What is YOUR favourite toy or game?
Lego
Did you know the modern Lego brick, known for its bright colours and the tubes and studs that allow the pieces to be connected together, was first released back in 1958?The Lego brick was created in Denmark by Godtfred Kirk Christiansen.He took over from his father, Ole Kirk Kristiansen, who founded the Lego Group in 1932. Lego has gone on to be hugely successful, with millions of sets sold each year. The brand has even expanded out to Legoland parks, with 10 locations around the world.
Hula hoops, spinning tops and marbles
Have you ever played with hula hoops, marbles or spinning tops?These old-school toys may make you think of your grandparents, but despite being around for a very long time, they're still enjoyed by lots of children today. The popularity of toys like this largely comes down to how simple they are to play with. They can be used in lots of different ways, and different countries have their own unique games and rules for them.
Rubik's Cube
Have you ever tried to solve a Rubik's Cube?It was invented in 1974 by a Hungarian architecture professor called Ernő Rubik.He went on to use the cube to teach his students about three-dimensional spaces.He originally named it the Magic Cube, and this was later changed to the Rubik's Cube in 1980. Over 500 million of them have been sold worldwide, making it the best-selling puzzle toy.
Barbie
Around one billion Barbie dolls are believed to have been sold around the world since it was first released in 1959.The world-famous doll was created by American inventor Ruth Handler, and 350,000 were sold in the first year alone. But it wasn't plain sailing for the inventor. She experienced some pushback from people who weren't happy about the idea of a more grown-up looking doll. They thought women wouldn't want to buy it, but that didn't turn out to be the case. Millions of Barbies are sold every year, with many of the newer releases focusing on diversity and inclusivity.
Monopoly
Monopoly is one of the most popular board games in history. Did you know that it started out as the Landlord's Game all the way back in 1904?It was designed and patented by an American stenographer and feminist called Lizzie Magie, although its creation is often linked to a man called Charles Darrow. He released his own version of the game under the name Monopoly, which first sold in 1935. Over 250 million Monopoly games have been sold since its release.
Tamagotchi
Have you ever seen one of these before?It's called a Tamagotchi and was first released in Japan in 1996.It was launched worldwide the following year. Tamagotchis are virtual pets people can look after. The pocket-sized, egg-shaped devices became hugely popular during the late 90s, with lots of school kids playing with them together. The toy has made a comeback in recent years, largely thanks to Gen Z.
Furby
The Furby first burst onto the toy scene in the late 90s, and quickly became a hit, with over 40 million sold within the first three years of them launching. The toy was created by inventors Dave Hampton and Caleb Chung. The first Furby had infrared eyes which allowed them to communicate with each other.They were popular, as people loved being able to interact with the robotic pets.They even made appearances in TV shows like The Simpsons.
Nintendo Game Boy
The Nintendo Switch is hugely popular today, but many years before its invention, another handheld games console was the sought-after toy. The Nintendo Game Boy was first released in Japan in 1989 and came to Europe the following year. The tiny console changed the world of video gaming forever, allowing people to play games like Tetris, Super Mario and Pokémon on the go.
We want to know - what is your favourite toy or game and why? You can let us know in the comments below.
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Scotsman
10 hours ago
- Scotsman
Five ways we downloaded music during Y2K, and what happened to those services
The wild west of MP3 downloading - what we used to corral new releases before Spotify took over Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Before Spotify become a household name, P2P clients were how many gained access to new music. Though some of the clients were controversial due to what they offered, many offered users experiences that are still present to this day. Here's five programmes many used to use to - ahem - download music to their MP3 and Minidisc players. It seems timely that I am writing this article on the day that news emerged that several unreleased tracks by Beyoncé were stolen from a car during her Cowboy Carter tour. While torrenting would be the option these days if anyone were to release them, back when the Y2K bug was considered a global issue, there were several different options instead. Many of those options were still illegal, but in some cases with the added caveat that a virus might hop along for the ride with the MP3 or zip file you'd added to your download queue. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Long before Spotify became a household name, and around the time Apple launched their revolutionary first iPod and their own music download service, many of us took to the World Wide Web armed with one of five programmes to access music that today is as easy as just swiping on a screen. The same could also be said about dating, but that's another story for another series of apps. It would be another wave of capitalist panic when Peer-to-Peer file sharing started coming into vogue around the turn of the millennium. While many felt that music should be free and that the likes of Napster were actually helping those get heard without the need for expensive radio campaigns, others equated it to a woodworker having a chair stolen from them. Who else remembers the classic 'you wouldn't steal a car' adverts played before every cinema outing back in the day? But for a generation of music listeners, where TikTok seems to be the conundrum facing musicians and copyright law, they might have missed all of this; the trials and tribulations of risking your computer security just to listen to that new Metallica or Spice Girls track. So, what did some of us of a certain age (and, apparently, low moral fibre) use to gain access to the latest musical releases, and where did those programmes go when streaming services became the norm? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Fives ways we used to download music before Spotify existed Long before Spotify gave you the world of music at your fingertips, music fans used some 'less-than-legitimate' ways to download music back at the turn of the millennium. | Canva/Getty Images Napster We start with where most of us all began - launched in 1999 by Shawn Fanning, Napster was the original revolutionary. It was a centralized P2P file-sharing service primarily focused on MP3 music files. Its genius was in its simplicity: users could search a central server for songs, and the software would then connect them directly to other users' computers to download the files. At its peak in early 2001, Napster had nearly 80 million registered users. Napster became the poster child for copyright infringement . Its most famous legal battle was with Metallica, who, along with Dr. Dre, sued the company in April 2000 after discovering their unreleased song 'I Disappear' circulating on the platform - cue crude animations of Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield bellowing out 'Napster, bad!' However, the lawsuit that truly brought Napster down was the massive $20 billion infringement case filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), representing major record labels like A&M Records. The courts consistently ruled against Napster, rejecting its claims of "fair use" and holding it liable for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement. Faced with crippling injunctions and legal pressure, Napster was ordered to block copyrighted material and ultimately shut down its original free service in July 2001. The company filed for bankruptcy. In 2002, its brand and logo were acquired by Roxio , which rebranded its own streaming service as Napster 2.0, attempting to go legit with a paid subscription model. