Multi-Day Cable Outage Hits Campus

Cable service from Georgetown’s on-campus provider, Hoyanet, went off-line at around 9:00 a.m. Monday morning and remained down campus-wide until late Wed. afternoon.

According to University Information Services, as of late Wed. afternoon, all previously broken connections have been restored and cable service had resumed in all on-campus dormitories. UIS noted, though, that they were continuing to administer repairs to the system.

Beth Ann Bergsmark, a director at UIS, said the large outage was caused by on-campus construction.

“There is facilities work being done on Tondorf Drive to prepare for the new Science Building, which involves moving and replacing

some cables and working near others,” she said. “One of the main cables that supports our cable TV system was physically damaged during this work. This is a rare and unique situation related to construction in a specific area.”

Bergsmark said that UIS is taking measures to prevent another such occurrence.

“We plan to monitor the situation until the construction work is completed,” she said.

– William Vogt

Fine Increase Promotes Pedestrian Safety

The Council of the District of Columbia approved an increase in driving fines last week in an effort to foster safer neighborhoods.

The legislation, which is waiting on Congressional review, would impose a $250 penalty on drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians at stop lights and cross walks. The current injunction is $50.

The initiative, first proposed by Ward 6, became part of a larger D.C. Pedestrian Safety Strategy – which included a new fine on drivers who park in bike lanes and an infrastructure fund dedicated to public safety.

Charles Allen, Councilmember Wells’ chief of staff in Ward 6, said that drivers who speed or disregard the law have made crossing the street a difficult task for pedestrians, increasingly so due to newer curbside shopping and dining.

The Department of Transportation has recorded more than 600 pedestrian incidents on average each year in D.C., and statistics have been showing an upward trend since early 2000.

Some students said that traffic around campus can be hazardous at times.

Will Howerton (COL ’09) said that drivers around campus are generally respectful, but that “rolling-stops” could be dangerous.

“A lot of time you will be crossing or about to cross, and [drivers] will cut in front of you” Emma Fox (COL ’12) said.

– Corinna Wu

A Sea of Information at Museum of Natural History

“The ocean is essential to all life” proclaims the new exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History due to open to the public Saturday.

The creation of Sant Ocean Hall was the biggest renovation project and the largest permanent exhibition ever produced in the museum’s history. The 23,000-square-foot space holds a colorful array of over 650 marine specimens, the precise replica of a 45-foot-long North Atlantic right whale, interactive multimedia presentations and an aquarium.

For the 7.2 million visitors to the Museum of Natural History last year, a very important component was missing from their experience, Christián Samper, director of the museum, said during the press preview of the museum Wednesday.

“It’s important to tell the story of the ocean[s] because, after all, they do cover 71 percent of the surface of the planet,” he said. “We’re filling in a very important gap.”

The displays in the Sant Ocean Hall include such titles as, “What Would Earth Be Like Without an Ocean?” and “Mother Earth . or Mother Ocean?”. The central focus of the exhibition is the multimedia presentation, “Science on a Sphere,” which gives the viewer the impression of looking at the earth from space.

G. Wayne Clough, secretary of the Smithsonian, said that the opening of the new exhibit was a “historic day” for the natural history museum.

“I don’t think it is any exaggeration that it will change the way the world looks at the ocean,” he said.

The museum has worked in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to produce the new exhibition.

According to Conrad Lautenbacher, the under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere in the NOAA, what we know of the ocean is extremely limited. Lautenbacher said that 95 percent of the ocean remains unexplored.

– Isaiah Schulze

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