Thursday, February 5, 2009 - The Daily Cardinal

Bubble Island’s teas add to food court Online: www.dailycardinal.com/food

8

University of Wisconsin-Madison

NATIONAL SIGNING DAY: MEET THE NEW GUYS A standout lineman, quarterback and more round out Wisconsin’s recruiting class. SPORTS Complete campus coverage since 1892

l

l

PAGE 12

dailycardinal.com

Thursday, February 5, 2009

City urges “ban” list to combat street alcoholics

By Charles Brace THE DAILY CARDINAL

City officials recently proposed a list banning chronic street alcoholics from buying liquor in order to improve downtown safety and save money.

According to City Alcohol Policy Coordinator Katherine Plominski, it is meant to target people engaged in “very public sort of intoxication,” those panhandling for enough money to become intoxicated several times throughout the day.

The proposal is still in the planning stages, with no criteria yet defined for what would place someone on the list.

Plominski said she has received complaints from students who have been habitually harassed on their way

“Ban” breakdown What would it be?

Proposed list to ban sales of alcohol to chronic street alcoholics, not directed towards students.

When would it be approved?

Not likely for months, though some officials want it before warmer weather starts.

Costs to city due to chronic offenders: $261.52 per individual for one day in detox.

Over 200 residents were sent to detox an average of 4.1 times in under a year.

to class by individuals already intoxicated in the early morning.

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said the proposal is not meant to target students and any ordinance eventually passed by the Madison Common Council should be worded to not affect students with underage drinking or house party violations.

It is meant to affect “hard-core troublemakers,” Verveer said.

“These are the people who get in fights,” he said. “It is an issue that affects the quality of life downtown.”

He said the proposal is still months away from being reviewed by the city’s Alcohol License Review Committee, much less the full Common Council. Plominski said she hoped to get something passed before the weather improves, as more activity and incidents are seen during warm weather.

Barb Mercer, president of the Dane County Tavern League, said her group would likely not oppose the proposal, but would be “watching it very carefully … to see if [the list] gets abusive or not.”

Mercer said she has not had any problems with chronic street alcoholics, but acknowledged there were some such individuals downtown. Verveer said many downtown liquor stores already ban certain problematic individuals.

Plominski said another reason for the proposal is that police officers must spend significant time and resources dealing with chronic street alcoholics, with roughly 219 offenders being taken to detoxification centers an average 4.1 times in 11 months.

Todd Campbell, alcohol and other drug abuse services manager for Dane County, said it costs $261.52 per person for a single day in detoxification.

DANNY MARCHEWKA/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Board Chair David Walsh voted in favor of a proposed second-trimester abortion clinic in Madison.

Abortion clinic approved UW Hospital Board supports proposed clinic

By Abby Sears THE DAILY CARDINAL

The University of Wisconsin Health and Clinics Authority Board voted unanimously Wednesday to support a proposed second-trimester abortion clinic at a local surgery center.

The clinic would be at the Madison Surgery Center, a private joint venture between UW and

Meriter Hospitals located at 1 S. Park St. The surgery center’s board is expected to make a final decision on the proposed clinic at their meeting this week.

Dr. Laurel Rice, chair of the UW’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, presented the proposal to the board and estimated the surgery center would perform about 120 to 130 second-trimester procedures per year.

Rice also said there would be no research or state funding associated with the project, and physician and staff participation in the procedures would be strictly voluntary.

Board members heard public

hearing testimony from both prolife and pro-choice advocates and members of the medical community before voting on the proposal.

Dr. Todd Miller, vice president of Pro-Life Wisconsin’s Education Task Force, warned against the potentially harmful effects a second-trimester abortion facility could have on the community. He argued performing second-trimester abortions would conflict with the basic medical principle of saving lives.

“There is a negative image associated with abortion … and it’s going to carry with it a stigma that will be abortion page 4

Ensuring campus safety Police provide a different perspective on house parties

By Diana Savage THE DAILY CARDINAL

T

STEPHANIE HEMSHROT/CARDINAL FILE PHOTO

Students crowd onto a porch at the annual campus-wide party on Mifflin Street.

he students shuffled around Apartment M in an effort to hide the evidence of another typical weekend of overindulging in alcohol.

A girl lay on the bathroom floor, coming in and out of consciousness, waking up periodically to dry heave.

One of the residents told the story.

“As soon as [my friend] came

up to me and said [Susan] had passed out, I freaked out and said ‘Oh no, we should see if she needs to go to the bathroom, if she needs to throw up,’ and so we took her in the bathroom and she threw up once, maybe twice,” she said, emphasizing that her boyfriend who carried her into the bathroom was a lifeguard.

“Has she been drinking?” MPD Officer Grant Humerickhouse asked, followed by a long chain of subsequent questions.

“Beer and Andre, and I think that’s it,” the resident said, looking at the ceiling, trying to remember which poison had knocked her friend out of consciousness.

“And shots of liquor—of

Ba c a rd i .

That’s it,” she concluded.

Humerickhouse and the resident stood center stage of this popular house party show while another student frantically cleared the table of hundreds of dollars worth of alcohol. The other few congregated by the staircase, prepared to be questioned.

“How do you know her?”

Humerickhouse asked the resident.

“She’s my friend from last year,” the resident answered.

“She’s my personal friend, my best friend.” safety page 6

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

page two 2

l

Thursday, February 5, 2009

An independent student newspaper, serving the University of Wisconsin-Madison community since 1892

TODAY: partly cloudy hi 28º / lo 11º

dailycardinal.com/pagetwo

When campus jobs become more important

Volume 118, Issue 86

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

News and Editorial edit@dailycardinal.com Editor in Chief Alex Morrell Managing Editor Gabe Ubatuba Campus Editor Erin Banco Rachel Holzman City Editor State Editor Megan Orear Charles Brace Enterprise Editor Associate News Editor Caitlin Gath Opinion Editor Jon Spike Arts Editors Kevin Slane Justin Stephani Sports Editors Ben Breiner Crystal Crowns Features Editor Diana Savage Food Editor Sara Barreau Science Editor Bill Andrews Photo Editors Kyle Bursaw Lorenzo Zemella Graphics Editors Amy Giffin Jenny Peek Copy Chiefs Kate Manegold Emma Roller Jake Victor Copy Editors Emma Condon Ryan Hebel, Matt Hunziker Daniel Lyman, Danny Marchewka

Business and Advertising business@dailycardinal.com Business Manager Alex Kusters Advertising Manager Sheila Phillips Mindy Cummings Billing Manager Accounts Receivable Manager Cole Wenzel Account Executives Katie Brown Ana Devcic, Natalie Kemp Tom Shield Web Directors Eric Harris, Dan Hawk Marketing Director Andrew Gilbertson Assistant Marketing Director Perris Aufmuth Archivist Erin Schmidtke The Daily Cardinal is published weekdays and distributed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and its surrounding community with a circulation of 10,000.

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.

Capital Newspapers, Inc. is the Cardinal’s printer. The Daily Cardinal is printed on recycled paper. The Cardinal is a member of the Associated Collegiate Press and the Wisconsin Newspaper Association.

All copy, photographs and graphics appearing in The Daily Cardinal are the sole property of the Cardinal and may not be reproduced without written permission of the editor in chief.

The Daily Cardinal accepts advertising representing a wide range of views. This acceptance does not imply agreement with the views expressed. The Cardinal reserves the right to reject advertisements judged offensive based on imagery, wording or both.

Complaints: News and editorial complaints should be presented to the editor in chief. Business and advertising complaints should be presented to the business manager.

Letters Policy: Letters must be typewritten, double-spaced and no longer than 200 words, including contact information. Letters may be sent to letters@dailycardinal.com.

Editorial Board Dave Heller Alex Morrell Jon Spike Gabe Ubatuba Hannah Young l

l

Board of Directors Vince Filak Alex Kusters Mikhail Hanson Nik Hawkins Dave Heller Janet Larson Chris Long Alex Morrell Sheila Phillips Benjamin Sayre Jenny Sereno Terry Shelton Jeff Smoller Jason Stein l

l

l

l

l

FRIDAY: mostly cloudy hi 38º / lo 31º

MATT HUNZIKER his dark matterials

K

“

endra said that her professor ‘could go fu-‘“ “Kendra had several complaints abou-“ “Kendra expressed disapproval about some aspects of the instruction in her physics course.”

Part of my job, which involves talking with university students and offering academic advice, requires me to transcribe the details of these interactions into brief notes, which are then stored in a secure database for future reference. It’s a singularly boring task in the way that only data entry can be, but when it was first described to me I pictured myself sitting in one of those massive, underground CIA surveillance bunkers that always appear somewhere in the first half of espionage thrillers, a misconception which was abetted by the dense legal jargon on the government forms I’d been required to fill out on my first day.

“Incoming message from Istanbul!” I’d announce over my shoulder when taking a call, my hand covering the receiver while co-workers hurried around the darkened room, stubbing out their chain-smoked cigarettes and adjusting complicated recording equipment. “It’s one of their agents from the study abroad program.”

