It does mean exactly that! You see it twice but it is not in two locations at once, therefore, one of those images is of a car that is somewhere other than where you are seeing it at.
The fact that atmospheric lensing is negligible for normal use in many situations does not imply that it does not occur. It cannot not occur. The laws of physics demand it. As I said, atmospheric lensing is very well understood phenomenon. Surveyors have to account for it all the time and they understand exactly why. It isn't a mystery or even a question.
Says who? It's the same atmosphere it's being seen through. Billions of dollars have been spent on fancy systems to help telescopes cope with Atmospheric refraction. Of course, Mr. Flat Earther probably thinks that's all just part of the Spherical Earth Conspiracy or something.
No, it isn't Dave! NO, IT ISN'T!!!! No No No!
Atmospheric refraction does happen. We know for a fact that it happens whether we are looking past the horizon or not. Atmospheric lensing is perfectly fine to use as an explanation of why things seem to do all sorts of things near the horizon even for Mr. Flat Earther. THE ONLY THING gravitation lensing is not allowed to be used for is to explain why we can see things that would otherwise be hidden by the curvature of the Earth. That's called a special pleading fallacy.
Thanks for finally responding to this, although I cannot understand why you're missing the point here. In fact, I have a hard time believing that you don't see it.
Here, let me draw you a picture...
View attachment 25299View attachment 25300
Both sets of arrows on the maps are drawn in the west to east direction. Notice that one goes around with Antarctica to the right and the other goes around with an ice wall on the left. One turns to the right, towards Antarctica to go around it and the other turns to the left, away from the ice wall to go around the whole world.
Once again, the number of miles you travel is not even a relevant question. The plain and simple fact of the matter is that a course around Antarctica as reported by Cook and which is cited by virtually every flat earther in existence, cannot have even been done at all if the world was flat because his starboard course corrections would have been turning his ship toward the ice wall rather than keeping him away from it.
