Lleu Llaw Gyffes

Something small drops from Arianrhod, his virgin mother. Her brother, Gwydion, scoops it up, sticks it in a chest of drawers, later hears something screaming from inside. Lo, it's Lleu.

Arianrhod doesn't much care for Lieu, as he reminds her of her virginity, so curses him. She makes it where he can take no human wife. So Gwydion makes Lleu a wife made of flowers. She does just fine until...

(Here I should parenthetically interject that little Lleu Llaw lived his life under protective laws. He wasn't to be killed during the day or the night. He wasn't to be wearing clothes, nor be naked. He wasn't to be riding or on foot. And he couldn't be killed using any lawfully made weapon.)

...until his new floral wife cheats on him, then tricks him into giving up the recipe for his death. All she has to do is wrap him in a net at dusk, stand him up with one foot on a goat and one on a cooking pot, and stab the stuffing out of him with a semi-automatic spear, illegal at the time.

Upon dying, Lieu turns into an eagle, is turned back into a human by Gwydion, then, in turn, turns Petunia into an owl. You know. Myth stuff.

I swear I'm not making any of this up. I wikied it.

iDisc

The iDisc Jukebox plays up to seven CDs at the same time!

Higgs boson

Imagining the Higgs boson will give you a headache. You see, particles once had no mass. Then, the universe began and they did. In the nanosecond between was and is hides the boson of Dr, Higgs, theoretical physicist. Looks something like this guy here.

So now you've got your Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and two questions arise: Where's CERN, and why are all its letters capitalized? It's too complicated to explain, but while pondering, another question arises: What's a Hadron? Clearly, too many questions arise.

All you really have to know is that somewhere beneath France and Switzerland, particles, or something resembling particles, are whipping around inside two big, cold magnetic circles. When they get up to speed, a switch will be thrown, the tracks will cross and boom! Particles will collide. The boson will be observed, possibly laughing, but only for a split second. After which, either a black hole sucks us all in, OR (as scientists hope) an alternate universe is formed, one where science finds an answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything. If only we could teach it in the schools.

Nazir

Nazir remembers his days guarding the sultan.

ghost window

RIP Richard Wright 1943 - 2008

Vatican Voucher

A chit's a marker, sort of an IOU. This one is a carved coprolite depicting a Vatican prelate, and it enabled the bearer to purchase goods for the Roman Catholic Church on credit. Storeowners came to use the name of such a token as an expletive, since it was usually valueless. It was known as a holy chit.

Who is Gyle E. Foofaraw?

This Saturday morning cartoon character 

is known for his constant exposure to radioactivity 

as he attempts to 'nucularize' his adversary, Chippy Zipmunk.

Ike

He's a monster.

merperson

Coral-morel-headed merperson assumes underwater counter clockwise holding pattern, surfacing from time to time to eye enviously the beckoning, palm tree suspended, but pinguin inhabited hammock.