Aug 14 2008What's Google Maps Hiding From Us?

This is a picture from Google Maps from somewhere in Holland that looks suspiciously clone-stamped (see the similar looking light colored treetops?). So, Google -- what're you trying to hide, and why? Is it giant "Yahoo Rules!" sign? A monster penis-and-balls somebody mowed into their pot farm? WHAT IS IT? Inquiring minds want to know. Go here to see the actual spot in Google Maps, then post your guess. Mine is 5' 8", 178 lbs. Step right up folks, I'm a carny!
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Reader Comments
1. Count Orlock - August 14, 2008 12:23 PM
It's obviously clone-stamped..the color and lay out of the white tree tops in EXACTLY the same.
2. Popadopolis - August 14, 2008 12:28 PM
It's one of the Google Exec's houses. They don't want you to see how rich they really are.
Ok ok... it's a missile silo. God damn Holland and their evil world-domination aspirations!
3. venort - August 14, 2008 12:28 PM
hmm... mysterious. I'd better fetch my deerhunter...
4. Billy Gates - August 14, 2008 12:30 PM
Google must be working on there tunnel to the center of the earth again. Ahh Google, you think you can beat me !!!!!!! I'm already halfway there! Trying to fool me into thinking you haven't started on our little wager, who do you think I am!?!?!?!?!?! I shall win!!!!!!!
5. soniiic - August 14, 2008 12:34 PM
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=52.089817~6.123097&style=h&lvl=17&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1
6. allard - August 14, 2008 12:38 PM
GOD...JEEEZ! leave us alone, nothing to see here in holland.. ok, since you're pressing, we're actually building our own version of the Large Hadron Collider...8ft long! in yer face Switzerland!
7. Mysterious M - August 14, 2008 1:00 PM
If you search Oxford, PA with Google Maps for some strange reason it can't zoom into Oxford but all the outlying areas are zoomable.
Here's a pic from a search on Live Search:
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k295/GrumImp/clear2.jpg
The big building on the top right has a sign that says "No Tresspassing" on the main road and like 12 parking spaces (nothing considering the size of the building) - not to mention a little house along the winding road (checkpoint, anyone?).
The building circled in the lower left is a wharehouse market - to give you an idea of scale.
Google is a tool of the Anti-Christ . . . . . or at least in bed with the US Government.
Same diff.
8. lee - August 14, 2008 1:06 PM
MSN is showing the same cluster of trees - though far less suspicious looking..maybe Google needs to brush up on their photoshop skills
http://maps.live.com/#JnE9eXAuYnJ1bW1lbiUyYytob2xsYW5kJTdlc3N0LjAlN2VwZy4xJmJiPTU0LjA1OTM4Nzg4NjYyMzYlN2UtNTEuNTAzOTA2MjUlN2U3LjI3NTI5MjMzNjM3MjE3JTdlLTExNy4zMzM5ODQzNzU=
9. egleaves - August 14, 2008 1:08 PM
If you'll notice, the grove of trees to the left is also clone stamped.
10. Redd - August 14, 2008 1:14 PM
Who had enough time on their hands to actually notice this?
11. Michael Bolton - August 14, 2008 1:15 PM
It's not necessarily Google that did it - the company that provided the maps could have done it, or the feds in Holland. Maybe that's where they stash all their gold members.
12. Mitchell - August 14, 2008 1:17 PM
It could not be cloned, in the great depression a progam was started by the goverment to create jobs for people who didn't have a job, one of the big projects was creating forests and parks, that's why the forests look symatricall.
13. buxx - August 14, 2008 1:18 PM
I guess someone living there in the near or something.
It is o far from my house, otherwise i whould have watched over there. But is is more then 200 km. for me =[
14. buxx - August 14, 2008 1:22 PM
Little searching on the internet and i came to this one:
http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/204141/eb52ebe5/google_censuur_eerbeekseweg.html
This is what is hidden into the forrest over there.
Check also the trees to the west, also cloned.
15. Julian - August 14, 2008 1:31 PM
First of all, thats a Montauk monster and Bigfoot colony set up by the Netherlands' government. Secondly there are a TON of these clone stamped areas all over Google Earth. there are quite a few in the U.S. alone.
16. greg - August 14, 2008 1:44 PM
IT IS IRAN!!!
17. venort - August 14, 2008 1:59 PM
this appears to be a classic case of countryside. or just a series of key sitesthat are important in the de-bush-o-matic gun's construction. also, dick cheney has had his house pixellated.
18. anon - August 14, 2008 2:17 PM
It's clearly where Cheney goes to smoke weed when he's in his "undisclosed location."
19. qwerty - August 14, 2008 2:28 PM
thats where all the bigfoots have been hiding
is that right bigfoots or like bigfeet... bigfoot x 2
20. Error401 - August 14, 2008 2:43 PM
My God, it's full of pot.
