That monolith of a social networking site is due to acquire its 200 millionth user in the next few days, if it hasn’t already. You know which one I mean: Facebook. Although I have resented the site ever since my friends in high school urged me to join it, Facebook is apparently here to stay. It has become more than just a website. Since its creation in 2004, its name has changed from the more humble “thefacebook.com” to a proper noun to be reckoned with. It is an entity nearing nationhood status, a verb and a place.

This afternoon at Niemand-Robison Field, the softball team looks to maintain its standing as the only Ivy League squad undefeated in conference action.

On a 10-game winning streak, Cornell (21-5, 2-0 Ivy) will host Yale (10-12, 1-1) today beginning at 12:30 p.m. The twinbill had been scheduled for Sunday — a day after the Red swept a doubleheader against Brown by a combined score of 17-0 to open its regular season — but was postponed due to the weather. Wave good-bye: Junior Alyson Intihar hits the bag at Niemand-Robison Field. Intihar is the Red’s top hitter so far this season.

Two weeks ago, The Times printed an article about the up-and-coming movement for single-sex education. In the particular situation highlighted, boys and girls attend the same school, but are separated by different classrooms. The article started by relating a couple anecdotal pieces which show the benefits of being able to “tailor to each group.” Michael Napolitano, the boys’ teacher, “speaks to his fifth-grade class […] like a basketball coach.” When teaching his students “how to be a man,” Mr. Napolitano explains, “If I get in the face of a girl, she would just cry […] the boys respond to it, they know it’s part of being a young man.”

Of the 15 riders that the equestrian team brought to the Region III championships in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on Saturday, a third of them advanced to the Zone II championships.

Of the seven divisions, the Red notched a Zone Qualifier in five of them.

With Skidmore hosting, the regionals opened with the Open Fences division, but a Cornell rider did not break the top-3 — necessary to advance to the Zone championships — until the next category: In Intermediate Fences, junior Brooke Cagwin took third.

Senior co-captains Dana Kendrick and Caroline Schulman moved on to the championship round of Open Flat competition. Schulman finished in seventh place, but Kendrick scored the regional reserve champion spot by placing second in the finals — moving on to the Zone championships.

This month, President Barack Obama signed into law a bill that would make the National Institutes of Health public access policy permanent, signaling a move towards greater transparency in academia. Under this policy, NIH-funded research, including work by Cornell faculty, will be publicly avaliable. However, another bill introduced in Congress last month seeks to reverse this public access policy and has prompted Cornell’s librarians to take action.

Since last April, the NIH required final, peer-reviewed manuscripts arising from research it funded to be submitted to PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication.

The nation’s president has been a staunch proponent of contraceptive use, recently signing an appropriations bill calling for pharmaceutical companies to supply discounted contraceptives to college health clinics, Planned Parenthood offices and family-planning centers throughout the country.

“The recent passing of the affordable birth control legislation is a victory for millions of college students who have struggled to afford the rising costs of basic contraception in these difficult economic times,” stated Robin Gaige, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of the Southern Finger Lakes, in an e-mail.

The passage of the bill may also help to reduce the high numbers of unplanned pregnancies seen in the U.S.

As global warming becomes an increasingly acknowledged stark reality in Washington, policy-makers and politicians are scrambling to up the ante on “green” efforts. Last week, they sought the advice of Prof. Arthur DeGaetano, climatology and Prof. David Wolfe, horticulture.

The pair of Cornell professors briefed lawmakers on how farmers are able to respond to global climate change, an issue that forms the basis of their professional studies.

“We’re sort of a team,” DeGaetano said of his relationship with Wolfe. “We’ve been doing a lot in the past 10 years [by] now.”

Dean of College of Architecture, Art and Planning Kent Kleinman announced in an e-mail on Friday that the search committee for a new architecture department chair had narrowed their search to two finalists, Mehrdad Hadighi and Dagmar Richter.

Hadighi is an associate professor in architecture at the University of Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning. He completed his post-professional studies at Cornell and received professional degrees in architecture and studio art from the University of Maryland. Wallpaper magazine selected Hadighi as one of the “25 most intriguing, innovative and intrepid architects from all over the world” in 2004.

Thousands of Cornell and Ithaca College students pulled all-nighters on Saturday for a perhaps more deserving cause than an unwritten paper or next-day exam.

The American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life of Cornell and Ithaca College was held in Barton Hall this past weekend to raise money and awareness for all types of cancer research.

The Relay was kicked off by a celebratory “Survivors Lap,” as men and women distinguished by their purple shirts displaying “survivor” in bold print marched triumphantly, fueled by a steady applause from thousands of supporters.

Junior attackman Ryan Hurley scored five goals and led the banged-up Red offense to a big day against Penn’s leaky defense in a 21-11 win over the Quakers. Cornell showed off its depth in overcoming injuries to senior All-American midfielder John Glynn, senior midfielder Tommy Schmicker and sophomore defenseman Max Feely that kept them out of the game; senior defenseman Matt Moyer also played through a leg injury.