September 2003

Hello friends,

Usually life in Toronto is very steady, but last month there was an historical event, the electricity blackout. I wasn't in Toronto that day, but the poor students in the course I was teaching assistant had their final exam that evening (Don't worry; they were sentenced a week later). Most places had electricity back in 15 hours, so it wasn't a big deal. But people living on floor 30 without water and working elevators had some problems. Traffic lights went off, the subway and the electrical streetcars stopped to function, and transportation in the city became impossible. Just think about the millions of people who forgot to press "save". The only good thing that happened was that the price of ice-cream dropped immediately (whether it is good or bad depends on your point of view, but it was a natural balancing mechanism that cheered up people that were stuck in the streets). Since such events happen here once in 20 years, nobody, including the authorities (as usual), was ready. I assume some of my students never experienced a blackout in their lives.
During the week after the blackout, The Ontario hydro company asked to reduce the electrical consumption so it will be able to activate power plants that were shut off, including a nuclear plant not far from Toronto. All the "non-essential workers" didn't go to work and it became a vacation like in holydays (many people were on vacation anyways on August).
In Canada, the word "hydro" stands for electricity. Not only do they produce electricity from waterfalls, but they also think of electricity as a natural current that will always be there. The blackout made people think how modern society depends on fragile technology. It is relying more and more on computers and the internet, which are much more brittle than the electricity system. We are still far from the days where computers will disconnect from the internet once in 20 years, but in the future people may rely on information supply as we rely on electricity and water.

At the beginning of September a new year started at the university. Thousands of lost souls found themselves in the ultimate labyrinth. The way out takes at least three years, and some people are trapped for much longer periods. To give them some clues how to start, the university organizes the orientation week. For graduate students, each research group presents its work to the new students. However, the real purpose of the orientation week is to insure the new students find the classrooms. It is several orders of magnitude more complicated compared to Weizmann, since classes are in the buildings of the department, in buildings of other departments, or even in colleges (dormitories) around the campus. The young students, who may be living the first time out of home, definitely need this orientation.
The new students are even younger this year. Until last year, schools in Ontario had thirteen grades. In 1995, the government decided to switch to twelve years system in 2003. This decision will save huge amounts of money, reduce the load from schools (for example, they will have more classrooms), and send people to work one more year in the industry. It is the kind of magical decisions the public loves (imagine you had to stay in high school for grade thirteen). My impression is that everything they were teaching in thirteen years could be taught in twelve (or less).
This year universities and colleges In Ontario admitted students who finished both grades twelve and thirteen. That means 80,000 more students than in regular year, which translates to higher budgets. Since there are not enough resources (professors, classrooms) to admit two cohorts together, the entrance mark had been raised and the competition among candidates increased. Whether this cohort is better remains to be seen.


Ady.