An Ancient Pressure Cooker, Gods in London

Two interesting items from my Google Alerts: According to 2,000-year-old cuisine to attract tourists, in Today's Zaman, the earliest pressure cooker dates back not to A.D. 1630 when it was invented, but to 100 B.C. Turkey’s Akdeniz University is researching and using ancient-style earthenware cookware and recipes to prepare feasts. The ancient pressure cooker was used to create a beef stew at an experimental modern meal.
See: Ancient Food.

The New York Times has a review of a new book on the ancient Olympians. In Gods Behaving Badly, by Marie Phillips, several of the gods live as mortals in a townhouse in modern London. They've all been given backgrounds and quirks that bring them up-to-date. Hermes rides a motorcycle. Eros is a Jesus freak. Phillips updates Apollo's Star Trek-era lament about the lack of mortal worship to: "'Everyone knew who we were. People were different then. They believed. The adulation, the fame, it was like — well, it was worship, really.'"