Tuesday, November 10, 2015 - The Daily Cardinal

University of Wisconsin-Madison

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+ARTS, page 5

The success of religious ‘street ‘The Rocky Horror preachers’

Picture Show’

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

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Hippo Campus returns

+OPINION, page 4

Soglin looks to protect Oscar Mayer workers

By Negassi Tesfamichael THE DAILY CARDINAL

On the heels of last week’s announcement by Kraft Heinz to close Madison’s Oscar Mayer plant, Mayor Paul Soglin reaffirmed his desire to help the plant’s soon-to-be laid off workers.

Kraft Heinz, the parent company of Oscar Mayer, announced Wednesday it would close seven plants nationwide. The Madison plant, which opened in 1919, houses nearly 1,200 jobs. About 250 corporate officers will transfer to a new headquarters in Chicago, while the other 1,000 salaried employees and workers will be laid off.

Soglin emphasized a healthy state economy as promising for workers.

“Fortunately, Madison is doing quite well. We’re the economic engine that is driving this state,” Soglin said. “We are disproportionately creating high-paying jobs … We are disproportionately providing tax revenues.”

Soglin said he spoke with Gov. Scott Walker over the phone Friday to make sure the Workforce

Development Board of South Central Wisconsin has enough resources to help workers find new employment.

“Our common goal is to ensure that the workers at Oscar Mayer and the families of those workers end up with the best results, assurance of as good a job as they have presently,” Soglin said. “That is our primary concern.”

“It could be used for other industrial or manufacturing uses, particularly those that need a lot of water,” Soglin said. “The first and highest use of that site is employment.”

Walker has faced criticism about not reaching out to Kraft Heinz, though officials at Kraft Heinz defended the process.

“The decision to close Madison was based entirely on the need to reduce operational redundancies and eliminate excess capacity,” Michael Mullen, a spokesperson for Kraft Heinz, said in a statement. “We are now working with Wisconsin officials to find a buyer that could potentially keep the Madison facility open.”

Researchers find new way to tag harmful brain tumors

By Bri Maas THE DAILY CARDINAL

A team of UW-Madison researchers has found a way to more easily identify brain cancer that could lead to earlier diagnoses and more effective treatment of the deadly disease.

“These results could have far-ranging implications for improving outcomes in cancers.”

Peter Choyke director NCI Molecular Imaging Program

UW-Madison associate professor of radiology Weibo Cai led the team that created an antibody to tag a specific gene that is highly active in glioblastoma multiforme, a particularly aggressive form of brain cancer, according to a university release.

The antibody attaches to the CD146 protein present in glio-

blastoma and, when mixed with a copper isotope, makes tumor cells light up in a PET scan.

Although so far the process has only been tested on mice implanted with human glioblastoma, it could be the first step in improving cancer treatment.

“We’ve created a tag that— at least in our mouse model—is highly specific for this aggressive brain cancer,” Cai said in the release. “If the technique proves out in further tests, it could be used to diagnose some strains of aggressive glioblastoma, and also to evaluate treatment progress or even to test potential drugs.”

Other lethal forms of cancer, including ovarian, liver and lung tumors, could also be tagged with the team’s antibody. Cai said in the release he targeted cancers with the lowest survival rates, which are the most aggressive and are associated with higher levels of CD146 activity.

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WILL CHIZEK/CARDINAL FILE PHOTO

The day center is planned to give Madison’s downtown homeless community an opportunity to get access to laundry facilities, meals and other amenites. The center is set to open next October.

County approves purchase of downtown homeless day center The Dane County Board of Supervisors approved a $1.4 million purchase for a downtown homeless resource center Friday.

The purchase, approved with a 30-4 vote, allocates four properties on the 1300 block of East Washington Avenue for the center, which will provide storage space, laundry facilities and meals for homeless individuals.

“A permanent site for a day shelter and resource center is vital to get services to individuals and families struggling with

homelessness,” Dane County Board Chair Sharon Corrigan, District 26, said in a Friday statement. “This purchase allows us to move forward on that commitment.”

Dane County Executive Joe Parisi initially announced plans for the center in September.

Many people spoke out against the purchase, saying its location in the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood could affect nearby schools and businesses. However, Supervisor Heidi

Wegleitner, District 2, who represents the neighborhood, dismissed those concerns.

“I’m going to fight for the neighborhood’s concerns, and I’m going to fight for quality services at the day resource center,” Wegleitner said in a Friday statement. “I’m going to continue to fight for affordable permanent housing.”

Construction is slated for the spring, with the resource center opening in October 2016.

—Negassi Tesfamichael

Vandalism in Vilas Hall provokes letter from administration Students taking classes housed in Vilas Hall, including those in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, received an email Monday alerting them of “an incident of bias and racism” that occurred a few weeks ago in Vilas Hall.

The attached letter from Vice Provost and Chief Diversity Officer Patrick Sims detailed the vandalism of a poster for the Department of Theater and Drama’s production of “TEA.” According to Sims’ letter, the vandal defaced and targeted the AsianAmerican women on the poster.

Sims also called to attention the severity of such incidents, which he said violate the campus community’s fundamental values, and

vandalism page 3

TONY BURKE/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Vice Provost and Chief Diversity Officer Patrick Sims wrote a letter to students to describe the vandalism and call students to action.

“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”

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Tuesday, November 10, 2015

An independent student newspaper, serving the University of Wisconsin-Madison community since 1892 Volume 125, Issue 40

2142 Vilas Communication Hall 821 University Avenue Madison, Wis., 53706-1497 (608) 262-8000 • fax (608) 262-8100

Between the Sheets sex and the student body

The low libido woes: Learn what makes you lust

News and Editorial edit@dailycardinal.com

Editor-in-Chief James Dayton

Managing Editor Emily Gerber

News Team News Manager Adelina Yankova Campus Editor Bri Maas College Editor Ellie Herman City Editor Negassi Tesfamichael State Editor Andrew Hahn Associate News Editor Laura Grulke Features Editor Gilly McBride Opinion Editors Sergey Fedossov • Cal Weber Editorial Board Chair Conor Murphy Arts Editors Allison Garcia • Conor Murphy Sports Editors Jake Powers • Zach Rastall Almanac Editors Dylan Anderson • Liam Hutchison Photo Editors Will Chizek • Kaitlyn Veto Graphics Editors Bethany Dahl • Yi Jiang Multimedia Editors Steven Rybeck • Jen Wagman Science Editor Sai-Suma Samudrala Life & Style Editor McKenna Gramoll Special Pages Editors Kerry Huth • Justine Jones Copy Chiefs Theda Berry • Ellie Borstad John Joutras • Sam Wagner Copy Editors Sophia Dramm • Ningyuan Ma Social Media Manager Madison Schiller

Business and Advertising business@dailycardinal.com Business Manager Andrew Hahm Advertising Manager Corissa Pennow Marketing Director Victoria Fok

The Daily Cardinal is a nonprofit organization run by its staff members and elected editors. It receives no funds from the university. Operating revenue is generated from advertising and subscription sales.

