Author: jplucas

Q. Does bread stay fresher longer if kept on the counter or in the refrigerator?

A. On the counter, says Brian Burke, a food manager with University Housing at UW-Madison. “We have been operating for a number of years on the principle that bread should be held at room temperature or frozen. Refrigeration will tend to dry it out, and that will happen before the bread would spoil on the counter.”

Quoted: “One of the keys to a home that elicits a lot of happiness and positive emotion is that it changes to some extent,” says the University of Wisconsin’s Richard J. Davidson, PhD.

Even an environment that makes our spirits soar — an incredible view, for example — tends, over time, to grow stale. We get used to it. Davidson isn’t suggesting turning your place upside down, but if you get the bug to move things around a bit or play with the lighting, you might find your own interior gets a lift toward the sunnier.

Quoted: John Santarius, a plasma physicist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who has known Roth for two decades says that he always found Roth to be patriotic and careful. â??It is so out of character for him to do something like this on purpose,â? he says, â??My inclination is to believe he made an honest mistake.â?

Quoted: â??Most schools are just really struggling to be able to provide meals that meet these guidelines with the amount of money they have to work with,â? said Susan Nitzke, a professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: “Prices have stabilized a bit now, but after a period of incredible instability,” said Jean-Paul Chavas, professor of agricultural and applied economics at UW-Madison. “It has been quite a roller coaster.”

Playing the stock market can be a crap shoot. And the first step is the hardest: when do you actually take the leap and buy stocks?

“Things are cheap, so I should get in there now and buy. The fallacy of that is, we don’t really know where the bottom is and we don’t really know where the top is,” says University of Wisconsin financial specialist Michael Collins.

Quoted: “We want to be there and ready,” says Dr. Michael Fiore, the Director of the UW’s Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention. “We want to be ready with the quitline. We want to be ready with providing a two-week supply of nicotine medicine.”

The UW CTRI runs the Quitline and other smoking cessation programs. Dr. Fiore is worried their funding will be reduced, because Governor Doyle and the legislature severely cut the Tobacco Control Grants that pay the bills. “The money going back to help smokers to quit has decreased from $15 million to $6.8 million per year. It really to me is a disappointment. In my view we’re not doing enough to help smokers to quit.”

Quoted: Dr. Michael Fiore with the UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention says those factors will likely encourage many people to quit for good, so they can save money or don’t have to deal with the inconvenience of not being able to smoke in a tavern.

Quoted: Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor, said governors across the country, including Doyle, are seeing their popularity levels fall as they face difficult budgets during the country’s steep recession.

Quoted: You wonder if the mosquito population is worse.

Itâ??s not, according to Phil Pellitteri, UW-Madison entomologist.

â??Most of last year and this year are what I consider normal. I have seen nothing to indicate an outrageous population,â? he said.

Quoted: “You have more capital to invest, and at the same time, you have more to lose,” cautions Dan Olszewski, director of the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship at the business school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Allan R. Odden, a professor of educational leadership and policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said having a deficit-ridden city and school district is no reason to overlook mayoral control. In Boston, New York and Chicago, mayors analyzed the budget and re-allocated resources to focus on teaching and learning. He argues mayoral control has helped student achievement in places like Chicago.

Quoted: Susan Paskewitz, a UW-Madison entomology professor, has been monitoring mosquito larvae at Warner Park and said the Madison area can expect plenty of adult mosquitoes for the weekend, just in time for the cityâ??s Rhythm & Booms fireworks display, which has been delayed until Sunday, also at Warner Park.

And also: Mosquitoes generally live up to four weeks, and UW-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri said future weather will determine whether new generations spring up to take their place.

Noted: An added element to the camp is the Mazomanie Outreach Outpost, recently established in an unused science lab at Mazomanie Elementary School. The outpost will provide an off-campus site that will connect UW-Madison personnel and resources to K-12 teachers, students and community members in southwestern Wisconsin.

Many of the outpostâ??s initiatives will be geared toward increasing the use of inquiry-based science education by public school teachers.

â??The idea is the (outpost) will provide a place where teachers can gather again for workshops, to take additional classes (and) to meet with each other to talk about how theyâ??re going to implement inquiry into their own classroom,â? said Michelle Harris, a biology instructor at UW-Madison and one of the camp organizers.

Q: How does the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) work?

A: The FDIC was started during the Great Depression to restore public confidence in banks â?? and avert runs on banks â?? by insuring deposits, says James Johannes, business professor and director of the Puelicher Center for Banking Education at UW-Madison.