Blog Posts by Sarah B. Weir, Yahoo! blogger

"Nora’s writing was about the world witnessed by her,” Tom Hanks said on Friday at the Women in the World Summit 2013. The actor, who is currently starring in Ephron’s posthumously produced Broadway play, “Lucky Guy,” delivered a loving tribute to his friend and colleague who died of cancer on June 26, 2012.

Hanks explained that to Ephron--who was trained as a journalist--“everything was copy,” meaning that she used every bit of her experience to imbue her fictional work with tender, funny, and fierce reality. Many of her favorite haunts around Manhattan, such as the shop where she bought bagels on the weekends, ended up as locations in her films.

Hanks described her rich career and her uncanny intuition. “She covered the Beatles and ‘thought they were adorable,’” he said. “She invested in Starbucks when there were only 100 Starbucks.”

Ephron was a woman who preferred great conversation at a sit-down dinner to cocktail party “hubbub.” She insisted people be able to speak well but also Read More »from Tom Hanks Celebrates the Life of Nora Ephron

Speaking on a panel on "Latina Power" at the Women in the World Summit 2013, actress and education activist Eva Longoria took on xenophobia in the United States. "They are scared we're going to have a Taco Bell on every corner," she quipped. More seriously, she pointed out that by 2050, the population of Latinos in the United States will have doubled. "If you look at the numbers, that’s our future workforce. If we don’t educate them, we are in trouble.” Longoria also pointed out that the United States is the only country that "promotes monolingualism." She encouraged teaching children "French…Russian…Chinese—we need to be worldly." Longoria also discussed her non-profit foundation which aims to combat the high dropout rates for Latina teens by giving them tools to get into, and stay in, college.

Related:

Women in the World Summit 2013: Watch it live!

Hillary Clinton: Empowering women is a 'core imperative'

Angelina Jolie's passionate tribute to Malala Yousafzai

Meryl Streep pays Read More »from Eva Longoria Takes On Xenophobia

The crowd at Thursday night's Women in the World 2013 Summit was rapt as they listened to actress Meryl Streep pay tribute to friend and hero Inez McCormack, who succumbed to cancer just 10 weeks ago. McCormack was a peace activist, trade union organizer,  and advocate for "the invisibles" --the impoverished women--of Northern Ireland. Streep played the role of McCormack in "Seven," a play based on her life at the first Women in the World Summit in 2010. Streep described her as "a tall woman and a towering figure."

Women in the World Summit 2013: Watch it live!

Angelina Jolie's passionate tribute to Malala YousafzaiRead More »from Meryl Streep pays tribute to friend and hero Inez McCormack

On Thursday night at the Women in the World Summit 2013, actress, director, and human rights activist Angelina Jolie pledged $200,000 to The Malala Fund. The organization was established by 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai, an education activist and the youngest person ever nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Jolie's donation will help educate young girls in Pakistan.  The teenager, who is recovering from an assassination attempt by the Taliban, accepted the donation via video feed at the event.

“Today I’m going to announce the happiest moment of my life and that is the first grant of the Malala fund," said Yousafzai. "We are going to educate 40 girls, and I want all of you to support the Malala fund and let us turn 40 girls into 40 million girls."

Jolie's donation will be set aside for girls, ages five to 12, who are currently forced into domestic work rather than attending school.

Before announcing her pledge to the teenager's organization, Jolie gave a passionate speech about

Read More »from Angelina Jolie pledges to send Pakistani girls to school

Last night at the Women in the World Summit 2013, actress, director, and human rights activist Angelina Jolie delivered a passionate tribute to Malala Yousafzai who the young Pakistani activist who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban. Yousafzai inspired people the world over to recognize the oppression of of women and girls in Pakistan and other regions. "Here's what they accomplished," Jolie said of Malala's attackers. "They shot her point-blank range in the head – and made her stronger. The brutal attempt to silence her voice made it stronger." Jolie also read passages from Malala's diary, and at the end of the evening pledged $200,000 thousand to the Malala Fund which the 15 year old established to support the education of girls. Via a video shown at the event, Malala said, "Announcing the first grant of the Malala Fund is the happiest moment in my life."

Women in the World Summit 2013: Watch it Live!

Read More »from Angelina Jolie's passionate tribute to Malala Yousafzai

Black used to be the exclusive color of funerals, but today's chic brides are daring to wear it as they walk down the aisle. "There has been a growing interest in black wedding dresses," Tova Marc, head designer for Wedding Dress Fantasy, which specializes in non-traditional colors, tells Shine. "They are tired of the same old white and ivory." The trend began in 2011 when the Vera Wang, the high priestess of bridal wear sent 15 inky looks down the runway. Marc also says Lady Gaga's edgy look has had a big impact. Mother Monster herself is rumored to have tapped Versace to design a black and gold gown for her eventual nuptials. But, black isn't for everyone. Speaking to Harper's Bazaar, fashionable Sarah Jessica Parker (who wore black to wed Matthew Broderick in 1997) said, "I would white it up, I'd wear a beautiful, proper wedding dress, like I should have worn on that day." -Sarah B. Weir, Yahoo! Shine

Read More »from Black Wedding Dresses: Ghoulish or Glamorous?

The perfect hard-boiled egg

Ahh spring, the season of daffodils and rubbery eggs with yolks the color of a mud puddle. Good luck getting the kids to eat them.

Also on Yahoo: Eggstra, Eggstra! Here's How and Where to Buy Eggs

When it comes to making hard-boiled eggs for the Seder plate or Easter basket, most people slide a dozen into boiling water, set the timer for 20 minutes or so, and walk away to let them jiggle around in the roiling depths of a metal pasta pot.

That's an excellent recipe for an unpalatable egg.

The tricky thing about cooking eggs is you are dealing with two different layers that cook unevenly: the white and the yolk. High, sustained heat toughens the proteins contained in the white. Overcooking on high also triggers the chemical reaction that causes that unappetizing greenish-grey film to appear around the yolk. Cooking for a shorter amount of time will allow the white to remain tender but yields a goopy yolk.

Furthermore, the feisty boiling water molecules that agitate eggs

Read More »from Hard-Boiled Eggs: Why You Are Cooking Them Wrong

Dedicated to spurring global change through sharing stories of courage, survival, and triumph, this year's Women in the World Summit is taking place in New York City on April 4th and 5th. The impressive lineup of speakers and performers includes Hillary Clinton, Meryl Streep, Dr. Hawa Abdi, Oprah Winfrey, and many more inspiring women and men from around the world. Topics range from fighting the scourge of human trafficking to inspiring girls to become world leaders to celebrating female pioneers in the tech sector. Tom Hanks is presenting a tribute to Nora Ephron.

Yahoo! Shine is livestreaming video from the conference on our special Women in the World events page and also presenting highlights.

The Women in the World Summit was launched by Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast, in 2010 and is sponsored by The Daily Beast and Newsweek. "Pushing up against the glass ceiling is a luxury," Brown said in her opening speech on Thursday. "Try being a woman in Congo or

Read More »from Women in the World Summit 2013