Taylor Swift’s Alleged Old Myspace Comments Are Pretty Great

PLEASE BE REAL.

Before Taylor Swift was like THE Taylor Swift, she was just a normal-ish teen on Myspace.

This was apparently Taylor’s first Myspace picture…

… and here’s an early selfie reminiscent of most digital camera selfies* of the mid-2000s…

… and here’s just a really random emo pic that screams Myspace but is actually from an appearance on CSI.

BUT… what’s even better than any of her Myspace pictures are the comments she used to leave on her friends’ comment sections or walls or whatever they were called on Myspace.
They’re awesome.

The following were supposedly screencapped a few years ago before Myspace went to complete shit. They can’t be 100% verified so I guess you have to take these with a grain of salt

The comments are mostly random inside jokes like this one where she says “haha fuck sewing machines.”

This New Species Of Australian Spider Will Scare The Pants Off You

Australia and spiders go together sort of like peanut butter and jelly. Which is why it was no surprise to anyone that yet another new species of creepy-crawly was discovered in Queensland earlier this month. This particular species of spider...well, let's just say you're not even safe from it while you're taking a swim.

Meet Dolomedes briangreenei, or just Brian for short. Here he easily strides out onto water looking for a meal.

Officials named the spider Brian after World Science Festival cofounder Professor Brian Greene.

Brian can glide along on the surface of the water. The bugger can even remain submerged for up to an hour as it hunts for insects, fish, and cane toads.

While their bite isn't dangerous to humans, they're certainly an unsettling sight to come across when you're taking a dip in a river or stream.

Yeah, no thanks. As if I needed another reason to stay away from any body of water in Australia. Nature, you scary.

There's A Supervolcano In Yellowstone And When It Erupts, This Is What Will Happen

With today's technological advances, it seems almost impossible to not know when a volcano will erupt...

But when it comes to the one in the northwestern corner of Wyoming, that's exactly the case.

The supervolcano located in Yellowstone National Park known as the Yellowstone Caldera has been waiting to erupt for the past few thousand years...and there's no telling when it will blow.

Scientists are constantly studying the volcano because if it erupts, it could be disastrous for millions of people. Here's what could happen if the caldera were to blow in the near future.

There would most likely be an earthquake, or multiple quakes, before an eruption.

In order for magma and lava to reach the surface, many rocks need to be broken. If the supervolcano were to erupt, we'd have warning signs in the weeks and months leading up to the explosion.

The caldera would crumble.

A sinkhole would then form once the caldera has been sufficiently dismantled. Once the superheated gasses and lava start flowing from the mouth, ash would start spewing. This would cause a major change in temperatures across the country, possibly even the world.

Ash would cover a good portion, if not all of the country.

Most of middle America would have the skies covered in a thick layer of ash, while coastal cities would experience thinner coverage. This would have a massive effect on climate, crop growth, and soils. It would devastate food supplies and pollute the Mississippi River, damaging our water supplies as well.

Thankfully though, scientists estimate that the odds of this happening in Yellowstone are only about 1 in 730,000.

While most scientists agree that a supervolcano eruption in Yellowstone National Park isn't going to happen any time soon, it's still unbelievable to consider the damage and destruction it could have on our country. It's important to prepare and be aware of the warning signs.

Just North Of Area 51 Is Another Bizarre Site Known As Area 6

If you're even vaguely familiar with Area 51, you know that there's something weird happening in Nevada. But what if I told you that there was an even weirder location just 12 miles north of Area 51?

It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but several Google Earth photographs have sparked a pretty serious debate online. Oh, and its existence was recently confirmed by the government.

Below is an aerial photograph of the location known as Area 6.

Area 6 sits within the Nevada National Security Site, formerly known as the Nevada Proving Grounds. In the 1940s and 1950s, several underground nuclear detonations were performed here. The site is currently under the control of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

After the photographs of Area 6 became public, the NNSA repeatedly deflected requests for an explanation.

This week, however, the NNSA finally caved and told the media that Area 6 is used by the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

"They come here to test their own sensors. We do a wide variety of work for others…supporting people with sensor development activities. It evolved from the nuclear testing program. We had to have very good sensors to collect data in a split second before they were obliterated," said Darwin Morgan, a spokesman for the NNSA.

