http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5063236/rails-building-a-helper-that-breaks-long-words-urls-with-wbr/5063461#5063461

irb.rb

[BinaryMuse ~]: irb
ruby-1.9.2-p136 :001 > def split_str(str, len = 10)
ruby-1.9.2-p136 :002?>   fragment = /.{#{len}}/
ruby-1.9.2-p136 :003?>   str.split(/(\s+)/).map! { |word|
ruby-1.9.2-p136 :004 >     (/\s/ === word) ? word : word.gsub(fragment, '\0<wbr />')
ruby-1.9.2-p136 :005?>   }.join
ruby-1.9.2-p136 :006?> end
 => nil 
ruby-1.9.2-p136 :007 > split_str("Thisisaverylongstring here are some short ones that won't cause wrap ohnoanotherreallylongone")
 => "Thisisaver<wbr />ylongstrin<wbr />g here are some short ones that won't cause wrap ohnoanothe<wbr />rreallylon<wbr />gone"