Quoted: “The contract between employers and employees has changed. You have to have Plan B and a Plan C after that. You can’t take anything for granted,” says Leslie Kohlberg, the director of career services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s understood that employees will continue networking throughout their career.”
Quoted: Another anthropologist, John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison , said, “Our evolution has recently accelerated by around 100-fold.”
A key reason, Hawks said, is the enormous growth of the world’s population, which multiplies the size of the gene pool available to launch new varieties.
Big drops in the stock market are taking a toll on investors both young and old. In fact, retirement and college funds…. and the people who depend on them… are suffering similar fates: many had too much money in stocks and not enough in safer investments. For retirees, it often means going back to work. For college students and their parents, it means scrambling to find money, fast.
“I think the lesson to take away from this is, if you’re in a 529 plan and your children are in high school, it’s time to start moving your money into more stable value type of investments,” says University of Wisconsin financial specialist Michael Collins.
Noted: Some majors, however, are faring better than others, particularly “anything you need a credential to do,” says Leslie Kohlberg, undergraduate career services director at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Engineering majors posted a 2.3% increase in their overall average, now $58,438, while the average salary offer for those earning accounting degrees rose 2%, to $48,377.
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, a UW-Madison professor of public affairs and applied economics, said a problem could occur if so little money is withheld for taxes that taxpayers are subject to interest and penalties.
“Whether itâ??s going to have an important negative impact on many people, I suspect not,” he said. “Having a little more in your pocket now and spending it probably is a good thing.”
Quoted: Scott Craven, a wildlife specialist at the UW-Madison, has never seen that many loons at one time in Madison before, adding that the numbers could be as high as 100. He says theyâ??re probably just waiting for spring to thaw northern lakes.
Nearly 25 percent of women in the United States experience sexual assault at some point in their lives, but most of these women may not know they are victims of a heinous crime.
Quoted: “There’s not been any labour law reform here in decades,” said Joel Rogers, a pro-labour law professor at the University of Wisconsin. “You could describe the pace as glacial, if glaciers weren’t melting so fast.”
Q: How much water is there in the atmosphere?
A: Water is an exceptionally interesting chemical with many important implications for life on Earth and the circulation of the Earthâ??s atmosphere. It is the only chemical that naturally exists in all three of its phases (solid, liquid and gas) in our atmosphere.
Quoted: The outcome could boil down to the very organized teachers union (WEAC) versus the disorganized groups of individuals who are critical of the state education establishment, according to UW-Madison Political Science Professor Charles Franklin.
Noted: There has been a national call for all medical colleges to increase class size by 30 percent, which the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine is gradually doing.
But to address the shortage more specifically, the school developed the Wisconsin Academy for Rural Medicine program.
Through WARM, the UW tries to identify students that may be a good candidate to work in a more rural setting.
“Some of that is coming from rural communities, some of that is students that really engage in community life and community support. Even back in their junior high and high school eras, we find that who really engages in the community, things like that will help predict who returns to rural practice,” said Dr. Crouse.
Quoted: Abrahamson took all the right steps to avoid third party groups getting involved, including raising a lot of money early and showing she was going to run an aggressive campaign, said Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin political science professor.
Q: How fast does a hummingbird fly?
A: There are at least 330 species of hummingbirds and they are found only in the Americas, mostly in Central and South America. The smallest hummingbirds are the size of large insects. The worldâ??s most diminutive bird, in fact, is the male bee hummingbird of Cuba, which is 2 inches long and weighs less than 2 grams.
Wisconsinâ??s ruby-throated hummingbird, the only kind that makes its home here, is known to beat its wings up to 200 times per second. But the non-hovering flight speed of the small birds, according to UW-Madison zoology professor and hummingbird expert Robert Beiweiss, depends on the species and their foraging strategies.
Quoted: The situation is a reflection of just how difficult storm water can be to regulate, according to experts. The quality of storm water ordinances and their enforcement is uneven in Wisconsin because regulation is mostly left up to local communities, said Ken Potter, a civil engineer with UW-Madison who is an expert on storm water management.
Quoted: Bruce Jones, an agricultural economist with University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Noted: Provider of riches, she is described as the â??capitalist deity par excellenceâ? by the showâ??s curator, John Henry Drewal, a professor of art history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and as such, sheâ??s a natural bailout savior for our time. But when assailed by qualms over ethics, she can cause trouble, sending Madoffian fortunes onto the rocks with the flick of a fin.
Q: How do weather conditions affect maple syrup harvesting?
