Zaha has Hadid with 3D printing

London's Design Museum has just had an exhibition of 3D printing and additive manufacturing. On show and in operation were a number of machines that looked like microwave ovens, producing various shapes out of extruded plastic. On the face of it there wasn't much to get excited about. From a design, created on the laptop computer alongside, the machines were somewhat painstakingly making little blue or red plastic crocodiles, the sort of thing you might find in a lucky packet or a box of breakfast cereal. Given the billing as 'The Future is Here' this all didn't really seem to measure up. But this is a technology that's already being used in the manufacture of aero parts and body organs. The Great Ormond St Hospital for children near Russell Square is home to loads of R&D which has already embraced the new tech. For example, researchers have designed and 3D-printed a replacement trachea for a small boy, grown a new trachea around it using stem cells, which in turn became a living organ as the plastic dissolved. This is only one of a host of such projects. As the costs of 3D printing fall and sophistication of the soft- and hardware increases, it will become increasingly ubiquitous. Much like the personal computer which was regarded as something of an oddity when it first appeared on the scene, this technology will within the next generation become a fixture in the home, changing the way we produce and consume things. Needless to say, today's factory is also likely to be revolutionised, with all the turmoil in labour relations that will entail. The Design Museum building itself has recently been acquired by Zaha Hadid, the new star of London's modernist architecture fraternity, born in Baghdad. The QSL is from Radio Baghdad, heard in Cape Town back in 1968 on the 31mb.

Indonesia a no-no? No.

Emerging markets are dropping like flies. They are become a dirty word. From hero to zero. Well not so fast but some of the glister has rubbed off of the high-flyers of the past decade. Just a couple of years ago everyone was talking about the 'Lula effect': how Brazil had transformed itself from seemingly perpetual disappointment to the paragon of the new world. Now it seems to have regressed back to its pedestrian 3% growth path of the past 20 years. India was another. Its economic growth was vying with China's: 8, 9 or even 10% was possible and India's vast 'demographic dividend' was going to embrace new technologies and catapult the economy into the big league within the next generation or two. But in recent years we have seen a dysfunctional political system squander the reforms of the 1990s and Indian growth has plummeted to around 4%. More recently, high-flying Indonesia has fallen foul of investors, stocks plummeted 20% and the top state pension fund had to step in to buy. Is it all over for emerging markets? Well, not really. Things did get a bit ahead of themselves. Money moves in herds and funds poured cash into these economies without really thinking. The emerging market crises of the late 1990s and early 2000s led to significant reforms but after that they have rested on their laurels somewhat. It's human nature. Then easy liquidity from central banks in the US, Europe and Japan hid some of the flaws but these are now being revealed as the cost of money starts to rise again. But it's not over for emerging economies. They still have big populations. low urbanisation rates and low incomes along with growing access to new technologies. They'll be back. The QSL is from Radio Republik Indonesia, Palembang, in southern Sumatra, heard in Morgan Bay in 1993. The station engineer kindly replied in both English and Bahasa Indonesia.

Gibraltar - the end of the world

Gibraltar has a long history and changed hands more than once. Neanderthals, Carthaginians, Phoenicians and Romans all had their time there. According to legend, Hercules, Superman of antiquity, smashed a gap through the Atlas Mountains, then at the end of the world, thereby connecting the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and forming the Pillars of Hercules, of which the Rock of Gibraltar is one. There's a dispute about the other one. Now you'd have to say that both Britain and Spain are behaving as if it's the end of the world that they don't get their way with this tiny sliver of land at the southern tip of Spain. A day after a belligerent Spanish fishing boat armada advanced on the territory, the Royal Navy frigate, HMS Westminster, pulled in. Of course, it was only a routine visit, but then aren't they always in such circumstances? A concrete reef has now been laid alongside the airport runway to deter Spanish fishermen. These days the old pink on the maps of the Empire has shrunk to minute proportions but Britain continues to hold onto little dots like Gibraltar, the Falklands and St Helena/Tristan da Cunha. Suits me, they all count as separate radio countries! We spent a day there a few years back and enjoyed its mix of Brits, Spaniards and many other ethnicities, basking in the temperate climate. We too have our pics of the cute macaque monkeys jumping onto our shoulders with the Rock as backdrop. Britain has held the space since 1713 and despite the current spat looks likely to hold on for some time to come. The QSL is from Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation, heard on AM during a trip to Portugal in 2004: a little island of English-speaking radio in a sea of Spanish and Portuguese.

From Coast Guard chase to Nigerian thunder

A US Coast Guard cutter is visiting right here in Simon's Town naval harbour. Or it used to be a CG cutter, now it's part of the Nigerian navy. It has arabesqued from US CG cutter Chase into NNS Thunder, as of 2011. This Hamilton Class cutter was launched way back in 1967 in New Orleans and has a long pedigree of operations in the Vietnam war, Middle East and off the east and west USA coasts, at one point making the second biggest cocaine bust in Coast Guard history. Today the NNS Thunder and one of SA's corvettes have been criss-crossing False Bay on manoeuvres. I spotted them between waves at Muizies, glinting in the broken sunlight. The dust has still not settled from SA's big navy corruption scandal, involving the four state-of-the-art corvettes and three new submarines. The sad thing is that our navy is completely ill-equipped with the skills to manage these boats and few of them are ever at sea. The presence of NNS Thunder is a reminder that a much smarter move would have been for the navy to have acquired a fleet of smaller ships, of the type used by the US Coast Guard, to patrol coastal waters. The corvettes are way over-specced for our needs, to say nothing of the subs. You don't need over-the-horizon missiles to catch perlemoen poachers. On a more stylistic note, I also am not too fond of their light grey colour. A navy boat looks that much more threatening and convincing in dark grey. The Thunder's black and dark grey combo is the real thing. The QSL is from US Coast Guard in New Orleans, using just 1000 watts and an omni-directional vertical whip antenna, heard in Johannesburg up on 8 mHz in 1989. The Coast Guard are among the best and friendliest QSLers around the world.

