Compare apples to apples -- what about Q4 2009? (Score 1)

This article is rediculous:

The large amounts of pre-Christmas spam are something of a tradition, but here too the outbreak was smaller than most of the large outbreaks this year.

What about the Christmas outbreak last year? Was it different?

I get the feeling the author is just spinning the numbers. Who knows, there could be no decline at all unless seasonal trends are fully accounted for.