Stange story about computer hacking..

[Stuart G]

Last edited Tue Dec 12, 2017, 07:31 PM - Edit history (2)

WGN - TV in the Chicago area has a website for weather. You can hit the website for about 70 locations with temperature gages, and find out the temperature. I like to go there and find the temperature in my area, since they take it at the airport, and the temperature in the area at a local grammar school, is much closer.

Now, I could buy an outdoor thermometer and just look outside on the door or whatever, but I like checking this site for temperatures?? ok, I am nuts...
............................................so what else is new?

Anyway, once about 2 weeks ago, that site got hacked and when I put my browser on a location that was a local school, for the temperature, I got the temperature for somewhere in Ohio, or Texas or wherever.
..The hackers stay a while, then leave..and everything goes back to normal..

A moment ago, I checked that site, hit one of the locations near me in the Chicago area, ..and came up with the following.........
......Posadas Airport?????...Ah...the hackers have attacked again..

What is Posadas Airport?....so I copied and pasted that term in Google search and I find that the
Posadas Airport is located in Argentina, right across from the border with Paraguay. It is
in a town called Posadas Argentina...which I will admit, I have never heard of. Now what is the point?
The point is that that hacker is one of the most creative hackers, that I have ever heard of. Where does one get an idea for substituting a location near Chicago, with an airport in Posadas Argentina, near the border with Paraguay?? Below is a link for Posadas Argentina..take a look. (I forgot to tell you, I love geography, maps and places around the world.)
Also in the search today, I discovered a new river (for me)...The Parana River..never heard of that either before today..(below that link for Posadas, is another link for the Parana River.) I found out the Parana River is 700 miles longer than the Mississippi River. (you don't know what you will learn on the internet)
________________________________________________________________________________________
Posadas Argentina:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Posadas,+Misiones+Province,+Argentina/@-27.396305,-55.9595353,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x9457be7f080496c3:0xccbff374623e7b9a!8m2!3d-27.3621374!4d-55.9008746


Parana River: https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=&oq=Parana+&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGNI_enUS494US495&q=parana+river&gs_l=hp..0.0l4j0i10.0.0.0.12347...........0.IL4vlI7YAj8

[gratuitous]

1. It appears that war may not be the only way to teach Americans geography

But Ambrose Bierce didn't live in the age of computers, else he might have said that, too.

[Stuart G]

2. When I was small a long time ago...

we traveled some in cars. There were 3 sons in the family (I was the middle) and we sat in the back seat. Gas stations gave away free maps of states..so I started collecting maps. I became interested in the maps, which had different colors of different states, or parts of the states. And we would get puzzles of maps and have to put them together and in the process, I learned about the states and later, parts of the states. Kinda neat.
Some states in the U.S.A had warm weather, others were cool. We had deserts here in the U.S.A. and sort of jungles in the Everglades. Mountains and valleys too. I was an early teenager, and we picked up two new states. Alaska and Hawaii. New places to learn about. I guess that is how I learned to like ..."Geography"

Oh, later in life, I actually taught "Geography" in high schools in the area. That is another story for another time....I will call it .. "What I saw as a high school teacher".. ..but not today..

[blaze]

3. I've always loved looking at maps, but I've never really wondered why...

But after reading your story, I'm guessing it's very much for the same reason. In the mid sixties, I would have been 8-10, my family camped across county and back and we always had maps out and all the kids took turns navigating.

Thanks for nudging up those memories for me.