University of Wisconsin-Madison Complete campus coverage since 1892 dailycardinal.com Wednesday, October 10, 2012l

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

GraphiC by Dylan MOriarty

Freshman enrollment rates have fluctuated over recent years, reaching a peak in 2012 and a minimum in 2002. UW-Madison Provost Paul DeLuca said the increase is a “good sign.”

Freshman enrollment reaches historic levelby Sam CusickThe DaiLy CarDinaL

Official enrollment data released by the University of Wisconsin-Madison revealed an increase in overall enroll-ment, making the 2012-13 freshman class the largest in the school’s history.

The data showed there were large increases in out-of-state as well as in-state residents.

UW-Madison Provost Paul DeLuca said the overall increase could be attributed to the university’s worldwide reputation for high quality education and student experi-ence on campus.

“It’s always encouraging to see increased pressure on people wanting to come here,” DeLuca said. “I think that’s a result of the quality of what we’re doing and the experience the students have when they’re here.”

While most of the UW sys-tem is experiencing declines

in enrollment, the fact that UW-Madison is increasing is a “good sign” for future of the university, DeLuca said.

Some of the increase was intentional, according to DeLuca, through efforts put in place by the Madison Initiatives for Undergraduates, which uses an extra tuition charge to increase the quality of under-graduate experience.

But DeLuca said the increase was higher than the university’s models predicted.

The data also revealed all 72 counties in Wisconsin and 48 states in the nation are repre-sented on campus.

Additionally, 35 countries have representatives on campus and international students have climbed to ten percent of the student population.

Due to increased enroll-ment rates for the 2012-13 acade-mic year, the University of Wiscon-sin-Madison surpassed the Board of regents’ limit on the proportion of out-of-state students allowed to attend the university.

The current percentage of out-of-state students on campus is at 25.8 percent, which is a “slight drift” over the 25 percent regent limit, according to UW-Madison

Provost Paul DeLuca.DeLuca said the university

will discuss the increase with the regents to find a solution.

a three-year rolling average of 25 percent out-of-state students may work better than the current system, according to DeLuca, as it would give UW-Madison the chance to adjust after any chan-ges in enrollment.

SaM CUSiCK

Out-of-state students over limit

Student leaders aim to rebrand activity centerby Cheyenne langkampThe DaiLy CarDinaL

A student government sub-committee met Tuesday to dis-cuss possible changes to the Student Activity Center.

The Student Activity Center Governing Board, an Associated Students of Madison committee, has the responsibility of allocat-ing space and determining poli-cies for student organizations that use the center.

According to SAC GB Chair Katie Cary, board members feel the building is currently used as a “quasi-library” rather than a community space for student organizations, as was intended upon the building’s creation through an ASM internship proj-ect more than ten years ago.

“They came up with this building plan and the idea was there were going to be these stu-dent organization offices in these

cubby, garage-style offices, with ‘living room space’ where student orgs would come and collaborate with each other,” Cary said.

In the meeting, members dis-cussed possible changes to the current atmosphere at the SAC, ranging from alternative furniture arrangements to a café serving cof-fee, snacks and sandwiches.

Cary said she hopes this proj-ect will allow the space to better serve its original purpose of show-casing student organizations, as well as create “an atmosphere that is similar to the union.”

The board hopes to create a concrete plan over the course of the semester by laying out spe-cific initiatives for the future of the building.

“It’s something where we want to make sure we’re kind of tying the hands of future boards to take this on so that it doesn’t just get dropped off,” Cary said.

‘Define American’On CaMpUS

Journalist Jose Vargas speaks at the pyle Center tuesday about his unique american identity. + Photo by Aevyrie Roessler

Ex-Walker aide to appear at plea hearing Thursdayby tyler nickersonThe DaiLy CarDinaL

A former chief of staff under former Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker is sched-uled for a plea hearing Thursday related to charges alleging she made illegal campaign calls while on public time, bringing the ongoing John Doe investigation one step closer to its culmination.

Kelly Rindfleisch is scheduled to meet with Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf in

Milwaukee, according to online court records, and would be the sec-ond former Walker aide charged.

Rindfleisch faces four felo-ny charges for misconduct in public office.

If she enters a guilty plea, Walker, who was on a list of pos-sible prosecution witnesses, would not have to testify at the trial.

The prosecution alleges Rindfleisch and Darlene Wink,

UW releases report on impact of undergraduate initiativeby Cheyenne langkampThe DaiLy CarDinaL

The University of Wisconsin-Madison released a report Tuesday detailing the status of the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, a program with the goal of increas-ing the quality, efficiency and affordability of the university.

The program, created by for-mer Chancellor Biddy Martin and approved by the UW System Board of Regents in April 2009, aims to provide need-based financial aid and improvements to undergradu-ate education through new funding provided by “differential tuition,” or costs added to the base level of

tuition to create supplemental ser-vices and programs for students.

The program was funded by an increase in tuition of $250 per year for in-state undergraduate students and $750 per year for out-of-state undergraduate students from fall 2009 to fall 2012.

According to the report, the funds have created 54 new improvements to undergradu-ate education through addition-al faculty, academic staff and teaching assistant positions over a multitude of departments.

