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Author: rueckert

College personal essays: How schools could end this nightmare.

Slate

olleges might think that essays help open up opportunities for students, but the opposite could be true. A new study by Taylor K. Odle, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Preston Magouirk, a data scientist at the District of Columbia College Access Program, looked at the nearly 300,000 students who started but never submitted an application through the Common App.

The New Face of Nuclear Energy Is Miss America

WSJ

“Why isn’t this being shouted from the rooftops?” asked Stanke, a 21-year-old nuclear engineering student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is too Wisconsin-nice to shout, but in more than 20 states so far she has touted clean energy and nuclear medicine at schools, nursing homes, a state legislature and once on a water-skiing podcast.

AOC? Romney? If voters don’t want Biden or Trump, who’s their pick?

USA Today

For Biden, one of voters’ biggest concerns appears to center around age. Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, previously argued that, even if Biden’s age has not affected his ability to do the job, “some members of the public may nonetheless believe he is not mentally sharp enough or that he lacks the necessary physical stamina.”

Prominent Consciousness Theory Is Slammed as Bogus Science

Scientific American

The same criticism about a lack of meaningful empirical tests could be made about other theories of consciousness, says Erik Hoel, a neuroscientist and writer who lives on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, and who is a former student of Giulio Tononi, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who is a proponent of IIT. “Everyone who works in the field has to acknowledge that we don’t have perfect brain scans,” he says. “And yet, somehow, IIT is singled out in the letter as this being a problem that’s unique to it.”

Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Evers’ special election on child care, worker shortages rejected by GOP Legislature

Fox News

Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled Legislature ignored a special session that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers called for Wednesday in the hopes of passing a $1 billion package that would keep a pandemic-era child care program running, send more money to the University of Wisconsin and create a paid family leave program.

Biden’s Oil Policy Gamble – WSJ

Wall Street Journal

While not doing much about climate change, the Biden administration has managed to increase the cost of living and weaken national security. Canceling oil leases signals to markets that making new investments won’t be profitable. This restricts domestic supply, increases prices and weakens Western economies. It also bankrolls our adversaries. Russia depends on higher oil prices to finance its war. Mr. Biden has also drawn down the strategic petroleum reserve and, more recently, allowed huge Iranian oil sales to China. The climate-change war on domestic fossil-fuel production is truly an all-around disaster.—Anika Horowitz, University of Wisconsin-Madison, economics

Healthcare workers worried about potential masking changes in hospitals

Popular Science

“It’s shocking to suggest that we need more studies to know whether N95 respirators are effective against an airborne pathogen,” said Kaitlin Sundling, a physician and pathologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in a comment following the June meeting. “The science of N95 respirators is well established and based on physical properties, engineered filtered materials, and our scientific understanding of how airborne transmission works.”

Expected CDC guidance on N95 masks outrages health care workers

NBC News

“It’s shocking to suggest that we need more studies to know whether N95 respirators are effective against an airborne pathogen,” said Kaitlin Sundling, a physician and pathologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in a comment following the June meeting. “The science of N95 respirators is well established and based on physical properties, engineered filtered materials, and our scientific understanding of how airborne transmission works.”

Higher education’s crisis of faith

Inside Higher Ed

A recent article in The Telegraph discusses what the author, the University of Wisconsin’s Nicholas Hillman, calls the college marketplace myth: that high school students should “meticulously shop around for colleges nationwide and pick the best fit.” In response, policy makers devote immense resources “into massive information campaigns and programs that help students choose among schools—such as College Scorecard, College Navigator and tuition watchlists.”

Life Expectancy In The U.S. Is Declining at a Rapid Rate – it is Began Much Earlier Than We Thought

Home Knowledge

However, the overall message remains consistent, as emphasized by Michal Engelman. Engelman is a University of Wisconsin-Madisonn associate professor dealing in sociology. He noted that the timeline highlighted in the study demonstrates that life expectancy is heavily determined by a number of systemic factors, many of which extend beyond the health choices of individuals.

How are Gen Zers buying homes already?

