Oh, what a wonderful thing to be,
A nice obedient busy busy bee,
To be a good bee one must contrive,
For bees in a beehive must behive.
First the BBC revealed that David Attenborough's colleagues were micro-chipping and scanning lizards in order to discover the secrets of their private lives... Now it's the poor worker bees getting the RFID treatment, as revealed on BBC News Online this week.
Looks like a very effective way to monitor staff efficiency within the hive.
So much so that Downtime wonders if the researcher shown sticking tiny tags to the rear end of bees in the video had struck a deal with the queen bee beforehand: tell me which of my drones are slacking, and I'll make sure you don't get stung.
EU RFID privacy consultation aside, could it be only a matter of time before we all share their fate?
Sing with me, everyone: Oh to be a busy, busy bee, tagged, scanned and monitored using RFID...
(With apologies to Arthur Askey)
