Thread by @Mikeachim

I just wrote a piece about pareidolia, the "you can't unsee this" bias...

everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/why-everywhe…

...and all the examples I found are delightful, ludicrous and worrying! (It's amazing how completely it hijacks our mind.)

I dare you to unsee the following examples.

1/

In 1994, Diana Duyser of Florida spotted...something in her grilled cheese sandwich (the "Holy Toast").

She immediately did what any of us would do: packed it in cotton wool & waited for eBay to be invented, so she could auction it to online casino Golden Palace for $28,000.

2/

If you’re wondering how it didn’t evolve into an entirely new lifeform during that 10-year wait, here’s some science about how a grilled cheese sandwich can last a decade without going moldy, via @Slate:

slate.com/news-and-polit…

3/

Another example, from urologist Gregory Roberts in Kingston, Canada: this ultrasound scan of a gentleman's testicles.

Take a second to imagine how you'd react, if these were your own family jewels.

Take a bit longer.

4/

(The previous testicle-howl example is from this fascinating BBC Future piece...

bbc.com/future/article…

...as is this adorable chap. I mean, random piece of machinery. Which is somehow adorable. Bless.)

5/

I don't know who did this one, but I will never not laugh myself completely silly over it.

So amazing.

6/

Here's one you probably know: the eerie countenance in the Cydonia region of Mars, first glimpsed by the Viking 1 orbiter on July 25, 1976.

I can't blame anyone whose hair stood on end when they first saw this...

7/

...except when it's seen with the light coming from a slightly different angle, it's a very different story.

(Source: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/mgs_…)

8/

Sometimes it looks...less than accidental.

This is the first example of pareidolia that millions of kids encounter each year. (There's even a reddit page for this: reddit.com/r/Pareidolia/c…)

To me, this looks like mischief. There's *no way* the inventor didn't see this.

9/

Staying with mischief, it's easy to weaponise pareidolia and psychologically terrorize your loved ones by sticking googly eyes on everyday household appliances.

I know this because @everywhereist did it and then wrote about it:

everywhereist.com/2015/06/i-torm…

10/

Sometimes, to be fully incapable of not seeing something, you need a bit of prompting/"programming".

Take this old, dirty kitchen drawer that someone posted on reddit...

11/

If you're in any doubt:

"I found half of Freddy Mercury's face in some old, dirty kitchen drawer."

There. Perfectly never-unseeable.

12/

Pareidolia (the visual form of apophenia, our tendency to look for patterns in random information) is most pronounced with human faces - so it's where we're most in danger of being tricked. Or rather, tricking *ourselves*.

Case in point: Adele.

(No offence, Adele.)

13/

If that looks like a normal photo of Adele to you - please turn it upside-down.

Sorry if that made you jump. It's *alarming*, yes.

This is called the Thatcher illusion, first discovered at the Uni of York in 1980...

14/

...and so-named because the author used a doctored pic of Maggie Thatcher to illustrate his point.

It also works on other British ex-Prime Ministers.

Again, sorry.

(Read more about it here: everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/forward-into…)

15/

Re. pareidolia: *anything* that looks even vaguely human will trick us into a can't-unsee state.

If I said this was a hummingbird - does it make it *look* like a hummingbird?

Of course not. It's rock-solid proof that the Wee Folk exist. Someone call National Enquirer NOW.

16/

In the 1950s, Canada rolled out new bank notes - and complaints started flooding in.

"YOU PUT THE DEVIL IN THE QUEEN'S HAIR!"

British politicians wrote scathing letters...

17/

eg. “The Devil’s face is so perfect that for the life of me I cannot think it is there other than by the fiendish design of the artist who is responsible for the drawing or the engraver who made the plate."

By 1957, the "problem" was fixed.

(Via bankofcanadamuseum.ca/2018/10/devil-…).

18/

In 1996, an employee of a Nashville coffee shop found this - a cinnamon pastry shaped 'uncannily' like Mother Theresa.

World headlines followed, & a mention on Letterman.

Then, perhaps annoyed that everyone thought her nose looked like *that*, Mother Theresa complained...

19/

That Nashville coffee shop, Bongo Java, was owned by an ex-journo, Bob Bernstein. He soon spotted the marketing possibilities of the 'Nun Bun' (or 'Immaculate Confection').

The shop sold t-shirts & mugs. Trade was brisk...

Then the letter from Mother Theresa arrived.

20/

“My legal counsel...has written asking you to stop, and now I am personally asking you to stop.”

Negotiations ensued (according to her attorney, Mother Theresa actually found the whole thing hilarious) with a compromise reached only weeks before she died in September 1997.

21/

A final twist in this sticky swirl of a story:

Nine years later, the Immaculate Confection was stolen. You heard me. *The Nun Bun went on the run.*

Despite a $5,000 reward, it's never been recovered:

eu.tennessean.com/story/money/20…

22/

A lovely footnote:

When Mother Theresa passed on her duties to her successor Sister Nirmala (who worried she couldn't fill her shoes), she responded "Don't worry about it, just have them bake something that looks like you, they'll love you."

(v. boingboing.net/2007/03/15/kid…)

23/

Finally, here is a montage of 16 'faces' on everyday objects that you immediately can't unsee. You can't! Don't even try.

(Via sciencealert.com/here-s-why-we-….)

24/

For more on this weird visual bias of ours, plus a story about my boots when I worked as an archaeologist, *plus* a firm recommendation of @Alpkit's superb repair service, have a read of my @SubstackInc newsletter here:

everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/why-everywhe…

Ta for reading. :)

Update! I missed that Bongo Java actually have a page dedicated to their side of the Nun Bun story:

bongojava.com/pages/nunbun

Delightfully mad. Click, read and enjoy.

Also, @everywhereist, you and @randfish should visit Bulgaria sometime. I promise it'll only be deeply traumatic for one of you: boredpanda.com/googly-eyebomb…

Further update: well, that blew up. (Gosh.)

If you enjoyed this barmy thread, I have others! Like:

- why North being at the top of our maps is basically a fluke:

https://twitter.com/Mikeachim/status/1419266460820680704

- the greatest travel journalism hoax in British newspaper history:

https://twitter.com/Mikeachim/status/1392468208922337280

All shortened versions of what I'm writing at everythingisamazing.substack.com (you can sign up for free!)

Thanks for reading. :)