Yesterday, I travelled from Hervey Bay to Wollongong via Sydney. The flight to Sydney was one of the roughest I've had as the plane was tossed around by very strong winds. But I and two colleagues landed safely and caught the train down to Wollongong (or the 'gong) as most people call it. One of those colleagues was Mario Polese from the University of Montreal in Canada.The 'gong was an industrial, coal mining and steel-making, city and a major port for the export of coal and grain. The coal mining side and steel-making sides are much reduced because of import competition, but the port facilities remain strong.
The train trip down was very attractive as the line passes across broad rivers, the Royal National Park - one of the oldest in the world - and then travels close to the coastline giving great views of the craggy Illawarra escarpment and the small but now up-market communities below:
Despite its working-class image, the 'gong has a gorgeous location as these pictures show. There are lovely beaches, little headlands and coves, and a mountain backdrop:
However, some images of the industrial past and present are visible from time to time, like the steel-works itself and the ships waiting off-shore to enter port to carry away coal and wheat.
Yet, we visited the university of Wollongong's research precinct to day to look at the technologies of the twenty-first century being developed and they're in the global forefront of several things like the mass production of graphene, which is light, incredibly strong, and can be woven into clothing to produce electricity to recharge your tablet or smart-phone as you walk along, prevents bullets from harming the wearer, and might eventually make people invisible! I also saw my first 3-D printer, which we all might have at home one day. I asked if it would be possible to make a digital cast of me and the feed that information into the the printer to make a life-sized statue of me. Apparently that could be done!! So I'm considering immortalising myself for future generations! Instead of seeing my ashes in an urn on the shelf they could be placed in one or more replicas of me to be seated permanently in my descendants' lounges.And I was told that the biologies they're working on might lead to functioning clones of me in perpetuity. Fancy having me around for ever?
AS
The train trip down was very attractive as the line passes across broad rivers, the Royal National Park - one of the oldest in the world - and then travels close to the coastline giving great views of the craggy Illawarra escarpment and the small but now up-market communities below:
Despite its working-class image, the 'gong has a gorgeous location as these pictures show. There are lovely beaches, little headlands and coves, and a mountain backdrop:
However, some images of the industrial past and present are visible from time to time, like the steel-works itself and the ships waiting off-shore to enter port to carry away coal and wheat.
Yet, we visited the university of Wollongong's research precinct to day to look at the technologies of the twenty-first century being developed and they're in the global forefront of several things like the mass production of graphene, which is light, incredibly strong, and can be woven into clothing to produce electricity to recharge your tablet or smart-phone as you walk along, prevents bullets from harming the wearer, and might eventually make people invisible! I also saw my first 3-D printer, which we all might have at home one day. I asked if it would be possible to make a digital cast of me and the feed that information into the the printer to make a life-sized statue of me. Apparently that could be done!! So I'm considering immortalising myself for future generations! Instead of seeing my ashes in an urn on the shelf they could be placed in one or more replicas of me to be seated permanently in my descendants' lounges.And I was told that the biologies they're working on might lead to functioning clones of me in perpetuity. Fancy having me around for ever?
AS
2 comments:
I thought that you had already been cloned and given the tag 'Max'.
If not, then perhaps a six inch figure of you somewhat like a Star trek doll might be an idea for our mantelpiece.
The material you described sounds fabulous, especially if it is truly bullet-proof.
Happy Christmas.
Richard.
Very witty!
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