The ‘dangers’ of Escolar/ Butterfish

I recently had the misfortune to try Butterfish at a restaurant in Vivocity (Singapore).

Why misfortune? Read the effects of consumption here.

Pretty gross right?

This fish is banned in Japan and Italy. If I had my way, I wish it was banned in Singapore too! Or at least, all menus with it should come with a very big warning so that consumers will be aware of the after effects of eating this not-that-fantastic fish.

Homosexuality – not so uncommon afterall?

Recently I saw this article on scientific american which caught my eyes: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=bisexual-species

It’s an article regarding bisexual behaviors in animals. What’s interesting about this article is that it seems to imply that it is not so uncommon for animals to engage in homosexual behavior (or what most people say: unnatural sex) as we think it is.

It appears that there is a likelihood that bisexual behavior is a natural state for these animals. In fact, animals do not actually have problems with sexual orientation. To them, that’s just sex. With heterosexual partners or otherwise isn’t that big a deal.

There’s more you can gain from this article but I don’t have time to pick them all out. (Have to start on work! boo.)

Do read the article! Have fun.

Guest post: On war elephants and squealing pigs

In line with my previous post, here’s another trivia about romans courtesy of Choops – I’ll leave it to him whether or not he wants to be identified beyond his nick. =)

Ever heard of the term “pyrrhic victory”? It means you win, but at a devastatingly high cost. This term came from the Greek general Pyrrhus that remarked after a battle that “one more such victory would utterly undo him”.

Well anyway there’s another story connected with Pyrrhus. He was fighting the up and coming power in that region then, the Romans. Now one of the legacies of his cousin Alexander the Great was the introduction of war elephants to the Greek armies and Pyrrhus had quite a few of these in his army. The good thing about them is that opponents that have never encountered elephants before usually break and run at first contact.

But the problem is the Romans have encountered these creatures before. In fact, they actually won the battle by sending squealing pigs against them. The elephants panicked and ran, trampling Pyrrhus’ own troops. (There have been records of pigs smeared in fat, lit on fire and sent against elephants. This works just as well and takes care of the celebratory feast after the battle at the same time.)

The thing is this; captivity can bred a neurotic fear of small animals into elephants, so that a barking dog or, yes, even a mouse running across the floor can panic a circus elephant.