Unfortunately, the willingness of most students to share information without need of coercion made it difficult to maintain this illusion, as did the pedestrian nature of their questions and concerns. On the rare occasion when a student did become emotional, accusatory or profane, we were encouraged to remain as neutral as possible on the subject, which usually led to me writing something like, “Daniel disclosed that he was experiencing frustration about his business school application essay. I suggested that he meet with a writing tutor, and we discussed what we could do to get him to stop clenching his fists and lifting office furniture up over his head.”

During this time, one of my roommates was busy interning with a U.S. congressman, a job that also saw

him fielding phone calls and letters.

However, as opposed to the students I was working with, who were usually clean-cut and lucid, the public which he helped to serve included a much wider cross-section of humanity, most notably its backwoods militia-men and general conspiracy theorists, who tend to produce much more than their fair share of correspondence.

Whether politely answering their feverish, disjointed phone calls or reading through their handwritten dissertations on influential underground societies, the standards of his job also required a disciplined approach to recording these contacts: “Name: Amelia Johnston Contacted By: E-mail (ajjohns847x@gmail.com) Subject: Elementary school funding bill” “Name: John Doe [not provided] Contacted By: Snail Mail [no return address provided] Subject: Subliminal [illegible], “The Beast”, [other]” On most days I envied my roommate’s privileged glimpses into the world of self-proclaimed prophets and would-be letter bombers, but

when it came time to return voicemails I was thankful the people I worked with all met the minimum requirements of both owning a telephone and also being able to finish a thought without screaming into the receiver or suddenly throwing the handset across the room and diving into the linen closet.

It became particularly important that other people possess these kinds of communication skills, as on my first attempt at returning calls, I failed to reach any of the people who had left messages with our advising office, but did succeed in misdialing an elderly couple, an out-of-state trucking company and—once—my own university department.

I previously worried that our practice of condensing people’s hopes, frustrations and occasional breakdowns into neutered predicates might be demeaning. But now, after having to confess my own blunders to six dozen strangers in short order, I hoped that these too would be boiled down, and filed away.

Send queries—whether academic or paranoid—to Matt at hunziker@wisc.edu.

New Beer Thursday Sierra Nevada bigfoot ale Have you ever eaten a sandwich and had some bread left after the meat was gone, leaving you to ball the bread up in your hands and create a doughy concoction you can nibble on? Rather, have you had leftover vegetables on your plate that you have to marinate in whatever sauce was on the main entrée to make them palatable? This experience has manifested itself in a beer for the first time in New Beer Thursday history.

Your naïve New Beer Thursday picked a beer that comes from a reputable brewery and has a high alcohol content, two surefire characteristics of a good beer. Boy, was I wrong.

Yet, as wrong as I was, I was twice as humbled by the fact that beer critics nationally acclaim Bigfoot Ale as one of the great beers, especially within the genre of barley wines (alcohol content of wine, ingredients of beer).

Upon first whiff, Bigfoot did not disappoint, giving off a sweet and malty aroma. Upon first pour, the creamy consistency and fine head still aroused intrigue. Upon first sip, I almost vomited. A mixture of the unbelievable hoppiness with the thick texture and intense citrusy sweet flavor created an unbelievably undesirable beverage. The high alcohol content was readily apparent in the flavor as well. You could create four different distinct beers and one shot of vodka

from each flavor just one sip afforded.

Three sips later, the flavor is just exhausting, and you’ll be saying “Enough.” This leaves us at the original bread/vegetable metaphor.

Never will a beer remain on the New Beer desk unconsumed, but this one became a chore. Searching for anything to mitigate the intense flavor, the executive decision was made to use a Chips Ahoy! Milk Flavoring Straw—a straw with flavoring in the middle and two filters on each side—to sip this beer through. The sweet chocolate chip flavor on top of the Bigfoot was interesting, but hardly an improvement.

Ultimately, I cannot recommend this beer to anyone besides the absolutely intense beer drinkers who would align themselves with the elite upper-echelon beer critics—a group with whom I rarely associate. The only nice thing about the beer is that it is intended to age, so hopefully this batch is not yet ripe for Sierra Nevada’s sake.

Sierra Nevada • Bigfoot Ale $9.99 at Riley’s Wines of the World

l

© 2009, The Daily Cardinal Media Corporation ISSN 0011-5398

Travel Wholesale, Build a Business, Or Both www.dreamvacationtrips.com

702-682-3788 For the record Corrections or clarifications?

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

COPY WORKSHOP WHEN: February 6 WHERE: 2195 Vilas TIME: 3:30 p.m.

Want to be journalist? You’ll need top-notch grammar skills and AP Style knowledge. But don’t worry, The Daily Cardinal is here to help. Come to the Copy Workshop to learn from the people who get excited paging through the AP Stylebook. Also, learn what it takes to be on The Daily Cardinal staff.

Any questions? E-mail copy@dailycardinal.com

dailycardinal.com/news

By Rory Linnane THE DAILY CARDINAL

The Associated Students of Madison approved the General Student Services Fund Wednesday with little debate.

The new GSSF budget will increase funds for nine groups while decreasing funds for four. It will also create funds for the Wisconsin Student Lobby and the Working Class Student Union.

ASM denied funding to the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, CALS Student Council, Engineers Without Borders, Legal Information Center and Vets for Vets.

The only item debated was the denial of funds to Engineers Without Borders.

Student Services Finance Committee Chair Kurt Gosselin said the group was denied funding because their efforts serve only its members while failing to serve other students.

Gosselin then went on to explain several items of contention, including why Vets for Vets was denied funding.

“These are probably the most scrutinized dollars on campus …

but I would like to see some discussion. These were not all passed [through SSFC] with unanimity,” he said.

Representative Dakota Kaiser believed Vets for Vets should receive funding, but ASM decided to pass the budget with a vote of 8-0-6.

Also discussed at Wednesday’s meeting was the addition of a new position to ASM’s Press Office. The office currently employs three students, but member Claire Lempke will fill the new position of Press Office Media Specialist.

There was never a nominations process for this position and instead ASM Chair Brittany Wiegand recommended Lempke for the job.

There was some question as to whether ASM should skip the nominations process, which Wiegand said would take at least three to four weeks, but they concluded that it was acceptable.

“We need someone now …. this isn’t circumventing the bylaws because ASM makes the appointments anyway,” Gosselin said.

More details from the Wednesday meeting can be found on The Daily Cardinal’s Campus News Blog at dailycardinal.typepad.com.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

l

news ASM members decide student org budgets

3

Committee bans fundraising during budget

By Megan Orear THE DAILY CARDINAL

The Committee on Assembly Organization unanimously passed a policy change Wednesday prohibiting members of the Assembly from fundraising during budget deliberations.

Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan, D-Janesville, sent a memo to Assembly members warning anyone violating the fundraising ban, which lasts from the moment the governor introduces the budget until the Legislature adopts it, could face consequences such as removal of a leadership position, removal from a committee and loss of staff.

“This change is a victory for voters, who expect us to deliver a new way of doing business,” Sheridan said

in a statement.

Committee vice-chair state Rep. Tom Nelson, D-Kaukauna, said he expects the measure to be very effective and called it “the most significant campaign finance and budget reform in the last generation.”

“The proposal is an attempt to remove any appearance of impropriety of raising money while you’re voting to spend the state’s money,” said Jim Bender, spokesperson for committee member and Assembly Minority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon.

However, Bender said the downside of the new policy is it lacks any legal ramifications for violators and does not apply to the entire Legislature and the governor.

“The theory of banning fundraising during the budget is what they were voting for,” Bender said of the three Republicans on the committee. “The mechanism by which the Democrats did this though we disagreed with.”

State Rep. Mark Gottlieb, R-Port Washington, re-introduced a bill that failed last session that would ban fundraising during budget proceedings for both houses of the Legislature and the governor. He said he is optimistic about the bill’s chances this session because Sheridan indicated he intends to move forward with it.

Bender said the ban’s effect on overall fundraising totals is unknown because not all lawmakers raised money during budget proceedings.

State receives $10 million for child health-care program

By Sarah Zipperle THE DAILY CARDINAL

Gov. Jim Doyle announced Wednesday Wisconsin will receive approximately $10 million toward health-insurance funding for children from modest-income families.

This funding is the result of a bill extending the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, a bipartisan legislation approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and signed

by President Obama Wednesday.

The bill provides nearly $33 billion nationally to children whose parents do not qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford private insurance for their children.

Doyle said the BadgerCare Plus

program, Wisconsin’s version of SCHIP, was struggling from lack of sufficient funds.

“If this bill had not passed we would have to face the really harsh choice of either having children leave the program or picking up that insurance with state dollars ... it would have been devastating to budget,” Doyle said.

The bill signed Wednesday will continue coverage for seven million children already covered under the program and will insure an additional four million children.

In addition, the bill lifts the ban on funding to states that allow children of illegal immigrants to apply for the program.

According to Obama, this is the first step toward universal health care.

U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, DWis., is an advocate of health-care reform and worked hard to get this measure passed.

“For the first time during my tenure in Congress, I see real promise that the Obama Administration and this Congress will work together to achieve [universal health care],” Baldwin said in a statement.

The $10 million will help cover the increased cost of health care in Wisconsin. Doyle said this money will not clear up $10 million in Wisconsin’s budget, which faces a $5.7 billion deficit, for other programs.

