You may have seen links to this nifty thing called Wordle, which makes a "tag cloud" out of words; an image of the words where the size of the word displayed is scaled to how many times it appears in the text. It actually has some small use beyond just being nifty; I can dump in a blog post and see if I overuse words, or I could put in blog comments and see what words my readers focus on.
But really, it’s just cool. I wondered what would happen if I put in a chapter from my book, Death from the Skies!, so I dumped in Chapter 5: "The Bottomless Pit of Black Holes". This is what I got:
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Interesting! The most common words aren’t surprising; it is a chapter about black holes destroying the Earth, after all. I don’t know what I’ve learned from this, except just possibly it’s easy to waste time on the web.
February 11th, 2009 at 8:39 am
You’ve also learned that there is no one-to-one correspondence between “black” and “hole” in that chapter.
I don’t know that this is useful information, but…
February 11th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Is it true there is a wordhole at the center of every great novel? Oh, wait…the structure of novels is ruled by plasma phiction.
February 11th, 2009 at 9:02 am
How about Obama’s inaugural address?
http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/531080/President_Obama%27s_innaugural_address
February 11th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Wow, mine Wordle is Lulin-centered hehehe… as Comet Lulin has been the main topic in my blog lately.
http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/531046/UngaMan%27s_Blog
February 11th, 2009 at 9:19 am
This makes me feel like William Burrows, in reverse. Hey honey, come here and shoot this apple of my head.
February 11th, 2009 at 9:23 am
I love looking for phrases in seemingly random groups of words. My favorite that I found in there – “Just Holes Even matter.” (right edge, just below middle) Truer words have never been spoken!
February 11th, 2009 at 9:29 am
That looks like it would make a really cool t-shirt design.
February 11th, 2009 at 9:35 am
@kuhnigget
No, no, no. Novels are ruled by serif ink currents. It’s all part of Pulp Cosmology. Do you deny that there are serifs in novels? Huh? Huh?
February 11th, 2009 at 9:37 am
I like how it arranged the words; that’s some fancy algorithm they’ve got, to fit the words in nicely like that.
February 11th, 2009 at 9:37 am
Actually these sort of things to provide insight if done over time. For example, there is a page that looks at presidential speeches over time. It’s very interesting and can really give you insight on the “real” message a president is communicating.
What would be cool is to take a popular journal and put all of their articles into this and look at how research evolved over time as well as current trends.
February 11th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Todd W and kuhnigget,
Pulp seperation undermines everything we know about novels.
February 11th, 2009 at 9:54 am
@ BuffaloDavid:
Time for the ol’ William Tell routine, eh?
@ Todd:
Paranormalgraphs are a zillion times more influential than serif ink currents! Sheesh! Which edition of Strunk and White were you brainwashed by?
February 11th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Now I can’t get the theme to Disney’s “The Black Hole” out of my head. *grumbles*
February 11th, 2009 at 10:12 am
I’m running the Austin Marathon in less than 4 days.
http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/531270/Austin_Marathon_Spectator%27s_Guide
February 11th, 2009 at 10:17 am
So, all I have to do is use these words to recreate chapter five? Cool. Now, if you will just put up the other chapters then I will not have to buy the book.
February 11th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Hey you guys, this is off topic, but “Anaconda” is now over at Universe Today — click on my name and the link will direct you to the comments section.
February 11th, 2009 at 10:51 am
@ Ivan:
Trying to tempt others to bite the apple?
February 11th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Ok, what are the odds to arrange these words and get the chapter for free??? lol
February 11th, 2009 at 11:09 am
@ kuhnigget,
You may very well think that; I couldn’t possibly comment.
February 11th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Interesting to see that some things seem to make _more_ sense when wordled. Case in point, the utterly incomprehensible http://www.timecube.com resolves to http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/531841/Timecube
Hey, I just verbed wordle!
