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Macy's department store celebrated its 161st anniversary in 2019. The store staged its first Thanksgiving Day parade in 1924. That year it was called the Macy's Christmas Parade, and it followed a route from 145th Street and Convent Avenue to the Macy's store at 34th Street and Broadway. Three floats (pulled by horses), four bands and zoo animals from the Central Park Zoo -- camels, donkeys, elephants and goats -- starred in the parade. Santa Claus was last in the lineup, a tradition that continues to this day.

The parade took shape during the Roaring Twenties, a time of prosperity and pleasure. It was staged by Macy's employees, many of whom emigrated to America from Europe and longed to stage a celebration similar to the ones in their countries.

In 1927, the gigantic balloons that are now the signature element of the parade made their first appearance with the help of helium. The balloons replaced the zoo animals that were frightening to some children, and the first balloons included cartoon characters like Felix the Cat.

At the conclusion of the parade, the giant balloons were released into the air. In 1928, Macy's began offering a $100 reward for any returned balloons, which were affixed with return address labels [source: McCarthy]. In 1931, pilot Col. Clarence E. Chamberlain snagged a balloon with his airplane's wing, leading to a ban on retrieval by airplanes the following year. But after the 1932 parade, another pilot attempted to capture a balloon and nearly crashed, leading Macy's to discontinue releasing the balloons at the parade's end [source: McCarthy.

In 1934, celebrities became an important element of the parade, with singer-actor Eddie Cantor joining in the event that year. The Mickey Mouse helium balloon was also introduced to parade-goers.

From 1942 to 1944, the parade was canceled because of the shortage of helium and rubber during World War II. Those three years are the only time the celebration has been called off [source: Macy's]. When the parade returned in 1945, it was broadcast on television for the first time and was bigger than earlier versions.

Every year, the Macy's team behind the parade works to outdo the previous year's event. This evolution has meant bigger balloons, more floats, better materials and new technologies, all resulting in the flashy spectacle that rolls through the streets of New York today.

In 2019, Macy's celebrated its 93rd parade with 26 floats, 16 giant helium character balloons and 40 "heritage" and novelty balloons, and 11 marching bands [source: Macy's].

In the next section, we'll look at how the iconic balloons and elaborate floats are constructed.

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Ultimate Guide to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

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Advertisement Macy's department store celebrated its 161st anniversary in 2019. The store staged its first Thanksgiving Day parade in 1924. That year it was called the Macy's Christmas Parade, and it followed a route from 145th Street and Convent Avenue to the Macy's store at 34th Street and Broadway.

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Sonic the Hedgehog, Pikachu and Eevee, Baby Yoda, and 1980s ballad rockers Foreigner headline the 95th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a feety-pajamas Thanksgiving morning tradition for fans young and old alike. It airs on Thursday, Nov. 25, beginning at 9 a.m. EST.

NBC is carrying the broadcast, available either from your local network affiliate or the NBC app on iOS or Android. The Today Show's Al Roker, Hoda Kotb, and Savannah Guthrie will be providing the play-by-play and analysis. The parade also airs on delay at 9 a.m. PST, so folks on the West Coast don't have to get up early.

Celebrated Vtuber Sonic is returning to the parade to celebrate his 30th birthday. Sega is rolling out its "modern Sonic" balloon, used from 2011 to 2013, for the occasion. 2013 is also the most recent year the Blue Blur made an appearance, one of eight in his lifetime.

Pikachu will make its 21st Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade appearance, good for fifth place, all time, among characters appearing as balloons. The Pokémon mascot is one appearance behind Kermit the Frog (22 parades, most recently 2012) and tied with Mickey Mouse and, of all things, Sinclair Oil's dinosaur, a staple from 1963 to 1976, which returned in 2015 to promote the company's 100th anniversary the next year.

This year, Pikachu and Eevee will debut The Pokémon Company's newest balloon design, riding together in a Pokéball-themed sleigh. This year's balloon is about 30% smaller (by volume) than the version that paraded from 2014-2020, but it still needs the standard 90 handlers to wrangle it.

And Baby Yoda (Grogu, for non-SEO purposes) marches down Sixth Avenue sponsored by Funko, which means Grogu's design is based on his vinyl Funko Pop. He's wearing his Joe Namath fur coat and chasing after The Mandalorian's gear shifter.

Finally, Dragon Ball's Goku will also return, in balloon form, for his third appearance at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

For those in New York, the annual balloon inflation will be on Wednesday, Nov. 24 from noon to 6 p.m. Fans must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination before entering the free event at 72nd St. and Columbus Ave.

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Sonic, Pikachu, Baby Yoda headline this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

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Sonic the Hedgehog, Pikachu and Eevee, Baby Yoda, and 1980s ballad rockers Foreigner headline the 95th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a feety-pajamas Thanksgiving morning tradition for fans young and old alike. It airs on Thursday, Nov. 25, beginning at 9 a.m. EST.

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Disney/Screenshot by Bonnie Burton/CNET

Just like seemingly everything else Disney does, from Rise of Skywalker to Avengers: Endgame to Galaxy's Edge, its streaming service is a phenomenon. Disney Plus launched in November 2019, and as of May had amassed 54.5 million subscribers -- no small feat for a new streaming service. Its marquee original series, The Mandalorian, gave fans Baby Yoda theories, merchandise and . And its success has Netflix and other big names in streaming taking notes. Not bad for $6.99 a month.

The big question: Is it worth the money to you? If you're a cord cutter, especially one with children, then Disney Plus is likely a must-have. With only a few notable exceptions, Netflix is losing a host of Disney content to the new service, meaning if you or the little ones want to watch , for example, you'll need a Disney Plus subscription.

Whether it allows you to ditch , Amazon Prime Video or depends on your budget and priorities. But one thing is clear: Disney Plus already belongs in the top tier of streaming services, with a massive catalog of TV shows and movies, a well-designed app available on pretty much every streaming platform and an affordable price. For those reasons it deserves CNET's Editors' Choice award.

A catalog of major hits and forgotten favorites...

In contrast to the meager selection of nine shows offered by Apple TV Plus when it launched around the same time last November, Disney hit the ground running with 500 movies and 7,500 TV shows on its first day. There's a ton of , a shipton of , a boatload of Pixar and a healthy sprinkle of National Geographic (which is owned by Disney). You'll also find 30 seasons of The Simpsons, and other programming from Disney's takeover of Fox. Depending on the content and device there is support for both 4K HDR video and Dolby Atmos surround sound.

With so many movies and TV shows available, it's likely that if you can think of a Disney movie or TV show, it's there. Even before you try searching, the interface serves up plenty of suggestions, including a great mix of nostalgia (Turner and Hooch) and princess movies (Moana). And more besides.

Disney's '70s period may be denigrated these days, but the service helped resurface some classics that appeared during that period, including the Herbie series and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. The interface will reacquaint you with movies that you may have forgotten were Disney, such as Flight of the Navigator. And if your formative years took place in the late '90s and early aughts, you'll find all of the Disney Channel Original Movies from that era on the platform too, like Halloweentown and Smart House.

All of the content isn't perfect. At launch, The Simpsons was only available in widescreen, with no 4:3 option for older seasons that were not HD native -- cutting out some great visual gags. However, the platform is now changing all 30 seasons of the show back to its original form. And the Han-shot-first scene in the original Star Wars movie, A New Hope, has apparently been edited yet again. Plus, it hasn't produced any must-watch original series outside of The Mandalorian.

Read more: HBO Max vs. Peacock vs. Quibi vs. Disney Plus vs. Apple TV Plus vs. Netflix: How streaming stacks up

...and in the coronavirus era, new releases

With continued coronavirus lockdowns restricting access to movie theaters, Disney Plus has become a platform not only for old favorites and new originals but for big-screen releases too. At first, it started streaming already-released movies months earlier than planned, including Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Frozen 2, and Pixar's Onward.

Now, Disney is speeding up the streaming releases of brand new movies too, giving you even more bang for your buck. The film adaptation of young adult novel Artemis Fowl was scheduled to hit theaters in May, but instead premiered on Disney Plus instead in June. And the company's live-action film version of the mega hit musical Hamilton will be going straight to Disney Plus on July 3, coinciding with the Independence Day holiday weekend in the US -- more than a year earlier than its planned theatrical debut.

This won't be the case for every new Disney movie, though. The company has yet to announce that any of its big budget blockbusters like the live-action Mulan or any of the upcoming Marvel movies will come to Disney Plus before theaters.

Coronavirus filming shutdowns will disrupt some Disney Plus original shows and movies, too. But season two of The Mandalorian is still on track for an October release.

An easy-to-navigate interface

If you've used any streaming service at all, bar Disney's own Hulu, then the interface of Disney Plus will be instantly familiar. The very top of the home screen is a web-like carousel with a selection of Disney's biggest hits.

Underneath this, the brand's most popular properties appear across the page as static icons: Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic. Hover over each and the icon will animate, and if you click on it a short animation will appear before the branded page appears. While the interface is designed to scale to low-powered devices like USB sticks we saw little difference between any of the dozen-or-so devices we tried. The design is tile-heavy, unlike the newer service which gives your eye more of a break between titles, but it is easy to search through.

On the branded pages as well as the home page, the rows of icons are titled according to genre and help to hone the content to your requirements. Disney told us that, like the Netflix engine, the Disney Plus interface will adapt to the types of content that you watch over time.

At the left of the screen is a Netflix-like sidebar that lets you search for content or choose from your preselected profiles.

The only real way to configure Disney Plus is through user profiles, and by default your Primary profile offers access to all of the content. It can't be set to a kids profile, but you can turn autoplay off or on or alter the main language. You can set up a kids profile for your child by toggling the Kids Profile setting to On, which prevents PG and PG-13 content from appearing on the profile. But it's not perfect for every age group -- for example, you can't enable PG content and disable PG-13 content. Plus, a child could technically just switch over to another profile to watch those shows.

Outside of some launch day issues due to demand that have since been resolved, the biggest problem we found with the interface is that some popular things might be hidden -- you may not know The Muppets is there, for example. But this is an issue that larger services such as Netflix also suffer from.

Which devices can you watch Disney Plus on?

Pretty much everything. Disney Plus has one of the widest distributions of any streaming app, and is available on just about any phone, tablet, computer, connected TV or streaming media box, including those from Apple, Google, Microsoft, Roku, Sony, Amazon, Samsung and LG.

With a Disney Plus subscription you can watch up to four different shows on four different devices at once -- whether they are on the go (with offline downloads supported) or on TV at home.

We tested Disney Plus on Roku, ( Apple TV$180 at Best Buy), Fire TV, iOS, smart TV ( LG and Samsung), Android TV and the web, and apart from some weirdness on launch day back in November, they all worked in the expected fashion. If your streamer supports 4K HDR then there is a healthy selection of titles like the recent Marvel movies and The Mandalorian, but others like the recent Muppets titles are only in HD.

Voice commands worked well on Apple TV, Fire TV and Roku in directing us to the show title or the Disney service in general. Apart from crashing Fire TV when the app wasn't yet installed voice searches worked every other time.

Should you get Disney Plus?

For Disney's legions of Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar fans who want to enjoy those movies, and their extra features, the service is easily worth the relatively low monthly fee. The same goes for parents who want their kids to enjoy Disney's myriad family movies and TV shows. And ditto for anybody who wants to follow the latest adventures of .

Are people going to quit other services in order to afford this one? Possibly. If it's a choice between this or Apple TV Plus, then get this. If it's a choice between Disney and Hulu and you have kids? Get this. has a strong slate of kids' content as well, but is double the cost at $14.99 a month. For us, Disney Plus comes toward the top of our streaming service review rankings, below Netflix and a notch above Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, but your priorities may push one of those above Disney -- especially if you don't have kids.

Original programs like The Mandalorian and The World According to Jeff Goldblum are fine, but it's the programming spanning almost 100 years that will likely encourage users to renew their subscriptions each month. Disney Plus is fun, easy to use and relatively affordable.

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Disney Plus review: The streaming service for the young and young at heart

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Just like seemingly everything else Disney does, from Rise of Skywalker to Avengers: Endgame to Galaxy's Edge, its streaming service is a phenomenon. Disney Plus launched in November 2019, and as of May had amassed 54.5 million subscribers -- no small feat for a new streaming service.

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Although Netflix's streaming service started as a niche offshoot of the company's disc-mailing service, it is now the front-runner in the category, thanks to its reliable core catalog and some of the best original programming. Netflix also integrates excellent features across interfaces, allows offline downloads on mobile platforms, and features 4K content. However, with other high-profile services now available at cheaper prices, the expensive costs of Netflix's comparable plans stand out. For now, Netflix remains an Editors' Choice winner for on-demand video streaming services, thanks to its varied, top-notch content and capable apps.

What's in the Catalog?

Netflix has an extremely broad catalog of video content, but it changes all the time. Shows available one day may be gone the next. It's difficult to state authoritatively what is in Netflix's catalog at any given moment, but that's all part of the fun, right? Innumerable third-party websites, including PCMag, offer articles with titles like Everything Coming to Netflix This Month (as well as Everything Leaving Netflix), so that's one way to stay in the know. Note that Netflix has already lost many of its most-watched shows, including The Office (to NBC's Peacock), Friends (to HBO Max), and several Marvel movies (to Disney+). New additions, like Community and Seinfeld, make up for these losses somewhat. Still, this is potentially precarious new ground for Netflix, since it will need to rely more heavily on its original content in the coming years. In fact, the change is already happening. As it increases original content offerings, the total size of Netflix's library is decreasing.

The TV shows available on Netflix are season-complete, which isn't always the case for competitors. Hulu sometimes only has the most recent handful of episodes of a show, making it impossible to catch up if you fall too far behind. On the other hand, Netflix only adds shows a season at a time. Hulu offers at least some of its shows within a day or two of broadcast, so you can at least be within striking distance of the cultural zeitgeist if you're a cable-cutter. Want to know what other people are watching on Netflix? The service now maintains lists of the top shows and movies on the platform.

Netflix is in a good position with its original productions though, with many titles becoming pop culture phenomenon. This impressive list includes shows like Black Mirror, Bojack Horseman, Dead to Me, Locke and Key, Never Have I Ever, Orange Is the New Black, Ozark, Russian Doll, Stranger Things, The Crown, The Stranger, The Umbrella Academy, and The Witcher. Many of these productions, including I Care A Lot, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The Crown, The Trial of the Chicago 7, and The Queen's Gambit, won awards at the 2021 Golden Globes. Netflix also earns a top spot in our roundup of the best video streaming services for celebrating Black art.

Netflix also produces feature films, comedy specials, and documentaries, for those who are looking for something more self-contained. For example, Netflix's El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie received good reviews. Martin Scorsese's The Irishman is another example. For 2021, Netflix promises to add a new film to its streaming library every week(Opens in a new window) .

If you are a fan of watching films, check out our roundup of the top movie streaming services. Many of the services in that category, including The Criterion Channel and Filmatique, are notable in that they curate their collections.

However, Netflix can no longer enjoy its once-untouchable status when it comes to original programming. Amazon Prime Video offers many top-tier shows and adaptations in its library including Bosch, Fleabag, Good Omens, Hunters, Jack Ryan, Patriot, The Boys, The Expanse, The Man in the High Castle, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Undone. Hulu may be better known for its broadcast television lineup, but with original productions such as Castle Rock, Casual, Catch 22, Harlots, The Handmaid's Tale, and the continuation of Veronica Mars, it too is becoming competitive. Apple TV+ and Disney+ also promise tons of upcoming original content, with respective entries such as For All Mankind and The Mandalorian. Even Paramount+ has original shows including Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, The Good Fight, The Twilight Zone (the rebooted series), and Why Women Kill.

