My startup uses matplotlib and I was quite affected reading the story of John Hunter's last days and hours. (It also got my attention as I happen to have an elevated colon cancer risk.)
So a small donation is a no-brainer [and done] but I want to do something more. We're only recently ramen-profitable so I'm thinking it would be nice to donate some shares. Beeminder's success will continue to be thanks in part to John Hunter's work (even if we port to d3.js which I confess is in our plans) so I like the idea of having my donation proportional to the magnitude of that success.
I suspect it's difficult to formally donate shares so I'm actually writing this comment as a commitment device to honor the following:
I, Daniel Reeves, hereby earmark 0.1% of my own Beeminder equity for the John Hunter Memorial Fund, to be converted and paid as cash within 5 years of today, 2012-08-30.
Also, anyone with colon cancer in their family should please do a colonoscopy every 10 years from the age of 40 to greatly reduce the likelihood of not detecting colon cancer early. Early detection has a recovery rate of near 100%.
Colon cancer typically grows slowly. If you are at risk, and get a colonoscopy at 40 and they find polyps then they will have you come back to be sure they don't come back.
Basically at risk people should get checked early and you're at risk if you've had an immediate family member have polyps or cancer.
Depends on the risk of the person - some need it every 5 (or more), and some much earlier than 40. But generally speaking, it takes ~10 years (average) for an initial growth to become "fully" cancerous. Hence the 10 year rec.
Still - point is this is one of the few forms of cancer that can be treated extremely (simple exicision) easily with early detection. Its common and (once advanced) deadly.
So a small donation is a no-brainer [and done] but I want to do something more. We're only recently ramen-profitable so I'm thinking it would be nice to donate some shares. Beeminder's success will continue to be thanks in part to John Hunter's work (even if we port to d3.js which I confess is in our plans) so I like the idea of having my donation proportional to the magnitude of that success.
I suspect it's difficult to formally donate shares so I'm actually writing this comment as a commitment device to honor the following:
I, Daniel Reeves, hereby earmark 0.1% of my own Beeminder equity for the John Hunter Memorial Fund, to be converted and paid as cash within 5 years of today, 2012-08-30.