Category Archives: news

Kim Family search – contact info

Posted on by
2

This info from commenter A-M in an earlier post regarding official contacts for the Kim case:Oregon State Police (they are now in charge of the search and resuce operation, and the 800# only works in OR)   800-452-7888

The communication center direct line is 503-731-3030

Most important person who may talk to someone (e.g. News Media) is Lt. Gregg Hastings of OR State Police. He is the Public Information Officer who would have the latest information. His office number is acquired by calling
503-731-3120 then pushing directory name of “HAST #”.

To reach him try his personal media pager, 503-323-3195

QUESTION: Can a mobile cell repeater be brought into the area to try to call the Kim Family’s cell phone?

More contact info:

Those with information about the Kim family’s whereabouts are asked to contact the SFPD immediately–at 415-558-5508 during normal business hours and at 415-553-1071 after-hours.

Kim Family still missing in Southern Oregon

Posted on by
11

Little new to report this Sunday morning on the seach for the Kim Family here in Southern Oregon. They were last seen in Roseburg, which should indicate they took either highway 42 over to Coos Bay on the coast or the Merlin to Galice “Bear Camp” route.

Based on the sketchy reports it appears to me that the most likely area they were lost in is on logging roads in the mountainous areas west of HERE , where you turn off to go to Agness and Gold Beach. I understand Josephine and Douglas county searchers are supposed to be focusing on this area after Curry county called off their search yesterday further to the west but I read that highway 42 appears to be the top area now. I simply don’t understand why the Kim’s would have passed up 38 to take 42, but it makes sense that they would have passed up both to take this Merlin route because it looks so short and easy on the map.

I’m following up today with calls to see if this area between Agness and Merlin has been searched exhaustively. I’m about 90 minutes away from there but don’t have a good vehicle for snowy areas so I think it’s best to leave the search to the professionals.

Update: it looks like some family and friends have come up from SF and are based in Grants Pass and coordinating a search effort. I’m trying to contact them to see about helping.

Wow, the internet could be put to much better use in this case, and that frustrates me. I called the Josephine Sheriff’s office who referred me to the message machine for search and rescue. I left a message saying I could volunteer to search starting tomorrow, but I’m now thinking I should follow my own best hunches about the location rather than waiting for the bureacratic coordination efforts.

I also emailed the site that says it’s for the family. They really should have some sort of forum. O’Reilly talks about harnessing the collective intelligence of the web, and it would seem you could do this with search and rescue. For example Kim Family search data should be flowing to centralized online places so dead ends are not followed twice and local energies are put to better use than “wondering” what’s going on. I’ve been worried about interfering with suggestions, but even in light of the new Roseburg citing I’m not clear the search is exhausting the obvious first choice area which are the mountain logging roads up from Merlin. I’m heading that way tomorrow on my own or as part of the organized search if they contact me.

Are bureaucratic channels inhibiting the best approach here? IMHO this would clearly be to have a master website that tracks all search activity using text entries over online mapping and encourages locals to search roads not yet followed.

I think the possibility of foul play in these cases may limit the way the police give out information. But in a case like this, where no foul play is likely and “lost in mountains” is very likely it would seem you want info about roads searched to flow much more freely than it has been.

Update: It appears the efforts are indeed focusing on 42 rather than Merlin/Agness area. I think this is not a logical route to follow for reasons I’ve detailed in earlier posts. [but perhaps I’m wrong – mapquest shows Roseburg to Powers to Agness to Gold Beach as shortest mileage I can find to TuTuTun Lodge from Roseburg] Bear Camp is not passable over to Gold beach but I’m going to try to reach the Agness cutoff road tomorrow and walk some of the logging spurs up there if the weather holds up.

Update II:  I talked to a friend of Kim family searcher today and it appears they’ve coverd much of the Agness high country, but not clear if they’ve covered the lower areas around Galice.   I may be discounting the Powers route as possible since I’m unfamiliar with it though my gut continues to say north and west of Galice, where they could have easily lost the road and headed up into logging roads.

Kim Family search backing off Merlin Galice Bear Camp route ?

Posted on by
4

Update:   This report suggests Curry county authorities feel they’ve covered that county well and I’m hoping the quote in the CNET story just means they are focusing on the east rather than west side of the mountains rahter than assuming they took 42.   It’s possible but I think 42 is the wrong approach, rather they should comb the logging spurs off of the Merlin to Gold Beach route.   On the East side of the mountains this  would be mostly Josephine and Douglas county land.

