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Charlotte Madelon's Rosa's Garden exemplifies a flowering genre: the bucolic, relaxing gardening game. Lewis Gordon explores what's growing: a growing claustrophobia and despair among the young, a need for control and for peaceful study, an overwhelming ecological anxiety.

Curiously absent from these titles’ digital flora is the death, decay, and decomposition integral to not only the ecosystems of gardens, but also their psychological benefits. “Gardens can often be a place of retreat and escape but also a place to see the continuity of life,” Gross explains. “Things come and go, life goes on but life also ends.” In Stardew Valley crops can indeed fail, made clear to the player by turning a queasy brown color, but it’s because of player action, not natural processes. Closer to a natural cycle is an early version of Rosa’s Garden, which is still available through Itch.io. Almost as quickly as the roses sprout into life, so too do they wilt and die, the garden floor quickly becoming a carpet of murky grays and greens.

Some games do emphasize rot, though.

I scream, you scream, we all scream when babies eat ice cream off their own foot!

I don't have any information on who this little person is but if you talk to them, tell'em I approve.

(Rock 95)

Thanks, Andy!

I’m going to get this out of the way right at the beginning. There are so many awesome games for Android that trying to build a comprehensive best android games list isn’t practical. What I have put together is a list of great Android games across every genre. I’ve played and enjoyed every game on this list, and while I’m certain you will recognize a number of them, hopefully it also includes some that you haven’t tried yet. There are definitely more fantastic Android games out there, so please let me know your own favorite(s) in the comments, and maybe it will make the list next time around.

more…

The post [Update: July 2019] Best Android games in every category appeared first on 9to5Google.

An experimental dermal implant changes color in the presence of high acidity or blood glucose, potentially allowing diabetics and other patients to monitor their wellbeing without taking samples. The implant material can be integrated into tattoo ink formulations, making them as discrete or ostentatious as the wearer wishes.

MedicalXPress:

As detailed in the journal Angewandte Chemie, a colorimetric analytic formulation was injected into the skin instead of tattoo ink. The pigmented skin areas varied their color when blood pH or other health indicators changed. ... The authors claim that such sensor tattoos could allow permanent monitoring of patients using a simple, low-cost technique. With the development of suitable colorimetric sensors, the technique could also extend to recording electrolyte and pathogen concentrations or the level of dehydration of a patient. Further studies will explore whether tattoo artwork can be applied in a diagnostic setting.

Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today I have the release of a quality classic platformer, a pre-alpha build of the next Plants vs. Zombies game, and the launch of an It's Always Sunny idle tapper. So without further ado, here are the most notable games released this week.

19 best new Android games released this week including Flashback Mobile, Plants vs. Zombies 3 Pre-Alpha, and It’s Always Sunny: The Gang Goes Mobile was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

A family-run restaurant in Bangkok has had a the same giant pot of soup simmering for 45 years. When it runs low, they top it off.

From Great Big Story:

It’s a beef noodle soup called neua tuna. It simmers in a giant pot. Fresh meat like raw sliced beef, tripe and other organs is added daily. But any broth leftover is preserved at the end of each day and used in the next day’s soup. It’s an ancient cooking method that gives the soup a unique flavor and aroma.

Image: YouTube/Great Big Story

Signal processing engineer Stéphane Pigeon created this captivating Gregorian chant generator. It enables you to simply "conduct," mix, and process the sacred a cappella songs heard in the monasteries of the Roman Catholic Church since the 9th century.

Gregorian Voices: Early Roman Catholic Church Song Generator

Electrek.co test rode the Hardly-Dangerous 'Livewire' electric bike.

The LiveWire has 105hp and looks like a Buell! It is also orange, but not as awesome an orange as BMW Daytona Orange.

The inaugural Heavy Metal Knitting World Championship were an unqualified success, with competitors from the US, Russia, Japan and beyond converging on Joensuu, Finland to thrash and knit: competitors such as Woolfumes, Bunny Bandit and 9" Needles thrashed to heavy metal music while knitting, for an audience of about 200. The winners were the five-person Japanese team Giga Body Metal. Scottish competitor Heather McLaren (a Ph.D candidate in engineering) told the AP, "When I saw there was a combination of heavy metal and knitting, I thought 'that’s my niche.'"

Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today I have a free-to-play mobile adaptation for Nintendo's Dr. Mario franchise, a re-release of an Ubisoft dungeon crawler, and a new board game adaptation from Asmodee Digital. So without further ado, here are the most notable games released this week.

