Sideswipe: Feb 04: Gullible much?

Great story. Suspend disbelief.

A man named Chris Harrigan got heads scratching after sharing a story online which everyone hoped was true but probably wasn't, or you'd expect to have seen photos by now. Mr Harrigan said a friend of his was waiting for a train at Frankston when she noticed a man on the platform with some fish and chips. He wasn't eating them, just letting them cool. "This attracted a few seagulls, who began to circle the platform. Instead of shooing the birds away, the man offered them a few chips. He'd toss one a foot or so away from him. It was like he was beckoning them to come closer. He kept doing this, eking the chips out slowly, until there was a big group of seagulls in front of him, 15 or 20. A tiny army. He'd throw them a chip every now and then - just enough to keep the birds interested, but not enough to sate them. It was frustrating. They were getting angry. Squawking. It was like he was rearing them up for ... something. Then the train came, and everyone got on. But the man stayed on the ground with his chips. Just when the train was about to leave, it happened. Right before the doors closed, the man threw the entire bag of the fish and chips into the train. The entire flock of seagulls followed the bag. And the doors closed. Inside the train: pandemonium. The next train stop was five minutes away."

Map confusion

"No, Jeff, One News is depicting New Zealand's place in the world as it actually is, not how you have come to believe it to be because of Mercator projection world maps," writes Jeremy. "They are showing NZ from the point of view of an observer directly over NZ, looking down on a globe. Because of the curvature of the globe, Australia will appear at an angle to one side, distorted and lower than you imagine, because of the lines of latitude curving quite sharply to each side of NZ. Computer graphics mean we can now render planetary spheroids at any resolution or perspective we want - there is no reason to use distorted projections for depicting the world anymore now we have Google Earth and the like. Become familiar with the world as it actually is."

On her mind - can you relate?

Picture this

: I asked my wife to draw a picture of what was on her mind.

Here's what she did, the full picture

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