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[Dina]

Hello!! I`dlike to raise an interesting theme about lefthanders. Please all interesting articles and questions about it, place here.

[Dina]

What does it mean to be the lefthander?

Brain organisation
No-one has come up with a definitive reason for WHY some people are left-handed, but about 13% of the population around the world are, and it is thought to be genetic - it definitely runs in families. Researchers have recently located a gene they believe "makes it possible to have a left-handed child " so if you have that gene, one or more of your children may be left-handed, whereas without it, you will only have right-handers - sorry! The good news is, that if you are left-handed yourself, you have that gene and will pass it on through the generations!

The way the brain works is incredibly complex, but this simplified explanation will give you some understanding of where our left-hand dominance comes from. The brain is "cross-wired" so that the left hemisphere controls the right handed side of the body and vice-versa and hand dominance is connected with brain dominance on the opposite side - which is why we say that only left-handers are in their right minds!
The left hemisphere (RIGHT HAND CONTROL) controls Speech, Language, Writing, Logic, Mathematics, Science, this is the LINEAR THINKING MODE.

The right hemisphere (LEFT HAND CONTROL) controls Music, Art, Creativity, Perception, Emotions, Genius, this is the HOLISTIC THINKING MODE

[Dina]

Left-handedness test
We all, of course, know in which hand we hold a pen, but how far does this bias extend throughout your body? Are you left-eared? Left eyed? Here is a simple test you can apply to yourself.

wEmily left hand writing.JPG (20.74 KiB) Viewed 48 times

1. Imagine the centre of your back is itching. Which hand do you scratch it with?
2. Interlock your fingers. Which thumb is uppermost?
3. Imagine you are applauding. Start clapping your hands. Which hand is uppermost?
4. Wink at an imaginary friend straight in front of you. Which eye does the winking?
5. Put your hands behind your back, one holding the other. Which hand is doing the holding?
6. Someone in front of you is shouting but you cannot hear the words. Cup your ear to hear better. Which ear do you cup?
7. Count to three on your fingers, using the forefinger of the other hand. Which forefinger do you use?
8. Tilt your head over on to one shoulder. Which shoulder does it touch?
9. Fixate a small distant object with your eyes and point directly at it with your forefinger. Now close one eye. Now change eyes. Which eye was open when the fingertip remained in line with the small object? (When the other eye, the non-dominant one, is open and the dominant eye is closed, the finger will appear to move to one side of the object.)
10. Fold your arms. Which forearm is uppermost?

If you have always considered yourself to be right or left-handed you will probably now have discovered that your body is less than total in its devotion to its favoured side. If you are right-handed the chances are that you were not able to be 'right' 10 times.

[Dina]

Famous lefthanders
Left-Handed U.S. Politicos
Senator Bill Bradley, Rhodes scholar, basketball star
McGeorge Bundy, presidential advisor
Benjamin Franklin, statesman/publisher/scientist
Steve Forbes, businessman/publisher
Jean-Marc Froidevaux ?, Swiss politician
Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Supreme Court Justice
Senator Daniel Inouye

Daniel Inouye,official Senate photo portrait.jpg (22.72 KiB) Viewed 47 times

Anthony Kennedy, Supreme Court Justice
Alan Keyes, US Senator, US Ambasador
Brigadier Gen. Lee Hsien Loon, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore
John McCain, US SenatorB
Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense
Col. Oliver North, White House aid
H. Ross Perot, businessman
William Perry, Secretary of Defense
Nelson Rockefeller, Vice President
Senator Hugh Scott
Robert Wagner, New York mayor
Henry Wallace, Vice President
Left-Handed Authors
James Baldwin, novelist
Bet Bowen, horror novelist
Peter Benchley, novelist
Lewis Carroll
Richard Condon, novelist
Jean Genet
Marshall McLuhan

MarshallMcLuhan.JPG (7.56 KiB) Viewed 47 times

Diane Paul
Helen Hooven Santmyer, novelist
Viktoria Stefanov
Samuel C. Warner (?), poet
H.G. Wells
Jessamyn West
Left-Handed Musicians
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, composer
David Byrne (Talking Heads)
Glen Campbell
Vicki Carr
Natale Cole
Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)
Phil Collins (Genesis)
Dick Dale (guitarist)
Bela Fleck, jazz musician
Glenn Frey (the Eagles)
Eric Gale, guitarist
Noel Gallagher (Oasis) (?)
Errol Garner, jazz pianist
Judy Garland
Crysal Gayle
Kevin Griffin, guitarist & lead singer (Better than Ezra)
Thomas Hedley, vocalist/musician
Jimi Hendrix
Isaac Hayes

