links for 2011-07-10

  • "Abu Saif, a rocket maker for the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, is a fan of Google Earth. One recent evening in Gaza City, I sat next to him as he showed me how he used the popular satellite mapping program to target sites within Israel."

    My take: We'e heard from these guys before, boasting about how they use Google Earth to target their missiles from Gaza into Israel, but what this article makes clear is that the militants aren't really all that adept. Google Earth doesn't appear to be the enabling technology here, given that the missiles they build seem to have the most rudimentary of guidance systems, if any, and the resulting missiles seem to crash randomly. Google Earth isn't much use then.