Missing Growing Pains Actor Andrew Koenig’s Body Found

Update: Tragically, Koenig's body was found in Stanley Park in Vancouver. His father Walter Koenig reportedly said in a press conference, "Our son took his own life. He was obviously in a lot of pain."

More here.

Original Article: Andrew Koenig, an actor best known for portraying Kirk Cameron's best friend "Boner" on the 80s sitcom Growing Pains has gone missing, and his family is using the web to try and find him. The family's efforts begin at Andrew's father's website at WalterKoneigSite.com, which details Andrew's last known whereabouts and the efforts the family is taking to try and locate him.

Here is what he looked like on "Growing Pains":

Here is a more current photo provided on the site:

"Andrew has been an activist his entire life and most recently has been working on behalf of the people of Burma, and was arrested during the 2008 Rose Bowl parade for protesting American involvement in China's Olympics," it says on the site. "Andrew was suffering from depression at the time of his disappearance. The last time the Koenigs heard from Andrew by phone was on February 9. His cell phone is turned off and the last time his phone received a text was on February 16 in Vancouver."

It goes on to explain that on February 16, Walter got a letter from his son, which left him "concerned," due to its "despondent tone." The site says it's not believed that any specific incident prompted the disappearance, adding that drugs were not an issue.

Contact information for the Vancouver detective on the case is provided at the site.

Andrew appears to have a Facebook profile with over 500 friends, though it's hard to say with certainty that it's legitimate (update: a reader has commented that she is a friend of his on Facebook and that it is his profile). A Twitter profile registered to an Andrew Koenig, sporting the same current photograph provided by Andrew's father's site can be found at twitter.com/JeSuisLeSinge. Again, we can't be certain of the legitimacy, but it looks convincing as it displays tweets regarding activism-related topics. It has not been updated since January 24.

Google Again Linked To Australian Data Center Plans

The rumor that Google might build a data center in Australia has been circulating for some time; our first report on the subject was written in October of 2008.  Now, although construction crews haven't exactly been mobilized, there's at least been a sign that Google hasn't given up on the idea.

Deepak Ramanathan, the head of Google's enterprise marketing arm in the Asia-Pacific region, recently spoke at an event in Sydney.  Renai LeMay reported that people representing several Australian corporations expressed an interest in Google Apps while there.

Then here's the more interesting part: according to LeMay, Ramanathan responded by saying that "the search giant was not ruling out an Australian datacentre for services like Gmail, and that discussions were ongoing."

The last time we talked about Google building a data center in Australia (April of last year), the main stumbling block seemed to be the economy.  Obviously, it's gotten better (Google's stock, for example, is up about 45 percent since then).

So as more and more Australian organizations go to Google for different services, we may finally reach the tipping point at which the company will see fit to build a data center in that country.

Important Product Director Moving From Google To Digg

When Google's current director of product management arrived at his desk this morning, he did so for the last time, according to a new report.  Keval Desai is supposed to be leaving Google in order to start a position at Digg.

Desai - who's been with Google for about six and a half years - didn't exactly do unimportant work.  In fact, he led the development of AdWords, which is one of the search giant's most recognizable products, and was also a force behind TV Ads, which has outlived Audio Ads and Print Ads.

Previously in his career, Desai cofounded a company with Michael Arrington and put in some time at Morgan Stanley Venture Partners, too.

As for what Desai's supposed to do for Digg, Arrington wrote this afternoon, "He'll be Digg's first head of product, a responsibility that has been shared at various times by founder Kevin Rose, CEO Jay Adelson and Chief Strategy Officer Mike Maser."

It seems Desai's headed almost to the top of the organization, then, and will probably exert a big influence over whatever "ballsy" changes are on the way.

Have You Read This?

> More Stories Get A Shot At The Digg Homepage

> Digg To Get All Twitter This Year?

> Digg Does It Again With Advertising

Dirty Trick #11: Wait. . .There’s More!

If you have EVER, and I do mean EVER been surfing through the television channels after midnight any day of the week, you’ve seen this sneaky little bugger hard at work inside all those crappy infomercials.

These guys, or gals, really want you to buy a copy of their product. So they’ll sweeten the offer up for you to drive that fact home and straight to your credit card or bank account. After all, they are in the business to MAKE MONEY, right?

And, if they’ve already piqued your curiosity, see Dirty Tricks Volume I, then they know that you’re interested in what they’re attempting to sell you. So they try and make the deal better on your end.

That’s when they really kick their selling into high gear by offering you some out-of-this-world bonuses worth -insert any dollar amount here- absolutely FREE! Cue flashing text. . . .

Now I know you’re probably thinking, “Shucks, I’d never fall for that kind of garbage!”. Hmm, how many products HAVE you bought from television adds? If you say none, well then congratulations! You are immune to this dirty trick. Way to go! And if you aren’t immune, don’t worry about it. I would bet that almost 98% of people aren’t either.

The really cool thing about this dirty little monster is that it MAKES you want to buy their original product, even if you don’t want or need it, just to get your hands on all those choice freebie gifts they’ll give you. And all for the cost of the original product price.

What a deal!

Yep. That’s what they want you to be thinking. Sure, you may not like or need the product they’re trying to sell you, but all those things you’re getting for free pretty much makes it worth spending 30 bucks.

Plus, even if you only wanted the bonus items, they still sucked you in to buying the original product to get your hands on them.

Internet Marketers use this one religiously too. Don’t let ‘em sneak it past you. Remember last time you signed up for that free report or ebook? And then after you filled out the form you were magically whisked away to a page that let you know you would be receiving an email to confirm you wanted to be included on their list? ‘Cause that’s the only way you could get the freebie?

What else was on there? Did you notice that there was probably either an ad for another product, we in the Internet Marketing world call this an “upsell”, or a special offer that you would only see that one time, again, called a, what else, “one time offer”?

Or how about when another internet marketer releases a new product and one of their affiliates will offer you a special “bonus” if you buy only from them? They will pack those bonuses to the gills with products that you may want, and probably will, even more than the main product that is being sold.

Aha! The light just went on didn’t it?!

If you don’t have something like this set up on your freebie giveaway offers, you had better start. Otherwise, you’re missing out on profits my friend. And a super script that will help you set up these one time offers is, of course, One Time Offer.

I highly recommend using this dirty trick for anyone trying to sell anything. EVER.

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