Taylor Swift is at the top of her game. Almost 20 years since her first album was released, she has shown no sign of stopping. Arguably, she also has one of the largest fanbases in the world, although there are many other artist fanbases with the same level of dedication and intensity as the Swiftie community, but hers seems to be ubiquitous. It cuts through generational lines and has no particular demographic leanings, although she has a lot of female fans. So, why is Taylor Swift so popular?

Brian L. Donovan, a sociology professor at the University of Kansas, teaches a class called "The Sociology of Taylor Swift" wherein he breaks down the reasons behind her popularity and how that has impacted culture. One of the main things that draw people into Taylor Swift is her songwriting. Most of her songs are drawn from her personal experiences and relationships, and they are conveyed in a way that makes them feel relatable on an almost universal scale.

Dr. Gayle Stever suggests that part of Swift's success can be attributed to the motivations that drive fans to become devoted to a particular artist, band, or cultural icon. These include talent, physical attractiveness, and role model qualities, which she says Swift embodies. However, despite her fame and success, it's difficult to avoid the pitfalls of having such a dedicated fanbase. Some may feel entitled, others may consider themselves 'more of a fan' in a hierarchical way than others, which can be exhausting to deal with.

Still, the love of fans for Swift continues to grow and has remained strong throughout her career, and there are no signs of it ceasing any time soon.

(Image credit: Raphael Lovaski/Unsplash)

Cats may seem like the most stoic of all house pets, or maybe they just appear that way because we have this notion that cats tend to be independent and standoffish. They don't show as much emotion readily as dogs let's say. It takes a while before a cat comes around and opens up to a human, but they do show affection, just in a different way. Brittany Florkiewicz had also thought that cats were aloof until she started studying them up close and observing their facial expressions.

Florkiewicz, a comparative and evolutionary psychologist and professor at Lyon College, and her colleague Lauren Scott, a medical student at the University of Kansas, recently published a study where they observed 53 adult domestic shorthair cats at CatCafe Lounge in Los Angeles, and found that cats actually make 276 different facial expressions as a means of communicating hostility or affection. This suggests that cats are social creatures as well, it's just that the way they express it can be more subtle than what we may be used to.

In order to tally these facial expressions, the researchers looked at different movements of the ears, lips, jaw, whiskers, and pupils using Facial Action Coding Systems designed for cats. Overall, there were 26 unique facial movements which combined into 276 distinct expressions, compared to 44 unique facial movements in humans, and 27 in dogs. Still, it's more than what many people believe cats can do.

(Image credit: hang niu/Unsplash)

In an age when the average attention span of a typical human being is 8.25 seconds, a study has revealed that we actually pay better attention today than 30 years ago. It's a bit surprising but the rationale behind this result is the fact that the average IQ of populations have increased from one generation to the next, a phenomenon described as the Flynn effect. This conclusion came from an analysis of data from 179 studies which involved 21,000 people from 32 countries. The studies were conducted between 1990 and 2021 wherein participants had taken a d2 Test of Attention.

Looking through the data, the researchers led by Denise Andrzejewsky of the University of Vienna, saw that the performance of adults had increased in that span of time while children's results remained about the same. However, they did notice that children made more mistakes despite being able to complete the test quicker. But, when looking at results from German-speaking countries, children made fewer mistakes, but adults' results were roughly the same throughout the years. -via Boing Boing

(Image credit: Nicolás Flor/Unsplash)

Animals probably have some of the best reasons to be grumpy. They have been driven out of their natural habitats with some ecosystems being disrupted or completely destroyed; other animals have been captured, poached, sold, and left almost at the brink of extinction; and many animals have been raised to become food for humans. With all of these things happening for animals, who knows what they might be thinking or what they might want to say in response?

Well, artist beastflaps knows exactly what. So, he drew 100 animals with a caption below them saying some witty lines and unleashing their fury. Some of them are simply snippy comments.

Others are quite smart with their retorts.

