The longest essay in the world to copy and paste
A week ago a friend invited a couple of other couples over for dinner. Eventually, the food (but not the wine) was cleared off the table for what turned out to be some fierce Scrabbling. Heeding the strategy of going for the shorter, more valuable word over the longer cheaper word, our final play was “Bon,” which–as luck would have it!–happens to be a Japanese Buddhist festival, and not, as I had originally asserted while laying the tiles on the board, one half of a chocolate-covered cherry treat. Anyway, the strategy worked. My team only lost by 53 points instead of 58.
Just the day before, our host had written of the challenges of writing short. In journalism–my friend’s chosen trade, and mostly my own, too–Mark Twain’s observation undoubtedly applies: “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” The principle holds across genres, in letters, reporting, and other writing. It’s harder to be concise than to blather. (Full disclosure, this blog post will clock in at a blather-esque 803 words.) Good writing is boiled down, not baked full of air like a souffl??. No matter how
What does 1 million words look like?
Here is a 1 million words file using only Lorem Ipsum text :
It is always very hard to conceive very large numbers. Big amounts of time or space are subjective concepts. We don’t use rationality to get around their quantities, instead, we use feeling. We can feel how very tall a building is or how very large a lake can be.
A large quantity of words might be even tougher to surround in one’s mind. Let’s get beside those abstract ideas and let’s try to answer the following question : What does 1 million words really look like?
As a kid I’ve always asked myself how long it would take me to read 1 million words? How thick a book should be to gather all these characters into one single object. In this article I will try answering those childhood questions.
We will be using a Lorem Ipsum base text. Lorem Ipsum is a very famous latin piece of text used by designers as a placeholder text to fill design mockups. If you want to learn more about the origins of Lorem Ipsum you should dig into De finibus bonorum et malorum of Cicero.
Statistics generated by 1’000’000 words text.
The total version o
i just found out something phenomenal. its reeeeal bad. im on a list. and no, not an fbi list or something, i was on one of those a longgg time ago. im on a longest text ever list. crazy i know, im actually almost a celebrity now. apparently im third! in the world! yes you read that right. but little did i know something alot scarier was going to happen. theres someone who has written more than the flaming chicken person. which means that im not actually as close to the goal as i thought, but thats ok because im still writing. heres more information about my fame: my website has reached 4,000 views. i know what youre thinking: what?? people may have actually read this? no. the answer is that my loteev starts really… interestingly. i used to think would have to live with that beginning, and if people didnt like it there was nothing i could do. that was: until i invented time travel. thats right, the beginning you may have read when you started this LoTeEv (apparently the community likes calling them LTEs but i dont listen to societies norms) may not be the original beginning. crazy i know. but how to i start a LoTeEv to draw the reader in? these dont work like normal books.
Lorem Ipsum
The standard Lorem Ipsum corridor, used since the 1500s
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."
Section 1.10.32 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum", written by Cicero in 45 BC
"Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis
A (very long) essay on political communications, French style
Post
19 October 2011
Posted by Alastair Campbell
10
The post has just arrived and in it a very nice surprise, the discovery that Jacques Seguela, one-time adviser to President Mitterrand, now close confidant of President and Madame Sarkozy (indeed he intoduced them), and something of a legend in French political communications, has dedicated his latest book to little old moi. With apologies for the missing accents here and in the French bits of the long posting which follows - the dedication to 'Le Pouvoir dans la Peau' (Power in the skin) reads 'A Alastair Campbell, mon spin doctor prefere' (three missing accents in one word - mes excuses sinceres). So what did I do for this honour, you are asking? Well, perhaps the fact that he asked me to read his book, and write a 'postface' assessment both of his writing and of the issues he covers, and the fact that I said yes, has something to do with it. He says some blushmakingly kind things in his 'preface to the postface', which I will have to leave to French readers of the whole thing (published by Plon). But for the larg