Too much information

The Today Show actually changes its summer focus on burning issues like "Why do men have nipples?" and reports an interesting news story. Of course, the story is impossible to find on their ugly Firefox-busting site, but I found commentary here.

A concerned soldier stationed in Iraq demonstrated for the camera how easy it was to get detailed imagery [with Google Earth] of static military bases. With mouse in hand showing how an enemy could, with little effort, determine distances, latitude and longitude, where certain types of weaponry and military vehicles were located.

This is just a few days after Australia's nuclear power chief complained to Google about the detailed images of a nuclear reactor near Sydney that could be accessed by Google Earth.

In both instances, a Google spokeswoman said the same information is readily available to anyone.

Interestingly, Google already censors images of the White House and nearby buildings. I suspect there will be much more censoring in the near future, given the reports that Al Qaeda is turning more and more to the Web to recruit and to plan operations.