http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/ en Copyright 2007 Tue, 01 May 2007 22:45:01 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss reprinted from CBC Canada They’ve been vilified throughout history as gauche, sinister and wrong-headed. So what is the truth about lefties? It turns out there is little consensus among scientists about what causes handedness or what it means to be a southpaw. Some researchers believe the trait comes down to genetics. Others propose that environmental factors or brain trauma at birth might be at the root of the behaviour. We spoke to some of the few scientists digging into the causes and effects of being a lefty in a right-handed world: Dr. Pamela Bryden is a professor of kinesiology at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo. She's found that lefties were definitely more flexible and adaptable when she measured their abilities to perform tasks with their non-dominant hand. Dr. Amar Klar is a geneticist at the National Cancer Institute in Maryland. Dr. Klar decided to study left-handedness by heading to a shopping mall to study the hair whorls on the tops of shoppers' heads. That study led him to believe that most people inherit a single dominant gene for right-handedness, but without that gene, a person has a 50 per cent chance of being a left-hander. Dr. Chris McManus is a professor of psychology at University College London and author of Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms and Cultures. He believes there is a gene for right-handedness. But he thinks an evolutionary quirk occurred tens of thousands of years ago that caused a gene mutation, which Dr. McManus calls the "chance gene". It cancels the bias to the right, so those who inherit it have a 50-50-chance of ending up lefties. Dr. Ira Perelle is a professor in the department of psychology at Mercy College in New York. He believes there are at least three possible causes for left-handedness, including the possibility that at a very young age, a child can learn the behaviour.]]> http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/05/4_imminent_scientists_discuss.html http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/05/4_imminent_scientists_discuss.html Science Tue, 01 May 2007 22:45:01 +0000 favorite ]]> http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/05/righthanded_cartoonists_drawin.html http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/05/righthanded_cartoonists_drawin.html Misc Tue, 01 May 2007 22:25:10 +0000      Language     word for "left"     word for "left handed" Arabicshemaal Arabicyasaaraysar Armeniantzakh Australiamollie dooker Bantushotomashoto Catalanesquerra Chinesezuoren Czechlevýlevoruký Danishvenstre-håndet Danishkejthåndet Danishavethåndet Dutchlinkshandig Finnishvasenvasenkätinen Finnishvasuri Frenchgauche Germanlinkslinkshandig Greekskaios Gujaratibaayobaayee baaju Hausaagu hunu agu Hindiulta haanth Hindidaya Hindi baayaaNbaayee taraf Hungarianbalbalkez Indonesiantidak ditemukan di kamus Irishciotóg Italiansinistramancini Japanese hidarisajin Latinsinister Latviankreiss Lithuaniankairyskairiarankis Norwegiankjevhendt Norwegianvenstrevenstre hånd Persianchup Polishlewolewica Portugueseesquerdocanhoto Punjabikhabakhaba Romanianstângastângaci Russianlevyi Serbianlevolevoruk (f. levoruka) Sinhalesevam Slovaklavák Spanishisquierdachueco Spanishzurdo Spanishsiniestro Swedishvänstervänsterhänt Tigrinyatsagumacheli Turkishsolsolak

]]> http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/foreign_words_for_left_and_lef.html http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/foreign_words_for_left_and_lef.html Misc Sat, 28 Apr 2007 04:22:07 +0000 reprinted from the American Scientist Handedness is closely tied to the way hair spins on the scalp Christopher R. Brodie Is handedness genetic? The question is centuries old and has been the subject of hundreds of scientific papers. Now, the verdict is finally in, and the answer is yes. But there is an unexpected twist to the story: It seems that the same gene that creates lefties also determines which way hair whorls around. Amar Klar, the head of developmental genetics at the National Cancer Institute campus in Frederick, Maryland, explained the link between handedness and the way hair spins on the scalp in the September 2003 issue of Genetics. It seems a single gene with two alleles controls both traits. The dominant allele dictates right-handedness—and a clockwise hair spiral. ]]> http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/head_in_hand.html http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/head_in_hand.html Science Sat, 28 Apr 2007 04:09:36 +0000 reprinted from the Purdue News August 5, 2003 WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – It may be a right-handed world, but recent Purdue University research indicates that the first building blocks of life were lefties – and suggests why, on a molecular level, all living things remain southpaws to this day. In findings that may shed light on the earliest days of evolutionary history, R. Graham Cooks and a team of Purdue chemists have reported experiments that suggest