YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Blog Posts by Piper Weiss, Shine Staff

    • 10 Funny Inventions from Kids Around the World

      Wait till you see what this thing does...Wait till you see what this thing does...

      This week, America's hallowed inventor Ben Franklin turned 306 years old. In his honor, The Smithsonian and ePals, an education media company, recognized some of the world's youngest inventors. Fifteen students, from grades kindergarten through 11, won top honors for their home videos and written reports describing their inventions. We're not talking Westinghouse finalists, just yet. These kids, hailing from Turkey, India, Canada and the U.S., exhibited the kind of ingenuity of Home Alone's Kevin McCallister. Give them a staircase, a bouncing ball and a pair of pipe cleaners and they'll give you an imaginative prototype that might have the family dog running for cover. Check out some of the big winners....





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    • Ban on Wearing Pajamas in Public Proposed

      Pajamas or loose-fitting red snowman pants? You decide. Pajamas or loose-fitting red snowman pants? You decide. One of the biggest problems afflicting our country today can be found on college campuses nationwide. That's right, pajamas as outerwear.

      A parish commissioner in Louisiana is making it his mission to stop the madness. He wants to ban pajamas outside of the home.

      "The moral fiber in our community is dwindling," Michael Williams tells Cado's KSDK local news. "If not now, when? Because its pajama pants today, next it will be underwear tomorrow."

      He's right. No-pants sinners have already infected the coasts. If his proposal comes to fruition, he may be able to thwart the trend from spreading to his home state.

      Williams had his lightning bolt idea during a shopping excursion. "I observed a couple of young men in loose fitting PJ's on, probably with their private parts about to come out and no underwear," he says.

      Aghast, he lined up an attorney to help write an ordinance he'll soon present to a local Louisiana commission. It's clear to Williams that continued fallout from Katrina and

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    • Bachelor Recap: Week 3 is when We Learn Way Too Much About Hondas

      Ben likes the feeling of a plastic sunglasses arm tickling the back of his neck.
      Ben's Leap List:
      Wear sunglasses on back, at least once
      Climb a bridge
      Ski in San Francisco
      Find a bookcase that opens into a room, Scooby-Doo style
      Reject a mortician

      But let's backtrack: a Leap what? It all started when Ben mentions his Leap List. Like that's a thing. It's as if we're in Canada or in 1999 and nobody's seen Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson fall out of a plane. Then the girls pick up on it: "Your Leap List, sure, that's when you...." one explains as if she's the friend with a lot of information on a Birth Control commercial.



      Right, so a bucket list.

      DATE 1: Emily
      It's not okay to fall.
      One of the things on Ben's list is climbing a bridge with a woman whose worst fear is climbing a bridge. As poor Emily (the epidemiologist who's kind of awesome) conquers her fear and makes it to the top of the bridge without throwing up, there are a lot of metaphors about how love is like a bridge. "If Emily and I can climb the Bay Bridge together there's no telling how far we can take this Read More »from Bachelor Recap: Week 3 is when We Learn Way Too Much About Hondas
    • Can Everyone Stop S---ing on Girls? Joke's Over

    • How Could a Kangaroo in a Suit Be Dangerous?

      Christie Carr and Irwin pose for that weird dream you had. (Splash Photos)Christie Carr and Irwin pose for that weird dream you had. (Splash Photos)You can dress a kangaroo up like a traveling salesman and invite him into your bed, but that doesn't make him a good pet. So says lawmakers in the town of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. The town's city council are requiring Christie Carr, proud owner of a kangaroo named Irwin, to get a permit for her life partner.

      39-year-old Carr adopted Irwin while working at an animal sanctuary. At the time, Irwin was an injured Joey, suffering from a paralyzing neck injury. Carr nursed him to health, neutered him, and bought him some corporate casual clothes (from Babyland General perhaps?). Now he sleeps in her bed every night and sits on her lap like a marionette. The end. Or is it....

      Labeled an exotic animal, Carr learned she'd have to pay for a $500,000 insurance policy if she wanted to keep her pet in her home. An anonymous donor who I'd really like to meet footed the bill for her. But officials say Carr still hasn't finished filling out the proper paperwork and are threatening to remove the

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    • Research on Benefits of Red Wine Faked? Say it Ain't So

      My bottle of Resveratrol (between my Dead Celebrity Cookbook and a bottle of curry powder.) My bottle of Resveratrol (between my Dead Celebrity Cookbook and a bottle of curry powder.) See that? That's my bottle of Resveratrol. I paid $50 for it at a health food store after reading a bunch of 'scientific breakthrough' articles about the anti-aging benefits of resveratrol, an antioxidant derived from red wine grapes. At first I felt some sucker-derived buyer's remorse, but after a couple weeks taking the capsules my hair looked shinier, my skin was slightly less blotchy, even those forehead creases I've spent 33 years anxiously folding started to smooth out. Or so I thought.

