I'd like to point out that in chat last night Robb said he'd called up there, too and gotten the same story but was looking for confirmation. We were a fuzzy little team, or something.

The size of the lens makes an enormous difference in the perspective of the wave. If the photographer was using a telephoto lens then the picture is very deceiving.

That photo is only a blowup of the one to the top of it in the gallory. Take a good look.

Thank you.

How nice. Another good example of how the press continues to speak the truth. How long has this been going on?

Remember the (you would if you were a baby boomer)gags played on the public strictly for publicity? And how the print media went for it hook, line and stinker?

Well, this is now the pervue of the print media. Lie like a rug. But not in traffic lest you get stepped upon by a filthier public.

JSM

Did anyone look close up at the faces of the people running? A lot of them appear to be smiling or laughing!!! Hardly an appropriate reaction when any second you will be swallowed up by a garganutan wave. Seems like there was a lot of photoshop doctoring to this pic.
Hey media...
get more practice on doctoring up photo's before releasing them will ya?.

AOL had this picture on their start page as well.

this dude has it on his website and a few more...http://coreykoberg.com/
they sure seem to be laughing in this picture, like everyone thinks it's a day in the surf?????

I remember the (Chinese) photos well as I have been interested in tsunamis and tidal bores for a while.
They are NOT from a tsunami but from a known regular occuring phenomenon, tidal bores. One of the largest know occuring in China. These occur as high tide water rushes back into rivers meeting resistence from the out flowing river. As these events are known of in adavance, people often gather to watch (and even ride them in boats and surfcraft) hence the smiling, running crowd.

Channel 9 News Sydney Australia opened its 6:00PM bulletin on Jan 3rd 2005 using those images with considerable bravado.

About that coryKoberg site (if anyone is interested). The pics were supposedly taken by only one other person. So how did he manage to be in several places as the water came rushing in?

HH

I live in Calgary... This comes as absolutely no suprise as I have caught both the Calgary Herald and the Calgary Sun (and some radio stations), in misrepresentation, delibrate ommission, severe bias, and downright bald-faced lies for quite some time now. I'm sure their story was "Oh so sorry, that was a mistake"... SUUUURE IT WAS.... SUUURE IT WAS... About the only thing you can believe in the Calgary Herald is the sport scores and the weather... and the weather is questionable...

hang the guy who manipulated this photo, sue the newspaper and lock the chief editor!

Also um, those are *Chinese* people, not Sri Lankans, quite obviously. Jeez.

How did the photographer survive? Looks like the waves is gonna swallow him up, too. It's 40 feet over his head! Fer Petesake, people ...

NN

The photo scam is just one of many bad acts by a borderline scam charity, The World Job and Food Bank and one very improbably named Joseph Edison. I have posted about this man and the phot scam a couple of times in the last couple of days here and here.

Gary (above) is right; these photos are of people *enjoying* a tidal bore, *not* a tsunami. The rest of the photos at http://coreykoberg.com/ clearly demonstrate this. The photo was not faked in Photoshop. The framing of the photo and the state of the water play a trick on the eyes. Look closer: this is not a wave; it is a far smaller amount of water that has been launched upward into the air and is about to splash back down down, certainly violently, but not catastrophically. The people are laughing for the same reason some people take umbrellas and rainjackets to watch orcas at Sea World on hot, sunny days.

Regarding the newspaper's intentions, we can normally expect more from them in situations like these, but the real media fraud lies where the subject matter is more complicated, and especially where it is more pertinent to the interests of the ethnic group that owns most of it.

...good look..)

yestarday, 6 january, these photos of China, were still presented on Italian National TV as pictures of the Asian tsunami !!!

Living in Calgary, I am not surprized what the Herald was trying to pull off, BUT it is a sick joke. The guy should be fired. Other than that, Calgary is a great City but there are always those few who have to spoil it. We here in Calgary, do a lot of humanitarium things..we don't have the East's attitude on issues. So Sorry!

