Full Version: Lefties
Do you think Left handed people are any different from right handed people?
What does this have to do with UFOs and ET? 
Left handed people are aliens 
That would mean i am an alien
That would mean i am an alien
We can get a lot more sucker punches in. I've heard a lot of people spout stats that will have a shorter life expectancy, if its true or not is another matter.
QUOTE(cutycub @ Mar 19 2005, 06:19 AM)
Do you think Left handed people are any different from right handed people?
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Yes. They're all freaks
Now, unless you were joking, what sort of stupid question is that?
I don't mean to come off harsh, but how can someone who uses a different hand in day to day life be any different than someone who uses the other? The idea is ridiculous.
QUOTE(PODNickerz @ Mar 18 2005, 07:22 PM)
Left handed people are aliens
That would mean i am an alien
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That would mean i am an alien
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Shh, you're not supposed to tell the normals about that.
QUOTE(cutycub @ Mar 18 2005, 01:19 PM)
Do you think Left handed people are any different from right handed people?
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No, I don't.
QUOTE(cutycub @ Mar 19 2005, 05:19 AM)
Do you think Left handed people are any different from right handed people?
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YES...WE ARE WAY BETTER
Supposedly they had a twin.
I was born left-handed and I got 'converted' to right-handedness. My sister's still left-handed. I don't know, unconventional maybe.
Yes, it means they can reach the toilet roll-dispenser without leaning across themselves to get it!
I can use both hands. One of my teachers (for some reason) hates it when people use their left hand. 
Moe boxes south paw. This is right hand forward altho we are right handed. The advantage is that basically southpaws draw incorrect responses from orthodox fighters.
Moe also bats left but writes right handed.
Thank you for sharing Moe.
No problem Moe.
Moe also bats left but writes right handed.
Thank you for sharing Moe.
No problem Moe.
QUOTE(cutycub @ Mar 18 2005, 02:19 PM)
Do you think Left handed people are any different from right handed people?
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i heard a weird medical study in which they say that a people who are left handed die on average 5 yrs before right handed people, I personally dont agree with this, power to the lefties(hoorah)
My guy is a twin and he was "converted" into being a righty...he still uses his left hand for a lot of things though.
QUOTE(AliceCoopersGirl @ Mar 19 2005, 01:03 PM)
My guy is a twin and he was "converted" into being a righty...he still uses his left hand for a lot of things though.
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my teacher was also coverted ,s he says that she has a really hard time distinquishing from left and right
YES Power to the LEFTIES. i also heard of a wierd study that said that ppl who use their left hand use more of their right side of the brain, and if im not mistaken, that makes us more creative
lefties are awesome, i am not a lefty but, being a lefty is the ultimate nonconformist,,,,rock on 
No, I don't think that there is a deifference! Apparently, they do better in fights, as people who are fighting against them tend to predict a punch from the right, and are obviously caught unawares!
And about them being more creative, I think that this is just a rumor, as I know many creative right-handed people, including me! I regulary write stories and play many musical peices, and compose some.
And about them being more creative, I think that this is just a rumor, as I know many creative right-handed people, including me! I regulary write stories and play many musical peices, and compose some.
QUOTE
YES Power to the LEFTIES. i also heard of a wierd study that said that ppl who use their left hand use more of their right side of the brain, and if im not mistaken, that makes us more creative
You heard correctly. The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body (with the left controlling the right). A person being left handed suggests a certain bias towards the right hemisphere.
Excellent(insert burnsies accent)
dude , i didnt realize till now , what your avatar was about but now that iactually look at it ...it is friggin awesome Futurama is the cooliest
i seem to get that an exceptional amount of times Thanx man! btw i like anime too.
btw i like anime too.
I'm left-handed, it's awesome. I have a left-handed cheque book 
QUOTE(aztecking6010 @ Mar 19 2005, 06:12 PM)
QUOTE(AliceCoopersGirl @ Mar 19 2005, 01:03 PM)
My guy is a twin and he was "converted" into being a righty...he still uses his left hand for a lot of things though.
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my teacher was also coverted ,s he says that she has a really hard time distinquishing from left and right
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My guy still gets his left and right mixed up even now...but we get by(normally when we out in the car and I have to tell him to turn his way for right or my way for left)
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Since early times, there has been a strong bias against left-handers. One only needs to look at the word 'left', and where it is derived from in various languages, to see this. In French 'left' is gauche which can also mean 'ugly', 'clumsy' or 'uncouth'. In Italian 'left' is sinistra which is where our word 'sinister', meaning evil, comes from. This is similar in many other Latin-based languages. Our English word 'left' itself comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lyft, meaning 'weak'.
