handy confusion & head-on collisions
my new project for self-improvement & professional development: learn asl (american sign language). this should help me in my work later on, esp. b/c confidentiality is seriously undermined if i have to work with a deaf client through a 3rd party interpreter. i bought some interactive instant immersion asl software and so far it's pretty good.
one exception: my hand preference (or more accurately non-preference since i'm ambidextrous) is starting to trip me up b/c i'm not sure which hand should be doing what. i should have known this would happen. i keep having to use the software's speed control feature to replay everything in slow-motion and look carefully at the demos to see their hands.
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EMERALDTIGER'S RANDOM SCIENCE TRIVIA:
studies have shown that left handed people have a higher rate of head-on auto collisions. in the past, this was attributed to southpaws being seen as "klutzy" and accident-prone.
actually there may be a scientific answer to account for this. the answer lies in brain-lateralization. to put it simply, if a person sees an object (e.g. an animal) dart out in the road in front of their car on a two-lane highway, they will automatically swerve to his/her dominant side to avoid the object.
this is a recipe for disaster for lefties b/c they'll swerve to the left into oncoming traffic, resulting in a collision. but right-handers will swerve right and run off the road or onto the shoulder. this isn't the case in countries like japan and the uk, where people drive on the left side of the road. in those countries, left-handed people have fewer head on car crashes than their right-handed counterparts.
*my conclusion: i guess since i'm ambidextrous, i have to make a split-second decision to swerve right if there's an object in the road ahead (assuming i'm not driving in japan or england).
**test your own brain lateralization** [it's NOT a 100% accurate test]:
get out a piece of paper and draw a circle. don't think about it. just do it.
how did you draw it?
if you're a strong southpaw, you'll tend to draw it in a counterclockwise direction. if you're strongly right-handed, you'll probably draw it in a clockwise direction.
