Do You Get To Pick Your Own Whale?

Seems like there's a lot of animal news out there today. There's a new fast-food treat in Japan:

A fast food chain in northern Japan began offering a whale burger on Thursday, even as anti-whaling nations urged Japan to cut back on its catch at an international conference on whaling.

Restaurant chain Lucky Pierrot is serving a deep fried minke whale meat burger with lettuce and mayonnaise for $3.50 at its 10 restaurants in Hakodate on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, once a whaling hub in the nation.

No matter how you cook it, it still probably tastes like chicken.

Also, some merry pranksters have gone just a little too far in their effort to make a funny video:

Authorities are investigating a video sent to a humor Web site that shows opossums being doused with lighter fluid and set afire as youths laugh "hysterically" in the background.

While I must admit that the words "flaming opposums" are funny when said out loud (go ahead and try it - you'll laugh), this clearly isn't funny in real life. The proliferation of TV shows and websites looking for "funny" videos tends to give rise to over-the-top efforts like this. It's sort of like the people who managed to kill themselves trying to copy stunts they saw on Jackass.