Other, primarily on-demand streaming services are starting to offer select live sports coverage, which is something Netflix can't match. For instance, Prime Video streams Thursday Night Football games, Paramount+ has all the sports that air on national CBS stations, Peacock's premium tiers include Premier League soccer matchups, and HBO Max may soon broadcast live NHL games.

Documentaries on Netflix

Netflix specializes in big-name, blockbuster documentaries on household names that rack up award nominations. From Miss Americana: Taylor Swift to Becoming, a documentary about Michelle Obama, to Beyoncé's Grammy-winning Homecoming, there are plenty of behind-the-scenes documentaries that delve into the lives of celebrities. Of particular note is Netflix's Black Lives Matter Collection, which features titles like the Oscar-nominated What Happened Miss Simone?, Grammy-winner Quincy, The Two Killings of Sam Cooke, and 13th. There are also nature documentaries like the controversial Blackfish, and conversation starters such as Being Elmo and FYRE, a documentary about the disastrous Fyre Festival in 2017.

There's also a wealth of true crime documentaries like Amanda Knox, Long Shot, and American Murder: The Family Next Door. If you're looking for something a little more uplifting, Netflix offers titles such as My Octopus Teacher and The Speed Cubers, a documentary about Rubik's Cube competitors. Sports fans should watch the multipart documentary The Last Dance, which covers Michael Jordan's final season with the Chicago Bulls.

Anime on Netflix

On another front, Netflix has quietly built itself into an excellent source for streaming anime. It does a particularly good job with older series, such as Inu Yasha, Robotech, and Rurouni Kenshin. Little Witch Academia. Netflix has brought its considerable production clout to anime as well, including rebooting the venerable Voltron and She-Ra series and developing originals such as Castlevania.

The trouble with Netflix's anime collection is the same as with the rest of its content: It comes and goes unpredictably. Crunchyroll offers a much larger and industry-leading content library of anime titles. Hulu is another option for anime fans, with a collection of over 400 classic and critically acclaimed anime shows and movies such as Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell.

How Much Does Netflix Cost?

Netflix has consistently raised the prices for all three of its plans over time. The latest price hike affects all three plans. The cheapest option is now $9.99 per month (previously $8.99 per month) and gets you access to Netflix's full content library, but you can only stream in SD quality, download titles to a single device, and watch on one screen at a time. The $15.49-per-month Standard plan (previously $13.99 per month) includes HD streaming, supports two simultaneous streams, and allows you to download titles on up to two devices at a time. For families or groups of friends looking to share accounts, the $19.99-per-month (previously $17.99 per month) plan might be a more feasible option. This highest tier unlocks Ultra HD (4K) streaming, four concurrent streams, and the ability to download titles on up to four devices.

If you no longer want to pay for Netflix (or want to pay less), follow our guide on how to cancel or modify your subscription. Note that Netflix no longer offers a free trial option.

Netflix presents all of its content ad-free, with the exception of its previews of in-house content across its apps. You can thankfully disable those previews now. HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video advertise their original content in a similar manner. Note that even Hulu's ad-free plan still includes limited commercials in rare instances.

Hulu charges $5.99 for its base plan (with ads) though you can pay $11.99 per month for virtually no ads. Prime Video matches Netflix's base plan at $8.99 per month. Apple TV+ and discovery+ both start at $4.99 per month, while Disney+ is $7.99 per month. Those services support simultaneous streams and 4K streams; Netflix makes you pay extra for those features. Both British-focused services we've reviewed, Acorn TV and BritBox, are also less expensive at $5.99 and $6.99 per month respectively. HBO Max ($14.99 per month) is now cheaper than Netflix's Premium plan.

Netflix's Premium tier costs close to the price of some live TV services. For instance, Locast is only $5 per month and entertainment-focused Philo costs $20 per month.

If you do not want to pay for your entertainment, try out one of the best free video streaming services. Our top pick for the category is Peacock because of its lineup of mainstream TV shows and movies.

In addition to its web interface, Netflix offers apps for Android and iOS; media streaming devices such as the Amazon Fire Stick, Apple TV, and Roku; and game consoles such as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It even has a desktop app in the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 and one for Facebook's Portal device.

DVDs on Demand

Netflix began as a DVD-by-mail service, and the company still offers physical discs, but this is now a separate subscription from the Netflix streaming service. You can subscribe directly at dvd.netflix.com(Opens in a new window) (a Netflix company) or add it to your existing Netflix account.

The Standard DVD plans start at $7.99 per month for one disc out at a time and an unlimited number of DVDs per month. There are no late fees with this plan; shipping and returns are free as well. The more expensive $11.99-per-month Premier plan gives you all the same features as the Standard one, but lets you take two discs out at a time. If you want HD Blu-ray DVDs, the prices for the Standard and Premier plans respectively increase to $9.99 and $14.99 per month.

The main reason to use Netflix's DVD-by-mail service is that it expands Netflix's catalog. When you can't find a particular TV show or film to stream, you can often find it among the DVDs. That said, it's always a good idea to check whether you can buy or rent the same content through Amazon, iTunes, or the Microsoft Store on a PC or Xbox instead. That way you won't have to wait for an envelope in the mail.

DVD diehards on mobile must use the service's dedicated app, called DVD Netflix (Android and iOS). Here, subscribers can browse for content and stay on top of incoming and outgoing shipments.

If you truly care about physical media, though, you should invest in building out your Blu-ray library rather than patronizing Netflix streaming.

Games on Netflix

Between shows like Cowboy Bebop, Daredevil, and The Witcher, Netflix proudly courts a geeky audience. Castlevania and Resident Evil are straight-up video game adaptations. So it's not too surprising to see Netflix introduce mobile games as part of its streaming package. If you're a Netflix subscriber with an iOS or Android device, you can play five Netflix games for free with no ads. Access these games either within the Netflix app itself or by manually downloading them from the App Store or Google Play Store.

Of the five launch games, three are casual, Facebook Gaming-style time-wasters: poker-themed Card Blast, finicky basketball game Shooting Hoops, and ball-balancing arcade game Teeter Up. If you're looking for something a little more substantive, and a lot more on brand, you can also play two retro-styled Stranger Things adventure games: Strangers Things 1984 and Stranger Things 3 The Game. Note that the Stranger Things games had previously been available for years.

From streaming Telltale's Minecraft: Story Mode game to funding a Dark Crystal tactics game, we believe Netflix genuinely wants to explore and expand its gaming offerings. But right now Netflix's in-app games feel more like a limited test than a true initiative. While this initial slate leaves a lot to be desired, you may still appreciate them as a bonus for your existing subscription. Just don't think this is the next Xbox Game Pass.

Netflix on the Web

Netflix's web interface uses a dark background, white text, and large media thumbnails. It looks elegant and is easy to navigate via the top menu's sections: Home, TV Shows, Movies, Recently Added, and My List. In the upper right-hand corner, you can use the search bar, manage your profiles, access account settings, and open Netflix's help center. Account settings go beyond what most other video streaming services offer, with options for email communications, closed captions, parental controls, and playback settings. You can also view recent viewing (content watched) and streaming activity (devices used and when). We didn't experience any performance issues with Netflix's web interface.

The Home tab highlights current noteworthy content at the top and displays a slightly overwhelming number of horizontally scrolling lists of shows and movies across categories, such as New Releases, Popular on Netflix, and Trending Now. Mousing over any content triggers a video preview with sound; we find these annoying and would like the option to turn them off. If you click on an entry, you can view more detailed information and available episodes, as well as a percentage recommendation based on your watching history. You can also give content thumbs up (or down) ratings. Finally, you can add content to My List to save shows and movies you want to watch.

Netflix allows users to broadly sort the Shows and Movies sections by genre and filter the lists of content further based on recommendations, the release year, and alphabetical order. Oddly, there is no dedicated category in the TV Shows' or Movies' genre lists for Netflix's originals. Instead, you need to scroll down to one of the horizontally scrolling sections to find them all in one place. Given Netflix's constantly changing library, information on when things are available until would be helpful, along with an option to add reminders for those expirations.

Netflix may soon launch an online hub, called N-Plus, with companion content for its original shows and movies. Early details indicate that this site could include podcasts and user-generated playlists, as well as serve as a space to build communities around Netflix content. HBO Max already offers some companion podcasts for its original content, but Netflix's initiative seems more so to replicate the community features of Mubi. That service encourages conversations between members and includes lots of supporting editorial content, including interviews and long-form features.

Netflix on Mobile

We had no issues installing or logging in to Netflix's Android or iOS on our test devices. The app looks and performs fine and closely resembles the web interface.

You navigate the app via a set of five menu icons at the bottom of the screen: Home, Search, Extras, Downloads, and More. Netflix's iPhone app offers all the same features as its Android counterpart and looks nearly identical, albeit with some insignificant navigational changes. For instance, the iOS app is missing the Extras icon in the bottom menu bar.

Netflix allows you to download select titles for offline viewing, a now common feature among on-demand video streaming services. The Downloads tab shows everything you have designated for offline viewing, but there's no search function. When we tested download speeds over PCMag's fast Wi-Fi network, it took less than two minutes to download a 50-minute episode of Planet Earth II in high quality. Note that some titles expire after 48 hours and others can only be downloaded a certain number of times.

The Home tab lets you sort by TV Shows or Movies, as well as access My List entries. The Extras section shows previews of new and notable content based on your viewing history. The More tab hosts all the important app settings, including Netflix's Smart Downloads feature, which is useful for binge watching. Once you finish watching a downloaded episode, Netflix deletes that episode and automatically downloads the next one. In testing, this feature worked as advertised. You can set network streaming preferences and manage profiles from this section.

Netflix Playback and Streaming

Netflix's playback screen is among the best we've tested. In addition to the standard 10-second rewind and fast forward buttons, you can also browse a list of all episodes of a show by season, adjust the audio and subtitle language, and jump to the next episode. The progress bar also shows content previews as you scrub. Yet another useful feature, which several other video streaming services have since copied, is a Skip Intro button. We hope Netflix eventually implements a tool like Prime Video's X-Ray feature, which identifies actors, actresses, and music in a scene. We would also like an option to control the playback resolution.

We tested playback performance on the web over a home Ethernet connection (200Mbps download) by streaming an episode of Bojack Horseman. We didn't come across any stuttering or lag. We previously streamed an episode of Planet Earth II on an Android test device and experienced crisp video and clear audio over PCMag's Wi-Fi network (15 Mbps download). Sadly, Planet Earth II has long since left Netflix.

Accessibility and Extras

Although Netflix lets you change the audio and subtitle language from the playback screen, you need to head to the web app to customize subtitles. Netflix, along with Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, and Disney+, all offer Audio Descriptions for some programming. Netflix explains audio descriptions as vocal narration that "describes what is happening on-screen, including physical actions, facial expressions, costumes, settings and scene changes." You can find the full list of Netflix titles that support Audio Descriptions(Opens in a new window) on The Audio Description Project's website.

Netflix is one of the only on-demand video streaming services we've reviewed that restricts simultaneous streams and streaming resolutions based on your subscription tier; others offer a single tier with all available features. For instance, Disney+'s only plan allows for four simultaneous streams, which matches Netflix's highest tier. BritBox outclasses them all with support for five concurrent streams. As mentioned, Netflix also requires you to subscribe to its Premium plan in order to stream shows in 4K, whereas Apple+, Disney+, and Prime Video don't make users pay extra for this capability.

Netflix, along with those same three services, all support the Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos standards for select titles and on supported devices. Apple TV+ has the advantage here, since it can ensure a higher percentage of its content supports these standards going forward. To find 4K content on Netflix, you can search for 4K and UHD directly; detail pages of shows and movies also show this information.

Netflix offers lots of family-friendly content, as well as specific content for young children. In your account settings on the web, you can block content of certain ratings behind a PIN code or do the same for individual shows and movies. Netflix is notable in that it allows you to create profiles for up to four different users. In addition to the content control benefits, profiles enable Netflix to better tune its recommendations for whoever is watching. Disney+ supports up to seven profiles.

Can You Watch Netflix With a VPN?

Netflix's available catalog varies greatly by your locale, and you may not be able to watch some shows at all, depending on which country you live in. Likewise, if you travel abroad, you may suddenly find that you can't continue watching certain shows. In some cases, you can rectify this with a virtual private network (VPN) service. Netflix has been working hard to block VPN access though, to maintain location-based content restrictions.

We tried to access Netflix from our test desktop and mobile devices, both of which were connected to a US-based Mullvad VPN server. We were not able to stream content on either device.

If you are insistent about finding a VPN that works with Netflix, start with the entries in our roundup of VPN services that worked with Netflix as of the time of our last testing. Note that a VPN that works with Netflix today may be blocked tomorrow. We recommend choosing a VPN based on other factors such as its security practices, value, and performance.

What's Next for Netflix?

Netflix stocks an enormous array of quirky and quality TV shows, cult hits, family favorites, and trendy original programming. It also offers offline downloads for mobile devices, ad-free streams across all tiers, and convenient features such as Smart Downloads. However, its price has crept up over the years and the launch of high-quality streaming alternatives at significantly lower monthly costs means that it is no longer as good a value. We still give it an Editors' Choice award for on-demand video streaming given its excellent original content and vast library. If you are looking for true cable replacements, try Hulu + Live TV or YouTube TV.
Kim Key also contributed to this review.

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Although Netflix's streaming service started as a niche offshoot of the company's disc-mailing service, it is now the front-runner in the category, thanks to its reliable core catalog and some of the best original programming. Netflix also integrates excellent features across interfaces, allows offline downloads on mobile platforms, and features 4K content.

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Our rating of the Best Streaming Services of 2021 provides the details you need to decide which streaming service is best for you. Whether you're interested in Netflix, YouTube, or Hulu we've got you covered. If you love sports or anime, we have reviews for fuboTV, Funimation, and more. Read on to see what's new in on-demand, live, and sports streaming services along with pricing and available features.

Our Best On-Demand Streaming Services Rating

Compare the Best Streaming Services

Compare the Best On-Demand Streaming Services of 2021

Best On-Demand Streaming Services in Detail

Netflix: Netflix ranks No. 1 for our Best Streaming Service of 2021. It began in the late '90s with DVDs-by-mail and is now a household name. It's known for its original content as well as popular shows. Top programs include "Lucifer," "Bridgerton," and "Money Heist."

Netflix continues to deliver with low-cost monthly subscriptions and a variety of content. Individual accounts begin at $8.99 per month and increase to $17.99 per month for accounts with up to five profiles and four simultaneous screens.

Amazon Prime Video: Amazon Prime Video ties at No. 2 in our rating and is owned by online retailer Amazon. If you have Amazon Prime, then the video streaming service comes with the subscription as a bonus, which is just one of the reasons it's our pick for the Best Value Streaming Service.

If you don't have Prime, it costs $8.99 per month for a basic subscription. This includes up to three simultaneous streams per account. Current shows include "Outlander," "Hunters," and "The Man in the High Castle." You can also find older series like "Downton Abbey" and movies like "Coming 2 America."

