October 15, 2009

It's Wednesday, October 14th.

In response to disasters like Hurricane Katrina, an architectural firm in California has designed a house that could actually float in the event of sudden flooding.

Currently, not to be outdone, FEMA has a plan that - under similar circumstances - would dock those floating houses in the Superdome.

This is The Current.

Canadian General Vance

Gone are the days when Canadians soldiers took most of the heat of battle in southern Afghanistan. Soon after coming to office, U.S. President Barack Obama said that he would send 21-thousand American troops to help stabilize the troubled nation.

And yesterday the Washington Post reported that the White House was quietly deploying 13,000 troops on top of that. Canada's mission in Afghanistan is already being affected by the surge of U.S. soldiers into the war-scarred theatre. And our top soldier in that country, Brigadier-General Jonathan Vance, says it's all for the better.

General Vance has been in the Canadian Forces for 27 years and last February took over as commander of Task Force Kandahar. Brigadier-General Jonathan Vance joined us from the military base in Kandahar, Aghanistan.

Burlesque West

When you think of the Canadian version of 'sin city', Vancouver isn't top of mind for most. But post-war Vancouver was a hotbed of vaudville glamour and a major centre for an emerging exotic dancing scene.

It is a history that caught the eye of Becki Ross... not so much for the colourful stories of a by-gone era but for what that past says about us - today. Becki Ross is the chair of the Women's and Gender Studies program at the University of British Columbia. And she has spent the past decade combing through archives, interviewing former dancers, club owners and others in the scene for her new book, Burlesque West: Showgirls, sex and sin in Post War Vancouver. And in the process, she's given us a glimpse of a working life in a business many would rather ignore. Becki Ross was in Vancouver.

Work Couple

Boris Worm and Heike Lotze are a couple of fish experts who are hooked on each other. The married couple are two of Canada's leading marine biologists. They both track fish populations... they both hope to influence government policy when it comes to conserving ocean fish stocks and they both work at Dalhousie University.

Heike Lotze is the Canada Research Chair in Marine Renewable Resources and an assistant professor at the university. Boris Worm is an assistant professor of marine conservation biology, also at Dalhousie.

And as part of our season-long series, Work In Progress, we're asking not only about what their research is telling us about the state of the world's oceans, but how they resolve the ever-thorny issue of work-life balance when the boundary between work and domestic life... becomes blurred. Boris Worm and Heike Lotze were in our Halifax studio.

Last Word - Dita Von Teese

Earlier we talked about the history of Burlesque in Vancouver. Today, Dita Von Teese is one of Burlesque's most famous and talented stars. Her shows pay tribute to the art of Burlesque and gives a nod to the women who were its pioneers. So we ended the program today with a short explanation of her work and her art by the artist herself.