NationStates Jolt Archive

Well, what are you? Left or Right?

...handed, that is...

Heh, with all of these ongoing and often heated debates around here, I figured I'd try to lighten things up with a frivolous little poll (the topic was inspired by another forum I visit)... I searched for this particular topic here, but didn't come up with any results, so I assume this hasn't been asked before...

So, are you left handed, or right handed?

Myself, I'm a lefty...

Being a lefty is cool... I like being in the minority... It sucks when you try to buy a baseball glove, though, because those things are rather rare compared to right-handed mits...

I write and throw things with my left hand, but I generally use scissors right-handed, and a few other minor tasks... Probably because most scissors are molded to be held in the right hand, I guess...

Also, a misconception about Lefties is that we write on paper vertically (turning the paper almost sideways, and writing up and down, "across" the paper)... I've only seen one lefty do that, and I assume that was because she was originally a right handed person, and lost the use of her right hand, so she had to learn to be a lefty... As far as I know, natural lefties don't write this way... At least, I don't...

And, as they always say "Lefties are the only ones in their Right minds!"

Anyways, what are you guys?

The writing thing - we do write a little funny, but that's just because we cover up what we've just written with our hand, and so it's a natural progression from not wanting to smudge the ink. And it helps us to see what we're writing better.

hahahah good one. Im right personally. You know in them oldern days being left handed was a sign of weakness they used to beat children till they leart to be amidexrous.

Me be right handed.

Righty. But I'd like to ambi. Not sure what that says about me.

NO COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY!

Righty. But I'd like to ambi. Not sure what that says about me.

NO COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY!

I'm a bit ambi - I play golf and bat in cricket right-handed, but that's a development because I could never get left-handed golf clubs at the local pitch and putt. Ned Flanders was just too late for me.

I guess we do write a little bit differently, like you said, to keep our hands raised off of the writing surface (so you don't smudge previous writing)...

Three-ring binders are also a real pain for Lefties... Those rings are under your writing arm, making it much harder to write, especially close the the left margin of the page... Heck, even spiral notebooks are sometimes uncomfortable...

And the point about golf clubs is as true as the part about baseball gloves... Left-handed golf clubs are also a rarity...

I know this first-hand from my experience in retail... In the Sporting Goods department, we'd get a box of gloves, and out of the 10-20 in a box, there would be only one left-handed mit... Same with golf clubs... In fact, we often wouldn't get any of them... They'd have to be special ordered...

So, being among the minority is often a pain... But like I said, I still like it...lol

I forgot to mention that I also bat right-handed (baseball)... I don't know why... I just never could get used to the left-handed stance (on the other side of the plate, hands reversed on the bat, etc)...

Partially ambidexterous from martial arts training. I can't do things like write that need close control with my left but most other tasks I can manage. Would like to be properly ambidexterous, my girlfriend is and she finds it really useful.

Hmm, being my normal predjudistic bastard I assumed this was a political stand so I went left, but I am righthanded. Whenever I write with my left hand it looks like the work of a three year old kid. Can't say my right one writes much prettier, but it's damn fast! Having played soccer as a goalie I have learnt to use it for many things, but still can't write with it. And when i shoot with my left foot it seems as if I have never practiced soccer...

Conclusion: I am very right handed.

I'm right handed. I use my left very rarely for anything.

I use my left for important things like flipping off stupid drivers. The window is on that side.

Left handed... and I curse the world for being right and making my life difficult!

I use the hand in the middle of my forehead.

Being a lefty is cool... I like being in the minority...
Unfortunately, you also die a lot earlier than the righties.
I'm partially ambidexturous myself. I can write with my left-hand if I concentrate - though not too flash. I can also write upside down, incidently (that's the page is facing away from me, not me being upside down)
I also use my fork and knife left-handed - but that's because my Dad, who was a leftie til it got beaten out of him at school, always set the table when I was a kid.
Another interesting stat: something like 1/4 of Mathematicians and maths teachers are lefties.
One thing that's very cool about being a leftie is your Latin name.

I'm right handed but largely because I was trained to be. When I was a toddler I had a tendancy to color and eat and do things with my left hand and the parents kept switching things to my right hand. That is what they told me at least. And it kinda makes sense. My personality and abilities fit more with the general profile of a left-handed person.

southpaws always get a bad rap

Im whatever hand has the silky smooth hand cream, i love you palmy

aww shit voted before reading......(politically im right) I am left handed. They say that most left-handed people think much differently then most people and thats why so many of them become very famous and/or successful in life(also Napoleon, Julius Ceaser, and Alexander the great were all lefties ;) )

aww shit voted before reading......(politically im right) I am left handed. They say that most left-handed people think much differently then most people and thats why so many of them become very famous and/or successful in life(also Napoleon, Julius Ceaser, and Alexander the great were all lefties ;) )
Joan of Arc and Einstein were, too. I'm right-handed :P

i hate when ppl try to change there kids from one hand to other usually left to right cuz they want their kids to be "normal" wtf is that

"you laugh bcuz im different i laugh bcuz ur all the same"

I love that one ^_^

Well, it may have got them a right-handed kid, but as much as they call me "weird" I don't think it got them a normal one.

