Hard as it might be to believe, it is one year ago that the Big Bad Blog began, with the necessary Hello World post, initial blog spam, and — a few hours later — the posting of a webcomic featuring Mr T. As with most things, it doesn’t feel like the Big Bad Blog has been going on for an entire year.

Or from another perspective, with 611 articles, it seems like the Big Bad Blog has been around for much longer.

We capped off 2009 with a look at the most popular articles of 2009. Unsurprisingly, the last ten days have not made a huge impact on what the most popular articles of the past year have been. Instead, to celebrate the Big Bad Birthday, we give you the most popular search terms that have been used to discover the Big Bad Blog.

We count down the five most popular search terms … approximately. Most of these have some slight variations to them, and I have tried to collect together the variations that occur within the top 50 search terms.

5: Sam Taylor-Wood

Or Sam Taylor Wood, and other varieties thereof.

This is an interesting one, as there is only a single article on the Big Bad Blog mentioning Ms. Taylor-Wood. And that article is a Morning Coffee, meaning that there is only a fleeting reference and an image, clearly indicating that Sam Taylor-Wood has too little of an online presence.

An additional point of interest is that Ms. Taylor-Wood would not have made the list prior to Christmas, despite the fact that the article dates back to February. Over the past two weeks, she has held the number one position in Big Bad Blog search terms to break into the top five.

4: Felicia Day

Most often, but not always, followed by the words “nude”, “naked”, or “sexy”, Felicia Day was the fourth-most popular search in the first year of Big Bad Blogging. Searches for Ms. Day first spiked during late September and early October, prompting me to wonder if the Internet was in need of more naked Felicia Day.

Unsurprisingly, asking that question on the Big Bad Blog did not result in fewer hits from those very search terms, and Ms. Day has continued to be a popular search term ever since.

For those looking for additional photographic Felicia Day material, you may be interested to know that The Chive has recently posted some photos of her.

3: Sexting

In third position, we get another topic that we do not talk about much here at the Big Bad Blog: Sexting.

This is because we do not care about it much. Teenagers are bags of hormones, and will take sexy pictures of themselves, with whatever is handy. Usually a handheld phone is handy. They also love to send text messages.

Nobody should be surprised by this. The only thing surprising is that large groups of adults seem bent on ruining children’s lives over behaving like children, by putting them on sex offender lists. I am guessing that the next target for these people will be to charge children who pee in the pool with public urination.

2: Origami Unicorn

I love that “origami unicorn” is the second-most common search term used to find the Big Bad Blog. Although there are only two instances of origami unicorns on the Big Bad Blog, I get reminded of them every time I check the Big Bad Blog stats.

Thank you, searchers. I love origami unicorns.

Number one. Tattoos

The number one search term used to find the Big Bad Blog in its first year is “weird tattoos”. Number four and five are “bad tattoos” and “bad tattoo”. Also in the top 50 are “weird tattoo” and various mis-spellings of the above mentioned search terms.

I have no idea why people come here for the tattoos, but they do.

Thank you, Tattoo lovers. We love you too.

The BBC has some poor quality economic analysis on its front page, blaming energy prices for the current economic crisis. Energy prices were at fault in the 70s, goes the argument, so they are at fault now.

Seriously? Mr. Blastland, please read this article from the Globe and Mail (actually, everybody should read it — it’s really good. If you click on one link today, make it that one).

I do not believe all of Dr Ferguson’s predictions, but his analysis of the cause of the credit crunch is excellent: Asset inflation. Inflation rates considered the price of bread but not the price of houses, giving a false impression of the real rate of inflation and growth which fed a false confidence and a housing bubble.

Plus, it’s full of doom and gloom: Blood, civil war, toppled governments, monkeys eating children. OK, I made up that last part. But definitely recommended reading.

Sam Taylor-Wood created today’s image:

More images of this woman suspended in the air available over at My Modern Metropolis.

Ever see white bikes around London? Apparently they are memorials to cyclist deaths.

Also, you should help to name one third of the International Space Station. While they are providing several options, one of which will be doubtlessly be the eventual winner (Serenity is an option, for you Firefly geeks), there is a write-in option as well. Go crazy!

And we finish This Week In Coffee with some cryptozooological (which looks like it has too many Os, but does cryptozoological not have one too few?) Cat and Girl: