Bear necessities

A few years ago the Sydney Film Festival showed a film called Project Grizzly. It was a very quirky program and we were sure it was a mockumentary (even though I don't think that term had yet made it into common usage). It detailed the story of Troy Hurtubise, a North American who was building, and testing, a suit that he could use to commune with bears. He had made a few versions of the Ursa Suit, each with slightly different attributes, and you can see some of them in this YouTube clip. One of the earliest working versions has just been put up for auction in Toronto. According to a report in Engadget, the starting bid was $500 but the suit would need to attract way more to meet the debts Troy has amassed in living his inventing dream. Even though the Engadget article was posted a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't find anything online about whether the suit sold - but if you want to learn about Troy's other suit - a bullet-proof exoskeleton for use in war zones, and his fire resistant paste, you can visit the Troy Hurtubise page on Wikipedia.