Simulacra

[Anonymous]

No comment.

dailynews.philly.com/content/daily_news/2001/09/13/local/DEVI13C.htm
Link is dead. No archived version found.

 

[carole]

Oh, you guys! You're presented with a picture of the glories of the universe and all you look for is a bit of minge . . .

I want each of you to write 100 times - neatly, mind you - "I must take astronomy seriously."

Now then, has anyone got a picture of the Eagle Nebula, I want to check out those celestial willies . . .

Carole

 

[rynner2]

I want each of you to write 100 times - neatly, mind you - "I must take astronomy seriously."

Now then, has anyone got a picture of the Eagle Nebula, I want to check out those celestial willies . . .

Carole

Here you are then!

(I reckon the big one on the left is wearing a novelty condom!)

 

[Pete Younger]

Surely this is one for Simulacra corner., the all seeing eye of the solar system.

 

[Justin_Anstey]

It might be a real eye.

Also:

http://www.google.com/search?q=Jeffrey+vallance+simulacra&hl=en

"...American artist Jeffrey Vallance, whose images
of simulacra that occasionally appear in Fortean Times..."

Hmmmm....

-Justin.

 

[carole]

. . . the eye of God . . .

Carole

 

[ogopogo3]

More Mars simulacrae

cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/02/14/mars.hearts/index.html
Link is dead; Photos are MIA.
Photos retrieved and attached for archival purposes.

Dammit, you realize this means more Richard Hoaglund, don't you?

 

[Anonymous]

I remember seeing this months ago. But I guess it resurfaced around Valentine's.

 

[carole]

Aww, that's really sweet, those Martian guys are true romantics, aren't they??

Carole

 

[Anonymous]

Or the eye of that giant smiley by Allan Moore.

 

[NilesCalder]

Why are there so many damn Simulacrae on Mars?

Have we found any on any other planets (other than Earth)?

All these questions, and more, must be answered and soon!

Niles "I roll to Disbelieve" Calder

 

[Anonymous]

It's just the one of them that is best explored.

 

[Anonymous]

valentine smith the prophet of Mars , valentine's day and the Mars pictures!!!! coincidences???? i don't think so !:eek!!!!:

 

[Pete Younger]

On the same theme, can anyone see what others seem to see but I cant, check this out, looks like some kind of fish to me.
Embedded link is dead. Here is the text of the MIA webpage and the accompanying image.

​

Fuel pump apparition has Buckfield buzzing
By Roberta Scruggs
Staff Writer

Phil McAlister Jr. looked at his boss with a grin on his face and just the slightest hint of worry in his voice.

“Do you see it?” he asked Sandy Thompson, co-owner of the Buckfield Mall on Route 117.

Thompson stared hard at the convenience store’s diesel pump Friday evening, but she clearly wasn’t seeing anything special.

“Look on the silver part,” McAlister urged. “Just the silver.”

Suddenly Thompson’s expression changed to one of enlightenment.

“OK, now I see it,” she said. “I don’t know what I was expecting. But yes. OK.”

McAlister breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.

“It’s just the neatest thing,” he said. “It’s silly, but it’s neat.”

The first indication of the unusual visual phenomena at this “mini, mini, mini mall” came a few weeks ago, McAlister said.

A woman, who he couldn’t identify, came into the store and asked, “Did you guys do that on purpose?”

McAlister, who’s worked at the mall on Route 117 for two years, didn’t know what to answer. He’d been off for two days. Maybe, he thought, something had happened during his absence.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

“That buck on your gas tank there,” she replied.

Still puzzled, McAlister followed her out of the store. She pointed toward the diesel pump, saying, “It’s the most beautiful thing I ever saw.”

On the shiny lower section of the diesel pump, McAlister saw the distinct image of a buck, which also happens to be the mascot of the athletic teams at Buckfield Junior-Senior High School.

“I said, ‘Oh, my God, I never noticed it before.’ But it’s just as clear. It looks like a painting almost,” McAlister said.

The image appears as darkness falls, he said. It can be seen best by someone standing beside the gas pumps, on the side closest to the store’s entrance. First the outline becomes visible, then the nose and eyes slowly fill in.

“It’s there every night,” McAlister said. “As soon as it gets dark you can see it just as clear as a bell.”

Walk up close, though, and the buck vanishes. The only thing to be seen on the diesel pump is the dent made last year when a truck backed into it.

McAlister knows the buck is just an illusion produced by the reflection of the lights on the canopy over the pump. But it’s still quite a sight, he said.

“I want everybody else to see it,” he said. “So people won’t think I’m nuts.”

His co-worker, Olive Burnham, said she can see the buck clearly and that word of the illusion is starting to get around town.

“People come in just to see it,” Burnham said.

But Cathy Jack, who was working with him Friday night, had her doubts, saying McAlister is known for his jokes.

When he saw her glancing out the store’s window, he asked, “Can you see it?”

Jack shook her head.

“I was looking for customers,” she said. “I did see a dent.”

But after 8 p.m., as it got darker and darker, something began to materialize on the diesel pump. Some said it looked like the head of a white mule, others said a kangaroo.

“It looks like a donkey to me,” Jack said.

Then she patted McAlister on the arm.

“Don’t worry,” she joked. “We’ll have him looked at.”

But McAlister just laughed. He didn’t mind what animal they saw on the pump as long as they saw something.

