Things I Learned This Week

Every week you should be learning something.

If you are not learning, you are not advancing in life.

If you are not advancing, you are dying.

Here are a few random things I learned this week that might also advance your knowledge.

Left Handers

National Left Handers Day was celebrated this week.

Researchers who study hand preference believe there is a natural inclination for most people to be right-handed due to biological and genetic causes. This is because language and speech is controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain. The left hemisphere also controls the movements of the right hand as well as the movements necessary to produce written language. All of this has resulted in millennia of evolutionary development that is biased genetically toward the right hand.

It is estimated that 15% of humans have a preference towards the left hand.

However, look at these statistics on the percentage of left-handers by country around the world.

Credit: https://twitter.com/NorbertElekes/status/1161359595077591043

The United States and Canada are the only countries in which left-handers are close to that number. There are clearly a lot of parents and/or teachers in other countries interfering with Mother Nature.

Of course, this also used to occur in the United States if you look at the historical numbers of left-handers in the population.

Credit: https://twitter.com/NorbertElekes/status/1161380722336251904

Is it a coincidence that in baseball left handers seem to have an advantage in getting to the major leagues or that 2/3 of NHL players shoot left-handed?

% of batters who are left-handed----37%

% of pitchers who are left-handed---27%


Summer Heat

We hear a lot about global warming and climate change in the news but the reality is that the weather in the United States this summer is (and has been over the last few years) much cooler than average.

Credit: @SteveSGoodard

Can you imagine the climate hysteria if we saw anything close to what was experienced in the summers in the 1930's?


1946

Did you know that three Presidents of the United States were born in 1946?

Donald Trump     June 14, 1946
George W. Bush  July 6, 1946
Bill Clinton         August 19, 1946

Did you also know that Trump is older than both Bush and Clinton?

By the way, the three leaders in the Democrat primary polls are:
Bernie Sanders: born in 1941,
Joe Biden: born in 1942.
Elizabeth Warren: born in 1949.

There has not been one President who was born in the 1950's. Barack Obama was born in 1961.


Presidential Primaries

Running for President has become a big business in building the "brand" of a politician and increasing social media presence, book sales and speaking fees.

Why else would so many candidates be running in 2016 and 2020?