News:Members of Habitat for Humanity hosted a ‘Shack-A-Thon’ this week to raise awareness of poverty by building shacks on the Quad and living in them for three days. The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry somehow got the idea that 1) poor people live in shacks, 2) the shacks would be livable afterwards 3) students can safely build shacks for people to live in and 4) students will gain any clue as to what poverty is like by sleeping on the Quad for a few days. Let’s not patronize people here.

Feature:Boys Like Girls and Cute Is What We Aim For came to Syracuse as a part of the Verizon Wireless College Tour 2008 Wednesday night. Yes, a concert right in the middle of the week during many students’ mid-terms. These two bands got mixed reviews and brought in a decent-sized audience. Another band performed, but nobody really knew who it was – something called Lights.

Sports:The SU women’s ice hockey team played its first game against Colgate University Wednesday night. While the Orange didn’t win, the team did play a hard game, scoring in the first nine seconds and falling just one point short by the final buzzer, 4-3. This was an impressive mark for the ice hockey program mostly because this is the team’s first season ever. Props to head coach Paul Flanagan for putting a strong team together in just three months.

Biden v. Palin VP debate:The first and only vice presidential debate was hosted by PBS anchor Gwen Ifill. Choosing a merger of the two highlighted minorities of the presidential race – black and female – seems like a good choice, except one problem: She wrote a book about Sen. Barack Obama where she supports his campaign and the movement he started within the black community. Moderator aside, ‘Joe six-pack’ and ‘hockey moms’ probably loved Palin’s makeup job, which made her look great, even if she didn’t sound so hot. One of the problems of the debate: Biden and Palin didn’t debate Biden and Palin, they debated McCain and Obama.

Stock Market:Oh, Dow Jones. It’s more temperamental than a teenage girl. One minute it’s up, the next it’s down – and by huge margins. People both on and off Wall Street are getting nervous, and they should be: The $700 billion bailout plan was kicked back to the Senate after it was shutdown in the House. The Senate has then revised the bailout plan, adding in a few tax-breaks to win the republicans over and is sending it back to be approved once again. Good luck, economy, you’re gonna need it.

rdjone03@syr.edu