Sundar Sharma, an under-graduate student representative on the MIU Oversight Committee,

said MIU funding helped the Department of Chemistry acquire more teaching assistants, giving students more options for chemis-try classes and discussion sections.

“In general, all the things we’ve been able to do using MIU tuition differential money have been great,” Sharma said. “I think that the overall impact on campus has been phenomenal and it’s measur-able and that’s the one thing that you can see in the report.”

The report said half of the MIU funds created addition-al need-based financial aid resources for thousands of undergraduate students.

hearing page 3

Unraveling the ‘god particle’

+SCIENCE, page 4 +SPORTS, page 8

Hats off to Decker

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Yesterday’s article on the city’s operating budget incorrectly stated Mayor Paul Soglin mis-calculated the amoung of fed-eral and state aid the city will receive in 2013. The additional funds are a result of adjustments in state aid.

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l

page two2 Wednesday, October 10, 2012 dailycardinal.com

TODAy:partly sunnyhi 52º / lo 37º

ThuRSDAy:partly sunnyhi 59º / lo 30º

If you want to be up to date on the latest, pick up a Daily newspaper, Daily.

get informed about the

presidential election.

Voting for the next president Nov. 6 will be the most important decision

you will make that day. Here’s how to best know the candidates,

frontward and backward. By Samy Moskol

Read books about American politics because all political authors know more

than you.

Tune in to the debates.Join College Republicans and College Democrats to be in as many loops as

possible.

And I think to myself, what a not so sucky world

A bout a year ago, “South Park” ran an episode in which Stan, one of the

program’s protagonists, fell into a depression because he believed that everything in the world had become “crap.” New movies were crap. New music was crap. Even updated video games were crap. Indeed, all novel cultural phenomena seemed to be manufactured by ignoramuses and designed for ignoramuses.

Stan’s new attitude toward the things he used to like pushes him to see a doctor, and there he is informed that since he turned 10 years old, he has become a cynic. It is as if he emerged from a bizarro cave in Plato’s allegory, but instead of failing to describe all of the illustri-ous wonders that the outside world has to offer, he lacks the ability show those around him how horrible everything has become. When re-watching this episode the other day,

I realized that I too once felt this way, and I began to meditate on whether today’s entertainment options really are worse than in years past.

As a hip hop-head, I believe the period from 2006-’09 was one in which most albums grew increas-ingly difficult to stomach. With few exceptions, Nas’ proclamation that “Hip Hop is dead” appeared valid. My pessimism was only exacerbat-ed once Eminem, who I believe to be the greatest rapper of all time, released the subpar Relapse. Movies seemed to be growing progressively mindless and unsophisticated. I must admit, though most people reading this will not be on my side, I thought the first 30 minutes of “The Hangover” were hilarious, and the next hour was redundant, unorigi-nal and frankly dumb. It was as if the writers pitched the script as, “OK guys, picture Dude Where’s My Car, but with a person instead of a car, and in Vegas!”

But then I came to college, and things began to get good again. Rap had undergone a renaissance, with Eminem, B.o.B., Wale, J.Cole and Kanye West all releasing albums that

mollified my anger towards the new direction of the genre. Christopher Nolan offered audiences a buffet of riveting films, including the latest “Batman” series, which left its pre-decessors looking rather amateur. And hell, hate him all you want, but Lebron James is as good an athlete as Michael Jordan.

In the previously mentioned episode of “South Park,” Stan is left to face the fact that the world around him is constantly in flux. But for better or for worse, it has to be. If our lives aren’t regularly freshened up, we grow bored of the toys in our possession, how-ever golden they may be.

It is often difficult to embrace new generations of culture and entertainment, and some of the most heralded manifestations might actually suck. Personally, I despise house music and cannot fathom why people listen to it. But that parallels any era. We often view the past through lenses of nostalgia, but we lose sight of the fact that these lenses are sometimes skewed. Moreover, iconic and idolized pop sensations may even be better today

than in the past. With this follow-ing statement, I may draw in an overwhelming amount of hate mail, but if I may be blunt, I fully believe that Katy Perry is a better Queen of Pop than Britney Spears had been a decade before. And if you look at it this way, it took a few years in the tabloids and an affair gone awry with a backup dancer living out of his pickup truck for us to learn Britney was not innocent, but with Katy, we learned so right away with her first hit detailing her endorse-ment of same-sex tonsil hockey.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is that great minds still exist. Though “Saturday Night Live” is objectively worse than it ever has been, the film, music, television and arts scene is as lively and stimulat-ing as ever. People are publishing great works of fiction and nonfiction alike. Things are not all bad. And with that, I am very glad about and appreciative of two things. One, I am not the clinical cynical asshole that I thought I might have been, and two, the world does not just suck.

On team world/Katy Perry? Let Zac know you agree at pestine@wisc.edu.

Zac Pestinezac attack

newsdailycardinal.com Wednesday,October10,20123l

Metro proposes fare increase

By Abby BeckerTheDailyCarDinal

A proposed increase in Metro Transit bus fare will not affect student bus passes in 2013 but could potentially affect the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s negotiations with Metro Transit when their con-tracts are up for renewal.

