Fรชted on this day on the anniversary of his consecration as the bishop of Milan in 374 AD, the statesman and theologian Saint Ambrose was a strong and influential proponent of heterodoxy in the Latin rite and was also celebrated for a cycle of Advents hymns and antiphonal chants that inform later traditions of carolling. Along with Augustine of Hippo (whom Ambrose converted), Jerome and Pope Gregory the Great, he is considered in western traditions a Doctor of the Church. Born in Augusta Treverorum around 339, it is said a swarm of bees descended on the infant whilst in his crib, leaving the baby unharmed and anointed with droplets of honey—taken as an auspicious sign and his patronage of apiculturists and by extension candle-makers. Moving to Rome from the provinces, Ambrose would study law and rhetoric and enter public service, like his father, becoming governor of Liguria and Emilia with the captial in Milan. Intervening in a succession crisis for the city’s bishop seat, not standing for the office, the politician accepted the vacancy compelled by popular acclaim of the assembled council, the Church afforded a measure of autonomy by Ambrose’s imperial connections, which tended towards deferment to his decisions and a level of independence. Charitable and advocating a kind of liturgical flexibility and rejecting rigid customs—including tolerance for pagans and other non-Christians, his advice to Augustine about respecting local ways stays with us, distilled as, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
Saturday, 7 December 2024
veni redemptor gentium (12. 064)
Saturday, 27 April 2024
10x10 (11. 517)
age inappropriate: amid a the aggressive banning and policing of reading material, “disturbing” titles help teens become more empathetic and literate—via tmn
brolly: a faux Britishism for umbrella—from an American regionalism—with an interesting history
…but often rhymes: what historian Thucydides would make of parallels and analogies

moulin rouge: the red windmill blades on the Parisian landmark collapse—via Nag on the Lake—more here
completist: venturing to the remote US national park that requires a passport
what’s the truth about mother goose: a search for the personage behind the nursery rhymes
never-ending cash machine: a collection of lost and unreleased
to the manor born: a series of articles on how to quantify a castle, palace and stately home—via Strange Company
house penguin: recent anti-trust case over the acquisition of one publisher revealed sobering insights about the state of the industry
one year ago: the evacuation of Prypriat (1986)
two years ago: a single from Harvey Danger (1998), more removal of Soviet monuments plus no new applications for flag icons and emoji
three years ago: Saint Zita, redrawing geopolitical boundaries according to indigenous lands, peaceniks, Dr Mabuse (1922), etymologies of company names and brands plus sustainable diets
four years ago: All Quiet on the Western Front, another Roman holiday, a comic make-up tutorial plus engine sounds for electric cars
five years ago: ranking the 404 landing pages for the US presidential candidates
Thursday, 4 April 2024
9x9 (11. 467)
and palmeres for to seken straunge strondes: the Gentle Author makes a pilgrimage along London’s ancient Black Path
the 2531 sato-san problem: given demographic trends, legal requirements and custom, all Japanese residents could eventually share the same surnamesymphony № 42: animator Rรฉka Busci presents forty-seven ironic vignettes
double doors open, why aren’t i reacting in this shot: a literal video version of Total Eclipse of the Heart—I walk out on a terrace where I think I’m alone, but Arthur Fonzarelli’s got an army of clones
into the butterverse: the variations of the Unicode emoji—via Pasa Bon!
