Quotes of the Day, 11 March 2008

Eavesdropping highlights from the last 24 hours:

  1. “Somehow I suspect book lovers feel the same way about Harry Potter as music lovers feel about Jeff Buckley.” (Alastair Rankine)
  2. Overheard while walking past a house where young boys were playing noisily: “I’m the birthday boy so I have to be team leader.”
  3. “Someone in my office just said ‘cyberspace’. I hope I’m not paying them.” (abacab)
  4. In response to my comment, “Stilgherrian is thinking about things that geeks think about”, someone who should probably remain nameless said: “Most geeks I know think about banging Natalie Portman in a blow-up-pool filled with custard…”
  5. “Stilgherrian, one day in the future, your life will confuse historians.” (Nick Hodge)

Howard vs Rudd: a tag cloud

I’ve already mentioned the two very contrasting speeches given by John Howard and Kevin Rudd last week. Those differences are well highlighted in these tag clouds.

Thumbnail image of tag clouds

On the left, Howard’s speech emphasises “government”, “economic”, “values”, “continue“… “years“. Years… eleven long years. On the right, Rudd’s speech emphasises “development”, “cooperation”, “partnership”, “relationship”, “build”, “future“… “change“.

Have a look at the full images, each showing the top 120 words in each speech (minus common English stop words) and tell me what you can see.

Continue reading “Howard vs Rudd: a tag cloud”