(By Craig Volden, professor of public policy and politics at U.Va.’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, and co-author Alan Wiseman, associate professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt) As the 114th Congress convenes this week, it will confront pressing issues like immigration reform, national security, and numerous economic and social policies with long-term consequences for the country’s welfare. Making any progress on these issues will require the seemingly unthinkable: agreement between a Republican Congress and President Obama.
Preschoolers who drink three or more cups of milk a day may get a small height boost, but they’re also more likely to be overweight or obese, according to a new U.S. study. The results, based on nearly 9,000 children, support current recommendations that preschoolers consume two one-cup servings of milk a day, the authors say. “Overall, we were most struck by the heavier BMI (body mass index) among 4-year-old children drinking high volumes of milk,” said Dr. Mark DeBoer, a pediatrician at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville who led the study.
The intolerability of "doing nothing" was studied recently by researchers at University of Virginia and Harvard (July 2014 issue of Science). They asked their subjects to spend 15 minutes alone in a room -- no phone, no gadget, no book, no companion. The subjects were shown a button that, if pressed, would deliver a negative static shock to their ankle. When left alone with nothing else to do, 67 percent of the men chose to shock themselves and 25 percent of the women did the same. One person pressed the button 190 times! The authors summarized their findings: "Most pe...
A recent study led by the University of Virginia, and published in the journal Science, suggests that most will choose to do something - anything - rather than nothing.Participants were asked to be alone with their thoughts, in time intervals ranging from six to 15 minutes. Almost half of the group opted to give themselves a mild electrical shock rather than be left alone. "What is striking," wrote the investigators, "is that simply being alone with their own thoughts for 15 minutes was apparently so aversive that it drove many participants to self-administer an electric shock t...
Experts have long predicted that warming temperatures will be a veritable death sentence for most types of lizards, but the scientists behind a recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study have found one species that has adapted quite nicely. The lizard in question is the brown anolis lizard (also known as the brown anole), a native of Cuba and the Bahamas that researchers from Dartmouth College and University of Virginia have found to be surprisingly resilient to the increased heat resulting from global climate change.
Workers have begun construction on a new roof for Old Cabell Hall, but the university doesn’t expect it to interfere with classes. Crews from CHU Contracting Inc., of Chantilly, will be replacing both the slate and rubberized portions of the roof.
Maurie McInnis, a professor of art history at the University of Virginia, discussed her new book, Slaves Waiting for Sale, which has inspired a new exhibit at the Library of Virginia in Richmond, titled "To Be Sold.”
Who will be the presidential nominees for 2016? Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, edits the Crystal Ball website, which analyzes upcoming elections across the country. Sabato predicts Hillary Rodham Clinton will face off against Jeb Bush in 2016. “Some people say the public is concerned that U.S. politics is turning even more dynastic. But I’ll bet many Americans welcome the trend. Dynasty reduces their workload as citizens; they only have to keep up with two families, the Bushes and the Clintons.”
“He sent out a message to his agencies that ‘You are sticking your neck out by raising concerns with this project,’” said Rick Webb, a retired environmental scientist at the University of Virginia and a resident of Highland County, one of 10 Virginia counties in the pipeline’s path. Webb is coordinator of the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition, which is among about 30 organizations in the Allegheny Blue Ridge Alliance that have united in opposition to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
Lean creates green, and a new book by a University of Virginia Darden professor and Richmond-based management consultant Elliott Weiss is intended to bring the manufacturing concept to everyday life.
In the turbulent culture wars over sex, love, poverty and the future of the American family, Isabel V. Sawhill, a blunt, influential and formidable voice, has long come down squarely on the side of marriage. Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, has urged creating cultural messages to bring back marriage, much as Sawhill did to discourage teen pregnancy.
Health care reform and a long list of surprising market shifts have created clear opportunities for health plans to improve their bottom lines. Increases in Medicare Advantage enrollment, evolving physician networks, providers’ willingness to negotiate discounts, and a growing individual market are just some of the places to look, says Jeff Goldsmith, PhD, president of Health Futures, a consulting firm, and associate professor of public health sciences at the University of Virginia.
The children returning to school this week with their new Christmas gadgets don’t remember a world without smartphones, tablets, e-readers and laptops. For some, this generation of digital natives are using technology in collaborative and social ways that will revolutionise learning. Others worry about the damage these devices are doing to their concentration spans and their ability to think deeply. While technology won’t remove the need for us to remember facts, it may make it easier for us to learn them. Another big insight from cognitive psychology is that we remember ...
“This was a year in which they tightened the wrench,” said Brandon Garrett, a law professor at University of Virginia School of Law who has criticized punishments against big banks as being too lenient. “It’s heartening for critics like me that believed the government was too ready to settle out of court.”
Ever since a 2012 study found that a majority of high-achieving, low-income high school seniors don't apply to a single competitive college, educators and policy makers have been debating what to do about "undermatching," as the issue has come to be called. Caroline Hoxby and Sarah Turner have just released evidence that the right interventions (largely providing certain types of information) can in fact alter the choices of these undermatched students. These interventions could send a significant number of low-income, high ability students to the nation's top ...
Alan Taylor, the Thomas Jefferson professor of history at the University of Virginia, already has won both Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes for books on early American history. He should be a contender for both again for this accessibly written examination of the fatal and violent dichotomy that haunted life in that largest slaveholding state of Virginia during the 60 years that spanned our own War for Independence and the start of the antebellum overtures to our Civil War.
Being out of work can be advantageous for people’s physical health. Unemployed people have more time to exercise and cook at home, and less money to buy cigarettes or junk food. Studies in the United States and Europe over the years have found that when unemployment is high, people lose weight and become healthier and overall mortality rates drop. The past research of Christopher Ruhm, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Virginia, showed that a weak economy and unemployment led to healthier lifestyles.
Alumni from the University of Virginia are raising money to provide an attorney to sexual assault survivors at the Charlottesville school.
Their achingly familiar faces — weary, dirty and lost — remind us. This past summer, thousands of undocumented, unaccompanied children entered the United States across the southern border. Not long ago, President Obama addressed the nation about the problem, again bringing it to the nation’s attention. We are, in fact, a nation of immigrants. Many of our ancestors sought religious freedom, freedom from persecution or simply a better life in the land of opportunity.
(By S. Fred Singer, professor emeritus at the University of Virginia and director of the Science & Environmental Policy Project) There has been essentially no global warming since 1998. Some would choose 1997, others would more conservatively use 2002 as the proper starting date, based on satellite data. Of course, this is quite unexpected, since CO2 -- a leading GHG, which climate models presume to cause anthropogenic global warming (AGW) -- has been increasing rapidly in the 21st century.