Category: UW Experts in the News

The Iowa caucuses ended Thursday with Mike Huckabee in the lead for Republicans and Barack Obama ahead of fellow Democrats, but UW-Madison professor David Canon says the presidential race is far from over. Canon says several candidates were close on the heels of both candidates, and that could stretch out into other states in the coming weeks. If that happens, Wisconsin could play a pivotal role in deciding who eventually wins the primary race.

Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin.

Close your eyes and think of someone who has hurt you. Let all the anger, hurt and resentment you feel for that wrongdoer bubble to the surface. Seethe, shout, savor it. Feel your heart pounding, your blood boiling, your stomach churning and your thoughts racing in dark directions.

OK, stop. Now, forgive your offender. Don’t just shed the bitterness and drop the recrimination, but empathize with his plight, wish him well and move on – whether he’s sorry or not.

University of Wisconsin psychologist Robert D. Enright, the guru of what many are calling a new science of forgiveness, calls this final step “making a gesture of goodness” to a wrongdoer. It’s the culmination of a process that, he says, “you’ve got to be able to see through to the end.”

Quoted: Linda Gorchels, a marketing expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin said of Wisconsin’s chances of mattering on Feb. 19.

Quoted: Steven Deller, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of agricultural and applied economics.

Quoted: Michael Bell, a rural sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Data compiled by Volker C. Radeloff of the University of Wisconsin, when more than 28 million homes sit less than 30 miles from federally owned land that millions of people increasingly view as their extended backyards.

Quoted: Ken Goldstein, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, said the episode might backfire on Mr. Huckabee because it showed him as not ready for prime time. He has been falling in the polls since he stumbled a few days ago in talking about Pakistan, and he began unleashing a torrent of harsh words against Mr. Romney, whose once-sagging candidacy has appeared revived.

Quoted: Thatâ??s just what happened to Scott Craven, head of wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, on opening day of this yearâ??s deer gun season. At about 5:45 a.m. on Nov. 17, Craven was cruising at 65 mph in Iowa County when he noticed a doe standing on the shoulder of U.S. Highway 151. The deer stepped into his lane, leaving him no time to hit the brakes. His Chevy Silverado hit the animal and sent it hurtling to the shoulder.

â??I may have taken the earliest deer of the entire Wisconsin deer hunt,â? joked Craven, 59, of Oregon, in Dane County. â??I remember the deer head like a hood ornament on an old Packard.â?

Quoted: Michael Bell, a rural sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences said there were 1,311 women enrolled last fall and 1,005 men, compared with 796 men and only 353 women during the 1977-1978 school year.

The assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Thursday shows how fragile Pakistani democracy is, experts say.

“The country is terribly shaky, ” said Robert Frykenberg, an emeritus history professor at the UW-Madison. “No country will benefit from a crumbling Pakistan. It is a very, very touchy situation. “

Quoted: Robert Frykenberg, an emeritus history professor at the UW-Madison; and UW-Madison professor Muhammad Memon, who left Pakistan in 1964.

The assassination of Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is likely to call into question the future of democracy in Pakistan as well as the country’s role in fighting terrorism in the region, several international policy experts told ABC News.

“The fact that the election could be delayed and a major candidate has been killed makes it very difficult to go ahead with establishing the impression that Pakistan has at last returned to a democratic process,” said Joe Elder, professor of sociology and a specialist on Pakistan at the University of Wisconsin. “This is a very serious blow to the democratic process in Pakistan.”

A little more than a decade ago, Wisconsin garnered national attention when it became the first state to scrap its old welfare system. From its ashes, the W-2 program was born.

Quoted: Jennifer Noyes of the UW-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty. (Audio.)

Quoted: Seth Pollak, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, who was not involved in the research.

Quoted: Mike Scott, an associate professor at the UW-Madison Law School who specializes in police discipline.

Quoted: Donna Friedsam, an associate director at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

Quoted: Scott Craven, head of wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

To Vietnam War veteran Chuck Goranson, Wills’ story rings all too familiar. He has been helping veterans cut through the red tape at the University of Wisconsin in Madison since 1972 through a student group called Vets for Vets.