A: Weather is a crucial factor for a good harvest of maple syrup. Tapping trees occurs in late winter and early spring. In Wisconsin, March is a prime month for tapping sugar maple trees as that is when the sap is sweetest. But only about 2 percent of the sap is sugar, which is why it needs to be boiled down in order to remove the water and increase the sugar concentration.
Quoted: Along the Jordan River, which is now 90 percent diverted by Israel, Syria and Jordan, the countries are indeed facing scarcity. But just what that means for different groups of people, especially the Israelis and Palestinians, is not always clear. “I think scarcity is a political framework in which people work,” said Samer Alatout, an expert on Israeli/Palestinian water issues and a professor in the department of rural sociology at the University of Wisconsin. “If you have a general assumption about what scarcity is, for instance less than 500 cubic meters per year per person, that does not really mean anything because you are not asking the question of who gets how much water and when.”
Quoted: “I think the news media are inadvertently or necessarily adding to some of the gloom, some of the panic,” said Stephen Ward, a University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism professor said. “But it can’t be avoided.”
Ward said that, for the most part, the people working at the presses and in TV newsrooms are doing a fair job. He said it would be a disservice not to talk about the bad things going on.
Starting today, it will start cost smokers more to light up. That’s because a 61-cent increase in the cigarette tax took effect Wednesday morning.
Doctor Pat Remington of the UW School of Medicine expects the higher price will start convincing more people to quit smoking. He says the higher price will make many smokers think about the impact the habit has on their wallet.
Carefully placing the reflectometer on a black rhinoâ??s nose in the Brookfield Zoo, professor Warren Porter documented the rhinoâ??s ability to reflect sunlight.
Alfonso Studesville, a career counselor at Madison Area Technical College, chuckles quietly while recalling less stressful times.
“Just a couple years ago, I’d meet with someone and I’d have a big smile on my face and I’d say, ‘Come to MATC. We are very proud to say that we are placing 92 to 94 percent of the people who successfully complete one of our programs,’ ” recalls Studesville.
But now, he says, “times are tough. They’re really, really tough.” And when times get tough, community colleges like MATC get busy.
Quoted: Noel Radomski, director of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education (WISCAPE)
Quoted: “Sometimes the biggest scientific achievements are the simplest,” says James Stein of the University of Wisconsin. “It’s a pill for the masses.”
Quoted: “Is this area of pharmacology for cardiology dead?” says James Stein, a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “Have we maxed out with very powerful statins and excellent blood-pressure drugs? Is there going to be another cardiology blockbuster ever again?”
Potential for a painless way to deliver flu protection has vaccine makers in Europe and the U.S. seeking regulatory approval, for injections that are only skin deep. A Madison company that was a spin-off from UW Madison is among those testing what’s called intradermal delivery.
A shortage in 2004 spurred research in ways to stretch the vaccine supply. Dr. Jon Tempte is a UW-Madison Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the UW Hospital, and is on a Center for Disease Control advisory flu panel, the Committee for Immunization Practices. He says intradermal delivery appears to use one-fifth the vaccine of a regular shot to deliver flu immunity. Previous U.S. studies show there can be side effects, but Tempte says they tend to be localized and minor. (Eighth item.)
Just about every plan to help revive the American economy includes talk of green jobs.
President Barack Obama has used the phrase frequently in the past months, vowing to create 5 million “green collar jobs” during his first term in office.
The goal would be accomplished by ensuring that 10 percent of the nation’s electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012; weatherizing one million homes annually; developing clean coal technology and prioritizing construction of the Alaska natural gas pipeline.
Quoted: Joel Rogers, director of the university’s Center on Wisconsin Strategy
A new study, published online March 18 in the Journal of Human Evolution, shows that the efficiency of human running varies with speed and that each individual has an optimal pace at which he or she can cover the greatest distance with the least effort.
The result debunks the long-standing view that running has the same metabolic cost per unit of time no matter the speed â?? in other words, that the energy needed to run a given distance is the same whether sprinting or jogging. Though sprinting feels more demanding in the short term, the longer time and continued exertion required to cover a set distance at a slower pace were thought to balance out the difference in metabolic cost, says Karen Steudel, a zoology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Stem cell researchers have created embryonic-cell lookalikes that don’t have the cancer-causing genes found in earlier experiments.
The team led by University of Wisconsin researcher James Thomson Thursday released a study showing how it changed skin cells into “induced pluripotent” cells by adding growth genes that disappear after the new cells reproduce.