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Editorial Board Dylan Anderson • Theda Berry James Dayton • Sergey Fedossov Emily Gerber • Max Lenz Conor Murphy • Cal Weber l

Board of Directors Herman Baumann, President Phil Brinkman • James Dayton Victoria Fok • Emily Gerber Andrew Hahm • Janet Larson Don Miner • Corissa Pennow Nancy Sandy • Jennifer Sereno Jason Stein • Jim Thackray Tina Zavoral

© 2015, The Daily Cardinal Media Corporation

For the record Corrections or clarifications?

Call The Daily Cardinal office at 608-262-8000 or send an email to edit@dailycardinal.com.

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ANNA WELCH sex columnist

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here is an expectation that all people who attend a university are hormone-crazed sex addicts roaming campus looking for their next lay, and this is kind of true. But, to be fair, college students also experience times of complete lack of desire.

While college might usually have us feeling sexy and free, the amount of stress and inconsistency in this stage of life can also be a total boner killer.

How can you tell?

If it takes more than a few moments to answer the question, “When was the last time I was turned on?” low libido may have invited itself into the bedroom. Not wanting sex (or activity of any sort) is not a problem, but wanting to want sex and not being able to conjure the feeling can be a huge bummer.

It is up to the individual to decide what the “right” sex drive is for them. Libido is certainly not limited to the desire to get into someone’s pants.

It can be how often the urge to masturbate is happening, how positive a person feels in

I Feel Sexy When I...

Dress a certain way Am funny Feel intelligent Do something physical like dancing, running, yoga, etc.

Lower my inhibitions (turn up) Listen to certain music or watch something (porn, for example) See or interact with someone else See or think about a certain body part (titties or boyz in baseball pants, for example) Am angry or sad Become passionate over a topic or issue Feel like I’m doing something wrong or naughty Read something Go to a certain place Smell something Eat healthy or do something “good for me” Change my appearance (put on makeup, pierce something, wear new clothes, etc.)

Think or fantasize about something Am touched a certain way Other GRAPHIC BY ANNA WELCH

regards to appearance and general sexiness or how unattractive they feel.

Agreeing to sex when one is not truly interested, not feelin’ that appealin’ feelin’, lacking connection with a partner or siggie (that’s significant other for those of you who don’t subscribe to Anna’s personal dictionary of made up words) or only wanting sex on the weekend after many a cup o’ wop are all examples of ways low libido could be negatively impacting someone.

It is up to the individual to decide what the “right” sex drive is for them.

No one is denying that low sex drive can be an enormous buzzkill, but there are things to be done to fight that flaccid feeling.

The fun little activity attached to this column can help you figure out what you like.

Think of this as a starter list. For each box checked, make a separate list about what exactly that means. What sexy

stimulus caused a stir downstairs? Am I more aroused by things I do or by the world and people around me? What does this tell me about what turns me on and how do I further incorporate this into my life?

Does looking at titties titillate me? (Yeah, I did just want to say “titties,” sue me.)

Low libido could be a result of one partner getting what they need and not the other.

This is one of the most common reasons a person may not want sex, but luckily it is also one of the most solvable. It makes sense that after time and time again of staring at the ceiling while a partner hits none of the right places, sex would become undesirable all together.

Taking action There is no reason to become complacent. If a sweetie made the same bland meal night after night one would (hopefully) not keep eating it without complaint, we would kindly say, “Hey baby, you know I love your meatloaf, but let’s try making a curry tonight instead!” I apologize for comparing boring sex to meatloaf, but the point is that asking for what we want will add excitement for everyone and may be just what we need to get the good times going.

What is the point of think-

ing about how much I think about sex? Doing some reflection can reveal problematic trends and allow opportunity for growth. Discovering that one only gets turned on while angry or under the influence of drugs and alcohol could be a chance to find other ways of getting that passionate or relaxed feeling. Maybe meditating or listening to Enya will lower inhibitions and lead to hotter and heavier feelings than a Jack and Coke can.

The point is that asking for what we want will add excitement for everyone.

The brain is the most powerful sex organ; understanding what makes blood flow to all the right places allows the individual to fill their own tank and rev up their sex drive.

Wondering if you went too far for a Klondike bar? Anna can counsel you on this and your other woes at sex@dailycardinal.com.

news dailycardinal.com

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Abrahamson drops bid to regain chief justice seat

By Miller Jozwiak THE DAILY CARDINAL

A new study published in The Journal of Neuroscience used rodents to find how stress chemicals alter the brain, and could change how post-traumatic stress disorder is treated.

PTSD is a mental health condition caused by a horrifying event that shows symptoms such as anxiety and flashbacks, according to the Mayo Clinic.

THE DAILY CARDINAL

vandalism from page 1 petitioned students to do something about them.

“I call upon you, our students, to do this work, to stand up for your friends and classmates, to recognize the profound impact that vandalism targeting specific marginalized populations can have, to intervene when you can, and report situations,” Sims said in the letter.

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Rodent study aids PTSD treatment

By Andrew Bahl State Supreme Court Justice Shirley Abrahamson announced Monday she will drop her legal challenge to regain the chief justice position.

Abrahamson filed her lawsuit days after a constitutional amendment changing the selection process for chief justice was approved in April. Her colleagues elected Patience Roggensack as chief later that month.

Previously, the job went to the longest tenured justice on the state’s highest court. But Wisconsin voters approved the amendment which would allow the justices to elect their leader.

Abrahamson said that even if her lawsuit were to succeed, it could stretch beyond her term and render a victory moot.

“I could continue the appeal.

Some have urged me to. But I will not,” Abrahamson said in a statement. “The question here is remedy. A ruling in my favor and that of the other plaintiffs may be a hollow victory.”

Abrahamson filed suit to regain her post, alleging that her removal as chief defrauded the public, who she said voted to re-elect her under the impression that she would continue to serve as head of the state’s high court.

U.S. District Judge James Peterson dismissed the suit, saying he had no jurisdiction on the matter.

“Constitutional provisions are drawn with broad strokes,” Peterson wrote in his decision. “There is no requirement that a state, in restructuring its government or the powers and duties of its officials by means of a constitutional amendment, do so with super-clarity to protect the interests of the officials or voters whose interests might be impaired.”

