Quoted: Bridges should be checked again because some may have deteriorated since then and can withstand less weight now, said Don Walker, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Transportation Information Center.
Category: UW Experts in the News
The minis of meat: State has scores of small gems of the industry
Wisconsin, along with Pennsylvania, is one of the leading meat processing states in the country, said Jeff Sindelar, a professor of meat science at UW-Madison, a meat specialist with UW-Extension and a member of the board of directors of the Wisconsin Association of Meat Processors.
Loans Are as Tricky as Ever (U.S. News and World Report)
Some schools, including the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have long done without preferred-lender lists and are emphasizing their neutrality. “If there was ever any tendency to advise people [on specific lenders], we’re making sure that’s not happening,” says Susan Fischer, director of financial aid at Wisconsin.
Amnesty film shows agony of US detention techniques (Independent UK)
Quoted: Alfred McCoy, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, argued recently that the photographs from Abu Ghraib reflected standard CIA torture techniques of ” stress positions, sensory deprivation, and sexual humiliation”.
Drugs Banned, Many of Worldâ??s Poor Suffer in Pain (New York Times)
Quoted: David E. Joranson, director of the Pain Policy Study Group at the University of Wisconsinâ??s medical school, who has worked to change drugs laws around the world.
Splendid excess: Book, movie club to rule on Wharton’s ‘Innocence’
Even as she lived in high society, she held it up to public ridicule. Once treated as a minor writer who documented the drawing rooms of the rich, the American novelist Edith Wharton (1862-1937) has, ever since the feminist literary revival that started in the 1970s, been recognized as an American master.
Quoted: UW-Madison English professor Emily Auerbach
Facebook grants limited profile access to public
Check your privacy settings. The world will soon be able to view your Facebook profile via search engines like Google.
Dissolved Minerals Make The Ocean Salty
Q. Why is the ocean salty?
A. The saltiness of the sea comes from dissolved minerals, especially sodium, chlorine, sulfur, calcium, magnesium, and potassium, said Galen McKinley, a UW-Madison professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
Thompson Top Campaign Aide Corallo Resigns in Shakeup (Bloomberg News)
Quoted: Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
Mike Moore: Scratch the amateur mosquito theories (Racine Journal-Times)
Cheeseheads have short memories, so Phil Pellitteri expected the calls.
Just as media types jump at the first trace of snow to remind people where their brake pedal is, we tend to act stunned when mosquitoes follow hard rains. A big part of Pellitteriâ??s week has been to smack us upside our forgetful heads.
â??I would give you the same interview 15 years ago,â? said Pellitteri, an entomologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Can Genomics Save The Bees? (Forbes.com)
Quoted: Jo Handelsman, the University of Wisconsin-Madison plant biologist who coined the term “metagenomics,” says that the bee work represents “a very nice first step and an exciting discovery.”
Commission: Supreme Court should reprimand Ziegler
Quoted: Don Downs, a political science and law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Housing market in for worse?
Quoted: Morris A. Davis, assistant professor of real estate and urban land economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Cable sports fans stir up any deal
Fans hoping for a breakthrough in negotiations between Charter Communications and the Big Ten Network seemingly will grasp at any straw.
One favorite theory of bloggers involves the pending deal in which News Corp. is selling its 38.4 percent stake in DirecTV, regional sports networks FSN Pittsburgh, FSN Northwest and FSN Rocky Mountain, and more than $500 million in cash to Liberty Media in exchange for Liberty’s 19 percent voting interest in News Corp.
Quoted: UW-Madison telecommunications professor Barry Orton
Scientists find clue to cause of bee disease
Researchers at Pennsylvania State University, Columbia and other institutions have found a virus that they say contributes to the mysterious collapse of honeybee colonies around the United States.
Quoted: UW-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri
Mosquitoes want your blood
Quoted: UW-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri.
‘Skeeters’ come back biting (The Sheboygan Press)
Quoted: Phil Pellitteri, an entomologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has studied mosquitoes for more than 30 years, said the downpours of August have caused the mosquitoes to hatch just about anywhere there’s standing water, including highway ditches and flooded fields.
Mosquitoes are back and they’re bad
What’s the buzz?
If you haven’t stepped out of your house the past week or two, that hum you hear outside is from millions of floodwater mosquitoes that have exploded on the scene, following the record rainfalls in August.
Quoted: UW-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri
Budget talks yield snubs, naps
Madison – The Legislature’s special budget committee, if it were a game show, would be called “Let’s Not Make a Deal.”
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor.
Milk pricing formula grates on state’s cheese makers (Los Angeles Times)
Quoted: Brian Gould, an agricultural economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Collegiate credit cards stack the odds
Quoted: Susan Fischer, director of Student Financial Services at UW-Madison, tells students to resist the pitch and the freebies. “Just go buy a T-shirt if you need a T-shirt.”
Study’s finding on effectiveness attracts skeptics (New York Times)
Quoted: Bruce P. Barrett, an associate professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin who was not involved with the review.