The Board of Estimates, Madison’s financial commit-tee, continued discussion on Mayor Paul Soglin’s proposed 2013 operating budget Tuesday, hearing budget presentations

from city departments such as Metro Transit.

The budget includes an increase in adult cash bus fare from $2 to $2.25, which would create an additional $686,600 in expected revenue for 2013, according to the proposed bud-get. It also proposes increasing adult 31-day passes from $55 to $62 and raising senior and dis-abled 31-day passes from $27.50 to $40.

Metro Transit General Manager Chuck Kamp said the contracts with UW-Madison and UW Transportation will not be impacted immediately by the 2013 budget.

“Because we have multi-year contracts with UW

Transportation and UW [Associated Students of Madison] that go...past 2013, the fares don’t impact the con-tract in 2013,” Kamp said.

Kamp said Metro Transit also will most likely open up negotiations with UW-Madison when the contracts are up for renewal, likely in 2014.

The proposed 2013 budget will not impact the free Route 80 bus many students use to travel to and from classes.

“The plan is currently that [the Route 80 buses] will remain free,” Kamp said.

The Transit and Parking Commission will review the fare increases at its next meet-ing Wednesday.

Xinyi WAng/TheDailyCarDinal

MetroTransitisproposingincreasingbusfarefrom$2to$2.25for2013,butthehigherrateswillnotaffectstudentpassesuntilaftercontractswithUW-Madisonhaveexpired.

Group says panhandling ban violates free speechBy Taylor HarveyTheDailyCarDinal

The City of Madison could face legal action from a Wisconsin group for placing an official ban on panhandling on State Street, which the group called a violation of the First Amendment.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin sent a letter to Madison Mayor Paul Soglin and City Council Monday stat-ing the group “strongly” urges reconsideration of the pan-handling ban, which Council passed at its Sept. 18 meeting.

ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Karyn L. Rotker said in the letter the city has no constitutional right to ban panhandling, especially if it is because “some residents and vis-itors might prefer not to see or hear the messages of panhandlers.”

“The government does have a legitimate interest in protect-

ing citizens from intimidation and harassment,” Rotker said in the letter. “We do not object to reasonable restrictions on aggressive panhandling.”

Officials had a number of city attorneys reflect and look upon the policies before the city placed the ban, according to Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8.

Resnick said the city Council put forward legislation that would be protected in a legal dispute.

“I very much respect the opin-ions of the ACLU,” Resnick said. “In this case our city attorney and our legal council have a differing opinion on the matter.”

According to Resnick, the pan-handling ban was “not an easy decision by any means.”

“There was a committee that actually opposed the ordinance, although it eventually did support it,” Resnick said.

SHoAiB AlTAf/TheDailyCarDinal

VicePresidentJoeBidenwillcampaigninlaCrosseFriday,onedayafterhisvicepresidentialdebatewithPaulryan.

Vice President Joe Biden will make a campaign stop at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, on Friday.

The visit is set to take place the day after Biden faces off against Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, in the only vice presidential debate of the race.

According to an email from his campaign, Biden will be at the Cartwright Center on the UW-La Crosse campus. Doors will open at 11:30 AM.

Biden last campaigned in

Wisconsin on Sept. 13 when he held a rally the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He also addressed supporters in Green Bay earlier that month.

President Barack Obama stopped in Madison last Thursday after his first debate with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney for a campaign rally on Bascom Hill, which drew a crowd of over 30,000.

The most recent statewide poll in Wisconsin shows Obama leading Romney by a margin of only two percentage points.

Biden to visit UW-la Crosse friday

the other aide who has already pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing, were part of a secret email system set up in Walker’s office that helped employees engage in campaign work while on taxpayer time.

While he has repeatedly insisted he is not a target, Walker’s involve-ment in and knowledge of the ille-gal activity has been questioned throughout the John Doe investiga-tion. Walker’s office was just 25 feet away from Rindfleisch’s office.

Democrats called on Walker to provide details about his involve-

ment in the scandal in the days lead-ing up to his recall election June 5.

“A reasonable person should have deep worries about Scott Walker’s culpability in the crimes alleged,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said in a statement June 3, hoping to con-nect Walker with the investigation.

Police arrest woman after group fight outside osaka barMadison police arrested one

woman after officers arrived at a State Street bar early Sunday morning to find several women engaged in a street brawl.

Two groups of women ended up in the fight after one group claimed the other group cut in front of them in line at Osaka Bar at 505 State Street, accord-ing to the report.

“Officers arrived to find sev-eral women rolling around on the sidewalk, pulling hair, throw-ing punches,” Madison Police Department Spokesperson Joel DeSpain said in a statement.

One Madison woman suffered a bloody nose while one fled the scene upon officers’ arrival, according to DeSpain.

But police said the woman

left without her purse, and offi-cers contacted the 39-year-old by phone.

“[She] said she was ‘extremely bothered’ by the fact that one of the women from the other side tried to grab the wig off her head,” DeSpain said in a statement.

Police arrested one 23-year-old woman involved in the fight for disorderly conduct.

Police chief explains parade permits, special duty officersBy Abby BeckerTheDailyCarDinal

Madison’s police chief clari-fied the rules Monday regard-ing parade permits and how the Madison Police Department handles police presence during special events.

