ITEM: I created a blog for the New York State Data Center affiliates called Data Detectives some years ago. I post every other day or so.
Sometime in early October, I was showing one of our interns the analytics of the page. I must admit that I almost never look at such things, on that blog, this one, or any of the ones to which I contribute. I’m told that I “should”, but, generally speaking, that conversation makes my eyes glaze over.
Still, I was fascinated that the most popular country among blog viewers for the week ending October 13:
Russia – 1010 page views
United States – 361
France – 35
I theorize that it had to do with my link to the article Lefty Presidents Are Better For Markets. This had to do with handedness, not politics, southpaws, not socialists.
Still, I wonder why even the total going back to May 2010 has so many views from the former Soviet Union:
United States 247,390
Russia 32,066
Germany 17,379
France 13,787
Ukraine 9,387
United Kingdom 9,078
Netherlands 3,294
China 3,278
Poland 3,040
Canada 2,963
ITEM: On Facebook, I forwarded to a terrestrial friend of mine an article about an award received by an author I knew he admired. He thanked me, adding, “It’s like I have my own personal librarian looking out for me.” This pleased me greatly.
ITEM: A guy named Jan, who was in my graduation class at Binghamton (NY) Central High School, asked to friend me on Facebook recently. I agreed, and almost immediately he posted this: “Found this during a recent archaeological dig.”
This was taken around our HS graduation in 1971, I think, though someone theorized that it was from my college years; it DOES look like the ceiling of the Student Union Building offices of the Wind Sun News.
Just got a picture of me for our new IDs at our new work location downtown. Wouldn’t you know that it has that same “glare on the glasses” look? Since I don’t take selfies, you can’t blame ME.
Oh….you better be careful! Homeland Security will have you under surveillance soon! At least China isn’t up there as well! 🙂
The Wife didn’t recognize your 1971 picture. She said, “When I met him in 1981 he looked a lot different.” When I met you at the end of 1985 you looked exactly like that duck drawing at the top of this page.