Thanks in part to the University, crime is down - and hopefully staying that way.

Some students at Penn seem to be of one school of thought when it comes to West Philadelphia. An extremely negative view was expressed most recently by a cartoon published on this editorial page. Displaying prominently at the top the caption "Shopping in West Philly," it showed a Chinese food truck with what looks like three white students waiting to pay for their food.

Aside from debate tournaments and quiz bowl competitions, it isn't often that the Ivy League thoroughly and consistently dominates its opponents. But this year members of the Patriot League found out the hard way that the Ancient Eight can excel in athletics also, as they lost the season football series 14-4.

Lax enforcement has led to many cyclists whizzing by pedestrians on Locust Walk, creating a safety hazard.

Senior running back Joe Sandberg continued his solid season Saturday with 101 yards on 21 carries. The 4.8 yards per carry that Sandberg gained in Penn's 16-0 win over Columbia actually lowered his league-leading average from 6.0 to 5.7 yards per carry. Sandberg also ranks third in rushing yards in the Ivy League, behind Yale's Mike McLeod and Harvard's Clifton Dawson, and he has five touchdowns, also good for third, behind the same duo.

At age 13, author Daphne Oz saw her father perform heart surgery on a patient in the hospital. As her father cut open the patient's chest and squeezed the built-up fat out of an artery, he explained to her what had led to the man's feeble condition. "He said it was a direct result of the man's unhealthy eating habits throughout his entire life," Oz said.

Only 28 percent of volleyball recruits who enter as freshmen end their senior years still on the team.

If the fall season indicates how well the men's golf team will do come the more important spring season, the Quakers have a successful season to look forward to. The team finished tied for second at this weekend's Big 5 Classic held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.

Dawn came at 7:12 this morning, and the sun will shine for a little over 11 hours until dusk arrives at 6:20 this evening. The precise number of daylight hours may have no bearing on the typical Penn student's sleep schedule or mealtimes. But for the University's Muslim student population during the holy month of Ramadan, the sun governs when to eat, when to sleep and when to pray.

It was a good weekend for Penn field hockey players Nicole Black and Tracy Statter. The duo combined for all six of the goals the Quakers put on the board during their 3-2 victory over Columbia and 3-0 shutout of Drexel, with each contributing three. But those goals took some setting up.

Nursing sophomore Shannon Hemschoot went for a run this weekend, but it had more meaning for her than the average jog. Hemschoot, whose mother died of breast cancer, participated yesterday in the sixth annual Rena Rowan Ribbon 5K Run to benefit those suffering from the disease.

Lawyers had two chances to convict Irina Malinovskaya of murder - it's time to give up the case.

Laura Rugarber is a College of General Studies graduate student. Her e-mail address is rugarber@dailypennsylvanian.com.

It wasn't the offensive futility that defined the Penn women's soccer team's loss to Dartmouth yesterday. And it wasn't the injuries to the Quakers' frontline or their severely altered rotation. According to coach Darren Ambrose, Penn's 1-0 loss could be described in four simple words: "One mistake, one goal.

Not too long ago, I thought economics was about making money and getting rich. Now I know it's about using weird mathematical models to understand human behavior and perhaps try and predict what will happen, and then - says the joke- use some more of that math to explain why those predictions were wrong.

Over the weekend at the Palestra, the Penn volleyball team faced two Ivy rivals in Columbia and Cornell, but it seemed like two separate Quakers teams that came away with a dominating win and a disappointing loss. On Friday night, a bigger, stronger and more athletic Quakers team controlled the tempo against Columbia from start to finish en route to a 3-0 victory.

Before last weekend's sprint football game, senior quarterback Mike Loguidice told his team in the tunnel, "We're not letting them think they can run all over us." But the Quakers might not have been able to do too much about it. Army wore down Penn's defense, and the Quakers were unable to build up any offensive strength, as the Black Knights won 16-7.