why all 20 of the amino acids that comprise living things exhibit "left-handed chirality," which refers to the direction these basic biological molecules twist–and how a single amino acid might be the reason. ]]> http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/purdue_scientists_discover_why.html http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/purdue_scientists_discover_why.html Science Sat, 28 Apr 2007 04:06:20 +0000 Interviewer - Now Chris, you wrote a book, 'Right Hand, Left Hand', which won you a whole heap of prizes because it's something people are absolutely fascinated by. Why do these left-handers exist? Chris M - The simple answer is because of genes. Some of us have one set of genes while others of us have another. It's the same reason that some people have blue eyes or blond hair. And therefore, some people just have their brains the other way round. That's the simple answer. The really difficult question to answer is why did that ever happen? Why did we become mostly right handed in the first place and why did others become left handed? That's a good evolutionary story as there have to be advantages to being right handed and advantages to being left handed. They're difficult questions. http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/the_naked_scientists_interview.html http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/the_naked_scientists_interview.html Science Sat, 28 Apr 2007 04:02:32 +0000 reprinted from the New Scientist NewScientist.com news service Will Knight Left-handed people may be better equipped for close range mortal combat than those who rely on their right hands, according to researchers. Charlotte Faurie and Michel Raymond of the University of Montpellier in France examined the number of left-handed people in unindustrialised cultures as well as the homicide levels within each culture. ]]> http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/lefthanders_win_in_handtohand.html http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/lefthanders_win_in_handtohand.html Science Sat, 28 Apr 2007 03:58:35 +0000 reprinted from the Pew Research Center by Richard Morin August 9, 2006 Left-handed men who attended at least a year in college go on to earn significantly more than their right-handed classmates -- one more reason they'll be celebrating International Left-Handers Day this Sunday. "Among the college-educated men in our sample, those who report being left-handed earn 13 percent more than those who report being right-handed," report economists Christopher S. Ruebeck of Lafayette College and his research partners Joseph E. Harrington, Jr. and Robert Moffitt of Johns Hopkins University in a new working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. And lefties, stay in school: Those who finished all four years of college earned, on average, a whopping 21 percent more than similarly educated right-handed men. Curiously, the researchers found no wage differential between left- and right-handed women. They also found that lefties were more likely to be found in certain kinds of jobs. "For example, 53 percent of those who are left-handed are in professional occupations, compared to 38 percent of those who are right-handed," they reported. They based their conclusions on an analysis of data from the federally-funded National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a nationally representative survey of approximately 5,000 men and women first interviewed in 1993 when they ranged in age from 14 to 21 years old. Their analysis was based on a 1993 follow-up survey, when respondents were ages 28 to 35. Left-handers comprised about 10 percent of their sample, just as they comprise about 10% of the population as a whole. While evidence of a wage gap was unequivocal, explanations for the disparity were more elusive. The authors suggested that greater innate ability, perhaps due to differences in biology and brain function are two possibilities. But they do not know why they didn't see a similar effect among women. "Gender discrimination may be obscuring the effects for higher-educated left-handed females," Ruebeck wrote in an e-mail. "The biological literature also suggests differences in cognitive style across handedness in males that do not exist in females. If these differences are responsible for left-handers' higher wages, then we would not expect to find the same result in females." The study is the latest to suggest there's something special about lefties. Other researchers have found that left-handers are over-represented in some disciplines on university faculties, as well as among gifted students, artists and musicians. And as any pro baseball player will tell you, there are entirely too many southpaws pitching in the big leagues. ]]> http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/male_lefties_have_more_of_the.html http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/male_lefties_have_more_of_the.html Popular Press Sat, 28 Apr 2007 03:51:12 +0000 Modified potentially dangerous hand-held power tools by a major manufacturer

Introduced left-handed cheque books by all major banks in the U.K.

