Lifestyle

When he's not dodging comparisons to fellow teen heartthrob Justin Bieber, opening up for Taylor Swift on tour, or featuring on decidedly mediocre collaborations with Pitbull, 18-year-old Austin Mahone loves customizing his Range Rover with vinyl car wraps. According to January 20 Auto Evolution article, Mahone has been wrapping his Range Rover in countless custom colors and designs since getting the car when he was just 16. So far, it's been wrapped bright red, with red-on-black rims to offset the look, and "a weird dinosaur-like look" created with black and white strips, the article reports, among several other color and pattern schemes. And Mahone is far from the only celebrity who loves custom-wrapping his car to his tastes. Chris Brown wrapped his Lamborghini in Tupac lyrics, while F...

Boy Scouts across America aren't going to be camping much until the summer, but some of them may not even have the equipment to do it. There has been an odd string of thefts of Boy Scout camping gear across the country in the last few weeks. One of the first thefts took place in North Richland Hills, TX. CBS affiliate DFW reported that Boy Scout Troop 179 discovered that a trailer with all of their camping gear inside had been stolen over New Year's weekend. The camping equipment belonging to a Boy Scout troop in Billings, MT has been stolen in a few different instances of theft over the last month, according to the Great Falls Tribune. A trailer with roughly $10,000 worth of camping gear and other equipment was stolen from its storage place at Billings Stake Center of the Church of Jesu...

Interior designers and anyone with a penchant for interior decorating can rejoice this January, when new area rugs will feature the 2015 Color of the Year. According to Home Accents Today, Oriental Weavers, an area rug manufacturer, has a partnership with color institute Pantone. The partnership allows Oriental Weavers to design and manufacture area rugs featuring the Color of the Year months before the official announcement of what the color is. The two companies have partnered since 2013. The Color of the Year for 2015 is Marsala. Pantone describes Marsala as a "naturally robust and earthy wine red" which compliments many skin tones, is appealing to both men and women, and is the right balance of dramatic and grounding. “We are extremely proud of our new Pantone Universe rugs fe...

The latest cosmetic trend across the country -- and even in countries across the globe -- is to achieve the absolute whitest teeth that a little bit of money, hydrogen peroxide, and some DIY creativity can buy. In fact, Americans alone spend about $1.4 billion annually on teeth whitening products and treatments, which is 300% more than what the country spent on teeth whitening products in 1996. This trend, dubbed "bleachorexia" by dentists today, isn't just becoming extremely expensive; it's actually causing some serious dental problems for countless patients who have become obsessed with whitening their teeth. Similar to other obsessions about one's physical appearance, "bleachorexia" appears to be more of a psychological obsessive disorder, sometimes requiring invention by a dental pr...

Interior decorating is a field in which both professional designers and homeowners can let their imaginations take flight. By taking cues from classic architecture, couture, art, and more, it is possible to incorporate one's personal style into everything from the furniture to bay window treatments. Recently, however, designers have noticed decorating trends focusing on one thing in particular: feathers. Feathers are known for their natural beauty and wide variety, making them a quirky but appealing home decorating choice. The trend began appearing in fashion and home design in the fall, but is now shaping a number of spring collections as well. “In recent years, we've seen a big resurgence of nature influencing design, feathers definitely being part of it,” Christina McCombs, an interio...

Watch out, California commuters: Google has received approval to test its "fully functional" self-driving car prototype on Bay Area public roads at the start of 2015. The tiny two-seat vehicle resembles a Smart Car and follows routes according to Google Maps, mainly in suburban office parks and downtown streets. Yet experts are divided on whether or not this innovation will be a good thing in the long run. Ratna Amin, director of transportation policy at San Francisco-based urban advocacy group SPUR, predicts that the cars could mean good things for consumers and city transportation systems alike. "I can imagine these cars starting in closed, campus environments, or cordoned-off test areas with low-speed roads where the risk of collision, injury or death is much lower," Amin said, but ...

One and a half billion people around the world suffer from chronic pain, but an alarming trend is that more and more of them are children. In the United States alone, the number of children who were admitted to a hospital due to chronic pain grew by over 830% in just six years. The good news is that pediatric pain rehabilitation centers, like the one at Boston Children's Hospital, are helping kids find peace with their pain. According to the Boston Globe, there are now more than 30 pediatric pain centers in the United States, which all help children manage pain. They offer treatments and services like acupuncture, biofeedback training, sleep specialists, and exercise facilities. Boston Children's Hospital is the first to offer a day-treatment program. Among children ages seven to 18,...

We've all heard the stereotype of the sleazy car salesman who cons you into buying a junker for an exorbitant price. There's a lot of distrust when it comes to car salespeople, but as it turns out, people trust Congress members even less. In a new poll released by Gallup, members of Congress were listed as the least honest and ethical out of 11 different professions. Fully 61% of respondents listed Congress members as having low or very low honesty and ethical standards, 30% gave them an average rating, and only 7% rated them as having high or very high honesty and ethical standards. The numbers for car salespeople were more favorable. Only 45% of respondents answered that car salespeople had low or very low honesty and ethical standards, while 46% rated them as average. They only had a ...

When construction workers were called to the Massachusetts State House in Boston this past January to assess and fix a water leak in the building’s foundation, the very last thing they probably expected to find was a time capsule in the foundation cornerstone. But that’s exactly what they uncovered when they began working, and it wasn’t just any old time capsule planted a few years ago -- it was a box, dating back to 1795, likely buried by Sam Adams and Paul Revere. According to Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin, the box was probably placed in the building’s foundation during 1795, when Adams was serving as the Governor and had commissioned the State House to be renovated; Revere, being a renowned metalsmith and engraver during his time (in addition to his superior horse ri...

Christmas miracles really do happen, it seems. A while back, Sumey and David Hageman's four-year-old dachshund, Lola, slipped a disc, crippling her. Her owners had recently bought a house, and therefore couldn't afford the $6,000 surgery Lola needed to walk again. "When Lola came to us, she was completely paralyzed in her back legs, so she was dragging both of the back legs, and the cause of that was a slipped disc in her spinal cord," said veterinarian Michael Wong to the Miami Herald. Unable to pay for their pup's surgery, the heartbroken couple was forced to give their dog away to an animal rescue group. The decision, of course, was not easy. "We had to do what was best for her," said Sumey Hageman, who knew that his family would lose visitation rights with Lola once she was turned...