A famous Chicago nightclub is facing allegations of racial discrimination after claiming to ban African-American students for violating the dress code while white students wearing the same type of clothing were let inside, CNN.com reports.

Six African-American students from Washington University in St. Louis were allegedly kept outside Original Mother's Bar for violating the dress code -- for wearing baggy jeans -- while hundreds of their white classmates were let in, in one case wearing the very same jeans,

Mother's Bar personnel said the excluded students violated the dress code by wearing baggy jeans, Washington University senior class president Fernando Cutz told CNN.com, but when a white student and a black student swapped jeans and tried to get in, the white student was let through while his black classmate was still banned.

The students filed complaints with the Chicago Human Rights Commission, the Illinois Attorney General, the U.S. Department of Justice and other groups.

Original Mother's bar did not return calls from CNN.

[Via CNN.com]

A couple of nights ago, I was having dinner with a couple of people, when the topic of Girl Scout cookies came up. We all had stories about friends and co-workers who have convinced, cajoled and harrassed us into buying a box or two and eventually someone asked, "where are the actual Girl Scouts who are supposed to be selling the cookies?"

As a child, my parents always insisted that if my sister and I were to participate in a fundraising event that included selling things, we had to sell them ourselves. They refused to take cookies and candy into their workplaces and shill for us. We had to trudge around the neighborhood on our own to make our sales. We were both always so jealous of the friends who could simply have their father take the sales sheet into the office and come home that night with the sales quota met.

According to an article on CNN.com, the Girl Scouts of America actually stress that cookie sales should be done by the girls* themselves, however, most people recognize that fundraisers like this one often require a great deal of parental participation.

What's your take on fundraising sales like Girl Scout cookies and school candy sales? Should parents participate, or should the kids be the ones to do the work?

*I would like to note that Scott and I bought two boxes of cookies this year from actual Brownies, who were stationed just outside a local grocery store. However, it was the first time in years that either of us had encountered any real scouts.

When you were going through school, did you ever think about the cafeteria trays? Trays have been a hot topic in university cafeterias recently. Many colleges and universities have been going trayless over the past couple of years. In fact, several of them started their 'no tray' policy on Earth Day this year.

There are two main arguments for going trayless: it leads to less food waste by students as well as less water waste in cleaning the trays. According to CNN, colleges in drought-stricken states are more concerned about the water waste. Fifty to 60% percent of colleges served by Aramark are getting rid of trays, and in a study conducted by the comapny food waste was reduced by 25% to 30% when trays were taken out of the picture.

Wasted Food has been covering this trend for quite some time, and has seen a lot of the backlash to the new trayless movement. I can understand the inconvenience the students face in all of this, but I personally think that finding ways to prevent waste trumps any individual complaints. What's your take on the trayless movement?

Do you want to save the world? Dr. John D. Floros, President of the Institute of Food Technologists, believes that if that's the case, you should look into becoming a food scientist. In his opinion, in the coming years food scientists are going to play a huge role in figuring out how to feed the ever-growing world population.

However, the number of food scientists is declining worldwide. According to an article in Confectionary News, numbers are down in Australia, South Africa, the UK, and elsewhere. In the U.S., it is a common misconception that food scientists are the same as chefs.

The Institute of Food Technologists has a plan to turn things around though. They have devised a "three-pronged attack" in which they get information to high school students, urge food science students to more actively recruit their peers, and to build an association or community of young food science professionals.

Their efforts must be working, because food science was recently placed at number three on a recent CNN list of nine well paying cool jobs. At a staring salary of around $53,000, I think that food science may just get some people's attention. Would you consider becoming a food scientist?

There is a book that came out recently about our obsession with bottled water called Botllemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It. In it, the author talks about our reliance on bottled water and how tap water is generally as pure or more pure than bottled water.

Americans are getting away from bottled water, but it isn't because of this new book. Apparently bottled water is just too expensive, and in an economic downturn it's one of those luxury items that gets cut. This report from CNN.com interviews several people who have switched to tap water as well as a few calculations of how much you can save by cutting out bottled water.

The report also briefly mentions the environmental aspect of this trend. Refusing to buy bottled water helps cut down on the plastic bottles, which we've been told for years is what we need to do. Are you cutting back or cutting out bottled water for economic reasons?

