Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

MEMBER BULLETIN BOARD => GREETINGS/TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF => Topic started by: eivindm on June 14, 2004, 11:17:02 am

Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: eivindm on June 14, 2004, 11:17:02 am
Hi!

I'm reading this forum daily, and as I was a bit unproductive in my master thesis work today, I did something completely different: I have been a bit curious about where all you guys came from.  Most of you have written your location in the member profile, but I thought it would be interresting to see the distribution on a map.  I have gone through the member list and made two maps.  (I don't believe I have misplaced any of you, but in case you find an error, please tell me).
(Click on them for a fullsize version)

Here is a map with the distribution of the US members:
(http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~eivindm/diverse/beebbs/beemaster_map_usa_icon.gif) (http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~eivindm/diverse/beebbs/beemaster_map_usa.gif)
Interresting to see the Rocky mountains as a "blind spot" on the map, but besides of that "line" through the country, it looks like you've got the map almost covered, John.

And here is a map with the distribution of all the members on a world map:
(http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~eivindm/diverse/beebbs/beemaster_map_icon.gif) (http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~eivindm/diverse/beebbs/beemaster_map.gif)
I am the lonely guy in Norway by the way. :-)

Would be nice to see even more non-US members as it is interresting to learn about different ways of beekeeping., and I'm looking forward to see this forum grow even more.

eivindm
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: Beth Kirkley on June 14, 2004, 11:34:27 am
That is SOOO cool!!! John's going to be thrilled! Good JOB!!

Beth
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: beemaster on June 14, 2004, 01:09:58 pm
John is Thrilled :)

Very cool - fine job and it really puts the membership spectrum into prospective. First... We need some African and Russian Beekeepers - and I counted about 6 states without members - whatsup wid dat - lol.

Great Job!!!! I hope that MORE MEMBERS SUPPLY THEIR LOCATION - rough count, I see 50 members that CAN NOT be accounted for because they haven't suppied their location.

TONIGHT I WILL SEND A MASS EMAIL - requestion that members add their location, but MOST of the people who haven't added their location are probably also the same people who DON'T POST in the forum, they just read or they have moved on to other places  :shock:  whatsup wid dat too lolol

Thanks for this GREAT visual aid - very interesting, and HOPEFULLY - after the emailing, we'll get more stats for that poll, very cool to see the maps vs. members, thanks eivindm - very very cool!
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: Lechwe on June 14, 2004, 03:36:37 pm
Very nice job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :P
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: Bee Boy on June 14, 2004, 11:57:59 pm
I like the map! Its a neat idea :P
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: buzz on June 15, 2004, 12:07:29 am
Great Idea!
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: BigRog on June 15, 2004, 10:50:52 pm
Very Nice Job
Title: Updated maps
Post by: eivindm on June 21, 2004, 09:12:10 am
Just a short notice:  The maps are now updated (with the same links as in the first  post).  The states with no current members are now marked with a red star. The counting has been done automaticly by a Perl script, which also placed the numbers in the maps.  So there should be little room for counting errors :-)  There are 7 new members since the last posting.  

I will now update the maps regularily (as the work is minimized with the new scripts I made), but I won't make any new update notices here unless there are some big changes.  The future updates will have the same URL as before.

eivindm
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: celtic on June 26, 2004, 07:29:38 pm
Yes Eivindm you did misplace me :lol:
Just kidding but seriously this would be nice to know you will need to update this periodically.
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: celtic on June 26, 2004, 07:34:04 pm
Yes Eivindm you did misplace me :lol:
Just kidding but seriously this would be nice to know you will need to update this periodically.
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: BigRog on June 26, 2004, 09:56:20 pm
Didn't see you come in Celtic, Welcome.
eivindm is planning to keep it updated.
He did a fantastic job on this without being asked.

And whos the third guy from Virginia?
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: eivindm on June 27, 2004, 01:27:17 pm
Hi Celtic!

See we've got some new members since my update before the weekend.  Will update the maps on Monday.

And BigRog:  I can show you the last member in Virginia :-)  Can make a list with all the members sorted by states and countries.  Not much programming to create such lists.  And with such a list it will be easier to spot errors and report them to me :-)

I'm home today, and all the scripts are at the University's computers.  Will make the state sorted list and an update of the maps with the new members including Celtic tomorrow :-)
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: eivindm on June 28, 2004, 07:41:44 am
Celtic:  You're now within the distribution maps :-)  Just updated them.

