Shady secrets McDonald's doesn't want you to know

For a company that specializes in food, folks, and fun, it's pretty amazing how shady McDonald's actually is. You might think it's no big deal to walk in, order a burger, get it in two minutes, and then leave. But apparently such a thing can only be accomplished by bending (or outright breaking) every rule in the book. Some genuine sociopathy from the people in charge helps too, as you're about to find out.

They once got (and still might get) their nuggets from lethally abused chickens

Obviously, to enjoy meat of any kind, some animal had to sacrifice its life. But it's always refreshing to know the animal lived peacefully and died in its slumber. But, according to summer 2015 footage released by activist group Mercy For Animals, McDonald's cares not one iota for that, working with farms that openly, brazenly, and possibly gleefully abuse their chickens before murdering them into almost-food. The farm that Mercy For Animals targeted, T&S Farm, was recorded beating chickens to death with spiked clubs, with the occasional curb-stomping for variety's sake. The workers knew full well what they were doing, with one outright asking the cameraman, "you don't work for PETA, do you?" like a kid caught with his hand in an extremely bloody cookie jar.

Since the video, McDonald's has disavowed the chicken-killing farm, giving the usual PR responses to assuage as many disgusted customers as humanly possible. But not even the slickest press release can answer three burning questions: how long has this happened, why did it take this video for a major company to realize bludgeoning food to death for fun is evil, and since it's been a year already, are they secretly working with that farm again?

They won't pay workers overtime for working major holidays

For a long time, McDonald's understood what Thanksgiving and Christmas meant, and so they allowed their workers to enjoy both the holiday and all the turkey they can stomach. But money cares not for our arcane traditions and emotions, and so in 2012 McDonald's started opening on the holidays. This was always a thing company-owned stores did, but now they were "urging" (or, really, forcing) franchisees to do the same. Apparently, doing so rakes in thousands per restaurant, which is all that matters anymore. And yes, if you've hit McDonald's either of these days, you're officially part of the problem. Commence feeling bad…now.

That's pretty sucky of them, but at least franchise owners can pay holiday overtime. Workers at the company-owned stores, unfortunately, are fresh out of luck—McD's flat-out refuses to pay them extra for working on a day that, as far as many are concerned, should only be worked by those who deal in emergencies. (No, Big Mac withdrawal doesn't count.) They hide under the excuse that, because workers volunteer to work those days, they're not entitled to overtime pay. Because when you're dirt-broke, struggling to raise a family, and living from minimum-wage paycheck to minimum-wage paycheck, you definitely have the option of not volunteering to get paid for something.

They're tax cheats

Like so many other thieving rich folk, McDonald's has apparently devolved into filthy, leeching tax cheats. According to the wonderfully titled Golden Dodges: How McDonald's Avoids Paying its Fair Share of Tax, between 2009 and 2013, McDonald's avoided paying over $1.8 billion in taxes. The company used a series of barely legal (and something not even that) loopholes and cleverly shifting profits from whatever country they earned them in, to low-tax havens in countries they didn't. This seems to especially be true overseas, where McDonald's is looking at charges that they stole a billion euros ($1.1 billion American) from the European Union by sending their profits through Luxembourg, a country barely big enough to physically store all that money. Australia claims McDonald's did the same thing there, sending their profits through Singapore and magically pocketing about a half billion in would-be taxes. Even Brazil has a McBone to pick with the company, claiming they regularly bribe tax officials for minor favors like, oh, changing the laws so suddenly the company legally pays fewer taxes. But hey, they might have to charge ten extra cents per box of nuggets if they can't deprive the world's schools and hospitals of much-needed funding, and we can't have that.

Its salads and oatmeal are unhealthier than their burgers

For some reason, enough people hit McDonald's with their health in mind for the company to make mad bank selling food meant to trim your waistline on the cheap. That sounds great, except that it's wrong in every conceivable way. The chicken kale Caesar salad, for example, clocks in at a cool 730 calories, 53 grams of fat, and 1,400 milligrams of sodium—numbers that absolutely should not be attached to a bunch of leaves. For comparison's sake, a Double Big Mac has 680 calories and 1,340 mgs of sodium, meaning they're touting a healthy salad that's unhealthier than their unhealthiest hunk of cow. But don't worry, you can skip the dressing, eat a plain dry salad, and save 200 calories, so now it's only unhealthier than a single Big Mac. Small victories are still victories.

