Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Breaking Barium
As a chemist I really like the show Breaking Bad, whose logo (here by Lego Junkie) involves the atomic symbols for Bromine and Barium. There are a little over a hundred different types of atoms, known as elements. What differentiates one element from another is the number of protons in the nucleus, and the arrangement of electrons and bonding properties are related to this. Bromine is an element with 35 protons in the nucleus. In the elemental form (that is, when it's just by itself and not combined with other elements to make compounds) it forms diatomic molecules - two bromines connected to each other. Br2 is largely a liquid at room temperature. It reacts readily with other compounds in a number of ways, including both radical and ionic reactions. Barium has 56 protons in the nucleus and is a metal. It easily loses two electrons to become a positively charged species in various ionic compounds.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Greenhouse effect
TheBrickAvenger teaches us about the Greenhouse effect. Light energy from the sun (in yellow) hits the earth, warming it. The earth then radiates heat (red arrows), but rather than directly escaping into space, a good portion of this heat energy coming up from the earth is absorbed by gases such as CO2 in the atmosphere. These gases then radiate energy - some up into space, but other energy back down towards the earth.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Happy Pi Day
Man, I've got to turn in my geek card. I completely missed that today was Pi Day. In my defense, I never know what the date is. MCLegoboy built this pi. It'd be really cool if he used exactly 314 bricks.
Hydrogen
MOCathalon is an annual LEGO building contest with a series of categories. One of this year's categories is 'Just teach it!', and Finn Tegotash built a chemistry class.
Okay, class, we're going to continue with our examination of the periodic table.
Hydrogen is the simplest element, with only one proton and one electron. In molecular form it exists as H2.
Since it is the lightest element, and since gases take up the same volume of space regardless of their mass, the same volume of hydrogen is much lighter than the same volume of air (a mix of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water vapor, and some other things). Therefore, a balloon filled with hydrogen floats.
Hydrogen reacts with oxygen to make water. This reaction gives off a lot of energy. It is an exothermic process. Boom!
Okay, class, we're going to continue with our examination of the periodic table.
Hydrogen is the simplest element, with only one proton and one electron. In molecular form it exists as H2.
Since it is the lightest element, and since gases take up the same volume of space regardless of their mass, the same volume of hydrogen is much lighter than the same volume of air (a mix of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water vapor, and some other things). Therefore, a balloon filled with hydrogen floats.
Hydrogen reacts with oxygen to make water. This reaction gives off a lot of energy. It is an exothermic process. Boom!
Friday, March 1, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
As you know if you've been to Google, today is the 540th anniversary of the birth of Nocolaus Copernicus. He was the Polish astronomer most responsible for the heliocentric view of the universe. That is, the idea that the earth and the planets orbit the sun rather than the sun and the planets orbiting the earth. This motion is demonstrated by an orrery, a mechanical model of the solar system that shows the relative motions of the celestial bodies. V&A Steamworks made a great LEGO Orrery, and you can even see it in action.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Electron Transport Chain
ATP is the cell's currency of energy. To make ATP takes energy, though. In order to do this, energy is used either from sunlight in photosynthesis or from chemical reactions in respiration to move electrons across a membrane via an electron transport chain, here illustrated by Medieval Guy. When you move negatively charged electrons across the membrane, though, you create an imbalance of charges. In order to bring charges back into balance, positively charged protons flow from one side of the membrane through the other, and the movement of these is harnessed by ATP synthase to produce more ATP. BTW, I was at UCLA in 1997 when Paul Boyer was awarded the Nobel for his role in the elucidation of the ATPase mechanism. I was also there in 1995 when UCLA won the NCAA basketball championship. On one of these occasions there was a reception hosted by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. On the other occasion there was mini riot in Westwood Village of drunken college students. Can you guess which was which?
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013
How big is space?
I ran across a fun feature on BBC-Future, called How Big is Space? It's essentially a huge graphic, that as you scroll down takes you further and further away from the Earth's surface. It actually reminds me a lot of the classic Powers of Ten video you may have seen in school (and if not, go watch). The reason to note this here is the entry that comes in at 24 km from the Earth's surface, noting the Canadian minifig space flight.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Genome sequencing
Your genome is the sequence of nucleic acids found in your DNA. This sequence is the template for your proteins, and basically makes the blueprint that makes you a human and not, say, a tree. Knowing the genomic sequence for an organism has many applications, from basic research to applied medicine. For instance, you could identify some bacteria by its sequence to diagnose a disease, or you could find out if a person has the markers for some inherited disease. A number of companies have developed laboratory instrumentation for genomic sequencing, such as the Life Technologies Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine. Torsten Seeman built a LEGO rendition for his son.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Advent calendar?
