Cherry-picking (no pun intended) search terms like this, or even relying primarily on search terms in the first place, is completely disingenuous. Such comparisons are no different than any other Bad Chart that skews data points to fit an unsupported argument.
The most dishonest aspect of relying on Google Trends to demonstrate community interest is in assuming that all possible interests are equally accessible and represented on the internet. Certainly the web is great for information and media regarding entertainment, especially pr0n, but it is less representative of other information that merely needs to be looked up occasionally, such as any outdoor activity. I can probably count the number of times I've used the internet to find anything related to jogging on one hand, even though I jog almost every day.
The second dishonest aspect is that you cannot simply compare a handful of terms to accurately judge interest in the activities. As SM points out above, not only are some terms represented by a variety of words, but some words represent a variety of concepts. Besides the various groups already mentioned, "orgy" could be used in conjunction with many non-sexual themes, such as "an orgy of violence."
The final and most blatant dishonest aspect of these comparisons are the actual concepts being compared. Even if Google fairly represented interest in all concepts equally, there is no way that "apple pie" is a relevant comparison for anything considered commonplace. So what if it's an American tradition. That doesn't mean there's a significant community interest in getting more information or multimedia related to it. An picking a random sport like surfing isn't relevant either. You could pick a big favorite like football or a niche activity like bachi ball - the community's level of interest in these activities have no bearing on how acceptable or obscene the community finds them. If there is any correlation at all, it's probably that the more interest displayed under Google Trends in an activity, the more prurient the activity is. Web surfing encourages personal and even private use, so information that is embarrassing to inquire about elsewhere will be more strongly represented in web searches.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm pretty sure that solar sails would take far more distance than exists between the earth and the moon to accelerate to any significant speed.
Cherry-picking (no pun intended) search terms like this, or even relying primarily on search terms in the first place, is completely disingenuous. Such comparisons are no different than any other Bad Chart that skews data points to fit an unsupported argument.
The most dishonest aspect of relying on Google Trends to demonstrate community interest is in assuming that all possible interests are equally accessible and represented on the internet. Certainly the web is great for information and media regarding entertainment, especially pr0n, but it is less representative of other information that merely needs to be looked up occasionally, such as any outdoor activity. I can probably count the number of times I've used the internet to find anything related to jogging on one hand, even though I jog almost every day.
The second dishonest aspect is that you cannot simply compare a handful of terms to accurately judge interest in the activities. As SM points out above, not only are some terms represented by a variety of words, but some words represent a variety of concepts. Besides the various groups already mentioned, "orgy" could be used in conjunction with many non-sexual themes, such as "an orgy of violence."
The final and most blatant dishonest aspect of these comparisons are the actual concepts being compared. Even if Google fairly represented interest in all concepts equally, there is no way that "apple pie" is a relevant comparison for anything considered commonplace. So what if it's an American tradition. That doesn't mean there's a significant community interest in getting more information or multimedia related to it. An picking a random sport like surfing isn't relevant either. You could pick a big favorite like football or a niche activity like bachi ball - the community's level of interest in these activities have no bearing on how acceptable or obscene the community finds them. If there is any correlation at all, it's probably that the more interest displayed under Google Trends in an activity, the more prurient the activity is. Web surfing encourages personal and even private use, so information that is embarrassing to inquire about elsewhere will be more strongly represented in web searches.
Such a bad legal position.