Showing posts with label paleontology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paleontology. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Research Institute!
The result are in for the next LEGO Ideas set. LEGO Ideas is the successor to LEGO Cuusoo, a website where fan builders can submit their ideas, and if they get enough votes, LEGO will consider making an official set. This has been good for LEGO science fans, with three of the six sets released so far being science themed: the Shinkai research submarine, the Hayabusa probe, and the Mars rover. The recent round of review brought still another science set - the Female Minifigure Set. The original idea was to create a series of vignettes showing women in different occupations (I previously blogged about this). The idea was narrowed down to the chemist, the astronomer, and the paleontologist. This got a huge push because of the gender politics of the issue; as I've previously ranted, that's not the cool thing about this set, though that is surely what will make the headlines. What is cool about this set is that it shows scientists at work. The ultimate set, which will be a variation of the original idea shown below, will be called Research Institute and will come out this fall.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Mary Anning
I've been slacking off in blogging, but today's Google doodle is a good prompt for me. Today is the 215th anniversary of Mary Anning's birth. Anning was a fossil collector and paleontologist in Britain in the early 19th century, and her finds helped shape an understanding of prehistoric creatures. Her interest in fossils began very early, when she and her brother Joseph found fossils in the cliffs along the English Channel, as shown here in LEGO form by Fossil Friends. One of their important finds was an ichthyosaur. This LEGO ichthyosaur was built by Bright-Bricks as part of an event this past weekend at the Lyme Regis Museum in Dorset, England. Kids who attended the event could even build their own LEGO ichthyosaurs.
Friday, June 7, 2013
Female figs Cuusoo project
Cuusoo is a LEGO website for crowdsourcing set ideas. You propose a set, and if it gets 10,000 votes, LEGO promises to take a serious look at producing the set. Most of the sets that have made it to 10,000 have been attached to some movie/TV show/video game, and fans of that movie/show/game help push it over the top. That said, there have been two science driven sets already produced, the Shinkai submarine and the Hayabusa space probe, in the original Japan-only version of Cuusoo, and the Mars Curiosity Rover is being considered in the most recent round of creations that have reached 10,000. Now it seems that socio-political forces are pushing another to the top. Alatarial designed Female Minifigs to help correct the gender imbalance in Legoland, putting women in small scenes depicting different occupations. The cool thing, and the reason why I'm posting this here on SciBricks, is that many of those occupations are as scientists, probably because Alatarial is herself a geochemist: paleontologist, astronaut, astronomer, chemist, (falconer), geologist, and engineer (plus six others in non-science roles not shown here). I assume that this was recently posted on some social media site, or featured in some news source, because the project jumped from 2500 votes to 7500 in just three days.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Book Review: The Cult of LEGO
Another book review. I'm posting these across my blogs, with blog-specific content at the end.
The Cult of LEGO, John Baichtal and Joe Meno, 2011, No Starch Press.
