Eyes on Costa Rica Supplement - Who's Watching My Blog?

Click on images to enlarge.

Short answer: Not necessarily real people.

Preface: 

My blog includes a component provided by RevolverMaps which generates a rotating globe in the right hand sidebar** of the screen. Here is a screenshot:

** Note: The sidebar may not appear on smaller devices such as iPhones and SmartPhones.

The red dots on the globe indicate the locations of visitors to my blog. Behind the scenes, RevolverMaps also provides information which includes:

(1) identification of the country from which a visit was received;

(2) identification of any subdivision within the country (e.g. a state, province, etc.) from which the visit was received;

(3) identification of a city, town or other locale within the country/subdivision from which the visit was received; and,

(4) the date and time of the visit.

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This is where my current story begins.

On March 17 some very curious information emerged from RevolverMaps. Early in the morning on that day, my husband Lance routinely checked the blog to see whether RevolverMaps had recorded any overnight visits. As indicated by the following extract from the information provided by RevolverMaps, there was one from the United States, preceded by one from Russia, which in turn was preceded by one from Canada on March 16:

Looking further into the information provided by Revolver Maps, it became apparent that the visit from Russia originated in Moscow:

and that the visit from the United States originated in Ashburn, Virginia:

The times are all Costa Rica times. So, whoever visited from Moscow comfortably did so in the late morning Moscow time 10:38:59 (Moscow time is 9 hours ahead of Costa Rica) and whoever or whatever visited from Ashburn did so at an ungodly early hour of 03:38:59 (Ashburn time is 2 hours ahead of Costa Rica). Who in Ashburn, Virginia would be motivated to look at my blog at that hour?

Lance says it is extremely improbable that the visits to my blog from Russia and the United States would occur down to the second at precisely the same time. He thinks they probably occurred milliseconds apart - first from Russia, then from the United States. He also thinks that the visit from the United States was probably triggered by the visit from Russia. 

So why is Ashburn significant? According to Wikipedia, Ashburn is:

"... a major hub for US Internet traffic, due to its many data centres... "

Apparently, Ashburn hosts something like 70% of the world’s internet traffic.

Speculation: For security reasons, internet traffic from Russia is an issue the U.S. may feel obliged to surveil to the best of its ability. This could dictate that the powers that be (the NSA, CIA, Homeland Security, FBI or whatever agency) have one or more data centers in the Ashburn "hub" to routinely surveil traffic originating from Moscow.

So, what happened? Again speculating:

(1) Upon detecting "traffic" from Moscow to my blog, a data center in Ashburn automatically established its own link to "read" whatever might be attracting Moscow's attention and, with assistance from some form of artificial intelligence (AI), assess whether there might be a U.S. security risk.

(2) It is now more than a month later. Nobody has come knocking on my door. Undoubtedly, when AI read my blog, it did not detect any red flags. Whew! This time, I guess I passed muster. 

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - March 2024

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During March, visits to this blog were received from the following 13 countries:

Each country is followed in brackets by the total number of visits received since records first started to be kept in November 2012.

From the time I started to keep track, the total number of countries and non-independent jurisdictions from which visits have been received remains at 136. Of this number, 13 are non-independent jurisdictions - e.g. Martinique (an Overseas Department and Region of France) from which 1 visit has been received.

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The following is a summary of weather for March in the area where we live:

The temperatures are shade temperatures. The average daytime high in March this year was significantly higher than March last year (about 3.9°F, 2.1°C higher). At the same time, total rainfall during March this year was significantly lower than last year (about 3.2 in., 88.5 mm lower). Moreover, while there were 10 days with measurable rain in March last year, there was only 1 such day this year.

Information on current and recent weather conditions, climate change and more in various parts of Costa Rica can be obtained from the website of IMN: Instituto Meteorológico Nacional de Costa Rica (Spanish) or National Institute of Meteorology (English). IMN also has a Facebook page which may be of interest.