Disney+: Disney+ ties at No. 2 in our Best Streaming Services of 2021 rating. While Disney launched its service in 2019 and is still fairly new to the streaming space, it now boasts more than 100 million subscribers. Subscriptions begin at $7.99 per month and include seven profiles and streams on up to four screens at the same time.

Disney is the most family-friendly streaming service in our rating. It's home to blockbusters, like "Star Wars," "Avengers Infinity War," and "Black Panther," and musicals, like "Hamilton." You can bundle Disney+ with Hulu and ESPN+ to expand your content options while saving money over subscribing to each separately.

Funimation: Funimation is a new addition to our ratings this year and ties at No. 4 on our rating of the Best Streaming Services. Owned by Sony Pictures, Funimation is a long-standing name in anime. Its line-up focuses solely on anime content and includes the option to buy tickets to in-theater shows. Top shows available on Funimation include "Dragon Ball Z," "My Hero Academia," and "Attack on Titan."

Its premium plus plan costs $7.99 and offers five simultaneous streams. Funimation offers simultaneous broadcasts that allow fans to watch anime episodes at the same time they're aired in Japan. There's also the option to watch the English-dubbed version of new anime shortly after its release.

Hulu: Disney-owned Hulu ties at No. 4 in our rating and is another brand with longevity in the streaming business. It's also one of few companies to offer both on-demand and live streaming services (Hulu + Live TV). Its on-demand service costs $5.99 per month and includes the ability to stream on up to two screens at once and to create up to six profiles.

Hulu is good for watching network shows, original Hulu content, such as "Little Fires Everywhere" and "The Handmaid's Tale," and movies, like "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol."

HBO Max: HBO Max ties at No. 4 in our rating of the Best Streaming Services of 2021. In 2020, HBO bundled all its content into the HBO Max streaming service. Max includes all of HBO along with classics, movies, and original shows.

Starting at $14.99 per month, HBO Max offers original content, comedy specials, and documentaries, along with new offerings, such as movies and series in the DC Universe. You may want to tune in to "Game of Thrones," "Insecure," "The Big Bang Theory," or "Wonder Woman 1984."

Peacock: Peacock has been out for about a year. It ties at No. 4 on our list and is one of two services we reviewed to offer a free base plan. Above the free plan are two paid monthly plans that cost $4.99 per month and $9.99 per month. The higher-cost plan is mostly ad-free.

The service includes original shows, episodes of NBC shows, and live sporting events. Tune in to Peacock to watch "The Office," "WWE," "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," and "The Blacklist."

Crunchyroll: Crunchyroll places No. 8 in our rating of the Best Streaming Services of 2021. This anime streaming service has been around since 2006 and includes a free version. It also offers three paid plans that fans can choose from. The Fan subscription costs $7.99 per month and streams on one device at a time. The Mega Fan costs $9.99 per month and allows streams on four devices at once. The Ultimate Fan costs $14.99 per month and expands simultaneous streaming to six devices while including other extras, like an annual swag bag.

Check out Crunchyroll for episodes of "My Hero Academia," "Naruto," "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood," and "The Perfect Insider."

Paramount+: CBS All Access is now Paramount+. The streaming service comes in at No. 9 in our rating and offers live sports, news, and series. You can watch shows like "The Twilight Zone" reboot, "NCIS," and "Young Sheldon."

For $5.99 per month, you can stream the ad-supported version of Paramount+ on three screens at the same time. If you want to experience your shows without ads, you can pay a slightly higher premium and enjoy uninterrupted shows for $9.99 per month.

Apple TV+: Apple TV+ takes the last spot in our rating of the Best Streaming Services of 2021. One perk of Apple TV+ is the ability to watch shows online or offline, a feature not all services offer. This means you'll have the convenience of watching Apple's original shows at home or on the go since the service comes with an app.

You can stream Apple TV+ or other services like Disney+, HBO Max, or Hulu with the app. Apple TV+ costs $4.99 per month for ad-free streaming on up to six screens. Subscribe to Apple TV+ to catch shows like "Ted Lasso," movies like "Wolfwalkers," and documentaries like "The Elephant Queen."

Compare the Best Live Streaming of 2021

Live TV streaming services offer you similar options as cable TV, but instead of using cable or satellite for the connection, digital streaming works over the internet and can cost a fraction of the price of cable. Most live TV streaming services offer packages that often consist of national news, sports, and local channels. Specialty add-ons like international sports, language-specific channels, or premium content are usually available.

The services in our ratings start as low as $20 a month and are available without contracts or special equipment to set up. Live TV streaming differs from on-demand streaming in that the content is being broadcast live as you watch. You won't be able to binge-watch multiple shows unless you save them with a digital video recorder (DVR). However, if you love anticipating what happens next in your favorite show, could do with less opportunity for spoilers, and enjoy live sports, then live TV streaming may be for you. Visit our Best Live TV Streaming Services of 2021 guide to find the right streaming service for your budget and your needs.

Compare the Best Sports Streaming of 2021

Although a few on-demand streaming services cover top sports events and interviews from time to time, if you're into live local, national, and international live sports, you'll want to make sure you choose a live TV streaming service that offers what you're most interested in. Verizon Media reports that sports fans will pay more to stream sports if it provides them better access to teams they want to watch. Are you looking for ways to watch MLB live? Do you love the NBA playoffs? Access can be at your fingertips if you choose the right streaming service. In our rating of the Best Sports Streaming Services of 2021, we've compared the top choices for you. YouTube TV, fuboTV, and Sling TV, among others, made our list. Visit our guide to the Best Sports Streaming Services to learn more about the rankings and find tips on choosing a sports streaming service that fits your wallet and preferences.

What Is On-Demand Streaming?

On-demand streaming services let viewers watch content whenever and wherever they want. Also called video-on-demand services, these typically feature extensive and evolving libraries of TV shows and movies that viewers can access as they please. For viewers who want to catch an entire series, pre-recording shows is no longer required, which has led to the recent phenomenon of binge-watching numerous episodes of a single series.

On-demand services are also a good option if you enjoy watching your favorite shows on the go, even in areas with limited Wi-Fi. To watch during your commute or a flight, simply download shows onto your mobile device ahead of time.

Watching videos on demand requires the following:

Broadband internet: A broadband internet connection has download speeds of at least 25 megabits per second (Mbps). If your internet isn't this fast, you'll experience buffering and poor video quality. Some services let you download shows that you can watch later when you're offline.

A streaming device: You can watch on-demand videos using a smart TV (including an Android TV), smartphone, tablet, computer, Blu-ray player, set-top cable box, gaming console (such as an Xbox One), or a streaming media device. Roku, Apple TV, and Chromecast are examples of streaming media devices. Check the streaming service's website to make sure your device is compatible with its app.

Streaming service app: For compatible devices, you usually need to download an app for the streaming service to access its library and watch videos. The exception is for computers, which can often connect directly to the service's website using a browser, such as Chrome or Firefox, instead of an app.

On-demand streaming services typically don't have live TV channels, a cloud DVR, or local channels. For these features, check out our rating of the Best Live TV Streaming Services.

Luckily, video streaming is a simple affair with most devices. Follow these steps to watch content on a streaming service.

1. Pick a streaming device. We list common streaming devices below, one or more of which you may already own. Before you buy a new device, check our list to see if you have something that will work.

2. Make sure your streaming device is compatible with the streaming service you want. If you already have a device, such as a smart TV, you may want to pick a service that will work with it so you don't have to buy new equipment.

3. Download the streaming service app. Unless you're using a computer web browser to watch streaming service content, you'll need the streaming service app to access its library and watch videos. Usually, the quickest way to get the app is to go to your device's app store. Some streaming services also post information on their websites about how to get the app for your type of device.

4. Test your broadband and Wi-Fi speeds. Make sure your internet is fast enough to handle video streaming. One option to test your download speed is to use Netflix's Fast.com website. Download speeds of 25 megabits per second (Mbps) are the minimum for broadband internet and should allow you to stream HD video from more than one TV, according to the FCC's Broadband Speed Guide. For help getting faster download speeds, see our internet service provider guide and rating of the Fastest Internet Plans of 2021.

Media Streaming Devices

You can use one or more of the streaming devices below to connect with your streaming service and watch your favorite TV shows and movies. Plenty of affordable options are available. For example, Roku has a variety of boxes and streaming sticks that can plug directly into your TV. These come with a remote, and prices start around $30. Another option is Google's Chromecast, which also costs around $30. Chromecast takes a different approach: After you connect your phone or laptop to a streaming service, use Chromecast to share both the video and audio (called casting) directly with your TV.

Note that as your streaming device ages, it may not be compatible with newer services.

The following is a list of common devices to choose from:

Streaming media players: Examples include Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Nvidia Shield, and Google Chromecast.

Smartphones and tablets: Apps are usually available for Android and iOS, and occasionally available for Windows devices.

PCs and laptops: You can use a computer to watch videos by either downloading the streaming service's app or using your web browser to watch directly on the service's website.

Game consoles: Examples include Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii consoles.

Smart TVs: These connect to the internet connection and use apps to stream video.

Blu-ray players: Like smart TVs, many Blu-ray players can stream video using apps.

Set-top boxes: Some set-top boxes from cable TV companies can connect with streaming services.

How to Compare Streaming Services

Picking a good series and movie streaming service goes beyond checking out its library of on-demand titles. Prices change significantly depending on if you want to watch commercials. It's also important to find a platform that makes it easy for you to quickly launch the next episode of a TV show, resume a title you already started, and discover new content to watch. If you have more than two people using the service or kids in the house, you may also want to find a service that offers multiple simultaneous streams, parental controls, and user profiles.

What Is the Cheapest Streaming Service?

Monthly prices for the on-demand streaming services in our comparison average around $6 a month. You can still watch some videos for free with a service like Peacock or Crunchyroll. Both are ad-supported, so you'll have to sit through commercials if you want to enjoy free video streaming.

About half of the services we compare have commercials. Hulu, Crunchyroll, and Paramount+ let you choose between a less expensive plan with ads and a pricier ad-free subscription. Though Peacock's free videos have ads, it also has a premium subscription that eliminates ads for most of the content. Funimation, which offers purely anime content, starts at $5.99 per month and is ad-free.

You won't ever have commercials on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, or Apple TV+, though sometimes you'll see the trailer of a suggested title before your selected video starts. These services range from $4.99 to about $9 a month.

We recommend taking advantage of the free trial period before you make up your mind. Free trials give you time to check out the on-demand library and make sure the app works for you before you pay. That said, none of the streaming services in our comparison requires a contract, so you can easily pay month-to-month and cancel at any time.

Watching Shows and Movies On Demand

Not all parental controls built into a streaming service are the same. With Netflix, for example, you can set up a kid's profile, adjust the content rating, and then set a PIN to keep tech-savvy kids from bypassing parental controls. Hulu also lets you set up a kid's profile, but because there's no PIN, kids can easily override this to watch mature content.

User profiles can be a blessing if you have a mix of people with different tastes in your household. Disney+ lets you create up to seven profiles - the most in our comparison - so each person can customize their own watchlist. Paramount+, on the other hand, allows you to create six profiles but no watchlist capabilities are included at this time.

What to Consider When Comparing Streaming Services

Here are a few points to consider as you compare the different ways to stream and the best streaming services:

Price: If you're looking for the least expensive way to cut the cord, you should pick an on-demand streaming service. The average starting monthly cost of the on-demand services we evaluate is around $6. In comparison, you'll pay an average of about $50 month-to-month for a live TV service.

Packages: Households that watch a wide variety of content should look for a base plan that gets you most of what you want, and then fill in any holes by adding a package. Many streaming services offer premium channel add-ons. Starz, Showtime, and Cinemax are common options. Several live TV services also offer packages that group together sports channels, kids' networks, and Spanish-language networks.

Compatible streaming devices: Don't assume that your streaming device will work with the streaming service of your choice. See our section on media streaming devices below for a list of different devices you can use to stream videos.

Simultaneous streams: This lets more than one person watch videos at the same time and can be an important benefit for households with numerous occupants. Note that when you download content and watch it without an internet connection, it doesn't count as one of your simultaneous streams.

User profiles: A user profile typically keeps track of your viewing progress for TV shows so you can quickly jump into the right episode, and lets you create a watchlist of your favorite movies and series. The ability to create different profiles is convenient for families that have a range of viewing preferences but may not be as important if everyone in your home usually watches the same types of content.

Parental controls: With some services, parents can create kid-friendly profiles and keep youngsters from being exposed to inappropriate programming. If this is a must-have for your household, make sure the service requires a PIN to change parental controls or switch profiles, as this isn't always the case.

Streaming Services Coupons

Below are a few pointers to break away from cable TV and switch to a streaming service.

1. Decide what you want to watch. This is the most important step to make sure you will be satisfied with your new service. Before cord-cutting, decide what's on your must-watch list, which may include specific TV shows, channels, and original programming. "What's nice to have? What are channels that you don't have with your current TV provider that you might want to get?" Pegoraro tells consumers to ask themselves. "Put together that list of things that you need, and then you can plug in your ZIP code to each of these streaming services and see what's available." Keep in mind, content libraries change frequently as licenses expire, original programming is pulled, or content moves to a different streaming service.

2. Determine what equipment you have and what you'll need. If you already have a streaming device - either a USB stick, a streaming box, or a smart TV - make sure the services you want to use are compatible.

3. Cancel your current cable service. You'll likely need to call or go online to cancel your current cable TV service. Don't forget to return any equipment, such as set-top boxes, that you're renting from the cable provider.

Experts recommend using a virtual private network (VPN) to protect your information whenever you go online. For streaming, using a VPN can also be helpful if your internet service provider throttles, or slows, your speeds to limit your data usage. However, using a VPN at home can sometimes result in problems for cord-cutters. Many streaming services try to block VPNs. This is mostly because movies and TV shows often come with licensing agreements that specify which countries can watch which videos, and a VPN can get around these agreements.

If you want to watch your streaming service and have a VPN at home, like on your router, you have a couple of options. First, pick a VPN that says it works with the streaming service of your choice. If you can't find this information in the VPN's help section, you can test it out for yourself. Almost all of the VPNs in our rating of the Best VPNs of 2021 have a money-back guarantee period, giving you time to make sure the service works for you.

Another option is to look for a VPN with split tunneling. This lets you select a specific site, such as HBO Max, that stays outside of the VPN connection while keeping the rest of your online activities protected by the VPN.

How Much Data Does Streaming Video Use?

Netflix, along with some other streaming services, lets you adjust the video quality when streaming. Other streaming services automatically adjust the video quality based on your current internet speed. These adjustments can affect your data usage.

Netflix reports the following data usage based on the quality of your video stream. Values are an approximation:

0.3 GB used per hour watching at the lowest video quality

3 GB used per hour watching HD Video

7 GB used per hour watching Ultra HD video

Get tips on cutting the cord and find the best streaming service for you with our ratings and guides:

Live TV Streaming Services

Other Guides from 360 Reviews

We're here to help make sure all of your online connections are fast, convenient, and secure. Check out some of our other guides for ratings of the best services and buying tips for each type of service:

Our 360 Methodology for Evaluating Streaming Services

The following describes our 360 approach to researching and analyzing streaming services to provide guidance to prospective customers.
1. We researched the brands and products people care most about.
U.S. News analyzed and compared publicly available internet search data to determine which streaming services consumers are most interested in. We looked at streaming services in two different subcategories: Live TV Streaming Services and On-Demand Streaming Services. We found 12 live TV streaming services and 27 on-demand streaming services that stood out in terms of volume of searches among consumers.

