The Rock is threatening cod stocks, but not the Rock you think

There's the Rock that has been under a cod moratorium since 1992, and then there's The Rock who most certainly has not.

Social media was buzzing this week when Muscle and Fitness magazine posted Dwyane "The Rock" Johnson's bodybuilding meal plan. 

Seeing The Rock on television and in movies, I always assumed he needed a good dose of protein to maintain his size and muscle mass. 

However,  what blew me away was just how much codfish the former WWE wrestler consumes on a daily basis.

Dwayne Johnson revealed his muscle-building meal plan in this months issue of Muscle and Fitness. (Muscle and Fitness)

Our Rock — by that, I mean Newfoundland — was legendarily built on cod, and it turns out that the other Rock was, too.

According to the Muscle and Fitness article, Johnson eats 2.3 pounds of cod every single day, which adds up to about 821 pounds per year. That's over 1,000 calories of cod every single day!

A pound of fresh cod at Sobeys in St. John's this week costs $8.99. That means if The Rock was living on The Rock (aka Newfoundland), he would have to spend $7,380 per year to maintain his current cod consumption.

If cooked cod is more your style, consider this ... Ches's Fish & Chips weighs out six ounces of cod for a two-piece meal.

That means The Rock eats the equivalent of 5.5 two-pieces each and every day!

A two-piece fish and chips from Ches's in St. John's has 6 ounces of cod. (Ches's Fish & Chips)

The wrestler-turned-Hollywood superstar eats seven meals per day as part of his dietary plan, two of which have cod as the main source of protein.

Along with seafood, Johnson also eats 12 eggs daily, along with healthy servings of chicken, steak, protein powder and vegetables.

However it isn't all lean protein for The Rock. While training for the movie Hercules, Dwayne Johnson famously treated himself to one "cheat meal" after 100 days of eating clean.

What did he have? Twelve pancakes, four "double-dough" pizzas and 21 brownies.

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson photographed himself during his cheat meal day during the filming of Hercules in 2014. (twoscoopsgethuge.com)

I think by now we can all "smell what the Rock is cookin'," and as it turns out, it's a whole lot of food.

It can't be easy or cheap to get all of that cod every day — even for a rich movie star.

With the Newfoundland and Labrador recreational food fishery set to last three weeks this summer, perhaps Johnson should come to this province, go out in a boat and get his daily quota and stock up for future meals.

Or actually, maybe not. With a yearly appetite of 821 pounds, Dwayne Johnson would only be helping the Newfoundland cod stocks to once again hit "rock bottom."

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'Thank you Mother Nature!': Otter sliding party captured on film

Donna Dooley just wanted to see whether the ice on the Cameron River outside of Yellowknife had thawed when she, her daughter and her daughter's friend went to the Cameron Ramparts for a picnic on Easter Monday.

"We had the campfire going and we were starting to cook bannock and smokies and had sat down by the campfire and my daughter said, "Oh my God! There goes an otter!"

Dooley says she'd hung her camera on a tree branch and scrambled to get a shot as the animal disappeared over the bank. "I thought 'Oh that was so exciting but, aww... I just got a picture of its butt, oh well.'"

But the show wasn't over.  

Dooley says as they sat, looking out over the river, they saw three otters going in and out of a hole in the ice. Then they disappeared from sight.

"Next thing I know, they were coming up the trail behind us and sliding down!" she says.  

For the next half hour, Dooley witnessed a group of otters running straight across the river ice and sliding down the hill into a hole.

"They were peeking at us, running across the snow, in and out and down the trail… It was amazing!" she says. "They were having a good time."

Otters common in N.W.T.

River otters are fairly common in the territory, where they're found all the way up the Mackenzie River and the territorial mainland to north of Inuvik, says Suzanne Carriere, an ecosystem management biologist with the territory's Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Carriere says although they're in the same family as weasels and wolverines, otters are much different.

"These guys are very social, sometimes even a bunch of guys just hang out together, not just families."

Carriere says that playfulness speaks to their high level of intelligence. 

"If you have animals that are more intelligent they'll have play as part of their behaviour," she says, citing wolves and ravens as doing the same.

Carriere also says the otters can swim "really fast" underwater and can spend up to five minutes below the ice.

River otters make their homes in holes in the sides of river banks or in old beaver lodges, but they like to travel and make their homes from one body of water to the next.

Culturally significant

Besha Blondin, a traditional healer in the N.W.T., says the cultural significance of otters to First Nations people runs deep. The Dene story, "The Old Man with the Otter Medicine," is read in classrooms across the territory.

Blondin says the animals have been used traditionally in healing because of their medicinal role.

"If a person is really sick with internal sickness, or emotional problems, they'd look for an otter to use the healing power to fix them and get healthy," she says.

