"I am fascinated with the science of optical illusions. What happens in our brain when we view an optical illusion? The information gathered by the eye is processed in the brain to create an idea or image that does not match with a physical measurement of the stimulus source.
On this channel you will find a variety of videos that will spark that scientific corner of your brain."
[more inside]
posted by SpacemanStix
on Aug 20, 2011 -
2 comments
Few phenomena have the power to confound as many different types of people as
pareidolia. It doesn't discriminate by culture or religion. It causes Christians to see
Jesus and Mary, Muslims to see
the names of Allah and the Prophet, Jews to see
the Star of David, Hindus to see
the monkey-god Hanuman, and Buddhists to see — you guessed it —
the Buddha. Even atheists who haven't devoted themselves to skepticism have puzzled long and hard over the famous
face, and more recently,
Bigfoot, on Mars. Now video has surfaced on YouTube of pseudoscientist and perennial attention-seeker Richard Heene (yes,
Balloon Boy's dad)
seeing things on the red planet too. If you'd prefer the filler edited out, the
remix is highly entertaining.
[more inside]
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis
on Aug 11, 2010 -
20 comments
“
The real world is simply too terrible to admit; it tells man that he is a small, trembling animal who will decay and die." “The defenses that form a person’s character support a grand illusion, and when we grasp this we can understand the full drivenness of man. He is driven away from himself, from self-knowledge, self-reflection. He is driven toward things that support the lie of his character.” Words of
Ernest Becker, here summarizing Gestalt therapy and his own existential perspectives in
Growing Up Rugged.
posted by semmi
on Oct 4, 2005 -
26 comments
Hidden pictures! In an effort to get back to that "best of the web" thing, here are some cool hidden pictures within pictures. Can you find them all without looking at the answers? (from B3ta)
posted by salmacis
on Nov 3, 2004 -
14 comments
A
professor of vision science at MIT understands that life isn't just black and white, even though we often see it that way.
This amazing illusion proves it, and
these slick, fast-loading, Flash demonstrations of lightness perception show how it's done. (My favorite is the "
Koffka Ring".) White paper
here, for deeper background.
posted by taz
on Sep 27, 2002 -
29 comments
I'm usually not a big fan of optical illusions (unless there's a nice magic trick built around it), but
this one is pretty brain-burning. (Yes, that's my entire front-page post. But hey: at least it ain't a news story.)
posted by Shadowkeeper
on Oct 18, 2001 -
29 comments
