Free Republic

Kids look at a scene depicting President-elect Barack Obama taking the presidential oath of office on the steps of the Capitol in Legoland park in Carlsbad, California. Obama will herald his new era of change Saturday by rolling back the years to launch four days of inaugural festivities on a slow train to Washington. (AFP/File/Valerie Macon) Photo Tools

At first sight, this looked like a perfect working reproduction of a Mac Pro made of Lego, so I was ready to call it the best Lego computer in the history of best Lego computers. Then, when I learnt that it houses one full PC running Mac OS X and a Mac Mini, I felt something happening, this tingling sensation, this turgidity that made me feel a bit dizzy. And when I finally saw the Steve Jobs minifig standing there and took a closer look at it, nerdgasm finally ensued: Made out of 2,588 Lego bricks, the Mac Pro was...

On Monday, Lego is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the day it filed its first patent for the iconic plastic brick. Since the beginning, Lego sets have been themed, and the very first theme was space. Not long afterward, Lego added castle and pirate themes. One of the first major elements of the "System of Play" was the Lego Town Plan. To celebrate the 50th anniversary, the company is releasing a new, updated commemorative Town Plan this year. While updated, it includes '50s-era elements like a gas station, car wash, and garage, plus a movie theater and, of course, a...

Legos — they're not just for good kids anymore. A book written by two former employees of the Danish plastic-brick giant is burning up the Amazon.com sales charts — and raising eyebrows on the other side of the Atlantic. "Forbidden LEGO: Build the Models Your Parents Warned You Against" was published in August by No Starch Press, a small independent publishing house based in San Francisco. Its authors, Ulrik Pilegaard and Mike Dooley, both worked at the Lego Mindstorms robotics division before leaving to join an independent robotics firm. "You'll learn to create working models that LEGO would never endorse,"...

A huge Lego toy has mysteriously appeared on Zandvoort beach in Holland. Nobody knows where it comes from. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6934921.stm

Exploring power, ownership, and equity in an early childhood classroom ___ Carl and Oliver,* both 8-year-olds in our after-school program, huddled over piles of Legos. They carefully assembled them to add to a sprawling collection of Lego houses, grocery stores, fish-and-chips stands, fire stations, and coffee shops. They were particularly keen to find and use "cool pieces," the translucent bricks and specialty pieces that complement the standard-issue red, yellow, blue, and green Lego bricks. "I'm making an airport and landing strip for my guy's house. He has his own airplane," said Oliver. "That's not fair!" said Carl. "That takes too...

Not long ago I started reading an article about a school that banned Legos. At first I thought it might be because they were discovered to contain trans-fats or emit second-hand smoke, but the reason was a little more Marxist than that. My kids play with Legos on a fairly consistent basis, but little did I realize that the little interlocking colorful hunks of building plastic are actually teaching children about the evils of private property ownership. Cool! So after I went out and purchased a few more tubs of the greedy capitalist-creating blocks — tools of the “vast right...

Freepers cirque23, firebrand, and AliVeritas were among the crowd at the demonstration today in support of freedom at the Danish Consulate. Another freeper was there who forgot his screen name but was part of the DC demonstrations outside Cheney's house in 2000. Juliej could not get out of work until 1, so she missed it, but she did try to stop by.We started assembling at the northwest corner of 47th and Second Avenue. A guy with a Viking helmet, another guy with a Lego sign, a guy with a Danish flag painted on his face, lots of people with signs...

How to build an iPod dock out of Legos Lego fan Matt built a dock for his iPod with spare blocks and posted a Flickr set of his creation for all to enjoy. I admit this is probably only fun and useful to the most hardcore Lego fans, but being a sucker for the plastic building blocks myself, I just couldn’t resist. Nice work, Matt.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Agents had to use a 20-foot truck to cart away the evidence from a suspect's house - mountains of Lego bricks. William Swanberg, 40, of Reno, Nev., is accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of the colorful plastic building blocks. Swanberg was indicted by a grand jury in Hillsboro, a Portland suburb, which charged him with stealing Lego sets from Target stores. Target estimates Swanberg stole up to $200,000 worth of the brick sets pilfered from their stores in Oregon, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California. The Legos were resold on the Internet, officials...

Inspired by Legos, and other children’s toys like building blocks, the U.S. Marine Corps is building the world’s largest urban warfare training area out in the Mohave Desert of California. There are currently some 400 structures, from private homes, to large government building complexes, erected in the training area. When more money arrives, the “town” will expand to as many as 1,500 structures. What’s different about all this is that shipping containers, equipped with doors, windows, some paint and contents, are being used to represent the buildings. Like Legos, the containers can be joined together, or stacked, to make larger...

This must have taken days and days to put together. For those of you who remember the video well, you'll be amazed.

One evening I thought about building a Beretta 9mm pistol. It has always been the handgun for me so, on a whim, I decided to see what I could come up with. Without hitting the web for pictures, I threw one together in about 2 hours, using only memories from movies, video games and my friend's Series 92 for reference. Since then the model has been refined and includes apartial, functional firing mechanism. Just like my Lego Beretta 9mm, this model is meant to be an exercise in form, with the inclusion of working mechanical systems. It doesn't shoot, it...