I just saw a link to this analysis of internet spellings of Aaarrgh on jwz’s blog. It is one of those fun uses of google, as well as an interesting look at word usage. There is also a fun flash version

When I was working on the Sydney Olympics in 2000, I was responsible for a big part of the “FanMail” delivery to Athletes from the FanMail.olympics.com website (it is long dead, don’t bother looking for it). We ended up writing a modified soundex based system, with some other hooks, after doing an analysis of mispellings from the 1998 games.

Just noticed this buried in the middle of a Groklaw entry. 100 things we didn’t know this time last year is the year end almanac of BBC’s 10 things we didn’t know last week.

Among the best include:

12. Until the 1940s rhubarb was considered a vegetable. It became a fruit when US customs officials, baffled by the foreign food, decided it should be classified according to the way it was eaten.

19. The = sign was invented by 16th Century Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde, who was fed up with writing “is equal to” in his equations. He chose the two lines because “noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle”.

35. The name Lego came from two Danish words “leg godt”, meaning “play well”. It also means “I put together” in Latin.

48. A quarter of the world’s clematis come from one Guernsey nursery, where production will top 4.5m plants this year alone.

73. One in six children think that broccoli is a baby tree.

74. It takes a gallon of oil to make three fake fur coats.

88. A single “mother” spud from southern Peru gave rise to all the varieties of potato eaten today, scientists have learned.