Quoted: Luanne Von Schneidemesser, an English professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Category: UW Experts in the News
A.G. Sues Over Voting Issues
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor and a WISC-TV political analyst.
Study Finds Wisconsin Residents Some Of Nicest In Nation
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Ruth Olson. “It’s something that you’ve probably noticed a lot, too — that we don’t like making waves. We are a very polite group of people.”
Power of the People Fights Democracy in Thai Protests
Quoted: Thongchai Winichakul, a professor of Southeast Asian history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
WSJ Business Digest
Quoted: UW-Madison dairy economist Bob Cropp.
Brain scanners trying to pinpoint our virtues within
Mentioned:
“University of Wisconsin researchers reported that when 16 Tibetan monks meditated inside an fMRI machine, the images showed “brain circuits used to detect emotions and feelings were dramatically changed in subjects who had extensive experience practicing compassion meditation.”
Story includes scans from Richard Davidson, director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior
Does faith in ourselves compete with our faith in God? (Scripps Howard News Service)
Quoted: University of Wisconsin historian Thomas C. Reeves identifies the Enlightenment as a secular religion in which human pride (for Christians the most grievous of the seven deadly sins) has been transformed from vice to virtue.
The Ads That Aren’t
Quoted: Kenneth Goldstein, a University of Wisconsin political scientist who tracks political advertising
7 years after Sept. 11 attacks, Morris County asks: What to teach kids? (The Daily Record, Morris County, N.J.)
Quoted: Diana Hess, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor in the School of Education.
He Has A Grip On Entertainment (Investor’s Business Daily)
Quoted: Kurt Squire, assistant professor of educational communications and technology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
CEOs split on paying for good grades
Quoted: Barry Gerhart, management professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Compensation.
Capacity to store milk tested
Quoted: UW-Madison Dairy Economist Bob Cropp
Thai Crisis Shifts to Political Bargaining
Quoted: Thongchai Winichakul, a professor of Southeast Asian history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
UW has big role in giant particle collider
History’s most ambitious science experiment was scheduled to begin this morning on the Swiss-Franco border in Europe in a giant underground particle smasher called the Large Hadron Collider.
As is true of many scientists, Terry Millar, UW-Madison’s associate dean for physical sciences, can hardly contain himself when he starts talking about the groundbreaking nature of the knowledge that could come from the 17-mile, $8 billion loop of steel and magnets and seven-story particle detectors.
Accuracy Of ‘Farmer’s Almanac’ Questioned
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison weather scientist Jon Martin admits he read the Farmer’s Almanac when he was young.
Campus Smokers Less Prevalent
Quoted: Dr. Eric Heilgenstein of UW Health Services in Madison says without disincentives or available treatment, it’s likely to become a lifelong habit. (Sixth item.)
Mixed views locally on Fannie, Freddie takeover
The government did the right thing by bailing out mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before their finances deteriorated any further, a UW-Madison School of Business professor says.
“If we learned anything from the savings and loan (crisis of the 1980s and 1990s), it’s that firms have incentives to take big risks if they’re near bankruptcy,” said Morris Davis, assistant professor of real estate and urban land economics.
A Fatty Acid May Help Your Body Burn Fat
Noted: Last year, a meta-analysis concluded that 3.2 grams a day of CLA “produces a modest loss in body fat.” The analysis, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, pooled results from 18 studies to conclude that subjects taking CLA lost an average of two-tenths of a pound of fat a week more than those taking a placebo.
“It’s not a wonder drug to make fat melt away from the body in a few weeks and drop 10 dress sizes,” says study author Leah D. Whigham, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. “What it is doing is resulting in a fat loss over time.”
Some state officials donâ??t owe income taxes
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, a University of Wisconsin-Madison economics professor
Fish Fries A State Tradition
Quoted: Janet Gilmore, a University of Wisconsin folklorist, has studied Wisconsin’s fish fry tradition.
