Remember what happened to the dull penny when you stuck in a glass of Coke? Well, this is your teeth on soda. And the photos are enough to make you think the zombie apocalypse is here, now.
According to an article in the Huffington Post, diet soda is the dental equivalent of "methamphetamine or crack cocaine use" on your enamel. Published in the March/April 2013 issue of the General Dentistry journal, a diet soda drinker's teeth were compared to that of two drug addicts, and the ghoulish result: the extent of dental erosion was similar among all three.
"You look at it side-to-side with 'meth mouth' or 'coke mouth,' it is startling to see the intensity and extent of damage more or less the same," said Dr. Mohamed Bassiouny, a professor of restorative dentistry at Temple University's Kornberg School of Dentistry.
The thirtysomething woman studied consumed two litres of diet soda daily for three to five years. All three participants were from similar socioeconomic backgrounds, and had access to "fluoridated public water."
Still, the study is shocking. The enamel erosion from these highly acidic (not to mention sugary) substances makes you think twice about what you are doing not just to your body but also to your teeth.
The soda industry is a gargantuan one. No surprise that The American Beverage Association refuted the study's findings, which it called "irresponsible."
However, Dr. Bassiouny claimed that throughout his career he has observed similar incidences of soda-caused erosion.
"I was trying to make a parallel between drug abusers—and the usual neglect for themselves—and put this with the same traits of someone who drinks diet soda," he said.
So you and I may not drink two litres of soda a day, but the effect of just one or two glasses shouldn't be underestimated.
Did you know soft drinks also do this to your body, not to mention what it can do to your teenager?
Will you kick the can, or is soda—like everything else—still perfectly sweet in moderation?
The unthinkable just happened. An unwanted baby was literally flushed down the toilet in the province of Zhejiang. Residents reportedly heard the infant crying. But in a happy twist, he was rescued from the four-inch sewage pipe and is recovering in a local hospital.
According to an article in the Telegraph, the whole operation took firefighters and doctors more than two hours to carefully saw into the pipe, and painstakingly remove the baby whose placenta was still attached.
Although he suffered some cuts to his limbs and face, the five-pounder is incredibly in stable condition. The (presumably) parent who abandoned him is being sought for attempted murder.
While the practice of abandonment isn't uncommon in China, it is usually females who are unwanted.
"The parents who did this have hearts even filthier than that sewage pipe," wrote one user on the country's social media site Sina Weibo.
But this harrowing story points to a larger problem; maybe China needs safe places in every province, where parents can deposit children they are unable—or unwilling—to care for.
In more news from China, a teenager who defaced a piece of 3,500-year-old Egyptian artwork is facing the music after his identity was shared on the internet.
According to an article in the Independent, the 15-year-old boy from Nanjing foolishly scrawled his own name—“Ding Jinhao was here”—in Mandarin at the Temple of Luxor. If you are going to graffiti an artifact, at least have the common sense not to engrave your name into it.
When blogger Shen visited to site on the banks of the River Nile recently he highlighted the disgraceful behaviour of Chinese tourists. His post prompted readers to track down the teen.
Fast-forward to hackers tracing Ding Jinhao and releasing many of his personal details. In the process Ding’s parents admitted what their son had done while on a sightseeing tour, and issued a public apology that wasn't theirs to issue.
They even claimed responsibility for the "lack of education and supervision" that drove their son to commit the vandalism when he was younger.
They then pleaded for hackers to leave their son in peace. The Egyptian ministry of antiquities claimed the damage was "superficial" and was in the process of being repaired.
“When you go to every tourist site, you can see something like: “X has been here.” We feel ashamed if we do it abroad, why not in China?" wrote Yu Minhong. "We should learn to protect our cultural relics and understand it is also a shame to write on our own faces.”
Did the boy get his comeuppance, or did hackers go too far by probing his personal details? Should his family face a fine for the damage? Is public shaming an acceptable form of punishment?
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