5 ms·

I'm really curious why this 14 mile strip of Antarctica is censored: https://www.google.com/maps/place/70%C2%B010'04.0%22S+87%C2%B043'57.5%22E/@-70.1507513,87.

• arca_vorago 10y ago
  Google will censor just about anything if a government asks them to and claims it's for national security. Hell, they even do it for the uber-rich independent of government.
  • Cieplak 10y ago
    I'm pretty sure that any US person or organization that doesn't comply with matters supposedly pertaining to national security will go the way of Joe Nacchio and Qwest.
    • losteverything 10y ago
      What. A telcon guy or gal here???
    • tunap 10y ago
      Fife Symington concurs. Although, "security" has nothing to do with it. You are either "in" or you're "out". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fife_Symington#Second_term_.281995.E2.80.931997.29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fife_Symington#Second_term_.28...
  • rdtsc 10y ago
    Then in case of countries, those which allow Google to operate on their territory will often threaten Google to prevent it from operating there if Google doesn't censor certain parts. Here is a list of known censored bits on satellite maps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_map_images_with_missing_or_unclear_data https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_map_images_with_miss...
  • burkaman 10y ago
    Pretty sure you don't need to be uber-rich. Anyone can get their house censored if they ask nicely.
• westmeal 10y ago
  That's pretty spooky. It's most likely some military complex.
• knz 10y ago
  Surely it's related to communication interception? Either for the Pacific/Southern Ocean or on the Antarctic continent. Or a giant ruse to divert attention from elsewhere.
• Veratyr 10y ago
  I'm not sure that's censored, at least by Google, I think it's just bad data. The copyright at higher zooms is shown as NASA, which would have used Landsat. In the Landsat archive, there are numerous satellite images for that region, though low quality: https://landsatlook.usgs.gov/viewer.html https://landsatlook.usgs.gov/viewer.html Seems likely nobody at Google has taken the effort to do anything about it because who uses Google Maps to look at antarctica? To those saying it's a military installation or SIGINT thing, I very very seriously doubt it. The Antarctic Treaty explicitly forbids military activity and an installation might be blockable by Google Maps but no one country has a monopoly on imaging satellites. It'd be seen and start a diplomatic shitstorm.
  • yakshaving_jgt 10y ago
    Secret military installations in Antarctica is not unfathomable. You should read this: http://idlewords.com/2016/05/shuffleboard_at_mcmurdo.htm http://idlewords.com/2016/05/shuffleboard_at_mcmurdo.htm
    • Cieplak 10y ago
      It could also be a mine or refinery. In this interview, Admiral Byrd says there are significant coal, oil and Uranium deposits (skip to 7m30s): https://youtube.com/watch?v=czW0iRJuH1A https://youtube.com/watch?v=czW0iRJuH1A
      • wbl 10y ago
        And where is the bulk or oil terminal? It's impossible to conceal that much shipping.
  • unixhero 10y ago
    I love diplomatic shitstorms.
• topkekz 10y ago
  also censored on https://zoom.earth/#-70.166939,87.824707,11z,sat https://zoom.earth/#-70.166939,87.824707,11z,sat
• 7952 10y ago
  I would guess that this was a gap in coverage from one source of data, that was filled in with data from another. The edges just try and blend the two sources together.