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Over the years, Napster's name changed hands multiple times (including Best Buy and Rhapsody). Today, the Napster brand still exists as a legitimate, paid music streaming service, albeit a much smaller player in a market dominated by Spotify and Apple Music. LimeWire While a more popular option after the heat Napster received, LimeWire was one of two P2P clients notorious for containing malware, adware and the ease of downloading viruses. | Limewire/Submitted One of two sure fire ways to infect your computer with a virus just for a chance at listening to a track before its release… Launched in 2000 by Mark Gorton, LimeWire quickly became one of the most popular decentralized P2P file-sharing clients after Napster's demise. Unlike Napster, LimeWire operated on the Gnutella network , meaning there was no central server controlling searches or file transfers. This decentralized nature made it harder to shut down. It was known for its user-friendly interface and became a go-to for music, movies, software, and more. LimeWire faced years of legal battles with the RIAA. In 2010, after a lengthy lawsuit initiated by Arista Records and other labels, a U.S. federal court judge issued an injunction ordering Lime Wire LLC to disable all file-sharing functionality of its software. The RIAA initially sought astronomical damages (reportedly up to $72 trillion) but eventually settled for $105 million. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Following the injunction, Lime Wire LLC stopped distributing its software, and later versions were disabled. While older versions (pre-5.5.11) remained functional for a time, the company itself ceased its operations related to file-sharing. In a surprising twist, the LimeWire brand was acquired by new management in 2021 (with no affiliation to the original company) and has been repurposed as an NFT marketplace and Web3 platform focusing on music and content. AudioGalaxy AudioGalaxy had a unique feature where music lovers would be recommended artists similar to what they have opted to listen to - similar to Spotify's related artists algorithm. | Reddit Created in 1998, AudioGalaxy was initially an MP3 indexing site that evolved into a robust P2P system with client software (the AudioGalaxy Satellite) and a web-based search engine. It gained popularity, especially after Napster's legal woes, known for its strong community features like chat-enabled groups and directly linking to other artists you might also like - almost a proto Spotify daily playlist before it existed. AudioGalaxy also faced a lawsuit from the RIAA in May 2002 due to the widespread sharing of copyrighted material. Despite its attempts to implement filtering mechanisms (which users often circumvented), the pressure was immense. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In June 2002, AudioGalaxy reached an out-of-court settlement with the RIAA. As part of the agreement, it was required to implement a "filter-in" system, meaning only music with explicit consent from rights holders could be shared. This effectively ended its P2P file-sharing operations. It then licensed and rebranded itself as a promotional website for the Rhapsody music subscription service for many years. Kazaa Kazaa was the talk of schoolyards around the world back in the early '00s - part due to the ease of finding music and videos, part due to how much damage it caused to numerous PCs that lacked anti-virus software. | Reddit The second sure-fire way to end up infecting your computer with viruses - launched in 2001 by Dutch company Consumer Empowerment (later sold to Sharman Networks), Kazaa became one of the dominant P2P networks after the fall of Napster. It used the FastTrack protocol (which was also the basis for Skype) and allowed users to share not just music, but also videos, software, and documents. It was notorious for bundling adware and spyware, leading to many users opting for Kazaa Lite . Kazaa faced intense legal pressure globally. In 2001, a Dutch court ordered its owners to prevent copyright violations. In the US, the RIAA and MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) filed suit, leading to the landmark MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. Supreme Court case (though Grokster was the named defendant, Kazaa's FastTrack protocol was central to the broader issue). Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In Australia, the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) also sued, culminating in a 2005 ruling that Sharman Networks had "authorized" illegal file sharing by its users. The RIAA also pursued thousands of individual users for infringement, including the high-profile case against Jammie Thomas-Rasset. Kazaa's legal issues ended with a $100 million settlement paid to the four major music companies. Sharman Networks agreed to convert Kazaa into a legal music download service, but this venture ultimately failed. The original Kazaa file-sharing application effectively shut down around 2006. Like Napster, the brand was later licensed and briefly relaunched as a legitimate music subscription service, but it too failed to gain significant traction and is now defunct as a music service. Soulseek Soulseek was considered a more 'niche' community which mainly focused on rarer releases and bootlegs compared to other clients who focused on the more mainstream and popular. | Wikimedia Commons The music connoisseur's method of downloading; created by Nir Arbel around 2000, Soulseek was distinct from the outset. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad While it was a P2P file-sharing network, it was less about mainstream hits and more about fostering a community of music enthusiasts, particularly for underground, independent, and niche electronic music, rare tracks, and live sets. It emphasized sharing and community, with users often having specific rules for who could download from them. Unlike the other major players, Soulseek has largely avoided direct, high-profile lawsuits that led to its shutdown. Its more decentralized structure, combined with its focus on less commercial, underground music, made it a less attractive target for major record labels compared to the mass-market platforms. There have been instances of servers being targeted or legal pressure, but no singular, defining case that brought the entire network down. Soulseek still exists and is actively used today, maintaining its niche status. It has evolved, with an emphasis on its community and the sharing of diverse and often obscure music. While it's certainly not mainstream, it remains a beloved tool for audiophiles and those seeking music beyond the commercial charts. Did you ever use any of the software or websites mentioned in this article? Share the ways you used to access music in the new millennium by leaving your memories below.
