Measuring buzz
A computer scientist at Cornell has developed algorithms that pick up on buzz. He identifies changes in the frequency of words. Not rocket science. More interesting: he's analysed every state of the union speech since 1790. In the years that immediately followed the American Revolution, for example, sudden bursts in the use of words such as "militia", "British" and "savages" are found. From 1930 to 1937 a spike in the use of the word "depression" is seen. And from 1949 to 1959 "atomic" is the word with the greatest "burstiness". Later in the 20th century, words such as "Vietnam", "Soviet", "communist" and "Afghanistan" increase sharply in usage. New Scientist#