Source
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They discovered a correlation between levels of violence and the proportion of the left-handed population – the more violent a culture, the higher the relative proportion of left-handers.
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This year, three Canadian scientists published a study which found some connection between left-handedness and homosexuality (1).
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Left-handedness common in Ice Age- Looking at 507 handprints from 26 caves in France and Spain, they deduced that 23% of them were right-handed, which indicated that they were made by left-handers.
In the general population today about 12% are left-handed, though populations vary considerably, between 3 and 30%.
In the general population today about 12% are left-handed, though populations vary considerably, between 3 and 30%.
Source
QUOTE
Left-handedness: Does it mean anything?
People who are left-handed are more dextrous with their left hand than with their right hand: they will probably also use their left hand for tasks such as personal care, cooking, and so on. Writing is not as good an indicater of handedness as it might seem, because many people who write with their right hand use their left for everything else.
Approximately 10-13% of the population is left-handed. People who can use both hands equally well are ambidextrous. True ambidexterity is rare.
Generally, males are three times more likely to be left-handed than females. Statistically, one twin of a pair has a 20% chance to be left-handed. Gay people may be up to 39% as likely to be left-handed as straight people (Habib, 2000).
Causes of left-handedness
No one knows for certain why the human population is right-handed-dominant, but a number of theories have been proposed.
Evolutionary theories: The warrior and his shield
This theory attempts to explain left-handedness by the position of a warrior's shield and his heart. Basically, since the heart is on the left side of the body, a warrior holding his shield with his left hand would be better able to protect his heart than if he held it with his right. Thus, a greater mortality of left-handers would explain the prevalence of right-handedness today.
There are a number of objections to this theory:
The heart is not that far off center. While it is on the left side of the body, it is still fairly central in location. Protecting it with a shield would only result in a weak selective pressure, and there have not been enough generations since the bronze age.
It predicts that more men would be right-handed than women. However, data indicates that more males are left-handed than females.
Analysis of ancient cave paintings indicate that humanity was right-handed long before the bronze age.
Brain hemisphere division of labour
This is the most commonly accepted theory of handedness. The premise of this theory is that since both speaking and handiwork require fine motor skills, having one hemisphere of the brain do both would be more efficient than having it divided up. And since in most people, the left side of the brain controls speaking, right-handedness would prevail. It also predicts that left-handed people would have a reversed brain division of labour. Lastly, since other primates do not have a spoken language (at least of the type we have) there would be no stimulus for right-handed preference among them, and that is true.
Objections:
It does not explain why the left hemisphere would always be the one controlling language. Why not 50% of the population left and 50% right?
While 95% of right-handers do indeed use the left side of the brain for speaking, it is more variable for left-handers. Some do use the right for linguistic skills, some use the left hemisphere, and others use both.
On the balance, it appears that this theory could well explain some left-handedness, but it has too many gaps to explain all left-handedness.
Is left-handedness genetic?
Handedness runs in families, although even when both parents are left-handed, there is only a 26% chance of their child being left-handed. Thus, it is clear that genetics is not the only cause. Handedness must also be influenced by some of the other theories presented here.
Apparantly, the Clan Kerr of Scotland built their castles with counter-clockwise staircases, so that a left-handed swordsmen would be better able to defend it. However, a 1993 study found no statistically significant increase in left-handedness among people with the family name Kerr or Carr.
Many members of the British royal family are left-handed. Genetics is usually used to explain this.
Environmental theories
Birth stress
Left-handed people cringe at this theory, because its basic premise is that left-handedness is due to brain damage during the birth process. Unfortunately, some statistics do back this theory up.
Difficult or stressful births happen far more commonly among babies who grow up to be left-handed or ambidextrous. Birth stress is also associated with a number of birth defects and complications, including cerebral palsy and autism.
But there are objections; you can breathe easy now:
Throughout history and throughout the world, the level of medicine and technology to assist with childbirth has improved. In spite of that, the proportion of left-handed people has not decreased. (In a sense, it has increased because more people see left-handedness as the benign trait it is.)
