Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

. 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...

  Art Exhibition on the sunken hull of the USS Mohawk - 30 miles into the Gulf from For Myers Fort Myers shipwreck Enjoy the 12 -work exhibitions but always mind the sharks By Stephen Weir   From the Huffington Post It is an international happening -- an art show that will have you holding your breath -- but only for so long.  People in-the-know and who have access to dive equipment, a big boat and the willingness to swim with big fishes, have been making underwater pilgrimages all summer to see the hidden work of Austrian artist Andreas Franke . Underwater closeup of hull art show Considered one of the 200 best photographers in the world, Franke has taken his art underwater in the new show: The Sinking World Of Andreas Franke - Mohawk Project – Life Above Refined Below ( http://www.thesinkingworld.com/).  This is the third time that he has put together a composite photography exhibition that can only be seen underwater. Underwa...

  Game On 2.0 Game Outs end of Monday in Toronto Game On 2.0 has been the most popular summer kids' exhibition to play in Toronto for years and years. Sadly the Ontario Science Centre's interactive exhibition flippers out end-of-day, Labour Day Monday. "Outstanding, that is all I can say," exclaimed Anna Relyea, the Science Centre's director of public relations.  " Kids, and their parents took to this exhibition right from our opening press conference back in the spring." This fingers-on show traces the 60-year evolution of the computer game beginning with the pinball machine, moving onto Pong and ending with a futuristic 3-D dome game called Virtusphere .  Virtusphere is played  from the inside of 10-foot hollow sphere -- the user runs freely inside while wearing a wireless, head-mounted display. In all there are 150  games and all of them work.  Gamers can learn about the science that goes into making a computer game, or the...

FESTIVAL CANCELLED (AGAIN) IMMEDIATE RELEASE TORONTO AFRICAN FILM & MUSIC FESTIVAL EVENT CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE Toronto, August 23, 2013 ATTENTION: MEDIA, SPONSORS, VISITORS & GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS The Toronto African Film & Music Festival which was slated to be held August 30 – September 1, at the Toronto International Centre has been postponed. A new date will be announced shortly. There is one major reason why we are once again postponing the festival. The Federal Government’s Visa services staff are currently on strike and the pending visas for the African performing artists have not been processed as of yet. It has been decided to push back the dates, until the visa’s can be issued for the visiting performers.  This is the third time the event has been postponed and/or moved. Purchased tickets will be refunded over the next few days. For any further Information please contact Paris Rogers TAFMF Festival Director at 647-852-4072 or INFO@torontoafricanfilm...

.  The Award for Innovation in Mas Goes to ‘The Hyper-Physical Being’   Hyper-Physical Being - photo by Anthony Berot   Toronto, ON (August 2, 3013) – With its ambiguous coils unraveling outwards and colourful wings reaching upwards, “The Hyper-Physical Being” is the winner of the Ontario Science Centre’s Award for Innovation in Mas presented last night at the King and Queen Competition at Lamport stadium. The spectacular creation was designed and built by Danzo Balroop and the team at Louis Saldenah’s Mas-K Club. The judging panel was made up of Walter Stoddard and Bernie Hillar of the Ontario Science Centre’s Science Content and Design B ranch, and Dr. Marsha Haynes, Medical Liaison for Merck Canada, who participated in many carnivals in her native Trinidad. “Tremendous research, problem-solving, experimentation and collaboration were clearly displayed at every camp we visited in the days leading up to the competition,” said Walter S...

worker in the shark lagoon - Toronto DIVER MAGAZINE FACTOIDS §       There is a gift shop and food services in the aquarium. They are prepared to accommodate meat eaters and vegetarians §       The Aquarium will be open 365-days-a-year, starting in the early fall of 2013 §       The 96-metre-long (315 foot) moving walkway through an acrylic tunnel – which you will be able to step off and admire the sharks will be, according to Ripley’s, the longest indoor underwater tunnel in North America. §       Ripley’s has two other aquariums – one in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and the other in Gatlinburg, Tenn. §       Robert Ripley was a cartoonist, an adventurer and collector. He was born in 1890 in California and died in 1949.   His Believe It Or Not cartoons continue to be published. Two recent panels show a bull shark fetus with two-heads and a...

  Toronto, Believe It Or Not, You’re Gonna Get An Aquarium. Any Day Now! By Stephen Weir For once, the corporate name really does say it all.   Ripley’s is about to open a new aquarium in Toronto, and given the number of companies that tried and failed, it really is a case of Believe it Or Not!   The Toronto Aquarium - How it Will Look This Fall Construction continues on the Aquarium. The base of the CN Tower in back “Yes we have been working non-stop on this for almost two years, but the project has been a ten year struggle.” said Andy Dehart, the Ripley’s shark expert who is overseeing the daily arrival of live fish at the soon-to-open aquarium.   “Some people thought it would be built in Niagara Falls, with our other properties {the Ripley’s Museum and the Great Wolf Lodge), but here we are at the base of the CN Tower, only a few weeks away from (our debut).” Several companies have been jockeying to build an aquarium in Ca...

 . CTV / CP24: COLOUR OUR   WORLD W ITH CARNIVAL Over 60 mas dancers, pan artistes, make-up people and costume carriers came to Jamaal Magloire's Mas camp to shoot two commercials with CTV/CP24.  The shoot included a lot of paint throwing ( a tradition that is carried on in all Carnival parades), squirting water and having Soca (Soak-A ?) laughs. Hosts Colin D ' Mello and Andria Case were  the only people who managed to leave the Scarborough warehouse (home of Magloire's Toronto Revellers) dry and paint free. The shoot was a lot of fun as these pictures illustrate. What follows are a few photographs from the day long event at the home of the Toronto Revellers on Ellesmere Avenue here in Toronto. PANNING THE PERFORMANCE This is one performance the critics can pan!  AFROPAN - Canada' longest performing steel pan orchestras (they celebrate their 40th anniversary this year) sent five of their musicans to appear on camera in CTV/CP24's up...