By far the most balanced and informative article I have read about Google Earth to date is, alas for all but four of you, in Swedish.

I even learned something. Google buys some of its images, for example those of the Australian experimental nuclear reactor in Lucas Heights, from Digital Globe, an American company. That company checks new clients against a list of individuals, organisations or countries it is not allowed to sell to, it turns out. Google isn’t on the list, of course. After that the trail goes cold. If you’re a committed enough evildoer, you’ll find somebody who isn’t on that list, naturally, but it’s still a factor worth taking into account when compiling the big picture.

Something else new to me is that the article quotes a Swedish government security expert as saying he estimates the highest theoretical satellite resolution to be 10 cm. Atmospheric disturbances prevent higher resolutions, he says. Personally, I am surprised it’s so low, but that would explain why airplanes are still so prized as intelligence gatherers.