Tom Berge received an 8 month suspended jail term for stealing lead from the roofs of buildings.  He actually used Google Earth to identify which buildings in the area use lead.  He retrieved lead from museums, churches, schools, etc.  He stole lead from the Honeywood Museum in Carshalton, Sutton High School for Girls, and Croydon Parish Church in London.

“He could tell the lead roofs apart on Google Earth as they were slightly darker than normal,” stated a friend of Berge.  Berge was arrested in February and received his sentence last week.

While Google Earth has its fair share of crime uses, it also has a number of uses that are made to solve crimes.  In late January, police in Switzerland were able to discover a marijuana plantation using the software.

[via Telegraph]

[Shamsi airbase in 2006]

[More recent picture of Shamsi]

The U.S. supposedly flew unmanned drone planes from the Shamsi airbase in Pakistan, around the southwestern province of Baluchistan since early 2006.  The image above shows the three Predator drones outside of a hangar on a runway in that vicinity.  The Times UK was able to snag the image before the planes were removed from view on Google Earth.

The CIA secretly uses these plans to observe and attack al-Qaeda and Taliban militants around the Afghanistan and Pakistan border.  The U.S. began to use this runway in 2001, when the U.S. began to invade Afghanistan.  The Pakistani government said that the U.S. left this location in 2006.  Pakistan and the U.S. have kept denying that the CIA is using runways to launch drones.  Pakistan has also demanded that the U.S. government cease using drones on their own tribal area.  This has especially picked up in the last year and has resulted in the killing of many citizens.

The image above also suggests that the U.S. government is launching drones from Shamsi, Kyrgyzstan for falconry purposes.

In the more recent picture of the airbase the drones are not showing, but you will notice that several new buildings have been constructed since the older picture.

Military experts that saw the images believe that the drones are MQ1 Predators that are often used to observe and strike militants at the Afghani border. The MQ1 Predator can carrier two laser-guided Hellfire missiles and can fly for up to about 454 miles at a speed of 135MPH with an altitude of 25,000 ft.

Google Earth, A Security Risk?
Google Earth uses extraordinary technology, but some believe that it can be a security risk.  If any layman can use Google Earth to find military planes, imagine if Taliban used the same software to launch an attack.  To prevent this from happening, the U.S. government asked Google Earth to remove sensitive locations including military bases, nuclear reactors, and other government buildings.

Last year, the government in India reported that terrorists possibly used Google Earth to become familiar with their targets.

This has got to be one of the most badass driveways I’ve seen.  It belongs to an anonymous guy in Lakeland, Florida.  The Car Lounge found it using Google Earth.  In the corners there are installed FIA curbs.  If anyone knows who owns this driveway in Lakeland, Florida let us know what kind of cars the owner sports.

[via Jalopnik and Car Lounge]

John Hanke, Director of Google Earth and Maps announced today at the California Academy of Sciences that a new version of Google Earth has been released.  Starting today, Google Earth will have a more detailed ocean (bathymetric map) available.  The oceanfloor on Google Earth will be available in 3D.  There will be thousands of data points, images, and videos available on the new Google Earth.  For those who like to surf, Google Earth will show where the best places to do so are.

Organizations joining Google on this project includes the National Geographic, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the U.S. Navy, Scripps Oceanography, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.  Dr. Sylvia Earle was the inspiration for the creation of the ocean feature on Google Earth.

Google Earth added historical imagery, touring, and a 3D map of Mars to the new version of the software.  The historical imagery is based mostly in the U.S.  The Touring Google Earth feature allows users to create sharable fly-through tours by clicking the record button to the different tour destinations.  And by selecting the Mars button from the toolbar, you will be able to see a 3D map of our neighboring planet including 3D terrain and landing sites.

The new version of Google Earth is version 5.0, bumped up from 4.3.

Police in Switzerland have found a marijuana plantation using Google Earth.  Police stated that this discovery was part of a much bigger investigation.  This led to the arrest of about 16 suspects and a 1.2 tons of marijuana, cash, and $780,000 worth of Swiss francs were confiscated.  The Swiss police officers found the marijuana field in the state of Thurgau last year when investigating the drug ring.

The two acre plantation was hidden in a field of corn.  Officers also used Google Earth to locate the address of the two farmers involved in the drug operation.  The 16 suspects charged with managing the marijuana plantation has sold about 7.7 U.S. tons of marijuana between 2004 and 2008.  The turnover of these drugs brought in about 3-10 million francs per year.

Google Earth is rumored to be launching an ocean service later this week.

[via Wired]