From time to time I check the geographical location of the readers. When do, I find that we’re read pretty widely: in fact, the only three places where I almost never get hits are Mongolia, North Korea (only the elite have Internet there) and several countries smack in the center of Africa. Well, I checked again yesterday, and am pleased to report that we now have invaded every country in the world—including those pesky Central African ones—save North Korea. (One glorious year, though, we had two views from the DPRK!).
Here’s the map of readers over the last 365 days. Naturally, anglophones dominate, though Germany has more readers than other European countries:
Note that there are no white spaces except for one—the lacuna between south Korea (which looks like an island west of Japan) and China. That is the DPRK. If only we could fill in that blank!
In an attempt to do so, I’ll try to lure Kim Jong-Un back by posting a picture of him and the execrable Dennis Rodman, the Basketball Ambassador to Hell™. Come back, Dear Leader, and be my reader!
Haha.. as I was reading your post, I was thinking those two hits might have been Dennis Rodman on one of his male-bonding visits to the DPRK.
Why would Rodman or his fat-faced friend with the hideous haircut, read WEIT?
To learn about atheism?
Would we want him? I mean, we already got Joe Stalin and Pol Pot, I’m not sure we can afford many more…
Besides, in his family, considering who Daddy is, atheism probably constitutes high treason.
In statistics about atheism by country, North Korea is often considered atheist – especially when the researcher is paid by Templeton. If I can find the link to some I’m remembering, I’ll post it.
Of course, as worship of the Dear Leader is required, in reality it’s a theocracy.
that’s what I was getting at…
It wasn’t Rodman who read the site: I’m convinced it was the Dear Leader or one of his high-ranking minions!
I think you can fill in Svalbard — it’s part of Norway.
Oh, I missed that!
According to Wikipedia, Svalbard is not technically part of Norway.
“Administratively, the archipelago is not part of any Norwegian county, but rather forms an unincorporated area administered by a state-appointed governor.”
There is also a long-running sovereignty or borders dispute with Russia – hence a particularly grim mine for third-rate coal on the Russian part of the island.
(Or did that pass with perestroika? At 5-10 minutes per page load, I’m not going to try to find out.)
I love the expressions on the two minders in the second row looking dismayed at Rodman’s friend cheering!
I noticed that too! They don’t know what to make of him do they?!
I love the expressions of the two minders in the second row apparently dismayed at Rodman’s friend cheering!
Aaarg! Double post – sorry…
Any hits from the ISS? Or beyond?
Or from ISIS?
Not sure what the point is about Poland, on my monitor it looks to be the same colour as Finland, Sweden, France, Spain and Germany and probably others?
(It is quite hard to tell colour differences in the smaller areas of the map, maybe a colour spectrum that covered a wider range than just red to yellow would be easier to see.)
Also, WEIT seems to have missed out on Svalbard/Spitzbergen, but not on Franz Josef Land, though that, like the high concentration of viewers on Ellesmere Island, may be an artefact of being lumped in with the Russian (/Canadian respectively) mainland.
Antarctica seems to have disappeared off the map, which is a pity because it seems quite likely there may be a viewer or two at McMurdo/Scott Base.
I see jblilie made the point about Svalbard while I was typing my comment…. gotta be quick around here.
Oops, my bad, Germany’s the darker one, I listed it with the others by mistake. I hate it when that happens. I’ll state it explicitly, WEIT has a high readership in Germany, probably the highest of any non-Anglo country.
Yes, I’ve corrected that. It was too early, and I mistook Germany for Poland. I don’t think the Poles would like that. .
Could be worse, Germans have a tendency to mistake Poland for Germany…..
Ouch:)
That Arctic is Canada’s not Russia’s!!
My Danish friend disagrees with both Canada and Russia.
We’ll settle this in Tuktoyaktuk!
Haha, I’ll give her the note! 😛
That is right, Mr Harper himself tours the Arctic every year to respell his name in the snow… although the colour is not quite that orange.
Cheers,
M.
Well if one disentangles my contorted syntax, I was referring to Franz Josef Land as Russian and Ellesmere Island as Canadian.
Possibly just as well Antarctica isn’t on the map, how would that subdivide in terms of national affiliation?
(Come do that, do modems at McMurdo have US IP addresses? Do modems at Scott Base have NZ ones? Where would readers in Antarctic bases show up?)
The reason I said that (partially tongue in cheek) is Russia has made claims of parts of the arctic to the UN that were considered Canada’s. The UN rejected that claim. Putin has also made a few veiled threats, had decommissioned old soviet arctic bases and has had Russian jet fighters buzz Canadian air space in the arctic regularly.
