wow just using it now, although not sure how old the pictures being used are..... do a serach for toyota centre and it looks like a contruction site
Most pictures in Houston are around early 2002-ish. Toyota Center still not built. Reliant Stadium about halfway done (outside structure complete, inside still being worked on). And my High School still doesn't have the t-buildings that were added to the back of the school (and have now been removed and there's a new building in their place. I'd say early 2002 is a pretty good guess as to when these satellite photos were taken (in regards to Houston anyway, other places are much more recent)
I live in Western Sydney and the resolution falls away a few suburbs away from where I live. Its a GREAT program though. If you like it...you'll like this web site: http://www.googleearthhacks.com/
It would be much cooler if the 3d topographic information wasn't limited to a few places. Turning on 3d and going to the Grand Canyon is simply amazing.
Google Earth Threatens Democracy The recent news that South Korea is to take the US to task over Google Earth images which expose its military installations to close Commie scrutiny has provoked a mini stampede of other peace-loving nations eager to protect their assets from prying eyes. Enter stage right Thailand, which says it may ask Google to "block images of important state buildings vulnerable to attack". Armed forces spokeschap Major General Weerasak Manee-in told Reuters: "We are looking for possible restrictions on these detailed pictures, especially state buildings. I think pictures of tourist attractions should do, not crucial places which could threaten national security." Well, we went and had a quick shufti at some Thai military installations, and took the opportunity to scour the Earth's surfaces for other Google satellite data which might threaten Our Way of Life. We restricted ourselves to stuff which lends itself to perusal, mostly air force bases, because (trust us on this one) you can easily waste a whole day looking for Russian ICBM installations. First up, the evidence for Thai military preparedness. Here's Udorn Air Force base, around 300 miles from Bangkok: Move along, nothing to see here, but try Korat: That's more like it. Zoom in for a closer look, and voila! Top-quality, US-bought hardware: They've even got an awacs parked there on the hard shoulder: Hmmm. The good General may have a point. On the other hand, what is Thailand realistically going to do about it? Manee's Sri Lankan counterpart, Brigadier Daya Ratnayake, admitted it was a "serious concern if anyone could get detailed images of sensitive installations and buildings", but added: "This is a new trend, we will first have to see whether, in this day and age, if this a considerable threat to national security." He sagely added: "In this era of technology, you have to live with the fact that almost everything is on the internet - from bomb-making instructions to assembling aircraft. So it's something the military has to learn to live with and adapt." India agrees. Reuters quotes an anonymous security official there as confirming that "the issue of satellite imagery had been discussed at the highest level but the government had concluded that 'technology cannot be stopped'." "We are aware that there are websites which give detailed pictures of buildings like the president's house including every tree in the compound. Our security agencies are aware of this but how can we stop technology?" he added. How indeed? And just to prove the point, here's Palam airport in New Delhi, home of domestic flights but also government air transportation in and out of the capital: A planespotter's paradise, as a close-up reveals: Australia, too, has been fretting a little over Google's all-seeing eye. The Australian Department of Defence has said it is taking "appropriate measures to manage the threat" posed by satellite imaging The above is a lovely snap of Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights, south of Sydney, although ANSTO declared the "current images on Google posed no security risk" because: "Although buildings are clearly visible, critical infrastructure is not. The photographs are over two years old." Quite so. At this point we're getting the feeling that the South Koreans and Thai may be over-reacting a tad. What's more, they're not looking at the plus side: if Vietnam and North Korea are as we speak eagerly filling their broadband boots with Google-supplied military secrets, what's to stop us exploiting the same resource? Story continued...
Google Announces Plan To Destroy All Information It Can't Index http://www.theonion.com/content/node/40076 August 31, 2005 | Issue 41•35 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA—Executives at Google, the rapidly growing online-search company that promises to "organize the world's information," announced Monday the latest step in their expansion effort: a far-reaching plan to destroy all the information it is unable to index. CEO Eric Schmidt speaks at Google's California headquarters (below). "Our users want the world to be as simple, clean, and accessible as the Google home page itself," said Google CEO Eric Schmidt at a press conference held in their corporate offices. "Soon, it will be." The new project, dubbed Google Purge, will join such popular services as Google Images, Google News, and Google Maps, which catalogs the entire surface of the Earth using high-resolution satellites. As a part of Purge's first phase, executives will destroy all copyrighted materials that cannot be searched by Google. "A year ago, Google offered to scan every book on the planet for its Google Print project. Now, they are promising to burn the rest," John Battelle wrote in his widely read "Searchblog." "Thanks to Google Purge, you'll never have to worry that your search has missed some obscure book, because that book will no longer exist. And the same goes for movies, art, and music." "Book burning is just the beginning," said Google co-founder Larry Page. "This fall, we'll unveil Google Sound, which will record and index all the noise on Earth. Is your baby sleeping soundly? Does your high-school sweetheart still talk about you? Google will have the answers." Page added: "And thanks to Google Purge, anything our global microphone network can't pick up will be silenced by noise-cancellation machines in low-Earth orbit." As a part of Phase One operations, Google executives will permanently erase the hard drive of any computer that is not already indexed by the Google Desktop Search. "We believe that Google Desktop Search is the best way to unlock the information hidden on your hard drive," Schmidt said. "If you haven't given it a try, now's the time. In one week, the deleting begins." Although Google executives are keeping many details about Google Purge under wraps, some analysts speculate that the categories of information Google will eventually index or destroy include handwritten correspondence, buried fossils, and private thoughts and feelings. The company's new directive may explain its recent acquisition of Celera Genomics, the company that mapped the human genome, and its buildup of a vast army of laser-equipped robots. Google finally has what it needs to catalog the DNA of every organism on Earth," said analyst Imran Kahn of J.P. Morgan Chase. "Of course, some people might not want their DNA indexed. Hence, the robot army. It's crazy, it's brilliant—typical Google." Google executives oversee the first stage of Google Purge. Google's robot army is rumored to include some 4 million cybernetic search-and-destroy units, each capable of capturing and scanning up to 100 humans per day. Said co-founder Sergey Brin: "The scanning will be relatively painless. Hey, it's Google. It'll be fun to be scanned by a Googlebot. But in the event people resist, the robots are programmed to liquify the brain." Markets responded favorably to the announcement of Google Purge, with traders bidding up Google's share price by $1.24, to $285.92, in late trading after the announcement. But some critics of the company have found cause for complaint. "This announcement is a red flag," said Daniel Brandt, founder of Google-Watch.org. "I certainly don't want to accuse of them having bad intentions. But this campaign of destruction and genocide raises some potential privacy concerns." Brandt also expressed reservations about the company's new motto. Until yesterday's news conference, the company's unofficial slogan had been "Don't be evil." The slogan has now been expanded to "Don't be evil, unless it's necessary for the greater good." Co-founders Page and Brin dismiss their critics. "A lot of companies are so worried about short-term reactions that they ignore the long view," Page said. "Not us. Our team is focused on something more than just making money. At Google, we're using technology to make dreams come true." "Soon," Brin added, "we'll make dreams clickable, or destroy them forever."
Shave your head, put on a white coat, stroke a cat and pretend your looking down on Earth from your secret moon base.
