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Category: Skepticism • Weirdness
Posted on: May 26, 2006 8:30 AM, by PZ Myers
This is an X-ray of a sick duck with something unusual in its gut.
Aaaaah! It's an alien! Or a demon! Or a run-of-the-mill instance of apophenia. The bird rescue center that discovered it is playing it up as an alien for PR purposes (hey, it's California), but we know better, right?
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Comments
Posted by: Steve LaBonne
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May 26, 2006 8:57 AM
Hungry ducks- our first line of defense against alien invasions!
Posted by: Matt
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May 26, 2006 8:59 AM
Don't you mean that this is an instance of pareidolia?
(I'm fuzzy on the distinction between these terms. I also don't know if I'm pronouncing "pareidolia" correctly.)
Posted by: PaulC
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May 26, 2006 10:23 AM
From the article:
Oh, nonsense. It's not even bilaterally symmetric. The left "eye" (its left) is up higher than the right one and not even the same shape.
The poor duck. Whatever was wrong with it looks pretty painful, and I don't think we ought to be making jokes about its sad demise.
Posted by: PaulC
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May 26, 2006 10:36 AM
I looked at this a little more closely in an image editor. It's a bit more symmetric than I thought, provided you ignore the lower part of the right "eye." Regardless, it's easily explained by coincidence, and I think this picture ought to elicit our sympathy instead of stale comments about "aliens."
Posted by: Carlie
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May 26, 2006 10:37 AM
Maybe the duck ate a Halloween mask?
Posted by: Apikoros
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May 26, 2006 10:41 AM
Does anyone out there have an X-ray of a normal duck's gut, for the sake of comparison?
Also, in the images at the sfgate site, I could not see where this duck's wing was broken. Did someone switch ducks? Or is this an example of alien healing powers?
Posted by: T_U_T
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May 26, 2006 10:42 AM
Oh no ! The Intelligent Deceiver has apparently started experimenting with redesigning bird flu to an irreducibly complex chest-bursting alien !
Remember what happened when he added an outboard motor to yersinia pestis bacterium...
Posted by: PaulC
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May 26, 2006 10:48 AM
One more comment and I'm off this thread. Rereading the paragraph I cited, I find parallels to Kent Brockman's standards of reporting in the oft-quoted Simpson's episode:
Brockman:
Chronicle:
I guess I should be relieved that the reporter did not welcome our new duck-parasite overlords.
The only thing I feel certain about is that this was not a healthy duck.
Posted by: Left_Wing_Fox
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May 26, 2006 11:08 AM
I was kind of expecting a Babylon 5 reference.
"What is the name of those earth creatures? Feathers, long bill... goes 'Quack'."
"Cats."
"Cats... It's like being nibbled to death by cats."
Posted by: Nate
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May 26, 2006 11:09 AM
Doesn't anyone else think the image bears a striking resemblance to Our Lord And Savior, Jesus?! It is clearly a sign. These x-rays could fetch a FORTUNE on ebay.
Posted by: Rey Fox
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May 26, 2006 12:00 PM
How crazy. I didn't even notice the alien face at first, I noticed the circle underneath the face at the lower point of the mass, looks sort of like a bird head and neck seen from the side, I thought that they had found another one of those "fetus in fetus" cases, only in a duck.
Posted by: mathpants
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May 26, 2006 12:00 PM
you say "apophenia", I say "apo-OHMYGODITSTHEVIRGINMARY"
Let's call the whole thing off . . .
Posted by: The Bad Astronomer
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May 26, 2006 12:10 PM
It looks more like Ben Grimm to me. Actually, my boss came in all excited to show me the newspaper article about it, since she knows I love this kind of thing.
Posted by: Carlie
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May 26, 2006 2:26 PM
Wouldn't it suck to come all this way and then be eaten by a mallard? Not even something cool like a 15-foot crocodile, but a duck? For shame, aliens. For shame.
Posted by: Tristram Brelstaff
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May 26, 2006 2:44 PM
It's the Turin Duck!
Posted by: Carlie
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May 26, 2006 3:20 PM
Looks kind of like Peking man,
[insert Chinese food joke]
Posted by: MikeM
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May 26, 2006 5:55 PM
What's so unusual about that??