It does not explain why humans are right-handed by default, with only birth stress making them left-handed. It could, however, explain left-handedness in combination with some of the other theories presented here.
Parental pressure
This theory explains right-handed dominance by claiming that since the parents who raised us are mostly right-handed, we came to be mostly right-handed and so on.
Objections:
It does not explain how right-handed dominance started in the first place.
The handedness of children is more closely related to their biological parents than to adoptive parents.
It does not explain why left-handedness has persisted for so long.
Social stigma and repression of left-handedness
Throughout history being left-handed was considered as negative - the Latin word sinister meant "left". Hence the many negative connotations associated with the word "left-handed": clumsy, awkward, unlucky, insincere, sinister, malicious, and so on. There have been, however, many famous left-handed people, and the associated right brain hemisphere that is said to be more active in left-handed people, has been found in some circumstances to be associated with genius and is correlated with artistic and visual skill.
Until very recently in Taiwan, left-handed people were strongly encouraged to switch to being right-handed (or at least, switch to writing with the right hand). It is more difficult to write legible Chinese characters with the left hand than it is to write Latin letters. Remember that "easy" and "difficult" depend on the person using those terms, so your writing may be neater. Because it is supposedly easier to write when moving your hand towards its side of the body, it is easier to write the Roman alphabet with your right hand than with your left. Conversly, Arabic and Hebrew, which go from right to left, would be easier to write with the left hand. Again, "easier" and "harder" are subjective.
It is possible that sun worship relates to the association of the left with evil. People in the northern hemisphere, looking south, would see the sun rise on their left, move rightwards across the sky, and set on their right. In the southern hemisphere the opposite happens. Among cultures from the southern hemisphere, right-handedness is still dominant. No study on left-side connotations from those cultures has been done.
However, since most sun-worshipping cultures see the setting sun as it dying or vanishing, the right side would indicate the negative associations associated with a setting sun. This is the opposite trend from that.
Left-sidedness
In humans
Studies show that left-handedness does not necessarily correspond with "left-sidedness" (using your left foot to kick with, for example). The same thing holds with "eyedness."
In animals
Most primates also exhibit a preference for using one hand over the other although their populations are not right-hand preferential.
People who are left-handed are more dextrous with their left hand than with their right hand: they will probably also use their left hand for tasks such as personal care, cooking, and so on. Writing is not as good an indicater of handedness as it might seem, because many people who write with their right hand use their left for everything else.
Approximately 10-13% of the population is left-handed. People who can use both hands equally well are ambidextrous. True ambidexterity is rare.
Generally, males are three times more likely to be left-handed than females. Statistically, one twin of a pair has a 20% chance to be left-handed. Gay people may be up to 39% as likely to be left-handed as straight people (Habib, 2000).
Causes of left-handedness
No one knows for certain why the human population is right-handed-dominant, but a number of theories have been proposed.
Evolutionary theories: The warrior and his shield
This theory attempts to explain left-handedness by the position of a warrior's shield and his heart. Basically, since the heart is on the left side of the body, a warrior holding his shield with his left hand would be better able to protect his heart than if he held it with his right. Thus, a greater mortality of left-handers would explain the prevalence of right-handedness today.
There are a number of objections to this theory:
The heart is not that far off center. While it is on the left side of the body, it is still fairly central in location. Protecting it with a shield would only result in a weak selective pressure, and there have not been enough generations since the bronze age.
It predicts that more men would be right-handed than women. However, data indicates that more males are left-handed than females.
Analysis of ancient cave paintings indicate that humanity was right-handed long before the bronze age.
Brain hemisphere division of labour
This is the most commonly accepted theory of handedness. The premise of this theory is that since both speaking and handiwork require fine motor skills, having one hemisphere of the brain do both would be more efficient than having it divided up. And since in most people, the left side of the brain controls speaking, right-handedness would prevail. It also predicts that left-handed people would have a reversed brain division of labour. Lastly, since other primates do not have a spoken language (at least of the type we have) there would be no stimulus for right-handed preference among them, and that is true.
Objections:
It does not explain why the left hemisphere would always be the one controlling language. Why not 50% of the population left and 50% right?
While 95% of right-handers do indeed use the left side of the brain for speaking, it is more variable for left-handers. Some do use the right for linguistic skills, some use the left hemisphere, and others use both.
