Trump’s wins in Michigan and Wisconsin, in addition to Pennsylvania, over Clinton in 2016 secured him that election and the White House, even as he lost them four years later. But Wisconsin might be the most competitive of the battleground states, according to University of Wisconsin, Madison, Elections Research Center Director Barry Burden.
Author: rueckert
Young Wisconsin progressives lead the latest protest vote against Biden over Gaza
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, some of those younger voters have also been organizing an effort to educate more people about the uninstructed option on the ballot.
The FAFSA Fiasco Is a Really Big Deal
Nick Hillman, an education-policy professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said that the “hollowing out” of the department forced it to rely on third-party contractors to complete its technical fixes.
What Would A Solar Eclipse Have Looked Like to Neanderthals? Here’s What We Know
“It’s almost impossible to imagine that ancient hominins would have ignored an eclipse, or not noticed,” University of Wisconsin anthropologist John Hawks tells Inverse. What’s harder to guess — and more interesting to speculate about — is what the Neanderthals would have thought and felt when darkness suddenly swallowed the day.
Maps: These states, counties are home to the most excessive drinkers, study finds
The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute has published its annual County Health Rankings and Roadmaps report, which is intended to highlight the factors that can impact our health outcomes and disparities nationwide. The report considers numerous data points, including the excessive consumption of alcohol.
Deepfakes raise alarm about AI in elections
What might have taken a studio budget and a production team to produce a few years ago can now be put together by everyday users with just a few clicks, said Barry Burden, a political science professor and director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And with the ubiquity of social media platforms, fabricated content can be widely spread, with few formal checks in place.
Esther Coopersmith, Washington Hostess and Diplomat, Dies at 94
She attended the University of Denver and later the University of Wisconsin.
Black scholars face anonymous accusations in anti-DEI crusade
Six of the seven are Black. Among them are Harvard’s first chief diversity and inclusion officer and her husband, who’s the chief diversity officer at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. They also include the chief DEI officer for staff at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. If you add Gay to the seven, four are Black women at Harvard
Trump-backed GOP leaders call for embrace of early and mail-in voting even as former president continues to cast doubt
“The [Republican] Party does not have a single message about all of this, in contrast to the Democrats, who – at least in 2020 – had a really unified message,” said Barry Burden, the director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “And they also developed the infrastructure to figure out how to navigate the 50 state laws and determine who has already voted early and how to reach out to people who have requested absentee ballots but not returned them. That’s very much a state-by-state process.”
Esther Coopersmith, Washington diplomat and doyenne, dies at 94
After graduating from high school, Mrs. Coopersmith studied at the University of Denver and later at the University of Wisconsin, where she joined the Young Democrats and worked for Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-Tenn.) on his unsuccessful bid for the 1952 presidential nomination.
5 Things You Should Do First Thing In The Morning To Be Happier All Day
“You can start with a simple appreciation practice,” Cortland Dahl, a research scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Healthy Minds, previously told HuffPost. Just bring a friend or loved one into your mind, then consciously focusing on the things you really cherish about them.
China’s Older Job Seekers Expose Scale of Unemployment Crisis
“Relative to China’s consumer market, China has a surplus of about 100 million laborers. In the past, China relied on exports to ensure employment. But now, due to the economic downturn and the “de-risk” policy of the West, China’s exports are falling and unemployment pressure is rising,” University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Yi Fuxian told Newsweek.
Why Do Colors Change during a Solar Eclipse?
For other animals, an eclipse-induced Purkinje effect may be even more intense, says Freya Mowat, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. Birds have a fourth cone that lets them see ultraviolet light. It’s difficult to say exactly how the sudden light change during a solar eclipse would affect avian vision, Mowat, says but it’s possible that the shades of purple would be extra vivid and disorienting
The 25 Most Defining Pieces of Furniture From the Last 100 Years
The ancient Greeks made chairs with curved backrests, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that ergonomics, the study of people in their workplace undertaken to improve efficiency and welfare, was heartily embraced by industrial designers. That’s when Herman Miller brought on the American designer Bill Stumpf, who’d worked with medical experts while doing his postgraduate study at the University of Wisconsin to conduct studies on ideal sitting posture that incorporated X-rays and time-lapse photography. I
How Baseball’s Official Historian Dug Up the Game’s Unknown Origins
The year Baseball in the Garden of Eden was published, Selig tapped Thorn as MLB’s second official historian. “John Thorn has been brilliant,” says Selig, who now teaches baseball history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Arizona State.
‘Bachelorette’ Star Jenn Tran: Job, Instagram & What to Know
Jenn graduated from the University of Wisconsin—Madison in May 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology. During her time at the university, she served as the Red Dress Chairman for Alpha Phi Foundation and organized a fundraising gala that raised more than $30,000 for women’s cardiovascular health.
