The first time Miriam Lipton had breast cancer, her thick locks fell out two weeks after starting chemotherapy. The second time breast cancer struck, Lipton gave her scalp a deep chill and kept much of her hair — making her fight for survival seem a bit easier.

Hair loss is one of chemotherapy's most despised side effects, not because of vanity but because it fuels stigma, revealing to the world an illness that many would rather keep private.

"I didn't necessarily want to walk around the grocery store answering questions about my cancer," recalled Lipton, 45, of San Francisco. "If you look OK on the outside, it can help you feel, 'OK, this is manageable, I can get through this.'"

Now U.S. researchers are about to put an experimental hair-preserving treatment to a rigorous test: To see if strapping on a cap so cold it numbs the scalp during chemo, like Lipton did, really works well enough to be used widely in this country, as it is in Europe and Canada.
Near-freezing temperatures are supposed to reduce blood flow in the scalp, making it harder for cancer-fighting drugs to reach and harm hair follicles. But while several types of cold caps are sold around the world, the Food and Drug Administration hasn't approved their use in the U.S.

Scalping cooling is an idea that's been around for decades, but it never caught on here in part because of a concern: Could the cold prevent chemotherapy from reaching any stray cancer cells lurking in the scalp?

"Do they work and are they safe? Those are the two big holes. We just don't know," said American Cancer Society spokeswoman Kimberly Stump-Sutliff, an oncology nurse who said studies abroad haven't settled those questions. "We need to know."

To Dr. Hope Rugo of the University of California, San Francisco, the impact of hair loss has been overlooked, even belittled, by health providers. She's had patients delay crucial treatment to avoid it, and others whose businesses suffered when clients saw they were sick and shied away.

The “coolest museum you’ll never see” has a new piece de resistance – the gun found next to the body of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan when Navy SEALs killed him in a midnight raid.

The AK-47 is a recent addition to a collection that’s among the toughest tickets in the country for museumgoers. Tucked into various hallways at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., the museum displays the gadgets, artifacts and trophies of 70 years of spycraft, from World War II through the War on Terror.  Closed to the public, it had only been visited by employees and invited guests until NBC News recently became the first news organization allowed to bring in video cameras.
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The Russian-made assault rifle, identified on a simple brass plaque as “Osama bin Laden’s AK-47,” shares a glass case with an al Qaeda training manual found in Afghanistan soon after 9/11.

"This is the rifle that was recovered from the third floor of the Abbottabad compound by the assault team," said curator Toni Hiley. "Because of its proximity to (bin Laden) there on the third floor in the compound, our analyst determined it to be his.  It's a Russian AK with counterfeit Chinese markings."

Neither Hiley nor the agency will say how the AK-47 got to the museum, other than that the agency director at the time of the operation, Leon Panetta, "asked that it come into the museum collection," said Hiley. But one source told NBC News that it came from the "dark side" of the agency, the operations staff that worked with the SEALs on the May 2011 raid.


CIA museum curator Toni Hiley holds an "insectothopter" created by the CIA's Office of Research and Development during the 1970s and intended to gather intelligence unobtrusively. Designed to look like a dragonfly, the insectothopter's tiny gas-powered engine moved its wings up and down. While flight tests were impressive, it proved difficult to control when any wind was present.

The agency also will not comment on the specifics of how the weapon was recovered or whether it was loaded when retrieved.

"I wasn't there," said Hiley. "So I can't confirm or deny exactly where the weapon was.  I just know that I have it in my museum and I'm happy to have it."

In the movie "Zero Dark Thirty," which was written in consultation with military and intelligence sources, a member of the assault team is shown grabbing the weapon from a shelf above bin Laden's bed in his third-floor bedroom moments after the al Qaeda leader’s death.

Hiley said the weapon is in good working condition, but that the origin of the Chinese markings is a mystery. She said it’s not the weapon seen at Osama’s side in many propaganda videos.

The CIA’s private museum, which was started in the early 1990s, fills three corridors in two buildings at the CIA campus just outside Washington. Agency officials call it “the coolest museum you’ll never see.”

Google on Wednesday announced Chromecast, a $35 HDMI stick that streams web video to an HDTV. Chromecast will stream TV shows, movies and music, and anything in a Chrome browser, to your TV. It works with smartphones, tablets and PCs.

The surprising product announcement is the latest advancement in tech companies' growing battle over the future of TV. Set-top boxes like Apple TV and Roku already allow customers to stream web video on their televisions, and Amazon has been rumored to be launching a set-top box this fall.

