borrowed magazine from library. long article on effects and pervasiveness of caffeine in the modern world. i shall just put out some points.

--Caffeine's effects from peak for up to an hour after it hits the bloodstream.

--Studies suggest that extroverted people are less sensitive to caffeine's effects than introverts. (hmmm)

--Pain relievers fortified with caffeine have proven more effective than the analgesics used alone.

--The robusta coffee beans used in less expensive brands contain almost twice as much caffeine as the arabica beans favored by coffee connoisseurs

--it is the only habit-forming psychoactive drug we routinely server to our children (in all those sodas and chocolate bars). In fact, most babies in the developed world enter the universe with traces of caffeine in their bodies

--frequent small amounts of caffeine maintain alertness better than the classic morning jolt from a big cup of coffee

--military studies of subjects who hadn't slept for 48 hrs showed that 600mg of caffeine improved alertness and mood as much as 20mg of amphetamine.

--absorbed directly through membranes in the mouth (caffeine chewing gum), chewed caffeine goes to work three times faster than caffeine in drinks or pills.

--caffeine blocks the hypnotic effect of adenosine and keeps us from falling asleep

--when users accustomed to a daily average of 650mg of caffeine went without their usual fix, visual and auditory activity in the brain was low. giving them 250mg of caffeine boosted activity-but only up to levels equal to those of infrequent users who'd had no caffeine.

--going without caffeine for a day and a half increases blood flow int he brain, which may explain why people get headaches when they first give up.

--caffeine is so acrid that it's usd as a standard for "bitter" in training professional food-tasters.

--the caffeine extracted from coffee beans to make decaf is sold to drug and soft drink manufacturers.

--caffeine is being developed as a pesticide for slugs and snails

--a university student in Wales committed suicide in 2002 when he deliberately swallowed caffeine pills equivalent to 100 cups of coffee.

--black tea, green tea and oolong tea are all made from the same plant; the differences in taste and colour come from their processing

--dark chocolate packs 3 times the caffeine of milk chocolate, but you'd have to eat more than half a pound to get the caffeine in one 12-ounce cup of coffee (200mg).

--one of the newest products to which the stimuland has been added : "coffee tights" are panty hose wih caffeine woven into their threads to supposedly help shrink thighs.

--vietnam is the second largest producer of coffee worldwide, but it's largely a nation of tea drinkers.

--cigarette smoking nearly doubles the rate at which the body metabolizes caffeine.