“The consensus view is that (economic growth) will be negative until the middle of next year,” said UW-Madison economist Menzie Chinn. “For the ordinary American, it may feel like you’re in a recession for a lot longer than that.”
UW-Madison scientist James Thomson was among three stem cell researchers who received the Massry prize for 2008.
Eight of the award’s recipients have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize.
Quoted: Gary Gerhart, a professor of human resources at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A UW-Madison economist says any rescue plan for the auto industry should have a time limit.
Donald Hester says the idea behind any bail out package should be to help the auto makers avoid bankruptcy. He says they need enough help to stay in business for a few months, but then the decision on how much help to provide them in the future needs to come from the next administration.
UW-Madison stem cell pioneer Jamie Thomson received the prestigious Massry Prize for 2008.
The award recognizes Thomson, who is director of regenerative biology at the Morgridge Institute for Research and a professor at UW-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health, for his groundbreaking discovery of human embryonic stem ES cells a decade ago, and his subsequent work in developing induced pluripotent stem iPS cells.
Eight previous winners of the Massry Prize have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize.
With the country in a recession and daily doses of bad economic news, could another Great Depression lie ahead?
UW-Madison economist Donald Hester says he doesn’t think we’re heading for another Great Depression, but he won’t rule it out. Hester does have hopes for an economic turnaround late next year, even though we’re currently in uncharted territory for many markets, such as housing and other commodities.
It is possible that China, just like Japan in East Asia, could be the main driving force for African development in the short term, according to Chinese politics expert Edward Friedman in Yale Global, a publication of the Yale Centre for the Study of Globalisation, of Yale University.
Quoted: Dr. Adam Rindfleisch, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Family and Integrative Medicine Clinic in Madison.
Jack Balkin of Yale and Ann Althouse of the University of Wisconsin debate whether marriage should be replaced with civil unions for both gay and straight couples. (Video.)
Quoted: And it will be a fitting way for Biden to leave Wilmington after traveling by train between the city and his Washington office throughout his 36-year Senate career. The trip also fits with the other events of Obama’s presidential campaign, said Charles O. Jones, political science professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Robert Bradley, emeritus professor of dairy science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. â??Why not butter?â?
Quoted: Charles O. Jones, political science professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Political science professor David Canon, an expert on Congress at UW-Madison
Quoted: Scott Craven, a University of Wisconsin-Madison wildlife ecologist.
Quoted: “They are meant to be used as add-ons controllers with ICS,” says Mark Moss, a pediatric allergist at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison. If LABAs are not combined with ICS, the risk of death increases, he adds.
Quoted: All the positive wishes sent out to Obama might be just the motivator he needs to close the deal. Or maybe not, says Dr. David Jorenby, a specialist in smoking cessation.
Quoted: “Leverage matters a lot when you buy a house,” says University of Wisconsin economist Morris Davis, an expert on housing prices and rents. “We’re not going to go back to the days of only 20 percent (down payment) mortgages, but the days of putting nothing down are long gone.”
Quoted: “The timing is horrendous,” said Steve Deller, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He estimates the closure could cost Rock County nearly 9,000 jobs, with the plant closing affecting everything from construction to health services.
Q. Are poinsettias really poisonous for your pets?
A. The belief that poinsettias are toxic to pets has been perpetuated for years, but the truth is that the plant’s reputation has been blown out of proportion.
While the milky substance in poinsettia leaves can be slightly irritating to an animal if eaten, causing drooling or vomiting, the plant isn’t deadly.
“The warning about poinsettias being poisonous is a highly exaggerated rumor,” says Sandra Sawchuk, a veterinarian at UW-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine.
Quoted: Sybil Pressprich, a senior counselor at the Adult and Student Services Center at UW-Madison.
Quoted: Laura Dresser, Center on Wisconsin Strategy.
Quoted: Steve Deller, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted — Morris Davis, School of Business:
Leverage matters a lot when you buy a house,” says University of Wisconsin economist Morris Davis, an expert on housing prices and rents. “We’re not going to go back to the days of only 20% (down payment) mortgages, but the days of putting nothing down are long gone.”
Quoted: “You get greater improvement in lung function; you get less asthma attacks and less need for rescue medications,” William Busse of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of the authors of the NIH guidelines, said about the long-acting beta agonists.
Quoted: “Investment in infrastructure will have a longer-term payback in increased output because we’re increasing the nation’s stock of capital (but) there is a substantive debate over the size of this long-term impact,” said Menzie Chinn, a professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin.
Quoted: Mucus in the nose and sinuses forms a blanket or coating over the mucous membranes lining the upper airways, explained Dr. Thomas Pasic, an ear, nose and throat specialist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Quoted: But participating in fantasy sports is often about more than personal satisfaction. University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor Erica Halverson, who researches â??competitive fandomâ? and fantasy sports, says fantasy sports leagues engender a sense of community. â??With the explosion of access online, people are able to have deeper participation in activities they care about,â? Halverson says. â??People have a desire to be members of cultures and participate in activities that matter to them. That mirrors the experience of fantasy sports.â?
Quoted: “The ability to build energy infrastructure is pretty limited in this country,” said Michael Corradini, chairman of the Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s not just a shortage of nuclear engineers, but of all the trades involved in building, because coal plants, nuclear plants, all need pipefitters, carpenters, civil engineers.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison students looking for a job this year dont need a dismal report from the National Bureau of Economic Research to tell them the United States is officially suffering through a recession.
They’re living it.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison meteorologist Steve Ackerman. (First item.)
