It was a busy week for newspapers outside of Wisconsin reporting on Madison, but most of the coverage involved basketball and Badgers. However, with patience you can find a number of interesting stories on what the influence Madison-based organizations and people are having on the rest of the country.

Vadim Shapiro of the UW-Madison teamed up with Igor Tsukanov of Florida International University to develop a new technology that can "predict stress fractures that occur in statues that have been in place for hundreds of years." The program is called "Scan and Solve" and while the United Press International covered the duo applying it to Michelangelo's David, they said it could also be applied to human bones - opening a whole new chapter in learning how they can fail.

Dubuque's Telegraph Herald ran an article looking at the Wisconsin Film Festival set for April 3-6. They encourage Iowan visitors to check out Monroe Street while in town, specifically Iowa native Matt Van Nest's Brasserie V.

Madison received a second mention in the Telegraph Herald in an article concerning bunnies as pets. The Wisconsin House Rabbit Society is quoted, ""Rabbits are wonderful house pets. They are highly social and friendly and live an average of eight to 12 years. Because rabbits are bred for appearance and not personality, all breeds can make wonderful companions; choose a rabbit based on her individual personality." A number of other tips are laid out in the article by the Madison-based organization.

Madison-based Books of Hope, an organization that attempts to put books in the hands of children in Uganda and India, was highlighted as part of a Pasadena Star-News article about students in Santana, Calif. working with the program to send books they collect to Uganda.

Madison-based author Jacquelyn Mitchard was interviewed by the Toledo Blade in advance of a speaking engagement at the fifth annual Women Against MS luncheon. Mitchard is currently working on her sequel to the best selling The Deep End of the Ocean.

In preparation for the 50th anniversary of The Twilight Zone in 2009, Rod Serling biographer Boyle Johnson found her way to Madison where the Wisconsin Historical Society has one of Serling's archives. In a MPNNow article the archive is revealed to contain, "angry letters” filled with letters he wrote to editors of newspapers where he lived."