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This wonderfully detailed corner modular by o0ger features a dentist’s office as well as a sweet shop, so you can get your ice cream and get your teeth cleaned all in one stop. There are so many great design choices to call out here. Each building has a well-integrated color scheme, from the lime green plus yellow-green stripes on the sweet shop to the brown and rust-red of the dentist’s office.

Both buildings also feature some excellent architectural details, especially around the windows and doors. The details of the dentist office roof window are particularly interesting.

Another great part usage is the yellow-orange dome paired with the dark gray arch for the sweet shop awnings. And don’t miss the scooter parked behind the tree.

The post Sweet modular Dentist office appeared first on The Brothers Brick.

Top photo:  location of uninhabited Henderson Island
Bottom photo: a beach on the island

Discussed at The Atlantic:

Henderson Island is about the most remote place you can visit without leaving the planet. It sits squarely in the middle of the South Pacific, 3,500 miles from New Zealand in one direction and another 3,500 miles from South America in the other. To get there, Jennifer Lavers had to fly from Tasmania to Tahiti, catch a small, once-a-week plane to the Gambier Islands, join a freight ship that had already sailed for 10 days from New Zealand, and ask it to change course for Henderson. No ship travels there unless you specifically ask it to...

When Lavers actually arrived on Henderson, she found that the situation was even worse than the images had suggested. At her landing site, her team immediately came across a truck tire—so large and deeply buried that they couldn’t move it. “That was a warning,” she said. “It got worse and worse. There’s an area that we call the garbage patch, where you can’t put your foot down without stepping on a bottle cap. The sheer volume really took my breath away for all the wrong reasons.”

Henderson should be pristine. It is uninhabited. Tourists don’t go there. There’s no one around to drop any litter. The whole place was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations in 1988. The nearest settlement is 71 miles away, and has just 40 people on it. And yet, seafaring plastic has turned it into yet another of humanity’s scrapheaps. “It’s truly one of the last paradises left on earth, and one of the least visited but heavily protected bits of land on the planet,” Lavers says. “But I don’t think I’ve stood somewhere and been so utterly and completely surrounded by plastic.”

 Photo taken by Tobias Messerli in the Canton of Bern.  Awesome composition.

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One day, there'll be an entire book of these...

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Via the Pics subreddit.

Pulling inspiration from actual buildings in New Westminster BC, Canada, David Guedes and Allan Corbeil have pieced together a charming LEGO cityscape full of liveliness and cheer. The buildings and layout feel authentic and the scene captures a general sense of nostalgia.

Choosing to build nougat-colored streets (lovingly referred to as “cobblesnot road” by the builders) instead of the traditional black ones really brightens up this neighborhood. Even though the buildings are constructed with standard, real-world colors, there are several pops of color (especially among the auto show cars lining the street) that make this miniature city block vibrant. I especially love the rainbow-colored crosswalk.

At street level, there is a lot to appreciate. Details like brick-built signs for the deli and bookstore, an old-fashion advertisement mural on the side of the highrise, graffiti, a food truck, fire escapes, a Starbucks Coffee, newspaper stands, a thriving rooftop garden, electricity meters… the list goes on and on. To see all of the details for yourself, be sure to check out the builders’ Flickr.

The post A stroll down memory lane appeared first on The Brothers Brick.

The chart above shows no increase in electricity sales (the blue line) in the U.S. since 2007 despite a growing economy (GDP upper line).  Discussed at Vox:

The US electricity sector is in a period of unprecedented change and turmoil. Renewable energy prices are falling like crazy. Natural gas production continues its extraordinary surge. Coal, the golden child of the current administration, is headed down the tubes. In all that bedlam, it’s easy to lose sight of an equally important (if less sexy) trend: Demand for electricity is stagnant. Thanks to a combination of greater energy efficiency, outsourcing of heavy industry, and customers generating their own power on site, demand for utility power has been flat for 10 years, and most forecasts expect it to stay that way...

“TVA now expects to sell 13 percent less power in 2027 than it did two decades earlier — the first sustained reversal in the growth of electricity usage in the 85-year history of TVA.”

... the US utility sector was built around the presumption of perpetual growth. Utilities were envisioned as entities that would build the electricity infrastructure to safely and affordably meet ever-rising demand, which was seen as a fixed, external factor, outside utility control. But demand is no longer rising... 

Worthwhile reading for anyone with funds invested in electric utilities.

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It is taking every atom of my being to not make a joke about applied evil being a branch of finance.

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Broken windows, damaged buildings, garbage on the street and infrastructure destroyed are some of the tell-tale signs of a post-apocolyptic world. There’s ample of opportunity to see some post-apocolyptic decay in this fantastic diorama by W. Navarre that centres around a couple of office buildings in what used to be part of a city and descends into an underground world of “every man for himself.” The Chima game card works surprisingly well as an advertising sign, and the collapsed sign with the Nike logo has seen better days. I particularly like the subterranean part of the build; it’s like an underground car park that has been repurposed, and there’s plenty of pipes, wires and drains to catch your eye.

There’s a lot to admire in this closer view of the rear portion teased in the image above. 

A cloaked figure moves quickly towards the stairs — perhaps he is running from the scene of a crime, as some gold coins have fallen onto the ground behind him.

W. Navarre has actually posted two version of his completed build.  There’s the unedited version above and then a second version that has undergone some dramatic post-production enhancement by Rob.  Which do you think shows off this model best?

The post Advertising the derelict remnants of a city street appeared first on The Brothers Brick.

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Look, I love the natural world, and all of its wonders. But sometimes evolution has obviously had a few drinks, taken things a little too far, and when called on it, decided to double down.

