Interesting blip and why sitemeter is cool

I realize that this is too small for most of you to read but the bar graph at the top makes my point just fine in this scale.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I have been much more interested in the sitemeter feature on my blog in the past few weeks. Most mornings I pop by the page and see if I can identify who's visited recently based on the ridiculous amount of information that sitemeter provides. I've also started checking what brought them to my page (ie. Googled keywords, blog aggregator, specific input of my address, etc.) and occasionally I check my overall traffic numbers. Sitemeter can plot this on a graph like the one you see above by hour, day, week, month, or year.

This morning I half-heartedly checked to see how I'd been doing the past 7 days. I was shocked to see that yesterday (November 20th) had massively more numbers than I ever recall seeing. I expanded my parameters to look at the past month and saw that this wasn't my imagination. As you can see above, the 20th (those without magnifying glasses will have to take my word for it) is by a factor of 3 higher than my average for the past 30 days! The division of color in the bar for each day denotes visits (yellow) and page views (orange). Apparently if Google identifies my blog as matching a search criteria, this qualifies as a page view even if the searching party doesn't actually visit my blog. Even so, the graph shows over 90 actual visits, where I'd never even hit 40 in the past. Sorry to cover my sitemeter addiction again, but I got excited and I hope that the numbers spike indicates that more people are reading.

If you are reading this and have no idea who I am....thanks for making my day by inflating my numbers (and ego).

AIDS Numbers Worldwide Decline

Have you ever come across a story or article that by the time you've finished reading, you have gone through a half dozen reactions/emotions? This story had that effect on me. The essence of the piece is that AIDS numbers worldwide have dropped significantly - from 39.5 million to 33.2 - but that the decrease is mainly on paper.

Here's my progression of reactions as I read through the story:

Stage 1, Elation - "Great news! Whatever is leading to a lowering of instances of this horrendous disease is fantastic! Praise the Lord that fewer people are suffering from AIDS. But wait........"

Stage 2, Disillusionment - "It's an illusion, dang it! It isn't so much that fewer people have AIDS, it's just a statistical correction. So all the money being poured into the developing world isn't doing a thing for these people?!?"

Stage 3, Cautious Hope - "Wait, apparently the AIDS epidemic peaked in late 90's....there is improvement, just not as much as the numbers have been revised. That's good news!"

Stage 4, Suspicion - "How could the number be off by over six million cases, that's almost 20%?!? I smell an agenda at work here...."

Stage 5, Cynicism - "Oh look, the story quotes two epidemiologists from elite universities who believe the numbers have been knowingly inflated to create greater urgency and increase funding! As with global warming, science has become political."

Stage 6, Frustration/Anger - "Apparently the immanent death of over 33 million people isn't spectacular enough. It cheapens the tragedy of the people who ACTUALLY have AIDS (particularly those who contracted it through no fault of their own) to play number games with the issue."

Stage 7, Acceptance - Because all emotional stage processes must end with acceptance.

Give this article a read and let me know your reaction.

Fact of the Day - F: Fasces

The Fasces, as pictured at left, is quite simply a bundle of rods lashed together around a staff or ax. Dating to Roman times, the bundle represents the strength of a sum being greater than the individual (similar to the proverbial rope of three strands which is not easily broken). As such, it has traditionally been used to symbolize strength through unity or simply power and jurisdiction. It is one of the most common images in crests, coat-of-arms and national symbology.

It has been utilized as a symbol from ancient Rome to Mussolini's Italy and from Europe to America. The fasces is present in edifices for all three branches of US government (and both houses of Congress), the back of the Mercury dime, the Lincoln Memorial and numerous other places in DC and the state's capitals. It may be the most commonly represented object in our government buildings that most of you could not even identify...until now.

I had some trouble finding something even somewhat interesting for my "F" fact of the day. Please stay tuned for Gurkha...

Kerch's Perfect Storm

I was shocked last night when I realized that I'd completely neglected to keep some of my newer readers up-to-date on an ongoing crisis which directly affects our new hometown in Ukraine. On Sunday, in the midst of a near hurricane-strength storm on the Black Sea, multiple tankers and transport ships sank or ran aground in the Kerch Strait. This channel - between 3 and 11 miles wide - connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, divides Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula from mainland Russia and is a major shipping lane. At least 5 sailors lost their lives and others remain missing. Ecologically the storm was equally devastating. A decrepit Russian tanker broke in half on the huge swells, spilling over a thousand gallons of oil. Additionally, several other ships carrying sulphur sank and are feared to be leaking chemicals into the Strait.

We have heard from our people in Kerch that the Hope Center (the facility that will be our home) is fine and suffered no damage, however the massive pollution from the spills will likely inhibit our ability to utilize the beaches for camps this summer. Please pray for Andrey, Tanya and the rest of our Ukrainian staff as they cope with the program issues and the humanitarian concerns that this storm has created.

Fun Blog Addition - sitemeter

I hadn't thought much about the little sitemeter tag that's been at the bottom of my blog for the past 6 months until I was playing with it this morning. My surge of posting in past few days made me curious whether increased activity led to increased viewership. For those not familiar with sitemeter, you create an account and then submit your blog/website to be monitored for traffic with the option of having reports sent to you on a regular basis. You even get the html code for sticking a little logo tab somewhere on your page.

Since my report is scheduled for Monday morning, I received mine today - thus creating the aforementioned curiosity. I started to look at some of the more obscure facts which are available and was simultaneously amazed and slightly disturbed. With this account, I am literally able to determine the geographic location, network, operating system, browser type and even the resolution of the monitor being used by a visitor to my site. I know how they found my site, what content on my blog was viewed and how long they were they were there. Truely interesting and scarey. I felt like a character from "Hackers"! I highly recommend you check this out if you care at all who and how many visitors are viewing your page.