Happy Domino Day! (uh, unless you love birds)

They're celebrating in The Netherlands as I write this, after setting a new world's record for the number of dominos tipped over in the classic chain-reaction style: 4,002,136 (revised total) tiles went down in a little over two hours during the "Domino Day" event held in the town of Leeuwarden in north Holland. It was broadcast live on Dutch and German television. (Update 11/20: click on the "Domino Day" link above for fascinating photos of the setup, which had the theme "Domino Theatre of Eternal Stories". You may be amazed at the scale of the event.)

"So what?", you say. Well, what makes this otherwise trivial tale somewhat interesting is what preceded it. As you might imagine, setting up 4.1 million dominos (very carefully, I might add) is a Herculean task, one that took over 100 volunteers nearly a month to accomplish. Last Monday, as the crew was putting finishing touches on the stack of tiles, a wayward sparrow flew into the FEC exhibition center and managed to start the party early. Around 23,000 dominos fell before frantic staff were able to activate safeguards that finally stopped the premature chain reaction. Efforts to catch the bird were unsuccessful, and an exterminator on site finally shot it dead with an air rifle as it was "cowering in a corner".

The resultant furor over the killing of the sparrow has turned this into one of the biggest news stories in Europe in recent days. Animal rights activists are outraged, and at least seven separate organizations are conducting investigations into the incident. The man who fired the fatal shot may be charged with a crime, as sparrows are an endangered and protected species in the Netherlands and a licence is required before killing one. He even received a number of death threats, prompting organizers to beef up security for the event. A Dutch DJ offered a reward of €3000 (about $3500 USD) to anyone who could, as a tribute to the bird, sneak in and topple the dominos before the record attempt, but the prize went unclaimed.

Despite all this, Domino Day came off Friday night without further snafu, and a place in the Guinness Book of World Records was secured.

But here's the kicker: earlier this week a web site was hastily erected in memorial to the unlucky sparrow. A sample of visitor comments --

"I am a great fan of the domino record series, but I will not attend the show. It is completely ridiculous to kill an innocent sparrow for the figures of the network." -- G. Koerselma, The Netherlands

"This was a disgusting reaction to the innocent and natural behavior of the bird. This domino nonsense should be destroyed, arrests made, and such record attempts need to end." -- Warren Snyder, USA

"I can say that I am truly outraged by the murder of this defenseless creature. It is a testament to how far we have sunk since Sept. 11, since when civil liberties have been under attack from those vicious war-mongering politicians. The politics of fear have once again claimed the life of an innocent individual. It is a dark day for democracy in the Netherlands." -- Tijme Brommet, Netherlands

I have to admit that the last quote puzzles me. While I do love animals, it's somewhat of a stretch to associate the death of one small bird, however unfortunate, with 9/11, "war-mongering politicians", the "politics of fear", and a "dark day for democracy". Hey, we're talking about dominos and a sparrow here people, not George Bush's Iraq policy. Nevertheless, that's still not what bothers me the most about this saga. No, what boggles my mind is the fact that this memorial web site for a single Passera Europea has, as of this writing, received over 200,000 hits! Holy crap -- my hit count since launching this blog nearly two months ago hasn't even cracked the 2K mark yet, and this page gets one-fifth of a million views in a matter of days.

The lesson here, then, is obvious: the most effective way to generate traffic to your site apparently is to kill some poor, defenseless creature. So with that in mind, let me say this:

IF I DON'T GET 10,000 HITS IN THE NEXT 48 HOURS, THE KITTEN GETS IT! I'll do it. Don't think I won't.