Q. How long have satellites been used to study Earth’s weather?
A. The first successful meteorological experiment conducted from a satellite was launched on Explorer VII on Oct. 13, 1959, fifty years ago Tuesday.
A former UW Hospital pain and rehabilitation doctor, Frank Salvi, accused by four female patients of sexual fondling as far back as 2004, will need at least five years of close supervision if he hopes to practice in the state, and then only if he passes a psychological evaluation, the Medical Examining Board has decided.
Former Vice President Al Gore shared his optimism about the “shifting momentum” of the climate change debate with about 500 environmental journalists Friday in Madison.
“We’re very close to that political tipping point,” Gore said at the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference at the Madison Concourse Hotel. “Never before in human history has a single generation been asked to make such difficult and consequential decisions.”
Oâ??Kane is a Ph.D. student in environment and resources at the Gaylord Nelson Institute of UW-Madison. She researches birds that migrate between Madison and Central America.
Quoted: “If the goal is to make prosecutions more straightforward, (Taylorâ??s) bill will do just the opposite,” said Shawn Francis Peters, a UW-Madison instructor and author of “When Prayer Fails: Faith Healing, Children and the Law.”
Myths about the arts, business and lifestyle choices emerged during a recent brainstorm in a class at Grainger Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. At the top of the list, guest lecturer Lisa Sonora Beam wrote the biggest, scariest myth of all:
“Artists starve.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison head coaches will be subject to state employee furlough days and seven of them have already taken at least one day off unpaid.
Another round of budget cuts is on tap for the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department, only this time the fiscal knife is poised to cut deeper. A year after having their budgets frozen or reduced minimally, coaches in the 23 sports will have to cut 5 percent for the 2010-11 operating budget.
When she became pregnant in 2006, Cassaundra Edwards, a senior research engineer in product development at Kraft Foods, took a leave of absence for two years so that she could devote her attention to her son. And to fight the isolation of being a stay-at-home mom, Edwards founded the Madison chapter of Mocha Moms, which provides support to moms of color in several ways.
Diana S. Webb, age 90, died peacefully on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009. Diana assisted Reid Bryson’s work on a committee for interdisciplinary studies at the University, which led to the formation of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
Bright, eagerâ??and unwanted. While unemployment is ravaging just about every part of the global workforce, the most enduring harm is being done to young people who canâ??t grab onto the first rung of the career ladder.Affected are a range of young people, from high school dropouts, to college grads, to newly minted lawyers and MBAs across the developed world from Britain to Japan. One indication: In the U.S., the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has climbed to more than 18%, from 13% a year ago.
Priscilla Suits, age 94, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009. Priscilla ended her working career in the Registrar’s Office at UW-Madison as the registration specialist for 15 years.
Construction of a new academic building at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh has people buzzing with interest in more ways than one.
Quoted: About a dozen U.S. children die each year in such cases, often from diabetes, pneumonia and other treatable illnesses, according to Shawn Francis Peters, a University of Wisconsin lecturer who wrote “When Prayer Fails: Faith Healing, Children and the Law.”
The physician shortage will complicate access to primary care services for new BadgerCare members, said Dr. Carl Getto, senior vice president of medical affairs and associate dean for hospital affairs at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics in Madison.Steps are being taken to get more primary care physicians trained, but it takes seven years to train a new doctor, said Getto, who chaired the committee that authored the WHA report.
The state Assembly held hearings Tuesday on the Healthy Youth Act (AB 458), which would require schools that choose to provide their students with sexual and reproductive education to do so in a comprehensive and accurate manner.Over the past three years while attending UW-Madison, it has become apparent that many of my peers have received little information or guidance regarding sexual activity, even in their high school curriculums.
Janet Austrian Fisher, age 91, died on Monday, Oct. 5, 2009. Janet taught economics at the University of Wisconsin for a number of years.
Julia M. Klauer, of Madison and formerly of New London, age 44, died in a motorcycle accident on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009, near Spring Green. Julia worked as a research specialist at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.
