A: No, says Lyle Anderson, master carillonneur at the School of Music at University of Wisconsin-Madison. The bronze bells in the carillon tower were cast in England and the Netherlands, and were tuned at the factory before delivery to the new carillon on Bascom Hill on campus. The tower was completed in 1936.
A. What an amazing warm spell! March 14 was the first day of five consecutive days in which record-high temperatures were set in Madison. This matches the longest consecutive-day streak for setting record highs in our city?s history (the other two times were in the 1950s).
Noted: Clifford Thurber, a seismologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who served as a consultant for the city, is still on the fence. ?I won?t be amazed if it turns out to be earthquakes, but it could also be a near surface event, such as rocks fracturing beneath the surface due to erosion from flowing water.? So far, the booms have only been heard within in a small, cigar-shaped area that encompasses most of Clintonville, Thurber says, suggesting an origin that is close to the surface, a possibility that falls within the uncertainty of the USGS seismic data.
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, professor of public affairs and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A new national figure that suggests total student debt is now more than $1 trillion has led many in the University of Wisconsin System to express concern over the implications the hikes may have on students.
This unseasonably warm weather may have a negative impact on local crops.
Noted: The earthquake announcement from USGS ?is kind of going to throw everything into a tizzy,? Clifford Thurber, a geophysics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said, and there needs to be more conclusive evidence and research before the shaking is dubbed as earthquakes.
Quoted: ?Microearthquakes in general happen all the time, all over the world, but we?ve never had one specifically detected in Wisconsin, especially a whole series of them like what we have been seeing going on Clintonville,? said Harold J. Tobin, a professor of geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has been helping to diagnose the mysterious pounding.
Jack Dengel, a senior from Illinois majoring in Clinical Laboratory Sciences, will be graduating in May after four years of undergraduate study. Since his major will be discontinued in the fall, he had to graduate on time and dedicate most of his coursework to his specialized major. He also pressured himself to graduate in four years to save his parents money and join the work force sooner.
After considerable time and money being spent educating Madison?s citizens about voting requirements under the photo identification law, two injunctions have changed the law?s implementation in time for the next election.
UW-Madison Vice Chancellor Darrell Bazzell defended the university?s process for coming up with new work rules for UW-Madison?s 17,000 employees in a statement released Wednesday afternoon. His statement is in response to an allegation that the school may be violating the Open Meetings Law by holding committee meetings in private.
The highly-charged political protests in Egypt during the beginning of 2011 had dramatic effects for the University of Wisconsin students studying abroad there when they received a phone call telling them it was time to come home.
When University of Wisconsin-Madison officials embarked on developing a new personnel system to govern the work lives of more than 15,000 people across campus in the wake of the end of collective bargaining rights, those taking the lead on the project promised it would be ?transparent and collaborative.? But an organization that advocates for the rights of faculty and academic staff at the university argues the process has fallen well short of that ideal, pointing out that meetings of the Advisory Committee to the Human Resources HR Design Project have — for purposes of the state?s open meetings law — been closed.
Gary Sandefur, the dean of the College of Letters and Science, who chairs the Advisory Committee, says the body decided to close its meetings for two main reasons after the university?s office of legal services advised that the state?s open meetings law applies to gatherings of governmental bodies — and that this committee doesn?t meet the definition of such a group.
….Crow?s death brought many tributes from the scientific world. This weekend, the music community gets its turn. A free concert by the Pro Arte Quartet at the Wisconsin Union Theater is dedicated to the memory of Jim Crow. The printed invitation describes Crow: “violist, scientist, humanist ? dear friend and long-time supporter of the Pro Arte Quartet.”
Quoted: Harold Tobin, a UW-Madison professor of fault mechanics, marine geophysics, and rock physics, is consulting with city leaders in Clintonville.
Quoted: Harold Tobin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison seismologist, said there are similar reports of booms in different parts of the U.S. at times.
The weather in Wisconsin has been unseasonably warm here for the past few weeks. But why have the temps been so high?
Agronomists believe farmers should stick to their schedules even though the ground is warming up quickly and there are no signs it?s going to cool down anytime soon. “This weather is odd,” said Shawn Conley, an assistant professor in the UW-Madison agronomy department. “I think we have to be cautious and just know what the risks are out there.”
