Wisconsin State Journal from Madison, Wisconsin • 11

Wisconsin State Journal Ready for school The CUNA Mutual Group Foundation is announcing an initiative aimed at addressing the large number of Madison 5-year-olds who lack the skills needed to enter kindergarten, coming FRIDAY THURSDAY FEBRUARY 22, 2007 Daily Recofd Lotteries Weather J2 B2 B4 Crty editor Teryl Franklin 608-252-6117 tfranklinamadison.com INSIDE: STATE SUPREME COURT TO TAKE UP GAY RIGHTS CASE. PAGE B3 LOCAL SUSAN LAMPERT SMITH Seltzer said the Discovery Seed Grants show off the diversity of the future Institutes for Discovery, twin public-private centers for cutting-edge research that will span different academic disciplines. "The mission of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery is very broad, and so in a sense these seed grants embody that mission," said Mailick Seltzer, interim director of the institutes' public half, known as the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID), and director of UW-Madison's Waisman Center. "Our goal in general is to enhance human health and welfare through interdisciplinary research spanning nanotechno-logy, biotechnology and information Eight projects at UW-Madison received funding from the Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery. By HEATHER LaROI hlaroimadison.com 608-252-6143 The eight winners of a campuswide competition for $3 million in seed grants for research offer an early look at the scope and range of the new Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery at UW-Madison.

UW-Madison official Marsha Mailick Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and the state of Wisconsin. "The UW-Madison, with its long history of collaborative research, provides a rich environment for the interdisciplinary work we envision will take place at the institutes," John Morgridge said in a statement "These seed grant projects essentially lay the groundwork for the research mat will be housed there." Final decisions on the seed grant winners were made by a committee of associate deans from the School of Medicine and Public Health, the Graduate School and the College of Letters and Science. Seltzer points out that the overall Please see IDEAS, Page B2 technology." The eight winning research proposals, out of a field that included more than 220 letters of intent, encompass methods for discovering new drugs and early detection of disease; treatments for inflammatory diseases, attention-deficit disorder and chronic wounds. The proposals will involve more than 60 faculty and staff researchers from 25 departments across UW-Madison. Laying the groundwork The $150 million Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery is funded by major contributions from UW-Madison alumni John and Tashia Morgridge, the Veteran UWfans call No.

1 'awesome' SI 0 I1 Photos by CRAIG SCHREINER State Journal UW-Madison students, from left, Ben Kopish, Tim Lundt, Joe Wong and host Dustin Weis serve up satire for lunch from the State Street studio of radio station WSUM. When you watch the opposing fans flood the floor, like they did Tuesday night when the Badgers' basketball team lost at Michigan State, you gotta wonder. Is this No. 1 ranking really such a good thing? Doesn't it just pin a giant target on the Badgers' backs? The answers, according to former Badgers players, are yes and yes. Or, to quote Charlie Wills: "Heck, yeah! It's awesome." Wills played for the Badgers from 1998 to 2002, during the transition years from Dick Bennett to Brad Soderberg to Bo Ryan.

And he remembers quite clearly what it's like to be the underdog. In fact, Wills remembers that his 2000 team that made it to the Final Four barely made it to the NCAA tournament in the first place. To do that, the Badgers had to come from behind to beat a Bob Knight-coached Indiana team. When UW won, 56-53, delirious Badgers fans flooded the court at the Kohl Center. "I had to run for my life," Wills said.

"But it was a cool feeling." It's a different feeling for the Badgers to be No. 1, and to have opposing fans storm the floor against us, as they did this year at Indiana and Michigan State. A different feeling but not a bad feeling. "That's what comes from respect," said Wills, who sells real estate for First Weber in Madison. "Respect is never a bad thing." One of Wills' teammates from that era, Mark Vershaw, agreed.

"It is never a curse to be No. 1," he said. "If it is, then I wish we had that curse when we played." Vershaw, now an assistant coach at Cornell University, said he thinks the "Wisconsin hype" has been earned the old-fashioned way. "Coach Ryan has done an amazing job getting his teams to perform very well in big games," Vershaw said. An earlier generation of UW basketball players is enjoying the ride, as wel Clyde Gaines, who played for the Badgers in the late 1970s and was the scoring leader in 1978, said now is a great time to be a fan.

"No. 1, No. 1. Imagine!" he said. "Isn't it amazing how far the program has come? You can walk around with your head held high." Gaines played for the Badgers when Bo Ryan was Bill Co-field's assistant, as did Mark Newberg.

