Protestors say Google Earth helped them

Photo by .Gladius

Yesterday Timesonline reported this interesting article about some people who were protesting last week against the proposed expansion of Heathrow airport.

"Demonstrators revealed yesterday that they had used Google Earth to plot their protest on the roof of the Houses of Parliament last week against the expansion of Heathrow.

The website, which allows users to zoom in on satellite photographs of Earth, “showed us all the walkways, steps and other details we needed to make our way across the roof from the door to the far side where the public could see us”, said Leo Murray, one of the five protesters."

Clearly Google Earth can be used in very innocent (and some not so innocent) ways. Clever thinking, although i'm not quite sure how they could have seen all the walkways, steps and, most importantly, other details, that they needed from a satellite image.

The article gets even more spook-like further on describing how the group looked for cigarette ends to find a door on the roof that would be regularly opened and closed. It's like the equivalent of being in a cave, wanting to find the exit and following some light until you reach it.

New thing we've learnt today: Want to find your way into a locked building? Look round all the doors for fag ends.

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