As of Nov. 4, the state has spent over $162,423 to defend the six justices named in Abrahamson’s lawsuit, enlisting former Deputy Attorney General Kevin St. John after the state Department of Justice determined it could not represent the judges.

Despite dropping her bid to become chief, Abrahamson promised to continue to fight for Wisconsinites as associate justice.

“Each justice is only one vote of seven and I will continue to be one,” Abrahamson said in the statement. “But it will not be a timid voice as I continue to serve the people of Wisconsin.”

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“The mechanism we discovered ... could also be important for stressinduced drug abuse.”

Brian Baldo assistant professor Department of Psychiatry WILL CHIZEK/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Representatives of the student organization Student Leadership Program present their proposed budget to members of the Associated Students of Madison Student Services Finance Committee.

SSFC SPOTLIGHT

SLP helps peers grow new leadership skills

By Scott Bembenek THE DAILY CARDINAL

The Student Leadership Program, a UW-Madison student organization that looks to help students develop key leadership skills, hopes to use its newly approved budget to recruit and maintain new members, according to the group’s financial coordinator Allison Amadon.

SLP works with students through a variety of programs including retreats, conferences and workshops to help them develop the skills it takes to become an effective leaders.

The group presented its proposed budget for 2016-’17 to the Associated Students of Madison Student Services Finance Committee on Nov. 5, where members outlined some of its main programs for the year.

Among these programs are a retreat for members, an orienta-

tion to help prepare new committee chairs for their positions and the Big Ten Leadership Network, which brings in speakers and helps students across campus connect and build leadership skills.

At the budget presentation, SSFC Representative Brent Johnson praised SLP’s work at the conferences, citing the benefits to his own leadership development.

“The strengths that I got from [my training] are spot on in helping me grow completely as a professional in interviewing, on helping understand the person I am, so I’m a huge advocate for it,” Johnson said.

Among the central additions to SLP’s budget is a new marketing team to help recruit and retain new members to further the group’s work on campus. The new marketing team addresses a recent drop in membership, help-

ing to get those new members to fill leadership positions, according to Amadon.

SLP also runs an all-campus leadership conference that includes a keynote speaker, multiple breakout group sessions, workshops and networking opportunities with people outside of campus. This networking is key to the event, according to group members present for the decision.

“That’s where we bring in people from outside of campus.

I think that’s what makes it our biggest event,” Amadon said.

“Not only is there SLP there, but fraternities, sororities and clubs.”

After making adjustments to food costs, member wages and advertising costs that involved a total decrease of $2,765 from the proposed budget, SSFC approved the final budget at $58,900 for 2016-’17.

The study exposed caged rats to ferrets outside of their environments, never touching the ferret but smelling, seeing and hearing it. A month later, the rats were exposed to lower challenges but still exhibited startled responses, according to a university release.

A month is roughly equivalent to two or three years in a human.

Researchers led by Vaishali Bakshi, an associate professor of psychiatry in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and Abha Rajbhandari, a student in the Neuroscience Training Program, found the fear response created permanent changes in the brain, or “rewired” it. The repeated exposure caused hypersensitivity to a protein in the basolateral amygdala, the part of the brain that regulates fear responses.

This “rewiring” is believed to have caused the startled responses a month later in the rats, similar to responses seen in PTSD patients. The discovery could lead to improvements in treatment other than PTSD, according to assistant professor of psychiatry Brian Baldo.

“We believe the mechanism we discovered for traumainduced ‘re-wiring’ of the amygdala could also be important for stress-induced drug abuse, which is a common problem in people with PTSD,” Baldo said in the release.

tumors from page 1 “Because this biomarker occurs in several other aggressive cancers, and is implicated in specific cellular processes that we know play a role in metastasis, these results could have far-ranging implications for improving outcomes in cancers for which there is currently much need for improvement,” Peter Choyke, director of the Molecular Imaging Program at the National Cancer Institute, said in the release.

Cai stressed in the release that human trials are still years in the future, but his study also exhibited a faster, cheaper and easier system for creating antibodies that could benefit many other researchers.

COURTESY OF UW COMMUNICATIONS

The new antibody attaches to a specific protein present in aggressive cancers, making it light up in PET scans, which could lead to earlier diagnoses and more effective treatment of deadly diseases.

opinion 4 Tuesday, November 10, 2015

dailycardinal.com

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Economic prosperity not only factor in generosity JACK KELLY Opinion Columnist

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thomas Yonash/cardinal file photo

Areas of high pedestrian traffic such as Library Mall are often home to inflammatory preachers.

Religious hecklers preaching through fear ELI RADTKE Opinion Columnist

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t was a brisk fall afternoon on campus, and I had just handed over a crisp $10 bill in exchange for a foilwrapped Korean burrito. I savored the delicious cocktail flavor, made even more precious to me knowing that I was directly jeopardizing my rent for the luxury of food cart cuisine. A fair trade, in my book.

My friend and I began to look for a spot to sit down and stuff our faces with our feast, but as we walked down Library Mall, we encountered quite the crowd forming a ring.

I elbowed my way to a place where I could see what was going on, careful to cradle the burrito like a foil-wrapped baby Jesus. Soon harsh cries of “sinners!” and “hellfire!” reached my ears, as I beheld a man lurching around the inside of the circle, leather-bound book in one hand and condemning finger-jabbing from the other.

There was a wild look in his eyes and a quavery, feverish tone in his voice. I looked around to see if anyone had called for medical assistance but it appeared that the man didn’t want to be helped—he insisted that he was more interested in helping us.

Billy Joel perhaps put it best: “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, the sinners are much more fun.”

From his mouth spewed accusations of lasciviousness, lewd behavior and indulgence in drugs and alcohol. He accused the women of being loose and the men of being immoral, and went on to tell us our black souls could be saved through the Holy Scripture, holding aloft his small leather manual on good behavior as if

beams of holy light would suddenly strike us all in the chest.

Offering us salvation, he looked around at the crowd, as if to ask if his accusations were correct. A wave of laughter rippled through the gathered students, some shouting out facets of their black souls he had missed in his crossexamination. The man sighed and went over to another similarly well-dressed man with another leather-bound manual on good behavior, taking over holding the “repent!” sign and tapping him in for the next bout.

Being human is the right to have your own opinion and even to express that to others in a respectful manner, creating a dialogue that is lively and engaging.

Most people have been exposed to such arguments on Library Mall or East Campus Mall by missionaries of pure heart venturing into the rat’s nest of sin and corruption. Variations on a theme are present, sometimes with a student or a community member arguing back and other times just letting the peanut gallery holler and fuel their fire.

Why does this happen, though?