We then collected professional reviews from industry sources to narrow down our initial list of live-TV and on-demand streaming services to the services included in our final ratings.
2. We created objective 360 Overall Ratings based on our analysis of third-party reviews.
Our scoring methodology is based on a composite analysis of the ratings and reviews published by credible third-party professional and consumer review sources. The ratings are not based on the personal opinions, tests, or experiences of U.S. News. To calculate the ratings:

(a) We compiled two types of third-party reviews and ratings:

Professional Ratings and Reviews. Many independent industry sources have published their assessments of streaming services online. We consider several of these third-party reviews to be reputable and well-researched. However, professional reviewers often make recommendations that contradict one another. Rather than relying on a single source, U.S. News believes consumers benefit most when these opinions and recommendations are all considered and analyzed with an objective, consensus-based methodology.

Consumer Ratings and Reviews. U.S. News also reviewed published consumer ratings and reviews of streaming services. Sources with a sufficient number of quality consumer reviews ratings were included in our scoring model.

***Please note that not all professional and consumer rating sources met our criteria for objectivity. Therefore, some sources were excluded from our model.

(b) We standardized the inputs to create a common scale.

The third-party review source data was collected in a variety of forms, including ratings, recommendations, and accolades. Before including each third-party data point into our scoring equation, we had to standardize it so that it could be compared on an apples-to-apples basis with data points from other review sources. We used the scoring methodology described below to convert these systems to a comparable scale.

The 360 scoring process first converted each third-party rating into a common 0 to 5 scale. To balance the distribution of scores within each source's scale, we used a standard deviation (or Z-Score) calculation to determine how each streaming service that a source rated was scored in comparison to the source's mean score. We then used the Z-Score to create a standardized U.S. News score using the method outlined below:

Calculating the Z-Score: The Z-Score represents a data point's relation to the mean measurement of the data set. The Z-Score is negative when the data point is below the mean and positive when it's above the mean; a Z-Score of 0 means it's equal to the mean. To determine the Z-Score for each third-party rating of a streaming service, we calculated the mean of the ratings across all streaming services evaluated by that third-party source. We then subtracted the mean from the streaming service's rating and divided it by the standard deviation to produce the Z-Score.

Calculating the T-Score: We used a T-Score calculation to convert the Z-Score to a 0-100 scale by multiplying the Z-Score by 10. To ensure that the mean was equal across all data points, we added our desired scoring mean (between 0 and 10) to the T-Score to create an adjusted T-Score.

Calculating the common-scale rating: We divided the adjusted T-Score, which is on a 100-point scale, by 20 to convert the third-party rating to a common 0-5 point system.

(c) We calculated the 360 Overall Score based on a weighted-average model.

We assigned "source weights" to each source used in the consensus scoring model based on our assessment of how much the source is trusted and recognized by consumers and how much its published review process indicates that it is both comprehensive and editorially independent. The source weights are assigned on a 1-5 scale. Any source with an assigned weight less than 2 was excluded from the consensus scoring model.

Finally, we combined the converted third-party data points using a weighted average formula based on source weight. This formula calculated the consensus score for each streaming service, which we call the 360 Overall Rating.

All of the data used in our streaming service ratings were accurate as of March 29, 2021.

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Our rating of the Best Streaming Services of 2021 provides the details you need to decide which streaming service is best for you. Whether you're interested in Netflix, YouTube, or Hulu we've got you covered. If you love sports or anime, we have reviews for fuboTV, Funimation, and more.

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Costa Rican Environment Ministry officials yesterday announced the closing of its two national zoos, the Simon Bolivar zoo and Santa Ana Conservation Center. But they're not just shuttering; they're going to become wild botanical gardens, with animals allowed to prance in and out as they please. And the officials plan to release as many of the current zoo animals back into the wild as possible. It's the latest in an impressive line of conservationist initiatives pushed by the Environment Ministry.

Reintroduction of zoo animals into the wild is not, actually, a simple task at all. Very few species have been successfully reintroduced; among the few winners are the black-footed ferret, California condor, and the grey wolf. But there are far more problems; many reintroduced animals have adjusted to zoo life too thoroughly to be successful in the wild (especially if they were born in the zoo). Some animals may spread microbes or viruses picked up thanks to close proximity with other animals (including humans) they wouldn't normally be in contact with. Reintroduction is far from impossible, but it's also not nearly as simple as opening a cage door and saying "you're free now!"

Costa Rica's Environment Ministry has said that animals which cannot be reintroduced will be sent to rescue centers. There's no more information than this; which rescue centers? What are the criteria for reintroduction?

Fundazoo, the national organization in charge of zoos, requested to block the closing of the zoos, arguing that the government is breaking a contract with more than a decade left on it. The more persuasive argument is that only the zoos have the specialists in zoology, nutrition, and veterinary medicine required to care for these animals during the move.

It's a fascinating idea; zoos certainly have mixed records from a conservation perspective. Many species survive only thanks to zoos, much quality research has been done at zoos, and many people have been educated about conservation and zoology thanks to zoos. But they're also still cages for animals, which is the side of the debate taken by the Environment Ministry of Costa Rica. Costa Rica, not for nothing, has become an unlikely star of the conservation movement, having already banned circuses and all sport hunting within its borders.

[via AP]

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Costa Rica To Close Its Zoos And Release Animals Into The Wild

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The silky anteater, shown here, could be climbing trees in its native forests soon.

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Conservation Status: IUCN Red List – VulnerableThreats to Survival: Habitat loss and fragmentation; poaching; human-elephant conflict; climate change A Long History of InvolvementAn umbrella species and ecosystem engineer, the conservation of the African elephant is of global significance. For more…

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Twenty-one years ago in Costa Rica, three girls brought Judy Avey-Arroyo a surprise. They stood at her gate with a baby sloth whose mother had been hit by a car. Avey-Arroyo wanted to help, but she was unsure how to care for the tiny sloth. She owned a hotel and had no training in the care of wild animals. Looking for information, she contacted zoos. But even they didn't know much about these peaceful tree-dwellers.

Avey-Arroyo named the baby sloth Buttercup. She gave Buttercup leaves that she'd seen sloths eating in the surrounding rainforest. The sloth hungrily crunched them up. With Avey-Arroyo's care, Buttercup survived.

After her success, more people brought Avey-Arroyo injured and orphaned sloths they had found. She then opened a rescue center. Today, the Sloth Sanctuary has saved more than 500 animals.

Fit for the Forest

Sloths live in the rainforests of Central America and South America. There, they hang on to branches with curved claws. There are two main types of sloths. You can tell them apart by the number of claws they have on their front paws.

Sloths rarely move. They spend their time napping and nibbling on leaves. Their slow, quiet ways make it difficult for jaguars and other predators to detect them.

Adult sloths are covered in shaggy green-tinted fur. The color comes from algae growing in their hair. The algae's smell hides a sloths' natural scent from predators. It also helps them blend in with the treetops.

Sloths are amazingly adapted to life in their habitat. "They're masters of the rainforest," says Becky Cliffe, a scientist at the sanctuary. But some still arrive at the center needing help.

Shrinking Habitat

Costa Rica's increasing human population means that the rainforest--and the sloths--isn't as isolated as it used to be. Humans can cause a lot of problems for the animals, says Cliffe. Deforestation is chief among them. When trees are cut down, adult sloths can fall and break bones. Sloths living in deforested areas can run into human-made dangers. Some sloths suffer burns while climbing on power lines. Others are hit by cars or attacked by dogs.

At the center, workers care for the injured animals. Their goal is to return the sloths to the wild once the creatures are healthy enough. But some are too severely wounded to survive on their own. These animals remain at the center for the rest of their lives.

The sanctuary also cares for orphaned sloths whose mothers died or abandoned them. Why their mothers leave them is a mystery, says Cliffe. "Most of the babies are seemingly healthy and are found alone on the ground."

Infants who have lost their mothers before they're 6 months old can never live on their own: Their mothers haven't taught them the skills for surviving in the rainforest. Unfortunately, people don't know how to teach them.

"We desperately need to learn more about sloths," says Cliffe.

Sloth Sleuths

To gather data, Cliffe is outfitting some of the animals with high-tech backpacks. They hold electronic devices she calls daily diaries. The diaries contain cameras, compasses, and various sensors. They tell Cliffe what the sloths eat, where their favorite trees are, how far they roam, and when they mate.

Cliffe hopes that a deeper understanding of sloths will help people learn how to better protect them. She thinks more knowledge might also make it possible to teach sloths raised by people how to survive in the wild.

We have a lot to learn about sloths. But we can learn lessons from them too. Avey-Arroyo tries to live by the following sloth-inspired advice: "Live in peace and harmony, and chew your food slowly."

words to know

rainforest--a dense forest in a wet region

predator--an animal that hunts and eats other animals

algae--plant-like organisms without leaves or roots adapt-to develop traits for surviving in a particular habitat

deforestation--removal of trees so the land can be used for something else, like farming

Brown-Throated Three-Toed Sloth

LENGTH: 40-77 centimeters (16 to 30 inches)

WEIGHT: 2.5-5.5 kilograms (5.5 to 12 pounds)

APPEARANCE: Gray-brown coat with a pate patch on the forehead. Three claws on the front paws.

DIET: Exclusively leaves

RANGE:

Hoffmann's Two-Toed Sloth

LENGTH: 54-70 centimeters (21 to 28 inches)

WEIGHT: 4-8 kilograms (9 to 18 pounds)

APPEARANCE: Brown coat with a pale patch on the throat. Two claws on the front paws.

DIET: Leaves, fruits, and flowers

RANGE:

LIFE SCIENCE

Lexile Level 790; Guided Reading Level P

OBJECTIVE

Learn how and why the sloth sanctuary rescues injured and orphaned sloths.

SET UP

1. Use the Internet to obtain and print a photo depicting deforestation.

2. Write the following statements on the board:

a. Tropical rainforests are home to more than 50 percent of all species on the planet.

b. Sixty percent of the world's rainforests are protected.

c. Human activity is the primary cause of rainforest destruction.

BEFORE READING

1. Project the deforestation photo. Ask: What do you observe? (Answers will vary but may include trees cut down and cutting caused by humans.)

2. Have students preview the Words to Know box on page 4. Ask: Which word represents what you observed in the photo? (deforestation)

3. Ask students to write whether each statement on the board is true or false. Give them five minutes to discuss their reasoning with a partner.

4. Tally and discuss the correct answers (a- true; b false: only 11% are protected; c -true).

AFTER READING

* Why is the sloth sanctuary needed? (Mysterious sloth behavior and human-related hazards can result in sloths being injured or orphaned.)

RESOURCE

For more on rainforests, visit: http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/rainforest/rainforest.asp.

READING AND LITERACY CONNECTION

Go to www.scholastic.com/superscience to download the skills sheet "Sloths in Danger." Students identify cause-and-effect relationships within the text.

Common Core State Standard Reading Informational Text: 3

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Saving sloths: a sanctuary in Costa Rica rescues injured and orphaned sloths.

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Free Online Library: Saving sloths: a sanctuary in Costa Rica rescues injured and orphaned sloths.(life science, Sloth Sanctuary, Cover story) by "SuperScience"; Science and technology, general Education Family and marriage Animal sanctuaries Aims and objectives Sloths Behavior Protection and preservation

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During the San Francisco X Games, MomsTeam talked to moms of some of the top athletes, who shared their experiences in the world of "extreme" sports and advice on what other parents should know to help them decide if these sports are right for their child.

A Generation Gap?

If you don't know much about the new sports that have kids across the country jumping, spinning and riding every chance they get, relax! You are not alone. Despite having moved into mainstream culture, they are still very generational, with most parents knowing only what they learn from their kids. As a result, parents usually have lots of questions, like: Are these sports safe? Where do I take my kids to learn? How do I buy the proper equipment? Can you really make a living as an extreme athlete and how do I know if my child is good enough to compete?

Some of what moms told us was not surprising, including the very real risk of injuries. Every parent had a story about stitches or broken bones, but, as they pointed out, so does the parent of a football or soccer player. On the other hand, we were surprised when moms told us about how close many had become to their teenagers as a result of their support and involvement in their child's choice of a non-traditional sport. Both the mothers and the athletes helped explain why many kids are drawn "alternative" sports instead of more traditional sports.

Family Support is Key

The mothers we spoke with, all who have children competing at these X Games, had to make tough decisions and sacrifices to help their kids reach this level of competition. In some cases they travel the country with their child to attend competitions, spending considerable time away from the rest of the family. The moms confess to having had concerns when their kids first began these sports about the possibility of injuries. And many of them had little knowledge, let along first hand experience, about sports like skateboarding or in-line skating. But once it became clear to them that this was what their child loved doing and that they had the talent, they committed themselves and their time to helping their children fulfill their dreams.

Debby Pastrana is the mother of 16-year-old Moto X freestyle phenom and gold medallist in the 1999 and 2000 X Games, Travis Pastrana. In this, one of the most dangerous sports at the X Games, where riders fly 35 feet in the air and perform extremely difficult tricks on a motorcycle, Debby has had to face her fears as a parent and rise above them to support her son's dream. "Its hard, it's very hard. Travis has broken over 20 bones and been in a wheelchair for two and half months when they weren't sure if he would be paralyzed. It was the hardest thing as a parent, but you see your kid who tries and it's in their heart. As a parent, if you see this in your child, you have to support it. You have to. And if you don't support them then lots of things are going to be worse. Because then they feel the friction of that and don't want to go against you. We are in it 100%, I've been with him every step of the way. When he's hurt and in rehab, he never complains, and that's when you know [that he's committed]," explained Pastrana.

On the other hand, some parents still don't see extreme sports as real athletic competition and, as a result, don't respect the path their child has chosen. One parent, who didn't want to give her name, shared with us how a lack of support can really harm a parent/child relationship. While both parents have decided to support their child's decision to become a professional bike stunt rider, one parent continues to belittle the sport and has yet to attend any competitions. This has caused a lot of pain for their child and has seriously strained family relationships.

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Getting Involved In "Extreme Sports": Advice From Parents Of Top Extreme Athletes

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During the San Francisco X Games, MomsTeam talked to moms of some of the top athletes, who shared their experiences in the world of "extreme" sports and advice on what other parents should know to help them decide if these sports are

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Much of the chatter during Sunday's Super Bowl will undoubtedly be about how the rhetoric is heating up over long-term head injuries in football. But Coloradans needn't look any further than our own backyard mountains for discussion on a similarly dangerous development.

Snowmobiler Caleb Moore died Thursday from injuries to his heart and brain after a violent crash during last weekend's Winter X Games in Aspen in which his 450-pound snowmobile landed on top of him during a competition.

Just hours before his accident, Moore told The Denver Post that his snowmobiling career was launched "after barely a month of practice."

As a trend, most snow sports for amateurs have ostensibly gotten safer over the last decade, with helmet use up over 171 percent and 67 percent of skiers and snowboarders opting to protect their heads, according to the National Ski Areas Association. Despite that, serious injuries on the slopes have increased while the number of annual skier days has decreased by more than 6 million.

While the NSAA cites just a one in a million chance of incurring a serious injury on the slopes, the movement on the mountains is still to be better, higher, faster and more daring and treacherous recreationally, in competition, in the backcountry - and perhaps with less experience - than ever before.

