swearing

The Interactive Periodic Table of Swearing speaks both to the giggling inner 12-year-old and stressed-out adult in all of us. It's a big, electronic table with push buttons that prompt a rainbow of cuss words and phrases.

The table is rife with variations on F-bomb expletives. You can guess what phrase pushing the "Mf" button triggers. There are also some milder insults like "silly bastard" and "stinks like piss." The table is a British creation, so some of the curse words feature charming Briticisms like "arsehole" and "bollocks."

Heavier swears are to the left while lighter and more infantile interjections are to the right. This would certainly spice up your next chemistry lab.… Read more

I am not sure I see the point of Facebook walls. Save for those Facebook uses so that Google can't peer over.

However, I've never really thought about the vernacular that prevails on these relatively public repositories of graffiti.

So I am grateful to a company called Reppler, which decided to take a peek at the musings on 30,000 Facebook murals.

It was not a pretty sight. For Reppler deduced that 47 percent of Facebook users have naughty words on their wall. Naturally, for those of a permissive bent as myself, this seems to suggest that Facebook … Read more

I don't know about you, but my first thought is that it must have been Eminem.

He appeared in a highly visible (and, to some, risible) Super Bowl ad for Chrysler. He swears a lot. Perhaps they didn't pay him on time. Perhaps he's just in a bad mood.

In any case, some wise soul, employee or associate of Chrysler (or not), managed to tweet the following on Chrysler's official Twitter feed: "I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to f***ing drive."… Read more

The next time you get injured, go ahead and swear.

Researchers who found that cursing actually relieves pain were among the winners of Ig Nobel prizes today. Also honored were projects on whale snot and certain things fruit bats do while copulating.

Sponsored by the science humor magazine "Annals of Improbable Research," the annual awards were presented tonight in a ceremony at Harvard University to projects that "cannot and should not be reproduced."

The Ig Nobel peace prize was awarded to research from Keele University in the U.K. that confirmed that swearing can lessen pain. … Read more

Oh, you just know it was meant to be funny. Eight-year-olds using naughty words has always been funny. Especially at bar mitzvahs, birthday parties and, of course, on YouTube.

There will be some who will, therefore, feel a tinge of sympathy for Josh Eastman.

The Connecticut Post tells me that Eastman, of Bridgeport, Conn., is alleged to have taken it upon himself to give YouTube viewers exactly what they want: a little reality TV amusement.

So he reportedly encountered his neighbor's 8-year-old son in the garden, encouraged him to use rude words and inappropriate racial epithets, and filmed the … Read more

With so many new blogs and Web sites that review video games and offer buying guides, it's hard to know who to trust; if you've ever vehemently disagreed with an online review and felt a boiling need to hunt down the writer, listen to today's episode of The 404--it's all about fanboys, online reviews, and our credibility as unbiased journalists.

We start off the show with a quick verbal fanboy bashing, and Jeff is probably the most engaging participant as a result of an article that instructs video game fans on how to respond to a bad review. After grilling Jeff for a while on what exactly makes him qualified to review video games, we run down the list of excuses as to what outside sources might influence a writer to give a game an unfairly low rating. For example, it could be that the reviewer might just suck at the game, or maybe the writer is just trolling for hits to further their career. In any case, The 404 fully endorses MetaCritic as the definitive source for unbiased, aggregated user reviews. (Disclosure: MetaCritic is a part of CBS Interactive, which also publishes CNET.)

Jeff is jokingly ticked off after we challenge his legitimacy as a professional video game reviewer, so we help him let off some steam with a study out of Keele University in North Staffordshire that claims swearing relieves pain. Although we don't normally use foul language on the air, everyone agrees that a well-placed cuss word can certainly alleviate frustration and even mild physical pain. Without getting ourselves into trouble, we run down a list of curse word dos and don'ts and even offer a few choice expressions in our native tongues.

We also want to give a big thanks to everyone that e-mailed and called about the derogatory comments sometimes heard on Microsoft Xbox Live. We received a lot of excellent comments about censorship and age limits in video games as well, so thanks to everyone for their input. If you have something to say about today's episode, give us a call at 1-866-404-CNET or email us at the404[at]cnet[dot]com and tell us what's on your mind.

Have a great day everyone!

Apple has apparently had a change of heart about a Twitter iPhone app that sometimes presents users with language some might find objectionable.

The popular Twitter app for iPhone and iPod touch--called Tweetie 1.3--was apparently rejected because it gives users access to the Twitter Trends section, which displays the most frequent topics or words on Twitter at any given moment. This section sometimes lists swear words--including a particular four-letter word that begins with the letter F--that apparently raised Apple's disdain.

In an e-mail earlier Tuesday, app developer Loren Brichter said Apple quoted this part of the company's … Read more

Don't you f***ing love cute stuffed animals?

They're the s***. But Entertainment Earth has taken huggable plush toys to an entirely new level with the Swear Bear.

Here are the f***ing basics: you hug the innocent-looking Swear Bear, and in turn, it swears profusely. We're talking classic phrases such as "Hey d***head, what're you--some kind of pervert, gotta touch teddy bears?" and "Eat s*** and die!" Awww, that's so f***ing adorable.

In addition to making Tickle-Me Elmo look like a complete a******, the Swear Bear costs only … Read more

Turns out the name of Microsoft's upcoming music player, "Zune," sounds a lot like a Hebrew word--and, um, it ain't shalom. A Macworld article notes that the music player's moniker is taking some Hebrew speakers aback because of its resemblance to the word "zi-yun," which, translated into English, has four letters and starts with an "f."

Hebrew linguists are divided over the name Zune, the article says, with some calling it unacceptable and others saying the one-syllable gadget name is unlikely to be mistaken for the two-syllable obscenity.

Still, you gotta … Read more