Free Republic

Dozens of dogs greeted visitors at a local brewery Friday after they were rescued from an illegal meat trade in Thailand. The event, called Suds for Soi Dogs was held at Mission Brewery featuring 17 of 30 dogs recently rescued and brought to the United States. It was a fundraiser to raise money by El Cajon-based The Barking Lot and the Soi Dog Foundation to help care for the dogs and rescue others. Another 1,200 dogs are still at a shelter in Thailand. It costs $250 to bring each dog to the U.S., which doesn't include the cost associated with...

First there were meals we had to make all by ourselves. Then 'ready made' meals came along, making life that much easier. But what if you could just print your dinner using food 'ink'? Scientists at Cornell University in New York are developing a commercially viable 3D food printer which uses raw ingredients inside syringes. Part of their Fab@home project, an open-source collaboration, you just put the raw food 'inks' into the machine, load the recipe (or 'FabApp') - and press the button. The design takes the form of a set of syringes that deposit food inks line by line,...

The largest brush and tire fire in a decade has drawn crews from six Montgomery County fire departments and the Texas Forest Service to about 20 acres of land in the New Caney area. The Courier of Montgomery County reports that the New Caney Fire Department arrived at the scene about 3:30 p.m. Saturday in the 48000 block of FM 1485. Firefighters contained the blaze late Saturday night, but expected it to continue burning Sunday. “The area was filled with ravines and sand with holes of eight to 10 feet deep,” New Caney Assistant Fire Chief Josh Smith told The...

The rise of the Food Network from an obscure channel to cultural phenomenon and the explosion of celebrity chefs changed people’s perceptions about the culinary industry. Today, cooking and the culinary arts have become hip and sexy. The explosion in popularity has reached beyond television. Today, more and more people are seeking careers in the culinary arts. “Over the past three or so years, the number of people enrolling in culinary training programs grown tremendously,” said Shelly Ford, director of communication for The International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Washington, located in Arlington, Va. The Art Institute launched...

Lady Claire insists she loves good food, but prefers to call a potato a potato. Picture: Julie Bull   Why Her Ladyship calls a spud a spud LAURA ROBERTS WOULD madam care for some purée of petit pois and hand-cut pomme frites to accompany her confit of ground lamb encased in a baked pastry shell? If the diner concerned is the Scottish aristocrat and culinary expert Lady Claire Macdonald, the answer would be an emphatic No - though she would not object to peas and chips with her pie. The award-winning cookery writer yesterday said pretentious restaurateurs who serve...

Humans are likely responsible for the extinction of Ice Age megafauna—large mammals like giant sloths, short-faced bears, mammoths, and saber-toothed cats—that occurred in the Americas around 11,000 years ago, a new study says. Scientists have long debated whether giant pre-historic mammals disappeared because of climate change or because humans hunted them to extinction. The mass extinctions coincided with both the end of the last Ice Age and the arrival of humans in the Americas around 11,000 years ago. This timing has made it difficult for scientists to isolate the cause of the species' disappearance. But a study comparing the extinction...