In regards to the comment made earlier about how they seemed to have smiles on thier faces...I have to say I agree. But I also want to point out that the gentleman with child on his shoulders (bottom left side of the pic) I am not sure about you, but if you saw a wave the size that this picture is trying to portray, I certainly wouldn't have my kid on my shoulders like that. I would most likely have them in my arms so that is easier to run.

Anyways just a thought.

EWN

Make sure any one or any company profiting from this is fined appropriately (gauge it against public sentiment) and gets to pay it all back to the victims in this disaster.

in fact the biggest profiteers of the tsunami are the big news networks , i.e. CNN et al., who probably even jacked up the advertising prices by 3000% upon this "big news event". The governments should declare any and all profits of the tsunami story illegal, and redivert all the proceeds to buy luggage for the survivors.

Also, any survivor who tries to rebuild their flimsy shack on the same place should be taken to a mental hospital, and relocated to central gobi as a world repopulation fix.

I hear all these news now stressing on REBUILDING
what are they friggin NUTS ?

what happened in sumatra is a carbon copy of what happened in 1883 with Krakatoa, and I bet there are 1000 books on the destruction, stories of horror from that time, that can be found around the world. This should be the sumatra local's FIRST READING BOOK, certainly not the bible.

human is to stupidity as car is to tyre.

The Hangzhou annual tidal bore is an amazing event, thousands of Chinese turn up to watch this. The wave is actually a series of waves that decrease as the day unfolds. The first - which is what is probably pictured here - is the biggest and all ships and boats are banned from sailing on this day. Families make this a big day bringing picnics and arrive literally by the coachloads. The first wave that comes over the roads washes onlookers along the streets and is seen more of a sport than a danger. The police even ensure the safety of the onlookers. I watched this first hand a few years ago when I was leading a tour in China and saw it from the Six Harmonies Pagoda.

Lee is right. This was taken few years back at the mouth of Qian Tang River near Hongzhou. The Qian Tang Tide Wave happens at every high tide, but there is one biggest tide in that area every year which has the tallest wave, on August 18th in lunar calendar. It has been a big event for locals for thousands years and many acient Chinese literatures recorded this natural phenomena. The mouth of Qian Tang river resembles to a trumpet shape, so the waves generated by ocean tide is traveling from wide opening of the river mouth to the narrower channel for few miles and since the waves just keep rolling in and pushing the water inland along the narrow channel, it finally generate huge waves tens of meters tall. Local people know when it happens and they have been watching this event for thousands years. People in the picture were similing because they were having fun, obviously, they didn't expect that the wave could roll out of river bank onto the street. None of them got seriously hurt. I saw this picture along with several other pictures on a Chinese news web site several years ago. They are real, here are several other pictures:
http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2003-02-14/1600908138.shtml
http://image.baidu.com/i?ct=503316480&z=63250902&tn=baiduimagedetail&word=%C7%AE%CC%C1%BD%AD%B3%B1
http://image.baidu.com/i?ct=503316480&z=174941351&tn=baiduimagedetail&word=%C7%AE%CC%C1%BD%AD%B3%B1
http://image.baidu.com/i?ct=503316480&z=318298452&tn=baiduimagedetail&word=%C7%AE%CC%C1%BD%AD%B3%B1

that photo seems to have come from of those documentary series of world disasters some mad chinesse people running from the waves every year

Another example of how news media has become a whore. For money they will do anything. There is no integrity left in this profession.

Leading the list of Media Whores are CNN and FOX news.

Yo! I think you got snookered. The photo is a fake. Checkout the link below:

http://crikey.com.au/media/2005/01/04-0004.html

Hey, Musamize, did you read the post you're commenting on?

Glad the the Calgary Herald has spotted tis mistake. BTW this isn't tsunami either?? Its actually a tidal bore, cause by a rapid spring tide entering the funnal shaped river estuary...

And Musamize, its not fake, its a real photo, just not of a tsunami.

What seems lost in all of this is the larger picture (if you'll pardon the pun). We are rapidly approaching the time when we can believe nothing.Or,if you take the fifty-one percent who voted for Bush....everything! We are living in an era of special-effects.Manipulations on a grand scale. Lying has become an art form.

parasol benefactors.tons,unlinked discriminatory .