(Video) On 27 News at 5 on Tuesday, political analyst and UW-Madison Professor Mike Wagner discussed the GOP Debate in Milwaukee.
He discussed which candidates need to have a big night and other things to watch for in the debate.
(Video) Hollywood shines a light on one of its darkest periods in the new movie “Trumbo.” Jeff Smith, a University of Wisconsin communication arts professor, talks about the Trumbo era.
Quoted: “Our stories are just four among the many stories we could tell about our region’s future,” said Stephen Carpenter, a principal investigator on the WSC project and director of the Center for Limnology. “This contest is an effort to encourage all of us to think about the future we want to live into and how we could get there.”
Noted: The study involved people over 50 whose top reading was over 130. People with diabetes were excluded, so the results do not apply to them. The results also may not apply to people with previous strokes, the very old, those with severe kidney disease or people already taking a lot of different drugs, said Dr. James Stein, who heads the high blood pressure program at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
2015 marks the 40th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior. Our guest weather expert, Steve Ackerman, talks about the November gale responsible for one of history’s most well-known shipwrecks.
Can you tell anything about politicians’ accuracy by analyzing how they speak? A new analysis finds that lying politicians tend to be more verbose. Michael Braun, Lyn Van Swol, and Lisa Vang at Millikin University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, they recently analyzed several hundred claims made by politicians that had been fact checked PolitiFact.
Coauthored by Clif Conrad:
Visit an American college campus today and you’ll see a more diverse student body than ever before. Over the last 30 years, the number of Hispanic students has risen five-fold, Asian and Pacific Islander enrollment has tripled, black enrollment has risen 150 percent and Native American enrollment has doubled.But the graduation rate for minority students falls far below the nationwide average. Our colleges and universities are not succeeding at educating students with diverse backgrounds. In an increasingly competitive global economy, our country cannot afford this waste of time, money and talent.
Quoted: “It was the first real shot in the arm here for the Space Race growth of planetariums in the coming decade,” says Jordan D. Marché II, an astronomy lecturer who has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
An architect who helped lead implementation of green building practices and the founder of a statewide sustainable business organization have won top honors from the Wisconsin affiliate of the U.S. Green Building Council.
Noted: UW-Madison economics and public affairs professor Andrew Reschovsky said there have been a number of state efficiency commissions in the past but that because the state has long been dealing with tight budgets, government bureaucrats have already long been lowering costs.
Quoted: “In any instance where a person would have good reason to think, Whoa, what’s going on here, is this some kind of harassment or abuse of an animal? certainly you have an obligation to explore further before you would use it,” says Robert Dreschel, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “There’s a lot of disagreement about where is the line between cute animal behavior and behavior that involves something that would be abusive. I would err on the side of caution.”
Noted: The neighborhood was developed in the 1940s and today represents a remarkably preserved example of the kind of postwar, mass-produced housing that would proliferate in the following decades, according to Anna Andrzejewski, a UW-Madison professor of art history who has written about the neighborhood.
Noted: Steve Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, are guests on WHA radio (970 AM) at 11:45 a.m. the last Monday of each month.
Noted: UW-Madison education professor Gloria Ladson-Billings assured a crowd of well over 100 that the problem is “not insurmountable.” Most important are highly effective, fully qualified teachers. Three really good teachers in a row, she said, citing research, will pull young students out of failure.
Quoted: Surprisingly, there isn’t even a good map of the Internet’s highways and byways to clearly show locations that, if taken out, would severely hamper the system. “Everybody assumes somebody knows, but after a while you find out nobody actually knows,” said Paul Barford, a professor of computer science at the University of Wisconsin who has made it his mission to find out where the vulnerabilities are.
Quoted: “Madison lost out on this one,” Steven Deller said.Deller teaches Agriculture and Applied Economics at UW and he says this week’s job loss could be a sign where this state is going.”I think the days of big manufacturing plants that employ thousands of people in Wisconsin are limited,” he said.
Quoted: Oscar Mayer has not confirmed what type of severance packages or benefits they will provide to the displaced workers, Barry Gerhart, University of Wisconsin professor of management and human resources, said. But regardless of the compensation, the closure will be a major challenge for displaced employees.
Noted: Panelists will include: Gloria Ladson-Billings, faculty member in the UW-Madison School of Education.
Noted: In an October 2014 report on the area’s agriculture, food and beverage industry cluster prepared for the Madison Region Economic Partnership, Matt Kures of the UW Extension Center for Community and Economic Development wrote that a loss in food manufacturing employment was a result of changes at individual companies rather than declining regional competitiveness.
Quoted: UW School of Business professor Robert Krainer said he thinks more than a consolidation, the changes represent a contraction. “They are producing a product that fewer and fewer people are consuming,” he said.
