Sideswipe: March 27: James is lichen it

James is lichen it.

"It made my day to see my lichen art-car in Sideswipe," writes James. "It's taken around five years of not washing to get it to this point — it's a great car, WOF and rego, just dirty. And I'm doing my bit to save the planet because it has its own eco-system."

Common cognitive biases

1. Declinism: You remember the past as better than it was, and expect the future to be worse than it will likely be. Despite living in the most peaceful and prosperous time in history, many people believe things are getting worse. The 24-hour news cycle, with its reporting of overly negative and violent events, may account for some of this effect.

2. Curse of Knowledge: Once you understand something, you presume it's obvious to everyone. Things only make sense when they make sense so it's hard to remember why they didn't. We build complex networks of understanding and forget how intricate the path to our knowledge really is.

3. Backfire Effect: When your core beliefs are challenged, it can cause you to believe it more strongly. We can experience being wrong about some ideas as an attack upon our very selves, or our tribal identity. This can lead to motivated reasoning which causes us to double-down despite disconfirming evidence.

Peek-a-boo pup

Peek-a-boo pup.

"A few houses down from ours they've cut a hole in their fence," writes Vicki. "So their dog can watch passers-by. We were passing by and we see him peeking through — in fact it's a corner house and they have a hole cut out each side."

When you gotta go home ...

You know that feeling when you are busting — long drive home on the motorway after three cups of tea — and as you get closer to home, the urge to pee becomes more intense? As you race to the front door the urge becomes unbearable ... There's a a scientific term for that, its called Latchkey Incontinence defined as "a loss of urine that occurs when one arrives home and puts the key in the lock of one's front door". (Via Melmagazine.com)

Just a matter of perspective

Just a matter of perspective.

Video pick

French native speakers try to pronounce fairly common words in English...

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