Scott Porter rocking his geeky best at an E3 event.
Photo: Scott Kirkland/Retna Digital

Lots of stars call themselves nerds. They show up at Comic-Con International or E3 wearing a comic book T-shirt and make a play to increase their geek cred.

It’s not a bad plan. These days, if you express how much you love something, you could be named the next Spider-Man.

But are these self-proclaimed geeks always sincere? After spotting Scott Porter — best known as paralyzed quarterback Jason Street from Friday Night Lights — at Comic-Con in an X-Men T-shirt, Wired.com decided to find out.

“You’re talking to...

1960: In the first televised U.S. presidential debate in history, John F. Kennedy comes off well. His opponent, Richard Nixon, does not. Television instantly emerges as the decisive medium in presidential politics.

It was Kennedy who proposed a series of four nationally televised debates, and Nixon — supremely confident that he could spank the young upstart from Massachusetts — eagerly accepted. It proved to be one of the biggest miscalculations of Tricky Dick’s career.

While Nixon could play the experience card, he was no match for Kennedy’s charisma. And as many a politician has since d...