http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... ngered_man

haha, I was wondering whether the finger is fully functional, if it were, the guy could probably solve puzzles just a tad bit faster~

I think it was functional. The article says the surgeon rearranged the muscels of the removed finger to the fifth one. Seems to me that the fifth one was not functional.
BTW: What I need is a third hand not a sixth finger.

Andreas

I have 2 left feet, does that count for anything?

Did the article say the name of the disease? I think its a heriditary disease called polydactly. Thes extra finger has no muscles, its pretty much just a bone. An extra finger would impact my cube skills very much. I think I only use about 5 fingers out of 10 anyways.[/quote]

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Along those lines, I was wondering if FEWER fingers might be the solution to greater speed. I suppose the really fast "finger-trick" solvers out there would disagree.

Too bad his extra fingers didn't work. I guess it's actually too bad that having extra digits makes you socially outcast even in today's society. Imagine how much easier modern life would be more fingers. Pretty much everything we use these days has a keyboard or other buttons of some sort!

Sandy

Think of a second thumb for every hand: Gripping two items with a single hand at the same time...

Right. That probably would be a big help, especially if it was symmetrical (ie. beside the "pinky").

I remember reading a series of fantasy novels where the hero's race had an extra opposing thumb on each hand. It worked out well for him!

EDIT: I got curious and went looking for it. Check if out here if you care:
http://www.watt-evans.com/thelordsofdus.html

Sandy