Less porn? No, just really bad statistics.

Reuters is running a story, Porn passed over as Web users become social, based on book by and interview with Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise, an Internet tracking company. Obviously, I had to read the piece (I get Reuters for the porn) to see if this shocking revelation could possibly be true.

Thankfully, my worldview remained intact—porn isn't going anywhere. The relevant part of the article:

Tancer . . . said one of the major shifts in Internet use in the past decade had been the fall off in interest in pornography or adult entertainment sites.

He said surfing for porn had dropped to about 10 percent of searches from 20 percent a decade ago, and the hottest Internet searches now are for social networking sites.

"As social networking traffic has increased, visits to porn sites have decreased," said Tancer, indicated that the 18-24 year old age group particularly was searching less for porn.

"My theory is that young users spend so much time on social networks that they don't have time to look at adult sites."

I haven't taken stats in at least twelve years, but I'm pretty sure I've spotted a hole in Mr. Tancer's theory.

According to comScore, one of the more reputable Internet-use tracking firms, who started tracking search in 2003 (which makes me suspicious of claims of reliable search statistics from 10 years ago), search has been growing exponentially, as anyone with a pulse and an Internet connection already knows. For example:

• North Americans conducted approximately 4.2 billion searches in March 2004 (source: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=458).
  
• North Americans conducted approximately 16 billion searches in August 2007 (source: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1802).
  

Now, I'm not very good at math, but even I can calculate 20% of 4.2 billion—840 million—and 10% of 16 billion—1.6 billion.

Even if we give Mr. Tancer the completely unreasonable benefit of assuming that there was no search growth from 1998 to 2004, and none again since 2007, the past ten years have seen the number of searches for porn double, not drop off. Young people aren't spending any less time searching for porn, they're just spending that much more time on the Internet.

Phew. Although I don't think I'll be hiring Hitwise any time soon.

This Would Be Kind of Cute...

....if it weren't so scary. See the rest of the pictures here .

When You Care Enough to Give the Gift of Ostrich

So, Dad got ostrich meat for his birthday.

Why give the gift of meat, specifically flightless bird meat? First, my grandparents have the habit of sending us meats for the holidays. Giving meat almost feels like perpetuating an animal-flesh-based family tradition. Second, Dad's into all things healthy — whether that be the newest workout craze or a health-conscious food alternative. Ostrich is quite good for you, and I know that he's had it before. Third, Dad seems to already own every possible material good that he could want. Why not give him a gift that makes for an amusing story?

I found the ostrich meat at Amazon.com, where it was on offer from a third-party seller who is also interested in selling you alligator and buffalo meat. Since I made the purchase through Amazon, their comparison shopping software tracked the purchase. The next time I visited Amazon.com, I think the What Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item? feature effectively captured the serious and buttoned-up nature of today's ostrich meat buyer:


We are a stuffy set, we ostrich meat buyers.

Massive Market Irrationality in Alibaba IPO?

I'm no economist, so I'm really looking for some clarity.

3 Steps to a Massively Irrational Market

Step #1: Yahoo buys 39% of Alibaba's holding company.

Step #2: Today, the Alibaba IPO skyrockets its market cap to $164B. Yahoo's stake should be worth $64.2B.

Step #3: Today, Yahoo's market cap remains at $37.72B.

What am I missing here, people?

Link: Efficient market hypothesis

---

Update (4 pm, 11/7/07): When you quickly post something to your blog, only to later realize that you've made a big blunder, there's a temptation to redact the mistake. In this case, I'm going to resist the temptation to erase and leave the mistake up.

Alibaba is worth 164.71 billion Hong Kong Dollars, not US Dollars. In US dollars, Alibaba's currently worth 21.21B USD. Thus, Yahoo's 39% share of this company is hypothetically worth 8.27B USD, not 64.8B USD.

The market may still be behaving irrationally regarding the relative valuations of Alibaba and Yahoo (After all, Yahoo does now own an asset that went from being worth 2.75B USD last week to being worth 8.27B USD this week. Its share price has not moved in accordance with the increased value of this asset.), it's just not irrational on a truly massive scale.

Maggie Welcomes 2007

Maggie the Beagle wishes you all a joyous 2007!



Best,
Andy

The Cell Phone Charger Fairy Emptied Her Bag

You can see a lot on the New York City subway.

Sometimes you see a rat.
Sometimes you see a person on less than their best behavior.
Sometimes you just see a tangled pile of 50 cell phone chargers.

Dear John & Patty Ramsey,

Sorry for really, really, really not believing you.

This case will do to cast doubt onto clouds of suspicion in the same way that Kitty Genovese cast doubt on the idea that someone else will call the police.

Update (8/28): I'll take my boiled crow with a nice bearnaise sauce, if you please.

An Independence Day Musical Tidbit

The song that should be our national hymn, America the Beautiful, is sang in common meter double (8-6-8-6-8-6-8-6). Thus, its lyrics are perfectly interchangeable with Auld Lang Syne, another famous tune in common meter double.

This is What Happens When the Product Marketing Department Wins

Lately, I've been in adjective lock in the worst way.

What's adjective lock? You know how you go through those uncreative moods where you use the same adjective over and over? Well, lately I've been trotting out ridiculous far too often.

Andy, how was your Constitutional Law exam?
Totally ridiculous.

Hey man, do you have good notes on Eminent Domain? I need to get notes from somebody.
Sorry, mine are ridiculous.

How's the weather been out there?
It's been ridiculous.

I desperately needed something to break me out of this adjective funk, and thankfully, the perfect thing just arrived. It's the online advertisement for the Philips Bodygroom personal shaver.

...and it's completely ludicrous.

