The Glade 4.0

You know how, if you're in a coffee shop, your eyes frequently wander over to see what's on your neighbor's screen, what book they're reading, etc. We'll, I'm sitting here, idly surfing, and I notice a woman sit down next to me and open up a book. Wow, cool, she must be the one person in this place who's not all gadgeted up (although she did have a cell phone).

Wonder what she's reading ... oh, it's a play. Huh. But, wait, the book is upside-down. Surely she'll flip it when she looks down, right? Right??

No. She's been here a half-hour, flipping pages, apparently reading the book upside-down. I can't tell if she has a "condition" (I assume there is one, I'll look up the name for it some time); if she's running a social experiment (and I'm failing); just doing it to bug people who want to see what she's reading; or, if it's like a brain exercise or something. Pretty trippy.

The things you see in Los Angeles.

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

The book could also be bound incorrectly.

You should have asked.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

I am gonna go with what Micheal said. Was it a hard cover book with a dust jacket?

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Raell Kromwell

Oh, I'm sorry, guess I wasn't clear: I was looking over her shoulder, at the text. It's not that I saw an upside-down book in her hands from across the room.

My wife just mentioned that she had read something recently that your brain can process words no matter the orientation, and that this might be a brain exercise. Another good thought she had was that the woman may have been an actress or something (in LA? Nah .... ), and this was her way of reinforcing or really digesting what she was reading.

If Lex was here, yeah, I'm sure he'd say I should have asked. I didn't really wanna be Creepy Coffee-House Guy, though. It was just ... interesting.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

I can read stuff upside down no problem. It just takes me longer.

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Raell Kromwell

why don't you ask her?

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Ron Paul 2012

Maybe she was Australian? You should ask.

[quote="Aethien"]Oh, I'm sorry, guess I wasn't clear: I was looking over her shoulder, at the text. It's not that I saw an upside-down book in her hands from across the room. quote]

Was she flipping pages left to right or right to left?

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Great. Now I'm gonna have this song stuck in my head for the rest of the day:
[youtube]JOmQODc74ok[/youtube]

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

Did you check to see if her eyes were upside down, also?

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

Its called Mirrored Reading iirc, closely related to Mirrored Writing (see Da Vinci).

Left to right, as if she got to the bottom ... er, top ... of the page and continued reading on the next.

I should have asked, but that would have blown my cover. Or maybe I just prefer some mysteries in my life.

Watch, the next time I see her in the shop, I'll be across from her, and the book will right-side up, driving me yet further insane.

Ah, Mirrored Reading, that's the next search term. Thanks. I did wonder if it was a Da Vinci thing, really. She only got through about three pages in the 45 minutes I sat behind her, so, she sure wasn't speed-reading!

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

If it took her that long, it isn't natural mirror reading, as people with that ability can read as quickly, or nearly so, with the text normal or inverted.

Same with mirror writing... equally proficient writing upside down, backwards, both as the normal.

Maybe she is using it as a memory device? Studying lines in a way that helps her retain them?

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It feels like all the people who want limited government really just want government limited to Republicans.
---The Daily Show

I have a theory...

She is a spy and was not really reading.

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Memento Vivere

I have local knowledge.
That sandbar was not there yesterday!

I had that thought, wondering if she was spying on someone in the shop. Heck, coulda been me.

Monte - That was my wife's thought, yeah.

Ladas - Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Which also is what made me wonder if it was a facade for something else.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Be careful, her bow tie is really a camera!

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Kaffis, they put them in eye glasses now.

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Raell Kromwell

Ah, what progress we've made in.. what, like 40 years?

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I can read just as easily upside-down or mirror-image. Though I'm not as quick as I am with standard reading I can still read aloud fluidly. Interestingly, I can read a true mirror image, but have trouble when the words are spelled backwards without the reversal of the letters.

Friend of mine in high school was a typesetter at his dad's small press shop. They did a lot of local flyers and pamphlets back before all this new fangled technology made typesetting obsolete. He could pick a book at random off a bookshelf, or ask someone else to do that, turn it upside down, then read out loud, any passage he liked. It was even easier for him if he had a mirror to use. Mirrored upside down is how you set the type, or at least that's what he told us. It always amazed me.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Yeah, I could have read the book, but it was just out of my (aging eyes') range.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Interesting. I can read upside down as well as backwards. And I can do so at about 80% of normal reading speed. But I'd never deliberately read a book upside down... outside of messing with school teachers back in the day.

Either she was just showing off or she has some condition that I've never heard of.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Kathy, I'm lost.

Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike.

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister