If the ring finger is longest, it indicates a high testosterone level.

I think if this were so, then men's hands (and women's, to a lesser extent) would change shape all the time! Your testosterone levels go up and down over the course of your life (possibly your day, or week, or month), but your fingers do not get longer or shorter after a certain point in life.

The people who believe in this think that the ratio of index_length :ring_length is influenced by prenatal testosterone and therefore is correlated with average testosterone levels in adulthood. The evidence for this is pretty sketchy, but it's so easy to measure i:r that people do it and call it a testosterone index.

Maybe I was supposed to be a boy.

admires long ring fingers

I thought you were supposed to be able to tell who was gay from finger length ratios, too, no? Is that supposed to be related to the testosterone thing?

Also, people in general often suck. Especially at work.

Maybe I was supposed to be a boy.

I did mention the sketchy part, right?

There is an amazingly loud hoard of kids outside. They just found a snake. Oops. I think a mom is coralling them. Finally. Normally kid sounds don't bug, but I'm staving off a headache. I gotta say, though. I wouldn't be letting a bunch of kids between 5 and 10ish be roaming around here unsupervised. We used to in my childhood neighborhood, but this is a bit different location.

I think it happens to a large percentage of people who get put in charge of stuff - there's an automatic shutoff valve for things like minor niceties and common sense. I've seen it happen a lot in managers - suddenly they have an assistant they can use as an external brain and a part of their own brain suddenly atrophies.

I think it gets more attention with people in charge of stuff (because there's the wonder of how they got the stuff), but in my time in business I've found the "OMG, how do you function?" is pretty evenly distributed.

Also, people in general often suck. Especially at work.

and when they are in cars.

There are always huge crowds of kids playing on my street. Today, as I was walking past, they were all yelling "PAPA! PAPA!" I'm pretty sure the guy behind me wasn't actually the father of all of them, but I guess you never know.....

The men's testosterone levels were also tested - by comparing the length of the men's index finger compared to their ring finger.

If the ring finger is longest, it indicates a high testosterone level.

This subject fascinates me because I have a FREAKISHLY LONG index finger. It's nearly as long as my middle finger and I've never found any human being that has this finger length ratio of stubby ring finger vs. extra long index finger. And don't think I haven't tried--I often ask strangers to hold up their hands so I can compare.

Please tell me I'm not alone in my freakishness and that at least one buffista out there has a long index finger.

My fingers are more or less regular, but my second toe is completely stubby, making my bug toe look enormous, so I feel your pain, Cashmere. (I have completely convinced myself it's the little second toe and not actually a gigantor big toe, so no one say anything, OK?)