Category Archives: personal

There’s still time to give to a charity for 2006!

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The Kim Family Search Discussion continues here and approaches 4000 comments!

I just learned that one of the charity causes I support has matching funds that might expire unused. It’s called Blessing Hands and helps fund school for poor kids in China. Here’s the form to donate this year and get your donation effectively doubled, adding to the already great charity ROI projects like this attain by helping those in really poor countries.

Another great charity is KIVA at Kiva.org these are actual *loans* rather than money you simply give. I’d heard of KIVA but only decided to get involved when Adam Lasnik showcased a project on his blog that looked great. Thanks Adam!

Lastly consider NetAid.org which works to alleviate extreme poverty in 3rd world, mostly through water, health, and education projects. Here also you get to pick the type of project to support and learn a lot about the situation.

Why am I not listing US Charities here? I do believe in supporting your local neighborhood, schools, city, and local charities for the obvious reasons. However as a business guy I really believe that you should also look to the places where you get a very high return on investment whether it’s running your business or helping out other people.

Here in the great USA we have a lot more disposable income and affluence than in most other areas, so it’s easy and painless to have a huge impact on the lives of those in the third world by making even modest donations. It’s neat to know that your money has maximum impact in places where even a hundred dollars can wind up saving a child’s life.

Elfyourself – have yourself a virally marketed Christmas

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Know any coffee and art lovers?   Give them The Coffee Calendar 
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Viral marketing approaches (not to be confused with computer viruses) take clever little online ideas and try to make them spread by online “word of mouth” which usually means friends emailing other friends.

This year’s big viral winner may be ElfYourself, which is showing nothing less than stunning traffic over the past few weeks – looks like it’s beating out many major sites and might even approach the top 100 sites this week as it spreads. [nope – looks like it peaked near Christmas at about site 250 per Alexa measures].

My friend and neighbor Ilana sent me an Elfyourself and within 30 minutes I’d sent out one myself even though I usually avoid sending people anything “fun” online to avoid cluttering up their boxes.

Expedia vs Elfyourself traffic per Alexa. Alexa is not very reliable but it’s good for generic approaches like this. Note that it’s “today’s” measure rather than the three month average that is of interest here since the site just startup up a few weeks ago: Alexa traffic comparison

Merry Christmas to all!

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 James Kim Search Discussion – Click here | Mount Hood Climber Search

Wishing a very merry Christmas to all my friends young and old, old and new! Here is hoping that 2007 brings this world more joy, less sadness, and much greater prosperity to those who struggle every day just to feed their families. As for the rest of us I hope we work harder to make this world the wonderful place it could be, and should be, and will be.

Whitewater Rafting is very safe, CNN!

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James Kim Search Discussion – Click here | Mount Hood Climber Search

David Boone, missing hiker in California

I’ve been looking into missing people, danger, and death for the Danger Database project and noted this CNN headline that screams “Whitewater Deaths surge in US”, noting that recently about 50 people per year die on whitewater trips.

Until I got to the last paragraph they almost had me buying into the idea that rafting is really dangerous. I take my kids rafting and certainly realize there is risk, but I’ve been assuming it’s well worth the educational and recreations value of a raft trip down the Rogue River or other great whitewater rivers here in Oregon or other place. I started to wonder but luckily I read this : “Ten million Americans take whitewater trips each summer”.

OK, let’s do the math: 50 people out of 10,000,000 die while rafting. Assuming you take an “average” rafting trip your chances of death are 50/10,000,000 or 1/200,000. Looking at it in the common death statistic parlance this is .5 deaths per 100,000 people which is a very reasonable degree of risk I think, though I need to bone up on my death stats for other activities. Hmmm – 1987 skydiving killed 1 for every 75,000 jumps and it looks like Hang Gliding is the most dangerous activity but I need to find better stats. Lightning appears to average 90 deaths per year, handily beating out rafting in terms of simple numbers.

Of course your chances are actually much lower than 1/200,000 if you avoid rafting while drunk and taking unneccessary risks, which I understand contribute to a lot of the accidents in rafting and many other human pursuits as well.

