OmegaMouse

A funny and sardonic look at some of the more invisible elements of Japanese roadsides

Fascinating exploration of the origin of certain food items and how they came to embed themselves in American culture.

What lightweight, practical flashlights would people recommend?

I want something that I could use while camping, dog walking, and general day-to-day tasks (finding something under the bed for example). Currently I use my phone torch, which isn't particularly practical. My previous (battery powered) torches have died after too short a space of time - I want something that will last.

One with a clip would be handy, so I could attach it to a cap.

I see lots of ones online with insane lumens. 1000 lumens seems like overkill for my purposes!

Not too worried about price (within reason!)

I want to add some consistency to the way to draw eyes. As it stands, I feel like I'm just improvising every time I try and draw them and when I finally get to a point where I'm happy with the result, I have no idea how I got there (which makes it hard to apply the same rules the next time).

Can anyone recommend a clear guide? I would love something that uses easily remembered construction lines.

Video exploring rack and pinion devices that can be scaled up to create unique motion.

I realised the other day that I've enjoyed lots of murder mystery games and shows, but I've hardly read any mystery novels. The only ones that come to mind are Altered Carbon and some of the Discworld Watch novels (all great!).

Can anyone recommend me some of their favourite books in this genre? I don't really mind the setting, as long as it's a satisfying mystery with a great payoff.

As mainly a console gamer over the years, I've become quite used to playing with a controller that has vibration. I feel that this is one thing the Deck is missing out on.

So I'm wondering if it's possible to somehow connect up a small vibration motor (externally) that can be connected to the Deck, and have it recognised as a controller?

Possibly more effort than it's worth but would be interesting to see if anyone has any ideas.

I was wondering if anyone has tried upgrading the textures on Skyrim? Is it possible to do this without affecting the performance too much on Steam Deck?

I actually haven't played the game since the original release, so if it's possible to run it now with extra enhancements that would be a great incentive for me to get back into it.

What mods would you recommend, and how hard is it to get them running?

So I'd heard lots of good things about this game and decided to finally give it a go. I picked up the PS3 HD collection, which includes Ico and SOTC.

From the get go, it felt like a frustrating experience. Very little is explained to you about how the mechanics of the game work. I found myself trying to grab ledges on the colossi that weren't intended.

The game clearly wants you to experiment to find out the different ways in which the colussi will react, but it's often such a slow process that it starts to feel like a chore for half of the battles. And often I was so close to a solution but some small thing would be off, so I'd try something else instead. Then it would turn out that I had it right the first time, I just needed to be standing a metre to the right. So many times the solution felt illogical.

And whilst holding on to the head of a colossus and getting that final hit in is extremely satisfying, on some occasions the window would be so small that I'd get shaken off and have to repeat the whole process to slowly chip away at its health. Knowing exactly what I needed to do, but having to do it multiple times soon became quite dull.

About half of the colossi were genuinely fun to fight. The bird one in particular stands out - soaring through the air as you climb along his wings was incredible.

I will say that the atmosphere, music and story were beautiful. It's a great piece of art. But a lot of people claim that this is one of the greatest games ever made, and I feel like the 'game' part is lacking quite a lot.

Is there something I'm missing? I actually enjoyed Ico a lot more.

It's my boyfriend's birthday next month and I wanted to buy him a plant he hasn't yet got. Currently we have:

• Lots of monsteras
• Syngonium
• Pothos
• Jades
• Snake plants
• String of hearts
• Ferns (staghorn, blue star, boston)
• Peace lilies
• Rubber plant
• Tradescantia
• Spider plants

He particularly likes monsteras! But if there are any relatively easy to care for, or 'essential' house plants that it sounds like they'd fit well with what we already have I'd love to hear. Our house is pretty shady but there are certain areas that get a bit more sunlight in the afternoon. Thank you :)

Video taking a look at Anisotropic Conductive Film (and its use in LCD panels) under the microscope to see how it allows electrical current to run only in the desired direction.