The Google website notes that Chromecast works with Netflix, YouTube, Google Play and the Chrome browser. Pandora will be coming soon, Google said.

Each app that supports Chromecast will have a "Cast" button that sends content from your device to your TV. The Chrome browser will also be equipped with a "Cast" button that streams whatever is in your browser to your TV -- an option for things like HBO Go, Gizmodo notes.

Chromecast is Google's answer to Apple TV, the $99 set-top box from Apple that also streams content from digital devices to TV screens.

But unlike Apple TV, which outside of its own apps only streams content from Apple devices and computers, Chromecast allows streaming from most devices: Android tablets and smartphones, iPads, iPhones, Macs, PCs and the Chromebook Pixel all work with Chromecast. And, Chromecast is a third of the price of Apple TV.

Benedict Evans, a consultant at Enders Analysis in London, said that Chromecast threatens companies like Roku that build streaming devices.

"Third-party streaming boxes are dead," Evans said. "Why would you spend $100 to get basically the same thing when you can spend $35 to get something you can control with your phone."

Evans noted that one downside to Chromecast is that most of the content viewed on it comes from the cloud -- so if you use your iPhone to record a video of your child or your dog, you can't stream it to Chromecast without uploading it first to YouTube.

"The size of a man's penis does not matter for who he is as a person or in a relationship," he told Gothamist after his victory Saturday at Kings County Bar.

Gilronan told the website he wanted to "put on a good show for the audience. Looks like my efforts were successful."

Visit Gothamist for more on Gilronan and his wee-ner.

According to the New York Post, a crowd of about 100 watched New York City native Gilronan match members with five other contestants, including a 55-year-old from Minnesota who called himself "Rip van Dinkle."

The competition included a swimwear round of "skimpy mesh mankinis" and a Q&A, the Post wrote.

Gilronan was proclaimed the champ and the recipient of $200 as someone sang Elton John's "Tiny Dancer."

“I’m hoping this will look brave to guys who have self-esteem issues and make them feel better about themselves,” he said, according to the tabloid.

In a previous Huffington Post report, one of the event's promoters dubbed the contest as "a pageant for confident people with a sense of humor."

Gilronan's triumph perhaps illustrates that size does indeed matter -- at least, when it comes to self-esteem.

 The last hospitalized Boston Marathon bombing victim hobbled gingerly on crutches and stopped to hug nurses, therapists and two rescuers before he got into a waiting car that took him home Wednesday, exactly 100 days after the attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260.

Marc Fucarile lost his right leg above the knee, broke his spine, as well as bones in his left leg and foot, ruptured both eardrums and suffered severe burns and shrapnel wounds when the second of two bombs exploded near him and a group of friends who were at the finish line to watch another friend complete the run. Two other people in his group also lost right legs.

Fucarile's relatives, doctors and therapists joined two of his rescuers at the lobby of Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital to say farewell as he headed home for the first time since the April 15 bombings. He has made 16 trips to the operating room for a total of 49 surgical procedures.

"Today marks the 100th day of me in the hospital, not being able to spend the night with my boy or fiancee. You know, it's been tough," he said as his 5-year-old son, Gavin, stood next to him and giggled happily.

Fucarile, a 34-year-old roofer who wore a "Boston Wicked Strong" T-shirt, said going home does not mean the end of an arduous and painful medical journey.

"I, like many other survivors, still have more surgeries and other procedures to go through," he said. "I'll be needing prosthesis and adaptation for the rest of my life, like many others from that day."

His fiancee, Jennifer Regan, joked that the family got a front-load washer and dryer so he can do laundry from his wheelchair.

"No, it means the world, just the simple things that . you sort of brush aside, maybe, in your everyday life – like family dinners, you know what I mean," she said. "Gavin hasn't had his dad home for dinner in 100 days ... yeah, I'm excited, it's really good."

Fucarile was unable to bathe, dress himself, walk or even transfer himself to a wheelchair when he arrived at the rehabilitation hospital eight weeks ago. He is now able to do that, including walking on crutches.

Taylor Swift made sure to wish her BFF Selena Gomez a happy birthday on July 22, posting a photo of the pair at what looks to be her Rhode Island home.

The pals posed as mermaids -- well, technically they replicated a mermaid statue -- while sitting on the ledge of Swift's yard in Watch Hill.

“I met [Swift] when she was 18. This is before [Swift's 2008 album] Fearless came out, and it was absolutely incredible to see someone so successful and so humble," Gomez told People earlier this year. "I think she has been a big part of me kind of staying the way I am too."

