Comments on: Why the long face?

Why the long face?

oh pollo! — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 04:51:57 -0800

Mars Express finally photographs the "face on Mars". Will these new pictures finally end the artifact theory?

By: oh pollo!

oh pollo! — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 04:52:22 -0800

More pics here

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 05:03:15 -0800

But what about the butt on Mercury?

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 05:10:21 -0800

Will these new pictures finally end the artifact theory? My guess is no. Facts are such stupid things, anyway.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 05:11:07 -0800

> Will these new pictures finally end the artifact theory? No. They intercepted relevant transmissions, realized they had been discovered, camouflaged the face by sweeping dust over it, and destroyed Beagle 2. I might add that, according to our best data, "they" are a race of beautiful women with bare midriffs and saucy hairstyles. But I must get back to my Theremin practice.

By: Malor

Malor — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 05:20:16 -0800

This is an interesting example of the problems inherent in using our feeble brains to try to understand the universe. We have lots and lots of highly specialized circuitry in our heads that's explicitly designed to see and interpret faces. It misfires frequently. Consider the yellow 'smiley face'; there's probably not a human being on the planet who doesn't recognize it for exactly what it is. Pre- or post-lingual, Bushman or George Bush, humans see that as a face. And it's just a few lines in a yellow circle. Another set of examples: the various Jesus Christ tortillas on eBay. Profiting from neural misfire... fun for the whole family! In a more general way, the human brain is very good at seeing patterns, even where none exist. This results in all kinds of strangeness.... from images in snow on the TV to conspiracy theories. But if you happen to spot a REAL pattern that nobody else has seen, it can pay off big. That's a lot of what science is about...sifting through the patterns we perceive to find out which are actually true and which are pure fiction.

By: grabbingsand

grabbingsand — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 05:20:29 -0800

Better imaging didn't convince Mr Hoagland and the Enterprise Mission in 2001 ... "In terms of the image itself, many of these debunking articles have made a great deal of the fact that the facial features are not symmetrical. For the record, we would like to point out that the Enterprise Mission and its investigators have never claimed that they would be. In fact, we predicted that the two halves of the Face would have some degree of asymmetry. We have maintained for over nine years, since Enterprise Mission principal investigator Richard C. Hoagland's appearance at the United Nations, in February, 1992, that the Eastern half of the Face, the portion that until now had only been seen in shadow, was feline in appearance. The Western half, we have always maintained, was humanoid. We do not believe that this object was ever intended to be a fully human visage." ... so I'm guessing these new shots won't help either.

By: grubi

grubi — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 05:26:39 -0800

But what about the butt on Mercury? Yeah. He must work out.

By: edd

edd — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 05:45:29 -0800

This cannot go unlinked.

By: StarForce5

StarForce5 — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 05:51:40 -0800

No, it just means the aliens are impressionists

By: pax digita

pax digita — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 05:52:45 -0800

In other news, long-recent tapes reveal Buzz Aldrin whispering to Michael Collins, "Don't tell Mission Control, but it really is Roquefort."

By: dobbs

dobbs — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 06:00:32 -0800

Another set of examples: the various Jesus Christ tortillas on eBay. Only one of them was legit. The others were all trying to ride the coattails and turn a profit on an ignorant public.

By: briank

briank — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 06:02:02 -0800

In other news, long-recent tapes reveal Buzz Aldrin whispering to Michael Collins, "Don't tell Mission Control, but it really is Roquefort." Yes, but he was just talking about the cheese plate on the Craft Services table in the TV studio where they shot the "landing"

By: lemonfridge

lemonfridge — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 06:06:23 -0800

It wasnt just the Face they found...

By: fluffycreature

fluffycreature — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 06:07:00 -0800

Yeah, right and we went to the moon too. Sell it to someone else.

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 06:10:46 -0800

Wait, so who have I been talking to over my ham radio for the past twelve years?

By: Richqb

Richqb — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 06:18:19 -0800

Wait, I thought Mars NEEDED women. Now you're saying the Red Planet has a ready supply, complete with saucy hairstyles?

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 06:47:24 -0800

I thought Mars needs guitars.

By: markdj

markdj — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 06:54:56 -0800

Here's a nice hike up the Face. Take oxygen.

By: fidelity

fidelity — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 07:39:58 -0800

Mars sells guitars. They certainly don't need them.

By: fidelity

fidelity — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 07:40:14 -0800

Goddammit

By: itchylick

itchylick — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 07:46:41 -0800

Another set of examples: the various Jesus Christ tortillas on eBay. Not to mention the Virgin Mary making an appearance in trees everywhere. I, for one, am tired of this routine and would like to see a little more creativity on her part. Enough with the trees already.

By: Kid Charlemagne

Kid Charlemagne — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:19:19 -0800

If we had a mission that brought a Mars rock back to Earth and just gave it to the enterprise mission people I am willing to bet any arbitrarily huge ammount of money you'd care to name that they would either declare that it was not just a rock or that it was just a boring old Earth rock and they would not be humiliated by our little tricks. Maybe we could just get Buzz Aldrin to dole out some harshness on these clowns.

By: black bile

black bile — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:34:16 -0800

It's clear to me now that the Thundercats populated Mars.

By: imperium

imperium — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:34:55 -0800

The illusion of faces is a common one, called pareidolia. Some are pretty irresistable, though.

I once found myself in an unusual mental state with a friend who got this really intensely. He asked me what I thought of about the face of man in the moon. I expected him to tell me he could see it really vividly. No. "There are actually seven, and they're all Marilyn Monroe."

By: gubo

gubo — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:40:31 -0800

It wasnt just the Face they found... I love it when a planitia comes together?

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 09:26:01 -0800

gubo, that's a hellas bad joke.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 10:21:03 -0800

There's still a Happy Face up there.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 13:15:16 -0800

That's from Dr. Manhattan.

By: the cydonian

the cydonian — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 20:57:11 -0800

I feel strangely compelled to post here and draw attention to my username, but alas, at this time of the day, I can't think of a wittier line than this.

By: faceonmars

faceonmars — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 22:49:23 -0800

Me neither, cydonian, except to tell robocop it was an imposter he was talking to.