Weird News

Dolphins use 'baby talk' to communicate with young

WASHINGTON (AP): You know instantly when someone is speaking to an infant or small child, and it turns out that dolphin mothers also use a kind of high-pitched baby talk.

A study published on Monday found that female bottlenose dolphins change their tone when addressing their calves. Researchers recorded the signature whistles of 19 mother dolphins in Florida when accompanied by their young offspring, and when swimming alone or with other adults. The dolphin signature whistle is a unique and important signal -- akin to calling out their own name.

"They use these whistles to keep track of each other. They're periodically saying, 'I'm here, I'm here'," said study co-author Laela Sayigh, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution marine biologist in Massachusetts. When directing the signal to their calves, the mother's whistle pitch is higher and her pitch range is greater than usual, according to the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Obtaining this data was no simple feat. Over more than three decades, scientists placed special microphones multiple times on the same wild dolphin mothers in Florida's Sarasota Bay to record their signature whistles.

Fan throws mom's ashes on stage during show

Recording artiste Pink was left stunned after a fan threw her mum's ashes on stage in a pouch.

The Never Gonna Not Dance Again singer, 42, also received a number of other gifts from her loyal fans at her two American Express Presents BST Hyde Park shows in London on the weekend, including teddy bears, flowers and artwork.

But she was left startled when she was handed the pouch of cremated remains and asked the member of the audience to clarify that it was their mum's remains -- before saying: "I don't know how to feel about that."

After walking back up to the stage from the central walkway, Pink added: "I have to say that was a first."

The singer also helped a fan get engaged amid performing a piano cover of Bob Dylan's Make You Feel My Love after checking if someone had "passed out or proposed".

Pink turned couples' therapist throughout her set as she reflected on her experience with her husband Carey Hart, with whom she wrote the song Please Forgive Me about when they were on the brink of divorce.

The singer, who tied the knot with the 47-year-old former motocross competitor in 2006, said the key to a lasting marriage is learning the art of an "authentic apology", and also joked about who, out of her spouse and herself, deserved a medal.