BigRog:  Here you can find a list of all the members sorted by state/country.  Now you can find the third guy in Virginia :-)
http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~eivindm/diverse/beebbs/beemaster_stats.txt

eivindm
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: Beth Kirkley on June 28, 2004, 03:10:41 pm
That is so amazing to see. I really love it! And I hadn't realized there were 8 of us now in Georgia on the forum.

You got one mixed up though. I don't know if a computer did it up for you, or if you had to type it all. But anyway, it should be an easy fix. It was Bupalos, in NE Ohio. It showed up in Nebraska. But easily confused because Nebraska's abriviation is NE. But anywho, they're in North East OHIO.

Great JOB, again. :)

Beth
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: eivindm on June 29, 2004, 09:27:35 am
Thanks for the error notice, Beth!  

It was a programming error.  It looked for the state abbr. first (i.e. NE matched Nebraska before it looked for matching the full statename).  Now it does the opposite, and matches ohio before NE could match.  The script tries to match itself, and warns me of unmatched locations, which I handle manually (but just once, not each time I run the script).  I now checked the whole list again manually to see if there where any more errors, and spotted two other persons that were misplaced.  That is also fixed, and the list should now be ok.  But please tell me about other errors if you find any.  

I have one location by the way which I don't know where to place.  Someone are located at "sierras" which I'm not sure where is.  Does anyone know which state that could be? And the "admin test dummie" location is also hard to place, John  :wink: .

The maps and statistics are now updated (including the new member from Florida who joined us today).

Please tell me if you want any other type of statistics from the member list, or the information presented in any other way, and I'll try to make that.
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: Blackbird on June 29, 2004, 12:23:41 pm
Quote from: eivindm

.  

I have one location by the way which I don't know where to place.  Someone are located at "sierras" which I'm not sure where is.  Does anyone know which state that could be?


the Sierras is most likely California.

Stacie
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: BigRog on June 29, 2004, 01:14:03 pm
Martha you have in Kansas
She's in Kansas City, MO


knightfamily ou have in Wasinton State
washington county   Geogia

I just did a Excel spreadsheet on the membership
How can I post it here?

Thats how I found those mispplaced people
I like using a spread sheet because it's easy to sort by what you are looking for.
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: eivindm on June 29, 2004, 03:45:15 pm
OK, US geography isn't my brightest side :-)  But if you guys now have looked through the list and found all the errors, my next update would probably be correct (finally!!)  :D

I'll do an update when I'm back at the university tomorrow.

To post an Excel file, you have to store it on another server and link to it in the forum.  If you have no place to store it, you can send it to me, and I'll place it together with the other distribution files.  My address is eivindm@ifi.uio.no if you want to send it to me, BigRog.
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: eivindm on June 30, 2004, 07:28:23 am
As you can see from the previous posts, my US geography knowledge needs some improvements :)  Thanks for the error notices from all of you.  The maps and stats are again updated, hopefully without erros this time!

BigRog have made a very useful Excel document with the member list, which he sent to me for posting here at the forum.  The excel sheet is available at the same place as the maps:
http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~eivindm/diverse/beebbs/beemaster_memberlist.xls
Thanks, BigRog!

eivindm
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: Beth Kirkley on June 30, 2004, 02:35:19 pm
Don't feel bad about geography....... I not only can't tell you where all the states are in the US, but I have no idea where Norway is.  :oops: I know we're all on the same planet, just too far away to meet most of you. :)

Beth
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: Bee Boy on June 30, 2004, 10:38:30 pm
Hey isn't norway in africa :lol:  :P  just kidding! I really love ths map, its an awesome idea!
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: eivindm on July 01, 2004, 07:43:22 am
Thanks Beth, for helping my self esteem after doing all the mistakes on the map!

