Though the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has finally released its reasoning behind the casino process, the anti-casino movement just keeps gathering steam. The board, in a 113-page decision released Feb. 1, explained why it chose the SugarHouse and Foxwoods casino plans, citing their location and potential benefit to the community as reasons why they were selected over three other designs.

Scribbling with Magic Markers is a fairly standard activity for preschoolers, but at the Penn Children's Center, tots are scribbling on drywall instead.

For those nervous about studying abroad, take some advice from a seasoned expert. Leonard Barkan transported a crowd of 30 gathered for a Penn Humanities Forum event yesterday evening to Italy during a reading of his book, Satyr Square. His recent travelogue, published last October, evolved from what he deemed his "love affair with culture" - a yearlong sabbatical in Italy.

From Rosie the Maid to the Terminator, general interest in robots is nothing new. Studying them, however, has been less common - until now. Come fall semester, the School of Engineering and Applied Science will begin offering a master's program in robotics - the study of building, instrumenting and programming robots.

Chemistry professor Alan MacDiarmid, one of three recipients of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, died yesterday afternoon. He was 79. MacDiarmid had been suffering from Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a disease that affects the bone marrow and blood, for the past four years.

Sometimes, being number one isn't all it's cracked up to be. Wharton Business School's MBA program was ranked best in the world for the seventh year in a row by the London-based Financial Times. But despite retaining the premiere spot, Wharton students, alumni and faculty say that they are unconcerned with the school's rank in this, or any, publication.

For 800 unlucky students on Jan. 27, the Medical College Admissions Test proved a test of nerves rather than a test of knowledge. A testing error in the most recent MCAT examination - which was also the first computerized version of the exam - left test-takers confused and has students now concerned about the validity of the new system.

Two men were waiting in the lobby when College juniors Albert Tsai and Julietta Change entered the building at the Chestnut Street entrance. One of the suspects asked if the students wanted to buy a PlayStation, Division of Public Safety spokeswoman Karima Zedan said.

The University has received a $2 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles, officials announced yesterday. The grant will be used for studying the basic cell biology of Parkinson's disease. The project involves an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Penn's Genomics Institute, including molecular biologist James Eberwine, computational scientist Junhyong Kim and imaging experts Philip Haydon and Jai-Yoon Sul.

Total crime for the University Police Department patrol zone rose two percent in the month of January, compared to January 2006, Divison of Public Safety officials said yesterday. Robbery, burglary and aggravated assault all decreased compared to the same month last year, while thefts and simple assaults were up.

The University's endowment ballooned 21.6 percent to $5.3 billion in the past fiscal year, making Penn's rate of endowment growth the highest in the Ivy League, a recent higher-education survey revealed. University officials say this year's boost is the result of shrewd strategies in investment, fundraising and internal reallocation of funds from Penn's Health Systems to the endowment - a stockpile of funds reserved for costs like financial aid and research.

Zoom in on the 'LOVE' statue. Double-click on Van Pelt. Then build it all over again. Google Earth - a computer mapping program through which users can view satellite images of Earth - recently launched a contest in which college students can design a virtual campus to match their own school's.

For East Asian Languages and Civilizations professor Nancy Steinhardt, a Yuan Dynasty building is not simply wood and stone. "It's a living scene that encompasses all aspects of life and class struggle in 13th-Century China," she says. That passion for Chinese architecture gave the National Endowment for Humanities reason enough to give Steinhardt a $24,000 grant last month, one of only 288 grants awarded across the country.

By joe vester Staff Writer jvester@sas.upenn.edu You may think cell phones are just for talking, but they could soon be used for tackling crime as well. On Jan. 23, the Philadelphia City Council paved the way for a system that will allow the public to send photographs from their cell phones to 911.

Penn president signs sustainability pledge Penn President Amy Gutmann has signed the American College and University Climate Commitment in an effort to combat global warming, University officials announced on Monday. As a result of this pledge, Penn will develop a far-reaching plan that will entail reducing campus greenhouse-gas emissions and countering emissions from other places.

One asthma workshop has quickly turned into the possibility of a larger project to improve health and well being at a West Philadelphia high school. Last year, College juniors Amanda Rubenstein and Rachel Conrad co-founded the Active Asthma Workshop, which sends Penn students to Sayre High School at 58th and Walnut streets to promote awareness about asthma and general health and nutrition.

Think about a time and place in which you feel the most comfortable. Now imagine being taken out of this comfort zone for four years. Don't like it? Well, unfortunately, that's how many African American students say they often feel at predominantly white colleges.