Seems like Philadelphia police have had it up to HERE with you kids and your fancy no-training-wheels-bicycles. DP Photographer Pete Lodato sent us this warning:

Here’s a bit of a heads up for bikers at both Penn and throughout Philly: get ready for a crackdown. While pedaling up 40th Street, I was lucky enough to be warned by a Penn police officer of the impending shake-up. Apparently, there are a lot of really awful bikers who don’t like to follow the rules of the road, and as a result, Philly police are going to start issuing citations to bikers who run red lights and use sidewalks instead of the street. In addition, the city council is also debating on a bike-registration system to help track problematic bikers and repeat offenders.

Follow the rules of the road, guys. Or: protest! Our friends at the local Fox affiliate reported yesterday on a Philadelphia Bike Messenger Association protest of the crackdown. The couriers say it shows a “rise of an anti-cycling climate in our city.” How do you guys feel about this? Has anyone been pulled over? Hit us up in the comments.

You can try to stop Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students from partying, but they love getting crunk to the power of wasted all divided by what-a-blackoutrageous-night (NERDS). But swine flu, the ultimate party pooper, started ruining their buzz and the administration needed to step in. According to the New York Post,

“The director of the college’s health center sent a message to RPI students and staff warning against playing drinking games after a group of students contracted swine flu during a weekend of socializing.”

It’s a good thing they told everyone about the whole drinking games thing because even though we realized this very contagious infection could be transferred via shared drinks, we didn’t know that applied to our beer pong beer! We were reading that article with one hand holding a ping-pong ball and the other holding a drink, and we were so shocked we almost stepped right through our computer with the foot we were typing with.

So Penn, start acting like RPI and explain things in ways us college kids can understand. Warnings against obesity must be put in terms of ramen noodles and fried oreos. Statistics on depression must be expressed using how we feel when we don’t get texted after our walks of shame. Because if you don’t, we’re just going to end up fat and sad in addition to being swine-flu-y and that would be such a bummer.

As Hey Day festivities commence, keep in mind Class of ’09 Treasurer AJ Snyder’s plea, which made the listserv rounds last night:

So Hey Day is tomorrow and one of the biggest questions that has been on everyone’s minds is why throwing things like ketchup and other condiments a big deal. Students argue that it is a tradition, it is fun, and it is harmless.

Well aside from the fact that this tradition has only been around since 2002 when the Palladium closed, University sources have informed us that the condition of Locust Walk is so poor that the majority of it will have to be replaced if it has to be power washed again because of the extreme mess. You all have seen the walk recently and know that it has seen better days. Broken or missing bricks can be found all throughout it and there isn’t a week that goes by that you haven’t seen someone from facilities trying to fix spots. Further, this power washing that has to occur to clean up after the mess we leave behind not only dislodges more bricks, but also causes significant wear and tear on its surface.

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