Lifestyle

With the winter plowing season getting underway, Consumer Reports decided this month to answer a question that numerous homeowners must have asked over the years: “With professional plowing services charging an average of $40 per storm …Wouldn’t a snow blower pay for itself?” For a report published Dec. 10, the magazine selected 12 representative cities across the nation and calculated how many years it would take for a snow blower to do just that. People living in Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit and Denver (or cities with similar snowfalls) can expect investing in a snow blower to pay off within a single year. In New York City, Philadelphia and Boston, it will take three years on average to recover the investment. Washington, D.C. came in at four years and Nashville at five. Seattleites ...

There are many treatments and methods to correct smiles nowadays, although braces will always be a popular option. However, some people need dental crowns or dental cleaning and exam. Therefore, they must get in contact with an orthodontist or dental hygienist and start to correct what they require. People usually need smile correction because their teeth are crooked or don't grow correctly. However, orthodontics goes beyond that and tries to fix issues from the root. You might need care after a dental cleaning, and a hygienist could do that, as well as your orthodontist. Your mouth might be sensitive and need special care after teeth cleaning, so you must follow the expert's advice, or you could ruin the entire process. You don't want to come back so soon with the same issue. Furthermor...

It takes a certain type of resident to appreciate a neighborhood filled with graffiti and other forms of street art; in fact, some people would probably prefer to hire a residential painting service to clear any evidence of this controversial art form away. However, for one street in Brooklyn, the work of an artist has come to define the area's culture and drawn international attention. Now, a New York City developer plans to showcase and protect some of these murals as the area evolves. Franco "The Great" Gaskin immigrated to New York City from Panama in 1958. When the riots following the death of Martin Luther King caused Harlem shop owners to install metal gates to protect their windows, Gaskin began painting murals on these gates to help change the image of the area. Often focusing on...

A Texas infant died from Legionnaires' disease just weeks after a home birth which took place in a heated birthing pool, according to details from a new report released by investigators from the Texas Department of State Health Services. Legionnaires' disease is an acute form of pneumonia caused by the Legionella bacteria, which thrives in warm, moist environments such as bath and hot tubs, and plumbing systems, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "What people need to understand is that if there is a lack of protective coating on tubs, then it becomes a real danger because bacterial are going to reside within those cracks and divots,” says Branham Jarrell, President of Georgia Tub and Tile. “To get rid of minor cracks and chips, a glazing putty wo...

The $1.4 billion that Americans spend each year on tooth whitening products and procedures might be doing more harm than good in some cases. In fact, bleaching one's teeth too much -- an increasingly common habit as Americans yearn for that perfectly pearly set of teeth -- might actually make teeth appear darker, in addition to a number of other less-than-desirable effects. According to a November 24 Daily Mail article, teeth that have been whitened too much will appear darker because over-whitening makes them more transparent, meaning that the mouth's dark shadows show through them. It's not just the appearance of teeth that is compromised by over-bleaching. The Daily Mail reports that over-bleaching results in brittle, hypersensitive teeth, receding gum lines and even the permanent lo...

Retirement is something that almost every working American looks forward to and depends on, but that future isn't so secure for many Americans -- and they know it. One in four Americans think that they will have to work until the age of 80 -- well past the traditional retirement age of 65 -- to be able to retire comfortably. Part of the problem, it seems, is that Americans are more attracted to large lump sums than ensuring that they have a steady stream of income in retirement. According to Time, an academic panel hosted by Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA), two professors -- Michael Finke of Texas Tech and Stephen Zelde of Columbia University -- discussed why Americans are not annuitizing and why they should. Though annuities haven't been favored in ...

It's no secret that women worry about their skin. There is an entire industry built on creating products to fix or cover up facial imperfections. The question is, just how much of a problem is problem skin causing us in our daily lives? Well, as a new study by Superdrug shows, the average woman suffers through 50 bad skin days over the course of one year. However, the problem extends well beyond those 50 days, as women spend a great deal of time and energy worrying about the appearance of their skin. Two thousand adult women were polled, and found that one in three women avoid talking to people because they are so insecure about the state of their skin. One in 20 will avoid speaking to the opposite sex if they are having a "bad skin" day. It's more serious than just insecurities, howeve...

Arguably the biggest "first world problems" that modern day young people suffer from are their smart phone batteries dying, and their skinny jeans falling off of their hips. Fortunately, there's a new product that can solve both of those problems. The new XOO Belt is not just a belt -- it's also a battery charger. The XOO Belt contains a 1,300mAh lithium ceramic polymer flexible battery that is sandwiched between the leather in the belt itself. The buckle is an additional 800mAh battery (giving you 2,100mAh total). The buckle does even more than that, though. It acts as a ratchet to tighten the belt around the waist. It's a plug that you can connect your USB adapter to. There is a set of five LED lights along the base of the buckle that tells you how much charge is left in the belt batte...

The Obama Administration has lowered its estimate of how many Americans will enroll under national healthcare insurance exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act, the White House announced Monday. About 9.9 million people will be signed up by the end of next year, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said. This is approximately 30% lower than the latest level predicted by the Congressional Budget Office. The new figures from HHS are based on how quickly Americans have signed up for previous public health insurance programs, and also account for people who won’t stay in their plans. As the Washington Post pointed out in its coverage, this may be seen as a referendum on both the act itself and the President’s overall effectiveness. “The discrepancy re...

There is a plethora of human behaviors that can cause back pain, from lifting heavy items to sitting in an office chair for 40 hours a week, to slumping on the couch for Netflix marathons, but new research shows that there's a new culprit for Americans' back pain problems. According to CBS News, new research performed by chief of spine surgery at New York Spine Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine Dr. Kenneth Hansraj, which has been accepted for publication in Surgical Technology International, reveals that texting is probably causing a lot of back pain for people. According to a survey taken by the National Institute of Health Statistics, back pain is the most reported type of pain at 27%, followed by headache and neck pain. An estimated 26 million Americans between the ages of 20 and 64...