Pareidolia

Pareidolia is not only the fanciest word you'll learn this week, it also means seeing something distinct and meaningful where it's not. Famous examples are the face of Jesus on a burnt tortilla, the devil's face in de WTC dustclouds, an elephant in a cloud, ...

I'm sure you'll recognize the sensation of the picture above : suddenly a cloud looks like a face, a rabbit, a teddybear ... This is not a real photograph, by the way. It's a still image from the fantastic movie The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain.

A message from God ? Coincidence ? Make up your own mind ... take a look at the images below.

WTC Devil in the Smoke, 2001
	This photo was taken minutes after the second plane crashed into the World Trade Center. Many people claim to see the face of the devil in this (unaltered) photo, complete with horns and all.
9News - Face in the smoke The Devil's face in the WTC smoke.

The Face on Mars, 1976
	On July 25 1976, the Viking Orbiter 1 photographed the Cydonia region of Mars to find potential landing spots for the Viking Lander 2. One of the photographed rock formations resembled a face. While NASA stated that this was just a random play of light and shadow, UFO buffs were quick to take this as a huge cover-up for alien intelligence. If you click on the enlarged picture, you can see an more detailed picture from recent years.
NASA - Face on Mars NASA captures new images of the face on Mars.
Skeptical Inquirer - Face on Mars Face on Mars and other non-mysteries

Canada 5 Dollars, 1954
	In 1954, the Bank of Canada issued a new bill with the engraving of Queen Elisabeth II on it. But then the bank started receiving complaints : people saw the face of the devil in the Queen's hair, right behind her ear. I don't think it's very convincing, but the bank did : they destroyed all bills and reprinted them with a slightly changed version.

50 Rupees
	There is a word hidden on this bill. It's quite large and quite obvious.
Tell me more

Cloud Gallery Lookalikes Clouds that look like things. Fold Money Fold dollars to see hidden images. Skepdic - Pareidolia The Skeptic's Dictionary on seeing things where there aren't any.