geekosystem

Calling Orson Scott Card's ideas about sexuality a bit divisive would be putting it mildly. It's one of those disappointing and well-known facts that he's horrifyingly homophobic. If you're not already aware about his specific set of beliefs in that area, we're sorry to reveal the truth to you, because it kind of sullies how intriguing his books are. Ender's Game is, in this writer's humble opinion, a fantastic bit of fiction, and there's a movie coming out in November. They've finally released the first trailer, and the Internet will probably explode thanks to it.

While it may disappoint many of us, it will surprise no one that steering a spaceship is complicated business. So it stands to follow that steering a spaceship using only your brain is even more complicated. A collaborative study by NASA and the University of Essex shows that the difficulties of piloting a virtual spaceship through a brain/computer interface can be eased by introducing a co-pilot -- and performing what amounts to a mind-meld between both operators.

This MS-Paint style comic adaptation of Orson Scott Card's landmark novel Ender's Game has it all: There's a kid, some video game thing, tragic violence, very important symbolism, and then a big twist at the end. Now, I'll admit that I have a very limited understanding of the book, but the comic actually mirrors what I know of it pretty closely. Sort of like an M. Night Shyamalan version of The Last Starfighter. Whoops, there goes my geek-cred. Anyway, if you're a fan, or just a curious bystander, read the whole comic after the break but be warned: There be spoilers ahead.

Chances are your opinion on whether anyone should make a game out of Ender's Game is either yes or no. Do, or do not, there is no try. (Unless of course, you haven't read the book, in which case you get a look of disapproval and are excused from reading the rest of this post.) Well, you may be happy or sad appropriately at the news that the Ender's Game game is not happening... again.

A remake of 1984's Karate Kid comes out this weekend, where the main character learns Kung Fu. We're just as confused as you are, but, we do fondly anticipate one thing: another entry into the long cinema tradition of training montages in action movies, full of kicks, punches, defeat, perhaps a loss of hope, and then comfortingly certain triumph. But the other thing that training montages have to be full of is things that would make even professional personal trainers raise an eyebrow. We've collected fifteen of our favorite training montage exercises, from the ones that made us go: "...what is that even supposed to do?" To the ones that made us go: "WTF THAT IS HARDCORE."

Yesterday, we wrote about an entire social network dedicated to fictional personas, which made us think: what are some social networks that, while aimed at real human beings, are themselves totally made up to fill a void in pop culture? Join us below for a Campbellian hero's journey into the world of what TV writers, popular authors, and late-night comics think about when they think about social networking!