truepenny | UBC: Koester, Lost Person Behavior

Lost Person Behavior: A Search and Rescue Guide on Where to Look for Land, Air, and Water by Robert J. Koester

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Yes, I bought myself this book for my birthday because of the number of times David Paulides cites it. As I suspected, he cites it badly and misleadlingly.

Koester is, on his own merits, fascinating. I could never do Search and Rescue myself--my OCD means I would work myself into a nervous breakdown in very short order--but if you do, or are interested in, SAR and haven't read it, I recommend it highly. I learned a great deal about how lost people behave and about how you go about the daunting task of finding them. The part about using probability theory to decide where to search, how that works and how you balance it with human assessment, is freaking brilliant--and I mean that not about Koester only, but about everyone who runs this kind of endeavor, who makes these kinds of judgment calls in the field.

Five stars for those who are interested in the subject matter.

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