by A.J. Focht

Possible SPOILERS from the Dark Knight Rises have hit the web. The spoilers revolve around the films prologue. If they are correct, there may be some major changes to Bane’s background story. The leak is unconfirmed and, therefore, it’s best to file this one under rumors.

Adding on to the series of disastrous events to befall The Wolverine, the film is being delayed again, and this time there is no speculation to when it may release. Maybe this should be a sign to scrap the project and let the series rest for a while.

Some big news for Ender’s Game fans, Asa Butterfield, star of the new box office hit Hugo, confirmed via Twitter that he will be playing the role of Ender. There had been reports he was offered the role, and he is very excited to take it. The movie is being directed by Wolverine Origins director Gavin Hood, and is scheduled to release in March of 2013.

Men in Black III is officially a go. The first teaser posters for the film have been released. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones have returned as Agents ‘J’ and ‘K’. The posters don’t tell us much more than the fact the project has hit the marketing stage.

Star Trek 2 has received a new release date for May 2013. But that’s not all. Oscar winning composer, Michael Giacchino, is back on for the second film. And finally, it is confirmed the film will be shooting in 3D.

One last note about the movies, if you didn’t already think Twilight is hazardous to your health, it’s now been confirmed. Cases have been reported of viewers going into epileptic seizures during the birthing scene. Anyone susceptible to seizures should therefore avoid seeing Breaking Dawn.

Some great news for Bluntman & Chronic, Neil Gaiman has confirmed he’s agreed to voice Alfred in the cartoon via Twitter. The news of a cartoon is exciting enough, but to know that Neil Gaiman is on the project is just fantastic.

MTV Geek has released their Top 10 Comic Book Writers of 2011. It’s no surprise that many of the DC New 52 writers have made the list as well as a handful of independent comics. Deservingly, Animal Man writer Jeff Lemire has taken the top spot.

Before you go, enjoy David Tennant reading a bedtime story with penguins on CBeebies, courtesy of Geek Mom.

by Susannah Bresll

Xeni Jardin is a journalist, a blogger, and a TV pundit. As a co-editor of BoingBoing, one of the most popular blogs on the Web, Jardin serves as an Internet-based coolhunter for the futuristic, or, as Defamer puts it, a “sexpot Wired reporter sent from 15 minutes in the future to send back information about our inferior technology to some alien race.” In addition to writing for Wired, Jardin files reports on subjects ranging from robot battles to zero gravity flight for NPR’s “Xeni Tech” and opines regularly on the latest high tech gadgetry for CNN and Fox News. Part Fritz Lang’s Maria in “Metropolis,” part Marilyn Monroe on a cellphone, in Jardin, as the LA Times advises, we may behold the wizard of blogs.

Read our exclusive interview with Xeni Jardin on SuicideGirls.com.

by Blogbot

Since its launch in 2004, Facebook’s genius has been its ability to express complex relationships between people and things in a simplified graphical form in a way that is easy to grasp with just a couple of minutes browsing at any one time. Thus, its storytelling format is clearly ideal for condensing convoluted shit like life, the universe, and everything into an easy to read feed. A new book, authored by Wylie Overstreet, rather successfully does just that, telling the entire history of the world in just 153 not-too-dense pages. Here, in this excerpted first chapter, we breeze through the pertinent points of a few billion years, learning more-or-less everything we need to know about a period of time bookended by the birth of the universe and the birth of man.

In August 2010, Wylie Overstreet published a satirical article called “If Historical Events Had Facebook Statuses” on CoolMaterial.com. Within a month, it had received 3 million views and had been “liked” by 120,000 Facebook users. In The History Of The World According To Facebook (published by It Books), Overstreet expands this concept into a full-length history of the world, from its creation up to the present day, as if Facebook had existed all along and Abraham Lincoln had written a status update about “taking the missus to the theater” on April 15, 1865 and Ben Franklin had done the same alerting his network that he′d signed the Declaration of Independence (“Bring it,” replied John Adams). Filled with hundreds of real-life historical figures and thousands of not-at-all-real Facebook statuses, comments, and actions, and parodying Facebook users′ proclivity to over-share and use lazy jargon (“lol,” “rofl,” “fml,” etc.), this is the definitive humor book for those who spend too much time online.