Hmm – based on some stats I dug up it looks like an hour of rafting is about 3x more dangerous than an hour of driving (ie based on my wild and quick calculations you are 3x more likely to die rafting for an hour than driving for an hour).   Still, it would appear to be a fairly/very safe activity.   See comments below for details

Holiday Travel Tips from Oregon State Police

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James Kim Search Discussion – Click here | Mount Hood Climber Search

After reading so much about dangerous road conditions I thought it would be a great time to post these road travel tips from Oregon State Police and Oregon DOT. Weather is very cold and some roads will be icy for the Christmas Holiday. Please travel safely:

Oregon State Police and Oregon Dept of Transportation recommend the following travel safety tips to help get you safely to your destination:

* Expect the unexpected. Be informed and prepared when traveling on any of our highways.
* When traveling anywhere, plan ahead and taken known routes if possible. Our weather has been changing quickly and sometimes without warning. For road conditions in Oregon, call 5-1-1 or (800) 977-ODOT (6368). Outside Oregon, dial (503) 588-2941. Visiting TripCheck.com on the Internet provides information on road and weather conditions, incidents and traffic delays, and links to numerous cameras on many mountain passes and major routes.
* Take the time to keep up current and future weather conditions in the area you are traveling. Especially if going to or through higher elevations and mountain passes, areas where your vehicle needs to have appropriate traction tires or devices.
* If considering a remote route that you have never traveled on, don’t hesitate to contact available road and weather condition phone number or Internet resources, or contact police or highway department officials.
* Prepare an emergency kit to place in your car for longer trips and keep track of how much fuel is in your tank, especially if traveling unfamiliar routes or into remote locations.
* Let friends and family know what routes you plan to take when on a trip, keeping them updated and let them know if these plans change.
* Drive to the conditions. If it’s icy or wet, increase your following distance and reduce your speed. Use your headlights to improve not only your visibility, but also so others can see your vehicle.
* In bad weather, don’t use cruise control.

For those who may mix holiday celebrations with alcohol, OSP and ODOT recommend the following tips to help make your journey safer:

* Don’t drink and drive, and don’t ride with anyone who has had too much to drink.
* Volunteer to be a designated driver.
* If you see someone you know who has had too much to drink to drive, take his or her keys.
* If hosting a gathering, provide non-alcoholic beverages.
* Use public transit or local drive-home services provided by taxis and other companies.
* Always use safety restraints.
* Report any suspected impaired driving by calling 1-800-24DRUNK (800-243-7865) or 9-1-1.

Media ridealong requests should be directed to your local OSP office.
For more information about the national effort to battle impaired driving, visit www.StopImpairedDriving.org

Blog Tag Game

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James Kim Search Discussion – Click here | Mount Hood Climber Search

Aaron Shear tagged me to share five things people don’t know about me. It’s tempting to make up some some impressive stuff (but I won’t lie!) since the other folks are all very interesting, namely Google’s Adam Lasnik, International SEO Consultant and speaker Joseph Morin, Search Engine Watch Forum’s Jessica Bowman, and Scottish SEO/SEM Scott Boyd.

Here are five things from my little world:

1) My lab, Chico the Wonder Dog, has been working hard to nab the top Google spot from a Chihuahua by the same name. I told him NOT to buy any links or I’ll sick Matt Cutts on him.

2) A recent blog post about the Kim Family Search here in Southern Oregon now has over 1000 comments and has spawned a new project that will combine blogs and a database to help facilitate future search and rescue info coordination.

3) For a time I was a good Touchscreen Kiosk guy, working in the 90’s on a US Forest Service/Tourism project that had multimedia kiosks in travel spots all over the state. I now volunteer on the project I designed that replaced that one, with internet connected stations at the state welcome centers and other travel spots.

4) I can talk like a Duck. No, not the stupid way, the good way. I started talking duck so I could tease my sister by swearing at her without my parents understanding the conversation. I still feel guilty about it, but time shall heal this.

5) I have a double major in Botany and Psychology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. I don’t know why. Therefore, naturally, I do travel internet publishing and blog about most anything that pops into my head.

I’m tagging these five bloggers because they are all very interesting AND educational folks:

South Carolina couple, missing for days, found dead in North Carolina

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James Kim Search Discussion – Click here

Update: The couple have been found dead with their car in a swampy area off I-95. 

