Penn's early decision acceptance rate increased this year to 32 percent, up from last year's all-time low of 28 percent. The higher acceptance rate is a result of the fact that fewer students applied early, Dean of Admissions Eric Furda said. This year, Penn received 3,666 early decision applications, compared to last year's 3,912.

Sometimes the best way to appreciate something is to miss it altogether. On Tuesday morning, the more than a million people on Washington, D.C.'s National Mall screamed a clear message: Barack Obama had been sworn in as President of the United States. The message punctured the barricades around the Mall, saying to those who didn't even know the presidential oath had been administered, "you've missed it, history happened without you.

According to the Nebraska Corn Board, there are more than 3,500 different uses for the almost omnipresent vegetable. Ethanol, high-fructose corn syrup and starch are just some of the more prominent maize manifestations. The Penn wrestling team (6-4, 3-0 EIWA) hopes to add "redemption" to that list when it battles the No.

Mark Froot has battled back pain since he was 14 years old. So after aggravating his back earlier this week, the junior anticipated a struggle entering last night's match against Franklin & Marshall. "You kind of know when you're about to go through a peak or a valley," he said.

In Penn's penultimate tuneup for conference play, two different teams showed up for the Red and Blue. The first team was the one Penn fans have grown all too familiar with this season. You know it well. It's the squad on which no player in particular wants to run anything resembling a play on offense.

Even though Martin Luther King, Jr. Day has passed, the University continues to celebrate his life and work. The annual MLK Interfaith Program and Award Ceremony, which will take place this evening at 6 p.m. in Bodek Lounge in Houston Hall, is part of Penn's two-week-long "Commemorative Symposium on Social Change" designed to honor King.

Amira Fawcett is an Engineering senior from Houston. Her e-mail address is fawcett@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Staying up late to finish that term paper may cause more than just a need for coffee the next morning. According to a study released by Carnegie Mellon University, people who sleep fewer than seven hours per night are almost three times more susceptible to the common cold than people who get adequate rest.

Move over James Bond-- Penn Engineers are the new heroes. On Jan. 4, a four-member team consisting of a professor, a hydro-geologist and two undergraduate engineers chosen by Penn's Engineers Without Borders program travelled to Cameroon, a country in West Central Africa, to bring sanitary water to the village of Gundom.

Hillel is up and running again after flooding on Saturday from a sprinkler break caused the building to close for about 24 hours. "We worked diligently that day and night to make sure the building was accessible to everyone the next day," said Hillel Operations Director Bob Williams.

When President Barack Obama declared in his inaugural speech two days ago that "America is a friend of each nation ... and we are ready to lead once more," many hoped that a new era had dawned in U.S. foreign policy. With this in mind, Penn students and faculty members gathered yesterday in Houston Hall for an open discussion about the international challenges facing the Obama administration.

The efforts of coaches and a special vote in December helped put into place the men's and women's Ivy League lacrosse tournaments that will now determine the league's automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament, according to Ivy League Executive Director Jeff Orleans.

One of two things could have cemented Penn's final resting place on the bottom of the Big 5 food chain: the 17 first-half points for Penn, or the nine-minute scoreless streak. The last twenty minutes, however, did show that it's still territory worth fighting for.