(Nov. 8) -- You might have thought that with all the finger-pointing and concerns over childhood plumpness, America's fast- food industry would be trying to reduce the gut-busting, calorie-loaded, fat-filled offerings on their menus and the kid-targeted advertising.

Not so, say researchers from Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity who released today what they say is the "most comprehensive study of fast-food nutrition and marketing ever conducted."

The researchers studied marketing efforts of 12 of the nation's largest fast-food chains, and examined the calories, fat, sugar and sodium in more than 3,000 kids' meal combinations and 2,781 menu items.

By: Frances Perraudin

An American may have invented Facebook, but when it comes to social networking, we can't touch Malaysia.

A new study, conducted by the research firm TNS, interviewed 50,000 consumers in 46 countries to investigate their cyber-socializing habits. The results showed that where Malaysians have the most friends on their social networks, Japanese people have the fewest. In Malaysia the average number of digital friends is 233, closely followed by 231 in Brazil and 217 in Norway. This is compared to just 12 friends in Japan, and 68 in China. The results could suggest “a culture that embraces fewer but closer friendships,” said TNS's chief development officer Matthew Froggatt, reported the BBC.

However, as well as having most friends, Malaysians were also the heaviest users of social networking sites, spending a whopping nine hours per week on average communicating with their hoards of online friends. Russia came a close second, with its people spending an average 8.1 hours per week online, and Turkey third with 7.7 hours a week.

So, perhaps being cyber-sociable doesn't necessarily mean you're particularly sociable in real life.

Source: http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/10/11/the-most-cyber-sociable-country-malaysia/?artId=?contType=?chn=#ixzz12t2CIliM