While you might feel guilty sipping down the calories in a can of Coca-Cola (KO), a new study from Harvard researchers isn't going to help you justify your soda habit. 

Sugary drinks are linked to 180,000 deaths a year around the world, with 25,000 people alone dying in the U.S. from health problems related to sodas and other sweetened beverages, the researchers found. 

"We know that sugar-sweetened beverages are linked to obesity, and that a large number of deaths are caused by obesity-related diseases. But until now, nobody had really put these pieces together," said Harvard School of Public Health postdoctoral research fellow and lead author Gitanjali Singh, according to ABC News. 

The assertion will likely be received with welcome ears by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has waged a war against large servings of soda and other sugary drinks. 

 

The masters of the Wall Street universe are feeling very good.

According to The New York Times, a Brunswick Group survey of investment bankers and deal lawyers found that a whopping 97% expect more deals to be done in North America this year compared with 2012, and 82% of those surveyed expect more deals internationally. That's the highest level in the survey's six-year history.

The results aren't that surprising, though, given the stock market surge this year, the continued economic rebound and plentiful supply of low-cost capital.

So far in 2013, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) and 3G Capital have agreed to buy H.J. Heinz (HNZ) for $24.3 billion, the largest deal in the history of the food industry.  

Updated 12:40 p.m. ET

One college is taking an unusual approach to the problem of mounting student debt: It's no longer accepting applicants who need to take out loans. 

The College of the Ozarks, a private, evangelical Christian school in Missouri, may be the first institution of higher education to take the step, Reuters reports.

The reason for banning loans? "Debt is a big problem all over the country," Jerry Davis, president of the four-year school, told Reuters. "Kids nowadays are not very sophisticated with money."

But many would say the bigger problem is the surge in education costs, prompting families and students to borrow money for earning a college degree. 

 

Mention "flavored whiskey" to your average scotch or bourbon drinkers, and it'll likely be enough to make them jump out of their seats, find the nearest bottle of root beer vodka and crack you over the head with it.

Bourbon whiskey doesn't play that game. It's not the tarted-up top-shelf celebrity that pineapple gin and whipped cream vodka are. Centuries of tradition provide its flavor. Generations of appreciators make up its entourage.

Bourbon isn't partied with, it's contemplated and enjoyed. That said, Scientific American notes that modern, more experimental distillers are studying the wood in whiskey barrels to see just how much they can toy with bourbon's flavor.

Just about the only simple portion of a bourbon's life is when it's poured into the glass.

 

The U.S. is 10 years removed from the start of the Iraq War, and its citizens still want to know what the final price tag on that conflict and ongoing operations in Afghanistan will be.

Maybe the government will let them know once it finally settles accounts -- from the Civil War.

The Associated Press took on a seemingly simple assignment: find out just how much America's wars have cost and what that will mean for Iraq and Afghanistan spending. It discovered that the U.S. is still paying restitution for conflicts that began in the 19th century. Lawmakers are not only unsurprised by this but insist that's how it should be.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) says her father's disability payments from World War II helped feed her family and served as a reminder that the country needs to think about such costs before entering any such conflict.

 

Fresh off the courtroom defeat of his controversial ban on large sodas, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is now taking the fight to an older, more battered convenience store enemy: cigarettes.

According to Reuters, Bloomberg on Monday proposed a law requiring that cigarettes be hidden from view in stores.

The two bills he plans to present to the City Council Wednesday would require clerks to keep cigarettes in a drawer, behind a curtain or in some other concealed location. As it is, New York law allows only the clerk access to cigarettes, which are kept stacked either above or behind the counter.

 

For those who couldn't possibly have anything else left in life to buy, a British company is introducing the $175,000 mattress.

Savoir Beds is debuting the "Royal Bed" this week at Kensington Palace in London, reports CNBC.

And save the memory foam for the working class. This mattress would never stoop so low. Instead, the bed will contain pure Mongolian cashmere, silk and curled Latin American horse tail. Each mattress will have more than 1,600 miles of woven silk, in fact.

And what would the mattress be without your family crest embroidered on to it? The Royal School of Needlework will embroider a crest, your initials or a favorite emblem on to the fabric. 

Michael Dell probably will have to write a bigger check to take the company he founded more than two decades ago private.

According to Bloomberg News, Blackstone Group is considering whether to top the $24.4 billion offer CEO Dell and Silver Lake Partners have made for Dell (DELL) the company. Activist investor Carl Icahn has argued that their $13.65 per share offer for the Round Rock, Texas-based company significantly undervalues it. Icahn has pressed for a special dividend instead.

Dell's two largest outside investors, Southeastern Asset Management and T. Rowe Price, have also criticized the Dell and Silver Lake offer for being too low.  Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect a bid could reach $15 per share, which seems more reasonable.