The next speaker at the monthly “Science on Tap” program in Minocqua has Northwoods ties and will discuss Wisconsin’s land ethic. Dr. Tim Van Deelen is a professor in the department of forest and wildlife ecology at UW-Madison.
Quoted: “There is a huge distrust within the political sphere and it would be surprising if it did not extend to formal institutions like schools,” said Diana Hess, dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Education and co-author of the 2015 book “The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education.”
What the dairy industry has been going through the past few years is more than an ordinary, cyclical price trough, according to Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at UW-Madison. It’s really more like a “long scrape,” with milk prices staying persistently low for an extended period, he says.
Murphy was apparently saddened at criticisms that Coming to America stereotyped Africans, says Tejumola Olaniyan, professor of African diaspora cultural studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has written on how the movie “others” Africa. “It was actually meant to be a positive portrayal of Africa: they are rich Africans, not poor. They are noble, they are humble. He wanted to overturn Hollywood’s images. It was still a kind of romanticisation but the movie only happened at all because of Murphy’s power in Hollywood.”
The good news is that the multi-year decline in farm income nationally and in Wisconsin seems to have stabilized, summarized Paul Mitchell, Professor Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, at the UW-Madison, leadoff speaker at the 2018 Ag Outlook Forum.
Susan Paskewitz, the chair of the Department of Entomology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Popular Science that cold is a limiting factor for the Asian tiger mosquito, which can carry the Zika virus.
Tax breaks only go so far. The next step is reversing cuts to the state university system.
“The NuScale reactor has crossed a very important safety threshold,” said Todd Allen, professor of nuclear engineering at University of Wisconsin. “It’s an inflection point for advanced reactor designs. The question we can’t answer yet is, will they make it work in the market?”
“These data show that was wrong,” says John Hawks, an anthropology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the study. Today’s findings reveal that Levallois tools emerged in India roughly 385,000 years ago — right around the same time they started showing up in Africa and Europe. That means “India is part of this network of cultural innovation that included Neanderthals and Africans,” Hawks says. Michael Petraglia, a professor of human evolution at the Max Planck Institute in Germany who also did not participate in the research, agrees that the discovery is a key piece of the puzzle. “It fills an important gap in our knowledge of an important crossroads,” he says.
Noted: Renk Professor of Agribusiness Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Brian Gould said something that “put a strain on the world’s dairy market” was when the European Union lifted its milk quotas in 2015.
As a dozen “students” of all ages buzz around a pilot plant at Babcock Hall on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus, drips of vanilla or chocolate ice cream ooze from five batch freezers.
Noted: Looking for a Mersenne prime is very difficult, just like searching for a needle in a haystack, said Jordan Ellenberg, a mathematics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
It’s pronounced “hoo-ga” and it’s a Danish world with no direct English translation — but Denmark native Dr. Claus E. Andersen teaches the concept to students of Scandinavian Studies at UW-Madison. So what does it mean? “The definition I use the most when I talk about it is pleasant togetherness,” said Andersen.
Noted: Along with labor worries, cheap credit and improvements in technology are coming together to tip the scales in favor of robotics on dairy farms, said Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Quoted: Paul Mitchell, University of Wisconsin professor in the School of Agriculture and Applied Economics: “You might have been able to survive the first three years, using your excess capital, working capital, liquidity. But as things get tighter and tighter… some people just can’t do it anymore.”
Quoted: “(Starting a business) is something brand new, and it’s hard, and you are always going to learn from your customer,” said Dan Olszewski, director of the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Wisconsin.
Noted: “In the 1860s, like today, no one would have argued that the dead should not be appropriately buried,” said Stephen Kantrowitz, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of history at UW-Madison. “But I think it’s fair to say that no one would have imagined that the soldiers of an army of rebellion against the United States deserved a monument to their heroic sacrifice.”
Noted: “In a general election, Madison and Milwaukee have a lot of influence,” said UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden. “In a Democratic primary it’s exacerbated because Democrats are so heavily concentrated. The candidates have to spend time in those places. Madison plays an out-sized influence in the primary stage.”
Quoted: “Children should not take any cough or cold medications,” said Dr. Nasia Safdar, medical director of infection control at the University of Wisconsin Health. “They are not beneficial and might be harmful.”
Noted: The incarceration rate may indicate that local and state officials should further examine the impacts of Public Law 280 on Wisconsin native communities and reservations, according to Richard Monette, professor of law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and faculty director of the Great Lakes Indigenous Law Center.
Noted: Janet Hyde, a psychology and women’s studies professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has conducted several meta-analyses on the subject, and found relatively small behavioral, intelligence, and personality differences between genders.