Marketplace

Members of Gen Z still face difficulties in home buying born out of the housing crisis, but they also benefited from entering the workforce at a time of record-low interest rates, said Max Besbris, an associate sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

DHS warns about 2024’s cyberthreats

The Washington Post

The uncertainty of not having a nonpartisan elections leader in a paramount state is worrying, experts said. “The elections commission is training clerks around the state and issuing guidance, so to have uncertainty about who the top administrator is going into this crucial election season, I think is a real problem,” said Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and director of its Elections Research Center.

Wisconsin Weighs Ousting Elections Official as Control of Voting Gets Partisan

WSJ

“It’s a serious problem to not have seasoned trusted leadership in place well before the election gets under way,” said Barry Burden, a political-science professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who added that the nation will be watching the state in the 2024 presidential contest. “It’s a battleground state. It’s maybe the battleground state.”

How Agtech, Data Collection Are Changing Farming Methods

Business Insider

Soon, they’ll need even more help. The average age of a farmer is 57.5 years old, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s most recent estimates. With older farmers about to retire, estimates indicate that young people won’t be able to fill the gap; A 2022 survey conducted by The National Young Farmers Coalition and the University of Wisconsin Survey Center found that this is primarily because land is so expensive.

Wisconsin Republicans Are Taking Desperate Steps to Subvert Fair Elections in 2024

Mother Jones

“The idea that she should recuse here is itself a legal stretch,” says Robert Yablon, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-director of the State Democracy Research Initiative. “And the idea that then a failure to recuse would be impeachable also seems like a stretch. I’m not aware of any other judicial impeachment anywhere in the country that was premised on a non-recusal from a case involving campaign supporters or campaign statements.”

Opinion | America Already Knows How to Make Childbirth Safer

The New York Times

Dr. Tiffany Green, a professor at the school of medicine and public health at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, said she believes the effort to reduce maternal mortality should focus not only on care received in hospitals, but on the social and economic conditions faced in general by Black women. The United States should consider using federal civil rights law in cases where racial bias severely hurt the care a patient received. “If you think bias is a fundamental driver of these iniquities then you have to hold providers accountable,” Dr. Green said.

Richard Davis, Jazz Bassist Who Conjured ‘Astral Weeks,’ Dead at 93

Rolling Stone

Davis’ daughter Persia confirmed her father’s death Thursday on both a memorial page and to Madison 365; Davis taught at the University of Wisconsin for over 40 years, but spent the last two years in hospice care. “We appreciate all the love and support the community has shown him over the years,” Persia Davis added.

Richard Davis, Jazz Bassist Who Conjured ‘Astral Weeks,’ Dead at 93

Rolling Stone

Davis’ daughter Persia confirmed her father’s death Thursday on both a memorial page and to Madison 365; Davis taught at the University of Wisconsin for over 40 years, but spent the last two years in hospice care. “We appreciate all the love and support the community has shown him over the years,” Persia Davis added.

School mask mandates are back. So are the political divisions they deepened.

The Washington Post

“Some school districts are rightfully going to want to protect vulnerable students,” said Tiffany Green, an associate professor in the department of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin at Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. “Why would we not want to be proactive in protecting students, protecting teachers, protecting staff?”

A few schools mandated masks. Conservatives hit back hard.

Washington Post

“Some school districts are rightfully going to want to protect vulnerable students,” said Tiffany Green, an associate professor in the department of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin at Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. “Why would we not want to be proactive in protecting students, protecting teachers, protecting staff?”

How hospitals can help patients prep for appointments

STAT

Working on question lists does not require a trained coach, however. A family member or friend can be a helpful guide to preparing for a visit, as the process of making a question list can decrease worry and increase a patient’s sense of control. In fact, there are various methods to brainstorm, clarify, and organize a question list, and anyone can find frameworks to navigate their medical decisions, including the Ottawa decision guides, the University of Wisconsin Surgery’s Best Case/Worst Case framework, or our own pre-appointment question list.

Five billion people will face extreme heat at least a month each year by 2050

Washington Post

Experts consulted on the strengths and limitations of the WBGT metric and the physiological impacts of different levels of heat include Zac Schlader (Indiana University at Bloomington), W. Larry Kenney and Daniel Vecellio (Pennsylvania State University), Jonathan Patz (University of Wisconsin at Madison), George Havenith (Loughborough University, U.K.) and Jason Lee (National University of Singapore).