Excerpt from The History Of The World According To Facebook by Wylie Overstreet reprinted by kind permission of It Books. Copyright © 2011 Wylie Overstreet.

by Steven-Elliot Altman (SG Member: Steven_Altman)

Our Fiction Friday serialized novel, The Killswitch Review, is a futuristic murder mystery with killer sociopolitical commentary (and some of the best sex scenes we’ve ever read!). Written by bestselling sci-fi author Steven-Elliot Altman (with Diane DeKelb-Rittenhouse), it offers a terrifying postmodern vision in the tradition of Blade Runner and Brave New World…

By the year 2156, stem cell therapy has triumphed over aging and disease, extending the human lifespan indefinitely. But only for those who have achieved Conscientious Citizen Status. To combat overpopulation, the U.S. has sealed its borders, instituted compulsory contraception and a strict one child per couple policy for those who are permitted to breed, and made technology-assisted suicide readily available. But in a world where the old can remain vital forever, America’s youth have little hope of prosperity.

Jason Haggerty is an investigator for Black Buttons Inc, the government agency responsible for dispensing personal handheld Kevorkian devices, which afford the only legal form of suicide. An armed “Killswitch” monitors and records a citizen’s final moments — up to the point where they press a button and peacefully die. Post-press review agents — “button collectors” — are dispatched to review and judge these final recordings to rule out foul play.

When three teens stage an illegal public suicide, Haggerty suspects their deaths may have been murders. Now his race is on to uncover proof and prevent a nationwide epidemic of copycat suicides. Trouble is, for the first time in history, an entire generation might just decide they’re better off dead.

(Catch up with the previous installments of Killswitch – see links below – then continue reading after the jump…)

[..]

by A.J. Focht

Man of Steel is set to hit theatres on June 14, 2012, but the studio is already looking forward to the next film. A short list of writers has been drawn up. While some big names have made the list, Man of Steel writer David S. Goyer is not on it, indicating that the next Superman movie will be in fresh hands.

The cast and crew of The Amazing Spider-Man returned to New York to shoot a few additional scenes. Dozens of photos and a movie clip from the shoot have surfaced online. The Amazing Spider-Man is currently set to release in theatres on July 3, 2012.

J.J. Abrams has started location scouting for Star Trek 2. Most recently, he has been checking out Hawaii to serve as a jungle planet. Filming is currently set to start on January 15, 2012 with an expected 2013 release.

Writer of Juno and the upcoming Evil Dead, Diablo Cody, has spoken up about working on the Evil Dead project. She started off hesitant about taking the job until she realized Raimi and Campbell were behind it. Now she assures everyone that it will be scary and true to the original. It’s good to hear that the writer has many of the same concerns as the longtime fans.

In no surprising move, PBS will once again be airing BBC’s Sherlock. The first three mini-movie episodes were critically acclaimed, and brought PBS a ton of ratings. The next three mini-movie episodes will be airing, starting on May 6 at 9 PM.

Possibly the biggest news of the week is that Arrested Development has found a home for its final season. The good news is it won’t be on FOX. The better news? The rights to the show were bought by Netflix, making it the third series to air directly to the streaming service. This means you will need a Netflix account to watch Arrested Development’s last season, but you can always get a month for free.

Is there any idea worse than the Spider-Man musical? What about a Rocky musical? Well it may be happening. Sylvester Stallone is teaming up with world champion boxing brothers Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko to produce Rocky: The Musical. All I can think of is a final seen with an opera singer version of Rocky screaming, ‘ADRIAN!”

Darth Vader has landed and is looking to dock in the Ukrain. A Ukraine citizen showed up to the mayor’s office in full Star War regalia to collect his 1,000 square meters of land that all citizens are granted. He claimed he needed the sea side land to park his space cruiser.

As 2011 starts coming to a close, there are going to be hundreds of ‘Best of 2011’ posts. A few of the geek ones have already started including several from MTV Geek. There are a few you might want to check out: Best Geek Moments of 2011, Best Comic Book Artists of 2011, and finally, the Best Video Games of 2011. This is one of the first best of video game posts, and I’ve calling the top two contenders for the last few weeks.

by Steven-Elliot Altman (SG Member: Steven_Altman)

Our Fiction Friday serialized novel, The Killswitch Review, is a futuristic murder mystery with killer sociopolitical commentary (and some of the best sex scenes we’ve ever read!). Written by bestselling sci-fi author Steven-Elliot Altman (with Diane DeKelb-Rittenhouse), it offers a terrifying postmodern vision in the tradition of Blade Runner and Brave New World…

By the year 2156, stem cell therapy has triumphed over aging and disease, extending the human lifespan indefinitely. But only for those who have achieved Conscientious Citizen Status. To combat overpopulation, the U.S. has sealed its borders, instituted compulsory contraception and a strict one child per couple policy for those who are permitted to breed, and made technology-assisted suicide readily available. But in a world where the old can remain vital forever, America’s youth have little hope of prosperity.

