Sideswipe: December 22: Kim Jong-il as a sassy nurse

Kim Jong Un via Twitter

What untruth did you believe for the longest time?

1. I would get really frustrated when trying to do my hair when I was young and my mother told me it's because I have cowlicks. She proceeded to tell me that when I was a baby, she and my dad took me to a farm and put salt on my head and let a cow lick it. The hair stays that way permanently.

2. I was told that when they wrapped up the giant bales of hay in the white sheets, they were actually giant marshmallows that were harvested.

3. My dad has owned a general contracting business for 23 years. When I was a kid, I remember him talking about having to 'fire' people. My childhood mind thought my dad was brutally murdering these individuals with a flame thrower. I am still scared of him.

4. I thought people kept growing as they got older and that someone who is 90 must be a giant.

5. One day I saw my sister's stretch marks. I was something like 8 years old. I asked her what it was. She told me it was the scar of the tunnel that sand worms had dug in her when she was at the beach. I was so scared of sand for five or six years.

The science of selfies - what they really say about you

People make a lot of assumptions about your personality based on your selfies. In one 2015 study students at a Chinese university looked at selfies on a Chinese microblogging site. Most students assumed that pressed lips predicted openness and that being alone in a photo meant the person was neurotic. But these judgments were generally wrong. The only accurate observation students made was that positive emotion in a selfie generally predicted the person's openness to experience. Researchers also found that friendlier people were more likely to take pictures from below; more conscientious people were less likely to reveal a private space in the background; those who were open to new experiences were more likely to display positive emotions; and neurotic people were more likely to make a duck face. (IFL Science)

Jesus, look at the time

At Victoria University, even the earthquake damage is getting in the Christmas spirit.

Science: When presented with a mirror, male birds masturbate to their own reflection.

Media stuff ups: The annual list of media corrections from Poynter is amusing: "Because of an editing error, an article on Monday about a theological battle being fought by Muslim imams and scholars in the West against the Islamic State misstated the Snapchat handle used by Suhaib Webb, one of Muslim leaders speaking out. It is imamsuhaibwebb, not Pimpin4Paradise786." Read more here.

Video: Children from around the world talk abut what it means to be a boy or a girl...

Got a Sideswipe? Send your pictures, links and anecdotes to Ana at ana.samways@nzherald.co.nz