Pareidolia
oracknows | August 16, 2007It's here, and it's on Google Video. I watched it last night, and it was a blistering attack on the irrationality that is so common in our society:
Part I begins with Richard Dawkins sitting in on some sort of New Age chanting ceremony (the discomfited look on his face is priceless to watch), after which he goes to a New Age fair, and concludes with an attack on the crappy science that lead to the MMR vaccine scare over autism in the U.K. In between, Dawkins takes on astrology, dowsers, spiritualists, and mediums, no holds barred.
Next Monday: Richard Dawkins versus alternative medicine.…
oracknows | July 17, 2007
This time, it's from Colorado, and it's the King:
Rock collector LaDell Alexander, 60, has found a stone she swears has the face of the rock king Elvis Presley on it and has taken it home and plans to sell it on eBay in August, near the 30th anniversary of his death.
Alexander said "people are calling me the Elvis Rock Lady. Seven out of 10 people see Elvis (on the rock)."
Hmmm. I wonder what the other 3 out of 10 people see on the rock.
So is this a hunka hunka burnin' rock?
In all seriousness, though, if Ms. Alexander can use the Elvis Rock to separate some credulous fool from their money…
oracknows | June 23, 2007After attending the ASCO Meeting in Chicago over two weeks ago, I can't believe I forgot to post about this. More than two years ago, back in my favorite city (Chicago), a vision of the Virgin Mary appeared. It appeared, oddly enough, as such visions are wont to do, in a rather mundane spot. Specifically, it appeared under a freeway overpass where W. Fullerton Avenue passes under the Kennedy Expressway.
As I was heading to the airport on my way out of the city, traffic happened to be better than I had expected, leaving me with some time. I decided, therefore, to head back to the area and see…
oracknows | May 22, 2007The other day, I wrote about how the only use of homeopathy that makes sense is its use by a fictional character, namely Doctor Strange, The Sorcerer Supreme. Now, I have been fortunate enough to have been granted a sign that the homeopathic enchantment works! Woe be unto you skeptics!
Behold, a vision of the Eye of Agamatto on a pancake!
For those of you unaware of what the Eye of Agamatto is, it's the mystic amulet that is Dr. Strange's most powerful occult object. The eye contained within the amulet can, at Strange's command, radiate brilliant light that allows him to see through all…
oracknows | December 27, 2006While I am on vacation, I'm reprinting a number of "Classic Insolence" posts to keep the blog active while I'm gone. (It also has the salutory effect of allowing me to move some of my favorite posts from the old blog over to the new blog, and I'm guessing that quite a few of my readers have probably never seen many of these old posts, most of which are more than a year old.) These posts will be interspersed with occasional fresh material. This post originally appeared on April 22, 2005.
Unfortunately, Blogger was down for "scheduled maintenance" last night in my prime blogging time, meaning I…
oracknows | October 17, 2006It seems like only yesterday that I was fisking yet another piece of seriously irritating woo from that expert purveyor of woo, Deepak Chopra. In fact, it was only yesterday that I was fisking part two of Chopra's woo-filled The Trouble With Genes series. As I mentioned in my previous fisking, I had thought that Dr. Chopra might lay low for a while, and was surprised that he popped up again so soon.
So color me even more surprised that Chopra wasted no time in wading back in again with yet more of his tradmark brand of woo (which I like to call Choprawoo) in a post entitled The Trouble With…
oracknows | October 4, 2006Pareidolia is everywhere, as you know. We see Jesus or Mary on trees, pieces of toast, and on sheet metal.
Finally, though, through the wonder of science, we finally see some Jesus pareidolia in a molecular biology lab!
Are you ready for Jesus on a polyacrylimide gel used to separate proteins?
I consider it a most holy sign that Alex's next attempt at an immunoprecipitation will be a success.
oracknows | September 24, 2006I realize that PZ and Skeptico have already posted this, but it's just too hilarious for me, as a bit of a connoisseur of pareidolia, to pass up, regardless of who might have posted about it before.
We've seen Jesus in many strange places, even on toast, but I bet you've never seen Him appear in a location such as this before. I'm not sure if the first part of the animated GIF is Photoshopped or not, but it is hilarious. (Warning: Not for the easily offended.)
Hallelujah!
And if that's not enough, Evolving Thoughts points out that new images of the infamous "Face on Mars" Cydonia confirm that…
oracknows | September 14, 2006I never knew that puppies liked logic and critical thinking. I always thought that they liked running, playing, eating, sleeping, and being petted. But, according to Janet Stemwedel, there is at least one puppy who is a budding skeptic, and bad reasoning and gullibility make him sad. She explains in the introduction to the 43rd Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle:
Welcome to the meeting of the 43rd Skeptics' Circle! Good logic and critical thinking never hurt anyone, but bad logic, gullibility, and uncritical acceptance of questionable claims causes distress to small, furry animals. I'm not…
oracknows | September 2, 2006This time, the Virgin Mary is on a tree:
LOCKPORT -- A Harvey Street woman claimed on Wednesday that she heard the voice of the Virgin Mary and has seen visions of the Mother of God in the trimmed branches of a maple tree in front of her house.
Antonia "Toni" Filipertis, 84, a devout Catholic, comes to tears when she relates the story which began about 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Her family firmly believes her.
Neighborhood children and adults see and wonder. Several teachers from John Pound Elementary School came across the street to take a look. Principal Roberta Donovan could not swear to the…
oracknows | June 1, 2006All you need is this.
Yes, it's the Jesus Pan.
Who needs to wait for miracles to produce things like the Jesus grilled cheese sandwich? Now you can make them yourself!
Prediction:
Coming soon....The Virgin Mary Pan!
Maybe you can think of other great products along these lines? Lenin, anyone?
oracknows | February 26, 2006Ya gotta love it. Whether it be the Virgin Mary under a freeway overpass on W. Fullerton Avenue in Chicago or on a window in Perth Amboy, NJ, or the face of Jesus on a shell, on the wall of a shower, on a sand dune, a potato chip, or (my personal favorite) a pierogi, it would seem that human capacity to attribute miracles to the tendency of the human brain to see images in patterns is never-ending.
This time, Jesus has appeared to a man in Connecticut, who, according to this story, is selling holy hardware on Ebay. (Where else?):
MANCHESTER, Conn. Feb 26, 2006 (AP)-- Thomas Haley was…