The record-tying streak of record high temperatures ended on Monday in Madison, but record warmth is forecast to return for three more days this week.
“This is to me the most unusual weather event I’ve witnessed in my lifetime,” Jonathan Martin, chairman of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at UW-Madison, said in an interview.
Quoted: ?It?s a very interesting, very provocative paper that could potentially be very important both for the basic biology of the disease as well as translational aspects of it,? said Qiang Chang, who studies the molecular mechanisms of Rett syndrome at the University of Wisconsin and was not involved in the new study. ?But I think this is the type of work that probably raises more questions than it answers.?
Noted: ?I don?t believe in that thing called art,? he says in the film. ?I think people make stuff.? Elena Bertozzi, his partner, who is an assistant professor of art at the University of Wisconsin, calls this ?just ridiculous, because he knows he?s an artist.? Indeed, Mr Kennedy trained as a fine printer in the MFA programme at the University of Wisconsin, before embarking on the more unorthodox route of printing posters on chipboard for the masses. He shed a middle-class existence and family on the way.
Quoted: ?The activity does not look like what normally happens when you have earthquakes occurring,? said Clifford Thurber, a geophysics professor at UW-Madison.
A research report published earlier this week suggests a possible connection between the use of stem cells and a treatment for Huntington?s disease.
In the never ending battle for customers, Wisconsin?s largest telecom providers are touting their investment in new equipment as the number of official consumer complaints are falling. Fewer complaints are a bit of a surprise to Barry Orton, a professor of telecommunications at UW-Madison. He maintains it?s more difficult than ever to tell what companies are doing following the telecom reform bill passed here in 2007. Orton speculates that consumers today may have become numb to problems or simply change providers rather than filing a complaint. He also admits it?s possible companies are actually providing better service.
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Next to a simulated clinic and hospital unit in UW-Madison?s new School of Nursing will be a space not found at most nursing schools: an “apartment.” The mock living area will be wired for the latest in home health technology, such as shoes with computer chips that transmit data about an elderly patient?s mobility and stride.
“We’ll be able to simulate almost an entire cycle of care,” said Katharyn May, dean of the nursing school. “That’s critically important as we try to reform how care is given.”
A: Our high temperature of 78 degrees Farenheit on March 14 set the all-time record for the date and established a new record for the first 78-degree F temperature of the year, breaking the standing record of March 23, 1910 ? over a century ago.
Quoted: But, leaders elsewhere say lab schools are not necessary to run a top-notch teacher education program. Jeff Hamm, the associate dean for student services in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the school uses a combination of a professional development school model, a new partner school network and a tried-and-true teacher database to place students in the community.
Quoted: “We lined up 100 children..same age, she would weigh less than the skinniest or the lowest weighing child in that entire group,” said physician Barbara Knox, the medical director of the University of Wisconsin Child Protection Program.
It feels like summer, and, yes, that itch you feel is the mosquito bite you just got. Right along with the weather, the bugs are back. “We have some mosquitoes that winter over in caves and the like, and those have woken up,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension entomologist Phil Pellitteri.”I hear so many people concerned that it?s going to be a terrible insect year, and I don?t see anything to suggest that right now.”
With hindsight being 20/20, cartoonist Mike Konopacki isn?t laughing at the fake press release he sent the Capital Times in February, now that he knows his forgery of a state representative?s official document could cost him $10,000 and three-and-a-half years in prison.
According to Wisconsin State Statute 946.69, a person commits a Class-I felony if they ? assume to act in an official capacity or to perform official functions.? It is this law could be used to implicate Konopacki, though its application would be ?nitpicking,? according to UW-Madison journalism and law professor Robert Drechsel.
Dane County officials announced on Thursday a plan to buy and preserve the land along the southern shore of Lake Waubesa for public use….Cal DeWitt, a professor of wetland ecology at UW-Madison, has lived near the marsh since he moved to Madison in 1972. DeWitt teaches a course on the wetland for graduate students and has been working with neighbors to preserve the wetlands south of Waubesa since the mid-1970s.
Researchers working on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus have found a way to use neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells to restore muscle coordination in mice inflicted with a Huntington?s disease-like condition….?This is very exciting, and next we?ll try to move onto different models, particularly in primates, to see whether this actually works in a larger brain,? says Su-Chun Zhang, a UW-Madison neuroscientist and the senior author of the study.
