Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

. A slighty different version of this was written for my Huffington Post blog http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephen-weir/sandra-perron_a_23074869/ By Stephen Weir I spent the 80s and early 90s working for a company that designed, built and marketed weapons and defense systems to the military.   I was often called upon to interact with military leaders at classified trade shows, product demonstrations and, of course, the never ending plant tours (The military Dog and Pony shows). In all my time on the job I never once helped with a Canadian Forces visit that included a high-ranking female officer.   The business of buying multi-million dollar defense systems was a Man’s World, after all, women weren’t allowed to lead troops onto the battlefield (although some NATO allies were more enlightened).   Sandra Perronn  Toronto park - sweir photo I left that world in 1993, and it wasn’t until last month that I actually met a senior female combat office...

Josef Karl Dietrich Josef Karl Dietrich When I worked in the PR department for Litton Systems Canada I often had to take military leaders on plant tours. They wanted to see the company's expertise in making navigation systems for commercial aircraft, war planes and cruise missiles. With a background in Journalism and zero understanding of anything to do with precision engineering, I soon memorized a mostly-true patter that I could deliver while walking backwards down the production lines. Of course, when dealing with people who actually knew something of what they were looking at, I was hopelessly over my head.  No one knew this more than the men and women who spent their working lives at LSL (what we called Litton Systems Canada). Some let me drown, others, like Joe Dietrich always threw me a lifeline - he was always willing to address our guests and explain in detail while Litton was the best. He did in English or in German  and he was always the hit of the tou...

. ... If the Litton Logo Police Were Still Patrolling Outer Space but say what you want it still looks like a man on a toilet Logo for Sci-Fi Movie The Moon I was never a card carrying member of the Logo Police when I worked at Litton Systems Canada Ltd and later at Litton Industries.  Oh, I did a bit of sleuthing for the Force now and again, sniffing out internal fliers, memos and shower invitations that took liberties with the Li.  But, when it came to taking on companies that monkeyed with our trademarked symbols, it was a crack team of lawyers and PR directors from both sides of the border who manned the walls firing off lawsuits and writs at anything that moved. Hollywood's man on toilet logo Pre-Internet, a logo, its pantone colours and its careful designed typeface were as much a part of the company treasures as the patents for everything from dithering mechanism in ring laser gyros to the secret recipe of the chicken pot pie sold by Stouffers ba...

. Boomer Memories of the Cold War Aerospace Industry as it spins, flies and slips off the Mortal Coil Litton gyro spins in junk store I spent over 15-years working for a company that made very expensive, highly accurate navigation systems for military and commercial aircraft.  Towards the end of the Cold War, Litton Systems Canada modified an aircraft navigation system for the US cruise missile programme. Employment and profits soared - but as with most things Boomer, it all eventually leads to Bust. The cruise missile was the first low cost missile to use a terrain mapping system (think of it as a precursor to Google Maps) that allowed it to fly close to the ground, past mountains and even tall buildings to blow up a target.  The Litton spinning wheel gyroscopes made sure that the missile knew where it was at all times. It was a technology leap forward in modern warfare. Mindful of the "Red" menace, very little news of the Canadian made navigation eq...