Making your own carbonated soft drinks has a few benefits -- from knowing where all the ingredients came from (eg. no brominated vegetable oil) to getting the satisfaction of creating your own custom flavoring. It's not quite as simple as punching a button on a vending machine, but it's not exactly rocket science, either. Here are just a few links on being your own soda jerk. Sodastream has been around since 1903, but it went public on the Nasdaq in 2010 and started expanding its DIY soda

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MOUNT VERNON, Washington (Reuters) - A bridge collapse that sent cars and drivers plunging into the frigid Skagit River in Washington state, raising concerns about the safety of the nation's aging infrastructure, was caused when a truck crashed into at least one girder, officials said on Friday.

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Via google translate from Corriere Della Sera, Beppe Grillo is in favor of a "Referendum on the Euro Within a year" "Europe needs to be rethought. We consider just one year of information and then hold a referendum to say yes or no to the euro and yes or no to Europe. " Beppe Grillo to ride a strong theme of the last election campaign the 5 Star Movement. "Europe on the euro and the British teach us democracy. No party can claim the right to decide for 60 million people. " "I want to go to

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`` Bloomberg has just reported that Europe may begin a crackdown on that most important credit money conduit: the $80 trillion+ global shadow banking system, by effectively collapsing collateral chains, and by making wanton asset rehypothecation a thing of the past, permitted only with express prior permission, which obviously will never come''

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During the course of President Obama's administration, he has gone back and forth over support for the WIPO treaty for the blind, which would make it easier for vision impaired people to get copies of books that they can read (allowing legally made copies to be shared across borders). It's a pretty simple proposition, and while the White House had announced support for the agreement back in 2009, the people who were responsible for that position were later replaced by content industry folks,

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Today one of the legends in the business, Jim Grant, spoke with King World News about what he really thinks regarding key markets and the extreme difficulties that people and investors are facing around the world. Below is the third in a series of written interviews with one of the most highly acclaimed individuals on Wall Street.

Read more: http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/5/24_Here_Is_What_Jim_Grant_Really_Thinks.html

Here's a wacky one. Blogger Mark Reinhardt, who blogs about Idaho, had written a blog post critical of local TV station KTVB and its news reporting. With it, he included a YouTube clip of the reporting in question, along with some of his own commentary about why the reporting was "one sided journalism." While the disclaimer he posted with it, which implied that he believed the use was fair use, was legally meaningless (and slightly incorrect), using a news clip and commenting on it is still

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The online Master of Public Health program (MPH@GW) in conjunction with SPHHS created an infographic in hopes of raising awareness around America’s broken mental health system and issues pertaining to gun control and gun violence in the United States. Gun Violence Epidemic Gun Violence Epidemic In America Infographic   'Get ValueWalk's Daily Edition By Email and Never Miss Our Top Stories'The post Gun Violence Epidemic In America [INFOGRAPHIC] appeared first on ValueWalk.

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``Powell: I think an overnight revaluation is more likely now. Of course currency revaluations are always done suddenly, aiming for surprise. No central banks are going to call us a few days in advance so we can arrange our portfolios for the greatest benefit. Only the investment banks that function as agents for central banks will get such calls.''

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``Stripped bare, the BRICS miracle is really about China, and even the Politburo has run into diminishing returns after ramping up credit from $9 trillion to $23 trillion in four years. At best China will have settle for more pedestrian growth, but it too is at the mercy of the Fed.''

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``Austerity is out after the euro-area recession extended to a sixth quarter. Stimulus isn't yet in... "Austerity on top of austerity is dead," said London-based Morgan Stanley analysts including Daniele Antonucci in a pre-summit report. "The pace of austerity has certainly eased, if not the path. One hindrance to envisaging some degree of economic stabilization has been removed."''

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The Bank of Japan (BoJ) intervened with $20bn (£13bn) to drive down yields again but the failure to ensure an orderly debt market has started to rattle investors....Richard Koo from Nomura, an expert on Japan's Lost Decade, said the sell-off in recent days has shown that the BoJ may not be able to hold down yields "no matter how many bonds it buys". This could lead to a "loss of faith in the Japanese government" and the "beginning of the end" for its economy, if handled badly....Mr Koo said the BoJ has undermined the "market structure" that has kept Japan's bond market stable for 20 years,

Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE:TM) (TYO:7203) emerged as the top brand in the auto industry based on Brandz Top 100 Global Brands for 2013, as published by WPP, the largest communications services group worldwide. Toyota Ranked 23rd On Top 100 Global Brands for 2013: The list of Top 100 Global Brands for 2013 showed that Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE:TM) (TYO:7203) ranked 23rd on the list. The Japanese automaker surpassed BMW/Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (FRA:BMW) (FRA:BMW), which was behind at 24th place. The brand value of Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE:TM) (TYO:7203) was $24.5 billion, an increase of 12 percent from the previous year. BMW/Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (FRA:BMW) (FRA:BMW) brand value was $24.01 billion, down by 2 percent from 2012. Mercedes-Benz ranked 43rd, up by three

