The Faces of Nature or Daydream Believing?

     It seems like some of us have the ability to "see," in natures random patterns, forms that resemble faces or animals. Raise your hand if you've seen dragons or french poodles in the clouds. Among scientific circles there is a general and realistic consensus that anthropomorphizing, the application of human emotion to animal behavior, is misguided. They would point out that your dog is not really 'kissing' you when you come home from work and his toothy grin is not an indication of a wry sense of humor. This quirk, though, is something very different but probably no less misguided. "Seeing things" doesn't suggest an obvious Darwinian advantage like believing animals have human emotions which may have promoted advantageous inter-species partnerships with dogs and horses. Who knows maybe daydreaming simply helped man pass the time between Saber-tooth Tiger attacks.

When the Mars orbital spotted a humanoid face on the Cydonia plateau speculation arose that we had inadvertently discovered an Egyptian like statue on a distant planet. Who among us didn't want to believe? When subsequent fly overs, using cameras with better resolutions, cast doubt on this theory many of us were let down. While I no longer believe there is a face on Mars I have seen faces elsewhere that are still unexplained.

                                 
                                      A Jack-o-Lantern grin on the back of a Dragonfly.
 
 
 

 
                    Here we find a one eyed ghoul with a double chin eating a rat, or perhaps a beaver.
                                                                           Could be!