You know I have a good eye for pareidolia.
This one is the best, ever.
That’s a real feature on Mars, taken by the Mars Global Surveyor. And if you’re clueless what I’m talking about, try here.
As a double inside joke, I almost titled this “M-O-O-N, that spells Mars!” but I figured like three of you would get it.
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The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.
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March 7th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
One of Three, reporting in. >_>
March 7th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Hrmph, well I get it (the M-O-O-N joke). The Stand happens to be my favorite Stephen King book. Yeah, and Patrick’s okay too, I guess. My 2 year old loves Spongebob.
March 7th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I must be Three of Three, because I get that reference as well. Heck, I even recorded it when it came out on tv. :-p
March 7th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
twinner says: “My 2 year old loves Spongebob.”
So does my 21 year old (and me, too although I always identify with Squidward).
- Jack
March 7th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
It’s not just because it’s from The Stand. That wouldn’t make sense. There’s a very specific reason for that joke. Try again!
March 7th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Good eye Indeed, BA.
March 7th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Good eye Indeed, BA. Still I don’t get the M-O-O-N joke >_>
March 7th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Great, another face on Mars. Another decade of debunking.
March 7th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
WOW!!! That’s absolutely the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen!!!! Wait…. Was the part in the white square actually part of the surface, or is that just an inset you did for comparison?
March 7th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Would that be because Tom Cullen and Patrick are the same actor?
And that is a pretty darned incredile pic.
March 7th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
“It’s not just because it’s from The Stand. That wouldn’t make sense. There’s a very specific reason for that joke. Try again!”
I think some of these commenters may need a *Coach* to get that joke. Or perhaps they need to clean out the mud *dauber* nest from their brains.
March 7th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
As a twenty-two year old Spongebob fan, I really have to say that this is the best thing ever.
March 7th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
OK, I’m like feeling really stupid here. I’m not getting it. I even googled it, and I’m still not getting it. I loved seeing Patrick Star on Mars, though.
March 7th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
This is clearly squidward.
Reflect this through a vertical axis, so the eyebrows match
March 7th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
I love SpongeBob SquarePants!
(He shows that the geeky-but-nice guy can always come out on top!)
March 7th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
You know Patrick Star might come in handy during your next video lecture.
March 7th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Oh. My.
Another face on Mars
March 7th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
The Bad Astronomer said:
“It’s not just because it’s from The Stand. That wouldn’t make sense. There’s a very specific reason for that joke. Try again!”
Could it be that Patrick is so stupid that he thinks that M-O-O-N spells Mars?
I smell another conspiracy… Patrick is really the Messiah come to save the souls of Martians, and NASA is covering it up!
March 7th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Caterina wins! Bill Faggerbakke does the voice of Patrick and played Tom Cullen in The Stand, who is a bit slow. He always says “M-O-O-N, that spells” and then some random word (until finally he does actually spell Moon that way; Steven King can actually be a fantastic writer; his characters, even in his really bad books, are always incredibly rich and detailed).
So in this case, it’s a triple pun.
March 7th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Somewhere on Mars there is a crater feature that looks exactly like Waldorf, one of the old geezers in the balcony on the Muppet Show. I saw it in Scientific American about two decades ago. If I took a day I could probably find it, I’m sure I still have the magazine. But I have no idea where on Mars it is so finding a more recent image is a needle in a haystack.
March 7th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Watch…. Hoagland is going to start something again.
March 8th, 2008 at 3:45 am
Is it just me, or does that formation at the bottom of the photo look just like a human breast with a giant nipple in the middle?
March 8th, 2008 at 5:42 am
Actually, I think it looks a bit more like Arthur, from the Marc Brown books (and PBS TV show).
But then again, I love Patrick, so any excuse to be reminded of him works for me!
March 8th, 2008 at 5:45 am
As for The Stand–first half, excellent; second half, not so much. And yes, it is because what starts out as really good science fiction devolves–without adequate prologue–into a supernatural Revelations-type yarn. It’s like two different people wrote the damn thing.
March 8th, 2008 at 5:46 am
Darned thing, DARNED thing. Sorry, I forget this is a family blog.
March 8th, 2008 at 5:49 am
For the record, BA, it’s really hard to go back and forth between this and Pharyngula and maintain a proper sense of decorum.
March 8th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Related, but unrelated. Check out the Daily Dilbert from 8Mar2008.
March 8th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Another one of the 3, checking in.
March 8th, 2008 at 8:14 am
Back to “The Stand” for a moment, at least the book. About half way through there’s a character with my name (David Roberts) and he’s killed a page and a half later. Means absolutely nothing, but its fun.
March 8th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Yes, it’s amazing what you can find on Mars.
March 8th, 2008 at 9:36 am
As a double inside joke, I almost titled this “M-O-O-N, that spells Mars!” but I figured like three of you would get it.
The Stand totally rules among King’s works. I’m a die hard Apocalyptic Fiction fan and I adore this one.
March 8th, 2008 at 9:42 am
@ Stephen James: I thought of BA when I read this morning’s Dilbert as well. Here’s the link.
March 8th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Nope, you’re all wrong.
Every
Last
One
Of
You.
Here’s what the paredolia in -ME- sees:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24473498@N02/2319172194/
It’s Mars, not Marx, BTW… ;-D
Rich
March 8th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Hahaha, nice one.
————–
“what a childish thing for an astronomer to add to a blog”
And the “bitter guy of the day” price is for Astronomer!
Don’t clap, please, he will get mad.
March 8th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Trollonomer is back?
J/P=?
March 9th, 2008 at 4:52 am
I doiled this one as Martin Scorcese.
March 9th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Scorsese! Good one!
I waited for the whole page to finish loading (sometimes if I scroll down the page before it finished loading it causes trouble, the loading stops) so I could only see the first 2 text lines and the top of the photo, sans Patrick Star. I saw Groucho from the start!
Rich
March 10th, 2008 at 6:38 am
I had never put two and two together about Tom Cullen and Patrick, but once the little voice in my head said “M-O-O-N, that spells Mars” while a picture of Patrick was in my field of view, it dawned on me.
I just wish I could have those hours of my life back that I spent watching the second half of The Stand. How completely lame that ending was. King should have stopped halfway and let Crichton write an ending – it might have been disjointed, but at least it wouldn’t have been stupid.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Crichton?? Write an ending? Chrichton CAN’T write an ending. It is impossible for him – Unless you count “And then, it all went away and everything was back to normal….”
I think that is his basic plan for AGW/CC as well….
JC
March 12th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Actually Crater is a constellation. Its called “Crater the Cup” for Apollo’s cup ina Greek myth & is located bordering Hydra, Corvus, Leo,Vitrgo & Sextens in Earth’s skies.
It’s brightest star is actually Delta Crateris, an orange giant 200 ly off shining at 3.6 mag.
Alpha Crateris also named Alkes is an ornage giant, 170 odd light years away shining at mag. 4.1.
Also shining at mag. 4.1 is Gamma Crateris a white star located 85 ly distant and that’s abinary star with a mag.9.6 companion whilst blue-white star Beta Crateris glows at 4.5 mag from 270 ly away.
Source : ‘Collins Guide to Stars & Planets’, P. 132-3, Ian Ridpath & Wil Tirion.
So you’ll need dark skies to see it folks…