All hail the ambidexterous people!

http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/left.html heres a good and accurate list of lefties

Heh, we are in a pretty elite group of fellow lefties... (of course, the significance of lists such as those is greatly diminished when you realize that for every 1 name on that list, there's probably 5 on a list of famous right-handed people...lol)

As far as the theory that we think differently goes, it might boil down to which side of the brain we favor... According to the popular theory on this, those who use their right hands favor the left side of their brain, while lefties favor the right side... (hence the quote "Lefties are the only ones in their Right mind"...lol)

And in correllation to that, they believe that the two sides of the brain are focused on different things... And depending on which half of your brain is stronger or more favored, you have a personality/thinking style to match...

Although, this theory is under some scrutiny as to how well it really holds up, but it might be true, and might explain why us lefties are often different from the righties...lol

And here's a site I found in a "left-handed" search (it makes some neat points, and discusses possible causes for left-handedness... I can't comment on how reliable it is, but it's still pretty interesting):

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/1892/lefthand/allabout.html

Well, it may have got them a right-handed kid, but as much as they call me "weird" I don't think it got them a normal one.

thats why normal is in quotation marks ^_^

I'm a leftie! (Southpaw if you will), its good times.

Its true that left handedness often breeds "alternative" forms of thinking, partially because their verbal and language skills reside in the right half of the brain (something that doesnt happen to right handed people).

Unfortunately theres also a higher levels of schizophrenia and other such mental troubles in left handed people. Go figure.

I'm right handed. *points to the callous on her finger* that's from holding my pen too tightly over the years.

All Polar bears are left-handed.

Just thought you might want to know.

I'm left handed, always have been,

it makes life very awkward, but it gives you a sense of individuality, and an excuse for being a psychotic weirdo

Well, what are you? Left or Right?

...handed, that is...

Heh, with all of these ongoing and often heated debates around here, I figured I'd try to lighten things up with a frivolous little poll (the topic was inspired by another forum I visit)... I searched for this particular topic here, but didn't come up with any results, so I assume this hasn't been asked before...

So, are you left handed, or right handed?

Myself, I'm a lefty...

Being a lefty is cool... I like being in the minority... It sucks when you try to buy a baseball glove, though, because those things are rather rare compared to right-handed mits...

I write and throw things with my left hand, but I generally use scissors right-handed, and a few other minor tasks... Probably because most scissors are molded to be held in the right hand, I guess...

Also, a misconception about Lefties is that we write on paper vertically (turning the paper almost sideways, and writing up and down, "across" the paper)... I've only seen one lefty do that, and I assume that was because she was originally a right handed person, and lost the use of her right hand, so she had to learn to be a lefty... As far as I know, natural lefties don't write this way... At least, I don't...

And, as they always say "Lefties are the only ones in their Right minds!"

Anyways, what are you guys?


woo hoo!! i'm a lefty to! i like being a left handed person but it does make some things awkward... and yeah i write relatively normally. i know a few left handed people who do this thing where they curve their arm over the top of the page and write from there, but i find this difficult, time consuming and more inportantly, my writing looks crap so i don't bother with it.
I fence with a university club and have earned for myself the nickname "damn lefty" which doesn't bother me cos being left handed in a situation like that is a psychological as well as physical advantage... but it does get annoying when people say "i don't know how you write like that i never could!"
but i do use a mouse with my right hand...

Three-ring binders are also a real pain for Lefties... Those rings are under your writing arm, making it much harder to write, especially close the the left margin of the page... Heck, even spiral notebooks are sometimes uncomfortable...


You could try turning it the other way up, and putting the paper in the wrong way round...
Personally I'm kinda right, kinda left, but not ambidextrous. So I voted other. I can do most things with either hand, but with varying levels of success. I can write both right- or left-handed, but easier with my right. Play pool (and snooker etc) and guitar left-handed, football (soccer) with both feet, golf right-handed (I'm shite left-handed).

You could try turning it the other way up, and putting the paper in the wrong way round...
Personally I'm kinda right, kinda left, but not ambidextrous. So I voted other. I can do most things with either hand, but with varying levels of success. I can write both right- or left-handed, but easier with my right. Play pool (and snooker etc) and guitar left-handed, football (soccer) with both feet, golf right-handed (I'm shite left-handed).

when you turn the paper upside down it just looks wrong...

I voted other because by birth I am left handed, however nobody seemd to notice this and I was raised writting with my right hand. This means I cannot write properly with either hand (exageration: with concentration I can write legably with my right hand), only I can actually read my handwritting; others find it hard to defferentiate between my (a,e,o,u,v,c)'s, also my f's and t's look similar. Basically I write like a child, on their first day of doing joined-up writting at school, on unlined paper.

Recently I've felt that we should just let lefties write mirror image, and people can just learn to read it (I can afterall). If that's too much trouble, they can write on transparencies and flip it over for righties to read.

I fence with a university club and have earned for myself the nickname "damn lefty" which doesn't bother me cos being left handed in a situation like that is a psychological as well as physical advantage...
Another interesting stat:
A study of 30 years of Fencing competitions found that 30% of competitors at World Fencing comps are left-handed and 50% are by the quarter-final stage.