As the professor explained in his comments, covert, non-coordinated interventions would probably leave a ‘footprint', that is, they would take place at times of low market liquidity and tend to continue until an important chart pattern has emerged that encourages speculators to reverse the previous market trend, thereby initiating a new one in line with the intervention's objectives. Looking around various FX rates, there is some evidence that covert intervention has been taking place in Asia. Occasional, sharp overnight moves on unusually high volume have taken place in

It looks like the bill for Prenda Law is going up. Yet another court has now awarded attorneys' fees, telling "AF Holdings" (one of Prenda's shell companies) to pay $9,425. Of course, since Prenda still tries to deny that it controls AF Holdings, I'm sure they'll try to avoid paying up. It would be extra amusing if they suggested Alan Cooper should pay up, since that's the name that was signed on various AF Holdings' filings, but which many people believe was really signed by John Steele.

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Post Market News Stocks that were active in the U.S. trading on Friday include Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:SHLD), Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF), The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) and Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) Market Levels U.S.: Dow Jones: 15,273.50 (-0.14%), S&P 500: 1,649.62 (-0.05%), Nasdaq: 3,459.14 (-0.01%) World Markets: Shanghai: 2,288.53 (+0.57%), Nikkei 225: 14,612.45 (+0.89%), Hang Seng Index: 22,618.67 (-0.23%), TSEC: 8,209.78 (-0.34%), FTSE 100: 6,654.34 (-0.63%), EURO STOXX 50: 2,764.29 (-0.45%), BSE Sensex: 19,704.33 (+0.15%) Metals: Gold: $1386.60 (-0.37%), Silver: $22.50 (-0.05%), Platinum: $1451.90 (-0.36%) Currency: EUR/USD: 1.2933 (+0.01%), USD/JPY: 100.99 (-0.87%), GBP/USD: 1.5136 (+0.21%), USD/CAD:

To help boost sales on refurbished tablets, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has lowered the prices of the refurbished  iPad 4 and iPad Mini tablets. This price cut is valid on Apple’s online store. They are offering 15 to 17 percent discounts on all types of iPad 4 and iPad Minis. Now the 16GB Wi-Fi iPad Mini retails for just $279, which is just 15 percent off, and the 32GB Wi-Fi iPad Mini is now just $359, making it 16 percent off. Then there is the 64GB Wi-Fi iPad Mini is now available for $436, only 17 percent off the original price. There are also some notable discounts on the iPad 4 starting with 16 GB Wi-Fi iPad for just $419 (16 percent off) and the 32 GB Wi-Fi iPad for just $499 (16 percent off). There is also the 62GB iPad that’s now $439 (17 percent off). Since Apple Inc.

The Federal Reserve's Ben Bernanke was cautious this week in his testimony on quantitative easing to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress in Washington. He said the Fed would need to make an assessment of whether the labor market was seeing real and sustainable progress, and “if we see continued improvement and we have confidence that that is going to be sustained, then we could in -- in the next few meetings -- we could take a step down in our pace of purchases.” "I think that's all way overblown," said CNBC's John Carney. "Look, we didn't learn anything this week that we didn't know before that, which is if the economic data's really good, the Fed will stop having to supply so much money into the system, and if the economic data isn't really good, they're going to keep doing it." "That's true," Fortune Magazine's Leigh Gallagher countered. "But this is the very first time that he even went anywhere near articulating everything. The mere mention of anything is what can spook so easily." What does this mean for the future of quantitative easing? "This has been one of the driving forces of the stock market's rise, and I think everyone is freaking out about when it's going to stop," Gallagher said. "I think that's the biggest question impacting the markets -- more than markets, more than other external factors, more than anything." But has the Federal Reserve's bond-buying led to Congress' own inaction? "I think Congress would have to do something if the Fed wasn't taking the actions it's doing," said Carney. "And Congress doesn't need an enabler; they're plenty disfunctional on their own." For more on Apple's visit to the Hill and Jamie Dimon's jobs, listen to the full audio above. #Longreads for a long weekend Carney and Gallagher also offer up their reading picks for this long weekend ahead. John Carney chose: Goldman Sachs says "Too Big to Fail" is a cost, not a subsidy. Special Report: The deeper agenda behind "Abenomics" -- what's really going on in Japan. No one quite knows how JPM beat back the shareholder proposal to split the chair and CEO roles. But I try to explore some possibilities here. Leigh Gallagher picked: What's really behind Amazon's tax war. Detroit: Crack Rock City? Outside Magazine's feature on a "brilliant American financier and his exotic wife" and the mystery surrounding his death.

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