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Blackbutt Reserve

Since I was unable to visit Gap Creek Falls the other day, I decided I might pop in to have a look at the new animal enclosures at Blackbutt Reserve near Newcastle. I will say straight off the bat that I do have something of a prejudice against Blackbutt Reserve, as I see the place as nothing like a natural bush setting, it being far too ‘corrupted’ by human activity, weeds and the like. Having said that it is a good place for a family or group outing/event. It certainly has its place, but it is not a true nature reserve (in my opinion).

Visitor Centre

ABOVE: Visitor Centre

I do think that some well designed animal and bird enclosures at Blackbutt could lift the value of the reserve dramatically and make it a really great place for families, especially young families. There are opportunities for educational visits for kids, possible environmental activities and the like there. So the potential is certainly there for Blackbutt.

The enclosures of my youth are giving way to those that are much better and up to a more modern standard, which is great to see. Certainly the improvements I saw are great and some of them are outstanding. The Quoll enclosure, with nocturnal habitat viewing was brilliant. Some of the other enclosures are getting there also, though I was disappointed with the size of some of the aviaries and poor vegetation choices they appeared to have. They didn’t look to great for the birds, which I think is not a good look. Still, they are a major improvement on what had been there before.

Some of the other enclosures for snakes and amphibians were really good also I have to say and overall the place is going ahead and improving all of the time. So I think it has a place into the future, if it can continue to improve along the way. Just some thoughts…

Modern Enclosures Koala

ABOVE LEFT: Modern Enclosures  ABOVE RIGHT: Koala BELOW: Nocturnal Quoll Enclosure

Nocturnal Quoll Enclosure

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Jolicloud Me – Bring Your Social Cloud Together in One Place

  1. Jolicloud Me has recently entered public beta and I have only recently signed on to try out the web application/social network. It does appear impressive for what it attempts to do. It is a curation service for your social presence on the World Wide Web, bringing all of your social cloud together in one place. That is the aim anyhow – being in beta you can expect plenty more services to be added as time goes by.

    The articles below provide a useful introduction to the service.

Online Video Rotator

From time to time when taking a video you sometimes find it better to shoot the video ‘on its side.’ Of course when this is done the video is only able to be viewed side ways. If only the video could be turned and viewed the correct way up. Online Video Rotator does this job for you, though it is limited to 3MB only. Does anyone know of a place for converting larger files – that would be very useful? Still, having an online tool that does the job even for small files is a great help.

For more, visit:
http://www.rotatevideo.org/

 

Photocollect

Today’s link is to Photocollect, which is a useful way to collect photos from group events. The principle behind Photocollect is that everyone involved with the event is able to post all of their photos to the same place for sharing. The site is free for photo collection, however, storing photos at Photocollect does involve a fee.

Fore more, visit:
http://photocollect.net/

Wordnik

Today I’m posting a link to another web application (of sorts), this one called Wordnik. Wordnik is a place about words. At Wordnik you can discover meanings of words, spell checks, pronunication assistance and comments can be made on words. You can also get a daily email with a word and definition – a good way to expand your vocabulary. There is a wealth of information available when a word is searched or looked up on Wordnik.

Have a look at:
http://www.wordnik.com/

Copia: A Place to Buy and Discuss Books

Copia a social networking site for book lovers. At Copia you can buy ebooks and discuss what you are reading with other book lovers. You can also share your Copia experience with Facebook and Twitter.

There is a desktop reader and an iPad reader that can be downloaded for free.

Well worth a look.

http://www.thecopia.com/home/index.html

The Fridge

If you’re interested in setting up a group/community/social network, perhaps you might like to check out ‘The Fridge.’ The Fridge is a place where you can set up a free group/community/social network. There are plenty of places these days for setting up a group and/or a social network. You could of course try Google Groups, Grou.ps and/or Yahoo Groups. If you are happy to pay there are other possibilities including Ning. The Fridge is not a site I had even heard of until a few days ago, but it could be worth a look or worth experimenting with for a while.

A member of a Fridge group gets a personal profile, which has a wall similar to Facebook. You can also post a photo for your profile. It really is a very simple social network providing a very basic service. It really seems to be a way of having very basic communication with other members of the group. You can post a picture with a post. So basically it provides a secure and private place for communicating. I guess email really accomplishes the same thing to some degree.

Have a look at:

http://www.frid.ge

ThumbScribes

Thumbscribes is a place for creating collaborative content and materials. You can co-write a story, a poem, a song, etc. You can also use a variety of devices when using ThumbScribes.

Have a look at:

https://thumbscribes.com/