Through a round of "speed-friending" and a game of Taboo last night, Hillel and Penn's chapter of the NAACP hoped to tackle the taboo topic of race and religious relations on campus and help students from Penn's Jewish and black communities get better-acquainted.

Penn coach Glen Miller doesn't know exactly how Harvard's Tommy Amaker handled his squad after it upset then-No. 17 Boston College earlier this month, but he did have some ideas. "I only speak for ourselves, but the first thing I would do with my team, if we had a win like that over somebody, is I would have a difficult practice the next day," Miller said.

Rush just ended, which, though a relief (or disappointment) for many, also means for the time being we won't be judging people as much, at least formally. Throughout history, in admitting people to various clubs, we often judged them on their origins - race, gender, religion, wealth: largely superficial ideals about who we wanted to belong.

President Barack Obama wants to make sure you can pay for college next year. His financial stimulus package, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday by a vote of 244 to 188. The $819 billion bill has a variety of measures aimed at bolstering the economy, but a large section is devoted specifically to financing education.

Lauren Sadaka can't wait for the women's tennis season to begin. Individually, the team captain is undefeated in Ivy League play and would love to cap off her senior season with an Ivy League title. "There's a good feeling about the team this year," Sadaka said.

Although the next campus election is nowhere in sight, the Nominations and Elections Committee is already promising change. The student group responsible for running campus elections has planned a retreat and diversity workshop for Feb. 7. The day-long event will contemplate the current dearth of diversity in student organizations and strive to create a leadership that actively reflects campus demographics.

A challenge to sustain Penn To the Editor: I attended the Founder's Day Symposium on sustainability and left feeling thoroughly uninspired. As a student who feels a deep commitment to working toward solutions to the environmental crisis, I was greatly discouraged by what amounted to 120 minutes of professors patting themselves on their backs for the progress Penn has made in the field of sustainability.

The FDA's recent approval of the world's first clinical trial of human embryonic stem cells has been praised by scientists and students alike. Experts at Penn say the approval is a step in the right direction and are hopeful that the federal government will fund similar trials in the future.

Philadelphia Police are still investigating a shooting that occurred on the 3900 block of Ludlow Street Monday night. They have no suspects at this time, a spokesman said. A man and a woman were taken into Philadelphia Police custody for questioning on Monday night, according to Division of Public Safety spokeswoman Stef Cella.

Daniel Schwartz is an College junior from Decatur, Ga. His e-mail address is schwartz@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Bedridden patients at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania might be surprised to find a strange man walk into their rooms, guitar in hand, and play uplifting soft rock. But that's all in a day's work for members of WXPN's Musicians on Call program, a charity organization whose bedside performances have brightened the lives of over 15,000 patients at four area hospitals.

The Penn women's basketball team fell to 0-3 in the Ivy League and 3-14 overall with an ugly 56-39 loss to Dartmouth With Carrie Biemer in for only nine minutes in the first half due to foul trouble, Penn struggled mightily offensively and trailed 21-15 at halftime.

Taking the concept of the "social Ivy" to heart, some students spend their NSO stumbling down Beige Block, while others opt to stay in with cocoa and online Scrabble. The Undergraduate Assembly believes a happy medium exists between the two. The UA is developing more diverse late-night activity options for freshmen hoping to taste the Penn party scene during next fall's NSO.

Against Philadelphia teams, the Penn men's tennis squad knows how to win - and win big. In their first match of the season, the Quakers beat Drexel, 7-0. Yesterday, the Red and Blue won another 7-0 match, this time against Temple. The Quakers, now 2-0, were able to keep the Owls (1-3) off the scoreboard by winning all of their doubles matches.

For the Hub buildings on the west end of Penn's campus, the third time seems to be the charm. Hub 3939, an avant-garde apartment building, will break ground this spring, according to Paul Sehnert, director of real estate development at Penn. "Hub [3939] will bring a new vibrancy to the corner," he said.

Last Saturday, I went down to the Wachovia Center to attend the extras casting call for M. Night Shyamalan's upcoming film, The Last Airbender. Based off a popular Nickelodeon cartoon series with a cult following, the movie depicts a fantasy world divided into four regions, each dominated by a particular element: Fire, Water, Earth and Air.

According to Christian Lander, the idea behind his popular blog "Stuff White People Like" began when a "shamelessly racist" friend advised him not to trust white people that don't watch The Wire. Instead of watching the HBO series, Lander said, these white people were spending their time doing such white things as going to yoga, receiving therapy and getting divorced.