MailOnline: Incredible moment baby shocks his parents by saying 'hello' at just SEVEN WEEKS oldAccording to the MailOnline, a baby was filmed saying hello to his parents (video below). While undeniably cute, this isn’t a genius child, mastering language at 7 weeks. It is, however, an example of pareidolia. Pareidolia is the effect of seeing patterns in random things, and is a fascinating quirk of the brain. Well known examples are seeing a face on the moon or hearing words in a song played backwards.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITyxSN1MggsPareidolia is thought to be an evolutionary adaptation to help us spot enemies or predators in low visibility conditions. The advantages to our ancestors of being able to quickly identify potential danger (whether real or not) are obvious. In a world where this is no longer important though, pareidolia has resulted in us thinking we see a face on Mars, or hearing a baby say hello amid its random gurgling.It’s obvious to anyone watching the video that this is just a baby, making baby sounds. With lots of news outlets reporting this (including the Daily Mail, The Mirror, CBS and ABC), apparently that’s enough to make it into the tabloids. Although, considering that the video has so many views, it isn't very surprising! <Edit: Even The Guardian has this story now! It appears that cute babies are enough to make good papers too.>
Best (funniest) tabloid "health" story this week - 05/03/15
Our selected piece of the week is this ground-breaking report from the Daily Mail (we're not going to link to the story from here. There's no point in giving the Daily Mail any additional hits. Google will direct you to the story if you really want to see it):
Daily Mail Online Health Section: How your star sign could dictate your dieting success
This hard-hitting piece reveals that Leos should avoid sauces. Poor Leos. Luckily, light marinades are ok. We are also informed that Geminis should avoid fast-food, which I take to mean that it is ok for everyone else. Except for Cancerians, who have to avoid unhealthy food they ate in childhood. If they didn't eat fast food in their youth however, it seems to be ok.Of course, this is astrology, and hence nonsense. The idea that the apparent positions of stars and planets at the moment of you birth can have a lasting effect on your personality is nothing short of ridiculous. As such, this blog should be some light-hearted hilarity, but unfortunately there is a depressingly relevant news story associated with it.British MP David Tredinnick, suggested this week that astrology be used by the NHS to treat patients. What's worse is that Tredinnick sits on both the Health Select Committee and the Science and Technology Select Committee. He supports homeopathy and radionics (the use of blood or hair to heal people remotely), and in 2009 told Parliament that blood does not clot under a full moon. And, I'll repeat, he sits on both the Health Select Committee and the Science and Technology Select Committee. You have to despair if this is the level of science literacy required for positions like these.Instead of despairing though, I'm going to as much ice-cream as possible. After all, as an Aries that's perfectly ok for me to do!