And there are a few that are just downright threats.

Beastflaps wrote and published the book which you can check on Amazon, and you may see some examples of the funny collection on Sad and Useless.

(Images credit: Beastflaps)

A team of researchers from the University of Surrey have developed a new material that enables it to act like human tissue, thus making it easier to scan an object due to its flexibility. Not only will it improve the accuracy of detection, but it will also make it safer when putting patients under the X-ray, for example, when trying to scan for tumors or administering radiotherapy.

Common materials used for X-ray detectors are silicon or germanium, but their rigidity limits the scope of what the devices can do, so alternatives called organic semiconductors made up of hydrogen and carbon were considered as more flexible means for detection, but they cannot capture detailed X-ray images as the traditional ones. However, the new device, developed by Dr. Prabodhi Nanayakkara and her team, are made with low quantities of high atomic number elements added to an organic semiconductor. With it, live dosimetry becomes possible, and makes the process safer and easier.

(Image credit: University of Surrey)

It was a Friday in October 1937, in Blackrock, County Louth. Julia Clarke had been seen kissing her boyfriend in public. Three witnesses reported them to the police and they were brought to court. At the time, Ireland had a law, Section 18 of the 1935 Criminal Law Amendment Act, that had an ambiguous phrasing which made it open to interpretation. In essence, it stated that if anybody was caught committing acts that might offend or cause a scandal, they will be considered guilty.

The judge, District Justice Goff, who presided their case, inquired of the state of the defendants at the time of their sighting. According to witnesses, the boy was a bit inebriated at the time, but respectable in his manner. And so, the judge let the boy go provided that he donate £2 to charity and paid the court fees. Julia Clarke, on the other hand, was said to not have had any drink and that she had no past criminal record.

Given the circumstances, the boy's case was dismissed and he was proclaimed innocent, but Clarke was declared guilty of public indecency, and sentenced to one month's imprisonment. Since Clarke lived in Scotland and had only been on a holiday in Ireland, the sentence practically kept her banished from Ireland. Seemingly, the reason for Goff's sentence was to keep 'those kind of people' away from Ireland.

Later on, Julia Clarke was asked what she thought about the sentence, and the short clip above shows her just laughing it off.

(Video credit: British Pathé/Youtube)

No, it's not what it sounds like, it's not a horror film or a suspense-thriller. Nicolas Cage stars in a new film called Dream Scenario wherein he plays a middle-aged tenured professor who, by some weird circumstance, starts to appear in people's dreams. Not exactly Freddy Krueger, he just shows up all of a sudden and does nothing apparently? After appearing in several people's dreams, he goes viral and attracts a lot of attention. All of that goes on until halfway through the film when Cage's character actually starts doing something in people's dreams and takes a turn for the nightmarish.

The sudden switch slashes away all the fame and popularity he received before, and people start to cancel him. It's an interesting premise with some comedic charms to it, but it slightly falls off in the end as it fails to make a point. Still, it's a different side to Nicolas Cage that his fans might be thrilled to see.

(Video credit: A24/Youtube)

Los Angeles will soon be raining down two million fruit flies in the neighborhood of Leimert Park in an attempt to combat three cases of Mediterranean fruit flies detected in the area last month. Yes, just three specimens of the so-called medflies were enough to prompt such swift and slightly extreme measures. It's considered one of the most destructive agricultural pests in the world, threatening a variety of fruits and vegetables such as apples, pears, apricots, peaches, and citrus. So, how will letting loose a million other fruit flies solve the problem?

The key aspect of these millions of fruit flies is that they are sterile, with the idea that the existing medflies will mate with the sterile ones, fail to reproduce, and thus eliminating the whole issue once they die out in a few weeks. Will it work? Apparently it has before. It's a more organic means of preventing the mass destruction of crops, but apart from this operation, Los Angeles is also imposing quarantines on the flies as well as treating areas with organic insecticides. Check out the full story on Popular Mechanics.