16 best new Android games released this week including Dr. Mario World, The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, and Bananagrams: The Official Game was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous two weeks or so. Today I have a new social app from Area 120, an exercise app that works a lot like a music playlist, and a minimal writing app that offers both light and dark themes. So without further ado, here are the most notable Android apps released in the last two weeks.

20 new and notable Android apps from the last two weeks including Shoelace, 321FIT, and ruff (6/29/19 - 7/13/19) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

At VidCon 2019 today, YouTube introduced new ways for creators to monetize content and videos on the Google site. YouTube Super Stickers build off Super Chats, while Channel Memberships are gaining tier levels.

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The post YouTube monetization adds ‘Super Stickers’ and Channel Membership levels appeared first on 9to5Google.

We've been living, full-time in a 40-foot motorhome for a few years now! It's been great! But we're thinking seriously about downsizing.

While we've got all of the room that we could want, our 2004 Newmar Kountry Star is less than ideal for getting into some of the rougher terrain terrain that we like'd like to explore and enjoy. If money was no object (which it is) and I could have any RV I wanted (which I can't), I'd love to get my hands on an Earthroamer. Based in Colorado, Earthroamer specializes in creating made-to-order expedition vehicles designed to allow a few happy campers to live off-grid, in the lap of luxury for long periods of time. Unless I write multiple New York Times bestsellers which get optioned into feature films and sell illicit street drugs in my spare time, it's not going to happen. But a fella can dream.

Image via Earthroamer

London bobbies were quick to arrive on the scene after a Mercedes driver tried to drive down the wrong side of a street, endangering a cyclist. When the cyclist told the driver to back up and drive on the correct side of the street, the driver took umbrage and bumped the cyclist. Other than the driver, who was incandescent, everyone else in the video kept a stiff upper lip, enforcing a stereotype of British people. The cyclist also demonstrates a good working knowledge of the NATO phonetic alphabet when he recites the license plate number of the vehicle. Here's the video without the perpetrator's face fuzzed out.

Image: YouTube

Enjoy this video of drugrunners in a semi-submersible vehicle getting collared by the U.S. Coast Guard. How dangerous that thing must be!

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro (WMSL-755) crew members board a self-propelled semi-submersible drug smuggling vessel (SPSS) June 18, 2019, while operating in international waters in the Pacific Ocean. SSPS vessels ride low in the water, half-submerged to evade detection.

Apparently newer models are fully submersible.

The Mini Cooper SE battery electric vehicle will go on sale in 2020, according to Ars Technica. The manufacturer specified range of 148-167 miles will more likely be 150 miles between charges, and it has a 181 hp motor.

From Ars Technica:

Throughout Mini's 60-year history, the brand has always been about small front-wheel-drive cars, and that continues here. In this case, the front wheels are going to be driven by a 181hp (135kW), 199lb-ft (270Nm) electric motor, powered by a 32.6kWh lithium-ion battery pack. To avoid compromising the Mini's diminutive form factor, the battery pack is T-shaped, and apparently there's no reduction in cargo volume as a result.

Image: Mini

From Wuhu in China's Anhui province comes one of the best worst insurance scam attempts ever.

(Newsflare)

FDA (totally not in thrall to Big Dairy): we're going to ban calling almond milk "milk"; Missouri State legislature (totally not in thrall to Big Ag): hold my beer.

Also prohibited: "veggie hot dog"; "tofu dog." The fact that beef-based hot dogs are not made from dogs is not a problem, apparently.

The law would also prohibit the use of "burger" or "dog" in relation to vat-grown, cell-based food, which is made of meat. The statute reserves these appelations for foodstuffs derived from "slaughtered livestock."

The bill, which passed in January and goes into effect now, was celebrated by thoroughly disinterested party Mike McCormick, president of the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation: "This bill will protect our cattle farmers from having to compete with products not harvested from an animal."

The bill has been challenged by the Good Food Institute and the American Civil Liberties Union along with other parties, who argue that it places restrictions on speech that are unconstitutional thanks to the First Amendment. The parties had been in settlement talks, but these have broken down, so litigation is now resuming.

In 1980, the Court supplied the rules for First Amendment protections on commercial speech that are still applied today. Those rules are called the “Central Hudson” test, because they were laid out in Central Hudson Gas & Electric Company v. Public Service Commission of New York.

Here are the rules: First, commercial speech “must concern lawful activity and not be misleading.” Supporters of Mississippi’s law might argue that the term “plant-based burger” is misleading, while opponents argue that consumers know perfectly well what a veggie burger is.

