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Why We See Faces - Everywhere
Berek Half Hand writes "Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy has a great personal story of a paranormal visitation to his shower. His report explains a lot about human nature and how our brains our wired. Those of you who may be Kate Campbell fans will also immediately think of 'Jesus and Tomatoes' and the famous Nun Bun."
I used to live in an apartment next to a schizophrenic guy. He left his dirty clothes scattered all over his apartment.
One day, he brought me down to his house because he was seeing faces in the wrinkles of the clothes - and he was running around the room whacking his laundry with a stick to kill the faces.
I moved not long after that.
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
Check out Stone Faces Gazetteer
Some of these, especially the sleeping giants and one particular offshore head, are downright eerie.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Some consider the ability to recognize faces in humans as a priori knowledge, that is, knowledge without any prior experience. Apparently, our genes hardwire our brains to know what a face is, even before we ever experience one. I think that is so fascinating. Could it be possible to genetically engineer a human to be born with more knowledge?
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They Are Vermin Feeding On Each Other's Feces.
I Hate \.
I was in South Dakota last year, and I was just driving through this nice wooded area, when I rounded a bend and...
THERE WERE FOUR FACES, RIGHT THERE IN THE ROCK!
I mean, like, GIANT faces, not small at all. I was pretty freaked out. I turned the car around and high-tailed it out of there!
I can't be sure, but one of the guys looked just like Abraham Lincoln! The other one might have been Stalin, but I'm not sure...
...but it's being eaten...by some...Linux or something...
If you found this article interesting, you may want to read Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion by Stewart Guthrie.
In one word, this book is about Anthropomorphism - The ascription of human characteristics to things not human.
My girlfriend once was making pancakes and she discovered an uncanny image of the Virgin Mary in the folds cooked into one. After I confirmed its resemblance we comtemplated whether or not to eat it. Maybe, since we're not religious, we could have at least made some money charging admission to all the crazies out there. In the end though, there was only one sane course of action to take.
She was delicious.
Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!
has a great explaination of this effect in his book "The Demon Haunted World."
...Parental care of the young is essential for the continuance of the hereditary lines. As soon as the infant can see, it recognizes faces, and we now know that this skill is hardwired in our brains."
He states, "Humans, like other primates...enjoy one another's company.
He continues, "As an inadvertant side effect, the patter-recognition machinery in our brains is so efficient in extracting a face from a clutter of other detail that we sometimes see faces where there are none."