THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1969 The Snuggle House: a firsthand account The up and running controversial business opened its arms to the Herald on a cold, windy Friday.
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Monday, November 25, 2013 | Volume 45, Issue 25
Memorial Union transformed into Harry Potter wonderland Students dressed as characters from the popular series flocked to this year’s Yule Ball sponsored by the WUD Publications Committee Saturday night.
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Gophers get axed in Minneapolis Badgers dominate Minnesota en route to 20-7 win in 123rd Border Battle game Nick Daniels Sports Editor MINNEAPOLIS — After being billed as the game to bring the famous rivalry for Paul Bunyan’s Axe back into relevancy, No. 19 Wisconsin (9-2, 6-1 Big Ten) and No. 25 Minnesota (8-3, 4-3 Big Ten) didn’t disappoint as the Badgers outlasted the Gophers in a 20-7 win in front of a record-breaking crowd Saturday at TCF Bank Stadium. With 53,090 mostly maroon and gold-clad fans in the stands to open the game, the 15-point favorite Badgers seemed far from the same ho-hum offense that annihilated the Hoosiers just one
week earlier. Struggling throughout the first quarter to establish any type of offensive pressure, senior running back James White’s first-play, 49-yard run deep into Gopher territory would set up sophomore Jack Russell for a 31-yard field goal. But that would be all the favors Minnesota’s defense would be doing for the Badgers early on. Throughout the rest of the quarter, Wisconsin’s potent run game would earn only 16 more yards on the ground, as the Badgers and Gophers traded punts — neither team able to dictate the flow of the game. Then in the second quarter it seemed that the game might be slipping into Minnesota’s favor when Aaron Hill intercepted a Joel Stave pass on Wisconsin’s first drive of the quarter and took it back 39 yards for a quick pick-six and
Minnesota’s first lead of the game. However, as the quarter wore on, the Wisconsin defense continued to provide the offense with good field position. Starting on Minnesota’s 49-yard line after senior linebacker Chris Borland recovered a fumble with 5 minutes, 38 seconds remaining in the half, a 19-yard James White run and 20-yard pass from Stave to redshirt senior Jacob Pedersen, positioned the Badgers within the Minnesota 10-yard line. Four plays later, White would punch in Wisconsin’s first touchdown from oneyard line to regain the lead. “The turnovers were huge for us in this game,” head coach Gary Andersen said. “They gave us an opportunity to get some points and get out of drives
A decade of dominance
AXED, Sports page 10
Andy Fate The Badger Herald
After defeating Minnesota 20-7 Saturday, Wisconsin has now won the last 10 matchups.
IceCube finds energy in south UW recognized as leading institution on particle detector in Antarctica Lindsey Gapen Reporter
Jen Small The Badger Herald Adellah Taïa said a scandal in Morocco in 2007 brought media attention to issues of homosexuality and increased efforts to change public perceptions.
Moroccan writer talks adversity Author, filmmaker highlights his struggle as openly gay man in Middle Eastern society Maddie Makoul Herald Contributor Abdellah Taïa, one of the first openly gay, French-speaking authors from the Middle East spoke about his personal struggles as a gay man in society and how queer rights in Arab nations are changing at a lecture held Friday.
Taïa, an author and filmmaker, first acknowledged his sexuality in a public letter to his family in 2009. Taïa has written four novels, two collections of short stories and numerous essays. One of his novels, which was adapted into a film, translates to “Salvation Army.” The novel reveals how an
individual deals with the reality of daily life in Morocco, where one has to be careful to hide their sexuality to “save your head,” Taïa said. Taïa said he felt very lonely as a child and said he truly believed he was the only gay person in Morocco, but years later he realized this was not the case.
“I tried to be positive, not to put the blame on my parents or my mother, or even Morocco,” Taïa said. “I always try to say it was not their fault. If it was the fault of someone, it was society and how it works. And yet now I am fully aware of how society works, how they
WRITER, page 2
Buried a mile underneath the ice of Antarctica, the University of Wisconsin’s south pole particle detector, IceCube Neutrino Observatory, has discovered unprecedented amounts of energy beneath the surface and recently has attracted some national media attention in the science community. Francis Halzen, principal investigator of the project, said IceCube is a “big detector” that identifies neutrinos. “Think of IceCube as a big eye whose main mission is to take a picture of the sky, but instead of seeing light it sees neutrinos,” Halzen said. Halzen said neutrinos are essentially subatomic particles in the cosmos that, unlike light, have the capability to travel through walls. Neutrinos have no mass, he said. Halzen said the IceCube project emerged about 25 years ago with the idea to put a particle detector in a block of ice one mile deep in Antarctica. Workers
on the IceCube project finished building the particle detector in 2010, Halzen said. “What we have now are the results of three years of data,” Halzen said. Halzen said IceCube researchers working with the particle detractor have discovered an enormous amount of energy ever before seen in a photo. He added 28 neutrinos from the cosmos were discovered, the equivalent of making a picture in the sky with 28 pixels. The future goal with the project is to discover more neutrinos and try to map the universe, Halzen said. “Getting more pixels in our sky map is the first priority,” Halzen said. Halzen said only about one-third of IceCube is focused on this task, however, since IceCube is also focused on other projects such as detecting dark matter. He added that neutrinos are the main mission since they have more than a thousand times the energy than any accelerator.
ICECUBE, page 4
First TEDxUWMadison event features professors’ ideas Allie Johnson News Content Editor Five University of Wisconsin professors speaking on topics ranging from the relevance of music to stem cell research to the effects of the Internet on stimulating debate were chosen as part of TEDxUWMadison, the university’s first independently organized Technology, Entertainment and Design event held
Saturday. TEDxUWMadison, and other events like it, are organized independently from the original TED conference, but are designed to follow the same concept of bringing in speakers to share ideas worth spreading, according to a TEDxUWMadison statement. This year’s event revolved around the theme, “Learning in unexpected places,” and all five speakers shared different
insights from their various areas of research. Why music? Afro-American studies professor, Alexander Shashko said the way people listen to music has become the most dominant focus of the music world, in some ways eclipsing the importance of the reasons why people listen to music. Shashko reminded the audience the most important thing about music is why they listen to
it. “Ultimately, why do we care about music, why does music matter?” Shashko said. “Because [music] affects us in some way. It makes us feel, it makes us think, it makes us laugh or cry, we can hear it in the experiences we’ve had.” Shashko encouraged the audience to think about what music means and the messages it can carry for society. Music has wisdom to
© 2013 BADGER HERALD
impart if people listen closely, Shashko said. “Challenge your own preconceptions,” Shashko said. “Listen to music you’ve chosen to ignore, that you actively dislike.” Human brain development Waisman Center researcher Anita Bhattacharyya advocated for learning through stem cell and regenerative medicine research. Bhattacharyya said
researchers discovered recently it is possible to study early human brain developments through stem cells found in skin cells. Bhattacharyya added the information gained from stem cells can be used to bridge the gap between animal and human clinical trials because new medicines can be tested on these cells to measure their toxicity for humans.
TEDxUWMadison, page 4