Now playing at the GCTC

Pierre Brault in 5 O'Clock Bells at the Great Canadian Theatre Company April 1st to 20th.

Brault is best known for Blood on the Moon that toured Ireland after a successful run here in Ottawa.

Play overview from the GCTC site:

5 O’Clock Bells sheds biographical and musical light on Lenny Breau, one of Canada’s unsung musical heroes. From the country music of his childhood, to the avant-garde experimentations of the sixties, to bonafide jazz stardom, Breau’s life was one long musical wave. Like many jazz geniuses, Breau struggled against drug addiction. His life ended prematurely when his body was found at the bottom of a Los Angeles swimming pool in 1984, in an unresolved homicide. Pierre Brault examines the musical reflection of Breau’s life from the bottom of the pool, where liquid wave meets sound wave.

3D imaging articles

3D is becoming big business, so I'm devoting this post to the plethora of 3D-related technologies that are emerging. I have a particular interest in this area, given that I am a researcher in 3D measurement technologies.

( Images under the cut )

Assorted science news stories

Robot warriors still in Iraq - Apparently the story of the SWORD robots being pulled from Iraq was an urban legend (even Wired, the source of the original story, was taken in). There were only three incidents of the robot turning on its own troops, and the those were tracked to faults. One was a wiring problem (so now they use redundant wiring), another a broken connection (so now the connections are double-soldered) and the last was a robot pushed past it's safe operating point (several hours grinding up a hill until the motor overheated). Found on Slashdot.

Two ships impounded for cutting cables in Middle East - Satellite imaging was used to identify two ships that were near two of the the undersea cables when they were cut. The cables were apparently damaged when the ships each improperly dropped anchor. Found on Slashdot.

US Satellites to be used for domestic spying - The US government has announced that it plans to open a new domestic satellite surveillance office, and use current spy satellites to monitor hurricane damage, track climate change, and to generate terrain maps, as well as assist law enforcement officials once issues of civil rights and privacy has been dealt with. Found on Slashdot.

Boys need bursts of activity to study - An Auckland-based education lecturer claims that young boys will learn better if they are given periodic 5 to 10 minute bursts of vigorous activity several times each day.

Gender separation not good for education - A study comparing mixed and same-gender classrooms found that both boys and girls performed better when the class population was more than 55% female.