

James May builds a house from Lego - nir
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/surrey/8168892.stm

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jacquesm
If you have lego bricks to donate don't give them to James May, give them to a
kid in your neighbourhood that can't afford them for a pretty much timeless
pleasure instead of for a five day stunt.

The lego in my family has been passed down 3 generations now, close to 43
years and plenty of the original bricks are still there, they're a little
faded (some, not all) and some of them are a little loose but they're doing
fine.

To throw them away on some rich flunkie's 5 day project is a total waste.

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RiderOfGiraffes
> _To throw them away on some rich flunkie's 5 day project is a total waste._

I'm not going to disagree totally with this, but James May has been doing
quite a lot lately to raise the profile of science and engineering, and simply
blowing off a project like this with disdain seems a bit shallow. It's part of
a larger push by the BBC to get more kids into engineering, and while it's too
early to say for definite, there are signs that it's working.

Yes, giving surplus lego to a kid down the street is a good thing, but every
now and again it's worth supporting larger projects with greater reach.

I don't know if you've read _Good Omens,_ but there's a bit in that where each
demon is reporting on what they've done recently. Several talk about the
individuals they've tempted, and the near certainty of a soul each. Then
Crowley says he managed to tie up the mobile phone network in all London for
about 30 minutes around lunchtime. The others can't see what that has to do
with anything, and Crowley is at a loss to explain how the frustration and
anger will cause tens of thousands of souls to be one step closer to Hell.

Sometimes the big picture is hard to see. Maybe this isn't an example, maybe
this is a worthless stunt, maybe this has no long term effect.

But then again, maybe it has.

