Each week we
explore a different topic in a 'not quite normal'
way.
See what fun stuff we come up with when we explore our next topic:
Schools
Let's take a
not-quite-normal look at
Left Hands
"August 13
is International Left-Handers Day"
Statistics show
left-handed
people are more likely to be schizophrenic, alcoholic, delinquent, dyslexic,
and have Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, as well as mental
disabilities. They're also more likely to die young and get into accidents. So
if evolutionary theory dictates survival of the fittest, why do lefties still
exist?
(see ABC
News Report)
Although no one is exactly sure how many
lefties there are, estimates range from 2% to 30%, with 10-12%
the most likely range. That puts the number at about 630 million to 750
million lefties worldwide. Since lefties are dominated by the right hemisphere
of the brain, that's a lot of people who claim to be "in their right mind."
But the left side has come to mean something not so right through the years.
The word "sinister" - which has come into English meaning "evil" - is almost
exactly the Latin word for left-handed. (Dexter meant right-handed. This has
the amusing result of illuminating the meaning of the word ambidextrous --
"right handed on both sides.") In other languages the word "left" also
has negative connotations. The word "left" itself is from an old saxon
word "lyft," meaning worthless. In French, left is "gauche," also meaning
"awkward" or "tactless.". The English word left
comes from the Old English left, meaning "weak."
Southpaws Why are lefties
sometimes referred to as “southpaws”? It’s a term that apparently originated
in sports. The most common explanation is that it had to do with the typical
layout of a major league baseball field. A left-handed pitcher would end up
facing south as he finished throwing the ball. However, some experts believe
the term was actually in use as a wrestling term before there was such a thing
a major league baseball, so the true origin is uncertain.
Stewardesses
is the longest word that is typed with only the left
hand.
The custom of shaking hands
comes from medieval times. When two people met, they would hold each other's
right hand. As weapons were usually carried in the right hand, this would
show that neither of them was carrying a weapon. Lefties could not be
trusted because they could shake their enemy's right hand and hold a sword
behind them with their left hand.
The Bible
contains about 25
unfavorable references to the left hand. In the best known example, in the
Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says: "When the Son of man shall come in his glory,
and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his
glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations: And he shall separate
them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And
he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then
shall the King say unto them on his right hand, 'Come, ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world.' ... Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, 'Depart from
me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels.'" (Matthew
25:31-34, 41)
Here's one evolutionary -
and revolutionary - theory on
why there are
more
righties than lefties. And here's another theory on why
the right-hand is most often chosen: William Calvin's Throwing Madonna
theory. It goes like this: Our hearts pump blood out on the left. That's
where the heartbeat is loudest, so an infant is happiest when its mother
carries it on her left side. That means the active arm must be the right
one. If the mother has to throw a stone at a lurking jackal, she has to do
so with her right hand.
Polar Bears
Many researchers
claim that all polar bears are left-handed. This assertion seems to be based
on a long-held belief among native people in polar bear regions. However, it
is unclear whether this belief is based on physical reality, or whether it
is a philosophical concept.
Lefties encounter more problems
in everyday life than we righties might imagine. The following common tools
all require left-to-right wrist turning movements more comfortable for
right-handers: corkscrew, rotary dial phone, analog clock-setting &
winding, screws, lightbulbs, etc. The following are specifically designed to
be used in a right-handed fashion: scissors, can openers, coffee makers,
computer keyboards (numeric keypad on right), calculators and pushbutton
phones (left-to-right array), golf clubs, many musical instruments
(especially stringed), cars built in right-lane countries, most hand-held
power tools (drills, saws), etc. (check out some ways that
lefties have found to
write differently than righties) Here are a few sites that offer
everything for a lefty, from a corkscrew to Swiss Army Knives, and anything
in between.
The Left Hand - Your
Source for Left-Handed Products
Left
Handed Shop
Left-Handed.com
left-handed.com
Lefthanded - Left Handed
Products - Large Selection!
Left
Hand Zone.com left-handed products, gifts & novelty items
Join the left-handers club
and receive
their free newsletter
Back
to top
Famous Lefties
Here's a very partial list of famous lefties. To see a
much longer list - I didn't even begin to mention athletes here- go to
More famous lefties
Gerald Ford
Ronald Reagan
George H.W. Bush
Bill Clinton
Benjamin Franklin
Col. Oliver North
H. Ross Perot
Alexander the Great
Charlemagne
Julius Caesar
Napoléon Bonaparte
Joan of Arc
Queen Victoria of England>
King George II of England
King George VI of England
Prince Charles
Fidel Castro
Henry Ford
Helen Keller
David Letterman
Richard Simmons
Euell Gibbons
John Dillinger
Boston Strangler (Albert Henry DeSalvo)
Jack-the-Ripper
Bart Simpson
Lewis Carroll
Mark Twain
Albert Einstein
H.G. Wells
Natale Cole
Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)
Phil Collins
Don Everly (The Everly Brothers)
Phil Everly
Judy Garland
Crystal Gayle
Ringo Starr (the Beatles)
Paul Simon (Simon & Garfunkel)
Tiny Tim
Rudy Valee
M.C. Escher
Michelangelo
Leonardo da Vinci
Dan Aykroyd
Tim Allen
Carol Burnett
George Burns
Tom Cruise
Kermit the Frog
Big Bird (the right hand is used to move the 4.5
pound head)
Rock Hudson
Angelina Jolie
Richard Pryor
Robert Redford
Keanu Reeves
Don Rickles
Julia Roberts
Jerry Seinfeld
Ryan O'Neal
Sarah Jessica Parker
Bruce Willis
Oprah Winfrey
Whoopie Goldberg
Betty Grable
Cary Grant
Robert DeNiro
Jay Leno
Back to top
If you've made it this far,
you deserve a look at some of nature's left-handed
oddities.
By
definition, a
right-handed particle is one that rotates in the direction
of the fingers while traveling in the direction of the thumb. Similarly, a
left-handed particle rotates in the opposite direction.
Two-thirds
of chimps prefer their right hand.
Left-handed Quartz
This article, although a somewhat
lengthy answer, should give the reader an understanding of the problem of to
determine the "handedness" of quartz crystals.
Right and Left hand
quartz crystals,
TOPSY TURVY: THE FIRST TRUE "LEFT HANDED" MATERIAL
has been devised by scientists at the
University of California at San Diego. In this medium, light waves are
expected to exhibit a reverse Doppler effect. That is, the light from a source
coming toward you would be reddened and the light from a receding source would
be blue shifted. The UCSD composite material, consisting of an assembly of
copper rings and wires , should eventually
have important optics and telecommunications applications.
TOPSY
TURVY: THE FIRST TRUE "LEFT HANDED" MATERIAL
Left-Handed Neutrinos The
relative orientations of spin and linear momentum for neutrinos and
antineutrinos is apparently fixed and intrinsic to the particles.
For neutrinos the spin is always
opposite the linear momentum and this is referred to as "left-handed", whereas
the antineutrinos are always "right-handed".
Does this make sense to anyone out there?
Left Hand
Rule for motors.
The first finger points in the direction of the magnetic field (first -
field), which goes from the North pole to the South pole.
The second finger points in the direction of the current in the wire
(second - current).
The thumb then points in the direction the wire is thrust or pushed while
in the magnetic field (thumb - torque or thrust).
Left Hand
(Western) Mitten
at Monument Valley, Utah
Go Whitewater Rafting
at Left Hand Canyon, CO