Noted: More farmers are turning to seed or equipment companies for lines of credit instead of traditional agriculture lenders, something that could lead to more bankruptcy cases, said Paul Mitchell, director of the Renk Agribusiness Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Noted: “Taken together, these results highlight how improved access to school resources can profoundly shape the life outcomes of economically disadvantaged children and thereby reduce the intergenerational transmission of poverty,” wrote the researchers, Kirabo Jackson of Northwestern University; Rucker C. Johnson of the University of California, Berkeley; and Claudia Persico of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Noted: “This would be the earliest modern human anyone has found outside of Africa, ever,” said John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist from the University of Wisconsin, Madison who was not involved in the study.
Cough medicines that contain opioids like codeine should never be given to children, the Food and Drug Administration warned in early January.“Children should not take any cough or cold medications,” said Dr. Nasia Safdar, medical director of infection control at the University of Wisconsin Health. “They are not beneficial and might be harmful.”
“These are very different cancers,” he told me. “It’s like saying a dog had an infection and then got another infection years later, so it’s a preexisting condition.”Dr. David Vail, an oncologist at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, said he “would tend to agree that the two are unlikely to be related.”
“This would be the earliest modern human anyone has found outside of Africa, ever,” said John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist from the University of Wisconsin, Madison who was not involved in the study.
This new find adds another important clue towards solving the mystery of this earlier spread of humans out of Africa, write the authors of a commentary published with the study. “I think that’s pretty cool,” agrees John Hawks, an paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “You have a modern-looking upper jaw in Israel that was there much earlier than it was supposed to have been.” He cautions, however, against getting too attached to the label Homo sapiens: with only a small chunk of bone to go on, it’s hard to say for certain. It’s possible that it could be from another, unnamed relative of modern day people, for example.
The opening session featured Dr. Kent Weigel, head of the UW-Madison Dairy Science Department, and dairy specialist Dr. Victor Cabrera.
Weigel reported on recent studies that examined the benefits of using genomic (DNA) analysis as a tool to improve dairy herd health and productivity.
Quoted: “The children of incarcerated parents have been invisible for a long time because of stigma,” says Julie Poehlmann-Tynan, UW-Madison professor of human development and family studies. Poehlmann-Tynan has researched this population since 1996. She’s done the first ever observational study of children visiting incarcerated parents. Her work focuses on what will help children cope and thrive while a parent is incarcerated.
Quoted: Ryder, who teaches fermentation sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wants the class to be geared to “regular people.” Ryder doesn’t imagine he’ll make brewers out of his students. He just wants to round out their knowledge “so they won’t feel intimidated about some of these beers. People don’t know what’s a good beer and what’s a bad beer and why.”
Noted: UW-Madison political science professor David Canon says Walker’s speech is a good road map for the Governor’s re-election campaign; one in which Canon believes Walker will try to distance himself from the dysfunction in Washington.
A 2015 report from the Applied Population Lab at the University of Wisconsin said about 10,000 people leave the state annually, a trend that has been dogging the state since the Great Recession a decade ago. Census data showed the state’s population growth from 2014 to 2015 was 11,900 people, 39th in the nation.
A supermoon is when these two cycles match up and we have a full moon that’s near its perigee. The result is that the full “super” moon appears slightly larger and slightly brighter to us in the sky. This occurs about one in every 14 full moons, Jim Lattis, an astronomer at the University of Wisconsin Madison, notes.
Noted: There are multiple things that are lumped under the title of fake news, said Kathleen Bartzen Culver, Director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at UW–Madison.
In the future, I suggest you only buy kiln-dried stickers, as they will be straight and the correct thickness. Many people today also get a profiled sticker that has grooves on the faces to help drying where the sticker contact the lumber.Gene Wengert, “The Wood Doctor” has been training people in efficient use of wood for 35 years. He is extension specialist emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The study, conducted by researchers at the Wisconsin School of Business, compared data from about 3,200 firms from 1989 to 2011 with data on the electoral cycles of insurance commissioners—or governors in states where the commissioner is appointed.
Noted: Thomas O’Guinn, marketing professor and Thomas J. Falk distinguished chair in business at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, thinks the study is on point. Having studied sons who got into longstanding grudges over not picking the same brand of car as dad or not liking the same “family” brand of beer, he attests that the results are not surprising at all.
Noted: The new study is “a remarkably detailed review of quite an obscure thing,” notes Tony Goldberg, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine.
Unemployment rates in the badger state may be some of the lowest on record, but the types of jobs being created are generally on the low or high end of the wage scale, resulting in an absence of mid-level jobs, according to according to Dr. Steven Deller, economist with UW-Madison.
