Ken Newquist's Blog at Lafayette College
Last week my wife surprised me with a Tron-inspired birthday party (my birthday’s December 17, the same day that Tron: Legacy was released). As part of that, she asked the good folks at Cupcake Ladies to create Tron cup cakes. Which they did. The photo at left was taken by my friend and coworker Jason … Read more
The Evolutionary Void is the third in Peter F. Hamilton’s Void series. The series takes place few hundred years after the events of Pandora’s Star/Judas Unchained. In it, the Greater Commonwealth — an expansive human civilization that’s spread through much of the galaxy — and its Artificial Intelligence allies find themselves attempting to deal with a faction of humanity hellbent on evolving the species into “post-physical existence” … whether the rest of us want it or not.
Advice for geek parents on when to introduce kids to Star Wars, and how to tackle the delicate issues of Luke Skywalker’s father, the correct order to watch the movies, and the heresy of the special editions.
Jack Campbell’s The Lost Fleet: Victorious is a worthwhile, if somewhat disappointing end to the series. Having demolished most of the Syndic fleet, Black Jack Geary returns to his enemy’s home system for one final battle. Unfortunately, there’s not much to the fight — having gutted the Syndics in his earlier encounters, there’s only a … Read more
Century Rain is a space opera/noir/alternative history mash-up that echos Reynolds earlier work in its combination of post-Singularity speculation and end of the world/galaxy/university machinations. The book opens a few hundred years in the future. Earth has been rendered lifeless by a nanotechnology plague. Humanity survives in two factions: the Threshers, who are regular humans … Read more
When it comes to web design I find a lot of people like to start with the sexy part — the graphic design — and then either ignore the site’s underlying structure, create it as they go along or (more rarely) back into it after they realize the design’s turned into a mess because they … Read more
Book 2 of the Twilight vampire/romance series, in which the vampire Edward his leave of our protagonist Bella, leaving her distraught in Oregon. And yes, this is a huge change from reading The Cole Protocol. I’m reading the novel as part of a book exchange with my wife – I’m reading New Moon, she’s reading … Read more
Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Tetris, Pac-Man and other 80s icons make appearances in PIXELS, a short film featuring an 8-bit invasion of New York City. It’s a well-done little movie — I loved how the city is rapidly transformed by the pixelated attackers, and I thought having Donkey Kong throwing barrels from atop the Empire … Read more
Rush, one of my all-time favorite rock bands, is playing at the Allentown Fair on August 31. I didn’t start listening to them until my 20s, when they were already past their 70s/80s heyday, but once I did I didn’t waste time. I bought every album I could get my hands on and spent hours … Read more