A God's-Eye View of the World

We are as gods, the old Whole Earth mantra has it, and we might as well get good at it. Google Earth is one of those astonishingly right-on tools that come along every few years to validate that motto: it allows the viewer to swoop down from the heavens to view just about any address in North America (and many abroad), affording a macro, regional view of place that zeroes in on the extremely particular in just a few clicks. (Suffice it to say that you might want to reconsider rooftop sunbathing unless you're sure no Google spy satellite is floating about in the sky above.) Be warned: as with all godlike technologies, it's addictive. Sadly, it's Windows-only for the moment, but a Mac version is said to be in the works.