Couple's final tsunami pictures

Couple's final tsunami pictures
By Valentine Low, Evening Standard
24 February 2005

These pictures are the last thing John and Jackie Knill ever saw. They show the Asian tsunami seconds before it hit a beach in Thailand — a massive churning wave rushing towards them.



As we now know, few people who were that close to the wave when it struck would survive. But the Knills, a Canadian couple on holiday at the popular Thai resort of Khao Lak, perhaps did not realise that.

And instead of running for their lives, they took these photographs with their digital camera.


What happened next one will never know for sure. The Knills — from north Vancouver — disappeared and relatives say they were notified about a week ago that the identities of their remains had been confirmed.

Searchers later also recovered the couple’s destroyed digital camera but were able to print photos from its memory card. Today, 60 days after their death, the last moments of John and Jackie Knill can be reconstructed.

A shot taken at 8.20am shows that everything on the beach appears to be normal.
Six minutes later, curious onlookers are shown wandering onto suddenly-exposed tidal flats, a sign of the impending tsunami. A large wave appears to be breaking in the distance.

Two minutes after that, some spectators appear to realise this is no ordinary wave.

"I don’t know why they didn’t run," their son Christian Knill told Global TV in Vancouver. "Either they knew they couldn’t or they didn’t know the power of the wave."

A pair of photos taken at 8.30am shows a wall of water churning up sand and mud. A final shot a couple of minutes later shows the tsunami hitting the beach.

Then nothing.

At first the pictures show a distant wave on the horizon.


The water then starts to rush out from the shore as the wave draws nearer.


The wave can be seen growing as it moves closer.


The photos were taken on the popular holiday resort of Khao Lak.


The final image shows the tsunami crashing into the beach.

Quote:

"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within." Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Today's Quote:

Quote: "I find chopsticks frankly distressing. Am I alone in thinking it odd that a people ingenious enough to invent paper, gunpowder, kites and any number of other useful objects, and who have a noble history extending back 3,000 years haven't yet worked out that a pair of knitting needles is no way to capture food?" -- Bill Bryson

Serial burglar caught on webcam

A house burglar was caught after a webcam on the owner's computer recorded images of him carrying out the raid.

Stills of serial raider Benjamin Park, 19, of Cambridge, were sent to an email address so even when he stole the computer, the images could be found.

Police said it was a "brilliant idea" of software engineer Duncan Grisby, who set it after a previous burglary.

Park was given an 11-month jail term by magistrates in Cambridge on Tuesday after admitting burglary.

"It was an absolutely brilliant idea of Mr Grisby's," said Det Sgt Alan Page, head of Cambridgeshire Police Burglary Squad.


SAY CHEESE

"The webcam was set up in his computer and began filming once it registered motion. It captured every movement Park made.

"At one point he stared into the computer as if it might be making a noise or something to make him suspicious.

"He then stole the computer but it didn't matter because Mr Grisby had set it up so that as it was recording it was sending the images to an email address.

"When the break-in was discovered Mr Grisby simply gave us the email address and we were able to watch several minutes of footage and say, `That's Ben Park'.

"Mr Grisby is an extremely bright man. He'd set this up because he'd been burgled some years ago and the quality was superb.

'Better than alarm'

"It was better than a burglar alarm and when Park initially denied breaking in to the property we were simply able to show him the footage."

Magistrates heard Park, who has more than 13 previous convictions for theft, had stolen computer equipment and other property with a value of nearly £4,000 from Mr Grisby's study.

He committed the offence in February while on bail after being charged with an attempted burglary in Ely, Cambridgeshire, in August.

"The webcam made our job really easy," added DS Page. "It was a pleasure to show him the pictures and see his expression when we interviewed him."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/cambridgeshire/4272041.stm

Published: 2005/02/16 22:26:26 GMT

© BBC MMV

Serial burglar caught on webcam

A house burglar was caught after a webcam on the owner's computer recorded images of him carrying out the raid.

Stills of serial raider Benjamin Park, 19, of Cambridge, were sent to an email address so even when he stole the computer, the images could be found.

Police said it was a "brilliant idea" of software engineer Duncan Grisby, who set it after a previous burglary.

Park was given an 11-month jail term by magistrates in Cambridge on Tuesday after admitting burglary.