In April 2008, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) wrote to the UW-Madison, saying it was “extremely concerned” that experiments occurring here had “serious potential consequences to public health.”Documents recently released to me in response to an open records request show that a graduate student aided by others genetically modified undisclosed “select agents” to be resistant to antibiotics. They did it without NIH approval, which is required.
Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard has concluded that the UW-Madison is breaking the law every time it kills sheep through experiments involving decompression, just as local activists have charged (Watchdog, 8/28/09). The bad news, from their point of view, is that heâ??s not going to do anything about it.
Quoted: Byron Shafer, a University of Wisconsin political science professor, said both Pawlenty and the advisers are sending a message.”He wants inside observers to know heâ??s serious,” Shafer said. As for the advisers, “theyâ??re willing to say he could be the one and theyâ??re comfortable with him” as a potential GOP nominee, he said.
Noted: At least one major oil company has dabbled in the field. In 2008, Royal Dutch Shell invested an undisclosed amount in Virent Energy Systems, a company based in Madison, Wisconsin. The collaboration aims to improve Virentâ??s processes to take sugars generated from cellulosic waste and catalytically react them with water to produce fuel molecules. “Itâ??s a premium high-octane [petrol] weâ??re generating,” says Randy Cortright, the companyâ??s founder and chief technical officer, who co-invented the technology with chemical engineer James Dumesic of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: In his medical office, Dr. Michael Fiore regularly encounters patients seduced by labeling that touts cigarettes lower in tar and nicotine.â??They will say, â??Doc, I know I shouldnâ??t be smoking, but at least Iâ??ve switched to these mild, low-tar lights,â?? â??â?? said Fiore, director of the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention. â??These are individuals who have a chronic case of tobacco dependence and are struggling to break free of it, and that struggle is compromised by labeling that gives them a false and deadly sense of reassurance.â??â??
The University of Minnesota is one of 18 research groups to participate in a $170 million study of stem and progenitor cells, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute announced Wednesday.
Five professors from the Universityâ??s Lillehei Heart Institute and the Stem Cell Institute will participate in the study, and will work closely with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Their â??hubâ? will study the signals and regulating factors that direct stem cells to heart and blood cells and blood vessels.
Quoted: “Due process is a very fundamental, procedural thing the courts take very seriously,” said Shawn Peters, a University of Wisconsin-Madison religion professor and author of “When Prayer Fails: Faith Healing, Children, and the Law.” “For me, it underscores the need for a public policy solution to clarify the laws.”
Quoted: Financial aid experts offer other reasons that might help explain the increase. First, the institutions recruit more aggressively than do their competitors for low-income students. â??The advertise — theyâ??re everywhere,â? says Sara Goldrick-Rab, assistant professor of educational policy studies and sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Eight years after the beginning of the war in Afghanistan, more veterans are dropping their weapons and picking up their textbooks at college campuses nationwide.
Despite its reputation as an anti-war campus, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has seen a significant increase in its student veteran population. That number doubled between 2004 and 2008, and the university says 600 students claimed to have military experience on their applications.
Quoted: Shawn Peters, a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who has studied the nexus of religion and the law, said the Neumannsâ?? sentencing was not unusual.
UW-Madison law students are some of the most liberal in the country, according to a ranking by the Princeton Review.
UW-Madison researchers violated state law when 26 sheep died in experiments on decompression sickness, but Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard wonâ??t prosecute the university because the infraction is relatively minor, he wrote in an opinion.
As the first shipment of swine flu vaccine began arriving in Wisconsin this week, UW-Madison officials are anxious to receive them. Doctor Sarah Van Orman, Executive Director of University Health Services, says they have designated 32,000 people within the targeted group.
People who were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in more-recent decades may be less likely to suffer vision loss than their predecessors.
In the new study, Dr. Ronald Klein and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison looked at data on 955 people who had taken part in a larger study of long-term diabetes complications, which included vision exams sometime between 1980 and 2007. All had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes before the age of 30.