Expect to pay more for your Thanksgiving dinner turkey this year, thanks to the outbreak of the bird flu last spring. UW-Madison poultry expert Ron Kean says prices will probably be up 10 to 15 percent, to around $1.15 to $1.20 per pound.
Quoted: “Not sure the state could do much of anything to convince Kraft Heinz to change their minds,” said Steven Deller, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who specializes in community development. “From a purely corporate perspective I can understand K-H wanting the top administrative offices … located at the K-H Chicago headquarters.”
Quoted: People considering such foreign treatment “should understand they are taking a shot in the dark,” said R. Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin. “There is nothing proven about what these guys are doing.”
Quoted: New technologies such as “sharing economy” companies such as Airbnb and Uber tend to create windows of opportunity for new business models during which the old regulatory regime no longer fits and new regulations will be needed, said Hart Posen, a professor of business at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
Quoted: “It does mean Paul Ryan (as speaker) needs to continue to pay attention to the district,” says political scientist David Canon of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. If Ryan is “painted into a corner” by conservatives in his caucus, “that might not play very well back home,” says Canon.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin meteorology professor Jonathan Martin said a stronger-than-normal El Nino pattern in the Pacific will push warmer temperatures into the Midwest throughout the rest of the month. But he said it will likely not be as warm as the 70 degree days Wisconsin will enjoy this week.
This is the first time in nearly two decades such a strong weather pattern has hit the Great Lakes states.
“[In ’97-’98] you could throw rocks into Lake Mendota,” Martin said. “The ice was gone Feb. 28, so I went down with my kids and threw rocks in the lake, and I told them, ‘This will never happen again.’ Well, it might this year.'”
Quoted: If a prediction can be based on national and statewide trends, the answer is probably “yes,” said Noah Williams, an economics professor at UW-Madison.
Noted: Ordering defendants to give blood used to be more commonplace, particularly during wartime, according to “Flesh and Blood,” a history of blood transfusions and organ transplantation by Susan Lederer, a professor of medical history now at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Paula McAvoy, the program director for the Center for Ethics and Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison — and, I should note, my son Amato’s fiancée — recently suggested a different idea: “Why don’t they spend their money on infrastructure instead?”
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison associate professor J. Michael Collins called myRA an “exciting proposal” although it has its limitations: its capped at $15,000.
Quoted: Yi Fuxian, a Researcher at the University of Wisconsin, urges the Chinese government to follow up with better population policies.
Quoted: Owners often leave the radio or a playlist on for cats alone in the house, assuming they will share human musical tastes, be it classical, country or the lyrical tones of NPR hosts. But cats’ hearing develops differently and “we mindlessly turn on music” for them, said Charles Snowdon, an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who worked with Mr. Teie on the project. With its special instruments and tonal mixing, “Music for Cats” aims to bridge that sensory gap, he said.
Noted: Award recipient Ted Goodfriend, professor emeritus of medicine and pharmacology, founded MEDIC, a group of student-run medical clinics for underserved populations including the homeless.
Quoted: There may be more farming bees to be found. “Given the substantial diversity of bees, many of which are poorly studied, it is likely that other bees engage in similar associations,” says Cameron Currie of the University of Wisconsin.
Noted: The majority of studies have shown that the injury rate for youth football is quite low, and is actually significantly lower than the injury rates of high school or college football, said Dr. Gregory Landry, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, and the lead author of the policy statement.
Quoted: “We have seen that clinic closures lead to burdens for women in a variety of states,” said Jenny Higgins, an assistant professor in gender and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a board member with the Guttmacher Institute. “This is true for Planned Parenthood, but is also true for any clinic that offers abortion care.”
Noted: Kenneth R. Mayer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, warned against drawing firm conclusions from these preliminary examples in a paper, “Public Election Funding: An Assessment of What We Would Like to Know”
As scientific fields rapidly evolve, putting more emphasis on effective communication skills and accessibility, the newest president of the Ecological Society of America, Monica Turner, the Eugene P. Odum Professor of Ecology and Vilas Research Professor of Zoology at UW-Madison, said she will use decades of experience as an ecologist to navigate the organization through changing times.
Quoted: Jeff Sindelar, an extension meat specialist at UW-Madison, said consumers should “certainly take note” of the WHO’s findings.
But he said the method used by the IARC in determining cancer risk levels based on red or processed meat consumption does not consider other factors, in many meat eaters, that may also be contributing to that risk.
“Lifestyle, genetics, other foods they’re eating and other habits, like smoking, drinking, etc., those all come into play,” Sindelar said.
Quoted: Even before these proposed changes, elected officials received special treatment under Wisconsin law. While the average citizen is tried for crimes where they allegedly occur, public officials are tried for violations of ethics and election laws in their home counties. Law professor Ben Kempinen, who runs the Prosecution Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that requirement coupled with the move to grand juries will present big challenges to a DA from a small county.
