Trivia wiz and 74-time Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings recently reported on strange phenomena on a Kansas farm for Condé Nast Traveler. The 360-acre farm of Joyce Taylor, just north of Potwin, is a quiet place off the beaten path. But a few years ago Taylor, 82, began receiving strange phone calls and visitors. As Jennings recounts, “IRS agents asking for people she'd never heard of, police officers tracking down runaway children, crime victims demanding their stolen goods or accusing her of online scams.”
The local sheriff even put up security cameras and warning signs, to try to stem the tide of harassment.
In the end it turned out that a Massachusetts digital mapping company was selling geographical information about internet IP addresses. But when the company’s software couldn’t determine the physical address equivalent of an IP address, the company would simply list the latitude and longitude of America's geographic center. Which turned out to be… Joyce Taylor’s farm.
The mix-up has been fixed, much to Taylor’s relief. Now when the Massachusetts company can’t determine a physical address, it gives an address in the middle of a body of water.