Quoted: Karen Holden, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found children just need to understand concepts like waiting, making choices and developing values to learn how to manage money.
University Health Services, the UW-Madison on-campus clinic for students, is handing out free condoms, lip balm, sunscreen and safety advice on Wednesday, 10 days in advance of the UW?s spring break holiday from March 31 through April 8. The items and advice will be offered at College Library beginning at 5 p.m. and from 6-7 p.m. on the Ogg Hall lawn during the spring break fair.
“If you normally make good choices, keep it up,” said UHS executive director Dr. Sarah Van Orman in a UW-Madison news release.
At least one of the biggest shareholders of Great Wolf Resorts stock is questioning the deal announced Tuesday for Apollo Global Management, a New York private equity firm, to buy the Madison indoor water park company for $5 a share. With the share price above Apollo’s $5 offer, it could be an indication of “investors guessing it’ll be sold at a higher price,” said Jim Seward, associate professor at the UW-Madison School of Business and faculty director of the Nicholas Center for Corporate Finance and Investment Banking.
Not only did Wednesday?s high of 78 in Madison break the March 14 record of 75 set in 1995, but the long-range forecast shows continued warmth as far as can be predicted by atmospheric science.”The prolonged nature of how likely it is going to stay nice and warm is even more unusual than breaking an individual day?s record,” said Jonathan Martin, chairman of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at UW-Madison.”It?s very unusual,” he said. “But it?s at the tail end of an unusually warm winter, so maybe it?s just part of the deal.”
The mother of all outdoor patios, the Memorial Union Terrace, was caught off guard this week. The terrace is open, but its 650 signature sunburst chairs, which are in storage in Verona, probably won’t be out until the first week of April.
It?s NCAA Tournament time once again and the hoopla surrounding March Madness has been used in recent years by higher education policymakers to help draw attention to the unimpressive graduation rates of college men?s basketball players and the gulf between the academic successes of black and white student-athletes. The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports (TIDES), housed at the University of Central Florida, continued its annual drumbeat on this issue Monday by releasing ?Keeping Score When it Counts: Graduation Success and Academic Progress Rates for the 2012 NCAA Division I Men?s Basketball Tournament Teams.?
….?Having a researcher follow these trends over time has had a positive effect on the academic success of student-athletes,? says Dawn Crim, a former women?s basketball player at Virginia and a former assistant coach at UW-Madison who today serves as the School of Education?s associate dean for external relations.
Among college students who drink heavily, those who black out are more likely to seek emergency care, costing about $500,000 a year at a campus the size of UW-Madison, a new study says. Prevention efforts should be targeted at students whose drinking leads to memory loss, not only at students who drink the most, said Marlon Mundt, a UW-Madison researcher who led the study published Wednesday in the journal Health Affairs.
Quoted: Wisconsin?s stalking law was created in 1993 and amended in 2001. Prior to the law, Wisconsin, unlike other states, did not have an assault statute that applied to patterns of activities that caused fear in others, said David E. Schultz, a University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor who is an expert on criminal law and procedure.
Quoted: “Most places include everybody in some kind of growth model. They say, Do what you can to get these people to school,” said Robert H. Meyer, director of the Value-Added Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
As part of an initiative to overhaul the Human Resources department at University of Wisconsin, the first of two engagement meetings allowed interested campus members to provide input Tuesday afternoon.
Quoted: Jordan Gerth, a University of Wisconsin-Madison meteorologist and an expert on Great Lakes weather.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison wildlife researcher Adrian Treves warns that instead of trying to reduce the incidence of wolves killing livestock or pets, the wolf hunt proposal seems like a plan to simply reduce the wolf population or provide recreation to hunters.
When UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward learned that a senior athletic department official allegedly sexually assaulted a student, he called Athletic Director Barry Alvarez within hours with a message: Do not ?interfere.?
Quoted: Ken Mayer, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor.
Adrian Treves – associate professor in the Carnivore Coexistence Lab at UW-Madison ? says the news is good for the state?s native food web.
The original goal, set once it was clear that wolves were coming back in the state, on their own, was 350 wolves. With protection, the wolf population has grown to about 800. Adrian Treves, an associate professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says that the carrying capacity of the state is probably about 1,000.