Ever try to use scissors meant for lefties? It made me appreciate what they have to put up with. I hear that it is almost impossible for a lefty to open the door of a telephone booth too.

Another interesting stat:
A study of 30 years of Fencing competitions found that 30% of competitors at World Fencing comps are left-handed and 50% are by the quarter-final stage.


hey, thanks! hah, therefore i rock and should do really well in competitions!
gonna print this out and bring it to training :D

I love to be ambidextrous. It's really useful. Although I can't write with my left hand it's only because I've never actually tried.

hey, thanks! hah, therefore i rock and should do really well in competitions! gonna print this out and bring it to training :D
FYI:
"Left-Handedness: Sinister Origins"
The Economist, 15 February 1997, p. 80.

About 10% of men and 8% of women are left-handed, and archaeological evidence indicates that these percentages have been stable for thousands of years. By contrast, in species of mammals other than humans, right paw and left paw dominance seems to be evenly split. There are some observed disadvantages to left-handedness in humans. For example, left-handers tend to be shorter and older at puberty than right-handers, and, as reported by some controversial studies in recent years, they don't live as long. Thus the article asks why left-handedness has persisted in the population.

In the December 1996 edition of the Proceedings of the Royal Society, French evolutionary biologist Michel Raymond and several colleagues presented their hypothesis that left-handers have persisted because they have an advantage in fighting. The researchers studied college athletes at the University of Lyons as well as world-class competitors, and found that left-handers tend to be over-represented in sports where an opponent is confronted directly, such as fencing, boxing, baseball, and tennis. The effect is not found in sprinting or swimming, where contestants compete against the clock.

The findings for world-class athletes were the most striking. For confrontational sports, the lefty effect becomes stronger as the playing distance between opponents decreases. For example, 16.7% of world's top tennis players are left-handed. But from 1979 to 1993, 33% of the men's world foils competitors were left-handed; for those who reached the quarterfinals of competitions, the percentage was 50%. By contrast, in sports that involve the hands, but where there is no tactical advantage to left-handedness, no lefty effect was found. For example, about 10.7% of discus, javelin, and shot-put champions are left-handed, which is comparable to the percentage in the general population.

The researchers suggest that, because of the predominance of right-handedness, right-handers are accustomed to fighting with right-handers. As long as left-handers are comparatively rare, they have the advantage of hitting from unexpected directions. This might confer an evolutionary advantage that balances the disadvantages of left-handedness noted earlier. According to the article, this squares with a legend about the design of medieval castle stairs, which were said to wind clockwise as a defense mechanism. Attackers mounting the stairs were forced to fight with their right arms tight to the wall.

I'm left handed, always have been,

it makes life very awkward, but it gives you a sense of individuality, and an excuse for being a psychotic weirdo

*nods in aproval*

A news update for you lefties out there:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4073775.stm

Left-handers 'better in fights'

If you find yourself in a fight, you'd better hope it's not against a left-hander - scientists have found they often have the upper hand.
Opponents simply do not expect a left-hook.
The endurance of left-handedness has puzzled researchers, because it is linked to disadvantages including an increased risk of some diseases.
But University of Montpellier experts, writing in Proceedings B, say it could be because they do well in combat.
The team saw that left-handers had the advantage in sports such as fencing, tennis and baseball.
They said that Western interactive sports such as these can be classed as "special cases of fights - with strict rules, including the "prohibition of killing and intentionally wounding the opponent".
This led them to speculate the same advantage may persist in more aggressive contexts, such as war, so societies which are more violent would have a higher frequency of left-handers.

Skill range
The researchers analysed data for eight traditional societies; the Kreyol people of Dominica, the Ntimu of Cameroon, the Dioula-speaking people of Burkina Faso, the Baka of Gabon, Inuit people and the Eipo people of Irian Jaya, New Guinea.
They looked at homicide-rates and the frequency of left-handedness, and found they appeared to be linked.
The Dioula were found to have a homicide rate equivalent of one hundredth of a death per 1,000 people per year, and a left-handedness rate of just 3%.
But the Eipo had around three homicides per 1,000 people and a left-handedness rate of 20%.
Chris McManus, a professor of psychology at University College London who has made a study of the pros and cons of left-handedness, said it was true that left-handers did have an advantage in a fight.
"It's the same advantage as you see with tennis players, baseball players and cricketers.
But he added: "The question is whether that advantage in fights then goes on and dominates the rate of left-handedness in societies.
"And I think the answer is 'no it doesn't'. The explanation must be much more complex than that."
Professor McManus said the more likely explanation for the persistence of left-handedness was the need for individuals with a range of qualities and skills within societies.
He added that the French study had also examined too few people, raising concerns over its conclusions.

THE BAD GUYS
Albert Henry DeSalvo - The Boston Strangler
Jack the Ripper
Billy the Kid
Osama bin Laden

BUT THERE ARE GOOD GUYS TOO
Winston Churchill
Prince William
Sir Paul McCartney
Albert Einstein
Marie Curie
John McEnroe
Cricketer Brian Lara