(Image credit: Jari Segreto/Wikimedia Commons)

It would have been their 69th anniversary. But as Virginia and Tommy Stevens held hands as they lay next to each other on their hospital beds, Tommy passed away on September 8th, one day short of their anniversary. He was 91. Virginia would soon follow him after nine days, also at 91. It almost sounds like something from the movies (The Notebook anyone?), but this is real, and I don't think there's a more peaceful way to pass on than being beside the love of your life, with hands firmly clasped, holding onto the vow you made on your wedding day, "Til death do us part".

Their love story was quite a normal, typical one. They met in high school, fell in love, went to the same university, and got married in 1954. Tommy went to the army, and after being discharged, they had a son and a daughter. They built a business together, retired after 50 years, and spent their retirement years with their grandchildren at sporting events, school activities, and family vacations.

Tommy was later diagnosed with Alzheimer's and spent most of the time in the hospital. Virginia was also brought to the hospital after suffering from a fall which gave her six broken ribs, a spinal fracture, and a hip injury. There they spent most of their days until their last moments together.

(Image credit: Stevens Family)

When I was a kid, I watched a horror film about crocodiles running loose and attacking civilians. I couldn't really understand how terrifying that actually was, until I grew older and watched some shows that featured how vicious and ravenous crocodiles can be. I also learned from those shows how to fight back when you do find yourself ensnared by the jaws of the hungry reptilian beast.

A 60-something year old cattle producer, Colin Deveraux, must have thought that if he didn't fight back when he fell into the clutches of an adult crocodile, he would surely lose his life, and fought back he did. As he was about to do some fencing near the Finniss River, south of Darwin, Australia, he found himself being grabbed on the foot by a 3.2-meter (10 1/2 feet) saltwater crocodile. Colin struggled and tried to kick the croc in its belly. At the same time, he also tried biting the animal back, literally.

Fortunately, his teeth were able to poke the croc's eye and it let him go. He ran straight for his car, and for a moment, he thought that the croc would give chase and it did for about four meters, but then gave up. He has been receiving treatment at a hospital and might soon be able to walk again.

(Image credit: Thomas Couillard/Unsplash)

It may not look it but this little shotgun house has been standing for more than 100 years. Built in 1910, it's 388 sq. ft., large enough for a bedroom, a bathroom, and a 10-foot high ceiling. Located at 423 S. Orleans Ave., in Tampa, Florida, it has been designated as a historical site as it is one of the few houses that survived from the Dobyville neighborhood during the city's segregated era. It has been recently listed on Zillow and lists for $379,000 on the market.

Even though the house is small, it's cozy and has a very good location. Not far away, one will be able to walk to the Hyde Park Village shopping center as well as Bayshore Boulevard and downtown Tampa. Originally, it was sold in 2002 for $108,000 and then listed in 2014 for $199,000 but was then taken off, and became a rental space costing $1,300 a month. Now, it's once again back on the market and has received quite a lot of attention.

(Image credit: Harvey Petty)

Have you ever wondered how books get onto the New York Times bestsellers list? One would think that the books that sell the most are the ones that go on that list, or perhaps, books that have made an impact on a greater scale and thus, spurred people to buy them and read them. But one thing is for certain, bestsellers are made, they don't just happen. And this was something that Sy Montgomery, a 65-year-old freelance writer who had dreamed of having one of her books listed on that illustrious NYT bestsellers list, had discovered.

Much like the Oscars, there's a lot of promotions and marketing involved in order for books to get attention. Publishers would usually be the ones pushing to have certain books considered as a bestseller. And then, the Times would have to track the sales data for those books so that they can find out which will be the bestsellers. The secret however, lies in the network of shops and bookstores that the Times uses as reference. Nobody knows which bookstores will be tracked.

But there is a way to get around the system and increase one's chances of making it onto the list. Data scientists have looked into the patterns based on eight years of NYT bestsellers to gain insight on what is the recipe for success in making a book into a bestseller. Check it out on The Hustle.

