An udder joke!

In the photo, the cow’s face is totally blurred, raising the obvious question: Does this cow look more human than other cows? The cow next to the protected cow did not get the blur treatment, and they both seem to be fully bovine.

According to the BBC, a spokesman for Google said, “We thought you were pulling the udder one when we herd the moos, but it's clear that our automatic face-blurring technology has been a little overzealous. Of course, we don't begrudge this cow milking its five minutes of fame."

A spokesman for the cow said, “Enough with the lame puns.”

Google Street View began experimenting with blurring people’s faces back in 2008. And in 2014, Google was ordered to pay a small amount to a Canadian woman who was upset that Google Street View blurred her face but failed to blur her cleavage.

Taiwan asks Google to blur images of military structures on island

Taiwan has asked Google to blur images of new military structures that have recently appeared on the hotly contested Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

Satellite pictures on Google Earth and Maps show four large three-pronged structures surrounding a circular building on the western coastline of Itu Aba, or Taiping Island, which is controlled by Taiwan but also claimed by China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

The disclosure of the structures, revealed when images was updated in July, comes amid rising tensions over Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, and at a sensitive time for the Spratly Islands, a major archipelago located in strategic shipping lanes.

In July, a United Nations court of arbitration upheld a challenge by the Philippines that China could not claim historic rights over the islands. It also characterised Taiping as a rock, meaning it could not be used to assert territorial claims over surrounding waters.

Both China and Taiwan rejected the ruling.

The handling of Taiwan’s control of Taiping over China’s sovereignty claims has become one of the testing grounds of the new administration of President Tsai Ing-wen, who swept to power in January.

On Tuesday, the Coast Guard director-eneral Lee Chung-wei told the national parliament that Google had been notified about concealing the structures.

The defence ministry said the function of the facilities was classified.
“It is inconvenient for us to reveal any military facilities we are installing on Taiping island, and what their purposes are, as they are all considered secret,” the defence minister, Feng Shih-kuan, told local reporters.

The purpose of the structures, which are believed to stand three to four storeys high, sparked immediate speculation that they resembled anti-aircraft towers. Military experts said, however, that they were likely to be for detection and surveillance.

Google confirmed that it had received the request from the Taiwanese government and was reviewing it.