Pepper Mill suggests that, since nearby cows weren’t affected, this one might have been in the Witness Protection Program.
“You’ll Do Lobelia? That’s a NAME?” protested the cow.
Ok, while we’re here, the other day I was traversing down a path I use to run daily in Scotland about twenty years ago (holy shit, has it really been that long already?) Anyhow, look at the center of the street view here. The blur continues up the road and at one point the street view overtakes the blurred vehicle, which I think may be a truck/lorry of some sort. What kind of vehicle do you suppose would be entirely blurred out like that? I don’t think I’ve seen that before on Street View. ETA: Actually, it may not be a vehicle, but something on the side of the road. I’m just curious what it is.
CalMeacham, clearly that’s Classified. Perhaps your question would better be directed to Mr. Snowden?
That is peculiar, pulykamell.
Hmm…the other thing that’s interesting is that most of that road was photographed in 2015, but that little stretch reverts to Google Street view 2009. If you got far enough before or after the blurred area, it goes back to 2015 data. Interesting.
ETA: For example see here. Now move one pace forward. It goes from 2015 to 2009 when the blurred area comes into view. If you keep heading up the road and past the blur, it eventually goes back to 2015, once the blurred area is out of sight. (Although the road “dead ends” if your using the arrows and you have to click with the mouse to get past the point where it switches from 2009 to 2015 data.)
She’s got an obscene tattoo.
This is probably obvious to everyone, but Google’s algorithms probably mistook the cow’s face for something that it does have good reasons for blurring out. Yeah, it’s funny when it happens, but when you consider the amazingly vast number of times when the algorithms do get it right, it’s still pretty impressive.
Construction crew?
That road in Scotland obviously passes a transdimensional rift. (How do you think Nessie got there, and ducks out of sight when the chase is a little too close?) Admittedly, it’s rare to see one above water. Clearly, the rising seas are throwing things out of alignment.
That’s like one of those Rocky and Bullwinkle plots.
Boris Badenov: We must be stealing that cow. The spots on its face look just like the plans of the missile base.
Nayasha Fatale: But Dah-link. How will we get cow into the city
Boris: Just watch.
(Boris ducks behind bush, emerges dressed in Medieval clothes.)
Boris: Hello. I am Magic Bean dealer. I will trade a cow for Magic Beans.
Bullwinkle: All I have are these jelly beans.
Boris: Close enough. (swipes beans from Bullwinkle’s hands – paws – hoof). Now you take cow past guard over there.
Its Bovine Depression, otherwise known as…
[spoiler] “Sad Cow Disease”.
[/spoiler]
Witness protection program. It sold out the cow rebels to the ranchers, and their friends are looking to have her assassinated.
Eh, I say she’s mouthing “Fuck you, Google!” and it was too obvious.
I think **Sunspace **has nailed it. As you click your way down the road, the blurry spot moves to the side. This is the place where the big-eyed aliens enter our world. No other possible explanation.
One other possible explanation: it could just be someone’s house.
Anyone can have their house blurred in street view with a simple request to Google. (but this one at least is still visible from above)
Once a place has been blurred they probably don’t bother updating that section of the map again unless anything significant changes.
As for the cow though, obviously she is someone that *they *don’t want us to know about.
Like Crazyhorse says, the owner of the house probably went to Google Street View and blocked their home for some reason.
Our home is blocked. My husband once received a surprise visit from a long-lost family member who he preferred would have remained long-lost. In a fit of pique, he went to Google Street View and had the image of our home blocked. I know it doesn’t keep away unwanted visitors, but he acted out of anger. Now not only can you not see our home, but the view is blurred for half a block in all directions, for some reason.
I find that udderly credible. Her associate must have been charged with a mooving violation.
they were part of the “cows with guns” army
As others have noted, sometimes ex-mob members get into witness protection program after ratting out others. She could be a former crime bossy.
In addition to blurring out pretty much anything that someone complains about, Google also has some fancy algorithm that it uses to automatically blur out stuff.
It blurred out part of one of the bushes in my house. Either their automatic algorithm is a bit funky at times or they are protecting the identity of one of the neighborhood cats.
My son decided to chase the google car, so once it gets past my house, if you look closely you can see him running after it with his arms stretched out for a couple of frames down the road. They blurred his face out and blurred out our license plates as well.
None of us requested anything to be blurred. That was all automatic.