Gearfuse Technology, Science, Culture & More

A film promoting the European linen industry offers a rapturous look at machinery spinning straw into gold. Video after the jump.

In place of the brave new world of design fiction, artists like Olafur Eliasson invite us to enter the instant Utopia of our own imaginations.

An intriguing concept device called "Thimble" would serve as an interface, text scanner, and Braille e-book reader for the blind. But the crucial technology, a refreshable, haptic Braille display, remains elusive.

A new thesis puts the explanation for the sudden appearance of sophisticated late-prehistoric coastal settlements underwater�in the Persian Gulf, to be specific, which up to 7,500 years ago would have been a vast oasis in the midst of the arid ice ages.

The DIA Parrot wireless photo frame by Nodesign deconstructs the LCD, separating the backlighting from the display unit to create a luminous projection effect. Usually, an LCD unit is sandwiched with its opaque backlight, hiding the display’s smoky windowpane quality. By separating the two, the DIA Parrot celebrates the qualities of the LCD while providing a new/old lightboxing effect. The ...

The lamp of wisdom, the light of reading�oh whatever; this reading lamp that doubles as a bookmark is a witty piece of design.

A mechanical computer for directing antiaircraft fire was at the heart of these brothers' pioneering computer-animated imagery.

A great idea for getting around in the snow, for which Fritz Rice of Seattle's Dutch Bicycle Co. generously credits fixie hipsters.

And the question is�what the heck's a hectometer? Video after the jump.

Charlie Stross figures we're ready for a pendulum swing back in the direction of Sir Thomas More.