Map fuzz vanishes with Cheney

Google Maps

KNOCK KNOCK: The blur of the official US vice-presidential residence on Google Maps has been removed with Dick Cheney's departure.

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The blur that enveloped Google satellite images of the official residence of former US vice-president Dick Cheney lifted just days before removalists carted off his belongings.

The house at 1 Observatory Circle in Washington, DC, has served as the official residence for US vice-presidents for the past 25 years.

The images have appeared digitally blurred on Google Maps and Earth - as well as on other similar mapping services - since these types of online tools became widely available during former president George Bush's second term in office.

The new and sharper images of the Queen Anne-style house debuted on Google's mapping services on January 18, just days before Bush and Cheney made way for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

It confirmed to many the conspiracy theory that Cheney had ordered the digital obfuscation because of his penchant for secrecy.

The theory gained even more credence when it was noted that no such blur existed on similar aerial or satellite images of the White House, the Capitol or the Pentagon.

Google has always maintained that the pixellation was not its doing and that the images - provided by the US Geological Survey - were delivered partially obscured.

- © Fairfax NZ News