Madison Mentions: The Newspaper Report Weekending May 5, 2008

Submitted by Jesse Russell on Mon, 2008-05-05 12:00. Current | Madison Mentions

Madison had a busy week when it came to coverage in media outside of the state of Wisconsin. A South Dakota paper and the Christian Science Monitor both take aim at Madison liberalism, the UW invents nanotrees, Madison gets a Second Life, Chris Farley receives a high grade in literature, and much, much more.

The online Universe, Second Life, continues to make headlines, but recently a bit of Madison in the virtual world was mentioned in an article on MSNBC.

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Architect Jon Brouchoud has used Second Life for about two years to help clients of his small Madison [Wis.] firm, Crescendo Design, visualize what their homes might look like. Clients can use the virtual model to test paint colors, material types, furniture layouts, and landscaping options. Brouchoud has also met with builders inside the virtual model for real-time discussions and has collaborated with a British client to design a project he was developing in the U.S.

Changes at The Capital Times continue to get Madison mentions in the New York Times. Most recently in an article published this morning that asks, "Can print media survive the transition to the Internet?"

Speaking of CapTimes, Russ Newton, a former CapTimes newspaper boy, is now the Senior Vice President of Operations at the Los Angeles Times. He was profiled this week in the industry magazine Newspapers & Technology.

Madison-based Next Generation, a young professionals consulting firm, continues to get nods across the country. They were recently quoted on MyrtleBeachOnline.

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Still, studies from research firm Next Generation Consulting show that nationally the pool of rising young professionals is much smaller than the masses of retiring baby boomers.

That means that businesses are or soon will be grappling over workers: a new brand of workers who are more likely than their predecessors to pick a place to live based on the quality of life rather than simply following a company or paycheck, according to Next Generation, based in Madison, Wis.

Madison's chicken ordinance, which was recently the focus of the documentary Mad City Chickens, is the basis of a new ordinance proposed in Ann Arbor, Mich. According to the Ann Arbor News:

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Based on a Madison, Wis., law, Kunselman's proposal would let city residents keep up to four hens. It prohibits roosters and chicken slaughter; creates standards for the location of chicken coops; and addresses potential pest and noise problems.

Madison favorite son, Chris Farley, is profiled in a new book co-authored by his brother Tom Farley. Entertainment Weekly reviewed the book this week and gave it a B+.

Madison has grown the first "nanontrees." UPI explains:

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University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Song Jin and graduate student Matthew Bierman accidentally made some pine tree shapes one day and, in doing so, opened a new chapter in nanotechnology.

The scientists subsequently discovered their nanotrees are evidence of an entirely different way of growing nanowires. Until now, most nanowires have been made with metal catalysts, which promote the growth of nanomaterials along one dimension to form long rods. While the branches on Jin's trees also elongate, growth of the trunks is driven by a "screw" dislocation in their crystal structure.

According to the Louisville Courier Journal, Madison-based equine sculptor Alexa King has been tapped to create a bronze statue of the infamous Kentucky Derby race horse Barbaro.

BusinessWeek mentions the master's degree urban and rural economic development program at Edgewood College in an article about schools creating programs to help graduates design skills to "the farms and businesses of rural America."

Julie Sensat Waldren writes in the Christian Science Monitor of a plan to ban plastic bottles in Madison:

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I get it about the plastic bags, but let me get this straight: I am not supposed to purchase water at summer festivals? Why not outlaw all other beverages, or, for that matter, festivals? Maybe we should all just huddle around the light of a candle, using as little energy as we possibly can.

As the National Poetry Slam gets closer cities continue to select teams to send to Madison. Baton Rouge Tiger Weekly profiles the BR team this week.

Roger Wiltz writes in South Dakota's The Daily Republic:

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Recently I referred to the Madison, Wis., area population as being quite liberal. I don’t personally see the word liberal as being synonymous with the word Democrat, but our Tabor writer apparently does. Perhaps I’m naive. Where am I coming from? I have personally attended exhibits in Madison where hunting, trapping, fishing, and firearms were being picketed by protestors along with abortion and gay issues. While social issues have no place in this column, I feel that our right to hunt, fish, trap and bear firearms does.

There’s another recent Madison development. The Gander Mountain people pulled their store out of a very popular mall and moved into a new store just outside city limits. Why? Madison bans the sale of handguns. I’ll call the law makers who did that liberal. I presume that they were both Republican and Democrat. Please correct me if I’m wrong on this “definition of terms” thing.

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