Because of cuts in the MPD’s budget, the Central district found it necessary to require organizations who host events on city property, such as parades and festivals, to pay for additional police officers, according to a statement from MPD Chief Noble Wray.

A long-standing police ordi-nance requires street use per-mit applicants to pay for spe-cial duty officers to keep their

events safe, if the MPD deter-mines extra enforcement is needed, according to Wray.

Two groups, the Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival and the Madison Area Peace Coalition, applied for parade permits for Oct. 6 and Oct. 7 but refused to pay for spe-cial duty officers the MPD requested moni-tor the event, accord-ing to the statement. Both groups marched on State Street wiithout police intervention.

MPD spokesperson Joel DeSpain said the issue with the permit process is not one of free speech but of economic concerns.

“The issue is...whether or not taxpayers should pay for the offi-cers who will monitor the situ-

ation or whether groups should pay for those [special duty officers],” DeSpain said.

Wray said the policy has not changed, and orga-nizations are not required to pay a fee to march and exercise their rights.

“The MPD has done nothing to hamper,

hinder or dissuade anyone from exercising their First Amendment rights,” Wray said in the statement. “We are proud of our tradition of mak-ing Madison a safe place for democracy to happen.”

hearing frompage1

Higher rates would not affect Route 80, student bus passes in 2013

WRAy

l4 Wednesday, October 10, 2012 dailycardinal.com

science

O n July 4, 2012, scientists work-ing at CERN, Europe’s Center for Nuclear Research, announced the

discovery of the most sought-after particle of modern science, the Higgs boson.

The missing cornerstone of the Standard Model of particle physics had eluded physicists for nearly 50 years before near-conclusive evidence of its existence was discovered from experi-ments conducted this year.

So what is a Higgs boson? To put the particle into context, we have to start from the beginning.

The universe was born with the big bang about 14 billion years ago. Fractions of a second after the cosmic explosion, when the universe cooled, energy con-densed into many particles. To create matter, particles had to slow down and congregate; they had to be weighted.

Peter Higgs theorized there was a field that was responsible for all masses from electrons to galaxies, what we now know to be the Higgs field, in 1964. The Higgs field would permeate all space. Particles that were once zipping around at the speed of light acquired a mass in the field, slowed down and eventually formed atoms.

The Higgs boson is just an excitation

or vibration created by the Higgs field.“A common misconception is that

the Higgs field is made up of Higgs bosons,” said Wesley Smith, a pro-fessor of physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We have to create a Higgs boson. They are not all around us. Otherwise, why would it be so dif-ficult to find one?”

To prove the Higgs field, scientists had to find the Higgs boson. To find the particle, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was built.

The LHC is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. Two beams of protons are shot through 17-mile circular underground tunnels. They travel in opposite directions until they barrel headlong into each other causing half a billion collisions per sec-ond. The near speed-of-light velocities

and colder-than-outerspace tempera-tures in the LHC mimic the extreme conditions a trillionth of a second after the big bang.

Only about one collision in a trillion will produce a Higgs boson.

To make matters more difficult, the Higgs boson decays almost instantly, in a matter of nanoseconds. Scientists are then responsible for reconstructing its existence from the decayed products. Since there are so few Higgs bosons, to find particular patterns, LHC had to produce a significant amount of data.

Smith played the lead role in helping CERN process all the data from CMS, one of two particle detectors charged with searching for the Higgs boson. From the initial construction of the LHC, Smith and his team had been tasked with designing and overseeing

the CMS “trigger,” a filter of sorts to remove unwanted data from the wanted.

“It’s pedobytes of data. It’s a huge amount. Deciding what to keep and what to throw away is a pretty big deal,” Smith said. “Wisconsin is not just a participant. We are leading this experiment.”

UW-Madison professor of physics Sau Lan Wu, who played a significant part deciphering the data from ATLAS, the other particle detector looking for the Higgs boson, said it best.

“We had one million billion collisions with four and quarter billion events,” Wu said. “In those events, 240,000 Higgs particles were produced. We were able to observe 350 Higgs events. From those events, we discovered eight cases with similar decayed particles.”

The data from CMS and ATLAS were published together with a standard deviation of five-sigma, meaning there is a 0.00006 percent chance that their matching data was purely coincidental.

But since when is the word “god” in the science language? A PR stunt pulled by a physicist’s book publishers coined the new nickname for the Higgs boson —the god particle.

“Saying the Higgs boson is more important than another undiscovered particle is not right,” said fifth-year math and physics major Alex Plunkett. “Why not call the electron the god particle? After the big bang, there would have been nothing without the electron. But if it provided the initial spark for people to start reading into the field of particle physics, then I think it’s totally great.”

So what is next for the god particle?There is a dark side and light side to

the universe. Scientists can see four or five percent of the universe right now, only about half of the light particles. They are hoping the Higgs boson will

Discovering the weight of the universe The detection of the Higgs boson has changed

the future of physics research and human lifeStory by Nia

Sathiamoorthi

Simulation of an event captured by CMS in 2012 showing the characteristics expected from the decay of a Higgs boson. The Higgs boson decays into a pair of Z bosons, which both decay further. One Z boson decays into a pair of electrons, the green lines, and the other into a pair of muons, the red lines.

photo CourteSy CerN

Wesley Smithphysics professor

University of Wisconsin-Madison

“this will rewrite the textbooks.”

