Almanac

Roundtable: “Guys on Ice’
Faculty and staff will be treated Thursday, Dec. 6, to humorous excerpts from a Madison Repertory Theatre play about the challenges of winter life in Wisconsin. “Guys on Ice” will be presented in Mitchell Theatre, Vilas Hall, as part of the Roundtable series. Reservations are due Thursday, Nov. 29. Send reservations to Colleen McCabe, 270 Bascom Hall, 500 Lincoln Drive, Madison, Wis., 53706, with checks made out to “UW Roundtable.” Reservations are accepted at 263-2985, or e-mail cmccabe@bascom.wisc.edu. Fees for these reservations will be collected at the door.

Journal available online
The scientific journal Nature can now be read via the computer desktops of all UW System faculty, staff and students, thanks to a license negotiated by UW–Madison Libraries. The weekly Nature will be available with its seven monthly sister journals. Visit: http://www.library.wisc.edu/journals/.

The agreement includes electronic interlibrary loan for the Nature monthlies and back files, also available in MadCat. For about one year, UW–Madison served as a beta test site for the full-text version of some of the Nature publications. When this test period ended in March, the UW–Madison Libraries began negotiating a license for the periodicals. The family of publications now available includes: Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Genetics, Nature Immunology, Nature Medicine, Nature Neuroscience and Nature Structural Biology.

Tree sale moved
The annual Forestry Club Christmas tree sale has been relocated to an open area north of the old UW Dairy Barn, 1915 Linden Drive, just east of the Veterinary Medicine Building. The sale will be Friday, Nov. 30, 8 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 1, 8 a.m.-8 p.m.; and Sunday, Dec. 2, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. More than 550 Fraser fir, Balsam fir and white pine trees will be available for $25-$45, depending on size. Proceeds benefit summer camps and field trips for student forestry clubs. Parking rules will be relaxed to allow patrons to park temporarily while shopping. The sale was moved to allow workers to remove the sawdust floor from the Stock Pavilion and sanitize the facility. Sale information: 262-9975.

‘Big Mouth’ premieres
The new spoken word series “Big Mouth,” featuring student poets’ original works, will premiere at the Rathskeller, Memorial Union, Friday, Nov. 30, 9 p.m.-midnight. “Big Mouth” is an open-mic format event, with sign-up at 8:30 p.m. The event is free and is sponsored by the Wisconsin Union Directorate Performing Arts committee. Information: 262-0827.

Discuss kids’ books
Through Jan. 9, the Children’s Cooperative Book Center will host award discussions for children’s and young adult book awards. Participants can learn about prominent awards and discuss eligible books. Participants are expected to read most or all of the books on the discussion lists. Each discussion will be held in the Elizabeth Burr Room, 4290 Helen C. White Hall, 5:10-9:10 p.m. Registration required. Information: 262-9503.

Backward glance
From Wisconsin Week, Nov. 20, 1991: Computer Sciences unveils its $1.7 million “massively parallel” supercomputer. … The Journalism and Mass Communication faculty decides not to seek reaccreditation. … Probationary faculty will get written criteria and evaluations under new policies approved by the Faculty Senate. … Men’s soccer chalked up its first NCAA tournament win in 10 years and Suzy Favor-Hamilton is named Big 10 Athlete of the Decade.