Skip to main content

Tag: featured

Super Tuesday is upon us: Very soon, Democrats must unite or surrender to authoritarianism

Salon.com

Quoted: Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “What benefit you see is probably because once you are on the rolls you are visible to canvassers and campaigns, making it possible for them to reach out to you,” he says. “Registering people to vote is not a silver bullet.”

The Feeling You Get After Surviving Layoffs Has A Name

HuffPost Life

After a layoff, “employees see less of an obligation to be loyal to the company, resulting in more of a free agent mentality,” said Charlie Trevor, a professor of management and human resources in the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “With this mentality comes the freedom to actively seek another job where, hopefully, one’s future will be less tenuous.”

Bernie Sanders leads Pa. primary in poll, with close race against Trump

Philadelphia Inquirer

“All three states are up for grabs in 2020,” said Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Elections Research Center, which conducted the poll. “Trump is in a more difficult position in Michigan than the other two states, but each of the Midwest battlegrounds could be won by either party, almost regardless of who becomes the Democratic nominee.”

This new device seems to pull electricity out of thin air

Popular Science

“I think it is very interesting work,” says Xudong Wang, a University of Wisconsin Madison engineer who works with other kinds of non-organic nanowires to harvest energy. “It is always exciting to see new materials and new concepts emerge to provide renewable energy solutions.”

Pier 1 Imports, the Struggling Home Goods Retailer, Files for Bankruptcy

The New York Times

“Twenty years ago, you could look at a product and you would really know that it came from Pier 1,” said Hart Posen, a professor of management at the University of Wisconsin School of Business who studies corporate decision-making during technological change. “They were really the only big national firm with that kind of unique identity.”

Varsity Blues scandal triggers talk of changing college admissions — don’t hold your breath

The Washington Post

While elite college admissions grab headlines, speakers also acknowledged that only a small proportion of Americans actually attend such schools. Some 40 percent of undergraduate students attend public two-year or for-profit institutions; only 55 colleges in the country admit fewer than 20 percent of their applicants, noted Nick Hillman, an associate professor in the education school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Struggle to Mend America’s Rural Roads

The New York Times

Quoted: A legally loaded semi-trailer truck can produce 5,000 to 10,000 times the road damage of one car according to some estimates, said Benjamin J. Jordan, director of the Wisconsin Transportation Information Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Roads and bridges have not kept up.

Madison’s Don Voegeli’s Electronic Switch Influenced The Sound Of Public Radio

Wisconsin Public Radio

As a public radio listener, you’re probably familiar with the theme song for NPR’s “All Things Considered.” It’s had a few variations over the decades.

But did you know it was originally composed in Madison in 1971?

It was written by Don Voegeli, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and the longtime music director at WHA (now known as Wisconsin Public Radio).

Opinion: Why Are You Still Packing Lunch for Your Kids?

The New York Times

The solution is right in front of us. When kids eat school lunch, they and their parents are supporting the efforts to improve the national program for current and future generations.

Jennifer Gaddis is an assistant professor of civil society and community studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of “The Labor of Lunch: Why We Need Real Food and Real Jobs in American Public Schools.”

Danez Smith: ‘White people can learn from it, but that’s not who I’m writing for’

The Guardian

The New Yorker said of Don’t Call Us Dead that Smith’s poems “can’t make history vanish, but they can contend against it with the force of a restorative imagination”. That imagination was honed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where Smith studied before going on to form the Dark Noise Collective with other artists including Franny Choi, with whom Smith co-hosts the poetry podcast VS.

How each US state is impacting the personal finance IQ of students

CNBC

Melody Harvey, National Poverty Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty, found in a study she conducted that state-level personal finance education requirements make young individuals significantly less likely to borrow payday loans than peers who were not provided the education, across race, ethnicity and gender.

Aerobic exercise limits risk of Alzheimer’s in vulnerable adults

New Atlas

Previous research has shown us how regular exercise can be beneficial for cognitive function and help stave off the brain degeneration associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s, but scientists continue to learn more about the mechanisms at play. The latest discovery in this area comes courtesy of researchers from the University of Wisconsin (UW), who have published a new study describing a relationship between regular aerobic exercise and a reduced vulnerability to Alzheimer’s among high-risk adults.

California Is on the Brink of an Owl War

Gizmodo

Quoted: “[The barred owl] is larger and more aggressive so it can directly out-compete spotted owls,” Connor Wood, a conservation biologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Earther. “And they are also more flexible with what they eat and where they live, so the landscape can support more barred owls.”

Bizarre neutrinos detected in Antarctica could open the door to new physics discoveries

Salon.com

“It’s commonly said that neutrinos are ’elusive’ or ’ghostly’ particles because of their remarkable ability to pass through material without smashing into something,” Alex Pizzuto of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, one of the leads on this paper, said in a press release. “But at these incredible energies, neutrinos are like bulls in a china shop — they become much more likely to interact with particles in Earth.”

You may have more Neanderthal DNA than you think

National Geographic

Quoted: Scientists have long speculated about Neanderthals’ relationships to modern humans. While the exact question shifted over the years, it’s a debate that goes back to Neanderthals’ initial discovery, says John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the study.

Dog treated for cancer by UW vets to be in Super Bowl ad

Fox 11

“Scout’s illness devastated us,” MacNeil told WMTV. “We wanted this year’s Super Bowl effort to not only raise awareness, but also financial support for the incredible research and innovative treatments happening at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, where Scout is still a patient,”Mark Markel, dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine says this is an incredible opportunity, not only for the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the School of Veterinary Medicine, but for veterinary medicine worldwide.

Goodwill Sparks Deep Division, at Least on Balance Sheets

Wall Street Journal

Quoted: Thomas Linsmeier, a former member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, said he thinks there is “momentum on the board to move toward amortization.” A “driving factor of concern … is the amount of cost in the impairment test,” Mr. Linsmeier, a professor of accounting at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said.

We’re trying to keep the Galapagos pristine. That might destroy them.

The Washington Post

Visiting the Galapagos Islands — which have long been considered Charles Darwin’s natural laboratory — is like stepping into a nature documentary. You can snorkel with playful sea lions, watch “Darwin’s finches” feed and inch up to ancient giant tortoises.

Elizabeth Hennessy is an assistant professor of history and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the author of “On the Backs of Tortoises: Darwin, the Galápagos, and the Fate of an Evolutionary Eden.”

Winter is missing from much of the Northern Hemisphere this year. When will it show up?

The Washington Post

Although the cold lodged over the frozen north is intense, it covers a historically small area for this time of year. Jonathan Martin, a professor of meteorology at the University of Wisconsin, wrote in an email that the size of the “cold pool” over the Northern Hemisphere, which is indicated by temperatures of 23 degrees or lower a mile above ground, ranks as the smallest on record for December and early January.