Regardless of our views, religiously inclined or otherwise, no one here on campus is the demon that these people make us out to be. Yes, some of us occasionally enjoy each other’s company in a biblical way and sometimes some of us indulge too heavily on the communion wine—but does that make us subject to this kind of verbal beat-down?

I have always respected the beliefs of others, even when they don’t line up with my own. Being human is the right to have your own opinion and even to express that to others in a respectful manner, creating a dialogue that is lively and engaging. One of the great mysteries in life is what happens

after we die, and however you want to deal with that big question is your own prerogative; I won’t judge.

So why do these people feel that it is their duty to come down to campus and just make everyone feel shitty about themselves? I mean, it usually doesn’t work because they end up looking like clowns or backward assholes, yet still their goal is to come down to our space and try to make perfectly moral and essentially good people feel bad about their beliefs; that is the only thing that sounds monstrous to me. It saddens me to see this, because I know many good, firmly Christian students on campus who are levelheaded, let people believe what they want and if you want to know how they feel or what they think, will tell you in a kind respectful manner that isn’t fire and brimstone. These idiots who parade around trying to put the fear of God in people who mostly only fear professors and midterms, while providing excellent entertainment, are a nuisance and should learn to be a little moresubtle and respectful.

global survey on charitable giving was conducted in 135 nations, and very well may provide us a sense of faith in humanity. In 2014, the World Giving Index examined whether people volunteered their time to an organization, offered assistance to someone they did not know who needed it or donated money to a charity.

Around 2.3 billion people worldwide reported helping a stranger over a time period of one month, and 1.4 billion people reported that they donated money to a charitable cause in 2013.

As I personally expected, the United States, one of the most affluent nations in the world, ranked No. 1 on the list of most generous nations. Something that you may find surprising, for I certainly did, is that the U.S. shared the No. 1 spot with Myanmar. Myanmar ranks 151 spots lower than the U.S. on the GDP per capita scale. This shows that a nation’s economic prosperity does not automatically translate to generosity.

In fact, only five of the countries in this year’s World Giving Index top 20 are members of the G20, a forum of the world’s largest economies. Less affluent nations like Sri Lanka and Trinidad and Tobago also ranked in the top 10 of most generous nations, while countries like Germany and France are well outside the top 25.

The statistic that Myanmar is equally as generous to the United States, makes me wonder if we need to be more generous.

Other factors, like responding to a natural disaster or devotion to a religious philosophy, were found to be major causes of donations. Myanmar earned its first-place ranking mainly due to the fact that nearly all of the surveys’ respondents (91 percent) donated money to charity. This is a practice that is fixed in the country’s Theravada Buddhist community. Sri Lanka is another

nation with a large Theravada Buddhist community, and as previously mentioned, ranks ninth in the index. Other nations like Malaysia, which jumped from 71st to 70th on the list, can attribute this move to the outpouring of humanitarian aid following the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

It might be the patriotism I have within me or simply because I reside in the U.S., but knowing that we are first in the World Giving Index is very satisfying to me. However, the statistic that Myanmar is equally as generous to the U.S. makes me wonder if we need to be more generous.

It is time that as a whole population, we take another step further in terms of generosity.

As mentioned above, the U.S. is 151 spots ahead of Myanmar on the GDP per capita scale. The median household income in the U.S. in 2013 was $53,046 and has risen slightly since. In Myanmar, agriculture is the primary industry and over a quarter of the population lives in poverty. How a nation like Myanmar can even be close to a superpower like the U.S. in such an economic-based index is beyond me.

These statistics should hit home with those of us fortunate to live in the greatest country on the planet.

It is time that as a whole population, we take another step further in terms of generosity. Give one day a week, where you take an hour out of your day, and volunteer to help someone. Take the change you get back from eating out during a week and donate it to a charity. These simple steps can take us to the level where the U.S. should be, one where no other nation on any index, can even come close in terms of generosity.

Jack is a freshman intending to major in journalism and strategic communications. How do you feel about underdeveloped nations, such as Myanmar, giving on the same level as the United States? Send all comments to opinion@dailycardinal.com.

But it appeared that the man didn’t want to be helped—he insisted that he was more interested in helping us.

So on this crisp autumn day, I sat and enjoyed the show, indulging in my burrito and the company of my fellow demons.

Billy Joel perhaps put it best: “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, the sinners are much more fun.”

Eli is a senior majoring in general engineering. What do you think of these inflammatory “street preachers”—offensive nuisance or valid messengers? Please send us your take at opinion@dailycardinal.com.

Courtesy of wiki-commons

Buddhism has influenced cultures in Southeast Asia to commit acts of generosity, despite a much lower level of economic development.

arts Hippo Campus shelters rain-soaked crowd

By Ellie Herman THE DAILY CARDINAL

I’ve had the opportunity to see a wide and strange collection of items thrown onto stages during concerts throughout the years: bras, underwear and phone numbers scribbled on Post-it notes. But Thursday night’s Hippo Campus show at the Majestic Theatre added a new one to my record book: Halloween candy.

The young indie-pop band from Minnesota, composed of lead singer and guitarist Jake “Turntan” Luppen, guitarist Nathan “Stitches” Stocker, bassist Zach “Espo” Sutton and drummer Whistler “Beans” Allen, kicked off the first concert of its new tour for its latest EP “South.” Hippo Campus kept the attendees,both young and old, on their feet all night, packed onto the floor of the Majestic.

The theatre was the perfect haven from the constant rain for early bird concert attendees who waited for the first opening act, Fargo, a band made up of four 20-somethings from Geneva, Ill. Just as my friends and I admired the baseball-style Wisconsin shirt of a random guy standing next to us drinking a beer, he ran through a door and suddenly appeared on stage, introducing himself as the lead singer of Fargo.

Fargo’s head bob-inducing beats and indie-pop-rock style melodies played the exact role of any first opening act; it slowly got the audience to put down their phones and focus on the stage. The band read the mood of the audience, playing songs tailored to the generally younger audience. Even though I stood only a few feet from a main speaker in the Majestic, it was difficult to understand the lyrics lead singer Ryan Thomas rapidly sang with a wide-eyed gaze and spastic but engaging expressions.

The band’s uplifting tunes transitioned well into the second open-

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

ing act of the night, Bad Bad Hats, another indie-rock band from Minnesota. The trio met while attending Macalester College in St. Paul before producing an EP and signing with a record label.

Lead singer Kerry Alexander’s stage presence was a sharp contrast from the facially expressive Thomas, but still captured the attention of the growing audience.

The band made sly jokes throughout their set, commenting on the muses of their upbeat and light songs, ranging from bad breakups to gas stations. Although I came to the concert only knowing a few of Bad Bad Hats’ singles, it didn’t take long for me to want to learn their entire musical catalog.