4

l

news

Thursday, February 5, 2009

dailycardinal.com/news

NEWS IN BRIEF Gossip site not so Juicy anymore The popular college gossip site, JuicyCampus.com, will come to an end Thursday because of its inability to support itself financially.

JuicyCampus.com is a website that has catered specifically to college students, allowing them to post anonymous and uncensored gossip about fellow classmates.

Over the past year and a half, JuicyCampus.com has obtained a strong following of college campuses across the nation, expanding their site to include over 500 schools.

According to a statement released by Matt Ivester, founder and CEO of

JuicyCampus.com, America’s poor economy is to blame for the collapse of the site.

“In these historically difficult economic times, online ad revenue has plummeted and venture capital funding has dissolved,” he said in the statement.

Ivester also said he believes JuicyCampus.com raised important issues and hopes that type of communication will continue.

However, Ivester admitted he will not miss the personal attacks often made on the site and instead hopes the site will be remembered as a “fun, lighthearted” place for college gossip.

Doyle to deliver budget Feb. 17 Governor Jim Doyle will not deliver the state budget until Feb. 17, a week later than planned, his office announced Wednesday.

According to Doyle spokesperson Lee Sensenbrenner, Doyle wants to push back the date of the budget proposal in order to have more information about Congress’ Recovery and Reinvestment Bill before his budget address.

“It looks like there is a good chance we will actually be able to see what’s passed before February 17th,”

Sensenbrenner said.

According to a press release from the White House, this stimulus bill, which the U.S. House of Representatives passed last week, would create or save 74,000 jobs in Wisconsin, and send an estimated $4.3 billion dollars to Wisconsin.

Sensenbrenner said he is hopeful the budget will be passed more quickly than it was last session, when the 2007-’09 budget bill was not passed until October, long after the summer deadline.

DANNY MARCHEWKA/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Pro-life and pro-choice supporters listened to public hearing testimony about the proposed clinic.

abortion from page 1 associated with your facility,” he said.

Judy, a 45-year-old Madison resident who declined to give her last name, spoke to give the board a patient’s perspective on second-trimester abortion. Judy said she decided to have an abortion when she was 16weeks pregnant due to a life-threatening blood clot.

Dr. Dennis Christensen, who was the only second-trimester abortion provider in the Madison area until his retirement in December 2008, performed her abortion. Judy stressed the need for the procedure to be offered in Madison to provide better health care for women.

“Women in Madison and southern Wisconsin need options when faced with a terribly difficult pregnancy decision,” she said. “Women need choices about what kind of caring is best for them and what they feel comfortable with.”

Dr. Nancy Fredericks, an anesthesiologist at the surgery center, said many of her coworkers opposed the procedure for religious and moral reasons. She said morale at the surgery center is “at an all-time low” because of the proposal, and questioned whether there would be adequate staff to safely perform the procedure.

In response, the board added an amendment to the proposal calling for the quality of care to be main-

tained and for any staff issues to be brought forth to surgery center management. Ultimately, the board voted 11-3 in support of the clinic.

UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin voted in favor of the proposal and said she agreed with Board Chair David Walsh’s assertion that it is the university’s responsibility to provide comprehensive medical care despite the controversy accompanying the issue of abortion.

“This university has had difficulty with the politics, the price and the economics with just about every exercise of its First Amendment freedoms in teaching controversial ideas,” Walsh said. “I’m willing to take that risk.”

opinion dailycardinal.com/opinion

Thursday, February 5, 2009

view Cardinal View editorials represent The Daily Cardinal’s organizational opinion. Each editorial is crafted independent of news coverage.

drunken-driving penalties lacking

T

here is nary a moment when driving drunk should be considered a viable course of action.

That is the reason why state Senate Democrats announced a new bill to stiffen penalties for repeat drunken-driving offenders.

According to a statement released by state Senators Jim Sullivan, DWauwatosa, John Lehman, DRacine, and Jeff Plale, D-South Milwaukee, the bill would make it a felony to drive drunk after three previous offenses or after two offenses within the past five years.

“Drinking and driving is a crime that causes damage and destroys lives,” Kevin Brady, spokesperson for Plale, said. “It’s a problem that won’t go away without an aggressive legislative intervention.”

Brady is correct in condemning drunken driving for the damage it does, and this bill is a step in the right direction in preventing people from driving while intoxicated. However, more needs to be decreased.

According to the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health Report, 15.1 percent of drivers aged 18 years or older nationally had driven under the influence within the past year. In Wisconsin, the percentage rises to 26.4 percent, the highest in the country.

Once more, a 2007 Traffic Safety Assessment issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found Wisconsin was one of 15 states to increase in total alcohol-impaired fatal crashes, up 4.4 percent from 2006, while the national statistic has declined 3.7 percent.

Although much of this may be because of Wisconsin’s drinking culture, laws must be stricter.

Currently, a person’s first drunken-driving offense is a traffic citation, with a fine and a license revocation for six to nine months and a $150 to $300 fine. A first-time violation conviction in Illinois results in a full-year loss of driving privileges, a maximum $1,000 fine and possible jail time.

Wisconsin must have stiffer upfront penalties in order to protect our roads. According to the NHTSA report, first-time offenders caused 92 percent of alcohol-induced fatal-accidents. First offenses must be a misdemeanor, and any subsequent drunken-driving offense should be a felony.

Wisconsin must do more to curb drunken driving, and only a strict policy can hope to reverse the state’s negative reputation as a haven for drunkenness and lenient drunken-driving offenses.

Numbers don’t lie: Drunk Driving 92 Percent of alcohol-induced crashes caused by first-time drunken-driving offenders.

26.4 Percent of drivers age 18 years or older who have driven under the influence within the past year in Wisconsin.

4.4 Percent increase in alcohol-related fatal crashes in Wisconsin from 2006 (National average decreased 3.7).

l

5

CEOs continue to thrive while recession deepens JOE KOSS opinion columnist

O

n Dec. 31, 2002, the Dow Jones Industrial sat at 8,341. The Index had experienced its first three-year loss since 1939-41. The next five years saw unprecedented growth. On Oct. 9, 2007, the Dow experienced an all-time high of 14,161. During that time, approximately $149 billion were paid out in bonuses to workers in the securities industries.

In 2007, the average CEO pay was $14.2 million, almost 400 times the pay of the average American worker. Research by Andrew Sum of Northeastern University’s Center for Market Labor Studies found that from 2000 to 2006, 93 million American workers—all production and non-supervisory workers as defined by the government—had real earnings increases of less than half of the combined bonuses awarded by the top Wall Street firms for just one year.

The rich got fat and richer.

Everyone else got pooped on.

Today, the Dow Jones stands at 8,078, almost 200 points less than its low in 2002. Yet last week it was reported by the New York State Comptroller’s Office that employees at financial companies in New York collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year, the sixth-highest on record. The brokerage units of New York financial companies lost more than $35 billion in 2008, triple their losses in 2007. From 2001 to 2007, in a time of purported great economic prosperity, a time when the Dow increased over 50 percent, real wage increases for the average

American grew at 2.1 percent, less than the generally-accepted inflation rate of three percent. Another study saw wages flat or declining on average for five years. From 2001 to 2006, the median wage an American worker earns every week fell by 3.2 percent, adjusted for inflation. From 2003 to 2007, we had more than four years of strong growth—yet for the first time ever, the real wages of American workers have declined. A study by the New Policy Institute showed that the average American earns exactly the same today as they did when President Bush came into office: $480 a week.

Is this some kind of sick joke?

We have just witnessed the biggest single fleecing of a country since the Spanish pillaged and raided the Incan Empire, and it was done with tacit governmental approval.

In a time when the U.S. states must close more than $84 billion of deficits in their new fiscal years (according to a new report by the National Conference of State Legislators), when we have over $2 trillion dollars of needed infrastructure repair, a trillion dollar war, a rising deficit, a shrinking working class and jobless rates higher than they have been in over 25 years, the top one percent of America walked away with untold billions of dollars, legally and illegally. And what does the country have to show for it? Over $1.5 trillion of American taxpayer money being given away ($700 billion for TARP and the new $900 billion Obama stimulus package).

So we are left with interesting questions regarding economic theories, social welfare and the role of government. And these are not easy questions, because the economic downturn has not solely affected liberal capitalist societies, from England to Iceland; it has affected social democracies as well, from Sweden to Switzerland. Yet the unfairness of the current situation in the U.S., privatizing profit and socializing risk, is becoming hauntingly clear. We were asked to trust the market. It ended up misappropriating billions upon billions

of dollars, but not before siphoning off billions to the top one percent.

We were asked put in $700 billion and ended up with $18.4 billion in corporate bonuses, losses of over two million jobs and a deepening recession. We elected a new president and yet have the same faction arguing the same proven failed tax-cutting tactic as before, in the face of economic data showing that infrastructure investment of $1 results in around $1.50 of economic growth, while $1 worth of tax cuts results in $1.02 of economic growth.

A study showed that the average American earns exactly the same today as they did when President Bush came into office.