Restructuring an Icon: The American Red Cross Makes Changes to Its Nursing (Nurse.com)
Quoted: Vivian Littlefield, former dean and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s College of Nursing.
Dusty Horwitt: If everyone’s talking, who will listen?
Quoted: Ken Goldstein, director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin.
How the 2008 electoral map has changed
Quoted: Byron Shafer, political science chair at the University of Wisconsin.
Fannie and Freddie: why the takeover
Quoted: Morris Davis, a University of Wisconsin economist who focuses on real estate issues.
Lawsuit to Ask That Cheney’s Papers Be Made Public
Quoted: Stanley I. Kutler, an emeritus professor and constitutional scholar at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
China is a multi-ethnic state with little multiculturalism (Vancouver Sun)
Quoted: “The official categories aren’t really the way people live their lives,” says Edward Friedman, a professor of Chinese politics at the University of Wisconsin. “The Chinese state has an official set of categories and you shouldn’t take them seriously.”
Layoffs could launch stampede of staffers (Montreal Gazette)
Quoted: “The downsizing-turnover relationship suggests a sad irony in that employees are laid off by companies that may subsequently find themselves understaffed,” write the study’s authors, Charlie O. Trevor and Anthony J. Nyberg of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
No simple explanation for college dropout rate (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Quoted: Sara Goldrick-Rab, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has studied the path of modern students through what she calls “the complex educational pipeline.”
Raising political progeny
Quoted: Katherine Cramer Walsh, a political science professor at UW-Madison whose courses include “Political Psychology” and “Citizenship, Democracy and Difference.”
UW researcher contributes to study linking warmer seas to stronger hurricanes
A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher contributed to a new study that bolsters the theory that global warming might be contributing to stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean over the last 30 years.
The study, published Thursday in the journal Nature, was led by Florida State University geography researcher James Elsner, with UW-Madison research scientist James Kossin and FSU researcher Thomas Jagger contributing.
McCain, Palin to be in Wisconsin
UW-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin said the Cedarburg visit shows McCain’s campaign still believes it can win Wisconsin.
Sea Level Rise May Be Twice More Than Expected (Discovery Channel)
Quoted: Anders Carlson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a team of researchers say the problem is potentially a lot worse. They say the oceans could rise by as much as 1.3 meters (4.3 feet) by the end of the century, double the IPCC’s estimate.
A Deep Thaw: How Much Will Vanishing Glaciers Raise Sea Levels?
Quoted: Anders Carlson, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Wisconsinâ??Madison.
McCain, Palin to make first stop in Cedarburg (AP)
Quoted: UW-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin said the Cedarburg visit shows McCain’s campaign still believes it can win Wisconsin.
World’s strongest hurricanes could be getting stronger
Quoted: James Kossin, Space Science and Engineering:
“By creating a better, more consistent historical data set, we’ve been able to weed out quality issues that introduce a lot of uncertainty. Then, by looking only at the strongest tropical cyclones, where the relationship between storms and climate is most pronounced, we are able to observe the increasing trends in storm intensity that both the theory and models say should be there.”
Curiosities: IQ tests do not measure your intelligence
Q. Do IQ tests really measure how smart you are?
A. No, they do not, according to Mitchell J. Nathan, professor of learning sciences in the UW-Madison departments of educational psychology and curriculum and instruction.
Like any test, IQ tests present certain test items and exclude many others. One’s IQ test score simply measures how one did on those particular items relative to other people.
Mighty Hurricanes Get Mightier (Science News)
Quoted: Wind speeds measured for the largest storms from 2000 to 2006 were faster still, says James P. Kossin, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsinâ??Madison.
Many Wonder If Poor Grammar Is Getting Worse
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison Linguist Anja Wanner.
Razor-close votes keep Midwest up for grabs
Quoted: Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin political scientist.
Sexual Harassmen: Independence necessary for office to work (University of Georgia Red and Black)
Quoted: Luis Piñero, a University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant vice provost for workforce equity and diversity.