Since I have been looking at the US map lately, maybe I should promote Norway a bit and show where it is :)  I have chatted with many americans through the years, and no one knew where it was, and only half of them even that Norway was in Europe.  Maybe not that strange since we have only 4.4 million people here, just the half of New York city!  It is cold in the winter (good for skiing), but very nice in the summer (look at the webcam from the Geiranger fjord at my signature).  The Vikings used to live here, and fighted and robbed, and did many other things I'm not proud of.  And we also believe that the Viking Leif Erikson was the first to discover America (after the ones living there of course :-) long before Columbus. Norwegians have invented the spray can, and the outside hanging motors on small boats (don't know what that is called in English).  But my wife which comes from a very small place here in Norway are most proud of the invention of the binders, used in every office to hold papers together, invented by a local man where she lives.  Trygve Lie was the first Secretary-General in the UN, and Norway used to be the only NATO country with a border to the Soviet Union (my father served in the army at the border line at the Cuban Crisis by the way, couldn't go for a pee without permission). Norwegians are very proud of its country, some would say too much.  We are proud of having an "equal" sociaty with free school and medical service, and where women are getting more and more into important positions.  Our first female prime minister served from the early eighties, and is now the head of the World health organization in the UN.  We are known to be hard to get to know, and do not talk to strangers (wouldn't dream of talking to someone on the bus), but if you have finally got a friend here, you've got one for the rest of your life.  We love our brown cheese (which foreigners hate and we eat more than anything else on bread).  We would have been a very poor country unless we found increadibly large amounts of oil in the North Sea in the early 70s.  Hitler wanted the iron from sweeden which could only be transported through Norway, and used large troops to get and hold Norway through the second world war.  Norwegian saboteurs, blew up the plant at Rjukan, producing heavy water which is used to make atomic bombs, an important step in stopping the German atomic program.  The sabotage has by many british (including Chrurchill) and many americans been called the most successfull sabotage in the entire war.  No life was lost on either side, and the plant was a wreck.  We had the winter olympics in 1952 and 1994.  Hunters in Norway hunts large amounts of Moose each year, and our killing of whales are a good way of loosing tourism.  Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole.  We watch a lot of american movies and TV series, and reads a lot of english books at the University.  All kids learn english from they are 10 years, and almost all people in Norway understands english well, but we are not good at talking and writing english since we don't do that very often.

If some of you are still reading:
Remember Norway as the long slim country furthest north in Europe with a very long coast line to the atlantic.  Here is a map:
http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~eivindm/diverse/beebbs/norway.gif

eivindm
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: Beth Kirkley on July 01, 2004, 09:26:57 pm
You don't know how much I REALLY enjoyed reading about your country and people eivindm. And now I know where you are, and I won't forget. I wish our country would teach other languages as a standard. It seems rather arrogant of us. I don't even know if that's the right way to express my feelings on it, but it always bugged me that children in other countries learn english as a second language, but american kids don't learn ANYTHING as a second language. Not as a standard anyway. They can learn a language in high school (the last 4 years of basic learning here). But they really should be taught at a younger age. Maybe even two languages - sign language (rather universal) and something else.

And eivindm, I hope you don't think americans act on a normal basis like you see in movies and american tv shows. That's not exactly what we're like. I guess some people actually live lives like are shown, but mostly it's just make believe of how people dream of living. And I wouldn't say that most of the lives shown in american movies are moral living - but I think some people here think a life like that would be fun and exciting. We have some strange tv shows though. :) I don't even like to watch most of them.

Beth
Title: One more for MA...
Post by: saltheart on July 06, 2004, 10:14:53 am
Unless the map automatically updates, one more can be added for Massachusetts. That would be me...joined today.
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: eivindm on July 06, 2004, 10:19:08 am
It do not automaticly update, but I check the memberlist several times a week.  I saw your membership 20 minutes ago and updated at once :)  You will find yourself in the stats file:
http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~eivindm/diverse/beebbs/beemaster_stats.txt
And you are of course counted on the maps aswell.


eivindm
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: Robo on July 06, 2004, 11:32:10 am
Eivind,

Like Beth, I also enjoyed your post about Norway and it's people.  I never realized how big (land wise) Norway is, and how small (population wise) it is.  By the way, those boat motors are called 'outboard motors' here in the US.

And like Beth says, don't judge all of the USA by what you see/hear in movies and on TV.  It seems like the media respresents the minority of folks, but gets the most coverage.  There are many more conservative folks here that have the same characteristics you mentioned of the Norwegians.  Unfortunately, the 'hate/blame America first' crowd seems to be the most vocal and gets the most coverage.

