It's already that time again. Just two days after men's basketball was virtually eliminated from Ivy League championship contention, the first step toward the next football season took place. Penn Athletics released the 2009 football schedule around noon yesterday.

Before New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof spoke to a packed audience last night, he sat down with The Daily Pennsylvanian to discuss politics, catching malaria in the Congo and the future of journalism. The Daily Pennsylvanian: What led you to journalism and The New York Times? Nicholas Kristof: In eighth grade, there was a meeting of our student newspaper, and I didn't show up.

Ilana Millner is an College junior from Washington Crossing, Pa. Her e-mail address is millner@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Since 1975, the boundaries of the Penn Police Patrol Zone haven't budged: north to south from Market Street to Baltimore Avenue and east to west from 30th to 43rd streets. But rising rent prices close to campus and West Philadelphia's improving image have spurred a swelling Penn community west of the Penn Patrol Zone's 43rd Street boundary.

Joining Juicy Campus as another college-centric site to shut down unexpectedly in the past week, Ruckus, the online music service promoted as a legal alternative to music piracy, has come to an end with no explanation. The closure of the service, which Penn adopted in 2006, comes on the heels of the Recording Industry Association of America's decision last December to stop filing lawsuits against individuals for file-sharing.

Psych 166 students had a sweet start to the week as they experienced the psychology of savoring firsthand with samples from Naked Chocolate, a dessert cafe that opened at 3421 Walnut St. this fall. "Introduction to Positive Psychology" professor Angela Duckworth provided a brief background on the topic of savoring, pointing out that attentiveness is key.

When she came to Penn, College freshman Janey Goldberg was set on living in the Radian, the off-campus luxury apartment building. She signed her lease in December - just as most freshmen were getting comfortable with their current living arrangements - but not all students were as well-organized.

UMOJA, the umbrella organization for 26 black student groups, elected its new board last week. The Daily Pennsylvanian sat down with College sophomore and newly-elected planning and facilitating chairman Ryan Jobson and College sophomore and newly-elected correspondence chairwoman Erica Holland.

While the men's tennis team struggled mightily this weekend on their Florida roadtrip, Jason Lin separated himself from the pack. The freshman recorded one of only two Penn victories Saturday against Florida Atlantic and lost in three hard-fought sets yesterday against No.

Philadelphia is strapped with a massive fiscal deficit. Budget cuts are looming over its vast infrastructure, threatening city jobs and services. The city's "savior" is a fresh-faced mayor facing a laundry list of problems who will likely make more enemies than friends by year's end.

Usually, inherited traits refer to eye color and blood type. However, new studies show that genetics can influence popularity as well. In a recent study, Harvard University sociology professor Nicholas Christakis found that a person's position in a social network is a result partially of his or her genetic background.

In response to the forced home invasion and sexual assaults of two Penn students in December, Penn's Division of Public Safety has begun to promote neighborhood and building safety via heightened landlord awareness and communication. This program, currently called "Vertical Town Watch," has the potential to be an effective tool.

Yale University Chief Investment Officer David Swensen and financial analyst Michael Schmidt wrote an op-ed in The New York Times late last month that caused quite a stir. No, their piece wasn't about university endowments or the state of the economy. They reached outside of their immediate comfort zone and made a case for dramatically changing the newspaper industry's business model.

Alicia Puglionesi is an College senior from Havertown, Pa. Her e-mail address is puglionesi@dailypennsylvanian.com.

On Friday night, the "Collegiate Bushrangers" and "Team U.S.A." convened in the Philomathean rooms of College Hall to debate the historical question: Is Australia the greatest ex-colony of Britain? The Australian team, composed of a delegation of Australian college students selected from institutions across the country, accepted the challenge to face a team of Penn undergraduates on just two day's notice.

No, they didn't right the Ivy ship against the defending champs, but you can't mark the Quakers down for creativity. Unable to build on a hot start from a fully-retooled starting five, Penn fell, 88-73, to Cornell Saturday night at the Palestra. The Red and Blue (5-13, 1-3 Ivy) now sit three games behind conference-leading Princeton, who improved to 4-0 in league play by downing Cornell (15-7, 5-1) and Columbia this weekend.

While RecycleMania is raging on campus, a researcher in the School of Medicine has created his own addition to the competition. Last year, Ed Bell, a researcher in the Medical School, devised a new recycling system to increase recycling in his lab by making it easier.