‘Final Fantasy IX’ is now on iOS and Android

You could argue that Final Fantasy IX is the long-running series’ high point. It’s certainly the highest-rated Final Fantasy game on Metacritic , even if its sales and nostalgic value pale in comparison to Final Fantasy VII . Putting that argument aside for a moment, it’s easy to say that it’s definitely a game worth playing if you like JRPGs. And now — less than two months after it was announced — it’s available on iOS and Android. The bar for entry has never been lower. The mobile port includes “high-definition movies and character models, ” autosave, achievements and a collection of “game boosters” that let you essentially cheat your way through the game. You can speed up time, cut out random encounters or hit every enemy for 9, 999 damage. The idea of the boosters is to make the game, which in its original incarnation involved well over a full day’s worth of grinding, more playable for casual gamers. If grinding on a phone or tablet isn’t your thing — or you don’t have a phone with the necessary 8GB of free space to install it — Final Fantasy IX will also be coming to Steam in ” Early 2016 , ” together with the enhancements mentioned above and some Steam trading cards. Via: Kotaku Source: Square Enix (Google Play) , (App Store)

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‘Final Fantasy IX’ is now on iOS and Android

Tardigrades Survive Intense Deyhdration By Coating Themselves in Glass

Tardigrades are tough little critters, and now one of their secrets for longevity has been revealed. It might sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, but the creatures seem to turn coat themselves in glass when they don’t have enough water to live normally. Read more…

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Tardigrades Survive Intense Deyhdration By Coating Themselves in Glass

Listen to the fascinating history of sampling songs in music

New music is often just old music put together in different ways. There’s only so many notes you can play, tunes you can sing, words you can string, you know? It’s just how it works, music sampling happens whether it’s acknowledged or not . For an entertaining look at the history of sampling, watch the video above. It’s everywhere. Read more…        

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Listen to the fascinating history of sampling songs in music

World’s most beautiful beach glows like millions of stars at night

Flickr user hala065 brings us these otherworldly images of a beach in the Maldive islands that glows with millions of pinpoints of glowing blue. The light from these bioluminescent phytoplankton looks like a fantastic starry sky somewhere deep in the universe. It’s mesmerizing. Read more…        

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World’s most beautiful beach glows like millions of stars at night

Automated Plate Readers Let Police Collect Millions of Records On Drivers

schwit1 writes with a report on just how extensive always-on license plate logging has gotten. The article focuses on California; how different is your state? “In San Diego, 13 federal and local law enforcement agencies have compiled more than 36 million license-plate scans in a regional database since 2010 with the help of federal homeland security grants. The San Diego Association of Governments maintains the database. Unlike the Northern California database, which retains the data for between one and two years, the San Diego system retains license-plate information indefinitely. Can we get plate with code to delete the database?” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Automated Plate Readers Let Police Collect Millions of Records On Drivers

An Abandoned London Power Station Could Find New Life As a Stunning Roller Coaster

The Battersea Power Station is an iconic London building, but it’s been tragically unused since it was decommissioned in 1983. Now architectural firm Atelier Zündel Cristea wants to turn that around with a proposal to make the abandoned spot a roller coaster. Where do we sign? More »

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An Abandoned London Power Station Could Find New Life As a Stunning Roller Coaster

The Awesome Control Rooms that Run the World

Every day, an army of computers and human operators toil in control rooms, providing electricity to a city, guiding planes across the sky, or searching for the Higgs-Boson. These rooms are all extremely important, whether they’re making breakthrough discoveries or just keeping the lights on. More »

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The Awesome Control Rooms that Run the World