— earlier —

Here’s a new case of missing people brought to my attention by Tara and Glenn who have been brainstorming ways to avoid the Kim Family tragedy here in Southern Oregon.

You can Digg the Fox News Story to bring more attention to the situation.

Thanks to Glenn here are several more accounts:
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny–missingcouple1210dec10,0,3648355.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

http://wcbstv.com/local/local_story_345060852.html

http://www.wnbc.com/news/10504627/detail.html?rss=ny&psp=news

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5794795

http://wcbstv.com/watercooler/local_story_345060852.html

http://wcbstv.com/newyorkwire/NY–MissingCouple_n_n_0ny–/resources_news_html

http://www.thetandd.com/articles/2006/12/11/ap-state-sc/d8lu6oc80.txt

In this case foul play seems possible, so it would be nice to have a way for everybody along to route to simply keep their eyes open for a White Mazda with SC plates. I’ll post the police tip line when I find it.

Wayne and Dianne Guay, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., were expected in the Ridgewood section of Queens on Thursday night.

They’d likely have travelled Interstate 95. I wonder if the family/anybody has a way to contact all the hospitals that would take in accidents off that route? I’m a sloppy reader, this is in the article: Family members called state troopers along Interstate 95, the route the couple was expected to take, but there was no word of any accidents.

The dearth of local news was frustrating with the Kim saga and now I’m noticing how hard it is to get good local reports. Part of that is the fact local news is getting replaced by mega media conglomerates like ClearChannel, and part is that Google still sucks for many queries like “Ladysmith VA News” where the top listing is great=topix news, but the next two are advertising for TV and Real Estate sites and worthless.

James Kim’s body found in Rogue River Wilderness.

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The comments section has a lot more about this story.

James Kim is not alive. My sincere condolences go out to his wife and children. I know their safety was his top concern and he’d be so glad to know they made it out of the wilderness safely. Based on the best info I have today from a TV interview with the local pilot who found Kati and the kids it was James’ footprints down the road that he left on Saturday that initially alerted the pilot to the approximate location of the car. In my book, that was a heroic walk.I know the condolences, thoughts, and prayers of people all over the world are going out to the family of James Kim.

Kim Family Website

A lot of people are asking me a lot of questions here in the comments section and I’ll try to answer them when I know more. I’ve only had limited contact with some searchers and Scott, who worked very hard on a very noble effort to help coordinate information and many volunteers who were involved in the “unofficial” search. He was a close friend of the Kim’s and I think this must be a very difficult time for everybody closely involved with them. We should all hope to have such sincere and hard working friends, family, and rescue workers in the event of our own personal misfortune.

Oregonlive has a detailed account of the confusion surrounding the search effort.

KGW and Oregon Live have more coverage of the Kim Family story which has now captivated many people all over the world. However as local info comes in I’m alarmed by how it appears some big news places are misreporting important facts. Key story items to clarify 1) James Kim was dead when he was found. MSNBC initially suggested he was left overnight in the woods because searchers could not reach him. This is almost certainly false. 2) It remains unclear exactly when James died. Coroner suggests it was about two days which would have been Sunday night or Monday morning and probably before the ground search began. 3) The pilot that found Kati and Kids was a local resident who owned his own chopper and was not associated with the search directly. He stated on TV that he was very familiar with the area and felt for “the kids”.

Here is a link to a good series of images from another site showing the Rogue River area near Black Bar Lodge where the Kims were finally found but I understand ONLY FIRST IMAGE has correct car location. The initial reports of car location were wrong.

Another image showing the location and James’ walk – thanks Greg.

(I’ve removed an image I had here which did not have correct car location. For many days the correct location of the car and therefore the length of the walk by James Kim was reported incorrectly.)

The comments section has a lot more about this story. A LOT more!

James Kim search continues. Tuesday 11:00 pm update

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Family and Friends Website

Cnet update

latest updates from this blog 

11pm local news reports James is still missing with search scaled down for the night though I understand thermal equipped helicopter is flying the area.

