Almanac

Ask Bucky

Do you have questions? Ask Bucky has answers! Ask Bucky is a service provided by the Campus Information and Visitor Center — your one-stop shop for information about the UW–Madison campus and surrounding community, and your centralized source for off-campus housing listings. Below are two questions Ask Bucky recently answered.

My grandchildren will be visiting this weekend. Do you have any suggestions for kid-friendly activities on campus?

UW–Madison is host to many activities appropriate for children of all ages. A few are listed below, but for a complete list of things to see and do on campus and in the Madison area, visit http://www.visit.wisc.edu/todo.html.

• Babcock Hall Dairy Store offers dairy products made in the Babcock plant. Kids can view ice cream, cheese and milk production from an observation deck. Information: 262-3045 or http://www.wisc.edu/foodsci/store/.
• The Geology Museum has reconstructed dinosaurs, colorful mineral samples, a 6-foot- diameter rotating globe and a walk-through model of a Wisconsin limestone cave. Information: 262-1412 or http://www.geology.wisc.edu/~museum/
• The Space Place is a public education center that provides hands-on activities, including children’s workshops. Information: 262-4779 or http://www.sal.wisc.edu/spaceplace/

Where can nostalgic alumni who want to influence future Badgers find UW photos?
University Communications maintains an online photo library at http://photos.news.wisc.edu that holds a searchable collection of more than 2,700 photos of campus and campus life. You might use these photos as background for a computer or to assemble your own slideshow to use as a screensaver. Faculty, staff, students, alumni and the news media may use any of these images for noncommercial, publicity communication pieces about UW–Madison. If you have questions about commercial-licensing rights, contact Jeff Miller, senior photographer, at 262-0067 or jbmille1@wisc.edu.

The Campus Information and Visitor Center is eager to answer your questions. Call 263-2400 or e-mail askbucky@redgym.wisc.edu, visit the office at the Red Gym or online at http://www.civc.wisc.edu.

Team studies tropical storms
The recent batch of hurricanes to hit Florida also inundated UW–Madison’s Christopher Velden and the Tropical Cyclone Research Team at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies. From the Space Science and Engineering Center, the researchers recorded, evaluated and imaged the action as the hurricanes developed, intensified and crashed into the Florida coast. National and international media outlets sought the expertise of Velden and his team and used CIMSS images and animations of hurricanes. In August, the team’s Web site received 10 million hits. That number swelled to 53 million in September. The Tropical Prediction Center in Miami acknowledges the usefulness of CIMSS products in forecasting this summer’s tropical activity. Both CIMSS imagery and products proved instrumental in the storms’analysis.

Library portal
Under a new partnership between UW–Madison Libraries and the Wisconsin Alumni Association, a new portal has been launched that makes library collections and services more accessible to all alumni. By visiting www.uwalumni.com/libraries, UW–Madison grads can access materials ranging from historical documents, such as the UW–Madison Alumni Directory 1849-1919, to current publications featured in the UW Libraries Digital Collection.

Backward glance
From Wisconsin Week of Oct. 19, 1994: Chancellor David Ward tells members of a Campus Master Plan steering committee that he expects them to return from a 19-month planning effort with specific proposals on how the campus should be physically organized and managed. … More than $1 million in licensing revenue is generated from the sale of merchandise with the recently trademark-protected image of Bucky Badger. The money is to be split 50/50 between athletics programs and general scholarship programs.