Yummy!

Puffer fish sold as salmon kills 15

Thu Aug 23, 6:14 AM ET

BANGKOK, Thailand - Unscrupulous vendors in Thailand have been selling meat of the deadly puffer fish disguised as salmon, causing the deaths of more than 15 people over the past three years, a doctor said Thursday.

Although banned since 2002, puffer fish continues to be sold in large quantities at local markets and restaurants, said Narin Hiransuthikul of Bangkok's Chulalonkorn University Hospital.

"Some sellers dye the meat of puffer fish and make it look like salmon which is very dangerous," Narin said.

Narin said over the past three years more than 15 people have died and about 115 were hospitalized from eating the fish.

The ovaries, liver and intestines of the puffer fish contain tetrodotoxin, a poison so potent that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it can "produce rapid and violent death."

The fish is called fugu in Japan, where it is consumed by thrill-seeking Japanese gourmets for whom the risk of poisoning adds piquancy.

Every year, there are reports of people dying or falling sick in Asia from eating puffer fish. Eating the fish can cause paralysis, vomiting, heart failure and death.

For Those Who Question The Power of Advertising

Notice: I forgot I wrote this with the intention of adding more info to it. The story broke a couple of months ago and I am sure most you are familiar with it. Decided to go ahead a post this anyway.

I am sure most of you by now have seen this story, and I think what it says about our culture is amazing. The advertisers at McDonald's are doing their job well when preschoolers are able to recognize the brand. The same can be said other labels as well. A clinical child psychologist who has worked with children for nearly twenty years, Dr Allen Kanner makes this observation, 'Recent studies have also shown that by the time they are 36 months old, American children recognize an average of 100 brand logos,' (1). One hundred brands and most children are learning their ABC's and numbers, but they can recognize corporate labels. I propose we do away with the No Child Left Behind Program (which should be done away with anyway) and allow the advertising masters of these corporations to rewrite our education system. Obviously, they know what they are doing.

One Step Closer

Thanks to the Queer Revolution for posting this news. Here it is reposted if you haven't seen it. As for people asking about where's the rest of my trip pics, they are coming. It takes some work to edit all those pics and what not, and I have been working everyday since I've returned. So be a little patient.

Appeals Court Says Oklahoma 's Anti-Gay Law Unconstitutional

(Denver, Colorado) The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting in Denver, has upheld a lower court ruling that struck down an Oklahoma law described as being so extreme it had the potential to make children adopted by same-sex couples in other states legal orphans when the families are in Oklahoma.

''We hold that final adoption orders by a state court of competent jurisdiction are judgments that must be given full faith and credit under the Constitution by every other state in the nation,'' the 10th Circuit said in its ruling.

''Because the Oklahoma statute at issue categorically rejects a class of out-of-state adoption decrees, it violates the Full Faith and Credit Clause'' of the U.S. Constitution.

Although single gays may become the parent of adoptive children same-sex couples in Oklahoma were barred from adopting and the law allowed the state to invalidate adoptions where couples have been awarded joint parenting rights in states where co-adoption is legal.

The Adoption Invalidation Law, hastily passed at the end of the 2004 Oklahoma legislative session, had said that Oklahoma "shall not recognize an adoption by more than one individual of the same sex from any other state or foreign jurisdiction."

Lambda Legal, representing same-sex couples took the state to court. Lambda represented two same-sex couples and their families who adopted children while living in other states and later moved to Oklahoma or want to visit the state with their family

Lambda Legal argued that the law was unconstitutional based on the United States Constitution's guarantees of equal protection, due process and right to travel, as well as the mandates of the Full Faith and Credit Clause.

A year ago U. S. District Judge Robin Cauthron declared the Oklahoma law unconstitutional and the state appealed to the 10th Circuit.

Lambda Legal hailed the ruling.

"This was the most extreme example of punishing children because you don't approve of their parents," said Lambda attorney Kenneth Upton.

A spokesperson for the state said officials had not seen the ruling and he could not comment.

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