"I came away from my meeting with this famous climate skeptic feeling pretty depressed.

"I came away from my meeting with this famous climate skeptic feeling pretty depressed. What I had seen was a scientist whose work, in my opinion, was simply not very good."

Or, to paraphrase Hitchen's Razor, "What is asserted without (rigorous) evidence can be dismissed without (rigorous) evidence."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2015/02/24/388682684/my-depressing-day-with-a-famous-climate-skeptic

The kids and I made our first truly from-scratch LEGO Mindstorms EV3 creation today: A robotic gumball dispenser...

The kids and I made our first truly from-scratch LEGO Mindstorms EV3 creation today: A robotic gumball dispenser (yes, the kids' idea). It reads color-coded cards to dispense specific amounts of gumballs. My daughter is demonstrating it in the GIF. It uses the color sensor to read the card and the medium (stepper) motor to spin the dispenser wheel. It also says the color of the card out loud and displays a big mouth on the Intelligent Brick's display while the program is running.

So last night I submitted to LEGO Ideas my life-sized Excalibur build.

So last night I submitted to LEGO Ideas my life-sized Excalibur build. Ideas is the official LEGO community site where builds can be submitted, voted on, and, if a build gets 10,000 community votes, LEGO will review it and consider it for becoming an actual product. So, if you feel life-sized medieval armaments should be better represented in the LEGO universe and you have a LEGO Ideas account (or are willing to sign up for one), please vote for this. Thanks in advance.
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/95033

Messing around with some LEGO​ #Mindstorms a colleague loaned me.

Messing around with some LEGO​ #Mindstorms a colleague loaned me. The kids and I came up with Neville's Toad, which hops away every time you reach for it.

"Third, and most important, the data ties 2005, 2010, and 2014 as the three hottest years on record.

"Third, and most important, the data ties 2005, 2010, and 2014 as the three hottest years on record. Even within the margin of error and the occasional yearly fluctuation, our planet is getting steadily warmer. Ignoring this fact is like stepping in front of a train and hoping that, if we close our eyes, the train won't hit us."

Please note: If you want to critique the report, please make sure to include in your comment what kind of advanced degree in climate science or statistics you have; without evidence of such training, your comments will be at a minimum ignored, but more likely openly ridiculed.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2015/01/21/378665687/was-2014-the-hottest-year-on-record-or-not

My 6-yo son ("the boy") and I made this LEGO house last night.

My 6-yo son ("the boy") and I made this LEGO house last night. It was his vision and he made a lot of decisions as we both worked on making things fit. The scale's not consistent (minifigs and Hot Wheels aren't a close match), and we're not quite sure how he is supposed to get to the garage from his apartment (short of walking around outside), but it's a start. At least he gets good natural light in there. Having the roof come off easily lets the boy and his sister play with it, too, which is nice.

Holy cow! 400,000 bricks...amazing.

Holy cow! 400,000 bricks...amazing.
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/alice-finch-lego-hogwarts