Our economy has failed the working and middle class in almost every conceivable aspect the last six years: our wages are lower, there are fewer jobs, our states have less money, our infrastructure is in worse shape, we have less savings, our homes are worth less, our schools are worse off, our colleges are more expensive and the income gap between the haves and havenots is growing at unprecedented rates. The blatant malfeasance of government and economy reached a tipping point under Bush. The rich got fat and richer. Everyone else got pooped on. We will have no clear direction forward, and no new solutions, if we don’t acknowledge and demand a different approach. As the great Kurt Vonnegut reminds us in a passage from his novel, “Timequake”: “Why throw money at problems? That is what money is for.

Should the nation’s wealth be redistributed? It has been and continues to be redistributed to a few people in a manner strikingly unhelpful.”

Joe Koss is a junior majoring in secondary education in social studies. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.

Falk’s failures prevent change from coming to Dane County

By Sara Mikolajczak COLLEGE REPUBLICANS

Let’s face it: Dane County has been “Falk-ed up” for entirely too long. Twelve years, and what do we have to show? High taxes, policies awful for business and a 911 Call Center that may or may not prevent you from getting mugged, raped or beaten to death.

At last week’s State of the State address, Gov. Doyle referred several times to the past eight years of “bad economic policy.” Though I’m not sure whether or not he was talking about his bad economic policy or Falk’s, he was right either way.

Kathleen Falk has repeatedly spent your tax money in ways that do not directly benefit you, or anyone, for that matter. She is opposed to spending tax money to keep criminals off the streets; instead pressuring judges to let them out early or

off the hook entirely. So while convicted offenders are moving in next door, where exactly is all that money going? Certainly not to fix our pothole-ridden roads and broken-down infrastructure.

Failure one and two.

Because of [Falk’s] inaction, we have seen a fellow student pay the ultimate price.

At a time when banks are seeking government bail-outs, your neighbors can’t afford their mortgages, your brother in Detroit just got laid off and you can’t find a job when you graduate, do we really need to be spend-

ing money buying undevelopable land so that it can’t be developed?

Madison was just named one of the best places in the United States to find a job and I’ll agree: Madison is a great city with much to offer. The problem is it’s nestled in the heart of Dane County, and Dane County is by no means a beacon of optimism for emerging small business hopefuls and owners. Failure three.

Finally, there is the 911 Call Center. This is an especially important issue to those of us in the downtown area. Some have suggested the topic is getting old and dry, but when a majority of the student body is afraid to walk home alone at night, it is an issue.

When calling 911 seems a waste of time because you’re not sure if anyone will be dispatched to your rescue, it is an issue. Public safety should be a top priority, but it

is being ignored by our current County Executive Kathleen Falk, who continuously fails to update our 911 Call Center. Because of her inaction, we have seen a fellow student pay the ultimate price. Failure four.

Dane County has been “Falk-ed up” for too long.

This spring, the students of UW-Madison, as residents of Dane County, should stand up once again and say “YES, WE CAN!” Because we can—we have to—get rid of Falk this April.

As students and residents of

Dane County, albeit only for a short while, we deserve better. We need someone who will work with us and for us, not someone who simply uses her position as a stepping-stone toward a failed attorney general or gubernatorial campaign.

So far as I can tell, Kathleen Falk doesn’t even care about the issues. Check out Falk’s website at www.kathleenfalkforcountyexec.com.

Where’s her section on the issues?

I see a big picture of her with President Obama, but no plans to help her constituents or provide for the future. I guess that could be failure five.

The biggest failure of all would be the one on the part of the people of Dane County: allowing Kathleen Falk another term in office.

Sara Mikolajczak is Chair of UW-Madison’s College Republicans. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.

featuressafety 6

l

dailycardinal.com/features

Thursday, February 5, 2009

The false innocence of house parties PHOTOS BY LORENZO ZEMELLA, CHRISTOPHER GUESS AND NICK KOGOS/CARDINAL FILE PHOTOS

safety from page 1 Over by the bathroom, MPD Officer Carrie Hemming and the EMS waited for the girl to finish dry heaving before they could carry her out to the ambulance.

“Go ahead, throw up, you’re OK,” Hemming said in a gentle voice.

Incidents like these show the side of house parties beyond a keg in the corner and a crowded dance floor.

The presumably innocent house party can quickly progress from taking a few shots to a student lying in his or her own vomit. The Madison Police and EMS came to Apartment M to bring a student back to consciousness, not to “bust” students for drinking or break up a party.

“We’re not here to deal with underage drinking,” Humerickhouse explained to the staggering students. “We just don’t want people to die. Just call us right away next time.”

Police officers will write tickets for the residents of the house, but often will not write tickets to the people who only attended the party, according to Humerickhouse.

“The people that had the party will have some citations. The people that provided alcohol will also have a ... citation,” he said. “But the people that were there, I don’t want to ruin them.”

Susan ended up in the hospital with a tube sucking vomit out of her throat. The officers said her night would end with a visit to detox.

Here, students sleep in a room containing one object: a bed without sheets. The door to the room is covered with dents and scratches.

If more objects than this were included, students might try to commit suicide by hanging themselves, explained Mary Ransom, the nursing supervisor of the Tellurian Detoxification Center Mary Ransom.

“College students are pretty arrogant,” Ransom said. “When they come in and they’re fighting, we’ll put [them] down on their belly because when people are so drunk, they can throw up and it can go back into their lungs.”

Facing the repercussions Students run into danger at house parties when they drink until they cannot measure their degree of inebriation.

“I’ve had four or five shots,” the Apartment M resident said once again to Humerickhouse.

“I just want to make sure you’re not repeating yourself because you’re intoxicated and can’t take care of yourself, or because of all the stress of what’s going on,” Humerickhouse explained to the resident of Apartment M. Humerickhouse asked the resident about the other roommates’

whereabouts to make sure the other residents knew what damage the night of drinking had caused.

“She’s at home,” the resident stammered, promptly repeating “home” six times. The repetitive speech shows one sign of students losing control of their actions, Humerickhouse said.

“That’s how UW students justify it. ‘I’m OK, I’m not that drunk,’” Humerickhouse said. “The argument could be made, any drink in your system makes you ‘not OK’ because it impairs your decision, i.e. letting your friend pass out in your bathroom because your boyfriend’s a lifeguard.”

Another concern police officers have with house parties is students splitting up from their friends and abandoning a plan to stay together for the night.

“By the end of the night, people want to go elsewhere, and that’s where it gets dangerous,” UWPD officer Jason Whitney said. “[Students] may have nobody to assist them if they’re incapacitated and decide they’re walking home alone, likely from a greater distance from they’re used to and maybe from an area that they’re not familiar with.”

Humerickhouse explained the importance of limiting the amount of drinking at house parties.

“There’s no way to be safe when you’re having a large party,” Humerickhouse said. “We’re out

Campus safety series Coverage by:

Caitlin Gath:

Ensuring campus safety (February 4, 2009) Dedicated to policing the city (February 5, 2009)

Diana Savage: The false innocence of house parties (February 5, 2009) looking for unsafe behavior so we don’t have to call parents and tell them that their 19 or 20-year-old son or daughter walked into a lake ... or was a victim of a sexual assault. I can’t tell you what it does to a police officer to [report] a sexual assault and know that it could have been prevented.”

On a positive note According to UW-Madison senior Alix Tarnowsky, students generally do not need to consider the repercussions of attending house parties.

“The worst thing I see is people smoking flavored tobacco out of a hooka,” she said. “People aren’t throwing up off the balconies.”

Tarnowsky considered house parties safe for students because police officers will most likely not punish students for attending them.

“After freshman year when [a] party got broken up by the police, nothing happened to anyone,” she said.

UW-Madison senior Kelsea Cicione viewed the effects of binge drinking in a humorous way, rather than as a concern.

“You get sucked into power hour,

and think you’ve only spent eight bucks when you really have hit eight mixers and before you know it, walking’s not an option,” she said.

Other students believe house parties are just a necessary part of the college experience. “[My roommates and I] did have several parties,” UWMadison senior Andy Erickson said. “A few got busted, but I believe every party we did, we tried to do it right,” adding that “doing it right” meant the roommates stayed sober.

However, even Erickson admitted the officers are simply doing their jobs in issuing drinking tickets.

“I believe they’re out there to help us and keep us safe,” he said.

Regardless of the positive experiences house parties create, officers still worry that students are not considering the repercussions of drinking too much.

“If she dies, you could be looking at criminal charges and civil suits,” Humerickhouse explained to the residents of Apartment M. “You had a party, you gambled, you lost.”

Dedicated to policing the city: Sgt. Fiore reveals what an officer faces on a daily basis.

Sgt. Fiore in uniform It is not the most attractive building, and the interior does not provide the slightest hint of reception. There are filing cabinets scattered around the large, open space and a small television plays softly in the background. Yet, around a well-built conference table in the center of the room, sit a dozen police officers, each one talking excitedly about the varied adventures the night might bring.

For Sgt. Anthony Fiore of the Madison Police Department, exhilaration defines his existence. Each night when he goes into work and prepares for a long shift of patrolling the downtown streets of Madison, he never knows what to expect. The element of surprise is a concept he has come to live by, and he would not have it any other way.

“You really never know what you’re going to have to deal with,” he said. “You just never know what you’re going to find when you go into work ... it’s cool.”