Quoted: â??I think that skepticism is healthy in the scientific process,â? said Steve Vavrus, a senior scientist for climatic research at the Gaylord Nelson Institute of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. â??I think it would be very dangerous if everyone had the same view and didnâ??t question each other.â?
Quoted: While people in the study had acceptable LDL cholesterol levels, most of them had other conditions that increased their heart disease risk, said James Stein, a cardiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health. Those conditions included their age, being overweight and having slightly elevated blood pressure.
Quoted: Dr. James Stein of the University of Wisconsin-Madison said that doctors examining treatment guidelines should pay close attention to the new results.
Quoted: “In Wisconsin Supreme Court races, there is a large incumbency effect,” said UW-Madison professor Katherine Cramer Walsh. “People don’t follow the doings of the state Supreme Court.”
Quoted: Dr. Paul Smith, a UW-Madison family medicine physician, said he was surprised to learn after 15 years in practice that some patients didnâ??t understand instructions for taking medications or the various forms they have to sign.
Q: How can stimulant drugs, such as Ritalin, calm hyperactivity?
A: As any coffee drinker can attest, small amounts of caffeine usually do wonders for alertness, energy and the ability to concentrate. Quaff too many cups of joe, however, and jitteriness and insomnia set in.
Itâ??s the same with Ritalin, Adderall and other stimulant medications now taken by millions of Americans to quell the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). At low doses, these drugs calm behavior, boost mental performance and focus attention.
Ramp up the dosage, though, and they act like stereotypical stimulants: impairing thinking, and causing anxiety and even addiction, says UW-Madison psychology professor Craig Berridge.
A team of UW-Madison researchers made a breakthrough in stem-cell research by discovering a way to increase purification of certain adult stem cells.
University of Wisconsin scientists published findings Thursday that make use of a new method to induce human pluripotent stem cells that are significantly safer and more useful for research.
Quoted: “This is a time-honored tradition in American politics,” says David Canon, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Congress does this all the time, too. It’s just something that political leaders like to do, to either recognize certain individuals or groups that are doing good things, to raise public awareness about a problem like a disease or just make a nice gesture to a group you want to support, like amateur radio operators. A cost-free way to make people feel good.”
The recently formed Linguistics Club will host an event on regional dialects Monday at 8:30 p.m. in Lalumiere Language Hall.
Joseph Salmons, co-director of the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures and a professor of German at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will give an overview of different English dialects found in Wisconsin. Salmons refers to these dialects as “Englishes.”
Quoted: â??The good news then is that the recession, as captured by the official statistics, may not be as severe as it appears,â? said Edgar Feige, a professor at the University of Wisconsin- Madison who has studied the underground economy for 30 years. In past slumps, unregistered activity increased as a proportion of the official economy, he said.
Quoted: The economic crisis means some risk for MyMenuâ??s expansion, but the Midwest economy is stronger than other areas, said Kyle Stiegert, a UW-Madison assistant professor of agricultural and applied economics.
A humanities scholar told a crowd at the University of Wisconsin Tuesday that academic outreach programs help share the humanities with the Madison community and world, promoting a discipline currently ailing in the public eye.
Richard Florida, author of “The Rise of the Creative Class,” has always had nice things to say about Madison. In his 2002 book, he ranked Madison No. 1 among small cities with metro populations of 250,000 to 500,000.
Florida has long argued that communities which offer a stimulating working environment for creative people will thrive in the 21st century. This includes towns that embrace the arts, pop music, gay people and ethnic food.
Quoted: UW-Madison professor of real estate Steve Malpezzi, who says it’s way too early to proclaim the housing is crisis over.
Quoted: “He is trying to do all four years in the first four months,” said Charles O. Jones, a University of Wisconsin emeritus professor who has written extensively on presidential power. “There is no question that he is not only doing that in his appearances. But also in those appearances, he is introducing and promoting a whole set of policies before people even have sort of caught their breath from the last one.”
Noted: The state Climatology Office, which maintains a list of dates for the ice status of Lakes Mendota, Monona and Wingra back into the mid-19th century, reports the official call is made after personal observations, including those at the Washburn Observatory at UW-Madison.
Climatology Office manager Lyle Anderson said his office has made the call for the last 30 years, trying hard to follow the observational practices that would have been used during the 19th century, but because the rules have been handed down orally, thereâ??s some question how scientific itâ??s been.
