Locusts

[Hobbit]

Did anyone see this horrible CBS disaster movie? I only saw part of it and want to find a place where I can get a copy (digital download, VHS, whatever) so my friends and I can MST3K it.

For those who missed it, it's about how two swarms of genetically altered locusts, one each on the east and west coasts, immune to pesticide, start ravaging the country and the gov't has to figure out how to stop them before they hit the midwest farmland. The DoD is going to try dropping VX nerve gas, killing 10% of the U.S. population along with the locusts, but instead some rogue scientists figure out how to electrocute the locusts. They get a large swarm attached to a grain silo (trying to get in) by using a generator to turn the silo into the world's biggest bug zapper.

 

[Shattered]

Just based on the name alone, I wouldn't see this movie.

*shudders*

Ugh. Ick!

 

[Nienna]

I read about this movie in the tv guide, but didn't see it. Isn't the chick from Xena in it?

 

[krisy]

I saw it Hobbit. What a cheesy movie!!! At first I thought it wasn't too bad,but after a while it became so unrealistic it was ridiculous. Seemed a little generic. Then,they had the whole relationship/baby thing going on with the hubby and wife in the middle of it. Too corny!!!

 

[Dan]

Anyone ever see Peter Benchley's Creature? It was some horrible miniseries my friends and I saw on Sci-Fi one night. These people are chasing what turns out to be a man spliced with a shark and a seal. Sadly, it starred Kim Catrall, that must've been before Sex and the City or something.

 

[Hobbit]

Anyone ever see Peter Benchley's Creature? It was some horrible miniseries my friends and I saw on Sci-Fi one night. These people are chasing what turns out to be a man spliced with a shark and a seal. Sadly, it starred Kim Catrall, that must've been before Sex and the City or something.

IMDB'd it. It was made right before the series premier of Sex and the City.

 

[insein]

Imagine that a movie from hollywood where the military is always looking to kill as many people as possible while completing their mission. Sounds like real life to me.

 

[waltky]

Granny inna kitchen fixin' Uncle Ferd some pan-fried locusts he caught fer supper dis afternoon...

Eating locusts: The crunchy, kosher snack taking Israel by swarm
20 March 2013 - Israel is in the grip of a locust invasion. Farmers are seeing their crops gobbled up in minutes - and some people are taking a novel approach to pest control. Eating them.

Rabbi Ari Zivotofsky's children have been busy in the kitchen. On the menu… breaded locust, and chocolate-covered locust. Mmmmmm. Israel is dealing with a locust emergency. For the last two weeks, the skies in the south have been swathed in a moving carpet of the swarming insects. Locusts eat their bodyweight in food every day. And they have been chomping their way through fields of potato and maize. They are showing little sign of letting up. And a few, like Zivotofsky's unlucky locusts, are now landing up in heavily populated areas, like Tel Aviv. Call it revenge, or just a practical killing of two birds with one stone - whatever the motivation, many Israelis have decided to cook them up, and eat them.

Locust is the only insect which is considered kosher. Specific extracts in the Torah state that four types of desert locust - the red, the yellow, the spotted grey, and the white - can be eaten. As with fish, there are no rules surrounding their ritual slaughter, making them a particularly versatile ingredient for culinary connoisseurs, like chef Moshe Basson, founder and owner of the famous Eucalyptus restaurant in Jerusalem, and a specialist in reviving ancient Biblical foods. For the uninitiated, he recommends serving them crunchy - an effect that is best achieved as follows: Drop them into a boiling broth, clean them off, and roll in a mixture of flour, coriander seeds, garlic and chilli powder. Then deep-fry them.

Pan-frying is another good option, and they are "crunchy, tasty and sweet", says Basson, when mixed with caramel and sprinkled into meringue. "There is a big interest. People will pay a fortune. They say 'Let us know when you are doing them.'" Locusts are usually hard to source in Israel and Basson has to get them from a specialist lab. But nothing, he says, beats freshly gathered, locally sourced, wild ones. Locusts that have feasted on sesame plants acquire an oily, shiny tinge, and are said to be particularly delicious. So what do they taste like?

More BBC News - Eating locusts: The crunchy, kosher snack taking Israel by swarm

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - Jesus comin' back soon, dem Jews better get with the program...

Bible comes to life as locusts swarm Israel
March 27, 2013 - Israeli Jews celebrating Passover will easily relate to their ancestors this year – the country has been swarmed by millions of locusts, one of the 10 plagues visited on the Egyptians.

Locusts have descended on Israel this week, just in time for Passover. As millions of Jews commemorate the story of the children of Israel’s exodus from Egypt, including the 10 plagues that afflicted Pharaoh and his people, millions of the crunchy buggers are creeping all over Israel’s southern deserts. This is nothing like the eighth plague of biblical times, in which locusts covered “the whole face of the earth” in a kind of collective punishment for the Egyptians whose leader refused to let his Hebrew slaves go free.

Locusts make their way from Egypt just before they land in Kerem Shalom near the border with Egypt, in southern Israel's Negev Desert, March 11.

But this year is the first time since 2005 that modern-day Israel has had to combat locusts, which can swarm so thickly that drivers can’t see beyond their windshield. Potato farmers bemoaned the detrimental effect of a previous wave of the grasshopper-like insects several weeks ago. The Israeli Ministry of Agriculture, which was on “locust alert,” has responded quickly to the latest wave with pesticides. But it’s not just Israel. Today the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Agriculture sprayed pesticides in Hebron, in the southern West Bank. And Egyptian farmers have suffered millions of dollars in damage after a swarm of about 30 million locusts hit Cairo earlier this month.

The most serious situation, however, appears to be in Sudan, where the United Nations Food & Agricultural Organization (FAO) head has warned that immature “hoppers” are lining up along a 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) stretch of the Nile and could pose a serious threat to Nile Valley crops in May. OK, so locusts are not your average grasshopper. But still, how can they cause such massive damage? Consider these arresting facts: They can eat their weight in crops every day; They can fly more than 80 miles a day – in swarms as dense as 200 million per square mile; And females can lay as many as 1,000 egg pods in roughly 10 square feet, according to a FAO fact sheet.

A locust hangs on a tree near Ashelim in the Negev Desert, southern Israel, March 11.

To put the threat in practical terms, 1 ton of locusts (just a fraction of your average swarm) can eat about as much food as 2,500 people can in a single day, says FAO. The Israelis have sought to reverse the food chain this Passover, however, by grilling the kosher insects for a crunchy, high-protein delicacy. And they’re not alone. Locust recipes abound. A Mexican version from “Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects,” by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio calls for roasting locust torsos and sprinkling them on homemade guacamole in a taco shell. Scrap that. Sprinkle and enjoy, the cookbook says. B’tayavon, as the Israelis would say. Bon appetit.

Bible comes to life as locusts swarm Israel - CSMonitor.com