m31andy | Shooting fish in a barrel

Ah, back to looking at

newscientist and we have two absolute gems today.

Firstly, contender for the "Pigs Might Fly" award, is the news that Microsoft's "Clippy" gave software assistants a bad name, but a new helper developed by the US military hopes to be less annoying.. Riiiiight.

And secondly, front-runner for the "Ask a Silly Question" award is the revelation that children up to five years old may colour trees blue or grass red because their memories can't "bind" together the colour and shape of an object.

Now, is it me or does that imply that us 'rational adults' see that grass is green because we've been taught that grass is green? Huh? Quite a spectacular piece of brainwashing there, then. (Which is grey, as everyone knows. Unless you've got a brain haemorrhage. Then it's Baileys and tomato juice coloured…

*g*