I’ve never been one of the lucky few—or rather a timely enough person—to stand front row at a concert, but I broke a personal record Thursday by getting up to second row, making me feel like I was getting my own private concert as Hippo Campus played. It wasn’t long into the band’s set before the aforementioned Halloween candythrowing started. The stage was littered with Crunch Bars, Twix and Hershey’s, a glorious mix of blue, gold and brown plastic flickering under the lights. The band thanked the mysterious teenage girls behind me who threw the candy, resulting in a high-pitch squeal from the throwers themselves. Lead singer Luppen spent the entire show dancing, jumping and singing barefoot, somehow avoiding hundreds of splinters from the rough uneven wooden Majestic floor.

Hippo Campus played a medley of their songs, switching off from top hits from their first EP “Bashful Creatures,” to the new songs off “South,” mixed with unreleased songs off a previouslycancelled LP. Every song caused the audience to break out into a dance which lasted until the band

MORGAN WINSTON/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Bassist Zach “Espo” Sutton attended high school at St. Paul Conservatory of the Performing Artists with his fellow bandmates.

left the stage--although for myself it’s less of a “dance” and more of a desperate attempt to keep my arms and legs in sync while jumping.

The second Luppen’s barefoot feet walked backstage, the crowd joined together screaming “encore,” and Hippo Campus returned for one last song.

The only wild card song that didn’t fit with the upbeat mood of the set, “The Halocline,” was the perfect song to end the concert.

The song is completely lyric-less for the first minute and a half, settling down the crowd as the lights dimmed and a single guitar chord slowly echoed into the venue. It slowly built as listeners--including the band’s families and friends sitting in the balcony--started swaying to the heavy beat, and cheers broke out as the song finished and Hippo Campus stepped offstage.

All three of Thursday’s acts at the Majestic served as representatives for young Midwestern bands, becoming stronger as the night progressed. My rain-soaked friends and I walked home, performing our own encore of the show, just with tone-deaf voices and less energy than Hippo Campus.

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MORGAN WINSTON/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Lead singer Jake “Turntan” Luppen serenaded the packed Majestic Theatre at Hippo Campus’ second performance this fall.

Murder haunts humanity, both in reality and within nonfiction MAHAM HASAN lit columnist Human beings are notorious for their careless cruelty to each other—it’s what we’re good at. Being callous and exercising selfishness come easily to many.

Is it any wonder that murder is still rampant in the world?

We’ve educated ourselves and become the most advanced humanity’s ever been in every facet of technology, and yet we still kill. In many ways we’re still no different than the cavemen who came before us, bludgeoning each other with clubs.

We do it with more finesse and sophistication now, but we still have the same blatant lack of respect for human life.

Murder is then the greatest insult to a life. But as terrible as it may be, we still have an affinity for it. If perhaps not for bloodying our hands ourselves, for observing it. We experience it secondhand whether through fictional or nonfictional sources.

We flock to the news of death just as readily as we do to blockbusters and best sellers of a bloody rampage. Murder in all its infinite forms is of endless fascination to us. Premeditated or a crime of passion, careless hit-and-run or a carefully stalked execution. There are endless new ways to kill and be killed. Maybe the seed of violence that lies dormant inside most humans gains some passive satisfaction from spying on murder, or perhaps some selfish evolutionary gene gives us relief for having lived when others die.

Either way, murder sells, entertains and defines who we are

5

and how we’ll be remembered in the stories we leave behind long after we’re gone.

Murder is hard enough to comprehend at the hands of adults, but when we’re faced with the prospect of children that kill repeatedly, we lose the little façade of control and rationality that we prescribe onto the world. Gitta Sereny’s “Cries Unheard: Why Children Kill: The Story of Mary Bell” is an account from Bell herself, who, at the age of 11, was convicted of killing two young boys. At the age of 38, she tells the story of her upbringing and what drove her to take the lives of two children.

Compassion does not come easily to us, despite what we may like to think otherwise. It is even more difficult to feel some sense of pity for those that have done nothing to deserve it. And yet, a reluctant pity will stir some small part of us when reading the account of a sixth grader who consciously makes the decision to take two lives. How much of that account is fabricated to deliberately incite said sympathy and compassion, I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

One of the highest functioning psychopaths ever to have been caught, Ted Bundy, is the go-to American household name for serial killers. And while Ann Rule may fall short of being a highly talented and original writer, her fortune of being friends with the charming Bundy while they worked at a suicide hotline together was exhibited in her novel, “The Stranger Beside Me.” The repetitiveness and milieu of clichés in Rule’s writing can be overlooked for the thrill of looking inside the ordinary workings and life of a highfunctioning psychopathic serial

killer. Living normally among all who knew him, Bundy was the classic All- American male that society was programmed to fawn over. The golden boy had many varied interests, and he utilized them all to achieve every heinous thing his heart desired.

Wisconsin might have harbored Jeffrey Dahmer, but Minnesota isn’t too far behind in its slew of horrific killings either.

What perhaps makes Barry Siegel’s “A Death in White Bear Lake: The True Chronicle of an All-American Town” stand out is the little fact that the supposed murderer of a little boy lived out the rest of her life normally, out of prison in her perfect little town. The helplessness which “Cries Unheard” creates within us at the thought of child killers is replaced with frustration in “A Death in White Bear Lake” at a system that took far too long to develop into one that protected children’s rights. The Jurgens adopted a boy in the ’60s who they abused and killed, while authorities and neighbors looked the other way so as not to interfere with a family matter.

Murder shocks and appalls, and yet is a source of endless fascination. Perhaps because such stories highlight the fact that those that murder, those that have within them the ability to end a life, are always around us. We know them, we live with them and we sometimes even love them. We walk right past them every single day. And we never know. Monsters always look like ordinary people. To quote Bundy himself, “We serial killers are are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere.”

Do you enjoy tales of murder and mystery? Let Maham know your favorite at mhasan4@wisc.edu.

arts 6

l

dailycardinal.com

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Digital media melds well with LPs JAKE WITZ we gettin’ it Dark Side of the Moon has one of the most iconic album covers of all time. The prism transforming the solid beam of white light into a glorious array of colors perfectly embodies the sounds of the album itself: earthly themes of time, death and capitalism seamlessly twisting and melding with guitar riffs along with the occasional saxophone solo to create a beautiful rainbow of emotion.

Album covers are an art in their own right, but it’s rare that one can stare at a cover while listening to 40 straight minutes of music and be fully immersed in the single image.