Famed Lucy fossil goes on display in Houston (Houston Chronicle)
Quoted: John Hawks, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Steinkuehler: The game of life (Ottawa Citizen)
There’s a real generational divide on the issue of video games.
For those older than 35 or so, games are mostly an unfortunate waste of time or, worse, a Trojan horse introducing our kids to violent, sexist themes. For those younger than 35, they are a leading form of entertainment, a resource for creativity and innovation, and — contrary to the common stereotype — a way to socialize.
Constance Steinkuehler is an assistant professor of educational communication and technology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
‘Go ahead, make my day,’ Hollywood says in new crop of revenge movies (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Quoted: Jeffrey P. Smith, a professor of film studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Young Fliers See the Film, Be It PG or R – New York Times
Quoted: Joanne Cantor, who taught communications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
DNR workers, volunteers fan out to halt spread of invasive species
Quoted: Jake Vander Zanden, an aquatic ecologist with the UW-Madison Center for Limnology.
Travelers have forgiven JetBlue but investors have not (AP)
Quoted: Tom Oâ??Guinn, a marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin and executive director of the Center for Brand and Product Management.
Experts Recommend New Response To Cardiac Arrest
Quoted: University of Wisconsin Hospital emergency medicine physician Darren Bean said blowing air into someone having a heart attack induces pressure in the lungs that slows blood flow.
Live college mascots reflect obsession with traditions
The University of Wisconsin hasn’t had a live badger since 1947 â?? about the time Bucky got loose and ran onto the football field during a game, says David Null, director of the school’s archives.
“The team got a delay-of-game call while they tried to round it up and take care of it,” Null says. “They’re feisty little animals. I doubt they’ll ever bring it back.”
Recall of the wild (San Diego Union-Tribune)
Quoted: Don Waller, a professor of botany and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Curiosities: Chargers use some power even when not charging
Q. Is it true that cell phone chargers continue to draw power when they ‘re not charging a battery, simply because they ‘re plugged into an outlet? And if this is true, how can it be?
A. Although he hasn ‘t measured it, UW-Madison emeritus electrical engineering professor Don Novotny guesses that a plugged-in charger still draws about one-third of the power it does while operating.
Unsportsmanlike Big Ten school leaders faulted for cable stalemate
Like many Badger fans, Eric Graf is angry as the Big Ten Network launches tonight without a deal with Charter Communications.
Barring an improbable agreement to break the long and contentious stalemate, Charter subscribers won’t be able to see at least three University of Wisconsin football games and at least 10 UW basketball games scheduled to air on BTN in the next six months.
But Graf isn’t focusing his ire on the network or cable company; he blames the heads of the Big Ten universities, including UW Chancellor John Wiley.
(Professor of telecommunications Barry Orton is quoted.)
Nonnative mosquito found in Minn.; grasshoppers prosper in north (Grand Forks, N.D. Forum)
Quoted: University of Wisconsin entomologist Phil Pellitteri said.
Asthma guidelines stress prevention, monitoring
Quoted: Robert Lemanske of the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics.
New asthma guidelines balance risk, control (Reuters)
Quoted: Dr. William Busse of the University of Wisconsin, who headed the panel.
Stanley Kutler: Trashing History: Bush and Vietnam (The Huffington Post)
The good news is that George W. Bush at last has found parallels between his Iraq misadventure and the Vietnam War. The bad news is that he is again writing his own revisionist history. The president is on dangerous ground — for both wars are based on a bed of lies and miscalculations.
Scandals putting campaigns to test (The Boston Globe)
Quoted: Kenneth R. Mayer, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
GOP tries to cut state tax credit program
UW-Madison economist Andrew Reschovsky said he saw some problems with the program, such as the fact that many eligible taxpayers don ‘t participate.
Nature trumps decades of effort
The region saw floods in 1993, 1978, 1965 and the early 1950s, experts said. But this year topped all of those, with the Kickapoo River level at the community of Steuben rising nearly five feet above flood stage, two feet higher than the previous high flood of 1978, according to federal data examined by UW-Madison hydrologist Ken Potter.
Both Potter and fellow UW-Madison professor Jim Knox said that, thanks to improved methods of farming and controlling soil erosion, floods in the region have generally lessened over the past 50 years.
Kids’ tastes run to brands they know best (Los Angeles Times)
Quoted: Joanne Cantor, director of the Center for Communication Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says typical public-service announcements about healthful eating fail because they lack the punch of enormous advertising campaigns promoting less nutritious fare.
Parents, doctors weigh emotions, laws week to week (The Denver Post)
Quoted: Dr. Norman Fost, professor of pediatrics and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin.
Dollar bounces back, but economists say slide will resume
Quoted: Menzie Chinn, professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin and co-author of a much-cited academic report on the topic.
Japanese beetles are spreading in state gardens (Racine Journal Times)
If your garden survived the drought that lasted through July and the recent flooding rains, youâ??re not out of the woods yet. Japanese beetles are still on the attack.
