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Author: jplucas

U. of I. freshmen to pay over $20,000 (Chicago Sun-Times)

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Chicago Sun Times

University of Illinois trustees approved a nearly 10 percent increase in tuition Wednesday, sending total costs to attend the school to more than $20,000 a year.

School officials also announced a plan to start a $100 million endowment for undergraduate scholarships, saying the school’s fund-raising had gone better than expected.

Illini prospects could see 10 percent tuition hike $20,034 a year to be an Illini?

New undergraduate students at the Urbana-Champaign campus would pay $9,240 in tuition next year, a 9.5 percent increase over last year. But under state law, that rate would be frozen for those students through four years of study.

Fortified Yogurt, Soy Milk

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Wall Street Journal

Quoted: Frank Greer, a professor of pediatric medicine at the University of Wisconsin and chairman of the Committee on Nutrition of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the body can make DHA on its own from what is naturally present in the diet — even a diet that doesn’t include lots of fish.

The List: Top 10 combination basketball-football schools (SportingNews.com)

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Don’t know about you, but I subscribe to the theory that the best football teams run 50 percent of the time and pass 50 percent of the time. And the best basketball teams are equal parts perimeter- and interior-oriented.

And the best sports schools in America celebrate both sports on equal terms.

In my four blurry years of University of Wisconsin studentry, I did more than learn to make up words. I also ran the table of ineptitude with four bad basketball teams and four football teams that combined for an almost unimaginably foul record of — are you ready for this? — 9-35 during the 1988-91 seasons.

With change on tap, eyes are on the ALRC

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Wisconsin State Journal

Madison is tightening its grip on the beer tap and getting stingier with the key to the liquor cabinet.

The city, which has long struggled with how control alcohol-related crime while encouraging a vital Downtown nightlife, is at a defining moment.

With nearly half the seats on its powerful Alcohol License Review Committee coming vacant — three of the more liberal voting members are leaving — Mayor Dave Cieslewicz now has a chance to reshape the committee.

Brain Learns Compassion via Meditation (WebMD)

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March 26, 2008 — Practice may make perfect when it comes to kindness and compassion.

A new study shows practicing kindness and compassion through regular meditation actually activates the brain and makes people more empathetic to others.

It’s the first study to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyze the effects of compassion meditation on brain activity. The results suggest that people can train themselves to be more compassionate just as they’d train themselves to play a musical instrument

Former studentâ??s death brings awareness about fires

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La Crosse Tribune

Fred Ludwig and Peter Talen were living in the same off-campus house when it caught fire in November 2006.

Both University of Wisconsin-La Crosse students escaped that day without injury, Ludwig said.
Daniel Gengler of the National Fire Sprnkler Association talks about how fire spreads in a room to UWL students the dorm room on the righ had a sprinkler system, and the one on the left did not . The room was engulfed by flames in four minutes. Dick Riniker photo

But a year later, the 23-year-old Talen lost his life in a house fire near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus while visiting his younger brother, a UW student.

His death last November inspired a fire safety campaign on the UW-L campus this week.

Wisconsin’s faith-healing law faces fresh scrutiny

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Isthmus

The death early this week of a young Wisconsin girl from a treatable form of diabetes, whose parents prayed over her rather than seek medical help, could re-ignite a debate over a state law that essentially shields such activity from criminal prosecution.

So says the Madison-based author of When Prayer Fails, a new book about parents who, for religious reasons, refuse to provide medical care for their children.

“Maybe the statute will get tested out soon,” muses Shawn Francis Peters, who teaches writing and U.S. history at the UW-Madison.

Could parents face charges for faith healing?

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Wisconsin Radio Network

Police in Weston says an 11-year-old girl died there Sunday of diabetes, because her parents chose prayer over medical treatment. An author and UW-Madison scholar says it would be hard to prosecute the parents in such a case.

Shawn Peters studied the subject extensively for his book, “When Prayer Fails: Faith Healing, Children, and the Law.” He says Wisconsin law does protect a parent’s right to choose faith-healing over medicine. He says there can be complications when religion-based treatments of illness are involved.

Badgers Fans Find Great Ticket Deals for NCAA Games

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WKOW-TV 27

Officials at Ford Field in Detroit say new seating arrangements allowed them to pack in 74,000 ticket holders to this year’s NCAA games.

The laws of economics are making some Badger fans very happy this weekend.

27 News discovered some extremely cheap deals on online ticket websites, including StubHub.

The dangers of smoking at home

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Wisconsin Radio Network

A new report says too many Wisconsin children are being exposed to second hand smoke on a daily basis.

Smoking is banned in more homes than ever, but a report from the UW Center for Tobacco Research and Prevention and the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center estimates that nearly 25-percent of Wisconsin families still allow it. As a result, nearly 211,000 children are being exposed to second hand smoke at home.

