It took some time after 9/11, but the sourtce images were altered to obstruct views of facilities that might become targets of people wishing to do them harm. Those sites include, but are not limited to the White House, the Naval Observatory (Vice Presidential residence), ALL of the Congressional office buildings, and key strategic military institutions – that does not mean military bases, but those bases which are handling sensitive material, or are particularly threatened. One example would be St. Ignoe’s in Southern Maryland – once a radar research facility and auxillary airfield for the Navy, and nowa testing site for new RPV’s.

Blurring out sattelite – and hi-res aerial photo’s (hi-res are usually older, B&W, and taken from an aircraft), has been done for years. But, after the press started pointing out that the images were available to everyone, the agency who controls those images, the Geological Survey, quickly blurred out those sites.

Cheney has a hiding place inside D.C., and there has been much speculation where it is. I don’t want to know where his rabbit hole is – I just want him to get lost! But, I CAN tell you it isn’t in Ft Reno Park, or at the reservoir there.

Put in the name & country and it gives you the coordinates.

It’s pretty good at find even the smallest places…

Seems like this is the only one they’ve found in Russia – so far…

Which means it could still be your wallet Tim) Why would Putin leave it in the Far East -its more your area than his)

It’s possible an intelligence agency is worried about something at this site, so they asked the imaging companies to blur it out. I mean, that can go both directions, right?

http://maps.yahoo.com/index.php#mvt=s&trf=0&lon=179.230614&lat=66.26202&mag=7

I’m sure that his take-home pay taking into account all sources is considerably higher than this. Hence he needs to leave his wallet hidden in the far east until his term is up.

Fair enough, I stand corrected. I was just repeating what I’d read in a blog comment somewhere.

What’s interesting about the piece Andy has put up is that the submarine bases in Kamchatka and Severomorsk are not blurred out, yet this little piece is. Maybe it’s Putin’s wallet?

Now, that’s secret.

It’s on the grounds of the US Naval Observatory, which is right in downtown DC (I drive by it all the time) and is not really a military base. Other DC-area military or military-type installations (e.g., the CIA offices at Langley and the Pentagon) are not blurred, nor is the White House or the Capitol (although the latter was apparently blurred at some earlier date).

I’m not sure about other military bases, but a quick google search through some discussion boards filled with people who seem to be preoccupied with this (not that I’m one to talk) suggests that the only installations that are blurred are ones where the stuff that goes on there is utterly secret (as opposed to your regular old navy yard or air base). So, as much as I hate to admit it, I think the blurry spot in DC is all about Cheney. I suppose there could be some sort of air defense system there – but how would it be more in need of concealment than the systems presumably protecting the other places I’ve mentioned?

I believe this is not because Dick Cheney’s residence is worthy of blurring, but because his residence is situated on a military base.

http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/

Maybe you can find the spot with that?

Let me know.

Although, interestingly, if you scroll in a couple of notches on the Live Search image, you’ll see that the southern part of that mini-mountain range has been covered over with a duplicate image of the land slightly to the West.

Yahoo maps, on the other hand, have just opted for a big black box over the area.

I had a similar thought as well. It is pretty close to Alaska…

Interesting thing about Google Maps – at least one capital city (Chisinau) is not available in hi-res, but then there are some rather more remote locations (e.g., Akhalkalaki, Georgia) which are available in hi-res.

Perhaps the people at Google Maps are making a political statement – Chisinau is not visible in hi-res, but Tiraspol is (you can see the shadow of the Lenin statue here); on the other hand, Sukhumi and Tskhinvali are not, and Stepanakert is not (though Shusha is). So perhaps in addition to the “Kosovo precedent,” the Russians might try to introduce a “Google Maps principle” to the resolution of the frozen conflicts. On the other hand, based on that principle (hi-res Google Map available = legitimately independent), Aslan Abashidze would still be running things in Ajara, so perhaps its an idea that’s already been overtaken by events.

Obscure jokes aside (and with apologies for the level of obscurity, which I realize is high), I think those situations just have to do with the availability of satellite imagery, rather than anything nefarious – the Google maps images are not updated very often at all.

This is all unrelated to the intentional blurring, of course, which is quite interesting. The only place that’s been intentionally blurred in the US that I know of – and it’s become legendary, so everyone else probably knows of this, too – is Dick Cheney’s residence.

MS Live Search is unblurred and shows nuffink:
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=66.262158~179.229584&style=h&lvl=12&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000