Group: Investment tracking needed (AP)
Quoted: Kate Gordon of UW-Madison’s Center on Wisconsin Strategy.
Strongest Storms Grow Stronger Yet, Study Says
Because of these environmental factors, most storms fall far short of their maximum possible intensity. But Dr. Elsner, along with Thomas H. Jagger, a postdoctoral researcher at Florida State, and James P. Kossin, a research scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reasoned that warmer waters increased the possible intensity and that storms that develop in ideal conditions might have become stronger.
When Medical Privacy Hides the Health of Presidential Candidates
Quoted: Robert Streiffer, a professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
School Bus Safety: Seatbelt Issue
Quoted: University of Wisconsin professor David Noyce, a transportation safety expert
Vytorin Study’s Ethical Morass (Forbes.com)
Quoted: James Stein at the University of Wisconsin, Madison
Arts Groups Facing Financial Challenges (Chronicle of Philanthrophy)
The financial woes facing a nonprofit dance theater in Forth-Worth, Tex., is a further sign that cultural groups need to do a better job examining their economic health, writes Andrew Taylor on his blog, The Artful Manager.
Mr. Taylor, director of the arts administration program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, writes that arts groups must get used to the lean times.
A step toward restoring hearing
A newly arrived UW researcher and colleagues at two other universities published stem-cell research results this week based on the successful growth of sound-signal-sending hair genes in the ears of lab mice, a process that could eventually be used to restore hearing to deaf people.
Study: Sea levels could rise faster than expected
An international research team led by a UW-Madison assistant professor says the melting rate of Greenland’s ice sheet may cause sea levels to rise faster over the next century than the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change currently predicts.
Drinking dangers still swirl at college
Quoted: John Lucas, a spokesman for the University of Wisconsin, which notifies the parents of students who are committed to a detox center.
Less drinking: college policies’ new aim
Noted: University of Wisconsin in Madison purchased 10 $1,000 ID scanners and gave them to local liquor stores so they can identify underage students and prohibit sales to them.
Condensing The Convention Has Merit, Some Say
Quoted: University of Wisconsin political scientist Byron Schafer, who is an authority on national party conventions and has attended every one since 1980.
Schering-Plough, Merck’s Vytorin May Be Linked to Cancer Deaths
Quoted: Jim Stein, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Wisconsin.
Was decision legal, ethical? (Baraboo News Republic)
Quoted: University of Wisconsin Madison Law School professor Ben Kempinen, an attorney who has taught criminal justice and ethics for 30 years.
Wooing Pennsylvanians
Quoted: Charles Franklin, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Global warming: Sea level rises may accelerate
Quoted: Climate scientists are uncertain how susceptible ice sheets are to global warming, largely because they have never witnessed one disappear, so researchers led by Anders Carlson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison decided to look back to the end of the last ice age for clues.
Palin’s resume thin, but conservative
John McCain’s running mate brings little experience, but solid conservative credentials, to the Republican ticket, UW Madison political scientist Charles Franklin says.
American climbs Everest, now plans attempt to swim English Channel (AP)
Quoted: Randy Clark, the manager of the exercise science laboratory at the University of Wisconsin Hospital Sports Medicine Center in Madison, Wis., said that while mountain climbers and distance swimmers tend to have different physiques, there is a similarity in their physiological and psychological makeup.
To reduce prostitution, cities try shaming clients
Quoted: University of Wisconsin Law School professor Michael Scott said police turn to humiliation as a low-cost strategy, but it doesn’t deter prostitutes. Scott said it’s more effective at scaring away customers, but then new clients replace them.
A ‘Maverick’ Nominee, But Still The Same GOP
Quoted: Byron Shafer, an expert on party coalitions and the presidential nominating process.
The 6 Coolest Jobs for Weird Majors
Quoted: Cynthia Jasper, chair of the Department of Consumer Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.