Johnmknight has made a series of over 20 "realspace" small models. I'm guessing he is going to propose this as a future advent calendar idea on Cuusoo, since he has proposed a few real space sets on Cuusoo before. Maybe not, though, since several of these have more pieces than the typical advent calendar builds. It'd be a very cool calendar, though - maybe include a few figs of astronauts - even make them individual like Neil Armstrong, Yuri Gagarin, etc. Maybe Goddard and his rocket.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Microscope
Gilcélio Chagas built this great microscope. Rather than give my own explanation, I'll just quote his:
A microscope (from the Ancient Greek: μικρός, mikrós, "small" and σκοπεῖν, skopeîn, "to look" or "see") is an instrument used to see objects that are too small for the naked eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy. Microscopic means invisible to the eye unless aided by a microscope. There are many types of microscopes, the most common and first to be invented is the optical microscope which uses light to image the sample. Other major types of microscopes are the electron microscope (both the transmission electron microscope and the scanning electron microscope) and the various types of scanning probe microscope. The first microscope to be developed was the optical microscope, although the original inventor is not easy to identify. An early microscope was made in 1590 in Middelburg, Netherlands.Two eyeglass makers are variously given credit: Hans Lippershey (who developed an early telescope) and Zacharias Janssen. Giovanni Faber coined the name microscope for Galileo Galilei's compound microscope in 1625 (Galileo had called it the "occhiolino" or "little eye").
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Book Review: LEGO Ideas Book - Unlock Your Imagination
Last in a series of book reviews. You've got two days left. Run out and buy your loved ones some LEGO books!
LEGO Ideas Book - Unlock Your Imagination by Daniel Lipkowitz, 2011, Dorling Kindersley Books.
I'm very happy to end this run of LEGO book reviews with another extremely positive rating. This one's been out for a year, so you may already have it. If you were only going to buy one LEGO book last year, this was the one. If you didn't, you still have time to rectify the situation. As with the LEGO Adventure Book, this book seeks to inspire your building by simply showing you what you can do with the brick.
Author and editor Daniel Lipkowitz brings together an impressive array of AFOL contributors: Sebastian Arts (AlienCat), Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha), Deborah Higdon, Barney Main (SlyOwl), Duncan Titmarsh and Andrew Walker. These builders made a ton of models for this book. I didn't bother counting them, but there are 200 pages, and almost page has several different models, all beautifully photographed.
There are no real instructions in the book. Oh, in a few places they include exploded constructions so you can see how this or that detail was done, but the stated purpose of the book is: "The ideas in this book will inspire you to create many more models of your own." And the models are inspirational. Subjects include castles (lots of this - thanks AlienCat!), town buildings, brick built animals, space ships, robots, pirate fortresses, Viking longboats, etc. It's not all fig scale, either. There's quite a bit of microscale, mosaics, and also some sculptures that serve purposes like pen holders for your desktop. There are mini interviews with each of the builders, which is a nice touch. There is also text on each page giving little insights and highlighting details, but truth be told the text is unnecessary. The stars here are the photos. As with all of the various DK LEGO offerings, each page is packed with high quality color photos. I'd love to see more and more books like this (and the LEGO Adventure Book I reviewed previously) that celebrate all of the cool things that AFOLs build. I hope DK comes out with one of these every couple of years - just bring together some top quality builders and let them loose. I'd be happy to give them a list of names!
Again, this is one of those must-have books. Everyone from kids to expert builders will love flipping through the pages - whether they are seeking inspiration for their next MOC, they want to celebrate the community of builders, or just to enjoy all of the beautiful pictures.
SciBricks-specific content - Nothing really, unless you count a model of Stephenson's Rocket, one of the first steam trains, as an example of inventions.
LEGO Ideas Book - Unlock Your Imagination by Daniel Lipkowitz, 2011, Dorling Kindersley Books.
I'm very happy to end this run of LEGO book reviews with another extremely positive rating. This one's been out for a year, so you may already have it. If you were only going to buy one LEGO book last year, this was the one. If you didn't, you still have time to rectify the situation. As with the LEGO Adventure Book, this book seeks to inspire your building by simply showing you what you can do with the brick.