The humorous aspect That is not to say, however, that Fiore never encounters amusing situations.

“One time when I was patrolling Langdon Street I had to arrest a kid for breaking in and stealing,” he said. “When I went to search him, he thought an electric pencil sharpener was his MP3 player. You don’t get much funnier or stranger than that.”

What to expect Even though Fiore seems to possess an intuitive sense that allows him to know if a night will be eventful, being an officer of the law calls for basic common sense and experience.

“How do you drive down a street and determine who’s going to get mugged? There are so many variables and factors,” Fiore explained. “We look at the key causes that are underlying the situation and then identify it. But you just get this sense driving down State Street and you’ll know.”

How to handle crime Whatever the case may be, Fiore admits it can be extremely frustrating when the majority of the people surrounding you are drunk. The job of a downtown police officer calls for a never-ending supply of patience.

“We never fight fair,” Fiore said. “Our job is to get the situation under control. We always escalate our use of force based on escalation of threats.”

A lasting dedication The City of Madison may be growing, and Fiore may be a seasoned veteran on the police force, but he never fails to realize that it is the dedication and love of the job that keeps worthwhile officers policing the city.

“At the end of the day you still need good cops to be successful at your job. Dealing with people and communicating with them hasn’t changed over the years,” he said.

And at the end of the night, when Fiore returns to the police department after a long shift, wanting nothing more than to go home, he is comforted by the simple notion of being a police officer. He knows that tomorrow has all the potential to be just as thrilling as today.

—Caitlin Gath

CHARLIE BAKER/THE DAILY CARDINAL

arts

dailycardinal.com/arts

Thursday, February 5, 2009

l

7

Debut album is full of ‘heart’

By Kyle Sparks THE DAILY CARDINAL

Nowadays the term “buzz band” has become something of a taboo.

A well-received EP can carry a band farther than ever due to the heightened accessibility of the Internet, but too frequently it also spells an LP of unrealized hype for many bands coming up in this fashion. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s 2007 self-titled EP didn’t exactly burn up the charts, but it certainly grabbed the attention of those who heard it. Instead of taking this praise as an opportunity to rush out an LP of underdeveloped, overproduced songs, POBPAH took their time and crafted a masterpiece of early ’90s indie pop in their eponymous debut LP.

CD REVIEW PHOTO COURTESY THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

Although “The Reader” would have been better served by not focusing so stereotypically on the Holocaust, Oscar-nominated Kate Winslet saves the movie with her heart-wrenching performance.

Winslet an avid ‘Reader’

By Ali Rothschild THE DAILY CARDINAL

“The Reader,” directed by Stephen Daldry (“The Hours”) and starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, was one of this season’s biggest question marks at the Oscar nominations.

Although Winslet’s performance makes her a frontrunner for the year’s best actress award, a general outcry resulted from the film’s best picture nomination, a slot many feel should have gone to “Revolutionary Road,” “WallE” or “The Dark Knight.” The complaint: The Academy once again fell for the Oscar-baiting Holocaust film.

But is “The Reader” a Holocaust film? It shouldn’t be.

There is much more present in David Hare’s screenplay, about a 15-year-old’s affair with a lonely woman who is convicted for war crimes years later, but the script loses its way with a last-minute attempt to make a statement about the Holocaust. At its outset, “The Reader” tells a gripping, Oscar-caliber story that falls off halfway through, paralyzed by its own plot twists and left meaningless.

If done right, the film’s meaning would have easily come to the surface—themes about literacy and the ignorance present during Nazi Germany—using the

Holocaust as a periphery, not as its center. And at first it does. In 1950s West Germany, 15-yearold Michael (played wonderfully

by David Kross, who should get higher billing than Fiennes) becomes sick on a street corner, until a 30-something streetcar fare collecter named Hanna (Winslet) helps him. The charity quickly turns into a passionate but impossible affair that lasts the summer. Although the end of the affair breaks Michael’s heart, he goes on to become a law student and attends a war crimes trial. It is at the trial that Michael sees Hanna as one of the defendants and realizes what he knows about her could help her case.

One wonders what the film’s possibilities could have been if it had been told to its full potential.

It is a brilliant setup that has the potential to tell a more provocative story than “Benjamin Button,” “Slumdog Millionaire” or even “Doubt,” but after the film’s first climax, it starts to veer downward. The motivated

characters suddenly become inactive victims of the circumstances around them and trudge through the rest of the movie until the adult Michael meets with the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. It is a dangerously desperate move. The screenplay attempts to whack its audience over the head with obvious statements and generalizations, a far cry from the grace and subtlety of the first half of the film.

The story is told through flashbacks from the perspective of adult Michael, played lifelessly by Fiennes, who mopes and sighs in front of the camera. It almost seems insulting that he is credited alongside the superior Winslet—she is truly phenomenal. Although perhaps a little too pretty to play such a gritty role, Winslet gives a performance that may finally win her the big prize on Oscar night.

Daldry gives beautiful direction to the film, creating a post-war Germany that, (like Hanna) is both ravaged and resurfacing with life.

Perhaps “The Reader” does not belong in this year’s top five, but it should be noted for its courage and for the story it is trying to tell. One wonders what the film’s possibilities could have been if the storyhad been told to its full potential.

GRADE: B

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart The Pains of Being Pure At Heart Combining wall-of-fuzz guitar textures reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine or M83 with a lighter, jangly undertone, POBPAH create a scene of Belle and Sebastian playing The Stone Roses or Asobi Seksu covering Teenage Fanclub. The swaying melodies are irresistibly catchy, bottling up pure enthusiasm inside the distortion-laden guitars.

Seemingly every song is fixated on heartbreak, pain or some form of emotional suffering, but they still

sound like fun. That duality may be possibly the most refreshing thing about the band. They play love/loss songs that don’t bog you down with emotions, mostly because they’re having too much fun. It’s a fresh take on relationships in which not everything needs to be scrutinized. We can be blissful without being ignorant, it just takes a greater level of appreciation for what we have.

The album’s first single, “Everything With You,” is solid gold, but so are most of these tracks. This album has no mistakes. Songs like “Come Saturday” and “Hey Paul” are just asking to be blasted at your next get-together. A truly clever name, “Young Adult Friction” is a rousing jam about an intimate encounter “between the stacks in the library” that swells to a stirring chant of “don’t check me out.” Less short-lived than succinct, POBPAH manages to package all of their glee in tightly wound tracks eclipsing four minutes only three times.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart is a surprisingly complete album for a debut, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for progress. Without ever sounding redundant each song sounds similar enough that there’s no real closure at the end. However, the fact that POBPAH utilizes sounds and textures from their influences without ever using them as a crutch hints their future will continue to be bright.

To this point, POBPAH has proven itself immune to the “buzz” taboo. They might not be dynamic enough to expand the tiers of indie rock, but they seem stable enough not to crash and burn. Regardless of their future, though, what they have in their debut is a real gem, and any scrutinization about what will follow would be to oppose their will. We should just enjoy it.

PHOTO COURTESY SLUMBERLAND RECORDS

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart showcase a variety of influences on their debut album, but do not rely on any genre as a crutch.

Court of public opinion might not choose to bail out Bale KEVIN SLANE citizen slane

O

k Kevin, it’s time to write this week’s column. Ok, I’ll just head to the office, fire up the ol’ laptop, and pound out a quick 500-word piece on the February film season. I guess all I need is... HEY! HEY WHAT THE FUCK MAN? WHO’S THAT GUY MOVING BEHIND THE LIGHTS OVER THERE? I’M TRYING TO WRITE AN ARTICLE HERE! I’M GOING TO KICK YOUR...

Undoubtedly, most of you

have heard about Christian Bale’s blowup on the set of the upcoming movie “Terminator Salvation.” If you have not, please forgive the inside joke I made in the last paragraph. For the uninformed, here is a concise summary of what happened: Bale tries to do a scene, the DP (director of photography) moves around in front of the lights, Bale loses it, cusses him out for four minutes straight and refuses to work until the schmuck is fired.

Bale’s blowup is not the first to move from the set of a film or television show and make its rounds on the Internet. Some tirades are unsurprising: Did anyone think that Bill O’Reilly

was a fine upstanding citizen before his “WE’LL DO IT LIVE!” rant on the set of his former show “Inside Edition”? Did anyone think Chris Berman was the nicest guy at ESPN before his “THAT IS SO GODDAMN RUDE” diatribe against an associate producer on the set of “Monday Night Football”?

Both O’Reilly and Berman are larger-than-life personalities whose outbursts are about as surprising as seeing a leaked video of Simon Cowell telling his chef that his dinner is “awful, just awful.” O’Reilly has an entire book dedicated to his anger (Al Franken’s “Lies and the Lying Liars that tell them: A fair and Balanced Look at

the Left”), while Berman has an Internet catchphrase and several blogs named after a supposed pickup line he used in “I’m with you, leather.” Whether or not Bale will reach their MHP (Most Hated Personalities) status remains to be seen.

Bale’s blowup is not the first to move from the set of a film or television show and make its rounds on the internet.

