Fugu - Fish Which is 1,200 Times More Poisonous Than Cyanide

Fugu is the Japanese word for pufferfish or Blowfish and is also a Japanese dish prepared from the meat of pufferfish

If your chef is not certified (Certifications are given by the government of Japan after the chef passes an Exam) to serve it, it could be the last thing you eat. Because pufferfish is lethally poisonous if prepared incorrectly, fugu has become one of the most celebrated and notorious dishes in Japanese cuisine.


The Fugu or the blow fish is a fatuous-looking fish that has a peculiar defense mechanism. It gulps large amounts of water, filling its abdomen, inflating into a menacing spiky balloon that's twice its normal size, making it tough for predators to swallow it. While the flesh, skin, fins, and milt are eaten, the innards (intestine, eyes, kidneys, ovaries, and especially the liver) are highly toxic. One Fugu contains enough Tetrodotoxin to kill up to 30 people in a matter of seconds.


The puffer toxin paralyzes human muscles. Records reveal that 6.8 % deaths have occurred due to consumption in restaurants. In the last 10 years, 321 people have fallen ill and 26 people have died in Japan alone. If caught and cooked by a layman, chances of death shoot up to 90%. The fish is exported out of Japan only after it is cleaned thoroughly.

How they make it:

It is sliced, stuffed it with rice, garnished with some chopped chilli and served


A Fugu chef is given certification only if he samples what he serves, before handing it over to a patron. To make Fugu Sushi, They slice the clean lump of fish into thin slices, stuff it with a fistful of boiled rice before garnishing it with sliced green chillies. It's placed in a dish accompanied by soya sauce.


The fish is chewier than most others, even a tad sweet. It goes well with soya sauce, chive and bitter orange sauce.

what it looks like before it reaches your plate

Some Interesting facts about Fugu:

>>The Emperor of Japan is forbidden from eating it for his own safety.
>>Some professional chefs choose to leave behind a tiny bit of poison in the meat, leaving a prickly feeling and numbness on your tongue and lips.
>>In Japan, lanterns can be made from the bodies of preserved Fugu, hung outside restaurants, and sold as toys for kids and souvenirs to tourists.
>>Its poison, Tetrodotoxin, is 1,200 times more potent than cyanide.

Efforts to Save the Tiger Find Support Online, But Nothing’s Happening at Ground Level

Acampaign to save the tiger has caught the imagination of people on networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter. Several lakh people are following the issue. However, conservationists want them to act rather than simply make noises online.

M C Vinay Kumar, state director, Worldwide Fund for Nature, says, “Hats off to this [social networking] generation for being concerned. But, I will give only 30 per cent marks for tweeting or joining an online group. For full marks, you have to go beyond posting messages and deal with the problem at the ground level.”

The chatter on the social networking sites has its own benefits. “More people are becoming aware that previous generations were unsympathetic to conservation issues. Hence, the campaign to save the tiger is gaining momentum,” he says.

THE NETWORKERS’ PROBLEM

Sharad supports the campaign online, but does not know what else he can do. “There is no information, no website where I can know more. What can I do to help the tiger?” One ‘tweet’ says, “How can general public help save Tigers? Give suggestions

Vinay Kumar says, “They can involve themselves in any reliable organisation working for conservation in whatever capacity they can. Doctors, politicians, religious leaders, teachers, housewives, businessmen...whatever you are, you can play important roles in conservation.”

THIS IS WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Graphic designers can make posters and pamphlets to educate other people and field operatives

• Website developers
Can make websites for organisations involved in conservation

• Mechanical and electrical engineers can help the Forest Department make better use of solar energy at the ground level. For example:To re-charge wireless sets

• Doctors can treat people living in and around protected areas so that they can protect the forests better

• Agricultural scientists
can teach better farming techniques to people dwelling near forests so that crops can be less palatable to crop-raiding wildlife.This will reduce human-wildlife conflicts

• Public Relations for the tiger: people with contacts in governments and legislatures can share their contacts with conservationists.
Suggestions from Sanjay Gubbi, assistant director (conservation science and policy), Wildlife Conservation Society-India Programme. He says, “People must first educate themselves about the priorities and important threats to tiger conservation. Once priorities are clear, the rest will follow."

The Tigers Who Swim With Humans

Interaction - Tigers are known as the best swimmers of all the big cats with modified webbing between their toes to make their feet more like flippers

Hand-reared tigers at animal park in US get their exercise in a special pool with humans

MIAMI (USA): An animal park has found a unique way to develop bonds between humans and tigers. Traditionally, trainers have struggled to build an attachment with tigers because of the sheer bulk of the animals. But the Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, or TIGER, claims to have overcome the problem by encouraging both tigers and humans to swim together in a specially adapted pool.

Although a number of wildlife parks have encouraged the animals to swim for exercise, the routine has usually consisted of little more than trainers throwing lumps of meat into the water for the tigers to collect.

'Not dangerous'

Bhagavan Antle, director of the centre, said he wanted to give the 90 kg, two metre long creatures an opportunity to exercise properly without giving them meat. Antle has about 200 animals at the TIGER park. The hand-reared tigers are introduced to the water a few months after birth and the trainers then give one-on-one tuition to each of the animals. But despite the apparent danger, he said his trainers are never at risk. "We found that in the water people and tigers were on a more equal footing when the tiger was swimming around on top of the person. As they were floating, we could manipulate them more easily because they couldn't stand up on their back legs."

The Pooch With Bionic Leg Worth Rs 8 Lakh in UK

LONDON: What do you call a dog whose one leg alone is worth over Rs 8 lakh? His owner Reg Walker — the man who spent this whopping sum on him — calls him Coal.

Coal is one of two animals in the world to be fitted with a unique bionic limb costing £10,000 (approx Rs 8,26,000), which was a result of groundbreaking research.

Last year, Coal had to have his left paw amputated after suffering from cancer. But when doctors told Walker that the eight-year-old American bulldog would have to be put down since his other limbs weren’t strong enough to carry his weight, he was determined to do all he could to save Coal.

Walker, a top security expert in the music industry, said: “When I found out about Coal I was gutted. He goes everywhere with me — he goes on tour, he's the only dog to have allowed into Live 8 and the only dog that has ever been backstage at the Royal Albert Hall.” The advanced prosthetic technique was used to help a victim of the 7/7 London bombings. Experts say it is the only implant in the world that allows skin and bone to grow into it. “It is the holy grail of research,” Vet Noel Fitzpatrick said to the Enfield Independent. “If you have an accident and your bone sticks out through your shin, skin will try to grow round it. People have been trying for this for years and years because with this we get an umbrella of skin attached to the metal.”

And while researchers are thrilled with this breakthrough, Coal and Walker are just happy to be together. “Now he has an absolutely normal quality of life, which he wouldn't have had before.”

A leopard tries to escape the rising level of water, due to rain

WISH I COULD FLY!

A leopard tries to escape the rising level of water, due to rain over the past 72 hours at the Zoological Park in Jamshedpur on Wednesday, June 18, 2008