Month: September 2014

The Facebook Diet is the new fad weight loss routine that's taking New York city by storm. Instead of deleting or untagging themselves from unflattering photos, people are heading to the gym, using the pictures as motivation to work out, get healthier, and lose weight. “Sometimes looking in the mirror just isn't enough,” says Lisa young, an expert in health and nutrition. “You’re seeing what you look like and not hearing it from somebody else.” Part of the reason why Facebook pictures have provided dieters with such great motivation is because of the constant comparing people do with their friends and followers. “It’s a measuring stick for people socially to say, ‘How do I stack up with my friends?’ " says Kevin Audley, a life coach. It's no secret that social media has an affe...

Drivers in New York have a new way to stay off the road when they're drunk, and it's as simple as opening an app on their smartphones. The "Have a Plan" app was designed to reduce impaired driving by providing drivers with resources to test their sobriety, report drunk drivers, and look into other ways to get home. "The most common punishment for a DUI conviction is custody with local law enforcement in the form of public work service," says George Gedulin, Attorney at Law at Gedulin and Greany Criminal Defense Attorneys. "Essentially this is an eight hour period of physical labor in the custody of a Sheriff. Public works are often a 5-15 day sentence. For multiple DUI convictions custody can be enforced with actual time in jail or home detention. It is not uncommon to see individuals s...

Everyone's heard the legend about founding father George Washington's wooden teeth, but have you also heard that it's not true? Washington did wear dentures, but they were made of ivory, gold, and even bone -- never wood. Where did the tales of our first President's most famous quirk come from, and how did it come to be established as fact, to the point that school teachers were including it in their curriculum? English professor William M. Etter, Ph.D., who writes for the Mount Vernon website, is unsure of the explanation, though it's likely because Washington's ivory teeth became stained over time, leading to a grainy appearance that seemed wood-like. "Indeed, in a 1798 letter to Washington, (John) Greenwood emphasized the importance of cleaning these dentures regularly after ex...