This in from CNET suggests that Curry County authorities may stop searching the Bear Camp Route for the Kim Family. I don’t understand the logic here but I’m not privy to special info. The fact they were spotted in Roseburg suggests to me that the Bear Camp route is *very likely*, appearing on many maps and many online services as the shortest route to the TuTuTun lodge, the final destination of the Kims. Why would he have passed by Highway 38 and then taken 42? Also, 42 is much more travelled than Bear Camp and is not easy to get lost on.

I sure hope they search the Bear Camp area very thoroughly before giving up on that angle.

Earlier this year a family appeared to take that same route and wound up near Glendale via logging roads. They were stranded for 2 weeks under snow in an RV but survived thanks to provisions on board the RV.

Kim Family search update as of 1:30pm Saturday

Posted on by
2

Northwest news report as of Saturday afternoon.

A 1:27 report from local KTVL TV indicates the leads have not been of much help to the authorities, and searching continues in Bear Camp area.

Details from Oregonian

Here’s another item indicating the family was seen at a Roseburg, Oregon Denny’s restaurant. I’m not clear why this would suggest to the police a Highway 42 route more than strengthening the Bear Camp route likelihood. I’m not sure, but think it would not make sense for Kim to have passed by highway 38 and then take 42. If Kim was looking for a shortcut I think he would have (wrongly) tried Bear Camp road. I can’t see disappearing on 42 unless you went into the river where you can easily disappear up on Bear Camp road spurs without even making a serious miscalculation. [Sunday: I just ran several routes through Mapquest and it looks like they show the shortest distance as Roseburg to Powers to Agness to TuTuTun in Gold Beach.  It appears to be about 7 miles less than the Merlin route.   I’m not familiar with Powers route so I may be underestimating it, but my gut says if they reviewed a regular map they’d take the Merlin route].

Here’s a link to a Google map of the Merlin, Oregon to Gold Beach area. A hopeful scenario is that the Kim Family took the Merlin to Gold Beach route (aka Merlin Galice or Bear Camp Road) and got lost on a logging spur road and then stuck in snow and are surviving on meltwater and any food they had on board. They could be OK since temperatures have not dropped too low up there this past week. Several people are lost in thata area each year but most are found safe or find their way out. A worse possibility is that the car went over one of the steep dropoffs along this route and was then buried in the snow that has fallen in that region since last Saturday. This area is one of the most remote areas in the state and it’s full of steep slopes.

——-

Our local Medford, Oregon newspaper websites are starting to have the most detailed updates I can find this Saturday morning about the Kim Family search here in Southern Oregon. Here’s a similar report from Gold Beach. They report that the search continues along major roads and the Bear Camp Road and in the remote and dangerous “shortcut” to the coast from Interstate five:

From the Medford Mail Tribune Website:

Search-and-rescue teams from Coos, Curry and Josephine counties combed remote roads known for their winter impassability. Jackson County searchers joined in with a private helicopter and could send a Sno-Cat to travel snow-covered forest roads, Sheriff Mike Winters said.

Curry County sheriff’s deputies used 4×4 vehicles and were able to reach about milepost 18 on Bear Camp Road where the snow and ice stopped their advance, OSP reported Friday night. Josephine County authorities called for their Sno-Cat to respond to search the remaining 20 miles of road.

The Coos County Sheriff’s Office sent 4×4 vehicles to the Agness Pass area, and also sent 4×4 vehicles into the Eden Valley as far as they could get past Mount

Bolivar. The U.S. Forest Service roads through the remote area intersect with each other.

The Oregon Army National Guard sent a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter from Salem to assist in the aerial search. California Highway Patrol and Coast Guard reportedly were assisting in the search, as well.

OSP, the agency coordinating Oregon search efforts and news releases, reported that relatives of the Kims have hired helicopter companies to fly the major roads from Interstate 5 to Highway 101, specifically Highway 42, Highway 38 and Highway 126.

Also note this new website supporting the Kim family. I don’t know who has created it but it appears to be legitimate and helpful.

Chico the Wonder Dog

Posted on by
12


Chico the Wonder Dog

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck.
Chico the Wonder Dog is our lab mix. This is a photo of Chico when I informed him that there is an ANOTHER Chico the Wonder Dog out there on the web, and he is a male Chihuahua.   That fine Chico has passed away but you can visit his blog here: http://atimeandaplace.blogspot.com/

Well, maybe he’s not an imposter, but I bet that Chicohuahua the Wonder Dog can’t eat an Alpo Birthday Cake in 125 seconds flat.

Kim Family search moves to Bear Camp Road (aka Merlin Galice Road) area

Posted on by
16

Most recent news here Kati and kids are safe, James missing but trackers on his trail as of 11pm Monday.

Our 6pm local news just reported that the search for the Kim family is now focusing on the Bear Camp Road (aka Merlin Galice Road). It appears the family hired some choppers to fly the area today but the search is on hold now due to darkness.

