Is it not obvious in the first case that "secretary" is the unknown word? Clearly ocr wasn't able to read it due to the fading. Likewise, the cut off words spanning two lines in the later versions are obviously the unknown words. The author states right at the beginning that he understands there is a control and an unknown word; he then proceeds to "hope" that the obvious unknown word is the control in the first case, then skip numerous captchas where the control word is straightforward and the illegible word is obviously the unknown. This certainly sounds like willful ignorance for the sake of a blog post.<p>Also, '“Onightsl”? “Onighisl”? Are those even words?' No, my understanding is that dictionary words are never used as the control, so as not to be vulnerable to dictionary attacks.<p>Edit: I'm not suggesting that these captchas are in any way good; they do clearly have issues. I'm just saying that storyline in the blog post seems contrived. To me it would be more convincing if presented in a more genuine manner. However, perhaps he was simply very unlucky.