Jeber’s

Lefties: Intelligent, forgetful and doomed

Left-handers more ‘creative but forgetful’

An American scientist has gathered new evidence on the link between left-handedness and intellectual creativity, confirming that “true left-handers” tend to be more intelligent and eloquent than right-handers, and better at solving problems.

Dr Alan Searleman, from St Lawrence University, New York, presenting his findings to the American Psychological Association’s annual conference, said: “Left-handers have a higher ‘fluid’ intelligence and better vocabulary than the majority of the population. This is perhaps why there are more of them in creative professions, such as music, art and writing.”

Dr Searleman says that people who throw balls with their left hands, use their left eyes to look through peepholes and place their left ears against the wall to eavesdrop on conversations are twice as good at problem-solving and have wider vocabularies than their right-handed peers.

He enlisted 1,200 people formemory, vocabulary and problem-solving tests. They were asked questions including: Do you hold a match while striking it with your right or left hand? Which ear do you use to listen to another person’s heartbeat?Which eye do you use to look into a dark bottle to see how full it is? He found that people who were “true left-handers”, who did everything on their left side, from kicking a football to picking up a glass of water, scored one-third more highly on vocabulary tests and twice as well on problem-solving tasks.

The research also found that more left-handed people were intellectually gifted, with IQs over 140, Dr Searleman said.

On the downside, left-handers were not so good at remembering things. “Although left-handed people had poorer memories they were twice as good at all the problem-solving tasks,” he said.

Despite the fact that one in 10 people is left-handed, it was once seen as a sign of the devil. The word “sinister” means “left” in Latin. Youngsters used to have their left hands tied behind their backs by teachers to force them to write with their right hands. Left-handed people have struggled for years in a world of right-handed sports equipment and items such as steak knives, cheque books and pairs of scissors.

Previous research has suggested that left-handed people are less ticklish than right-handed people, are more clumsy, and have a shorter lifespan. (The Independent)

Cleo sends a message

There’s hardly a day that goes by in which Cleo doesn’t amaze me with her personality and intelligence. There should be no way a 6 month old pup could be this creative.

This afternoon at work I was cleaning up one of the stations. At one point I took a container of water back to the bathroom to pour down the toilet. Cleo tagged along as usual and watched me. A short time later I saw her go into the bathroom and stare into the toilet. I figured she was just curious. Then she walked from the bathroom through the shop up to where her water bowl is. She walked back to the bathroom and stared into the toilet.

Curious, I checked her water bowl. It was empty. She was letting me know the water in the toilet should be in her bowl. I grabbed her bowl and filled it in the sink with Cleo watching me the whole time, tail wagging merrily.

Once she again had water in her bowl she never returned to the bathroom.

Any dog trainer will tell you that dog training is at least 50% a matter of training the owner to pay attention to what your dog is telling you. I have been given my lesson for the day and will remember it.

New surveillance program will turn military satellites on US

Related to my post on Army troops being deployed in the U.S. is this story, one that has to make any concerned citizen wonder what their government is planning.

spy satellite

An appropriations bill signed by President Bush last week allows the controversial National Applications Office to begin operating a stringently limited version of a program that would turn military spy satellites on the US, sharing imagery with other federal, state, and local government agencies. The government’s own watchdog agency, the Government Accountability Office, has warned in an unpublished report that the more expansive program in the offing lacks adequate safeguards to protect privacy and civil liberties.

For now, the law restricts the NAO to “activities substantially similar” to those carried out by the Civil Applications Committee, an interagency coordinating body formed in 1976 to give civilian agencies access to military satellites for scientific and disaster preparedness purposes, such as “monitoring volcanic activity, environmental and geological changes, hurricanes, and floods.” But as a draft charter for the Office makes clear, officials at the Department of Homeland Security hope to branch out from these traditional applications, providing assistance and information to domestic law enforcement agencies.

That doesn’t sit well with some members of Congess, who in a sharply worded letter earlier this year expressed concerns that the NAO “raises major issues under the Posse Comitatus Act” barring the military from performing law enforcement duties, and worried the program could be used to “gather domestic intelligence outside the rigorous protections of the law—and, ultimately, to share this intelligence with local law enforcement outside of constitutional parameters.”

Among the questions raised about the proposed program is whether it runs afoul of the Reconstruction Era statute that makes it a crime to use the armed forces to “execute the laws” within US borders. Tim Sparapani, senior legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, believes the new initiative to be “a prima facie violation of the Posse Comitatus Act—this is about using a military asset to do domestic law enforcement.” If law enforcement or immigration agencies need spy satellites, he argues, they should ask Congress to buy them some, rather than using the powerful eyes in the sky operated by the National Reconaissance Office for foreign-intelligence agencies not bound by domestic privacy constraints. “The military should never be used against the citizenry,” he argues. “Even if we’re talking about shooting pictures of people instead of shooting people, the principle remains the same.”

