Saturday, December 26, 2009

The play's the thing

I wonder if the touring company of this will make it to Texas.
THE moment a husband saved his wife’s life with the help of a 999 operator when she choked in their North Yorkshire home is being recreated on the London stage.

As we reported in The Press last year, Ruth Swift, from Easingwold, was only seconds from death when she choked on a prawn sandwich, stopped breathing and turned blue.
...
Breathing Irregular, which is directed by Carrie Cracknell, will be a mixture of dance and theatre – all inspired by true stories taken from the transcripts of 999 emergency calls. The aim is to capture the intensity and raw emotion in those critical moments before the emergency crew arrive.

A prawn cocktail for a new mom

The Plymouth (UK) Herald reports on Christmas births:
Donna’s brother, Darren Jewell, had invited her, shop assistant Steve and their boys to Christmas dinner before she went into labour.

But, true to his word, he made sure Steve brought a prawn cocktail all the way to the maternity unit so Donna would not miss out.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Yellow lights of Texas

Truth about Cars:
A number of Texas cities are exploiting short yellow timing at intersections, generating significant additional revenue, according to a review of Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) data by TheNewspaper. The citation issuance rate at the nine intersections with the shortest yellow timing in the state was four times greater than the ticket issuance rate at locations that offered yellow times exceeding statewide averages.

Surprise! The intersections with short yellows tend to have red light cameras.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Recreational prawn fishing in California

Is legal
You may take any type of ocean shrimp in California waters, but spot prawns are the most desirable and sought-after for eating purposes; others are often used for bait. According to senior invertebrate specialist Kristine Barsky, because California’s spot prawns are found so deep – usually 100 fathoms (600 feet) or more – and the bag limit is only 35, most people are not interested in trapping these shrimp recreationally.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Coconut crabs of Nikumaroro

Eek
According to him, there is no evidence that the plane crashed in the ocean. It is more likely that Amelia and her navigator made a landing on the island to become castaways and eventually die there. “If Amelia died on Nikumaroro, her body was eaten by crabs. That’s pretty much a given.” The crabs were not ordinary crabs but known as coconut crabs.
Is this in the new movie?

Prawns threaten Gulf fisheries

Escapees could become an invasive species and disease vector:
Giant tiger prawns first appeared in Louisiana waterways two years ago, and mature adults have been spotted near Lafitte, Grand Isle, Venice and in Vermilion Bay, according to Wildlife and Fisheries.

Tiger prawns are used in aquaculture and first escaped from a facility in Bluffton, S.C., in 1988. But officials believe an additional release may have taken place from a facility in Alabama during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Monday, October 05, 2009

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Bacon

According to the NYT:
Bacon has become the sun-dried tomato of our time.

Lifesaving prawns

The Independent reports on British Army medics using prawn shells to treat life-threatening wounds:
Amina was in a particularly serious condition; her leg was almost hanging off. Both of Guldasta's legs, meanwhile, were embedded with razor sharp metal shards. "We did the best we could," said Major Colin Wall, the Army doctor in charge of the medical unit at the base.

"They had a hell of an experience, but they were pretty brave. We have to deal with a lot of casualties from IEDs (improvised explosive devices) – British and Afghan soldiers, but also a lot of civilians. We do what we can, but there are obviously limits at a place like this in the front line."

But they made the best of it – and it worked. The first stage of the treatment in Nad-e-Ali had involved special bandages made with crushed shellfish. On being placed on wounds, "chitosan", an ingredient derived from prawns, rapidly stops severe bleeding and accelerates clot forming.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

A game of chicken on trade

The NYT
China is threatening to cut off imports of American chicken, but poultry experts have at least one reason to suspect it may be an empty threat: Many Chinese consumers would miss the scrumptious chicken feet they get from this country.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Danger! Biscuits!

The Telegraph
An estimated 25 million adults have been injured while eating during a tea or coffee break - with at least 500 landing themselves in hospital, the survey revealed.

The custard cream biscuit was found to be the worse offender to innocent drinkers.

Via Tyler Cowen

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Oily prawns?

Chinese scientists claim prawn shell chitin can be used in biofuel production.

Alien prawns!

The aliens in the new movie "District 9" are apparently nicknamed Prawns. I wonder if they get made into risotto.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

back of the house

I added the Atlantic Food Channel to the blogroll when I learned that Alinea's Grant Achatz was blogging, but I added the overall feed for food sites at the Atlantic, not just the one to his specific blog... which meant that his posts would get pushed off the list of recent updates by other stuff. I've now added a new link just for Achatz and for a couple more food blogs to encourage myself to check them more often.

