Cartocacoethes: Uncontrollable Compulsion to See Maps Everywhere

Posted by Alex in Medicine, Travel & Places on January 13, 2009 at 2:38 pm

The human brain is wired to recognize faces everywhere, but it turns out that there’s also a strange mania called cartocacoethes: the uncontrollable compulsion to see maps everywhere.

Strange Maps blog has a post about these "accidental maps" – for example, the africa in milanesa to the left:

“I was cooking this typical Argentinian food called milanesa, when I found the map of Africa in my saucepan,” writes Manuel Barcia from Argentina. “This typical dish is made out of a cut meat from the back of the cow, called nalga, covered with a mix of mashed bread and eggs and then fried. I always say that each piece of meat looks like an undiscovered island or some unknown place, but this looked just like Africa.”

Link – via BB-Blog

 
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