Quoted: Thereâ??s not much in the plan for smaller Wisconsin banks, said James Johannes, director of the UW-Madison Puelicher Center for Banking Education.
Ira Flatow is accustomed to having his guests take the spotlight, but this was different.
Midway through Flatow’s two-hour “Science Friday” show on National Public Radio, aired live Friday from Florida State University’s Fallon Theatre, Bruce Means went to his bag of tricks.
Means, the executive director of the nonprofit Coastal Plains Institute, produced a coiled racer king snake that he had found not far from Tallahassee.
He placed it on the table, then handed it briefly to the biologist to his left, University of Wisconsin professor Sean Carroll. Carroll gingerly stroked the snake as the appreciative packed audience hooted and clapped.
“I’ve been upstaged many times,” Flatow said, “but never by a snake.”
Noted: The campus climate survey will be led by Damon Williams, vice provost for climate and diversity at the University of Wisconsin. A contract still is in the developmental stages, but Williams’ work will measure attitudes of employees and students about equity and diversity on campus.
Quoted: Of course, presidents have always been under the microscope of grassroots activists. University of Wisconsin political science professor David Canon believes the basic elements of political discourse in the United States have been consistent, even with the rise of new media.
Quoted: “It is so much easier now,” said Marsha Mansfield, a clinical associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School and director of the school’s Economic Justice Institute. “In Wisconsin, now all you have to do is send out a notice. … It’s certainly not as consumer friendly.”
Q: Could global warming actually be good for cold-blooded animals?
A: Because cold-blooded animals are largely at the whim of their environment to regulate their body temperature, it seems reasonable that a warmer climate could help these animals by making it easier to stay warm. Could global warming actually benefit some species?
“It will in the northern and mid-latitudes, but not in the tropics, which is where most of the biodiversity resides,” says UW-Madison zoology professor Warren Porter
Quoted: Itâ??s crucial that motion sensors are set so they donâ??t turn on every time someone walks down the sidewalk, and that people are trained to pay attention and possibly call police when neighborsâ?? lights go on, said Michael Scott, director of the UW-Madison-based center.
Quoted: Itâ??s illegal for an employer to discriminate based on a host of factors including race, sexual orientation or a conviction unrelated to job functions, but companies have a wide pool of job applicants now, said Barry Gerhart, chairman of the UW-Madison School of Business department of management and human resources.
Quoted: Bruce Jones, a farm economist at UW-Madison, noted that the loss of farmland has slowed in recent years because of higher farm profits and turmoil in the housing and lending markets. But losses could pick up again in future years, he cautioned.
Q: Why doesnâ??t spring start on the same date every year?
A: According to the astronomical definition, spring occurs when the sunâ??s rays strike the equator at noon at an angle that is directly overhead. This time varies from year to year due to variations in the Earthâ??s orbit around the Sun.
Quoted: While Feingold has waged those fights alongside Republicans in Washington, it has not helped him with Republicans in Wisconsin, said Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He said Feingold, who is up for re-election in 2010, remains a target among state GOP activists who have tended to focus on his more liberal positions.
Quoted: “It’s a fairly gray area, with valid points to be made on both sides,” says Dan Schaefer, chair of the UW-Madisonâ??s Department of Animal Science at UW-Madison. He says bacterial resistance is a biological fact. However, it may be difficult to prove whether regular antibiotic use in farm animals hinders human health. (Fifth item.)
Noted: Isthmus and The Daily Page have partnered with professor Sue Robinson and her UW-Madison journalism students to produce a series of issue-based reports on the county executive race. Look for those stories on TheDailyPage.com starting Monday, March 23.
Quoted: Anthony Milanowski, an assistant scientist at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has done his own research on teacher effectiveness and vetted other research on the issue, said various studies have drawn that line where seniority ceases to matter anywhere between three years and 11 years. West’s claim of three years is on the low side of most research, he said.
Noted: UW-Madison Journalism Professor Sue Robinson has been interviewing Cap Times employees, researching how papers are transforming themselves for the Web and what that means for traditional journalism. The interviews are confidential, but Robinson says staffers have been “grappling with brand-new beats and skill sets during a time of industry-wide strife and upheaval.” Amid a lot of quick-hit press-release and police-blotter items, reporters are “spending more time on longer depth pieces, going more narrow and deeper.” At the same time, many are blogging as well, creating a more informal kind of journalism. Video and other online features are added to the mix.
Quoted: â??Itâ??s really something that does not look good on the surface,â? said Mason Carpenter, a professor of management and human resources at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
