SFU professor presumed drowned

SFU professor presumed drowned

Contact:
Tim Swartz, 778.782.4579, tim@stat.sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, 778.782.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca


September 21, 2007
Randy Sitter, a professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at Simon Fraser University, is believed to have drowned in a kayaking mishap off Lummi Island, near Bellingham.

United States Coast Guard officials called off a 12-hour search for Sitter at about 3 p.m. yesterday (Thursday, September 20). Earlier, they had found Sitter’s upright kayak with his life-jacket attached to it. His keys and identification were in the life-jacket’s pocket. Searchers found the vessel about 1.5 kilometres off the west side of Lummi Island, facing the open ocean. An 1800-square-kilometre search of the area by sea and air turned up no sign of Sitter, a Port Moody resident.

“The water temperature was about 11 degrees Celsius,” says U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson Jeff Pollinger. “Without proper survival equipment a person doesn’t stand much chance of surviving more than a few hours in that water.”

Sitter’s locked vehicle was found at the Fairhaven boat launch in Bellingham.

The coast guard launched a search for Sitter after his wife Deanna had notified U.S. authorities that her husband hadn’t returned home from a kayaking venture, Wednesday night.

“He is a friend to many and an outstanding academic at the top of his field,” says Tim Swartz, chair of SFU’s statistics department. “We rely on him in so many ways. Randy is a great athlete and always wears his life-jacket when kayaking. We are still holding out hope for him.”

Sitter, 46, is an award-winning statistician. Originally from New Westminster and a doctoral graduate of the University of Waterloo, Sitter received the CRM-SSC prize in statistics. The award recognizes a statistical scientist's professional accomplishments in research during the first 15 years after earning their doctorate.

His contributions to research and outstanding mentoring of graduate students have garnered him a fellowship in the American Statistical Association.

News release from SFU.

SFU prof missing after kayak accident

SFU prof missing after kayak accident
Jonathan Woodward, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, September 20, 2007

Washington State authorities are combing the waters off Bellingham for a Simon Fraser University professor who went missing while kayaking Wednesday.

This morning, Bellingham Police found Randy Sitter's inflatable yellow kayak on the west side of Lumni Island.

His life-jacket was attached but a bag full of food and personal effects wasn't found, said Lieut. Flo Simon with Bellingham police.

"I'm hoping Mr. Sitter is still alive, that he's actually on land and has no way of communicating or getting off the island," said Simon in an interview.

Sitter is an award-winning professor in the department of statistics and actuarial sciences at SFU. He had been on the waters of Bellingham Bay all day Wednesday.

At about 9 p.m. Wednesday, Sitter's wife, Deanna-Lea, called Bellingham police when he didn't return from a day-long trip.

Sitter's car was discovered in the parking lot at the Fairhaven Boat Launch that night.

The coast guard is searching the water around Lummi Island, while Whatcom search-and-rescue has been scouring the island itself.

Sitter had been kayaking for about six months, and had kayaked in Bellingham Bay twice before, said Simon.

As of posting time, the search has been called off, fearing that Randy has drowned...

HTPC Takes Shape

Specs:
Asus A7V133 Motherboard @ 100mhz FSB
AMD Thunderbird 1.2ghz (underclocked from 1.44ghz)
384mb SDRAM
WD Caviar 80gb Hard Drive
ATI Radeon VIVO Edition 64mb DDR
Creative Sound Blaster PCI
Logitech Cordless Mouse

Still need: wi-fi card, and maybe a wireless keyboard--would be great for emulators.

Total spent: 20+15+25+6.20+45=$111.20

I hate wi-fi. I hope the new card I'll get from RMA works, else I'll be out $31.20 for NOTHING.

The box encodes VGA resolution MP4 video at about 70% CPU utilization, and I can't record and play stuff at the same time. I don't want to run the T-Bird at 1.44ghz because of heat; the Volcano Orb's fan crapped out and I'm using a cheap looking AMD stock fan to blow air on to the copper core of the Orb; that chuck of metal gets HOT! It's probably a bandwidth issue anyways.

I'll talk about my Windows 98SE box that I upgraded exclusively for System Shock 2 and Wing Commander later :).


EDIT:
The RMAed wifi card arrive and the box is ALIVEEEE again! Though the connection is still super weak... *sigh

Big Head @ SFU Sucks @$$

Overpriced. Poorly cooked pearls. No proper drinking shaking machines--but instead have a bunch of little girls with scrawny arms.

And what's with the idiot cashier that served me today!??!

My overpriced drink cost $3.98. I gave the guy a $20 bill plus two dimes and three pennies for 23 cents. The farking genius gave me back the two dimes and a nickel!??!?!?!

WTF!!! The whole point of giving you 23 cents, is so I will get a quarter back! Capish?

Almost 2 months

I haven't posted for so long that I decided to post some nonsense else this blog will become another abandoned mess.

There is actually a lot of stuff for me to write about: stuff to review, the progress of my HTPC, my work term, the damn FAP modules, etc. But I kept forgetting to do it when it's fresh on my mind.

Oh well, signing out.