I must admit, when I first saw this building, I had chills run down my spine. It really reminded me of the heads of Nazgûl or wraiths from Lord of the Rings. This iconic structure built by Erwin te Kortschot is actually where one of the largest research centres to date in Russia built back in 1968. One can only imagine the kind of dark secrets that may have once filled the dark rooms of this enclave. It does seem to have a sense of an architectural uniqueness that embodies what goes on inside.

The post An architectural wonder of a sinister looking establishment appeared first on The Brothers Brick.

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One good way to use semicolons is to not.

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In all likelihood, you are already on this diet. Congrats on sticking to it!

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(It's the one in front in this composite with a modern cruise ship) (via)

And that's an average age of puberty - not an outlying limit for precocious individuals:

Scientists have found that the average age that breast development begins is now nine years and 10 months – almost a year earlier than a previous study in 1991.

They have yet to discover the reason behind the phenomenon but believe it could be linked to unhealthy lifestyles or exposure to chemicals in food.

The study was carried out in Denmark in 2006, the latest year for which figures were available, but experts believe the trend applies to Britain.

Data from America also points to the earlier onset of puberty.

In the nineteenth century the average age of onset of puberty in females was 15.  By the 1960s it was about 12.  Now it's under 10.

Lots of implications, some of them discussed a different article in The Telegraph:

These girls are towering over boys of their own age because, for girls, the growth spurt and development of breasts come first; periods come later. With boys, it is the other way round: their genitalia and sweaty armpits develop before their height shoots up. The last stage of the maturing process, when they are finally able to signal their manliness, comes when their voices break.

All these markers have been occurring steadily earlier for both boys and girls, but recent changes have been dramatic. In the 18th century, when Bach was directing the Leipzig choir, the average age at which a boy’s voice broke was 18. Choirmasters now have trouble finding trebles over the age of 13 or 14...

Parents, too, should be careful not to treat them as teenagers. “They need to look at their emotional, not their physical, development.

Photo credit PA.

Reposted from 2010 to add new data that suggests the trend is not pathological:

However, our archaeological research suggests that there's nothing to worry about. Children in medieval England entered puberty between ten and 12 years of age – the same as today...

In our study of 994 adolescents from medieval England, who died between 900-1550, we traced the stages of puberty by examining their canine teeth; the shape of their neck and wrist bones; and the fusion of their elbows, wrists, fingers and pelvises. Using these clues, we were able to work out the average age the children started puberty, reached their growth spurt, and reached full maturity. We were also able to work out when girls had their first period. The average age at which children entered puberty was the same as for most boys and girls today: between ten to 12 years. But medieval teenagers took longer to reach the later milestones, including menarche...

Our impression of what is the normal age for a child to reach each puberty milestone has been tainted by the use of data from children growing up in the challenging conditions of the last century, and an over reliance on the age of menarche, rather than the age at which children actually entered puberty, which appears to be unchanged.

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Really, you should be listening to the of a personal trainer or something.

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If any of the information above relates to you personally, it's because my comic-production algorithm was successful.

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We are flying for Texas in the morning! See you soon, geeks!

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This comic came up in my work recently, as I was interviewing Janice about design and disability. She generously gave me permission to quote her in the comic. All the characters in this comic represent feedback I’ve heard as an accessibility professional, both from disabled and able-bodied folks.

It’s always interesting when I’m giving an accessible design 101 workshop how many people come with ideas about disability as a binary thing – they often think of the most extreme form of a disability as the most common kind (ex – a person with a visual disability literally getting no visual input, a person in a wheelchair not being able to move at all), whereas disabilities manifest in lots of different ways, and fluctuate with time and circumstance. This is why there’s not one perfect accessibility solution, and we need flexibility and accommodation in the way we design our environments and systems!

Anyways, mostly remember that you don’t know for sure what’s going on when you look at someone, and in the face of uncertainty, try to default to kindness. That serves me pretty well.

A Köf or Klienlokomotive literally means a “small locomotive”and, in the 1980s,  LEGO utilised a yellow Köf at their German LEGO distribution center in Hohenweststedt.  As a huge fan of the classics, builder Faust Chang has built a scaled replica model of the Hohenweststedt train,  with details right down into the dashboard and engines. I’m sure for train fans and aficionados alike, it’s pretty cool to know that there’s a tiny train out there that once was run and operated by LEGO.  Sadly in 2002 the Köf was sold by LEGO and  was painted red by its new owners.

An photo of the actual train in Hohenwestedt.

The post An actual LEGO locomotive that distributed LEGO bricks appeared first on The Brothers Brick.

Builder HallBricks blends the functional with the beautiful in this Technic Motorized Bus. I watched this video several times in awe of its clean lines, compact design, and marvelous engineering. This model exhibits many design features that blend SYSTEM brick and Technic parts to form elegant curves. The rear pillars and roof combine Technic panels with SYSTEM rounded slopes for a smooth, semi-oblate shape. On the outside, the model’s headlights and tail lights consist of multiple translucent tiles for a multi-faceted effect.

On the inside, the dash has many thoughtful details made of printed tile pieces. Both passenger doors and the rear hatch open to reveal interior details.

Beyond its design, this model has many functional components to admire. The model drives and steers remotely, powered by a working V6 engine visible from the rear hatch compartment. Both passenger doors open, controlled independently by remote. The battery compartment is tucked away neatly inside the bus, a short finger reach from a window. The remote combines an IR Speed Remote Control and the IR Remote Control to control both the steering/locomotion and to open the passenger doors.

For a real treat, pay close attention around 2:36 in the video for a close up of the gear system built that opens the two passenger doors.

If you fancy building your own motorized Technic bus, HallBricks has made instructions available.

 

 

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The full text of the sign is "Drive Like Your Kids Live Here."

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For the rest of her life, when asked about the asteroid's devastation, she would make a joke about Impact Factor.

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Come to my dang show, Houstonoids!