It's great to meet you.  Isn't the internet a great thing.  Our own Al Gore claims to have invented it :?  Wish I could say I was proud of that.

And Beth,  where have you been,  We DO teach a 2nd language.  It is English.....
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: asleitch on July 06, 2004, 11:37:57 am
Quote from: Beth Kirkley
sign language (rather universal) Beth


Actually, sign language has also developed it's own internatioal flavours, for example. even english and american sign is different, english uses two hands, wheras in the main, American uses only one hand. younger people in england prefer the American version, as they can hold a pint of beer in the pub in one hand, and talk with the other, something that isn't possibel without putting your drink down, using "traditional" english sign languase :shock:  :D

Adam
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: eivindm on July 06, 2004, 11:55:36 am
Quote from: Robo

And like Beth says, don't judge all of the USA by what you see/hear in movies and on TV.  It seems like the media respresents the minority of folks, but gets the most coverage.  


No I really don't believe that americans are like the people in all the TV-series :) Here in Norway many thinks that the US has the worst AND the best of everything.  Since it is so amazingly huge (in Norwegian eyes) you can find anything there if you look for it.  The US are generally well liked, although the politics often are considered more "extreme" than in Norway (uses capital letters more than here I think).

I know that TV can give a strange angle on some cases.  Have seen several things from Norway on American TV (such as CNN).   Didn't recognize my country though.  Think the use of superlatives was used too much, probably since the programme wouldn't be interesting otherwise :)  The most funny thing, though, was an episode of X-Files, where two "norwegians" where having an conversation.  The american actors spoke so badly that I almost didn't understand anything (how much would an Norwegian actor cost?).  Mulder and Scully visited some kind of a bar where all the people were sitting in a fishing outfit, not used in Norway for at least 50 years (Looked like a movie from the 19th century).  The main norwegian character was named Henry Trondheim.  Trondheim is our 3rd largest city.  No one is called that.  Would be like we named an american Frank Los Angeles :)  Got me a good laugh, though :)

I would really like to visit the US some time.  Have to help my wife not to fear sitting in planes first, though :)

eivindm
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: asleitch on July 06, 2004, 12:10:18 pm
Not as bad as how America portray the English in nearly all films, that we have this wierd "upper-class" accent, makes me laugh everytime I see it. Isn't it funny how your own country is portrayed in other countries?

It's funny, Americans have the potential to be so educated and yet (in general) have so little idea of what is going on in the world platform, and even less know where it is?

Comedy statistics......

Quote
Despite a deluge of news about the prospect of a war against Saddam Hussein, only 13% of Americans tested could point Iraq out on a map of the world.

Perhaps even more worrying - when confronted with the same map, only 89% of Americans could find their own country!



So 11% couldn't find their own country? What do you guys learn in geography  :shock:

Quote
34% of Americans know the tiny Marquesas Islands, where the last season of reality TV show "Survivor" was filmed, is located in the South Pacific. But only 30% could point to the location of New Jersey.

56% of Americans were unable to locate India, home to 17% of the world's population.


Interesting stuff eh?  :D  :D  :D  :wink:

Adam
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: eivindm on August 16, 2004, 11:16:28 am
Just noticed that member no 250 just joined us today!  :D

It has been wonderful to watch the growth of the forum! And it is always fun to set the coordinates for a new country on the world map (as I did for Chile last week).

Update 5 mins later: And just as i wrote this, member 251 joined us :)

eivindm
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: eivindm on August 20, 2004, 06:24:54 am
Quote from: beemaster

 First... We need some African and Russian Beekeepers - and I counted about 6 states without members - whatsup wid dat - lol.


I was glad to see this morning that we got our first member from Africa here.  
Welcome aboard schoeman!!

eivindm
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: Yarra_Valley on February 15, 2005, 09:52:43 pm
I'm a bit disapointed that only three (myself being the third) Australian Beekeepers have found this site. But don't worry I shall spread the word! International forums rock!

You can make the count 3 for Australia by the way.
Title: Forum member distribution
Post by: Horns Pure Honey on February 16, 2005, 12:01:25 am
That map is as sweet as honey, lol, corny :lol: . bye :D