There were 54 in-bounds skiing and snowboarding fatalities nationwide in the 2011-12 season, plus 51 serious injuries. In the 2002-03 season, there were 37 fatalities and 33 serious injuries.

Chris Nowinski, a former WWE wrestler and founding executive director of the nonprofit Sports Legacy Institute, which aims to advance the study, treatment, and prevention of the effects of brain trauma in athletes, says while safety is the purpose of helmets, they actually encourage risk-taking behavior "because they can limit immediate consequences like pain and lacerations."

The International Ski Federation has made significant changes in equipment rules in order to make the sport safer for professionals, but while athletes are competing at the same venues as past generations with more secure measures in place, the risks are still larger as the push in competition is to go bigger. The 100 miles per hour World Cup downhill ski barrier was broken for the first time during the Wengen downhill in Switzerland last month, for one. And Powder magazine recently questioned the future of women's slopestyle after most of the U.S. team was sidelined with injuries like concussions and a torn ACL at last year's U.S. Grand Prix.

Über-snowboarder and two-time Olympic gold medalist in the halfpipe, Shaun White is roundly praised as a showman with tremendously intricate skills, although he also has the benefit of sponsors to pay for a state-of-the-art, incredibly safe practice facility. In a 2010 "60 Minutes" profile, he gave a tour of his training camp, which includes a foam pit and 500-foot super pipe in the San Juan Mountains, which was built expressly for him by a sponsor and only accessible by helicopter. Most other athletes might have the benefit of safer equipment, but they still don't have that kind of entrée to such protective care.

Access to safer equipment also tends to make more casual snow riders feel perhaps prematurely qualified to attempt to emulate their professional icons. The popularity of events like the Winter X Games in Aspen, Burton Open in Vail and the Dew Tour in Breckenridge and extreme athletes like Tanner Hall help contribute to a precarious culture that some argue is getting out of hand.

Ted Mahon, a career skier who has skied all of Colorado's fourteeners as well as climbed Mount Everest, said that while in all sports there is a progression wherein prior generations try to build on the accomplishments of their predecessors, "in the case of skiing, the progression has gotten to a point where to move forward to the next level, the margin of error has grown very thin."

He also believes that much of the field at events such as the X Games is just too young to understand the gravity of their attempts towards X gold.

"If you're 16 and they dangle prize money, sponsorships and the chance to star in a Red Bull video, it's no wonder the kids want to do it," Mahon said.

Gadgets like GoPros, the helmet cameras that Men's Fitness magazine praises as "just the device to capture whatever it is that gets your adrenaline pumping" aid and abet tweens and adolescents who try imitating the extraordinary tricks they see in competitions and commercials in an effort to impress their actual and social-media friends - while in terrain parks. Without age minimums and extra monitoring from ski patrol in the parks, the chance of injury is great.

Still, two-time extreme skiing world champion Chris Davenport commends the ski industry as a whole, including the resorts, for trying to make the sport safer and thinks families who ski recreationally aren't doing it much different today than, say, 20 years ago. Yet he agrees there's an alarming inclination on the professional side to push the envelope to near-fatal extremes.

"You have to do the new trick, go bigger in the pipe, flip the snowmobile - this is what keeps franchises like the X Games going. Otherwise it wouldn't be as interesting."

Mahon agrees, and believes to an extent that contenders like Moore are just answering the demand of the crowds - and likely ESPN.

"People watch snowmobiling because they know there's going to be a crash. It's not such an interesting event," Mahon said. "It's actually kind of silly. Everyone's just waiting for the wipeout."

Nowinski believes the biggest concern with events like the X Games is that there's no one setting limits to the risks athletes can take.

"If the sport's leadership doesn't have a firm hand in telling athletes not to kill themselves and to take reasonable risks instead, there's no limit to how much damage they can do to themselves," Nowinski said.

National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell is attempting to make that league safer after a highly publicized spate of head injuries and suicides, even if some players and fans don't necessarily appreciate the increased number of fines and flags for hits that referees deem dangerous.

Baltimore Ravens safety Bernard Pollard told CBSSports.com that while he thinks Goodell is killing the league, he still worries "there's going to be a death on the field one day because of the direction we're taking." Ultimately, he said he agrees that something has to be done about player safety.

Tanner Hall last year told HBO's "Real Sports" that "a lot of the consequences can be death because that's just where the progression of skiing is going," but he wasn't on the same page as Pollard about whether he thought that any kind of intervention was in order.

"The answer is to keep going," Hall said.

Whether the prize is the highest ratings on ESPN, the most lucrative energy drink endorsement deal or the best amateur GoPro video to share on Facebook on Twitter, one thing is clear: Few appear to be interested in applying the brakes.
Meredith C. Carroll of Aspen writes a weekly column in The Denver Post. Contact her at meredithccarroll@hotmail.com or on Twitter @mccarroll.

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M. Carroll: Extreme sports: Higher, faster and more treacherous

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M. Carroll: Extreme sports: Higher, faster and more treacherous

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Kaid Jaret Olson-Weston isn't out of grade school yet, but later this month he'll drive his own custom-built monster truck at a monster truck show in Wildwood, N.J.. Lane Huszar was riding bulls by age 10. And Jay Cramer began competing in motocross races at the age of 4.

These kids are all doing what some may call extreme sports with their parents' permission. Sometimes, injuries happen: Cramer once broke his arm during racing practice when his bike sputtered just before a jump and then broke it again just months later. He is now recovering. His father said his son wants to return to racing and hopes to be cleared by doctors to participate again by Thanksgiving.

"We take every precaution we can to keep him safe," Cramer's father, Jason Cramer, told "20/20? after the first accident. He noted that his son wears a protective neck brace, a Kevlar vest and other equipment when he rides. "He could have broken his arm playing football too. It's just a risk that you take when you're involved in what could be a contact sport."

Would you let your child participate in an extreme sport? Vote below and learn more about these incredible children and their parents Friday on "20/20? at a special time, 9 p.m. ET.

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Extreme Sports for Kids: Would You Let Your Child Do Them?

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Get breaking national and world news, broadcast video coverage, and exclusive interviews. Find the top news online at ABC news.

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Before we even got off the boat, we saw their shadowy figures in the clear water below.

As Norman Eiley, our boat driver, prepared to cast anchor, a handful of sharks and stingrays swam beneath the boat's wake. The 15 high school students I was traveling with started to squeal. "I never get to see sharks in the water!" said Emma Cooper-Mullin, 17, from Irvington, N.Y., with fins and snorkel in hand. "I really want to swim with one."

Holding a nurse shark at the Hol Chan Marine Reserve in Belize.

AmbergrisCaye.com

Within minutes, we were all in the water, making that dream come true. For the next hour, we snorkeled with a handful of nurse sharks and southern stingrays at Shark Ray Alley-a shallow sandbar just south of Ambergris Caye, an island in northern Belize. Shark Ray Alley is part of the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. It is illegal to catch fish there. Instead, tourism is the main draw.

Every day, boats full of tourists arrive at Shark Ray Alley, where tour guides feed chunks of fish guts to the animals. As a result, the area's sharks and rays-some bigger than we are-have become so used to people that they'll swim right up to you and even let you touch them.

And that's the problem. Just days before we snorkeled at Shark Ray Alley, Norman told me, a fisherman from the mainland had cruised in at 4 in the morning, caught 9 or 10 nurse sharks, and killed them to sell their fins and meat.

"People noticed them missing that day," Norman said. "They were complaining-no sharks, no sharks, no sharks. Nobody has ever done something like this before on a large scale."
Underwater national parks
Marine reserves, or sanctuaries, are supposed to prevent such incidents from happening. Like national parks under water, marine reserves are set up to protect designated areas of the ocean from fishing, instead favoring research, education, and tourism.

Published research on the benefits of marine reserves worldwide has exploded in recent years, says Jim Bohnsack, a fisheries biologist at the National Marine Fisheries Service in Miami. "The scientific community is 99 percent supportive of marine reserves," he says. "They work for protecting biodiversity and protecting resources."

The idea is that a carefully designed network of protected areas should help the health of the entire ocean. Fish and other creatures can grow up safely inside reserves before spilling over the edges, where they become fair game for fishermen.

The Hol Chan Marine Reserve protects fish and other sea creatures.

AmbergrisCaye.com

"It's like an insurance policy," Bohnsack says. "If you make mistakes, you have something in the bank, like a savings account, that can help resupply areas that have been overfished."

In support of marine reserves, Bohnsack points to evidence that bigger fish tend to lay more eggs. So, fish inside reserves should be more likely to produce even more fish with stronger genes. In theory, everyone wins, including fishermen and conservationists.

"It's like having your cake and eating it, too," Bohnsack says.
Boosting conservation
Marine reserves also make sense economically, says Charles Acosta, an ecologist at Northern Kentucky University. By tracking lobsters, queen conch, and other animals with radio technology and using mathematical models to analyze population patterns, Acosta and his colleagues have come up with dollar figures to show fishermen that conservation will actually boost their business in the long run.

Acosta's work has contributed to a debate over what marine reserves should look like. "One of our biggest, most important results has been that there is a limit that you cannot go below in terms of size of reserve," he says. "If the reserve is too small, it will have no effect at all."

A southern stingray.

AmbergrisCaye.com

Still, plans to create marine reserves are often controversial, especially in places like the Florida Keys, where the fishing industry has a lot of money at stake.

And even after reserves are established, enforcement is often difficult and more expensive than most developing countries can afford. At Hol Chan, a ranger zooms around all day long, collecting fees from snorkelers and divers who visit the area.

You can pay a fine of up to $500 if you get caught stealing even a piece of coral. Other reserves rely more on word-of-mouth and the honor principle for protection.
Sharks in the wild
Unfortunately, those kinds of systems can backfire, as the recent incident at Shark Ray Alley demonstrates. "To have all those sharks living in one place is setting them up for something like this to happen," said Norman, who is also treasurer of the Belizean Tour Guide Association. He is now determined to track down and punish the shark poachers and to revise enforcement policies in Belize. "We all depended on the honesty of fishermen," he said.

Besides, Norman added, maybe it's better not to turn shark sightings into humdrum, everyday events. "It used to be when you saw a nurse shark it was like, 'Wow!,'" he said. "But after going to Shark Ray Alley, it's like 'Oh, there's another one.' The element of surprise has changed."

Given a choice between seeing a shark by chance in the wild and seeing a shark at a place like Sting Ray Alley, most of the students in our group reluctantly agreed. "I guess I would rather see sharks when no one else was around than at Shark Ray Alley," Emma said on the boat ride back to Ambergris Caye.

Her classmate Cheryl Berman, an 18-year-old senior from Armonk, N.Y., wasn't so sure. "I think both are pretty cool."
Going Deeper: Additional Information Word Find: Swimming with Sharks Questions about the Article

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Real sanctuaries are safe, comfortable places for animals to live after they've been rescued from not-so-nice places like circuses or laboratories. People can sometimes visit these sanctuaries, which is an awesome way to learn about and see animals without supporting businesses that hurt them, like roadside zoos or wildlife parks. Roadside zoos and wildlife parks use animals to make money. It's confusing because they sometimes call themselves "sanctuaries" or "rescues" to bring in more customers, because they know that people don't want to visit roadside zoos, but they're being dishonest when they do that.

It's important not to get these horrible places confused with actual sanctuaries. But how can you tell the difference? It's easy! There are a few simple questions you can ask about a place to figure out whether it's helping or hurting animals the animals who live there.

You can find answers to these questions by browsing a facility's website and social media pages (your parents can help):

1. How are animals housed?

Real sanctuaries make sure that an animal's living space is as close to their natural habitat as possible. Animals should live with others of their own kind so they can have friends. It's mean to keep them all alone in small, dirty pens with concrete floors and nothing to do-and you should stay away from places like that.

2. What kinds of activities do the animals get to do?

The animals' living area should have lots of ways for them to play and enjoy themselves! For example, there should be a large structure for chimpanzees to climb on, water for bears to soak and splash in, and large fields for roaming and exploring. Animals need these things if they're going to be healthy, happy, and comfortable.

Animals should also live with others of the same species so they can communicate with each another easily and form relationships and groups. In many sanctuaries, the animals who already live there help teach the newcomers how to get back in touch with their natural instincts and enjoy life again.

3. How big is the facility?

Animals should be given enough space to explore, roam, climb, and forage. And a real sanctuary NEVER takes the animals out of the facility to show them off.

4. Are visitors allowed to touch or hold the animals?

True wild-animal sanctuaries (with big cats, bears, primates, or wolves) NEVER allow visitors to touch or hold the animals, even babies, and that includes taking photos with them. This would be scary for the animals and dangerous to the visitors, too!

5. Where did the animals come from?

The animals who live there probably came from a place where they were mistreated, so they have a sad and painful past. The staff will want to share each animal's story so that visitors can learn about the various places that hurt animals (like laboratories, circuses, and roadside zoos). Real sanctuaries provide animals with a permanent home for the rest of their life. They NEVER trade, borrow, or loan animals.

6. Does the facility breed animals?

Sanctuaries NEVER breed animals, meaning that they don't make any of the animals have babies. Places that do breed animals are using them to make money-that's not right, and that's not a sanctuary.

7. What is it like to visit a sanctuary?

Most sanctuaries only allow very limited visits. Usually a guide takes people on a small tour of the place and doesn't let them walk around by themselves.

8. Is it accredited?

True sanctuaries are accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS), a group that makes sure sanctuaries follow strict rules to protect the animals who live there, like the ones listed above.
*****
All living, feeling beings deserve a comfortable place to live where people aren't always staring at them. A true sanctuary puts the needs and wants of the animals first. So if you care about animals, NEVER visit a roadside zoo or a wildlife park, and explain to your friends and family why places like that are bad for animals!

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8 Ways to Tell a REAL Sanctuary From a Roadside Zoo | PETA Kids

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Roadside zoo or animal sanctuary? This list will explain the difference-so you can figure out if a place is hurting or helping animals.

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The possibility of keeping large sharks in captivity has been of great interest to many public aquariums, which seemed unlikely because they need more delicate care than most other fish. Until lately, the only species that lived in captivity were some species like leopard sharks and horned sharks, among others which are benthic animals and not very large.

THE CHALLENGES OF THE CAPTIVITY

The shark species most wanted by aquariums is the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), which has awakened the fear and fascination since its representation (exaggerated) in the 1975 film JAWS. The reality is that attempts to keep them in a huge tank in front of hundreds of curious eyes have not been very successful. In general, large species such as the Carcharodon carcharias are difficult to catch and transport. Their sharp senses are disturbed with the use of structures and machines, to take them out of the water, their weight can damage their organs while carrying them, because their cartilaginous skeleton does not provide the support needed for transport.

Besides, if an aquarium wants a great white shark in their tanks, it must fit a space large enough and adequate to its needs. The life of a shark in an aquarium also includes satisfying its feeding needs.

It is very expensive to keep sharks in captivity which is also another reason why they often aren't found in aquariums. They require saltwater tanks with an enough room to move around, and they consume large amounts of food daily.

In 2004, the Monterey Bay Aquarium managed to condition a space for a great white shark, and it stayed there for six months, after which it was released back into its natural habitat. The attempt was made for the first time in 1980 when the same aquarium kept an individual of the same species in captivity but unfortunately died after 11 days at the facilities. That time the conditions were not adequately met.

