Global Update
It's been a while since I've discussed scott's ravings statistics. The above map contains all the hits since June 2008. There are over 18,000 hits in just the last 10 months or so. I've had over 60,000 hits since the blog was created in August 2005. Of course, as verbose as I can be, there's lots of material to Google.
I really am impressed most by some of the remote readers on my map. Always a geography buff, I love poring over a map like the one above and finding places to learn about. My northernmost point comes from Noorvik, Alaska, population 656, a mostly native village, snuggled right among the glacier flows and Kobuk Valley National Park.
In the Indian Ocean, I've got a hit from steamy Malé, the capital of the Maldives. I'm sure the weather there is always nice, but it will be a while before I get my chance to visit, unfortunately.
For someplace completely different, there's Omsk, Russia. Located in western Siberia at the northern edge of the border with Kazakhstan, Omsk is a once thriving, now yearning industrial city with a population of over 1 million people. It sounds like Russia's Pittsburgh. I'm sure the Omsk football fans are just as nuts as the Steelers fans are here.
This year, I've got quite a swath of hits from the west coast of Africa, countries including Liberia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo and Nigeria. These are the countries from which most of the U.S. slaves were stolen. I've also got tons of hits from South Africa, as one would expect of an English speaking country, and quite a few hits along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa--Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt. I even have a hit in Sudan, of all places!
The coolest hit of all is that dot floating right out in the South Atlantic, halfway between South America and Africa. See that dot all by itself? No, it's not the Azores--they're in the North Atlantic. That little red dot is St. Helena, a former British colony, and one of the most remote spots on Earth, population 4,255. St. Helena is famous for being the island of exile of Napoleon Bonaparte.
As for me, I'm in Los Angeles this week, population of 4 million (or 17 million in the metro-area). This is the city of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Eddie Murphy, Ed McMahon, and O.J. Simpson. (More good names for the Google search bots to find!)
The weather this week is supposed to be nice, if not a little cool. Not that I will experience any of that weather in the windowless room in which I'll be sequestered.
