• What's your "Peculiar Aristocratic Title"? Mine is "Her Most Serene Highness Lady Lenka the Encompassing of Lower Beanthrop in the Hedge" (well, one of the more flattering ones is, anyway). [via Octopus' Garden]

• "Athenian Owls were arguably the most influential of all coins, and the Classical Owl tetradrachm is the most widely recognized ancient coin among the general public today. Owls were the first widely used international coin. They popularized the practice of putting a head on the obverse of a coin and a tail (animal) on the reverse. Owls were handled by Pythagoras, Xenophanes, Democritus, Hippocrates, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes, and others whose thinking formed the very foundation of Western civilization. They remained thematically unchanged, Athena on the obverse, her owl on the reverse, for half a millennium, through great changes in the ancient world. President Theodore Roosevelt used a Classical Owl as a pocket piece, which inspired him to order the redesign of U.S. coins early last century."

• Slurp your next Bloody Mary through a genetically engineered hollow stalk of celery [via BoingBoing]
• Celebrities create inventions, too - often ones bearing some relation to their field of specialty: Michael Jackson patented a "method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion," Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller invented a "Hydro-therapeutic stimulator," (you could call it "magic" of a certain sort, har har) and Julie Newmar (of "Batman" fame) holds Patent #3,914,799 — "Pantyhose with shaping band for cheeky derriere relief". You may have also heard of actress Hedy Lamarr's (star of the 1930's film, "Ecstasy," published under her married name, Hedy Kiesler Markey) World War II-era invention: a cipher engine for creating and reading secret codes. [via Ironic Sans]
• I can't decide whether this culinary trend is tasty or terrible: now you too can create home-made "molecular gastronomy" creations (just like El Bulli's Ferran Adria or Moto's Homaru Cantu! Or maybe not) like Tea Bubbles, using upscale gourmet chemicals like sodium alginate and calcium chloride. Albert and Ferran Adria's "Texturas" line offers a variety of products for a most Willy Wonka-esque cooking experience; e.g., you can add "explosive" or "effervescent" effects to your recipes! How about exploding cranberry sauce next Thanksgiving? [via CHOW]
• "You give us the moose, we'll let you have yer sheep." [via CNN]

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