An interesting question, no doubt. The internet is a place where everyone can place and retrieve any information they want. Simple enough? Oh, but how they do it, what tools they use and how we ourselves interface with it is something else altogether.
I think this little video explains it very well.
kthanxbai!
http://jumblerant.blogspot.com
Showing posts with label Google Earth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google Earth. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Little boy lost finds his mother using Google Earth
When I first read the tile of this article I thought that there would be a cutesy little story of a well dressed little kid in a supermarket in New York or Central London who had lost his Mommy and somehow had used an app on his iPhone to find her again a few hours later, when reunited everyone laughed and said trite comments like 'kids these days' and 'what will they think of next'. Hugs and chocolate biscuits all round and next story is of a panda falling off a slide.
But I was wrong.
So very, very wrong.
This is in fact a story of a man who has become who he is today through fate, luck and, unlike so many of his contemporaries, a graduation from the school of hard knocks.
Read it, and if you don't shed a tear leave a comment as to why!
From the BBC website:
kthanxbai!
http://jumblerant.blogspot.com
But I was wrong.
So very, very wrong.
This is in fact a story of a man who has become who he is today through fate, luck and, unlike so many of his contemporaries, a graduation from the school of hard knocks.
Read it, and if you don't shed a tear leave a comment as to why!
From the BBC website:
An Indian boy who lost his mother in 1986 has found her 25 years later from his new home in Tasmania - using satellite images.
Saroo was only five years old when he got lost. He was travelling with his older brother, working as a sweeper on India's trains. "It was late at night. We got off the train, and I was so tired that I just took a seat at a train station, and I ended up falling asleep."
That fateful nap would determine the rest of his life. "I thought my brother would come back and wake me up but when I awoke he was nowhere to be seen. I saw a train in front of me and thought he must be on that train. So I decided to get on it and hoped that I would meet my brother."
Saroo did not meet his brother on the train. Instead, he fell asleep and had a shock when he woke up 14 hours later. Though he did not realise it at first, he had arrived in Calcutta, India's third biggest city and notorious for its slums.Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteI do not think any mother or father would like to have their five year old wandering alone in the slums and train stations of Calcutta”Saroo Brierley"I was absolutely scared. I didn't know where I was. I just started to look for people and ask them questions."
Soon he was sleeping rough. "It was a very scary place to be. I don't think any mother or father would like to have their five year old wandering alone in the slums and trains stations of Calcutta."
The little boy learned to fend for himself. He became a beggar, one of the many children begging on the streets of the city. "I had to be quite careful. You could not trust anyone." Once he was approached by a man who promised him food and shelter and a way back home. But Saroo was suspicious. "Ultimately I think he was going to do something not nice to me, so I ran away."
But in the end, he did get off the streets. He was taken in by an orphanage, which put him up for adoption. He was adopted by the Brierleys, a couple from Tasmania. "I accepted that I was lost and that I could not find my way back home, so I thought it was great that I was going to Australia."
Saroo settled down well in his new home. But as he got older the desire to find his birth family became increasingly strong. The problem was that as an illiterate five-year-old he had not known the name of the town he had come from. All he had to go on were his vivid memories. So he began using Google Earth to search for where he might have been born.
"It was just like being Superman. You are able to go over and take a photo mentally and ask, 'Does this match?' And when you say, 'No', you keep on going and going and going."
Google Earth image that helped Saroo find his way home
Eventually Saroo hit on a more effective strategy. "I multiplied the time I was on the train, about 14 hours, with the speed of Indian trains and I came up with a rough distance, about 1,200km."
Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyLost and found
Saroo was taken to meet his mother who was nearby. At first he did not recognise her.
"The last time I saw her she was 34 years old and a pretty lady, I had forgotten that age would get the better of her. But the facial structure was still there and I recognised her and I said, 'Yes, you are my mother.'
"She grabbed my hand and took me to her house. She could not say anything to me. I think she was as numb as I was. She had a bit of trouble grasping that her son, after 25 years, had just reappeared like a ghost."
Although she had long feared he was dead, a fortune teller had told Saroo's mother that one day she would see her son again. "I think the fortune teller gave her a bit of energy to live on and to wait for that day to come."
And what of the brother with whom Saroo had originally gone travelling? Unfortunately, the news was not good. "A month after I had disappeared my brother was found in two pieces on a railway track." His mother had never known whether foul play was involved or whether the boy had simply slipped and fallen under a train.
"We were extremely close and when I walked out of India the tearing thing for me was knowing that my older brother had passed away."
For years Saroo Brierley went to sleep wishing he could see his mother again and his birth family. Now that he has, he feels incredibly grateful. He has kept in touch with his newly found family.
"It has taken the weight off my shoulders. I sleep a lot better now."
And there is something to make him sleep better - with memories of Slumdog Millionaire still fresh, publishers and film producers are getting interested in his incredible story.
kthanxbai!
http://jumblerant.blogspot.com
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Tina Fey @ Google
I'm a great fan of 30Rock and Tina Fey especially so I was happy to sit and watch part of the video below. But I got engrossed. Its surprisingly interesting and human. Have a watch and I'd love to hear your opinions in the comments.
kthanxbai!
Perhaps former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has a shot at a TV career, if his recent fireside interview with comedic legend Tina Fey is any indication.Original is here
The current executive chairman of Google spent an hour with the 30 Rock creator and star during one of its Authors@Google chats at its headquarters in Mountain View, California. Fey and Schmidt discussed everything from her experience raising her daughter to her advice for aspiring female entrepreneurs and writers. If you’re a fan of Tina Fey’s improvisational humor, you’ll love this video.
kthanxbai!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Busting an iPhone thief
I read this story a while ago and was very impressed it on a variety of levels.
The ingenious use of Google Earth and the iPhone applications themselves to find the thief just blew me away!
I think you'll like you'll enjoy the story too;
kthanxbai!
The ingenious use of Google Earth and the iPhone applications themselves to find the thief just blew me away!I think you'll like you'll enjoy the story too;
kthanxbai!
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