Blog Posts by Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine

A new study shows that violent video games change the way guys think.Women have long complained that video games mess with their boyfriends' minds, and for years parents have worried about the long-term effects first-person shooter games and games with realistic and gratuitous violence can have on their children's brains. Now, a new study may confirm their fears: Violent video games change the way guys think and feel.

The study, which was presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America on Wednesday, shows that just one week of playing violent video games can have a measurable effect on the brains of young adult men.

"For the first time, we have found that a sample of randomly assigned young adults showed less activation in certain frontal brain regions following a week of playing violent video games at home," said Dr. Yang Wang, an assistant research professor in the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. "These brain regions are important for controlling

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The 12 Days of Christmas are going to cost you more this year.People rarely hand out partridges and pear trees for the holidays anymore, but if they did, they'd have to pay more for them this year. According to the latest numbers crunched by PNC Wealth Management, the Christmas Price Index -- as dictated by the song "The 12 Days of Christmas" -- has gone up 3.5 percent since 2010. And while your own true love may not require any swans a-swimming, chances are that the cost of buying everything on a modern Christmas wish list has gone up by about the same amount.

"As the economy continues to struggle, we are seeing weakness in some areas of demand within the Index," James Dunigan, managing executive of investments for PNC Wealth Management, said in a press release. "That is illustrated in the costs of the Five Gold Rings. While gold commodity prices are at or near record highs, the demand for retail gold is waning, and thus our Five Gold Rings actually dropped by 0.8 percent this year."

That makes gold rings a pretty good buy in real life, too.

Read More »from The True Cost of Christmas? More Than Last Year

Herman Cain has been accused of having a 13-year-long affair.Yet another woman has come forward to accuse Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain of sexual misconduct. But this time, the issue isn't sexual harassment or a wandering hand. This time, the claim is that the former head of Godfather Pizza had a 13-year-long extramarital affair that ended just before he announced his bid for the White House. And we can't help but wonder: When it comes to potential presidents, where does one draw the line between private betrayals and public office?

"It was pretty simple," Ginger White told WAGA-TV, a Fox affiliate in Atlanta also known as FOX 5. "It wasn't complicated. I was aware that he was married. And I was also aware I was involved in a very inappropriate situation -- relationship."

White says that the 13-year affair began in the late 1990s in Louisville, Kentucky, when he gave a speech as president of the National Restaurant Association. They had drinks afterward, and he invited her to his hotel room, she told reporter Dale Russell.

She says

Read More »from Herman Cain's alleged 13-year-long affair: Should it matter?

Could eating more fruit reduce your risk of fibroids?That apple a day really might keep the doctor away. According to a new study, women who ate two or more servings of fresh fruit per day were less likely to develop uterine fibroids than those didn't.

"Our study suggests that uterine fibroids can now be added to the list of potential health outcomes for which increased fruit and vegetable intake might be beneficial," lead researcher Lauren Wise, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health, told Reuters.

About 70 percent of women develop fibroids at some point in their lives, but African-American women are up to three times more likely to get them. The non-cancerous growths often have no symptoms, but they can be painful, affect menstrual periods, and, in some cases, cause fertility problems or make it difficult for women to carry a pregnancy to full term.

The study, which was published in the December 2011 edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, analyzed data from more than

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She's done it all: movie star, nurse, beauty queen, adviser, songbird, astronaut, martial arts expert, best-selling author, fashion consultant, tap dancer, truck driver, and now guest Editor-in-Chief of Yahoo! Shine (not surprising, given her amazing performance as an intrepid news reporter in "Muppets From Space"). And she believes that you can do it all, too.

Read More »from Miss Piggy's Secrets to a Successful Career

Photo: Muppet Press/Alfred A. Knopf"Fortunately, I have always had very sound business sense, and so keeping my affairs in order has never presented much of a problem for moi," Miss Piggy writes in her 1981 book, "Miss Piggy's Guide to Life."

"Many people think money is something to be set aside for a rainy day," the extraordinary actress -- and a guest editor here at Shine -- writes. "But honestly, how much money do you really need for a dozen or so hours of inclement weather?"

Large amounts of money, Miss Piggy points out, is a fire hazard. And money that is stashed away for too long is prone to "cashosis" or "decashification," the horrible and debilitating process by which crisp $10 bills turn into "seven greasy ones and some nickels and pennies."

"I know you wouldn't think of putting fresh asparagus in the back of a drawer and eating it three months later," she writes. "And yet otherwise sensible people do take sizable amounts of money and pretty much let it rot."

In order to keep your money in top condition, you have

Read More »from Miss Piggy on Managing Your Money Wisely

A consumer group has picked the 10 Worst Toys for 2011.Godzilla and Captain Jack Sparrow action figures, mini trampolines, and Shrinky Dinks are among the toys that have been flagged because of the risk of puncture wounds, electrocution, choking, other injuries "or even death," a Boston-based consumer group warns. World Against Toys Causing Harm (WATCH) has issued their annual "10 Worst Toys" list, and several kids classics and new favorites are among their picks for the toys parents should avoid this holiday season.

"We've been looking at these issues for decades," WATCH director James Swartz told Yahoo! Shine. "The 10 toys aren't meant to be a list of the only hazardous toys on the market, but representative of particular hazards. It's a reminder that all toys on the shelves are not safe." On the list, which can be found at toysafety.org, are:

A wooden Twist n' Sort toy for toddlers
Power Rangers Samurai Mega Blade sword
Fold & Go miniature portable trampoline
Pulling Animal Duck
Schylling toy school bus
Z-Curve Bow
Stepper "Low

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Teri Buford O'Shea was just 19, homeless and hitchhiking her way through San Francisco, when she joined Jim Jones and his People's Temple.

"I had come from a very violent household and going back home was not an option," she remembers. "When I was hitchhiking up from San Francisco, toward Redwood valley, I got picked up by a man. I was starving, I hadn't slept for a couple of days -- I had been sleeping in San Francisco bus station -- and he picked me up told me he know a place where I could get food and shelter and all that. He said it was a Utopian community, where everyone treated each other as equally as possible and worked each according to their ability and each according to their need."

"I went and, sure enough, I had a place to sleep," she told Yahoo! Shine. "I slept for two days. Then I got introduced to the church."

She stayed for seven years, living and working in San Francisco and at the Jonestown compound in northwestern Guyana. She left in 1978, just three weeks before

Read More »from Jonestown Survivor Teri Buford O'Shea Talks About the Massacre and Her Escape from the People's Temple