I saw this article -dated Oct 16th- in Al-Ghad daily newspaper with the headline-translated from Arabic- "Cabinet bans Canadian toy. Islamic Sharia also bans it"

They're talking about GenPet - the biologically engineered pet. At first glance, you would think this thing is real because a big newspaper like Al Ghad said so, and because our Cabinet -consisting of mostly well educated individuals- out some time into issuing a decree to ban it.

The news piece also mentions quotes from the GM of the Jordanian standards bureau stating that "this toy has not entered the Jordanian market and that it will be stopped on any attempt to do so".

Another quote by the head of the Consumer Protection Association states that he will "..abide strictly by the Cabinet decree..." ....this guy sounds more decisive.

The piece also includes quotes from a psychologist and a professor of Islamic Sharia, who both condemned the toy... they go into a lot of detail and flex their brain muscles to convince us not to buy this toy.

It's really sad to think that none of those supposedly learned men took the time -took me 5 mins- to research the new and figure out that this is all a hoax (read these links):

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/4198/
http://www.brandejs.ca/portfolio/Genpets/What
http://www.brandejs.ca/portfolio/Genpets/Why

If those are the decision makers, then God help us. And if this is the level of research that goes into our daily newspapers...well.