News - Cassowary Connect

Question: Should votes be public?
The Art Space competition is under way. The public can vote for their favourite (follow Art Space links from the home page or click here -> cassowaryconnect.com

It's been interesting to watch behind the scenes the most popular paintings slowly rise up in their different categories. Over 70 votes have been registered, and I'm wondering whether to make the number of votes (that each painting has received) public before the end of the competition... or leave it all under wraps until the awards night?

I can think of reasons for and against but am wondering what others think.

Young talent on show [Update]
The trickle of entries into the Art Space Exhibition & Competition turned into a FLOOD! In the end we received over thirty entries. It has been thrilling to see the artistic talent on display.

The exhibition is now officially open, and everyone is invited to come along and see it for themselves.

[UPDATE]
There is an online display accompanying the exhibition where you can vote for your favourite (follow Art Space links or click here -> cassowaryconnect.com ). There have been over 70 votes so far in the past few days. It's good that people are checking out the online exhibition but it is no substitute for seeing the fabulous artworks up close.

I think the artwork is a good representation of the physical aspects of the Cassowary
Coast region. The text that accompanies each painting was taken from each artist's entry form -

For example:

- At The Creek (45x45cm) by Ruby Bishop (age 6)
Her painting is about going to the creek where she likes to swim.
- Mission Beach From A Parachute (40x40cm) by Shinji Hain (age 9)
His painting is about a parachute jump he did with his dad.
- Green Turtle (30x30cm) by Angie Rutter (age 12)
Her painting is about a green turtle in the ocean at Green Island.
- King Forest (50x40cm) by Cahil Abrahams (age 9)
His painting is about the rain forest.

Some emotive subjects are portrayed as well:

- Love (30x30cm) by Mariah Lawrence (age 10)
Her painting is about how crazy love is.
- I Wish (45x45cm) by Matilda Bishop (age 10)
Her painting is about a little budgie that lives in a cage and dreams he could fly into
the real world.
- Midnight (30x30cm) by Joe Rutter (age 8)
His painting is about scary nightime colours.
- Hand Print (30x30cm) by Bianca Tulk (age 10)
Her painting is about Emo Kids.

Part of the exhibition also includes advertisements for local art groups, and a low table with pencils, textas, crayons and A4 paper. Children viewing the exhibit are invited to draw something in response and this is displayed on the gallery window and becomes a part of the show.

Opening times will vary as the exhibit will be staffed by volunteers. A sign will be posted at the gallery with the open times.

Hope to see you there!

Wear YELLOW on Friday
Wear yellow on Friday and show your support for the local banana industry.

"The agency [Biosecurity] on Tuesday announced a quarantine policy had been determined for the importing of bananas from the Philippines.

The policy will be used to assess import applications for bananas from the Philippines.

"These measures are designed to limit quarantine risk to a level that is acceptably low in order to achieve Australia's appropriate level of protection," Biosecurity Australia said in a statement."
[ from www.freshplaza.com ]

LIMIT quarantine risk?

There is a risk. And as everyone is pointing out, the risk is not just to the local banana.

"There are fears the decision could pose a significant threat to the region's $350 million banana industry and undermine more than 6000 jobs"
[ www.cairns.com.au ]

Everyone in the Far North will feel the effect if imported bananas infect local nanas with a couple of foreign bugs. And there's a few...

"The main diseases and pests of quarantine concern are Moko, black Sigatoka, Freckle, Mealybugs, Armoured scales, Spider mites and Thrips."
[ www.daff.gov.au ]

Everyone in the Far North will feel the effect. And today I realised, while driving to work, that that includes me. With all the talk of recession I've been feeling quite comfortable in my job as a teacher at a school run by the state government. But... if people can't find work, I think a few might up sticks and go to where work is. Up sticks, up school-going kids, and leave town.

And when kids start leaving rural schools, the small schools get even smaller and fewer teachers are required.

So help us all keep our jobs and wear yellow on Friday!

10,000 hits in 10 Months?
I've been meaning to write this for a long time. I am an educator after all, and I am hoping that this rant will educate a few.

"10,000 hits in 10 Months" sounds great, but what does it really mean? What are hits?

"Hit counters record one hit for every time a webpage is viewed... problematic because it does not distinguish unique visitors."
www.opentracker.net

"Don't ever take Hits as an accurate indication of traffic to a website..."
www.go4.com.au

Try this test on a website that proudly displays a counter: click refresh/reload five times (or press ctrl+R) and if the counter goes up by five then the site is counting hits, not visits.

So when you see a website with a counter showing 10,000 hits it does not mean 10,000 people have visited that site.

A better way to gage the amount of people visiting your site is to use a more sophisticated tool than a simple hit counter. The most thorough and accurate one that I know is Google Analytics. And it's free.

(PS, if you want hits... we've had 282,000 in about 12 months according to cassowaryconnect.com sounds impressive doesn't it?!)

January was a great month for freebies!
Many small clubs and businesses held open days last month. It was a great chance to try out the various activities they had to offer without opening the wallet.
For example...

- Free "Try Days" from Baseline Tennis ( cassowaryconnect.com ).

- Free demonstration class for families with children under 5 from kinderMusik ( cassowaryconnect.com ).

- Free "Come & Try Day" with the Coconuts Outriggers ( cassowaryconnect.com ).

- Free art activities from Art Space ( cassowaryconnect.com ).

Plus on the 26th of January there were numerous free events put on to celebrate Australia Day ( cassowaryconnect.com ).

But the generosity didn't stop at the end of the month, it continued into February with a free bellydance workshop put on by GypsyRain ( cassowaryconnect.com ), and there were free bottles of CHI3 on offer ( cassowaryconnect.com ), a new energy drink first brought to our attention by Hazel Holland. Now we know where she gets her energy from!

To see what else you missed in January, cassowaryconnect.com .

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