Album art was at its strongest in the ’70s, as Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin and various other rock groups of the era demonstrated on a slew of covers. This was a time when an album cover could make or break a record. There were no Twitter profile pictures or Facebook cover photos to aid in fine-tuning a band’s visual aesthetic. The album cover had to embody everything the record stood for yet also catch record store patrons’ eyes. It was a make-or-break aspect of music production that ushered in an era of highly stylized and iconic album covers.

Fast-forward 40 years, the steadfast definition of an “album” is beginning to blur. It’s no longer possible for artists to market their sound solely off of their album covers. A Bandcamp album cover might make some waves in the online music-selling community.

But what about the Twitter hype posts or SoundCloud images for singles and one-off tracks? In an era where a musician’s work is pouring through several different channels on the Internet at once, it’s becoming difficult for a band or record label to homogenize their visual aesthetic.

However, those that are managing to succeed are doing so with flying colors. Take Arca, for instance, whose visuals are almost entirely created by longtime collaborator Jesse Kanda.

His music videos are filled with grotesque CGI characters that all fall in the realm of somewhere between David Cronenberg and David Lynch. Naked, deformed computer babies dance across the screen in the video for “TRAUMA Scene I.” Other videos have the same deformed characters, twisted and contorted by software to the point at which they lose all remaining humanity.

Kanda and Arca’s collaborations have become so iconic and longstanding that it’s possible to consider them an aesthetic “supergroup.” They’ve also done several collaborations with Shayne Oliver, who heads the avant-garde clothing line HOOD

BY AIR. The trinity of fashion, music and visual art has created

an overall artistic impact that is more poignant than each of the individual artists could produce on their own. The New York artists have ushered in a realm of genderless and urban art that has inspired countless others in each of their respective mediums.

The entirety of the Kanda/ Arca/HBA collaboration is fulfilling the same role as album art on vinyl records. When barraged with the constant images of runway models decked in BDSMinspired garments and distorted naked CGI bodies creeping over a vast, dark 3D plane, people about to listen to Arca will have a good idea of what they’re in for before they’ve even turned on the music.

It’s becoming increasingly plausible for musicians to encompass an entire theme or idea while completely bypassing the typical LP model. Sinjin Hawke and Zora Jones, two producers collaborating together in Barcelona, just produced an hour-long mix that flows seamlessly through trap, footwork and Jersey club styles. Coupled with the music is the website FRACTAL FANTASY, which has a number of pages dedicated to rendering uncanny models of humans. Some are braiding hair, while others soullessly stare into the viewer’s eye as the tempo of the background songs command the lighting. Even though the majority of the songs in the mix are bootleg remixes of popular artists like Soulja Boy and Sasha Go Hard, the pieces unify with the visuals to create a visceral experience. Whereas Arca and Kanda focused on the monstrous underbelly of computer animation, Sinjin Hawke and Zora Jones opted for more video game-esque visuals.

outputs while keeping the motive of profit out of the picture.

Album art was at its strongest in the ’70s, as Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin and various other rock groups of the era demonstrated on a slew of covers.

Looking forward, it’s not out of the realm of possibilities to think that these types of collaborations will one day spawn something even more immersive than an audiovisual website. With virtual reality already maneuvering into the mainstream with products like Oculus, musicians, either by themselves or with the help of collaborators, can create literal worlds that reflect the nature of the sounds they produce.

Music is a fantastic medium that can cover a lot of ground thematically and emotionally, but at the end of the day only so many feelings can be conveyed by different vibrating pulses. Album covers are an art in their own right, but it’s rare that one can stare at a cover while listening to 40 straight minutes of music and be fully immersed in the single image. With more and more artists melding their crafts into fully immersive artistic worlds, we’ll begin to see aesthetics the likes of which were unable to be achieved in decades past.

Have you enjoyed any recent audiovisual collaborations? What do you think the future will hold for traditional albums? Let Jake know at jakey.witz@gmail.com.

RECORD ROUTINE

Clash of musical styles mar and complicate EL VY’s debut ALBUM REVIEW

Return to the Moon EL VY

By Brandon Danial THE DAILY CARDINAL

Matt Berninger’s main work with The National earned him the role of indie music’s most despondent heartthrob. His new project with Menomena’s Brent Knopf places that famous baritone muttering in a fresh, yet sometimes unsuitable, atmosphere. Berninger and Knopf team up as EL VY on their experimental debut, Return To The Moon.

It’s difficult to analyze EL VY without attributing Berninger’s performance to his previous ventures, but Return To The Moon decisively breaks the mold he’s sculpted through Knopf’s varied soundscapes. The National’s most recent release, 2013’s Trouble Will Find Me, exemplified the method to Berninger’s madness: sophisticated ramblings wrapped in a monotone delivery that urges you to crack open the nearest bottle of wine and sulk.

The National is the cynical friend you keep around because his epiphanies are relatable and you find solace in sharing all your problems.

Misery loves company, and your companions for the ride are a CD from The National and your favor-

ite bottle of liquid courage. But EL VY doesn’t aim to be as cohesively existential as The National. Rather, Return To The Moon expresses selfdeprecation through Berninger’s unique lyricism, mixed into layers of snappy composition from Knopf.

While Knopf may add a particular spice to the duo’s formula, Berninger’s unchanging melody harshly contrasts with Knopf’s uptempo style. Sparse guitar licks on “Need a Friend” escalate to a clambering chorus that feels just a bit underwhelming as the vocals remain unaffected. Berninger’s lack of range makes the efforts in Knopf’s diversity seem fruitless. The instrumentation of Trouble Will Find Me found a formula that maintained a steady ambience to accompany Berninger’s melancholic vocal styling. Conversely, while Knopf’s composition brings in novelty to Berninger’s voice, it takes away from the unique consistency that made The National work so well as an outlet for Berninger. Knopf’s contributions are clean and welldesigned, while Berninger is as witty as ever, but the collaboration between these two doesn’t work to the best of each one’s abilities.

The established sound of Beringer’s core band may have muddled the possible success of this partnership, but that isn’t to say these two can’t make something that works. EL VY’s debut Return To The Moon is all over the place, but it holds elements that may point to a brighter future for the gloomy vocalist and his talented cohort.

Rating: C+

It’s becoming increasingly plausible for musicians to encompass an entire theme or idea while completely bypassing the typical LP model.

FRACTAL FANTASY also employs the visuals of Nicolas Sassoon and Martyn Bootyspoon.

The new unison of music and visual art advances the styles and popularity of both mediums.

When the world is making it increasingly harder for artists to thrive both artistically and financially in solitude, it’s collaborations like these that allow artists to thrive in the digital era--much like how rappers cosign producers and vice versa. The new wave of cross-media collaborations is filling artists with new power to cast their influence over the masses with their message and vision.