Loss of arctic ice may change Wisconsin weather patternsBy Kristen AndersenTHe daily Cardinal

A new study suggests the diminishing ice cover in the arc-tic might be playing an impor-tant role in the weather patterns Wisconsin experiences.

The ice cover in the arctic has been rapidly shrinking over the past few years. By September of this year it was at a record low, down an area about the size of Texas since the last record set in 2007. This loss of arctic ice could affect climate in the mid-latitudes, according to Steve Vavrus, a cli-mate expert and senior scientist in the Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The mid-latitudes are the tem-perate regions of the earth, falling between the tropics and the Arctic and Antarctic regions. The warm-ing in the arctic could slow the jet stream that normally steers weath-er from west to east in the mid-latitudes, causing more persistent weather. It could also cause more extreme weather, as the waves in

the atmosphere become stretched. “The combination of those two,

the waviness promoting more extreme weather and the greater persistence making those weather events last longer, that combina-tion will become noticeable as heat waves, droughts, floods and cold snaps,” Vavrus said.

In a paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Letters last spring, Vavrus and co-author Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University speculate that based on current and future trends, the warming in the arctic could cause a change in mid-latitude weather patterns in favor of more frequent extreme conditions.

Extreme weather has been occurring at a greater frequency in the past several years, accord-ing to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s U.S. Climate Extremes Index. Although weather trends fluctu-ate between years, the past sev-eral years have seen an increase

climate page 5

higgs page 5

ldailycardinal.com Wednesday,October10,20125science

in overall extreme weather, with 2012 currently setting a record for extreme weather.

Other research has pointed toward global warming pro-ducing more extreme weather of certain types, including heavy rainfalls, heat waves and droughts.

The arctic is particularly sensitive to warming. The expansive snow and ice cover reflects sunlight back, absorb-ing little energy. However as the snow and ice melt, more land and ocean become available to absorb

energy. The atmosphere around the arctic is also particularly thin, so there is less area for the heat to

spread out over. The increase in global warm-

ing is likely to continue, accord-ing to Vavrus. The main cause of the warming relates to green-house gases like carbon dioxide,

which traps heat in the atmo-sphere. Industrialization, the

burning of fossil fuels and agriculture have all contrib-uted to a dramatic increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

“The levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are

higher than they have been in at least 800,000 years, we know that from ice core records … We have funda-

mentally changed the atmosphere composition in just a very short amount of time,” Vavrus said.

Although there is a lot of year-to-year variability in the weather patterns, the upward trend is very apparent in the arctic and is likely to continue in coming years and possibly accelerate.

“Like stopping a freight train, we can’t talk about reversing it until we slow it to a halt. Right now that is the hope, that we will slow down the rate of emissions,” Vavrus said. “In terms of actually reducing the levels of carbon dioxide concentra-tions in the atmosphere, that is a tall order because we are going so fast in the other direction.”

Wisconsin has experienced some extreme weather this year, including an unusually warm March, a cold snap in April and a drought throughout the sum-mer. Based on Vavrus’ proposal, some may wonder if this increase in instances of extreme weather is related to the loss in arctic ice.

Vavrus’ answer? Maybe. The weather is generally variable, and these events may have occurred regardless of any climate change.

“But the warming climate... changing climate is the back-drop to all of our weather events, Vavrus said. “And the more cli-mate change takes hold the stron-ger that contribution will be.”

climatefrompage4

yield insight into the other half and its super symmetric inter-actions with existing particles.

What may sound like sci-ence fiction with a Star Wars twist to most of us non-physi-cists will most likely end up a significant part of our lives.

“Time and time again, investments in physics lead to huge growth in technology and power,” Plunkett said.

Smith is already planning the next phase of the trigger for the Higgs project. His team hopes to increase the number of collisions by a factor of 10 and have to modify their detec-tors in order to keep up with that level of data. The experi-ment is designed until 2035, but he still does not see that as the end for the Higgs boson.

“We have just landed on an island,” Smith said. “The act of arriving there was important. But what is more important is what we are going to discover and learn on this island. We are starting a new era of exploration.

“This will rewrite the text-books.”

higgsfrompage4

photo courtesy cerN

HiggsdecayeventcapturedbyATLAS.ThetwoZbosonsinthiseventdecayedintotwopairsofelectrons,theredandbluelines,anothercharacteristicofaHiggsbosondecayevent.

the Lhc: instrument for discoverycerN’s Large hadron collider is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator.

In the depths of europeThe LHC lies 574 feet below the bor-der of France and Switzerland and has a circumference of 17 miles.

Worldwide collaborationThere are 1800 scientists from more than 150 universities in 35 countries participating in experiments at the LHC.