Blondin says her people know that every spring is a playful time for the otters. 

"So if people see them playing, it's like a gift given to you," she says.

Dooley agrees. She says she and the girls packed up their picnic and left their site when the otters appeared to have done the same.

"As we were leaving we were yelling, 'Thank you Mother Nature!' I think if anybody was around they probably thought we were crazy," she laughs.

"It was just so amazing to see them."

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Nutella is coming to Tim Hortons in Canada

Tim Hortons is rolling out Nutella as a spread option as well as two new baked goods featuring the iconic Italian condiment in Canada.

Timmies announced Thursday that starting April 15 it will offer a new chocolate-hazelnut doughnut filled with Nutella and pastry pockets filled with Nutella.

The coffee shop will also begin offering Nutella as a spread option on bagels. The new options will be available for a limited time and will disappear from stores on June 9. 

The coffee chain is also starting an online contest to go with the Nutella launch.

Anyone who sends an uplifting message to a friend on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #SpreadTheLove will be entered in a contest to win free Nutella baked goods. The receiver of the message will be entered in the context as well. 

While the launch is scheduled for later this month, the new products appear to be showing up in some locations already. One customer spotted Nutella pastry pockets at a Tim Hortons in Calgary.

Shut The Front Door @TimHortons!!! #Nutella #YYCFoodies #DreamsComeTrue pic.twitter.com/Ux1Bub7Mm4

— @Goodwill_Carlos

The Nutella news has set off a wave of reaction on social media. Most of it has looked something like this:

Um @TimHortons is launching a Nutella line. BEST NEWS EVER. http://t.co/IaEe3Aafis

— @erinbury

But before you get too excited about the new Nutella-infused offerings, it might be good to remember that Nutella is not exactly health food (despite some previous advertising suggesting just that).

CBC's Marketplace recently revealed that one tablespoon of Nutella contains approximately one tablespoon of sugar. Think about that. 

For its part, Nutella maker Ferrero suggests the spread should be enjoyed in moderation.

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Irish company turns anti-gay pamphlets into confetti for same-sex weddings

Of all the many uses for confetti — showering award show winners, stuffing envelopes, jazzing up nail polish — subverting homophobic propaganda may be the most creative and powerful one we've seen to date.

In the run-up to Ireland's May 22 marriage equality referendum (citizens will vote on whether or not to legalize same-sex marriage within the country), opponents have been distributing anti-LGBT leaflets in an attempt to win support from voters.

Containing unfounded statements suggesting that gay people "contract cancers earlier in life" and that children adopted by same-sex couples are "50 times more likely to die of injuries inflicted on them," many of the pamphlets have upset the people they've been given to in Dublin.

Some on Twitter are destroying the anti-gay leaflets they receive, but Irish paper company Daintree had a better idea — create confetti out of them to be used at gay weddings.

"If you receive any dishonest flyers or leaflets in the run-up to the referendum we want to recycle them into confetti," reads a message posted by the company online. "Just drop into our little paper shop at 61 Camden Street, Dublin, and hand the lies over to one of our lovely shop staff and we'll create more beautiful confetti to help people celebrate marriage equality."

Daintree has set up a dedicated website to host materials for its confetti campaign, which it calls A Shred of Decency.

There, the company is actually selling bags of confetti "made from 100% recycled lies" for €5, with 100 per cent of its profits going to Ireland's pro-LGBT Yes Equality organization.

While the company is shipping its confetti internationally, leaflets are currently only being accepted for shredding at its Dublin headquarters.

Those who would like to participate remotely can still do so, however, via Twitter.

"If you see any negative and dishonest tweets about the marriage referendum on Twitter, we can shred these Tweets for you too!" reads the campaign website. "Just reply to the dishonest tweet and add #shredthistweet. We will then print the tweet off and add it to the pile."

"We'll also send a tweet to the source of the dishonesty and thank them for their very generous help in supporting YES Equality," the company notes. "We will try (and probably fail) to suppress a tiny smile whilst doing so."

While some on Twitter are indeed calling out hateful messages on the hashtag, most are simply using it to praise the campaign and share images of the confetti they've received from Daintree.

Daintree Paper manager Nichola Doyle told the Independent newspaper that 500 batches of confetti have already been created from leaflets collected by her staff. 

They're going fast, though, according to the campaign's Instagram account — which makes sense considering that a majority of Irish voters plan to support gay marriage on referendum day, according to polls.

Watch the campaign's full video here:

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$100 doughnut at B.C. bakery dazzles with edible gold, sugar diamonds

First, there was a $100 hot dog and an $850 pizza being sold at separate restaurants in the Metro Vancouver area. Now, a bakery in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley is home to a $100 doughnut.

To celebrate its grand reopening on the weekend, Dolicious Donuts in West Kelowna created the Donutopia, a luxurious treat laced with gold, sugar diamonds and chocolate.

