Columnists - The Daily Cardinal

COLUMNS

Column: Ranking college football's best coaches in the midseason Shad Poll

By Rushad Machhi | Nov. 10, 2014

Guess who’s back, back again? The Shad Poll’s back, tell a friend!

COLUMNS

Heisman Watch: Week 11

By Jim Dayton | Nov. 6, 2014

This is the eighth edition of the Heisman Watch, a weekly feature tracking the candidates for college football’s most prestigious award. For last week’s rankings, click here.

COLUMNS

‘Interstellar’ inspires awe and tears

By Austin Wellens | Nov. 5, 2014

So here’s the thing. My original plan was to run out tonight, catch the first screening of Christopher Nolan’s newest work, “Interstellar,” collect my thoughts and calmly put down some words about the movie. However when I made these plans, I wasn’t expecting the film to be the full body spiritual gut punch experience that I just had (and am still kind of shaking from).

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Column: Night games rewarding for fans and the university

By Grey Satterfield | Nov. 5, 2014

As you’re reading this, the chance of the Wisconsin Nebraska football game being played at 7:00 p.m. is about 1 percent. For argument’s sake, I’d say a 2:30 start is 50% and 11:00 is 49%.

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Holiday episodes spread no cheer

By Jake Smasal | Nov. 4, 2014

Halloween has now come and gone and with it have gone the smattering of Halloween-related sitcom episodes that have graced both network and cable alike. Soon, Thanksgiving and Christmas episodes will usher us into the most wonderful time of the year. As such, I figured I would take this opportunity to break down the trope that is the “Holiday Episode.”

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Column: Koenig capable of replacing Brust as UW's star guard

By Rushad Machhi | Nov. 3, 2014

As the weather outside gets frightful, the jumpers of Dekker and Kaminsky will be oh so delightful. That’s right folks, the college basketball season is a little over a week away from starting, and Wisconsin is near the top of the preseason rankings.

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Column: Tracking the Bucks' sad recent history

By Jim Dayton | Nov. 2, 2014

The Milwaukee Bucks are coming off the worst record in franchise history, have had exactly one winning season in the past 11 years and are projected to top out at around 30 wins in 2014-’15.

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Heisman Watch: Week 10

By Jim Dayton | Oct. 30, 2014

This is the seventh edition of the Heisman Watch, a weekly feature tracking the candidates for college football’s most prestigious award. For last week’s rankings, click here.

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All hail the sexual ambiguity of Kalinda Sharma

By Conor Murphy | Oct. 29, 2014

I’ve recently started binge watching “The Good Wife,” one of CBS’ hour-long prime-time dramas. While I’d heard of the show before, it wasn’t until I saw Julianna Margulies’ speech after winning her second Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series that I thought I should give the show a try.

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BBC’s ‘Peaky Blinders’ perfectly melds crime with history in post-war era drama

By Jake Smasal | Oct. 28, 2014

If there’s one thing television does not lack, it’s shows about criminals. If there’s one thing Netflix doesn’t lack, it’s acclaimed BBC dramas. “Peaky Blinders” fills both of these criteria. The BBC’s slow-burning drama about life for one gang in post-WWI Birmingham showcases life and criminality in what is undoubtedly one of the dirtiest cities I have ever seen (on television).

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Column: Impressions from the first College Football Playoff rankings

By Grey Satterfield | Oct. 28, 2014

A new era of college football is finally upon us. Last night, the selection committee handed down its rankings from on high. Now, instead of complaining between who’s No. 2 and No. 3 we can complain about who’s No. 4 and No. 5. In a way, there’s a new paradigm in college football and, in another way, nothing has changed a bit.

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Following the development of horror over time

By Maham Hasan | Oct. 28, 2014

Clive Barker once said that horror fiction shows us that the control we believe we have is purely illusory, and that every moment we teeter on chaos and oblivion. It’s a curious thing to say, but it makes you wonder. Where did the need to scare come from? What caused the birth of horror literature? What would induce someone to wake up one day and concoct a milieu of elements designed to do nothing but inspire the existence of fear within the imagination of those who cross paths with it?

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Looking back at favorite bands from the tween years

By Brian Weidy and Ryan Weinkauf | Oct. 28, 2014

In the late ’90s, I wasn’t old enough to use a second hand to count my age. With that being said, you may be wondering why that era’s rock music brings me back to my tweenage years. It all starts at camp, the place where my musical horizons expanded beyond the purview of 50 Cent and everyone else that can be generously lumped into the category of party rap.

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Column: Remembering Oscar Taveras

By Bobby Ehrlich | Oct. 27, 2014

Twenty-two years old.

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Column: Predicting the four teams of the College Football Playoff

By Negassi Tesfamichael and Rushad Machhi | Oct. 27, 2014

Finally, it’s the moment we have all been waiting for, the first edition of Shad’s College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings of the season.

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Column: Autograph scandals are an NCAA creation

By Jim Dayton | Oct. 27, 2014

Let’s all give some kudos to the NCAA. It has somehow managed to challenge the NFL’s level of hypocrisy, something not thought possible in the last month with pro football’s chronic domestic violence issues.

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Delving into horror-themed games

By Alex Lovendahl | Oct. 26, 2014

The two newest video game consoles, the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, are somewhat lacking in games you can play with your friends. The PlayStation 4 actually has numerous great titles, but they mostly run the gamut of smaller independent titles. I recommend the excellent “Nidhogg,” “TowerFall Ascension” and “Sportsfriends.” While all three together cost less than a $60 retail game, they also don’t look like games one might expect to see on powerful new game consoles—“Towerfall” and “Nidhogg” both utilize the pixel art graphical style from the medium’s early days, and “Sportsfriends” combines pixel art with an animated cartoon aesthetic.

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Heisman Watch: Week 9

By Jim Dayton | Oct. 23, 2014

This is the sixth edition of the Heisman Watch, a weekly feature tracking the candidates for college football’s most prestigious award. For last week's rankings, click here.

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Auguring the future of movie universes

By Austin Wellens | Oct. 22, 2014

So I want to talk a little about definitions. Mostly, I want to talk about the fact that TV and movies are, more and more, the same thing, sort of? Because they maybe weren’t so different in the first place? But all that comes later. First, we have to talk about comic books.

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Column: Tony Romo deserves your respect

By Jack Baer | Oct. 22, 2014

A few years ago, I wouldn’t have thought it possible that I’d be expressing sympathy for a guy who spent several nights of passion with Jessica Simpson (in her prime) on a Caribbean island, but here we are.