The Guardian
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- The Guardian
In defence of Step Brothers: the platonic ideal of Obama-era comedy
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The Guardian
13 hours ago
- The Guardian
In defence of Step Brothers: the platonic ideal of Obama-era comedy
It's 2008. George W Bush is wrapping up his presidency. The world's economy is in turmoil, but Obama is ascendant. The US's – and the world's – problems will soon be solved once and for all. The peak comedy of this era is, of course, Step Brothers. Adam McKay's previous hit collaborations with Will Ferrell, Anchorman and Talladega Nights, hit a rich seam of man-children being elevated to folk-hero status. We could call it a thematic trilogy, if we were being a bit pretentious – like Ingmar Bergman's faith trilogy, but with more prosthetic testicles. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning In Step Brothers, the duo finally boil their theme down to its bare bones: two grown men in their 40s inexplicably acting like 10-year-old boys. Brennan (Ferrell) and Dale (John C Reilly) are brought under one roof by the marriage of their parents (Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins). At first, they respond the way any prepubescent imps would, with territorial acrimony and spite, before forming an alliance over their mutual hatred of Brennan's brother Derek (Adam Scott). Brennan and Dale are the epitome of what would later be known online as 'large adult sons' – giant, gormless failures, sheltered by low expectations. They brawl, assemble bunk beds, and destroy the lives of their retirement-aspirant parents with the destructive force of dogs who don't know their own size. These are the men of the 2000s: outsize children running rampant in a world that lets them do so. Critics were displeased. 'Another unashamedly juvenile comedy,' wrote Guardian reviewer Peter Bradshaw. 'When I left, I felt a little unclean,' said Roger Ebert. 'In its own tiny way, it lowers the civility of our civilisation.' Nothing will get me in the theatre faster than an affront to civility. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion There are the prosthetic testicles, of course, and there's dog poo, farting, and raucous sex scenes. But Step Brothers transcends all that and builds its own world. It's juvenile and sublime, dumb and clever, dated and timeless. Ferrell and Reilly have a unique chemistry. They are revolting and endlessly endearing, skating easily over the script's cracks. Together, they invite us to laugh at a dying breed – the coddled, mediocre man – but also celebrate him. As with McKay and Ferrell's previous films, it's a man's world. Women condemn, but are ultimately enthralled by, this masculine freedom. Steenburgen's Nancy can't help but protect her large adult son from a world that expects too much (anything) from him. The film's innate irony, meanness, and childishness are the dying embers of the Gen X sensibility – a generation which, as the comedian Stewart Lee once wrote, 'profiteered from the assumption that political correctness was a done deal, and now we could have fun jumping in and out of its boundaries, like street kids round a spurting water main.' But of course, these men weren't dying out. They were mutating into something worse: media behemoths, CEOs and presidents. The dominance of the idiot man was far from over, but it's far more cruel than innocent. The large adult sons who rule the world are still ridiculous, but they're winning. This may explain why, after Step Brothers, McKay's films got angrier and more literal. His next, the 2010 buddy-cop comedy The Other Guys, ends on an unparalleled bit of tonal whiplash, as the credits are splashed with infographic stats about the beneficiaries of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. The Big Short, Vice, and Don't Look Up are angry polemics dressed up as comedies. 'Can you believe they're getting away with this?' he seems to be yelling at us. Yes. Yes I can. 'Sometimes I think I am living in a nightmare. All about me, standards are collapsing, manners are evaporating, people show no respect for themselves.' That, once again, is Roger Ebert in his 2008 review of Step Brothers. Roger, it was a beautiful dream, and one I cherish. The nightmare is now. Step Brothers is available to stream on Netflix, Stan, Binge and Prime Video in Australia and available to rent in the UK and US. For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here
