Lemondrop

Most of us have at least a few "friends" who we've never met in real life -- the one who friended us after seeing the comment we left on a mutual friend's photo; the daughter of our mom's co-worker who e-mailed us for career advice ages ago and who still sometimes forwards "Arrested Development" links.

Turns out this type of friendship is becoming more common. A new TNS Global survey of over 27,000 people found that folks are increasingly connecting with others online for platonic purposes.

Participants from China said that of all their relationships, about 80 percent are with online-only friends (people they've never met), while U.K. respondents said about 25 percent of their friends are online-only. Americans are on the low end of the spectrum, saying that online-only acquaintances make up 20 percent of their pals.

What's more surprising is that 61 percent have met their Web friends face-to-face. A whopping 76 percent of Germans have admitted to crossing over from cyberspace to the real world. France, Sweden, Denmark and Norway round out the top five populations most likely to meet their buddies in real life. (56 percent of Americans have met someone they first met online.)

Click here to read how people befriend their online friends -- and why others don't trust them.

Ah, the price of beauty. The creams, lotions, tonics. The lengthy series of injections. Um ... wait, what?

It seems that women in the U.K. have turned to black market hormones to give themselves that kissed-by-the-sun, distinctly un-British, tanned look. All you have to do is take a syringe (shudder), fill it with the unregulated drug you bought off the Internet (cringe!) and inject it into your body for at least 10 days (GAH!).

The drug, Melanotan, works by mimicking the hormone that causes skin darkening and facilitates tanning. It was originally created for a skin cancer trial based on the idea that women with naturally darker skin are less prone to the disease.

It's not approved for personal use here or in England, and known side effects include increased libido (well, hey!) and elevated blood pressure (never mind).

This little routine has actually become so popular that the British government has issued a nationwide alert warning people that maaaaaaybe it's not such a good idea to inject yourself with a strange liquid you got from illegalhormones4U.com. (Of course, the sun can have some ugly consequences too.)

Whatever the next beauty craze is, it will have to be pretty ridiculous to top this one. Maybe something to do with horse urine and a wind tunnel? Just a guess.

Hungry for some sugary sweet, slightly creepy fun? Check out The Imaginary World's incredible archive of cereal boxes from the '50s, '60s and '70s.

Cheerios, Corn Flakes, Grape Nuts and all the other classics are there, but we're more interested in their lesser-known, long-extinct brethren -- Sir Grapefellow, Orange Kombos, Moon Stones and the like.

At left, one of our favorites: the unfortunately named Fruity Freakies. Mouth-watering as it sounds, it's not too hard to see why this one didn't stand the test of time.

Click here for more of our favorite retro cereal finds

The difference between boy and girl kisses
Surprise: Guys kiss for sex, ladies kiss for relationships (Lime Life)

Frisky's 2009 Astroguide
Will you be getting lucky this year? (The Frisky)

A guy's take on women's magazines
Girly mags don't quite get it right (Divine Caroline)
Tell the ex's new girl the truth about him? (Dear Sugar)

Futurists predict you'll be getting lucky this year (Nerve)

The ultimate dry spell: 15 years of accidental celibacy (Salon)

When's the right time to tell him you're a virgin? (College Candy)

Study shows virginity pledges don't work (YourTango)

For a guy's brain, is too much cleavage even possible? (Daily Bedpost)

Tell us: Come across something particularly amazing on the Internet? Have your own blog that should be featured here? Send suggestions to tips@lemondrop.com.

Sure, those chic handbags and sky-high heels make you feel oh so supermodel(ish) ... but they're also mini death traps in the making. Read on for the most painful byproducts of looking pretty. Ah, the things we do for fashion ...

High Heelitis
Achieving statuesque status comes with a fair share of risks, as this Washington Post article helpfully/terrifyingly demonstrates. Those to-die-for pumps put added pressure on the joints (especially the knees), throw your body's alignment out of whack, tighten your calf muscles and Achilles tendons, and can result in a slew of unsavory side effects like bunions, hammertoes, Morton's neuroma, joint pain, sprained ankles and a heel-strap-induced "pump bump" called the Haglund's deformity.

And let's not forget that tragic episode of "Sex and the City" in which Kristen Johnson tripped on her stilettos and took a swan dive out the window. Talk about a fashion victim.

Click here to find out about four more fatalistic fashions.

Bret Michaels introduced us to a slew of trashlicious girls on seasons one and two of "Rock of Love", some of whom went on to star in the spin-off, "Rock of Love: Charm School" with Sharon Osbourne. "Charm School" challenged the girls to delouse and class up, rock and roll style, to win a bunch of money.

On last night's reunion episode, Sharon and one of the show's worst (best?) offenders, Megan, got into it after Megan said Osbourne was only famous for managing her "brain dead rock star husband," Ozzy.

Naturally, Sharon then dumped a glass of juice on the bikini-clad reality show regular and let her fists fly. Watch the catfight below.


Megan filed a police report after the incident, but so far no charges have been made against Osbourne.

Season three -- on a tour bus! -- debuted last night, giving us our first reason to live of 2009!

Give It a Whirl (v.): The act of dating outside your comfort zone, just to get the taste of your last guy out of your mouth.

After a bad experience with your "usual," you work hard to purposely open your mind to different types of guys. So you accept a date with a guy you normally wouldn't. Do you usually go for the bad-boy type? Maybe you'll accept a date with a Mathlete, just to try it out. Or, if you only date jocks, you might go out with an art major.

"This is good! Look at me break the pattern," you tell yourself. But the plan backfires, because dating "a different type of guy" usually just means "any old guy."

Spending time with a guy you choose haphazardly is almost always a bust -- you have nothing in common and, worse yet, no interest. After that, the guy you were trying to get over in the first place has never sounded more appealing.

After giving it a whirl, almost every girl goes back to dating the kind of guy she knows she should avoid.

Tell us! Did you ever date a Mr. Wrong because you were trying to Give It a Whirl?

The Dude Dictionary is a collection of males and behaviors lovingly catalogued by Shmitten Kitten creator Anna Goldfarb. Got a dictionary entry you'd like to add? Let us know!

There's nothing better than having a cute guy cuddled under your sheets on a cold winter night. Sure, watching someone sleep is a little creepy (think Lara Flynn Boyle in "Wayne's World" or Kate Hudson in the gem that is "How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days"), but these pics of men at rest make us melt.

Don't say we never did anything for you.