"It was an absolutely brilliant idea of Mr Grisby's," said Det Sgt Alan Page, head of Cambridgeshire Police Burglary Squad.


SAY CHEESE

"The webcam was set up in his computer and began filming once it registered motion. It captured every movement Park made.

"At one point he stared into the computer as if it might be making a noise or something to make him suspicious.

"He then stole the computer but it didn't matter because Mr Grisby had set it up so that as it was recording it was sending the images to an email address.

"When the break-in was discovered Mr Grisby simply gave us the email address and we were able to watch several minutes of footage and say, `That's Ben Park'.

"Mr Grisby is an extremely bright man. He'd set this up because he'd been burgled some years ago and the quality was superb.

'Better than alarm'

"It was better than a burglar alarm and when Park initially denied breaking in to the property we were simply able to show him the footage."

Magistrates heard Park, who has more than 13 previous convictions for theft, had stolen computer equipment and other property with a value of nearly £4,000 from Mr Grisby's study.

He committed the offence in February while on bail after being charged with an attempted burglary in Ely, Cambridgeshire, in August.

"The webcam made our job really easy," added DS Page. "It was a pleasure to show him the pictures and see his expression when we interviewed him."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/cambridgeshire/4272041.stm

Published: 2005/02/16 22:26:26 GMT

© BBC MMV

BT quadruples broadband speeds for free

BT today promised to "transform" its retail broadband services by doubling or quadrupling existing connection speeds without raising tariffs. The move will offer the telco's 1.4 million retail broadband customers a minimum connection speed of 1Mbps.

Most consumer and business customers will have their speed increased to 2Mbps, as much as four times faster than current speeds. Those with BT Broadband Basic will have their speeds increased from 512Kbps up to 1Mbps.

Ian Livingston, chief executive at BT Retail, said: "Today we are offering customers up to four times the broadband speed without charging a penny more, allowing customers to get even more from their broadband services for entertainment, education or communication."

BT said that the higher speeds will pave the way for the delivery of improved services such as video over broadband.

"The internet is no longer simply about surfing the web or checking email. More and more people are enjoying online gaming, on-demand music and video," said Livingston. "BT is bringing applications of the future, such as video telephony, within reach of all our customers today."

According to Livingston, the announcement will also help businesses conduct online trading and teleworking more cost effectively.

"We fully appreciate the critical nature of broadband for business so, in addition to 2Mbps as standard, we are introducing a service level guarantee on our premium business product," he said.

The speed boost will become effective for consumers signing up after 17 February, and for business customers taking out a contract after 1 April. Migration of existing customers will start from the same dates.
This article was printed from the VNU Network
VNU Business Publications
© 2004 All rights reserved

Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully: in Ten Minutes

Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully: in Ten Minutes
by Stephen King
I. The First Introduction

THAT'S RIGHT. I know it sounds like an ad for some sleazy writers' school, but I really am going to tell you everything you need to pursue a successful and financially rewarding career writing fiction, and I really am going to do it in ten minutes, which is exactly how long it took me to learn. It will actually take you twenty minutes or so to read this essay, however, because I have to tell you a story, and then I have to write a second introduction. But these, I argue, should not count in the ten minutes.

Here's a rather interesting description of the universe

Here are some facts about the universe:
area: infinite - bigger than the biggest thing ever
and then some. much bigger than that in fact,
really amazingly immense, a totally stunning size,
real "wow that's big" time. Infinity is just so big
that by comparison, bigness itself looks really
titchy. gigantic multiplied by colossal multiplied
by staggeringly huge is the sort of concept I'm
trying to get across here

Imports: none. It's impossible to import things
into an infinite area, there being no outside to
import things from

Exports: none: see imports

Population: none. It is known there are an infinite
number of worlds, simply because there is an
infinite amount of space for them to be in.
however, not every one of them is inhabited.
Therefore, there must be a finite number of
inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by
infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so
the average population of all the planets in the
universe can be said to be zero. From this it
follows that the population of the whole universe is
also zero, and that any people you may meet from
time to time are merely the products of a deranged
imagination

Art: none. the function of art is to hold the
mirror up to nature, and there simply isn't a mirror
big enough. see area
=====