Leftovers

On May 24th., 2011, the USDA lowered the recommended safe cooking temperature for whole cuts of pork from 160 ºF to 145 ºF with the addition of a three-minute rest time. The new cooking guidelines comes after a Pork Check Off research project performed by an independent research firm, shows that pork can be consumed safely when cooked to an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit, followed by a three-minute rest time. The new recommended temperature is a significant 15 degrees less than what was previously recommended and typically will yield a finished product that is pinker in color than most home cooks are accustomed to and may be a little hard to take at first, or second. This new temperature does, however, help a great deal with keeping pork moist, which can be difficult with many cuts of pork. The revised recommendation applies to pork whole-muscle cuts, such as loin, chops and roasts.
Ground pork, like all ground meat, should be cooked to 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
For beef, veal, and lamb cuts, the safe temperature remains unchanged at 145 ºF, (Not sure, but I think it's illegal to cook a steak to 145 degrees in Texas) and the department has added a three-minute rest time as part of its cooking recommendations with those as well.
Poultry: The safe cooking temperature for all poultry products, including ground chicken and turkey, stays the same at 165 ºF.
Of course you should always follow all safety recommendations regardless of topic, but remember, these are the "Safe Done Temperature" recommendations, not necessarily the "Good Done Temperature" recommendations. When I served my wife her first pork chop cooked to these new temperatures, she promptly ask me to return it to the grill. She loves her steak rare, but a pink pork chop did not fit her perception of appetizing, or done.

Lump Charcoal vs Briquettes
It all begins with a guy named Henry Ford. That's right, the car guy. Ford was a genius in more ways than just the assembly line. When he started producing cars, he soon found he had a huge stockpile of scrap lumber left over from the manufacturing of his Model T’s, which were in fact made largely of wood. Ford, known as the "King of Penny Pinchers", could not bear the thought of just throwing all these precious scraps away, so in the 1920s, Ford started a manufacturing process using the wood scraps, to make charcoal briquettes (spelled briquet on the Kingsford bags).
The first patent for Briquettes, however, was actually filed by Ellsworth Zwoyer, in 1897, who invented the process in order to use the briquettes to fuel his power plants. The exact details are unknown as to what agreement was actually made between the two, but a few years after receiving his patent, Zwoyer allowed Ford to manufacture and market the charcoal briquettes. Ford started marketing his briquettes for home use under the name Ford Charcoal.
E.G. Kingsford, Ford’s cousins husband, had helped broker the location for the first factory. The company was later renamed in his honor,
"Kingsford Charcoal".
Due to Ford’s mass production process and clever marketing of the charcoal briquette, barbecuing with charcoal soon became the most popular way to fire the home grill as well as many other uses in the personal and business sectors.
So which is better, lump or briquette? Either one will cook your food about as well as the other. The main difference is found in the processing.
Lump coal is just that, the charcoal left from burning wood, chopped up into chunks or lumps.
With lump coal you are pretty sure of getting the same type of wood throughout and without any additives that may cause unpleasant taste in your food. Pure, plain and simple, however the different size chunks can make using it a bit more awkward.
Briquettes are also made from the charcoal left from burning wood, however, it is then ground to a granular powder, a binder is added and they are compressed into uniform cubes. This method often uses a mixture of various left over wood scraps, so they may contain one or many different types of wood as well as adhesive binders. Once ground and compressed it all looks the same, but just like smoking with different woods, briquettes made with various mixtures of wood, can have their own flavor and aroma. The flavor you get from briquettes depends largely on the wood scraps and type of chemical binders used in the processing. Even briquettes from the same bag could have different compositions. It is possible the steak you grill next week might taste a slight bit different than the one you grilled today if your using charcoal briquettes. Though a little less pure, briquettes do offer a more uniform shape and ease of use than their lump cousin, especially in automated delivery systems.
Bottom line, if your a purest at heart, stick to the lump, but I've never heard anyone complain about the flavor from their briquettes.

Note:
Some manufacturers are now making custom briquettes made from only one type of wood, such as oak, pecan or hickory. Kingsford began making this custom charcoal for Competition BBQ Teams who needed to use briquettes in their smokers chute deliver system, but wanted a specific wood for flavor.
They now have a complete line of this custom charcoal available to the public marketed under their "Competition Charcoal" label.