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A weather map from yesterday shows Godzilla eating Iowa while Mothra (or is it Rodan?) zooms in from the Pacific Northwest. We are all doomed! Link
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What you are looking at here is a cross-section of a blade of marram grass, which is used to stabilize coastal dunes. Fluorescent dye has been added to highlight the internal structures. Those internal structures look happy to see us! Read more about it at Beyond the Human Eye. Link -via Dark Roasted Blend
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See any resemblance between these two photos? You recognize Bigfoot on the right, of course. The picture on the left is a detail from a larger picture of an eruption of ionized gas from the surface of the sun. Dr. Phil Plait recognizes pareidolia when he sees it, leading one commenter to speculate that Bigfoot sightings increase in conjunction with solar activity. Read more about it at Bad Astronomy Blog. Link -Thanks, Adrienne!
(Solar image credit: Alan Friedman)
Some people see the Virgin Mary, some people see maps, others see skulls in everything. (Via AnOther Mag. Photo provenance unknown – if you know the originator, please let me know so we can credit).
If believers see faces of Jesus on toasts, what do pareidolia-prone cartographers see? Maps and maps everywhere, even on a dog’s nose! Here’s a neat post by Frank Jacobs of Strange Map about "accidental" cartography, based on his readers’ submissions:
“My dog has a map of the world on her nose. Sort of,” writes Mililani Smythe. But of course: there’s the American continent, right in the middle!
Need coffee to do its miraculous job every morning waking you up?
This Minor Miracle Mug has a special imprinted bottom that will give you an inspiring vision after you finish your morning coffee. How do you spell pareidolia? C-A-F-F-E-I-N-E!
Link | More fun Mugs (a surprisingly large category!)
Take a look at this photograph from the early 20th century. It has not been retouched, nor is it a double exposure. It looks like a big face has been plopped into the middle of it, an example of pareidolia {wiki}, the tendency for human brains to interpret patterns as meaningful, like seeing a face when there is no face. For an explanation of what this photo really is, see the post at Historic LOLs. Link
Update: Commenter MosselKots has images spelling out both ways of looking at this picture, in case that will help you see it. Link
One evening in 1971, a Spanish woman looked down at her cement floor and saw what appeared to be a face staring back at her. Thus started the strange event in history known as the Belmez Faces:
She recruited her son and husband to get rid of the disturbing image. They took a pickaxe to the cement, removed the face, and poured new cement over the hole. However, after doing so, the face eventually reappeared, and went on to be accompanied by more faces throughout the house. Word spread, and the house became an area of great interest for paranormal enthusiasts and skeptics alike. Many regarded the phenomena as among the most bizarre and substantial cases of paranormal activity ever recorded (after all, so many visitors flocked to the house that the faces ended up being seen by countless people). Skeptics, on the other hand, were fairly certain that some form of trickery must have been involved.
Samples of the cement were taken, and over the years, they have been subjected to various studies. Although no obvious evidence of trickery has ever been found, studies have indicated that some slight traces
of chemical elements which may show that the faces were somehow painted onto the cement were found. Although many skeptics took this revelation as proof that the images had been faked, it should be noted that the process of creating them would still be intricate and, apparently, involve a strong knowledge of chemical compounds. The family that resided in the home did not seem to possess such knowledge.What is even more notable about this particular case is that, over the years, faces have continued to appear in the home.
Read this and two more history of bizarre images over at Weird Worm: Link
Garry and Joan Marsh of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England adopted a ten-week-old kitten from the local animal shelter and named her Polly. Three days later, they noticed the word “cat” on her left flank.
Mr Marsh, a teacher, said: ‘We were commenting on how symmetrical her tabby patterns seemed when Joan suddenly noticed the letters.
‘Once somebody points it out, it is obvious – the word stands out a mile.’
See more pictures at the Daily Mail. Link -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Bruce Adams)
Photo: abrinsky [Flickr]
Flickr pool Tetris Tetris Everywhere is dedicated to things in real life that look like the falling blocks from insanely popular video game. Do you hear a certain background music when you read this post?
Link – via Things I Think Are Kinda Cool
Comments Off Scientists say that it’s just pareidolia – a fancy word meaning that humans tend to see images or faces in random things, but surely they’re wrong. Sure, you can shrug off religious sightings as overly active imaginations of fanatics, but what if these images come from the world of science. Just think about it, people. Science!
James Dacey of Physicsworld.com Blog spotted two such phenomena:
Michael Jackson: This Is It (It Being Polymer Droplet)
Physicist David Fairhurst of Nottingham Trent University was working on a physics experiment involving droplet of polymer solution (those wacky scientists!) when he saw the face of Michael Jackson!
The ugly-looking globular mound is a droplet of polymer solution, the kind of substance you might find in the ink cartridges of your printer. As the solution began to dry, Fairhurst noticed a number of small “spherulites” begin to crystallise on the droplet surface revealing what appears to be a tiny human face. [...]
The physicist and his group of PhD students reckon the face looks like a small girl, or possibly even the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.
I ran the image through an online face-recognition programme and the names that came out included: Rachel Carson, the American environmentalist; Marlene Dietrich the German-born actress; and (tenuously) Iggy Pop.
Link – via Geekosystem, thanks Glenn!
The Beatles in Bouncing Water Droplet
It was whilst writing a story this afternoon about water-repellency in lotus leaves that I noticed something very strange. Bizarrely, everybody’s favourite mop-topped Liverpudlian seems to reveal himself in the high-speed photo images of water-droplets being ejected from the leaf surface.
This striking image of a crying glacier (a perfect example of pareidolia) is from a melting glacier in in the Arctic ice cap of Norway. Marine photographer and environmental lecturer Michael Nolan snapped the photos:
At first glimpse it looks like any other glacier you might find in the freezing Arctic wastes of Norway.
But on closer inspection an eerie face is depicted in the melting ice wall that appears to be crying a river of tears.
The forlorn-looking ‘Mother Nature’ figure appeared to locals during a thaw, with the melting ice and snow falling towards the sea below.
The striking image of the Austfonna ice cap, located on Nordaustlandet in the Svalbard archipelago, would seem certain to be heavily used by environmentalists protesting against climate change.
Alex Millson of The Daily Mail has more: Link (Photo: Michael Nolan/SpecialistStock/Barcroft Media)
Photo: get_debashish [Flickr]
Neatoramanaut Debashish Paul took a photo of a section of Hogenakkal Falls in South India that has a face of a mustachiod man. I know, I know, it’s just pareidolia (the tendency of human brains to see familiar images and faces in objects), but it’s still very cool!
