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Speaker: You, Me and the DHB: Your Tax Dollars at Work

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  • Kyle Matthews,

    Funnily enough there were two generations of good cricketers among them, some playing for New Zealand. Does that mesh with your dominant hand/cricket bat theory, Kyle? Some of them were lefthanded slow/spin bowlers, which I am told is a very hard combo to score runs off.

    Daniel Vettori bowls and bats left, and he'd be rated as the best left-handed finger spinner in the world (though there aren't many).

    Someone who is more of a cricket geek than me might give a different explanation, but I believe this has to do with the majority of batsmen being right-handed.

    A right finger spinner spins the ball into the right hander, and reduces the chance of catching the outside edge to wicketkeeper or slips.

    A left finger spinner goes the other way, so has a whole 'nother way of getting wickets. If they bowl from the left of the umpire (which is standard), and the ball spins left, they also have more options of LBW. A rightie will bowl left to right, bounce in front, and then go further right, making it a wide.

    The same rules apply to a right bowling wrist spinner, like Shane Warne.

    I suspect when batting playing leftie is an advantage because it's a point of difference, though teams seem to have at least 1/3 left-handers these days anyways, so perhaps not so much.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Jeremy Andrew,

    (b-dum-tish!, thangew, thangew...).

    You're welcome...

    Hamiltron - City of the F… • Since Nov 2006 • 900 posts Report Reply

  • Jeremy Andrew,

    A colourblind head teacher of my mother's aquaintance had been using Microsoft Word for years and years and decided to attend a training course to see if there were any tricks he could pick up to round out his skillset.
    He was shocked and amazed to learn there were different squiggly underlines for spelling and grammar "errors".
    So mum, never missing a chance to keep on the boss's good side immediately asked me if the colours could be changed to be visible for the RGB disadvantaged.
    Turns out you can, but it isn't as simple as you'd think it would be (I think there's a lesson there about MS for all of us).

    Hamiltron - City of the F… • Since Nov 2006 • 900 posts Report Reply

  • Shep Cheyenne,

    Don't let microsoft rule your grammar and it never knows any interesting words anyway.

    Since Oct 2007 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Dowden,

    Danielle, I found myself in exactly the same musical position but,thanks to the time difference here in Canberra, it's only been about half an hour. Slightly back on topic: what about iPod's, specifically the touch ones, are they part of the 'dextriarchy' too? I can't tell cos I'm very right handed; if it's not a fork or a gear lever I can't use it.

    Canberra • Since Dec 2007 • 38 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    Turns out you can, but it isn't as simple as you'd think it would be (I think there's a lesson there about MS for all of us).

    I believe the lesson is 'online manuals are harder to shred than print ones'.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    Slightly back on topic: what about iPod's, specifically the touch ones, are they part of the 'dextriarchy' too?

    Anything you hold in your hand and operate with your thumb, hold it in your left hand, note what the meaty part of your hand is lying on top of, and how far the 'reach' is to your most commonly used buttons. Most phones do seem to be reasonably together for not making you push 147 every time you reach for 'send'. There isn't room.

    Because you hold the Touch in one hand and operate it with the other, I'd think it would actually be easier.

    Um, I mean, no! Bloody right-handed styluses (stylii?) etc.

    I would like to note, irrelevantly, that the title of this post has caused me to mentally sing Lobo's 1970s smash hit 'Me and You and a Dog Named Boo' for approximately four straight hours.

    Specifically because of this horror, I just didn't use the phrase 'some girls do, some girls don't' over on the other thread.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Susannah Shepherd,

    I peel potatoes with my right hand and carrots with my left hand. We wear through those cheap peelers pretty quickly. Like Raymond I've been told that I don't have a dominant brain hemisphere (apparently my eyes track off in unusual directions when I'm thinking, which fortunately makes it harder for others to tell if I'm lying!)

    Until I was in my early teens I could bat at cricket with pretty much the same (minimal) skill with either hand - quite a useful ability that I lost later on, although not completely. I tried to change my bowling arm once, which was a complete disaster - my hands picked up the new action fine but my feet sure as hell didn't.

    And wallets are the thing that annoys me when I'm in a lefty mood. All the fiddly little card slots require me to turn the wallet upside down and risk spraying its contents over the floor, or twist my wrist around at a funny angle.

    Wellington • Since Jan 2008 • 58 posts Report Reply

  • Leopold,

    Before we lefties get too cocky...


    http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s10297.htm

    Though the findings are disputed...

    Since Jan 2007 • 153 posts Report Reply

  • Rebecca Williams,

    I think he also might have 'reduced appreciation of parental input into clean dry clothing and hot food supply'.

    does "reduced" imply that he previously had a higher appreciation? i'm still waiting for my little one to develop it. he's only twenty months tho, so i might be waiting for a while ......

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 120 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    Specifically because of this horror, I just didn't use the phrase 'some girls do, some girls don't' over on the other thread.

    The ultimate earworm! I salute you. And curse you, in equal measure. :)

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • tussock,

    Left hand script, right hand ball and bat, right hand mouse, left hand eating utensils, left foot kicking, right foot jumping. I have to swap sides between digging and lifting with a shovel. The melody is totally on the wrong end of the piano, but the violin was made for me (in that it also got me out of English class, heh).

    So left handed, but right armed, mostly. Fortunately, ambidextrous enough with most tools that I don't have to struggle with a right-handed grip, but the wallet lives it's life upside down, as it never occurred to me they could do otherwise until Susanna mentioned it there (and mine's far too tight for anything to fall out of it. b-dum-tish).

    Since Nov 2006 • 611 posts Report Reply

  • David Haywood,

    Some excellent news for lefties, I just realized, involves the soprano ukulele and also the (sadly, rather obscure these days) banjolele.

    When playing either of these instruments left-handed you simply flip it over and play the right-handed chords upside down.

    In the conventional (right-handed) orientation it is nearly impossible to play an open D major chord unless you have fingers like toothpicks. But for a lefty it's just a partial barre over the G, C, and E strings.

    It seems to me that this is well worth some minor inconvenience with tin-openers, lifts, and so on.

    Dunsandel • Since Nov 2006 • 1156 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    In the conventional (right-handed) orientation it is nearly impossible to play an open D major chord unless you have fingers like toothpicks. But for a lefty it's just a partial barre over the G, C, and E strings.

    Our ukelele player is a righty, unfortunately. But after years of piano, I did always find it a bit weird that playing guitar it was my good hand that did the tricky things and my right hand that just did the strumming.

    but the violin was made for me (in that it also got me out of English class, heh).

    That's not very lefty of you, we're s'posed to love English. I thought I was just imagining the increasing proportion of lefties in my classes every year I did English at uni, but there's a study I currently can't find that said the proportion of lefties in post-grad arts courses in the States is something like 20%. I didn't have the numbers to work it out: okay, 50% of my Vic Lit course, but there were only four of us. And the other leftie took notes with a fountain pen, so I always suspected she was some kind of undercover agent.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • shermeen tan,

    Just wanted to say I enjoy your style of writing. Burst out laughing quite a few times. I think it had to do with the kittens technically being biofuel. Will be sure to read more of your posts!

    Singapore • Since May 2008 • 1 posts Report Reply

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