Quoted: Religious scholar Shawn Peters said a potential Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling on the case is needed to push the Legislature to clarify the stateâ??s conflicting laws on the role of faith healing and parenting.
The University of Wisconsin and the University of Washington will play a home-and-home football series beginning in 2017.The two teams will meet at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison on Sept. 2, 2017, and at Husky Stadium in Seattle on Sept. 1, 2018. The two teams have played four previous times, most recently in 1992.
The University of Wisconsin Systemâ??s chief financial officer said Tuesday his job will be on the line if an $81.4 million information technology project fails. The UW Systemâ??s senior vice president for administration and fiscal affairs, Tom Anderes, told lawmakers he was responsible for the project to install a new payroll and benefits system and assumes he will be fired if it doesnâ??t work.
On Saturday two buses of UW-Madison students, in addition to Madison residents, will travel to Washington, D.C., for the National Equality March, which will take place on the Capitol lawn at noon on Sunday.
Tony Cunning, infected with HIV for at least 20 years, has lived long enough to encounter another serious medical problem: kidney failure. Now the 48-year-old Milwaukee man is showing how much many doctors consider HIV, the AIDS virus, a chronic disease and no longer a death sentence. He received a kidney transplant last month at University of Wisconsin Hospital, becoming one of the stateâ??s first HIV-positive patients to get a life-saving resource once thought too scarce for them.
State legislators grilled UW System officials this morning during a hearing on the progress of an $81 million payroll system, asking how the System will prevent cost overruns and calling for the removal of top administrators if the project fails.”Will you get fired if this project does not work?” asked Phil Montgomery, R-Green Bay, to Tom Anderes, UW System senior vice president for administrative and fiscal affairs.
The federal government has given Wisconsin a $647,000 grant to study wrongful convictions and offset the costs of DNA tests.The money will go to help the Wisconsin Innocence Project identify homicide and rape cases with DNA that might make a difference in court. The state Justice Department will use a portion of the grant to cover expenses from resulting DNA tests.
Madison police are investigating a burglary near campus.It happened Sunday evening on the 500 block of West Doty Street.A 20-year-old man was asleep inside when he heard shuffling in the kitchen. He went to investigate and found a man who claimed to be looking for a friendâ??s party, according to police.
A rebooted legislative panel designed to oversee major IT projects took a closer at the UW-Systemâ??s planned $81 million payroll revamp. Among the concerns raised Tuesday by lawmakers on the Joint Committee on Information Policy and Technology, was the projectâ??s lead contractor being under federal investigation.
Irene Adeline Feggestad Hardie, age 87, died on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009. Irene worked as head nurse on the Oncology Unit at UW Hospital for several years, and on the Ophthalmology Unit until the time of her retirement.
The online education sector grew 13% last year and had been growing at about 20% in previous years. Nearly one in four students take at least some college courses online, up from one in 10 in 2002. Two million students, most older than the traditional 18-22 year-old undergraduates, take all their courses online and two million more take one or more online course. President Barack Obama pledged $500 million for online courses and materials as part of a multi-pronged plan aimed at expanding access to college.
A Madison area icon closed for good this weekend as the cityâ??s only Greyhound Bus station is moving eastward.The last bus out of the old Badger Bus Depot left on Sunday night at 7:15 p.m., with the door closed and locked at the old building. The buildingâ??s new location will have some riders traveling further to get where theyâ??re going.
I showed up at Camp Randall a week ago Saturday, but my team didnâ??t. Regardless of that, Iâ??ve never been so insulted by so many drunk, crude, ignorant students in my entire life.
I am tired of complaints about the obscenities directed at opposing teams and fans by Wisconsin students both in the stands and out. If you want to change the culture, avoiding games will not help. Instead try being proactive.
At Saturdayâ??s Badger football game a week ago, my daughter was injured by a drunk. He fell down two rows of seats in the student section at the start of the fifth quarter and knocked her down two more rows of seats.