      Reuters reports today that a doctor who provided longterm research on the link between red wine grapes and anti-aging is being charged with 100 acts of fraud and falsification.

      First a little back-story: Dipak Das Ph.d, former director of cardiovascular research at the University of Connecticut, was an early researcher studying resveratrol, a derivative of red wine grapes with the ability to reverse the process of aging on a cellular level. Das and his team weren't the only doctors studying the

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    • Can a Burger Scar You for Life? Lawsuit Blames Whopper for Causing PTSD

      (ThinkStock Photos)(ThinkStock Photos)A Washington State deputy will never forget the night his life changed. During a late-night burger break, Edward Bslysma pulled into a Burger King drive through and ordered a Whopper. Minutes later he was about to bite into the juicy patty, but not before he removed the bun and witnessed something he won't soon forget. A big honking phlegm-ball sat like a slab of special sauce on his patty. Suspecting BK's staffers behind the prank, he sent his snack to a DNA specialist (you tax dollars at work, Washington).

      Sure enough a burger flipper at Burger King, who happened to be on file as an ex-con, was linked to the loogie. Bslysma must have thought having the offender arrested would blot out the pain, but he was wrong. So he decided to sue the fast food chain for causing him "mental stress."

      Though he never actually bit into the burger, the whole notion of a phlegm condiment caused him "ongoing emotional trauma...vomiting, nausea, food anxiety and sleeplessness." Surprisingly, his case

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    • Women Hunt for Free Sperm Online. Yes, Times Are that Hard

      Meet Trent. He's one of many guys giving away sperm online for free. (via Trentdonor.org)Meet Trent. He's one of many guys giving away sperm online for free. (via Trentdonor.org)
      The price of sperm is going up. On average, donor banks charge $2000 for a sample. Add that to the cost of IVF treatments and you're looking at spending seven figures on getting pregnant with no guarantee of results. So women in need of a man's special formula are turning to the internet where free donor banks have set up headquarters. On Friday, "20/20" will feature a woman who turned to the free stuff after spending $70,000 in failed pregnancy attempts. As you might imagine, her experience isn't as clinical as a bank where money's exchanged.

      On sites like Known Donor Registry, it's up to donors disclose medical reports, family histories and personal profiles. Background checks are at the expense of the recipient. Unlike official sperm banks where donors remain anonymous, these candidates also have the option to have contact with the child as a co-parent or family friend, or to have their future spawn contact them once they turn 18. Then there's Trent Arsenault, founder of

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    • Common IVF Belief is Wrong, Says Study


      When Nadya Suleman had an alarming twelve embryos implanted in her womb, she may have thought she was increasing her likelihood of pregnancy. A new study conducted by a University of Glasgow research team challenges that long-held belief.

      After looking at over 124,000 IVF cycles, they found that women with single embryo implants had the same chance of getting pregnant as women with three or more embryonic implants. And women with two implants were even more likely to have a successful pregnancy than those with three or more implants.

      "Women who have gone through infertility treatment want the best chance of having a baby, but we need to explain that the data shows transferring more embryos doesn't actually do that," the study's co-author, Dr. Scott Nelson told the Washington Post.

      The numbers add up like this: women under the age of 40 with two transferred embryos had a 33 percent live birth rate, according to this study. Those with a third embryo implanted had only a 25 percent

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    • The Latest Celebrity Ad Campaigns: Why Do They All Pose like That?

      Since the new year began, actresses have been pushing useless products harder than the Sham-Wow guy. A spate of  fashion campaigns, fronted by Hollywood's leading ladies have been rolled out this month—Katie Holmes for H.Stern, Lindsay Lohan for Jag Jeans and Philip Plein, Kate Winslet for St. John and Mila Kunis for Cristian Dior. Advertising experts suggest famous faces provide the kind of brand recognition models can't.

      Here's another theory: fashion photographers need women who can act. How else are you going to believe any of the modeling poses they're Gumby-ed into are natural? There are only a few circumstances where a human might hover her hand over a corner of her mouth or turn her arm into a halter top. It's a famous spokesperson's job to make it all seem believable. Seductive even. Consider the latest proof from celebrity ad campaigns introduced this month...

      The pose: Fingers creeping toward the corner of the mouth
      The models: Mila Kunis for Christian Dior, Katie Holmes

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