One Man's Blog

A Summary of News From Japan: After the Earthquake and Tsunami

March 16, 2011 By John P. 9 Comments

Oil Refinery Burning in Japan After 2011 Earthquake

I was trying to read up on all the latest updates in Japan as a result of the recent earthquake and tsunami, so I thought I would combine my findings into a blog post to save everyone else a little time surfing around.

Let me know if you find this helpful and I’ll try and do it more often in the future. As for now, on to the updates…

Tsunami Wave Height

Here’s a good look at the tsunami that did all the damage. The following image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) illustrates the expected wave heights and location after the March 11, 2011 Japanese earthquake. Note that the deep purple color is 120cm in height, or about 4 feet.

NOAA 2011 Japanese Tsunami Wave Height

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Filed Under: News Tagged With: Charity, Disaster, Earthquake, Japan, News, Tsunami

Yes, I’m Giving Away an iPad

April 9, 2010 By John P. 5 Comments

Hey Gang! Call it shameless self promotion… call it unbridled lust for power… call it “Crazy Johnny’s Free Stuff Giveaway!” But whatever you do, please check out my iPad Giveaway page, and how about doing me a favor and participating in it?

I have about 20 good reasons for you all to help me with this social experiment. But especially for those of you who are going to be attending OpenCamp and other various places I’ll lecture at this year – I need your help! You would not believe all the metrics I’m gathering and will be sharing with you later about how this works out! But you’ve really, really got to help me spread the word!

Seriously, do me this favor… even if you don’t want an iPad, that’s fine! I thought of you too! You can do it for charity! Just look at the bottom of the iPad Giveaway page and you’ll see that I’m happy to make a donation on your behalf if you win.

So please, if you read my blog all year, do me this one favor today of helping to spread the word. I’ll love you forever! (Oh, heck. I already do!)

Filed Under: Contests Tagged With: Charity, Contests, iPad, Web Analytics

International Push-up Day is Only Hours Away!

May 15, 2009 By John P. 9 Comments

Heifer International Ok gang. Whether you are on my Health Challenge or not, International Push-up Day is only hours away at this point, and I must be the only fool on the planet who was ever willing to pay for your push-ups!

Don’t forget that I’m going to make a $1 donation to Heifer International to help the needy for every push-up you do (up to $1,000 total)! So if you won’t do them for yourself, at least do them for the poor people around the world!

There are three ways your push-ups turn into credits for Heifer:

My strong preference is that you post them on Twitter as you’re doing them. So if you do 10, send a Tweet that says something as simple as “10 pushups #HealthChallenge”. It’s important to add the #HealthChallenge for those of us keeping and eye out for tweets with this tag. If you don’t know how, you can use TweetDeck (Cali Lewis shows you how).
You can leave a comment here on this page each time you do them. Same thing, just drop it below.
If you have a blog, you can keep track of your push-ups on your blog. Just link back to this page to create a trackback I can follow when you post your first update, then keep updating your blog post throughout the day. I’ll go to all the linked blogs in the comments to count up the push-ups within the next couple of days.

Focus on the Positive – Opportunities for Charitable Giving

September 29, 2008 By John P. 2 Comments

Ok, there has been a lot of bad financial news lately, and it can be a real downer and a non-productive waste of time to worry about it. Instead, I would like to focus on some organizations who are using their power for AWESOME and who demonstrate that the power to do good is stronger than the power to do bad. (Keeping in mind that not all charities are good.)

When we focus on what is most important we can make a real difference, so to get us started, here is a little video to put things in perspective. For any of you who have not yet seen it, it starts sad and then makes you truly grateful for what you have by demonstrating the power we really do have over the world around us.

Privacy Equals Freedom – Support the Freenet Project

May 15, 2007 By John P. 13 Comments

Freedom. It’s nice, right? It ought to be… the freedom we enjoy was paid for with the blood of our forefathers, and is maintained by the blood of our siblings. And no freedom is more precious than that of speech. From it all other freedom flows.

Unfortunately there are still many oppressive regimes that do not offer the luxury of free speech, and people are being tortured and killed for speaking out against injustice. (As I’ve often noted.) This is why I have decided to put my money where my mouth is and provide financial support for the Freenet Project.
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Filed Under: Philanthropy, Thoughts Tagged With: Abuse-of-Power, Charity, China, Computing, Encryption, Free-Speech, freedom, Freenet, PGP, Philanthropy, Police-Brutality, Politics, Privacy, Security, Thoughts

How Rich Are You?

February 26, 2007 By John P. 3 Comments

Global Rich List In the past I’ve sent you off to compare your salary with Michael Jordan and Oprah, but now how about using this little site to see how you stack up against the entire population of the planet!

The Global Rich List site will show you how you compare to the rest of the world based on your annual salary. While this is not nearly as important a measurement of your wealth as your net worth, it’ll have to do for now!
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Filed Under: Finance, Philanthropy Tagged With: Charity, Finance, Global-Rich-List, Philanthropy, Salary, Salary-Comparison

Guide to Charitible Giving

November 18, 2006 By John P. 1 Comment

If you’re surfing this site on your fancy computer via a broadband connection while sipping on a Starbuck’s beverage, you probably qualify as someone who has the means to be charitable to others.

Since most of my readers fit this bill I thought I’d offer a little assistance in helping learn how to ensure that your charitable donation has maximum impact, especially since the holiday season is right around the corner.
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