For the breakfast crowd, McDonald's oatmeal has got you covered, and hornswoggled. Thanks to "fun" additives like cream, "natural flavor," and sugar, the McOatmeal clocks in at 290 calories, with 32 sugar grams. You would literally do better with candy for breakfast—a regular-size Snickers bar, for example, only has 280 calories and 30 grams of sugar. Plus, Snickers doesn't pretend to be anything it's not. You can trust a Snickers bar, unlike anything Ronald McDonald touts as good for your abs.

They'll sue anyone with the gall to run a business with 'Mc' or 'Mac' in its name

Once you get greedy enough, any threat to even a dime of your profit must be fought tooth-and-nail, even if it means losing more money to lawyers than you ever would've to the "competition." It's the principle that counts. In this case, we have McDonald's going after literally any small business that uses "Mc" or "Mac," because that's their thing, and they don't customers getting confused by seeing it anywhere else. The customer is apparently both always right, and the dumbest people on the planet.

Sometimes, they sue fast food joints, like McJoy in the Philippines or Mac Dooglas in Colombia (which was destroying McDonald's bottom line with three whole restaurants in a tiny village no one outside the tiny village had even heard of.) But other times they just get petty, like when they sued a coffee shop called McCoffee—which had that name for 17 years—until they finally agreed to change their name and stop leeching tens of dollars from poor little McDonald's. Though probably the stupidest case was when they went after a hot dog stand called McAllan. Like, a single hot dog stand, which is a product McDonald's doesn't even serve. That's like Budweiser suing some kid's lemonade stand. They lost that case, after the judge returned with a verdict of "really?" But usually, McDonald's wins hands-down, valiantly beating back the evil little guy with the almighty power of Unlimited Wealth.

10 Best Websites to Find Free Sound Effects

Looking for a cool sound effect for your video or audio editing project? With simple to use video editing programs like Windows Movie Maker and iMovie, just about everyone knows how to create short movie from video clips. I have thousands of videos taken from my digital camera and smartphone and using WMM or iMovie, I can create titles, add sound tracks, put in transitions, overlays, and lots more!

However, sometimes you need to “jazz” up your video a little bit with some extra audio. Adding MP3 music files is one way to go, but that’s usually if you want a long background track. If you are looking for a sound to match some type of action in the video, you’ll need to look for free sounds effects online.

Luckily, there are a lot of sites out there that have sounds you can download for free. There are also high-quality sound sites like SoundSnap, but you’ll have to pay for those professionally created sounds. If you just need sounds for your home movie, the free sites will work just fine.

FreeSound

FreeSound.org has a large database of sounds that are licensed under Creative Commons. This makes it really easy to see which sounds you can do anything with, which ones you have to attribute and which ones you can’t sell in a commercial product. For home or personal use, you can pretty much use any sound on the site.

You can search sounds or browse by tags, geotags, or packs. I really like the packs feature because you can find a bunch of similar sounds quickly because they are all grouped into a pack. You can preview the sounds, but have to login in order to download.

AudioMicro

AudioMicro.com has about 2,000 free sound effects that I found to be of good quality. They have a lot of other sound effects, but you have to pay for those. It’s not a whole lot of sounds, but it’s a decent database nonetheless. You do have to login in order to download the original sound file.

freeSFX

freeSFX has several thousand free sound effects that are also of very good quality. They also have hundreds of categories, so it’s pretty easy to find the exact type of sound you are looking for. Unfortunately, the search box on the site produces an error, so you can really only browse via the categories.

SoundBible

SoundBible.com has about 2,000 free sounds that are licensed under Creative Commons. If you want to use a sound effect that will be for commercial purposes, you can click on royalty-free sounds. This is one of the few websites where you can download the sounds without having to create an account or login.

