"This is the most wretched hive of scum and villainy" (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope)

Lego Batman and Robin are up to kick some ass, so a lot of villains gathered for an epic struggle in Gotham City:



"Heath Ledger's Joker, Jack Nicholson's Joker, Mr. Freeze, Irina Spalko, Evil Monkey, Darth Vader, Penguin, SpongeBob Squarepants, Bane, the Riddler, my ex-girlfriend, Stewie Griffin, Patrick Star, Skeleton, Kit Fisto… Wait, wait: he's not a villain; he's a jerk… He died, he died of the Emperor. Two-Face, Mr. Krabs, Guy on the Skateboard and Dr Octopus."

Minifigures

Lego bricks celebrate their 50th birthday this year, and the Lego minifigure its 30th. A fan made a video about those inventive little people, revisiting History:

History

When first reIeased in 1974, Lego minifigures were at the same scaIe as the current minifigures. However, these figures differed in tooling and articulation: they had solid torsos without separate movable arms, solid lower body pieces that were not moveable, and heads without printed features. They had a small variety of headpieces, including caps, pigtail hair and cowboy hats. An image on Minifigs.net shows the earlier, larger scale, human figures.

The first modern minifigures were released in 1978, with seven different figures in Castle, Space, and Town themes.^[1] For the next 11 years, minifigure heads were produced with a simple facial expression, rendered as two solid black dots for eyes and a smile, also painted in solid black. In 1989, minifigures in the Pirates theme were produced with different facial expressions.^[1] The Pirates minifigures also included hooks for hands, as well as peg legs; this was the first departure from the traditional body parts.

Another departure from traditional parts was the use of spring-loaded legs. These legs are joined together at the top. These legs were only featured in basketball sets, 2002-2003.

By 2003, Lego had reportedly produced 3.7 billion minifigures.^[2]

(from Wikipedia)

I wanna (Le)go to the toilet

If folding and cutting toilet paper is a difficult task, maybe you'll be interested in this Lego creation:



I also like the robot to flush the toilet.

Eat my shorts—circuit

Some useless Lego creations, but definitely great inventions and engineering achievements:







A genius also recreated a fully operational Johnny 5 like in Short Circuit!



Amazing!

Bonus: a scene from Short Circuit in French (just to show you a piano-playing robot):

The Dark Knight in Lego

The title says it all!

First trailer (original version here):



Second trailer (original version here):



Opening scene (original version here):

Black Knight: Lego version

I promised you several days ago to show you more stop animation movies made with Lego so as to re-enact scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Today, enjoy the Black Knight scene (I show you first the original version):





"None shall pass!"

"Now stand aside, worthy adversory."
"It's but a scratch!"
"A scratch?!? You arm's off!"

"It's just a flesh wound!"


P.S. Today, Professor Vandelanotte, referring to our History of Linguistics exam, said: "If you have problems, wave at my general direction." This was clearly a hint to John Cleese's sayings in the same movie, in the French Taunter scene: "I fart in your general direction". As Mr Romero pointed out: "I think nobody's got it." Then he looked at me (I was smiling), saying: "Yeah, of course…" I think Waldorf would have liked it, had he been there.

French Taunting: Lego version

Please watch this amazing Lego re-enactment of the "French Taunter" scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail:



Original version, just because it has a mythical dimension to it:



I'll be posting some other Lego videos during the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned!

The Danish know how to be effective

If you're not the kind of person that enjoys fastening his or her seatbelt, I suggest you watch this clip from Denmark:



Today's Uncyclopedia featured article: Denmark, aka Legoland (see Lego bricks).

Solving a Rubik's cube

I already find it difficult to solve a Rubik's cube by hand, but developing a programme so that a Lego Minstorm robot solves it is even more difficult. But some genius managed to do that:



Just as the Lego Minstorm gumball sorter, this is totally useless but particularily well done.

Wait, that was just a 3x3x3 cube. Let's now watch how it's possible to solve a 20x20x20 cube:



(I love the comment at the end.)