To guarantee an optimal life development in captivity, it is important that aquariums or any place that keep sharks fulfill these conditions:

1. Sharks can move comfortably during their transportation to their next habitat.

2. Sharks natural movements and reactions are not limited or restricted. Some shark species like the great white shark are susceptible to stress if they do not execute physical activities.

3. The tank that houses the shark should be adequate and free of obstacles that hinder any of its movements.

4. The environment should not have human artifacts, machines or tools that stimulate their sense of electroreception.

UNFORTUNATE CASES

Although some small species are prone to survive in aquariums, it is dangerous to use small places to exhibit or keep them. There have been cases of people selling sharks illegally to people who do not have the skills to keep a shark alive and healthy. Sometimes, when the young ones grow, space can become more limited, and those who own them are forced to make some adverse decisions for the animals, such as their release into the sea without previously experienced life in the wild.

Sharks are not domestic animals, so their care is more special than dogs cats or ornament fish. Keeping an individual involves an enormous investment of time and money and requires the knowledge about their life and care. Therefore it is an important responsibility.

PROSPECTS OF A LIFE IN CAPTIVITY.

Captivity is not an ideal condition for any animal, but this view changes when it comes to threatened species. In the case of sharks, many of them face serious dangers, and it is important to take measures to protect and preserve such species.

Life in captivity may be favorable to their survival to some degree. For example, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has made efforts to provide information on the species and it is a pioneer in exhibiting white sharks. However, some organizations disagree with the latter practice, and the aquarium has not keep white sharks again.

If there is an advantage of having sharks within human limits, it is the possibility to investigate their biological, physiological and health conditions that allow an assessment and subsequent establishment of conservation measures for the affected species. However, many experts agree that sharks in captivity don't follow the usual behavior that they would in the wild. Therefore observing them in captivity to learn about how their life in the wild isn't very useful at all.

It should not be forgotten that sharks are not "made" to live indoors. They need space and freedom like all animals. If it is not strictly useful for the survival of the species, do not support its captivity.
Sources:
www.peta.org/blog/great-white-shark-dies-after-just-three-days-in-aquarium/

http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/experience/explore/programs-activities/animal-interactions/journey-with-gentle-giants/swim-with-whale-sharks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharks_in_captivity
BioExpedition Publishing © 2017.

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Sharks are not made for captivity. Most species do not do well in captivity and their life span get severely shorten.

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Humanity has been flying in space for 50 years now, but we are still confined to a single planet - Earth.

If it took only eight years to go from no humans in space to the first man on the moon, why haven't humans colonized Mars and other worlds yet? Or at the least the moon?

"NASA's plan as of 1969 was to have a human Mars mission by 1981, a permanent moon base in the '80s and a permanent Mars base in 1988," said Robert Zubrin, president and founder of the Mars Society.

(Image credit: ESA)

Interplanetary human voyages pose definite scientific and technological challenges. One would have to deal with the rigors of travel - issues of food, water and oxygen, the deleterious effects of microgravity, potential hazards such as fire and radiation and the fact that any such astronauts would be millions of miles away from help and confined together for years at a time. Landing, working, living and returning from another planet would offer a host of challenges as well. [Vote! The Best Spaceships of All Time]
Space exploration versus politics

(Image credit: ESA)

Still, the main reason that people have not yet voyaged past the orbit of the moon is mostly a political one.

The era of human spaceflight began on April 12, 1961, when the Soviet Union shocked the world by launching cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, into orbit. At the time, the so-called Space Race was under way, with the United States and Soviet Union both working to land a human on the moon first. That race ended with NASA's historic Apollo 11 moon shot, which landed astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969.

"The Cold War is over," said Bill Nye, executive director of the Planetary Society.

Back in the early days of human spaceflight, the United States and Soviet Union were locked in the Cold War, a life-or-death struggle that spurred the space race for control of the ultimate high ground.

Since then, however, "we've had a major failure of political leadership in this country when it came to human spaceflight," Zubrin said. "It'd be like Columbus coming back from America and Ferdinand and Isabella saying, 'so what?'"

(Image credit: ESA)

A question of will
Although one "can talk forever about the technical problems, those are red herrings," Zubrin said. "You can talk about the risk of being exposed to radiation in space for years, but cosmonauts have already had larger cosmic ray doses at the International Space Station and Mir. This isn't a question of technical challenges - it's a question of will." [ The Best (and Worst) Mars Landings]

"You can say it's risky, but imagine all the risks human spaceflight faced in the beginning," Zubrin said. "When Kennedy gave his speech in May of 1961 about putting a man on the moon, we had 15 minutes of human spaceflight experience, and yet we went."

"My uncle landed on Normandy beach," Zubrin said. "They didn't hold up the Normandy landing until they knew it was safe. If you're going to wait to go to Mars until it's going to be safe, you're never going to Mars."

The goal now "is toget people to realize the value of human spaceflight," Nye said. "When we explore with robots, we make discoveries, but not nearly as fast as with people, and not in the same engaging way."

"This is really a challenge of who we are, what kind of people we are," Zubrin said. "Are we willing to accept challenges and embrace risk? Or are we ultimately resigning from our role as a nation of pioneers?"
Follow SPACE.com contributor Charles Q. Choi on Twitter @cqchoi. Visit SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on.

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For 50 years, humans have been flying in space, yet there are no astronauts living on Mars. If it took 8 years to reach the moon in the Space Race, why hasn't Earth colonized Mars?

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Forget Mars, we should go back to the MOON says Chris Hadfield

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EXCLUSIVE: Canadian former astronaut Chris Hadfield (shown) told MailOnline that current plans to go to Mars are too ambitious - at least at the moment.

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Stephen Ornes lives in Nashville, Tenn., and his family has two rabbits, six chickens and a cat. He has written for Science News Explores since 2008 on topics including lightning, feral pigs, big bubbles and space junk.

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Every messy kid gets told to clean up his or her room. City governments send out trucks and crews to clean up roads and parks. Now, scientists say if we want

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Each white dot represents an individual piece of tracked orbital debris. This image shows the Low Earth Orbit, which is the region from the Earth's surface to 1,240 miles and contains the most space junk.

NASA Johnson Space Center

On a clear night, you can look in the sky and see the moon and stars. You might even see the blinking light of a working satellite as it flies past, on its way around the Earth.

And, even though you cannot see it, you are also looking at the largest junkyard in the solar system.

Higher than the highest clouds but much closer than the moon, the bulk of the junkyard stretches from the Earth's surface to 20,000 miles overhead. There are tens of millions of pieces of rubbish there. Some of the pieces are rocks and dust from passing comets, but most of them are manmade and called "orbital debris" (pronounced duh-BREE).

There are some unusual things up there, like a camera that floated away from astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams in December 2006. Other astronauts have lost tools like wrenches and screwdrivers. In 1965 astronaut Ed White even lost a spare glove. Most of the junk, however, comes from large satellites and rockets that fell apart after they stopped working.

Together, all the space junk would weigh about 11 million pounds on Earth, or more than 3,000 cars. The largest piece is a part of a rocket about the size of a minivan. The smallest piece would fit on your pinkie fingernail with room to spare.

"It's like a classic environmental problem, like water pollution or air pollution," says Nicholas Johnson. Johnson is the Chief Scientist for Orbital Debris at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. His job is to keep track of the orbiting garbage.

The junkyard is a serious problem for the future of spaceflight.

"You've got multimillion satellites in orbit all the time, and manned space flights," says Joe Gambrell, who helps keep track of both working and broken-down satellites. His main tool is the U.S. Space Surveillance Network, which is part of the U.S. military. Gambrell works at the Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo. "If you don't track debris, you risk some kind of collision," he adds.

In 2007, the space junkyard grew by more than 100,000 pieces. That's more than any other year since people started launching satellites into space. The problem of space junk is not going away, and scientists are watching closely.

Danger in Orbit

A "satellite" is any object that orbits another object, held close by gravity. The moon is a satellite of the Earth, and the Earth is a satellite of the sun. These are natural satellites. Manmade satellites, which are built on Earth and launched into space, are used for communications, scientific studies and military applications.

In the last 50 years, human beings have launched thousands of artificial satellites into space. When a satellite stops working, it usually falls back toward the Earth and burns up in the atmosphere. Satellites at high altitudes, however, sometimes remain in Earth's orbit.

Later, they may fall apart or explode into thousands of smaller pieces. The higher the satellite, the longer it stays in orbit, and the more likely it is to break apart. The pieces may stay in orbit for years, decades or even centuries.

At the NASA Ames Research Center, scientists simulate what would happen were a tiny piece of space junk to hit a spacecraft.

NASA

Space junk races around the Earth at breakneck speeds. Most pieces fly through space at more than 20 times the speed that sound travels on Earth. Going that fast, even the smallest pieces mean big trouble for spacecraft. For example, a tiny marble in orbit around the Earth can have as much energy as a bowling ball going 500 miles per hour, or a car going 30 miles per hour.

A tiny fleck of paint struck and cracked one window of the space shuttle Challenger while it was in space in 1983. The shuttle returned to Earth safely from that mission.

NASA Johnson Space Center

In 1983, a small gouge appeared in one window of the space shuttle Challenger while it was in space. When the shuttle returned to Earth and scientists analyzed the window, they found that the crack was caused by a tiny, orbiting fleck of paint. If the shuttle had been struck by a larger piece of junk, the astronauts may have been in danger.

Many other satellites and space shuttles have also shown damage from tiny pieces of trash. When the space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth last August, its radiator panels had small holes from space garbage. Last year, two satellites had to be redirected to avoid collisions with big pieces of junk.

The U.S. Space Surveillance Network and NASA work together to keep track of the largest pieces. When the shuttle is in orbit, for example, their attention is on nearby junk that may get in the way. If there is even a small chance of a collision, then the shuttle changes direction.

Watching the garbage

About 17,000 pieces of garbage are larger than 4 inches, which is slightly smaller than a softball. The Space Surveillance Network keeps a list of all these pieces, using dozens of telescopes and antennas on Earth and in space to watch them. Because all the pieces are in motion all the time, keeping track is difficult (but not impossible).

Monitoring the space junk is a problem of energy and motion. To keep track of the junk, the scientists have to know two things: where the garbage is now, and where it is going to be in the future.

This antenna, located in the Mojave Desert, California, can use radio to detect tiny pieces of junk, if they're not too high.

NASA Johnson Space Center

To find out where a piece is now, scientists use telescopes and high-powered antennas to watch it fly through space. Every day, scientists must make sure each piece is where they expect to find it. A "lost piece" could mean serious danger for a working satellite or space shuttle.

To find out where the piece is going, scientists measure its speed and direction as it crosses the sky. Some of the pieces move in an almost perfect circle around the Earth. Other pieces move in elliptical orbits, which means they are sometimes closer to Earth and sometimes farther as they fly. The measurement of direction is complicated because junk can move north or south, east or west, and up or down.

By knowing the location, speed and direction of each big piece of junk, the scientists can predict where all the pieces will go. (Similarly, in baseball, an outfielder has to predict where a pop fly will land, if she wants to catch it. In soccer, a goalie has to predict where a ball will go, so he can block it.)

"We're always looking about four days into the future, tracking objects which might come close," says Johnson.

There are tens of millions of pieces smaller than softballs. Because there are so many small pieces, "We can't [keep track] of them all," Johnson says. Instead of watching each piece individually, scientists use telescopes and antennas to watch one patch of sky and count the number of pieces that pass overhead. With that small measurement, they can use a computer program to get a good idea of what the whole sky looks like.

Keeping track of all the junk is necessary to ensure that astronauts and working satellites can be safe. Like other environmental problems, space junk will get worse without careful monitoring and attention. In the future, pieces of junk will probably hit each other, making even more trash.

The more garbage that remains in orbit, the greater the risk to space flights. What can be done about the problem of space junk? The large pieces of junk cannot be brought back to Earth, Johnson says, because the technology is too expensive. Instead, he says, we should try to stop adding new garbage. For example, engineers are changing the way they build spacecraft.

"How you build your satellite can minimize debris," Gambrell says.

A solution will require international cooperation. Last year, the United Nations General Assembly approved guidelines for how to reduce the risk of space junk. Johnson says that spacefaring countries came together because "the environment was getting worse every year."

If countries work together to control the amount of trash we send into space, Johnson says, we can keep the problem under control. In the future, perhaps we can even clean up the mess.

"In time, either technology or economics will allow us to go out and [improve] the environment," he says.

Stephen Ornes lives in Nashville, Tenn., and his family has two rabbits, six chickens and a cat. He has written for Science News Explores since 2008 on topics including lightning, feral pigs, big bubbles and space junk.

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Each white dot represents an individual piece of tracked orbital debris. This image shows the Low Earth Orbit, which is the region from the Earth's surface to 1,240 miles and contains the most space junk. NASA Johnson Space Center On a clear night, you can look in the sky and see the moon and stars.

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Trash . . . . . In Space? has 563 reviews and 0 ratings. Reviewer shashplay wrote: "Thank you this is so helpful for my 5 grade research 😇"

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Lego, also called LEGO, is a type of building toy created and made by the Lego Group, a company in Denmark. "Lego Bricks" are colorful plastic building blocks that can be joined together easily. Lego bricks are joined together by studs on the top, and holes in the bottom of the brick commonly known as the stud-and-tube connection. LEGO is the most popular building toy in the world.

The Lego company was started by Ole Kirk Christiansen a Danish toy maker in 1935. Christiansen made wooden toys for children. He made and sold his first plastic Lego sets in the 1940s. Since then, Lego toys have become very popular and are known and loved by people around the world kids and adults alike.

Lego bricks come in many shapes and sizes. There are wheels, car screens, and plants. Lego bricks can be joined together in many ways. Vehicles, buildings and even robots can all be built with Lego bricks.

Almost all the bricks from Lego sets can fit together. New bricks made today can fit with old bricks made years ago. The bricks can join together no matter which set they come from. Lego has become so popular that people sometimes use the word "Lego" to talk about any sort of building blocks. There are millions of LEGO fans and conventions around the world

The Lego Group began in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen (1891-1958), a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, who began making wooden toys in 1932. In 1934, his company came to be called "Lego", derived from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means "play well". In 1947, Lego expanded to begin producing plastic toys. In 1949 Lego began producing, among other new products, an early version of the now familiar interlocking bricks, calling them "Automatic Binding Bricks". These bricks were based in part on the Kiddicraft Self-Locking Bricks, which were patented in the United Kingdom in 1939 and released in 1947. Lego modified the design of the Kiddicraft brick after examining a sample that they received from the supplier of an injection-molding machine that Lego purchased. The bricks, originally manufactured from cellulose acetate, were a development of the traditional stackable wooden blocks of the time.

The Lego Group's motto is det bedste er ikke for godt which means roughly "only the best is the best" (more literally "the best is never too good"). This motto, which is still used today, was created by Christiansen to encourage his employees never to skimp on quality, a value he believed in strongly. By 1951 plastic toys accounted for half of the Lego company's output, even though the Danish trade magazine Legetøjs-Tidende ("Toy-Times"), visiting the Lego factory in Billund in the early 1950s, felt that plastic would never be able to replace traditional wooden toys. Although a common sentiment, Lego toys seem to have become a significant exception to the dislike of plastic in children's toys, due in part to the high standards set by Ole Kirk.