PacDV

PacDV is a small business site with a few hundred high quality sounds added for their clients. They have a couple of interesting categories like machines, mechanical, and interfaces. On this site, you have to right-click on the link and choose Save Link As in order to download the audio file.

Flash Kit Sound FX

Flash Kit Sound FX has several thousand sound effects for flash developers. Luckily, anyone can download them without needing to register or login. Also, on this site, you have to right-click on the download link and choose Save Link As in order to download the MP3 file.

GRSites

GRSites has a couple of hundred simple sound effects that you can download for free and without registration. All sounds are free for personal use. If you need any sounds effects for commercial use, you have to purchase the commercial license.

SoundJay

SoundJay has few hundred sounds that are completely free and can be downloaded without any need to login. The files are good quality also, mostly 16-bit stereo 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz.

SoundGator

SoundGator is another site with a decent number of good quality free sounds. You do have to register and login in order to download the files. The site probably has a couple of hundred sounds.

99Sounds

99Sounds is a cool site because it has a bunch of collections of high quality sounds created by various sound designers. The collections are quite large and the audio quality is superb.

Those are 10 sites I have used in my own work that will get your just about any sound you will need. Of course, if you are willing to pay, there are lots of sites with a lot more sound effects of better quality. In this post, I wanted to only focus on the free sites. If you use a website not mentioned here, post a comment. Enjoy!

How I Learned to Fall Asleep in Under a Minute

It was the week before my best friend’s wedding, and my anxiety (nerves, plus excitement) had reached epic levels. I wasn’t sleeping, to say the least. Part of that had to do with the maid-of-honor speech I would be giving. I was terrified and could not shut my brain off to fall asleep at night.

After day three of lying awake until the wee hours of the night, I sheepishly admitted to her that I was too nervous to fall asleep, and she—the bride, who was sleeping like a baby the week before her own wedding—told me I needed to try the “4-7-8” breathing trick.

She happens to be a licensed wellness practitioner who studies meditation, stress, and breathing techniques, and she told me it would change my life. You simply breathe in through your nose for four seconds, hold your breath for seven seconds, and exhale through your mouth for eight seconds. She explained that the studied combination of numbers has a chemical-like effect on our brains and would slow my heart rate and soothe me right to sleep that night. “It works,” she told me. “It’s crazy.”

2 / 3

I couldn’t wait to put the trick to the test, and to my complete disbelief, I woke up the next morning unable to even remember getting to the eighth second of the exhale because it knocked me out that fast. For the next four nights leading up to the big day, even as my stress increased, I was able to fall asleep the minute I tried the 4-7-8 trick. I also used it to relax in the moments leading up to the speech.

When you feel stressed or anxious, adrenaline courses through your veins, your heart beats at a rapid rate, and your breathing becomes quick and shallow. So before I get into the specifics behind how the 4-7-8 breathing trick works, I wanted to explain in my own words what it feels like when you try it. To me, the effect of the breathing technique feels almost like a sedative drug, because in order to hold your breath for seven seconds and then to exhale for eight—when your breath is so shallow and short—your body is forced to slow your heart rate. It has no choice. Holding your breath, and then slowly, deliberately exhaling for eight seconds, causes a chain reaction. It feels like going from a mad-dash sprint to a finish line to a slow, leisurely, calming stroll through the park.

When you first start, you’ll be desperate to just take in another breath, or you’ll want to speed up your counting, but if you stick to the numbers (or at least try to), and don’t take any breaks (in other words, consecutively repeat the 4-7-8 without resuming regular breathing), you can literally feel your heart rate slow down, your mind get quieter, and your whole body physically relax. It washes over you like a calming, relaxing drug. I can never remember getting past the first set of 4-7-8.

Do you know the feeling of being put under by anesthesia, where you are conscious, and the next thing you remember is waking up? That’s what this is like for me: As soon as I start the practice, the next thing I remember, I’m waking up in the morning and can’t even remember beginning the 4-7-8 count the night before. Crazy.