Author and editor Daniel Lipkowitz brings together an impressive array of AFOL contributors: Sebastian Arts (AlienCat), Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha), Deborah Higdon, Barney Main (SlyOwl), Duncan Titmarsh and Andrew Walker. These builders made a ton of models for this book. I didn't bother counting them, but there are 200 pages, and almost page has several different models, all beautifully photographed.
There are no real instructions in the book. Oh, in a few places they include exploded constructions so you can see how this or that detail was done, but the stated purpose of the book is: "The ideas in this book will inspire you to create many more models of your own." And the models are inspirational. Subjects include castles (lots of this - thanks AlienCat!), town buildings, brick built animals, space ships, robots, pirate fortresses, Viking longboats, etc. It's not all fig scale, either. There's quite a bit of microscale, mosaics, and also some sculptures that serve purposes like pen holders for your desktop. There are mini interviews with each of the builders, which is a nice touch. There is also text on each page giving little insights and highlighting details, but truth be told the text is unnecessary. The stars here are the photos. As with all of the various DK LEGO offerings, each page is packed with high quality color photos. I'd love to see more and more books like this (and the LEGO Adventure Book I reviewed previously) that celebrate all of the cool things that AFOLs build. I hope DK comes out with one of these every couple of years - just bring together some top quality builders and let them loose. I'd be happy to give them a list of names!
Again, this is one of those must-have books. Everyone from kids to expert builders will love flipping through the pages - whether they are seeking inspiration for their next MOC, they want to celebrate the community of builders, or just to enjoy all of the beautiful pictures.
SciBricks-specific content - Nothing really, unless you count a model of Stephenson's Rocket, one of the first steam trains, as an example of inventions.
Book Review: Amazing ABC
Amazing ABC by Sean Kenney, 2012, Christy Ottaviano Books.
A quick little review of a book you are probably unlikely to have happened across. If you don't have a very young child, you probably don't browse the board book section of your local bookstore. I do, and one day a little while ago I happened across this charming book. I'm a fan of alphabet books, and of course when you're teaching a child their letters you see a lot of these. This book is pretty straight-forward. Each page has a letter (built of bricks) and a model to illustrate that letter. As you'd expect from Sean, the models are all great and the photos are perfect. Even if you don't have a little one crawling around your home, this is a great book to get (hey, it's only a few dollars) and have sitting out in your home. If you do have kids, you can justify this as educational even!
Blog-specific material - There is none.
A quick little review of a book you are probably unlikely to have happened across. If you don't have a very young child, you probably don't browse the board book section of your local bookstore. I do, and one day a little while ago I happened across this charming book. I'm a fan of alphabet books, and of course when you're teaching a child their letters you see a lot of these. This book is pretty straight-forward. Each page has a letter (built of bricks) and a model to illustrate that letter. As you'd expect from Sean, the models are all great and the photos are perfect. Even if you don't have a little one crawling around your home, this is a great book to get (hey, it's only a few dollars) and have sitting out in your home. If you do have kids, you can justify this as educational even!
Blog-specific material - There is none.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Book Review: I LEGO NY
I LEGO NY by Christoph Niemann, 2010, Abrams Image.
Christoph Niemann is an artist whose work has been on the cover of the New Yorker, Wired, The New York Times Magazine and American Illustration. He's got a regular New York Times pictorial column, Abstract Sunday that takes a really fun whimsical outlook on the world. At one point he lived (or still does, I'm not sure) in Berlin, but his thoughts were stuck in New York City. A few years ago he was playing LEGO with his sons and started making some models of his home town. The result was a column I LEGO NY.
873 comments later, he knew he'd hit upon something. He made some more models, and the result was the book I LEGO NY. This little thirty page board book is full of whimsical models that celebrate New York City life. The thing to note, though, is that this really isn't a LEGO book. It's a New York book. As a set of LEGO models, there's not much here. The arrangement of simple blocks evokes they subject matter rather than depicts it, as, for example, a cluster of 1x2 bricks representing a traffic jam at the entry to the Holland Tunnel.
The people that would most appreciate the allusions are New Yorkers, or probably even more so New York expatriates who miss their home. However, even as someone who has only been to New York for a few brief visits, the city is so much in the American consciousness from the numerous TV shows and movies set there that I understood all of the references.
Even though this is a board book, it's not for kids. Not that there is anything objectionable to the content, it's just that kids would not get the point of the pictures - they're just too abstract. I suspect that this is a board book to give it a little heft. At only thirty pages, as a paper book it would be little more than a pamphlet.
