Forbidden Lego

A book showing children how to make guns out of LEGO is causing parents to have fits as it climbs the list of must-have Christmas presents. Forbidden Lego, written by two former employees of the Danish plastic-brick firm, Ulrik Pilegaard and Mike Dooley, was released back in August and is a big hit in the US, promising you'll learn to create working models that LEGO would never endorse.

A Daily Telegraph review describes the tome "as the Anarchist Cookbook of the nursery", (we're not sure if that's a description the reviewer came up with) which is a bit hysterical to say the least. There certainly isn't a guide to making an atomic bomb made from LEGO which one parent railed against, but that hasn't stopped the often sensationalist Daily Mail from claiming "Lego is set to turn slightly more sinister with the launch of an unofficial book that teaches children how to make weapons out of the iconic plastic bricks."

(The book's publisher, No Starch Press, reveals the plans included are for a toy gun that shoots LEGO plates, a candy catapult (which admittedly could be reconfigured to shoot something else), a high voltage LEGO vehicle, a continuous-fire ping-pong ball launcher, and "other useless but incredibly fun inventions").

In reality there are only a few models detailed in the book, but the plans are pretty comprehensive, and I'd hope get you thinking about exactly what is possible when it comes to using LEGO - which would be better than idling away in front of the TV, surely. And, despite the concerns of the Mail, the paper also admits the book's launch has seen a huge surge in LEGO sales.

Eagle Times launches blog

The Eagle Times, the magazine of the Eagle Society dedicated to the memory of the eponymous ground-breaking 1950s adventure comic, now has a web presence in the form of a blog.

Among other things there is news of the contents and cover of the current issue, Eagle Times, Volume 20 No 4, which includes features on the untold stories of Dan Dare, a tribute to Dan Dare writer and founder of the Samaritans, the Revd. Dr. Edward Chad Varah, and much more.

Membership of THE EAGLE SOCIETY is via Annual Subscription to EAGLE TIMES magazine, which is published four times annually.

Current Subscription rates are: UK £22, Overseas £26 (in £s Sterling, please)

Please apply by snail mail to: Keith Howard, 25A Station Road Harrow, Middlesex HA1 2UA United Kingdom

Enquiries: eagle-times@hotmail.com

The future of newspapers?

(With thanks to the Daily Cartoonist for the link): American editorial cartoonist Ted Rall has recently written a three-part column on the future of the newspaper industry.

• Part I
As big newspapers and magazines start giving away their content "violating the first rule of capitalism", Ted tries to convince his bank to apply the principals of revenue share to his mortgage payments ("I don't have a budget to pay you per se," I cooed. "But think of the awesome prestige your corporation receives just by being associated with a cartoonist and columnist whose work is literally read by millions of --" Click. Citibank (Bangalore), Ltd., signing out. Back to work!")

• Part II
Ted warns that "If the future of media looks like the Web does now, things are about to degenerate from grim to grisly" and intellectual property vampires will suck creators dry." (Ouch. Good job there's a built in fee for every download of a ROK Comic...). The solution? If content is appropriately priced, of an appropriately high quality, and easy to access, people will pay for it," asserts Simson Garfinkel, a fellow at the Harvard University Center for Research on Computation and Society and the author of Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century. "What is required is a system that is easy to use and licensing terms that are not onerous."

Part III
Ted warns of the perils of the rise of free newspapers, warning that "Ultimately [free dailies] will breed in people the idea that news shouldn't cost anything, even that news is cheap" (and by extension, the visual contents such as phtographs and cartoons that come with them).

Both Ted Rall’s editorial cartoons and columns are distributed by Universal Press Syndicate.

Should Have Been Christmas Number One...

Well this, or Shaun the Sheep...