Saint Joseph's dominating 82-42 victory over Penn on Saturday raises the prospect of a winless Big 5 season, which would be Penn's first since 2000-01.

Earlier this week College sophomores Melissa Gunderson and Kristen Lange stood in the Penn Bookstore with a bad case of sticker shock. The price tag of their new Chemistry 101 book: nearly $300. "It's highway robbery," Lange said. And though alternative electronic textbooks - high-tech substitutes to pricey print versions - have been available for more than a decade, they have not yet taken root at Penn.

A pen is no longer the mightiest way to capture the public's attention. Over the past year, the number of Internet users who have visited a video-sharing Web site increased by 45 percent, according to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Internet Project.

Against one swimmer, the Quakers just have no answer. Against another team, they may just have all the answers. The men will face off against a pair of Ivy foes tomorrow at noon in New Haven. They will take on Yale - and its star swimmer, U.S. National Team member Alex Righi - as well as Dartmouth, the team sitting at the bottom of the Ivy standings.

Whether it was rocking the gym at local high school powerhouse Neumann-Goretti, or playing Division I at Saint Joseph's, Hawks sophomore D.J. Rivera has been playing basketball for quite some time. But for the first semester of this school year, he had to do something he'd never done before - he had to leave the court.

After counseling teenagers in Belize and promoting HIV/AIDS awareness in Malawi, Peace Corps volunteers are getting a little help themselves. Returning Peace Corps volunteers are recruited by universities and colleges participating in the Peace Corps Fellows/USA partner schools program, a national consortium of over 40 universities which offers returnees the opportunity to study in their programs at reduced tuition.

Over the first nine games of the season, the Penn men's basketball team held its opponent under 70 points only once. In the six games since, the Quakers have accomplished that feat five times. Granted, those better defensive numbers have come against the likes of NJIT and Florida Gulf Coast - hardly top-flight or even mid-major-level competition - but there are signs of progress, especially in the interior.

Wharton junior Felix Qu was arrested in connection to a domestic assault over winter break, but remains a student at the University. The arrest occurred after Qu, 20, got violent during an argument with his girlfriend about what courses to take for spring semester, Lt.

For the 40 percent of Penn students currently receiving financial aid, recent improvements to the program may have cracked open a few more doors.

Think Wharton grads can only talk the stock market? Think again: at least 19 of them also know how to sing. They call themselves the "Whartones," the co-ed a capella group for MBA students and their partners. And when it comes to a capella, this singing group means business.

Amira Fawcett is an Engineering junior from Houston, TX. Her e-mail address is fawcett@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Even in the dead of winter, campus is getting greener. Beginning in February, highly sophisticated sensors installed in 12 Harnwell rooms will monitor occupants' energy usage as part of the Harnwell Energy Monitoring Project, designed to promote awareness of conservation around campus.

Overall crime in the Penn patrol zone increased by 10 percent over the past year, but the biggest jump was seen in thefts, rather than violent offenses.

On Jan. 5, millions of students logged on to their social lifeline: Facebook. But there was something different that day, as students found themselves looking at an advertisement for the ABC News/Facebook New Hampshire Debates airing that night. When every vote counts, campaigns are now turning to sites like Facebook and YouTube to get their messages to young voters.

The worst part of winter break is waiting for final grades. But with the advent of e-learning programs like Blackboard and webCafe, students and professors have the option of constant communication. Curriculum changes or complicated questions move from one party to another with the click of a button, reducing confusion and simplifying professor-student interactions.

In the first 71 years of the Baseball Hall of Fame's existence, zero Penn alumni were inducted into it. But now the Quakers are finally represented in Cooperstown. Walter O'Malley (C '26) was voted in by the Veterans Committee in early December for his work as owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1944 to his death in 1979.

Tuesday night's Big 5 contest involved two young teams that produced one ugly game. Both teams did a nice job of finding ways to get open looks, but neither could finish around the basket. Penn was fairly successful in getting the ball into the post, but the forwards couldn't hit, and slashing layups seldom connected.