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Google have added a closed caption button to some YouTube videos that amazingly automatically listens to the words being said in the video then tries to work them out and print them as subtitles on the screen. The feature is still in BETA and for a good reason. The translation for our trick below is not entirely accurate. Our cautionary tale about oral hygiene and demonic possession is now about “four oh hi jean I didn’t want to because it should.”

You could use this feature to write your very own abstract poetry. The opening of “This is a tale unlike all the rest about a young boy whose tongue was demonically possessed” becomes “this isn’t a lot like a little less about a young boy whose tongue was still on a clean cassettes.”

As for “OJ Simpson slapping away”… I wish we did put that in the poem now.

In Google’s defence, maybe the bots don’t like the Scottish accent?

To access the captions you currently need to view the video on YouTube and turn on the BETA function from the bottom right of the player.

I love optical illusions and as magicians we have a real fascination for visual perception tests. One aspect of these visual phenomena is called pareidolia. This is the experience of seeing something in a visual stimulus that’s totally random.

You have probably experienced this yourself at some point when looking at clouds and believing you can see images of animals or faces in them. This is the basis for the Rorschach inkblot test.

In the above beautiful example it may, at first glance, look like there is a bearded face in profile with closed eyes beside the man in this Victorian photograph. Actually, it is just the way that the light and shade is falling on the toddler that the man is holding.

Jesus is a recurring theme in pictures like these. He often makes an appearance in dirty crockery or on burnt food.

One couple even hit the headlines after seeing a crucified Jesus whilst having an ultrasound of their unborn baby.

If people are seeing the son of God you can bet they are also seeing the enemy of the Lord too…

The above portrait of Elizabeth II appeared on the 1954 Canadian dollar bill. Many people thought they saw the face of the devil in the Queen’s hair and some believe that this was the reason why the bill was cancelled.

People pay good money for such collectibles on Ebay and when reports come in of such religious figures appearing in the everyday world, people will go to great lengths to see them. In India, March 2008, reports came in of a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary in the sky and it led to 50 people blinding themselves by staring at the sun.

I’ll leave you with one more Jesus image, this time seen in the derrière of a dog… you may wish you were blind after seeing it though!

In honour of the 3d magic spectacular that we shall be appearing in, on Channel4 on Monday, I thought it would be appropriate to show you some of my favourite optical illusions that play with our sense of three dimensional reality.

First, one of my favourite videos from Marco Tempest, watch out for Marco in the 3d special too!

This drawing by artist Istvan Orosz really bends our perception of depth and space, especially the placement of the subjects’ feet on the stairs.

Inspired by tricks like the one above, this seemingly impossible arrangement of dice from amazing artist/sculptor Shigeo Fukuda confuses us as to what is in front and what is behind.

Fukuda’s sculpture of MC Escher’s “Belvedere” is also breathtaking.

For those of you not familiar with the original drawing click here.

Finally, this optical principal is very clever and shows us that our brain can be easily tricked into assuming the wrong thing.

You can make your own version of this dragon by printing out the template here.