While bird's-eye photos of Obama's house probably won't do much to spark the ire of folks on this side of the pond, a recent story in The Daily discusses the enormous role that Google Earth—not Facebook, not Twitter—has played in the last half-decade of civil uprising in the tiny Persian Gulf country of Bahrain. Why? Because aerial photos of the homes of the ruling class have exposed the sort of lavish lifestyles that had, until just a few years ago, been hidden while the underclass suffers from a massive housing shortage. In 2006, the Bahraini government blocked Google Earth entirely, but the collection of photos was simply moved to a Flickr account.
· All the Presidents' Homes [Curbed National]
· Clearer Picture [The Daily]