Disqus - Latest Comments for Worldbeing

Re: It's pointless to call someone “fit for work” when there is no work for them to take

Worldbeing — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:52:02 -0000

Natascha Engel is my local MP, and she told me this week that "all the mainstream parties are the same really."
I think that says it all.

Re: Time Cube - “TIME CUBE 4ce”

Worldbeing — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 18:43:31 -0000

For reference, the meeting referred to was the International Meridian Conference, and they spent most of the first day congratulating each other and electing each other to various posts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...
http://www.gutenberg.org/fi...

Re: "If being left handed is wrong, I don't want to be right"

Worldbeing — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 15:50:32 -0000

It's a statistic I've heard before, but I'm not convinced.
Anyway, intelligent people have a longer life expectancy, so for most left-handers it should cancel out :P

Re: "If being left handed is wrong, I don't want to be right"

Worldbeing — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:57:16 -0000

Helena...
I think a lot of left-handed people wear it as a badge of honour because we can. The world is biased towards right-handed people, and to a certain degree that's fair- they're the majority. But what it means is that left-handers have had to put up with intentional and unintentional discrimination for centuries- from being forced to write with the right hand, to the reams of linguistic association of the left with negativity (sinister, anyone?), to the modern day where everything from scissors to can-openers are made for right handed people. Minorities tend to take pride in themselves, whether they be racial, intellectual, or handed. Lefties are no exception to that.
Also, we've never said that left handed people are superior. In some regards, we have a natural advantage- a left-handed brain is statistically more likely to be creative, and intelligent. However, it's also more likely to produce someone who's mentally retarded. Left-handedness is just a genetic quirk, and we're as entitled to take pride in that as in anything.

To the lefties and lefty sympathisers who've commented: (:P)
I think it's wonderful to see so many people discussing this in a calm and intelligent manner. I'm pretty sure one of the reasons so many people have found it is because it's been stumbled in the 'Left-Handedness' category on StumbleUpon.

Re: "If being left handed is wrong, I don't want to be right"

Worldbeing — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:43:57 -0000

Broadcast, not 'broadcasted'.
And it's still considerably fewer righties than in the general (thick) population.

Re: "If being left handed is wrong, I don't want to be right"

Worldbeing — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:24:36 -0000

Few things...
As well as the four US Presidents you mention, John McCain is also a lefty.

The statistics about inheritance chances sound a bit dodgy to me. I was always taught it was a simple dominant/recessive allele thing, but it's a bit more complex in truth. if it *was*, then it would be extremely rare for the child of two left handers to have a non-lefty kid, and depending on the parents' genes, between 0 and 25% chance of two righties having a lefty child (RR+RR->0%, RL+RR->0%, RR+RL->0%, RL+RL->25%), which I guess averages out at about 2%.
However, given that me, my cousin, and my girlfriend (not related!) are all left-handed children of right-handed people, as are half the commenters here... that statistic sounds like it may be a bit out. (at least among people who comment of this sort of thing on the internet)

The other statistic I'm interested in there is Mensa membership... is that for international Mensa, British, or US Mensa? Also, given that only a small percentage of those eligible to do so actually join Mensa, the fact that 20% of its members are lefties isn't terribly statistically significant...the percentage of people eligible to join Mensa who are left handed may be much higher or lower!
In fact, the qualification to join Mensa is merely being in the top 2% of the population by intelligence, so if you can understand everything I've said in this post, you might as well take the test...