Twitterstorm erupts over suspected murder of record-breaking earthworm Natural History Museum under suspicion amid demands of "Justice for Dave" The Twitterati have pushed aside ephemera such as Brexit or the prospect of a Trump White House with protests about the fate of "Dave”, a prodigious annelid that may or may not have been murdered in the name of science. Earthworm expert Emma Sherlock from the the Natural History Museum appeared on the Beeb today to talk about Dave, who at a stonking 15.7in is the longest earthworm ever found in the UK . The humongous earth muncher was found in a vegetable patch in Widnes by Paul Rees, whose stepson George christened it Dave. Realising they might have discovered a record-breaking Lumbricus terrestris, they packed up Dave and sent him off to be officially measured at the Natural History Museum. However, a BBC report showing an “amazing” annelid wriggling on an academic’s arm also revealed that the worm was “put to sleep” before being added to the national collection.
The alleged waxing of the Widnes worm sparked instant fury on Twitter, with lumbricoid lovers the length of the land demanding “justice” for the outsize wiggler. There is already talk of a petition, while @RoxanLees has taken aim at “YOU MURDERING BASTARDS”, whoever they might be. There is even a suspicion of conspiracy, with one campaigner taking the BBC breakfast Twitter feed to task for suggesting Dave died en route to the museum – when there is evidence on film that he didn’t. @BBCBreakfast He didn't "die on the way". He was terminated shortly after arrival. We want Justice for Dave! — ROB MCEWEN (@spudmonkee) November 4, 2016 And Erin Mary insists: U can either study/euthanize or name it. Earthworm Dave breaks records euthanized "for science" https://t.co/Cju8RvLQkA @mashable — Erin Mary (@ackermae) November 4, 2016 It all goes to show that trying to make science TV/kid-friendly is fraught with peril. Continuous lifecycle London 2017 event.
DevOps, continuous delivery and containerisation. LEGO sets for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey aren’t officially due out for another several weeks, but a local retail chain here in the Pacific Northwest has been putting the new sets on their shelves over this past week or so. I picked up 79003 An Unexpected Gathering (Bag End) today, and I can honestly say that this may be my favorite LEGO set of all time. Side note: The build process itself is part of the joy of a new LEGO set, so I’m not going to spoil the surprise or ruin the story (if you will) by sharing under-construction photos or shots of each minifig’s second face. Where’s the fun in that? The official photos are better than anything I’d take anyway, so read on… What impressed me most about LEGO’s rendition of Bag End is that the designers frequently used brick-built techniques where a prefab part might have sufficed. The ramshackle fence in front is a gorgeous example of this, complete with gaps. Each section of fence uses 9 or 10 pieces where another set might have had a single prefab fence piece.
Before seeing any pictures of this upcoming set, I wondered how LEGO would handle all the round windows and front door. They succeed by a combination of a new 4×4 round plate with a 2×2 round hole in the middle in front of “normal” windows, an ingenious brick-built window that made my jaw drop (I won’t ruin it for you), and a large round tile with printed boards on it for the door. Speaking of printing, the front door and a letter are the only printed (non-minifig) pieces in the set. There is a small sticker sheet for fence boards, the cover of Bilbo’s book, and three maps of Middle Earth on 2×2 tiles. I skipped the boards, but my only disappointment with this set is that we didn’t get printed maps of the Shire, Mirkwood, and the Lonely Mountain. The good news is that the stickers are clear, so you could put them on whatever you want (as I do with sci-fi stickers on all my spacecraft). Another wonderful detail in this set is that the interior color isn’t just the same color as the exterior — green.
There’s a layer of tan that encloses Bilbo’s quarters against the green hillside. And the hillside itself isn’t a uniform green; LEGO included both regular and bright green, and the little spots of bright green add excellent highlights. (Also, cheese slopes in both greens? It would be silly to expect that this set would contain all 13 Dwarves (plus Gandalf and Bilbo), so with realistic expectations for a set of this size, six minifigs is quite nice — Gandalf the Grey, Bofur, Balin, Dwalin, Bilbo Baggins, and Bombur (left to right in the photo below). LEGO has begun dispersing its minifigs throughout the build experience, so you don’t get all of them until you open the fourth bag. By then, I was too excited about Bag End itself to care much about the minifigs, but like all the recent figs, they’re actually quite nice. Nearly all of them have double-sided printing on both heads and torsos — Dwalin even has tattoos on the back of his head. For castle / medieval / fantasy builders, they’re a treasure trove of unique hairpieces, belted tunics, and grumpy old man faces.
My favorite minifig is probably Bombur, whose hair/beard piece has both a bald patch on top of his head and a rotund tummy beneath his beard. In the set, he’s given a pot and a large red sausage rather than weapons. Based on the quality of the dwarf minifigs in this set, I can’t wait to complete the rest of Thorin Oakenshield’s crew. I’m not going to spend a lot of time going into all the individual parts in the set, but for those more interested in the set as a collection of its parts, I’ve uploaded the inventory pages: When the set all came together, I had the hugest grin on my face and couldn’t wait to show my wife all the cool details I’d built — I felt like a 9-year-old. First, the roof comes off for easier access to the complete interior. Inside, Bilbo has a kitchen, writing desk, shelves, and a table laden with more food than I’ve ever seen in any other LEGO set (including a new pretzel). In a nod to The Lord of the Rings, Bilbo already seems to be working on his book, and Sting is displayed on a shelf.