A black-and-white photo of a person mid-air in a Superman-style body suspension pose, supported by multiple hooks in their back and legs, smiling joyfully toward the camera. They are suspended horizontally in a large indoor space with high ceilings and visible rigging. A group of onlookers—some seated, some standing—watch with expressions of admiration, amusement, and support. The atmosphere is lively and communal, capturing a moment of shared experience and transformation.

A Ship That Can Really Boogie

One of the questions that’s been occupying my mind lately, is if you have about 175,000 sentences made up of about 2.3 million words total (ie. the titles and descriptions for all the pictures in the main tattoo gallery on BME), how do you quickly generate a list of the most popular phrases between 1 and 6 words long? As a programmer, these are the types of problems I greatly enjoy because on one hand it seems like a difficult thing to do because there’s so much data, but on the other hand, it almost always has a fast and elegant solution… I need this function to do automatic keywording, so for example, once a subject becomes popular enough in the tattoo galleries, it automatically gets its own gallery.

It’s actually really very easy to do this type of analysis… In my case I use a quick parsing function (written in assembly so it’s very efficient) to create a giant array of every phrase in every entry (about ten million entries), which is then sorted with a shell sort function, also written in assembly. At that point it’s a simple matter of counting the repeats to get the answer to the question — the whole process takes seconds. Incidentally, in the tattoo gallery right now there are about 2,000 useful keywords, and about 12,000 that aren’t useful — drove myself bonkers sorting them manually, but luckily it only has to be done once. Later today I think I’ll post some themed entries here from that data.

The other question that’s been occupying my mind lately, as I read the ModBlog comment forums, is why y’all gotta by such haters? For that purpose, I offer up this sacrificial lamb.

 the-good-ship-independance.jpg

Comments

178 responses to “A Ship That Can Really Boogie”

  1. jurcis Avatar
    jurcis

    it looks like Latvias flag – red white red. or austrias flag

  2. jurcis Avatar
    jurcis

    it looks like Latvias flag – red white red. or austrias flag

  3. Michelle the robot Avatar
    Michelle the robot

    my mommy told me if i don’t have anything nice to say, not to say anything at all.
    I don’t know what people think they accomplish by trash talking on modblog entries.

  4. Michelle the robot Avatar
    Michelle the robot

    my mommy told me if i don’t have anything nice to say, not to say anything at all.
    I don’t know what people think they accomplish by trash talking on modblog entries.

  5. fetch Avatar
    fetch

    Sterling example of meme propagation.

  6. fetch Avatar
    fetch

    Sterling example of meme propagation.

  7. Angiebabynz Avatar
    Angiebabynz

    Did Cere tattoo that?

  8. Angiebabynz Avatar
    Angiebabynz

    Did Cere tattoo that?

  9. blackberry Avatar
    blackberry

    What we all need to remember is that opinions are like areseholes… everybody has one!

  10. blackberry Avatar
    blackberry

    What we all need to remember is that opinions are like areseholes… everybody has one!

  11. blackberry Avatar
    blackberry

    What we all need to remember is that opinions are like arseholes… everybody has one!

  12. blackberry Avatar
    blackberry

    What we all need to remember is that opinions are like arseholes… everybody has one!

  13. M Avatar
    M

    Christyn/#25 – I agree with your comment 1000%. How can one make a post saying “Don’t hate. Except on this.” and still be able to get all these supportive comments?

  14. M Avatar
    M

    Christyn/#25 – I agree with your comment 1000%. How can one make a post saying “Don’t hate. Except on this.” and still be able to get all these supportive comments?

  15. Bob Avatar
    Bob

    But Blackberry has two versions of the same arsehole. Talk about cutting edge modifications!

  16. Bob Avatar
    Bob

    But Blackberry has two versions of the same arsehole. Talk about cutting edge modifications!

  17. if6was9 Avatar
    if6was9

    Shannon,

    A few suggestions. Is there any way to edit our entries to there aren’t doubles. Cause I’ve done it. And perhaps that *disclaimer/TOS/read this* before a reader submits comments. To dissuade the casual haters.

  18. if6was9 Avatar
    if6was9

    Shannon,

    A few suggestions. Is there any way to edit our entries to there aren’t doubles. Cause I’ve done it. And perhaps that *disclaimer/TOS/read this* before a reader submits comments. To dissuade the casual haters.

  19. if6was9 Avatar
    if6was9

    *so there aren’t doubles.

  20. if6was9 Avatar
    if6was9

    *so there aren’t doubles.

  21. johnny-boy Avatar
    johnny-boy

    How is this person ever going to get a job or support themself with a tattoo like this? I think it looks disgusting also and probably was just done to shock and grab attention without much real thought as to the consequences. I certainly wouldn’t ever want to… Wait a minute… I think I’m in the wrong thread…

  22. johnny-boy Avatar
    johnny-boy

    How is this person ever going to get a job or support themself with a tattoo like this? I think it looks disgusting also and probably was just done to shock and grab attention without much real thought as to the consequences. I certainly wouldn’t ever want to… Wait a minute… I think I’m in the wrong thread…

  23. Shannon Avatar

    christyn – When is it OK to make fun of someone… hmmm… how about… never!

    Why not just stick to intelligent discussion and supportive (when relevant) commentary? Personally that’s what I enjoy the most…

    M – Obviously this entry is humorous. I would hope “obviously” anyway.

  24. Shannon Avatar

    christyn – When is it OK to make fun of someone… hmmm… how about… never!

    Why not just stick to intelligent discussion and supportive (when relevant) commentary? Personally that’s what I enjoy the most…

    M – Obviously this entry is humorous. I would hope “obviously” anyway.

