Gheorghe Curelet-Balan Blog

Saturday, August 18, 2007

What heat? What rain?

When it comes to blues nothing can stop Waterloo Region's residents to participate. Neither the heat nor the rain stopped the Kitchener Blues Festival last weekend. Moreover, Canadian legend Jeff Healey (whom I'm grateful for a free Jazz history lesson during Einsteinfest) made people to sing and dance in the rain.

I gave 60000 thumbs up for the organizers, performers, sponsors, volunteers and participants of this outstanding Festival!

Watch the story of how I perceived the Blues Festival in the below video. You could also check the multimedia gallery of the local newspaper The Record.


Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Taking the heat.

Ok...until E_nternet will be built (if ever) someone was thinking at initiating a blackout drill to remind us of the 2003 power blackout. Yesterday in Kitchener was the voluntary blackout day (read about it here).

Well, it was not a total blackout. It was about awareness of how energy could be saved by turning off that air conditioning (AC) for a while. Since weather was cooperating with cooler than usual nights the challenge to take the heat during the day wasn't so big. As for me I must to confess that I didn't use yet my AC this summer. I just like fresh natural breezes of air.

Energy conservation tips :
www.wnhydro.com/savingenergy
www.kwhydro.ca/conservation_tips.asp

E_nternet.

I don't get this. In the modern age of space exploration we are still vulnerable when it comes to have a reliable source of energy. It's ludicrous.

On the communication side the solution was found by the invention of the Internet. Without energy, though the Internet is of little use for the mass population.

Just wondering... why not build an E_nternet? An Internet of distributed energy sources and supply able to survive to power blackouts.

Are microgrids the answer?

KW Snapped.

If you want to see snapshots of Kitchener-Waterloo's vital life and entertainment check out the new free publication SNAP.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Why not?

A daring and challenging question that was raised to the rank of a slogan by an unconventional university, the University of Waterloo (UW).

The symbiotic relationship between the Waterloo Region community and UW is the growth engine for both. David Johnston the UW President talks about this relationship in his message to the UW anniversary book "Out of the shadow of Orthodoxy. Waterloo@50" by Kenneth McLaughlin. His idea paraphrased is: the community gave birth to the university and the university is shaping the community.

Reading the fascinating story of UW history you realize that the present growth follows university's tradition but with a faster pace. Parking lots and open spaces inside the university have been (and will be) replaced with new buildings hosting new faculties or research facilities.

You don't have to look too far from University to see how fast UW Research Park is growing. But if you look farther you'll see testimonies of this growth too. You'll find the School of Architecture in the neighboring city Cambridge and the new Health Sciences Campus is under construction right now in Downtown Kitchener.

On its 50th anniversary UW uses its slogan to accelerate the pace in the quest to push the frontiers of human knowledge and give back to the community and the world the fruits of its endeavors.

Happy 50th anniversary University of Waterloo!

Links:
UW annivesary page
Quantum-Nano Center
Out of the shadow of Orthodoxy. Waterloo@50 event.