Noted: Patricia McConnell, an adjunct professor of zoology at UW-Madison and a certified applied animal behaviorist, echoed the fears … that more tragedies will occur if the DNR doesn’t make more of an effort to educate everyone about the rules. McConnell, a widely known author and speaker on animal behavior, said more than 90 dogs were caught in traps in Wisconsin in 2016.
Noted: But the modest increase doesn’t necessarily mean long-term growth for labor unions, said Laura Dresser, an economist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center on Wisconsin Strategy.
Noted: The ABC show includes an interview from Dr. Barbara Knox, a child abuse pediatrician and professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
At the forum, Pam Oliver, a professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said there’s little or no evidence that checking in with parole officers lowers the risk of a future criminal offense. She called supervision rules “almost impossible not to violate,” especially considering many ex-prisoners struggle with addiction, mental illness and poverty.
Professionals take an oath to serve people who are sick, Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison explained. They are also the only ones licensed to provide those services and must do so without discrimination, she said.
Noted: At the local level, McFarland High School will host a Wednesday, Jan. 31, presentation about the teenage brain led by UW Health psychologist and UW-Madison professor Dr. Jack Nitschke, an expert in psychology and neuroscience who specializes in teen mental health.
Unemployment rates in the badger state may be some of the lowest on record, but the types of jobs being created are generally on the low or high end of the wage scale, resulting in an absence of mid-level jobs, according to according to Dr. Steven Deller, economist with UW-Madison.
A 2014 study by University of Wisconsin pediatrician Barbara Knox and colleagues found that in 38 cases of severe child abuse, 47 percent of parents had never enrolled their children in school or pulled their youngsters out when abuse was suspected and told authorities they were home schooling.
Democrats won Wisconsin in every presidential election from 1988 to 2012, but Hillary Clinton’s strategists made the mistake of taking the state for granted in 2016. What they missed were trends brilliantly analyzed by Katherine J. Cramer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, in her prophetic book, “The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker.” It was published eight months before the 2016 vote.
Jerry O’Brien, director of the Kohl’s Center for Retailing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told CNBC the tax cuts could result in a bigger gap between luxury retailers (i.e. Tiffany, Hudson’s Bay, Neiman Marcus and Tapestry) and other players, though he said off-price brands will continue to outperform in 2018. This leaves the “middle ground” of the industry at risk, he added.
At the time of Mr. Ross’s suspension, Kathleen Culver, the director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that the president was likely to use the mistake as ammunition against his political opponents — an observation that seemed borne out by the “Fake News Awards.”
When we think about presidents losing their mental grip, we generally go back to Woodrow Wilson, who had a stroke in 1919 that left him bedridden and pretty much off the playing field. “Wilson was the worst case of presidential disability,” said John Cooper, a Wilson expert at the University of Wisconsin. The stroke was followed by other physical ailments and a long period of isolation under the protection of his wife, who some claimed was taking over the presidency. It left Wilson’s cognitive function unimpaired, Cooper said, “but it warped his judgment horribly.”
“Without being tremendously well organized, it can be easy to fail,” said Donald Moynihan, a professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who is writing a book on the effects of administrative burdens. Researchers have studied the ways complexity can reduce sign-ups for workplace pension plans, participation in food stamps and turnout in elections, he noted. “These sorts of little barriers are ways in which humans get tripped up all the time when they’re trying to do something that might benefit them.”
It’s likely both political parties in Wisconsin will tap into rural resentment as the state heads into a gubernatorial and U.S. Senate election later this year, said University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher and author Kathy Cramer on Tuesday.
Noted: Dr. Angela Janis, co-director of mental health services and director of psychiatric services at the University of Wisconsin–Madison University Health Services, says Schedule 1 classification of marijuana makes it difficult to legally study the drug, so its benefits and risks to one’s health aren’t fully understood.
UW-Madison political scientist Barry Burden says Republicans were expected to hold on to the district and spent a lot of money on the special election race, making the outcome a surprise for many. Burden says low turnout from Republicans may be partly to blame for the loss, although he also sees national influences at play.
Lawmakers heard testimony Wednesday on a proposal to create the first state-funded merit scholarships for Wisconsin high schoolers who attend University of Wisconsin System schools.
“From a gut instinct I would suspect there were multiple agents involved in that epidemic,” says Caitlin Pepperrell, a researcher who studies infectious diseases at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved with the study.
Advocates say it’s needed to end livestock killing by the state’s healthy wolf population. But it’s the wrong approach, says UW Madison zoologist, Patricia McConnell.
Quoted: Brian Gould, an associate professor of agricultural and applied economics at UW-Madison.
“Mexico has been actively exploring trading relationships with some of our competing countries for their dairy imports and there’s a potential that we could lose those markets,” Gould said. “Even if we don’t lose NAFTA, we may lose those markets anyway.”