chalcolithic tattooing: a study of รtzi the ice mummy’s body markings on living volunteers—via Super Punch
apiculture: experiments involving social problem-solving suggest that bees have the capacity to pass on learnt experience
not a bug but a feature: a collection of absurd software and end-user errors solved—via Waxy
the society of wood engravers: the art and illustration of carver Harry Brockway—via Things Magazine
synchronoptica
one year ago: New York v Trump plus Finland’s accession to NATO
two years ago: Japanese police boxes plus the Ukrainian roots of world-wide wheat
three years ago: your daily demon: Samigina, Winston Smith makes a diary entry plus the Hildesheimer Dom
four years ago: the flag of Hong Kong (1990), assorted links to revisit plus St Tigernach
five years ago: the founding of NATO (1949), saving the pollinators, the Buttigieg bid for US president plus historic mass transit systems
Wednesday, 20 December 2023
7x7 (11. 199)
dongmei zone: seven months interred in a online scam labour camp—via Waxy
santa claus go straight to the ghetto: David Byrne shares his Christmas playlist
napolรฉon vu par abel gance: a 1927 ingenious, panoramic adaptation of the historical figurelocal inference: when AI assistants leave the cloud and haunt one’s laptop, all bets are going out the window—via Good Internet
autogamy: evolutionary changes in wild pansies suggest that the flowers have given up on increasingly rare insects and are turning to self-pollination, a vicious cycle for the whole ecosystem
tom & jerry: the typology of North American eggnog cartons—via Kottke
jewel streets: a twelve-block neighbourhood known as the Hole of New York City neglected and forgotten for decades
Friday, 8 December 2023
7x7 (11. 170)
recueil de la diversitรฉ des habits: a 1562 volume of national dress from around the world—including the costumes of mermonks
psychedelic cryptography: a contest to make hidden messages that only can be deciphered in a state of altered consciousness—Waxy
thus the unfacts, did we possess them, are too imprecisely few to warrant our certitude: a dedicated, careful reading of James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake
hiveopolis: a project to create hybrid, smart bee colonies with robots tasked to defend the queen
fluid dynamics: winner of the American Physical Society’s visualising science goes to the process of making marbled paper—see previously
smock-frock: the hidden history of the outer garment traditionally worn by shepherds and waggoners
synchronoptica
one year ago: Hotel California (1976) plus assorted links to revisit
two years ago: the depths of Wikipedia plus a hackers’ collective
three years ago: your daily demon: Alloces, Mobil Armoured Strike Kommand, more links to revisit, the death of John Lennon (1980) plus the third emblem of the Red Cross
four years ago: more links worth visiting
Saturday, 2 December 2023
le sacre (11. 158)
With an coronation ceremony of his own design marking a significant departure from the tradition of the Ancien Rรฉgime and to establish his legitimacy not grounded the pomp and precedent reserved for kings Napoleon and Josรฉphine were crowned Emperor and Empress of the French on this day in 1804 (11 Frimaire, XIII, according to the Revolutionary Republican Calendar) in Notre-Dame de Paris. Approved overwhelmingly by the people during a constitutional referendum in May of the same year, the investiture ceremony was a masterwork of propaganda to appease both royalists and reformers and whereas the old monarchs of France had been anointed by the archbishop in Reims, Pope Pius VII agreed to officiate and was an amalgam of Roman and French rites, with symbolism that elided over the ousted Bourbon dynasty and sought to link the new ruling house with the Merovingians, replacing the traditional fleur-de-lis motif with bees in reference to the golden decorations discovered in the tomb of Childeric I. After the sacred ritual and coronation mass concluded, Napoleon took a civil oath before the presidents of the senate, legislature and Council of State: “I swear to maintain the integrity of the territory of the Republic, to respect and enforce the Concordat (the settlement between Catholic church and revolutionaries that saw most of the church’s status restored) and freedom of religion, equality of rights, political and civil liberties, the irrevocability of the sale of national lands, not to raise any tax except in virtue of the law, to maintain the institution of the Legion of Honour and to govern in the sole interest, happiness and glory of the French people.”
Friday, 3 November 2023
wax; or, the discovery of television among the bees (11. 094)
Written and directed by David Blair and staring the talents of the filmmaker himself, William S Burroughs and Clyde Tombaugh, the psychedelic collage of found-footage, live-action and digital animation was the first to be available to stream (at two frames per second) over the internet as its hypermedia version, Waxweb, following its cinematic release in 1991. As a statement against Gulf War I and drone combat (see also), the structuralist work edited over a six year period is set in an flight stimulation and weapons research laboratory in Alamagordo in the desert of of the US state of New Mexico were the narrator (Blair) is a computer programmer and hobbyist apiarist, having inherited his hives of “Mesopotamian” bees from his grandfather. Whilst at work designing sighting displays, the protagonist realises that these bees have the ability to insert intrusive thoughts in his mind (a television), luring him into the bees subterranean home under the arid wasteland surrounding the test range and revealing through a series of hallucinations that he must become the become the weapon he is designing and destroy his target in Iraq before he can be released from this madness and reborn.
