// Strip accents from a string. For example, "Sigur Rós" => "Sigur Ros".

def strip_accents(string):
  import unicodedata
  return unicodedata.normalize('NFKD', unicode(string)).encode('ASCII', 'ignore')

This code replaces accents to normal chars(e.g "á" => "a"), everything that isn´t in "a-zA-Z0-9" to "", multiples spaces to one space, and one space to "-".

This is useful to make URLs from titles, like Netscape.com does...

"A new report recommends only work 4 -6 hrs a day" => "A-new-report-recommends-only-work-4-6-hrs-a-day"

"Video: \"Popular Mechanics\" editor debunks 9/11 myths" => "Video-Popular-Mechanics-editor-debunks-911-myths"

etc..
The code is 95% based on http://textsnippets.com/posts/show/451

def self.nice_slug(str)
		
		accents = { 
		  ['á','à','â','ä','ã'] => 'a',
		  ['Ã','Ä','Â','À','�'] => 'A',
		  ['é','è','ê','ë'] => 'e',
		  ['Ë','É','È','Ê'] => 'E',
		  ['í','ì','î','ï'] => 'i',
		  ['�','Î','Ì','�'] => 'I',
		  ['ó','ò','ô','ö','õ'] => 'o',
		  ['Õ','Ö','Ô','Ò','Ó'] => 'O',
		  ['ú','ù','û','ü'] => 'u',
		  ['Ú','Û','Ù','Ü'] => 'U',
		  ['ç'] => 'c', ['Ç'] => 'C',
		  ['ñ'] => 'n', ['Ñ'] => 'N'
		  }
		accents.each do |ac,rep|
		  ac.each do |s|
			str = str.gsub(s, rep)
		  end
		end
		str = str.gsub(/[^a-zA-Z0-9 ]/,"")
		
		str = str.gsub(/[ ]+/," ")
		

		str = str.gsub(/ /,"-")
		
		#str = str.downcase

	end