I’m throwing carrier pigeons over the side form 100km north of Istanbul, but on those intermittent occasions we get connectivity, I get served Dutch Google. Which is odd, as the service is from an Aberdeen company working through their Stavanger office.
I suspect each major base would have their own satellite link, which would appear somewhere in home territory. There are probably (unofficial) interlinks between some of the bases too – Antarctica being probably the most connected continent, still.
World domination is coming soon from the University of Chicago. Creationists will be assigned to the third circle of hell. Oh, wait … Never mind.
So will that make it Ceiling Cat’s first or second coming?
Kim could become known as the Dear Reader!
Heh!
This appears to be the 21st Century equivalent of last century’s ham radio operators aspiring to “work all countries.”
They still do that but now I have something else to mock them with because those DX types can be obsessive jerks.
So, totally unlike my aspiration to leave no point in space which cannot at any time see a place I’ve visited (given a suitably large telescope / time machine)?
That means you want to orbit the Moon to see the far side, doesn’t it?
You know, I hadn’t thought of that. That’s going to be more of a challenge than getting paid to dig holes in Australia or South America.
But I’ll take that challenge.
Wouldn’t need a time machine, since ‘visited’ is in the past tense. So those places will be visible and valid forever after your visit.
In fact, give a sufficiently powerful telescope, three roughly equidistant points would do the trick (two might not, quite). See how I’m simplifying your aspiration for you?
I can see the sort of aspiration you’re getting at, but I think it needs a little redefinition 😉
Four points would do the trick, if suitable spaced. Unfortunately, part of being a geologist is realising that the right stuff often simply isn’t in the right place at any time, let alone the right time. So my trace over the globe is not particularly well distributed. But the Korea job (past, and the hoped for DPRK job in the future) and the Tanzania and Gabon jobs give me two points in the southern hemisphere. So, a job in NZ would work well, or a job in WA and another in southern South America equally well.
Technically, I don’t need a time machine. But I don’t need 18 gears on my bike, or a 12 megapixel camera either, I just want them. I can make a better argument for needing a GPS on my camera though.
Yes, on reflection I think you’re right, it would need four points.
I don’t think Korea is in the southern hemisphere though (or am I misunderstanding something?)
The Korea job made the northern hemisphere a solved problem (though coverage could always be improved). After a colleague greeted my return from Korea with a “there but for nothing but luck went we” email accompanying a link to breaking news about Macondo, I feel less than desirous of a return. To Southern Korea.
My only southern hemisphere jobs have been within 10 degrees of the equator, and off Africa. So I need to get more southern hemisphere work. I keep my ear to the deck plates over prospects in the Malvinas Basin, but the logistics are somewhat challenging (out of helicopter range, in the Roaring Forties ; lovely!) and implausible in the current market. So it’s a choice of Australia, PNG, or my long-overdue invasion of South America.
Ah, I see your ambition now – I thought you were allowed let the earth rotate until somewhere you’d been came in view (in which case, apart from the far side of the moon exception, you’d just need one spot in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern. But you’re saying at least one spot you have been in at some time must be in view at that moment.
I think I have managed it. Using this page – https://www.jasondavies.com/maps/rotate/ – and points Buenos Aires, Britain, Brisbane, Bangalore, and British Columbia, I think I can do it with places that begin with ‘B’ 🙂
That sounds like it would work. I’m sure there’s a suburb of Ekaterinborg that would suit too, and of course Sunny Sub-Tropical St Johns (NL) would help the data density.
Time to get back onto my class mate who was DD-ing in PNG. I rather fancy the idea of cannibals combined with rusty, dilapidated Russian death trap land rigs. On a land rig, you can run away. Though the cannibals do add a certain frisson.
Wait, there actually are other Brazilians who frequent WEIT?! Not all is lost! Maybe…
*All is not lost
Gotta work on that grammar…
This is good. Now could you get some kind of color coding or symbols to go next to the addresses so we can identify where all the people are from.
Must remember to think Internationally and not offend other areas….unless of course, you are from the south. Sorry about that.
Southern states of the USA, not the southern hemisphere I assume/hope you mean – you’ve slipped already! 🙂
I believe “Dear Leader” is the title of his father. Kim Jung-Un is referred to as “Precious Leader”, although, the TELEGRAPH reports otherwise. Considering the long list of titles that his father had, I can only imagine that the Great Precious Dear General Secretary Warrior Leader will have just as many titles.
Careful! NKs reach is long. That should be has. Daddy is still the Eternal General Secretary and always will be.
Good point. I guess after that slip I won’t be allowed in the country. Sigh….
