Finally, someone who treats pareidolia with the respect and seriousness it deserves.
Tip o’ the mitre to BABloggee Piotr Slisz.
About Bad Astronomy
If you went to BadAstronomy.com and found yourself here, never fear: the BA Blog has moved to its new home at Discover Blogs. The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking and all that) is still online, too.
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
Bad Astronomy is a Wikio Top Blog! Clearly, Wikio has excellent taste. 
Bad Astronomy was chosen as one of Time.com's Best Blogs of 2009. Subscribe to BA using an RSS Feed
Death from the Skies!
Order a copy of Death from the Skies! from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Borders.
"If things worked the way I wanted them to, any reporter about to do another 'sensational' story on deadly meteors would consult this volume, and bang! common sense would find its way into the news. How strange would that world be?"
-- Adam Savage, Mythbusters"Reading this book is like getting punched in the face by Carl Sagan. Frightening, but oddly exhilarating."
-- Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot UprisingSocial/Networking/Cool Stuff
DISCOVERmagazine.com: Latest Articles on Space- How to Become a Backyard Galileo (Minus the Church Trouble)
- Discover Interview: Space Is Getting Bigger, and It's Getting Bigger Faster
- Visual Science: The New View From Space
- Top 100 Stories of 2009: #50: Magnetic Mysteries of Sunspots Decoded
- Top 100 Stories of 2009: #2: NASA Braces for Course Correction
- DISCOVER Blogs: The Loom
January 13th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
That’s funny! My cats won’t even go near the pool.
January 13th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
She’s writing with her left hand. An obvious sign of the devil!
January 13th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
thou shalt prayeth to thine divine kittin an reciveth purrs and rubs and meows. givith they holy cat tuna and ye shall be blessed with more purrs and rubs. givith to him katnip and ye shall be shown happiness from the kiitten
January 13th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
I once got a Chee-To that looked just like Jesus. He was holding his hands out, like the statue in Rio de Janeiro.
I kept it taped to a markerboard in my kitchen for about a month, then threw it away. If I’d found it about 10 years later than I did, I’m sure GoldenPalace.com would’ve bought it.
January 13th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I like the disclaimer: no resemblance to any persons living or dead.
January 13th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
I want a Foobie Jesus tee.
January 13th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
That first chocolate one happened not too are from where I live.
Damn it! I want a pareidolia I can call my own. How come- ZOMG! KITTY CAT!!!!! EEEEEEEE!
January 14th, 2008 at 9:29 am
A cat fancier friend of mine once said,”When you feed a dog, he thinks you’re God. When you feed a cat, it thinks IT is God,,,and wonders why you’re giving it LEFTOVERS,,,”
Gary 7
January 14th, 2008 at 10:00 am
That was hilarious! I had a pareidolia experience once. I was late at night, in the office, no one was around, and I decided to do some photocopying. Lo and behold, an image came out that looked like my butt!
January 14th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
My brother’s old cat had a gray spot in the shape of the Wu Tang Klan symbol on it’s side. I think that it was sign from beyond. A sign from Ol’ Dirty Bastard.
I always find it funny when people (as the woman with the chocolate “Mary” in the film does) use the “I was raised to…” line as if it were some sort of definitive proof that they aren’t insane, or that what they believe is actually correct. A lot of people have been “raised to” think a lot of incredibly stupid and wrong things throughout the years. At an all too recent point in our history it was perfectly acceptable to raise your kids to think that lynching black people was a good and proper thing. The intelligent people are the ones who grew up to examine what they were “raised to” believe and decided for themselves whether it was right or wrong. That is how you get rid of things like bigotry, sexism, or slavery. People realize that things they might have been “raised to” believe could possibly in fact be WRONG, and they refuse to go along with them.
Also, isn’t it funny that all these “Jesus” images actually look more like Charles Manson? I mean no one knows what Jesus actually looked like, but he was supposedly born two thousand years ago in the middle east so I think it is safe to assume he didn’t have long, straight, light brown hair, a long, thin, caucasian face and nose, and light blue eyes. But man, I’ve seen Manson, and those burned toast/water stain/glass smudges all look exactly like Charlie. Maybe he’s broadcasting his crazy into the world for us all to see? I’ll have to call Geraldo and find out what he thinks.
January 20th, 2008 at 4:59 am
[...] Finally, someone who treats pareidolia with the respect and seriousness it deserves (yesterday’s cartoon would be an even better match here). [...]