For Guard and His Fan, Strength in a Number

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Washington Post

OMAHA — Somewhere among the socks, shirts and toiletries Michael Flowers packed to take with him to the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament is a No. 22 jersey. It is significantly smaller than the No. 22 jersey Flowers wears during games, the one with “Wisconsin” stitched across the front.

Lab Notes : The Lotus and the Synapse

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Newsweek

The scientist who has worked most closely with the Dalai Lama is Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Davidson first met the Dalai Lama in 1992, and since about 2000 has been investigating a question dear to the heart of the leader of Tibetan Buddhism: can mental training such as meditations change the brain in an enduring way?

Nobel winner gives winnings to 4 schools (The Daily Tarheel, University of North Carolina)

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UNC’s Nobel Prize-winning professor has decided to give part of his award back to the institutions where he worked and studied.

Oliver Smithies, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at UNC, and his colleagues, Mario Capecchi of the University of Utah and Sir Martin Evans of Cardiff University, were awarded a prize of about $1.6 million. The award was given in Swedish krona.

The universities that received money were Oxford University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Toronto and UNC.

Is Organic Productive? (Scientist Live)

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Scientist Live

Can organic cropping systems be as productive as conventional systems? The answer is an unqualified, “Yes” for alfalfa or wheat and a qualified “Yes most of the time” for corn and soybeans according to research reported by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and agricultural consulting firm AGSTAT in the March-April 2008 issue of Agronomy Journal.

Recession protection

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Wisconsin Radio Network

There are signs that a recession this year could be more painful that first expected, but the impact in Wisconsin may be eased somewhat.

UW economist Don Nichols says Wisconsin has actually managed to avoid the financial crisis being felt by much of the nation because housing prices here did not get out of line. He says there have been very low mortgage delinquency rates in Madison, Milwaukee, and Green Bay

Calling for guns legally on campus

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Wisconsin Radio Network

Michael Neiduski, Marquette University campus leader of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, says the nationwide group was founded after what he refers to as “4/16” the day of the Virginia Tech massacre. He says the organization believes in going through the proper legal channels in obtaining a concealed carry permit to carry a firearm. He’s calling for the “right” for students to exercise their same license on college campuses.

The Mike Kelley Effect?

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Wisconsin State Journal

Whether it’s the “Flutie Effect” or not is unclear.

But UW-Madison had the largest group of new undergraduate students in school history in the fall of 2001, the year after the Badgers football team won their third Rose Bowl and the men’s basketball team went to the Final Four.

Bitter End; Brilliant Ride

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Wisconsin State Journal

Three straight trips to the NCAA title game is a pretty noteworthy accomplishment.

The last one didn’t turn out the way the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team hoped Saturday, but there was some satisfaction in the difficult five-month journey.

Instead of a record-tying third consecutive national title, the Badgers were left to deal with a 4-0 loss to Minnesota-Duluth in the championship game at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center.

UW Team Wins Competition With Its Electric Snowmobile

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Wisconsin State Journal

An electric snowmobile designed by a team from UW-Madison may be used to help further climate change research in Greenland.

The snowmobile, Bucky EV, won the zero-emissions competition at the Society of Automotive Engineers Clean Snowmobile Challenge earlier this month in Houghton, Mich.

Polar Bear Predictions

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Wisconsin State Journal

Mention the discipline of computer modeling to most people and they’ll think of math and graphs and technical detail complicated enough to cause a migraine.

But talk with Eric DeWeaver, a climatologist with UW-Madison, about the computer climate models that are his specialty and soon you will be imagining polar bears on the blinding ice of the Arctic oceans. Bears plunging off the edges of ice floes in search of seals. Bears embarked on epic journeys of thousands of miles across jumbled pack ice and through frigid northern waters. Bears raising their young in snowy dens.

After Campus Shootings, U.S. to Ease Privacy Rules

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New York Times

The Federal Education Department proposed on Monday new regulations to clarify when universities may release confidential student information and, after the Virginia Tech shootings last year, reassure college officials that they will not face penalties for reporting fears about mentally ill students.

Va. Tech victims’ families offered $100k each

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USA Today

Families of those killed in the Virginia Tech massacre would receive $100,000 each under a settlement the state is proposing to prevent lawsuits, according to a victim’s relative who received a copy of the proposal.

Medical and counseling expenses would be provided to the families of the 32 killed and dozens of surviving victims, said the person, who asked Monday to remain anonymous because those involved were told not to discuss the settlement.

New catalyst gives boost to fuel cells

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists have developed a chemical catalyst that could help pave the way for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

With fuel cells, a small chemical reactor converts hydrogen and oxygen into electricity, water and heat. When used to run a car, the only exhaust coming from the vehicle’s tailpipe is water.

