How embarrassing, I wonder if this was an inside job done purposely?  NFL fans never know what to expect from Chad Ochocinco but even they were probably surprised when dialing a number from a charity cereal box featuring the attention-seeking Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver and getting a phone-sex line.

A typo on the cereal box sent callers to a seductive-sounding woman instead of Feed The Children, a charity that benefits from Ochocinco’s limited edition toasted oats cereal, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported on its website.

“You must be 18 or older to get into this party, baby,” the woman said before asking for a credit card number.

Callers should have dialed an 888 number instead of an 800 number, the newspaper said.

“I really do apologize,” Ochocinco told the Enquirer on Thursday. “Some people got a laugh out of it, others are upset.”

A spokesman for Feed The Children said the charity appeared to be at fault.

Ochocinco’s agent stressed the flamboyant receiver was in no way involved in the mistake.

A Cincinnati grocery chain began pulling the cereal boxes from its shelves on Thursday.

The cereal, which sells for $5 a box, can be found on the website www.plbsports.com.

“All boxes will be shipped with a corrected 800# on them,” a statement on the website said in capital letters.  No matter what this a great charity and we support them!

An American charity is offering to pay British drug or alcohol addicts 200 pounds to be sterilised – and has already had its first taker. But the idea has been attacked in the UK as exploiting the vulnerable at their lowest ebb.

Project Prevention, which runs a similar scheme in the U.S. offering adults $300 to use long term or permanent birth control, aims to reduce the number of babies born with drug or alcohol addictions as a result of their parents’ habits.

Barbara Harris, who set up the charity after adopting the children of an addict, is offering to pay addicts in London, Glasgow, Bristol, Leicester and Wales who are willing not to have children.

“I get very angry about the damage that drugs do to these children,” she told the BBC’s Inside Out programme. “I’m not forcing people to be sterilised. I offer them a choice of contraception but people want to focus on the extremes.”

“The social workers and their like have done their best for years and it’s not good enough. I’m offering something different, and paying addicts for being responsible.”

The project, funded by donations from the public, has already had its first British client, a 38-year-old heroin addict who had been involved in drugs since he was 12.

“It was something that I had been thinking about for a long time,” the man, named only as John, told the BBC. “I won’t be able to support a kid: I can just about manage to support myself.”

But British drug and alcohol charity Addaction, which estimates around 1.3 million children under 16 have a parent with a serious drug or drink problem, criticised the idea as exploitative.

“It is an approach to an addict when they’re at their lowest possible ebb. It doesn’t deal with addicts who are already parents, it doesn’t help people recover, and it doesn’t offer any kind of positive solution,” said Addaction chief executive Simon Antrobus.

“We are also concerned that the cash that is being offered will end up in the hands of dealers, helping to perpetuate a problem that is damaging families and communities up and down the UK.” While both sides certainly have good points I am sure it will be public support one-way or another that will decide if this continues.

Just like this Q & A from the LA Times (below) says, many if not most charity car programs take fees that drastically reduce the amount of funds being passed on to your favorite charity.  At www.CharityCar.us we don’t have to take any fees because the cars themselves are going directly to auto recyclers across North America.

Please be careful next time you donate your car, make sure to find out if there are fees being charged and what percentage goes to the charity of your choice.

Apple has donated the source code for MacPaint to the Computer History Museum. MacPaint was part of the original Macintosh launch back in 1984 and was featured prominently in its advertising. It was featured in an advertising brochure that was circulated with Time and Newsweek in December, 1983. The ad introduced the concept of using a mouse to click on the screen, and MacPaint was featured as an example application utilize the windows/mouse interface.

Those who spend a lot of time using Adobe Photoshop constantly use such features as the lasso tool for selecting non-rectangular shapes, and the paint bucket for filling closed areas with a pattern, and later, color. Both first appeared in MacPaint. The program was unique at the time for its ability to create graphics that could then be used in other applications.

Many corporations pretend to be good corporate environmental citizens because it serves their bottom line but Hewlett-Packard has really stepped up to the plate.  Battery recycling and reducing gold in chips are among the technollogies HP has given to a shared patent scheme.  Hewlett-Packard is waiving royalties on technology for a battery recycling point, and instead giving the patent to an initiative which aims to copy the benefits of open source development, by making patents for sustainable technology available without royalties.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) announced late last week that HP will join the likes of IBM, Nokia and Sony in making some of its patented technology freely available under the Eco-Patent Commons scheme. The scheme, launched in January 2008, is a joint effort between the WBCSD and IBM, Nokia, Pitney Bowes and Sony.

