‘Cola’ seriously a poison

We know that colas are bad for health; yet, most of us drink them all the time. In the 1970s, a soft drink was a treat. Today, a chilled cola is the first thing we reach out for after a hot trip. For the trendy youth, they are the ‘right’ choice. Buying (and gulping down!) a 600 ml bottle of cola on the way home from school has become routine for children. Research has now positively proved that a glass of carbonated soft drink — or soda as it is called in the U.S. — is nothing less than a killer attack on the body. Consider this: One can of soda (330 ml) contains about 8-10 teaspoons of sugar, 150 calories, 30 to 55 mg of caffeine, and is loaded with artificial food colours and sulphites. How can a drink that provides a whole lot of calories, sugar and caffeine be good for health?

What it does —-

What exactly does soda do inside our body? Within 10 minutes of drinking a cola, a huge dosage of sugar hits our system. Within 20 minutes, blood sugar spikes and is rapidly converted to fat by the liver. Within 40 minutes, all the caffeine from the soda dilates the pupils, raises blood pressure and the liver deposits more sugar into the blood. The high sugar and caffeine in our blood gives us a ‘Feel Good’ high. However, soon thereafter, blood sugar begins to crash giving way to tiredness, exhaustion and fatigue. Drink soda twice or thrice a day and our body keeps roller coasting between sugar highs and lows throughout! What’s more, drinking a single can a day translates to more than a pound of weight gain every month. And doubles the risk of diabetes! To make matters worse, phosphoric acid — added to colas for their distinct ‘tang’ — pulls calcium out of bones and weakens them for life. It also dissolves tooth enamel causing cavities and promotes formation of kidney stones. The caffeine — the ‘kick’ part of the soda — causes jitters, insomnia, high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat. Lately, doctors are warning that excessive cola consumption can lead to anything from mild weakness to profound muscle paralysis. This is because the drink can cause your blood potassium to drop dangerously low. Sodium benzoate — the preservative in soft drinks — can alter DNA eventually increasing our risk for liver damage and Parkinson’s disease.

Give it up —

So there is absolutely no reason why anyone should ever drink soda. If you are a soda drinker (otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this), giving up this habit is the easiest way to improve health. So, take soda off your shopping list. Try a tall glass of chilled water instead. Add a dash of lemon — it is tasty, refreshing and harmless. A posting on the Internet: My grandfather just turned 99. The secret to his long life and health? “I’ve never drunken cola. It’s poison!” If you think diet sodas are a healthy alternative, nothing could be further from truth. In fact, diet colas often pack a lot more (20-47 per cent more) caffeine compared to regular cola. Aspartame the chemical in diet soda causes slow damage over time: brain tumours, birth defects, diabetes, emotional disorders and epilepsy/attack are a few of the 92 side-effects associated with the chemical. Anxiety, depression, dizziness, panic attacks, nausea, irritability and impaired memory/concentration are some of its immediate effects. They may even induce a whole set of physiologic and hormonal responses that actually make you gain extra pounds!

World’s population less than Web addresses

Internet is growing in dimensions every second, so much so that there are more addresses than there are people on Earth.The number of web pages at “over 1 trillion”, while Google had earlier indexed more than one trillion discreet web addresses.

The current global population stands at more than 6.7 billion, which means that there are about 150 web addresses per person in the world.
And this could mean that if a person spent just one minute reading every website in existence, then he or she would be kept busy for 31,000 years, without any sleep.

An average person would need 600, 000 decades of non-stop reading to read through the information.Approximately 1.46 billion people worldwide now use the internet which represents a solid 16 per cent increase from the previous year’s estimate (1.26 billion in 2007).

The largest Internet population belongs to China, with 338 million users online, which are more than there were people in the US.However InternetWorldStats.com (IWS), a website that combines multiple data sources, has claimed that China’s online population is more like 298 million.

With the rates of India and China still quite low, there is sufficient room for growth in the coming decade.
But, measuring the online population could be tricky-there are servers, users, per capita numbers and penetration percentages to evaluate.And thus it is difficult to find a single figure to represent the world online population.

IWS combined data from the UN’s International Telecommunications Union, Nielsen Online, GFK and US Census Bureau, and its latest global figures puts the number of internet users in the world at 1,596,270,108.

And this is just 23.8 per cent of the estimated 6, 0706,993,152 people in the world. But it changes every day.In terms of the future, we anticipate mobile to contribute significantly to internet usage.

According to IWS, the top 5 countries with the most internet users are:
1 – China (298,000,000 users, or 22.4 percent of their population)
2 – US (227,190,989, or 74.7 percent)
3 – Japan (94,000,000, or 73.8 percent)
4 – India (81,000,000, or 7.1 percent)
5 – Brazil (67,510,400, or 34.4% percent)

Hundred Crore deal for “My Name Is Khan”

The marketing and distribution rights for King Khan stared “My Name Is Khan” has been bought by Fox Star Studios for a massive Rs.100Crore.

This is the biggest deal ever for a Bollywood exceeding Rs.90Crore for Aamir Khan stared “Ghajini” and Rs.70Crore for “Om Shanti Om”.

The film is being co-produced by Karan Johar and Shahrukh Khan with a budget of Rs.55Crore.

The movie is about the 9/11 terror attacks and its impact on an Indian Muslim living in the US.

My Name is Khan is being touted as the most awaited releases of the year. Shahrukh Khan and Kajol will return to the screen together after a gap of 8 long years.

They were last seen together in Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham in 2001. Film analysts are banking on the fact that it was the trio of Shahrukh, Kajol and director Karan Johar which had delivered the superhit Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

This deal will serve as a personal happiness for Shahrukh has not only has his movie bagged a huge deal it has outdated the previous one held by Aamir Khan.

It may be recalled that Shahrukh’s Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Aamir’s Ghajini has clashed at the box office last year. On that occasion Aamir had emerged as the clear winner.

World’s Most Expensive Cities To Live

Think your morning commute is expensive? Think again. The ride on a bus or subway in Tokyo costs $3.25. Grab a newspaper and a cup of coffee on the way and the total comes to $11.70. That’s more than anywhere else in the world–24% more than what those same things cost in New York, even.

Tokyo is the world’s most expensive city, according to Mercer’s 2009 Worldwide Cost of Living survey released today, with the cost of living up 13.1% from 2008; the city ranked at No. 2 in 2008’s survey. Japan’s capital is followed by Osaka and Moscow, which held the top spot in last year’s rankings. Geneva comes in fourth.