Around the Ivies* is a daily roundup of news from Ivy League and other top tier schools.

• [ Brown Daily Herald ]
  Obama rails against White House, praises Whitehouse
• [ Cornell Daily Sun ]
  Sun columnist shows why not to begin column with ‘Dear Diary’
• [ Yale Daily News ]
  Yale food cart owner robbed–Hemo adds bodyguards
• [ Duke Chronicle ]
  Sex under the Button? At Duke, it’s all about sex in the gardens
• [ Daily Northwestern ]
  If Philly tried to steal Penn’s land, Amy Gutmann would throw a tantrum. Sucks for you, NU

Not exactly Ivy League, but it seems Ball State is having its own Sonic Youth-esque problems. Maybe SPEC can lend them a hand, since it has actually been able to get more than 400 people to its concerts these days.

For the next week, the Spin will be introducing a new feature: Around the Ivies*. It’s a daily roundup of the best/most interesting news from the Ivy League and equivalent schools (Duke, Stanford, etc.). Let us know what you think, and let us know if we miss anything!

Harvard study suggests that academics may not be Godless heathens [The Harvard Crimson]

Grad student complaint at Duke may lead to deportation [The Chronicle]

Columbia admins may punish Minuteman demonstrators

Brown administrators, newspaper editors debate “alcohol economics” [The Brown Daily Herald]

After controversy in China, Yahoo! press freedom grant is questioned [The Stanford Daily]

Chicago students urge Darfur divestment [Chicago Maroon]

With all the activity and live feeds and everything else surrounding the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, most people have focused on the day itself. But for me, one of the most emotional, raw moments came not Sept. 11, but a week later.

It was the first show back for Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show. And even five years later, the video holds more emotion than most anything I’ve seen since. Check it out for yourself.

It’s good to know that in this age of 24/7 news and talking heads, some people still have a heart. And after watching the video, seems like the new movie “Man of the Year” loosely based on a Stewart’s life even more plausable (or at least, it makes me wish it were.

These days, with distance between 9/11/2001 and today growing faster every day, Stewart’s ‘realness’ is a reminder of the raw emotions the whole country felt back then. Too bad people’s emotions, for the most part, seem to have gone back to normal.

But when you need a reminder of how you felt, just turn to Jon. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

So today I did something I hadn’t done in a while: I hopped on my bike and rode through Fairmount Park. It’s a beautiful day, and everyone knows I could use the exercise. But more than that, I wanted to see what the waterfront looked like these days.

Enormous amounts of money and energy have poured into the area of the Schuylkill River waterfront that lies in Center City (which stretches from approximately South Street to the Art Museum)–and it’s paid off. You can now see joggers, bikers (most of whom look much less awkward on a bike than I) and skaters using the new waterfront, called the Schuylkill Trail, at all times of day. Now, the transformation is starting to spread north.

The Fairmount Waterworks, which once provided the city with its first source of clean water, has just found new life as a restaurant. It’s amazing, eating dinner surrounded by beautiful, restored columns and buildings. The food sounded pretty good too. And the Waterworks area is buzzing with activity too. It’s this kind of scenery–people running along a historic waterfront, under the shadows an Art Museum and high rises–that brings and keeps people in Philadlephia.

The Water Works–Via Philafoodie

Now, with Fairmount Park still the great attraction it has always been and the Center City riverfront glowing from recent improvements, attention should turn to the south. Below South Street, the Schuylkill waterfront is nearly non-existent. A mix of abandoned and still-in-use train tracks, rusted warehouses and run-down industrial areas. By the time you get down to the airport area, the waterfront is simply refineries.

Luckily, the Schuylkill River Development Corporation is on the ball. Slight problem though–they’re out of money. But why let a lack of money stop grand visions? The DP has called for more action in the past, and hopefully money will find its way to the SRDC soon. Their master plan (PDF, 8 MB) is at least worth a look.

Even if money starts pouring in, the lower Schuylkill is still a long way off. So for now, why not enjoy what’s already been built?

There are few cities in the country where you can dine in an old waterworks building, looking out on Boathouse Row–and no other city where you can go visit the Rocky Statue (which was incredibly popular today, judging by the crowds taking pictures in front of it today) afterwards. Check it out while the weather is still nice.

And don’t cab it over–because we all could use the exercise.

I’d like to officially welcome you to The Daily Pennsylvanian’s newest blog, The Spin. This blog will feature a slew of online columnists whose exclusive focus will be posting interesting and opinionated content that affects the Penn community. There will be some familiar faces– Stephen Morse, Liz Hoffman, Eric Obenzinger–but also many new faces you will soon get to know.

As an opinion blog, we won’t shy away from telling you the truth as we see it. You’ll get to hear the candid truth (or at least our Spin), as often as we can put up new posts. We hope that by joining the blogosphere, The Daily Pennsylvanian–which is now entering its 122nd year–will remain ahead of the curve in delivering the news. And with easy-to-post, easy-to-read comments on each blog, we hope you become a part of the conversation. Online columnists can and will comment on the blog as well, so the conversation doesn’t end once a post has been made; in fact, we hope the conversation will never end.

It’s all a part of trying to make this newspaper into a conversation between our staff and each member of the Penn community. Because after all, it’s all about you–the reader.

And if you don’t like how things are going, (or hey, even if you like how things are going) be sure to let us know. Deputy Editorial Page Editor Eric Obenzinger will be running The Spin, so be sure to let him know what you think.

Stay tuned, there are great things to come!