And McDonald's is getting in on the action, too. It'll have special cards that bring up a controllable mechanical toy when you hold it up to your Webcam and visit an Avatar-branded site. Goofy yes, but definitely better than Best Buy's augmented reality efforts. [Variety via DVICE]

I assume the consumption only increases through time, but let's take the daily 2007 numbers from Global INForM Cases Sales database: The total number of Coca-Cola cans sold per worldwide is 67,873,309. Diet Coke and Coke Zero sold 35,387,241, while My Coke sold 103,260,550. Yes, that's all per day.

So using only classic Coca-Cola's daily sales figures, that means 24,773,757,785 are sold every year. Twenty-four billion cans. That is indeed a lot of paint and paint removal products. Because this doesn't only affect the production. It also affects the recycling process, eliminating one step:

The naked can help to reduce air and water pollution occurred in its coloring process. It also reduces energy and effort to separate toxic color paint from aluminum in recycling process. Huge amount of energy and paint required to manufacture colored cans will be saved. Instead of toxic paint, manufacturers process aluminum with a pressing machine that indicates brand identity on surface.

Sounds good to me, and it even looks better if you take into account all kinds of Coke. That brings up the number to 75,380,201,500 cans. I don't know how much paint that represents, but I'm guessing quite a few thousand tons. [7760 via Likecool, Sales info from Let's Get Together]

The can also has a wireless remote, rechargeable battery and a false bottom that hides a USB port and the on/off switch. It looks pretty convincing, but I'm less impressed by the '80s-looking version of Coke "Clossic". [ChinaGrabber via Technabob via DVICE]

The machine is more technologically complex than you'd imagine. The "PurePour" technology was originally developed to measure extremely precise amounts of dialysis and cancer drugs. Beyond that, RFID scanners are used to match cartridges to dispensers, and the onboard computer confirms everything is in place. Existing soda fountains use five-gallon concentrate bags and lots of backroom labor. Now all that is required is a highly concentrated 46-ounce cartridge inside a self-contained machine.

Using a touchscreen UI, customers can navigate through the dizzying array of sodas, flavored waters, energy drinks and other beverages in what appears to be a fairly straightforward way. The machines are currently being tested in Georgia, California, and Utah, but Coca-Cola plans to roll out 60 additional dispensers across the country by the end of the summer. [Fast Company]

Admittedly, I don't know many people who let their drinks sit long enough for their ice to completely melt, but Wired suggests using warm Coke to help speed up the process. Next time you get some strange looking ice in your drink, I'd suggest you start chugging. [Wired via Neatorama via BoingBoing]

Revealed at CES, this Coke vending machine from Sapient has a completely interactive touchscreen front panel that lets you view the product before you purchase it—just like how you would in the grocery store. Simply select which bottle of pop you want, give it a spin to peruse its ingredients, marvel the barcode, and check out whatever else you need to know about it before purchasing it (with either cash or a credit card).

Sapient's Coke machines are set to be available sometime soon in the 190+ malls owned by the Simon Property Group. However, the rest of the world may have to wait until 2010 until they could touch one of these babies. View the very first hands-on first impressions below. [Engadget Thanks Peter!]

Guinness World Record representative Erica Attivor was on site and approved the record, which looked messy, to say the least.And then, for some reason, they broke out the flamethrowers. Coke, Mentos, and flamethrowers? Sounds like a Gizmodo-endorsed party if I ever heard of one.[TVNET, Krabjiem, Apollo]

By filming the resulting jets of foam, and doing some Scanning Electron Microscope analysis, they've ruled out chemical interactions, and have discovered it's to do with the surface roughness of the Mentos, the sugariness of the drink and how quickly the mints sink.

These factors all affect formation of carbon-dioxide bubbles: the spikes on the Mentos aid micro-bubble formation (see mint ones on the SEM image on the left, fruit on the right); non-sugary Diet Coke works best as it's got lower surface tension; and the dense Mentos sink quickly, creating bubbles at the base of the bottle that cause spontaneous formation of other bubbles higher up. All that results in very rapid bubble-formation, and that then causes the satisfying squirt of brown goo from the bottle neck.

So now you know: science is fun. [New Scientist]

[eBay via Technabob and Flickr]

Woodhead compensated for the 1200fps' paltry 336x96 frame size by stitching four different Mentos tests together, and the results are awesome. Globs, ribbons and rings of Coke that are impossible to track in real time come to life when seen in slow-motion.

Watch out later today for another homemade slow-mo video; things will only get messier. [Robert Woodhead]

We didn't have the time, resources, or lack of shame to put some of your better ideas to work [See: here, here, and here], but we managed to try all of the choices in the poll. We cheated a bit on the puke, but our mix was pretty gross. The results—lucky for us—were inconclusive. Of the five liquids we put in the Toughbook, none made it explode or even slow down. After flushing the whole keyboard out with water, it wasn't even sticky the next day. So when it comes to the Y7 our answer to that Question of the Day is "none of the above." But please folks, don't try this at home. [Panasonic Toughbook]

[Thanks to Sam Mindel for the video help, and Communication Corporation for their song "Slimey"!!]

Is it me, or does "Koolatron" sound like some Transformer pitch rotting on the floor of Hasbro's marketing department? – Mark Wilson

The Sprite-branded, cellphone-only network (because Sprite's more extreme? Why not just bring back Surge? Actually, please do—Vault sucks.) will let teenyboppers post profiles, pictures and hook up with other sugar-addled stalkers teens. Whatever happened to using polar bears to sell soda? – Matt Buchanan

Coca-Cola sets up mobile social network [Yahoo!/Reuters]
Image via Flickr

In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don't immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.

20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get it's hands on into fat. (There's plenty of that at this particular moment)

What happens to your body if you drink a Coke right now? [via Core77]

Better get one before he dies. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Sharper Image via Uncrate]

Apparently the art of pulling 2 for 1 Cokes from vending machines is the lightly guarded secret of a whole underground network of amateur videographers. Here is a clearer, more interesting video of the hack - that we don't condone, mostly because you look like a total ass with your arm up a Coke machine and also because pop tastes horrible out of plastic bottles. Plus, we are super rich/famous bloggers who only drink the finest water from the mountain springs of Le Tap.

And our soon-to-be-jailed soft drink philanthropist from the first video are none other than a bunch of Wenatchee High School class of 2006 alumni. We don't actually know where that is, but we're sure their local CocaCola distribution office does and that their principal is quite ashamed. – Mark Wilson

Thanks Jaan for ratting out your friends for our entertainment!

Tricking Coke Machines Episode 2

Here's a nice hack for how to get 2 for 1 Cokes out of a certain model vending machine. Gizmodo is not a proponent of stealing soft drinks, of course, but the hack is so simple that we are amazed no one in quality control caught it. Also: notice how well spoken the thief is - he's probably a bright, doctoral student in his other life. Oh, how the prospects of free Coke can corrupt even the most promising among us. – Mark Wilson

[via techblog]