Hasta La Gadget!

Ever set up your tripod on uneven ground, then the camera or video camera tilts up or down as you pan, no matter how carefully you thought you leveled the legs? Replace your tripod head with an Induro PHQ five-way panhead. The five-way adjustments, five bubble levels, and two panning locks let you get the platform perfectly level and then you apply further tilt and pan adjustments to your heart’s content. It’s great for still cameras and video cameras. The Induro PHQ1 ($315 street) supports 25 pounds; the Induro PHQ3 ($395) supports 35 pounds. The top plate is compatible with Arca-Swiss quick-release mounting plates, the industry standard.

What was the most boring day in history? Is it really possible to designated one? It seems like something is always going on in the world, right? A Cambridge, England computer scientist named William Tunstall-Pedoe believes he has discovered it, using a program called True Knowledge.

Tunstall-Pedoe fed the program 300 million news facts, including people, places, and events. Complex algorithms were crunched, and the computer zeroed in on April 12, 1954 as the most boring day in history.

What manner of earth shattering events occurred on that historic day? A soccer player named Jack Shufflebotham was born–also Turkish academic, Abdullah Atalar [Pictured]. Oh, and an election was held in Belgium. And that, really, is about it. Snoozfest, right?

Says Tunstall-Pedoe,

Nobody significant died that day, no major events apparently occurred and, although a typical day in the 20th century has many notable people being born, for some reason that day had only one who might make that claim – Abdullah Atalar, a Turkish academic.

The irony is, though, that – having done the calculation – the day is interesting for being exceptionally boring. Unless, that is, you are Abdullah Atalar.

Happy boring belated birthday, Abdullah Atalar. 

It’s that time of year again! The colorful lights go up, the snow comes down, and there’s a bit of that indescribable magic in the air. Like most people, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Christmas is, of course, Slayer. Yes, even that most evil of thrash bands can’t help but get into the season’s spirit of giving and brotherhood.

That’s why one enterprising lad has created this choreographed Christmas light extravaganza to the soundtrack of the classic holiday diddy “Raining Blood.”

This blast of yuletide fury was from 2009, and creator lacycute20 (who posted the video to his daughter’s YouTube account, so there’s lots of Justin Bieber and Ke$ha videos sharing space on the account) promises to have an all new choreography up for this year.

But for now, enjoy the Christmas wrath.

If you didn’t have as much time this week to keep up with Twitter due to all the baking, cooking, and Black Friday shopping, we rounded up some of the hottest news from Twitter from throughout the week. Sit back, relax, eat leftovers, and check out the top trending Twitter topics for the week ending in November 26:

1. Thanksgiving / Thankful
Did anyone see any live-Tweets of a Thanksgiving dinner? I could see many angsty teens Tweeting that Aunt Alma just stuck her hand in the mashed potatoes, or Uncle Jerry’s teeth just fell on the table. #Thanksgiving

2. Black Friday
Black Friday happened. There was some pushing, and grabbing, but all in all, everyone got their deals. The biggest shopping day of the year was another success. #BlackFriday

3. Harry Potter / Dobby
People have been tweeting about Dobby, a house-elf in the new Harry Potter film who plays an important role. #Dobby

4. American Music Awards / Nick Carter / *NSYNC
The 38th Annual American Music Awards aired on Sunday, Nov. 21. Nick Carter, *NSYNC, Rhianna, Gavin Rossdale, and the Black Eyed Peas were top mentions on Twitter. #AMA2010

5. Brazilian Slum Violence / BOPE
BOPE, or the special elite police force of Rio de Janiero, Brazil, prepared to invade an area of slums, currently under control of drug dealers. People are talking about the response of the police against recent criminal activities. #BOPE

See the next five top trending topics after the jump!

Happy Thanksgiving–now get to work! According to numbers from third-party Microsoft Outlook plug-in Xobni (“inbox” backwards–get it?), 59 percent of working Americans check their work e-mail on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other work-free holidays

The company conducted survey and found that of that 59 percent, 55 percent check their work inbox at least once a day, and 28 percent do so more than once. Xboni senior exec Josh Jacobson suggested that pressure from high unemployment numbers is pushing employees to check in on work more often.

The increase also no doubt owes much to the fact that many working Americans carry their inboxes on them at all times, thanks to smartphones, laptops, and other mobile devices.

The survey also found that roughly 41 percent of workers “feel annoyed, frustrated, or resentful” about getting work e-mails on the holidays.

Hopefully they’re more positive about reading gadget blogs on Thanksgiving.