“The premise of the Commons is that the free sharing of these patents leads to new collaborations and innovation aimed at helping others become more eco-efficient and/or operate in a more sustainable way,” said Björn Stigson, president of the WBCSD.
Battery Recycling

HP is contributing three patents to the scheme that has attracted over a hundred such donations so far. The tech giant’s contributions are the patent for a battery recycling station which allows consumers to swap used batteries for new ones or credit.

The company has also submitted the patents for a process which it claims could help eliminate the need for anti-oxidant metal coatings during certain stages of microchip and circuit board assembly.  Hats off to HP for their donation.

I wanted to take a few words and moments to thank all our Twitter followers, we crossed the 1,300 follower threshold last month and look forward to growing further this year.

Special thanks and best of luck to:

Kids Up Front Vancouver

Kidney Registry

Food Banks Canada

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Covenant House – Helping Homeless Youth

and many more!!!

At a special charity occasion with an auction dedicated to struggle with AIDS was held in Chez Maxim’s club and restaurant in the centre of Paris on Friday. The pop star put up to auction her halter dress of black colour. It was designed by Jean Paul Gaultier and fascinated everybody by its small plissed spikes. It has become known that it was sold at euro20, 000 ($24,770). This dress was not the only lot put up by the star.

There were two more lots: a photograph under the title “Leather Crotch” taken by Robert Mapplethorpe in 1980 and a vest made of lambskin designed by Rick Owens, designer with Californian roots. $180,000 in total was gathered at the end of that occasion. Thanks to that soiree that big sum of money was directed to AMFAR – the American Foundation for AIDS Research.

This charity dinner auction attracted such famous French designers and celebrities as Chantal Thomass, underwear designer; Mark Vanderloo, model; Gaultier who designed pointy cone bra for Madonna.  Hats off to Kylie for being so generous!

Standard Auto Wreckers collected used TIRES to raise money for The Sunshine Foundation of Canada this past weekend and the event was a major success! Thanks to everyone that participated!

In partnership with Ontario Automotive Recyclers Association (OARA) and Ontario Tire Stewardship (OTS), Standard Auto Wreckers will be collecting you used tires free of charge. All tire fees associated with each tire dropped off will be donated to The Sunshine Foundation of Canada and OARA will match the donation made from all tires collected.

There will be a trailer parked at the Standard Auto Wreckers location for the Tire Collection event.

Video taken by IDF naval boat shows the passengers of the Mavi Marmara, one of the ships in the ‘Free Gaza’ Flotilla, violently attacking IDF soldiers who were trying to board the ship after having sent repeated requests for the boat to change course.

Large groups of passengers surrounded soldiers and beat them with metal poles and chairs, and threw one soldier over the side of the ship. Some passengers grabbed pistols from the IDF soldiers and opened fire. As a result of the attacks, seven IDF soldiers were injured, and nine of the passengers were killed.

The ‘Free Gaza’ Flotilla had publicly insisted on their non-violent intentions, however their violent attack on the IDF soldiers was clearly premeditated. They had knives, metal rods, firebombs and other items ready to use.

What is better than seeing beautiful stars walking the red carpet?  Seeing them walking for charity of course!  Halle Berry, Jessica Alba and Jessica Biel slipped into their charity shoes during the weekend to take part in the annual Revlon Run/Walk For Women in New York.

The 13th annual Entertainment Industry Foundation event started in Times Square and finished in Central Park, attracting thousands of people to raise funds for women’s cancer research, counseling and outreach programs in NYC.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am to be here,” said Berry. “I am walking today on behalf of a friend of mine, Stephanie, who is fighting the fight every day. I feel you, I’m with you, and it’s important that we’re all here today.” Halle is a veteran of the Revlon Run/Walk For Women events, taking part in many of them.

Saturday’s event also featured Dr. Oz and Jesse L. Martin, as well as a performance by Trey Songz. Next week, it’s Los Angeles’ turn to host the event, with celebrities such as Julie Bowen (ABC’s Modern Family), James Denton (ABC’s Desperate Housewives), Marg Helgenberger (CBS’ CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) and Carrie Ann Inaba (ABC’s Dancing with the Stars) set to take part. The 17th annual LA event takes place on May 8, and more info can be found here.

Proceeds from past EIF Revlon Run/Walks have funded cutting-edge research, contributing to the development of the breakthrough gene treatment Herceptin as well as other targeted therapies, bringing new and innovative treatment approaches to women’s cancers worldwide. Monies raised have also helped numerous organizations in providing education, advocacy and outreach services to those affected by women’s cancers.