Culture

What do you do when you have entirely too much time on your hands? You grab a hammer, a few nails and some wood and build a working model of M.C. Escher's "Waterfall."

An atemporal history of puffed cereals suggests that the links between food and industry stretch back to the beginnings of civilization. The latest in our series on the science and technology of food, co-produced with GOOD.

The Internet doesn't want you to think about it too much, but you never really know what you're looking for. Evoking the presence of 17th-century savant John Dee, Scryberspace cracks open the search experience.

A shameless plug for an upcoming science fiction epic: it will feature narwhals, neural hacking, uncanny wearable computers, and mayhem on the ice. And it will be told in tweets.

Julian Smith: don't you ever interrupt me while I'm reading a book. Video after the jump.

In a stirring piece for The Atlantic, Alexis Madrigal reports on Tunisian authorities' attempts to steal the passwords of Facebook users�and comments on what such a move means for the Internet's role as a means of fomenting political change.

Pope Benedict says the Internet is okay�as long as you don't post under a pseudonym.

Musically, our gadgets and everyday objects are like secret household gods. Video after the jump.

Precorder provides a buffer interface for iPhone video, letting you choose your shots after they've happened. Or seen another way, it's a reticle for aiming special effects at points in space and time.

Want to know what the future of Vimeo is? Look at the Dick Van Dyke show. Bruce Sterling shows how to think about the future: start with the past. He's not the first to say it, but he puts it together with as much brio and precision as anybody.