21. negricita - August 14, 2008 2:46 PM
someone should do a similar search of cloned-aletered-photoshoped areas within the US and like post it in a site and maybe people living nearby could go and take pics of whats actually there.
22. Andyman - August 14, 2008 2:47 PM
Good lord! You've got an entire world of trees at your disposal and you clone stamp the same little bit over and over again? I need to sell my Photoshop skills to the CIA or the KGB. I'll show them how to hide a f***in' nuke!
23. Jason - August 14, 2008 2:52 PM
While we're on this subject, WTF is this? (helicopter landing pad on Plum Island?)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=plum+island,+ny&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=49.310476,80.771484&ie=UTF8&ll=41.183192,-72.188799&spn=0.001441,0.003484&t=h&z=19
24. Pat Popov - August 14, 2008 3:02 PM
Calm down everybody, it's just my Romanesco broccoli plot.
25. Error401 - August 14, 2008 3:43 PM
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Eniwetok+Rd+%4032.677079,+-117.157136&ie=UTF8&ll=32.677077,-117.15713&spn=0.01109,0.022745&t=h&z=16&iwloc=addr
26. ICONiQ - August 14, 2008 4:18 PM
It could be far less diabolical than think. Maybe they were just trying to conceal the seams as they stitched images together.
27. Tony - August 14, 2008 5:08 PM
No, it were farmlands, that have been turned into a golfcourt by some greedy project developer.
But those fossile execs don't want to be bothered with the sight of farmers working, so only a small part of the roadside is visible for their slaves to see them playing, and bushes have been planted to the landsides, but google amateurly repatched this changes. (or maybe it's their weedstack, remember that this is Holland)
p.s. these were one of the surroundings of operation Market Garden in 1944
28. SlowMonkey - August 14, 2008 5:17 PM
Yeah and how come Area 51 doesn't show anything but some outlines?
29. Vladeon - August 14, 2008 6:27 PM
they're not all clone stamped, they're just similar trees. If you look really hard, you'll see that they aren't all exactly the same, there are differences. It looks like a landscaping job to me. nothing special just a bunch of nukes... I mean trees standing there on the side of a golf course. I mean, come on, it's a golf course, so menacing. If anything, they're probably trying to hide the layout of their super secret mini-golf course.
30. icerat - August 14, 2008 6:27 PM
perhaps what they were hiding wasn't on the ground, but in the air .....
31. jim johnson - August 14, 2008 6:50 PM
*shakes head at Vladeon* so innocent and naive. dont let the robo-rat-brains fool you so easily my friend!
32. ジェシカ - August 14, 2008 7:23 PM
QUICK!
Someone go to that address and find out fro us.
I'll give you $20.
33. ジェシカ - August 14, 2008 7:24 PM
Damn spelling mistakes. *** for
>_<
34. fehn - August 14, 2008 7:41 PM
I just checked with Photoshop, I created an opaque layer mask and checked each white area to see if the pattern matches, sorry to say it is 100% Photoshoped, so is the area to the left of the white trees.
35. proteon - August 14, 2008 7:46 PM
We the Retarded demand to know everything!!!!
36. Rince - August 14, 2008 8:14 PM
NAZI UFOs!! THEY ARE IN YOUR MIND!! BRRBRRBRBRBRBRBRBRRRR!!!
37. Andrew - August 14, 2008 8:19 PM
Maybe if you blow the flute there, the pond will drain and let you down into level 7.
38. Cheatachu22 - August 14, 2008 10:59 PM
#12-
I would like to see you plant some trees that look THAT FREAKING SIMILAR. Identical, in fact.
39. notbob - August 15, 2008 3:27 AM
#38. Cloned trees do exist, but only in labs.
#23. It would be a large heli-pad if it is one, It would be capable of landing something large there like a Sikorsky CH-53E (http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/helicopters/size/ch53e_01.jpg). The landing area looks to be about 3 car lengths(the blue car in front of the near-by house) by 3 car lengths.
This is interesting.... Some one should go look at the area, and if you get muled to death by some guard bears, its not my fault.
40. dude - August 15, 2008 4:02 AM
Lol @ conspiracy theorists.
Check out the spot on other maps like MSN, nothing there.
These maps are made from multiple arial photos, stitched together. It is common to have irregularities where the images must meet. You don't just fly out and take some new pictures. A bit of photoshopping is easier.
41. http://webescape.wordpress.com/ - August 15, 2008 9:23 AM
Probably full of pot plants, god bless the Dutch!
42. Christina - August 15, 2008 9:31 AM
Bah I was hoping for something more interesting then just some photoshopping.
