My new camera has pareidolia.
Yeah, it has.
It has a face detector — it show white frames when it thinks it has a human face in its view. (Pet owners are out of luck, I guess.) And sometimes it flashes the face frame when there’s no face in sight, just a knot of something else.
Pareidolia… full electric!
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So there’s really a creature called a Rock Ptarmigan, eh?
And this is supposed to be a real animal, with a name that sounds like something out of Dungeons and Dragons with vast pterodactyl wings, fangs of living stone! and the ability to do a brown trouser job on all opponents in sight, 1/turn. (After three rounds, characters suffering this will be affected by dehydration and encumbrance, and -3 to Charisma per hit.)
Rock Ptarmigan, really? With a name that sounds like it’s a tougher version of the Gravel Ptarmigan, though less dangerous than the Lavaspout Ptarmigan. (No, wait, that’s a critter in Magic: the Gathering if anywhere. Cost 3RR, 1/1, flying and haste, deals 2 damage to each player whenever it attacks. Flavor text: “The droppings of this pigeon don’t stain statues, but melt them.”)
Or how about the dread Garmin, the Ptarmigan Emperor? ”I do not suffer fools lightly”, he said. ”Maybe I will let you go. After all your goal is already in sight — if you but look straight down. Mua ha ha! Ptarmigan High Guard, into battle formation! Let’s show our intruder’s people what happens to those who dare rouse the wrath of Garmin, the Ptarmigan Emperor! Dive! Dive! Dive!”
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And speaking of “Dive! Dive! Dive!”, here’s some solo Bruce Dickinson:
