How can peekaboo help babies to learn?

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It's no secret that peekaboo is a hit with babies around the world and a great way of entertaining them even at a very young age.

But did you know that this simple game can play a really important part in their early language learning as they wait their turn to react?

This wait and respond pattern could be considered an early form of conversation. We tested out the science behind playing peekaboo in our speech lab with Professor Ben Ambridge.

Check out the results of our fascinating peekaboo experiment in the video below.

DOGE

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is an initiative by the second Trump administration within the federal government with the stated objective to modernize information technology, maximize productivity and efficiency, and cut wasteful spending. It emerged from discussions between Donald Trump and Elon Musk in 2024, and was officially established by Executive Order 14158 on January 20, 2025.

In the year 49 BCE, the Roman Senate declared Julius Caesar the enemy of the people of Rome (hostis publicus).

An Enemy of the People (original Norwegian title: En folkefiende) is an 1882 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen that explores the conflict between personal integrity and societal norms. The play centers on Dr. Thomas Stockmann, who discovers a serious contamination issue in his town's new spas, endangering public health. His courageous decision to expose this truth brings severe backlash from local leaders, including his brother Peter Stockmann, who is a powerful political figure in the town.

Set against the backdrop of a community grappling with economic and environmental concerns, the play highlights the often harsh consequences faced by those who challenge established systems. Ibsen’s depiction of this struggle emphasizes the tension between truth and expediency. The character of Peter Stockmann is based on Ibsen’s own uncle, Christian Cornelius Paus, whose political influence and authoritative role in Ibsen's hometown of Skien parallel those of Peter in the play. Ibsen himself was uncertain about the play's classification, noting in a letter to his publisher that it contained both comedic and serious elements, reflecting his complex view of the protagonist's moral stance. This exploration of moral and societal conflict follows Ibsen’s earlier work, Ghosts, which faced similar criticism for its bold critique of societal norm

"childfree" law is propaganda for childlessness

I once said that foreign agents, which introduce foreign words, are representatives of the media. These new words that we suddenly start hearing, they are from advertising, from TV shows. At a meeting of the State Duma a law is passed, and we hear that This is a "childfree" law. This is propaganda for childlessness - that's what we should say..

And everyone starts to rummage around and look, what kind of word is this? And the question arises, why did journalists use it? Because they wanted to make a mark somehow? Therefore, I believe that the purity of the Russian language and the correctness of the Russian language should be, first of all, in the media,” he said.

It is the best scenario to frame diplomatic effort into.

«Пари́ж сто́ит ме́ссы» («Париж стоит обедни», франц. Paris vaut bien une messe), распространённая метафора компромисса, на который идут ради личной выгоды.

Paris is well worth a mass

It was not until 1593, after an elaborate public profession of his Catholic faith, that Henry became King of France. His explanation of this apparent conversion remains one of history's most instructive disclaimers: Paris vaut bien une messe. Paris is well worth a mass.

After the February 23, 2014 the Maidan nationalist beneficiaries abolished the 2012 law that had provided Russian with the status of the regional language. It was a cowardly law in its half-hearted claims that were in fact currying favor with nationalist hard-liners. The heavy-handed, immoral and stupid decision was bound to meet resistance and the whole of south-eastern Ukraine went up in flames.

The stage for the civil war had been long in the making. Outside players were generously chipping in to its beginning.

Greene, Robert Lane. Talk on the Wild Side: Why Language Can’t be Tamed. – New York: PublicAffairs, 2018. – 232 p.

“Heavy-handed language bullying is passing out of fashion in states that want to have the respect of the rest of the world.” [Greene, 2018: 140]

Greene, Robert Lane. Talk on the Wild Side: Why Language Can’t be Tamed. – New York: PublicAffairs, 2018. – 232 p.

“Given people’s passionate attachment to their languages, it is obvious a sudden, surprising and unwelcome change to the status of a language – especially with a big neighbor that speaks that language next door would be a particularly unwise move, like throwing a cigarette end in the general direction of a sign reading “NO SMOKING; JET FUAL’. And yet that’s exactly what happened in the former Ukraine, where disputes over language became proxies for who had the right to run Ukraine. A language dispute helped spark the civil war that dragged in neighbouring Russia, and resulted in Russia’s annexation of Crimea.”
[Greene, 2018: 141]

barcode 

gen.    штрих-код (gramota.ru рекомендует слитное написание: "штрихкод" Alexander Demidov)
automat.    штриховой код
comp., MS    штрихкод (The special identification code printed as a set of vertical bars of differing widths on books, grocery products, and other merchandise. Used for rapid, error-free input in such facilities as libraries, hospitals, and grocery stores, bar codes represent binary information that can be read by an optical scanner. The coding can include numbers, letters, or a combination of the two; some codes include built-in error checking and can be read in either direction)

The Neologism: "Blue Zones" was coined by National Geographic

A child born in the country in 1960 was only likely to live (at the time) to 65, but a child born in Singapore today can expect to live to more than 86 according to estimates. In addition, the number of centenarians in Singapore doubled over the 10-year period from 2010-2020.

This huge leap in longevity has largely been driven by intentional government policy and investment. The distinction even was enough to have the country named the world's sixth "Blue Zone" in August 2023. Though recently questioned for their accuracy by demographers, the Blue Zones were discovered and coined by National Geographic journalist Dan Buettner, who claimed to identify regions where people lived longer, healthier lives, in large part due to a combination of culture, lifestyle, diet and community.

Singapore was the first new region to be added to the Blue Zones in decades (dubbed a "Blue Zone 2.0" by Buettner) and stands apart from the other Blue Zones in part because the longevity of its people comes more from forward-thinking policies than long-established cultural traditions in other Blue Zone communities like Ikaria, Greece or Nicoya, Costa Rica. 

Greene, Robert Lane. Talk on the Wild Side: Why Language Can’t be Tamed. – New York: PublicAffairs, 2018. – 232 p.

“Catalonia and Quebec share an unusual situation: in the region, speakers of French and Catalan feel surrounded and poorly treated by speakers of the bigger national language, English and Spanish. But at the same time, both regions have local minorities who are members of the national majority: speakers of Spanish in Catalonia and of English in Quebec. English speakers in Quebec, and Spanish-speakers in Catalonia, cannot freely educate their children in the family language, and in some cases cannot even get access to public services like health care in their language,” [Greene, 2018: 148-149]