Your eyes can be tricked.

It's kind of a Public Service Announcement of sorts, I suppose, but I'm not sure about the wisdom of this recent optical illusion painted on the road of a British Columbia street. It is supposed to "drive" home the message about watching out for kids on the street. I appreciate the intent, but am not so sure it won't actually cause accidents rather than prevent them.



On the other hand I kind of love this PSA - for a number of reasons I suppose. First off is the soft spot I have in my heart for Jason Bateman, given his involvement in this.  Second, I love the demonstration of how things have changed. Make that about cellphone usage nowadays and it might fit - but the idea of lugging around a huge boombox, well, no more.

 

Public service announcements don't always work. I'm not sure if Jason Bateman's plea to politeness had a noticeable effect on boombox noise pollution in the late 80s, but certainly various campaigns have resulted in shifts in public awareness. For example, one of the most famous - the Back to Sleep campaign - resulted in a 50% reduction in the number of infants suffering from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. On the other hand, public service campaigns geared towards changing the public's conceptions of how often oil should be changed in a car haven't resulted in any changes, and some, like the funny but unfair (and rightly critiqued) breastfeeding PSAs might have actually led to a backlash.

Which public service announcement do you remember from your childhood?  Did they work? Why or why not?

A world opens

Here, a baby, hearing his mother's voice for the first time after a cochlear implant is activated, smiles in response. It will make your heart explode is very cute.

Infant Perception

Here, a short video on prenatal and early influences on taste preferences in young children.

Perception.

Science, meet art.  Your eyes can be tricked. 

Comic Relief

You know how babies explore everything with their mouths?





Well, we forget how sensitive our mouths really are.  There's a lot that can be identified with the numerous and sensitive cells of the tongue. Like, for instance, Star Wars action figures.