Isaac Hayes.jpg (7.39 KiB) Viewed 47 times

Tony Iommi, guitarist (Black Sabbath)
Albert King, guitarist
Melissa Manchester
Chuck Mangione, trumpet
Martina McBride ?, country music singer
Paul McCartney (the Beatles; Wings)
Christie Marie Melonson (opera)
George Michael (Wham!)
Peter Nero, conductor
Joe Perry ? (Aerosmith)
Robert Plant (Led Zepplin)
Cole Porter, song-writer
Sergei Rachmaninoff ?, composer
Maurice Ravel ?, composer
Lou Rawls
John Lydon a.k.a. Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols / Public Image Ltd.)
Rich Szabo, trumpeter
Seal
Ringo Starr (?) (the Beatles)
Paul Simon (Simon & Garfunkel)
Tiny Tim
Rudy Valee
Lenny White, drummer
Paul Williams, song-writer

And others..........

[Dina]

Interesting article for you "Left-handed children "do badly at school"

By Richard Garner, Education Editor
Children who are left-handed or ambidextrous perform worse at school than right-handers, according to a study of national curriculum test results. Left-handed girls fare worse than boys: while left-handers from both sexes start off performing worse, girls fail to catch up with their right-handed peers during later school life.

Those who are ambidextrous from both sexes also fail to bridge the gap in performance, according to the study carried out by researchers from the University of Bristol for the Economic and Social Research Council. The researchers, who looked at the results of more than 10,000 children, reveal that left-handers perform less well in IQ tests and tests for 11- and 14-year-olds.

"Left-handed children perform worse than right-handed ones in terms of cognitive outcomes at ages eight, 11 and 14," they conclude. "The gap between left-handed girls and right-handed girls is larger than the gap between left-handed boys and right-handed boys ... there is no sense of catching-up in non-right-handed girls.

"Mixed-handers of both genders do less well than right-handed children across a wider range of outcomes".

On average a left-hander has test scores 1 per cent below right-handers.

The performance of the ambidextrous students is more troubling. "Children with 'mixed-handedness' have lower development, which first appears in the early years but remains present at age 14, particularly for girls," the research says.

The study, by Professors Paul Gregg, Carol Propper and Katharina Janke, found that about 10 per cent of children were left-handed and about 7.5 per cent ambidextrous. One theory put forward for the poor performance of ambidextrous children is that they may have become mixed-handed due to lack of parental awareness of their development and less stimulation.

There is one bright spot on the horizon for left-handed boys: the research indicated there are more boy geniuses amongst left-handers than right-handers. Left-handed boys dominate the top and the bottom of the ability range.

[miss-universe]

Dina - You well done !!!
You have begun very interesting theme. Im the lefthander too. it was very interesting to read, that Im more cleverer than the right-handed person.
I would like to support you and to continue the begun theme. I have found interesting event about the lefthander.

[miss-universe]

Isn’t it something like the right handers are always at an unfair advantage over the left handers?? It has been observed that almost all the gadgets and PC peripherals are designed to suit a right hander. All the new gadgets, including the most commonly used peripheral devices like keyboard and mouse, are designed to suit right handers. This post is all about bettering the Windows’ experience for the left handers. Learn how to tweak windows to suit you better( if you are a left hander).
Tweak Windows:
Configuring the mouse to suit left handers is just like a child’s play. Follow the under given steps to configure your mouse:

1. Open Control Panel.

2. Search for the option labeled Mouse and double click to view its properties. A window like given below appears.

3. Check the option that says “Switch primary and secondary buttons” and click OK. Now your mouse has been configured to be used easily by a left hander.

Another thing that makes a left hander feel awkward is the mouse pointer that is angled to the left. To fix this problem, visit Tocows. Here you’ll find softwares that make available mouse pointers angled to the right. Download the setup, install it and select the new pointers from the mouse control panel we used earlier. But this time under the pointers tab.
What if I share my PC with a right hander?