Wednesday, 25 October 2023
8x8 (11. 074)
hilma af: a planned towering gallery for the Swedish artist realised as a virtual reality experience
papercraft: gorgeous moderne four palette architectural models to make

swarm charms: a go-to guide of medieval bee spells
trainspotting: an omnibus post on avoiding rail collisions including a nineteen century timetable still in use
reconstruction: the sounds of ancient languages—see also
the logo is formed from minifig hands: the new LEGO Dune playset
flow-chart: a study on the abandoned shopping-carts of America
you may touch the artefacts: a gallery of early internet relics from Neal Agarwal—see previously
one year ago: further adventures in Crete
two years ago: the US Invasion of Granada (1971)
three years ago: a hexadecagonal country retreat, SS Crispin and Crispinian plus pandemic gods and heroes
four years ago: a lyrical headline (1924), a video game atlas plus the world’s first erotic boutique proprietress
five years ago: The Master Key of Futurity, virtual restaurants and ghost kitchens plus programming a more ethical Pac Man
Wednesday, 12 July 2023
crowd pirated (10. 876)
Via Waxy, we are directed towards the latest project from the MSCHF collective in The FREE Movie, an invitation to create a frame-by-frame, non-infringing (possibly) recreation of Pixar’s 2007 The Bee Movie—as good a candidate as any I suppose and memetic like Shrek—for reasons it’s been posted in full serially online before bringing taken down due to copyright issues and inspired a video (with many variants) the entire bee movie but every time they say bee it gets faster. Check out their manifesto and contribute an animation cell yourself.
Friday, 6 January 2023
9x9 (10. 438)
varvuole: resides of Grado collect at Porto Mandracchio to watch the battle against the sea witches—see also—every Epiphany via Miss Cellania
jet-set: the heyday of air travel and the factors that led to its downfall and disgrace
missing link: the curious case of the Nebraska Man—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links

foulbrood disease: a vaccine developed to prevent the spread of infections for honeybee hives
serial fabricator: the life and lies of New York Congressman-elect George Santos
piltdown man: one of anthropology’s greatest and enduring hoaxes
the settle-carlisle line: scenic railway route built out of spite
lately he’s been overheard in mayfair: a disco impression of An American Werewolf in London, considered for inclusion on the film soundtrack, by Meco—see previously
Friday, 2 December 2022
8x8 (10. 352)
fomites: turns out that COVID virus can stay of some grocery items for days—see previously

baguettes, bell-ringing and bee-keeping: UNESCO inscribes more human treasures
foghorn: a celebration the floating lighthouses called lightvessels
geopolitics is for losers: the infectious idea was concocted to account for defeat and hold influence
gen-x studs terkel: the death of boredom is the biggest loss of a generation—a conversation with Joe Hagan
viva magenta: Pantone announces its colour for the coming year—previously here and here
such freedom: social network drops policies in place to limit the spread of misinformation on COVID
Friday, 21 October 2022
7x7 (10. 242)
lettuce rejoice: a bit of highly monitored produce outlasts the prime minister
cincinattus: the real and fraught possibility that Boris Johnson could be brought back as the Tory leader

hive mind: how studying the decision making approach of bumble bees can lend insights into the mechanics of human memory
on pointe: ballet dancers caring for the tools of the trade
not another experiment: UK opposition political parties call for a General Election
every inch of you: a punny produce display
Saturday, 10 September 2022
queen bee (10. 023)
Beekeeper Royal John Chapple reportedly has informed the hives that Elizabeth II has passed on and to be loyal and productive for her Majesty’s successor as part of a broader custom of telling the bees. Black ribbons were placed on the structures to let the million subjects (see also about the bees’ own royal fanfare) know of their new allegiance to a figure once ridiculed for talking to plants. It cannot be a bad courtesy to take the otherwise preparatory measures of “telling the bees” for good and wise council.
Monday, 27 June 2022
macroglossum stellatarum
The butterflies have discovered our patch of lavender for sometime now and there’s always at least half a dozen of them swarming about but now it seems the community of hummingbird hawk moths (Taubenschรคnzchen) is enjoying nectaring a la cartรฉ as well. An example of convergent evolution, recognising the same quiver of behaviours and adaptations with its long proboscis to probe flowers works across species. Unlike other moths which are either diurnal or nocturnal, these hawk moths can be found active at all hours and display no visible sexual dimorphism—even in the antennal lobes size, serving a comparable role as the olfactory bulb in vertebrates and which is a prominent marker for most moths in distinguishing between male and female.