Okay, I'm embarrassed. I've had this one sitting here to review for just about a year now. I've been hesitant because I didn't want to be negative, but I suppose that's not a concern one should have in reviewing books. The thing is, from the point I first heard of this book, I wanted to love it. And, don't get me wrong, there is so much to love about this book. And before I go any further on a negative note, I want to start out celebrating what I love about this. We all know Joe as the founder and editor of BrickJournal, and a look at his Flickr stream reveals that he can be found at just about every gathering of more than five AFOLs, snapping picture after picture of all the great MOCs in the community. And the photos here are stunning - both those by Joe at fan events and photos chosen from builders across the community. This book tries to comprehensively cover all aspects of the hobby. The text by John Baichtal starts with a history of the company, then goes into all different areas, like different themes, spotlights on builders, NXT building, brick comics, LEGO in education, fan fests, micro macro sculpture and figs, Legoland parks, customization, Lugnet, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
There, I suppose is what bothered me. I love the photos. Yes, with anything like this you're going to quibble with 'why did they include this and not the five thousand other MOCs that they should have?' I suppose part of this comes down to taste, or luck, or maybe just which builders gave permission to use their photos. The text, though, tries to do too much, and it doing so it falls kind of flat. The style is more reporting, and lacks the personal feel we get in something like Jonathan Bender's LEGO: A Love Story. Actually, this book works best as the illustrations that were missing from Bender's book. In addition to the lack of a real emotional connection, there are odd inclusions and exclusions. I completely understand how a favorite MOC can be overlooked, but there are some glaring omissions in the text. For instance, the Castle theme gets less than a page (with a few additional MOCs that show up elsewhere). This is much less coverage than some individual builders or MOCs. Now, I'm a castle guy, so maybe I'm being sensitive to my favorite area of building, but Castle is one of the 'big three' themes along with Town and Space. Also, the coverage of the online community is sorely lacking. If you read this, you'd think that the community consists primarily of Lugnet and the Brothers-Brick. Miniland building is another shortfall. Sure, there aren't a ton of people who build in this scale, but it's at the heart of the theme parks, and in the book miniland figures get about a third as much space as Homemaker and Belville figs. Some inclusions are odd. There seems to be a huge emphasis on FFOLs. I'm not complaining about including women builders prominently, but it seems a bit agenda driven - trying to prove that LEGO isn't just for boys. There are also some individuals who get featured again and again - no knock on them, but it just seems that there are so many who get overlooked that to put a lot of attention on a few seems misplaced. The book does cover some areas that are left out of other LEGO books I've seen, like First LEGO League and Serious Play. I guess part of the problem is that there is no narrative thread that runs through the book. It's more like a scatter-shot of short pieces that tries to cover everything, but is inevitably hit and miss.
I'm really sorry to be negative on this book, which is why I've put off reviewing it. I do think that as a peek into the community it works well, and as a coffee table book to pick up and flip through the pictures, but to sit down and read to get some comprehensive insight I think it falls short of the high mark it set for itself. Anyway, if you're into LEGO books, you probably already have this. If you don't, I might turn first to one of the other books on the market.
SciBricks specific content - Actually quite a bit. We see several great dinosaurs including Henry Lim's lifesize stegosaurus. There is a lot about robotics with Mindstorms NXT and the First LEGO League. There's a feature on high altitude experiments involving LEGO and weather balloons. Andrew Carol's working LEGO replicas of Babbage's Difference Engine and the Antikythera mechanism get a three page spread.
The Cult of LEGO, John Baichtal and Joe Meno, 2011, No Starch Press.
Okay, I'm embarrassed. I've had this one sitting here to review for just about a year now. I've been hesitant because I didn't want to be negative, but I suppose that's not a concern one should have in reviewing books. The thing is, from the point I first heard of this book, I wanted to love it. And, don't get me wrong, there is so much to love about this book. And before I go any further on a negative note, I want to start out celebrating what I love about this. We all know Joe as the founder and editor of BrickJournal, and a look at his Flickr stream reveals that he can be found at just about every gathering of more than five AFOLs, snapping picture after picture of all the great MOCs in the community. And the photos here are stunning - both those by Joe at fan events and photos chosen from builders across the community. This book tries to comprehensively cover all aspects of the hobby. The text by John Baichtal starts with a history of the company, then goes into all different areas, like different themes, spotlights on builders, NXT building, brick comics, LEGO in education, fan fests, micro macro sculpture and figs, Legoland parks, customization, Lugnet, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
