Island Caretaker

Yes, the best job in the world just got better and more real!

You know how I applied for The Caretaker role on the Great Barrier Reef based at Hamilton Island in Australia. Well I did not make the shortlist of 50 people.

So for all of you who were looking forward to the chance to come and visit us, you will have to change your tickets from Hamilton Island to Lantau Island. Yes we still have our Island Caretaker role here on Lantau Island in Hong Kong.

It was great to realise that I actually already have the best job in the world and you all are part of it too. I will expand on that further though before that I would like to share with you the learning experiences I have got through applying for the job. They include:

• receiving great words of support, thanks
  
• learning more about making videos that are informative and entertaining (must have some more to do to be able to appeal to Tourism Queensland)
  
• assessing my outdoor and tour guide skills
  
• appreciating more the role we still play as Island Caretakers around the world through nature conservation projects
  
• seeing new opportunities for both Louise and I to assist eco-initiatives with our skills
  
• using video clips to promote our skills and services
  
• lastly and probably the most important is that it highlighted to me that we all are Island Caretakers, yes you probably guessed which little island I am talking about, Planet Earth.

So thanks for being an Island Caretaker with Louise and I of Planet Earth.

This 1min video clip summarises nicely for me the role of an Island Caretaker http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHyH3MPgZDo



(no it is not mine though if you want to see my application for the Island Job then head to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWL8lWvtHCA&eurl=http://www.islandreefjob.com/en).


So thanks again for all your support.

Does anyone know any of the 50 shortlisted applicants?

Grow well
Dr Merrin

When do you think about an Ultra Future World?

I guess that you often do.



I thought I did until I attended the Ultra Future Conference (http://www.ultrafutureworld.com/) at Hong Kong Science and Technology Park (http://www.hkstp.org/) on Sat 13 Dec.

Seeing presentations of:
- Energy Islands by David Harris of floating platforms that use the difference in sea water temperature, solar power and wave power generators to produce electricity, hydrogen and fresh water,
- new graphics for use in "chat rooms" where you change the shape of the Avatar's face that looked so real. Taehoon Kim had everyone amazed at the realistic facial expressions that this new product by Nurien was able to create,
- Web 3.0 by Adam Khemeri of NewsGroup247 demonstrating "chat rooms" with the great abilty to add in video clips and graphics from other website quickly to the chats, and
- James Law showing some of his latest Cybertecture designs (http://www.jameslawcybertecture.com/). As a surveyor I really was impressed on how James was modelling the real world to generate building designs that are basically whole cities in themselves.

Above you have seen a sketch of what James saw a key design components of Earth that he is replicating in his Technosphere. Below you can see that "progression" from looking at the Earth and creating the design.



One of the real interesting discussions was on how this modern technology that utilises the internet and computing power which is available to only 1/6th of the worlds population can be used to assist those without the technology. Suggestions were every time people by clothes for their Avatar they donate to a charity to provide real clothes to people who really need them. James spoke of how the external lighting on one of his building design would change based on the forecast for the upcoming weather. This way everyone who can see the building would know what the weather would.

Love to hear your Ultra World thoughts.

From my surveying and mapping experience I am amazed at what you can do with Google maps. Here is the location of some of the people I met at the conference.



Grow well
Dr Merrin