Are Bee Robots Smarter Than Their Real Life Insect Counterparts? Two projects have researchers busily studying the inner workings of bees’ brains to advance both artificial intelligence (AI) systems and robotics sophistication.
In the first project, called Green Brain, researchers at the Universities of Sussex and Sheffield are mapping out the inner workings of a bee’s brain to advance AI computer modelling. Zeroing in on the parts of bee’s brains responsible for vision and smell, the project is hoping to advance AI systems that respond to sensory signals and act autonomously. In the second project, RoboBees, researchers at Harvard University are building micro robots that mimic the group action and decision making characteristics of colony behavior. Pushing advances in robotics, low power computing, electronic smart sensors and coordination algorithms that manage multiple, independent machines, RoboBees are small, agile robots that reliably and efficiently accomplish complex tasks. Your Urban Garden is Better with Bees.pdf (application/pdf Object) Toronto District Beekeepers. Beesource.com - Beekeeping resources for beekeepers since 1997!
Bees buzzing in Toronto backyards. The Ontario Beekeepers' Association. Bee Project. More urban beekeeping, this time atop a Toronto hotel. Gain instant and exclusive access to over 5,000 of the most creative ideas, innovations and startups on our database and use our smart filters to take you direct to those that are most relevant to your industry and your needs.
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Vancouverites are on board. New Yorkers have followed suit. Torontonians, too, have started to get wise to the benefits of city buzzers, with some bee-friendly spots scattered throughout the city. A rule in the Ontario Bees Act, however, is making it difficult for urban apiarists to freely tend backyard hives. The Fairmont Royal York hotel got much buzz when they kept rooftop honey bees in creatively named hives and used the homespun honey in various dishes served at their restaurant. For anyone in and around the city interested in learning about beekeeping, this is a great place to start.
Humans must change behaviour to save bees, vital for food production – UN report. 10 March 2011 – The potentially disastrous decline in bees, a vital pollinating element in food production for the growing global population, is likely to continue unless humans profoundly change their ways, from the use of insecticides to air pollution, according to a United Nations report released today.
“The way humanity manages or mismanages its nature-based assets, including pollinators, will in part define our collective future in the 21st century,” UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner said. “The fact is that of the 100 crop species that provide 90 per cent of the world’s food, over 70 are pollinated by bees.” But bee colonies have been collapsing in many parts of the globe, and the report – Global Bee Colony Disorders and other Threats to Insect Pollinators – cites more than a dozen potential factors ranging from declines in flowering plants and the use of memory-damaging insecticides to the worldwide spread of pests and air pollution.
Urban beekeeping 101: Why we need bees. Untitled. Beekeeping booming in Toronto. Time was, when Greg Thomson went to parties and told people he sold beekeeping supplies in Toronto, he was guaranteed a disheartening laugh.
“I just got kind of fed up,” the manager of F.W. Jones & Son Ltd. in Downsview says now. “I’d say, ‘Yeah, beekeeping, laugh it up’.” Over the past few years, Thomson has seen his business shift from supplying commercial beekeepers outside of Toronto, to increasingly selling to Torontonians keeping a hive or two in their back yards. Or balcony, or rooftop. Even the Canadian Opera Company is getting in on the act, with the unveiling Wednesday of two hives on the roof of its new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. But it’s the jump in home beekeeping — despite restrictive Ontario laws that hives must be 30 metres from the property line — that has caught the attention of local bee enthusiasts.
One of Thomson’s customers, Brian Hamlin, keeps hives on the Toronto Islands and near the Leslie Street Spit. Beekeeping 101 / Penn State Extension. Whether you are an experienced beekeeper, a new beekeeper, or thinking about starting a backyard beehive, Penn State Beekeeping 101 is a one-of-a-kind completely online learning experience.
Expert instructors will walk you through all of the basic knowledge to start hives in your backyard. Beekeeping 101 is suitable for both beginners and those with some beekeeping experience. Individual Registration $189 Special Spring offer of only $129 Enter the code: SPRING14 during registration Course includes: Bee BiologyBee BehaviorHive ManagementSwarmingEquipmentBee Productsand much moreView Sample Pages.