But then there’s stuff like this: a guy is "clueless" about how the face of Jesus appeared on his truck window, and why it persists day after day.

Oh, I have a clue. It’s clearly not random, which means it’s either a) divine, or 2) drawn on by someone. My conclusion that it’s (2) comes from having a daughter who would take her finger and draw her name in the misty back window of my car when she was younger. And also doing it myself when I was a kid. And seeing eighty bazillion examples of this as a human living in America.

So I think someone drew it on the window. The oil from their finger doesn’t wash off with water, so every morning the picture reappears with the advent (advent! Haha! A little funny for the upcoming season) on the morning dew.

But, of course, that’s just me. When I hear hoofbeats I think horses, not zebras. And since I don’t live near a zoo or in the African plains, I’m guessing what we have here is a horse-drawn carriage.

Um. Well. You know what I mean.

Picture credit: (AP Photo/Johnson City Press, Lee Talbert)

Hmmm, not bad. For what it’s worth, the father doesn’t claim it’s actually a demon, though he does claim it wasn’t there before Halloween and now it is. I suspect it’s more likely due to no one noticing it before, but hey! That’s just me.

And the instant I saw the face I knew it wasn’t a demon. There’s a far more likely explanation:

Better call Ahnold.

My favorite part was the father saying the face didn’t freak out the kids. I’m not surprised, since clearly they’ve gotten used to Bambi’s dad hanging on the wall.

Tip o’ the demonic alien cornrows to Fark.

OK, look. I have seen pictures claimed to be of God or gods in everything. A taco. An oil smear. Wood grain. A bun, a cheese sandwich, a tree, clouds, and even a shroud or two. I’m something of an aficionado of it, and I think I do pretty well in recognizing it.

But this one baffles me. An article in The Telegraph says (uncited) that the picture of Mars shown here looks like the cloaked figure of Jesus.

Really? I don’t see it. Maybe the jumbled region at the top is the head, and the three dark hills below are the body and elbows. But wow, I really don’t get it. Do you? Maybe someone can outline the figure and leave it in the comments. Because this looks like just a crater with eroded gullies to me.

Tip o’ the mitre to Keith Cowing.

How many of you have read a copy of Gray’s Anatomy? Not the TV show, but the actual classic medical book with gorgeous hand-drawn illustrations of human body parts? I had a copy for years and loved thumbing through it and gaping at the weird glop inside of us.

Artist and chemist Vesna Jovanovic has done Gray one better: she’s created anatomy art based on ink blots. Yes, it’s pareidolianatomy. This is a very cool gallery of images that, well, has to be seen to be appreciated. For the back story, check out the Seed magazine interview with her. Very cool stuff.

Tip o’ the cranial cap to BABloggee Charles who pointed me to the io9 article on Ms. Jovanovic.

I think it looks more like Charles Manson, but there you go. Feel free to make your own guesses and scatalogical jokes in the comments… and this may be hopeless, but try to be at least marginally adult about it, OK? It’s been a long day and I’m pooped.

Tip o’ the sanitary ring — for your protection! — to Rev. Big Dumb Chimp.

As I was walking the exhibit hall of Comic Con, I was struck again by our ability to see faces and recognize them in patterns. I was moving along the Artists’ Alley, where artists of all stripes hang their wares for sale. When you see a face painted on canvas, it’s not really a face, of course, yet we recognize it as one. Sometimes they are very realistic, and sometimes they are extremely minimalist.

In fact, the canonical smiley is as minimal as it can be: just two dots and an upward-curved arc underneath. How much less could it be? Yet it is impossible not to see that as a smile; that’s how maniacally hardwired our brains are to see faces.

So the next time someone sees Jesus or Mary or Michael Jackson or Elvis in a wood grain pattern, think on the simple smiley, and remember that our brains are funny, funny things.

And also? Have a nice day.

[Click to embiggen.]

Obviously, you need red/blue glasses to make this work. If you don’t have any, I suggest you find some (lots of places sell them online), and then search this blog for the word "anaglyph", which will make you very happy.

How cool is this? You can see that the top of the mesa is substantially above the rest of the surface, and the shallow depressions in the top are obvious… and, of course, provide us with a whimsical example of pareidolia. The sand dunes rippling across even look a little bit like eyelashes.

Man, I love stuff like this.

You can find details about the picture on the HiRISE site as well as wider field of view pictures that put it into context. HiRISE has an incredible gallery of 3D anaglyphs that’ll keep you occupied for quite some time, too.