Other times, however, celebrities seem to get more sympa-

thy. Director David O. Russell, for example, had a ridiculous blowup on the set of “I [heart] Huckabees” in which he cussed Lily Tomlin out while throwing objects around the room for a good five minutes. Yet Russell is portrayed not as a blowhard bully, but rather as a perfectionist director, an auteur who requires a standard of excellence. Tomlin later commented on how she loved working with Russell, and wouldn’t change her experience for the world.

So far, the reaction to Bale’s blowup has been mixed. The initial wave of commentary was negative, painting Bale as bale page 8

8

l

arts

Thursday, February 5, 2009

bale from page 7 an egotistical movie star whose self-worth had swelled during his dizzying rise to stardom. Others pointed to the domestic assault allegations against Bale from his wife and daughter during the release of “The Dark Knight” which were quickly resolved and never mentioned again.

Others, including Harry Knowles of Ain’t It Cool News, have defended Bale, saying the DP was an inexperienced hack who was acting unprofessionally.

He calls the DP, Shane Halbut, “a pretty unrepentant light tweaker.” He says Bale was involved in a very emotional scene with costar Bryce Howard, and he had warned the DP multiple times.

Whether this is true or not, it seems that many have moved to the pro-Bale camp.

One thing that is certain is that Bale is a good actor. In a way, things like this should not matter to the public, as long as the finished product is a work of art. Yet stars like Robert Downey Jr. and Russell Crowe, brilliant as they may be, have a proverbial asterisk next to their name because of their boorish behavior

on and off the set. Whether Bale’s outbursts will be a continued pattern is yet to be seen, but for now all we can do is sit back and enjoy the “Christian Bale freakout techno remix!!!1!” videos that will undoubtedly clog YouTube

for the next month or so.

Think Kevin should lay off Bale and give the man some freaking credit for “The Dark Knight,” “Equilibrium,” “The Machinist” and all the other badass stuff he’s done? Email him

dailycardinal.com/arts

Local band gives students jams they can ‘Nod’ along to

The Nod returns for the Spring semester with some hard-drivin’ rock n’ roll for all taste palettes. Catch these UW students as they invigorate the Great Dane Pub with salutes to Zeppelin, Hendrix, Weezer, Dr. Dre and many others.

We at the Cardinal Arts desk were lucky enough to catch up with members of the band and ask them a few questions.

Q: Where are The Nod members originally from? Do you play Madison year round?

A: My bandmates are from all over the states: Sconnie, Gopher Country, Vermont.

PHOTO COURTESY WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Immediately after this photo was taken, Christian Bale punched the photographer square in the face, stole all his money and ran off.

Q: What did you grow up listening to? (maybe how where you grew up affected what you listened to).

A: As a youth, I grew up listening to Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Weezer; anything simple I could imitate on guitar with my tiny 12-year-old hands.

Q: Where did you get musical

encouragement from? You’re not the secret lovechild of Kurt Cobain, are you?

A: Sadly, my mother and brother listen to T.I., so it wasn’t from them. ’90s alt/rock radio inspired me to pick up a guitar.

My pops is now obsessed with Weezer, which is something I am very proud of.

Q: How long have you been playing together with this group of musicians?

A: Us original members have been together for a coon’s age, though we recently added freshmen guitar-prodigy “Cousin Martin.” You can’t see his fingers when he plays, the boy is that fast.

Q: What are your favorite current artists?

A: My iPod “Top 25 most played list” consists of Spoon, The Strokes, Cake and ancient rockers REM–– who seem to be immortal.

The Nod play The Great Dane (downtown) this Thursday (2/5) from 10-1:30 p.m.

featuresscience

Thursday, February 5, 2009 • 9

dailycardinal.com/science

Putting the you back in universe

By Bill Andrews THE DAILY CARDINAL

As Neil deGrasse Tyson paced the stage Monday night, one hand holding the mike and the other casually in a pocket, he appeared more like a stand-up comedian at the top of his game than a world-renowned scientist. Well, except for the fact that no comedian would end his set by asking for questions about “the universe.”

“I got a lot of universe to share with you tonight,” Tyson said at the beginning of his lecture and joked that he might go over his allotted time. Of course, the sold-out crowd at the Wisconsin Union Theater remained riveted throughout the evening, even two and a half hours later as he finished answering the last question. After all, how often does one get to hear the Director of New York’s Hayden Planetarium, a professional astrophysicist and “The Colbert Report’s” most frequent guest?

Tyson’s talk focused on the importance of scientific literacy and on imparting a bit of the cosmic perspective he knows so well. Despite just having released a new book last week, he made sure his lecture had “nothing to do with it,” since after all, that information could already be found in the book. “I want you to leave tonight with knowledge that can be found nowhere else!” he said.

“I got a lot of universe to share with you tonight.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson Astrophysicist, Director Hayden Planetarium

And what kind of knowledge was it? A little bit of everything, as it turned out. Why don’t people’s wishes come true? Because they don’t know they’re wishing on the planet Venus, and not a star! Why isn’t the state lotto a tax on the poor, as its opponents claim? Because it’s actually a tax on people who don’t know math, and

can’t realize they only have a “one in a bajillion chance” of winning. “That’s not a real number,” he quickly added, just in case.

In between these interesting tidbits, Tyson continually emphasized the myriad benefits of living in a society that valued science and technology. Besides being able to name things after yourself and having a greater impact on history, embracing science simply helps to keep people dreaming.

“No one dreams anymore about Tomorrowland,” Tyson said before his talk, meaning not the Disney attraction but the promise of the future. “I like dreaming.” Before stepping into his showman-comedian persona, he spoke more slowly, more deliberately and wasn’t always concerned with being funny.

“Rejecting science is mortgaging the future of the country,” Tyson said.

In a perfect world, “the enterprise of science is something the nation embraces, doesn’t fear, doesn’t shun.”

Of course, that isn’t entirely the case right now, as he demonstrated during his talk. “There are people living among us afraid of the number 13! They’re living among us!” Which is not to say everyone should become scientists, he quickly added, just that no one should be afraid of it. “You’ve got to flesh out the portfolio of what civilization is.”

Part of the solution, Tyson said before his talk, is getting Hollywood on his side. Citing the numerous examples of one-dimensional evil or nerdy scientists, Hollywood not only discourages an interest in science but actually hurts itself too.

“If you don’t know enough about science, you don’t know what stories you’re missing,” Tyson said. He’s buoyed by the success of “CSI” and “Numbers,” two popular TV shows in which the protagonists practice science but aren’t defined by it, “where real people are smart, but not in a bad way.”

Tyson thinks improving the visibility and cultural value of science is the most important change this country could make, a stark contrast

Astrophysicist crashes dorm

By Joe Skurzewski THE DAILY CARDINAL

NICK KOGOS/THE DAILY CARDINAL

World famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson speaks, yells and emotes about the importance of science literacy to society. to the popular view that poor science education produces our scientifically illiterate society.

“I think that’s the wrong place to stick the blame,” Tyson said. “I’m not ... talking about test scores; I’m talking about what you want to be when you grow up.” While it’d be ideal to have more passionate teachers out there, right now students interested in science need to have “a place to land after their education.” Such an end goal would drive students to want to be good at math and science not just for their own sakes, but to be a part of the larger picture.

Tyson looks to NASA as such a destination, saying it’s “where dreams are made.” If he had his way —became “Pope of America”—he’d increase the agency’s profile and commission it to do truly groundbreaking missions once again. “We

are today boldly going where hundreds have gone before,” he said. “I think NASA should only ever be a frontier agency.”

The end of Tyson’s talk pushed up against these very frontiers, showing the audience the scope and size of the universe, with pretty pictures to match.

“There are 1,000 times more stars in the universe than grains of sand at a typical beach,” he said at one point, turning the audience’s laughter into gasps of wonder.

Tyson concluded by showing a list of the most abundant elements in the universe, and another, almost identical, list of the most abundant elements in living creatures. In a very real way, he said, we are all a part of the universe, just one tiny dot in the vast cosmos.

But, he said, the reverse is just as true: “The universe is in us.”

World-renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson addressed residents of Chadbourne Residential College in their “What Matters to Me and Why” lecture series Monday afternoon before giving his lecture at the Memorial Union Theater that night.

Tyson told the audience, about 60 members of the learning community, of the importance of being scientifically literate in the modern world—that is, not being actual astrophysicists, but coming to understand the basic scientific principles of the world in which they live.

Tyson discussed several simple, intellectual experiments he tested on his own children, from teaching them how to read the temperature of water to discussing the existence of the tooth fairy.

“No science achieves maturity until you have a system of measurement,” he said. These types of inquiries are the subjects of his next book, which discusses how to raise scientifically literate children.

Tyson also briefly discussed the roles of science and religion in society, and the misconceptions that arise in their complicated relationship.

Despite Tyson’s serious emphasis on science literacy, he managed to maintain his sense of humor.

At one point during a brief question and answer session, Tyson light-heartedly scolded a member of the audience for beginning his question with the lackadaisical phrase “Umm...”

He also entertained the crowd with his vivid descriptions of what fourth- and fifth-dimensional cubes would look like.

Still, Tyson never stopped reiterating that society must continue to collectively hone its critical thinking skills in order to solve real-world problems.

