Tokyo’s Haneda Airport is home to a unique café and planetarium: the Planetarium Starry Café. Dine under the stars… in an airport! (Read more about Haneda here.)

Image courtesy of USA Today, TIAT.

Image & Star Wars © Lucasfilm

While I’m no fan of the Dark Side of the Force, this Death Star cookie jar does seem to be conclusive proof of the statement, “Come to the Dark Side, we have cookies.”

Image & Star Wars © Lucasfilm

Saw this fantastic redesign of Tang on The Dieline — as if there weren’t enough reasons to love Tang, now it’s even geekier!

I especially like the scoop. ♥

Saw this striking wine bottle packaging by Rhinocerosred Design over at Curved White. Beautiful work!

I first saw this marvelous bit of latte art here, and failing to find a larger version on Flickr, traced it here and eventually to Reddit. (Where it’s still only 400×300.) It really bugs me when I can’t find the original version and can’t be sure of the “source” being the actual original, but PhotoBucket seems to be as close as it gets, so there you go.

I want a latte just like this. It would MAKE my DAY. Actually, it would make my MONTH.

It had to happen eventually, and it doesn’t surprise me that Japan is at the forefront of space beer. OnOrbit has an overview of the release — very pricey, very limited, and you have to be a Japanese resident to enter the lottery.

Sapporo Breweries Ltd. is launching sales of the world’s first beer produced using malt made 100% from “space barley,” the progenies of spaceflight barley seeds, This limited offer is exclusive to the Internet and proceeds will go to charity. Applications to purchase the beer, which is dubbed “SAPPORO Space Barley,” can be made from December 3 (Thu), 2009 on the dedicated web page set up on our company’s website. Two hundred and fifty successful customers will be selected from among the applicants by lottery.

The “space barley” used to make this beer is the fourth generation descendant of the Haruna Nijo malting barley that was developed by Sapporo Breweries and kept in space for five months during 2006 as part of our collaborative research with the Russian Academy of Sciences and Okayama University with the purpose of achieving self-sufficiency in food in the space environment. Since Sapporo Breweries was founded, we have continued to create excellent varieties for raw materials, and we are the only company in the world that operates breeding/research organizations for both barley and hops. This, the world’s first sale of this “space beer,” is the result of our extended nurturing/development of the required technologies.

At roughly $100 for six bottles of space beer, this is not a purchase for the fainthearted, but I like the sentiment:

It is our hope that our customers will feel able to sit back, relax, and enjoy SAPPORO Space Barley, letting their minds drift through the infinities of space and into dreams of the future.

Saw a display for Moonstruck Chocolatier in a Market of Choice supermarket over the weekend. Gorgeous logo, gorgeous packaging, and a crescent moon-shaped gift box? Yeah, I’m in love.

La Rosa Space Wheels Ad, image by neatocoolville @ Flickr

My esteemed friend Etherbrian pointed these images out to me yesterday: Neato Coolville supplies the terrific ad, and grickily actually owns a box of Space Wheels, and is kind enough to show them off. (Thanks to both for allowing me to repost the images here!)

La Rosa Space Wheels, image by grickily @ Flickr

For the kiddie of taste and refinement, Tiffany & Co. has you covered, with the sterling silver Rocket Ship bank and porcelain Cosmic three-piece baby set.

As much as I feel guilty drawing your attention to something so hard to find, I can’t help but mention the Kamenstein Motion Rocket Kettle, a tea kettle that alerts you when the water’s boiling by spinning rockets, spewing forth steam. It was made in 1999, and is sadly, painfully out of production and worth 5 to 10 times the initial selling price of $70. (Try $300-700, if you can find one. Big IF.)

Where did I find this remarkable device, you ask? Alton Brown used one on his True Brew II episode of Good Eats, which I only saw two nights ago. AB, I love ya, but how dare you dangle a ROCKET tea kettle in front of my eyes, and then have it be discontinued?? I cry many tears.

Rocket, one of the models featured in Kamenstein’s Motion Kettles collection, is made of highly polished stainless steel and holds 2 1/2 quarts of water. Located at its top is a rotating ring powered by steam produced when water boils inside the pot. As the ring turns on its ball-bearing base, a pair of attached rockets circle the tea kettle. In addition to providing amusement, the kettle’s revolving rockets signal users that water is boiling.