From a Paperclip to A House... Again

Charles Moffat is trying to duplicate the results of Kyle MacDonald's "One Red Paperclip". On his blog, MacDonald had announced that he wanted people to offer trades for his red paperclip. He wanted people to give him offers for objects that were a little bit better than the item he had. In the course of a year, he traded the paperclip for a pen, which he traded for a doorknob, which he traded for a camp stove, which he traded for a generator, which he traded for an "instant party", which he traded for a Ski-doo, which he traded for a trip to Yahk, which he traded for a cube van, which he traded for a recording contract, which he traded for a year's rent, which he traded for an afternoon with Alice Cooper, which he traded for a KISS motorized snowglobe, which he traded for a role in a film, which he traded for a house. Now, Moffat is attempting to achieve similar results by trading a toy car for various items. He is hoping to end up with a condo in Toronto. He currently is trying to find a trade for a retro bicycle.

• • http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/08/qa-from-toy-car-to-toronto-condo-charles-moffat-tries-to-make-the-trade/
  
   

Funerals Can Be Happy Sometimes

In Luxor, Egypt, 28 year old Hamdi Hafez al-Nubi suffered a heart attack while working. The hospital officials pronounced him dead and according to Islamic tradition, his grieving family took him home, washed his body and made funeral preparations. A doctor was sent in to sign al-Nubi's death certificate. He realized that al-Nubi's body was warm and he discovered that the deceased man was indeed not deceased. His mommy fainted when the doctor delivered the good news. Wit the doctor's help, both the man and his mother were awakened, and the funeral turned into a celebration.

• http://www.chron.com/news/article/Egypt-funeral-turns-happy-after-dead-man-awakes-3553677.php

School Misspells Its Own Name

Before the spelling correction.

After the spelling correction.

 Sunrise Elementary School, in Texas changed its name to honor its first teacher, Mrs. Mary McMillan. Recently, a relative of the teacher, informed the school that when they changed the name, they misspelled it. They added an extra 'i' when changing the name... nine years ago. They spelled in Sunrise-McMillian, rather than McMillan. Sunrise-McMillan Elementary School is now attempting to fix all the misspellings. On everything from signs to logos, from business cards to the lettering on the building, to visitor passes to the embedded signatures on emails. Changing the error is proving to be costly, but the faculty is handling the situation with a 'balance of seriousness and humor'.

• http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/09/11616759-f-is-for-fail-texas-school-misspells-its-own-name?lite

Ethan and the Piano Man

Six year old Ethan Walmark of Westport, Connecticut suffers from autism. His autism makes interaction with others difficult, but it's also given him a gift. He is able to play the piano like a boss. He has had about 20 clips of his mad piano skills posted on Youtube, but his version of Billy Joel's Piano Man has earned an impressive 700,000 views. Ethan's parents first noticed his amazing talent when he was only four years old and taught himself to play the Beatles' I Will by ear. Even if he misses a note, Ethan continues to play energetically without skipping a beat. And now, the Piano Man himself, Billy Joel has watched and lauded the young boy's impressive skills. "I think I like his intro to "Piano Man" better than mine," Joel said of Ethan. "And this kid plays with a lot more energy than me. Maybe he could teach me a few things."  Ethan's father says that he's glad that his son's talent has helped to spread Autism awareness.

• http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/335171/20120430/billy-joel-ethan-w-piano-man-youtube.htm
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9234837/Autistic-childs-rendition-of-Billy-Joel-hit-Piano-Man-is-online-hit.html

Kidney Transplant x2

Erwin Gomez (Left), Ray Fearing (Center), and Cera Fearing (Right)

After waiting 10 years, 27 year old Ray Fearing was finally able to receive a kidney transplant from his sister, Cera. The transplant was in June 2011, and soon after, a biopsy showed that the transplanted organ was doing more harm than good. He then agreed to donate his transplanted kidney to Doctor Erwin Gomez, age 67. The kidney that had been failing in Ray, immediately began thriving in Erwin. Before the second surgery, the question of ethics was brought up, and when asked if he'd be willing to give up the failing organ, he answered without hesitation. "There are thousands of people waiting for organs, I couldn't see myself just discarding one." said Fearing. Ray must now face another long wait before he can attempt getting another kidney. This was the first time such an operation was performed.

• http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/25/health/kidney-transplanted-twice/index.html?hpt=hp_c1 

Let Fish Walk!

Austin and Teresa Fisher

Teresa Fisher of Carrollton, Ohio has battled breast cancer for six years. Knowing that her days are numbered, it’s been one of her goals to live to see her son Austin get his high school diploma. Now that her cancer is in remission, this goal seems reachable, except for one large obstacle. Carrollton High School, where Austin is a senior, only allows students to graduate if they have 14 or less unexcused absences. Austin has had to work two jobs, bring his mother to her cancer treatments, and care for her at home; and in doing so, has accumulated 16 unexcused absences. The school will not make an exception for Austin, so his classmates and community members have made a Facebook page, and petition for the Board of Education arguing that Austin should be allowed to graduate. So far, they have over 107,400 signatures on their petition and are optimistic about getting the rule changed for Austin.

•        http://now.msn.com/living/0416-ohio-hs-grad-ban.aspx
•        http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c2#/video/us/2012/04/16/wjw-cancer-student-graduation.cnn

Below is the link to the petition, which you can sign if you feel so inclined(:

•        http://www.change.org/petitions/allow-austin-fisher-to-walk-and-graduate-with-his-2012-class-after-caring-for-his-sick-mom?

More Brilliant Ideas From Nokia

The Nokia Lumia 900

The geniuses at Nokia worked hard to promote the new Nokia Lumia 900. And by worked hard to promote, I mean spent a lot of money in useless ways and basically set the phone up for failure. They hired Nicki Minaj to perform at the promotional event in Time's Square and ran promotions giving away free song downloads and 'other goodies'. The sale began on Easter Sunday, a day on which the majority of the stores are closed. The automated message machines at the many closed stores played ads for the iPone and didn't so much as mention the Lumia. The few stores that were open on Easter didn't even have the phone in stock. However, the Lumia was at the top of Amazon’s “best sellers” list for cell phones ordered in advance.

• http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/handheld/232800481