she honed as a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. She put them to excellent use a couple of years back in “Ghost Hunters,” a wonderful account of 19th-century investigations into supernatural and extrasensory manifestations, and they show no diminishment in her new book.
Quoted: “You serve your country as a journalist by covering all aspects of the story, the good and the bad,” said Ward, who teaches at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: “Million-year-old species are a dime a dozen; 15,000-year-old species are not,” says Jenny Boughman, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies the B.C. sticklebacks.
Jacquelyn Gill is a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Sheâ??s been researching a period of rapid cooling that occurred about 13,000 years ago. Gill said that global temperatures took an extreme and sudden dip, just as the world was coming out of an ice age. She spoke with EarthSky at a science meeting in late 2009.
In a small, fluorescent-lit classroom filled with gleaming iMacs, UW-Madison journalism professor Deborah Blum is teaching students to craft prose with style. Dressed in a soft gray cardigan accented by a colorful scarf, and with her low, slightly breathy voice, Blum is a reassuring, encouraging presence.
People flocked to the UW-Madison campus Friday night to dance the night away… literally. The second annual Wisconsin Dance Marathon ran from 7:00 p.m. Friday to 9:00 a.m. Saturday as part of a fundraising effort to support the American Family Childrenâ??s Hospital.
Quoted: “Itâ??s mostly used as a money raising tool,” says Ken Goldstein, is a political science professor at UW-Madison.
At University of Wisconsin campuses, sexual assaults remain seriously underreported and many women still face barriers to notifying authorities. Most victims do not report crimes. The statistics are inconsistent. And most rapists go free.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Officials said all of its students studying in Chile this semester are safe following a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake early Saturday. The students are in Chile with the International Academic Programs exchange program, as well as programs affiliated with the Wisconsin School of Business and College of Engineering.
Got your own cool take on the “On Wisconsin!” fight song? The University of Wisconsin-Madison wants to hear it.
A motorist who was apparently driving erratically near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus was killed shortly after midnight on Sunday after crashing into another car and a traffic pole, authorities said.
Wisconsin scientists say theyâ??ve made a breakthrough in developing jet fuel from biomass, instead of oil. But itâ??ll still be awhile before your next flight runs on the biofuel.Engineers at the UW-Madison took a biomass compound, called GVL.
David Adewumiâ??s plans for spring break donâ??t look like those of most other college juniors. He wonâ??t be heading to a resort town for a week of beaches and bars, or home for a week of naps and TV-watching.
Instead, he and 10 other students from Pennsylvania State University will fly south to Haiti, on an earthquake relief trip. They expect to spend a week helping with minor medical care, food distribution and shelter building. â??We know weâ??re a tiny Band-Aid on a huge wound,â? he said. â??But weâ??re still doing what we can to help.â?
Quoted: â??It succeeded in chipping away at some of the misconceptions,â? said Steve Walker, a student at the University of Wisconsin Law School who helped found the alliance before graduating from Union in 2008. â??Students saw that there werenâ??t boarded-up windows over the businesses and a bunch of drug dealers on street corners.
Mentioned: Amaud Johnson, a UW-Madison professor and member of the Parents of African American Students at Franklin, who volunteers once a week at his sonâ??s first-grade classroom.
An experimental new drug is more effective than a widely used flu drug in treating bird flu, at least in lab mice, a UW-Madison study found. Mice infected with bird flu who received the drug, CS-8958, had a higher survival rate and lower virus levels than infected mice who got Tamiflu, according to the study, released Thursday and led by campus scientist Yoshihiro Kawaoka.
Quoted: Howard Schweber, a professor of political science and legal studies at UW-Madison.
The current and former UW players are happy with how their team played in the title game against Canada, but the outcome is still disappointing.
The online ad, a small text link, is easy to miss. It reads, â??The Holocaust Question: The Power of Taboo.â? The advertisement on the Badger Herald website leads to a site denying the Holocaust and the UW-Madison student newspaper is now taking heat for running it.
Graham B. Hovey died on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2010, in Allentown, Pa. Mr. Hovey was a member of University of Wisconsin School of Journalism faculty for five years in the 1950s, rising to the rank of associate professor. He also broadcast a weekly “Background of the News” commentary over radio station WHA and affiliate stations of the Wisconsin State Broadcasting Service.
John Farnsworth Dixon, age 69, died Feb. 18, 2010. For the majority of his career John worked at a University of Wisconsin research laboratory with Dr. Lowell Hakin. He and Dr. Hakin co-authored and published approximately 30 chemistry research papers.
On the UW-Oshkosh campus, cafeteria leftovers could soon be used to power the collegeâ??s heat and electricity. The university says its planned dry fermentation anaerobic biodigester will be the first of its kind in the nation, converting campus and community yard and food waste into fuel.