February 11th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Like omg, I didn’t like know you were like so cool Phil. It’s like we share like a bond or something.
Like is sooooooooooooooo overused by English speakers today.
February 11th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Its also fun to place a classical music review text and look at the Wordle display as an overall picture suggesting a positive or negative gist inthe review. Seems to work. (So much for the music critic’s eloquent use of rhetoric.)
February 11th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
I notice the word “miles” big enough. And I can’t find the word “kilometer”. And I wanted to buy your book. Tell me you give the metric equivalents in your book, please!
February 11th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Better yet: can you release a special edition all in metric? Please? Pretty please?
February 11th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
This was fun. I did a couple, which are on my blog (link above I guess, I have never used the “Website” box) and decided to try the Declaration of Independence. I actually like the way it turned out!
http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/532152/Declaration_of_Independence
February 11th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Speaking of metric – anybody know what Burma, Liberia, and the USA all have in common? Click my name if you want to cheat.
Ugh, seriously, are we that lazy and incompetent that we can’t even switch over to a system that actually makes sense?!
February 11th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Way cool
I put my syphilis lecture handouts in and it looks great
I apparently also use the word “may” alot
thanks BA
February 11th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
@Cheyenne
We’re not lazy. As evidence, I submit that we use a system that requires much more work. It’s the rest of the world that’s lazy.
February 11th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
@Todd-
Hmmmm, maybe you do have a point. Well, in that case I submit that we should change to the Furlong/Firkin/Fortnight (FFF) system. Abe Simpson uses it – need I say more?
Speed of light- 1.803 terafurlongs per fortnight (Astronomy website – thought folks might like that one)
February 11th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
“The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car get 40 rods to the hogshead, and that’s the way I likes it!”
Wish I could remember the episode…
February 11th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Hey, that’s neat! I wonder what would happen if I punched in Leviticus…
February 11th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
@ Cheyenne and Todd:
Pffft! I measure everything in British Thermal Units.
“Shecks a mighty, Hoss, that’s some serious BTUs ya got there.”
February 11th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
@ Leon:
“Abomination” seems a dominant theme. Go figure.
February 11th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
You wrote a book?
February 11th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
LORD is enormous in Deuteronomy. Looks kind of neat, though.
I entered a story from Clark Ashton Smith, as well as lines from his biography (plus a deliberate amount of his actual name) to get a neat one:
http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/532895/Clark_Ashton_Smith
And pure genius… TIME CUBE:
http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/532991/Time_Cube
February 11th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Oops, he had a second page…(!)
http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/533001/Time_Cube_2
Looks awesome…
February 11th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
My Declaration of Independence one still hasn’t been approved (still hating that “no links allowed” thing) but how about Chaucer? I’m testing to see if my comment gets held back because I linked to a web site with the website box.
February 11th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Oh no, the link comments got removed… too bad.
And to think I did a scientology one to share!
February 11th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Thanks Phil! I have done a couple of Theology pastes with some interesting results. Think I’m going to mix them in with my Astronomy pictures.
February 11th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
I did one for the Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane” that turned out pretty cool.
I like the way you can mix up the words and try again if the first result isn’t especially pleasing.
February 11th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Aaaarrrggghhhhh! I just wasted an hour of my life, its just too cool!
Put in my resume which has now prompted me to start re-writing it.
February 12th, 2009 at 1:47 am
Interesting. I took the “Day the Earth Stood Still” chapter from “The Saucer Fleet” as a test case:
http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/534869/Saucer_Fleet_%22Day_the_Earth_Stood_Still%22_chapter
“Klaatu” comes out on top and “Gort” way up there, but no “Barada” or “Nikto.”
- Jack
February 12th, 2009 at 4:42 am
I wordled the BA: http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/535153/Bad_Astronomy_Blog_12_Feb_2009
February 12th, 2009 at 6:51 am
I can’t wait to get home and try it on some porn.
February 12th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Black hole.
It sucks.