The End of James Kim

Ok, people this is really starting to get old!!! I’m sure by now, we have all heard about James Kim, his family being stranded, and him dying because he wondered off into the wilderness. Yes, I guess it’s sad he died. And yes too bad for his family. But come on!!!! Why is this such a big deal?!?! It’s not like it’s the first time something like this has happened, yet every time I check the news lately there seems to be a story about it. Did they forget about a little something called the war in Iraq, where dozens of people are dying everyday.

Besides constantly talking about this, cnet (company he worked for) is putting together information for people on how to survive. Survival and prevention tips. Multiple things about this piss me off. The first is that cnet is a technology site and normally doesn’t do news like this. But of course since it’s someone who works for them, now it’s newsworthy. The second thing that pisses me off about this, is the types of advice they are giving on survival;

• portable cell towers – sure, that’s reasonable and totally inexpensive.
• Get a CB – yeah because CB’s are all over the place these days.
• personal locator beacons – available all local 7-11’s I’m sure.
• a Web 2.0 company could create a "fail-safe service" that would raise the alarm if you go missing. – great, now just start the company.
• GPS system – “Hey honey, looks we are stranded on a logging road. Aren’t you glad I brought the GPS unit?”

It goes on. There are some actual useful suggestions but mostly it’s crap. You want to know why he died and just about everyone who posted suggestion would die in the same situations? Because they have absolutely no common sense. That’s the problem with these people, they sit behind desks all day, thinking about IPods, camera phones, and new computers, and they spend no time thinking about how to do anything useful. The corporate environment does NOT promote out of the box thinking and by sitting in a box all day, you loose your ability to think beyond it.

You want to survive in the wild? Use the other side of your brain!!! I posted a couple weeks ago about a guy in the exact same situation. Guess what? He survived because he wasn’t a dumbass.

And finally, a story on NPR The Heroism of James Kim I quote, “He must have been an extremely amazing individual. I would only hope I could do the same for my family." You do!!! You only wish you could get stuck in the woods then crawl off into the snow to die for them. Wow, that’s just great of you. Personally I’d prefer to one up it and live, but hey that’s just me.