Airbag for the elderly unveiled

Japan’s ageing crisis has left the country with a unique catalogue of problems, among them a spiraling pensions shortfall and a surprising rise in crimes committed by the elderly. Nasty falls, however, may be things of the past — thanks to the invention of the human airbag.

Simply strap the 2½lb (1.1kg) pouch around the waist and the wearer is armed with the cutting edge of protection. Sensors detect movement and have been programmed to know when things have gone wrong — a slip on something wet, a stumble on an uneven paving stone or a fall down stairs.
Within a tenth of a second, the airbags inflate to the size of three footballs as they are blasted into action with 15 liters of compressed gas, offering a soft slab of padding on the most vulnerable parts of the body in a fall: the back of the head and the bottom. The price tag on the device — about £700 — offers a hint at just how big the "silver yen" has become as a business proposition. The people most likely to pay for them are not the pensioners, but their guilt-ridden children, whose work commitments prevent them from checking up on their parents more regularly.

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Other gadgets for the elderly
Liquid level indicator Device fitted to cups or jugs that beeps when liquid is an inch from the top of the container
Bed occupancy sensor sends a warning to a monitoring center if a bed is left unoccupied for a certain period, indicating a possible fall
Dolls that weigh as much as a baby and tell owners they love them, and welcome them back to the house — very popular with elderly women
Brain training game Nintendo gadget successful with elderly Japanese who use the mathematical and spelling puzzles to keep them mentally agile
Light-up slippers Footwear with miniature pressure-activated lights designed to prevent night-time falls

What happens when you use the sat-nav in Russia

Smart dog escape

Baxter opens his cage then opens the other two cages and took their treats.

Love story: Knut mourns his keeper

An autopsy Tuesday showed that the zookeeper who gained fame for raising the celebrity polar bear cub Knut died of a heart attack.

'Milk Bottle Banksy' comes out of the shadows

The artist who decorates empties before returning them to their doorstep reveals herself

For months now, they have provided a daily doorstep puzzle for mystified homeowners.When they go to pick up their milk, they find extra bottles. The bottles are empty. But etched on them are pictures of animals, often cows or mice, carefully carved into the glass in astonishing detail.
The free artwork has been puzzling and delighting residents in Stourbridge, West Midlands, and surrounding villages since the bottles started appearing in the spring. But the identity of the artist behind them - nicknamed the 'bottle Banksy' after the secretive graffiti artist whose work appears overnight on buildings across the country - remained a mystery. Now, however, the identity of the person behind the milk bottle creations has been revealed as Charlotte Hughes-Martin. The 30-year-old artist said she had been motivated by a desire to show how 'domestic, everyday objects can be things of beauty too.'
Charlotte's website

Rubber ducks helping out

Rubber ducks are being used to help scientists understand global warming and melting glaciers.
NASA researchers have dropped 90 ducks into holes in Greenland's fastest moving glacier, the Jakobshavn Glacier in Baffin Bay, between Greenland and Canada.
The toys have each been labeled with the words "science experiment" and "reward" in three languages, along with an e-mail address.
If they are found scientists will be able to track how the water moves through the ice and provide information about the movement of glaciers. Scientists are still unsure about why glaciers speed up in summer and head towards the sea.
One theory is that the summer sun melts ice on top of the glacier's surface, creating pools that flow into tubular holes in the glacier called moulins.
These moulins carry some water to the bottom of the glacier, where it acts as a lubricant to speed the movement of ice toward the coast.
The Jakobshavn Glacier is believed to be the source of the iceberg that sank the Titanic in 1912 and is important to researchers because it discharges nearly 7 per cent of all the ice coming off Greenland.
Alberto Behar of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California said none of the ducks had been reported yet.
"We haven't heard back but it may take some time until somebody actually finds it and decides to send us an e-mail that they have found it," he said.
"These are places that are quite remote so there aren't people walking around."

Three-year-old boy's phone call saves his mother's life

A three-year-old boy has saved his mother's life by dialing 999 after she suffered an epileptic fit. Jack Thomson used his mother's mobile to call the emergency services and told them she was lying sick in the hallway and his father was at work. The phone then cut-out. Undeterred, the youngster found another mobile and dialed 999 again. He was unable to say where he lived but the second call enabled operators to trace his location in Lochgelly, Fife.
The three-year-old was at home with his sisters Holly, two, and baby Kirsty when his mother became ill. After the phone call, police and ambulance crews forced entry into Jack's home and found his mother, Leanne, lying in the hallway. Paramedics attended to her and she is recovering at home. Police praised Jack for his quick action. Insp Duncan Ormiston said: "Without doubt, young Jack has saved his mum's life. Jack deserves a medal and I have arranged for a police hat and some goodies to be sent out to him as the Contact Center's honorary wee Special Constable."
With video featuring Jack's 999 call.

In the News

Giant Diamond Unearthed in Africa May Set Record
A huge gemstone that could become the world’s largest polished round diamond has been found at the Letseng Mine, owned by Gem Diamonds, in Lesotho, southern Africa.
The diamond weighs 478 carats and is the twentieth largest ever found. Gem Diamonds says that initial examination suggests that it has a flawless center and could produce a 150-carat round-cut white diamond worth tens of millions of pounds.
"Preliminary examination of this remarkable diamond indicates that it will yield a record-breaking polished stone of the very best color and clarity," the company's Chief Executive Clifford Elphick said in a statement.
The stone would dwarf the 105-carat Kohinoor in the Crown Jewels. The largest rough diamond found was the Cullinan, in 1905, which weighed 3,106 carats uncut.
Picture and More
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Towing the line.
Tow trucks parade through NYC in world record bid.
Nearly 300 tow trucks rumbled through New York City on Saturday in an attempt to smash the world record for the largest parade of its kind.
Organizers think they hit the mark, with 292 trucks participating. The procession included flatbeds, wreckers and 50-ton rotators.
The trucks departed from Shea Stadium in Queens and cruised down a couple of highways before finishing at an abandoned airport tarmac to spell out "New York."
The previous world record was a parade of 83 tow trucks in August 2004 in Washington state.
Picture and More
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Quality Time with Son

Works of Art