Among the Achatz posts I missed, was an interesting one about how to deal with treating customers differently.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Farmers and prawn ranchers should be friends

But there are problems
“The local authorities (Village level Peace and Development Council – VPDC) sold the fishing rights at Kyat 3 million. The shrimp farm owners, who acquired the fishing rights of sea water shrimp farming continuously open and close the dyke which protected our paddy fields from saline water. They do this to catch shrimps and prawns. As a result the paddy fields were inundated with sea water damaging all the fields,” a farmer from Pyinsalu told Mizzima.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Remote cheese?

BBC Headline:

Remote cheese factory to reopen

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Prawns threaten biosecurity

News from Down Under:

Senator Heffernan said the marinade was being used as a "cover" for the importation of otherwise raw prawns, and argued the biosecurity protocols in place to protect the local industry were inadequate to stop such practices.

Unfit prawns

In Vadodara they use urea
The farmers are facing stiff competition from their counterparts in Andhra Pradesh. They said fish and prawns from the state are unfit for consumption.

“In Andhra, they nurse the fish and prawn seeds with pig stock and beef, which we cannot use as it is against our belief.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Risotto round the campfire

In the Telegraph
"Who would have thought when the Scouting Association formed in 1907 that good old traditional camping grub would be side-lined for gourmet dishes that get served in top class restaurants?

"With cookery programmes dominating our TV channels, Scouts are determined to give celebrity chefs a run for their money.

"We want to do our best to re-create their challenging recipes in the great outdoors."

Risotto was the top campsite meal with and incredible 32 per cent of votes, paella second with 28 per cent, followed by veggie and meat skewers with 15 per cent.


Burgers came in fifth. Not clear what fraction of the risotto is prawn risotto.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Better than a dead prawn

The Cairns Post:

VIDEO released by Cairns Regional Council shows a live prawn, rust and rubbish in Port Douglas' water supply.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Natalia Cecire: Citations: Useless and Boring

Natalia Cecire: Citations: Useless and Boring takes down Mark Taylor's idiotic Op-Ed in the NYT. I add a few thoughts at my other place.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Bad Prawn Hawkers!

Prawn Hawkers suspended
Stall No 43 at Newton Hawker Centre overcharged a band of American tourists who ate there last Saturday night.
Now, Tanglin Best BBQ Seafood will pay the price: It must shut down for three months from April 1, and the worker who served the Americans cannot work there for one year.

$239 for 8 prawns does seem a bit steep. And that was less than half the $491 bill for a meal for six at a food court.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Prawn libido lacking

Brisbane Times
Queensland University of Technology life sciences researcher Gay Marsden spent two months filming prawn behaviour when the sun went down after it was discoverd captive-reared Tiger prawns had no sex drive.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Chet Edwards and PMA

Congressional Quarterly shows my Congress critter as one who has obtained earmarks and campaign contributions from the lobbying firm just raided by the FBI.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Prawn cocktail offensive

The Times(UK) on what made New Labor new
A key part of the creation of new Labour was the repositioning of the party as being on the side of business rather than the unions.

Senior figures spent years on a “prawn cocktail offensive”, culminating in Peter Mandelson's declaration that Labour was supremely relaxed about people being “filthy rich”.

Oddly, I don't think of shrimp cocktail as being for the filthy rich in the US. Is prawn cocktail in a different class?

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Prawn gives science victory!

Faifax Connection:
Two seniors at Thomas Jefferson were among 40 high school seniors named Finalists for the IntelScience Talent Search 2009, a program of the Society for Science and the Public. The competition is America's oldest and most prestigious pre-college science competition. Finalists will travel to Washington, D.C. in March to compete for $530,000 in scholarships, with the top winner receiving a $100,000 scholarship from the Intel Foundation. Each Finalist will receive at least $5,000 in scholarships and a new laptop.
...
Alexander "Alex" Kim, 17, of Fairfax Ridge was selected for his project, "Morphological and Molecular Phylogeography of a Giant American River Prawn, Macrobrachium carcinus." He is the son of Duckju Kim, an artist, and John Kim, a computer networking engineer.

For his project, Alex looked at the variations of the body form and DNA of the largest freshwater shrimp in the Western hemisphere — the Giant American River Prawn. He said he was inspired by the book, "The Crayfish," by Thomas Huxley, which he read at age 13. He's also been involved in independent science research since his freshman year. He worked with the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and had a student travel grant to visit Puerto Rico and San Marcos, Texas, to collect specimens and take measurements of the shrimp. And yes, he says he likes eating shrimp, too.

Friday, February 06, 2009

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Prawns in disguise

Shrimp cracker makers suspected of disguising foreign shrimp as local prawn

"The tiger prawn has swallowed my house"

Not literally.

39.69 minutes

A new unit of time?
Edwin Van der Sar's goal has gone 1,032 minutes without being breached.

Now 1,032 minutes may sound a long time but a United fan told me that in real terms it's only about 26 prawn sandwiches.