A maze of research A series of four pre-acceleraters feed into the LHC, which houses six detectors conducting experiments.

grAphIc by dyLAN morIArty

artsl6 Wednesday, October 10, 2012 dailycardinal.com

Games create questionable characters

I will say right now that I am a better literature student than I am an English student. I lacquer up the cracks in my spare time with books, and if I’m not reading, I’m merely taking a break from reading. In my dorm, I’ve got a shelf full of books brought from home, a shelf of library books above my desk and a host of books waiting for me at Steenbock Library.

Call it an obsession, but you can only call something obsessive when it gets in the way of your life. Literature is my life; something that simply is cannot dominate since it is already the sum, the totality. At the least, it is the glue which gives my being a pleasant, humming gestalt.

You’d think those qualities make for a passionate, devout and ecstatic English major. And they do. I enjoy being an English major. I will go ahead and say I am passionate, devout and ecstatic about literature. But I can’t say I feel the same way about English.

That lacquering I was telling you about: The finish is a mélange of books. I’ve got books by the Amis dynasty, Virginia Woolf, Jack London, George R. Stewart, John Updike, Herman Melville, Leo Tolstoy and John McPhee out from the library. I’ve been culling all my Henry James, Saul Bellow and John Steinbeck from home, along with some books of poetry (Rumi, Whitman, Berryman, etc.).

That’s the sort of variety I don’t really get from English class right now. I will not name names but I’m only getting this vibe from one class, not all of them. Granted, I’m work-ing through all the required classes, with their rigid curriculums and themes. I’m not thrilled at some of the books I have to read, but it’s one of things where you just grit your teeth. You don’t have much leeway.

At the same time, something about this arrangement irks me. Some recoil ebbs from an inner fount. It has everything to do with how the books are taught, I think.

It is the nature of an English major to deconstruct, dissect, delin-

eate. Or it should be. That seems to be the recurrent theme in my classes, and I’m not wholly opposed to it. Literary analysis trucks some manner of respect and dignity, and a career path to boot.

Nonetheless, sitting through lec-ture and working on essay assign-ments, I know that something is off. It’s like I put my first perturbation on the back burner and I’ve only just noticed that it’s kicking up noxious smoke from its searing mass. It’s been sending signals the whole time.

Most of our analysis and dis-cussion of literature in this class is geared towards taking passag-es and detailing all their working parts. We note symbolism, meta-phors, certain phrases, vocabulary, even punctuation. This should all be very familiar to you. You likely did the same thing in high school English class.

But what gets to me about this relationship is that, whereas high school English classes were prob-ably more interested in just teach-ing the fundamentals of literature and having you interact with books on a higher level, appreciate them and (hopefully) find them great for what they are (or know them well enough to pass exams), my class-es suggest that a book’s greatness and importance lies in the parts, isolated, identified, cataloged and explained at great length.

I’ll post a sign here and say that the rest of this column is going to be using a lot of mixed metaphors. You’ve been warned.

If this was a biology class, you wouldn’t cut up a pig and sprawl it out and then hold up the ster-num as carrying particular signifi-cance, as really being the linchpin of the pig as a whole. Are sternums important? Yes. But so is the rest of it. You could make the same argu-ment for the brain or heart. But while the brain and heart of a pig carry more potent physiological sig-nificance, they don’t make a pig a pig. A pig makes a pig.

A counterpoint to this would be clockwork. Writing hinges upon words acting upon other words strung together, much like gears and mechanical minutiae. Understanding all the parts that go into a clock, perhaps painstakingly listing and enumerating the pieces,

may give you a better understand-ing of what a clock is, but it’s a dim model for understanding what a clock does.

And it’s the same with literature. Metaphors, symbols, alliteration, anaphora, personification, gram-mar, spelling, punctuation, word choice: These are all very impor-tant to the structure of a particular work, but they do not stand in for the work as a whole.

Part of the reason for this obses-sion, on the part of my professors, is a belief that the books they’ve assigned, and any book of signifi-cance, are brimming with secrets;

literature is like a puzzle box where-in whoever can successfully crack it will be privy to all manners of enlightenment. They might even go so far as to say they have the key to making great literature, that they have the skills now to make their own puzzle boxes for play.

This is all wrong.The notion that literature is

something so predictable and regimented that one can chart it, outline it, chop it up and then string it all back together is insulting—glaringly arrogant. Or, worse, that by focusing on one particular piece or tangent, you

unlock a work’s deeper meaning is equally arrogant and insulting. The brain of a pig or the butt of a pig is not a pig.

Time does not dwell in clock-work alone. It is the force which drives it. Life does not dwell in the structure of a pig. It is the force which moves it. Likewise, meaning and significance do not dwell in the words alone, or the metaphors or the other literary gambits. Writing’s worth is what it does—what surg-es through its framework—rather than what it is composed of. And in the end, English class alone can’t teach you that. Only literature can.

As my friend and I were pon-dering the idea of great video game characters the other night, we both failed to come up with many con-vincing arguments for any persona in the medium that has absorbed countless hours of our lives. Despite the comparable lengths between television and games, the former has created a multitude of compel-ling figures while the latter is mired in mediocrity and stale archetypes.

With some games reaching over 50 hours of gameplay, there should be ample time to introduce a capti-vating protagonist or companions and develop them throughout the experience. Most development occurs during cutscenes, yet any

ground gained seems to stagnate as soon as the player reemerges into the game world and actual combat starts.