Method detects, predicts structural strain (UPI)

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http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/03/24/method_detects_predicts_structural_strain/2046/
MADISON, Wis., March 24 (UPI) — U.S. scientists have created a software program that can predict stress fractures that occur in statues that have been in place for hundreds of years.

Vadim Shapiro of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Igor Tsukanov of Florida International University applied their technology to Michelangelo’s David in an analysis that they said proved simpler, faster and more accurate than previous methods.

How long will Hillary and Barack duke it out?

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Wisconsin Radio Network

A UW expert thinks Democrats could be in big trouble if the Obama-Clinton fight drags on.

There’s no indication when the battle for the Democratic nomination between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will end. Some are even questioning if it will be settled before the party’s convention in August. If that happens, UW-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin says that would be very divisive and damaging for the party.

Governor wants budget repair compromise

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Wisconsin Radio Network

The Governor says he wants to avoid drawing “lines in the sand” over fixing the state’s $527 million budget shortfall.

The state Senate will vote on their budget repair bill today, although the measure is expected to end up in a conference committee because of differences with the Assembly version of the bill. The Assembly passed their own budget repair measure before adjourning for the session earlier this month. Governor Jim Doyle says the two sides need to reconcile their differences quickly.

No charges planned in campus lockdown

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Wisconsin State Journal

Nobody will be charged with making the phone calls that caused the UW-Madison campus to be locked down in September.

But that isn’t for lack of trying, said Dale Burke, assistant UW-Madison police chief. Police believe the culprit was Jesse Miller, 20, who was later charged with other crimes, but they don’t have enough proof to recommend charges to prosecutors.

“We know where the calls came into, we know where he was, out in San Diego,” Burke said. “But trying to connect the dots for certain was impossible.”

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Green Heroes (Madison Magazine)

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Madison Magazine

UW-Madison is noted in 25 of the area’s savviest, smartest, boldest, well-intentioned and hardest-working stewards of justice, humanity and the environment.

–The Nelson Institute

The UW–Madison epicenter of environmental and sustainability research, the Nelson Institute, was founded in 1970 and renamed in 2002 after Gaylord Nelson, former U.S. Senator and lifelong environmentalist who, among other things, created Earth Day.

–Jonathan Patz

Thanks to the research of Dr. Jonathan Patz, we know that global warming is not only an environmental and public health crisis but also an ethical one. The UW professor is a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the organization that shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore).

–Dan Anderson and Tom Eggert

Dan Anderson and Tom Eggert are advocates for a Center for Business, Environment and Social Responsibility under consideration at UW–Madison. For more than a decade they have been working to incorporate environmentalism, sustainability and social justice into the Business School curriculum.

Alma Matters (Madison Magazine)

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Madison Magazine

Walking across the Kohl Center stage to receive a diploma is a highlight for many UW–Madison graduates. But it isn’t their final interaction with the university–at least if Paula Bonner has anything to say about it.

As president and CEO of the Wisconsin Alumni Association, or WAA, Bonner seeks to forge connections between alumni and the university in ways both large and small.

Got Raw Milk?

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Boston Globe

Quoted: Michael Bell, a professor of rural sociology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who has surveyed raw-milk consumers in the Midwest.

UW men’s hockey: Badgers in NCAA tournament

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Wisconsin State Journal

As expected, the University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team made the NCAA tournament despite having a losing record.

The third-seeded Badgers (15-16-7) will be on home ice for their regional semifinal at 5:30 p.m. Saturday against No. 2 seed Denver (26-13-1), as UW is playing host to the Midwest Regional at the Kohl Center.

Shankar Vedantam – Unequal Perspectives on Racial Equality

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Washington Post

Quoted: In another set of experiments, social psychologist Amanda Brodish at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research showed that prejudice may play a role, too. Whites with high levels of prejudice — who think blacks are not as smart as whites, who think blacks and whites are inherently unequal, and who reported being uncomfortable with a black roommate — invariably evaluated racial equality only in comparison with the past.

By contrast, said Brodish’s co-author, Patricia Devine of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, low-prejudice whites were equally willing to apply the yardsticks of both past and future.

Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900 – Art – Review

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New York Times

The cult of celebrity and the commercialization of art are not unique to the West. In 19th-century Japan kabuki actors and high-priced geishas were idolized by commoners, and the sale of colorful woodcut prints portraying them became a big, competitive business.

Looking at Japanese prints today, you might not realize what a rough-and-tumble commercial world they came out of. Their formal elegance, poetic beauty and technical refinement suggest a more serene, creative environment. So â??Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900,â? an exhibition of many splendid prints at the Brooklyn Museum, offers a useful and informative corrective.

