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Author: jplucas

Editorial: Unleashing your curiosity at the Wisconsin Science Festival

Channel3000.com

MADISON, Wis. – It’s a curious phenomenon of the early 21st century that our political and cultural divisions have led us to try to “dumb down” our lives and our world. As if it is our curiosity that is causing us so much fear and anxiety, distrust and discomfort. Curiosity has historically led us to discovery, to knowledge and understanding and hope. And if we would unleash it once again it still will.

For the birds

Isthmus

Christina Ciano and Kate Dike walk the perimeter of Ogg Hall, a dorm at Dayton and Park streets, pulling brush back from the side of the building and scanning the ground.

New Study on Sexual Assault on UW Madison Campus

WORT 89.9 FM

Over a quarter of undergrad women on the UW-Madison campus experienced sexual assault during their time at school. That’s according to a survey released this spring, as part of a 33 college study by the Association of American Universities.

Editorial: Listening to UW students of color

Channel3000.com

MADISON, Wis. – We don’t know how it is even possible to produce a video about the University of Wisconsin without images of students of color. What we do know is it is irrelevant who was responsible for the final product, the fact that it existed for even the short time it did is a damning indictment of our ongoing lack of cultural awareness, sensitivity and respect for diversity and inclusion.

UW Student Group Looks to Diversify Design

Madison365.com

In the spring semester of Hayley Pendergast’s fourth year as a UW-Madison student in interior architecture, she founded an organization built to expose more people of color to the design industry at an earlier age, as an opportunity to help diversify the field.

‘Our River Was Like a God’: How Dams and China’s Might Imperil the Mekong

New York Times

Noted: “I have not seen a single case in which people have been compensated fairly for the disruptions to their lives caused by dams,” said Ian Baird, a Southeast Asia expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies the social effects of dams. “If governments are arguing that these projects aren’t viable without underpaying compensation, then maybe these projects aren’t right for the country.”

Illinois’ automatic voter registration delays worry experts

AP

Noted: “It’s helpful to have that come out in a midterm year or odd year where election officials have an opportunity to make fixes without the pressure,” said Barry Burden, a director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Elections Research Center. “The presidential (election) puts the most stress on any system than any other contest.”

Overzealous in preventing falls, hospitals are producing an ‘epidemic of immobility’ in elderly patients

The Washington Post

Noted: Barbara King, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing, studied how nurses responded to “intense messaging” from hospitals about preventing falls after the 2008 CMS policy change. She found that pressure to have zero patient falls made some nurses fearful. After a fall happened, some nurses adjusted their behavior and wouldn’t let patients move on their own.

Electrifying change

Isthmus

Robin Mwai pulls a key fob out of her handbag and swipes it across the Trek BCycle docking station on the Capitol Square to unlock an electric-assist bicycle. Mwai isn’t planning a long ride, just a quick pedal back to campus.

Steve Miller cracked the code of 1970s radio. But he’s still raging against the music industry.

Washington Post

Steve Miller should have nothing to complain about. But on a recent afternoon, sitting in the elegant patron’s room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the singer and guitarist fires away when asked about his new set, “Welcome to the Vault.” The box, out Oct. 11, is a fascinating dip into his archives, 52 tracks that stretch over 65 years, from a 1951 performance by blues legend T-Bone Walker in his childhood living room to a 2016 jazz band reinvention of Miller’s “Take the Money and Run.”

Lynda Barry’s Infectious Genius

The Nation

ynda Barry is the most democratic artist I’ve ever met, so I feel sure she’d bristle at being elevated to the status of genius. But now she’s stuck with the title. Last Wednesday, Barry became one of 25 winners of the MacArthur Fellows Program, worth $625,000 and popularly known as the “genius grant.” According to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Barry’s award is for “Inspiring creative engagement through original graphic works and a teaching practice centered on the role of image making in communication.”

US agriculture secretary to address Wisconsin town hall

AP

Sonny Perdue is scheduled to speak at a town hall session at the World Dairy Expo at the Alliant Energy Center on Tuesday morning. He plans to spend the rest of the day touring a Verona elementary school, a Fitchburg apple orchard, UW-Madison and a USDA cereal crops research lab in Madison.

Trump’s Ukraine call, a whistleblower and the Bidens: What we know, what we don’t

PolitiFact

Noted: Yoshiko Herrera, a University of Wisconsin professor who previously headed the university’s Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia, said Hunter Biden’s hiring echoes the strategy common within Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, in which powerful interests try to secure influence on foreign policy by leveraging family members and associates of key leaders.

Film for a troubled planet

Isthmus

It’s not too late to save the planet, according to a visually stunning documentary to be screened by UW-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies in advance of a pivotal United Nations climate summit.

