[LEMONS] 12.30.2004
Tsunami Update
This site is the top search request for several smaller islands on the Andaman Coast. However, I live in San Francisco, and have no first-hand knowledge of the post-Tsunami conditions. Initial reports indicate that there were no deaths on Ko Chang- Updates:
- (01/04/2005)Apparently there were at least a few deaths on Ko Jum, according to this website:
- Still more on Ko Jum with details on Woodland Lodge and Ko Jum Lodge.
- Map of affected areas in Thailand.
- Ko Lipe - Pooh's Bar has started a guestbook for people to get in touch with those on the island. (I met Pooh on Lipe...
If you have recently been on Ko Chang (near Ranong, not the one in the Gulf), Ko Phayam or Ko Jum, I would very much appreciate it if you would email me so that I can post that information here. I would particularly like to hear any first-hand information on Eden or Sunset Bungalows on Ko Chang, Joy Bungalows on Ko Jum, and Hornbill Hut on Ko Phayam.
FYI: For those of you who don't speak Thai, or haven't been to Thailand, "ko" or "koh" means island. (Ko Chang, for example, is Elephant Island).
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12.28.2004
Tsunami Information
We spent most of our time in Thailand travelling along the Andaman coast. And I've been sick and heartbroken with worry about the friends we made there. What's made it worse, or at least more worrying, is that we typically stayed on smaller islands, and in smaller areas away from the hustle and bustle of the mainstream tourist destinations. So, although we spent a lot of time in the Krabi area, for example, we never went to Phuket or Phi Phi. These smaller islands and areas aren't getting the news coverage that the larger resort areas are, and it's virtually impossible to find any mention of them in the media.Today, it occured to me to look into Lonely Planet's Thorntree bulletin boards, where I've been able to find, for the first time, glimmers of information on some of the places we stayed, such as Ko Chang, Ko Jum, and Ko Lipe. If you are worried about a friend or loved one in those areas, this might be a good place to start looking, since most of those islands don't have any communications abilities right now. There is also a missing persons branch that might help finding friends and loved ones.
On another note, Harper and I are interested in volunteering with a relief agency. She is a RN, and I have experience in construction and rebuilding, including an emergency operations stint working to rebuild Kuwait after the 1st Gulf War. We both speak a little Thai. If you know of anywhere that's looking for volunteers, please let me know in the comments field below.
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12.24.2004
Merry Christmas
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12.21.2004
GPS Blog
Have you seen my new GPS blog? No? Well maybe you should.- l i n k -
12.10.2004
Google Suggest: A Whole New Vanity
As it is every time Google does anything, the entire Web seems atwitter today over Google Suggest. I'm actually not so fond of this feature. I usually detest auto-complete functions, and turn them off. Although I can see the value of this if you're searching for, say androtestosterone and can't remember exactly how it's spelled. Once you get to "androt," Google does the rest for you. How nifty. But, more importantly, it opens up a whole new way to vanity search. Thank God. Or Sergey, at least.I tried spelling out my name, to see how many characters I would have to input before Google suggested me. The result? Seven, including the space. Intrigued, I decided to try it out with a few well-known bloggers, all of whom (I assume) have ridiculously high page ranks. The quick and dirty results are below:
Andrew Sullivan - 3
Anil Dash - 5
Andy Baio - 8
Matt Haughey - 8
Jason Kottke - 8
Obviously, the more common your name; the more letters it's going to take Google to suggest you. For fellas names Matt, Jason, or Andy, Google has a treasure trove of possibilities to sort through. In almost all these cases with common names, Google won't suggest the "right" person until you get a few letters into a last name.
But in some cases, the results are really surprising. Google nailed Andrew Sullivan with the three letters "and." Yet it didn't suggest Anil Dash until I keyed in the 5th character (the space key), despite the fact that when you enter "Anil" into a regular Google search, he's number two, just behind anil.org. Yet Anil Gupta--who shows up below Dash in a regular Google search--comes up in just four characters (without entering the space key), ahead of Dash.
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