What’s even more beneficial about the unison of artists across mediums is how it subverts the pitfall of record labels producing material for artists. Aside from the music and maybe album art, most labels produce content for their artists from a marketing standpoint. When the majority of content about a musician is directed and created by another artist expressing their vision through the lens of the original creator, it amplifies both artists’ creative

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comics dailycardinal.com

Tuesday, November 10, 2015 • 7

Siri, what is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

Today’s Sudoku

6 9

1

8 1 7 6

4 7

5 3 3 4 1 8 7 2 1 6 9 3 5 4

6 8 5 9 5 8 EASY

4

6 2 3 7 4 5 1

3 6

8

9

3

Catching Bugs

By John Joutras graphics@dailycardinal.com

1 9 6

9 8 7 3 8 2 9 4 7 8 1 5 3 1 8 2 3 7 3 1 6

5

6 4 8 4 6

EASY

# 78

6 2 1

6

1 9

7 2 1 5 8

EASY

8 3 3 7 4

2

6 1 4 3 2 9 2 8 8 7 9 8 9 6

3 7 9

4

6

# 77

2 9 8 1 5

By Joel Cryer graphics@dailycardinal.com

© Puzzles by Pappocom

2

4

Future Freaks

# 79

7

6

EASY

# 80

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. # 77

6 7 4 1 8 9 5 3 2

9 2 3 6 5 7 4 1 8

8 5 1 4 2 3 9 6 7

2 3 7 5 9 1 8 4 6

5 8 6 2 3 4 7 9 1

4 1 9 8 7 6 2 5 3

3 4 8 7 6 5 1 2 9

1 6 2 9 4 8 3 7 5

7 9 5 3 1 2 6 8 4

# 78

4 7 2 8 6 5 1 3 9

www.sudoku.com

5 6 1 4 9 3 2 7 8

9 8 3 7 1 2 6 4 5

2 5 7 9 3 6 4 8 1

3 9 8 5 4 1 7 6 2

6 1 4 2 7 8 9 5 3

1 4 6 3 5 9 8 2 7

8 3 9 6 2 7 5 1 4

7 2 5 1 8 4 3 9 6

# 79

5 9 7 4 2 8 6 3 1

2 8 6 9 3 1 4 7 5

4 1 3 5 6 7 8 2 9

9 5 4 3 7 6 2 1 8

7 6 2 1 8 4 9 5 3

8 3 1 2 5 9 7 6 4

6 7 9 8 1 3 5 4 2

3 4 5 7 9 2 1 8 6

1 2 8 6 4 5 3 9 7

# 80

Page 20 of 25

4 6 2 1 5 9 3 7 8

3 7 5 2 8 4 1 6 9

8 9 1 6 3 7 4 5 2

1 5 3 4 2 8 6 9 7

9 2 7 5 1 6 8 4 3

6 8 4 7 9 3 5 2 1

2 4 6 3 7 1 9 8 5

5 3 9 8 4 2 7 1 6

7 1 8 9 6 5 2 3 4

24 Jul 05

Today’s Crossword Puzzle

Subversion

ACROSS 1 Not needing a comb 5 Acts the usher 10 Old Russian ruler 14 Way out there on a yacht 15 George W.’s wife 16 4,840 square yards 17 Fail to leave 18 More than suggests 19 Introduction to psychology?

20 “Arabian Nights” protagonist 23 A common turn 24 Advances against earnings 25 Go back, as a hairline 28 Things noted at the racetrack 30 Field of expertise 31 Certain baby bird 33 Part of some savings plans 36 Prove not to be buoyant 4 0 Cat or dog, often 41 How some say goodbye 42 Be a good Samaritan 43 Aphrodite’s consort 4 4 Whitecap features 46 Red skies, to sailors 49 Remove a violin string

51 Melodious birthday greeting of old 57 Way to get a guaranteed hand 58 “All My Children” role 59 Tiny amount 60 “Theater” ending 61 Sponsors 62 Blotch 63 Goofs 6 4 Type of hit 65 Excessive promotion DOWN 1 Barbershop quartet voice 2 “Spumante” lead-in 3 Having little fat 4 Wake-up time, for some 5 Drain blocker, sometimes 6 Fifth-largest planet 7 Old word for “zero” 8 Apple source 9 Verbal feistiness 10 Malayan mammals 11 La ___ (Italian opera house) 12 It may hit the bull’s-eye 13 Raises, as children 21 Abet’s partner 22 Build an extension on

25 Sound hoarse 26 Pennsylvania county, or its lake 27 Copper coin 28 Music to a matador’s ears 29 Cotillion star, informally 31 ___ Day and the Knights 32 Which person?

33 Thing on an agenda 34 It’s played 35 Music blasters 37 Some bones over a foot 38 Type of poem 39 Like mobsters with brass knuckles 43 Enrages 44 Do a belly flop 45 Baseball Hall of Famer ___ Wee Reese 46 River in Missouri 47 Trivial 48 Go inside 49 Central New York city 50 Places for braces 52 Bird beaks 53 .035 of an ounce 54 Not pouring smoothly, as a liquid 55 Situated above 56 Counterpart in life

By Tom Taagen graphics@dailycardinal.com

Sports Sports

tuesday, november 10, 2015 Dailycardinal.com DailyCardinal.com

Press Conference

UW coaches discuss upcoming schedule

By Michael Tipping The daily cardinal

Men’s Hockey

Wisconsin (3-4-3 overall) traveled to Grand Forks, N.D., last weekend where it achieved a series split against No. 1 North Dakota (7-1-2).

Head coach Mike Eaves was very proud of the way his young team handled business on the ice against North Dakota and looks forward to how Wisconsin can take a victory against the No. 1 team in the country and build on it this week in practice.

“And the message to our young people this week is to celebrate the fact that we defeated the No. 1 team on Friday and even though we lost, our goal this week is to get better,” Eaves said.

When asked whether securing a victory against the top team permanently raised the bar for Wisconsin, Eaves made it clear that higher level of play will be a team-wide expectation.

“No question, I think even the boys would tell that to you — our mission from a hockey standpoint is to play ‘championship hockey’ because if you do that, you can get where to you want to be, then you can set your goals that you want to set,” Eaves said.

Volleyball

Wisconsin (10-4 Big Ten, 18-6 overall) extended its current win streak to six games last weekend with home victories against No. 25 Michigan (6-8, 16-9) and Michigan State (6-8, 14-11).

Junior middle blocker Haleigh Nelson has been an important piece to Wisconsin thus far in the season and head coach Kelly Sheffield thought she had never played better.

“She has always been a relentless blocker but her movement is getting crisper. I see her confidence — she wants the ball in big moments, and that’s a big difference that I’ve seen from her and her past,” Sheffield said.