43. Kelly - August 15, 2008 9:44 AM
it's where the chupacabra and big foot live.. I went there once.
ah, speaking of Google Maps, can someone explain WTF is this PINK cloud over this place?!
http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=pt-BR&geocode=&q=v.+Presidente+Castelo+Branco,+5446&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=62.443704,113.203125&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=-1.29752,-47.93498&spn=0.019607,0.027637&z=15&iwloc=cent
44. PXLism - August 15, 2008 9:56 AM
Looks kinda like a weiner and balls to me at http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=52.089817~6.123097&style=h&lvl=17&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1 .
45. NastyBedazzler - August 15, 2008 10:16 AM
#37: Nice Zelda reference. That was some funny shit!
46. Ashleigh.z - August 15, 2008 12:44 PM
Its probably Hogwarts
47. intermission - August 18, 2008 3:09 PM
lol thats where harry potters hidding! good one 46
48. littleone - August 18, 2008 8:30 PM
Who has the time to find this stuff?
49. hardy - August 19, 2008 12:08 PM
And the woods right next to it: Photoshoppe! (but less obvious)
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=52.090134,6.123794&spn=0.002136,0.004807&z=20
go back from the screen a little and look for a lighter green shape that looks like
a dolphin jumping into the water (from upper right to lower left) or
a silhouette of a new-beetle
...I can see at least 5 of them.
50. hardy - August 19, 2008 12:10 PM
oops wrong link.
Here it is:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=52.090083,6.121482&spn=0.001053,0.002395&z=19
51. azmousejockey - August 20, 2008 4:03 AM
Um.. I hate to be the one to ruin all the fantasy. See the "DigitalGlobe Inc" copyright on all the Google Earth stuff? Yeah... that's where I work, and have been working for over 6 years. Since this is "Geek" -ologie I'll give you the technical skinny. The planes we contract or satellites we use all shoot images in rows, like a film strip. When two strips don't quite line up because the geography doesn't exactly match the DEM (Digital Elevation Model) it creates holes in the maps. My job for six years was to fill those holes...with anything close to whats actually suppose to be there. Do that 8 hours a day everyday for six years and your creativity tends to go out the window.
Think of a hillside. The DEM says in June of 2008, there was just a hill there. But say a contractor cut into that hill to build houses. Now the plane flies overhead and shoots pictures of houses, but when we try to match them up to the DEM everything goes crazy. the house look like they are melting down the side of the hill. Scan the orange county area of California long enough and you'll find lots of interesting things that aren't quite right.
And in case you're wondering; yes...we did intentionally hide things in maps, and over the years. =)
52. hardy - August 20, 2008 6:13 AM
aaaah!
Don't listen to azmousejockey only because what he says makes totally sense...
He in fact is one of THEM.
So there must be a TRUE explanation instead, which is totally complex and involves aliens, a mega-conspiracy, and the words "world domination" as well as "wonderbra".
53. azmousejockey - August 20, 2008 2:48 PM
Ya know what's even scarier than the truth?? The average age of everyone working in the production dept (where the magic happens) is 25 years old. Imagine what you and 12 of your best friends would do knowing the stuff you're working on will be seen by millions. ;) All the good stuff is hidden in the major USA citys because those were ordered in high rez. If you look You can find spiderman climbing buildings, fake car crashes (my specialty), fake polices cars swarming in weird areas, the initials APU which stand for AirPhotoUSA (do your own reasearch, I don't feel like explaining it) and lots of other things that look real but are not. when it comes to digital imagery, believe nothing. =)
54. j - October 11, 2008 2:28 AM
have you noticed that they improved their photoshopping this last round?? Im sure there is a logistical reason for why the photoshopping was so obviously bad, but then why go back and "fix it"?
55. Steve - October 17, 2008 3:22 AM
^ Yeah I noticed that, too. It looks more realistic now. What bugs me is Holland and all these Scandinavian countries go overboard with their clone stamping and blurring. Oh, so whats so bad about being able to see the queens house? Why not just do what they did in the US and show it without any of the secret agents on top of it?
56. Berry - November 2, 2008 7:25 AM
#55
"Holland and all these Scandinavian countries" ??
Holland's not a Scandinavian country....
57. Jake Lymes - February 14, 2009 2:06 AM
Does Holland have Native Americans? I was pondering this post on the pooper and remember that indians love their privacy...
58. spookysr - March 25, 2009 12:18 AM
its engelbergen golf course - western end
its just a stand of trees near a small stream. its called a 'rough' to golfers...
59. nash - March 28, 2009 3:33 PM
i don't know if an update on this has been commented through yet, but they've redone their patch job. looks more believable now, or it looks normal now and the above said photos were a glitch effect.
60. dutchie - September 8, 2009 11:49 AM
i think it is a palace where the queen (or the royal family lives)
61. Slipgate - October 30, 2009 5:39 PM
The white spots on the trees (chuckle) have changed, whether shooped or not, who knows.