These beetles, which shouldnâ??t be confused with ladybug look-alike Asian lady beetles, are becoming more numerous and widespread this summer than ever before, said University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Phil Pellitteri. Pellitteri said Japanese beetles are invasive insects that only appeared in large numbers in Wisconsin within the past 10 years.
Bush Uses Executive Power to Save Agenda as Iraq Erodes Clout (Bloomberg News)
Quoted: Kenneth Mayer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and author of “With the Stroke of a Pen: Executive Orders and Presidential Powers.”
Floodwaters Slowly Receding In Midwest (CBS News)
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri
Part-time politicians: Many state lawmakers have other jobs (The Janesville Gazette)
Quoted: John Coleman, a political science professor at UW-Madison.
Curiosities: There’s More To Teeth Than You Might Think
Q. What are teeth made of?
A. Built for crunching and chewing, teeth mostly consist of hard, inorganic minerals such as calcium. But they also contain nerves, blood vessels and specialized cells that manufacture the different parts of the tooth, said Bill Gengler, a veterinary dentist and oral surgeon with the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.
Henry Kissinger and the American Century. Jeremi Suri.
No American diplomat’s career has been more thoroughly documented and debated — or celebrated and reviled — than Henry Kissinger’s. There are shelves of biographies by distinguished authors, and Kissinger himself has produced a massive three-volume memoir followed by a steady flow of books, essays, and commentaries. These two books do not provide startling new historical accounts of Kissinger, but they do offer some fresh glimpses of his motives and personality on display in high office.
Storms follow rare path
Quoted: Jonathan Martin, chairman of the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Flood Victims Face Stress Among Other Challenges
Quoted: Dr. Jerry Halverson, a University of Wisconsin health psychiatrist and the medical director of Meriter Hospital’s adult psychiatry program, said that shock and other feelings are normal and natural when confronted with such a traumatic event.
Women frame a new dialogue between cultures (Aspen Times)
Quoted: University of Wisconsin law professor Asifa Quraishi, at the opening of Wednesday’s session, pointed out that Islamic conservatives point to the very topic of “women’s rights” as “a Western imposition” of outside values on Muslim women, which therefore means it can be dismissed as irrelevant and anti-Islam.
Frank Lloyd Wright and the House Beautiful
You get an engrossingly detailed picture of how he achieved his vision in â??Frank Lloyd Wright and the House Beautifulâ? at the Portland Museum of Art. The show displays more than 100 examples of his furniture, metalwork, textiles, plans, drawings and publications, along with photographs of particular interiors.
It was organized by International Arts and Artists, of Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation of Scottsdale, Ariz. Virginia T. Boyd, professor of design studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, served as curator.
Three die at bus stop
Quoted: John Webster, UW-Madison professor emeritus of biomedical engineering.
3 killed in northside electrocution accident identified
The downed power line that killed a woman, her toddler, and a would-be rescuer Wednesday afternoon on Madison’s north side also shocked, but did not kill, the woman’s 7-year-old child, authorities said today.
Quoted: Ted Bernstein, UW-Madison emeritus professor of electrical and computer engineering
Banks adding personal touches to make banking more pleasant
Quoted: Donald Hester, professor emeritus of economics at UW-Madison.
Seniors still have sex, study finds
Americans pushing 60, 70, 80 or even 90 don’t forgo sex just because they’re aging, according a new study that shows many older adults are having sex well into their 70s and 80s.
The University of Chicago study being published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine is being called the first comprehensive look at the sex lives of older adults in the USA. It portrays an image that researchers say runs counter to the stereotypes of older people as either asexual or “dirty old men.
Quoted: John De Lamater, UW-Madison professor of sociology
Truth Stripped Naked (Investor’s Business Daily)
Quoted: Climatology pioneer Reid Bryson, founding chairman of the department of meteorology at the University of Wisconsin.
Seniors still have sex, study finds
Quoted: John DeLamater, a University of Wisconsin sociology professor who has studied human sexuality for 35 years.
Outdoors: CWD experts address first meeting of advisory committee
Why should we care? That was a rhetorical question asked by Scott Craven, professor of wildlife ecology at UW-Madison, in leading off the second CWD Stakeholder Advisory Committee meetings in Madison last Saturday.
The meeting, held at Lowell Inn and Conference Center on the UW-Madison campus, drew a surprisingly small public attendance, less than 10 people. However, the reason for the meeting was for the 16-member committee to hear from experts about what is known about chronic wasting disease.
….”I obviously care for both personal and professional reasons, but this issue is just not on people’s radar screen like it was three years ago,” he (Craven) said. “One of the most important challenges that you face, as liaisons to groups of citizens and hunters, is to bring that back.”
(Also mentioned are Chad Johnson, an assistant scientist in the School of Veterinary Medicine, and Joel Pedersen, associate professor of Soil Science.)