Jellyfish exhibits have been popular additions to aquariums in the past few years. Special tanks are carefully lit and designed to show off different types of jellyfish, creating lovely photo opportunities. The jellies are soothing to watch and it’s no surprise that those with the means want to display them at home. But you can’t just plop a jellyfish into a regular fish tank. The title of this N.Y. Times Bits blog posting speaks to the unpleasant results if a jellyfish hits a normal filter instead of having a gentle current to drift in. The Jellyfish Art start-up specializes in building and installing jellyfish habitats for homeowners, and also providing suitable food. The JelliesZone website has an extremely detailed write-up on the challenges of keeping captive jellyfish.

Years ago, I watched E.R. religiously and thought about catching the return of George Clooney and Julianna Margulies on TV this week but realized I’d be able to see it online instead so I did — and then… OMG, Susan Sarandon shows up, FTW! See it all or just the good parts online at NBC.

Boston’s Hancock Tower is scheduled to be put up for auction at the end of the month. Owner Broadway Partners bought the building in 2006 for $1.3 billion and has defaulted on some debt payments. They have the option of filing for bankruptcy to protect themselves from creditors and are likely negotiating to restructure their debt to allow them to survive the devaluation of so many of their properties. The Hancock was designed by I.M. Pei and Henry N. Cobb and is the tallest building in New England.

In this compilation of “Roadside attractions for Bay Area commuters,” the S.F. Chronicle offers up the observation that the Waldo Tunnel rainbow archways were not painted by “happy hippies” in the 1970s but Caltrans engineer Alan Hart who decided it would be a nice touch. Hart passed away in 1994 but wrote about the paint job: “I was so certain that the bureaucrats at Sacramento would find 1000 reasons why I couldn’t paint the rainbows that I never made any effort to get their approval.” Hart oversaw construction of two of the most aesthetically appealing highways in the area, the gracefully curving I-280 which sports a “World’s Most Beautiful Freeway” sign, and I-80 as it crosses the Sierra Nevada which has been dedicated as the “Alan S. Hart Freeway.”

Speculation continues as to the date of the Seattle P-I’s final print edition. The staff has prepared the content for the farewell, but has no idea when it will run, and parent Hearst is keeping mum. Evidence that there will be an online-only version of the P.I. include the renewal of the seattlepi.com domain which would have expired this month and offers extended to some staff members. But Hearst is keeping quiet about those plans as well. The only certainty is that the staff will be paid through March 18th. All bets are on a final edition being printed by then. Don’t miss P-I photographer Joshua Trujillo‘s awesomely executed photo of March 10th’s full moon rising behind the P-I globe, taken from a kayak in “10 knot winds, 500 yards offshore, with about $8,000 worth of camera and lens in hand.”

If Art Nouveau is your thing, the exhibit “Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique” at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor may be of interest. But the Chronicle points out that for the largest collection of Tiffany glassware west of the Mississippi, you can head over to Alan Schneider’s Antique Traders on California Street. He’s gathered the top specimens of Tiffany lamps, vases, even windows, and other craftsmen of the period, and it’s all for sale — if you can afford it.

Cash registers may not have been invented if everyone was honest, though their ability to track sales for accounting purposes is equally useful. The first “Ritty’s Incorruptible Cashier” came from the Ritty brothers in Dayton, Ohio with a patent granted in 1883. National Cash Register acquired the patent in 1884 and is still in business today with a history that took NCR from electric registers to LCDs to the signature capture devices of today’s computerized systems. The brass registers of the past are now coveted by restaurants and bars to lend a nostalgic air to their establishments. Known as “tombstones” by bartenders, these old machines harken back to their origins quite well: James Ritty was a barkeeper when he invented that first mechanical register. His Pony House Saloon survived him and Prohibition, closing in 1967. On the Bowery, former cash register central of Manhattan, the Faermans of Faerman Cash Register still make a business of keeping those “ka-chings” in good shape.

Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs” fame is an Eagle Scout and he promises to personally fill out and sign his own letter for any Eagle Scout who requests it. It’s a letter with a reminder that becoming an Eagle Scout isn’t a reward of entitlement but a foundation that should be put to good use. This is from his site mikeroweWORKS (audio) that promotes skilled labor.

Last Wednesday, Malia and Sasha Obama came home to find a new swing set on the south lawn of the White House. Rear Adm. Stephen Rochon, Chief Usher, conducted extensive research at the request of the First Lady before the set was chosen, including a trip to Brookings, SD home of Rainbow Play Systems where, according to CEO Greg Foster, “he climbed on the set. He slid down the slide. He swung on the swings.” The selected model has many features: 3 swings, a tire swing, climbing wall, slide, monkey bars, and “penthouse” with bubble windows. Foster and a factory crew came to D.C. to install the set, bringing along a custom picnic table with brass plates engraved with the names of all the Presidents. The last full swing set at the White House belonged to the Kennedy children. I dug up two photos from Corbis of Caroline on that same south lawn: a posed shot of her on the set, and a long lens candid shot. It looks like they had a little treehouse with a slide as well as a jungle gym.

In these difficult times, it is good to know we can still pamper our kitty cats with indulgences such as this Swarovski crystal-encrusted cat flap. I’m pretty sure I can crank one of these out with one of those cell phone bling kits or just a hot glue gun and a trip to the craft store, so maybe this is just the Etsy business I’ve been waiting for.