1.5m long Robot Carp, Wicked!

LONDON (Reuters) - Robot fish developed by British scientists are to be released into the sea off north Spain to detect pollution.

If next year's trial of the first five robotic fish in the northern Spanish port of Gijon is successful, the team hopes they will be used in rivers, lakes and seas across the world.

The carp-shaped robots, costing 20,000 pounds apiece, mimic the movement of real fish and are equipped with chemical sensors to sniff out potentially hazardous pollutants, such as leaks from vessels or underwater pipelines.

They will transmit the information back to shore using Wi-Fi technology.

Unlike earlier robotic fish, which needed remote controls, they will be able to navigate independently without any human interaction.

Rory Doyle, senior research scientist at engineering company BMT Group, which developed the robot fish with researchers at Essex University, said there were good reasons for making a fish-shaped robot, rather than a conventional mini-submarine.

"In using robotic fish we are building on a design created by hundreds of millions of years' worth of evolution which is incredibly energy efficient," he said.

"This efficiency is something we need to ensure that our pollution detection sensors can navigate in the underwater environment for hours on end."

The robot fish will be 1.5 meters (nearly 5 feet) long -- roughly the size of a seal.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler, editing by Tim Pearce)

Happy Birthday Charles Darwin - 200 this year!

In celebration of this event I tracked down some Darwin Fish Car Decals and actually sold more at work here than I did on Trade-Me.

Our Bees

Are lovely - I could sit and watch them all day.

The Latest Thing

Bees.
Any keen Dr Who fan will be aware that bees are disappearing. No-one actually knows why, there are plenty of theories, Cellphones, Temperature change, Disease, Mites, Poor pollen quality or pollen and nectar scarcity. (http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=15572)
Then we saw an episode of Hugh Fearnley-Whitingsall's 'Spring at River Cottage' in which he was talking about bees and in particular comparing honey produced by bees from Hackney in very built up east London to the honey he produces in the middle of Rural Dorset. I had never imagined that keeping a beehive in your back garden, or on the garage roof in suburbia was an option.
(Credit to the photographer - I stole this photo from another blog - http://williams-bees.blogspot.com/ I thought it was too good not to. I noticed he hasn't updated it for a long time.)
That got us thinking... and now, several months, lots of books and websites and few Bee Club meetings later there is a hive ready for us to pick up from Bucklands Beach.
The Question is, 'Are we ready for the bees?'
Its exciting and a bit scary. The Hive we will be getting is a new colony with a new Queen so there aren't that many of them at the moment and we probably won't get honey from them this year, we may even have to feed them if they can't get themselves sorted out before winter and the nectar slows right down or stops flowing.
Since starting to read about bees I am totally fascinated by the way they all work together in the hive, collecting pollen, nectar, propolis and water for their community. The way they communicate, keep house, what affects their moods.
The thing I'm looking forward to most is watching them....that's right just sitting and watching them come and go, the guards on the door, bees fanning to keep cool and waft the pheromone smell of their hive out to the foragers so they can find their way home

Today's Rant

Sustainability - the new buzzword in this part of the world, - Kiwis aren't that good at actually doing it, it would seem they perceive their country as being 'Clean Green 100% Pure,' etc. etc. so obviously they don't need to do anything extra or different to make it that way.

Oh yes - we all do recycling, using our own bags at the supermarket and turn lights off when we remember. But actually doing a little bit more than that can seem so hard. Other countries appear to be making more of an issue of it that we are here.
It doesn't help that the National Party got voted in which means the Greens have a very small say in matters now.


It also doesn't help that the new Minister of Energy and Resources, The Hon Gerry Brownlee, has made a few dodgy decisions already - reversing the plan to ban incandescent light bulbs and tabling a bill that would repeal the decision to force oil companies to sell a certain proportion of Bio fuel.
Hmmm we'll see, I wonder if he will ever get around to replying to my email.

Days 2-22 i.e Rest of the world

Its probably easiest to check out our Flikr pages for the photos and random comments for the rest of the tour..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24462004@N07/
chur.

Day 1 - Auckland to London

I love Singapore Airlines.
Shame it was the 12 hour overnighter, personal entertainment thingies, TV and films to watch, video games to play decent food (for airline food)it was tough getting to sleep - we kept waking up thinking we were nearly there but it was only an hour or 2 at a time. :(
I love Singapore Airport.
Orchid Gardens, Free massage chairs, Mythbusters on the telly, Free internet terminals. All this for a 2 hour stopover.
Next it was on to London via Munich. Lufthansa all the way (Boo) another 1ong flight - 13 hours this time one of those old fashioned planes (Airbus) with the central telly that drops down and you have to watch the films they put on for you - Ryan wasn't tall enough to see the TV without lots of cushions so the ipod full of AC/DC and Monty Python came into play.