Playing with Barbies might seen like an innocent pastime, but tonight Barbie isn't just going on a date with Ken - she's going to rehab. Bloomers, the all-female musical comedy group, will perform its fall show, "Barbie shows her Bloomers" tonight from 8 to 10 p.

When 10-year-old Nicole and her dad travel two-and-a-half hours from central Pennsylvania each week so she can undergo chemotherapy, her visit is always brightened by the company of a few furry, four-legged friends. Yesterday, Nicole and other guests at the Ronald McDonald House - a home away from home for families of children being treated at local medical facilities - enjoyed a special Halloween treat of puppies dressed as pumpkins, princesses and Phillies players.

By NANDANIE KHILALL Staff Writer nandanie@dailypennsylvanian.com PSYC 001. ENGL 100. SPAN 120. You might want to think twice before pegging courses like these as part of a liberal arts student's course schedule. According to The Wall Street Journal, undergraduate business students are increasingly taking courses like these to help add a new dimension to the skills learned in their business classes.

Summer camps, perseverance and Sarah Palin were all subjects of comedian and director David Wain's presentation yesterday evening. Hillel's Social and Cultural Committee invited Wain to discuss his cult classic, Wet Hot American Summer, and his newest film, Role Models.

Researchers at Penn's School of Nursing have found that sexual-assault injuries are more easily detected in light-skinned women than in dark-skinned ones, potentially putting black women at a disadvantage in the health-care and legal systems. In the study, published in the November issue of The American Journal of Emergency Medicine, 120 women were examined after engaging in consensual sexual intercourse.

A number of incidents involving large groups of teenagers on the western end of Penn's campus have prompted Penn and Philadelphia Police to take action to control the area. The Division of Public Safety began noticing the crowds over the summer and, as a result, is improving lighting and coordinating with local businesses to improve area security.

The exhaustive voter-registration efforts that marked this year's election may have resulted in more voters than Philadelphia's polling places can handle, according to the Committee of Seventy, a Philadelphia political watchdog group.

Complaints from Penn students about the customer service at the McDonald's restaurant on 40th and Walnut streets prompted the company to fire some of its employees last week. Following an incident that occurred at the restaurant in the early hours of Sunday, Oct.

New study spaces called Incubation Stations in the Weiss Tech House will provide students with more room to think this semester. The larger of the two rooms features a wall-to-wall white board, projection equipment and new computers fully stocked with software such as Matlab and Adobe Creative Suite.

Even CEOs have to silence their BlackBerrys sometimes. In the Advanced Management Program, part of Wharton's Executive Education department, high-level executives and government officials leave their busy lives at work and return to taking notes in the classroom.

Theft: Oct. 23 - Someone reported that GPS devices, left in plain sight, were stolen from an automobile and ambulance on the 4200 block of Sansom Street at 12:30 p.m. Oct. 23 - Two male students, 18 and 20, reported that their unattended wallets were stolen from an unsecured room at the Iron Gate Theatre, located on the corner of 37th and Chestnut streets, a little before 5 p.

Before applying to college, many high-school seniors consult the U.S. News and World Report's annual ranking of American colleges and universities. Now, however, they have another consideration: how their top choice stacks up against universities around the world.

Eat breakfast, study for midterms, pray to God - although not necessarily in that order. For a large portion of Penn students, daily or weekly prayer is an integral part of their schedule. According to associate chaplain Stephen Kocher, "On some level, the majority of Penn students and staff are engaged in some sort of prayer in a regular basis," although how they do so varies across the board.

The high school sophomores taking the PSATs used to be the ones getting an early start on SAT preparations. But now, a new test from the College Board is putting pressure on students to start preparing as early as middle school. Readistep - a pre-SAT test announced by the College Board last week - aims to help eighth-grade students begin preparing for high school and college.

For many Penn students, Sunday morning doesn't start until at least noon. Not so, however, for 10 brothers from the Sigma Nu fraternity. Using only bed sheets, spray paint and determination, the brothers woke up early Sunday morning to build a community haunted house for the People's Emergency Center, a social service agency located on 39th Street just north of Powelton Avenue that provides housing and assistance for families facing homelessness and poverty.

In the midst of the economic crisis, relations between the U.S. and China - a growing economic superpower - may play a crucial role. Zhou Wenzhong, who has been China's ambassador to the U.S. since 2005, discussed this relationship yesterday in a lecture

What's your anti-drug? For many targets of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign - a five-year, $1 billion effort by the federal government to promote drug-resistance skills, alternatives and negative consequences - it doesn't seem to matter. A recent evaluation led by the Annenberg School for Communication found little correlation between exposure to anti-drug advertisements and anti-drug beliefs.