Hive-mind Beekeeping

Found this little beauty in the Piazza Santissima Annunziata in Florence, 60 bees surrounding their queen on the rear side of the statue  of Ferdinando I by Giambologna (at right). I’m including the pictures of …

Two recent news articles relevant to bees and the hive mind: Bumblebee boogie analysis in webserver boost: The title has it wrong, as the algorithms are actually based on honey bee behavior, not bumblebee, but …

Another article on the Hive Mind, this one from NPR.org: Robots Infiltrate, Influence Cockroach Groups. In this one, scientists have somehow programmed tiny robots that interact with cockroaches in such a way that the cockroaches …

Interesting article in Tuesday’s New York Times on s Swarm Intelligence, a favorite topic here: From Ants to People, an Instinct to Swarm. Ito does a good job of explaining the basic concept of swarm …

If you’re visiting this site because you saw my talk at the Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin, Willkommen! As a bit of background, I’m taking a break from software (talk to me if you’re interested …

Apparently, they call mead “hydromel” (water honey?) in France. I found a bottle sealed with beeswax at a little farmer’s market in the absolutely beautiful town of Cassis, along the southern Coast, between Marseilles and …

When you think of France, you think of wine (and snails and frog’s legs), right? Well, I swear there are as many varieties of honey here as there are wines. Every little grocery store we …

We delight at each touch of honey on our travels. At Musee D’Orsay in Paris, for example, we found this beautiful sculpture , “Pan et oursons” by Emmanuel Fremiet. It shows the god Pan putting …

Remember how I said I put some old, crystallized honey out for the bees to clean out of the jars? I had expected there to be a bit of wax that made it through the …