Wednesday September 01, 2004

But What Comes After ‘Conquistador’?

WordCount.org is a beautifully designed online project that ranks the 86,800 most frequently used English words and weights them visually by how often they are used — from “the” all the way to “conquistador”.

In true Borgesian fashion, some have been panning WordCount’s linguistic stream for shreds of meaning. For example, words 992-995 form the phrase “america ensure oil opportunity,” while 30523-30525 warn of “despotism clinching internet.”

(via texturl)

UPDATE: Perhaps this thing isn’t such a good oracle. I’ve just noticed that words 2629-2631 are “bush admit specifically.” (If you take in three more words, the phrase becomes “bush admit specifically agents smell denied.” A reference to WMD? To faulty intelligence?) Since Bush cannot even “say specifically” or “think specifically,” such an admission is unlikely to be forthcoming — unless of course a grand jury is eventually convened. But no matter. As Cheney told some Republicans from Ohio today, “When [Bush] has to make a decision, he doesn’t waffle, he doesn’t agonize over it.” Ah, the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.

Posted by jim at 03:51 PM ||