That was an era High temps melt snow on course for Birkie The route for the Birkebeiner crosscountry ski race has been shortened by officials. By JACOB KUSHNER jkushnermadison.com 608-252-6120 Responding to trail-destroying, unseasonably high temperatures and sunshine, American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation officials Wednesday shortened the annual 51-kilometer cross-country ski race to 23 kilometers. They also warned that if conditions don't improve, there will be no tracks made for classic-style skiers, also called striders. "The 52-degree temps and sunshine today damaged the existing base and opened fields beyond repair," said Bill Pierce, President of the ABSF Board of Directors. "We determined it would be a better quality race to finish at (Highway) OO," the halfway mark.

Ned Zuelsdorff, executive director of the ABSF, said other events will go on as scheduled. Even before the recent warm weather, snowfall has been below normal for the area. The race was canceled in 2000 because of rain. Ironically, weather services were predicting snow for Saturday, but it could come too late. The Birkebeiner, billed as the largest cross-country skiing event in North America, annually draws thousands of thrill-seeking children and adults, novices and Olympic athletes, including hundreds of participants from the Madison area.

The event, in its 34th year, has an estimated $4 million economic impact on the area Competitions are held in eight areas, with the crowning event the now-shortened 51-kilometer (31.7-mile) race. "It's the Boston marathon of cross-country skiing," Zuelsdorff said earlier this week. "We've got over 700 skiers (who) have done at least 20 Bir-kies. It's a big reunion in a sense." Rob Thiboldeaux, from Please see BIRKIE, Page B4 FREE-SPIRITED RADIO SHOWS UW-Madison's WSUM celebrates its creative programming -33? A- 3D C3C3 ZT- 1 5 have a lot of creativity and freedom," said Koffel, a journalism and political science major who hosts "On Wisconsin," a public affairs talk show. "Everyone is kind of an expert in their own respect" "We're one of the last free-form stations," said Dave Black, general manager and one of the station's founders.

Almost every hour serves up something different from a "Nerd-core Roundup" featuring "expert nerds" who explore the world of video games, to the "Slightly Off Kilter" political satire show, to "Never Say Panties" with Christie Simmons, a Please see RADIO, Page B2 By SANDY CULLEN scullenOmadison.com 608-252-6137 At a time when most radio stations, including college stations, are locked into a narrow format, UW-Madison's WSUM-FM (91.7) has found its niche by allowing individual students to find theirs. "You're not going to find another place like this," said senior Michelle Koffel, former station manager of WSUM, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary on the air after years of court battles to erect a radio tower in the town of Montrose. "We really let students "There's so much that goes on in this country you can't look at it with a straight face we dole out the mockery where the mockery's due," says UW-Madison senior Dustin Weis, who hosts WSUM's political satire show "Slightly Off Kilter" under the on-air name Dustin Christopher. Please see FANS, Page B4 I CURIOSITIES We ask the experts your questions about our world 'Heartland' A mystical, culturally diverse area Curious? Look for Curiosities on Thursdays in the Local section. Send questions to: justaskusmadison.com; 608-252-6192; Just Ask Us, P.O.

Box 8058, Madison, Wl 53708. BEST BETS Sugariand: With Little Big Town, Rodney Atkins and Madison County, 7 p.m., Dane County Coliseum at the Alliant Center. 255-4646 or www.ticket master.com. "Is Global Warming Affecting Hurricanes?" Given by Kerry Immanuel, MIT, 4:30 p.m., UW-Madison Center for Sus-tainability and the Global Environment Room 201 1701 University Ave. WISCONSIN ALMANAC The top three populated areas of Dane County in 1950 were the city of Madison Blooming Grove (5,428) and-Stoughton The top three in 2000 were the city of Madison Fitch-burg (20,501) and Sun Prairie State Journal archives Qt Where did the term 'heartland' come from? What part of the country does it refer to? Linguists usually don't have a precise answer to when or how a particular word was created, but "heartland" is an exception, says Joseph Salmons, a UW-Madison German professor and co-director of the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures.

Sources agree it was coined in 1904 by British geographer Sir Halford Mackinder, Salmons says. gions around the world. It now has a positive association in the Midwest. "There's no simple answer on what specific region is considered 'the Salmons adds. "Geographers often note that regions are 'socially and boundaries are always fuzzy." The preface to Timothy Fraz-er's book, "Heartland' English: Variation and Transition in the American Midwest," notes how popular culture uses the word to paint the Midwest as "an in terior Eden, unglamorous but home to simple virtues." Frazer laments that this propaganda belies a very complex and culturally diverse region, "seen by many only from thirty thousand feet as they jet from one coast to another." Frazer's final word on the heartland? "It describes a place that does not exist, save in the popular imagination." Produced in cooperation with University Communications Mackinder used it with negative connotations to describe the north-central interior of Eurasia, an area he saw as a threat to the west The neutral meaning of "central area" has generalized to re.