The inspiration for the decadent doughnut came from a loyal customer, said store manager Melissa Sam.

"He had been going there since he was just in elementary school, and he wanted to propose to his girlfriend," Sam told Daybreak South.

"So he came to us and he wanted to put the ring into a Bismarck [a cream-filled doughnut], as a pillow for the ring to present to his girlfriend."

The Donutopia is made with pure 24-karat gold flakes, sugar diamonds, ice wine, luxury bottled water and a chocolate topping infused with aged balsamic vinegar.

To hear the full interview, listen to the audio labelled: $100 doughnut in West Kelowna, B.C.

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Will new green bins bring Toronto victory in raccoon war?

Raccoons try, and fail, to crack Toronto's new green bins

Mayor John Tory is confident he has in his arsenal an "ingenious" new weapon in Toronto's long and losing battle against "the forces of raccoon nation that have defeated us for some time."

At a news conference Thursday, Tory gleefully presented a video he says shows that the days of raccoons treating Toronto organic waste bins as a nightly buffet will soon be over. 

The difference? A new design Tory says is resistant to even the most clever, bin-savvy raccoons. 

"We are ready, we are armed. We are motived to show that we cannot be defeated by these critters," said Tory with a hint of humour. 

The city's video tells a tale of two green bins. The surveillance video first shows raccoons easily breaking into the bins currently in use. Later, the video shows raccoons as they try and fail to find their way into green bins the city expects to approve and put into service staring in 2016. 

Tory admitted that residents' attempts to make the old bins raccoon-proof  — everything from homemade latches to bungie cords and the use of rocks and bricks as weights — have largely resulted in failure.

"You name it, people have tried it but the raccoons have adapted very well to city life," he said. He said the old bins are already at the end of their 10-year life span, offering the city an opportunity to improve the design.

He said the new bins are taller and more stable, making them a harder nut for the critters to crack. 

If approved at committee and council, the new bins will be delivered starting in 2016 at no cost to residents. The old bins will be taken away by the city and recycled. 

The bins will also have more capacity for trash. 

"Most people can comfortably skip one collection day if they want to," said Tory. 

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Man sends wife hilariously 'sad' photos to prove his vacation was no fun without her

Believe it or not, the incredibly sad-looking man in these photos was on a free vacation in tropical paradise when they were taken. 

He wasn't unhappy with his luxury resort accommodations, bothered by the balmy weather of Puerto Rico, or even suffering from a jellyfish sting. 

He simply missed his wife and baby daughter.

Kevin Blandford, his wife Bonnie, and their 7-month-old daughter Gwyneth Paige. (Kevin Blandford / Facebook)

Kevin Blandford, 34, recently won a trip to the Wyndham Grand Rio Mar Beach Resort & Spa in Puerto Rico through work. The vacation was a reward for his outstanding performance as a quality assurance supervisor at the telecommunications company he works for in Louisville, Kentucky.

While understandably thrilled to have won the trip, Blandford soon learned that he wouldn't be able to bring his wife, Bonnie, or 7-month-old daughter, Gwyneth, along for the adventure.

"Bringing [Gwyneth] along was complicated, and Bonnie didn't want to be away from her that long," he told CBC News, noting that it would have been logistically difficult to bring a baby to Puerto Rico at the time.

So, Blandford went on the trip without his girls — but he made sure to let Bonnie know how much he missed them by sending along photos of himself looking miserable (taken with the help of his dedicated friend, Alec.)

Bonnie got a kick out of the photos, leading Blandford — an avid redditor — to think that the internet might enjoy them too.

He was very, very right.

Blandford uploaded 14 photos of himself having "not a single second of fun in Puerto Rico" to Imgur when he returned from his vacation at the end of March, and then posted the gallery's link to the r/pics subreddit.

The gallery has now been seen more than 2.3 million times in just 7 days, attracting international media attention and messages from new fans all over the world.

"I thought that Reddit might like the photos but I had no idea it would blow up like this," said Blandford. "I've gotten messages from people at work that I don't know, I've gotten LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter messages. It's been surreal."

And Blandford isn't the only one being sought after — after all, his wife was the one who inspired this project.

"Since it's been so huge she's been getting as much attention as I have," Blandford said of Bonnie. "It's really been so much fun and so crazy. I don't think she really understood the scope until she started getting calls from CNN and Ellen." 

While Blandford admits that he didn't, in fact, have a terrible trip – "you can't go to a place like that and not have some fun," he said – he maintains that he would have preferred to bring his family along.

Fortunately, he'll get a chance to do just that if he decides to go on any of the three separate trips his family has been offered since the gallery went viral.

