This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

Secrets Revealed, originally uploaded by plemeljr
Strange – with today’s roll-out of high-er resolution Google Maps places which previously were obscured, pixelated, or blanked out now stand in their original form.
In doing research for an upcoming trip to Washington D.C. to visit friends, I naturally started wandering around the D.C. area on Google Maps, and naturally (thank you L’Enfant) drifted over to the people’s house. You might notice the Old Executive Office buildings flanking the White House and the Oval Office itself. All of these items were blanked out in the previous version. You might also want to check out the Russel Senate Office Building, the Dirksen Senate Office Building, the three House Office Buildings – all previously redacted (more Capitol fun here). You can also check out the Pentagon cafe in the center of the Pentagon – also previously redacted.
All this goes to show that the conventional wisdom of restricting maps (information) almost never works.
But the results sure are pretty to look at.