Jenn Tran makes ‘Bachelorette’ history as first Asian lead
The finale not only teased the University of Wisconsin-Madison alum’s upcoming “Bachlerotte” journey, but also revealed that Graziadei is engaged to Kelsey Anderson, a project assistant for a consulting firm. Leading up to the the pair’s Tulum engagement, finalist and accounting executive Daisy Kent admitted to the bachelor, “You’re not my person,” then left on her own terms.
Viral Genetics Confirms What On-the-Ground Activists Knew Early in the Mpox Outbreak
David O’Conner, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, told me that COVID initially increased the collaborations between researchers and public health officials. He worries that in our supposedly post-COVID world, we’re returning to a baseline with public health and academics working with “less overlap than during the early [SARS-CoV-2] pandemic.”
Leading Economic Index went up for first time in two years
Menzie Chinn, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said even if the economy slows down this year, a recession is unlikely. “At least there’s strength in the economy, probably enough so that you’re not going to go into actual negative growth,” he said.
‘We Were Under So Much Pressure’: Inside Wisconsin’s Tumultuous Budget Deal
A controversial state budget deal hammered out last year for the University of Wisconsin system stoked criticism from all sides — from its original proposal, initial rejection, and eventual passage — according to nearly 1,000 pages of emails, text messages, and other communications The Chronicle received in response to an open-records request.
US housing market faces biggest shakeup in years – here’s what we know
“The decoupling of seller agent and buyer agent fees allows for a lot more flexibility and novelty in how agents are going to get paid,” said Max Besbris, associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The possibilities are more open now than ever before. We’re really going to see, generally, a lot more transparency.”
Patients Hate ‘Forever’ Drugs. Are Ozempic and Wegovy Different?
“People think they are doing fine, so they don’t need the medicine,” said Corrine Voils, a social psychologist at the University of Wisconsin who studies medicine compliance. “But the medicine is what is keeping them well.”
Bizarre ‘Hot Jupiter’ Planets Keep Surprising Astronomers
The next step in fully understanding hot Jupiters is to use these discoveries to establish the relative likelihoods of the three possible migration mechanisms in order to determine which systems formed which way. Jupiter-sized planets are the rulers of their planetary system because of their dominant gravitational influence and the way their migration pathway sculpts the architectures of their system. Understanding these worlds is the first step to constructing a unified theory of planet formation that scientists have been seeking for centuries.
-JULIETTE BECKER is an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is also a founding member of the new Wisconsin Center for Origins Research (WiCOR).
The End of the Eclipse
“To reconstruct the [long-term] Earth–Moon history, we need to see how those periods change,” said Margriet Lantink, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “Milankovitch-based reconstructions are more robust” at showing that change than other current methods, especially for the older part of the geological record, she said.
Frans de Waal, biologist who championed animal intelligence and emotion, dies at 75
“His most influential insights, in my view, can be divided into three areas,” says Strier. The first was that
“nonhuman primates are more thoughtful than we thought, in both their cognitive abilities and in their empathy
and morality,” he says, spurring more ethical treatment of primates. The second: Frans’ “fine-grained observations
of individuals in social groups, powerful experimental and analytical designs, and informative comparisons among
closely-related species” showed the scientific community that a tremendous amount can be observed and
concluded about primates through non-invasive techniques. The third, Streir says, is that “through his work we
have gained new perspectives” on the evolution of our own behavior as humans.
The Very Rich G.O.P. Senate Candidates Bidding for Working-Class Votes
Mr. Hovde was raised in Wisconsin, attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and counts Madison as his home. But his ties to California will be central to the Democratic case against him.
Frans de Waal, who explored empathy among apes, dies at 75
He moved to the United States in 1981 to take a take a position at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center in Madison and subsequently lectured at the University of Wisconsin. In 1991, he became a research professor at Emory and later was named director of its primate center.
These talkshow hosts once called Trump a bully and an idiot. Now, they’re his biggest defenders
“There’s some evidence that they’re picking up some traction,” said Michael Wagner, a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Ajibola Tolase wins the 2024 Cave Canem poetry prize
Sitting in class on his first day at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Ajibola Tolase thought: I don’t stand a chance in this room.
Planet-Eating Stars Are Surprisingly Common, New Study Suggests
Numerous unanswered questions remain, such as what sorts of planets tend to be consumed and how to know with certainty whether any given star has wholly abstained from devouring members of its brood. Even so, “this work is super compelling,” says Melinda Soares-Furtado, an astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “I’m excited about what we’re starting to find.”
