“Just found out the gym has been closed indefinitely. Thanks a lot Mr. Lipinski.” |+|

“You are undeniably the worlds greatest douchbag. Instead of paying respect to a place that has remained a secret for 20 years, you have insulted the owners and patrons by comparing them to “geckos” and “endearing fellows that just like to drink beer and look at pretty girls.” |+|

“You betrayed a trust that was given to you, so that means you are on your way to becoming yet another self-centered reporter.. because this world is short on that.” |+|

Apparently, if you’re going to infiltrate and blog about covert underground operations, say a subterranean rock climbing lair, you should get permission to blow up the spot first. “This is both the neighborhood-y, Local thing to do and simple journalistic ethics,” according to The Local, the Times’ Fort Greene/Clinton Hill-based blog. The site unpublished yesterday’s story about a “secret underground climbing gym.” Unfortunately, redacting the post about “one of the best kept secrets in Brooklyn” only generates more interest and it’s not like you can hide the cache (props!). Or the screengrab presented in its entirety after the jump.

Frightened by technology, Sir Paul McCartney has succeeded in removing photos of his London mansion from Google Street View. The Sun reports that McCartney, who has “been careful about security” since Mark David Chapman shot bandmate John Lennon to death in 1980, “was unsettled when he heard Google users could get a 360-degree view.” Now, images of his town house, at 7 Cavendish Avenue, St Johns Wood, London, NW8 9JE, have been blacked out along with a significant portion of the block. It turns out that censoring Street View images doesn’t necessitate star power: anyone can fill out the onscreen complaint form. But unfortunately for the living ex-Beatle, hiding public images of his home only publicizes his privacy problems further. To help kick start the Streisand effect we’ve gathered a gallery of Sir Paul’s London estate above, as well as the blacked out Street View below.

View Larger Map