I consider my geography to be pretty decent. I know that the capital of Moldova is Chisinau and that the most widely spoken indigenous languages in Nigeria are Yoruba, Ibo, and Hausa. It's true that my self-confidence was recently shaken when I learned to my surprise that they speak Spanish in Equatorial Guinea (who knew?), but on the whole I would rate myself as not too shabby.

So imagine my surprise when I checked the server logs and saw that among the 62 countries from which this site received hits last month were Niue (4 hits) and the Heard and McDonald Islands (18 hits).

I think I've actually heard of Niue, though I wouldn't attempt to pronounce it. The CIA World Factbook says:

Niue's remoteness, as well as cultural and linguistic differences between its Polynesian inhabitants and those of the rest of the Cook Islands, have caused it to be separately administered. The population of the island continues to drop (from a peak of 5,200 in 1966 to about 2,150 in 2005), with substantial emigration to New Zealand, 2,400 km to the southwest.

Four hits out of 2,150 residents may not sound like great exposure, but given that we got only one hit out of the whole of China last month, I'll take it. I am pleased that Niue's cultural and linguistic differences don't prevent its inhabitants from enjoying a quality toilet sign when they see one. Welcome Niueans!

While I think I've heard of Niue, I am confident that I have never in my life been even marginally aware of the existence of the Heard and McDonald Islands. According to the CIA World Factbook:

These uninhabited, barren, sub-Antarctic islands were transferred from the UK to Australia in 1947. Populated by large numbers of seal and bird species, the islands have been designated a nature preserve.

We got 18 hits from an uninhabited island! Not bad. Not specified in the factbook is whether the CIA believes the Heardian and McDonaldian bird and seal species possess weapons of mass destruction; presumably it's classified.