Friday, 10 June 2022
9x9
web revival: rediscovering the serendipity of hyperlink daisy chains—via Joe Jenett
free-range children: relocating from London, Ontario to Amsterdam
sure-footed: a goat-like heavy-lifting robot called BEX under development—via Super Punch
lavender fields of surrey: a seasonal stroll through an aromatic patch of land
mono men: the Punk, Grunge aesthetic of Art Chantry
hyakutsuki-in: a beautiful locker-style cemetery in Toyko
hounds of love: a 1992 interview with Kate Bush (previously), breaking down her 1985 album track by track
sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment: an enigmatic sign spotted on a nike trail
jacob hive maker: first streaming film Wax; Or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees (1991)
Saturday, 4 June 2022
7x7
2slgbtqia+: a calendar of Native American and First Nations’ Pride events—the 2S is for “Two-Spirits”
about the damn end: DJ Cummerbund (previously) mixes Lizzo and Linkin Park—via Waxy
sacred modernity: McGregor Smith explores Europe’s superlative post-war churches—via Things magazinewhy ernest saves christmas: wholly machine-generated articles on any number of topics—the logorrhoea of infinite neural networks producing infinite copy, via Web Curios
signature sound: a 1957 musical horoscope album (see also here and here) orchestrated by Hal Mooney
the endangered california bumbletrout: court declares bees are fish to afford them better defence under the state’s species protection act
night of a thousand judys: a tribute concert for charity on what would have been Garland’s one-hundredth birthday
catagories: ♏️, ✝️, ๐, ๐ถ, ๐ณ️๐, ๐, ๐, ๐ค, architecture
Saturday, 28 May 2022
8x8
scotch tapes: commercials, idents and continuity from British television from 1984 salavaged from VHS casettes
boldly go!: a medley of songs from and about the Star Trek franchise—see also
apiculture: a survey of bee hives throughout the ages

kleksographien: revisiting the blotograms (previously) of Justinus Kerner plus other inspired symmetries
red wine and ginger ale: Vulture correspondent Rebecca Alter samples all the food combinations referenced in Harry’s House
diagrammatic map: another look at how Massimo Vignelli presented mass transit to the masses—see previously here and here—via Things magazine
the fantastic journey: an obscure 1977 time-travel series starring Joan Collins and John Saxon
Thursday, 9 September 2021
rewilding
Via Super Punch, we learn that not only has the Swiss ambassador to the US made the expansive embassy grounds in Washington, DC, a former farm in the Woodley Park neighbourhood, a biodiverse oasis, replacing the manicured lawn with native shrubs and trees to attract and sustain birds and other wildlife, the ambassor’s actions have set a positive example, leading other diplomatic missions to adopt ecologically sounder landscaping practices including vegetable gardens and beehives. More from the Audubon Society at the links above.
Sunday, 29 August 2021
you give me fasciation
Our gratitude to our peripatetic pal Memo of the Air for directing us to this updated re-post from TYWKIWDBI that we managed to miss earlier that gives a little more background on the backstory of a Stevie Nicks’ classic we’ve covered previously by way of contorted, cresting displays of growth in certain kinds of plants, included the celebrated saguaro of central and southwestern North America with wasps, bees and white-winged doves counted among their important daytime pollinators.
Sunday, 1 August 2021
schmetterlingsflieder
Graced with half a dozen flitting European peacocks (Tagpfauenauge, Aglais io), H got this flowering shrub Buddleja davidii as a present from his colleagues, commonly known as the summer lilac or simply, appropriately a butterfly-bush. The ornamental plant is native to Hubei in Central China and named after the European missionaries and botanists Reverend Adam Buddle and Father Armand David who first collected and described it for the West, and just put in the ground. With the fragrance of honey and a rich source of nectar for pollinators, the perennial plant flowers in the summertime for six weeks, thriving in more temperate areas to the extent that this opportunistic and “perfect”—as in botanically being both male and female, self-propagating plant is sometimes classed as a noxious weed. We defer judgement to the butterflies, however.