According to statistics from the Coca-Cola Company, Mexico consumes the most Coca Cola per capita in the world. I am not a huge fan of soft drinks in general, but when traveling my intake of them often goes up due to unreliable drinking water and juices made with questionable ice. Diet drinks, like Coke Zero, freak me out with all those weird additives listed in their ingredients, but many people prefer these drinks to the original...even though they have proven to be dangerous.

Last month, Coca Cola had to remove the artificial sweetener sodium cyclamate from the Mexican Coke Zero formula. The sweetener was banned from the US in 1969 because it appeared to increase the odds of developing bladder cancer in rats during testing. Oddly enough, sodium cyclamate is readily found in many Canadian (such as Sugar Twin) and European products.

The sodium cyclamate was replaced with aspartame and other fake sweeteners, because they are undoubtedly so much better for you. Coke refuses to admit that the sodium cyclamate was removed due to the danger it posed to consumers and instead said that this alteration will make Coke Zero taste more like the original Coca-Cola Classic.

The director of communications for Coca-Cola Mexico stated that Coke Zero has sold extremely well since being introduced the Mexican market over a year ago despite the controversy over the sodium cyclamate. How could Coca-Cola not do well in a country where the people consumed over 500 Coke products per person last year!

Coca-Cola even launched a new pro-Coke Zero campaign to support this new version with a slogan that reads, "Everything can get better."

I think "better" would be removing all the artificial sweeteners in their products...I think I'll be sticking with the Coke Classic or better yet, bottled water.

"No Wrong Turns" chronicles Kelsey and her husband's road trip -- in real time -- from Canada to the southern tip of South America in their trusty red VW Golf named Marlin.

I've recently been in contact with Malcolm Gillis, former president of Rice University and one of the organizers of the first international university in of all places, North Korea. Known as Pyongyang University for Science and Technology, the institution is slated to open in April 2008.

What's surprising, and welcoming, about this project is that it's the brainchild of both the North and South Koreans, along with supports from China and the US. It looks like the first batch of students will come from all four countries, as well as others. School will be taught in English and Korea.

This could be a dramatic breakthrough for international exchange in the hermit kingdom. If you look at recent history, such as the collapse of the Soviet Union, the impetus for change often comes from within the country. This new attitude towards a more open society could spell good things for both the North Koreans and the rest of the world. Of course, we should keep our expectations grounded. Case in point: their website hasn't been up for a while (or perhaps it never was).

By analyzing Census data on educational achievement, Bizjournals developed a methodology wherein it ranked adults in nearly 16,000 cities, towns, villages, boroughs and unincorporated areas throughout the U.S. In the end, the methodology provided insight into the distribution of gray matter in America. Which big city proved to be brainiest? Seattle came out tops, with San Francisco and Austin followed close behind.

In terms of mid-sized communities, Arlington, Virginia, took first place. Ann Arbor, Michigan beat out the pack in the small cities category.

Of course, any time you rank the strongest, you necessarily have to rank the weakest. Which cities came in at the bottom?