I shall remember your eternal shame and attempt to avoid such a faceless ending.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali beats him out for the longest name. (From wiki — “Ayaan Hirsi Ali — birthname Ayaan Hirsi Magan Isse Guleid Ali Wai’ays Muhammad Ali Umar Osman Mahamud”)
I bet a certain gravel inspector has helped put WEIT on the map in some of those places.
He must be on a really isolated assignment at the moment. Haven’t heard from him in a while.
The radio dish is bust. Signal varies from atrocious to not-good-enough-for-business-purposes, so the bandwidth that is normally donated to SDP (Social Domestic & Pleasure) is being used for work. And spares for the radio dish are on order.
There was a stink of “glass-fibre” coming from Mechanics Alley this afternoon, so we might have a waterproof radome to put the new electronics into. Ah, the diverse joys of life on the ocean wave!
Catching up on my reading though!
Sounds like fun. Cheers!
Sorry, can you speak up?
I said CAN YOU SPEAK UP?
[mutters] [reaches for carrier pigeon and superglue]
LOL – “A Certain Gravel Inspector” would make a great name for a whodunnit:-)
This Gravel Inspector knows when to be certain and when to listen to the evidence of the rocks and be uncertain. Who’s the Certain one? Ceiling Gravel Inspector?
What is going to happen now is a bunch of hinndsight and people deciding what should or should not have been done. But it’s mostly a blame game.
Why didn’t they know? Why didn’t they do continuous psychological testing? (and the ever present) Why don’t we spend more on mental health treatment? yada yada
Frankly, psychological treatment is such an inexact science, treatment is sketchy at best. Sometimes seems to work for a while, sometimes not. People often wind up going off treatment etc. There is no blood test for most mental conditions. Patients learn to hide symptoms if they need to. And extensive treatment did not prevent the Sandy Hook killings, or many other tragic events.
But there’s the other side of the coin. People complain about the stigma attached to mental illness, and yes there is. But that’s exacerbated by what happens if one reveals his problems. Careers can be lost. It’s probably a very bad idea to go for an evaluation, because a diagnosis will follow you throughout your life. You never know when that will come back to bite you… it’s better to keep it quiet (unfortunately).
Close to home, I know someone whose child was taken into custody after the mother had an alcoholism issue. Unfortunately the mother had also some years ago gone for mental health counseling, and had some tentative diagnoses, and this presents a much bigger legal obstacle to getting custody back than if it were an incident of drug or alcohol use (I was astonished). Right now she regrets that she ever went, or revealed that she went for treatment.
Mental issues are a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.
Wha…
jay meant to post that on the More On The German Plane Crash article I’m sure.
oops
Apply it to the current OP about visiting WEIT, and it’s the funniest unintentional post I’ve ever read.
In a gallows humour kind of way.
Yeah this initial statement “What is going to happen now is a bunch of hinndsight and people deciding what should or should not have been done. But it’s mostly a blame game” had me cracking.
Then I kept reading and understood what was going on. And felt kind of nasty.
I only found out about the German plane crash from this site. They’ve been promising us a working TV system for over a year now. I’m glad I’ve not been holding my breath. 90-odd cabins, each with a 20-odd inch flat-screen TV, and not one wiggling electron to goggle at, slack of jaw and glassy of eye.
Technically, you’re also missing Western Sahara. But since its status as an independent country is disputed, it’s quite possible that no website ever gets visits reported from there.
Haha. You gave me a good chuckle 🙂
Conratulation 🙂
I suppose this map reflects total numbers of readers per country. Can we find the raw data somewhere? I wonder if Germany would still “win” in the non-anglophone world if the numbers were normalised for number of inhabitants (or, perhaps better, internet users).
Agree, raw data would be nice. Those colour leave a lot to be desired. Otherwise congratulations.
How about Vatican City? Does the pope read WEIT?
Who provides this mapping software application? I wish they would consult a geographer, and choose one of the many equal area projections available. How many generations of fourth graders are going to “learn” that Russia, Canada, and Greenland are each bigger than, say, South America? The Mercator projection was devised for navigation; lines drawn on it give true compass bearings. But it should not be used in applications like this.
But it it was equal area, probably no-one would have noticed Svalbard at all, since it’s about the same area as Sri Lanka – tropical, and very difficult to tell the colour of.
I do agree an equal area map would be better for this.
Agreed!
Kim Jong Un does not shit, and that’s a fact.
That accounts for his somewhat over-inflated looks, I do not wish to be around when he explodes…
(I think I just guaranteed that I will never wish to go near North Korea)
Alas, I hear no further rumours of work in DPRK. I’m still fully un-averse to going, but it seems as if the politicians have made the place too hot for business for the moment.