Saturday, May 13, 2006

How Far Does Our Web Presence Reach?

The Internet exposes life in Elgin, IL to the world. The vast majority of visitors to the DNA's web site and blog are from the Fox Valley but every week there are hits from other states and other countries. Today I took note of a visitor from Cote d'Ivoire. Now it has been many years since my last geography test but I still recognize most countries listed in the log but this one stood out so I did a quick Google search to enlighten me. These are the facts on Cote d'Ivoire according to the CIA. Go to the link for all the details.

Cote d'Ivoire
Location: Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Ghana and Liberia
Area - Comparative: slightly larger than New Mexico
Climate: tropical along coast, semiarid in far north; three seasons - warm and dry (November to March), hot and dry (March to May), hot and wet (June to October)
Terrain: mostly flat to undulating plains; mountains in northwest
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Gulf of Guinea 0 m highest point: Mont Nimba 1,752 m
Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, diamonds, manganese, iron ore, cobalt, bauxite, copper, gold, nickel, tantalum, silica sand, clay, cocoa beans, coffee, palm oil, hydropower
Population: 17,654,843
Note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2006 est.)
Economy - overview: Cote d'Ivoire is among the world's largest producers and exporters of coffee, cocoa beans, and palm oil. Consequently, the economy is highly sensitive to fluctuations in international prices for these products and weather conditions.

Now if I had studied French it wouldn't have taken me until this point for the light bulb to go off and to realize that Cote d'Ivoire was formerly known as the Ivory Coast. The Google translation is Dimension Ivory, so maybe someone that did study French can comment on the translation.

If the person who viewed our site from Cote d'Ivoire happens to read this, please post a comment so we know the circuitous (I had to use the dictionary for this one) path that lead you to us.

Anyone else who uses the web to keep up with What's Happening Here or just happened to land here, please post a comment to let us know where you are located and what you were looking for.
It would interesting to hear from our regular visitors from Arizona, France and Texas.

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