Quoted: “To be included in the same category doesn’t mean it’s as bad for your health as smoking or obesity or lack of exercise or using tanning beds,” said Dr. Sam Lubner, with the UW Carbone Cancer Center. “It simply means that the evidence shows that the link is real.”
The study also doesn’t mean that occasional steak or brat will kill you. Lubner said it just highlights the need for a balanced diet.
“Is eating a steak going to immediately cause cancer? Absolutely not,” he said. “[But] don’t eat four pounds of meat a day and expect to live a healthy life.” .
A new report links processed meats to cancer, although one University of Wisconsin expert is urging consumers to consider a more moderate approach before tossing out the bacon.
Noted: Findings show that the rate of sports-related concussions sustained during high school football practice was more than twice as high in the two seasons prior to the rule change as compared to the 2014 season, said University of Wisconsin–Madison senior scientist Timothy A. McGuine, PhD, ATC.
“This study confirms what athletic trainers who work with high school football programs have long believed regarding the association of full contact drills or practices and the likelihood a player will sustain a concussion,” Dr. McGuine said. “This is probably also true for other football injuries such as sprains, fractures and dislocations.”
Noted: Low turnout could weaken Ouattara’s mandate going forward, said Scott Straus, an Ivory Coast expert at the University of Wisconsin.
Noted: That’s not necessarily good news for everyone, notes Ed Hopkins, an assistant state climatologist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Apart from its positive economic effects for snow removers and ski resorts, those crisp, white flakes also help protect a farmer’s soil come spring.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin Forestry and Wildlife Ecology Professor Mark Richenbach says there are pros and cons to the current system.
Noted: Consuelo Lopez Springfield, of Madison, is an emerita assistant dean at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a retired senior lecturer on gender and women’s studies and Chican@Latin@ studies.
Quoted: “This is the type of worst case scenario that we fear,” said Derrick Herndon, an atmospheric scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday. He’s never seen a storm grow so powerful so quickly.
Quoted: “You can think of it like the ice skater analogy,” says James Kossin, atmospheric research scientist at NOAA’s Center for Weather and Climate in Wisconsin. “When the skater pulls their limbs in, they move faster and faster.”
Five years ago, the experience of a Haitian student in one of Tom Eggert’s business classes triggered a chain of events. That chain has led to hundreds of Haitians and Filipinos starting and sustaining small businesses, all supported by University of Wisconsin-Madison students and Midwestern donors.
Last week, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Tracey Holloway welcomed hundreds of people to an annual energy summit. Carbon emissions and climate change were at the top of the agenda and EPA Midwest Administrator Susan Hedman delivered the keynote speech.
Quoted: State grand juries will be cumbersome – they require 17 people – and bringing one into court day after day requires space and is expensive, said University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor David Schultz.
Still, other states have been able to pursue political corruption cases without the John Doe process. Wisconsin prosecutors still have considerable powers and there are more statutes on the books that can be broken now than ever before, said Donald Downs, a UW-Madison political science professor and an expert on criminal law and politics.
Noted: Steve Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, are guests on WHA radio (970 AM) at 11:45 a.m. the last Monday of each month.
Noted: Bryan Heiderscheit is a professor in the departments of orthopedics and rehabilitation and biomedical engineering at UW-Madison and director of the Badger Athletic Performance research program.
Quoted: “For somebody who has a low balance and doesn’t actively manage their bank account, having a traditional bank account can be pretty costly,” explains Michael Collins, a financial literacy expert at the director of the Center for Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin. “If you’re only trying to save $300 [over the long term] and you’re paying $10 a month in fees, it becomes really hard to justify having a bank account.”
Quoted: State grand juries will be cumbersome — they require 17 people — and bringing one into court day after day requires space and is expensive, said University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor David Schultz. Still, other states have been able to pursue political corruption cases without the John Doe process. Wisconsin prosecutors still have considerable powers and there are more statutes on the books that can be broken now than ever before, said Donald Downs, a UW-Madison political science professor and an expert on criminal law and politics.
Gloria Ladson-Billings is the Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Educational Policy Studies for the University of Wisconsin.
Noted: Sustain Dane selected three individuals as this year’s Badger Bioneers for their leadership and courage in making our region more sustainable. They are Shannon Bunsen, who created her position as the sustainability program coordinator at UW Health and is responsible for shaping the organization’s overall vision and strategy for sustainability. . . . and Jason Vargo, who helps direct the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s activities toward healthy cities and sustainability across Wisconsin and abroad through his work with the university’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and Global Health Institute.
Quoted: “I’m surprised (at finding them), but I’m mostly surprised that it’s only showing up now,” said Center for Limnology professor Jake Vander Zanden, whose students discovered the mussels about two weeks ago along the Lakeshore Path, not far from the limnology lab.
Nick Smith is enologist for the UW-Madison College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, an expert on fermented beverages who leads the university’s efforts to support Wisconsin producers of wine and cider.
