‘Contemplating’, a photo of a face in an iceberg that looks strinkingly like Batman. Photo via Mike Parsons/Facebook
Some men just want to watch the world burn — or warm up through climate change. But this stoic iceberg will protect us, or die trying.
Is this what happens when Mr Freeze finally gets the better of Batman?
Most people around the world can look at clouds to find interesting shapes, but residents of Newfoundland and Labrador have iceberg formations to excite their eyeballs.
Like Mike Parsons, who shared the photo he titled Contemplating to the Facebook page, Growing Up In Newfoundland back in July 2014.
‘Contemplating’ by Mike Parsons. Photo via Mike Parsons/Facebook
Though he did see a face in the ice, Parsons told the National Post that he didn’t make the Batman connection until Buzzfeed picked it up and the rest is viral history.
Batman becomes Batberg
The resemblance is uncanny as is, but, if you’re struggling, Reddit user stealthtrojan has helped by colouring him.
Iceberg Batman in colour. Image via stealthtrojan/Reddit
Buttermynuts goes one step further to prove that this is the hero Newfoundland deserves.
Batberg vs Joker. Image via Buttermynuts/Reddit
This summer, Parsons shared a second photo of the ‘Batberg’ from a different angle on Twitter, and followed it up the next month with another stunning iceberg image (though no hero lookalikes this time).
Face in #iceberg of Little Bay Islands, NL 2014 @IcebergTweets @CentralNL @NTVNewsNL @CBCNL pic.twitter.com/edOpCfM0kT
— Mike Parsons (@mikeptweet) June 7, 2015
Blue #Iceberg off Little Bay Islands,Newfoundland @IcebergTweets @CentralNL @CBCNL @NTVNewsNL pic.twitter.com/8zbaXVabIm
— Mike Parsons (@mikeptweet) July 6, 2015
But it was the perfect backstory provided by Reddit user H3adOrAliv3 that has propelled the Batman iceberg back into our viral consciousness. You see: its parents melted, so now it fights global warming.
Iceberg pareidolia
The iceberg photographed by Parsons was about the size of a small bungalow and it was floating near his home in Little Bay Islands.
These large icy masses are primed for pareidolia – the psychological phenomenon wherein the human mind sees familiar images, such as faces, where they don’t exist.
This misperception is shared by many of us, and CBC News Newfoundland & Labrador collected a gallery of iceberg pareidolia from readers who saw seal pups, Angry Birds and faces in the icy masses.
It’s the same phenomenon that leads to observers spotting strange bodies on Mars and Reddit has an entire subreddit dedicated to pictures of pareidolia.
Gigglebit is Siliconrepublic.com’s daily dose of the funny and fantastic in science and tech, to help start your day on a lighter note.