Now to the more technical details: People who are stressed or anxious are actually chronically under-breathing, because stressed people breathe shortly and shallowly, and often even unconsciously hold their breath. By extending your inhale to a count of four, you are forcing yourself to take in more oxygen, allowing the oxygen to affect your bloodstream by holding your breath for seven seconds, and then emitting carbon dioxide from your lungs by exhaling steadily for eight seconds. The technique will effectively slow your heart rate and increase oxygen in your bloodstream, and may even make you feel slightly lightheaded which contributes to the mild sedative-like effect. It will instantly relax your heart, mind, and overall central nervous system because you are controlling the breath versus continuing to breathe short, shallow gasps of air.

3 / 3

Mindful breathing practices have been a part of yoga and Eastern wellness modalities for centuries but aren’t as popular in Western culture. The most well-known champion of the 4-7-8 breathing technique in the U.S., who is somewhat responsible for the prevalence that the technique does have amongst integrative medicine practitioners, yogis, and those in search of stress reduction and overall relaxation, is Harvard-educated Dr. Andrew Weil.

Though I’m not promising or claiming (nor does Dr. Weil) that practicing this breathing technique can fight disease or provide clinical benefits, I can tell you one thing: If it affects you like it did me, it will help you fall asleep way faster. Not only is it free, it also works for a number of different instances. In addition to using it to fall asleep in a pinch, you can practice it if you wake up in the middle of the night and find yourself thinking about something you have to do the next day, in order to fall back asleep; if you are nervous before an event (like a wedding, or giving a speech); if you are angry about something and want to calm down. My friend (the bride-to-be who slept like a baby the week before her wedding), who gets nervous to fly, uses it before flights and during if the plane encounters turbulence.

It is now what I use to fall asleep every single night, and each morning, I’m amazed at how well it worked.

-(Experience of a friend)

7 Warning Signs That You’re Unhealthy

1. Bad skin

Inspecting your skin | Source: iStock

The quality of your skin is a sure-fire way to get a reading on your overall level of health. Of course, some people struggle with skin issues like acne and are otherwise perfectly fine — but skin quality can clue you in to some bigger problems. A poor diet can really impact your skin quality, and if you’re noticing blemishes like stretch marks? That should tell you that something is wrong.

2. Sleep issues

Struggling to sleep | Source: iStock

Can’t seem to fall asleep at night? That can be an indication that some aspects of your life need adjusting. Whether it be that you’re eating the wrong foods, ingesting too much caffeine late in the day, or not expelling enough energy during the day, not being able to sleep presents an issue — which cascades into further issues.

3. Bathroom problems

Toilet and toilet paper | Source: iStock

Yep, we’re getting down and dirty. Take note of the color of your urine, and even how frequently you’re going No. 2 — those could both provide important insight into the state of your overall health. Since you’re going to ask, your urine should be a pale yellow color — and hopefully odorless. As for your bowel movement frequency, there’s a wide range. But if you’re going regularly, you’re probably fine. And don’t ignore the grimy details during your investigation.

4. Lip balm reliance

Man applying lip balm | Source: iStock

If your lips are constantly chapped, and you find that you can’t live without lip balm, that’s your body’s way of telling you that something’s wrong. Specifically, your lip condition is an indicator of your vitamin levels. If your lips are chapped, you may be vitamin strapped — so diversify your diet, and get the nutrients you need.

5. Bad finger and toe nails

Clipping fingernails | Source: iStock

If the condition of your lips wasn’t a solid enough indicator, your finger and toe nails can also give you a heads-up if you’re unhealthy. You’re going to want to be on the lookout for ridges, discoloration, and bumps — all of which should be red flags. Your nails can tell you a lot about your overall state of health, so if something is strange, don’t ignore it.

6. Body temperature fluctuation

Ice cold hands |Source: iStock

Icy feet and hands aren’t normal. Yes, there could be environmental factors at play, but if you’re consistently finding that your extremities are ice cold, it can be a sign of cardiovascular problems. Specifically, cold hands or feet might mean that you’re having circulation issues, and that your body isn’t getting blood where it needs to go. If this is a chronic issue, have it checked out.