Though the number of recent combat veterans pales compared with Vietnam â?? about 1.6 million have been deployed so far vs. 8.7 million back then â?? the paperwork has grown far more complex. Until this spring, even the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs were giving conflicting information about eligibility requirements for one benefit.

In the Vietnam era, “there was essentially just one kind of GI Bill, and you signed up for it and you got it,” he says. Now, there is a GI Bill for members of the regular military, another for Reserve forces, including the National Guard, and additional benefits for Reserve members who have served at least 90 days in combat after 9/11. That’s not to mention vocational training for disabled veterans and tuition waivers offered by some states.

Quoted: Peter Carstensen, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin who specializes in agricultural markets and tracks Smithfield.

Quoted: Kathy Schultz, senior marketing consultant for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Organ Procurement Organization.

Quoted: Dr. Ladan Mostaghimi, an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dr. Mostaghimi published a study in 2005 in the Journal of Sleep Research reporting that severely sleep-deprived lab rats developed lesions on their paws and tails while rested rats did not.

Quoted: Ann Althouse, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor that teaches a course in religion and the constitution.

Quoted: Mike Scott, a University of Wisconsin-Madison law school associate professor who specializes in police discipline, said it’s difficult to draw conclusions from such a small number of cases.

Quoted: UW-Madison Political Scientist Charles Franklin.

Quoted: Robert Enright, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Beverly Gordon, the chairwoman of the environment, textiles and design department at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: As for the ending of Wisconsinâ??s ban, University of Wisconsin nuclear engineering chairman Michael Corradini says folks shouldnâ??t sweat it.

He says the Public Service Commission would still have to weigh all the pluses and minuses before acting on each proposal, one at a time.

Nonphysical attributes such as respect, familiarity, willingness to work hard, and shared goals may contribute as much or more to the perception of attractiveness than youth or beauty, said Kevin Kniffin, an evolutionary anthropologist and honorary fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

For his research study, Kniffin showed students some photos from a yearbook. The photos were of people they know and didn’t know. The participants consistently rated the people they had positive feelings for as more attractive. And the people they didn’t like — as unattractive.

“Our findings confirm that for some people at least there’s more to beauty than meets the eye,” said Kniffin.

Quoted: Doctor Michael Stier, the University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of forensic pathology who performed the autopsy, was allowed to examine the photographs in the courtroom.

Quoted: Charles Franklin, a UW-Madison political science professor who studies elections.

Quoted: Robert Hawkins of the University of Wisconsin. “It’s a very chaotic, tough world out there on the Internet on health.”

Suzanne Pingree, Hawkins’ colleague at the University of Wisconsin, says the cancer patients were overwhelmed by all the information they found.

Quoted: Don’t touch – or don’t try it on. If you try it, you’re more likely to buy it, said Joann Peck, professor of marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Thomas Reason, associate director of admissions at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, told me that neither he nor his staff have time to research applicants using such sites, but that if information about an applicant “ended up in my face, it would be hard to ignore.” Reason also said that they would not make a decision based on something they saw on Facebook or MySpace, but instead would “inquire of the student to get a better understanding of the situation.”

Quoted: Dr. Karol Gutowski of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

A leading critic of a controversial cable TV bill is predicting Governor Doyle will sign the measure.

UW-Madison Telecommunications Professor Barry Orton says Governor Doyle has been supportive of the bill deregulating the cable industry by saying he likes the idea of the measure. Orton says Doyle has also received a large amount of campaign contributions from AT&T, the main proponent of the bill. Orton says he would be “shocked” if the Governor vetoed the measure

A UW political scientist says the state senateâ??s vote Tuesday night to limit the veto powers of the governor came as a strong message that the senate democrats count their role as lawmakers over their loyalty to Democratic Governor Jim Doyle. Steve Roisum reportsâ?¦(Audio.)

Quoted: Aside from the more obvious biological factors, this makes women more suited to carrying a baby. “I would advise all of my male colleagues not to become pregnant,” jokes Karen Steudel, a biological anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Quoted: Lawrence H. Landweber, a computer scientist at the University of Wisconsin who in 1980 made the pioneering decision to use the basic TCP/IP Internet protocol for CSNET, an academic network that preceded NSFnet and laid the foundation for â??internetworking.â?