The Waffle House, a bastion of cheap breakfasts and surprisingly great waffles, now has a reason other than tasty food to be in the news. Musician Kid Rock got a little rowdy in an Atlanta-area Waffle House Saturday night after a show, beat up a male customer (with the help of five of his groupies) and got sent to jail for his actions. Apparently the man they bloodied knew a woman who was with Kid Rock's party. They exchanged words, it got heated and Kid and his friends just got involved in order to defend her virtue. Or something like that.

Let's hope this doesn't sully the reputation of the esteemed Waffle House, as they really do serve of one of the better chain diner breakfasts available. I recently ate one in Hellertown, PA (the morning after a very raucous wedding reception) and was delighted by the awesomeness of the food.

Apparently, when it comes to food, absence does not make the heart grow fonder. Out of sight, out of mind is actually closer to the truth (shall we see how many more cliches I can use before the first paragraph is done?). According to scientists, humans have a very hard time resisting the siren song of the candy jar, because if we see it and it's easy to get to, we're going to have a hard time keeping ourselves away.

Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab has been studying the way people eat, both at home and at work, for years now and have determined that if we see it, we want to eat. According to Brian Wansick, the head of Cornell's Lab, "what really influences our eating are visibility and convenience." Their results make sense to me. If I know that there's ice cream in freezer, it calls to me all evening until I break down and liberate it from it's icy home. However, if I know that there isn't any in there, I may still want it in the abstract, but I'm not going to run out and buy a pint.

What do you guys think? If you know that a treat is only as far away as your co-worker's desk or the freezer or the cabinet over the fridge, how hard is it to resist?

Photo link

Do you live in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Michigan, or West Virginia? Congratulations, you're the fattest people in the country!

That's the findings of the CDC and the BRFSS. Over the past 20 years, the waistlines of people in those states have increased 25% or more (the data is from 2004). But people in other states shouldn't feel so superior. Every state has increased in the past 20 years. The only state that didn't was Hawaii, and that's because they don't have any data for Hawaii. But come on, poi donuts and Macademia nuts? I bet they're getting bigger too.

Also check out the fittest cities, fattest cities, and how you can stay fit.

Given that it's a new year, perhaps you've decided that 2007 is the year that you finally make that career change into something about which you are utterly passionate. If you're reading Slashfood, we're going to guess that, like us, you're pretty passionate about food.

Obviously, you could give up that corner office with the seven-figure salary and use of the company jet to become a food blogger, but food blogging as a profession is still relatively new and unsteady. Instead, CNN has come up with a list of Ten Jobs That Let You Eat, and we're not talking about doughnuts in the office break room on Fridays. Just be forewarned, though. A job in food is a labor of love. The highest average salary is $56K for a food scientist who has a degree in chemisty or engineering!

Here's the list from CNN, and more details on the link:

• Sommelier
• Event Planner
• Chef
• Quality Control Technician
• Food Scientist
• Caterer
• Dietitian
• Server
• Product Promoter

People are always looking for ways to slow down or reverse the aging process in themselves, but often are looking for ways to speed it up in other area of life. From cheese to fruitcake and, perhaps most importantly, wine, flavors are enhanced and mellowed as some foods age. Hiroshi Tanaka, a Japanese man, claims to have perfected a machine that can turn a new, young wine into a smooth, aged one in just a few moments, all with a simple jolt of electricity. His electrolyzing process, reports CNN, would save an enormous amount of money by reducing overall production time and eliminating the need for storage areas and aging barrels.  

 During the natural maturation process, alcohol mixes with clusters of water molecules, causing the wine to mellow. Though the exact process seems to be a matter of scientific debate, Tanaka says that his process instantly breaks up the water clusters, reducing a long, slow process to a few seconds.

Tanaka says that he has already met resistance from many wine makers, particularly those in France, though wine producers in California and Washington State have expressed an interest in the stereo-sized device. The United States is already one of the leading consumers of wine in the world and could be the largest by as early as 2008, so if Tanaka's method gains acceptance here, it would be a huge success for him. He currently has plans for his US affiliate to start offering the treated wine via the internet later this year.