7. A cloudy mind

Dull thinking |Source: iStock

It’s becoming quite clear that our cognitive ability and brain health are closely tied to our physical condition. That means that obesity and elevated levels of body fat can have a significant impact on our ability to think and reason. It’s kind of scary, but also a very promising area of research. So, if you can’t formulate a potent thought, it may be a sign that it’s time to drop some weight.

7 Reasons You Should Quit Facebook

Ten years ago Facebook was just cresting as the cool new social media site that helped you keep in touch with the people you didn’t actually like in high school. We fed it our thoughts and feelings, shared our meals and locations and our top ten movie lists, kept it up-to-date on our relationship status, political views, favorite links, and personal information — all in the name of staying connected, and all without a thought to our security. But with a decade of questions regarding how Facebook makes money now answered, and a general understanding of how sharing information online can be dangerous (while the platform constantly updates its security protocol), we continue to use it anyway, even though many of us are just checking in as ritual and have threatened our exit from Facebook for years.

Of course, screen time in moderation is, for the most part, perfectly acceptable, and social media can offer a few genuinely beneficial uses. But before you log in or tap that app on your smartphone again, here are a few reasons to quit Facebook in 2015.


It Wastes Your TimeIt's estimated that the average casual user (17 minutes per day on Facebook) who has been active on the site for 10 years has wasted upwards of 40 entire days of their lives scrolling and liking and commenting on pictures and posts. And more engaged users, who spend at least an hour a day on the site, have clocked 150 days feeding the Facebook beast during the same time. Think about how long you spend on the site each day, and what else could be a more productive use of your time.

Facebook Uses You to Sell Stuff...In 2012, the site manipulated posts from 689,000 accounts without consent in an experiment that examined whether or not it could affect your emotions by making a few edits on your page. The study was done, according to Facebook, to "improve our services and to make the content people see on Facebook as relevant and engaging as possible." Skeptics think it was really used to discover the monetary benefit of a Like. COO Sheryl Sandberg later apologized, adding that they "never meant to upset you."

And Targets You with AdvertisementsOne time you wanted to buy a thing, and then you searched for that thing, and six months later Facebook is still reminding you that you should think about buying that thing, even if you already bought the thing. Yes, most sites do this thanks to embedded cookies, but only Facebook seamlessly posts these ads in your timeline with enough regularity that you can only assume your friend has an odd obsession with the latest Norelco razor.

It's Bad for Your HealthFacebook isn't just a harmless website dedicated to cataloging your vacations, poor wardrobe choices, and myopic thoughts on sporting events (which can both define or destroy relationships), it can actually do you harm. Studies hint that it can impact your immune system and inhibit the release of growth hormones, impair digestion and vision, limit thinking and kill creativity, and affect sleep patterns and happiness.

"Who Are These People, Anyway?"The average adult has 338 friends on Facebook and probably doesn't know more than 10 percent of them anymore, or at all. Many of them likely have new lives, some have new last names, new passions, new facial hair, and new humans they're now responsible for keeping alive (read: babies). These are not the friends you knew, and semi-casually keeping up with them is a waste of time that could be better spent with new, real friends. Or on Twitter.

"But I Don't Care About Privacy"Fair. That's your right. But the problem is that we're setting precedent for the future without yet understanding how it will affect the free and open Web, and simultaneously creating an internet that relies on you having a Facebook account to access sites that are not Facebook. As one of nearly 1.2 billion users to date, odds are decent that your account won't be hacked by someone with ill-will toward your family. That doesn't mean that permitting easy access to your information goes without consequence, both immediately and decades from now.

Nothing You Post Actually MattersVery few people care what you're doing, whom you're with, where you're eating, or what you just bought, and the people who do were probably right next to you when you did it. We all saw that funny Ice Bucket Challenge video, and if we didn’t see it, it's fine. We're all fine. You'll sleep well without knowing which childhood toys you owned are now worth a fortune, and you will absolutely "believe what happened next" on Upworthy, because someone took time to write about it. These articles only exist because you share them on Facebook, and you only share them because they exist. So, instead, just invite a friend over to talk about how much you both loved Save By the Bell. The internet can only take so much nostalgia.

