The star does not produce its own mass, by the increased influx of new material ,outside its own mass, which increases it in mass, thereby effecting it with stimuli which was not originally of its own mass. It became form outside its own mass. You can not increases your mass, unless you take on other mass from outside your self, (so put down the Twinkie) lol, just as proto-stars do in their formation, the gases and other material which it is pulling in on its self is in fact causing an effect which would not occur without the outer stimuli, of the other matter. It ain’t growing by its self [/b]
Hmmmmmmmmmmm....

...Technically, the man's got a point on that one. hehe.

Hmm...but then you have to bring in the question of energies, and whether or not they "qualify" as "acceptable" outside stimulus for the experiement....

I don't know how detailed the clarification of "outside stimulus" is in the text books, but I'd suppose there are a few inanimate things that "respond to outside stimulus" if you want to take the phrase so literally. Plastic burns, cardboard corrodes over time, metal rusts after prolonged exposure to the elements..ooh...sound vibrates glass. Various forms of pressure bends glass. All of these inanimate things, and many more, "respond to outside stimuli." But if this were the actual benchmark for the textbook definition of that "sign of life," this would be taking the phrase Very literally, if you ask me. But considering how you look at the question, it would work.