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Category: UW Experts in the News

SMU considers campus bar to combat drunken driving (Dallas Morning News)

Quoted: The University of Wisconsin-Madison has served beer in its student union building for years, said Susan Crowley, the prevention services director for the UW-Madison PACE project, which educates students about the effects of binge drinking.

Ms. Crowley said the union serves beer and tries to â??model appropriate adult behaviorâ? by frequently checking IDs and promoting moderation. â??Thereâ??s no comparison in health and safety factors,â? she said.

The Swamp: Campaign ads not so negative after all (Chicago Tribune)

Despite all the jokes about slash-and-burn political ads, television commercials in the presidential campaign have been overwhelmingly positive, according to a study to be released today by the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project.

Ninety percent of commercials aired so far in the presidential campaign were judged â??positive,â? which the research team defined as speaking solely about the candidate or their policies. Just 10 percent were judged to have any negative content at all, according to the study, conducted by the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project and funded by the non-partisan Joyce Foundation based in Chicago.

Democrat John Edwards, who dropped out of the race this week, was the rare exception. The study found 81% of Edwardsâ?? ads were contrast ads and in virtually all he criticized Obama and Clinton. â??So, while most attention in free media went to flare-ups between Clinton and Obama,â? said Ken Goldstein, a University of Wisconsin political science professor and primary author of the study, â??Edwards was most likely to focus on his competitors in paid media.”

How to Cheat Death (Forbes)

Forbes

Quoted: University of Wisconsin physiologist Hannah Carey has 100 squirrels hibernating in two dark walk-in refrigerators in her lab. She’s discovered that hibernating squirrels can last 20 minutes without oxygen. She thinks the squirrels have a genetic response to the cold that protects them from multiorgan failure. “I often say that people are the oddities,” jokes Carey. Biotech firm Hiberna, hatched last year with undisclosed funding from Boulder Ventures, has used DNA chips to spot 15 genes that appear crucial for protecting tissue during hibernation.

Experts: Ice Quake Likely Caused Shaking On UW Campus

WISC-TV 3

MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison geologists said the shaking some University of Wisconsin-Madison staffers and others felt Thursday afternoon near Lake Mendota was most likely an ice quake caused by ice shifting on Lake Mendota.

UW-Madison geologists said they recorded a tremor at 12:50 p.m. that lasted a few seconds.

Ice quakes are usually accompanied by loud cracking noises, and the university said a number of people called UW police and facilities staff to inquire about the rumbling disturbance.

Brad Bolden was fishing on Lake Mendota during the incident.

Curiosities: Earth’s orbit varies, so noon isn’t exactly midday

Wisconsin State Journal

Q. We know that the length of days changes as the axis of the Earth points either toward or away from the sun. But as days get longer, is the “extra” daylight added equally in morning and evening, or otherwise?
A. In our winter, the North Pole tips away from the sun compared to the South Pole, which places the sun lower in the noontime sky and makes the day shorter than it is in summer, said Jim Lattis, director of UW Space Place, an outreach program of the UW-Madison astronomy department.

Bush speech highlights Wisc. stem-cell research: Dispute in funding of embryonic stem cells still remains

Daily Cardinal

President George W. Bush gave his annual State of the Union address Monday, and his remarks on stem-cell research will likely reverberate in Wisconsin for the last year of his term.

Bush said he was in favor of funding the medical breakthrough by UW-Madison and Japanese researchers that reprogram skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells.

Making a glow of it (San Diego Union-Tribune)

San Diego Union-Tribune

Quoted: Ladan Mostaghimi, an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. 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.

Climate is teach-in topic at MATC, UW

Capital Times

Madison Area Technical College and UW-Madison are among about 1,600 institutions nationwide participating in Focus the Nation, a teach-in on global warming solutions. The Thursday event will aim to prepare students to lead responses to the challenges of a changing climate.

Both local programs will feature UW Professor Jon Foley, director of the Nelson Institute’s Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment.

51 UW faculty, staff exhibit own art

Badger Herald

Four years ago, the Chazen Museum of Art hosted a group show featuring artwork created by University of Wisconsin faculty and academic staff. Now, in a collaborative effort between Chazen administration and 51 art department faculty, emeritus faculty and affiliates from related departments and Tandem Press are again displaying their best and latest for students and the community.

