Prop, a Japanese company, has come up with a novel way of protecting the elderly from sudden slips and falls: airbags. The airbags inflate with 15 litres of compressed air in 0.1 seconds if an electric sensor detects a sudden movement towards the ground. However, the airbags only work if you fall backwards, so pushing grandma down the stairs for the inheritance should still work.

Go ahead and call. This guy seems legit.

In addition to a great personality, he sweats gold.

You don't need to place an ad when you're this crazy. People will figure it out on their own.

Toramir writes "Citizens of the Russian town Chelyabinsk calculated when the satellite, QuickBird, which takes images for Google Earth and Google Maps, would cross above their city and used people to make a giant smiley face. A rock concert on the main square attracted many people and everyone got a yellow cape. It looks like someone at Google was quicker than usual to put up the new data. Maybe Google likes the idea of an entire town working hard to get its 15 minutes of fame. The article has a screenshot of Google Maps and images taken directly at the event."

NASA researchers have dropped 90 rubber ducks into holes of Greenland's fastest moving glacier: the Jakobshavn Glacier in Baffin Bay. Scientists are unsure as to why glaciers speed up in the summer months. One theory is that the summer sun melts ice on the surface of the glacier, which creates pools of water, which then flow into moulins -- narrow tubular shafts in the glacier. These then transport the water from the top to the underside of the glacier. The rubber ducks, labeled with the words "science experiment" and "reward" in three languages, along with an email address, may provide some answers. It is hoped that in addition to bath time, the ducks can make a livable climate lots of fun.

PETA has sent a letter to ice cream makers Ben & Jerry's, urging them to replace cow's milk in their products with human breast milk. PETA officials say moving to human breast milk would lessen the suffering of cows on factory farms and benefit human health. "The fact that human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn't make sense," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. Counting the Swiss guy who wanted to use breast milk at his restaurant, this is the second breast-milk-in-our-food story in a week. In case the folks at Ben & Jerry's need help coming up with names, may I suggest Boobalicious or Mammary Row.

Technologizer writes "They add insult to injury — and computing wouldn't be the same without 'em. So I rounded up a baker's dozen of the most important error messages in computing history — from Does Not Compute to Abort, Retry, Fail to the Sad Mac to the big kahuna of them all — the mighty Blue Screen of Death. And just in case my judgment is off, I include a poll to let the rest of the world vote for the greatest error message of all." I can't believe that "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that" didn't make the list.

You definitely need a bigger boat.

Who needs an airbrush when you have dirt to work with.

She's going to make a great babysitter one day.

An anonymous reader writes "You've seen the Large Hadron Rap by Kate 'Alpinekat' McAlpine. Now a NASA magazine has commissioned an astrobiology rap. Jonathan Chase, aka 'Oort Kuiper', produced a six-minute YouTube rap video on astrobiology, the scientific search for extraterrestrial life. The lyrics include: 'We've been on Earth for many years and we are still producing answers; as time passes, collective knowledge advances.' This epic rap battle sees Alpinekat/CERN on top with over three million views on YouTube compared with about ten thousand for Oort Kuiper/NASA."

Pittsburgh Public Schools officials have enacted a policy that sets 50 percent as the minimum score a student can receive for assignments, tests and other work. District spokeswoman Ebony Pugh said, the 50 percent minimum gives children a chance to catch up and a reason to keep trying. If a student gets a 20 percent in a class for the first marking period, he or she would need a 100 percent during the second marking period just to squeak through the semester. The district and teachers union issued a joint memo to ensure staff members' compliance with the policy, which was already on the books but enforced only at some schools. At this rate, it won't be long before schools institute double extra credit Mondays and Fridays to ensure students don't take three day weekends.

After a minor traffic incident, Serena Sutton-Smith, 54, rammed her car into another vehicle and spun her tires until the sparks from her disintegrated wheels caused her car to burst in flames. She was so furious, that when rescuers tried to remove her from the car she threatened them, shut her door and died in the flames. Nicholas Willmore told an inquest that he was in his workshop when his mother alerted him to what was happening. He said, "The car's front wheels were spinning and there was loads of revving. I could see a biggish person at the wheel and there was movement in the car. Flames were coming from underneath the car and I thought the person might be trapped inside although I couldn't hear any shouting. I opened the driver's door wide. It opened easily. The person looked at me, it was a big built woman. I said 'You've got to get out of the car. It's going to burst into flames.' The person replied 'F*** off, just f*** off' and she raised her right fist towards me in a threatening manner before slamming the door shut." By the time fire fighters arrived, Serena was dead.

I want to be pulled into you like you were the Sarlacc.

Bathroom graffiti has really come a long way.

When he rode up front, he wouldn't stop sticking his head out the window.

If you are so busy that you don't have time to take your clothes off before you shower, a suit has been made with you in mind. An Australian company, Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), has come up with a suit that can be washed in the shower. AWI corporate affairs spokesman Stephen Feighan says, "The idea is that you hang it up and then ... you give it a spray, and leave it overnight, and it's dry the next morning." He added that the suit could be worn in the shower, although it was probably better to drape it on a clothes hanger and carry it instead. All we need now is for someone to invent shower toast.

Sometimes the best parties are the smaller ones.

Go ahead and tell him what sort of madness you want for Christmas.