And there's an even more crazy guy who handled the solving of a 100x100x100 cube:



"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw!!!"
— Homer Simpson

Cloverfield

After a two-weeks exam session, it's now time for me to write a little bit more on this blog. Being on "holiday" for the next week will allow me to surf the Internet a little bit more than usual, watching crappy videos on YouTube, but also reading articles on UNCYCLOPEDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I discovered this website about one week ago, and since then, I've made incredible discoveries. Basically, it's the un-Wikipedia, the corrupted version of it, without any single piece of reliable information. … Or maybe it is actually reliable. No one knows actually… Anyway, my point is to tell you that henceforth (I like that word), I shall be featuring at least one Uncyclopedia article in every blog entry I post here. (Because I don't think it'd be appropriate to do that on germ@namur…)

So, since today is 18 January 2008, I had to write a few words about this Internet phenomenon (I mean as for the advertising campaign based on speculations) nicknamed Cloverfield. But what can I say more about it? I haven't seen the film (obviously). Maybe you can read the Uncyclopedia article about it.

If you read other articles, you'll notice not only that most of them criticize Jesusland (that is to say the United States), but also that they feature so-called Oscarwildeizsms. What I like most about Uncyclopedia are the twisted pictures. Wanna see Mr Bean when he was a toddler? Click here. He's got some uncanny resemblance with the Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero. I'm sure Bruno will confirm.

Today's featured article is devoted to chavs. (YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!) I came up with this idea today, during the break between the two parts of the English grammar exam, watching through the window and peeking at dozens of young teenagers smoking and spitting on the pavement, and having a typical outfit and behaviour. But let's go back to chavs, now. As I'm too lazy to invent a proper definition, I just quote this, from the Wikipedia entry:

Chav, also Charv/Charver and Chavette (pronounced /ʧæv/, with 'ch' as in chair) are mainly derogatory slang terms in the United Kingdom for a subcultural stereotype fixated on fashions such as imitation gold, poorly made jewellery and fake designer clothing (often Burberry), combined with elements of working class British street fashion. The term appeared in mainstream dictionaries in 2005.^[1][2]

There are regional variations; in North East England (particularly in the Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne areas) the variant charv or charver/charva is most commonly used and has been used since the early 1990s, while in the south east chav and chavette are the usual forms. What is unusual is that the vowel in charver is ɑ: (as in 'far') and the mainstream UK equivalent uses the æ (as in 'cat') vowel in chav which goes against the usual North-South (a:/æ) vowel distinction.^[3]

The defining features of the chav clothing is the Burberry pattern (notably a now-discontinued baseball cap) and from a variety of other casual and sportswear brands. Tracksuits, hoodies, track suit bottoms and baseball caps are particularly associated with this stereotype. Response to the term has ranged from amusement to criticism that it is a new manifestation of classism.^[4] The term has also been associated with juvenile delinquency, the "ASBO Generation", "Hoodie culture", and "Yob culture".

So, it must look like this:


And his car, the Chavrolet:


Basically, it's what we call "Ronny" in Wallonia, the female counterpart being a "Ronnette". The Ronny is to be distinguished from the barakî, who is older, fatter and often poorer. In France, a Ronny is a Jacky (and his female is a Jackette) or a "racaille", and in Flanders they apparently call them Johnny and Marina.

But what do they say about them in the Uncyclopedia entry? A few witty quote, first:

"The Chav is proof that evolution has gone wrong. Unfortunately, it is also proof that survival of the fittest is comlpetely wrong. If I was right about that, none of them would make it past 20."
— Charles Darwin

"Amazing creatures! They rival the chimpanzee with their use of simple tools and basic language!"
— Jane Goodall

And the Un-definition:

Chavvus Blingus) is a 'species' closely related to the American Wigger (Homo Phobius) or Gangsta (Homo Blingius), the Scottish Ned or Gadgie (Homo Gadgness) the Australian Bogan (Homo Boganis), the Irish Scanger (Homo Retardus), the Finnish Pissis (Homo Pissisus), the Russian Gopnik (Homo Gopnikitus), the Romanian Cocalar (Homo Cockalarus), and the Singaporean Ah Beng (Homo Chankeus) all of whom being distantly related off-shoots of the human race (Homo Burberey capius). The French word for chav is "racaille" or "caillera" (whereas the worldwide term is generally 'Prick').

Here are some of the lines that made me roll on the floor:

The chav has become far too common, for they breed like filthy, filthy rabbits. Not enough people have been firing fireworks at them in the street lately, and so they have begun to grow out of control. Hated by a good portion of humanity,(the other portion just enjoys making money out of them), these creatures are easily distinguishable; they tend to gather in groups in towns, particularly shopping precincts; they talk some kind of bastard dialect of their own devising, the most important words being ‘innit and nar’.