By 1954, Christiansen's son, Godtfred, had become the junior managing director of the Lego Group. It was his conversation with an overseas buyer that led to the idea of a toy system. Godtfred saw the immense potential in Lego bricks to become a system for creative play, but the bricks still had some problems from a technical standpoint: their locking ability was limited and they were not versatile. In 1958, the modern brick design was developed; it took five years to find the right material for it, ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) polymer. The modern Lego brick design was patented on 28 January 1958.

The Lego Group's Duplo product line was introduced in 1969 and is a range of simple blocks whose lengths measure twice the width, height and depth of standard Lego blocks and are aimed towards younger children.

In 1978, Lego produced the first minifigures, which have since become a staple in most sets.

In May 2011, Space Shuttle Endeavour mission STS-134 brought 13 Lego kits to the International Space Station, where astronauts built models to see how they would react in microgravity, as a part of the Lego Bricks in Space program.

In May 2013, the largest model ever created was displayed in New York City and was made of over 5 million bricks; a 1:1 scale model of an X-wing fighter. Other records include a 112-foot (34 m) tower and a 4 km (2.5 mi) railway.

In February 2015, Lego replaced Ferrari as the "world's most powerful brand."

In popular culture

Lego's popularity is demonstrated by its wide representation and usage in many forms of cultural works, including books, films and art work. It has even been used in the classroom as a teaching tool. In the US, Lego Education North America is a joint venture between Pitsco, Inc. and the educational division of the Lego Group.

In 1998, Lego bricks were one of the original inductees into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong in Rochester, New York.

Lego pieces of all varieties constitute a universal system. Despite variation in the design and the purposes of individual pieces over the years, each piece remains compatible in some way with existing pieces. Lego bricks from 1958 still interlock with those made in the current time, and Lego sets for young children are compatible with those made for teenagers. Six bricks of 2 × 4 studs can be combined in 915,103,765 ways.

Each Lego piece must be manufactured to an exacting degree of precision. When two pieces are engaged they must fit firmly, yet be easily disassembled. The machines that manufacture Lego bricks have tolerances as small as 10 micrometres.

Primary concept and development work takes place at the Billund headquarters, where the company employs approximately 120 designers. The company also has smaller design offices in the UK, Spain, Germany, and Japan which are tasked with developing products aimed specifically at these markets. The average development period for a new product is around twelve months, split into three stages. The first stage is to identify market trends and developments, including contact by the designers directly with the market; some are stationed in toy shops close to holidays, while others interview children. The second stage is the design and development of the product based upon the results of the first stage. As of September 2008 the design teams use 3D modeling software to generate CAD drawings from initial design sketches. The designs are then prototyped using an in-house stereolithography machine. These prototypes are presented to the entire project team for comment and for testing by parents and children during the "validation" process. Designs may then be altered in accordance with the results from the focus groups. Virtual models of completed Lego products are built concurrently with the writing of the user instructions. Completed CAD models are also used in the wider organisation, for marketing and packaging.

Lego Digital Designer is an official piece of Lego software for Mac OS X and Windows which allows users to create their own digital Lego designs. The program once allowed customers to order their custom designs with a service to ship physical models from Digital Designer to consumers; the service ended in 2012.

Manufacturing

Since 1963, Lego pieces have been manufactured from a strong, resilient plastic known as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). As of September 2008, Lego engineers use the NX CAD/CAM/CAE PLM software suite to model the elements. The software allows the parts to be optimized by way of mould flow and stress analysis. Prototype moulds are sometimes built before the design is committed to mass production. The ABS plastic is heated to 232 °C (450 °F) until it reaches a dough-like consistency. It is then injected into the moulds at pressures between 25 and 150 tonnes, and takes approximately 15 seconds to cool. The moulds are permitted a tolerance of up to twenty micrometres, to ensure the bricks remain connected. Human inspectors check the output of the moulds, to eliminate significant variations in colour or thickness. According to the Lego Group, about eighteen bricks out of every million fail to meet the standard required. Lego factories recycle all but about 1 percent of their plastic waste from the manufacturing process. If the plastic cannot be re-used in Lego bricks, it is processed and sold on to industries that can make use of it.

Manufacturing of Lego bricks occurs at several locations around the world. Moulding is done in Billund; Nyíregyháza, Hungary; Monterrey, Mexico and most recently in Jiaxing, China. Brick decorations and packaging are done at plants in Denmark, Hungary, Mexico and Kladno in the Czech Republic. The Lego Group estimates that in five decades it has produced 400 billion Lego blocks. Annual production of Lego bricks averages approximately 36 billion, or about 1140 elements per second. According to an article in BusinessWeek in 2006, Lego could be considered the world's No. 1 tire manufacturer; the factory produces about 306 million small rubber tires a year. The claim was reiterated in 2012.

In December 2012, the BBC's More or Less radio program asked the Open University's engineering department to determine "how many Lego bricks, stacked one on top of the other, it would take for the weight to destroy the bottom brick?" Using a hydraulic testing machine, the engineering department determined the average maximum force a 2×2 Lego brick can stand is 4,240 newtons; since an average 2×2 Lego brick has a mass of 1.152 grams (0.0406 oz), according to their calculations it would take a stack of 375,000 bricks to cause the bottom brick to collapse, which represents a stack 3,591 metres (11,781 ft) in height.

Private tests have shown several thousand assembly-disassembly cycles before the bricks begin to wear out, although Lego tests show fewer cycles.

Lego set themes

Since the 1950s, the Lego Group has released thousands of sets with a variety of themes, including space, robots, pirates, trains, Vikings, castle, dinosaurs, undersea exploration, and wild west. Some of the classic themes that continue to the present day include Lego City (a line of sets depicting city life introduced in 1973) and Lego Technic (a line aimed at emulating complex machinery, introduced in 1977).

Over the years, Lego has licensed themes from numerous cartoon and film franchises and even some from video games. These include Batman, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Minecraft. Although some of the licensed themes, Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones, had highly successful sales, Lego has expressed a desire to rely more upon their own characters and classic themes, and less upon licensed themes related to movie releases.

For the 2012 Summer Olympics in London Lego released a special Lego Minifigures serie and for the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, Lego released a kit with the Olympic and Paralympic mascots Vinicius and Tom.

One of the largest Lego sets commercially produced was a minifig-scaled edition of the Star Wars Millennium Falcon. Designed by Jens Kronvold Fredericksen, it was released in 2007 and contained 5,195 pieces. It was surpassed by a 5,922-piece Taj Mahal. A redesigned Millenium Falcon recently retook the top spot in 2017 with 7,541 pieces.

Robotics themes

Lego also initiated a robotics line of toys called 'Mindstorms' in 1999, and has continued to expand and update this range ever since. The roots of the product originate from a programmable brick developed at the MIT Media Lab, and the name is taken from a paper by Seymour Papert, a computer scientist and educator who developed the educational theory of constructionism, and whose research was at times funded by the Lego Group.

The programmable Lego brick which is at the heart of these robotics sets has undergone several updates and redesigns, with the latest being called the 'EV3' brick, being sold under the name of Lego Mindstorms EV3. The set includes sensors that detect touch, light, sound and ultrasonic waves, with several others being sold separately, including an RFID reader.

The intelligent brick can be programmed using official software available for Windows and Mac computers, and is downloaded onto the brick via Bluetooth or a USB cable. There are also several unofficial programs and compatible programming languages that have been made to work with the brick, and many books have been written to support this community.

There are several robotics competitions which use the Lego robotics sets. The earliest is Botball, a national U.S. middle- and high-school competition stemming from the MIT 6.270 Lego robotics tournament. Other Lego robotics competitions include Junior FIRST LEGO League (Jr.FLL) for students ages 6-9 and FIRST Lego League (FLL) for students ages 9-16 (age 9-14 in the United States, Canada, and Mexico). Jr.FLL and FLL offer real-world engineering challenges to participants. FLL uses Lego-based robots to complete tasks. Jr.FLL participants build models out of Lego elements. In its 2010 season, there were 16,070 FLL teams in over 55 countries. In its 2010 season, there were 2,147 Jr.FLL teams with 12,882 total student participants in the United States and Canada. The international RoboCup Junior football competition involves extensive use of Lego Mindstorms equipment which is often pushed to its extreme limits.

The capabilities of the Mindstorms range have now been harnessed for use in Iko Creative Prosthetic System, a prosthetic limbs system designed for children. Designs for these Lego prosthetics allow everything from mechanical diggers to laser-firing spaceships to be screwed on to the end of a child's limb. Iko is the work of the Chicago-based Colombian designer Carlos Arturo Torres, and is a modular system that allows children to customise their own prosthetics with the ease of clicking together plastic bricks. Designed with Lego's Future Lab, the Danish toy company's experimental research department, and Cirec, a Colombian foundation for physical rehabilitation, the modular prosthetic incorporates myoelectric sensors that register the activity of the muscle in the stump and send a signal to control movement in the attachment. A processing unit in the body of the prosthetic contains an engine compatible with Lego Mindstorms, the company's robotics line, which lets the wearer build an extensive range of customised, programmable limbs.

Related services

Official website

First launched in 1996, the Lego website has developed over the years, and provides many extra services beyond an online store and a product catalogue. There are also moderated message boards that were founded in 2001. The site also includes instruction booklets for all Lego sets dating back to 2002.

My Lego Network is a social networking site that involves items, blueprints, ranks, badges which are earned for completing certain tasks, trading and trophies called masterpieces which allow users to progress to go to the next rank. The website has a built in inbox which allows users to send pre written messages to one another. The Lego Network includes automated non-player characters within called "Networkers", who are able to do things which normal users cannot do, sending custom messages, and selling masterpieces and blueprints. The site also has modules which are set up on the user's page that give the user items, or that display picture compositions. Before My Lego Network, there were Lego Club Pages, which essentially held the same purpose, although the design lacked complex interaction.

Theme parks

Merlin Entertainments operates seven Legoland amusement parks, the original in Billund, Denmark, the second in Windsor, England, the third in Günzburg, Germany, the fourth in Carlsbad, California, the fifth in Winter Haven, Florida, the sixth in Nusajaya, Malaysia and the seventh in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. and the eighth in Shanghai, Peoples of Republic of China. On 13 July 2005, the control of 70% of the Legoland parks was sold for $460 million to the Blackstone Group of New York while the remaining 30% is still held by Lego Group. There are also eight Legoland Discovery Centres, two in Germany, four in the United States, one in Japan and one in the United Kingdom. Two Legoland Discovery Centres opened in 2013: one at the Westchester Ridge Hill shopping complex in Yonkers, NY and one at the Vaughan Mills in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. Another has opened at the Meadowlands complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey in 2014.

LEGO Video Games

Many LEGO video games are being created for different video game systems. LEGO video games usually come from LEGO themes, such as LEGO Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones. Lego Star Wars is a famous theme and it has three video games. A new game Harry Potter is a video game which came out before the new Harry Potter theme but made after the old Harry Potter. LEGO Star Wars 1 and 2 are some of the best selling video games and are about to get a new version of LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars.

In LEGO Clone Wars, you can play as most of your favorite characters, like Rex, Yoda, Cody, and a lot of others. Also, you can face fearsome monsters like the Rancor.The newest game from LEGO is LEGO Universe, a massively multi-player online game. new games for the movie will be loaded with legos.

There has been a Lego game that is very popular Lego Dimensions. The starter pack is expensive but the game is very popular. The fun packs are the cheapest pack to extend the game. The level and team packs are the expensive packs.The first ever lego video game was published in 2001

Television and movies

The first official Lego film was the straight-to-DVD release of Bionicle: Mask of Light in 2003 developed by Creative Capers Entertainment and distributed by Miramax Home Entertainment. Several other straight-to-DVD computer animated Bionicle sequels and Hero Factory movies were produced in the following years. Lego: The Adventures of Clutch Powers was released on DVD in February 2010, a computer-animated film made by Tinseltown Toons.

The Lego Movie, a feature film based on Lego toys, was released by Warner Bros. in February 2014. It featured Chris Pratt in the lead role, with substantial supporting characters voiced by Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Alison Brie, Will Ferrell and Nick Offerman. A contest was held for contestants to submit designs for vehicles to be used in the film. After the release of The Lego Movie, independent Canadian toy retailers reported issues with shortages of Lego products and cited cancellations of Lego pre-orders without warning as a motive to stock compatible, rival products.

A spin-off of The Lego Movie, entitled The Lego Batman Movie, directed by Chris McKay was released in the US in February 2017.

In June 2013, it was reported that Warner Bros. was developing a feature film adaptation of Lego Ninjago. Brothers Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman were attached to write the adaptation, while Dan Lin and Roy Lee, along with Phil Lord and Chris Miller, were announced as producers. The film, The Lego Ninjago Movie, was released in September 2017. A computer-generated animated series based on Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu began in 2011, and another based on Legends of Chima began in 2013. A television series of Lego City has also been announced.

Images for kids

Hilary Fisher Page's Interlocking Building Cubes of 1939

A Lego set released in 2013, "Gold Getaway", based on the Lego Castle theme

Lester mascot at the world's largest Lego store in Leicester Square, London

In Spanish: Lego (juguete) para niños

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There are no ballpoint grenade pens, no wrist-mounted dart guns, no Aston Martins tricked out with smoke screens, bulletproof glass, revolving license plates or ejector seats. Still, the geek-approved contraptions at Lego's research-and-development facility in Billund, Denmark, are as covetable as anything cooked up by Q Branch.

Q Branch, of course, is the section of Her Majesty's Secret Service (MI6) that supplies James Bond with fanciful gadgetry. The headquarters of MI6 is a ziggurat-like fortress known within the intelligence community as Legoland. It gets its name from the toy company that has supplied earth with more than 600 billion tiny plastic bricks-about 80 for each inhabitant. The Lego company's own HQ is a modest campus as neat and well-ordered as a quadratic equation. Huge colored bricks-a corporate nod to art-lie scattered in tidy piles, and simple rectangular buildings bear names like Idea House and Head Office.

Lego's own MI6, its top-secret R & D lab, is on the second floor of a drab brick structure called the Tech Building. Inside, gearheads in jeans and fleece pullovers are surrounded by enough electronic ganglia to jump-start Frankenstein's monster. Amid a spaghetti of wires and a blaze of red, green, blue, yellow and purple blocks is an amazing array of robot prototypes, all capable of exasperating behavior. Some of these marvels propel themselves on Lego wheels; others skitter around on Lego legs. There's a scorpionlike robot that turns sharply, snaps its claws and searches for an infrared beacon "bug." There's a Mohawked android that flings little red balls as it rumbles. And there's a fanged robot snake that, with the wave of a smartphone, shakes, rattles and rolls. Dangle your cell in front of the serpent's head and it lunges to bite you.

All three gizmos are characters in Mindstorms EV3, the latest update of a do-it-yourself kit that enables budding Edisons to assemble robots, program them on PCs and Macs, and control them via Bluetooth, downloadable apps and voice commands. Like any other Lego, Mindstorms EV3 is a jumble of parts (nearly 600 separate elements) that can be plugged together many ways. The toy, which clocks in at $350 and will be in stores this fall, comes with 3-D interactive building instructions for 17 different bots that walk, talk and stalk. And, this being Lego, enterprising kids are encouraged to hack away and turn the components into whatever they can dream up.

