The key purpose of computers, it seems, is to waste time finding weird
stuff posted on the Internet and then forward it to all of your friends.
Along with jokes about blondes and e-mails that say “send this chain
letter on or you’ll face certain death,” messages full of optical
illusions have always been popular.
One site, Optical Illusions, has a collection of literally hundreds of them, from the old lovers-two singers to the thing shown at right (Can you see the dragon, saint, the face and the box?).
But not every optical illusion is some impossible object conceived by M.C. Escher and
other artists of yesteryear.
In fact, there are new illusions being
created all the time, and there’s even a website offering a yearly contest devoted to
celebrating them. One of the best in recent years is “The Leaning Tower Illusion,” according to the Neural Correlate Society, which hosts the annual contest.
Unlike the “Leaning Tower,” most of this year’s Top 10
include some sort of motion through YouTube or a hosted Flash image.
Some even include interactive features that let you peel away the layers
or alter the intensity of the illusion.
The site also includes the Top
10 from 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Between the contest winners and Optillusion.com, you’ve got plenty
of fodder for your next mass e-mail.
What? You’ve got work to do? Come on, do we really need another report?
Or more medical bills billed? And inventory to control? Come on, the
inventory’s pretty much in the same place it was last week!
Instead, Comics on the Brain urges you to use your computer for what it
was originally meant to do — waste time. Now get cracking!
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