Google Earth

The letter A

"I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
I'd like to hold it in my arms
And keep it company."
-Coca Cola ad song from 1971

If you like maps, you'll love the web application, Google Earth. It allows you a bird's eye view of much of the planet from various heights (some regions are more detailed than others.) The app has been put to many uses.

• Searching the earth for items that look like letters of the alphabet (so you can spell with geography?)
  (in Australia) (Netherlands) (British hedgerows)
• A cousin of my commented on Facebook about using Google Earth flight simulator to "fly" through canyons. Not easy, he said.
• The town of Riverhead in Long Island uses Google Earth to locate residents who have pools but have not paid for a pool permit. They have collected $75,000 in fees so far.
• Looking for undiscovered meteor craters (like deep in the Sahara Desert).

Bottom Line

As with all technology, it can be used for good or evil. Security officials fear that terrorists will use Google Earth to scout out a location and plan an attack with accurate images. For this reason some locations on Earth are deliberately blurred by Google Earth.