If Kidnappers Chop Off One Of Your Fingers, Here's Which Finger You Should Sacrifice

[gvstn]

Last edited Sat Sep 14, 2013, 12:44 PM - Edit history (1)

Apple's new iPhone 5S has a fingerprint security detector, called Touch ID, which unlocks the phone only if it detects your fingerprint....

If someone — kidnappers, for instance — is going to chop off one of your fingers, which finger should you sacrifice? This actually happened to a British man kidnapped in Syria this year, so it's not simply a fanciful dilemma.

Many people get this wrong. They assume that the little finger, the pinky, is the one to say goodbye to

Edit: I forgot the article that tells you which one to choose: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/kidnappers-chop-off-one-fingers-124000300.html




That this story is out there only feeds my paranoia. When fingerprint passwords were originally proposed, chopping off fingers ws my first thought. Anyone else as paranoid as me?

[pipi_k]

1. OK here's what I would do...

I would tell a phone thief that it's someone else's phone and doesn't use my fingerprints, and would prove it by attempting to "unlock" it using my own fingers.

Except it wouldn't really be someone else's fingerprints. It would be my own toe prints, which he wouldn't know.

I don't think a thief would be smart enough to figure that one out. Or maybe he would. In which case, I would only lose a toe, and not a finger.

[gvstn]

2. Sorry, I forgot to post the link to the article

They tell you which toe to choose too.

[Taitertots]

8. You are going to use your toe to unlock your phone every time you make a call?

[pipi_k]

15. For me

It's not really a problem because I hardly ever call anybody

My iPhone is really just an emergency sort of thing

[DFW]

3. I 'm a guitarist. The first one is already fatal.

If I couldn't play any more, half of me would expire on the spot.

[panader0]

6. I'm a guitarist too.

A few years ago I had my left ring finger smashed at work. The bone was visible. I taped it up and kept after it. It took about 6 months for me to play again. Now the end of that finger is hard and numb, but doesn't affect my playing.

[DFW]

16. Six months!

if I couldn't play for six months, I think I'd be ready for the loony bin.

Of course, there are those who contend I should have been tossed in there years ago, so maybe it's not the big deal I think it is....

[KG]

4. you want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me.

[pinboy3niner]

9. :)

There are ways, Dude. You don't wanna know about it, believe me.

[panader0]

5. A guy calls his wife from the hospital:

"Honey, I'm at the hospital. I cut off my finger." "The whole finger?" "No, the one next to the hole finger."
Sorry.

[Kaleva]

7. Certainly not my ex-wife's favorite.

Which would be the middle and forefinger of each hand.

[petronius]

10. I hope I never need that info, but I'm glad to have it!

I would have made a poor choice on the finger (I thought ring finger, and I didn't consider handedness), but I chose the least-bad toe to lose...

(<-- definitely keep that one!)

[gvstn]

11. Yeah, I would have picked the wrong finger

Now every time I pick something up, I am conscious of how much pressure my little finger is actually exerting.

The only thing is, if I were to lose an index finger then I couldn't do this

What weirded me out about the article was how in depth it was and how seriously they took the matter. Creepy!

[nolabear]

12. Well we know who wouldn't want to be NoMiddleFingerMom.

But nah, no more paranoid than necessary.

[Recursion]

13. I play banjo. Definitely right pinky, all other considerations aside

Oddly enough I've thought about this before

[noamnety]

14. Okay, I tried this:

"Try doing pull-ups without using your little fingers, and then do the same without your first fingers, and you'll get an idea of how disabling it is to lose the pinky."

and all I can say now is it appears I may as well go with the pinky.