Joseph Salmons, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has done a study that indicates that many German immigrants who arrived in the 1800s didn’t learn English and that their children and grandchildren often didn’t learn English, either. The findings probably apply to other waves of immigrant groups of the late 1800s and early 1900s, Salmons said.
Quoted: The event inspired Brahe to commit himself further to studying the stars, launching a career of meticulous observations that helped lay the foundations of early modern astronomy, said Michael Shank, a professor of the history of science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
The internet is a perfect breeding ground for certain dialogue including interpreting prophecies about the end of the world, according to Robert Glenn Howard, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at UW-Madison.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Cynthia Jasper, an expert on consumer behavior.
Quoted: Some other races werenâ??t competitive because strong challengers never emerged, dissuaded by the incumbentâ??s fundraising position. At the same time, the rise of the Internet as a low-cost fundraising tool may fuel some insurgent candidacies, said Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin political science professor.
Quoted: “There’s been a political vacuum in Thailand since June or July,” said David Streckfuss, a Thai historian with the University of Wisconsin.
Quoted: “Thaksin was seen as a competitor to the throne. His popular regime was seen as dangerous to the monarchical institution in a longer term. Monarchists worried that with the king’s passing and uncertainty of succession, the Thaksin camp would gain so they were anxious to suppress him,” said Thongchai Winichakul, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin.
Quoted: Steven Durlauf, an economist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, questioned whether the study proved that people became happy because of their social contacts or some unrelated reason.
Quoted: “A lot of school finance policies were set up to reflect the number of kids enrolled in school because, in large part, it worked. There were always more kids the next year, so districts were always getting more money,” said demographer Richelle Winkler of the Applied Population Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Richard Hartel, professor of food engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Phil Pellitteri, head of the insect diagnostic laboratory at UW-Madisonâ??s entomology department.
Gov. Jim Doyle said Thursday he would rather solve the stateâ??s projected $342 million deficit in the 2009-2011 budget bill next year, instead of an emergency repair bill some lawmakers are favoring.
Q. Why is white noise soothing?
A. Like all complex sounds, white noise is a mixture of many frequencies: high, low and in between. What sets it apart, though, is that all these frequencies are roughly equal in intensity, giving rise to a toneless hiss rather than something recognizable.
Quoted: Lori Hilt, a clinical psychology intern at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studied the issue when she was at Yale University.
QUoted: Consumers are already paying the price for such concentration in the beef industry, said Peter Carstensen, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin and former anti-trust attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice. “If you drive down the amount of beef being produced, the price to the consumer is going to go up,” he said.
Quoted: The event inspired Brahe to commit himself further to studying the stars, launching a career of meticulous observations that helped lay the foundations of early modern astronomy, said Michael Shank, a professor of the history of science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
State Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson is an “activist judge” who wants to legislate from the bench. Jefferson County Circuit Judge Randy Koschnick is a “strict constructionist” who merely wants to “apply the law, not make it.” Like conservative candidates before him, this is how Koschnick intends to define his Supreme Court campaign as he tries to unseat Abrahamson, a 32-year veteran of the court.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, UW-Madison political science professor
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies polling, though they will expect concrete results to follow.
Quoted: Susan Fisher, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Office of Student Financial Services, said there would be many benefits of knowing the amount of aid in advance.
Quoted: Michael Knetter, dean of the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Don Nichols, UW-Madison professor emeritus of economics and public affairs, could very well say, “I told you so.”
Back in September 2007, Nichols projected the recession would begin in the final months of last year, with a reduction in the GDP, or gross domestic product, for the fourth quarter.
The National Bureau of Economic Research, a group of academic economists, concluded Monday that the country has been suffering through a recession since December 2007.
Quoted: â??In four years do we look back and say, â??Itâ??s morning again in America,â?? in which Obama is a Reagan for the 21st century?â? said Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and co-developer of the Pollster.com Web site. â??Or do we look back and say, â??another Jimmy Carter — full of promise but no delivery.â??â?
Quoted: Barry M. Orton, a telecommunications professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a cable industry consultant. When cable companies battle, it typically turns into a services war rather than a price war, he said.
Noted: The zircons also contain enough uranium that they can be precisely dated by the decay of that uranium. In 2001, two groups, one led by Dr. Harrison and the other by John W. Valley of the University of Wisconsin, reported that the Australian zircons formed during the Hadean period as long ago as 4.4 billion years and were later embedded in the younger, 3-billion-year-old rocks.
Quoted: “Bringing her into the cabinet puts her in a position where she has to defend Obama’s ideas,” says UW Madison political scientist Charles Franklin. “A secretary of state has some autonomy, but ultimately is responsible to the president. At the same time, he doesn’t have much foreign policy experience.
A group of UW-Madison astronomers used the largest radio telescope in the world this semester to discover a small galaxy behind the disk of the Milky Way.
When they signed up for a one-credit astronomy class at the University of Wisconsin, six students had no idea the class could be one of the most memorable experiences of their lives.
Quoted: Journalism professor Stephen Ward said Mr. Mason was essentially duty bound as a journalist to rebuff the police request.
“If you simply give the information over to the police, you start to become identified with the police and the justice system or at least the prosecuting side of the justice system and that’s not what we’re about,” said the James E. Burgess Professor of Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
QUoted: Retail expert Deborah Mitchell, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, said that for the first time ever, retailers have rolled out “pre-Black Friday” deals, offering steep discounts before what is historically the biggest sale day of the
Quoted: Barry Gerhart, professor of human resources at the University of Wisconsin Business School.
