Blog Posts by Piper Weiss, Shine Staff

Cats are in trouble. After flying under the radar for years, they've finally become a fashion accessory. Just as Kim Kardashian has replaced Paris Hilton in 2013, Persian teacup kittens have replaced Pomeranians. It's a sea change of ridiculous celebrity trendsetting. No cat is safe.

To whom it may concern: Cher is fine. Following the news that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had died, a Twitter hashtag caught like wildfire and sparked a mini-fire drill for Cher fans. Early this morning, Baroness Thatcher was memorialized on social media without enough spaces. The hashtag #nowthatcherisdead mistakenly started a Cher death watch. You can understand the confusion. 

Here is why you shouldn't get your news from Twitter hashtags:

And this happens:

And pretty soon:

Enter Ricky Gervais, Cher's unofficial spokesperson, to set the record straight.

And that is how Twitter rumors start. No word from Cher this morning. Her most recent tweet came last night from Chaz's birthday party, so she's probably just sleeping in. Nobody panic. 

"Vice" host Shane Smith. (Vice/HBO)

Vice co-founder Shane Smith says his controversial new HBO documentary series is "not traditional journalism." Let's get real: three white guys reporting on international politics is about as traditional as you can get. 

In the eight episodes of "Vice," premiering Friday on HBO, there will be blood, graphic violence, bullet-proof vests, and several pairs of sunglasses. There will not, however, be a single female correspondent, a source close to production confirmed to Yahoo! Shine. That's a pretty old-school decision for a show looking to smash the barriers of traditional journalism. 

Executive produced by Bill Maher with the help of consulting producer Fareed Zakaria (a "real-deal newsman's man" according to a Vice blogger), each episode sends "Vice guys" overseas for a glimpse at the characters behind countries in conflict. Smith interviews Afghanistan's child suicide bombers and literally toes the line of the Pakistani-Indian border. Duffy visits a make-shift arms manufacturer

They both sometimes wear black. (Getty Images) She's 23. He's 37. She's 5 foot 1. He's 6 foot 6. The first time they met at a party she said "You're huge." And he said "You're tiny." And so began the greatest love story of our time. No joke. Hayden Panettiere, "Nashville" star and Lifetime movie regular is very possibly engaged to Wladimir Klitschko, the Ukrainian professional heavyweight champion whose bloody head was once silk-screened onto an opponent's t-shirt. I probably wouldn't have set the two up on a blind date, but what do I know.
"We've been friends for five years - we've never not been close," Hayden says in latest issue of Glamour. These two crazy kids have been off-and-on for a couple of years, and now they're maybe going to marry and have kids and take more beach vacations like the one they've been tweeting about this week. So it works. Maybe it's because opposites attract (according a famous cat) or maybe it's because they really have more in common than we realize. For example: They both were human kids once.

You said it! (Getty Images)If you took a little nap last Friday and your alarm just went off now, you've got a lot of catching up to do.

This past week, two women were appointed to top governmental security positions, guilt trips got a bad rap, and cats were all up in our faces. Also we learned little from the Supreme Court, and a lot about hard boiling eggs. (We've been totally doing it wrong!)

It was a week where we really needed a good laugh and guess who brought it?Commenters. 

Forget the headlines, here are the top four funniest reactions this past week's news, courtesy of the Yahoo! Shine peanut gallery.

1. On the female undercover CIA boss who's been secretly protecting our country, Clint wrote: 

"Fantastic. But can she catch Jason Bourne?" 


2. On processing the fact that Jesse James just had his fourth--that's right, fourth--wedding, sebastian56 wrote: 

"Serial Husband. Send a gift of antibiotics." 

3. On the news that guilt trips could have damaging effects on kids, Nobuddy said: 

"Guilt trips were

No, I'm not talking about Madonna's Material Girl collection at Macy's. I'm talking about her very first collection with the clothing brand, Wazoo. Record scratch.

Wazoo talking about, Willis? Please refer to this article in a 1985 issue of the teen idol bible Bop, which this blogger so graciously scanned for the greater good.

Back when Madge was still making love to Sean Penn and Lourdes was still a reference to a commune in France, she collaborated with a clothing company called Wazoo (yeah, I know what wazoo means, but she didn't) on a line of purple satin coats, teal ankle-length skirts and waiter's jackets stuffed with shoulder pads plush enough to merit sleep number technology.

And that's not all Madonna's curated line offered. For more a "casual and everyday look" there's a "French terry cowlneck shirt and matching skirt," also known as a towel.  And check out that brain damage bow!

At the cornerstone of the '80s Madonna look are accessories. "Cross earrings and silver

Yes, that's a cat on a toilet. And yes, he does look pretty pissed about it. The whole Internet has just discovered the Litter Kwitter, a potty training system for cats that was—up until this point—known only to a rare breed of ambitious cat owners. 

Created by a woman who toilet-trained her own cat, the Litter Kwitter works like this: You put a color-coded litter-filled ring with a very small hole on your toilet bowl. As your cat learns to jump on the porcelain throne every time he needs to relieve himself, you switch to a ring with a larger hole. This goes on until your animal suddenly realizes he's standing on a toilet bowl, praying he doesn't fall in.

It's great idea, but according to the people who write reviews on Amazon about cat toilet training, it's not that easy. Please take a moment to enjoy some of the comments posted about the Litter Kwitter, because they are brilliant:

"I have a kitten whose brain hasn't quite caught up with the rest of her yet...There is nothing

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Enter Kimye's conception photo. Never underestimate the ingenuity of the world's most attention-seeking couple. On the cover of the upcoming issue of the French fashion magazine, L'Officiel Hommes, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West go one step beyond the naked pregnant photo. Instead of showing off their future child (it's a girl, by the way) they're pictured reenacting the moment they were first trying for a baby. In case you've forgotten how Kim and Kanye made the miracle of life come to fruition: they did it. Like this.  

In the cover photo, leaked Monday, the two appear to be having sex. Or, if you'd rather, Kanye acts like he's got such a good secret to tell his girlfriend, that