"We got offered two Puerto Rico trips; one by the hotel I was staying in and the other by the Puerto Rico Ad Agency," he told CBC News. "I also got offered a trip to Mauritius. Ever heard of that island? I hadn't. I'm looking into it to make sure it's legit and that I will come home with both kidneys. If it is, it could be the trip of a lifetime."

No dates have been set, but Blandford says he's excited to return to Puerto Rico, "this time, WITH my girls."

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PM's office mocked on Twitter after spelling British Columbia wrong

Press passes for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's student grant announcement in Vancouver Tuesday contained not one, but two typos.

• Stephen Harper expands eligibility for Canada Student Grants program

It seems the Prime Minister's Office neglected to use an apostrophe when referring to the event and misspelled British Columbia.

The Prime Minister's Office was not immediately available for comment.

However, the reaction on social media was swift after CBC reporter Kirk Williams tweeted about the pass.

OOPS! Ah, @pmharper, the province you are visiting today is spelled with a "U" as in Col-U-mbia. #cbc #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/fJqXgs18OQ

— Kirk Williams (@CBCKirkWilliams) April 7, 2015

Fellow Twitter user Robert Joly replied in jest that Harper might have been thinking of going to the country Colombia to escape any backlash from the Mike Duffy Senate expense scandal.

@CBCKirkWilliams @spiderzjay @pmharper He just missed the country of his last hide out from the Duffy scandal.He will hide in Panama friday

— @bodelairo

Tweeter Yvonne Fortin also replied, questioning the government's priorities.

@wafflewrecker9 @calgarykiaguy @CBCKirkWilliams @natnewswatch @pmharper Grammar & spelling are "clearly" not important #BoysInShortPants

— @yvonne4tn

And someone writing under the handle @albertarabbit had stern words for the federal government.

@CBCKirkWilliams @marionetta @pmharper Those PMO kids need to brush up on all their skills. This is not a first & won't be a last.

— @albertarabbit

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Von Trapp family still singing 50 years after the Sound of Music

50 years after the release of The Sound of Music film, the great-grandchildren of Captain von Trapp are continuing the family tradition with the release of a collection of original songs.

"It's young and fresh but it still carries a lot of that optimism that is similar to the Sound of Music but with a bit of a contemporary feel to everything," Melanie von Trapp, 23, told The Early Edition's Rick Cluff.

"A lot of it's based on inspiration we've had by being on the road and travelling most of our lives."

This will be the first release of original songs from Sofia, Melanie, Amanda, and August von Trapp, but the siblings have been touring and performing classics for the past 12 years.

Melanie von Trapp said their grandfather, Werner von Trapp — portrayed as Kurt, the youngest of the boys, in the film — taught them to sing.

"He would always come to Montana, where we grew up, and teach us folk songs and little Austrian yodeling songs," said von Trapp.

"Eventually he had a stroke and couldn't come visit so we ended up recording the songs that he taught us and making a little album for him to listen to in the hospital, and that kind of set the ball in motion."

The four von Trapps will perform at the Rio Theatre in Vancouver tonight, and the audience can count on a few classics from the Sound of Music soundtrack.

"I think we'd have tomatoes thrown at us if we didn't sing Eidelweiss, but we actually love it. I love that music," said von Trapp.

To hear the full interview with Melanie von Trapp, listen to the audio labelled: The von Trapps are still singing.

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No love for Lucy statue in Lucille Ball's hometown

They may have loved I Love Lucy but many in Lucille Ball's western New York hometown have no affection for her life-size statue in a local park.

Since the bronze sculpture was unveiled in 2009 in Lucille Ball Memorial Park in the village of Celoron, the statue has been blasted by critics who say it bears little or no likeness to the popular 1950s sitcom actress and comedian.

Village officials told The Post-Journal of Jamestown that they've talked to the sculptor about making changes to the statue's face, but the artist wants as much as $10,000 US to alter his artwork. Other sculptors have quoted a price tag of about $5,000.

"We'd like to work with the original sculptor, and wish he would stand behind his work enough to step up and fix it for free," Celoron Mayor Scott Schrecengost told the newspaper.

He said no taxpayer funds will be used for the statue project. The village has started a fundraising effort to pay for the sculpture's makeover.

A statue replacement campaign has been launched on Facebook with the name, "We Love Lucy! Get Rid of this Statue."

The statue was commissioned privately by a couple who hired a sculptor from neighbouring Jamestown, 100 kilometres south of Buffalo. The 400-pound statue was installed in August 2009 in a park Celoron, where Ball spent much of her youth.

The statue depicts Ball with her signature swept-up hairdo, but the sculpture's face has been described by some online critics as "a nightmare" that resembles a drunken zombie. The sculpture shows Ball holding a spoon and a bottle of Vitameatavegamin, a fictional elixir featured in one of her most famous episodes.

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