Luke.stirling

Credit (??) to the StarTribune.

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This comic inspired by a line from Peter Wohlleben's lovely 'The Weather Detective.'

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Make sure you’re at the right platform as this fantastic recreation of the DB Class VT 11.5 arrives at the central railway station. Built by Holger Matthes, this LEGO version of one of the most legendary German trains combines everything that a LEGO train builder could think of. Six cars, each 7 studs wide, stretch over 80 inches/2,5 meter long. Designed with a huge variety of curved slopes, this VT 11.5 looks almost like a PIKO set!

The only thing that could possibly make a brilliant model like this VT 11.5 shine even brighter is, of course, a custom set of interior lights. Describing pictures like the one below makes almost no sense, so, it’s much better to enjoy it without any comments!

The post Travelling across Europe? Pamper yourself with a first class seat in DB Class VT 11.5 appeared first on The Brothers Brick.

Fjaðrárgljúfur (pronounced [ˈfjaːðraurˌkljuːvʏr̥]) is a canyon in south east Iceland which is up to 100 m deep and about 2 kilometers long, with the Fjaðrá river flowing through it. The canyon has steep walls and winding water. Its origins dates back to the cold periods of the Ice Age, about two million years ago. It is located near the Ring Road, not far from the village of Kirkjubæjarklaustur. The canyon was created by progressive erosion by flowing water from glaciers through the rocks and palagonite over millennia.

Via the EarthPorn subreddit.  I quite enjoyed this tongue-in-cheek clarification: "For those confused, it's pronounced 'flglhlhaldhslflr.'"

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All I'm saying is I've never seen her and Jodi Beggs in the same room at the same time.

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As a zoology nerd, my favorite things to write about are, of course, animals. When I saw these lovely LEGO birds by Luis Peña, I just couldn’t resist! The creative build features iconic species, including the Hyacinth Macaw, Scarlet Macaw, Andean Condor, Black-Necked Swans, Ringed Kingfisher, and Magellanic Woodpecker.

I adore Kingfishers, but I’d have to say that my favorite bird in the series is the Woodpecker. There is some clever parts usage here, giving it character. I love that mohawk headpiece, and the worm that is formerly an “Insectoid” (13757) from 70709 Galactic Titan.

Luis is a talented builder who we’ve featured before. If you like these animals, check out his recent Paleozoic sea creatures!

The post A collection of fantastic LEGO South American feathered fauna appeared first on The Brothers Brick.

Welcome back to The Brothers Brick, Łukasz Libuszewski, and thank YOU for welcoming us back into your magical miniature world. This time Łukasz has plunged us straight back into the Victorian era with a modular-style street mashup that would fit right at home with LEGO’s own Creator Expert series…if it time traveled about 150 years.

There are details here for even expert-level builders to appreciate. Look at how the repetitive use of common clips, rails, and minifig utensils add dimension around window and door frames; there are very few flat surfaces to be found. The most mind-blowing parts usage for me was the side by side white modified 1×2 tile w/ handles used in the middle building’s windows.

What also really impressed me when checking out this model is that Łukasz drew his envisioned city block back in May before bringing the model to the real world for us to enjoy.

Łukasz has been featured on TBB a handful of times, notably for his gorgeous cars and modular-style work. A particular favorite of mine was his city Bike Shop.

The post Come see this Victorian city block, love appeared first on The Brothers Brick.

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'Ha ha, Zuckerberg is a robot.' ***spends 14 hours motionless in front of a screen***

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Via.

New comic!

Newcat is settling in super well but he’s just full of this young, springy energy and can’t sit still for any reason and it’s alarming for all of us old folks.

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Sadly, the new member is later discovered to have solar panels and an electric car.

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The LEGO Ideas team has just announced that ten projects have achieved the required votes to qualify for the second 2018 LEGO Ideas Review. These ten sets reached the 10,000 supporter mark between May and September 2018, and as a result have made it into the next phase of the process, in which LEGO makes a decision about whether to select the design to become an official LEGO Ideas set.

Of course, there is no guarantee that LEGO will decide to produce any of these designs as an official set, but each fan-designed project deserves congratulations for reaching this important milestone.