And what of Fourth Amendment concerns? Here, Sparapani says, the program enters “uncharted waters.” In a pair of 1986 decisions, the Supreme Court ruled that aerial observation by surveillance planes did not count as a Fourth Amendment “search.” If you grew your marijuana out in the open, the justices essentially concluded, you could not claim a “reasonable expectation of privacy” even if the crop wasn’t visible from the ground. But the court left open the question of whether the same logic would apply in the case of technology more esoteric than an airplane. And in 2001, the court concluded that a search warrant was needed to use infrared scanners to detect the heat signature from an indoor dope-growing operation. (Source)

When the government starts making major, unprecedented moves like this with no explanation, maybe it’s time to start getting a little paranoid.

Cleo time

I’ve had quite a few dog companions over the last three decades, but never one as special as Cleo.

This morning we walked up to the local Starbucks so I could get some coffee and Cleo could receive all the attention she always gets from anyone who passes by. She’s incredibly well behaved, waiting patiently while I get my dose of java.

When she accompanies me to work, she has her own bed where she’s happy to snooze in between walks and greeting customers. Whether at the store or at Starbucks she instantly wins friends and receives all the attention a puppy could want.

Comicon – Kids Need to Read

San Diego Comic-Con

First I admit to being aware that the official title should be typed as “Comic-Con” but I prefer my shortened version.  Admit it, you knew what I meant, didn’t you?

Today was a day of firsts.  This was my first Comicon, and to get there (since I had no desire to spend 3 hours trying to find parking in downtown San Diego) I took my first trolley ride.

That last first is a bit ironic.  When the city started trolley service I was a security supervisor for the service yard.  I saw the trolleys inside and out, I just never rode in one, until today.

Even though I collected comic books as a kid (and sold my collection in the 80s), I was never a fanatic.  I read mostly DC comics but never had a particular favorite.  I didn’t attend past Comicons because I was under the false impression it was a convention for buyers and sellers of comic book and related merchandise.  There was certainly a lot of that going on, but it wasn’t the sole activity.

I enjoyed the booths and schwag.  I attended eight years of Sam Goody conventions as a store manager and with the movie and music studios offering freebies at every meeting, I’ve become adept at collecting schwag.

But most of all I enjoyed the panels.  I missed seeing perhaps my favorite group, Joss Whedon and the cast of Firefly/Serenity.  But I was consoled by being able to attend the Browncoat’s panel.  Felicia Day, one of the leads in the recent web phenomena Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog showed up to read a fairy tale in support of Kids Need to Read (www.kidsneedtoread.org).

Felicia Day

I’m a writer, and most writers I know, both novice and professional, are also avid readers.  Writing would have little value if there were no readers.

What better venue than a convention dedicated to the printed form to encourage reading among kids.

From the Kids Need to Read handout:

Kids Need to Read holds weekly auctions of items generously donated by its supporters.  They (the auctions) have proven very popular among fans of Firefly/Serenity and science fiction, as well as literacy advocates.

Auctions have included signed sci-fi memorabilia, book packages, and even character-inspired jewelry.

http://community.kidsneedto read.org

Kids Need to Read distributes books to schools and libraries that might otherwise not be able to afford them.  It was established by PJ Haarsma, the author of the Softwire series, and Nathan Fillion, star of both the Dr. Horrible production and Firefly/Serenity.

Support Kids Need to Read, donate your carefully read books to your local school or library.  Read to your kids.  Do whatever you can to ensure we won’t produce a generation of illiterates.  Reading is fundamental to thinking, and thinking adds value to our lives.  Give children the gift of reading comprehension.  It’s a gift that will continue to reward them throughout their lives.

Don’t give up on love

It’s a greater force than we often realize.

Busted Luck

KUSI television reporter Rod Luck was arrested in a San Francisco suburb on suspicion of hitting his girlfriend.

The 42-year-old woman said Luck, 58, punched her in the mouth a little before 8 p.m. Friday, according to a statement from the South San Francisco Police Department.

The woman had visible injuries to her mouth and upper lip, police said.

The station had no comment on his arrest.

http://www.10news.com/news/16227288/detail.html

Is it or is it not?

Today was going to be the last day of work prior to a much anticipated (for the last 3 years) week-long vacation. Not a vacation as other’s may enjoy. A week to spend finishing up the move into my bungalow…building a storage shed, moving my stored items into it (those that survived the rains under flimsy tarps), finishing painting the bathroom and kitchen, completing the unpacking of kitchen items, hanging the rest of the paintings currently stacked in the closet…

But the boss is sick. We’re a three-man shop, so having one of the two remaining staff sick may scotch my plans for a week of domestic completion.

I await the word.