Optical illusions

The Optillusions blog appears to be a collection of optical illusions, but there's something not quite right about it.

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

David Pescovitz

The “spot the shark one” is great. It took a couple minutes but now I can’t see anything but that damn shark.
- N M
  
  I seriously stared at it for like 3 minutes, trying not to blink, even though I examined the devils tuning fork beforehand and decided something was off… Sudden realization was achieved at minute 4.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Sparg-Otyebat/1818893984 Sparg Otyebat
    
    Must be one of those Illinois Suckers!
- bob d
  
  It looks like a swan to me.
- jimtron
  
  It took me five hours, but was well worth it. Though we should warn people–it’s very, very, very subtle.
GawainLavers

Awesome…intentional, or the danger of linking to someone else’s images?
awjt

HAHAHA! NICCCCCCEEEEEE!
microcars

That cube would have to be made in three dimensions in order to work!
Craig Kaplan

These remind me of the excellent Neil Illusions from April 1st, 1971 (via Ironic Sans).
http://twitter.com/spanishNY Roberto C M

The one about the shark is really funny to me. Whenever I see one of those images, the only I need to do is taking off my glasses, and I can see those shapes right away, without staring at the point. I just take off my glasses and see the shark figure. Tail to the left, head to the right of the image.
Teller

I get a similar vibe from art gallery remarks.
Cepphus Grylle

It is very cool how the “devil’s tuning fork” at first looks like it has 2 prongs but when you look at it really closely and cross your eyes just so, you see it actually only has two prongs.

It is amazing how the mind works, just making them round cylinders at one end and rectangular bars at the other tricks your mind into believing that there really are two prongs when in fact it has at least, no more than two.
- jimtron
  
  What–you’re crazy! I’ve been studying that for hours, and I can say with complete certainty that there are TWO prongs. Check again.
  - microcars
    
    but the other end has only TWO rectangular bars!
    You can’t explain that.
http://www.mrericsir.com MrEricSir

I’ve considered doing a similiar site for recpies, but concluded that it was just too mean.
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  Some Fanny Craddock recipes make me think that was her plan all along.
jeligula

That was absolutely hilarious.
bo1n6bo1n6

My eyes are broken after that five minute stare, pretty sure it gave me a cataract. Still no shark…
- MaxEmerika
  
  Do you give up on everything after only five minutes? You just need to try harder.
  - bo1n6bo1n6
    
    I see it now. It’s the most beautiful shark in the galaxy.
Glen Able

That staircase is completely mad – you could go round and round it forever and never get to either the top or the bottom of your house!
m m

enlightening
Samuel Slaton

Haha – this is wonderfully cruel.
http://www.zachstronaut.com/ zachstronaut

The web is a truly magical place. I love that some human took the time to do this.
magicdragonfly

Weird. No sharks for me. All I could see was pandas. Five of them. Did anyone else see them?
- http://twitter.com/espostor Ryan Esposto
  
  Nothing but turtles for me.
  - http://about.me/rosemwelch Rose M. Welch
    
    I also saw turtles, all the way down.
chaoskittenii

Ah, the visual puzzle equivalent of the single entendre.
wrybread

The website itself is an optical illusion.
mennucc

this humor is so dry that I cannot laugh while drinking
Peter Yard

Hmm. Is this a gullibility test? Because there’s nothing wrong with many of the things shown. The cube is just a regular box shape. The stairs are not paradoxical. Nah. These are not as advertised. Clever trick though.
- http://twitter.com/bret_martin Bret Martin
  
  I can’t decide whether you missed the joke or if you are making a meta-joke to troll people to tell you you missed it.
  - Peter Yard
    
    I thought at first it was an in-joke. Then I started to think, “no I think they actually believe this.” There then followed a mind spinning few moments where I wasn’t sure if I was part of a joke or peer pressure was creating a reality. Either way I thought … “stuff it” … so I barged in. Yeah, totally shameless.
http://aqfl.net Ant

Mighty Optical Illusions is a good one too!
Petzl

I think the site should be called Optical Illusion Illusions.

At first I thought the Checkerbox illusion was discordant because: here was a real illusion. No, however. If you color-sample it, he’s doctored it so they actually are different shades (!)
Scratcheee

Actually, the real version of the chessboard illusion is my all time favorite. I have cut out a square and moved it back and forth, and dang if it doesn’t match them both.

The board on this site is broken though.