Blog Posts by Piper Weiss, Shine Staff

If you haven't set your DVR's for the TLC series yet, you're missing out. Here's why:

1. It's about a man and his three four wives: Ladykiller Cody Brown has taken the hand of wife number four Robyn Sullivan. The reception, which took place in May, will be chronicled on the season finale episode. Sullivan joined to clan with three kids from a previous marriage making the family cap out at 21. Our national obsession with over-sized families is taken to the new lengths. But unlike the Duggar propaganda machine, this series and its subjects don't sugar-coat their unique lifestyle. It's presented just as you'd imagine: impossible.

2. The first three wives get jealous: Of course they do. Their husband is "courting," as they say, a new young bitty. But the open admissions from the wives of their fears of being ignored strikes a surprisingly relatable chord. The tendency to consider the women brain-washed robots with perpetual Stepford smiles is quashed by the underpinnings of anger and

Read More »from 5 reasons you should be watching "Sister Wives"

(Photo courtesy of CBS)You won, America. You got this female Bravo series fanatic to tune into CBS every Monday night for the most watched sitcom on TV.

Wait, that's not what you were trying to do by collectively watching "Two and a Half Men?" Don't play coy with me. The hit series, now in its eighth season and slated for another in 2011, has kept its stronghold on the ratings' top 10 lists since its debut in 2003. Charlie Sheen now claims the highest salary of any television star banking $1.25 million an episode. Even the 1/2 man, 17 year-old, Angus T. Jones is earning $300,000 per episode these days. And why shouldn't he? 14 million viewers watched last week's episode.

14 million people can't be wrong. Or can they? As a veteran viewer of reality/true crime/weird medical nightmares, I've shied away from the sitcom in general. Only an occasional "30 Rock" binge has shaken my ground. But for the next few months, I'm venturing out of my comfort zone and into the land of dude humor. Every Tuesday morning I'll

Read More »from The Two and a Half Men Project: 1 woman, 24 episodes, too many hooker jokes to count

Fellow menstruating women: We're now another step closer to a temporary Bipolar diagnosis. We already exhibit rapid mood swings, lack of sleep, and sometimes recklessness and delusions. A new study show's we're also prone to impulsive spending.

Miller McCune's Tom Jacobs reports:
"Writing in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, British psychologists Karen Pine and Ben Fletcher report the shopping behavior of women is influenced by where they are in their menstrual cycle. According to their first-of-its-kind study, a pre-menopausal woman is more likely to make excessive or impulsive purchases the further she is into her cycle."

The team's research showed almost two thirds of women shopped on impulse right before their period.

This may explain the $30 worth of incense, candles and "wish beans" I purchased from a Harley Davidson slash Witchcraft store last month. "You make a wish and carry it in your pocket for seven days," I eagerly told two friends I also bought the

Read More »from Period Purchases: What have you bought while high on PMS?

Brett Favre and alleged penis photo recipient Jen Sterger. (via CBSNews.com)
It's an understandable mistake: When women email nude photos to guys, it's a turn-on. Naturally guys assume the same thing would work in reverse. It doesn't.

Brett Favre may have learned this lesson the hard way if he did send photos of his nubbin' special to Jets reporter Jen Sterger. After a barrage of voicemails pleading for her company at his hotel (ew) he pulled out all the stops. Allegedly. (It hasn't been confirmed these are the Farvre family jewels, but come on, have a look.)

We're told Favre is an unmatched football player, but he may be lacking in the lady-game department. A good strategist understands that thinking like the competition goes a long way. And we don't think like guys. Sending us a photo of your device is like preparing a dental assistant for oral surgery: "We'll be inserting this rod into the upper-bicuspid, so make sure you disinfect the area."

Favre's alleged frustrated, futile efforts to win over Sterger were a product of assuming she was a lot like

Read More »from Memo to men: stop sending us pictures of your penis, please

NBA athlete Robin Lopez does the unthinkable!Paul Greenwood is the kind of man who could gain his clients' trust and then steal $75 million dollars from them. He's also the kind of man who collects teddy bears. Connection? Sure.

Both break the rules--one belonging to the state, the other to culture. As evolved as we've become, the hard and fast rule is: Men shouldn't play with dolls. Action figures, miniature cars and Star Wars memorabilia aside, showing childlike interests that lean towards the vulnerable is a flat out no-no for guys, especially beyond the age of 12. But attachments to childhood, can be comforting and healthy in small doses. Women are allowed to keep their kid's stuff-- in fact we're encouraged to buy it all over again (Hello Kitty, anyone?). Not guys. They're supposed to have the hardened, weary machismo of Tommy Lee Jones from the minute they're spanked to life. Even if their parents support their stuffed animal habit, god help them if their little league team catches wind of the secret obsession.

And what

Read More »from The illicit love affair between guys and their dolls

Courtesy of the Daily MailKids today. No, really. Give a boy a lemonade stand, and he'll come up with a marketing strategy for distributing the beverage online. Ask a teenager to mow your lawn, and she'll invent a robot that does it better. Give a girl scout a box of cookies and she'll come back with a deed for a bakery shop. For every grown-up who brags about how hard they worked back in the day, there's a kid who's working harder and bringing in higher revenue. Back it up. They use the word 'revenue.'

This week, a winner was chosen in the National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge, a non-profit contest that gives kids in low-income communities a chance to develop their own companies. Thirty one finalists submitted original business plans, and one 17 year-old, Nia Froome, won the $10,000 award. But that's petty cash for the Facebook generation expecting to follow in Marc Zuckerberg's billion dollar footsteps. With low overhead opportunities on the internet, free advertising through viral marketing and social

Read More »from The 17 year-old undertaker and the new teen workforce

(ThinkStock Images)We can't live without our gadgets. But can we live with them? Maybe not for long. The 21st century devices we've come to consider members of the family may be doing us more harm than good. In the case of cellular devices, the dangers could be fatal.

That's the concern raised by Nobel Prize winning toxicologist Dr. Devra Davis. She researched controversial studies on the connection between brain cancer and cellular usage in her new book Disconnected, and discovered a very real threat being posed to our health. Evidence of DNA and brain damage caused by radio-frequency waves were just some of the findings. Her biggest concern: despite the many studies on the dangers, corporations with vested interest may be undermining the health risk. "This is about the most important and unrecognized public health issues of our time," Davis tells Time Magazine in a recent interview. "We could avert a global catastrophe if we act." The long-term plan is to create safer mobile devices, but the first

Read More »from The 5 most dangerous gadgets in our lives

Girls across the country have spoken: News Anchor is the job to have. At least if you're Barbie. The toy's maker, Mattel, asked fans to vote for the blond bombshell's next career. Choosing between jobs like pizza chef and babysitter ("helps lil sis get to the potty," reads her tagline), voters overwhelmingly wanted to see Barbie conquer the headlines. Dressed in pink duds, holding a hand-held microphone, however, she seems more equipped for "Extra" than the nightly News. What happened to 1999's working woman Barbie outfit (at right), a more sophisticated approach to corporate fashion--even for a doll?

There's no question she's come a long way since her days as a flight attendant in the '60s. But she has gone back a few notches since her gig in the 90s as a pediatrician. If it weren't for the engineering post she recently had, one could argue, Barbie's lost sight of what's important. She's gone from paratrooper to Paris Hilton-esque camera hog. Then again, that's just the life of

Read More »from She works hard for the money: Barbie's career timeline