If you're serious about quitting Facebook today, you can do it right now by clicking here.

New inventions that don't even seem possible

Jetpacks

Believe it or not, there are actually multiple, working jetpacks out there, all using slightly different variations of similar technologies to send their wearers into the sky…and they all look terrifying. You may have seen Yves Rossy's video of him and his pal jumping out of a plane and flying around the Dubai skies with jetpacks that look like miniature jets, or maybe you saw the much smaller JB-9 jetpack, cavorting around the Statue of Liberty from a standing start. No matter which jetpack you've seen in action, it's hard to believe that it's not all just special effects, but these are still far from mass production. And until everyone learns how to use their gosh-darned turn signals, we're just not ready for personal jetpacks anyway.

Quell

Quell is a small, electronic device that uses a proprietary tech called called OptiTherapy, which uses your own natural neural pulses to help your body fight against chronic pain. If the whole thing sounds like something out of Star Trek, it's because you've probably seen stuff like this in Beverly Crusher's sickbay that did a lot of the same stuff, usually anytime Worf got a splinter from going at it too hard in the Holodeck. Quell's pain-relieving stuff is FDA approved, so it's a far cry from those magnetic bracelets that the gossip magazines try to sell you, and it even pairs with your smartphone, all without dangerous drug interactions.

3Doodler

People have imagined drawing in the air for as long as drawing has existed, and finally, it's kinda possible. Using a thin, plastic filament that is rapidly heated and cooled, the 3Doodler pen allows users to draw anywhere, providing that part of their drawing is anchored on a stable surface, since the laws of gravity still apply, even if the material science seems completely unreal. It's a revolution in rapidly communicating ideas in three dimensions, whereas computerized designs, sculpting, and other forms of building are generally very time-consuming and not always intuitive. If you have a brain that can think in three or four dimensions at once, this seems to be a pretty awesome way to start to bring your ideas to life.

The self-inflating tire

Inflating a tire is a noisy, greasy, unpleasant experience, so it's surprising that the simple physics of the self-inflating tire haven't been implemented universally yet. While the technology has been developed by multiple companies simultaneously, CODA Development seems to possess some of the older patent designs, which uses the action of the tire's natural flattening as it meets the road to force air into a chamber using a peristaltic pump, kinda like the tire is constantly swallowing air. It doesn't seem like this technology is widely used just yet, and it won't save you in the case of a catastrophic blowout, but it might help you survive that nail until you get to the dealership.

The bionic eye

A bionic eye is exactly what it sounds like: an electronic ocular implant that allows people to see when they couldn't see before, strikingly similar to the technology used by Geordi LaForge from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The wearer's improved vision has been likened to a blurry, pixelated Xerox, but a little bit of vision and shape detection is a whole lot better than none at all. And given how complex the relationship is between the eye and the brain, even the faintest signal being repaired through technology is a bit miraculous. It can't be too much longer before certain types of blindness are completely eradicated, thanks to revolutionary advances by Second Sight.

XStat

While it kind of sucks that we even need the XStat in a modern world full of intelligent people, it's great that we have it. The XStat is a large syringe that contains a bunch of tiny, expanding sponges that can be injected into a bullet wound to maintain a body's hemostatic pressure and stop bleeding, giving the victim more time to reach proper medical care. Even better, each blood sponge can be detected by x-rays, so doctors won't leave any stray bits behind. While the device can't be used for just any puncture wound, it's kind of miraculous that we can now use funky little sponges to save a life.

Fungus styrofoam

Plastic and rubber foams are some of the grossest things we can do to the environment. Sure, they keep your action figures safe despite the rough treatment of your local angry UPS ogre, but ultimately, styrofoams are just poisons waiting to get into your air and drinking water. It seems impossible to replace these common conveniences, but Myco Foam is giving it a shot. No longer just for making little plumbers into big plumbers, mushrooms are being used to replace dozens of non-renewable, destructive, everyday products, from packing peanuts to particle board. A little 'shroom goes a long way.