Jason Haggerty is an investigator for Black Buttons Inc, the government agency responsible for dispensing personal handheld Kevorkian devices, which afford the only legal form of suicide. An armed “Killswitch” monitors and records a citizen’s final moments — up to the point where they press a button and peacefully die. Post-press review agents — “button collectors” — are dispatched to review and judge these final recordings to rule out foul play.

When three teens stage an illegal public suicide, Haggerty suspects their deaths may have been murders. Now his race is on to uncover proof and prevent a nationwide epidemic of copycat suicides. Trouble is, for the first time in history, an entire generation might just decide they’re better off dead.

(Catch up with the previous installments of Killswitch – see links below – then continue reading after the jump…)

[..]

Blackboards In Porn is a highly amusing site that claims to celebrate “pornographers who go the extra mile when set dressing classroom porn and actually write something on the blackboard.”

Its anonymous but obviously British editor and webmaster, who we’re reliably informed has a BEng in Electronic Engineering and an MA in Screenwriting, focuses his or her considerable analytical and creative skills on the equations, diagrams, and notations drawn on said boards, checking for accuracy and scouring for greater meaning.

Though not a porn site ourselves (we like to think we’re naughty but not nasty, and pinup rather than pornography), we thought it’d be fun to set BiP some homework. Thus we challenged ’em to set their logical prowess loose on the chalk boards of SuicideGirls. Here’s what BiP came up with while checking out Nina Suicide’s Back To School photo essay…

WORK HARD AND DO YOUR BEST

Lessons in Life – universal
Computer Science – A-level/undergraduate level

There can be few better exhortations to students than this. Working hard and doing one’s best will always produce the finest possible results, either in the classroom or on the playing field. After any exam or sporting challenge there is no failure if one can say afterwards “I did my best.” (England footballers please take note.)

A game of Noughts and Crosses is underway on the blackboard. If this has been done by a student then it should have been rubbed off immediately (see post #9 re Wilson and Kelling’s broken windows theory). But if this is actually part of the lesson then a gold star should be awarded as Noughts and Crosses is a great introduction to many mathematical and computer science concepts from combinations and symmetry to artificial intelligence.

A first question to pose to the class would be how many games of Noughts and Crosses are possible (the game tree size)? A naive answer would be 9! = 362,880 (assuming X always goes first). However, many games will be over before all the squares are filled, and many more are simply rotations and reflections of others (in effect there are not nine, but only three starting places: corner, centre and edge). Taking these into account gives an answer of 26,830.

Devising an algorithm to produce perfect play is also a favorite challenge, exploring ideas such as backwards reasoning and recursion. These can then be applied to other, more complex games such as Connect 4 and draughts, through to unsolved games such as Reversi, chess and Go (with its game tree complexity of 10360).

However, if this is an attempt to teach the strategy of perfect play then one must hope that the teacher has picked a very poorly played game to illustrate what not to do. Assuming that X’s first move was in the corner (always the best start: of the then 73 possible games, assuming perfect play on X’s part, 71 result in victory and two in a draw), then O has immediately blundered by playing the far edge instead of the centre (where his/her only hope of a draw can come from), resulting in what should be certain victory for X. X could then force a win by playing the centre, but has him/herself blundered by playing middle bottom. O can now snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat by playing centre or top right, leaving X to harp on about how the Wags should have been allowed to stay in the team hotel.

Despites its pedagogical pedigree, Noughts and Crosses quickly becomes futile when both players can easily force a draw. This was well-illustrated in WarGames, when the military supercomputer, equating the game to global thermonuclear war, evaluated all possible outcomes and remarked, “Strange game. The only winning move is not to play.” Failing that, just work hard and do your best.

8/10 An inspired choice of teaching material.

Visit blackboardsinporn.blogspot.com/ for more case studies on mathematics as featured in erotica.