Last week Google removed some street view photos from upstate New York as they showed the camera car hitting a wild deer as it crossed the road.

The Google Sightseeing team was unfortunately on holiday when the news broke¹, but the images were captured by various other sites before Google took them down.

However, you can still see deer in Japan, where Google drivers have managed to avoid a repeat incident.

Google have now issued a statement, complete with advice on what if a deer bolts in front of your car.

Time and time again we’ve seen that the moment the Street View car is passing, people have an incredible urge to fall off the mode of transport they’re travelling on.

As the Street View car drives up 88th Street New York, we see a kid on the sidewalk, who in time-honoured fashion decides to take a truly spectacular tumble from his scooter at the exact moment the Street View camera has a perfect view. Good thing he had his helmet on eh?

Fortunately the kid seems to pick himself up ok, and as the car pulls away it seems that all the kid is worrying about is whether his friends saw him fall off or not.

Little does the poor child know that the whole world was there to witness his embarrassing crash. I expect the images will be pulled very soon…

Thanks to Sweet Gams.

Dotting the landscape here in Mountainville, New York, is a collection of bizarre shapes and interesting shadows. This is actually a huge outdoor sculpture garden called the Storm King Art Center.

Founded in 1960 by Ralph E. Ogden as a gallery for Hudson River School painters, today the 202 hectares (500 acres) of landscaped lawns, fields and woodlands are home to hundreds of sculptures.

New York resident sculptor Mark di Suvero has several pieces here, such as Mozart’s Birthday and Mother Peace (more info and pictures are available at the Storm King site).

Mother Peace, 1970

Di Suvero was in construction as a young man, but after a serious accident started using an arc welder to create large outdoor sculptures incorporating scrap metal and structural steel – like the enormous Pyramidian (this photo at Flickr gives a good sense of scale).

Pyramidian, 1970

Internationally renowned Polish sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz created the seemingly accurately titled “Sarcophagi in Glass Houses” that we can see here (more info and ground-level pic).

Sarcophagi in Glass Houses, 1989

Another American, David von Schlegell, is responsible for several pieces on permanent display here titled “Untitled”, including this one, “Untitled” (ground level picture).

Unititled, 1969

Not wanting to be left out, the UK is represented by the brilliant Andy Goldsworthy, whose 694 metre (2,278 foot) long Storm King Wall can be seen falling into the lake, and emerging from the other side to take a meandering path through the trees (more info and ground-level photo).

Storm King Wall, 1998

There are many other recognisable artworks dotted about the grounds, including Adam by Alexander Liberman and Free Ride Home by Kenneth Snelson, as well as others that I haven’t been able to find any information about, like this large boat-like thing perched on a small island, or this mish-mash of what looks like huge red tubes.

The Wikipedia page on Storm King is short but to-the-point, whilst the official site would have to try very hard to be any more rambling and wordy. There’s a Flickr Pool with some good images too.

Thanks to Ryan, Wayne Citrin and Adrian Likins.

As the summer wedding season gets into full swing, even Google is muscling in on the action, and has managed to capture a rather charming shot of the newlyweds – probably much to the disappointment of the photographer who wanted the exclusive!

In my opinion, a spectacular photo opportunity, as this is Columbus Circle in New York City, a famous landmark which is surrounded by amazing skyscrapers – not least the Trump International Hotel and Tower behind the party.

Along with the 44 story luxury hotel, Columbus Circle features the New York home of CNN as well as The Time Warner Centre, two striking glass towers which each top out at 229m. This is also home to a record-breakingly expensive penthouse that was sold in 2003 for $54.7 million.

Thanks to the new imagery which allows for nearly 360 degree views, you can see all of New York’s skyscrapers instead of the first 5 floors of them, so get hunting and tell us!

Find out more about the history of Columbus Circle at Wikipedia, as well as more on The Time Warner Centre and Trump International Hotel and Tower.

Thanks: streetviewfun

A recent update to the Street View images of Manhattan has added a new feature designed to protect the privacy of innocent people wandering the streets. So what is this incredible new technology? Why, it’s automatic blurry faces of course!

The new system is designed to detect faces in the street view images and blur them out, so everyone looks like they’ve been watching The Ring.

Due to the vast amount of data involved here, the system is fully automatic – which fortunately for us, appears to be prone to making mistakes! For example, it’s not just real faces that get blurred – this roadside advert featuring the face of the Dali lama has also been obscured to protect his privacy rights (although if you move up the street and look back and you’ll be able to make out his face).

It seems that the system really is very good though. Too good perhaps, as demonstrated by this completely anonymous horse in central park.

One of the reasons that Google has implemented this technology now is possibly that the privacy laws in Canada, Australia and much of Europe would not have allowed images like these to be published otherwise, so it appears that Street View will definitely be coming to a city near you soon.

In the meantime, can anyone find any other examples of incorrectly blurred faces? Or perhaps you can recognise someone despite the blurring? Let us know in the comments!