I think the 5 mile search area assumes James got stuck following the Big Windy Creek drainage down to the river. I don’t know why they assume he did not make it to the River and out from there but I’m unfamiliar with that specific area’s terrain which may be so steep he could not have made it out and up or downriver from Big Windy.
—-
Darkness has fallen here in Southern Oregon and James Kim is still missing in the Rogue River Wilderness west of Merlin and Galice, Oregon. Approximately 100 searchers combed the drainage of Big Windy Creek Area today. A pair of pants was found near the creek. Reports say he had taken an extra pair of pants and may have left these as a sign. Another object was sited but police won’t identify it until they have it in hand.

Police indicated they did not know why he walked into the drainage and seemed confused about this but I’d suggest clearly he was looking for Rogue River which would for James be the only key navigation feature in the area. I certainly hope they search the Rogue River banks carefully, especially downriver at least to Half Moon Bar Lodge (closed but caretakers there and he would not have likely passed this point).

Map of the Wild Section of the Rogue River

Google Map of the Rogue River Area where James Kim is expected to be.

Flash Alerts from Oregon State Police – note photo links at bottom of post

This helicopter report from KGW news:

05:50 PM PST on Tuesday, December 5, 2006

By FRANK MUNGEAM, kgw.com Staff A helicopter with the Oregon Army National Guard was scheduled to continue searching Tuesday night for James Kim, missing since Thanksgiving weekend in Southern Oregon.

An OH-58 Kiowa helicopter equipped with the Forward Looking Infrared System planned to scour the mountainous area overnight.

A second aircraft, a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter, was en route to its standby location at the Medford Airport, according to ONG spokesperson Kay Fristad. The Blackhawk is a medevac helicopter used for rescue operations and is equipped with a crew that includes flight medics, crew chief and two pilots. According to Fristad, the team is highly skilled in hoist operations, patient stabilization, and transport.

Crews are camped out waiting for daybreak.

My current thinking is that it’s very important to search the south bank of the river all the way down to Half Moon Bar Lodge. It seems logical to me that he would have followed the river downriver, knowing it would eventually lead to safety. In fact the original Gold Beach destination of the Kims was TuTuTun Lodge which is right on the Rogue river (though many days from Windy Creek, but James would not have known how far upriver he was).

I called the Half Moon Bar Lodge folks a few hours ago and learned that they are closed but there are caretakers there, so if James made it that far we’d have heard. Paradise lodge is on the other side of the river. A bad scenario is that he saw that lodge and tried to cross over the river which would be very dangerous. This is a wilderness area and there are no residences or even shelters that I know of between Black Bar Lodge (near Windy Creek but which presumably he missed) and Half Moon Bar, a distance of about 20 miles by river.

Map of James Kim’s probable location.

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More and the latest news from this blog is here

Kim Family Website

Update: As of 11 pm Monday local news is reporting that James Kim is still missing. Searches will continue through the night for him. They will release no new information until 10am tomorrow.

Statement from Three Rivers Community Hospital Regarding Kati Kim Family – 12/04/06
As of 7:15 p.m., on December 4, 2006, Three Rivers Community Hospital can confirm that Kati kim and her children, Penelope and Sabine, are in good condition. Sabine Kim is being kept overnight for observation. Ms. Kim and her older daughter will be staying at the hospital with Sabine. At this point, the Kim family wishes not to be interviewed – they have no further information to share this evening. Ms. Kim’s emphasis is on the search and rescue team and their attempt to find her husband.

Here is a link to a Google map of James Kim’s most likely current location, the Big Windy Creek Drainage south of the Rogue River and north of the BLM road to Agness. Police reported today at 5:15pm that they believe he walked into the Windy Creek area after leaving his car 7:45 am on Saturday morning, seeking help. He was supposed to return later in the day according to reports of comments by Kati.

Click on “hybrid” and note the small blue line at top which is the Rogue River. Note the bend in the river, which is “Horseshoe Bend”. Big Windy Creek comes into the Rogue River south of Horseshoe Bend by I think a mile or so. James would NOT likely have attempted to cross the Rogue River but may have used it to navigate. The river flows west there.

This is along the “Wild” Section of the Rogue River. Even in summer this is accessible only by raft or airplane. Black Bar Lodge is in that area but I think it’s closed now.

Trackers will work 24 hours a day to find him now, so there is reason to be optimistic since he was warmly dressed and reports say he had a lighter with him.