A representative for Beyonce categorically denied a new report in The Hollywood Reporter about supposed delays to the singer's fifth studio album on Wednesday, telling The Huffington Post that an official release date had never been set.

Beyonce is recording music in the studio while completing her Mrs. Carter World Tour, the representative said in a phone call to HuffPost. A press rollout will accompany any official release date (and, if need be, any official delays).

The 31-year-old singer has been working on the forthcoming album for some time now, her first since she released "4" in 2011. While she has performed new music in the form of ad campaigns with H&M and Pepsi, she has yet to debut an official single off of the record.

In a story published Wednesday, THR cited anonymous sources who claimed Beyonce's album is officially months late, and that Columbia Records, Beyonce's label, had hoped to release the project in the spring.

According to the magazine, Beyonce rejected 50 songs from a bevvy of A-list songwriters. It's not uncommon for tens, if not hundreds, of finished songs to be presented to vocalists at Beyonce, Rihanna and Katy Perry levels of fame. Diplo recently revealed that he submitted two tracks for the album, which he believes were ultimately scrapped.

The pacing of Beyonce's album recalls that of an artist with similar clout. In a recent interview with Rap Radar's Elliott Wilson, Beyonce's husband Jay Z spoke about the freedom that comes with being able to set one's own production timeline. "I'm not on a schedule," Jay said. "So, it will start, and then it will stop. For this album, for ['Magna Carta Holy Grail'], I had 'Oceans' recorded, with lyrics on it and everything for over a year... I can't say I officially started then, but I had pieces of music and ideas." Jay also said he and Timbaland completed major work on "Magna Carta Holy Grail" in three week's time.

A pair of teenagers from Oklahoma might seem like your typical young couple, but their love story is unlike many others. The transgender couple actually transitioned together.

Just two years ago, Arin Andrews and Katie Hill hadn't transitioned yet. The two had struggled with their identities throughout childhood; Hill had struggled with bullying. Then one day they met at a trans support group, after each had begun the transitioning process, and they fell in love. Today, Andrews, 17, and Hill, 19, are content.

“I hated my breasts, I always felt like they didn’t belong. Now I finally feel comfortable in my own body," Andrews explained to British tabloid The Sun about surgically removing his breasts last month. “Now when I’m out in a public pool or lifting weights, no one raises an eyebrow. They just think I’m a guy. ... I can wear a tank top, which I couldn’t before, and I can go swimming shirtless. I can just be a regular guy. And I’m so lucky to have my family and Katie to rely on.”

“Being transgender myself, I understand Arin better than anybody else -- how good he feels and how complete he feels," Hill added, per The Sun.

The brunette teen from Bixby did not always feel so complete. In a segment for "Inside Edition" last year, she said that as a young child she was “[b]ullied and abused. Ridiculed. Ashamed and embarrassed."

She was depressed for several years before she realized she was transgender, Tulsa World previously reported. Around her 15th birthday she told her mother and asked for help becoming Katie.

"Knowing what Katie went through for eight-plus years -- there's nothing worse than watching your child suffer," Hill's mom, Jazzlyn, told Tulsa World. "It's still my baby -- male or female, she's still my child. And I don't have to kneel at her grave."

Lady Gaga has been lying low recently. She quit Twitter and even stepped out in casual, plain clothes.

But one tweet from photographers Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin has put her back in our line of vision ... and we can't look away. In support of her highly anticipated album "ARTPOP," the star posed nude for V Magazine. Without much makeup or theatrical costumes, and wearing just a hand bra, the mother of little monsters looks nearly flawless au naturel.

A new report released Thursday by Bowling Green State University's National Center for Marriage and Family Research found that the U.S. marriage rate is 31.1, or 31 marriages per 1,000 unmarried women. That means for every 1,000 unmarried women in the U.S., 31 of those previously single women tied the knot in the last year. For comparison, in 1920, the national marriage rate was 92.3.

Meanwhile, the average age at women's first marriage is 27 years old, its highest point in over a century.

In 2011, the Pew Research Center found that 51 percent of Americans were married, compared to 72 percent in 1960. However, rates of cohabiting couples are rising -- according to private research company Demographic Intelligence, less than half a million couples were cohabiting in 1960, compared to 7.5 million in 2010.

Earlier this year, Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum offered a reason for declining marriage rates: cultural "rules" now compel couples to wait to marry until they have reached upper-class status. Pew researcher D'Vera Cohn told HuffPost in 2011 that the decline could be due to more acceptable living arrangements, including unmarried cohabitation.