Goodbye, AdSense

There are some things in life that are really, truly, just plain inexplicable. I'm not talking about philosophical ponderables ("Why do bad things happen to good people, and vice-versa?") or manifestations of chaos theory ("How did Ron Paul raise that much money?") . What I'm referring to is something that is just so plain weird that you find yourself scratching your head.

Such as Google advertisements appearing on this blog for, shall we say, alternative lifestyle products and blogs.

Whether or not you've noticed them, I've had two little Google ads quietly sitting on the page since I started the blog earlier this year. I don't think I've ever had anyone click on them, nor was this the point. I was curious to see some of the mystical process of internet advertising at work, based on the blather I slap up here from time to time. Over the past few months I've seen ads on the blog for lots of electronic gear, a cheap tickets to Vietnam, statistical analysis tools, and more electronic gear. And, as of this afternoon, other topics which have no bearing whatsoever on anything written here.

Perhaps there has been a glitch in the Adwords logic, or maybe some clever juvenile delinquent figured out how to game the system for fun (if not for profit). Whatever the cause, the result was the instantaneous banishment of AdSense from the blog. I've decided I rather like having absolute control over every pixel here, at least for the time being.