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1. Casu marzu, Italy Sardinia is a beautiful island off the coast of Italy, and it’s known for its traditional foods. One of the most famous (or infamous) dishes is casu marzu, a cheese infested with live maggots. The maggots make the cheese so pungent and strong-tasting; some even say it’s an acquired taste. If you’re feeling brave, try this maggot cheese for yourself – just be sure to remove the maggots before you eat it! Casu marzu means “rotten cheese” or “maggoty cheese,” depending on your translation preferences. Its name comes from its main ingredient—sheep’s milk—and its distinct texture:...

Pythons turn their food into meat pretty efficiently, a study finds, making them an intriguing alternative to climate-unfriendly cows. Put aside your chicken cutlets and meatloaf and say hello to python curries and satay skewers. Some snake scientists think eating these reptiles—already customary or at least acceptable in parts of the world—might help lessen the damage our food choices have on the environment. With some eight billion people on the planet today, all of whom require protein to stay healthy, finding new sources of these nutrients is a crucial issue. But how do you get from the challenge of providing...

The world’s leading meat producer, Tyson Foods Inc., announced the closure of its largest pork packing plant in Iowa this week as the company transitions towards insect farming to produce “meat alternatives.” The meat giant also indicated that four additional plants would close by mid-fiscal 2024, just days after announcing the closure of two major chicken plants.

During Lent, alligators may change from reptiles to seafood, depending on where you live. Looking for dishes you can still enjoy over Lent? May we suggest some tasty alligator recipes? Don’t worry. It’s been approved by some religious authorities. In case you’re unfamiliar with the parameters of Lent, here’s a quick breakdown: Lent is the 40-day period prior to Easter that many of the Christian faith use as a time of reflection and prayer. In 2024, Lent runs between February 14 to March 28. During that time, those who observe may also abstain from luxuries (this is why so many...

Abstract Global food production is anticipated to rise along with the growth of the global population. As a result, creative solutions must be devised to ensure that everyone has access to nutritious, affordable, and safe food. Consequently, including insects in diets has the potential to improve global food and nutrition security. This paper aims to share recent findings by covering edible termites as the main aspect, from their consumption record until consumer acceptance. A total of 53 termite species are reported as edible ones and distributed in 6 biogeographic realms. Generally, termites have a nutrient composition that is suitable for...

Ants are sweet, nutty little insects, aren't they? I'm not talking about their personalities, but how they taste. Stinkbugs have an apple flavor, and red agave worms are spicy. A bite of tree worm apparently brings pork rinds to mind. This information will come in handy for those of us following the latest recommendation from the United Nations: Consume more insects

This has prompted questions as to why mask mandates are still in force.. Dr. Anthony Fauci has now declared that Americans who have been vaccinated for COVID-19 should have “no concern” at all about contact with unvaccinated individuals, prompting questions as to why mask mandates are still in force. Appearing on NBC News on March 13, the lockdown and mask-advocating Fauci responded to the new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which stipulated that those who have received the full dose of their Wuhan coronavirus injection can continue with normal activities without wearing a mask. Meanwhile,...

Plymouth State University, namely VP Marlin Collingwood and Director Katie Caron are attempting to band University students like cattle with the stated intent of broadcasting everyone's COVID test status. I don't know where they are getting the funding for all this testing and the wrist bands, but this is a ridiculous waste of what might be possible public funding. Collingwood and Caron are attempting to implement a weekly COVID test, as a condition of continued school attendance. Their letter, recently sent out to the student body, is shown below. Unfortunately, I could not locate information on their website to link...

...James Bullard, CEO of the St. Louis branch of the Federal Reserve, was recently on CBS’s Face The Nation with Margaret Brennan to talk about the state of the economy and what could be done to stem the outbreak of the virus. Toward the end of the interview, Bullard says, “You know, I have good news for you, MARGARET, because we have a- there is a solution using available technology today to fix the economic part of this problem. The solution is universal testing. What you want is every single person to get tested every day. And then they would...

'What have I failed to do?' - Pope leads bishops in abuse crisis examination of conscience Vatican City, Feb 23, 2019 / 11:38 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Saturday led the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences in a penitential liturgy and examination of conscience on their failures in handling abuse within the Catholic Church.“For three days we have spoken to each other and listened to voices of victim survivors about the crimes that children and young people have suffered in our Church,” the pope said to bishops Feb. 23.“We have asked each other: how can we act responsibly and what...