“There’s nothing misleading about the name of a veggie burger, or vegan hot dog, or seitan bacon,” Almy, a lawyer on the Missouri case, told me. “The packages clearly disclose that this is plant-based food that has the taste or texture of this familiar food.”

Even if the speech concerns lawful activity and is not misleading, the government can still regulate it. But it has to meet the following standards: The government must have a “substantial interest” at stake, the regulation must “directly and materially advance the government’s substantial interest,” and “the regulation must be narrowly tailored.”

Mississippi is forbidding grocery stores from calling veggie burgers "veggie burgers" [Kelsey Piper/Vox]

(Image: John Haslam , CC-BY)

There are rock skippers and then there's this guy and all his zen-like moves. This is overall world stone-skimming champion Keisuke Hashimoto, an office worker from Saitama, Japan, who has been called the "LeBron James" of the sport.

Here's another video of him, this one from 2017. It shows his first attempt as a failure:

(Reddit)

Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today I have a new Tiny Tower release from Nimblebit that sports a LEGO theme, a fantastic puzzle game that mixes a sliding tile mechanic with classic platforming action, and a unique platformer where friendly fire is the key to success. So without further ado, here are the most notable games released this week.

16 best new Android games released this week including LEGO Tower, ROOMS: The Toymaker's Mansion, and Total Party Kill was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

In the annals of hard-to-replicate works of brilliant, unsettling art, this must surely rank highly: an image created by a human subject sneezing during an X-ray scan. [via Reddit]

This new ad campaign from Penguin appeals to those of us who think beat-up, torn, taped, scribbled-upon books are more appealing than pristine ones. I wondered if the books photographed here were found as is, or lovingly distressed by the art director, then I saw the small print in the lower right of each ad, which suggests they were found that way.

[via @gray]

From Journey's End: "A celebration of Batman 89 turning 30! Music from "The Big Sleep" (Max Steiner) and "Double Indemnity" (Miklós Rózsa)"

*nasal midatlantic actor's voice*

"I'm Batman, see?"

Check out their "John Wick/The Matrix as an 80's straight-to-VHS trailer" too:

United Airlines reportedly ignored internal policies and allowed an unaccompanied minor to travel internationally alone. After charging the mother an unforeseen $150, to ensure the child arrived safely, a night of panic ensued as United placed the teenager on the wrong flight to the wrong country.

Business Insider:

A United representative told Business Insider that a 14-year-old flying alone typically wouldn't be allowed when there's an international connection involved. However, because the ticket was sold by SAS, which considers children 11 and under to be minors, the check-in agent decided to allow the teenager onto the connecting flight with the airport escort service.

The paperwork that the 14-year-old was given had the correct flight information on it, but there was a gate change between when it was printed and when he arrived at Newark for the connecting flight. A Eurowings plane, Flight EW1113 to Düsseldorf, was sitting at the gate at that point.

The United representative said the Düsseldorf flight was ready to leave, awaiting one more passenger, who had a similar name as the boy. They were preparing to close the doors, calling the passenger's name, when the person escorting the boy heard the announcements, assumed it was supposed to be him, and rushed him onto the incorrect plane.

Yesterday, Guadalajara's 30'C heatwave broke suddenly when, at 1:50AM, the nighttime temperature suddenly plunged from 22C to 14C, causing small, sub-1cm hailstones to form and fall in great profusion, carpeting parts of the city in an 1.5m-thick layer of ice.

Although there was some flooding and damage to at least 200 homes, no one has been reported injured by the freakish storm.

State governor Enrique Alfaro attributed the storm to climate change.

According to BBC Weather, the hail probably melted on contact due to the high temperatures forming a layer of water upon which more hail could land and float.

This combination of water and hail likely moved down slope, with obstacles such as buildings blocking the flow and allowing more ice to accumulate on top.

The actual hailstones were relatively small, less than 1cm in diameter, and nothing like the golf-ball sized hail seen at times in severe storms in the US.

Mexico hail: Ice 1.5m thick carpets Guadalajara [BBC]

(Thanks, Kathy Padilla!)

(Image: @EnriqueAlfaroR)

En varios puntos de la ciudad sucedió esto que nunca había visto: una capa de granizo de decenas de centímetros. pic.twitter.com/56ZTfaW2lE

— Enrique Alfaro (@EnriqueAlfaroR) June 30, 2019

Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous two weeks or so. Today I have an amusing AR drawing app, a Marvel learning app designed for children, and a new release from ClockworkMod intended to help with home automation. So without further ado, here are the most notable Android apps released in the last two weeks.