SpaceX Falcon Heavy by khehmeyer

International Space Station by XCLD

SpaceX – The Ultimate Collection by Matthew Nolan & Whatsuptoday

Steamboat Willie by szabomate90

M&M’s Chocolate Candy Dispenser by EDxAS

Rolls-Royce UltraFan® – The Ultimate Jet Engine by DanCodd

Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 Lego Speed Champions by AbFab1974

Fiat 500 F by saabfan & gabriele.zannotti

The Central Perk Coffee of Friends by Mric76

Mexico City & LEGO = by LegoFan_506

Lego Ideas is a platform where LEGO fans can submit their ideas for potential official LEGO sets. Product ideas that receive 10,000 supporters from fans are evaluated in a LEGO Review that happens three times each year. You can read more about  How it Works on the official LEGO Ideas website.

The post 10 fan projects have qualified for the second 2018 LEGO Ideas Review [News] appeared first on The Brothers Brick.

To protect copyright holders, YouTube uses an advanced piracy recognition system that flags and disables videos which are used without permission.

This system, known as Content ID, works well most of the time, but it is far from perfect.

It’s not well equipped to determine whether certain uploads are in the public domain or protected under ‘fair use.’ While mistakes are bound to happen with automated processes, it becomes problematic when there’s a clear pattern. Especially when it clearly interferes with the public interest.

This issue was highlighted once again by German music professor Dr. Ulrich Kaiser. In an article written for Wikimedia, republished by Ars Technica, he explains how one of his educational videos was flagged as copyrighted content by YouTube.

“In this video, I explained my project, while examples of the music played in the background. Less than three minutes after uploading, I received a notification that there was a ContentID claim against my video,” Kaiser writes.

The music used in the video wasn’t infringing, however. The performance of a 17th century Biber composition was first published in 1962 and therefore in the public domain, according to German law. When the professor contested the claim the video was swiftly restored, but that wasn’t the end of the matter.

Curious about the accuracy of the Content ID process, Kaiser created a test account to find out whether this was a one-off or not.

“I decided to open a different YouTube account “Labeltest” to share additional excerpts of copyright-free music. I quickly received ContentID notifications for copyright-free music by Bartok, Schubert, Puccini and Wagner.

“Again and again, YouTube told me that I was violating the copyright of these long-dead composers, despite all of my uploads existing in the public domain.”

Kaiser contested all the claims stressing that the recordings of these old composers were not copyright-infringing. The creators have been dead for years, and the recordings were all pre-1963, so in the public domain under German law.

Undeterred, YouTube’s Content ID system went after Beethoven, although that recording could stay online without ads.

“I only received more notices, this time about a recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.5, which was accompanied by the message: ‘Copyrighted content was found in your video. The claimant allows its content to be used in your YouTube video. However, advertisements may be displayed’.”

In the end, Kaiser managed to remove the claims on most of the public domain content. However, he notes that even when the claims were released, the videos were not converted to a free Creative Commons license, which he intended. This makes it harder for others to share the works, which was the goal all along.

All in all, the professor concludes that upload filters such as Content ID can seriously harm the distribution of cultural and educational content.

“Filters like ContentID can be useful for platforms that host large amounts of user-generated content, but as my story exposes, they have significant flaws which can lead to the diminishment of educational and cultural resources online,” Kaiser says.

The professor cautions lawmakers to keep this in mind before they mandate broad upload filters. And with the EU’s upload filter vote just a few days away, this message will be music to the ears of Article 13 opponents.

While it’s easy to blame YouTube, the real problem, in this case, is that some publishers have apparently claimed public domain works. Perhaps YouTube may want to come up with a strike system for false claims too?

Note September 4: Apparently, this is an issue of Facebook as well.

Update: It’s not entirely clear from the original article whether the videos were made unavailable. We edited the title shortly after publication to avoid confusion.

Update 2: Ulrich Kaiser confirms to TorrentFreak that the videos in question were not (yet) taken down. While there are some inaccurate reports elsewhere, there are no restrictions on the videos other than that a Creative Commons (CC-BY) license can’t be used.

