yahoo shine post swap

Tired of blackened kernels instead of your crispy snack? There's an app for that. We're happy to present this post from our friends at Yahoo! Shine.

Ever since microwave popcorn became popular in the early 1980s, fans of the whole-grain snack have faced a familiar problem: if you don't stop the microwave at exactly the right moment, you end up with either too many tooth-shattering unpopped kernels or a bag of scorched popcorn and a smoke-filled kitchen.

Also on Shine: 25 Ways to Flavor Popcorn Without Using Salt

"Our consumer services team found that this is the most frequent difficulty that consumers have," Craig Tokusato, vice president of marketing for Diamond Foods and the person in charge of its Pop Secret popcorn division, told Yahoo! Shine in a phone interview. "It's a highly frequent and annoying problem."

Read on to learn how to pop the perfect bag of popcorn every time.

The perfect cats always find their way home, right? Check out this story of love lost and found from our partners at Yahoo Shine!

A California woman has finally found her beloved cat 13 years after she thought she lost him, thanks to a tiny microchip implanted under his skin.

Also on Shine: Should You Microchip Your Pet?

Jackie Sharp fell in love with her cat, Dallas, the very first time she saw him in the Petaluma, CA, animal shelter. It was a few days before Christmas 1997, and the little ball of black fluff was only about 2 months old.

Read on to learn more about this touching story.

We're happy to present this article from our friends at Yahoo Shine:

Just a month-and-a-half after sustaining a serious shrapnel wound and fearing she'd lost her mother, Celeste, in the horrific Boston Marathon bombings, Massachusetts teen Sydney Corcoran was crowned queen of her high school prom on Tuesday night.

"When I was in the hospital, I didn't think this was going to be possible," she told local WCVB News. "Then I got to rehab and I was up and doing things. I felt like I could do it. So it was a goal. This and graduation — definitely goals."

Still using crutches, the raven-haired 18-year old looked stunning in a full-length, strapless white gown. "I'm so happy to be back," she said when she arrived at the prom venue, Lowell Memorial Auditorium, with her date. "It's just really good to see everyone."

Read more about Sydney's fairy-tale ending after the jump.

We're happy to present this article from our partner site Yahoo! Shine:

We've all heard of sleepwalking. And there are plenty of people who talk in their sleep, or even eat in their sleep. But having sex in your sleep and not remembering a thing about it afterward?

Also on Shine: 7 Tips to Encourage Better Sleep

Earlier this week, Andrew Machin, 40, was acquitted of raping a 21-year-old three years ago after the court determined that he had been asleep when he assaulted her. Though he agreed that the victim had been drinking and had not consented to having sex, he also argued that he had a 25-year history of sleep disorders, including having sex with his long-time partner while asleep, and he was "disgusted" when he woke up and realized what had happened.

Read on to learn more about this rare condition.

We're happy to present this article from our partner site Yahoo! Shine:

Ever feel that your relationship suffers from a unique brand of frustration, tension, distance, or any number of other troubling feelings? The reality is, there is struggle in every romance. "If you are experiencing disillusionment, well, join the human race," relationship expert Helen LaKelly Hunt tells Yahoo! Shine. LaKelly Hunt and her husband, Harville Hendrix, PhD, are cocreators of Imago Relationship Therapy and have been helping couples for more than 30 years.

More on Yahoo: Is This the World's Most Epic Marriage Proposal?

Hendrix, author of the bestselling book Getting the Love You Want, started examining the question, "why do couples fight" in the late 1970s. After studying and working with thousands of couples, he and LaKelly Hunt have found that there are 10 common bad habits couples engage in that make relationships miserable and can lead to a breakup or divorce.

Avoid a ruined relationship by steering clear of these 10 bad habits.