Produced the only training video for teachers & parents of left-handed children to show the best way to assist them in attaining the vital basic skills of handwriting, cutting etc. without difficulty or discomfort.

Good for these guys. I am going to have to find out more about the founder(s) of the club/day. ]]> http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/the_left_handers_club_and_day.html http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/the_left_handers_club_and_day.html Misc Fri, 20 Apr 2007 18:16:35 +0000 Angelique Chrisafis, Arts correspondent Guardian Thursday June 6, 2002 Over the centuries they have been beaten on the knuckles, locked up, ridiculed and prevented from reproducing in case they spawned freaks. Now left-handers are facing another affront. A psychology professor told the Guardian Hay festival yesterday that society will never stop being biologically and culturally dominated by right-handers at the psychological expense of those who hold their pencil in their left hand. http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/why_lefthanders_still_feel_lef.html http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/why_lefthanders_still_feel_lef.html Popular Press Fri, 20 Apr 2007 18:07:56 +0000 reprinted from the BBC There's a lot of things you won't know about the runner Paula Radcliffe, but I'm confident that until this week you wouldn't have had a clue that she was left handed! How then do I know? Have I been secretly dating the queen of long distance running? Well no, but I noticed in this week's sports coverage that she is concerned that her left handed preference is going to put her at significant disadvantage in a forthcoming road race. The 'feeding stations' are going to be set up for right handers which could potentially put her off her stride as her preference would be to pick up drinks in her left hand. ]]> http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/the_sinister_tale_of_left_hand.html http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/the_sinister_tale_of_left_hand.html Popular Press Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:45:28 +0000 reprinted from the BBC In times past, left-handed people were thought to be the children of the devil, but a scientific study published this week suggests that sinistrals are not as cursed as was once thought. Some studies have indicated that left handers are more likely to die prematurely than their right handed counterparts. It was thought that left handers may be more prone to accidents because their sense of spatial awareness is not as acute as right handers. But new research in the Lancet suggests that left handers are at no greater risk of dying earlier. Investigators sent a questionnaire inquiring about handedness to people aged between 15 and 70 years. They received 6,097 correctly completed responses. ]]> http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/lefthanded_people_dont_die_you.html http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/lefthanded_people_dont_die_you.html Science Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:16:50 +0000 reprinted from the BBC People who are left-handed are twice as likely as right-handers to suffer from bowel disease, claim scientists. A study of more than 20,000 people in the UK found that the risk of inflammatory bowel disease - usually Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis - doubled in left-handed people. Although the prevalence of left-handedness in the general population is around one in ten, 21% of the people found to have inflammatory bowel disease were left-handed. The research, by a team at the Royal Free Hospital and University College Medical School in London, comes after earlier studies showed left-handers are at increased risk of other conditions such as asthma and diabetes. ]]> http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/lefthanders_bowel_disease_dang.html http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/lefthanders_bowel_disease_dang.html Science Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:14:56 +0000 reprinted from the BBC Cricket's left-handed batsmen really do have an advantage at the crease, according to an analysis of the stats. Scientists who studied the World Cup found these players hit more runs, batted longer and tended to lose their wickets only because they slogged out. But the explanation for this better performance is not so straightforward. The researchers think the bowler's experience of left-handers is crucial because the advantage is less evident at the highest levels of the sport. ]]> http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/lefthanders_top_cricket_stats.html http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/lefthanders_top_cricket_stats.html Sports Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:12:52 +0000 reprinted from the BBC By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor The fraction of left-handed people today is about the same as it was during the Ice Age, according to data from prehistoric handprints. They were found in caves painted during the Upper Palaeolithic period, between 30,000 and 10,000 years ago. Left-handedness may have conferred prehistoric man advantages, such as in combat, say the researchers. ]]> http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/lefthandedness_common_in_ice_a.html http://www.southpawmanifesto.com/blog/2007/04/lefthandedness_common_in_ice_a.html Popular Press Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:10:51 +0000