The Festool design makes sense to me—seems difficult to control the drill when it isn’t spinning around the centerline it is designed too. That said, I think I could make my own based without paying the Festool premium with a couple minutes in the metal shop. Having put in four large eye hooks last weekend, however, I…

I am subsidizing your ESPN because ESPN should cost $36/mo for those who want it, but the costs are spread around so that it is $6/mo for everyone in the system. ESPN achieves that by forcing the CATV providers to put it in the lowest tier and compensating it per sub, which is why it is suing to prevent FiOS from…

Your math is completely off. HBO is a la carte anyway, so a la carte won’t change the costs for that. Market rates say ESPN could get $36/sub, but that’s the point—many, many of us don’t give a hoot about ESPN, and I see no reason why I’m subsidizing your expensive channel. Look here: http://blogs.wsj.com/numbers/how-m…

What horseshit. Cable companies still have an incentive—under per channel pricing—to negotiate the best rates for their subscribers because their subscribers are still going to do head to head comparisons with other viewing options and because they will continue to make value judgments about whether a channel is worth…

Yup. Planning for failing is probably a good recipe for failing. Given the asset disparity between me and my wife, there were a lot of people telling me I should get a prenup. I’ve never regretted not having one. Hell, if my marriage fell apart, she is still the mother of my child and, frankly, money would be the…

When I sous vide chicken, I usually go no higher than 150F and it is perfectly safe. As Zenji points out, killing bad things is a function of temperature and time (http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/04/sous-v…). I’ve eaten chicken that is 140F, but frankly didn’t like the texture. For me 150F is a nice compromise.

I wouldn’t think you would get much stability from having the side 2x4s hit the wall—at least not with most walls. If I was going to do that, I’d probably shift the legs outside the frame and then have the side 2x4s hit the ledger board that is attached to the wall, rather than the wall itself.

This is sooooo much better than the other one referenced because: (1) hinged legs; (2) legs not made of cardboard; and (3) the wall side of the top is basically resting on the ledger board, not hanging from hinges, which makes it much stronger..

Honing, which is what you are doing with that steel rod, is not the same as sharpening. See

I have a pet peeve about meaningless value judgments, like the one you are making. There are qualitative differences between knives, and generally speaking more expensive knives are correlated with better qualities of steel, better designs, better ergonomics and/or better aesthetics. People can choose to buy a more…

I sort of feel like the Chef’s Knife and Santoku are a bit redundant. I grew up in a Japanese household and for many, many years the Santoku was my default. About 10 years ago I switched to a 10” Chef’s Knife and just like it better. While I still have a Santoku, if I was counseling someone just starting out, I’d say…

-CPA - the guy who prepares those tax returns.

+1 on the little subcompacts. I probably own over a dozen drills ranging from a Mill/Drill to a 17" drill press to corded, 18V, and 14.4V electrics to eggbeaters to braces to a pile of the Bosch 10.2V subcompacts. The littlest ones get the most use—they have enough oomph for 75% of what I do and holding a teeny…

Patagonia Capeline 1 Silkweight Boxers

Patagonia Capeline 1 Silkweight Boxers

Never understood why minimalism is a goal. I’m not into retail therapy, but I see no benefits in minimalism. Take tools. I started acquiring tools at an early age—my dad’s philosophy was to fix your own stuff, build your own stuff and improve your own stuff on your own as much as possible. He also taught me to buy…

Please tell me all the other contestants forgot to use an ingredient.

I swear to god you could probably save 40% from any vendor if you just told them it was a party instead of a wedding.

Amen. Stuff is easier to grate when it is frozen too. As far as using the grater less, Vinh, I don’t see that as much of an advantage. Hell, just rinse the microplane and move on.

I guess I'm wondering more whether you could just use sugar water. Seems like everyone agrees it is the "electrolytes" that make these taste funny. I do remember when I went on a mountaineering trip in the Alps getting salt tablets that were supposed to help. I feel like they gave them to GIs in North Africa in…

I looked at the first three and I don't think they answer my question. I can understand how carbohydrate intake can improve performance. My question is whether the electrolyte replenishment is BS or not. I want to see the study that shows there is a measurable increase in the electrolytes available to the body as a…