Pareidolia is the psychological phenomenon where people think they see some significant pattern or image in something random. This may be the face of Elvis in pork chop grease or the face of the Virgin Mary in a once-bitten sandwich. I have a coaster on my desk and an almost unempty glass of ice water, which is sweating profusely. When I lifted the glass, I was surprised to see a little pareidolia of the smiley variety. Incidentally, the 26th birthday of the smiley was just a week or so ago.
Smiley pareidolia on a coaster, left behind by a sweating glass of ice water
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6 October 2008 at 20:46:09
Melinda Weathers
I spent at least a minute trying to figure out what an “almost unempty” glass of water would be. The glass in the photo is in fact unempty, not almost unempty. And yes, I’m probably a pessimist, but still… I suppose a glass that is “almost unempty” would be one that you are JUST about to pour some water into.
Cool thing to note — if you google for “almost unempty” in quotes, your post is the only thing you get! Not quite a googlewhack since we’re using quotes around it, but still pretty cool! You’re on the first page of results when you search without quotes too.
Cool smiley too. :)
6 October 2008 at 20:57:05
Jason Adams
The only way to make sense of my unsense, is to think in reverse. If you reverse temporal directions, you would overstand that my drink was indeed almost unempty.