Blog Posts by Erin Flaherty, Shine staff

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Nerd Louis may have finally gotten his moment in The Moon Walk with hot cheerleader Betty Childs in Revenge of the Nerds, but rich geeky billionaires like 58-year old Richard Branson Virgin Galactic boss Richard Branson plans to outdo couples (and nerds) everywhere by being the first man to marry a couple in space. According to The Daily Mail:

"The couple who have booked in for a honeymoon on the £100,000-a-ticket maiden flight are Virgin Galactic adviser George Whitesides and his new wife, Loretta Hidalgo."

Oh let's see, with the dollar being what it's worth these days that's about $200,000. Recession? What recession!?

"In January, Branson unveiled a model of SpaceShipTwo, the vehicle he promises will turn space tourism into reality. It is designed to hitch a lift on an aircraft to 50,000ft before blasting into the outer atmosphere."

Not sure exactly how a space wedding goes down--I mean, do you have to wear an astronaut sauit?--but a Virgin spokesman said:

"Customers will have

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In the spirit of Earth Day, Jessica over in Healthy Living sent me a link about whether or not latex condoms are biodegradable. The short answer is "yeah, sorta," but in actuality, it takes a very, very long time for them to decompose, and only under the right conditions. But Jess' ping triggered a strange trip down memory lane. In fact, I can attest to the fact that while absolutely necessary for ensuring safe sex, condoms are not so very environmentally friendly after all. Why? Because I'll never forget the year there was a condom living on my fire escape.

See, my stereotypically small Manhattan apartment shared a fire escape with my neighbor, and I guess he must've been feeling particularly frisky one night and tossed the thing out the window. But the thing is, it got stuck in the rail. And I could not bring myself to remove it.

I suppose I could've left an anonymous note, or perhaps used a stick or gloves to pick it up and dispose of it, but the truth was, it lived out there,

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For decades, men have complained about women conveniently getting a "headache" when he's uh, in the mood for love, but a recent study by Relate, a relationship institute, found that, "for half of the couples who attended counseling, the problem involved the man - most commonly lack of desire or erectile dysfunction."

In a feature The Telegraph recently ran regarding loss of the male libido, psychosexual therapist Nina Bryant stated that this news was increasingly becoming the norm: "When I started in this field it was rare for a man to report a lack of interest in sex,' she says. 'Now, it makes about a third of my case-load."

Now, I think we've all been there. Why, even Guy Ritchie goes limp on Madonna now and then. Still, any woman who has ever had her partner turn her down (oooh, especially on a night where you go out of your way to wear some ridiculous lingerie), knows that sexual rejection can be a particularly devastating kind of painful, probably all tied up in our complicated

Readers had so many things to say when it came to our discussion of the impact the war has on relationships. In this edition of our series-intended to shed light on some of the ways Iraq personally affects American lives-we decided to highlight some of the best posts and comments. For past posts, see "Love in the time of Iraq," "Stop-Loss," and "Interview with a marriage counselor.":

Being an Army wife has its ups and downs. The up part is never having to worry about health care or vaccines for your children or yourself. Never having to worry about where you will live because they do provide housing. Never having to worry about where your next paycheck will come from. Even though most do not even make minimum wage. Never having to worry about being safe. You live on a post where people are protecting your freedom and will always help those in need. And now for the down side. Not knowing if your spouse who has been sent to war will come home safe and sound. Not knowing where your next

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I spent the weekend watching Season One of "The Tudors," and besides it basically epitomizing everything I'd ever want in a show and more (history (albeit, slightly less accurate made for TV history)), court intrigue, religious scandal, tempestuous affairs and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, oh my!), it's also really, really sexy. Like, almost comically sexy. For example, in the first episode, King Henry has sex with two different women within the first 15 minutes of the show! Jeez. And it's not even a porn. I'm sooo beyond jealous of people with cable that are getting to watch Season Two. How is it so far!?!?!

I've always been a little obsessed with the tales of Henry VIII's court, and especially Anne Boleyn (played by gorgeous newcomer Natalie Dormer in the show). In reality, Henry wasn't what us ladies would refer to as a "nice guy": Of his six wives, he divorced (sorry, make that "annulled") two, beheaded two more (including Anne, a woman who once inspired him to reform the church,

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Millions tuned in to watch actress/playwright Tricia Walsh-Smith air out her dirty laundry in a You Tube revenge video aimed at her ex-husband. Some people had a "you go girl" kind of attitude when it came to Tricia's complaints that their pre-nup and divorce was ruining her life, but I have to say, she doesn't really paint a pretty picture. (Although, her video has inspired a series of pretty funny spoofs.) Much like Heather Mills, she manages to make herself come across as creepy, possibly psychotic and definitely not classy.

Awhile back we talked about Wikipedia-founder Jimmy Wales, who allegedly broke up with his girlfriend, Rachel Marsden, via a Wiki entry. Naturally, she retaliated by Ebay-ing his clothes.

I guess in the age of reality TV, publicly shaming your ex seems like the right thing to do, um, at the time anyway. But before you're inspired to take similar measures, remember the old saying about revenge being a dish best served cold. Watch the video, judge for yourself,

Did you know the word "compatible" registers as one of the most oft-searched words on search engines ever? Obviously, this means there are a lot of people out there plagued by the question of whether or not they are "meant to be" with someone or not, and as someone who has dated men who I had no business being with, I know that compatibility can definitely make or break a relationship. I decided to test and rate three of the most popular compatibility tests online (based on search engine promotion) to see which one actually made sense, and which was a total waste of space. Here, the results of this highly scientific experiment:

This one from Naruto Fever got off to a very promising start because it asked ridiculously specific questions (like, 10 q's about what kind of hairdo you prefer on a guy (I chose, 'Erm, weird")), however, the results were super disappointing:

"Your results are in! You love shining teeth and bobbed hair and you think his bum looks real sexy in those tight

Image courtesy of Coco de Mer
Think environmentally friendly products are all granola and Birkenstocks? The green revolution now, inevitably, extends to your love life. Of course, the most green product you can buy is no product at all, but if you're dead set on going out and buying random sex toys, please, for the love of the planet, make sure they're ecologically sound.

I'm a big fan of Coco de Mer, one of my favorite sexy shops in New York City. This paddle is just $35, and ethically made from a sustainable wood source by a fair trade project in India. Treehugger has a helpful list of actionable ways to greenify sex, such as which condoms to use, groovy bamboo bed sheets, eco-undies and more. For the truly devout, Dame has suggestions on how to throw an environmentally friendly wedding, as in recycled invitations and hemp bridal gowns.

Wanna go um, deeper? The F--kForForest.com (FFF) project has raised nearly $100,000 for rain forest protection through the sale of paid memberships by eco-aware folks to watch