The team has made a commitment to improving its serving overall, and Sheffield spoke about how he would like to see better consistency in that department.

“Individually I think we have become better servers. What I don’t think we’ve done up to this point is where we put it all together, you know? I think we got to get to that point. We’ve got Haleigh, match in and match night, and you know she is going to be able to put some pressure on the opposing team.

Just about everybody else, it kind of comes and goes,” Sheffield said.

Wisconsin will be on the road this week for a quick turnaround against Michigan Wednesday night in Ann Arbor.

Women’s Hockey

jessi schoville/the daily cardinal

Junior middle blocker Haleigh Nelson has established herself as one of the veteran leaders on a thriving Wisconsin squad.

Coming off a restful weekend with no games, No. 1 Wisconsin (8-0 WCHA, 10-0 overall) prepares for an upcoming series at Minnesota Duluth (2-4, 4-6).

Head coach Mark Johnson thought that a bye weekend was very useful for the team at this point in the season.

“Took this past weekend off and it gives us an opportunity as players to reflect and coaches to reflect on where we are at this particular point — It came at a good time, the players are at a good place,” Johnson said.

Junior goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens has been a stalwart in the net this year, as she currently holds a seven-game shutout streak.

thomas yonash/cardinal file photo

Senior guard Dakota Whyte finished with 20 points, five assists, two blocks and a steal in Wisconsin’s season-opening win.

“Goaltending is a position that takes a lot of time but Ann has put herself in position to accomplish some of her goals,” Johnson said.

UMD has notoriously been a tough team for Wisconsin, as Johnson claimed that every game between the two teams has been competitive and “we’ve probably had more overtime games against Duluth than any other team we’ve played.”

Women’s Basketball

Wisconsin handled Minnesota State Mankato with ease at the Kohl Center last Sunday, winning 84-48.

Exhibition games are usually tough, according to head coach Bobbie Kelsey, because the matches against the mostly Division II and Division III teams are not very competitive. Still, Wisconsin was

impressive last Sunday, including redshirt junior Avyanna Young who had 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting.

“She probably could have had 25 points. She hasn’t played in a year. She’s only going to get better,” Kelsey said.

Wisconsin looks forward to one more exhibition game against Wisconsin-Eau Claire Wednesday before opening the regular season next Saturday at home against Louisiana Tech.

Kelsey did not chalk up the upcoming regular season debut against the Conference USA competitor as a guaranteed easy, earlyseason win.

“They’re a formidable opponent. They have a post player who is very good. Have some transfers at guard,” Kelsey said.

Big Ten’s shot at the playoff starting to come into focus Rushad Machhi breaking shad

W

ith one controversial game-winning touchdown, Nebraska might have not only killed Michigan State’s playoff hopes, but also potentially influenced the Big Ten’s own standing within the college football landscape. While Michigan State had been hanging on to its undefeated season by a thread all year, squeaking out numerous close calls, that thread finally broke, providing what might be a fatal blemish to their once historically promising season. However, one must ask if that horrific “L” on their schedule actually is a fatal blow to the Spartan’s quest for a College Football Playoff berth. This foreshadows a much larger question at hand as well: Could a one-loss Big Ten champion be deserving of a College Football Playoff spot?

Given that Michigan State still

has to play Ohio State, who also has to go on the road to Michigan in their finale, the conference’s two preseason playoff contenders could very well have that one loss.

However, each loss is not the same as the other, and that will be taken into consideration.

If Michigan State pulls off what will now be an upset over Ohio State and finishes the rest of the season unscathed, there will be a huge dilemma for the committee.

The Nebraska loss is an especially ugly one, as the Cornhuskers may not even reach bowl eligibility this season. However, as one may recall, Ohio State suffered a similar loss last season to Virginia Tech, a team that underwhelmed the rest of the season. That being said, the Buckeyes closed the season with a bang (a 59-0 bang over Wisconsin, to be specific) which convinced the playoff committee to give them a spot.

If Michigan State can beat Ohio State and dominate the rest of their schedule, including the Big Ten title game, then it should be in a position similar to last year’s

Buckeyes. If not, the Spartans, despite a victory over Ohio State, are likely toast.

However, if there is a loss that would ever muck things up, it would be Ohio State losing to either of the Michigan schools.

In that case, I believe Ohio State would be eliminated regardless of future outcomes.

Let me elaborate. If Ohio State loses to Michigan State, they are effectively eliminated from the Big Ten championship game, as the Spartans would hold the tiebreaker in that scenario. Even if the Buckeyes win the following week over Michigan, an absence in the Big Ten title game would be too glaring for Ohio State to make up.

A loss to Michigan would have a similar effect, assuming that the Buckeyes had beaten the Spartans the week before. In this scenario, the Spartans’ second Big Ten loss to Ohio State eliminates them completely from Big Ten title conversation. However, an Ohio State loss to Michigan means the Wolverines improbably win the Big Ten East, shutting the Buckeyes out of the

conference title game, which will have similar implications for their College Football Playoff hopes.

So while one loss for Ohio State would almost guarantee its elimination from the national picture, Michigan State’s case becomes a bit more interesting. If they finish off the regular season with blowouts along with a victory over Ohio State, their résumé, which also contains a nice non-conference win over Oregon, would be quite strong.

However, it will really depend where a lot of teams outside the Big Ten stand. If a one-loss SEC champion, undefeated Clemson and undefeated Big 12 champion exist, Michigan State would have to battle a one-loss Pac 12 champion, a potential one-loss non SEC champion or one-loss Notre Dame. If the only blemish on Notre Dame’s schedule is a two-point loss at Clemson, it is in.

Sorry Michigan State.

If Notre Dame loses again, then the battle between Michigan State and either Utah or Stanford (the likely Pac 12 one-loss candidates) or LSU (the likely one-loss SEC

non-champion) becomes interesting. If this is the scenario, LSU likely punches its ticket to the playoff. With their one loss being on the road at Alabama, they boast the “best” loss, and will have gone through the rest of the SEC gauntlet untouched, a notion the committee really seems to favor.

However, if LSU is out of the picture, then it is really just Michigan State vs. the winner of Stanford and Utah. In this case, whoever seems to be playing the best down the stretch, like Ohio State last season, will earn a playoff spot.

Thus, if you are Big Ten fan who just wants to see the conference represented, it’s time for you to either hop on the undefeated Ohio State bandwagon or the Michigan State bandwagon and root like hell against Notre Dame, LSU, Utah and Stanford.

Does Ohio State have what it takes to make another run at a national title, or is it the Spartans’ year to go all the way? Email Rushad at machhi@wisc.edu and share your College Football Playoff outlook.