Commentary: ‘Conversation’ will focus on jobs for youth with disabilities (Fond du Lac Reporter)

Fond Du Lac Reporter

Fond du Lac High School is inviting the community to discuss ways to improve employment opportunities for youth with disabilities.

“Community Conversation” will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31, at Marian College, 45 S. National Ave.

The evening will provide a venue for creative brainstorming and networking over coffee and desserts. It is open to anyone interested in improving employment and community involvement for youth with disabilities. Business and community leaders, local policymakers, faith communities, youth agencies, families and young people are especially encouraged to attend.

Economist foresees weakness in 2008 (Milwaukee Small Business Times)

The U.S. economy will be saddled with some burdensome obstacles in 2008, according to economist Michael Knetter, dean of the University of Wisconsin School of Business in Madison. Knetter, a former economic advisor to Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, provides his macroeconomic outlooks annually at the Northern Trust Economic Trends Breakfast. Small Business Times executive editor Steve Jagler recently interviewed Knetter about the economic outlook for 2008. The following are excerpts from that interview.

Rob Zaleski: Overpopulation issue overlooked by presidential candidates

Capital Times

I kept thinking that at some point during the long, laborious process to elect our next president it was bound to happen. But now, after more than 20 debates and with the election just 10 months away, it has dawned on me that none of the candidates — or any of the media — is going to bring up what the late Gaylord Nelson, the former Wisconsin senator and governor and the father of Earth Day, felt was the most urgent issue that humanity faces: overpopulation.

Quoted: Botany professor Don Waller

Curiosities: Sun could get real hot 5 billion years from now

Wisconsin State Journal

Q. Will the sun ever burn up the Earth and, if so, when?
— Submitted by Noelle Yeazel, Grade 6, Whitehorse Middle School

A. Like all stars, the sun changes over time, and some day — when it has consumed all of its hydrogen fuel and becomes what astronomers call a “red giant star ” — its outer layers could reach as far as the Earth and swallow our planet.

Aid asked for wrongfully jailed man

Wisconsin State Journal

On Thursday, a law student working with the Wisconsin Innocence Project made the case for David Sanders ‘ compensation request, which includes repayment of attorneys ‘ fees and the maximum $5,000 allowed under the law for the eight months he spent in prison, the start of what was to be a 15-year sentence for first-degree sexual assault of a child.

Roof collapses can be avoided with precautions (Holmen Courier)

Near record amounts of snow this winter have raised concerns about roof collapses. Snow and ice accumulations on roofs cause a loading which can cause roof collapse when the roof is not strong enough to resist the load. The deeper the snow, the higher the loading.

Brian Holmes and David Kammel, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension professors and specialists note that the more dense the snow and ice, the greater the load for a given depth. Rain held in snow can add about 5 pounds per square foot per for each inch of rain.

Whatâ??s the beef?

Daily Cardinal

On Jan. 15, the FDA announced the meat and milk from cloned cows, pigs and goats to be as safe as the food products from their natural counterparts, and would be permitted to enter the U.S. food supply unlabeled.

Outdoors: Large-scale effort needed to save grassland birds

Capital Times

WISCONSIN DELLS — Of all of the birds that spend part of their lives in Wisconsin, the group that needs the most help are grassland birds. Their populations, along with their habitat, are in decline.

That is one of the reasons why the Department of Natural Resources held a statewide Grassland Bird Symposium last week, bringing together state and federal wildlife managers and researchers, and land managers from (non-governmental conservation organizations.

UW-Madison wildlife ecology research associate Kevin Ellison and the UW Arboretum are mentioned.)

The Return of National Advertising

Washington Post

Quoted: Ken Goldstein, a University of Wisconsin professor who studies campaign advertising, said the purchases “make a lot of sense” considering the cost and demands of trying to buy advertising in so many different media markets.

Doyle: Martin Luther King a model for next U.S. president

Wausau Daily Herald

Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said it is normal for elected officials to make broader theme connections between an iconic figure such as King and modern policies.

The tribute’s main guest speaker, Gloria Ladson-Billings, also discussed a general attitude of perseverance. She called King more than a dreamer — alluding to his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Rather he was a doer, she said

Moon real estate (Salon)

Quoted: Gerald Kulcinski, director of the University of Wisconsin’s Fusion Technology Institute, thinks helium-3 could potentially power future long-distance space travel, though it could take decades before a commercial helium-3 reactor becomes available.