Charles Darwin published his On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1858 to controversy that hasn’t ended 150 years later. Darwin’s theory of natural selection challenged (and still challenges) the religious views of many who believe God or a higher being intelligently designed humans and animals. Darwin thinks it was all one big crap shoot, and we got damn lucky. Still, natural selection and evolution have become staples of scientific study, shaping the same controversial 150 years of genetic and biological research.

Dinosaurs are awesome. That’s impossible to dispute. They’re the closet thing to real monsters we know of so it’s no wonder why they inspire everything from science fiction to fantasy creatures. William Buckland discovered the first dinosaur fossil in 1822, though it took 20 years before Sir Richard Owen named the prehistoric creatures dinosaurs. Megalosaurus was the first named dinosaur.

Geeks might not appreciate the toil for farmers in the fields, but it’s because of them that we get to do what we do. Science in all its trivial glory was possible thanks to food production. Instead of everyone in the society hunting and gathering, a few people farmed while the rest become soldiers, artists, politicians, and scientists. Plus, without food production, we’d have never made pizza. Without pizza, geeks just couldn’t survive. For a much longer explanation of the awesomeness of agriculture, check out Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel.

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took the first photograph in 1826 or 1827, proving to the future that life used to be in black and white. Niépce used the camera box invented by Charles and Vincent Chevalier, introducing this exciting new technology to peeping toms and private eyes around the world. Early cameras presented challenges, especially at sporting events, since the camera required sometimes several minutes of exposure to make a picture. If anyone moved, the picture would come out blurry. Early horse races were thus run very slowly for the benefit of sport photographers. Cameras have obviously sped up in the modern day, allowing high school boys to take a plethora of pictures of the girls locker room and email them to his friend before getting caught.

Corrective eye wear has existed since the 1st century, but the first eyeglasses are credited to Salvino D’Armate in 1284, the original four-eyes. Paintings and writings revealed various forms of early eye wear, often making tape on the rim look dignified. The invention of eyeglasses has benefited centuries of geeks who spend hours reading, writing, and more recently, coding and gaming causing eye strain and the need for obvious differences to make fun of. Even with contact lens and laser surgery (inspired obviously by Goldfinger), glasses remain a vital part of our fashion either because people think looking geeky is cool or just because we can’t stand rubbing our eyes all day.

Math has made all the science and development of society possible, but let’s recognize math for its everyday benefits. Math helps us bake cookies, figure out how many pages left to read for class, and calculate the benefits of our +2 broadsword. Math concepts were developed as far back as 1900 BCE in Babylon including one of the first known numerical systems. Greek mathematician Pythagoras introduced his infamous Pythagorean theorem during the 5th century. As people aged more, schools needed to fill more time, encouraging the invention of more math, from Algebra to Algebra II to the really advanced Algebra III.

Math has made all the science and development of society possible, but let’s recognize math for its everyday benefits. Math helps us bake cookies, figure out how many pages left to read for class, and calculate the benefits of our +2 broadsword. Math concepts were developed as far back as 1900 BCE in Babylon including one of the first known numerical systems. Greek mathematician Pythagoras introduced his infamous Pythagorean theorem during the 5th century. As people aged more, schools needed to fill more time, encouraging the invention of more math, from Algebra to Algebra II to the really advanced Algebra III.

Last year, video game companies gave us plenty to be thankful for in November. To keep gamers on their toes, this year publishers are padding the months of October with the biggest collections of AAA game releases. In fact, I could make a top 7 list for the week of the 20th alone.  So get advances on your paychecks and allowances because you don’t want to wait ’till the holidays for these games.

7. Rise of the Argonauts

This innovative new action RPG professes several impressively immersive features, from a near-HUD-less screen to realistic combat where stabbing once is all your need. Playing as Jason, the player pilots the mythological Argo ship in search of the Golden Fleece, teaming up with Hercules and different Greek Gods while fighting hordes of monsters and God of War extras. Cool tech demos have disappointed before (looking at you Force Unleashed), but Argonauts looks to keep gameplay just as important. Fingers crossed.