Alumni of UW-Madison around the country and world have fond memories of Badger football Saturdays spent with friends on beautiful fall afternoons. But itâ??s apparent that, despite headway by the university, there are still many students, alumni and other fans who wish to create nothing but unpleasant experiences and memories for visiting fans. Verbal and physical intimidation, insults and slurs are still an embarrassing aspect of Camp Randall.
We will exchange our editorial outrage for wonderment today at the breaking news out of Madison that the University of Wisconsin deemed a professorâ??s use of a state credit card to purchase a DVDs of television situation comedies as appropriate.
Quoted: “The state of knowledge of the subsurface is just at the beginning,” says University of Wisconsin-Madison geophysicist Harold Tobin, “Weâ??re at the point now where we need to move our experiments from the lab and see if what we think is happening is actually occurring on a larger-scale.” To that end, Tobin and his team have drilled 1-mile deep holes in a major fault zone off the coast of Japan and placed instruments inside fault lines to record subtle changes in activity.
Intel said Monday it had settled a patent lawsuit with a research foundation that accused it of using a patented technology in its processor designs without permission.The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation alleged that Intel used in many of its chips an invention of a circuit that executes instructions faster to boost performance. WARF is a private organization that patents and licenses inventions for the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
The University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s patenting arm has settled its infringement lawsuit against computer chip maker Intel Corp. involving technology used in a popular computer processor.The case was expected to go to trial Monday, but both sides notified the court Friday they had agreed to a settlement. Details were not released.
Officials at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are launching a new initiative called â??Inclusive Excellenceâ??. Coordinators say the goal is to provide a welcoming atmosphere in which students and staff from all racial, social and economic backgrounds can work and excel. (Second item.)
UW officials say enrollment at their two-year colleges is looking strong this fall. And some four-year colleges are even expecting record numbers of students. For the UW Collegesâ?? thirteen two-year schools, overall enrollment increased 5% from last year to a total of more than 13,800 students. (First item.)
A UW-Madison student committee denied funding to conservative group Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow on Monday night for the second year in a row. The group, called CFACT, sued the university earlier this year, alleging that it didnâ??t get funding because of its views on social and environmental issues. CFACT promotes the idea that problems like global warming should be regulated by the free market, not the government.
Damon Williams, vice provost for diversity and climate, the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s chief diversity officer, is always excited about the chance to talk about diversity. And there wonâ??t be too many better opportunities to do that than at the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s 2009 Diversity Forum, which will be held all day long at the UW-Madison Memorial Union on Oct. 8.Â
“The purpose of this forum is to be a part of a campus wide conversation on what it means to be a 21st century research university in terms of diversity,” Williams says. “How do we make this more fundamental to what makes us such a great public university?”
After having appeared on both the second and fifth seasons of HBOâ??s Def Poetry Jam, McConnell will showcase her talents as one of the major attractions at the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI)â??s 5th annual Passing the Mic Series, which will be held Oct. 8-10 at the Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium.
A 1996 Harley Davidson driven by Julia M. Klauer age 44 of Madison, was westbound on County Road T when Klauer crossed the center line of County Rd T while negotiating a curve and struck an oncoming eastbound 2006 GMC pick up driven by Daniel A. Kruser age 47 of Barneveld head on.
Klauer was an employee of the School of Veterinary Medicine.
Rock County health officials have confirmed the first death of a county resident in connection with the H1N1 flu virus.Officials havenâ??t released information about the personâ??s identity or the circumstances pertaining to the personâ??s death, citing patient confidentiality laws, but said that underlying medical conditions put the person at greater risk for the virus to become fatal.
Wisconsinâ??s first doses of the H1N1 vaccine are starting to show up.Local health departments and medical facilities across Wisconsin began receiving their first shipments of the vaccine on Monday. The early doses are being used to vaccinate health care professionals and those who care for sick individuals at high risk for the H1N1 flu virus.
