Comments on: Love from above

Love from above

BlackLeotardFront — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 21:06:47 -0800

Google Earth Threatens Democracy - Again! Sequel to an earlier article at The Register, here are some Google Earth shots of things which some would rather keep non-public, such as the recently uncensored White House roof or Russian nuke silos(page 1), or which stealth aircraft are parked at which air bases(page 3). Find more and send them in for their next dispatch.

By: Rothko

Rothko — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 21:08:30 -0800

When did the Register turn into Cryptome?

By: twiggy

twiggy — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 22:43:40 -0800

As was already discussed in the last thread: Do you really think any country that has enough power or reason to care about this doesn't have equally good if not much better satellite imagery already? The US Gov't (and any other gov't with air power sitting open in fields) knows all this crap is visible to satellites.. if they were really, really worried about someone knowing something was out there, they'd do more to obscure it. I'm not really sure why this is "threatening democracy", or threatening anything for that matter.

By: BlackLeotardFront

BlackLeotardFront — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 22:44:46 -0800

Well, it doesn't - that's the joke, isn't it. Didn't catch the air of sarcasm in the Register's writing?

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 23:02:53 -0800

is it sarcasm or just the register's usual smug self-satisfaction? That rag is like reading the onion, except written by an english version of the comic book store owner from the Simpsons.

By: fenriq

fenriq — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 23:06:23 -0800

I don't know, I thought that was kind of cool. Better aim and all that.

By: fungible

fungible — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 05:55:15 -0800

What are they trying to do? Shut down Google Earth? Cuz if they do, I might have to get all medieval on their asses.

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 05:58:06 -0800

Do you really think any country that has enough power or reason to care about this doesn't have equally good if not much better satellite imagery already? A former roommate of mine works in the remote sensing and geography business. In his work they often use declassified government satellite images that have resolution within a few meters. These photos are, however, from the 1970's.

By: shawnj

shawnj — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 06:30:49 -0800

That picture of those A-10s made me sad.

By: Possum

Possum — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 07:00:58 -0800

And yet on maps.google.com, the White House roof is still obscured.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 08:00:52 -0800

twiggy writes "if they were really, really worried about someone knowing something was out there, they'd do more to obscure it." I think your placing way to much confidence in the US goverment and it's allies. There is so much data being collected, much of it automatically, that it is tough to keep on top of it. I'd bet there is a lot of one hand not knowing what the other is doing too. So on one hand you might have cops hassling art students about taking pictures of bridges/factory/transportation links and on the other Google et. al. serving up high res air photos of the same "targets".

By: Iax

Iax — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 14:22:48 -0800

by obscure it, I think he meant the generals would know when something is out in the open any satilite could see it, so like that car ad, if they wanted to keep it hidden they could put up giant tents over it.

By: blag

blag — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 16:23:49 -0800

Oh, this is just... perfect. Rota air base, in Spain: This page, 9^th photo down.