Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

. SIDEBAR 3 All of the photographs used in Diver Magazine's feature on diving in south Florida were taken with Olympus cameras -- most using a new Tough 8000. The camera is shock proof, waterproof to 33 feet and is relatively goof proof (perfect for a writer who has been taking bad underwater pictures for more than 30 years). The use of the shockproof camera had me thinking about Tough jokes. Here is a sample. Tough underwater camera humour Police call to the wife of a diver. We have good news and bad news. The bad news? Your husband is dead; he was run over twice by a van. The good news? His Tough 8000 waterproof camera still works!

. Photo provided to Toronto Weekly Newspaper First West Coast totem pole raised at an Ontario public institution in decades Haida artist and carver Don Yeomans came to Toronto yesterday (September 1, 2009) to oversee the installation of a totem pole he carved for the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. The 1,000 lb red cedar carving was trucked to the public gallery in Kleinburg and installed in the building's lobby. Don Yeomans is one of the most highly respected artists on the Northwest Coast of British Columbia. The gallery, with funding provided by the McMichael Canadian Art Foundation, commissioned the full-scale totem pole by this artist to create a new, unique piece for the Collection that will remain on permanent view in the gallery’s Grand Hall. On the totem pole, Yeomans uses traditional iconography and totemic animals as a point of departure to comment on today’s different modes of technological communication. With this imagery, which includes an eagle holding a cell ph...