Dams proposed for the Mekong River in Southeast Asia would drive the world’s third-largest freshwater fish species to virtual extinction, according to a World Wildlife Fund report.

Any of the 11 hydropower dams planned for the river’s mainstream south of China would prevent the Mekong giant catfish from migrating to its spawning grounds, the WWF said Tuesday in a news release.

The catfish, with a maximum length and weight of nearly 10 feet and about 770 pounds, are too big to swim across such dams, said Dekila Chungyalpa, director of WWF’s Greater Mekong Program.

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"I work in a barber shop. If you're a lousy tipper in a restaurant chances are nobody knows. Chances are good they all know you don't tip the barber well." - sammy

PETA - the animal rights activist group whose monthly stage blood budget must run in the quadruple to quintuple digits - today staged a pro-vegan publicity stunt at the intersection of W. 45th Street and Broadway in New York City's Times Square. Legendary proponents of nearly-nude public antics, the cadre's toned and comely volunteers assumed corpse poses upon human-sized, plastic-swaddled (don't they know how hazardous that is?) "meat" trays bedecked with stickers proclaiming, "Billions of Animals Are Abused and Violently Killed Because You Eat Meat."

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5@5 is a daily, food-related list from chefs, writers, political pundits, musicians, actors, and all manner of opinionated people from around the globe.

Today, we may have learned that Anthony Bourdain's three-year-old daughter can sit in a French brasserie, slurp down some oysters and generally enjoy herself. But before that, we found out parents told lotsa food fibs to entice picky palates to eat certain foods.

If your pint-sized eater falls into the latter, fussier category, Marc Murphy (with two children of his own) might be the chef to turn to.

Murphy is chef and owner of three New York City restaurants — Landmarc [TriBeCa], Landmarc [Time Warner Center] and Ditch Plains. He also frequently appears as a judge on Food Network's "Chopped."

5 Favorite Dishes to Make with Kids: Marc Murphy
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Every weekday, we're highlighting a blogger we think you ought to know about. We can’t be everywhere at once, so we look to these passionate eaters, cooks and writers to keep us tapped into every facet of the food world. Consider this a way to get to know a blog’s taste buds, because, well, you should.

Who: Lisa Fain, of Homesick Texan
Where: New York City, New York
Twitter: @homesicktexan
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The ball isn't the only thing that's going foul at the game.

ESPN has the full list sorted by state

We find that our friends - chefs and civilians alike - are incredibly split on the issue of restaurant leftovers. Sure, some cities dole out kitchen extras to homeless organizations, but leftovers, legally, mostly get scraped into the trash. Do you doggie bag it if you've got half an entree or sandwich left or jam your pockets with cracker packets?

Sink your teeth into today's top stories from around the globe.

• There's a fungus among us, and it's ruining our basil. - The Associated Press via NPR

• Haute cuisine at high altitude? In a simulated flight, Lufthansa is taste-testing airline meals to better understand in-flight taste perceptions. - Wall Street Journal

• In Japan, cooking Play-Doh-esque food in miniature kitchens is all the rage. - Bon Appétit

• Gift card sales for restaurants increased in the first half of 2010. - Nation's Restaurant News

• More reasons why ex-Waffle House cooks make the best employees. (With a cameo by us!) - Seattle Weekly

This just in, from tonight's ABC's Nightline, Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern speaks about his journey from addict to a James Beard Award-winning food personality.

John Berman: It was a serious drug problem?

Andrew Zimmern: Oh very serious. Yeah – hard drug addict, alcoholic, la package totale.

Berman: So, we’re not talking about like dabbling in drugs?

Zimmern: Oh, no no no we’re talking about – let me see if I can paint the picture for you: I lived in an abandoned building in lower Manhattan; one that we squatted – a bottle gang and I. I would steal purses off the backs of chairs in those swanky little cafes on Madison Avenue, run down the side street, leap the wall at Central Park and 5th Avenue, get on the subway, go down to the lower east side and sell the credit cards and passports that were in the purses for money to support my drug and alcohol habit. And then go to sleep at night on a pile of dirty clothes in this abandoned building and I sprinkled a bottle of Comet Cleanser around so the rats and roaches wouldn’t cross over at night so I could pass out in some peace and quiet and that’s what I thought was normal. That’s how I lived for a year – no showering, I was the guy you crossed the street to avoid if you walked by me in New York.
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The candy had melted in the backseat of the car, turning the dark chocolate, marshmallows, granola and Gummi Bears into a hot, sticky mess. But Nick LaCava wasn't having any of this "throw it away" nonsense.

When he and his friends arrived home, LaCava, 23, tossed the bag into the fridge. A few hours later they dared him to eat it.

"It actually was really delicious," LaCava said. "That was the moment that the lightbulb went off in our heads."
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