Does Aerogard Keep Away Bees?

Does Aerogard keep away bees?

Travelling in convoy will not deter bees

We tackle some of the huge issues in life here at The Creative Shed, and here’s such an example.

We have a bee hive in our yard – a friend keeps bees as a hobby and we decided to help out by having a hive, with the promise of some fresh honey each spring. Of course, once the honey is taken from the hive, you have a very unhappy bunch of bees. In our case, three days later and they’re still patrolling their perimeter and seeking any human that comes within about 15 metres of the hive. Which is a pain if you want to do things like mow the jungle formerly known as your lawn.

So after two aborted attempts at mowing, I decided to try Aerogard (N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide) to see if the couple of bees hounding me would back off. I’m pleased to report they did but I wouldn’t want to rely on it as a deterrent for more than a couple of bees and if you have a bee allergy I wouldn’t even risk that. And of course there are many other brands out there beside Aerogard, it was just the one I had at hand.

And did you know: Aerogard was developed by Doug Waterhouse at Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO, who passed on the formula to Mortein. For nothing.

[Pic via Motifake]

1953 Sci-Fi At Its Best: The Rotifers

The RotifersWe all have stories from our childhood that scared the hell out of us – or at least entranced us with the power of the situation they described. Once such story for me was The Rotifers, which I read in the late 1970s or 1980s in a paperback sci-fi short story collection.

It enough of an impact for me to recall it recently, and after some serious googling (I couldn’t recall the story’s title), I found it on Project Gutenberg. Aside from the fact it was a joy to read again, I was interested to learn that it was more than 25 years old when I read it as a kid. Given some of the domestic descriptions I should have realised, but there you go. Written by Robert Abernathy, the story’s power is in its simplicity and the story premise that still has a lot of power today: that the microscopic can harm us if it wants to.

Anyway – have a read of a 1953 short story that’s likely to give you at least a small case of the creeps.

How to stop receiving your phone book (White Pages / Yellow Pages)

For Australians: if you’re like me, you may not have opened your hard copy phone book in months or years.

There’s now an option to cancel receiving them. Whether you want to save trees, space or both, go here to cancel your next phone book delivery. I feel better already!

Music apps for the iPhone and iPad: new resource

Pro Music Apps is a new site devoted solely to iPhone / iPad applications that are music-related. One of its co-owners is a good friend of mine who has a quarter of a century as a musician and music producer under his belt, so there’ll be no shortage of in-depth knowledge and valid skepticism of dodgy apps.

The site has only recently launched but there’s already plenty of content on there. With the iPad now a reality, music applications will continue their explosive growth. Sites like this will play a role in sorting the wheat from the chaff – so why not give them a try?

Discussion paper: policy agenda-setting in virtual environments

I’m really pleased to announce the availability of a discussion paper on policy and virtual worlds. You can read all the details and download the discussion paper here.

As always, if you need more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Aussie short filmmaking at its best

This little piece has everything: sarcasm, humour and some great visuals. Enjoy:

Beautiful Kate: the Second Life aspect

Over the past year we’ve had the absolute pleasure of playing a small part in Beautiful Kate, the recently released film directed by Rachel Ward.

You can read about the project in much more detail here. Here’s a short machinima we created to showcase some of the work done:

Converting Excel to HTML

It took me a while to find the most efficient way to avoid using Microsoft’s export to HTML function, as it didn’t work well when using the exported HTML in a WordPress post.

Here’s the far superior alternative – enjoy.

A simple explanation of how Twitter works

Twitter’s simplicity gets an equally simple / plain English video explanation – it’s an ideal way to show a new user or skeptic its appeal:

Creating a famous Mii for Nintendo Wii

Ever wondered how some Mii creators make some amazing looking avatars that resemble celebrities? I’d assumed there was an option to buy different customisations on top of the default options, but I was wrong. All it takes is the default set with a lot of imagination.

MiiCharacters.com_-_MiiCharacters.com_-_Famous_Miis_for_the_Wii_U__Wii__and_3DS_-_QR_Codes_and_Instructions

What also helps is a site called Mii Characters which has step-by-step guides for hundreds of Mii customisations. Enjoy.

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