Pareidolia

 DZ has written a few blog posts in the past about pareidolia, the "the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern." Seeing an image of mohammed in a blob of Marmite, Or that of jesus in a dog's arse.

This is how some people are so easily fooled into believing in various myths like the Loch Ness monster, Chukachabra, Bigfoot, or the various sightings of "big cats" in the English countryside. Invariably any pictures supporting these beliefs are taken from some distance, blurry, poorly lit and could often be anything. But we live in a world where millions of people thought it was a good idea to elect an elderly, psychotic, semiliterate, incoherent dement to the position of President of the United States. And to some people, the less credible something is, the more likely they are to believe it.

Take this pic for example.

I like to think people who look at my blog are bright enough to realise exactly what it is. But I have no doubt that there are sites on the web where, suitably embellished with a little made up narrative, I could put this and convince people that it is of some serpent like creature. It looks vaguely like a snake with it's mouth open, or maybe even a real dragon, and distant enough and blurry enough to convince the gullible. In fact I took this pic this morning while walking my dogs. This is what it looks like close up and better lit.

It's tempting to post it on one of the conspiracy type sites as a joke, but I don't think I will. There is no limit to human stupidity, and I don't want anything like this to happen.