If you’ve put a comment (as many of you have – thank you) to a post and found it hasn’t appeared, or you’ve had to fill out a captcha* (where you have to say what letters appear in an image), please be patient. This is just the result of the comment spam protection used on the site, which is usually very effective.

To bypass it, you can log in (see the Login link on the right) – you choose your user name and password – which validates you in the eyes of the system. The aim is to make it possible for anyone to comment, while keeping spammers out. Thanks again for your patience, and for all the contributions.

* actually, I should have written captcha™. If you read the linked entry, it seems that Carnegie-Mellon has trademarked that acronym.

The following posts may be related...(the database guesses):
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• In The Guardian: surgeons' deathrates online (but not for reuse) (12 June 2008; score: 27.67%)
• The police and crime mapping: and another perspective from the Observer (1 June 2008; score: 26.29%)
• That's better: see what's been commented on recently (26 March 2006; score: 24.18%)
• David Cameron gives speech suggesting "setting data free" (25 June 2009; score: 21.45%)