Sightings

Got storage?
The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) sure does. Housed in a secure facility, an IBM Enterprise Storage Server — comprised of 240 hard drives, each with 36.4GB of storage, mounted in a cabinet the size of a hall closet — contains almost 11 terabytes of redundantly powered and backed-up data to support hundreds of campus computing services maintained by DoIT. For the mathematically challenged, 11 terabytes is equal to 11,000 gigabytes or 11,000,000 megabytes of computer data. Photo: Jeff Miller

Test drive
Lance Lunsway, director of Transportation Services, facing at bottom right, was among 200 public officials and other invited guests who took a demonstration ride from Engineering Mall to Middleton on a self-propelled DMU (Diesel Multiple Unit) commuter rail car Nov. 15. Four round trips were taken, each accommodating about 50 people. University employees and students could be traveling to campus on similar passenger rail vehicles as early as 2005, with proposed stops at UW Hospital, Union South, the Park Street area and the Kohl Center. Photo: Michael Forster Rothbart

Follow the garbage
It’s not insulting to say that the work of some first-year students is trash. Garbage — and the social implications of where it ends up — is at the core of a research project initiated by students in one of the university’s first-year interest groups, or FIGs. Earlier this month, five students from Professor Herb Wang’s “Environmental Justice” FIG traveled to Altgeld Gardens, a south Chicago neighborhood so hemmed in by industrial sites and landfills that its nickname is the “toxic doughnut.” Left, polluted water surrounds the neighborhood, and the area’s many industrial sites have been blamed for causing health problems among the predominantly African-American community. Right, Cheryl Johnson, center, an activist from People for Community Recovery, led students (from left) Brianna Cash, Ashley Gehrke, Brooke Manthe, Lindsey VerBunker and Emily Eggebrecht on a tour, giving a firsthand account of the politics of garbage in Chicago. Photos: Jeff Miller

Zoom zoom zoom
That whizzing, buzzing sound you hear is campus being overrun with mopeds. The vehicles — which offer all the advantages of a bicycle without that pesky pedal pushing — are increasingly popular with students, as well as some faculty and staff. But campus transportation officials are less enamored with them. Unlike motorcycles with bigger engines, mopeds that meet specific guidelines currently are allowed to park in any bike rack. However, their growing numbers are leading to parking problems in many areas of campus. Overflowing racks are common, and mopeds often block grassy areas, building entrances and sidewalks. A transportation committee is examining the problem, and changes to moped parking rules are possible. Photo: Jeff Miller