  25. JohnnyTremendous. Avatar
    JohnnyTremendous.

    The humor in the post and the ‘sacrificial lamb’ comment seemed obvious to me.
    It seems that some people are just so full of hate it clouds their judgement. It’s a shame really. Be a lover not a hater… it’ll make you feel all nice and warm inside.

  26. JohnnyTremendous. Avatar
    JohnnyTremendous.

    The humor in the post and the ‘sacrificial lamb’ comment seemed obvious to me.
    It seems that some people are just so full of hate it clouds their judgement. It’s a shame really. Be a lover not a hater… it’ll make you feel all nice and warm inside.

  27. Ix Avatar
    Ix

    if you don’t have nothing nice to say don’t say anything at all.

  28. Ix Avatar
    Ix

    if you don’t have nothing nice to say don’t say anything at all.

  29. Squallshaper Avatar
    Squallshaper

    This looks similar to the work of Carson Ellis (http://www.carsonellis.com/) who does the album art, etc., for The Decemberists.

    I must say, I admire it, even if it’s not the most technically “perfect” art out there. It appeals to me.

  30. Squallshaper Avatar
    Squallshaper

    This looks similar to the work of Carson Ellis (http://www.carsonellis.com/) who does the album art, etc., for The Decemberists.

    I must say, I admire it, even if it’s not the most technically “perfect” art out there. It appeals to me.

  31. Lexci Million Avatar

    Humorous, indeed. I get the smartassy tone of it – I assume the wearer of this tattoo or the artist who did it gave it to you to use to be a “sacrificial lamb” for the haters?
    Maybe I don’t get the difference between what’s hack and what’s acceptable.
    I fully agree with Christyn. I don’t get what you’re getting at…?

  32. Lexci Million Avatar

    Humorous, indeed. I get the smartassy tone of it – I assume the wearer of this tattoo or the artist who did it gave it to you to use to be a “sacrificial lamb” for the haters?
    Maybe I don’t get the difference between what’s hack and what’s acceptable.
    I fully agree with Christyn. I don’t get what you’re getting at…?

  33. Martin Avatar
    Martin

    Shannon, as I read your post, I started thinking about how I would approach this keyword issue. Then I read you were doing it in assembly (I was imagining something in C or C++, and it would have been painful, to me), and thus have nothing but love, not hate, for you. 🙂

  34. Martin Avatar
    Martin

    Shannon, as I read your post, I started thinking about how I would approach this keyword issue. Then I read you were doing it in assembly (I was imagining something in C or C++, and it would have been painful, to me), and thus have nothing but love, not hate, for you. 🙂

  35. Caitlin Avatar

    Maybe their child tattooed it on?

  36. Caitlin Avatar

    Maybe their child tattooed it on?

  37. Ireland Avatar
    Ireland

    …I’m probably reading way too much into this, but if the person is into ‘catching’, “Independance” (or, as it’s actually written, “Independarce” could be read as ‘In the penned arse’. (Penned meaning inked, as in the tattoo.)

  38. Ireland Avatar
    Ireland

    …I’m probably reading way too much into this, but if the person is into ‘catching’, “Independance” (or, as it’s actually written, “Independarce” could be read as ‘In the penned arse’. (Penned meaning inked, as in the tattoo.)

  39. Tom For Real Avatar
    Tom For Real

    Is it a guy or a girl?
    Who knows,but if its there first piece,im sure they were chuffed to bits with it maybe not so much now 😛

  40. Tom For Real Avatar
    Tom For Real

    Is it a guy or a girl?
    Who knows,but if its there first piece,im sure they were chuffed to bits with it maybe not so much now 😛

  41. smurf Avatar

    Lately it seems that any time someone expresses anything other than 100% support for what they’ve seen it’s counted as “hating.” It’s as if people expressing concern about piercings or procedures is no longer accepted as it once was.

  42. smurf Avatar

    Lately it seems that any time someone expresses anything other than 100% support for what they’ve seen it’s counted as “hating.” It’s as if people expressing concern about piercings or procedures is no longer accepted as it once was.

  43. Rulebook Avatar
    Rulebook

    “Irdeperdarce”

  44. Rulebook Avatar
    Rulebook

    “Irdeperdarce”

  45. Shannon Avatar

    Martin – If you’d like to reintroduce the hate, I wrap my assembly code in Basic.

  46. Shannon Avatar

    Martin – If you’d like to reintroduce the hate, I wrap my assembly code in Basic.

  47. Uraniumhobo Avatar

    i thoughtit said independarce but i thin it does say independace the n’s just look silly weird i guess although i have seen art styles like this so possibly it looks like that on purpous? although anywho i believe in constructive criticism, but sometimes its not worded as such and can seem like an ignorant attack without being aware of so which can cause drama as seen before

  48. Uraniumhobo Avatar

    i thoughtit said independarce but i thin it does say independace the n’s just look silly weird i guess although i have seen art styles like this so possibly it looks like that on purpous? although anywho i believe in constructive criticism, but sometimes its not worded as such and can seem like an ignorant attack without being aware of so which can cause drama as seen before

  49. Warren Hiller Avatar

    To me it reads: “Irdeperdarce” or: “Jrdeperdarce

    something tells me it was all freehand lol all I can say is I’m glad its not my tattoo, but the wearer likes it more power to em.

  50. Warren Hiller Avatar

    To me it reads: “Irdeperdarce” or: “Jrdeperdarce

    something tells me it was all freehand lol all I can say is I’m glad its not my tattoo, but the wearer likes it more power to em.

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