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A swastika in San Diego?
Updated 8-27-2006: Want to know more about these buildings? When were they built and why? Read our update [0].
Were the architects of this set of buildings [1] on a U.S. Naval base in San Diego trying to tell us something? It's doubtful, but I dare you to post this on a conspiracist discussion forum. Hilarity is sure to ensue, especially after you mention that it was built by the U.S. Government.
This image taken from Google Maps has been making the rounds so you may have already seen it, but it nicely illustrates the human mind's predilection for perceiving patterns and extracting meaning from them. In Gestalt Psychology this is called Prägnanz [2], the theory that our brains attempt to perceive and interpret our senses as a unified whole and not in discrete units. In particular, this image is an example of the Gestalt Law of Closure where our brain fills in the missing elements.
It's from the Gestalt school that we get a lot of the ideas (and problems!) that have influenced modern Cognitive Science/Psychology and Neuroscience. While many of the ways the Gestalt School sought to explain the phenomena they were describing have been outmoded, it's still highly influential and a useful tool for introducing people to some of the ways their brains and senses work to build up their mental map of the world.
BTW: If you're wondering where these buildings are... Naval Base Coronado [3].
If you zoom out on the Google map (linked to above) you'll see that these buildings are on the little rectangular peninsula that juts out from North Island in the upper right hand part of the photo below.
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Links:
[1] http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&hl=en&ll=32.676111,-117.157688&spn=0.002271,0.003605&om=1
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology#Pr.C3.A4gnanz
[3] http://www.nbc.navy.mil/index.asp?fuseaction=NBCInstallations.NASNI
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