That's How It Happened

Apologies to the 56k heads, but this animated GIF (fullsize here) shows the location of google requests worldwide on a single day in August 2003. It's beautiful seeing the information tsunami sweep across Europe to the States. Tokyo is a shining beacon of never-sleepingness, pretty much like real life. Oz and NZ, show up clearly, but Africa is almost invisible all day. There's a mysterious speck of requests about 1000 miles east of NYC. Anyone have any ideas what it could be? (via)