Oh holy spud

It is good to start a new year with a new type of simulacrum. While not as outrageous as the Jesus on a terrier’s arse, I have never come across a spud with a cross inside.

According to philly.com, (via the Fortean Times) there was not one but two “cross-grained” root vegetables: The first was discovered first by Dennis Bort of Brunswick, Ohio on Christmas Day. The second was found by a couple in Marion, Iowa, on New Year's Eve. The discoverers appear to worship mammon as both spuds have been put up for sale on eBay.

Bort said he and his wife had just returned from vacation and were "trying to scrounge together a Christmas dinner with what wasn't spoiled in our fridge...So I peel the potatoes and I'm getting ready to do it and I see what you saw in the picture I said, aw, holy crap, it's a cross," said Bort, a police detective.

Six days later Connie Gross of Marion, Iowa, skinned a potato with a similar image inside. She and her husband, Jim, covered it in foil and stuffed it in the fridge."Our first reaction was, we don't want to eat it," Jim Gross said.

Explaining why he put it on eBay \Mr Bort said "I'm not a religious person at all, I'm not taking it as a sign of the apocalypse or anything like that. I've seen stories of Jesus in the cheese sandwich and all the other crap, but.... There's always a Christmas credit card bill to pay with the holidays, so why not?"

Personally I believe that the appearance of such a holy symbol constitutes a sign of great portent, Revelations 7:17 says “For the pottatoe which is its midst hath a cross throne shall be made into chippes and shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of lager”

Or something like that anyway...

And now the Mars Bigfoot, err Log, err skull, err monolith....

There's a monolith in here, honest!

A rectangular object found jutting out of Mars's surface and caught on camera (you can see it absolutely clearly in the above photo) by the University of Arizona has caused speculation over the nature of the "monolith" and its origins.

According to the Telegraph the scientists at the University of Arizona who captured the image from a powerful camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite, insist that the structure is a normal, if striking, natural phenomenon.



Needless to say parallels are being drawn with monoliths 2001: A Space Odyssey. But not by the University Alfred McEwen, professor of planetary science "Layering from rock deposition combined with tectonic fractures creates right-angle planes of weakness such that rectangular blocks tend to weather out and separate from the bedrock. It is not that unusual. There are lots of rectangular structures on Mars. It is striking when you see one that is isolated, but they are common."



Veteran astronaut Buzz Aldrin recently stoked space conspiracy theory further by announcing that a similar "monolith" had been detected on Mars's moon Phobos. "There is a monolith there, a very unusual structure on this little potato-shaped object that goes around Mars once every seven hours. When people find out about that, they are going to say 'who put that there?’ Well, the universe put it there, or if you choose, God put it there."



Monoliths? Whatever... let it join the face and all of the other so called structures in the title to this post. One thing is for sure. Mars seems like a Pareidolia paradise

And now the Mars skull

A picture taken on Mars by a panoramic NASA camera known as Spirit seems to have pareidolia connoisseurs all of a flutter. According to the Telegraph an image in a rocky desert, which appears to be vaguely skull shaped, has got internet forums are full of chatter,

The oddly shaped space boulder appears to show eye sockets and a nose leading to speculation it might be a Martian skull. One alien-spotter speculated: "The skull is 15 cm with binocular eyes 5 cm apart. The cranial capacity is approximately 1400 cc.There appears to be a narrow pointed small mouth, so this creature most likely is a carnivore."

Another joked: "The coronal ridge shows ample structure to support the musculature of antennae, although none are visible in this view. The nose area is broad and blunted as you would expect to see in a cold and windy landscape. Is he decapitated or is he buried up to his neck?

Hmm Mars has given some wonderful images for a certain section of humanity/ Back in the 70s we had the Face, more recently there was Bigfoot. and then the log and what looked like a decent patio. Now there’s a skull. Well I suppose it will keep some nutters occupied for a while

The Beehive Buddha

I must admit that I am a sucker for religious simulacra be it Allah in an aubergine or the Virgin Mary on a cheese toastie. Examples or pareidolia are common in Islam and Christianity, but I had not come across a Buddhist example before.

According to the Rochester (Minnesota) Post Bulletin the local Cambodian Buddhist community is abuzz over what they believe is a miracle at their temple in southeast Rochester: A wasp nest in the shape of a seated Buddha.

The nest, which is nestled in the eaves high above the entry to the Buddhists' hall, was spotted during a celebration in which community members give monks new robes. "Instead of the celebration we were having, we were paying attention to the beehive," said 35-year-old monk Sokunthea Thun.

Elder members of the Cambodian Buddhist community said they have never seen an apparition of the Buddha in their lifetimes. "The Buddha is trying to tell everybody to seek peace in their lives," said 70-year-old Voeun Sor.

The location of the nest is typical for paper wasps, said Kirk Payne, a naturalist at Quarry Hill Nature Centre in Rochester. "They'll make a comb that can be kind of be wave-like," he said. "I can imagine how they could make a shape like an undulating, Buddha-like figure."

The Buddha wasn't trying to send a message with the nests, but the insects were trying to communicate a Buddhist message, Thun said. "Bees can do this kind of miracle, so humans can also do miracles," he said. "Everywhere in this world, we humans need to follow in the bees' path to make peace and serenity."

Sometimes it’s a shame to be a sceptic. This is certainly one of those time even if the message would fall mainly on deaf ears.