Blog Posts by The_Stir

eternal sunshine of the spotless mind kate winslet jim carreyEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, is one of the most brilliant love stories ever. The '04 flick tells the story of Joel and Clementine, a couple who go through a painful break-up and end up having a procedure done that "erases" memories of their time together. Definitely something anyone who has ever been through a rough split may have fantasized about! And in the next 10 years, it may be something people can actually do. Crazy!

The gist: University of Leicester researchers identified a protein called lipocalin-2 that the brain produces in response to stress. Lipocalin-2 reduces junctions that brain cells use called "mushroom spines," which help us remember things we once learned. By artificially bumping up the level of the protein, the scientists say they can reduce future anxiety associated with painful memories.

More from The Stir: 21 Ways to Get Over a Bad Break-Up

Seems like the kinda thing that would be great for people

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So much of the mainstream media's coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protest movement has been skewered toward casting the protesters as a bunch of crazy, unshowered hippies who don't want to get a job. But if these reporters actually went down there and talked to the Wall Street protesters, they'd be shocked to see that most of them look just like you and me -- ordinary people with ordinary jobs and ordinary lives who are just trying to get through one day at a time and make the world a better place along the way.

More from The Stir: NYPD Officer Admits He's Hungry To Hit Occupy Wall Street Protesters (VIDEO)

One group that was particularly well-represented at the OWS march and rally on Wednesday was: parents -- specifically, moms who brought their children with them to the protest. Why are they protesting? They explained it way better than I ever could.

Let's take a look:

This is Kim, from New York, with her adorable 3-month-old daughter, explaining what brought

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There's nothing that completes a scary costume quite like cat eyes -- or blood red vampire eyes -- or creepy white zombie eyes.

Novelty contact lenses, available over the Internet without a prescription, can make all those things possible, and plenty of Halloween partygoers order them so that they can take their costume to the next level.

But the American Academy of Ophthalmology is putting out a warning this Halloween that contact lenses that haven't been properly fitted by a professional can cause eye infections that could lead to blindness.

More from The Stir: 5 Truly Tacky Halloween Costumes

Knowing this, would you still wear them?

According to John C. Hoskins, president of the Tennessee Academy of Ophthalmology:

Most people believe that decorative lenses don't require the same level of care or consideration as corrective contact lenses because they can be purchased over-the-counter or on the Internet. This is far from the truth. In fact, permanent

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The wizards at L'Oreal are hard at work in their little lab coats mixing beakers full of dry ice and magic potions trying to come up with a beauty product that will once and for all stop the aging process. Enough with this getting older thing, right? Let's just all look 27 for the rest our lives and talk lip glosses and keratin treatments when we're chilling on the front porch of our nursing homes wearing mini skirts and tube tops, braiding each other's thick, brown hair. No grays for us old folks in the future! Because there's now a pill you can take to prevent getting any gray hair.

More from The Stir: 5 Places You Should Never Wear High Heels

It's true. L'Oreal says that the pill will be on the market by 2015. I'm for serious.

It's made of fruit extract blah blah blahs that will prevent "oxidative stress," or the process by which follicles turn hair gray. So if you've already got a little salt in your pepper, you're out of luck. The pill won't get rid of already

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Sex on first dateIt was your first date, but you kinda knew what it was hittin' for before the plates and glasses from dinner even had a chance to be cleared off the table. Your chemistry had been crazy the entire evening. Every time you looked up, he was smiling with his eyes and grinning harder than a new Powerball winner.

Because you're a natural flirt, it was hard not to give him your best vampy, vixen smolder, so eventually you gave up on holding it back and let your body language say the things you're too ladylike to express out loud. You laughed and joked and played around all the way from the restaurant to the lounge to the car to the plush, queen-sized bed in your room.

More from The Stir: 7 Foods That Are Better Than Sex

Yep, you broke the cardinal rule of all good girl behavior: you got busy on the first date. Legs in the air, hair all over the place, gotta-get-up-to-get-a-glass-of-water kind of sex. Your mother would be so disappointed.

But the morning after. Ah, the

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There are so many words to describe the photos of a nude Hope Solo in the highly anticipated ESPN Body Issue. Sexy, I'm happy to say, is not one of them. This is not a fit of jealous pique. There's no denying the soccer star and current Dancing With the Stars contestant is beautiful.

But the goalie's decision to grace both the cover and some inside pages of the 2011 version of the body issue wasn't about selling sex. And she doesn't.

More from The Stir: Hope Solo's Nipple Scares ESPN Silly (PHOTO)

Instead she's done just as I hoped when I first heard Solo was stripping down -- she's lived up to the reputation that earned her "girl crush" status in my house big time. Solo is selling a healthy form of beauty in the body issue, a real one that we can relate to, that we'd like our daughters to buy. Her cover photo is ripe with rippling muscles. An actual bulge of skin appears just below her shoulder! When is the last time you saw anything resembling a bulge in a fashion

Read More »from Nude Hope Solo photos are girl crush worthy (VIDEO)

food better than sexAs a study shows that women think about food more often than sex, I have to wonder about what time of day these ladies were asked, "What are you thinking about right now?" Since the survey included women who were dieting, it makes sense that you're going to be thinking about food when you're depriving yourself. If you haven't had sex in a very, very long time, you might be more focused on that particular form of entertainment and sustenance instead.

But the fact of the matter is, we eat more often than we have sex, and most likely food pops into our heads a heck of a lot more than getting horizontal does. In fact, there are some foods that are so wildly distracting that if presented with these delicious dishes whilst in the middle of copulating, one might be forgiven for rolling over and taking a bite out of something other than your partner.

More from The Stir: 10 Reasons Why Twitter is Better Than Sex

These 7 foods just might trump sex.

Belgian Waffles

Sure the

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guys kissingTwo women kissing is considered hot, but two guys? Icky. The double standard is unfair in my opinion. If two chicks can express their attraction to each other and Katy Perry can sing about it, then why can't two men do the same?

Of course men can do the same, and it seems more and more guys are locking lips -- allowing themselves to enjoy it and explore bisexuality. It's all part of the rise of male bisexual chic, which includes the game of "gay chicken."

More from The Stir: How Far Would You Go to Make Your Man Happy?

Okay, what?

In "gay chicken," two seemingly straight young men see how long they can go on kissing before one of them pulls away. The loser, or "gay chicken," is the guy who pulls away first. What's so fascinating about the game, and the YouTube videos, is that there are a lot of men doing it, and the videos get hundreds of thousands of hits. It's all types of guys, although lots of them are 20-something. Perhaps this is making male bisexuality more

Read More »from Would you let your man kiss another man?