We're happy to present this article from our partner site Yahoo! Shine:

We love the crazy things kids come up with, and a kid's point of view on pop culture can't be beat. After taking a look at promo pictures for a few popular TV shows and movies, my 8-year-old offered to weigh in on what she thought they were really all about. (You may look at the picture of the Kardashian sisters and think "Oh, season premiere," but a second grader sees something totally different!) We decided to contrast her point of view with those from the 7-year-old son of The Stir's Linda Sharps. Here's what the kids had to say:

About Keeping Up With the Kardashians:

7-year-old boy: "This is a show about three girls who go out and while they're shopping a battle breaks out and they have to use their shopping carts as weapons! But their hair gets in the way. They should have ponytails, that would help. The good thing is they're wearing black like ninjas."

8-year-old girl: "This is about some girls that get into a lot of trouble. They do a lot of bad decisions. They look sort of mean. Are they singing the 'Single Ladies' song? And the ones on the ends both look like Selena Gomez if she was mean."

Hear what the "expert panel" has to say about Twilight, Teen Mom, and more after the break!

We are delighted to present this article from our partner site Yahoo! Shine:

When she appears in public in a particular dress, retailers scramble to keep the frock in stock (and designers work overtime to create knockoffs). But the Kate Middleton effect goes far beyond the fashion world — so much so that the royal family's foundation has moved to stop others from capitalizing on her name recognition.

According to the Telegraph, St. James's Palace confirms that it has applied to the UK's Intellectual Property Office to trademark her name, along with Prince William's and Prince Harry's.

Related: The Kate Middleton Nose Job Is Now a Thing

Originally set up by Princes William and Harry in September 2009, the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry received a record number of donations after Prince William and Kate Middleton announced their engagement. (The foundation's name was changed to include the duchess's title after the royal wedding in April 2011).

Find out more about the royal family's latest philanthropic efforts after the jump.

We're elated to present this post from our partner site Yahoo! Shine:

When 5-year-old Ethan Clos showed up at school with a short, spiky mohawk last week, his fellow kindergarteners thought it was cool. But administrators at Reid Primary and Middle School in Springfield, Ohio, deemed the edgy cut too disruptive, and ordered him home until he adopted a tamer style.

His mom, Keshia Castle, said that school officials suspended her son on Wednesday. After he begged her for the hairstyle, she finally let him get it over spring break.

RELATED: Utah Teen Kicked Out of Class for Dyeing Her Hair… Auburn?

"They seen his hair like it was," she told WHIO-TV on Friday. "All the little kids were going over and feeling on it and everything."

Read on to learn how Ethan's new rocker style violated the school's dress and grooming policies.

We're pumped to share this article from our partner site Yahoo! Shine!

Coffee lovers and green tea enthusiasts, unite! A new study out of Japan shows that people who drink both beverages every day have a lower risk of stroke than those who drink just one or the other (or neither).

Researchers have been touting the antioxidant properties of green tea for years, and recent studies show that your daily coffee fix boosts more than just your energy levels. But putting the two drinks together — not in the same cup, of course — may help you reap the health benefits of both.

Researchers looked at the coffee and tea consumption habits of almost 82,369 Japanese adults over 13 years and found that people who had a cup of coffee every day were 20 percent less likely to have a stroke (compared to those who didn't drink coffee at all). But that's not to say that coffee is better for you than tea. In fact, the study noted that people who drank four or more cups of green tea a day were also about 20 percent less likely to have a stroke. Since the two drinks help prevent strokes in different ways, drinking both can lower your risk of stroke more than just drinking one or the other, the study authors explained.

Read on to learn more about the health benefits of both coffee and tea.

We're happy to present this article from our partner site Yahoo! Shine:

Close on the heels of a national debate about women and work sparked by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and her new book, a new survey shows that more moms would prefer to work outside of the home full time.

A new Pew Research survey found changing preferences among working moms. While 20 percent of moms with kids under age 18 said that they'd that rather work full time in 2007, that number jumped to 32 percent last year.

The shift may have more to do with economic conditions than professional ambitions, the Associated Press reported.

"Women aren't necessarily evolving toward some belief or comfort level with work," study co-author Kim Parker, an associate director at the Pew Research center, told the Associated Press. "They are also reacting to outside forces and in this case, it is the economy."

Read on to learn a few reasons why the percentage of full-time working mothers has increased.