Hora: Campuses should proceed with caution when it comes to student internships

Inside Higher Education

College internships are widely viewed across the postsecondary landscape as one of the high-impact practices that campuses should adopt, scale and sustain. The designation of internships as a HIP is based on analyses of the National Survey of Student Engagement data, which show that such practices are significant predictors of student learning and engagement. That has led to a national focus on high-impact practices, along with growing interest in students’ career and transitions to the workforce, with many institutions encouraging or even mandating students to have internships.

Madison’s mysterious tales and oddities

Madison Magazine

A sculpture without an origin, hauntings in a popular brewpub, a deadly corner, unidentified flying objects, a town that no longer exists and a team of paranormal investigators; Madison is a city laced with mystery and intrigue. Whether it can be seen, understood or believed is up to you. Try not to get spooked by some of the stories you read.

Here comes the sun

Isthmus

Noted: UW-Madison physics professor Jan Egedal tells me that, within the community of solar physicists, “it is well known that a Carrington-level disturbance today would be devastating.” If wide swaths of the highly interconnected North American electrical grid were damaged, backup generators would conk out long before the multitude of necessary grid repairs could be made. Lack of electricity itself might hamper the manufacture and transport of the required replacement equipment.

Best Places to Work 2019

Madison Magazine

NotedL Madison, home to the highest concentration of millennial workers, was recently named one of the 10 best cities for entrepreneurs and has the second-highest employment outlook in the country. To attract and retain top talent, companies are thinking outside the box. One of the Madison business community’s greatest assets is having a university in town that’s continually preparing potential employees. Amy Achter, the managing director of the Office of Business Engagement at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, says her office works with companies looking for new ways to find students.

Film for a troubled planet

Isthmus

It’s not too late to save the planet, according to a visually stunning documentary to be screened by UW-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies in advance of a pivotal United Nations climate summit.

True American art

Isthmus

In a dimly lit gallery in the School of Human Ecology on the UW-Madison campus sit three cases draped with linen. Beneath the coverings are funerary objects taken from Indigenous resting places — swatches of handmade cloth and bags that were meant to be used by the dead in the next world.

Can this virtual reality tour convince you to work in Madison?

Madison Magazine

Imagine this: The doorbell rings and you’re greeted by a delivery person with a box in hand. Inside the box is a virtual reality headset branded with the logo from that one company that’s been encouraging you to visit its office. You decide to give it a shot. You take a seat, slip on the headset and are immediately transported to an apartment in Madison.

Bloody good fun

Isthmus

It’s not often that the men’s magazine Maxim makes its way into arts and culture criticism, but that noted periodical told its discerning readers that Evil Dead: The Musical is “one musical you’ll actually want to see.”

States passing laws to protect college students’ free speech

Inside Higher Education

Noted: A legislative proposal pending in the Wisconsin Legislature is far from a light touch. It requires University of Wisconsin system colleges to adopt certain rules on free speech, including suspending for at least a semester students who have twice been found responsible for “interfering with the expressive rights of others.” Students who violate free speech policies three times must be expelled.

A new HBO series depicts violence in Jerusalem

The Washington Post

Last month, HBO premiered “Our Boys,” a 10-episode series exploring violence in Jerusalem in the summer of 2014, co-produced by popular Israeli television station Channel 12. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Israelis to boycott the popular channel for airing what he termed an “anti-Semitic” show.

Should Colleges End Legacy Admissions?

New York Times

The underlying conceit of the editorial is that an Ivy League education can be a critical factor in a student’s future success. The most recent study of Fortune 500 executives shows that the University of Wisconsin produced the most chief executives in the country. And of the top 10 of the Fortune 500, eight were educated in public colleges. An equal number of C.E.O.s graduated from public colleges and private colleges.

Letter to the Editor: Wisconsin should support Taiwan

The Daily Cardinal

A blog post by the Office of the Chancellor dated August 22 entitled “UW’s relationship with China,” which originally mentioned Taiwan in the student statistics, sparked a degree of controversy among Taiwanese students. Many Taiwanese students sent e-mails to protest, arguing that China is not Taiwan and that Taiwan is a sovereign and independent country. The Office of the Chancellor responded by revising the data to be more specific to mainland China.

Running out of time

Isthmus

Max Prestigiacomo is frustrated. Since last winter, he and a growing group of students across the state have been organizing to battle the global climate crisis.

Invest in the UW

Isthmus

The Wall Street Journal came out with its college rankings last week and UW- Madison came in at #67. There are a number of reactions you might have to that.

Obserhauser: Concerns that captive breeding affects the ability of monarch butterflies to migrate

Nature

The eastern population of North American monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) migrates annually in early autumn to a mountainous region in central Mexico. The incredibly long distances covered during these journeys, and the striking sight of these butterfly populations on the move have captivated people’s imaginations. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Tenger-Trolander et al.1 document the loss of migratory behaviour in monarchs that had been bred in captivity over multiple generations.

Palace intrigue

Isthmus

A preternatural silence has surrounded the departure of one of the highest paid executives on the UW-Madison campus. It’s one more sign of the big changes rocking the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, UW’s independent patenting and licensing operation.