Category: UW Experts in the News

Quoted: Broadband has moved from being a luxury to a necessity, and Comcast has been able to capitalize on that, said Barry Orton, professor of telecommunications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. With NBCUniversal in the fold, the company has depth in programming and distribution, he said.

Quoted: “The last two centuries have seen dramatic changes in wildfire across the American West, with a peak in wildfires in the 1800s giving way to much less burning over the past 100 years,” said lead author Jennifer R. Marlon, now a National Science Foundation Earth Science Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “The decline was mostly caused by the influx of explorers and settlers and by their subsequent suppression of wildfires, both intentionally and accidentally.”

Quoted: “They have to proceed with caution and tread lightly,” said Shubha Ghosh, a professor at University of Wisconsin Law School who specializes in antitrust law and intellectual property, with regards to Google.

Quoted: “I?m dismayed, but not surprised,” says Raymond Fonck, a fusion physicist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Quoted: Similarly, UW-Madison Professor Morris Davis, academic director of the university?s Graaskamp Center for Real Estate, said he didn?t believe the settlement would help most people who are ?deeply underwater? on their mortgages avoid foreclosure.

Quoted: Farmers are typically compensated according to the land?s agricultural value, not the amount developers pay. As property values climb and financial stakes increase, land rights disputes are growing ?increasingly public and angry,? said Mark Sidel, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin who consults on legal reform in Vietnam.

Noted: Fortunately, cast copies were taken but the original fossils contain extra details that could settle long-standing debates. For example, was Zhoukoudian fraught with cannibalism? “In later years, the consensus shifted toward the idea that hyenas formed the site, with the humans as victims,” says John Hawks from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “The original fossils would allow a forensic investigation.”

Members of the University of Wisconsin community gathered Wednesday evening to gain insight on a UW professor?s research into the impact social classes have on children during their youngest years.

Quoted: But the ethical landscape was evolving rapidly at the time. The standards of the 1940s were ?a lot murkier? than those of today, says Susan Lederer, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin?Madison. ?The idea that it was so clear in 1946 to me doesn?t ring true.?

Noted: Researchers led by Stephen Carpenter of the University of Wisconsin?Madison recently experimentally tested the variance signal by adding more and more largemouth bass to a lake over a three-year period. The researchers took measurements of the light spectra of chlorophyll in the lake every five minutes (and in a control lake where they were not adding fish). Fifteen months before the food web of the whole lake shifted, the variance signal appeared in the chlorophyll measurements, Carpenter and his colleagues reported in Science last May.

Quoted: Other church bankruptcy cases were not as adversarial in resolving abuse claims as Milwaukee?s may turn out to be, said Jonathan Lipson, a University of Wisconsin law professor.

Quoted: Stanley G. Payne, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of several influential books on Spain?s Civil War and Franco regime, said Mr. Garzón?s trial reflects deep-seated divisions in Spanish society.

Quoted: While there?s no standard definition for insomnia, suggested criteria include taking more than 30 minutes to fall asleep, waking up too early, or sleeping less than 6 1/2 hours a night, according to Ruth Benca, a sleep disorders doctor at the University of Wisconsin?Madison. Insomnia is twice as likely in women as men and affects some 6 to 10 percent of adult Americans, yet often goes undiagnosed and untreated.

Quoted: ?CCP (Chinese Communist Party) ruling groups know that many people in the democracies imagine Chinese foreign policy as one of choosing to support cruel pariah regimes,? said Edward Friedman, politics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

We?re always on the move.

These days, however, we?re moving in some new and different directions. Specifically, we?re moving more in circles.

Quoted: Laura Dresser of the U-W Madison Center on Wisconsin Strategy says the economy?s taking a hit, because thousands of people are getting cuts in their take-home pay. And Dresser says it ?moves Wisconsin away from creating jobs.?

Quoted: ?Women will be important given they are just over half the population,? adds Christina Ewig, Ph.D., an associate professor of Gender & Women?s Studies and Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ?Women in Mexico have historically tended to support the PRI, but in recent elections some women have shifted to the PAN.  Getting more women to shift to the PAN may be part of the strategy of nominating Vásquez Mota.?

Each degree that the mean temperature is below 65 degrees is one heating degree-day. So, if today?s average temperature is 55 degrees, that is 10 heating degree-days. 

Does the recent spate of small earthquakes in the Midwest and eastern U.S. signify any underlying geological change?

Quoted: ?Those are the people on the doorsteps of the service system,? said Marsha Mailick Seltzer, an autism expert at the University of Wisconsin. ?They may not have a diagnosis, but they are there.?

Quoted: David Schultz, a University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor, said Steineke?s proposal falls in line with recent trends. Wisconsin lawmakers, for example, revised time limits in child sexual assault cases five times between 1989 and 2006.

Quoted: “When he came to Chicago, he?s reported to have jumped off the train and said, ?I?m here to write the ?Uncle Tom?s Cabin? of Chicago,” says Russ Castronovo, professor of English and American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “He always calculated this to have a certain type of dramatic social and political effect. And that was abetted by the fact that, as ?The Jungle? was making its way into print, Congress was debating food-safety legislation.”

Quoted: ?This speaks about the complicated nature of the readership of Urdu fiction,? said noted literary figure Prof Muhammad Umar Memon at a critical literary session on ?Urdu Fiction and its Audience? held here on Friday.

Noted: News of the allegations against Yang spread far beyond the Valley, said Choua Lee, a language lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

MADISON (WKOW) — It may have become permanently attached to your hand in the last five years. While most adults can?t seem to live without their cell phones, the same may be coming true for kids. But the debate over when a child should get a cell phone and how they should be able to use it continues.

“We’re entering a brave new world of communications where young people need to understand messages from their peers that not spoken but written or texted and be able to respond quickly. If young people don’t develop that skill, it’s going to be challenging for them to communicate effectively as adults in the future. Without learning those skills, one is likely to be left behind,” says Professor Bradford Brown, an expert in Educational Psychology.

One little-noticed bit of fallout from the ongoing financial crisis is the decline of lawyer jokes. “I don?t think people are as worried about lawyers as they are bankers and financial people,” Marc Galanter was saying this week. Galanter, an emeritus UW-Madison law professor, would know. He wrote the book on lawyer jokes. “Lowering the Bar: Lawyer Jokes and Legal Culture” came out in 2005. In the book, Galanter noted that it was around 1980 when lawyer jokes both increased and became more vicious.

Dr. Theresa Guilbert, a pediatric pulmonologist from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, said that despite the new findings, it?s still “controversial” whether or not asthmatic moms pass on any risk to their babies by breastfeeding.

A University of Wisconsin professor broke down the complex relationship between environmental issues and mass media in a lecture Wednesday night at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. 

Reading the news about UW-Madison can be a little like a bad case of whiplash. On the one hand, tuition hikes, cuts in state funding and a chancellor worried about “resizing” staff and reallocating resources suggests a university struggling financially to fulfill its core educational mission. On the other, a campus building boom including projects such as the $43 million Chazen Museum of Art addition and salaries for top coaches that stretch into the seven figures suggest an institution rolling in dough.

Darrell Bazzell, university vice chancellor for administration, said there’s a common misunderstanding among the public about where money for the university comes from and what it can be used for.

Quoted: But for many K-12 school systems, new technologies, social media sites, and video games are still eyed with suspicion, says Richard Halverson, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education. ?You have this real split awareness…. For the people who use [such tools] … they are invaluable. [But] for many K-12 schools, it threatens the existing relationship between teachers and students, and it?s seen as … something to be controlled and banned rather than something to be exploited for learning purposes.?