6. Far Cry 2

The sequel to 2004’s critically acclaimed shooter, Far Cry 2 aims to push open-world games and graphics cards to the next-generation. Set in a huge African wilderness, players employ tons of weapons, gadgets, vehicles, and skills to play a part in the war-torn region.

5. Fable 2

It’s hard to trust Peter Molyneux. His games are great but so over hyped they seem bad on release.  After ignoring everything he says, Fable II looks like an engaging fantasy adventure with a real emphasis on that role-playing we always forget about.  Local and online co-op and some of the funniest achievements yet (Chicken kicker and Hunter are my top priority) are features even Molyneux has yet to spoil for me.

4. Resistance 2

8 player online campaign. 60 player war zones. And Starbuck. Insomniac’s pushing PS3 capabilities with some features and exciting gameplay.  Assuming the online powerhouse pulls through, Resistance 2 could be the online shooting king for the holiday season. Sorry Gears, November’s just too late.

3. Dead Space

EA’s pushing a new franchise without Sims in the name. Shockingly it looks amazing. This sci-fi horror survival game looks gorgeous with an equally intriguing story and some exciting gameplay ideas that make my thumbs twitch.

2. Fallout 3

Gamers once again emerge from the Vault with a mission and Pip-Boy.  The Elder Scroll mavens at Bethesda apply their open-world know how to this first/third person RPG. The team creates an apocalyptic Washington DC (which will be disturbingly pleasing in this political climate) filled with mutants, giant insects, and your destiny. Plus, the game’s really bloody, so yay.

1. LittleBigPlanet

Certain to be the cutes game of the year, LittleBigPlanet offers too much awesome not be camping out in front of GameStop right now. First, there’s a lengthy campaign filled with physics-powered plaforming goodness and co-op slapping contests. After you finish the 12 plus hours, there’s the most impressive set of creation tools in console gaming history built right in, allowing you to build all the penis shaped-levels you can dream up and share with the world. This means never-ending hours of levels to play, build, and share. And let’s not forget Sackboy. Maybe I’m just a sucker for sadistic cuteness.

Honorable mentions

I did say this month was huge. Here are more games to keep your eyes out for:

Motorstorm: Pacific Rim

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (It looks like it might be good, but don’t hold your breath)

Wii Music (I fear it like a sneezing child near a salad bar, but Nintendo seems to think video games are better without a challenge)

Guitar Hero World Tour

Legendary

Saints Row 2

Golden Axe: Beast Rider

Fracture

You read that headline right. TorrentFreak reveals MediaDefender, the infamous anti-piracy firm working on behalf of Big Content, has been moonlighting as a porn pusher.

To disrupt online P2P networks, MediaDefender often floods searches with false files, many of which redirect users to these porn sites.  The redirects have been extremely effective, converting 1 in 2000 LimeWire users.  MediaDefender’s Ben Grodsky wrote in an email:

One of the theories I’ve had about why the LimeWire redirects sell so many porn subscriptions is because one basically can’t get porn on old versions of LimeWire because our popups and spoofs overwhelm the user.

MediaDefender makes $4,000 to protect an album, $2,000 for a single song, and almost a million dollars for a movie. Basically, MediaDefender is paid by these media companies to promote its other efforts.  That’s a pretty healthy business model, as long as morals aren’t an issue.

Seriously, MediaDefender is doing more to show P2P is a viable business model, something Big Content isn’t looking to admit.  Their tactics are mostly spam and obviously frustrate users, but work. Just think if a caring, responsible company used P2P for promotion, helping users find the content they were looking for or selling related scarce goods for the content users do find.

Epic poems are so challenging, only true geeks can read them these days. Not me, I pretend to have a life. Homer (the Greek one) wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey back in the 9th or 8th century B.C. telling of the Trojan War and the hero Odysseus’ ten year journey home. Both legendary stories have helped define much of Greek mythology and influenced modern storytelling with its epic scale (a defining characteristic of epic poems). From the ancient Aeneid by Rome’s Virgil to the terrible Troy movie (oh Brad Pitt, how far you’ve fallen), Homer’s poems still resonate because people still like war and monsters. It’s truly timeless storytelling.