This is a fun little book. More of a stocking stuffer gift for that New Yorker in your life. It's a nice little conversation starter to leave out on your coffee table.
SciBricks-specific content There is none.
Christoph Niemann is an artist whose work has been on the cover of the New Yorker, Wired, The New York Times Magazine and American Illustration. He's got a regular New York Times pictorial column, Abstract Sunday that takes a really fun whimsical outlook on the world. At one point he lived (or still does, I'm not sure) in Berlin, but his thoughts were stuck in New York City. A few years ago he was playing LEGO with his sons and started making some models of his home town. The result was a column I LEGO NY.
873 comments later, he knew he'd hit upon something. He made some more models, and the result was the book I LEGO NY. This little thirty page board book is full of whimsical models that celebrate New York City life. The thing to note, though, is that this really isn't a LEGO book. It's a New York book. As a set of LEGO models, there's not much here. The arrangement of simple blocks evokes they subject matter rather than depicts it, as, for example, a cluster of 1x2 bricks representing a traffic jam at the entry to the Holland Tunnel.
The people that would most appreciate the allusions are New Yorkers, or probably even more so New York expatriates who miss their home. However, even as someone who has only been to New York for a few brief visits, the city is so much in the American consciousness from the numerous TV shows and movies set there that I understood all of the references.
Even though this is a board book, it's not for kids. Not that there is anything objectionable to the content, it's just that kids would not get the point of the pictures - they're just too abstract. I suspect that this is a board book to give it a little heft. At only thirty pages, as a paper book it would be little more than a pamphlet.
This is a fun little book. More of a stocking stuffer gift for that New Yorker in your life. It's a nice little conversation starter to leave out on your coffee table.
SciBricks-specific content There is none.
Book Review: LEGO Heavy Weapons
Still more book reviews.
LEGO Heavy Weapons by Jack Streat, 2012, No Starch Press.
I have very little to say about this book. That's in part because it isn't really my thing, and in part because the book is exactly what it sets out to be. The subtitle is "Build Working Replicas of Four of the World's Most Impressive Guns", and this book is essentially a series of detailed instructions to make these four guns.
There is a little bit of background on building LEGO, how to buy pieces, designing with CAD programs, and Streat also gives some background on each of the weapons featured. Streat then launches into the heart of the book, detailed step-by-step instructions to build your own. The pictures are all in black and white, but that's okay, since you would probably build these out of black anyway. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. When completed, these guns are rubber-band driven to launch bricks. I haven't actually built them, so I can't tell you how far they shoot.
As I said, I don't really have much to say about this book. I fear it's a little dismissive to say 'If this is the sort of thing you like, then you will like this sort of thing,' but that's my honest response. If you want to make life-size weapons, this book is perfect for you. If not, pass it by. I suppose I could go on and on about gun play in general. I'm writing this review in the aftermath of the horrible school shooting in Newton, so anything with guns seems wrong right now. But I also know that I spent my childhood making guns out of sticks and shooting squirt guns, and later 22's at camp. Now my son loves sticking about five DUPLO bricks and calling it a shooter, and we bought him a Nerf dart gun for Christmas. So I'm not going to act all holier-than-thou on the subject of toy weapons. Boys, and to a lesser extent girls, fairly naturally gravitate to toy guns (or bows and arrows, or swords, etc etc), and building them out of LEGO is a pretty natural thing. Anyway, as I said, this book is aimed at a pretty narrow market, but perfectly hits that market. Make your purchasing choices accordingly.
Blog-specific material There is none.
LEGO Heavy Weapons by Jack Streat, 2012, No Starch Press.
I have very little to say about this book. That's in part because it isn't really my thing, and in part because the book is exactly what it sets out to be. The subtitle is "Build Working Replicas of Four of the World's Most Impressive Guns", and this book is essentially a series of detailed instructions to make these four guns.
There is a little bit of background on building LEGO, how to buy pieces, designing with CAD programs, and Streat also gives some background on each of the weapons featured. Streat then launches into the heart of the book, detailed step-by-step instructions to build your own. The pictures are all in black and white, but that's okay, since you would probably build these out of black anyway. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. When completed, these guns are rubber-band driven to launch bricks. I haven't actually built them, so I can't tell you how far they shoot.
