Copyright Math: the best TED Talk you'll watch all year

This may just be the best TED Talk video I've seen: listen.com/Rhapsody founder and extremely funny person (and soon-to-be debut science fiction author) Rob Reid examines the math behind the claims made by the copyright lobby and explains the mindbending awesomeness of the sums used to justify SOPA, PIPA, ACTA and the like.
Copyright Math: the best TED Talk you'll watch all year

10 Futuristic Products in Development Now

Everyone jokes about the flying cars and robot maids we’ve seen in movies and television, but it turns out the “future” we’ve dreamed of is well on its way.
10 Futuristic Products in Development Now

New iPad Teardown: 'It's Really Just a Giant Battery'

You may be busy preparing your line-waiting strategy for a new iPad on Friday morning, or plotting the fastest route to your local Wal-Mart to pick up a new iPad at midnight.

But the guys at iFixIt have trumped us all — by flying to Australia, where the tablet is already on sale, and proceeding to tear one apart.
New iPad Teardown: 'It's Really Just a Giant Battery'

See All of the 2012 Moon Phases Before They Happen

What do you get when you combine a year’s worth of NASA lunar projects into continuous render? You get this awesome video that shows you ever house of every moon phase in all of 2012.
See All of the 2012 Moon Phases Before They Happen

The Internet Remembers the Japan Quake and Tsunami Anniversary

March 11 was the anniversary of Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, and citizens worldwide commemorated the event. Not only did news outlets release countless stories assessing Japan’s situation one year later, but people all over the world also shared their thoughts and photos online — including politicians, journalists, celebrities and ordinary citizens.
The Internet Remembers the Japan Quake and Tsunami Anniversary

Japan Quake and Tsunami Anniversary: How to Follow Its Events on Social Media

This Sunday, March 11, marks the one-year anniversary of northern Japan’s threefold devastating disaster — a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, a tsunami that engulfed entire towns and cities, and a nuclear disaster that has since shut down 52 out of 55 commercial reactors in Japan and stirred an international debate about nuclear energy.
Japan Quake and Tsunami Anniversary: How to Follow Its Events on Social Media

Add Encrypt And Other Useful Features To Windows’ Right-Click Menu

Free app Right Click Tweaker adds up to 14 useful features with just a few clicks of your mouse.
Add Encrypt And Other Useful Features To Windows’ Right-Click Menu

Internet Users Flock To Google Search To Learn About 'Pink Slime'

Pink slime, a beef filler sprayed with ammonia, isn’t in a McDonald’s hamburger patty, but it is likely in pre-package ground beef at the grocery store and will soon be on school lunch trays.
Internet Users Flock To Google Search To Learn About 'Pink Slime'

Cutest video you'll see all day of penguins flying on a plane

On a recent Delta Flight, there were 300 or so human passengers and two foot-and-a-half tall penguins, Pete and Penny, who are 6 and 12 years old respectively.
Cutest video you'll see all day of penguins flying on a plane

Largest Solar Storm In Years About to Hit Earth

The most powerful solar storm in half a decade is about to hit our planet Earth, putting electrical systems, satellite navigation and other technology at a slight risk of failure.
Largest Solar Storm In Years About to Hit Earth

What Happens To My Gmail Account When I Die?

You use a handful of web services every day, but perhaps none holds more of your personal information than your Gmail account. So what happens to your Gmail account should you end up in that big archive folder in the sky? The folks from cloud backup service Backupify set out to find out. Here’s what they learned.
What Happens To My Gmail Account When I Die?

20+ Programs That You Should Run Regularly On Your PC

Many PC users do not think about maintenance as long as their system is running as intended. The issue here is that they might be able to resolve future issues, or mitigate them at least, if they would run a set of tools regularly on their PC. The following guide looks at some of the recommended programs – my recommendations – that should be run regularly on a PC. Not all are maintenance related though, you also find security and privacy programs in the list for instance.
20+ Programs That You Should Run Regularly On Your PC

Get Real-Time Search Results from Google with a URL Tweak

Google offers a few preset search filters for time—past hour, day, week, etc.—but if you want much fresher information, you can tweak the URL. This will limit results so see what's happening in more of a near real-time flow of information.
Get Real-Time Search Results from Google with a URL Tweak

Family Friendly sites listed on Blackstump Australia Issue 5/2012

The latest issue of new Family Friendly sites listed on The Black Stump.
Family Friendly sites listed on Blackstump Australia Issue 5/2012

Man Sues Google Over Street View Photo of Him Peeing

A man in France has sued Google because a Street View photo shows him in his front yard taking a leak. The middle-aged man lives in a small village and says the photo has made him a laughingstock in the community.
Man Sues Google Over Street View Photo of Him Peeing

Windows 8 Consumer Preview arrives

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview was expected in February, and it just scraped in. Good job 2012 is a leap year...
Windows 8 Consumer Preview arrives

The Hidden Meaning Behind Phrases In Job Ads

Help wanted ads and job postings tend to use the same jargon: everyone seems to be looking for “detail-oriented” “team players” who can work in a “fast-paced work environment.” Fortune Magazine suggests these buzzwords can clue you in to secrets about the potential employer.
The Hidden Meaning Behind Phrases In Job Ads

Track Who’s Tracking You With Mozilla Collusion

Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs took the TED stage Tuesday morning to introduce Collusion, a Firefox browser add-on that lets you track who’s tracking you across the web for behavioral targeting purposes.
Track Who’s Tracking You With Mozilla Collusion

Haunting photos from Fukushima, one year later: "Invisible You," by Satoru Niwa

Japanese photographer Satoru Niwa, whose work I blogged in a previous Boing Boing post, has a new series from Fukushima marking the one-year anniversary of the March 11 disaster: Invisible You. Again, beautiful, evocative work. Above: a shot from the town of Namie, which is some 40 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Haunting photos from Fukushima, one year later: "Invisible You," by Satoru Niwa

The problem with body mass index

The Body Mass Index is a popular way to measure and assess whether someone is overweight or underweight. Basically, it's just your weight divided by your height. BMI is a simple system, but it does have some flaws. Over at the Obesity Panacea blog, Peter Janiszewski (who has a Ph.D. in exercise physiology) has a nice post explaining why BMI is sometimes useful, and also why it's not a great measurement of individual health.
The problem with body mass index