Re: A stupid text trick - Example of the redundancy of English text

From: Stang (stang13_at_anonymous.to)
Date: 09/17/03 

Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 11:25:20 GMT

Michael Amling wrote:
> John A. Malley wrote:
>
>> This is such a marvelous example of English language entropy/character
>> I must share it with sci.crypt. A friend sent me this today:
>>
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Subject: Dslyecixs taek haret
>>
>> Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deson't mttaer in
>> waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht
>> frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl
>> mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do
>> not raed ervey lteetr by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.
>
>
> My son sent me this earlier today. I find the faster I read it, the
> less bothersome the permutations are. If I slow down into copyreading
> mode, it becomes unintelligible.
>
> --Mike Amling

Many years ago I worked as a reporter for the city newspaper. I
remember distinctly that when I would take notes "really fast" at say, a
school board meeting, and then read them again later, they would look
very much like the example above. And as a kid I was a spelling bee
champion. It's as if the brain has the idea of a word, and throws the
right letters into the soup, but only the first and last letters are
vital in giving it structure.
>
>
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>> Isn't that great? :-)
>>
>> Native English speaker/readers should have no trouble parsing the text
>> because of the redundancy of printed English. Only the first and last
>> letters of each word remain in their expected positions.
>>
>> John A. Malley
>> 102667.2235@compuserve.com
>>
>

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