Blue Flag no guarantee against E. coli

Several days of strong winds had whipped up a big swell. I got to Muizies at 0830 and found a prime parking spot, guided by Charles Mbalanda, the car guard from Congo Kinshasa. Charlie tolerates my rudimentary spoken French, so we always have a little chat about the state of the world. Everyone knows him. He has permanent residence in SA but is still hassled by the police. Bigger waves are harder to catch and also tend to close out along the face. So I moved across into the Corner proper, just below the station where the rocks are. The reef tends to create wave peaks, allowing for more left and right rides. Paddling out was hard work and every now and again a big wave would pitch over just as I reached it, flipping me back in a somersault into the white water churn. Inevitably you swallow a bit of water as you roll around. True, Muizies is a Blue Flag beach but after heavy rains, winter stormwaters bring extra bits of untreated sewage. Once or twice in the past after a day of wipe-outs I've ended up with a spot of dysentery. Hopefully not this time. E.coli is E.coli but so far I haven't grown any extra digits or organs. It's not that I'm precious at all. Rather, I'm in the camp of those who believe that if you drop a bit of food on the kitchen floor you should have no compunction about picking it up and eating it. The best way to fight bugs is to build up a bit of immunity to them. In London we felt that parents were way too hygienic about their kids, many of whom seemed to get sick rather easily.  E. coli was discovered by the German pediatrician, Theodor Escherich, in 1881. He was born in Ansbach, not far from Nuremberg. The QSL is from the Bayerischer Rundfunk, broadcasting from Munich and Nuremberg and heard in Cape Town on AM way back in 1971.

Air Van men bewitched over Hex River Valley

We started to taxi down the long strip at 4.47pm and the little RV-7 was quickly airborne, rising rapidly. The control tower had been a little naughty, letting us go less than two minutes after a Mango Boeing 737 had departed. So we picked up a bit of turbulence and Matt soon banked off to the left, just a fraction before the tower instructed him to do so. Within minutes we were up at 2000 feet, with the Western Cape spread out magnificently below, heading north-east towards the Hottentots Holland hills, Cape Town's wine country. Beyond lay the snow-capped peaks of the Hex River Mountains, towering 2000 meters into the blue sky. It was a perfect winter's afternoon: virtually windless, sunny, cool and clear. We pushed up to 3000 feet, sending regular radio messages out to surrounding traffic about who we were and where we were going. Western Cape airspace is not busy like London's but we heard a few calls from other pilots nipping around the hills and valleys, enjoying the stunning flying conditions. The RV-7 is a tiny two-seater but very quick for its size. After warning me, Matt put it into a dive and we both rose in our seats with negative gravity, our heads brushing the perspex top of the cockpit. As we neared the snow peaks we climbed to 7500 feet and it grew much colder. The mountain tops looked bleak, white and pristine, snow glistening in the sun. Soon we were headed back towards Cape Town International airport and made a perfect touchdown. Matt had clocked up another hour in his training schedule. The Van's RV-7 plane is a kit aircraft made by Van's Aircraft in Oregon. The QSL is from KPNW, Eugene, OR, heard in Los Angeles in 1987. Pic shows the snow-covered Hex River Mountains.

Zimbabwe - it's the devil you know

I saw a bus marked Harare heading out of Simon's Town today. Not the capital of Zimbabwe but Harare in Khayelitsha, a sprawling Cape Town suburb. It was a reminder of how many Zimbabweans you meet here, to say nothing of the Congolese, Malawians and more. Years ago we had a gardener, quaintly named Million, who was originally from Plumtree in southern Zim. He actually had a permanent residence permit to live in SA, unlike many Zimbabweans who have simply skipped the border and found work. Speak to any Zimbabwean and he'll tell you that he'd love to go back. But not yet! So long as president Bob Mugabe is still there, raping and pillaging the economy, most would rather stay here, even if they do pine for home. Mugabe is set to become the only current state leader to have attained the ripe old age of 90, following his latest landslide victory in Zim's snap election. This really is a case of sticking with the devil you know.... Of course, there are emigrants all over the world who talk of going home and often don't. In London, we first became aware of the strong Polish presence in the late 1990s when big Polish newspaper bills started appearing outside local newsagents. Polish is now the second most widely spoken language. Afrikaans-speaking South Africans used to be few and far between. On the tube, you would hear them sharing all sorts of indiscretions about London, the Brits and all, secure in the knowledge that no one would understand them (or hardly anyone!) These days it's less common because there are so many more around. The QSL is from the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation, pre-independence, heard on 998 kHz medium wave in Cape Town in 1967. The beautiful Sable antelope adorns the card.