I've seen a dusting of flour used for this as well. You can also use the flour trick to look at the heat distribution on the stovetop.

A DIY system will probably cost something like $50-75 in equipment and will carbonate for about a penny per liter. Talk to your local homebrew shop.

Agave nectar is a syrup consisting mostly of fructose with some glucose, which is pretty similar to the composition of HFCS. You're probably not benefiting from a substitution of HFCS with agave nectar.

I think the point of the DIY method is that it's cheaper and potentially more versatile. For the $75-100 that a Sodastream machine costs, you could build a diy setup (probably with cash leftover), and the consumables are much cheaper. Both are reasonable approaches depending on how one personally weighs the various…

Anything should be fine. 425F is even within the safe range of nonstick pans.

Just put the sleeping back on the other side of the mattress.

I think old smoke alarms didn't have low battery warning beeps. I guess. That's the only rationale...

Replace batteries in your smoke alarm (every three months)

Mayo is basically salad dressing—it's vegetable oil (~75% by weight), water/vinegar/lemon juice, and an egg yolk. And not very much egg yolk, so there's almost no cholesterol (5mg/2% DV in a tablespoon of Hellman's). Using mayo is about as unhealthy as using the equivalent volume of vegetable oil.

I've always wanted to give AB's sardine and avocado crostini (sounds fancier that way) as shot: [www.foodnetwork.com] It also uses avocado in the role of something like butter or mayo.

You could DIY guacamole. Avocado, diced fresh tomatoes, lime, and cilanto is really all you need (and salt!). You could add garlic (one of the few places I use garlic powder) or scallions if those are acceptable to you. Chili powder, cumin, and coriander are also nice additions.

Before cooking the avocado, you could press bacon bits into the top (or both) sides of it. Use DIY bacon bits if at all possible.

Your "flavour" gives away that you're probably not from the US. Most of us in the US we first exposed to avocados in the context of Latin American food, usually guacamole. Slices or chunks of avocado are common in Mexican food and also in salads. I had the opposite experience as you—when I started eating more…

This is nice. What would be nicer is if you could get a dependable thumbs-up on whether an item will be allowed through a checkpoint.

Shares aren't available on day one of public trading? Take the Groupon example (is it a bad one?). They set the IPO price on 11/3/11, and 50 million shares were traded on 11/4/11, more than any other day to date. Are you saying all the buyers on 11/4 were institutional?

I do the same thing with plastic wrap. I also like to freeze the bacon flat first before rolling it up. There's no need for a separate defrost step—just throw it right in the pan/oven while it's frozen.

On the flip side, without IPOs, only large institutions would be able to directly invest in companies.

Yeah, it's weird that they missed MS in that chart. They're even mentioned in the Guardian article ([www.guardian.co.uk]) that's one of their sources.

It'll probably be worth a little more than 1.6% of the total valuation because MS has preferred stock: "The software giant paid $240 million for a 1.6% stake, but it bought preferred stock that carries special rights. For example, it has "liquidation preferences" that mean it gets paid before common stockholders if…

Giz: "Shares will be available eventually, of course."