Four letter words. Mapped alphabetically to three-space, that is (ie. the 3space axes are the second, third, and fourth letters.) Interesting to see which initial letters tend to map to verbs, which to nouns, and suchlike. A nice example of data visualization.
posted by five fresh fish on Jun 10, 2004 - 11 comments

How to do things with four-letter words. Why do we swear? Or, more importantly, why are swear words "bad" and other words are fine? Angus Kidman's thesus on the semantics of swearing in Australia - and most other English speaking places as well - tries to shed some light. Possibly NSFW.
posted by Fat Elvis on Apr 6, 2003 - 21 comments

You Stupid #@$! In England, children are learning how to swear. What the #@%&? Aren't they learning enough of this #@&! on the street? I believe that the standards for streets smarts have really slipped over the years. Children should be learning their four letter words at the same place they learn about sex, on the street!
posted by aj100 on Jul 2, 2001 - 9 comments