The history of spam was recently detailed in this New Yorker article. Much of it is old news for anyone who’s been online and paying attention for a while, but Michael Specter’s journey from Arpanet to CAN-SPAM to botnets makes for a good read, especially when it’s peppered with stats like this one:

“It takes at least five seconds to recognize and delete an email. If a billion spam messages elude detection every day—which means that ninety-nine per cent do not—that adds up to a hundred and fifty-nine years of collective time lost hitting the delete button every day.”

Conventional wisdom says that the Web is most used by young people. According to the Daily Mail, though, “silver surfers” are spending more time online than young whippersnappers between 18 and 24.

Takeaway for marketers: Conventional wisdom isn’t always most wise.

“The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.”
—William Gibson

This Men’s Health quiz says I’m middle-aged, but this calculator reassures me I’m only 25 in Martian years while this blogthing says I’m 31. Whatever. Today I bring my first-born to college. I feel older than Abe Vigoda’s baby shoes. Or Abe, for that matter.

Estimated retail e-commerce sales in Q2 of 2007 increased more than 20 percent over Q2 of 2006, reports eMarketer.