The professor notes that he was unable to remove the claims on two videos, as documented here.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

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Whatever happened to Fabuland – the 1980s animal-character driven play theme from LEGO – appears to be Dutch builder Sebastiaan Arts‘ raison d’être in creating his last habitat in the world. In one of the strangest takes on the post-apocalyptic theme, the various animal-headed Fabuland characters have holed up in the Last Resort, a towering orange residential complex.

Raised on stilts above what I assume is a toxic lake, it marries clever science fiction construction techniques with home building play features. I’m simultaneously drawn to the industrial detailing, such as the brilliantly concertinaed entrance tunnel, and its smart interiors and boating lake.

Add to this masterful building in the form of its subtly curved roof and inset, brick-built typefaces and you have a standout model.

Best of all, though, the diorama entices me to think about this motley band of survivors and the stories you might tell about them.

The post The last resort in building appeared first on The Brothers Brick.

In recent years file-sharers around the world have been threatened with lawsuits, if they don’t pay a significant settlement fee.

These so-called “copyright trolling” efforts have been a common occurrence in countries such as Germany and the United States, and in recent years they have conquered Sweden as well.

The process is fairly simple. Copyright holders ask local courts for a subpoena so they can demand the personal details of the subscribers that are connected to allegedly pirating IP-addresses.

The ISPs are then required to look these up in their databases and hand over the relevant personal information. The rightsholders use this to send a settlement claim to the subscribers, asking them to pay up, or else.

Most providers are not happy with this practice, but they see no other option than to cooperate. However, Swedish ISP Bahnhof is different. It is yet to hand over any data to copyright holders and publicly despises the copyright-trolling business model.

In recent comments on the matter, Bahnhof CEO Jon Karlung says that subscribers of many of its competitors, including Comhem, Telia, and Bredbandsbolaget, have received a letter of formal notice in recent months.

“Many Swedes have been innocently accused of downloading a movie from the web. It is not just a legal scandal that this will happen. The letters also appear to be based on false information, but the individuals who get them still have difficulty defending against unfair bills of thousands of dollars,” he notes.

The CEO says that Bahnhof is the only major ISP to consistently refuse to disclose any data to these copyright holders, which the company describes as “blackmailers.”

There’s no magic involved really. Not keeping any extensive log files does the trick.

“How? The ingeniously simple solution is that we do not save log files. There is, therefore, nothing to share. The question, however, is why all the other operators save sensitive data about their customers,” Karlung adds.

Bahnhof’s solution is not new. When the first wave of copyright trolls came to Sweden the company severely limited the logs it kept. The company also urged other ISPs to follow suit, but most didn’t.

The question, is why? Karlung urges subscribers of the affected ISPs to ask about their logging policies, and in particular, the motivation behind them.

“There is something not right here. Why do the other broadband operators save as much information about you as a customer, when they are not technically in need of it to deliver a contracted service? Ask them about it!”

Bahnhof itself says that it keeps IP-address logs for a maximum of 24 hours. They base this practice on a European Court of Justice ruling which concluded that the Swedish adoption of the data retention directive is invalid.

“To our knowledge, it’s Bahnhof and Tele2 who operate their IP logs in this manner, other Swedish ISPs are likely to follow the data retention directive and keep IP logs over the last six months,” Bahnhof Communicator Carolina Lindahl tells TF.

This issue isn’t only limited to Sweden of course. It also applies to the United States and other countries where some providers keep logs for months, or years, without a legal requirement.

How long the other ISPs in Sweden keep their logs is unclear. If any readers get an answer from their ISP, they are welcome to share it below.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

This is an excellent movie.

Sami Blood is set in Sweden in the 1930s and concerns a 14-year-old girl who experiences prejudice at a nomad school for Sami children, and decides to escape her town and disavow her Sami heritage.

The film premiered at the 73rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in the Venice Days section, in which it was awarded the Europa Cinemas Label Award and the Fedeora Award for Best Debut Director.

Reposted from 2018, because today I rewatched the movie with new eyes, after having discovered that the "Fin-" part of my Finseth family name indicates that some ancestor had been from the Sami ethnic group. 