On the balance, it appears that this theory could well explain some left-handedness, but it has too many gaps to explain all left-handedness.
Is left-handedness genetic?
Handedness runs in families, although even when both parents are left-handed, there is only a 26% chance of their child being left-handed. Thus, it is clear that genetics is not the only cause. Handedness must also be influenced by some of the other theories presented here.
Apparantly, the Clan Kerr of Scotland built their castles with counter-clockwise staircases, so that a left-handed swordsmen would be better able to defend it. However, a 1993 study found no statistically significant increase in left-handedness among people with the family name Kerr or Carr.
Many members of the British royal family are left-handed. Genetics is usually used to explain this.
Environmental theories
Birth stress
Left-handed people cringe at this theory, because its basic premise is that left-handedness is due to brain damage during the birth process. Unfortunately, some statistics do back this theory up.
Difficult or stressful births happen far more commonly among babies who grow up to be left-handed or ambidextrous. Birth stress is also associated with a number of birth defects and complications, including cerebral palsy and autism.
But there are objections; you can breathe easy now:
Throughout history and throughout the world, the level of medicine and technology to assist with childbirth has improved. In spite of that, the proportion of left-handed people has not decreased. (In a sense, it has increased because more people see left-handedness as the benign trait it is.)
It does not explain why humans are right-handed by default, with only birth stress making them left-handed. It could, however, explain left-handedness in combination with some of the other theories presented here.
Parental pressure
This theory explains right-handed dominance by claiming that since the parents who raised us are mostly right-handed, we came to be mostly right-handed and so on.
Objections:
It does not explain how right-handed dominance started in the first place.
The handedness of children is more closely related to their biological parents than to adoptive parents.
It does not explain why left-handedness has persisted for so long.
Social stigma and repression of left-handedness
Throughout history being left-handed was considered as negative - the Latin word sinister meant "left". Hence the many negative connotations associated with the word "left-handed": clumsy, awkward, unlucky, insincere, sinister, malicious, and so on. There have been, however, many famous left-handed people, and the associated right brain hemisphere that is said to be more active in left-handed people, has been found in some circumstances to be associated with genius and is correlated with artistic and visual skill.
Until very recently in Taiwan, left-handed people were strongly encouraged to switch to being right-handed (or at least, switch to writing with the right hand). It is more difficult to write legible Chinese characters with the left hand than it is to write Latin letters. Remember that "easy" and "difficult" depend on the person using those terms, so your writing may be neater. Because it is supposedly easier to write when moving your hand towards its side of the body, it is easier to write the Roman alphabet with your right hand than with your left. Conversly, Arabic and Hebrew, which go from right to left, would be easier to write with the left hand. Again, "easier" and "harder" are subjective.
It is possible that sun worship relates to the association of the left with evil. People in the northern hemisphere, looking south, would see the sun rise on their left, move rightwards across the sky, and set on their right. In the southern hemisphere the opposite happens. Among cultures from the southern hemisphere, right-handedness is still dominant. No study on left-side connotations from those cultures has been done.
However, since most sun-worshipping cultures see the setting sun as it dying or vanishing, the right side would indicate the negative associations associated with a setting sun. This is the opposite trend from that.
Left-sidedness
In humans
Studies show that left-handedness does not necessarily correspond with "left-sidedness" (using your left foot to kick with, for example). The same thing holds with "eyedness."
In animals
Most primates also exhibit a preference for using one hand over the other although their populations are not right-hand preferential.
Source
Pretty interesting ideas on being left handed. I am a right handed person and I never saw any real difference in left handed people cept the fact if I sat next to one trying to write and we bumped elbows.
QUOTE(cutycub @ Mar 18 2005, 01:19 PM)
Do you think Left handed people are any different from right handed people?
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theres no differencce, just they can write different lol, some people can use both left and right handed!!
My Motto is
"Everyone is born right handed.The greatest overcome it!"
"Everyone is born right handed.The greatest overcome it!"
QUOTE(cutycub @ Mar 18 2005, 02:19 PM)
Do you think Left handed people are any different from right handed people?
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Uh, for one, they write and do everything else with their left hand...
Nothing else that that though.
Just like Moe, I kickbox favoring my left side, though I only do because it's my right eye that's missing, so when I go in my defensive stance, I stand with my left side facing the person. I'm more skilled kicking and punching with my left, but more power is in my right side.
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