This came out a couple of years ago; take a look at some of the local wildlife and maybe you’ll understand why I don’t like to swim in the ocean.
West Coast of Vancouver Island an 80lb Octopus Doflieni – Giant Pacific Octopus, tentacle spread of 16ft, charges an underwater robot (ROV)and wraps a tentacle around the vehicles manipulator claw, in full reverse the ROV blasts the octopus away with thruster/propeller wash.
From Defamer:
Every once in a while, a reader will send in something just interesting or odd enough to totally mesmerize us, something that we we feel oddly compelled to share despite our complete inability to find a blogworthy angle. If you need a context for the attached photo, it’s merely a sign from San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood, one of a series celebrating various famous Americans of Italian extraction, sponsored by a local business called Precious Cheese. If you need a further reason to stare, feel free to impose your own meaning on the serendipitous pairing of sponsor and overly earnest, past-his-prime actor, and muse that “Precious Cheese” is Travolta’s drag name or his term of endearment for his favorite private jet passenger. Either way, Precious Cheese will haunt our dreams tonight.
Make of this what you will. Personally, if I’d been an Aussie, I’d have died to portray Steve Irwin. Russell Crowe apparently feels differently.
Actor Russell Crowe called reports that he may play “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin in a film biography of Irwin‘s life “appalling,” he told CNN’s “Showbiz Tonight.”
“This is my friend,” Crowe told “Showbiz Tonight” anchor A.J. Hammer during an interview for Crowe’s new film, “A Good Year.” “All right? He just died. We’ve dealt with his funeral, we’ve dealt with a memorial to him. You know?
“I’m not doing business over the grave of my friend. I find that appalling. But, you know, that’s not just in the tabloid[s]. That’s in The Guardian, its in The New York Times. Understand? Absolutely disgusting.”
So you might as well get some of those presents out of the way early. In case you’ve got any lonely and unpersonable men on your list, here’s the girl of their dreams, from eBay via Gawker: the Elizabeth Hurley fembot from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
Even though this version comes with a removable face (included!) and gun-mountable nipple ports, you can still exult in ample late-1990s Hurley cleavage. Only $1,500 on eBay, and no bids as of this writing. Get everyone in the book club to pitch in.
Update: Minimum bid is now $3,000. I guess even Fembots monitor their press!
‘Round these parts I am the dishwasher, but I recall the glory days when I had one of these handy, if energy-spendthriftish, machines. It did indeed make a nice poached salmon, as the Surreal Gourmet claims and every BCer could tell you.
Actually, the best alternative use of a dishwasher was the one the techs at Starbucks came up with. When the dishwashers died (as they all must) they converted them into salmon smokers, and they worked beautifully, too. Wood chips in the engine compartment, salmon on the racks, the whole thing clad in airtight stainless steel; it was perfect.
In any case, here, via BoingBoing, is the immortal “How to Poach a Salmon in Your Dishwasher” recipe, from the Surreal Gourmet.
Poaching fish in the dishwasher is a virtually
foolproof way to shock your friends, prepare a succulent meal and do the dishes — all at the same time. I’ve poached salmon in more than 100 dishwashers on three continents. There’s never been a dull party.
It all started with the release of my last book, The Surreal Gourmet Entertains. To promote it, I traveled the globe throwing spontaneous dinner parties wherever I could rustle up a kitchen and a willing audience. The hazard of having a good publicist, however, is that guests tend to arrive with impossibly high expectations. Instead of trying to compete with their fantasies, I countered by turning an urban legend into a practical cooking method. My kitchen resembled a mad laboratory as I pushed my dishwasher well beyond the uses covered by its limited warranty. With a minimum of collateral damage, the process of testing and tweaking the following technique was good fun and yielded results that even surprised me.
As it happens, salmon’s very forgiving. Although temperature and cycle durations vary with each machine, a little more or less “washing” doesn’t greatly affect the results. To heighten the drama — and prove that you have nothing up your sleeve — let your dinner guests crowd around the dishwasher when you load the fish. Then, when the cycle’s complete, invite them back to witness the unloading.
Here’s all you need to know to set your doubts aside, put dinner in the dishwasher and watch your multitasking kitchen appliance steal the show.
raincoaster 