The movie is a bit dark because it examines prejudices the southern (Uppsala) Swedes had (1930s) against the subarctic Samis - prejudices that starkly resemble ones the Europeans in North America had against the Native peoples there.  The acting was superb - especially by the lead - Lene Cecilia Sparrok - who is a Norwegian Southern Sami reindeer herder/actress. 

This incredible spaceship by AdNorrel features distinctive profile shapes and smartly integrated LEGO pieces. The lovely bits of filled-in details within the crevasses and armored surfaces of the starship are great examples of greebling done well. Not too out of place, not too overshadowed — there’s some real inspirational craftsmanship here.

I don’t want all of my articles to become running checklists of parts, but see if you can spot the messenger pouches, croissants, and frying pans. It’s a really fun scavenger hunt kind of model.

There is a lot of dimension to the ship’s surface, with many elements helping to break up the armor plating.

If I can be critical for one moment, the area that feels a little weaker than the rest of the ship is the dishes-in-dishes engine array, which for me just can’t compare to the rest of the model for delightful parts usage. It feels just a bit abrupt and sparse in comparison.

The post The Valzaleer spacecraft has a beautiful veneer appeared first on The Brothers Brick.

80 prosent av folk i Den europeiske union (EU) er imot å stille klokka to ganger i året. Det melder Aftenposten onsdag.

The graph above, found at the Charles Schwab website, shows how dramatically inflation has been curbed over the past twenty years - not just in the U.S., but globally.

I was a young adult in the 1970s, and I can clearly remember getting a paycheck and going the next day to a local bank to purchase a bank certificate of deposit yielding about 12%.  I think anyone who has managed their own money just for the past 20 years has very little concept of the influence of inflation.

Conversely, my experience through the 1970s-1990s "taught me" (incorrectly) that I could safely rely on 4-5% interest yields during my retirement.  No way, Jose.  I had no concept that fixed income returns would ever be less than 1% - and for sustained periods of time.

There is an old saying that "the market can remain irrational for longer than you can remain solvent."  There's a certain truth to that.

But if I were going to bet now and plan for a future 20-30 years from now, I wouldn't count on inflation and interest rates staying at these historic lows.

Det har aldri vært så varmt i Norge før. Månedene før august knuste alle rekorder.

Top image hat tip to Alex Santoso, who found this excellent optical illusion on Twitter and posted it at Neatorama in 2012.  Reposted to add the bottom one, via.  The two illusions are based on the same principles; I believe the lower one was just modified to bring the inner circle closer to the outer one.

I’ve often imagined what it might be like to live on Mars. The Red Planet has been the subject of many science fiction movies and novels, one of the most famous of which would have to be The Martian, a novel by Andy Weir that was also made into a movie. These scenes by
Andreas Lenander do a wonderful job depicting life on Mars in the not too distant future.

I love the simple shape of the ship, especially the curved elements on each side, that look fragile and sleek at the same time. The greebly pipes on top feel very functional, and a bit delicate. The rover and fueling station also stand out against the stark landscape.

The post-production lighting and the overall bleak and desaturated colors set a very somber mood, while the use of simple plates and bricks for the surface don’t draw attention away from the vehicles.

The post Life on the red planet appeared first on The Brothers Brick.

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He doesn't have to use the keyboard or monitor. It's just a game all robots find amusing after we're gone.

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The shining white utopian future — so popular with the science fiction writers and illustrators of the 1960s — may well have gone out of fashion, but this hasn’t stopped builder Klaus exploring the theme. Built in microscale, his series of architectural models of a future metropolis use predominately standard bricks, similar to those found in 21050 Studio set, in smart repetitive sequences. The bustling administration complex adds stacked mudguard elements to build its towers, whilst a cigarillo shaped blimp circles overhead.

The aerospace port neatly matches a white half golf ball element to its whitewashed layout, suggesting hi-tech radar equipment; elsewhere a white technic beam provides a row of porthole windows.

Meanwhile at the agricultural plant, stacks of single green studs happily grow under perspex domes.

These and the other components of Klaus’s metropolis bring to mind that special kind of contemporary nostalgia, nostalgia for a future that never was.

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