Suicide Prevention - Butter

In southeast China there is thousand-foot-long bridge and it is providing an essential lesson on suicide prevention.
Authorities have coated the bridge with butter in order to discourage suicide attempts and the messy traffic jams they cause. The buttery spread surfaces are too slippery for even the most desperate person to climb.
The bridge has been a favorite spot for people looking to finalize things, and officials wanted to discourage the practice. They have put up fences, stationed guards at each end, but nothing worked.
It was time to bring in the butter and give that a try, after all butter isn't all that popular among the Chinese.

And what's the old saying, "want not, waste not."

Butter Found in 3000 Year Old Barrel

An oak barrel, full of butter, estimated to be around 3,000 years old has been found in Gilltown bog, between Timahoe and Staplestown. (Ireland)
The barrel was discovered by two Bord na Mona workers. (The principal Bord na Mona businesses are in the Energy, Resource Recovery, Horticulture, Home Heating and Waste-water Treatment and stuff like that)

Anyway, the workers said,"We could smell it, and it was attracting crows."

What they found was an oak barrel, full of butter.


It was largely intact, except for a gash towards the bottom of it caused by the harrow.
It was head down, and had a lid; something that has excited the archaeologists.

The barrel is also split along the middle, which is common with utensils filled with butter found in the bogs. A conservator at the National Museum, Carol Smith, told that the butter expands over time, causing the split.

The barrel is about three feet long and almost a foot wide, and weighs almost 77lbs.

After 3000 years the butter has changed to white and is now adipocere, (also known as grave wax) which is essentially animal fat, the same thing that is found on well-preserved bodies of people or animals found in the bog.
The Conservation Department of the National Museum keepers, Pádraig Clancy, conservator Carol Smith, and the Leinster Leader have had a look at the contents of the barrel

"It's rare to find a barrel as intact as that," Mr. Clancy explained, "especially with the lid intact, and attached. It's a really fine example."

"It's rare to find a barrel as intact as that," Mr. Clancy explained, "especially with the lid intact, and attached. It's a really fine example."

He estimates that the barrel is approximately 3,000 years old, from the Iron Age.

At the moment it is being dried out by staff at the Conservation Department. Once dry it will be soaked in a wax-like solution which preserves it.

Such a large amount of butter, he estimated would have probably been the harvest of a community and Ms. Smith and Mr. Clancy explained that bog butter has been tasted before, "but not by us! (yeah, right)

"It's a national treasure, you can't be going hacking bits of it off for your toast!" Carol Smith joked.
Then Carol, always the joker, continued the hilarity adding: "We've found no body parts in Gilltown bog," "but here's hoping!" (That's Carol, third from the left)

DEEP FRIED BUTTER - Yummy

Deep-fried butter, just the thought of it probably will give the fat tax proponents heart attacks.
But it's true and soon, you can can sample this delight in a couple of weeks at the State Fair of Texas.
Yes, the Dallas fair claims ownership to being the birthplace of the corn dog and is also known as the "Fried Food Capital of Texas."
These butter treats which we keeping dreaming of are the creation of Abel Gonzales where he wraps a dollop of frozen, whipped butter inside sweetened dough and quickly fries it.
The taste is like the most buttery bread you've ever had.

Watch the video below to the master at work.

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As The Michael Butter Churns

You may remember we ran a story about the Iowa State Fair and the Michael Jackson butter sculpture. We all saw how big everything about Michael was last week, and just after his death the fair butter people announced that they would be honoring Jackson by creating his buttery image. (and no, this is not the Michael Jackson butter statue you see here)

Butter organizers have decided to have a vote at their website because of the many protests they have received. "We've had a lot of feedback, mostly negative" since an announcement on the Fair's website a week ago that the traditional butter statue of a cow would "share the spotlight this year with a salute to the late Michael Jackson," the Fair's general manager Gary Slater said.

If you want to cast your ballot; VOTE NOW.

And as if PETA didn't have enough to do, they have called for the statue to be made out of Earth Balance buttery spread, not real butter. . In a PETA statement: We do respect Iowans' right to honor the late icon, so we've come up with a solution—one that's good for children, cows and Michael's legacy. We're suggesting that the fair make the statue out of Earth Balance, a dairy-free natural "buttery" spread, instead. By keeping their tribute to Mr. Jackson dairy-free, they'd be honoring his memory in a (cholesterol-free) way that's fit for a king.

Tune in tommorow for perhaps another episode of: As The Michael Butter Churns.