Posted by: Abie
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May 26, 2006 7:21 PM
My first thougt was that the duck ate a alien-face pendant, because the white string below it made me think of a necklace...
Posted by: Jafafa Hots
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May 26, 2006 8:13 PM
You people are crazy. It's clearly the virgin Mary.
Posted by: James R
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May 26, 2006 9:00 PM
I knew Ripley didn't get them all.
Posted by: jowens
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May 26, 2006 9:47 PM
I'm with Matt; it's much more pareidolia than apophenia, I'd say.
Posted by: Bruce Beckman
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May 27, 2006 2:10 AM
Apikoros: "Also, in the images at the sfgate site, I could not see where this duck's wing was broken. Did someone switch ducks? Or is this an example of alien healing powers?"
I don't see any fractures either but the radiographs show the duck has a dislocated left shoulder (right side of image). I guess you could say it's 'broken' as in 'not working'.
Posted by: dp
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May 28, 2006 4:20 PM
Call me a spoil sport, but the object looks to me like it is the foil seal off an oval-shaped cream cheese or sour cream container. Does anyone else see this or is my brain so clouded with reason that I can't visualise the truth? :P
The foil is folded over and the tab is what appears to look like a nose. The size seems to be about right.
Posted by: Dark Wing | December 14, 2006 11:29 PM
Did anyone ever think about going inside the thing to see what it really is. I mean really Theres a 50% chace it's the human mind playing tricks on us, 25% it could really be something normal like an orange in side of it.(I have a heart shaped orange in my fridge :3... )Or it could really be something out of the ordinary... Your not going to get abducted or anything if you tried to find out what it was.
Age:16
dragon_wing_silver@yahoo.com
Posted by: GigasGate | March 7, 2007 10:03 PM
Looks to me like a child's toy keychain with a plastic lanyard clip attachment instead of the usual metal one... and it could easily be an alien head keychain.
Posted by: Ryan D | March 26, 2007 8:03 AM
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ibrrc.org/images/duck_alien_xray.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ibrrc.org/pr_05_25_2006.html&h=794&w=700&sz=24&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=69-b1uZaeCztfM:&tbnh=143&tbnw=126&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dx%2Bray%2Bof%2Ba%2Bduck%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D50%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff
this is the original website article with full pic
Posted by: random person | October 2, 2007 11:09 AM
just a constipated duck is what i say!
Posted by: loser101 | November 18, 2007 6:05 PM
thank you for proving aliens are real!!!
it has changed my life 4eva!!!
my duck eats aliens all the time to!!
maybe we can have a party to kill all the aliens with our ducks
Posted by: kim from darwin i go to csc an im in year 10 in 2007 | November 18, 2007 6:09 PM
news to tell you guys
i had an x-ray taken yesterday
........
an they found two aliens in my
stomach if you want to buy my x-ray
of ebay you can
its US$1,000,000
Posted by: ERIK | December 5, 2007 7:30 PM
OK WOW that is not a alien it can be alot of things it can be and wtf whats the points of an xray for 1000$ u must be trying to just get some money...
Posted by: Genie | December 22, 2007 5:40 AM
Clearly this maligned mallard has masticated a mutilated mis-creant! Be it medicinal or metastatic, the mirage is magnificent.
Posted by: hello | February 28, 2008 6:41 AM
omg u guys are weird stop talking bout a picture y do people get so geeky over nothing
Posted by: spurge | February 28, 2008 8:18 AM
People who see an alien in an X-ray are getting "geeky over nothing".
The fine people here are just making fun of them.
Posted by: XD | September 15, 2008 8:22 AM
Yeah, er, sorry to burst your bubble here but think really hard about this.
If aliens really are this super-intelligent, why bother coming to earth when they probably have a more advanced sattelite thing happening to watch us?
And, if they DO decide to come to earth, why only show themselves to rednecks, bogans or people who live in the desert or have corn fields?
And then, WHY THE HELL DO THEY WANNA PROBE A DUCK? Of all animals, a DUCK!?
And if it really is some epiphany thing from God, does that mean God was sitting on his cloud, and got kinda bored. So he just thought to himself, "I know, im going to put jesus'/mary's face on the inside of a DUCK!
I feel sorry for the duck. That must hurt.
Posted by: Nick | October 24, 2008 12:41 PM
Ok here is the real story behind the duck http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/01/alien_duck/