Vladimir Luxuria, Italy's Transgender Communist MP

It's been 18 years since Italians elected Ilona "Cicciolina" Staller to parliament, a giving and eager porn-star-turned-politician who has (at various times) offered to make love to both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden (at different times) in the name of peace.

This week, Italy elected Vladimir Luxuria to parliament, making Vladimir Italy's first Transgender Communist MP.



Vladimir's Official Site
(Hat Tip to Andrew Sullivan)

Tech Magazine → Lifestyle Magazine → Dirt Bike → Musician → Be an Astronaut

Cross marketing is a vexing thing. Although there's currently no Wikipedia definition for cross marketing (gasp!), I consider cross marketing to describe 2 related business circumstances:

• Intracompany Cross Marketing: The purveyor of Product A (which you've purchased) encourages you to buy Product B (which you haven't purchased).
• Intercompany Cross Marketing: Purveyor B purchases the right to contact some customers of Purveyor A to offer a product that they believe to be of interest to Purveyor A's customers.

On the positive side of cross marketing, you have the work of Amazon.com, who (through their Customers Who Viewed This Also Viewed and Customers Who Bought this Also Bought features) seem to open a window into the human psyche — recognizing that customers who like Product A also might like Product B allows people to uncover new (albeit superficial) ways of being that they otherwise might have missed.

Usually, when discussing the darker side of cross marketing, folks hearken to Big Brother themes that focus on violation of privacy or cavalier use of sensitive information. I'll avoid rehashing these topics. Today, I'll just point out that cross marketing can occasionally be so unrelated as to seem profoundly silly.

Permit me to explain.

I subscribe to Wired Magazine. The demographic subscribing to Wired Magazine must be an attractive (disposable income-wise) set, because other entities are constantly cross marketing other magazines and products in our direction.

Today, I receive an email from Wired on behalf of GQ, offering me a chance at a free dirt bike autographed by famed musician Pharrell Williams.

This is akin to cross marketing by mad libs. Or perhaps GQ is running a cross marketing machine that has run amok and can't be shut off.

We Must Not Rest Until this Article is Complete

At Wikipedia, the list of pages needing expert attention are those pages that caring Wikipedians have identified as requiring the special care of someone with a professional level of fluency on the topic in question.

The entry for Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-lot is currently among this set.

How can we sleep at night, knowing that the world's public knowledge on this vital topic is so partial and incomplete?!

Help us, Wikipedians! Help us!

Google Earth Spots Flying Car

If you have the new version of Google Earth installed, this link will take you to the gravity defying Flying Car of Perth.

(Parroting The Register, where you can learn more about the flying car and other great things captured mid-flight by Google Earth.)

Andy, Military Consultant

It saddens me to hear that the 4-year old cease fire on Sri Lanka is apparently over.

Yet, since I'm easily distracted, I look at the AP picture CNN.com is running with the story and think, Mr. Soldier — please do not use plywood as armor. This is not a tree fort, and they are not shooting finger lasers.


Source: AP

Just a Good Natured Gasoline Fight

The headline touts Long Lines Form in Baghdad as Major Refinery Shuts Down, but I can't help but look at the accompanying picture and think, "Dude, don't fill your tank up like that!"

Girls Gone Wild

When is this country going to wake up to its wild girl problem? I've seen the late night public service advertisements on Comedy Central, now this happens.

CNN.com - Boy band incites 'girl frenzy' at mall - Nov 13, 2005

Adolescent Fantasy Takes Uncomfortable "Reality" Form

Either we've all been transported to some Maxim Magazine-themed world, or a 14 year-old boy somewhere just totally wasted one of his three wishes.

Police: Two NFL cheerleaders arrested at Tampa bar

Now I Will Bore You With My Vacation Details

Speaking of European vacations, I've just returned from 2 weeks in Italy, and I'm only starting to mildly panic that my first year of law school starts in less than 48 hours.

The first part of our trip was split between Venice and Verona. The last half of the trip was spent in the Italian Dolomites.


Verona
Verona was nice, but compared with other Italian cities, I won't race to return. We saw Nabucco in Verona's Roman arena — a 30,000 seat venue in unbelievable shape for its great age.


Venice
Venice, though more a museum than a city, was a complete joy.

Venice is a Boy Scout's urban orienteering paradise. Other ancient cities may have the same number of alleys, but alleys are Venice's thoroughfares. Starting at the train station, getting anywhere in the city means negotiating cobblestone footpaths that vary in width from 6 to 60 feet.

Though the tourist-to-resident ratio in Venice is disturbingly high, I look forward to a return visit someday. That Venice was the most powerful city in the Western world for a time speaks to the myriad changes that we have taken place in the last 500 years.


The Dolomites
The Dolomites are a section of the Alps mountain range situated in far northwestern Italy, spread amongst a few provinces that are as Austrian as they are Italian.

Linguistically, the Dolomites were the most interesting place I've ever been. Though the province we were in, South Tyrol, is part of present-day Italy, it was annexed from Austria-Hungary after World War I. Thus, German is far-and-away the most dominant language in the regions. Signs are typically in Italian & German, with German being presented first.

Adding to the lovely complexity of tongues was Ladin, a language specific to the Dolomites that occasionally appeared on maps and other signage. Apparently, Ladin has only 30,000 speakers, so it was wonderful to encounter it.

The Dolomites are formed of gorgeous, broken limestone. Here's the Fanes Valley — if you squint at the larger version of the picture below, you may be able to make out Ücia Fanes, where we stayed during this leg of our trip.



Go to the Alps. Don't let your wife hang off the side of a mountain, as mine is in the picture below, but go to the Alps. You'll be glad you did.

Personally, I Don't Think She was High

Last week, CNET posted its Top 10 web fads of the past 10 years.


Ellen Feiss (#7) will always be one of my favorites.

As Seen Down Our Hallway