At the end of September, 114 Penn students had received pre-litigation letters from the Recording Industry Association of America asking them to pay a fine of about $3,000 or face a potential lawsuit. But the University is trying to prevent more students from that fate with recent efforts aimed at curbing illegal downloading on campus.

You might want to think again before downing that third drink. Researchers at Wellesley College have found that drinking more than two servings of alcohol a day can increase the rate at which the brain naturally shrinks. The study, carried out on an adult population with an average age of 60, reported rates that are a quarter faster than the natural rate of brain shrinking, which on average is 1.

New study spaces called Incubation Stations in the Weiss Tech House will provide students with more room to think this semester. The larger of the two rooms features a wall-to-wall white board, projection equipment and new computers fully stocked with software such as Matlab and Adobe Creative Suite.

Everyone - except the guy who has to wear it - thinks the plastic visor is a cool accessory to standard-issue football garb. For senior defensive back Tyson Maugle, it's a pain, just like the broken nose he sustained three weeks ago, which forces him to wear the add-on to his helmet.

The exhaustive voter-registration efforts that marked this year's election may have resulted in more voters than Philadelphia's polling places can handle, according to the Committee of Seventy, a Philadelphia political watchdog group.

Complaints from Penn students about the customer service at the McDonald's restaurant on 40th and Walnut streets prompted the company to fire some of its employees last week. Following an incident that occurred at the restaurant in the early hours of Sunday, Oct.

Penn students might know David Pottruck for the fitness center that bears his name, but they probably don't know much else about the member of the College Class of 1970. Pottruck was a two-sport athlete for the Quakers in football and wrestling. He was the CEO and president of discount brokerage Charles Schwab, a trustee of the University and has also been involved in a startup airline company and a sports retail network.

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

Wei-Hwa Huang has been haunted by his lack of nerves before. When the pressure is on, the 33-year-old Mountain View, Calif., native just hasn't been able to perform. No, Huang isn't an athlete, trial lawyer or surgeon. And unless there's something he's not telling us, he's never defused a bomb.

Ready for your pre-Pre SAT? College Board, which administers the SAT and PSAT, recently announced that it will introduce a new standardized test for eighth graders. The two-hour "ReadiStep" Test will ask students multiple-choice questions on reading, math and writing.

For years, John McCain has proven that he is a different kind of politician - one who puts his country first, before his party, himself or any other consideration. He's not afraid to stand up for what he believes in, even if it means going against his own party or even a popular president.

For many Penn students, Sunday morning doesn't start until at least noon. Not so, however, for 10 brothers from the Sigma Nu fraternity. Using only bed sheets, spray paint and determination, the brothers woke up early Sunday morning to build a community haunted house for the People's Emergency Center, a social service agency located on 39th Street just north of Powelton Avenue that provides housing and assistance for families facing homelessness and poverty.

Oh, those second-half woes. They've plagued the men's soccer team as of late. Consequently, coach Rudy Fuller's squad - which went undefeated through the first 10 games of the season - is just 2-2 over its last four matches. (The losses came against Lehigh and Columbia while the wins were over Dartmouth and Yale.

The high school sophomores taking the PSATs used to be the ones getting an early start on SAT preparations. But now, a new test from the College Board is putting pressure on students to start preparing as early as middle school. Readistep - a pre-SAT test announced by the College Board last week - aims to help eighth-grade students begin preparing for high school and college.

The wait is finally over. Since Zeke Jones stepped down as the head coach of the Penn wrestling team on Sept. 27 in order to take the same position with USA Wrestling, the Penn reins have been up for grabs. But yesterday, Rob Eiter - an assistant under Jones for two years and the interim coach after his departure - was named the permanent head coach.

Eat breakfast, study for midterms, pray to God - although not necessarily in that order. For a large portion of Penn students, daily or weekly prayer is an integral part of their schedule. According to associate chaplain Stephen Kocher, "On some level, the majority of Penn students and staff are engaged in some sort of prayer in a regular basis," although how they do so varies across the board.

Before applying to college, many high-school seniors consult the U.S. News and World Report's annual ranking of American colleges and universities. Now, however, they have another consideration: how their top choice stacks up against universities around the world.