Researchers said the key to optimising a keyboard for two thumbs was to minimise long typing sequences that only involved a single thumb.

BBC: KALQ thumb-type keyboard takes on Qwerty

Had you not been under the thumb of Saddam Hussein for so long and the victim of terror for so long, you would not need this help.

WHITEHOUSE: The White House

The crucial difference is that Mr Kohl was already a long-serving chairman of his party, and had it under his thumb, when he became chancellor.

ECONOMIST: Schr?der thumped

But it was through his long-running syndicated TV show that he became known to America, his thumb a national icon.

FORBES: Roger Ebert Dead at 70 After Long Battle With Cancer

Although the details vary from country to country, a widely used rule-of-thumb says that a lease does not have to be capitalised so long as the net present value of the lease liabilities (ie, future rents) amounts to less than 90% of the value of the asset.

ECONOMIST: Commercial property

We'll be in deep rural America for long stretches of the ride, which may, at times, limit my dispatches to thumb-driven blackberry notes.

WSJ: A Ride Across Iowa

Confirming a widely-held rule of thumb, German researchers found that the deterioration in motor function of athletes after long trips lingered for roughly as many days as the number of time zones they crossed.

ECONOMIST: Travel and athletic performance: Road warriors | The