I’m glad this area is the new focus for the search because it would seem to be a more likely area than any other route from I-5 to the coast. Family members are heading up from the San Francisco area as well. The logical approach will be to have cars drive each of the many spurs along that route to look for signs of the family car and continue with flights over the area. Some in SF have wondered how you could get “lost” in the modern age but you need to realize this is a huge and remote area. Hundreds of square miles of forest and steep mountains with virtually no traffic and hundreds of miles of logging roads.

Mapquest *right now* gives a “looks easy” set of directions along Bear Camp Road when you search for the shortest time route from Merlin to Gold Beach, but this route is not advisable in winter. Google Maps shows this route as well.

Update: The map they showed on local news indicated they are searching to the west side of the mountains just north of Gold Beach.

Tomorrow (Saturday) they’ll hopefully have good weather to fly over the logging roads that wind all through that area.

Time on Risks

Posted on by
Reply

Today there is a great article in the online edition of Time magazine about how irrationally we process risks in our daily lives.   I just wish they’d also point out that the extension of this mathematical ignorance, combined with religious intolerance, can account for most if not virtually all of the most pressing global problems.

We are stupid beings.   The recognition of that fact brings us much closer to a measure of salvation and solutions.

Blogs vs Mainstream Media. Guess who’s catching up?

Posted on by
Reply

Dave Sifry at Technorati has compiled a wonderful list and report about blogs and mainstream media.   It’s the “State of the Blogosphere” and supports the obvious – blogs are increasing dramatically both in number and in influence.     I think the data supports the notion that we’ll see an information landscape that is driven increasingly by niche interest groups and collaborative online communities.    The traditional models for news and information dissemination — TV, Newspapers, and Magazines — will play roles of decreasing importance.     

At some point in the decline of traditional media there may be a sort of “tipping point” where advertising simply can’t sustain the efforts and we’ll see a mass extinction but I doubt that.  Rather I’d predict (wildly and without a lot of thought) that we’ll see print and TV die very slow, laborious deaths as they struggle to bring online content and online viewers into their spheres of influence and reduce some of the spending patterns (and unfortunately much of the quality, in depth reporting) that has come from the high barriers to entry which kept every Tom, Dick, and Harry news producer out of the space.    Blogs reduce the participation barrier to “literacy” (marginaly literacy at that)  and therefore will change information and news … forever.

Sex, lies, and commercial blogging disclosures

Posted on by
5

Mike Arrington suggests that PayPerPost is now officially absurd with a new and silly disclosure policy and I think I agree:

PayPerPost’s disclosure options are already effectively obsolete because checking the first box = “Look at me, I’m a very virtuous blogger” does not disclose the use of that blog as a powerful search optimization tool for *other* websites by the blog author or his associates. Also, if somebody runs ads and gives the money to charity I consider them *more* virtuous than somebody who refuses advertising, yet these standards imply otherwise.

I think the whole notion of commercial vs personal is getting so blurred that we need to either stop worrying about this OR look for an extremely high level of blogger identity transparency (e.g. a clear itemization of vested interests posted and verified by a third party with public consequences if the blogger fails to disclose vested interests).

Non-commercial bloggers become speakers and book writers and link to friends – is that commercial? Of course it is.

Face it, Facebook isn’t even close to being worth what’s going to get paid for it

Posted on by
4

Like many frothing at the mouth online analysts and social networking ravers, Pete Cashmore suggests that Zuckerberg is right to act like he’s in no rush to sell Facebook, but this is silly. Zuckerberg is playing high stakes poker and he has a LOT to lose – certainly hundreds of millions if Facebook hits any major snags or if some newer and hipper online community takes root. I suspect he knows this but is loving the game, and I certainly admire this young whippersnapper for that and for creating such a magnificent web community. Magnificent, but only “worth” a fraction of the 1+ billion Cashmore suggests Facebook is now worth as an independent business.

But then what do I know, I traded my Apple for WCOM back in the day.

I do think Google will now scarf them up as part of their “empty the lake of big fish” marketing strategy, and I predict they’ll pay about 1.1 billion, but this is the luck of timing by Zuckerman, not a market based assessment of the value of Facebook as an independent entity, which everybody seems to be wildly overestimating. YouTube’s the same situation, where it’s value is not in streaming 100,000,000 crappy videos per day, rather in the fact that it helps Google, now awash in high valued stock, consolidate their position as the key online advertising leader.

The funny thing is that the *same rationales* used in 1999 are rearing their silly heads again, and only a handful of investors are noticing this. Unlike 1999 there are now many *real companies* out there with moderately long and profitable online histories, but ironically they appear to be very undervalued compared to the more speculative plays.