Organized by Laura Mueller, a doctoral candidate in Japanese art history and a curatorial intern at the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the show presents 73 woodblock prints from the Van Vleck collection, a renowned repository of more than 4,000 Japanese prints owned by the Chazen. With 22 more prints from the Brooklyn Museumâ??s collection, the exhibition tells the story of a group of artists that dominated the ukiyo-e print business for much of the 19th century.

What does it take to be UW-Madison’s chancellor?

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Wisconsin State Journal

It takes five pages to describe the job of UW-Madison chancellor.

The comprehensive document covers everything from a commitment to scholarly values to fundraising and having an interest in the appropriate use of new technologies.

“Certainly anybody who makes the short list will know exactly what they’re in for,” said Chancellor John Wiley, who’s held the top job at the state’s flagship university since 2001. He’ll step down in September.

The adventures of Chancellor Wiley

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Wisconsin State Journal

Some things just don’t fit into job descriptions.

UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley, who will step down in September, talks about some of his adventures while holding the university’s top office.

Wisconsin Singers performs its fifth annual show in The Villages (The Villages, Fla. Daily Sun)

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THE VILLAGES â?? The Wisconsin Singers is more than just singers and dancers. It is like one big family.

â??It sounds corny, but weâ??re all doing what we love to do,â? dance captain Sean Pinnow said. â??We can all come together and bond.â?

â??Theyâ??re going to be there for you whether you want them to or not,â? vocal captain Leah Miller said. â??There is always someone in life you can count on, and thatâ??s what the Singers have done for me.”

Sticks, pucks and wheels

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Wisconsin State Journal

Brenden Ojibway and Luke Russell horse around on the hockey rink, waiting for a game to start.

Brenden, 8, playfully hooks Luke, 13, from behind with his hockey stick. “Hey cheater, leggo,” Luke counters.

Hockey players come and go in a steady parade of sticks and blades, with players yearning for ice time.
Links

Sticks, blades and, for Luke and Brenden, wheels. As in wheelchairs.

The boys are part of a group of young wheelchair hockey players who come every Sunday night for about four months each year to Camp Randall Memorial Sports Center, also known as the Shell. They come to experience the satisfying crack of wood against a hard rubber puck and to feel the sense of flying that comes with being propelled across the ice at high speed.

Entertainment Industry Seeks To Quash Illegal Downloads

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Wisconsin Public Radio

The recording industry is pressuring Congress to clamp down on illegal file sharing at college campuses. Embedded in the Higher Education Act are provisions that would require universities to develop plans to provide music and movie services online. The colleges would also have to explore computer programs that stop illegal downloading. (Audio.)

U.S. Proposes New Rules on Student Privacy

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Inside Higher Education

The federal law designed to protect the privacy of studentsâ?? educational records has been under scrutiny and stress from a variety of angles in recent years, most recently from those concerned (in the wake of last yearâ??s shootings at Virginia Tech) about whether the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act gives college officials sufficient latitude to report their fears about mentally ill students.

Obituary: Frank H. Schroeder

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Madison.com

Frank H. Schroeder, age 65, passed away on Tuesday, March 18, 2008. He was employed by the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene for 32 years as a computer programmer/ management information specialist until his retirement in January 1999.

Obituary: Richard L. Reese

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Madison.com

Richard L. Reese of Monona, passed away Wednesday, March 19, 2008. Richard was a professor of Fine Arts at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and educator of the arts from 1959 until retiring as Professor Emeritus in 1997.

Obituary: Douglas D. Hackett

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Madison.com

Douglas D. Hackett, age 51, died Thursday, March 20, 2008, in a local hospital. He had been employed by the University of Wisconsin in the Pyle Center.

Obituary: Florence Susan Crane

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Madison.com

Florence Susan Crane, age 97, formerly of the White Creek area of Adams County, passed away Monday, March 17, 2008. Florence was employed in the Dean’s office, College of Agriculture, University of Wisconsin, Madison, until her retirement in 1975.

Obituary: Clara L. Barger

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Madison.com

Clara L. Barger, age 98, died on Wednesday, March 19, 2008. She worked for many years as a bookkeeper for the University of Wisconsin- Madison Medical School.

Obituary: Marilyn Ann Tasker Howard

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Madison.com

Marilyn Ann Tasker Howard died at home on Wednesday, March 19, 2008. After graduating with honors in mathematics at UW-Madison in 1956, Marilyn worked for the Forest Products Research Laboratory, writing programs for the (then) state-of-the-art IBM 650 main-frame computer that was located in the basement of Bascom Hall.  She later worked as a computer programmer at the Space Astronomy Lab at the University.