(Image credit: Shiromani Kant/Unsplash)

I used to base whether I'm going to watch a film or not on reviews by other people online, specifically, those on review aggregator sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. However, I have learned that sometimes it can be a matter of taste, so I'll just watch whatever I feel like watching, paying no heed to other people's opinions. The consensus of a number of people might be that the film is amazing, but it might just be decent in my taste. Meanwhile, there might be films or shows that the majority of people, posting reviews and ratings on these sites, abhor, but then again, I might find it somewhat of a guilty pleasure.

Now, looking through the list of the worst movies of all time according to Rotten Tomatoes, I have only watched a couple of those movies, Left Behind (2014) which starred Nicolas Cage and A Thousand Words (2012) which starred Eddie Murphy. Though I wasn't particularly raving about them, I thought they were so-so, yet I didn't consider them to be particularly the worst. You may check out the rest of the list on BGR.

Instead, I found the films I Origins (2014) to be difficult to stomach, Darren Aronofsky's The Whale (2022) quite unsavory, although Brendan Fraser's acting was superb, and the horror film Hush (2016) poorly done despite the reality of such a situation being truly terrifying.

(Video credit: Rotten Tomatoes Trailers/Youtube)

We're excited to introduce you to THE OFFICIAL GAME OF THRONES COOKBOOK!

Preorder THE OFFICIAL GAME OF THRONES COOKBOOK by Chelsea Monroe-Casselat here: https://t.co/JSBX2HrqnE pic.twitter.com/LDkjPolT9H

— George RR Martin (@GRRMspeaking) November 1, 2023

Twelve years, eight seasons, and one prequel later, fans are still agonizing over when the much-awaited sixth installment of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series will be finished. Many have been haranguing the author online to finish the book which he had promised to complete by 2020. Then again, a pandemic had swept the whole world, and one might think that that would have given him enough time to sit at home and write, but the 75-year-old author has been quite busy, and perhaps, still ruminating about how the story must progress.

Nevertheless, he announced on X (formerly Twitter) that they will be releasing a new Game of Thrones book, but not the Winds of Winter. Instead, it will be an official GoT cookbook which will include recipes of the Dothraki. It was written by Chelsea Monroe-Casselat, with a foreword by Martin. It sounds like a troll, but George R.R. Martin seems to be as affected by people's hounding him over the Winds of Winter as anybody would, as evidenced by the meme he tweeted.

pic.twitter.com/JlNJbS4I6f

— George RR Martin (@GRRMspeaking) November 5, 2023

To be honest, he can take as much time as he needs to finish the book, but considering his advanced age, we do hope that he is able to finish the whole series which, if anybody would remember, still has one more installment, Dream of Spring. At least, for now, we know that he's working on it but no guarantees that it will come out anytime soon.

(Image credit: George R.R. Martin/X)

As a book lover, I place a certain value to the way a book is presented, printed, and packaged as a whole, not just the content inside them. Of course, the content is important as that is the main selling point of the book, although at times, the author is the reason why people buy certain books, and other times, the book cover's appeal piques the curiosity of readers, thus inducing them to buy the book.

In the early modern era, which spanned between the 1450s to the 1800s, saw a lot of books being printed in a certain fashion. There was more thought into how texts were printed as well as how the elements on a page were formatted. Nowadays, we won't generally see images in novels or non-fiction works, and oftentimes, those can only be seen either in textbooks, children's books, or graphic novels. Back then, since it was an explosion of information, writers wanted their readers to be immersed and experience something new from reading their books. And so, there are several books with drawings in them, as the examples shown by Res Obscura.

Nowadays, we prefer standard fonts, but early modern books had much more character and personality showing through the pages as different authors chose different typography and design throughout their books, and that's why many of them have a very distinct feel that defines the zeitgeist of that era. For more examples of the beautiful early modern books, Benjamin Breen of Res Obscura shares them in his article.

(Image credit: Natalia Y./Unsplash)