As I said, I don't really have much to say about this book. I fear it's a little dismissive to say 'If this is the sort of thing you like, then you will like this sort of thing,' but that's my honest response. If you want to make life-size weapons, this book is perfect for you. If not, pass it by. I suppose I could go on and on about gun play in general. I'm writing this review in the aftermath of the horrible school shooting in Newton, so anything with guns seems wrong right now. But I also know that I spent my childhood making guns out of sticks and shooting squirt guns, and later 22's at camp. Now my son loves sticking about five DUPLO bricks and calling it a shooter, and we bought him a Nerf dart gun for Christmas. So I'm not going to act all holier-than-thou on the subject of toy weapons. Boys, and to a lesser extent girls, fairly naturally gravitate to toy guns (or bows and arrows, or swords, etc etc), and building them out of LEGO is a pretty natural thing. Anyway, as I said, this book is aimed at a pretty narrow market, but perfectly hits that market. Make your purchasing choices accordingly.
Blog-specific material There is none.
Book Review: LEGO Heavy Weapons
Still more book reviews.
LEGO Heavy Weapons by Jack Streat, 2012, No Starch Press.
I have very little to say about this book. That's in part because it isn't really my thing, and in part because the book is exactly what it sets out to be. The subtitle is "Build Working Replicas of Four of the World's Most Impressive Guns", and this book is essentially a series of detailed instructions to make these four guns.
There is a little bit of background on building LEGO, how to buy pieces, designing with CAD programs, and Streat also gives some background on each of the weapons featured. Streat then launches into the heart of the book, detailed step-by-step instructions to build your own. The pictures are all in black and white, but that's okay, since you would probably build these out of black anyway. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. When completed, these guns are rubber-band driven to launch bricks. I haven't actually built them, so I can't tell you how far they shoot.
As I said, I don't really have much to say about this book. I fear it's a little dismissive to say 'If this is the sort of thing you like, then you will like this sort of thing,' but that's my honest response. If you want to make life-size weapons, this book is perfect for you. If not, pass it by. I suppose I could go on and on about gun play in general. I'm writing this review in the aftermath of the horrible school shooting in Newton, so anything with guns seems wrong right now. But I also know that I spent my childhood making guns out of sticks and shooting squirt guns, and later 22's at camp. Now my son loves sticking about five DUPLO bricks and calling it a shooter, and we bought him a Nerf dart gun for Christmas. So I'm not going to act all holier-than-thou on the subject of toy weapons. Boys, and to a lesser extent girls, fairly naturally gravitate to toy guns (or bows and arrows, or swords, etc etc), and building them out of LEGO is a pretty natural thing. Anyway, as I said, this book is aimed at a pretty narrow market, but perfectly hits that market. Make your purchasing choices accordingly.
Blog-specific material There is none.
LEGO Heavy Weapons by Jack Streat, 2012, No Starch Press.
I have very little to say about this book. That's in part because it isn't really my thing, and in part because the book is exactly what it sets out to be. The subtitle is "Build Working Replicas of Four of the World's Most Impressive Guns", and this book is essentially a series of detailed instructions to make these four guns.
There is a little bit of background on building LEGO, how to buy pieces, designing with CAD programs, and Streat also gives some background on each of the weapons featured. Streat then launches into the heart of the book, detailed step-by-step instructions to build your own. The pictures are all in black and white, but that's okay, since you would probably build these out of black anyway. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. When completed, these guns are rubber-band driven to launch bricks. I haven't actually built them, so I can't tell you how far they shoot.
As I said, I don't really have much to say about this book. I fear it's a little dismissive to say 'If this is the sort of thing you like, then you will like this sort of thing,' but that's my honest response. If you want to make life-size weapons, this book is perfect for you. If not, pass it by. I suppose I could go on and on about gun play in general. I'm writing this review in the aftermath of the horrible school shooting in Newton, so anything with guns seems wrong right now. But I also know that I spent my childhood making guns out of sticks and shooting squirt guns, and later 22's at camp. Now my son loves sticking about five DUPLO bricks and calling it a shooter, and we bought him a Nerf dart gun for Christmas. So I'm not going to act all holier-than-thou on the subject of toy weapons. Boys, and to a lesser extent girls, fairly naturally gravitate to toy guns (or bows and arrows, or swords, etc etc), and building them out of LEGO is a pretty natural thing. Anyway, as I said, this book is aimed at a pretty narrow market, but perfectly hits that market. Make your purchasing choices accordingly.
Blog-specific material There is none.
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.
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