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When you're grilling, nothing's more handy than a digital thermometer...except maybe these: Tongs that incorporate a very fine temperature probe so you don't need to fiddle with multiple tools. Test 7 meat types (beef, veal, lamb, pork, poultry, turkey, and ground beef) to see if they meet the USDA regulations for char. Then, assuming you bought your meat from a decent butcher, disregard the hogwash and eat your burger so rare that you can feel the cow's heartbeat with every bite.

LANCASTER-- A man was stabbed in the neck with a meat thermometer after asking a woman to silence her cell phone in a movie theater, a sheriff's department official said. The stabbing occurred last Saturday at the Cinemark 22 theater at 2600 West Avenue I in Lancaster, according to Detective Richard Cartmill of the Lancaster sheriff's station. Deputies say that while the movie was playing, a woman was talking on her phone and the victim asked her to turn it off. The victim was attacked by the woman's boyfriend and another man. Deputies say he was stabbed in the neck...

A mercury spill at Farrington High School sent students and a teacher to the health office. It happened when a ninth-grader cracked a 12-inch thermometer during a science experiment. Hazmat crews say about a teaspoon of mercury spilled onto the floor. A handful of students were exposed before the teacher cleaned up the mess. No one complained of itching skin or headaches -- effects of extended exposure to mercury. But the teacher and eight students were taken to the health office as a precaution. The classroom remained off-limits until an environmental firm did a thorough clean-up. Farrington uses mercury thermometers...