Google Earth Reveals Secret Chinese Submarine

Forget the cloak and dagger. You want to be at the forefront of the spy game? Just load up Google Earth. A couple of days ago, the Federation of American Scientists posted images and an interesting analysis of a new kind of Chinese nuclear-propelled ballistic missile submarine, the picture of which cropped up in late 2006 on Google Earth. Check out the pictures and proposed layout of the so-called Jin-Class sub, and revel in the irony: people used to get thrown in jail for looking at this kind of data without a security clearance. Progress, indeed. —Martha Harbison