Or else they pushed a thumb on to the opened ink pad, and left a purple thumbprint like a flower on the bottom of the page.

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It had showed a thin line of ink all along the shore for miles and miles except for my community, which looked like a splotchy thumbprint of danger.

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By year-end all federal banking agencies will require online banks to ask for two forms of identification to access an account, like a thumbprint or a secret question.

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One can only speculate about the loss of Steve Jobs, the genius-tyrant whose thumbprint has been on almost every brilliant and elegant product to ever come out of Apple.

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"For the system to work, 100% of prisoners, 100% of the time, had to leave an electronic thumbprint when they went from one area of the prison to another and the system had to record this every time, " he said.

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Much has been written about his management style: unlike most CEOs, Steve Jobs is known to be involved in even the most detailed decisions, to sit in on developer meetings, and to put his thumbprint on most aspects of the operations of the company.

FORBES: Apple: Steve Jobs Departure Will Prove Visionary