Except ... DVD sales have been trending downward for years now, way ahead of the rest of the economy's troubles; it's more about the changing options for porn buyers than a general lack of consumer confidence. Bart also claims that guys can't find "gonzo" DVDs, even though in the next paragraph he points out that online porn (where all the money is going) is driven by short clips devoid of any story or frills. Hmmm. (Also, "Deep Throat" was somehow to blame for the '70s energy crisis.)

Maybe there's something to the fact that when porn does bad, we all do bad. But it's a pretty flimsy link if you ask us. After all, what else are people supposed to turn to when they don't have anything else to spend their money on? Just because you didn't want to spend $34.95 for another Jenna Jameson compliation disk and decided to jerkoff to something you found on RedTube instead didn't force you to buy that bad mortgage too, did it?

· "Hard times ahead as porn goes soft?" (variety.com)
· Thumb via TeraPatrick.com via sxx.com, via askjolene.com

One of the great unfulfilled promises of this whole Web 2.0 thing is that everyone will have chance to be a porn star someday. Sure, sites like VoyeurWeb, Xtube, and even MySpace are steps in the right direction, but what of those dedicated amateur exhibitionists who want to show off their naughty bits in return for worldwide adulation along with a little extra cash? Enter Xpodium, an interesting project that not only lets users demonstrate their self-photography skills but also allows the more modest pervs among us to act as "Producers" (by suggesting ideas for fantasy scenarios to other users) and "Investors" (by ponying up some money to browse other user galleries and make those fantasy scenarios come true). It's a neat idea that lets everyone participate in the microecomics of the amateur porn scene, and aside from having to understand Russian to read what several of the fledgling porn impresarios have to say it's one of the the next best things to being a real life bigshot producer in Porn Valley—minus the smog and constant threat of FBI agents knocking at your door to inspect your 2257 records. (By the way, if anyone wants to fulfill our fantasy of seeing two hot babes wrestling in Miracle Whip while wearing vintage Pan Am stewardess outfits, please let us know. Hey, it doesn't hurt to ask, right?)

· Xpodium: "Share photos, earn money" (xpodium.com)

In a story pubished after our Wet Spots deadline last Friday, the porn-obsessed savvy New York Times examined the business end of the adult industry—which oddly enough, is discussed in the same bloodless prose you might find in a story about airline bankruptcies or the real estate market. As you know, adult entertainment is the largest industry in the universe and it's in deep trouble these days ... and the internet, which has been the biggest boon for porn since the VCR, is soon going to destroy it completely. The Times took a crack at solving that riddle, and while the piece is filled with a lot of the same tidbits we've been hearing for the last several months—DVD sales are down, too many titles being released, amateurs taking over, "low barriers to entry," etc.—they at least take problem seriously and actually reached out to some of the players in the game to get their perspective. (Plus, they added this pretty graph.) Maybe we shouldn't be surprised anymore that the country's most influential paper can talk about porn like it's any other business, but since a lot of outfits still panic at the mere suggestion of boobies, we still do a double take when it's happens. That liberal media bias is finally doing something right.

· For Pornographers, Internet's Virtues Turn to Vices (nytimes.com)

Previously: Leonard Nimoy's Nude Mission, Deep Inside Kink Dot Com: Smut With A Smile, The New York Times' New "Zoo" Review, NY Times: True.com's False Advertising?, The Not-So-Pretty Side of Hi-Def Porn, Gray Ladies: The New York Times Does De'Bella

We'll admit that math isn't one of our strong suits, and advanced algorithms and bar graphs involving economic data aren't exactly the sorts of things that get our juices flowing. But when you add sex to the mix, things start to look a lot more interesting. (We're nothing if not predictable that way.). SexEc presents itself as an "independent economic survey of sex, sex work and sexual services" (don't start snoring yet), and to that end offers an index which lets you find out how much you're likely to pay for one hour of sexual service from men and women in several dozen cities all over the world (hint: head to Caracas if you're looking for bargains; save your pennies if you'll be visiting London anytime soon). Even more interesting is their Provider Price Predictor, which lets you determine how much your own ass is worth based on quantifiable factors like skin, hair and eye color, personality, and body shape. In a casual survey among some of our friends and acquaintainces (some of whom are actual sex workers already) we discovered that it's actually pretty damn accurate—and that some of us shouldn't quit our day jobs just yet. Still, who knew that math could be so fascinating?

· SEXEC: Independent economic survey of sex, sex work and sexual services (sexec.com)

Previously: Debby Doesn't Do It For Free, Daspu: Sex Worker Fashion, Meet Bruna Surfistinha (aka Rachel Pacheco), The Aphrodite Project, Sex Work Matters, The QUANTO Project: Sex Work Is (Mostly) Bad, Photos (and Films) by Mia Donovan, Fantasti.cc: Community Escort Directory, Betelnut Beauties: Not-Quite-Sex Work In Taiwan,