I can only assume you've heard about this already: it's gone wildly viral in the USA, and I assume elsewhere in the world. But it's a lovely example of an auditory illusion, and as regular readers know I like to collect such things (like this one and this one).
What do you hear?! Yanny or Laurel pic.twitter.com/jvHhCbMc8I
— Cloe Feldman (@CloeCouture) May 15, 2018
Kottke has a useful roundup of the best scientific coverage of why some people hear "laurel" and others hear "yanny". Linguist Rachel Gutman also provides a detailed analysis for The Atlantic. For the record though, all I can hear is "laurel", and that indeed is what the actor said for a recording for Vocabulary.com.
That's all from us for this week. Next week I'll be at the ROpenSci unconference in Seattle, but we'll back with more on the blog on Monday. In the meantime have a great weekend!