wordcount

My brother sent me this news site with a great Flash interface and some powerful stuff behind it. The same guy has done Wordcount: "an artistic experiment in the way we use language. It presents the 86,800 most frequently used English words, ranked in order of commonality. Each word is scaled to reflect its frequency relative to the words that precede and follow it, giving a visual barometer of relevance.'

Check it out, then check out some of the weird sequences people have found. Is the sequence, 'america ensure oil opportunity' a coincidence? I think 'surfing martyrs tearful stockbrokers' is my favourite, or maybe 'apple formula imagination'. I found one of my own which I've sent off: 'drooling testosterone stabs lauded'.

Also, 'surf napier [a Scottish mathematician apparently] attractiveness chemotherapy aberystwyth' - there's something strange going on. And why is 'Wales' bookended by 'failed' and 'troubled'?! Oh dear, I must stop now.

I also think that spammers are using it.

On the same site is Query Count, which tracks what people are looking for in Word Count. The most requested word? Fuck. 2nd? Sex. Aren't we all just slaves to our hormones... (And did I look up 'fuck'? Hell yeah. It's next to 'charming', and one away from 'shallow'.)