Why Did Modi return back to the mic after his speech in Varanasi today?

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi  visited his Lok Sabha constituency today where he  launched a number of ambitious projects including a 1,500-km-long gas pipeline costing Rs. 51,000 crore and doubling of railway tracks on a busy route.

On his eighth visit since becoming the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi  launched "Urja Ganga", the gas pipeline project which promises to provide piped cooking gas to residents of Varanasi within two years and, in another year thereafter, cater to millions of people in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha.

PM Modi also flaged off projects like doubling of railway tracks on the busy Allahabad-Varanasi section and expansion of the Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) here besides laying foundation stone for a fully air-conditioned perishable cargo centre.

After his speeech in Varanasi today he again went to mic to convey greetings for 

Chhath pooja and Diwali to the local gatherings.

Apple iPod Turns 15

On October 23, 2001, Apple Co-Founder and former Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled iPod, a portable music player, that changed the way people buy and listen to music even 15 years from its launch.

The first generation of iPod featured a 5GB hard drive, FireWire port for syncing, a physically-rotating scroll wheel that could save 1,000 songs.

The second generation came with touch control and added Windows support.

Today, there are three versions of iPod-- the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano and the touchscreen iPod Touch.

In June 2003, Apple sold its millionth iPod, and by the end of 2004, Apple had sold 10 million units. The year end of 2015 marked sales of 42 million and by September 1, 2010, the sales grew to 275 million.

In January 2015, Apple said that it would stop reporting iPod sales as it was pushed back by iPhone, whose design was partly influenced by the iPod.

Apple's iTunes music software is still going strong, and has become a big focus of the company's current strategy as instead of downloading songs to a portable device, people are simply streaming them.

The man behind the iPod, Tony Fadell, left Apple in 2010 and co-founded Nest Labs, which was acquired by Google.

Read : How to get the fastest speed from public Wi-Fi when you travel

Beer healthier than milk, says PETA

While beer aids longevity and strengthens bones, milk causes obesity, diabetes and cancer, PETA says.

Beer is healthier than milk, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has claimed in Madison, Wisconsin, also known as America's Dairyland.

A billboard sponsored by PETA has been put up at Hilldale Mall, which is just a mile away from the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, thus targeting college students and urging them to consume more beer instead of milk.

"It's our responsibility to teach the new generation about the dairy industry. PETA's position is, we're in the role of showing this new generation what's going on behind the scenes in the dairy industry, how that milk comes to get into a glass and all the cruelty that's associated with it," Daniel Carron, senior outreach coordinator at PETA's headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, said, according to inquisitr.com.

PETA's campaign "Got Beer?", started in the year 2000,  was attacked by various groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). The campaign was pulled down twice, once in 2000 and then in 2002 because of the backlash by MADD.

A donation of $500 was made by PETA to MADD out of goodwill after the "Got Beer?" campaign was stripped off in 2000. The campaign was halted out of respect for MADD, PETA explained.

The organisation has not only said, "It's official: beer is better for you than milk," it also claims that beer aids longevity and strengthens bones, while milk causes obesity, diabetes and cancer.

The ad mentioned various sources, like the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the Harvard School of Public Health, the American Journal of Epidemiology and the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, at the bottom, but didn't point towards specific studies.

After PETA was accused of promoting beer drinking through their campaigns, the organisation stated that other beverages like juices, mineral water and soy milk are also recommended by them, and asked why beer has been over-hyped.

"Had we used soda instead of beer, there would have been no media interest in the campaign, of course. PETA urges everyone, beer-drinkers included, to drink responsibly. Where milk is concerned, there's no such thing!," PETA stated on its website.

Though humans do not have any requirement of cow's milk for keeping healthy, one can anyway get benefited by the nutrients present in it, Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail reported, adding that no dietitian would tag beer as calorie-free, according to inquisitr.com.

(Source YAHOO news)