“The absence of science literacy is the end of a civilization,” he said.

Student campaigns connect Arboretum and neighborhood

By Elizabeth Goers THE DAILY CARDINAL

Despite Madison’s environmentally friendly reputation, citizens rarely address or even acknowledge storm water runoff and management. As a highly concentrated urban area in close proximity to several bodies of water, sediment runoff and organic matter pollution go straight to our lakes during heavy rainfall.

Impervious surfaces such as concrete and asphalt cannot absorb rainwater, or filter out pollutants like lawn fertilizer or pet waste. And while lawns are better than these surfaces, they don’t soak up as much water as deep-rooted native plants and grasses. All of this excess water runs into storm sewers and drains directly into our local waterways.

The University of Wisconsin Arboretum, which sits on Lake Wingra, has recently felt the effects of such contamination more intensely. They’ve taken a proactive role in protecting the land, getting some help from UW professor Bret Shaw’s Life Science Communications class “Public Information Campaigns.”

Both undergraduate and graduate students came up with a communi-

ty-based social marketing campaign and outreach plan to address specific storm water management concerns.

Working separately throughout the semester, students learned various social marketing techniques and became familiar with the UW-Arboretum and Arbor Hills Neighborhood.

“One of the biggest things this project helped to reinforce was the idea that marketing, especially social marketing, requires an intimate knowledge of the audience,” said Erin Aagesen, a first year graduate student.

“We got an intimate look at the challenges and hopes Arbor Hills residents have surrounding the issue of storm water management. This helped us to develop creative messaging strategies that addressed residents as they are, and not just where we assumed or hoped they would be.”

Using this data and their marketing knowledge from class, each group created a unique campaign to present to UW-Arboretum supervisors on the last day of class.

“Based on quantitative and qualitative surveys we sent out to the Arbor Hills neighborhood, residents showed us they were open to resources and wanted to be educated about storm

water management,” said Marcus Landry, a senior in the class.

Each group’s campaign targeted the neighborhood differently with unique slogans and icons targeting groups such as families, schoolage children and environmentalists. Campaigns proposed the use of local media and community events as well as recognizing those neighbors who participated with lawn signs or bumper stickers.

“Residents showed us they were open to resources and wanted to be educated about storm water management” Marcus Landry Senior University of Wisconsin

“Part of the area we are working with is near the street Greenway View, so we did a little play on words with ‘Go Green’, which is a big theme these days,” said Allison Landauer, also a senior. “[We wanted] to make the ultimate change of ‘Going the Greenway,’ to make sure we conserve areas of the environment like the arboretum.”

Aagesen said her group’s campaign had two main goals. “First, to encourage communication and partnership between Arbor Hills and the Arboretum, and second, to improve the quality and quantity of run-off entering the Arboretum.”

The assignment’s biggest idea to promote was the creation of rain gardens in yards. Rain gardens use native plants to absorb more rain than lawns alone. Another idea for conservation discussed by each group was rain barrels. Rain barrels collect rain from household gutters and can later be used to water gardens or lawns instead of a hose.

In the end, Shaw, his project assistant James Spartz and UW-Arboretum representatives determined one winning campaign from the four undergraduate groups and one from the two graduate groups. Ultimately, though, the Arboretum hopes to incorporate various elements from each proposal in their final campaign.

“What impressed me most about the student presentations was the strategic creativity in thinking through a real-world campaign,” said Shaw. “I hope students learned that they can create a real campaign, and that they

gained a mastery over the conceptual and practical elements of doing so.”

The subsequent campaign for storm water management will be implemented in the Spring and Summer of 2009 by the Arboretum.

“From this experience, I observed that trying to change environmental behaviors is extremely challenging, but it is not impossible,” Aagesen said.

“Most people have a genuine interest in taking action to protect the environment, especially within their neighborhood. However, it can be overwhelming for people to know where to start. By creating messages that are really simple and actionable, I think we’re helping to empower people to take the first step.”

Campus Area Apts & Houses Studios @ $400 1 Bdrs @ $575 2 Bdrs @ $1025 3 Bdrs @ $1100

608-257-7368 manager@palisadeproperty.com mana

www.palisadeproperty.com

comics 10

l

Nice distance! The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body that it could squirt blood thirty feet. dailycardinal.com/comics

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Telling mom you’re pregnant

Today’s Sudoku

Anthro-apology

By Eric Wigdahl wigdahl@wisc.edu

© Puzzles by Pappocom

Angel Hair Pasta

By Todd Stevens ststevens@wisc.edu

Sid and Phil

By Alex Lewein alex@sidandphil.com

Solution, tips and computer program available at www.sudoku.com.

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

The Daily Code

Richard

a b c d e f g h i

j

k

l

m

n

o

p

q

r

s

t

u

v

w

x

y

z

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

“Nly’e mpwtpgp jzf’gp ypgpc mppy nzh etaatyr mpqzcp.”

Quote from Tommy Boy Yesterday’s Code:

“He’s so stupid. He watched ‘The Breakfast Club’ and decided to tape his own butt cheeks together.”

Today’s Crossword Puzzle

The Graph Giraffe

Evil Bird

By Yosef Lerner ilerner@wisc.edu

By Caitlin Kirihara kirihara@wisc.edu

Answer key available at www.dailycardinal.com WET BLANKET

1 5 10 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 23 24 28 32 33 36 39 41 42 43 46 47 48 50 53 57

ACROSS

Avis features “___ of a Woman” Latin I word Boys Sooner hub Witty one-liner How rioters run Fast food chain since 1964 Far from fetching Part of the Atlantic Krispy ___ Quite sure ___ the hills (ancient) Simpleton ___ Khan It’s around the North Pole Small town Acid type Undeserving of a padded cell Northeastern part of the Indian Ocean “The Wonder Dog” Words seen outside a studio Partner of go Merchant ship capacity Measure up to It’s south of the U.S.

61 64 65 66 67 68

Sailor’s patron saint Do a lawyer’s job Nuts about Nautical hazard Perry’s aide Supply-and-demand subj.

69 Course activity 70 It may be picked up in a trash heap 71 Bestowed titles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 21 22 25 26

DOWN

“Alas and ___!”

Truman’s Missouri birthplace Be wild about Type of kiss or pie Shank, in prison lingo Antibiotic, hopefully Island prison of history “No Strings Attached” group Armor plate Water sports Play to the camera Feel poorly Maxwell Smart, for one First name among Dracula portrayers Cube inventor Rubik Lend ___ (pay close attention) Absurd

27 29 30 31 33 34 35 37 38 40 44 45 49 51 52 54 55 56 58 59 60 61 62 63

AT&T spin-off Dull as dishwater High point Police trap Monastery head Rich fertilizer Certain IndoEuropean “Picnic” playwright Joseph’s was multicolored Exploding in anger German woman’s title Enticement Fairies, brownies, etc.

Sword lilies, for short Violinist Zimbalist or actor Zimbalist Leonardo’s birthplace Washington or Ford, e.g.

Diving birds Silent come-on Parking lot sign It may be square or light Small bit of work August 1 sign Blanc of many voices

Frugal Gnome

By Lindsey Heinz and Emily Villwock lheinz@wisc.edu

sports

dailycardinal.com/sports

Thursday, February 5, 2009

l

11

Men’s Basketball

Badgers hope to get back on track against Illinois Team Focused on stopping Illini guard McCamey

By Andrew Van Sistine THE DAILY CARDINAL

Less than two weeks ago, the Wisconsin men’s basketball team made the trip to the University of Illinois to try to pull itself out of a three-loss rut with a win against the surging No. 25 Illini. What they got was another tally in the “L” column, after a resounding 64-57 defeat due in large part to a 25 point, seven

assist performance by Illinois sophomore guard Demetri McCamey.

Not much has changed since then, as the Badgers (3-6 Big Ten,129 overall) have extended their winless rut to six straight games, and the now-No. 23 Illini (6-3, 18-4) have played well enough to remain in the thick of the conference title race. However, with hopes of a postseason bid steadily slipping away for Wisconsin, the team will need to cash in a win Thursday when Illinois hits the floor at the Kohl Center, and the locker room mentality is poised to do just that.

“We’re just getting back on our feet,” junior guard Jason Bohannon

LORENZO ZEMELLA/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Senior forward Marcus Landry has scored at least 10 points in seven of his last nine games, but was in constant foul trouble at Northwestern.

recruiting from page 12 Furthermore, player rankings are affected by what schools recruit them. When a recruiting service sees that Florida or Notre Dame is recruiting a player, that player is thus rated higher because those coaches usually get talent, so it’s a safe bet that the player is talented in theory.

The Michigan Wolverines have five consecutive top-10 recruiting classes entering this season, and yet they went 3-9. Somehow Northwestern won nine games while recruiting quite poorly.

[Dustin Sherer] was rated one spot ahead of Heisman Trophy runner-up Colt McCoy. Oops.

A look at the player rankings from Rivals.com shows that the rankings of individual players are also flawed. Former Badger Tyler Donovan was a fine quarterback for one season, but out of high school was rated above Joe Thomas, Jake Long, Paul Posluszny and Matt Ryan.