The womenâ??s hockey teams for the U.S. and Canada have navigated a long journey with one goal in mind: beating the other for Olympic gold. The team is coached by UW-Madison’s Mark Johnson and includes several current and former Badgers.
Most of us know the brassy rendition performed by the UW Marching Band.But could “On, Wisconsin!” be reimagined as a rap, a guitar solo, or an a capella ballad? People are invited to perform their own version of UW-Madisonâ??s fight song, “On, Wisconsin!” at an open mic night Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Memorial Union. This year is the 100th anniversary of the song.
The rush to find new drugs to fight cancer is spurring big growth for a Madison company. Founded in 1998 as Tetrionics, the company was purchased in 2004 by a division of Sigma-Aldrich, of St. Louis. Its main product at the Madison building is still the vitamin D compound discovered by UW-Madison professor Hector DeLuca that forms the basis of Zemplar, by Abbott Laboratories.
State wildlife officials reeling from hunter frustration and distrust announced a $2 million project to better track Wisconsinâ??s deer population Wednesday. The initiatives include working with UW-Madison and UW-Stevens Point to study hunter participation and develop retention strategies.
Brighten your mood at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Dance Programâ??s â??Almost Spring,â? a showcase of colorful improvisational and contemporary works this weekend at Lathrop Hall.
The Swedes had their version of the Miracle on Ice four years ago, when its womenâ??s team pulled off a shocking upset of the second-ranked Americans in their semifinal game in Turin. The 3-2 shootout victory was goalie Kim Martinâ??s coming out — but here in the semifinals in Vancouver, she would have perhaps been better off staying in. She allowed nine goals on 46 shots to a U.S. team relishing its chance for vengeance.
Mark Johnson will never be able to escape the Miracle talk, not here, not on the 30th anniversary of the greatest moment in the history of American sport. But his other secret is out of the bag. Mark Johnson isnâ??t just a good hockey coach; heâ??s a great hockey coach, just like Herb Brooks, the man who helped him win gold three decades ago.
Quoted: “I think itâ??s unlikely they will land an Asian carp,” says Phil Moy, a biologist with the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant program.
Quoted: A telecommunications tycoon, Mr. Thaksin apparently retains enough wealth abroad to finance a nationwide political machine. A seizure of his assets frozen in Thailand should have no effect on this, said Thongchai Winijakul, a Thai historian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
It took nine months in 2005 and 2006 for the University of Wisconsin at Madison to contemplate, then reject filing disciplinary charges against a crew team member accused of rape.
Enough time for the accused student to start his fourth year at the university, compete in another rowing season, and glide into another spring as a celebrated college athlete.
Enough time, too, for an enraged encounter with his accuser, Laura Dunn, at a fraternity party. â??He started threatening me,â? said Dunn. â??When he hit the wall, he used his whole forearm, and just slammed within inches of my head.â?
Quoted: But UW-Madison zoology professor Jim Kitchell will dig into whether the impact of climate change on Lake Superior-namely, that “it is the most rapidly warming lake in the world”-and is leading to an increased population of sea lamprey.
Noted: The DNRâ??s new project, dubbed “Investing in Wisconsinâ??s Whitetails,” calls for a host of initiatives, including: Working with the University of Wisconsin System to research buck and fawn mortality, including evaluations of how weather, habitat, hunting and predators such as wolves and bears affect the population. Working with UW-Madison and UW-Stevens Point to study hunter participation and develop retention strategies.
Noted: A key witness for Vollbrecht and his lawyers from the Wisconsin Innocence Project testified that a man he was in prison with told him in 1993 that Vollbrecht didnâ??t kill Hackl — he did.
The UW is looking to hear you sing On Wisconsin! And theyâ??re willing to make it worth your while Kiera Wiatrak with UW Communications says if your YouTube rendition is good enough, you could be headed to Las Vegas to watch the Badgers play UNLV in September. Thatâ??s the grand prize in a contest top celebrate the 100th anniversary of the UW Madison fight song.
Helen E. Bill, age 89, passed away peacefully on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2010. She worked as a paid staff member at WHA, and then at the UW-Madison Memorial Library until 1969.
In a move that would keep other health providers from advertising at Badgers athletic events, UW-Madison plans to enter into an exclusive sponsorship agreement with UW Health. Although details of the contract are not final, it would prevent other hospitals, clinics and health insurers from advertising at the Kohl Center, Camp Randall Stadium or on radio spots during Badgers games, said Justin Doherty, assistant athletic director for external relations.
Noted: UW-Madison research on manure and other issues related to factory farms.
In the sixth annual State of the Tribes address to a joint session of the state Legislature, the St. Croix Chippewa tribal chairman says the recession has hit Wisconsin reservations especially hard. He also called for lawmakers to include a tribal representative on the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents.