In certain situations a PC can be a shared one, that is used by both the right handers and left handers. In such cases opening the control panel every time for mouse switching can be annoying. Downloading a software can make swapping possible just a keystroke away.

After installing this software you’ll be able to swap the mouse buttons and pointer angles by using the Ctrl + F12 key combination.
What if I want another way to sort out the problem?

Another way to to make things run smoothly is to attach two mice to the PC( one for the left hander and another for the right hander). Be sure that one mouse is a regular PS/2 type that plugs into back of the PC and another is the USB mouse. Also you can use an ambidextrous mouse which can be used both by right handed and left handed people. Have a look at ‘em here.
Using a left handed keyboard:

To make life of a left hander happier, buying a left handed keyboard is recommended as there is no tweak in window itself to configure a default right handed keyboard to work as left handed keyboard. You need to look for left handed keyboards in the market( which are not easily available and costly too).

leftkeyboard.jpg (11.82 KiB) Viewed 43 times

But don’t get heart broken. Another solution is, if you don;t want to spend a handsome amount in buying a left handed keyboard then you can go for a USB numeric keypad which is attached to normal keyboard. It’ll cost you lesser than a left handed keyboard.
Can I get the advantage of using two keyboards at the same time ?
Just like mice, you can attach two keyboards simultaneously to the PC(in case your PC is shared one ). In order to connect two keyboards to a PC you’ll need a switch box, that lets you switch between the keyboards.

[molly]

it was very interesting to read, that Im more cleverer than the right-handed person.

Hi! miss-universe. Be more cautious with such statements.
Im a right-handed, and Im not silly fool

[miss-universe]

Hey I did not mean anything bad. I know, that its all have invented for us lefthanders to calm, tell that if we lefthanders, here there is nothing bad. Believe, its sometimes difficult to me to live, operating with the left hand.
Hey!!! don't be offended

[molly]

I wasn't serious

[miss-universe]

The left-handed people often feel the discomfort using the objects that are usually created for the use of only right-handed people. Many instruments and equipment is developed in such way that it is comfortable to use with the right hand.

[miss-universe]

Statistic data shows that the adult people stop being left-handed with the lapse of time. Their young left-handed companions are the left-handed people who have more chances to die being left-handed. In the USA about 12% of people of 20 years old are left-handed while only 5% of 50-years old people and less than 1% of 80-years people are left-handers.

These researches show that the life interval of people that are left-handed is shorter than the life interval of right-handed people. They live nine years less than right-handed people. Scientists explained it with the fact that left-handed people probably die from the accidents or in the result of serious catastrophes that make them more awkward and badly provided to survive in the world destined for right-handed people.

Investigations explained the great differences between the age groups by the fact that before people tried to re-teach all left-handed people making them write eat, go in for sports using the right hand. The adult people that are the natural left-handers probably experienced that. However such consideration doesn't explain all reasons and the fully extinction of left-handers is still the fact without any explanations.

Another theory says that some left-handers change their hands in the process of life because of the necessity to correspond to the society and biological necessity.

[miss-universe]

Some investigations demonstrate the positive correlation between the left-handed phenomenon and the creative abilities. Some investigators say that the proportion of left-handed people increases and left-handed people as the group have higher percentage of the succeeded pupils. They claim that the mental abilities of left-handed people are structured in another way and have the wide range of abilities and that there are genes that determine the left-handed phenomenon and also rule the development of the vocal centres of the brain.

Researches made in 1970 in the Great Britain showed that about 11% of men and women at the age of 15-24 were the left-handed in compare with only 3% of people with the age 55-64. There are several factors that may influence the social factors that increased it. During the 18-19th centuries the attitude of people to left-handers was rather negative. When left-handed people become adults, they start to avoid people leading to the certain number of marriages and the children's birth. In the 20th century the discrimination of natural left-handed people who left being the left-handed people in adult life increased. The increased age of mothers made its contribution as according to statistics the older mothers give birth to left-handed children.

Practically it was established that women of 40 have the 128% more chances to give birth to left-hander than the young girls that are the left-handed ones.

Such increasing number of left-handed children could lead to the intellectual progress and the increase of the mathematic, artistic and sports geniuses. http://www.leftareright.com/lefthandedpeopleandintellect.html

[molly]

My God, likely in the near future will be the whole science about lefthanders

[miss-universe]

probably already is