Bill Berner compares himself to Igor, the famed lab assistant to Dr. Frankenstein. Both toil in windowless basement laboratories - though Berner's is in David Rittenhouse Laboratory, not Bavaria. Berner, like Igor, concocts things that buzz, fizz and bang, although the professors he works with aren't insane; they're in Penn's Physics department.

This year, budding entrepreneurs competing for thousands of dollars worth of prizes in the Wharton Business Plan Competition need to fulfill an additional criterion - they must be Indian. The annual competition - which usually requires that candidates be affiliated with the University - recently teamed up with a leading Indian newspaper to offer the same entrepreneurial opportunities to Indian college students.

A quick fix for Penn InTouch isn't going to make class registration any easier, officials say, but neither will just talking about it. Penn InTouch has been under heightened scrutiny since last month, when Engineering and Wharton senior Danny Panzer released ClassBuster, a computer program that notifies users when space in a closed-out class opens up.

Just as a rubber bracelet fad struck America a few years ago, terra cotta ornaments were all the range in ancient India, one anthropologist says. University of California at Los Angeles professor Monica Smith used colorful PowerPoint slides to discuss the findings from her excavation of the ancient Indian city of Sisupalgarh yesterday in the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - On Saturday night, Harold Ford Jr. was in fine form. Saturday marked the first debate in the Tennessee Senate race - a race that may decide which party controls the Senate come January - and Ford, the Democrat and a 1992 College graduate, certainly had his own style.

'Do you bat, or bowl?" The question catches me off-guard. I don't do either, and certainly not nearly as well as these guys do.

It was about two in the morning 365 days ago after another long night as a DP sports editor. I was about ready to leave the office when I got an interesting phone call from another editor. He told me that he had heard from a friend of his that his football-player roommate was abruptly summoned somewhere, and the roommate returned in tears.

LEWISBURG, Pa.- Marcello Trigg took the snap early in the second quarter likely already thinking he could have picked a better week for his first college start. The Bucknell quarterback rolled left and looked for a receiver, but all he saw was Penn linebacker Joe Anastasio, who one quarter earlier had laid out Trigg just as he delivered a pass.

Penn, journalism and the sports world lost one of its great figures on Sunday when Frank Dolson died at the age of 73. Dolson, a former sports editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian and a 1954 Wharton grad, wrote for Sports Illustrated, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Evening Bulletin.

In certain respects, Ben Eithun is the typical all-American jock - he stands 6 feet 4 inches, weighs 265 pounds and was once a lineman for his football team at Edgewood College. But one thing separates him from the rest of the pack: He is a male nurse.

Rufus Wainwright may be an acclaimed musician, but even he makes mistakes from time to time.

WILMINGTON, Del. - The jury for Wharton undergraduate Irina Malinovskaya deliberated all day Friday but left for the holiday weekend without coming to a decision.

When students are denied on-campus housing, most quickly scramble to find space off campus.

High-school seniors planning on applying early to college next fall will not have Harvard University as an option - and some say that Harvard's loss could be Penn's gain.

Provost Ron Daniels fulfilled one of his dreams yesterday at the Greek Week trivia bowl in Huntsman Hall - he got to be a fraternity guy.

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

As sophomore Mike Klein streaked down the right side of the box in the 105th minute, feelings of deja vu started to set in. Only one year ago at Columbia, he had buried a game-winning goal in overtime to end a most physical and hard-fought match. But Saturday at Rhodes Field was different.