Somehow the female side of the species decides to follow these 'Hard Gangsta's' around and constantly help spread around various STI's, mostly Syphilis, AIDS, Herpes & Chlomedia. This behavious is used to keep the 'Gangsta Number' (population) of the male chavs at bay. Despite this, the chav population is still on the increase.

Helpful Chav to English Translations (Click here to see a handy guide to chav speech)

One of them, King Michael, won £9 million thanks to the lottery… I'm gonna stop here: I think it was fun enough for today. Or maybe just watch this ad:



I don't think that the Lego Group thought that there could be ambiguity…

Atmosphere, biosphere… Legosphere!

Despite many attempts to do so, I never managed to make a sphere with Lego bricks. Perhaps it was because I was relying on a single picture, and also because it was too big and I needed bricks. But a YouTuber made my day:



I don't have those black multiangle bricks, but I think that, when I have time (probably in July), I'll make such a sphere. But not one like this one:


If there are Lego nerds among you, you can browse on Google to find interesting websites that tell you how to make a sphere and other constructions.

Gumball sorter

This video was promoted yesterday on YouTube, so I wanted to show it to you too:



It's totally useless, but it's well done.

In the same genre, you have this one:



Maybe just a little bit too complicated: it would take less time to sort the balls yourself…

And this one, kind of funny:



Unfortunately, I don't think that we have such types of toilet flushes in Belgium and probably in the rest of Europe… (Admit that it's weird to have different sorts according to the country. The same goes for door handles that become doorknobs in the USA… Weird, isn't it?)

Had I time enough… (and money!)

I told you several months ago about my passion for Lego bricks and I featured a picture of the biggest set ever, containing not less than 5195 pieces: the Ultimate Collector's Millenium Falcom™ from the second Star Wars trilogy. This spacecraft specially designed for Star Wars and Lego freaks (this includes me, obviously) was released in November, with a limited edition with an "authenticity certificate" signed by some head of Lucasfilm licencing or something like that. Now, the set is still available on the Lego online shop, but without the card (who cares?) The point is that I wanted to show you what it's like to build such a huge thing in Lego bricks. Check this wonderful video:



We have nearly 6 minutes in stop-motion, and the video's maker says on the YouTube page that it took him 37 hours over 11 days! Had I time enough! And money, indeed: €550. And the most surprising is that the prizes vary considerably in countries that don't use the euro as currency:

• United Kingdom --> £350 ≈ €525
• Switzerland --> CHF780 ≈ €490
• United States --> $500 ≈ €340
• Belgium --> €550…!!! Outrageous!

Perhaps in another life.

"I wan'it!" (Andy Pipkin, Little Britain) (bis)

Today, in my mailbox I received the Lego Newsletter. I was struck when I discovered that they were going to release a package with more than 3,500 bricks to build a 1:300 Eiffel Tower!!! (More than a meter high, divided in three stages to facilitate transport.)

I've already told you I'm fond of Lego bricks, even though I haven't bought any set for five years or so. My passion was to build huge towers. Building a proper Eiffel Tower would have been really difficult: not only you must have a lot of bricks at your disposal, but also you must have some building instructions. I had neither. Now my dream comes true — but it has a price: €230… It's a shame.

With such an amount of bricks, it becomes the second largest set ever sold.

(For the record, please note that the biggest set is the special, limited edition of the Millenium Falcon — from the Star Wars saga — counting more than 5,000 bricks for €550…)

The Barraki Strike Back

We can reasonably assume that this product's designers didn't think of the resemblance between Barraki ("les monstres des profondeurs") and our Walloon barakî ("les gros paumés des villes"), whose British counterparts are "chavs", and American "rednecks". But also Flemish "Johnny's and Marina's", by the way.

If You Can Build A Star Destroyer So Quicky, You Are My Hero

I haven't told you yet that I've a passion (OK, the word is maybe a little it too strong, but still) for LEGO. And if you combine LEGO with Star Wars, I couldn't be more happy! This is the biggest LEGO-set ever made, with as much as 3,100 pieces. It costs about 350$… If you don't know what to give me as a birthday present, then it's a suggestion. At least, I would be busy with it during a whole day, so that I don't write about who-the-hell-cares-about-it matters on this blog…



And think about the person who made the plans of it: this must be a genius. Or perhaps a mad guy. Like me. But I'm not much of a LEGO creator as far as vehicules are concerned. I'm "specialized" in building towers with elevators, etc.