ONE. State of the Union word count analysis done right. The included essay at least gives lip service to the idea that we should "be skeptical of the positivist implications of a statistical analysis of language," and has some other ideas about the iconicity of words in new media etc etc etc. Good software, good read. Does anyone know why Taft ( Read more... )

I'm here this evening to talk to you about token frequency analyses of the State of the Union. Here are a couple that have been tossed around your interwebs over the past few days:

• NY Times' SOTU Token Frequency Visualizer
• 2007 SOTU Tag Cloud
• SOTU Tag Clouds throughout the ages

The ostensible goal of this kind of analysis is to determine, ( Read more... )

It has come to my attention that my blog posts recently have all been about video games. My good friend Josh plays a mean A Boy and His Blob, but now claims that this blog is, from his standpoint, "written in code." So the next few posts are geared specifically for you, Josh. I'll try to keep the video game chatter in check.

First up: A ( Read more... )

1. Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. I finished it a few days ago. It left me heartbroken. The atheism of the series will most likely be bowdlerized in the forthcoming film, which is a shame. These are three of the most spiritual books I've ever read.

2. Mathematics Elsewhere by Marcia Ascher. Ascher only makes a half-assed attempt ( Read more... )