Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

, SHARK AND FUNBITES – MAKING JUNK FOOD EDGY Grocery Innovations Canada, is the country’s largest grocery trade show and conference. The closed-to-the-public is the place to see new food trends and sample the new foods that will be stocked in independently owned food stores in the months to come. The conference was held late in October in Toronto, and two products debuting at the show shared a common theme … diving and the underwater world! It will be Sharks, Sharks and more Sharks in Canadian grocery stores if the new importer of Thailand’s most popular energy drink has a say in it. Meanwhile, one Canadian company is betting on children wanting to have a feeding frenzy with FunBites, an all fruit treat shaped like underwater creatures. FunBites is produced by Sun-Rise a British Columbia based food producer. The product is 100% fruit and has no artificial flavours or artificial colours. “Your kids can explore an ocean full of whales, sea horses and turtles with Berry Blend flavour,” ...

. You say Winterlude. Insiders call it Fun-a-lude Midway between winter and spring, Ottawa throws a party One of many product reviews written in December 2008 Toronto, January 28, 2009 – Ottawa is the capital of winter fun. And, as Canada reaches that halfway mark between winter and spring, the city is getting set to take a Winterlude break. Every February, Canada’s Capital Region is host to Winterlude, the nation’s largest and most popular winter celebration. This year the festival runs February 6th to 22nd, which means there are three fun-filled weekends of excitement and activity awaiting visitors! From spectacular ice carvings to an amazing playground made of snow, Winterlude is a great way to take in the best of our Canadian winter. Most of the Winterlude activities are absolutely free! It costs nothing to skate on the frozen downtown Rideau Canal, the world’s largest skating rink! Tourists are encouraged to bring their cameras to get pictures of the majestic snow sculptures and ...

. • The UnderwaterChannel.tv is now available worldwide through the Internet. Launched on September 1st the UK based free TV station features professionally produced video from international underwater filmmakers. The new service is at www.theunderwaterchannel.tv. • During the recently held Republican Convention in Minnesota, visiting political reporter was invited to dive in the Mall of America’s shark filled aquarium. Many scribes accepted the invitation and found it less stressful than covering the convention! The mall is one of the largest indoor shopping centres in the world. • Last year Diver Magazine featured a story I wrote (and have posted on this site) about how the Georgia Aquarium was allowing divers to swim in their giant Whale Shark tank. This month the Atlanta facility announced the addition of a manta ray to that 6.3 million gallon gallery. Nandi, a female manta ray, is the only manta in captivity in the US. Nandi, who measures more than nine feet across and weighs...

What to do while decompressing? Watch the Watch New watch mechanical watch from Japan arrives in North America The Japanese based Orient Watch company put a big push on this past Christmas season to introduce its mechanical saturation diver watch to the North American market. The watch, which retails for $1,300 US has, according to company spokeswoman Christina Koshzow “a special case design that prevents the penetration of helium gas (while diving at depth). This means that the internal pressure hardly rises at all, eliminating the need for an escape valve and a diver no longer has to use a valve to adjust the pressure inside the case when diving or surfacing. The watch is rated to a depth of 300 meters (900 feet), with a strong exterior that has excellent corrosion resistance. The self-winding watch has a large crown and rotating bezel, which makes it easy to operate even when wearing thick dive gloves. The watch company has teamed with North American broadcasters to sell their ful...

. INTERNATIONAL USB TAVEL ADAPTER ALLOWS DIVERS TO RECHARGE IPOD, SMART PHONES AND SOME CAMERAS WHILE ON THE ROAD One of many product reviews written in December 2008 Cut line : The International USB Travel Adapter and its four interchangeable input plugs. Be it above or below the water, more and more divers are traveling with their IPods. And since most IPods are charged through an USB cord, there is now a new “must have” for divers on the road. The Amzer Power Adapter is a direct power source for iPods, mobile phones, Blackberrys, digital cameras and any other new electronic device that recharges its battery through a USB port. Away from home, this adapter can be plugged into any wall socket, be it 100 volt or 240 volt service, and then hooks up, through a USB cord, to your electronic device. This new USB power adapter comes with four plugs for use in North America, the UK, Europe and Australia Diver Magazine recently field-tested the Power Adapter in Havana, Cuba. An Ipod was repe...

. Sculptures to make you think cutline - owl sculpture from Keene New Hampshire Auguste Rodin, that French fellow who sculpted "The Thinker" has nothing on the people of Jackson. For the past 8 years they have been carving Tiki Gods, cougars, chair lifts and yes, even a snowy version of The Thinker in the annual New Hampshire State Sanctioned & Jackson Invitational Snow Sculpting Competition! While Rodin carved in stone, in Jackson, hundreds of winter artists will be using snow to create their masterpieces. The outdoor art festival and competition begins at noon on Friday January 30th and runs through Sunday February 1st, 2009 in Jackson Village Park, Jackson Village, New Hampshire. This event attracts a wide variety of sculptors, both amateur and professional who are dedicated to putting a wow factor on piles of frozen snow! This event is sanctioned by the Association International de Sculpture sur Neige et Glace and WinterFun, Inc., which is the only sanctioning organi...

. . Six Dive Wreck Shorts from the January issue of Diver Magazine cutline: the liveaboard diveboat the Spree watches as the Texas Clipper is scuttled off Padre Island to create an artifical reef and a new dive site. By Stephen Weir Deeper is not always better in Florida Dive chat boards around the world have been deep in discussion lately talking/typing about how a scuttled aircraft carrier has moved deeper into the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently this summer’s Hurricane Gustav not only battered the Gulf’s north coast, it actually shifted the Oriskany, the world’s largest artificial reef. In May 2006 when the aircraft carrier was towed out into the Gulf near Pensacola, Florida, and sunk, the flight deck of the Oriskany was 135 ft (45 m) below the surface. After Hurricane Gustav rumbled through the area, the sunken ship slipped 10 ft (3.3 m) deeper into the Gulf. While it is not unusual for sunken ships to shift and settle on the bottom of the ocean, what has attracted the attention of...

. A DAY AT AN AUSTRALIAN BEACH HARD HAT ARTIST DRY DIVES THE TITANIC (an article written for www.divermag.com ... but to date has not been posted. sigh). Rob Jan is an Australian artist, journalist, radio host and photographer who posts offbeat popular pictures on Flickr. A set of strange hard hat diver pictures he has posted on the Internet photo sharing web service has begun to attractthe attention of divers from all around the world! Zero G (Jan’s nomme de plume) has been fascinated with hard hat dive suits long before he decided to stage a sea side photo shoot with members of the Australian chapter of the International Costumers Associations in 2006. Two and half years ago, Jan posted the pictures he and his friends took on Flickr and since then divers have been raving about and freely downloading the pictures. “It's amazing how popular that whole photo set has become,” Rob Jan told Diver Magazine. “If I'd known that real divers would be looking at it someday I recko...