Other uncovered documentation about Area 6 describes the site as being a testing ground for drones.

Okay, so it doesn't look like a place that houses alien bodies, which Area 51 very well could be. That being said, who knows if the NNSA is actually telling the truth?

Whether or not this explanation is accurate, at least the government decided to say something this time! If only someone in the government now would go on the record about Area 51...

Are you pre-diabetic? 46% of California adults are, UCLA study finds

For decades, more and more Californians have put on weight and fallen sick with diabetes, prompting warnings that the disease was spiraling out of control.

Now experts have data showing just how bleak the situation is.

Researchers from UCLA determined that 55% of California adults have either diabetes or pre-diabetes, a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be considered diabetic, according to a study published Thursday.

Experts already knew that about 9% of people in the state have diabetes. But previous estimates had put the rate of pre-diabetes at about 33%, lower than the 46% calculated by UCLA researchers.

"Our genes and our environment are kind of on a collision course," said Dr. Francine Kaufman, the former head of the American Diabetes Assn., who was not involved with the research. "It's not stopping."

Rates of diabetes have increased more than 175% nationally since 1980, according to federal data. It's now the seventh-leading cause of death in California.

The UCLA researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to create a model that predicts pre-diabetes, based on factors such as race, height and weight. That model was then applied to data from the California Health Interview Survey, determining that 13 million adults in the state have either pre-diabetes or undiagnosed diabetes.

Up to 70% of those with pre-diabetes develop diabetes in their lifetime.

"This study is a barometer that's telling us that the storm is coming," said Harold Goldstein, head of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, a nonprofit that supports public health initiatives and funded the study.

Already, 2.5 million Californians have been diagnosed with diabetes, which can cause kidney failure, amputation and premature death. More than 100 diabetic Californians lose a leg, foot or toe every week because of the disease, according to state data.

But experts say there's hope of curbing the disease's spread. The vast majority of diabetes cases in California — upward of 90% — are Type 2, which is preventable. People can stave off developing diabetes by adopting a healthier diet and increasing physical activity, experts say.

The difficulty is that most people don't take action until it's too late.

"One of the biggest problems with pre-diabetes is that most people don't know they have it," said Dr. Susan Babey, the paper's lead researcher and a co-director of the Chronic Disease Program at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

About 90% of people with pre-diabetes are unaware of their condition, so most don't get any treatment, said Matt Petersen, managing director of medical information for the American Diabetes Assn. There are no symptoms of pre-diabetes, which can be detected only through blood tests.

"If you do intervene, you have a successful outcome," he said. "We just have to have people know they're at risk and get screened."

An often-cited clinical research study found that people with pre-diabetes who were overweight and improved their diet and worked out reduced their diabetes risk 58%. Those who instead took a medicine to treat diabetes reduced their risk only 31%.

The UCLA researchers found that pre-diabetes in California increases with age, from 33% of adults ages 18 to 39 having the condition to 60% in those 55 to 69.

They also found racial and ethnic variation in the rates. About 42% of Asian adults have pre-diabetes, 44% of Latino adults, 48% of white adults, 50% of African American adults and 55% of Pacific Islander adults.

Goldstein says he thinks the high rates of pre-diabetes, especially among younger generations, arise from sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy eating habits. "They've grown up in a world that's designed for the disease," he said.

He wants to increase access to healthy, fresh foods, and reduce junk food advertising. On Tuesday, California state legislators proposed a "health impact fee," which would tax sugar-sweetened beverages by 2 cents an ounce. Bob Achermann, executive director of the California Beverage Assn., on Wednesday called the measure the latest in a series of "misguided tax proposals on sugar-sweetened beverages," and urged leaders to "find real solutions to obesity and diabetes."

In 2014, Berkeley voters approved the nation's first citywide tax on sodas and other sugary beverages.

Kaufman, a pediatrician and endocrinologist, agreed that soda and fast food are a problem.

When she began her medical training at Children's Hospital Los Angeles in 1975, she almost never had young patients with Type 2 diabetes. Now she sees children with the disease regularly.

She said the state needs to target the causes of the obesity and diabetes epidemics with the same vigor it did tobacco usage several decades ago. The work that's been done in California so far hasn't done much to stop the increase in diabetes cases, she said.

"It just isn't enough to make any kind of dent," she said.