It may be a fundamental flaw in the narrative structure of video games. Few developers can ade-quately mix gameplay and story in a way that provides plot development while not boring the player with unintuitive action. “Heavy Rain” tried by constantly funneling play-ers down an adventure that tested the limits of player choice but essen-tially the experience boiled down to a series of quick-time events.

The “Uncharted” series has plenty of endearing characters from Sully and Nathan Drake to Eliza Fisher. Although the writing is sec-ond to none with realistic conver-sations and chemistry rarely seen between an animated ensemble, each of these people are simply a static shell that fails to advance

beyond a pigeonholed role such as “witty action hero” or “old compan-ion making wisecracks.”

Peering through the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences awards from the past few years will reveal they seem to have had as much trouble finding worthy recipi-ents of the outstanding character performance award as I have. Past nominees or winners include “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess,” Sheva Alomar from “Resident Evil 5” and Kratos from “God of War.”

To be blunt, Sheva is an asi-nine character whose sole pur-pose is to support cooperative play and Kratos is a sympathetic but one-note hellion bent solely on revenge. I’m also of the belief Link can never be a truly compel-ling character because in every game he’s simply a mute puppet through which the same tale can be rehashed continuously.

Although the prospects seem fairly dismal, there are some pleas-ant surprises who have emerged in the past few years that demonstrate the potential for characters in an industry with central figures that fail to live up to the standard set by their fellow media compatriots.

Both Bonnie MacFarlane and John Marston from “Red Dead Redemption” represent figures fiercely devoted to their ideals yet willing to change when nec-essary. Bonnie rescues Marston after he finds himself left for dead by a member of his old gang. Throughout the duration of the game their relationship grows and while the predictable route would be for a romantic pairing, Rockstar handles their relation-ship with far more tact.

Marston does whatever mor-ally ambiguous task is necessary to save his family and Bonnie

remains a stalwart companion whose primary focus is still the survival of her family’s ranch. There’s an understanding between the two that in a different time they may be together, but Marston has an agenda and Bonnie is a strong female character that leads her ranch with authority in a medium where most women are stuck as the damsel in distress.

Interesting and relatable characters are one of the hardest things to create in all of entertain-ment. In a medium where players are often thinking about the next opportunity to kill something instead of constantly contemplat-ing the fate of their character, this task becomes that much harder. While recent years have provided some hope, the video game indus-try has a lot of growing up to do. I can only hope the characters it produces are able to do the same.

Love for literature with a side of exasperation for English

Sean ReichaRdyour raison d’être

adam PaRiSSEGA what?!

comicsMama Bear

© Puzzles by Pappocom

Eatin’ Cake ByDylanMoriartywww.EatinCake.com

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

Fillinthegridsothateveryrow,everycolumnandevery3x3boxcontainsthedigits1through9.

Today’sSudoku

CROSSWORD77

ACROSS1 Powerful feline5 FedEx alternative8 Kind of button or

attack13 Chilled15 Opposite indicator16 Splash clumsily17 Make a comparison18 Stag’s sweetheart19 Maltreatment20 Well past one’s

prime23 Just hired24 Bric-a-___25 Arch enemy27 Make a little ___

long way30 Course, in

education lingo32 Hooded viper33 Sky holder of myth35 Guest of honor’s

place37 First name in

‘70s women’s gymnastics

41 Get a bad situation under control

44One inspired by Calliope

45 “American ___”46Where the case is

tried47 Telepathic gift49Fairy tale meanie

51 Serpentine letter52 Lacking integrity56 Hoggish bellow58 Cry at the bullfight59 Realistic and

practical64Treated the lawn,

in a way66Take in sustenance67 Fern’s reproducer68Small egg69Gift wrapping time,

for many70 Tribal symbol71 Violin rub-on72 Blair’s old house

number73 “___ on truckin”’

DOWN1 Game on horseback2 Brown or Rice

(Abbr.)3 Device often worn

on a lapel4 Lip-puckering5 Poll category6 Eeyore’s friend7 Rathskeller mug8 The Bible’s 1509 Celebrant’s robe10 English subjects?11 Early Japanese

immigrant12 Readies for

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confidence

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offering26 Lyric poem part27 Struggle for breath28 NFL legend Graham29 ___ vera31 Cultural no-no34 Better-chosen36 Acquired

dishonestly38 Amusement park

annoyance39 Wildebeests40Yellows or grays,

perhaps42 River horse43 Least bumpy48Unexpected50 Kia subcompact52 Sportscasting

commentator’s forte

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and literature55 Canary call57 Pillow-filling fiber60Basilica center61 Mechanical

learning62 Elm or fir63 Burlapmaterial65 First name in

pharmaceutical giants

Answerkeyavailableatwww.dailycardinal.com

Today’sCrosswordPuzzle

lassic

Sorrybros...The names Kevin, Justin, Marvin and Dennis

are least likely to be clicked on by women on dating websites.

