Exactly what I was thinking, lets not let his death be in vain. Be well prepared for whatever may happen, you never know what mother nature will throw at you, or the situations you may find yourself in.
Rest in peace James. Your family is safe.
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Exactly what I was thinking, lets not let his death be in vain. Be well prepared for whatever may happen, you never know what mother nature will throw at you, or the situations you may find yourself in.
Rest in peace James. Your family is safe.
Yeah, but burning a few tires won't create the sort of signal that people are looking for.
I'd be more interested in a large fire sustained for many days. When you're in a survival situation, the basic strategy is to hunker down and keep safe, but you also need to be as visible as possible. People know to look for you. They know where you should've been. They know where you're not. Your job is to help them get to you.
A large bonfire on the side of the road would've been a huge help when choppers were scanning the horizons.
Build the fire at the base of an isolated tree.
There is typically a lot of dead-fall in the woods. Use a tire to start the fire, save the rest to rebuild it if necessary. Whatever you do, don't let it go out and don't start burning things like clothes or sleeping bags unless you absolutely have to.Hunt for wood during the early afternoon, where your liable to hear help when they're looking for you and while it's the warmest part of the day. Make sure you're back to the car (or the shelter) by dusk and keep warm throughout the night. Rotate fire duty with anyone who can do the job but, no matter what, keep that fire lit.
I agree, but it's too easy for us to sit here and say what they should have done. We weren't there to see exactly what the conditions were in their vicinity and what they attempted that we haven't heard about. Very few details have been released so far.
James Kim... sadly, found dead.
This is such horrible news:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/06/missing.family/index.html
If anyone here used to watch TechTV, you would know James Kim was a huge technology enthusiast and seemed like a great guy. What a shame...
May he rest in peace.
This is such horrible news:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/06/missing.family/index.html
If anyone here used to watch TechTV, you would know James Kim was a huge technology enthusiast and seemed like a great guy. What a shame...
May he rest in peace.
The most recent episode of TWIT Leo made mention of it that they were praying for them. That episode was recorded Friday tho.
It sounds like he did all of that, but you can't expect anyone to prepare enough food and such for 9 days in a car. No sane person would do that. He did keep in touch with family, and he did let people know where he was. He did pretty much everything he could in that situation other than some trivia-style survival wilderness knowledge that 99.9% of people wouldn't know about. You can't be an expert in every situation. Some outdoorsy types may be able to read his story and think that he should have done this or that differently, but I'm sure there are things he knows about that you'd never know about.
I would have been less prepared than he seemed to have been, but I guess things are different if you have 2 young children.
I'm going to chalk this up to "bad luck." It's not his fault, and it's not because of poor preparation. S*** happens, unfortunately.
I think I would have started walking after 2 days. I can't imagine waiting 7 days, no matter what the conditions. Of course, I'm Canadian and love cold weather. It must have been a tougher situation than I can imagine if he didn't leave his car for 7 days.
That's not the point.
The point is that this is a good opportunity to get -- at the very least -- a working knowledge of basic wilderness survival skills. Know what to do and, more importantly, what not to do. Know how to help search teams find you.
It is a shame. Dying while you believe your family is still in danger is something no one should ever go through.
I don't know why exactly, but I was saddened more by the news of his death than I have been from and celebrity deaths I've ever heard about. I think it might be because James Kim really came across as a very real person on camera, which is a talent few people in his field have. Rest in peace, James.
I'm really missing why this person is really important.
He didn't bring world peace or stop hunger or save the rain forests. He might have survived the last San Fran area earthquake but so did a lot of other people.
Strangely enough, people die all the time. Don't make him out to be a hero or a saint. I've already expressed that I feel bad for his family but like so many military families, they'll have to continue.
He didn't bring world peace or stop hunger or save the rain forests. He might have survived the last San Fran area earthquake but so did a lot of other people.
Strangely enough, people die all the time. Don't make him out to be a hero or a saint. I've already expressed that I feel bad for his family but like so many military families, they'll have to continue.
He was a pillar in the tech journalism community. He died nobly and he's someone that many people admired professionally.
If people are only important for the great things you listed above or similar, then nobody on this earth is important as those things still exist as problems.
He was a well-known person from the tech community and a lot of people on these boards knew of him. They didn't know him personally I doubt but similarly to how you can feel loss of a character in a tv show or movie you can feel the loss of a real person too. People can empathize with people they don't know. It's not a bad thing.
If he had died in a common way people probably wouldn't have cared as much. However people had time invested in this by wondering over the course of a week or two, wondering if he was okay. Hopes were raised by finding 3 out of 4 people. Hopes were brought down when the 4th was found. He tried hard to save his family and while they were saved he was lost. With the commonality of cell phones this kind of story is less and less prevalent in American society.
People aren't necessarily sad because "James Kim" died or because "their favorite tech person" died although some may be. Most people are sad because a story with hope and heroism ended with the death of the hero. Just because you don't cry at the end of sad movies doesn't mean you have to heckle other people for doing so.
He must not be the same person I saw on C|Net. Striking out to find help, however, was courageous.
I'm not heckling people and I've already mentioned how sad the situation was. He struggled and lost and that's sad but people are making him out to be more than he seemed to be.
And, the basic working knowledge is that you stay where you are at. Any person with wilderness experience will tell you not to move from your location when you are lost.
