thot there's a nukular 'sploshun. purty.

Is it so obvious? Perhaps I squandered all the time in my youth I should have been looking at pictures of nuclear explosions, because I thought it could potentially be all kinds of other things.

That's a glurge spore.

Joshua trees exploding.

my first thoughts:

1) pollen grain

2) piece of hail

3) H-Bomb explosion

the tiny sillouettes in the foreground then sold me on #3.

It's da Bomb!

Since it's on (US) land it is a fission bomb. We popped all of our fusion bombs in the Pacific.

A certain surreal beauty about it.

"Hell Fire." They see the face of the devil.

I think I ought to get a free copy of "HOSS" for answering this one.

Matthew,

Curse you for knowing that! I see the face of the devil IN YOUR COMMENT!

Seriously, though, you do deserve a free copy of HOSS. Send me some email so we can make sure that happens on that glorious day.

And... do you remember where you read "Hell Fire"? I think I saw it in an anthology of short short stories, all of them a page or two long -- ie, not an Asimov anthology.

(curse)

E-mail it is.

And while I appreciate your generosity, I'd be happy to pay for the book... should it ever come out.

I'd even pay extra to have it signed (and extra-extra to have it signed in blood).

I read "Hell Fire" in an all-Asimov paperback called "Earth is Room Enough" that I was lucky to get cheaply at a curb sale.

If it makes you feel better, I didn't know that was an explosion. My first thought was actually "Maybe it's a Metroid." (I belong to a pretty weak generation for both politics and science fiction.)

Matthew,

Actually, all copies will come signed in blood, whether you want them to or not.

And, thank you for your meteoroid admission. I think we can agree that if everyone made it their mission to make me feel better about everything, the world would be a better place.

That (Asimov one) was a good story.

This post reminded me of the "Faces in the Smoke (Clouds)" stories of seeing the Devil at the WTC attacks. ( http://www.snopes.com/rumors/wtcface.htm ) (warning: third image fake).

Is this a case of seeing what we want to see? Are we anthropomorphizing? Or even satanopomorphizing, for those of us with Judeo/Christian/Muslim backgrounds (not necessarily beliefs, simply backgrounds).

Interesting blog. You write well, Johnathan, though I fear I respectfully disagree with much of what you write.

Best Regards,
Holmwood

It looks like the Pillsbury Doughboy had a bit too many croissant rolls, while laying on his back and prairie doggin' it... Wait... no it's an explosion!!!

Oh, no-- it would've been understandable had I thought this was a "meteoroid." I was thinking of a "Metroid"-- the video-game monster that looks a little like a jellyfish.

It's things like this which keep me humble.

Where did you get the image file? It is remarkable.

Holmwood,

I believe it's that our brains naturally seek out patterns in everything we see. For instance, when I had a cat I noticed that I would sometimes see "him" in the corner of my vision, but when I looked more directly it turned out to be something else colored black. My brain had just taken the incomplete data and turned it into something it was used to seeing.

Also, thanks for your kind words. Keep in mind that this site officially appreciates and encourages dissent from the party line. (Up to a reasonable point, of course; obviously from time to time we conduct a huge, bloody purge.)

Justin,

Go here and click on the "photo gallery" link and browse through it.