Swimming Fish Can Generate Elctricity - April Fools

The best story of the day, featured in today Daily Telegraph, told how harnessing the power of swimming fish could hold the key to generating electricity to power Britain's homes.

The paper reported Government scientists claiming that installing networks of electric prongs along the riverbed, the energy from of fish migrating upstream could be captured and fed into the National Grid.

The report on project, codenamed 'Finetics', suggested a typical salmon could generate enough electricity to make 18 cuppas.

While it's quite believable Government scientists would waste money researching such a barmy scheme, the giveaways were researcher Dr Andrea POOL, green technology boffin Gavin ROACH and said the trials would be monitored by the Université de Poisson d'Avril in Paris (Poisson D' Avril is actually a French April Fools Day tradition, which involves kids attempting to attach a paper fish to a victim's back without being noticed).

Even though it's rubbish, I loved the quote: "Initially, we looked at working with sheep and cattle as well as fish but it quickly became apparent that the energy-generating potential of fish far outweighed that of slow-moving grazing stocks."

On a serious non-diving point, read the story linked to from the page about Kosovo survivor Dren Caka. It makes shocking reading. Having been there with the British Army, the country has a special hold on me and it worth remembering the horrors of that conflict.