Any idea who the highest rated Badger recruit since 2002 was? That would be lineman Justin Ostrowski, who was considered one of the top 100 players in the country, but finished

with fewer than 15 tackles as a Badger.

Some fans will call for Curt Phillips to start at quarterback next season for Wisconsin and point out that he was rated the No.7 dual-threat quarterback in the nation (it is not as great as it sounds since there are two categories for quarterback recruits).

The problem is, those same fans, who wretch at the idea of Dustin Sherer starting, forget that he was rated one spot ahead of Heisman Trophy runner-up Colt McCoy. Oops.

In the world of sports, there is obsession with the possibility in an unseen player. It’s like a Christmas present that could be so many things before it is opened, but in the end there is something real, which probably can’t live up to expectations.

With the announcement of Wisconsin’s recruiting class, do not overrate the importance of the day.

Recruiting holds an important place in the world of college football, but it does not matter if they don’t perform on the field.

After watching P.J. Hill and Jack Ikegwuonu play real games, does it matter that they were rated below Deon Foster and Sean Lewis?

No? Then just relax, hope for the best and don’t waste time obsessing over how many Texans and Floridians choose to come to Madison.

Still excited for the arrival of top-25 wide receiver Kraig Appleton? Remind Ben that highly rated classes are the lifeblood of a successful program at breiner@wisc.edu.

said. “You know, we’ve had a couple of tough losses, but we’re not really worried about that. We’re worried about Illinois now and trying [to] get a winning streak going.”

Wisconsin has had plenty of reasons to remain optimistic despite its tough luck in the past month.

Of the last six losses, four were by four points or less, and the Badgers’ offense has certainly been able to keep pace with its opponents.

They rank third in the Big Ten in field goal percentage, first in free throw percentage and have committed the fewest turnovers of any team during conference play. In addition, they have seen the emergence of freshman guard Jordan Taylor and sophomore forward Keaton Nankivil as major playmakers during their draught, including a career-high 21 point performance from Nankivil last week against Purdue.

But Wisconsin’s defense has been lackluster at best since their last win one month ago. Not only has the team allowed its opponents to shoot .458 from the field, but more importantly it has given up the lead within the remaining three minutes of five of their last seven losses.

To prevent a similar fate against Illinois, Wisconsin will need to tighten up against a dangerous Illini offense. Specifically, the Badgers have identified their biggest weakness from the last meeting and know what focus on in Thursday’s rematch.

“A lot of McCamey ... He made the big shots. He did a great job.

It’s a situation where we’ve got to make sure we take him out of a shooting rhythm,” assistant coach Howard Moore said. “Hopefully being in the Kohl Center it will take that aggressiveness away from him. But it’s not just about the building and the fans, it’s about what we do defensively.”

DANNY MARCHEWKA/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Sophomore Illini guard Demetri McCamey, who torched Wisconsin for 25 points and seven assists, will be a focus for the UW defense Thursday.

However, McCamey is not the only Illini player Wisconsin has to put pressure on. Sophomore forward Mike Tisdale’s 7'1" stature had a dominating presence in the post the last time these two teams matched up, scoring six points in the paint and making three blocks. Sophomore forward Mike Davis also came up big, snaring eight rebounds and coming in second on the team in scoring with 10 points against the Badgers in January.

It will take a complete game of improved defense and more consistent offensive play from Wisconsin to take the second game in this year’s series.

“We need to be mentally focused for 40 minutes and physically focused for 40 minutes,” UW senior forward Marcus Landry said.

“I think that will be a key thing to us winning this game.”

Tipoff for Thursday’s game at the Kohl Center is set for 8 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN.

Women’s Basketball

Wisconsin dismisses second-leading scorer Junior women’s basketball player Mariah Dunham was dismissed from the team Wednesday, according to a statement from the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department.

The forward from Watertown, Wis., was suspended for an offcourt incident before Sunday’s 70-42 loss to the Michigan Wolverines. Dunham had been averaging 9.2 points and 4.6

rebounds per game this season.

“This was a very tough decision to make, but, in the best interests of the program, we felt that it was time for Mariah to leave the team,” Women’s baskatball head coach Lisa Stone said in the statement. “We wish her the best in her future endeavors.”

Stone had no further comments on the situation after practice Wednesday.

Dunham emerged as one of the team’s better scorers as a freshman but saw her scoring average go down during her sophomore season. She started 13 of the 20 games she played during this season and has 34 career starts.

She finishes her time as a Badger with an average of 7.1 points and 4.1 rebounds per game in 85 career games.

& PSYCHIC CONSULTATIONS & A MYSTICAL PLAYGROUND

Readings ANDREW BERNHAGEN/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Junior forward Mariah Dunham is no longer a Badger after playing 85 games over three seasons in Cardinal and White.

Students 2 for 1 with ad!

sports 12

l

dailycardinal.com/sports

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Football

New kids on the block

Bielema’s fourth class led by two Illinois standouts

BEN BREINER boom goes the breinamite

By Scott Kellogg

T

THE DAILY CARDINAL

Wisconsin finalized its 2009 recruiting class Wednesday during National Signing Day, the first day a high school senior can sign a binding National Letter of Intent to a college.

The class, rated No. 42 in the country by ESPN.com, is headlined by wide receiver Kraig Appleton and quarterback Jon Budmayr, both Illinois natives.

Appleton is the only commitment Wisconsin acquired who is ranked in the ESPNU 150.

According to ESPN, the East St. Louis, Ill., native ranks as the No. 116 recruit in the nation and the No. 15 wide receiver. “[Appleton] is a very talented football player who had a lot of suitors,” head coach Bret Bielema said.

Appleton originally gave a verbal commitment to Illinois before decommitting and signing on with the Badgers. According to ESPN.com, Appleton also received scholarship offers from Michigan State, Nebraska, Ohio State, Notre Dame and Texas Tech.

Budmayr, one of the four recruits already enrolled at the university, will enter his freshman season as the No. 1 quarterback from Illinois according to Rivals.com, and the No. 16 quarterback in the country according to ESPN.com.

“I’m excited about college football,” Budmayr said. “It’s a dream come true for me. The opportunity is a true blessing and I can’t wait to get going.”

The Woodstock, Ill., native also considered Illinois, Notre Dame and Nebraska, according to ESPN.com.

“He has great composure, and at that position you need someone who has just not the football skills but a little bit of the intangibles, and we really like what [Budmayr] brings to the table,” Bielema said.

Budmayr was originally listed in the ESPNU 150 for his recruiting class before breaking his collarbone during the first game of his senior season at Marian Central Catholic High School. The quarterback said he expects a full recovery and is already participating in team drills. “[The collarbone] is good. It’s back to a higher percent,” Budmayr said. “I’ve been going full-go with the workouts and the throwing.”

Other notable inclusions in the Badgers’ 2009 recruiting class were running back Montee Ball, defensive linemen Shelby Harris and Jordan Kohout, linebacker Conor O’Neill and offensive linemen Ryan Groy, Travis Frederick and Zac Matthias.

Recruiting build up sadly overblown

PHOTOS BY KYLE BURSAW/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Defensive lineman Jordan Kohout (top) and quarterback Jon Budmayr (bottom) headline a Wisconsin recruiting class, which was ranked No.42 by ESPN.com.

Ball, from Wentzville, Mo., was ranked as the No. 33 running back in the country, according to Rivals.com; and is the all-time leading rusher in the state if Missouri.

“He was looking for a program that runs the ball that runs the running back in a traditional style,” Bielema said. “I think we’re a great fit for him.”

In Kohout and Harris, Wisconsin gets the No. 1 and 2 ranked players from Wisconsin, respectively.

With three starters from last season’s defensive line graduating, Bielema said he and his coaches made

the position a point of emphasis in the recruiting process.

Groy, Frederick and Matthias were all nationally ranked top-100 linemen at their positions, according to ESPN.com, with Groy leading the way at No. 37.

In total, Wisconsin received commitments from 21 players on Wednesday, with 10 offensive players and 11 defensive players.

Along with Budmayr, Kohout, Frederick and defensive lineman David Gilbert are already enrolled at Wisconsin.

hink back to applying to college. The time was stressful enough with applications, campus visits and deciding where you would live for the next four years.

Now remember all that pressure, and add in a number of older men trying to get you to come to their school, and unknown strangers discussing your future over the internet. Welcome to the world of college football recruiting.

In recent years, recruiting popularity has taken off and has become a phenomenon that borders on ridiculousness. Two large media networks offer extensive recruiting coverage with rankings, video and regular updates on players. High school all-star games have sprung up, and some die-hard fans even begin following prospects when they are sophomores.

The world of recruiting also has an infatuation with players from Florida, Texas and California, who are deemed to be “faster” and “more athletic” than other states by nature.

Aside from being rather troubling (so many anonymous people following the stories of 16 to 18year-olds), the world of recruiting coverage has one big problem. The seas of rankings and ratings are not reflected much in college football.

Some will point out that college teams with high rankings tend to do better than teams with low rankings.

There are a few explanations for this.

First, college football teams tend to play around the same level for given periods of time. Texas, USC and Florida are usually good, and the rankings reflect that. Do the rankings really show that those schools have brought in good talent, or is it simply that we know those schools have good coaches and will get good players? recruiting page 11