I think this is connected to this, but not sure how.

Friday, January 30, 2009

This is Texas

Smoking is bad for you. Second hand smoke, at minimum, makes your clothes stink, and probably is bad for you. But compared to what? This is Texas.

I'm supposed to worry about second-hand smoke from spending a couple of hours in a bar? In Texas? Give me a break.

Repeal the ban

Tonight was perhaps the last meeting of "choir practice", a Friday evening gathering of friends at a local bar for relaxation, conversation, and good company. What's going to break up our weekly convocations? Some of the group are smokers, and starting on Sunday, the city ban on indoor smoking extends to bars.

I've already blogged my intention to vote against all the incumbents who voted for the ban. Tonight, the conversation was about how to organize to get rid of the council nannies. But it would take years to get rid of all of them, thanks to the staggered 3-year terms (pdf) of the members. But there's still time for another approach: referendum.
Section 84. The electors shall have power to approve or reject at the polls any ordinance passed by the City Council, or submitted by the City Council to a vote of the electors, such power being known as the referendum, except in the case of ordinances zoning or rezoning property, authorizing the issuance of bonds, or making the annual tax levy. Ordinances submitted to the City Council by initiative petition and passed by the City Council without charge shall be subject to the referendum in the same manner as other ordinances. Within twenty (20) days after the enactment by the City Council of any ordinance which is subject to a referendum, a petition signed by qualified electors of the city equal in number to at least twenty-five (25) percent of the number of votes cast at the last preceding regular municipal election may be filed with the City Secretary requesting that any such ordinance be either repealed or submitted to a vote of the electors.

On the order of 5500 people voted in the 2008 municipal election based on adding the votes for the two candidates for each seat. The new rule passed the council on Jan 22. 20 days from then is Feb 11, if I'm doing the calculation right. Could anti-ban people organize a petition and get ~1200 signatures by then?

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The previous posts

...were based on things found by searching Google News for "prawn". The results for "risotto" and "farce" were not as interesting... at least to me.

Waxed meat?

Headline:
Restaurant offers creative dishes using waxed meat imported from Hong Kong

The lede
WAXED meat enthusiasts can partake in this delicacy at the Concorde Hotel Kuala Lumpur this Chinese New Year.

Not a fish

According to a court in India:
Prawn is not fish. That is what the Madras High Court has said in a very recent judgement[1]. The context was whether export cess was applicable for prawn as it was applicable for fish under the Agricultural Produce Cess Act, 1940. The High Court said that prawn is not fish and so the cess is not leviable.

Sukumar Mukhopadhyay takes exception. Although biologically prawns aren't fish, he argues that in South Indian culinary parlance, they are... based on reasoning that I don't quite get:
There are famous stories in Bengali of how a widowed lady was made to eat prawn without her knowing which resulted in her getting hugely embarrassed. From all these it doubtless that in common parlance prawn is regarded as fish in India .

The argument that prawns are sold in fish shops is a bit stronger, I suppose

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Throw the bums out

KBTX reports:
Ultimately the city council agreed with those in favor of the smoking ban, and passed it in a unanimous 6-0 vote. The ban not only includes smoking in restaurants and bars, but in any workplace in College Station.

The current smoking ordinance required smokers to be at least 20 feet from the entrance to a bar. The new ordinance reduces that to only 10 feet.
Here are the names of the local fascists Council members:
Ben White, Mayor -- John Crompton, Place 1 -- James Massey, Place 2 -- Dennis Maloney, Place 3 -- Lynn McIlhaney, Place 4 -- Lawrence Stewart, Place 5 -- David Ruesink, Place 6

I'm voting against all of them the next time they come up before they get the chance to ban something else.

Why Prawn Risotto Farce anyway?

The name actually comes from a minor scandal/kerfuffle about Tony Blair from 2004:
A British Airways jet carrying Tony Blair back from his whirlwind diplomatic trip to Africa made a 1,450-mile round trip to stock up on prawn risotto, asparagus mousse and cheesecake.

The Boeing 777 flew from Addis Ababa to Nairobi and back while Mr Blair was holding talks in the Ethiopian capital to pick up a consignment of in-flight food ready for his return trip to London. Downing Street staff and press were happy with the hot dinners after they boarded the plane on Thursday, but others were not so sure.

Stephen Tindale, the executive director of Greenpeace and a former adviser to Labour, said: "He should have eaten Ethiopian food, sourced locally. The more we fly, the more people will die from climate change, and Africa is in the front line."

Trying blogger again

I just set up a new blog for phage biologists, which led me to revisit blogger.  I set this blog up a couple of years ago to experiment with blogger, so I thought I'd post to it again to play with the many changes that have been implemented since then.

Might even add some substantive content too...