Leaflets have reportedly been distributed in Manchester calling for a public ban on dogs, in order to keep the area pure for Muslims. But while some have claimed the leaflets are a hoax designed to stir up tensions, others are convinced the leaflets are being created by fundamentalist Muslims. Residents in Manchester have taken to social media to report that they have received leaflets through their letterboxes calling on them to “have respect for us and our children” by not taking dogs out in public. “This area is home to a large Muslim community,” the leaflet advises, before explaining that...

Food of the future Credit: Chad Zuber | Shutterstock.com As the human population continues to inch closer to 8 billion people, feeding all those hungry mouths will become increasingly difficult. A growing number of experts claim that people will soon have no choice but to consume insects. As if to underscore that claim, a group of students from McGill University in Montreal has won the 2013 Hult Prize, for producing a protein-rich flour made from insects. The prize gives the students $1 million in seed money to begin creating what they call Power Flour. "We will be starting with grasshoppers,"...

Wild boars look more or less the same in Israel as they do anywhere else: stalky and hairy with big heads, long snouts, and beady eyes. So scientists had no reason to suspect Israeli wild boars were any different than their brothers and sisters roaming the Middle East, from Egypt to Iran... unlike the Near Eastern wild boars in surrounding countries, Israel's wild boars originated in Europe. After a genetic and archaeological analysis, the researchers suggest the wild boars living in Israel are descendants of domesticated pigs brought to Israel starting almost 3,000 years ago by the Philistines and other...

(I received this the other day. It's written by Pastor Tom Brock) -Today I walked through my old alma mater, Luther Theological Seminary in St Paul, Mn. It is known as probably the most conservative of the ELCA seminaries. You wouldn’t know it from the number of gay/lesbian bumper stickers in the parking lot. Upon entering the main building a sign was up promoting a new book at Luther’s Bookstore, “Pastrix” by ELCA Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber. She was a favorite speaker at the ELCA Youth Assembly and a few months ago spoke at the historic Central Lutheran Church in downtown...

As in cockroaches. But vermin is nothing new in a building that is 213 years old--and roaches aren't the worst of it...

What started off as a rocky relationship between the Episcopal and Roman Catholic bishops of San Francisco got even worse on Thursday (Oct. 4) when Episcopal Bishop Marc Andrus said he was denied entrance to the installation Mass of the new Roman Catholic archbishop. Andrus said he arrived at St. Mary's Cathedral 30 minutes before the installation Mass of Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone was scheduled to start, but was kept in a holding area with an employee of the Catholic archdiocese until after the service started. After other local clergy had processed in for the 2 p.m. Mass, Andrus said the...

Commentators at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times may decry the Episcopal Church as a place offering pet funerals but nothing for the faithful or failing to provide anything one cannot get from purely secular liberalism. These traditionalists appear to bemoan the loss of a 1950s-era church that promoted an Eisenhower-era civil religion replete with the cross draped in the American flag. While they wax nostalgia over a past that largely existed only in TV Land,.the Episcopal Church made history at its 77th triennial General Convention by passing two gender nondiscrimination resolutions. Led by a grassroots coalition...

Dr. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, president and dean of the Episcopal Divinity Church, testified at a House hearing on March 8, 2012 against a bill that would make it a federal crime to transport minor girls without parental consent across state lines to get an abortion. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr) (CNSNews.com) – Were Congress to outlaw the transporting of a minor without her parents’ permission across state lines to get an abortion, an abortion- and gay-rights activist testifying on Capitol Hill Thursday she would break the law to continue to help girls end their pregnancies.Appearing as a Democratic Party witness at a...

The USA’s first openly gay Episcopal bishop, Gene Robinson, has responded to presidential hopeful Rick Perry's anti-gay TV promotion suggesting that "it must break God's heart to see religion used in a political campaign like this." Bishop Robinson of the Episcopal Church showed his distaste in a TV interview with MSNBC and also by writing an opinion piece in the Washington Post newspaper. Perry had stated in his commercial that “You don’t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t...

After decades of debate, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Tuesday struck down a barrier to ordaining gays, ratifying a proposal that removes the celibacy requirement for unmarried clergy, in the latest mainline Protestant move toward accepting gay relationships... Differences over the Bible and homosexuality have split Protestant groups nationally and worldwide for years. Within the Presbyterian Church, about 100 of the 11,000 congregations had already broken away ahead of the vote, but a group of large theologically conservative congregations, which calls itself Fellowship, has decided to remain in the denomination for now. Top Presbyterian executives issued a statement to the...