Frans de Waal, Who Found the Origins of Morality in Apes, Dies at 75
He and Ms. Marin married in 1980 to make it easier for them to move to the United States as a couple. The next year, Professor de Waal took a job at the Wisconsin Primate Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
5 Tips for a Healthier Relationship With Your Phone
If you want to peacefully coexist with technology, you need to get a handle on those impulses. Start by noticing when you have an urge to lift your phone or open social media on your browser window, said Richard J. Davidson, the founder and director of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Does a Houseplant Need to Glow for You to See It as Alive?
To see what other scientists thought of this petunia, I emailed Simon Gilroy, a botanist who leads a lab at the University of Wisconsin at Madison that uses green fluorescent proteins to study how a plant sends signals through its body. But the fluorescence of those proteins—originally synthesized from a jellyfish—is visible only with specialized lights, unlike the petunia now in my house, which glowed on its own. When I visited Gilroy’s lab in 2022, he showed me a tiny plant beneath a microscope lens, handed me a pair of tweezers, and instructed me to pinch it. I watched as a green luminance moved through the entire plant body: The experience permanently changed my view of plant life. Here was a lively, dynamic creature that absolutely knew I was touching it. Gilroy quickly wrote back: “I actually have 2 of those luminescent petunias on pre-order.”
Schools are using Yondr pouches to lock up kids’ cellphones
There’s also reason to believe that using cellphones in class is bad for learning. Studies on doctors, nurses, and others have shown that “multitasking during learning interferes with the long-term processing and retention of what you learn,” said Megan Moreno, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Some research suggests that curbing smartphone use in the classroom could help students stay focused on their lessons.
Universities Have a Computer-Science Problem
“Computing was going to be a big deal,” says Charles Isbell, a former dean of Georgia Tech’s college of computing and now the provost at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Emancipating the field from its prior home within the college of engineering gave it room to grow, he told me.
Daddy Longlegs Have Four Extra, Hidden Eyes, Researchers Say
The eyes are vestigial organs, or the remnants of body parts that no longer function—they are the “leftovers of evolution,” as study co-author Guilherme Gainett, who was a biologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when he conducted the research but now works at Boston Children’s Hospital, tells Science News’ McKenzie Prillaman. In humans, vestigial organs include wisdom teeth and the appendix.
Cancer, immunology, HIV research ensnared in fetal tissue politics – STAT
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have spent years trying to unravel the details of Down syndrome: What happens inside the womb, how the genetic disorder alters the formation of neurons, and what specific processes affect brain development. The work can’t proceed without studying fetal tissue. Anita Bhattacharyya, an associate professor of cell and regenerative biology, said her lab’s findings so far are significant, having identified a layer of late-developing neurons that are reduced in the brains of fetuses with Down syndrome. If she were to start her career again, however, she isn’t sure she would follow the same path. “It seems too risky,” she said.
For hard-hit tech workers, AI is a silver lining
“It’s not a death knell,” said Charles Lee Isbell Jr., who studied at MIT’s AI Lab and recently became provost at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Isbell is pushing for classroom emphasis on AI data-driven simulations and so-called deep learning, which uses multiple layers of what are called “artificial neural networks” — complex algorithms designed to mimic the human brain to generate new data.
Ceramic Artist Toshiko Takaezu Gets a Posthumous Reappraisal
The Noguchi retrospective — which will travel to the Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Mich; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Chazen Museum of Art, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and the Honolulu Museum of Art — includes about 200 works in ceramics as well as the artist’s paintings, weavings and bronze-cast sculptures.
Ed Mintz, Who Gave Audiences the Chance to Grade Films, Dies at 83
His interest in math led Ed, as a teenager, to write a book about square roots, and later to study the subject at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1964.
Opinion: How to make sure the 6% real estate home commission really does die
It might seem like the National Association of Realtors, which in the past few years has been the target of antitrust lawsuits and whose former president resigned in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal, is in crisis. Last year, a federal jury in Missouri found that the NAR, along with private brokerages, had colluded to keep broker fees artificially high and awarded nearly $1.8 billion to hundreds of thousands of home sellers. And on Friday, the NAR announced that instead of appealing it would settle the lawsuit. (Max Besbris is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is the author of “Upsold: Real Estate Agents, Prices, and Neighborhood Inequality.” )
Georgia primary votes not counted ‘in hours’
Barry Burden, the founding director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Elections Research Center, outlined several other reasons why votes were counted faster in the primaries than in the 2020 general election.
Why Scholarships for Students of Color Are Under Attack
Meanwhile, Wisconsin lawmakers are considering legislation that would eliminate race-based criteria in scholarship, grant, and loan programs. A University of Wisconsin system spokesperson told the news site WisPolitics that its campuses would remove race as a factor in most scholarships by the end of the academic year, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
How Realtors’ settlement could change the buyer-agent relationship
That may sound like a more expensive arrangement for homebuyers. But economist Abdullah Yavas at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business said under the traditional arrangement, sellers only technically pay for buyer’s agents. In reality, buyers were still footing the bill.