The sad irony is that, if he would have stayed with his family, he would've been rescued with them less than 24 hours later.
I have empathy for a sad situation, but I wish people would stop blowing the thing out of proportion. The man is not a "hero". He is no different nor deserves no more adulation than the thousands of other people who die due to exposure.
.....but I wish people would stop blowing the thing out of proportion. The man is not a "hero". He is no different nor deserves no more adulation than the thousands of other people who die due to exposure.[/QUOTE]
i agree with everything you say except this last bit. i personally don't know if he was a 'hero' but he most certainly showed a 'hero-like' effort and i highly respect that. I'm an avid hunter who doesn't use a 'stand' which means i walk through the forests and i live in Canada, which is known for its territory and weather, much like the US, so i know what i'm talking about here.
The fact that he walked that distance (10.24 MILES from the cnn.com report) in the rugged wilderness, in that timeframe, without proper clothing/equipment is very remarkable. #1 that's not straight walking. It would be interesting to know the exact distance if you were able to measure the altitude changes. When in the forest, one is constantly up, over, down and around trees, rocks, piles of snow etc..etc.. 1 mile or km in the bush is alot harder than the same distance on the road. #2 can you imagine how cold he was? he was no doubt very frozen in the stages of hypothermia for a good portion of his walk...probably the majority if it actually.
#3 hardly any food and desperation/worry for his family means he probably wasn't thinking the clearest (not his fault...mostly biological).
In the sense that he did all of this while trying to find help, ya...i would say that's 'hero' like.
i think this story hits home so hard for ppl b/c it's christmas.
but i agree, when lost, stay put. so easy for us to say, but stay put. he could have lived on water with the fire he built his family and his kids probably could have too given they were breast feeding.
all we can hope is that ppl take lessons so this isn't repeated again.
and, this isn't a shot against the Kims, buy a Garmin GPS or that tom-tom thingee. i have a garmin GPS and know exactly where i am almost all the time.
i agree with everything you say except this last bit. i personally don't know if he was a 'hero' but he most certainly showed a 'hero-like' effort and i highly respect that. I'm an avid hunter who doesn't use a 'stand' which means i walk through the forests and i live in Canada, which is known for its territory and weather, much like the US, so i know what i'm talking about here.
The fact that he walked that distance (10.24 MILES from the cnn.com report) in the rugged wilderness, in that timeframe, without proper clothing/equipment is very remarkable. #1 that's not straight walking. It would be interesting to know the exact distance if you were able to measure the altitude changes. When in the forest, one is constantly up, over, down and around trees, rocks, piles of snow etc..etc.. 1 mile or km in the bush is alot harder than the same distance on the road. #2 can you imagine how cold he was? he was no doubt very frozen in the stages of hypothermia for a good portion of his walk...probably the majority if it actually.
#3 hardly any food and desperation/worry for his family means he probably wasn't thinking the clearest (not his fault...mostly biological).
In the sense that he did all of this while trying to find help, ya...i would say that's 'hero' like.
i think this story hits home so hard for ppl b/c it's christmas.
but i agree, when lost, stay put. so easy for us to say, but stay put. he could have lived on water with the fire he built his family and his kids probably could have too given they were breast feeding.
all we can hope is that ppl take lessons so this isn't repeated again.
and, this isn't a shot against the Kims, buy a Garmin GPS or that tom-tom thingee. i have a garmin GPS and know exactly where i am almost all the time.
Just because not every story similar to Mr. Kim's doesn't get publicized does not mean what he did was not heroic. If you don't think he deserves the publication, then don't read/watch/listen to it. A man died trying to save his family, it must take a pretty sorry and negative person to make negative comment about that.
One simple lesson is that when you go on vacation, it would be safer if somebody expected you to contact them when you get there. That way, they'd know something might be wrong if you didn't. A hotel/motel certainly isn't going to notify somebody that you didn't show up. But the sooner you are declared missing, the better.
It would take a bit of commonsense, of course, since delayed flights and traffic jams are common, but if you hadn't called by the next day, that would be a suspicious sign.
Without this safeguard, people might not know you were missing until you didn't come back when expected, and that would be days later.
Some of my relatives always say "phone me when you get there" and I thought it was rather silly. Of course I'll get there, and I won't have any vacation stories to tell yet, so why call? But now I see that it might be good for them to expect my call, and smart for me to make it.
It would take a bit of commonsense, of course, since delayed flights and traffic jams are common, but if you hadn't called by the next day, that would be a suspicious sign.
Without this safeguard, people might not know you were missing until you didn't come back when expected, and that would be days later.
Some of my relatives always say "phone me when you get there" and I thought it was rather silly. Of course I'll get there, and I won't have any vacation stories to tell yet, so why call? But now I see that it might be good for them to expect my call, and smart for me to make it.
It drives me nutty when my mother tells me to call when I make a long trip...I'm 28 years old dammit!
But yes, it is for good reason.Umm, no he didn't. The search helicopters found the wife and kids while Mr. Kim was still walking in the snow. And, they would've found him too, if he'd stayed put.
You're right, but he waited a week, then became desperate, hardly anyone could wait that long and think it was a good idea to continue waiting.
you're right, so matter-of-factly.
if you had a family, and were worried about their lives, would you not take any extreme measures you could to at least save most of your family? everyone knows you should stay put and make a signal, but by being in two places at once just doubles your odds of being found.