Technology Innovation: Washing Machines and Food Blenders!

I was sent an article by an old undergraduate chum. The article mentioned in the context of creativity, ingenuity, and "appopriate technology" the use of Washing Machines as Food Blenders! Namely a huge automated Butter Churn. Naturally, like you, I too was puzzled. Naturally enough, there were no references to this in the text of this popular press article. So I turned to the internet and did a bit of sleuthing.
I just finished doing a spot of internet search and discovered an AD related to this - namely a restauranteur employing multiple washing machines to churn buttermilk to make that most nourishing of drinks - the lassi (a drink that is ubiquitous in India).
This cannot be true, I thought. But, hey watch it for yourself, a supposedly JWT London commercial for HSBC bank:
http://adoholik.com/2008/09/27/hsbc-bank-washing-machine-and-lassi/
In my mind this raises more questions than it answers.
Is this an urban legend. Can this be true? Do East European firms even make washing machines that sell worldwide? And would those machines sell in India, have a dealer network, etc? Hmmm…perhaps only for making lassi!

A Crocodile Farm in India

Crocodile Farm:
A few of summers ago I got to travel to India. We had a fabulous time...but that is a story for another time. On one occassion, we got to visit a real Crocodile Farm miles in the outskirts of Chennai, a southern seaport which formerly was called Madras.
Well away from the dust of the city in a fairly idyllic village, right near the seashore, off the Bay of Bengal was this gem of a research park. For those of you living in Florida, seeing alligators may be no big deal. But for the rest of us, this was amazing. I have never seen so many crocs in one place. The typical zoo may have a couple or even a few. But this spectacular. Hundreds or perhasp even thousands of them...See the pictures I have posted if you are get a sense of this in one of the ponds and a small section of that. Crocs of every variety and stripe. The largest of all was this humungous giant called appropriately, by someone with a sense of humor, Jaws 3.
To see these crocs lazing about, to get to touch a baby croc, was interesting. The kids got to touch it as well.
The most intersting story of these crocs that I learnt is that the sex of the reptile depends on the temprature at which the eggs incubate. Warmer temperatures mean one sex and cooler means another! I had never heard anything like this before in my life and I thought i had heard it all!

Since the I have run into more examples of other critters. Your turn to post examples a la Olivia Judson of the New York Times.