13 new and notable Android apps from the last two weeks including DoodleLens, Marvel Hero Tales, and Scrypted Home Automation (6/8/19 - 6/22/19) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

If you've decided to investigate treatment options for your mental health, your health insurer will cheerfully refer you to a list of hundreds of providers -- but as STAT's Jack Turban discovered, this "network" of providers is actually a "ghost network," filled with wrong numbers that ring in McDonald's restaurants and jewelers. If you happen to reach an actual mental health professional, they'll probably tell you they're not accepting new patients.

An NIH study tried calling 360 in-network Blue Cross Blue Shield providers in Houston, Chicago, and Boston, with a 74% failure rate -- that is, only 26% of those numbers rang in the office of a provider who would make an appointment. For pediatric psychiatrists, the failure rate rises to 83%.

Maybe that's just a coincidence...but maybe not. A federal judge found that Unitedhealth was systematically, illegally gaming the system to deny mental health care to its insured customers in order to improve the company's profitability.

It's not hard to find a shrink who'll see you -- for $250/hour. But the for-profit health-care industry is signally uninterested in helping Americans take care of their mental health, and since people struggling with mental health issues are often easily discouraged (this is literally a symptom of depression), these hurdles are likely to be terrific money-spinners for the companies and their shareholders.

As Turban writes, "Imagine realizing (or acknowledging) that you have depression — a defining feature of which is loss of motivation — and start looking for a psychiatrist. After calling a McDonald’s, a jewelry store, and providers who say they don’t take your insurance but will be happy to see you for $250 per hour that you must pay out of pocket, you’ll likely be inclined to give up."

Friedman told me a story about a Massachusetts parent who struggled to find an in-network psychiatrist for her son who was hearing voices. Despite calling countless psychiatrists who supposedly took her insurance, she was unable to find one. One day before the 19-year-old got help, the police were called to the home because he locked himself in his room and was yelling. He struck a police office and was arrested.

Insurance companies are finally getting called on the carpet about ghost networks. In California, regulators fined two insurance companies for overstating the breadth of their Obamacare networks in all specialties, not just psychiatry. A 2016 California law now requires Medi-Cal plans to update their online provider directories weekly. Aetna recently settled with the state of Massachusetts after its attorney general launched an investigation into the company’s inaccurate network lists. Massachusetts legislators have introduced “An Act to Increase Consumer Transparency about Provider Networks” that would require insurers to keep updated and accurate lists of in-network providers.

Ghost networks of psychiatrists make money for insurance companies but hinder patients’ access to care [Jack Turban/STAT]

Not only are owls incredibly agile flyers, they're also silently stealthy.

(r/NatureIsFuckingLit)

Owl through legs (full speed)

Snail slime -- called an epiphragm -- is an incredibly strong yet reversible adhesive. Now, University of Pennsylvania scientists have developed a new kind of glue that employs the same mechanism as the epiphragm. The new material dries like superglue but once wet, it loses its adhesion. For years, scientists have explored adhesions inspired by nature but none have been demonstrated to have the same amount of strength and reversibility. For example, the researchers report that their new adhesive "is 89 times stronger than gecko adhesion." From the University of Pennsylvania:

The breakthrough came one day when Gaoxiang Wu was working on another project that involved a hydrogel made of a polymer called polyhydroxyethylmethacrylate (PHEMA) and noticed its unusual adhesive properties. PHEMA is rubbery when wet but rigid when dry, a quality that makes it useful for contact lenses but also, as Yang's team discovered, for adhesives.

When PHEMA is wet, it conforms to all of the small grooves on a surface, from a tree trunk's distinct ridges to the invisible microporosity of a seemingly smooth wall. This conformal contact is what allows PHEMA to stick to a surface.

To demonstrate just how durable their PHEMA adhesive is, one of Yang's lab members and co-first author, Jason Christopher Jolly, volunteered to suspend himself from a harness held up only by a postage-stamp-sized patch of their adhesive; the material easily held the weight of an entire human body. Based on the lab tests, the team determined that, although PHEMA may not be the strongest adhesive in existence, it is currently the strongest known candidate available for reversible adhesion.

With that kind of power, the snail-slime adhesive could have a big impact on the scientific field as well as in industry. Yang sees durable, reversible adhesives like her PHEMA hydrogel as having massive potential for household products, robotics systems, and industrial assembly.

illustration: Younghee Lee

Gordon Buchanan is a ladies man... lady polar bears, that is.

While on assignment for the BBC, Buchanan, in what I'm sure he hopes is a polar bear-proof enclosure, is accosted by a hungry, frozen waste-wandering beast.

Nope. All the nopes that ever noped.

Image via Wikipedia