Scottish beavers (and Cali cacti) get their chips

As a report from the US Computing Technology Industry Association shows the number of companies adopting chipping for one or more projects up by a third on 2007, it is nice to think that just occasionally, chips and other tracking devices can be put to uses that are relatively benign – or even green. September is likely to …

[Shaun]

Yeah sure....

Like I'm going to click on the URL Scotishbeavers.org whilst at work....

Paris because I wouldn't click on her URL either......

[James Anderson]

NSFW?

"www.scottishbeavers.org.uk." gets blocked form my work PC for some reason.

Paris because .......

[Paul]

"though our more paranoid readers may be praying"

Please please don't encorage them. It is difficult enought for them as it is to roll a joint, keep the tinfoil hat in place and come up with reasons not to use Chrome without such direct proding.

[caffeine addict]

security

I'm glad they thought to choose a site that was surrounded by water. That should keep those pesky water mammals in one place.

It's a cool idea, but just as introducing new species to the country can damage it (think rabbits in Aus or grey squiggles in the UK), the countryside has evolved since the beaver became extinct. How do we know that re-introducing species won't have catastrophic consequences?

Of course, if we're happy blindly re-introducing species, I want to see hippos and crocodiles back in the Thames. That should make the boat race more interesting...

[Marc Lawrence]

Vice Versa

Neither beavers nor field officer are yet in place. Quarantine restrictions mean that the former are being rounded up (in Norway) over the next few weeks – whilst advertising for the field officer will take place over the next couple of months. Or possibly vice-versa.

Quarantine restrictions mean that field officers are being rounded up (in Norway) over the next few weeks- whilst advertising for the beavers will take place over the next couple of months.

[Allan Dyer]

Ouch!

While a lush growth of cacti might be environmentally friendly, I thought common uses for lawns included games and sunbathing. Only a fakir could enjoy sunbathing on cacti - though it might explain why americans feel it necessary to wear body armour to play football.

Flame icon... well, it's sort-of spiky.

[Chris Hamilton]

Scottish beavers are scary!

I should know.... as a Scotsman who fled my native land for the wetter and more civilised Westcountry to be closer to my beloved English beaver. Although, if they import some of those scandinavian beavers I might be tempted to return.

Hold on.... we talking about the same thing here??

TAXI!!!!! Where's my coat?

[Anonymous Coward]

@Marc Lawrence

You owe my employer a new monitor - this one's a bit damp now...

[Daniel Grey]

re: Security

HINT: Rabbits aren't native to the UK either, never mind Australia ;)

[TeeCee]

Field Officers?

Some sort of Beaver Patrol then.

Mine's the one with PWEI on the back.

[FathomsDown]

Only when...

I'll only support the Scottish beavers when they are fitted with frikkin lasers!

Mine is the one with the watermarks and singed sleeve.

[Tim Bergel]

Restricting movements?

"One big beaver no-no will be any attempt to move out of their designated area"

Which restriction will last precisely as long as it takes the beavers to breed and generate an un-tagged litter. While I actually rather like the idea of having beavers around, they are extraordinarily destructive - the dams convert river valleys into a series of swamps from what I've read. I predict that they will become rather unpopular - maybe we can then introduce wolves to predate them?

[Name]

@paul

It's easy enough to come up with a reason to not use chrome- having been horribly spoiled by Flashblock/Filterset.g and Noscript on Firefox, a browser feels incomplete without them. It's shocking what a twitching, flashing gyrating morass of crapola the web is- without the ads removed, it's pretty much intolerable. Sure, you can run a local filtering proxy, but that's a faff, especially on Windows.

Anyway, only my gaming machine runs windows, and most of my browsing is one on one of the linux boxes (at home or work), there isn't a native chrome build for penguinistas yet :-)

Otherwise, chrome looks nice, some good interface decisions. However, not for me, yet- until all the headache juice can be stripped out of pages on the fly.

[Steven Knox]

@Tim Begal

"maybe we can then introduce wolves to predate them?"

Surely if we want the wolves to predate them, we should introduce the wolves first?

[BlueGreen]

@caffeine addict, and cacti stealing

There's a recent article in new scientist about beavers. Suggests their river damming can help flood management by slowing down bulk water movement. These days, seems like a good idea. The article was generally positive.

On cacti, I don't know why you need to nick them. Some grow fast - remarkably fast (some opuntia and trichocereus for example). Golden barrel is not one of those, so I suppose if you want one or two to pretty your garden and are utterly selfish, get blagging.

[Anonymous Coward]

@TeeCee

Nice one :o)

I for one, wholeheartedly welcome the European Beaver to our shores!

[John Stevens]

Hmmm...

@Restricting Movements

If the beavers are introduced before the wolves, how on earth can the wolves pre-date them?

Time machines?

Boom! Boom!

Paris...cause this is the nearest you get to a foxy icon

[Solomon Grundy]

Beaver Trial

Do I have to go all the way to Scotland to pick up my trial beaver or can they ship it to me? How long can I keep it?

[James Anderson]

@Tim Bergel

Tim beavers are actually extremely "creative" in environmental terms.

The sure they mow down a few trees and muddy up the waters, but the dams slow down the flow of water and reduce erosion downstream. Longer term the dams silt up forming small fertile meadows which become rich in plant life and provide excelent habitat for many species.

Apparently theres good eating in one of those as well.

[Anonymous Coward]

More f-ing rodents???

I'll give it 10 years before they'll be wanting to exterminate the entire f-ing species.

Farmers don't like farming in swamps and the resultant increase in the midgie population should piss the hillwalkers right off!

Paris cos... we Canadians know all about beavers.

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't believe it

SCOTTISH BEAVER IS EXTINCT!!!!ONE

In all seriousness beavers are good if meadows are what you want and there are even cheap devices to keep culverts open but it seems a little stupid to expect a wild animal to conform to some arbitrary boundaries either accept them as they are or leave them in Norway.

[Les Matthew]

@James Anderson

"Apparently theres good eating in one of those as well"

har har, luckily I had just put down my coffee before I read that.

[Anonymous Coward]

my sister has beavers

Clean up your mind. She lives in New York state and back on her property there's a small creek that the beavers have dammed and made a series of ponds. It's not swampy at all, though they have trimmed quite a bit of the local underbrush near the banks. Cuts way down on runoff and local wildlife have ready access to water.

[tony trolle]

@Ouch!

"While a lush growth of cacti might be environmentally friendly, I thought common uses for lawns included games and sunbathing. Only a fakir could enjoy sunbathing on cacti - though it might explain why Americans feel it necessary to wear body armour to play football."

American lawns are for looking at and spraying with water. ( we get odd looks when we park a car on it; think we're Mexican)

Games are played on concrete or bigger green things called fields.

Sunbathing is done at the beach or tanning shops.