What is the Darien Gap? And why are more migrants risking this Latin American route to get to the US?
The route, and really the entire trajectory that people take when they migrate from South America to North America, is controlled by criminal organizations that make millions, if not billions of dollars, annually in the human migration economy.
Professor of Rhetoric, Politics & Culture, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Nebraska and Maine allocate electoral college votes differently than other states
Nebraska and Maine long ago discarded the electoral college’s winner-take-all approach to allow split ballots if a candidate wins the popular vote in a congressional district. (Featuring quote from Barry Burden.)
Cat Filmed ‘Vibing to Some Music,’ but He Has a Brother
A study by the University of Wisconsin determined that pets like to listen to music that fits into how animals communicate.
Cracking the pear genome: How students helped unlock a new tool for the pear industry
“This course is a welcoming opportunity for students and trainees to not just interact with a completely new idea but become proficient in it no matter their skill level. I had no previous experience with bioinformatics, and I came out with an entirely new, highly marketable skill set,” says Harrison Estes, an Auburn University ’23 grad who participated in the pear genome class. He is currently a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin and credits the ACTG class as helping him achieve this goal.
When is allergy season? Early spring brings pollen (and sneezing)
Higher pollen counts and a longer, earlier pollen season are brought on by warmer temperatures. From 1990 to 2018, the overall amount of pollen increased by up to 21%, according to a study by the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Texas and the Midwest experienced the largest increases.
COVID-19 misinformation continues to pose danger 4 years post-pandemic
Many people are disparaging or dismissive when talking about people who believe misinformation, but it can happen to anyone, said Sedona Chinn, an assistant professor in the life sciences communication department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
COVID-19 misinformation continues to pose danger 4 years post-pandemic
Jesse Ehrenfeld, an anesthesiologist at a Wisconsin hospital, asked a patient about to have heart surgery if she would consent to a blood transfusion should it become necessary.
Obscure legal theory could weaken voters’ protections from racist laws
The ruling is part of a suite of attacks in recent years aiming to chip away at section 2, said Daniel Tokaji, an election law expert who is dean of the law school at the University of Wisconsin. “These are judges who are not terribly friendly to the voting rights and in particular to protections that racial minority groups have long had to wait for,” he said.
Powerful Realtor Group Agrees to Slash Commissions to Settle Lawsuits
“This will be a really fundamental shift in how Americans buy, search for, and purchase and sell their housing. It will absolutely transform the real estate industry,” said Max Besbris, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of “Upsold,” a book exploring the link between housing prices and the real estate business.
Are we breaking the Atlantic Ocean? The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, explained.
“This is a sort of $2 million question,” Till Wagner, an atmospheric and ocean scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says. “Can this actually happen? And if so, when?”
Scientists have found a way to 3D-print brain tissue for research
“We think this work could help people to understand neuropsychiatric diseases, like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, compared to the other models,” said Yuanwei Yan, a scientist in the Zhang Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Health food packaging buzzwords are confusing. This guide can help.
Kathleen Glass, associate director of the Food Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, describes purchasing organic as “a lifestyle choice,” adding that there’s no evidence that organic is more microbiologically safe than conventionally grown foods. Compared with 50 years ago, she says, the amount of pesticides and herbicides allowed on food are well below levels that could cause long-term health impacts.
Six practice students say help them learn
First-day nametags. At the University of Wisconsin, one professor asked students on the first day of class to create a nameplate and to fill out a notecard with their major and other personal information such as interests or involvement in campus activities.
Low-income Californians face steep water costs; rate help ahead?
Other states average significantly less. Manny Teodoro, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has tracked the water rates of a sample of about 400 utilities across the country and found that the average monthly bill last year for a typical four-person, single-family household was $44.77. That represented a 25% increase from 2017.
David Bordwell, Scholar Who Demystified Filmmaking, Dies at 76
Dr. Bordwell taught at the University of Wisconsin for 30 years and wrote or co-wrote more than 20 books, including “Film Art: An Introduction” (1979), a textbook written with his wife that is widely used in film studies programs.
Think your ‘beer buddy candidate’ will represent your interests? Think again.
After the minimum qualification benchmark is met, we can move down the list to consider similarities in everything from policy to favorite baseball teams. As far as shared emotion, the fact that a candidate’s level of anger appears to match one’s own reveals little about whether they are fit for office, possess sound judgment or will improve our lives or the state of the country. All it means is that two people are angry.
-Paula Niedenthal is a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she directs the Niedenthal Emotions Lab. She is the past president of the Society for Affective Science and is the author of the textbook “Psychology of Emotion” (2nd edition).