Halfapenguin.com

I have been recently using the digg audio interface to capcha, because its actually easier for me to interpret phrase. Often when viewing the image, there is ambiguity, however listening to the audio, is a lot easier to do. I would be interested to see if there has been much work in the spamming comunity to crack this kind of captcha, but either way computationally it must be very difficult. It would be great to see this kind of captcha software exported as something other sites can implement independant of the core digg code. For those of you awaiting commenting, i'm hoping to have a solution out next week.

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...okay this isn't my thoughts on the finale, because i can't exactly put it into words yet, I can just say i was blown away.

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For those of you who don't know who Edward R. Munrow, shame on you... ...for those of you unfamiliar with Keith Olberman, you perhaps could be forgiven for not realising their are political comentators who openly and criticise the administration in the US. Scooter Libby has been pardoned by the alleged president, and his puppet master, admitedly he's been pardoned not for the crime he did commit, but for lying about his criminal actions to a grand jury. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19588942/ How can the american people not call for impeachment now? He has publicly and openly given his opinion on the laws and justice system of America...

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I have been hearing more about the crime against civilisation, known as honour killing... Should someone be convincted of honour killing then they should be treated as someone who has done the horrific crimes they have perpetraited.

• Brutal, senseless and justificationless crime
• Generally in the lead up to the death, the victim will have been savaged
• Systematic pyschological abuse and repression of the victim for their prior life
• Abuse of a position of trust as someone who is meant to care and protect the victim
• In the case of using pre-adult male family members, they have commited brainwashing on a minor, and convinced them to kill an innocent
• Harrassment and use of bounty hunters to hunt down the victim
• Acted as though their actions are noble, honourable and justifiable

These men (and occasionally women) have no place in our society, they are not suffering from any psychological distortion, or other miasma. I think if they commit such acts, then once they have completed life sentances, they should be flown to a deserted island, have their passport, birth certificate and any other identity documents shredded, and told to enjoy the lack of civilisation they clearly crave.

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I've just finished watching Sicko, by Michael Moore, and after feeling scared and worried about my impending job in the United States for most of the film, the ending left me feeling warm, fuzzy and full of hope. This was a typical "Michael Moore" investigation, admitedly he did leave out the fact that the French economy is in a state of collapse, that the British government seems adamant to destroy the NHS (and Primary Care Trusts do oppose treatments they think they can get away with not treating), and that in Canada the system is not as efficient as if you were a legacy trying to get into the Mayo Clinic. However, that said, i'm currently feeling very proud of the NHS, and i think we should be more proud, because we do have some very good doctors, nurses, consultants, secretaries, janitors, and even probably a couple of good mangers in the NHS. I watched Fahrenheit 911, and i wasn't hugely impressed, yes i did find out things i didn't know before, but it was preaching to the converted, i would have (if i were an American voter) voted for Dick Cheney for president before i voted for the dumb plank they have in power now. This film was about Michael being Michael, and what Michael does very well is make people feel bad about themselves for being bastards. The art of the political stunt to make a point is a very difficult one, and this time he is a past master, even down to the way he used homeland security to make themselves look foolish with their "hiding" of Guantanamo Bay's location. Nobody forced the politicians to not treat those volunteers, but by not doing right by their "heroes", it turned a good point, into an earth shattering point. Every country has its problems, and US of A has more than most. Its people, while passionate and even occasionally compassionate, are very good at missing chances for greatness. However i don't think this is one of those times. Now is the time for change, look at your leaders, your rulers, your masters, would you deny a man his life just to get another million dollar bonus? would you celebrate every failure in the principles on which healthcare is founded? would you be happy that the least among you cannot risk the cost of going to see the doctor they ...

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The way i see it, a human life (one born and self aware), is sacred, i don't know whether that means the same as holy, i just know that it is something not perhaps inviolate, but certainly something to be revered. I feel that executing someone is no different than murder, its just done in medically applied, doctor conducted, state sanctioned fashion. There are many arguments that are put forward for the death penalty (justice, deterrent, lack of burden on the state), but the one i feel actually stands up is revenge. This is not a punishment of justice, if it were a deterrent nobody would be on death row, and as far as burden on the state, how about the endless and near eternal appeals process, surely that is a greater burden... So if its about revenge, what does that mean... Despite rabbinical law having opposed the death penalty for almost 2000 years, states (and federal entities) that practice are condoning and participating in vengeance. For the better part of 2 millenia, we have been ruled by theocratic constraints based on the corrupted teachings of a man who said "Turn the other cheek", did we learn nothing about compassion, forgiveness and mercy from that time? I could never murder someone in cold blood, i couldn't make the same confirmation if it were a matter of life and death for me or someone i cared about, but when someone is locked in a prison cell, or in some other way prevented from causing harm, i am totally opposed to murder in the name of the state.

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health insurers would make the arch dukes of hell feel dirty for associating with them...

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One of my favourite characters this season of Doctor Who has been Professor Yana, this brilliant, compassionate, idealistic scientist doing whatever he could to help his fellow humans... Here was an inventor who took the idea of a stamping boot, and turned into a method of hope, built out of bits of string, food, and stationary supplies... I know he was a now buried aspect of the Master, but i hope if they bring back the Master, then somehow that aspect of him is remembered or relavant.

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Capitalism, and its child philosophy consumerism is not a system without merit, and in many situations it does a passable and sometimes good job at delivering reasonable service to people. However like a few government sanctioned monopolies, the train companies are not one of them. There is no competition on the railways, unless you want to take a car, you have no practical alternatives. Therefore rather than dropping, we have had continual increases while services get significantly worse. My personal favourite experience of this was the 7pm from London to Bristol on a Friday evening. This was every time the busiest train i have seen, because it was the first train you could catch which wasn't peak rate, and also people going back for the weekend. When this was the old style long trains it was still jam packed, but on every second weekend they would use the new much smaller carriages, which meant many people couldn't get on the train. They knew this would happen, and could fix it with some thought on planning but continually made the same mistake. This was a symbol of the problem of capitalism running on the train networks. Virgin brought out its Voyager series of trains with several notable enhancements

• A more complete shop
• Powerpoints at the seat, vital for anyone with a laptop or in need of a phone charge
• More comfortable seating
• Ability to join trains together to get more seating

As a result, rather than taking care to produce a worthy equivalent, First rushed out the flawed Adelante to replace its aging network of trains, however these have several issues.

• Approximetly half the sized of the replaced trains, with no extra services to take up the slack
• No powerpoints at the seats
• Seats have no improvements, possibly actually a little more uncomfortable than the originals
• Cannot be expanded by any means so the limited capacity cannot be overcome without increasing services
• Flaws in the design of the engines mean that simple problems like replacing the front windscreen takes 3 days rather than 1 day in the previous model

So the result is, that customers are paying both in time and through their wallets for a bad management decision, and has anyone lost their jobs? No, and its unlikely they will do, since First are still making huge profits at our expense. Virgin themselves are no shining ...

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