Quoted: “The more exposure there is to trauma the worse it?s going to be,” said Dr. David Reiss, a psychiatrist in private practice who has treated patients with PTSD. “Especially if someone is deployed repetitively, then the whole issue of expecting to go home, not going home, just amplifies it.”
A: Solar storms are a particularly important manifestation of the solar dynamo, the physical process that generates the sun?s magnetic field, said UW-Madison physics professor Cary Forest.
Quoted: But whether the changes actually caused injustice to researchers is unclear. Hearing requests are very rare, said James Wells, director of the office of research policy at the University of Wisconsin, perhaps because ORI only goes after the gravest offenses.
Noted: The report recommends a more “risk-informed approach” to emergency planning so that evacuation zone distances wouldn?t be preassigned, says Michael Corradini, professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Wisconsin.
Quoted: “It?s a large impact economically, but given how large the whole event is, it?s a small part of it, only a few percent,” says Michael Corradini, a professor of engineering physics at the University of Wisconsin. It?s in the range of 5 to 10 percent, he says.
Quoted: Gary Grossen of the Babcock Hall Dairy Plant at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A presentation to the UW System?s Board of Regents Thursday afternoon on financial aid and student costs was not only informative, but a little scary for anyone hoping to someday help send kids to college. ?Save your brains out,? Susan Fischer, director of financial aid at UW-Madison, said afterward when asked for any tips she?d offer to parents. ?I?m not going to say how or where, because I?m not a financial advisor. But start saving now.?
Quoted: “It?s a matter of planning,” said Michael Corradini, director of the University of Wisconsin?s Institute of Nuclear Systems and the panel?s co-chair. “For certain types of events and certain severities, they may change how they evacuate, or who would evacuate.”
Quoted: Experimental studies conducted by Professor Joanne Cantor at the University of Wisconsin have shown that movie-goers, particularly teenage boys, are most drawn to the media version of “the forbidden fruit”–to films that carry an R rating or a parental warning. In this research, boys shown a bland synopsis of a fictitious film but told that it was rated R were significantly more likely to indicate a desire to see the forthcoming movie than those subjects told that the film was PG.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison economist Andrew Reschovsky said the bottom line is Wisconsin?s economy remains sluggish and, despite all the rhetoric, politicians really can?t do much to change it.
For a smaller, independently run arthouse, spending between $70,000 and $120,000 to convert to digital is a huge expense to shoulder, but might be unavoidable if 35mm prints can?t be found anymore. Also hurt are places like the UW-Cinematheque, the free on-campus film series that specializes in foreign and classic films often on loan from studios and private collections. The Cinematheque theater at Vilas Hall shows only 35mm film, as do the Marquee Theater in Union South and the Chazen Museum of Art?s screening room. But that may have to change down the road if studios stop making their movies available on film.
…UW professor emeritus David Bordwell said he was caught off guard by how swift and total digital?s rise to dominance came, and decided to chronicle the changeover through a series of detailed blog entries on his website, davidbordwell.net.
A Dane County judge on Tuesday barred the enforcement of the state photo ID law at polling places during the general election on April 3, calling it an “extremely broad and largely needless” impairment of the right to vote.
Circuit Judge David Flanagan said the Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP and Voces de la Frontera had demonstrated that their lawsuit against Gov. Scott Walker and the state Government Accountability Board would probably succeed on its merits and had demonstrated the likelihood of irreparable harm if the photo ID law is allowed to stand. Flanagan cited testimony by UW-Madison professor Ken Mayer, who found that as of 2002 there were 221,975 constitutionally qualified voters who do not have a driver’s license or a photo identification card.
Locked behind a set of double doors in a sparkling clean warehouse on the city?s far east side is a miniature refinery. The tangle of silver metal tubes and columns resembles the huge oil refineries along the Gulf Coast ? although at 20 feet tall and 40 feet long, it?s just a fraction of the size. But instead of using crude oil as the main ingredient, the refinery at Virent Inc. uses sugar water. Through a patented catalytic process called aqueous phase reforming, the sugar molecules are converted into a product with the same chemical makeup as gasoline. Science fiction? Not at all.
….”I think we’re at a point where these advanced biofuels are nearing commercialization and Virent is right in the front row,” says Gary Radloff, director of Midwest energy policy analysis for the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative at the UW-Madison. Virent officials remain cautious, however, about tooting their own horn.