***

Once upon a time, teachers lacked the tools to excite and engage pupils in engineering. And the technological know-how required to put together a juddering robot limited the audience to high-school and university students. That all changed in 1998 when Lego launched its first wave of programmable bots. By the second wave, in 2006, the programming language had become visual and kids could make bots do pretty much anything simply by stringing directives together on a computer. "Today a second grader can make her own wall-avoiding triceratops in 20 minutes," says Chris Rogers, a professor of mechanical engineering at Tufts University.

With bricks, action and hues as vibrant as tropical sunsets, Lego created a way for novices to learn the basics of structural engineering: bracing, tension and compression, loading constraints, building to scale. By combining Lego bricks to sensors, servo motors and microprocessors, those novices can now explore everything from basic pulleys and belts to computer programming. "Mindstorms EV3 makes tinkering with machines cool again," says Ralph Hempel, author of Lego Spybiotics Secret Agent Training Manual.

Mindstorms encourages young tinkerers to play their way into robotics. "It puts no limits on your fantasies," says Niels Pugholm, a Danish college student who's been playing with Legos from the time he was old enough to know he shouldn't swallow them. "Most toys pre-tell a story; Mindstorms is exploratory and has no set rules. If I construct a Mars rover robot, I can rebuild it into a robotic arm and then a robotic humanoid. Lego robotics is a sneaky educational way to learn about design, planning, construction and, most importantly, reconstruction." In Denmark, he says, it's obligatory for a child to build a Babel Tower out of Legos that "inevitably gets demolished."

The EV3 is the third generation of demolishable Mindstorms, and the second that's been crowd-sourced. "The power of many," says Marc-André Bazergui, one of a dozen Lego citizen developers-who call themselves the 12 Monkeys-impaneled to design the latest edition. Over the years, the many have fashioned Lego bots that solve Rubik's Cubes, sort M&M's by color and convert conventional toilets into robo-flushers.

Part of the so-called "maker movement," Mindstorms' fanatic online community shares ideas by uploading plans for new creations to Lego forums and posting videos to YouTube. Across the globe, schoolchildren belong to leagues and hold tournaments in which teams are challenged to design, build and program a Lego robot to complete a specific task related to a theme like climate control or transportation safety. In the United States, competitions are run by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a nonprofit founded by the seemingly inexhaustible inventor Dean Kamen (creator of the Segway scooter). Every spring FIRST holds championships in four robotics divisions, spanning ages 6 to 18. At this year's three-day Lego block party at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, 650 teams vied for robotic superiority and more than $16 million in scholarships to 140 colleges.

Half of all stateside middle schools and about a quarter of all elementary and high schools have folded Mindstorms into their curricula. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a Lego Chair, which is not a chesterfield made of Lego bricks, but an endowed professorship at the college's media lab. At Tufts, the robotics sets have evoked an equal number of dissertations and disquisitions with catchy titles like "Teaching Basic Cardio-Vascular Mechanics with Lego Models: A High School Case Study."

Rogers worked with Lego to develop Robolab-a robotic approach to learning science and math-that's been used in some 50,000 schools worldwide and has been translated into 15 languages. He stresses design thinking, the idea that you frame a problem by first imagining its solution. His approach is based on demonstration, critique and iteration: Everything can be made better, even failure. "The kids make an educated guess and then run experiments to prove their theories," he says. "They see that there is no right or wrong answer, just an infinite number of ways to address a problem. Learning that is as critical to engineering as it is to life."

Samuel Beckett exhorted: "Fail better."

***

In Danish, Lego is pronounced LEE-go. In English, the construction craze that has gripped the civilized world is pronounced LEEgoMAINia. An Italian artist painstakingly re- created the works of old masters in Legos, including da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Vermeer's Girl With a Pearl Earring. A Chicago artist has designed Lego mini-scale sets of the White House, the Sydney Opera House and 15 other eminent edifices. Others have gone to extraordinary lengths to assemble the world's largest Lego bridge (122 feet), the world's longest Lego train track (4,923 feet) and the world's tallest Lego tower (106 feet, seven inches; 450,000 bricks). It would take 40 billion eight-stud Lego bricks to build a stack to the moon, though no one has yet attempted this.

Not only does every significant new NASA spacecraft and mission now beget its own Lego model, but astronauts aboard the International Space Station have built them in orbit. There are Lego Darth Vader clocks, Lego Ninjago video games and a Lego Quidditch match. A year from now the animated adventure film LEGO: The Piece of Resistance is due in theaters. Featuring characters voiced by Will Ferrell and Morgan Freeman, the cartoon promises to be a real, ahem, blockbuster. At last count, four of the top 10 children's chapter books on the New York Times best-seller list were from Lego. One of them, The Lego Ideas Book, carries the tag line "Unlock Your Imagination."

Imagination is what has guided Lego from its founding in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, a Geppetto-like carpenter with a small workshop in Billund, a rural hamlet in Jutland with the topography of a pancake. In a bid to beat the Great Depression, Kristiansen started making brightly colored wooden cars and pull-along ducks. Having concluded that his toy company needed a more evocative name than Billund Maskinsnedkeri, he truncated the expression leg godt, Danish for "play well.'' In a fortuitous coincidence, Lego means "I put together" in Latin.

Lego, as understood by most adults, began in 1949, shortly after Kristiansen bought Denmark's first injection-molding machine and began cranking out toys with some plastic parts. According to Lego legend, he happened upon some hollow, British-made blocks called Kiddicraft, which inspired his own Automatic Binding Bricks, the forerunner of the Lego brick. The design breakthrough was a studs-and-tubes mechanism that allowed the bricks to snap together, hold fast and yet somehow come easily apart. "Legos are the ultimate symbols of Danish character," Niels Pugholm says. "They're unassuming little objects that depend on logic and geometry. Perhaps because Denmark has so few natural resources, ingenuity is treasured."

In 1958-the year of Kristiansen's death-Lego patented its click-fit technology, which the company calls "clutch power." The key is precision engineering; the tolerance of Lego's Danish Modern prongs is one-fiftieth of a millimeter, ten times finer than a human hair. Over the next half-century Lego became one of the world's most beloved toys. Roughly half the parents on the planet have been woken up by a disturbance in the middle of the night, dashed groggily into their kid's bedroom and stepped barefoot on a Lego brick.

"Children are fantastic little creatures," Mads Nipper, the company's marketing chief , has said. "Next to drunk people, they are the only truly honest people on earth." As the millennium approached, Lego exploited that honesty by going on a branding bender. The family-run firm made forays into children's clothing, baby products, jewelry, video games and theme parks.

But something was rotting in the state of Denmark. By 2004 Lego had made some blockheaded financial decisions and was on the brink of bankruptcy or a takeover by Mattel, the world's biggest toy retailer. Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, CEO and grandson of the founder, appointed former management consultant Jorgen Vig Knudstorp to replace him and rebuild Lego, brick by brick. Which Knudstorp did, cutting costs, laying off staff, halving development times, scrapping the software division and slashing product lines. Seemingly relegated to the Great Toy Attic in the Sky, Lego made a remarkable turnaround.

One line Knudstorp left untouched was Mindstorms, which began life 15 years ago in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab. "The original patent on our interlocking brick expired in 1975," says Nipper. "The only way to continue differentiating ourselves from our competitors was through creativity." And not necessarily Lego's own creativity: The company has outsourced Mindstorms innovation to its hard-core fan base.

The relationship between Mindstorms and its enthusiasts had always been symbiotic. A couple of months after the debut of the robotics kit in 1998, Stanford University graduate student Kekoa Proudfoot reverse-engineered its proprietary microprocessors and posted the design secrets. Other hackers pounced on his findings, designed new software and operating systems, and shared performance tweaks with the rest of the Internet. While Lego's management and legal team debated how to handle the breach, Nipper suggested that the company should encourage open-sourcing.

Suing the modders, he reasoned, might alienate Lego's adult hobbyists, who accounted for nearly half of Mindstorms sales and were, essentially, willing to work for free. In the company's new business paradigm, development should be fan-driven and fan-controlled, with very little oversight from Lego. So little that a "right to hack" was written into the Mindstorms software license. "We came to understand that limiting creativity is the opposite of our mission," Nipper says. "Our goal is to foster inquiry and ingenuity." The strategy paid off: Mindstorms became the best-selling product in Lego's history.

In 2005, with the kit due for a design upgrade, Lego trolled through online forums and websites for adult fanboys willing to be part of a Mindstorms User Panel, or MUP. The four finalists-all sworn to secrecy-and Lego's engineering brain trust spent 11 months swapping e-mails about everything from firmware to input ports. In return for their contributions, the MUPpets got paid in Legos. "It's the best possible relationship," says panelist Ralph Hempel, a professional engineer who specializes in embedded systems design. "Money would complicate the issue. There is no other brand in the world that I would consider doing similar work for at no charge. Getting advance copies of robotics kits is just icing on the cake for me."

For the latest version of Mindstorms, Lego expanded its user panel to a dozen brickheads (the 12 Monkeys) and studied how kids interact with robotic toys. Camilla Bottke, the company's senior marketing manager, says kids don't view robots as objects as much as extensions of themselves, things with character and personalities. "I think that's a great concept, right up until the child has to build the robot and program it," offers Hempel. "That's when the reality sinks in of how much thinking and tinkering goes into making a design work."

***

"You say you want a revolution," sang a skeptical John Lennon. "Well, you know, we all want to change the world." The problem with the digital revolution, echoes Dean Kamen, is that the ability to play with technology is often confused with the ability to understand it.

The 62-year-old engineer and entrepreneur holds forth from a hexagon- shaped house of his own design on the outskirts of Manchester, New Hampshire. He wears what is virtually his uniform: an open-neck button-down denim shirt and denim pants.

Kamen dropped out of college to develop the world's first wearable insulin pump. He went on to create the Segway; a self-balancing, six-wheeled robotic wheelchair capable of going up and down stairs; and an electrical generator that can run on cow dung and produce potable water on the side. Of all his inventions-and Kamen holds 441 foreign and domestic patents-the one he's proudest of is FIRST, a largely mental sport based on competitive robotics.

He started FIRST in 1989 to demystify engineering and grow a generation of innovators. "Too many high-school kids in this country, particularly women and minorities, drop out of science and math classes," he says. "There's no incentive, no encouragement." Indeed, he argues, there are all sorts of subtle disincentives and discouragements. "Kids need access to challenging, hands-on projects that result in a tangible product. Instead of telling them why abstract concepts like algebra or trigonometry are important, science teachers should say, 'Let's build a Lego robot!' With a little assistance, the kids build one and it solves a problem. Suddenly, they realize that math and science are very powerful tools. Suddenly, math and science are relevant and fun."

Kamen envisions a time when youngsters revere pioneering scientists as much as, say, NBA superstars. "The one thing American culture celebrates is sports heroes," he says. "Lots of athletic teenagers think they're going to make a fortune by bouncing a basketball and becoming the next LeBron James. That's not realistic for even the tiniest percentage of them. Becoming an engineer is." Still, Kamen concedes the innate differences between classrooms and playing fields have helped make careers in sports more attractive than ones in tech. "When athletes work together, it's called teamwork," he says. "If you work together in science class, it's called cheating."

The Robotics Competition-FIRST's equivalent of the major leagues-kicks off every January, when a committee of engineers reveals that year's game and rules. Supervised by engineers, scientists or other adult mentors, teams of high-school students have six weeks to design and construct small, inelegant machines from kits. The only constraints are weight (the robot can't exceed 150 pounds) and cost. (To mitigate economic, rather than engineering advantages, Kamen has established a kind of salary cap of $4,000 on additional parts.)

Though each team faces the same challenge, they devise vastly different design solutions. Local winners advance to one of the 58 regionals, where their bots battle for the chance to qualify for the finals in St. Louis. The championship is structured like March Madness, the NCAA Men's Division I basketball tournament. Kamen calls it the "NCAA of smarts." Each of the four divisions is named for a famous scientist (Archimedes, Curie, Galileo and Newton). The Final Four is played on the Einstein Field.

A recent Brandeis University study shows that kids who participate in robotics contests are more than twice as likely to pursue a career in science and technology, and nearly four times as likely to pursue one in engineering. "The robot is just a vehicle," Kamen says. "In six weeks you can't give a kid a meaningful education in robotics or technology or engineering. But by building robots, you can build self-confidence and a serious understanding of what life is like for people who work on and solve complex problems. For a lot of kids, robotics has the potential to change where they put their time and attention."

On this particular January afternoon, about 750 kids from as far afield as Singapore are putting their time and attention into a FIRST tournament at the University of Delaware. A cross between a science fair and a "Big Bang Theory" costume ball, it's one of the biggest single-day robotics events in the country. Entrants have come decked out as mad scientists, crash-test dummies and assorted grotesqueries that even Dr. Seuss wouldn't have concocted.

Tinkertoy technology has transformed a field house into a veritable hardware emporium. Workshop cubicles are crammed with tawny ratchets and rusty wrenches; wide gray clusters of wheels, pulleys and extension arms; and everywhere, everywhere Legos. Banners bear team names like Bricktastic Builders, the Fellowship of the Brick, Lego-Nardo da Vinci.

Down on the Robotics Competition playing court, the most conspicuous confederacy-a quartet of New Jersey lads known as the Carbonauts-is clad in safety glasses, running shoes and what looks to be orange prison jumpsuits. "Legos inspire me and bring me back to reality," says Ibrahim Elshahawi, a high-school senior planning a career in biomedical engineering. "I've learned that I can't just build a robot. My ideas have to be more organized and sequential."

The younger contestants are about half female. In the Robotics Competition, girls are few and far between. "Girls are more into aesthetics, logistical, detail-oriented," offers a Carbonaut named Charles Verhoog. "We're not into style points."

"Guys are into smashing things," says teammate C.J. Geering.

A teenage girl on another team-her pinkish tresses braided with Chinese finger traps-pops her head into the Carbonaut huddle and cracks, "You'd be surprised."

A buzzer sounds. Egged on in the stands by cheering sections and hyperventilating parents, the teams set their folklift-like robots in motion on the course. The object: to snatch rubber rings from a vertical heap and deposit them on horizontal spokes. The Carbonaut bot grabs, drops, stalls, rams into walls and yet somehow...wins the heat.

Like a worn-down stock car, the triumphant bot is rolled back to the "pits," where the Carbonauts monkey with the algorithm, changing speed and direction variables. Asked if he has ever participated in a tournament tarnished by a robotic doping scandal, teammate C.J. Geering deadpans, "The judges occasionally ask us for samples of electricity, but so far none of ours have been tainted. The last thing we want is to have to appear on a TV special with Oprah."

Across a partition, Austin Hwa and Thomas McClure, clad in crimson cravats, toques and chef's jackets, lounge beside a pyramid of Lego bricks. They're members of Chef-Bot-Ardees, a mostly middle school contingent from Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

This year's Lego League Challenge is to solve issues faced by the elderly. The chefs have whipped up a robotic walker fitted with a magnetic tray.

"The tray is magnetized to keep knives and forks from falling off," explains Hwa.

"And spoons," adds McClure, helpfully.

Thirteen-year-old Hwa says Lego robotics have put him on the tech track. McClure, who's 10, isn't so sure engineering is in his future. "Not to go off topic," he says, "but I don't think I'll necessarily go into that line of work."

He contemplates the Lego pyra- mid through the lattice of his fingers. "I'm in the fifth-grade band, the percussion section," he says. "There's a really high chance I'll grow up to be a rock drummer."

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How Lego Is Constructing the Next Generation of Engineers

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With programmable robots and student competitions, Lego is making "tinkering with machines cool again"