To portray meaningful relationships for a complex, three-­dimensional world on a flat sheet of paper or a video screen, a map must distort reality … [A] single map is but one of an indefinitely large number of maps that might be produced for the same situation or from the same data …” 

—Mark Monmonier, How to Lie with Maps 

The problem with perception and reality is that perception is so faulty as to be ostensibly unreliable.

Story here. No time to share.