“It’s a funny, amazing kind of thing,” he said. “You’ve got to see it to believe it.”​

SALVAGED FROM THE WAYBACK MACHINE:
https://web.archive.org/web/20020819053942/https://www.sunjournal.com/story.asp?slg=042902deer

 

[evilsprout]

Took me a while, but there's a simulacra of a deer at the bottom....

 

[Cult_of_Mana]

Why are there so many damn Simulacrae on Mars?

Mars is a dry, barren planet so we can see every geological feature. In contrast, the Earth is mostly covered with water. Much of the visible land is covered with vegetation, or ice, or human settlements. The simulcra are there, geological and vegetative, but they tend to be smaller in scale. Search the web, look at aerial photography books; there's loads of them. I'd post some links but I'm having trouble with my searches at the mo.

Note that I mentioned scale . The Mars simulcra are massive! Thus indicating to normal-brained people that they are natural, not 'man/alien'-made.

 

[madmath]

Why are there so many damn Simulacrae on Mars?

Have we found any on any other planets (other than Earth)?

All these questions, and more, must be answered and soon!

Niles "I roll to Disbelieve" Calder

Actually, if you look at any of the old Ripley's Believe It or Not columns that used to be published in US newspapers, a good portion of them listed such places right here on Terra. In fact, one of the funniest moments ever on American television involved a woman who collected potato chips that "looked like" famous people.
It arises because human brains evolved significant pattern matching skill, and we try to see patterns and shapes even where there aren't any. And naturally the human face is one of the most powerful images, so we see it everywhere, even in blurry photos of Mars.
And if some yutz insists that the "Face on Mars" is an artifact, you can tell them that he's a Muppets fan, since there's a great big image of Kermit the Frog there, too!

 

[SoundDust]

It arises because human brains evolved significant pattern matching skill, and we try to see patterns and shapes even where there aren't any

Like when people see faces in clouds.

Maybe two blokes from somerset will admit to doing it late at night with a stick and a piece of rope.

 

[Anonymous]

Hehe, skyshapers running around late at night making animal figures out of the clouds. It all makes sense now.

You know how people also see the Vrgin Mary appear in church windows or on walls? There is a church where the windows display Bozo the Clown.

 

[mejane]

We have a very nice Adamski-style UFO on our bathroom window. It's just the reflection of the light bulb on the frosted glass of course. Probably. Or maybe it's a secret marker and one day They will come and take me away... :eek!!!!:

Jane.

 

[stu neville]

This is all the human brain's fault. It strives to make sense of patterns it sees, and so will try to match whatever comes into it's field of vision with something it has previously identified.

That's why a lot of (not all) psychiatrists put a lot of store by the Rorsarch (sp?) ink-blot tests - they're random shapes, but the interpretation thereof reveals the psychological processes within.

I once saw footage of a five year old interpreting a picture thus:

"It's a man who's tripped over on his head, and there's a monkey on his back with a newspaper."

The picture?

Western Europe, without Scandanavia.

 

[Spookyangel]

It is amazing what you can see in the clouds if you look hard enough.

 

[Anonymous]

This was covered in ine of my first Psychology lessions where the teacher gave out pics of clouds and we had to point out what we thought they looked like.

We naturally adapt images that we dont recognise into images that we do recognise.

I recently spotted Noddy (childrens TV character) in my breakfast cerial.

in manchester a noddy is a slang term for a condom. so you found a condom in your cereal???

 

[tastyintestines]

Here's a new one I found.


http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/07/23/dwarf.galaxy/index.html

Can you see it??

 

[rynner2]

Tasty, you're a very naughty boy!

(I've seen that before, and it's the oddest space photo I've seen. I think they should send the snaps back to Boots or whoever and ask them to check the focus on their processing machine. )

 

[Anonymous]

Okay, NOW I see it...

Rynner, I really had to play with it a bit before I could see it

It was moderately interesting, but it struck me that this is akin to "Housewife sees Image of Jesus in Dust Smear on Kitchen Wall"

 

[Pete Younger]

Tasty, you're a very naughty boy!

(I've seen that before, and it's the oddest space photo I've seen. I think they should send the snaps back to Boots or whoever and ask them to check the focus on their processing machine. )

I could see Rynner's one clearly but I don't see anything in this one, explain please.

 

[tastyintestines]

It's in the white part in the middle, slightly slanted.

 

[chromehalo]

i see it,it looks like the guy out of the crystal maze!

 

[JurekB]

Satan in the Greenhouse

What with Jesus and the BVM appearing in puddles, walls and on snack foods, it looks like Satan himself is trying to get in on the act.

This is taken from my local newspaper, The Sentinel 24/08/02.

Gardener Kenneth Howell was mystified when he found this little red devil in his greenhouse. The unusually shaped tomato was among the crop at his home in Sneyd Green. The keen gardener, who has been growing the fruit for about 30 years and was nominated in Britain in Bloom for his garden, said: "I have never seen anything like this before. I think there was a jinx because none of the other tomatoes in the greenhouse were ripening. Other tomatoes which were okay were falling off the plants." The little devil has now been locked out of the way in a cupboard.

The article included a picture of a very nice horned tomato.

I wonder if Mr Howell will now be inundated with Satanists wishing to worship this obvious Satanic miracle?