Captcha Torture

Sachin Tendulkar might be giving retirement a thought after 23 years at the international level, but former captain Anil Kumble says he cannot think of Indian cricket without the iconic batsman.

Kumble, however, refused to be drawn into the debate of when Tendulkar should retire and said the decision should be best left to the veteran batsman.

A human rights group is introducing a new take on CAPTCHAs, those little boxes that make you type in a word to prove you are human before you can comment or register for a site. Their version doesn’t just present a scrambled word to be deciphered, but instead forces a person to choose the right word to unscramble based on the proper emotional response to a human rights violation.

Civil Rights Defenders, the Swedish-based group that developed the tool, hopes the Civil Rights Captcha will help sites block spiders and bots, while letting humans in — and hopefully educating the humans at the same time.

One hopes that being required to choose “Terrible” rather than “Fascinated” when asked how you feel about gay people being beaten will keep out the trolls — but that’s probably asking too much.

Fend Off Trolls, Bots and Jerks With 'Empathy' Test | Threat Level | Wired.com