Trivia geek here: tell me what this thing with the ring finger length?
~T~
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Dang, the link doesn't work. Here's the story.
Finger length linked to female sporting potential Wed Sep 27, 8:35 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - The length of a girl's ring finger could be an indicator of her future sporting potential, researchers at King's College London said on Thursday.
In the largest study of its kind, hand measurements of 607 female twins aged 25-79 from the UK were compared with the women's lifetime sporting achievements.
The findings, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that women with ring fingers longer than their index fingers had performed better at running and associated running sports such as soccer and tennis.
In women the ring finger is commonly shorter or the same length as the index finger, while in men the ring finger is generally longer.
The report said detection of sporting potential by examining the ratio between the index and ring fingers "could help identify talented individuals at a pre-competitive stage."
The reasons for the findings were unclear, said one of the report's authors, Professor Tim Spector from the Twins Research Unit at King's College, who said he was originally sceptical about the link to sporting ability.
"Previous studies have suggested the change in finger length was due to changes in testosterone levels in the womb", he said.
But he said the unit had found in a separate study of twins that finger length was largely inherited, possibly explaining why sporting parents often have sporting children.
"We found that finger length was 70 percent heritable with little influence of the womb environment," he said.
"This suggests that genes are the main factor and that finger length is a marker of your genes."
He said no specific candidate genes had been identified for the link and that multiple genes were probably responsible.
Previous studies looking at the link between finger length and sporting ability have mainly focussed on men.
A study published in 2001 of 304 English professional soccer players found they had a significantly larger ring-to-index-finger ratio than a control group of 533 other men.
Other studies in men have shown the ratio of the ring finger to the index finger can be associated with varied traits such as sexuality, musical ability and vulnerability to certain diseases.
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I can't help but throw this in after the mentions of discrimination and lawsuits. Discrimination is not per se illegal. Distasteful maybe. It isn't illegal to have men's clubs or women's clubs.
Augusta National (as it was previously mentioned) is a men's club. Not illegal.
I think a better analogy is that of a locker room.
Fascinating how this has evolved into a discussion about "banning" men from the forum. I have no desire to see anyone banned (not a big fan of censorship), I do have a desire to see the comfortable feel of TE remain.
While many of you see his posts as respectful and interesting, I have to say the first and only contact I had with him was a post where he referenced his need for a battle-cry (per his post...a testosterone thing). That is the post where I first questioned his desire to participate here. My initial questions were posted specifically to Mr. Silver asking him why he was choosing to post here. I was quite puzzled about why any man would choose to hang out here as a regular member, rather than doing the drive by posting like many of the men (husbands, SO's, etc) do on TE.
Ok...just observations....
I have read this entire thread, and the original thread, and I have to agree with Queen, and her attempt to bring us back to her original idea, which was one of being puzzled.
I too am puzzled...not offended, or put out in any way...just puzzled.
I belong to several boards, all of which are co-ed...I have no problem with that at all, I don't want to see any discriminated against ever.
However, that being said, the original issue was just confusion, and I think that this discussion has moved away from that idea.
Ruth
Not only do we come here as an escape from too much testosterone, but I would imagine some men may do so as well.
As long as there is respect for issues which only women face (pregnancy, PMS, saddles fitting in the wrong places for women) I don't see why men should not participate.
If the men who do sign up cause problems, I would imagine that the TOS for the forum would take care of that.
I am certain that men lurk here. But they probably get bored fairly quickly.
East Hill
I was surprised to say the least when Mr Silver started posting about topics other than Silver's accident and recovery.
I am even more surprised at his posting on this topic and explaining himself. In my (misspent??) youth a Real (New) Man would not be caught dead in Women's Space. He would be too respectful of it. (And if he was another sort of man -sexist,regular or a parasitic liberal; he *would* be caught dead you can bet on it)
Puzzlement, as Queen put it.
That said... I spent a while one evening looking at some military websites prior to my son's enlistment. I arrived by a chance click and lurked about on a Very Strange Forum for Gung-ho Special Forces. It piqued my curiosity I admit but after 20 min I had had enough. So I imagine men who get to TE would do the same - unless they are posting about a specific TE member who has crashed or is ill or needs our input in whatever form (prayer, thoughts, advice, knowledge or equipment) in an emergency.
I love the atmosphere here, and the wide variety of women , the humour and the incredible support and advice offered to one another .(I think back to my War Reports of the summer) .
I personally have a very detailed conception of separatism and modesty (which I have spent the last 25 years refining I might add!) and the all-women /only women nature of TE suits me.
$0.02
Added with this edit: I see Mr Silver has 65 posts and a "rate" of 4 per day. Whaaat? If my SO was posting this much on TE I would sure have a few questions, accompanied by much hand gesturing. I like my privacy and respect yours-all's too.
Note that the finger length thing (ring longer than index) is only on the right hand (at least it is on me). And it has been linked to a whole host of things (handedness, autism, heart disease, sexual orientation) that may correlate with testosterone exposure in utero. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digit_r...t_ratio_effect
However, to be scientific about it, the bell curves for any traits you can link to finger length overlap so much that it means obsolutely nothing about a particular individual.
Wow, maybe I AM athletic! Both ring fingers are longer. My whole life, I have never considered myself to be athletic in any way, so this biking thing has really surprised me. I need to stop saying I am no good at sports. :)
My ring finger is a good cm shorter on both hands. I guess I'm just doomed to be a klutz.
Easy there - it was a joke (as evidenced by the many smilies!!!)
However, it is a valid observation that if women were excluded under questionable circumstances it's entirely possible that someone would raise the issue. We're a litigious society. It's why I have a job.
And yes, discrimination *is* per se illegal in many contexts (e.g. sorry, we're not going to hire you because you're female). This, however, does not apply to message boards...
*going back to lurkdom now....*