There, I suppose is what bothered me. I love the photos. Yes, with anything like this you're going to quibble with 'why did they include this and not the five thousand other MOCs that they should have?' I suppose part of this comes down to taste, or luck, or maybe just which builders gave permission to use their photos. The text, though, tries to do too much, and it doing so it falls kind of flat. The style is more reporting, and lacks the personal feel we get in something like Jonathan Bender's LEGO: A Love Story. Actually, this book works best as the illustrations that were missing from Bender's book. In addition to the lack of a real emotional connection, there are odd inclusions and exclusions. I completely understand how a favorite MOC can be overlooked, but there are some glaring omissions in the text. For instance, the Castle theme gets less than a page (with a few additional MOCs that show up elsewhere). This is much less coverage than some individual builders or MOCs. Now, I'm a castle guy, so maybe I'm being sensitive to my favorite area of building, but Castle is one of the 'big three' themes along with Town and Space. Also, the coverage of the online community is sorely lacking. If you read this, you'd think that the community consists primarily of Lugnet and the Brothers-Brick. Miniland building is another shortfall. Sure, there aren't a ton of people who build in this scale, but it's at the heart of the theme parks, and in the book miniland figures get about a third as much space as Homemaker and Belville figs. Some inclusions are odd. There seems to be a huge emphasis on FFOLs. I'm not complaining about including women builders prominently, but it seems a bit agenda driven - trying to prove that LEGO isn't just for boys. There are also some individuals who get featured again and again - no knock on them, but it just seems that there are so many who get overlooked that to put a lot of attention on a few seems misplaced. The book does cover some areas that are left out of other LEGO books I've seen, like First LEGO League and Serious Play. I guess part of the problem is that there is no narrative thread that runs through the book. It's more like a scatter-shot of short pieces that tries to cover everything, but is inevitably hit and miss.
I'm really sorry to be negative on this book, which is why I've put off reviewing it. I do think that as a peek into the community it works well, and as a coffee table book to pick up and flip through the pictures, but to sit down and read to get some comprehensive insight I think it falls short of the high mark it set for itself. Anyway, if you're into LEGO books, you probably already have this. If you don't, I might turn first to one of the other books on the market.
SciBricks specific content - Actually quite a bit. We see several great dinosaurs including Henry Lim's lifesize stegosaurus. There is a lot about robotics with Mindstorms NXT and the First LEGO League. There's a feature on high altitude experiments involving LEGO and weather balloons. Andrew Carol's working LEGO replicas of Babbage's Difference Engine and the Antikythera mechanism get a three page spread.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Book Review: The LEGO Adventure Book
Next up in my series of LEGO book reviews for your last minute gift needs.
LEGO Adventure Book: Cars, Castles, Dinosaurs & More, Megan Rothrock, 2013, No Starch Press.
If you're only going to buy one LEGO book this year, this is the one to get. Editor Megan Rothrock is a well known member of the community, whose MOCs can be found on Flickr, and this book celebrates the community. Do you remember the LEGO Idea Books? Over the years LEGO released several of these booklets that went beyond the instruction sets found in any individual set. These books were a mix of instructions and just inspirational photos that could show you what you could build with enough time, practice, and, of course, more LEGO. Meg's book looks back to that tradition, and also celebrates the community.
The book is mostly photos (all high quality). What text there is is primarily in comic book style, as Meg's sig-fig travels through the world of LEGO, meeting the sig-figs of other prominent builders and seeing their MOCs. In addition to Meg herself, featured builders come from all different areas of the LEGO community, both geographically and in terms of building theme: Craig Mandeville, Are J. Heiseldal, Moritz Nolting, Jon Hall, Pete Reid, Peter Morris, Mark Stafford, Aaron Andrews, Mike Psiaki, Katie Walker, Carl Greatrix, Sylvain Amacher and Daniel August Krentz.
The book is 200 pages long and contains 'nearly 200 example models from the world's best builders.' There are about 25 MOC breakdowns. Not exactly step-by-step instructions as you would get in an official set, but detailed photos at different stages of construction so that an experienced builder could reproduce the model without too much difficulty. Subject matter covers the gamut, from a dinosaur, to a classic castle, to trains car and town buildings, to robots, mecha, steampunk and space ships. This is pretty much all at fig scale (except arguably Pete Reid's turtle-bots).
Anyway, I give this one my highest recommendation. The proper audience is just about anyone. The kid starting out will see this as inspiration of all the cool things you can build. The intermediate builder will enjoy reproducing the models. The long-time AFOL will love the celebration of the community, including popular builders and fan-created themes. Perhaps the best part of this book is the fact that it is listed on No Starch as 'Volume 1', implying we've got a whole series of these to come. Perhaps in upcoming books we'll get as-yet missing themes, like Western, or other building scales like micro and miniland. I suspect that even now Meg is contacting people to be involved in future volumes, so I'll be excited to see where this goes in the future.
SciBricks-specific content - Mike's dinosaurs are great and highly realistic.
LEGO Adventure Book: Cars, Castles, Dinosaurs & More, Megan Rothrock, 2013, No Starch Press.
If you're only going to buy one LEGO book this year, this is the one to get. Editor Megan Rothrock is a well known member of the community, whose MOCs can be found on Flickr, and this book celebrates the community. Do you remember the LEGO Idea Books? Over the years LEGO released several of these booklets that went beyond the instruction sets found in any individual set. These books were a mix of instructions and just inspirational photos that could show you what you could build with enough time, practice, and, of course, more LEGO. Meg's book looks back to that tradition, and also celebrates the community.
The book is mostly photos (all high quality). What text there is is primarily in comic book style, as Meg's sig-fig travels through the world of LEGO, meeting the sig-figs of other prominent builders and seeing their MOCs. In addition to Meg herself, featured builders come from all different areas of the LEGO community, both geographically and in terms of building theme: Craig Mandeville, Are J. Heiseldal, Moritz Nolting, Jon Hall, Pete Reid, Peter Morris, Mark Stafford, Aaron Andrews, Mike Psiaki, Katie Walker, Carl Greatrix, Sylvain Amacher and Daniel August Krentz.
The book is 200 pages long and contains 'nearly 200 example models from the world's best builders.' There are about 25 MOC breakdowns. Not exactly step-by-step instructions as you would get in an official set, but detailed photos at different stages of construction so that an experienced builder could reproduce the model without too much difficulty. Subject matter covers the gamut, from a dinosaur, to a classic castle, to trains car and town buildings, to robots, mecha, steampunk and space ships. This is pretty much all at fig scale (except arguably Pete Reid's turtle-bots).
Anyway, I give this one my highest recommendation. The proper audience is just about anyone. The kid starting out will see this as inspiration of all the cool things you can build. The intermediate builder will enjoy reproducing the models. The long-time AFOL will love the celebration of the community, including popular builders and fan-created themes. Perhaps the best part of this book is the fact that it is listed on No Starch as 'Volume 1', implying we've got a whole series of these to come. Perhaps in upcoming books we'll get as-yet missing themes, like Western, or other building scales like micro and miniland. I suspect that even now Meg is contacting people to be involved in future volumes, so I'll be excited to see where this goes in the future.
SciBricks-specific content - Mike's dinosaurs are great and highly realistic.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
T Rex
Tyrannosaurus Rex lived throughout what is now western North America in the Maastrichtian age of the upper Cretaceous Period (not the Jurassic, no matter what Chrichton and Spielberg say). He was the largest carnivore around, and is usually depicted as preying on triceratops and others, though some argue he was more scavenger than predator. T Rex's were first discovered a little over a century ago, it seems that there are about 30 or so known specimens, including about 15 skeletons that are more complete. That was surprisingly low to me, but looking at what various paleontologists have written, that seems to be a pretty rich sample size. According to Mahjqa and Steve Demlow there is a complete skeleton just a few feet underground in this LEGO city (Mahjqa designed this, Steve built it). You'd think those LEGO guys would dig it up, as Sue (the largest T Rex found, just over 20 years ago) was bought by the Field Museum in Chicago for over $8 million.
Via MosaicBricks.
Via MosaicBricks.
Friday, April 1, 2011
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