Caved In ByNickKryshaknkryshak@wisc.edu

EvilBird ByCaitlinKiriharakirihara@wisc.edu

dailycardinal.com Wednesday, October 10, 2012•7

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Sports DailyCarDinal.ComweDneSDay oCtober 10, 2012

L ast March in Duluth, Minn., Wisconsin for-ward Brianna Decker

won the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, the Heisman Trophy of women’s hockey. Decker, a junior at the time, was asked almost immediately after winning the award if she

thought she would do so again as a senior.

Despite Decker’s success that season—and also the team’s, which played in the national championship game the following day—her senior-season expectations and sto-rylines had already begun sprouting. Since that day the pressure on Decker to succeed has only increased.

Decker’s hockey career began back when she was just four years old, scrapping on the ice or in the driveway with her older brothers. Like any younger sister, she wanted to mimic her two older siblings, Ben and Brian, who loved any form of competition and there-fore included Brianna in their after-school games.

Brianna was naturally the underdog; there was no pres-sure on her to skate well or score goals. If anything, the pressure was on her brothers to keep her from outplaying them. For that reason—and also because of the innate, unspoken older brother hierarchy—they didn’t take it easy on her.

Ben said the two-on-two games (Brianna’s younger brother, Brody, eventually joined) often led to pushing and shoving, but Brianna wasn’t

afraid to shove back. Although she refined her hockey funda-mentals during her years play-ing in organized competition, Decker’s toughness on the ice links back to the games with her brothers.

“You look at her now on the ice, she usually comes out of

the corner with the puck,” Ben said. “I probably should take credit,” he joked.

Hockey initially sparked Decker’s interest because she admired her older brothers; she enjoyed the competition and developed a deep passion for the game the more she played.

Now a senior captain on the No. 4 Wisconsin women’s hockey team, expectations—and pres-sure, at least in some fashion—for Decker couldn’t be higher.

Her Badger teammates and coaches chose the Dousman, Wis., native to lead them on the ice, where it’s assumed she will be the best player each night.

The LaBahn Arena, a $34 million facility and new home to Wisconsin women’s hockey, will open Oct. 19 and Decker has just one season to leave her mark. However, she’s managed to flip any pressure that might come with the preseason story-lines in a positive light.

“It’s a lot of things to factor into this year, but dealing with pressure is kind of a privilege,” Decker said. “I know what my role is, and I just need to stick to everything that I know. I can’t think of [this season’s goal] as trying to back up last season.”

Decker will wear the captain ‘C’ patch this year, courtesy of

the votes from her teammates and coaches. All returning per-sonnel, including head coach Mark Johnson, are allowed a write-in vote, on which they must list whom they believe would make the best captain and assistant captains.

Beyond a simple ranking of players, however, the votes include explanations for why each player deserves a captain-cy. Johnson believes in giving his personnel extensive input, and he reviews the compilation of votes with his coaching staff before ultimately choosing the team’s captains.

“It usually tells a story. Sometimes you get surprised by the story, but certainly Brianna has grown as a player and matured as an individual,” Johnson said. “Now is her time to lead this team.”

Decker’s leadership starts with her consistent approach to preparation. She has acquired a genuine desire “to do the extra little things,” accord-ing to senior defenseman and assistant captain Stefanie McKeough. As cliché as it sounds, Decker is routinely one of the last players on the ice

after practice, either putting in extra repetitions for herself or zipping passes to a teammate who’s working on her slap shot.

That’s the type of example every coach wants to see from all of his players, regardless of whether she’s won the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award.

“If you want to be a better player and you’re confused how to do it, you just have to watch her,” Johnson said.

Decker doesn’t flip the switch on her practice and training regi-men once the Badgers’ season wraps up, either. Between prepa-ration for another collegiate season and commitments to USA Hockey, one would be hard-pressed to define Decker’s offseason.

“She’s always had the men-tality the offseason is just as important as the regular season and that, you know, she’s gotta bust balls,” Ben said.

When Decker returns to Dousman to visit her family—time most would spend relax-ing, regardless of whether their plate was as full as Decker’s—she makes time to complete her workouts. Even after the weight lifts and sprints, Decker and the extra repetitions some-

how cross paths. In this case, they intersect in the basement, where Decker pounds hockey pucks with her brothers into a net against the wall.

“When we’re home, we’re always bored,” Ben said. “We probably shoot 300 pucks each time we’re down there.”

While Decker primarily leads by example, she vocally directs her teammates if her actions don’t offer enough guidance. She isn’t the type of captain who incessantly barks directions, and she doesn’t coddle her teammates with an overdose of encouragement.

Instead, Decker’s verbal lead-ership falls somewhere between the two: She senses when some-one needs a boost after making a good play, but she certainly isn’t afraid to take charge and hold her teammates accountable.

“Off the ice she’s a jokester, but on the ice you don’t want to mess with her,” McKeough said. “The freshmen are com-ing in, and she’s earning their respect that way.”

This is the first installment of a two-part story. Check Thursday’s issue of the Daily Cardinal for the second installment.

One last go-aroundThe nation’s top player a season ago, Brianna Decker

returns to Madison for her senior year to lead the Badgers in their inaugural season at the LaBahn Arena

Story by Vince Huth

wil gibb/The DAiLy cArDinAL

Senior forward Brianna Decker enters the season as one of four Badgers to ever win the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award.

wil gibb/The DAiLy cArDinAL