Plus: GM Sells Autos on eBay, Golfing Gets Scandalous, Military Makes Kids’ Toys and MORE. (Zombies!)

General Motors on eBay
In an attempt to boost ailing sales a month after emerging from bankruptcy protection, General Motors Co. has started a pilot program with eBay to try to sell cars through the online auction site.

“The venture, currently limited to California, lets shoppers scroll through about 20,000 vehicles sitting on the lots of 225 of GM’s 250 dealers in the state. The listings include a ‘buy it now’ price, which customers can accept, or they can enter into online bargaining with a dealer,” the Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required).

Buyers in the state are able to browse hundreds of California dealer online showrooms, ask questions, negotiate prices, arrange financing and payment to buy a new 2008, 2009 or select 2010 car, crossover or truck, according to the automaker’s FastLane Blog. Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac and GMC brand vehicles are purchasable under the new program, which lists a three-stage process for buying cars: select a model, submit an offer and, if your bid wins, arrange financing and delivery options with the local dealer.

Traditionally, eBay has only sold used cars through its eBay Motors site, and GM is the first manufacturer to offer new vehicles online, claiming to already have 12 million monthly visitors to the site, Agence France-Presse reports.

The test program runs through September 8.

Who Needs Progress?
While many companies are rightly touting the benefits of innovation and driving toward new strategies to build consumer appeal, Post Cereals is espousing the benefits of in-the-box thinking.

The company’s “Palace of Light” advertisements proudly emphasize the fact that Post Cereals’ shredded wheat product has remained unaltered since 1892.

Aside from being mildly amusing, the series of ads also take some shots at automakers, overpopulation, bailouts and the dangers of changing too much too quickly:

Golf is More Fun When It’s Secret
A lot of business is conducted on the golf course, but how often is that course shrouded in secrecy regarding its ownership and has taxpayers infuriated?

The Morefar Back O’Beyond course, commonly known as Morefar and located an hour north of New York City, is suspected to be a property of American International Group, Inc. (AIG), the lately distressed insurance giant. While many companies have exclusive getaways, AIG’s transition from a private firm to one supported by public funds suggests non-essential assets should be sold off, including the golf course, as other firms have done.

According to the New York Times recently, Morefar was built in 1964 by Cornelius Vander Starr, who also founded the company that would become AIG, and his ashes are rumored to be buried near the 14th green. Other Morefar legends include sand traps filled with costly crushed granite and valued clients arriving via floatplanes landed on the course’s ponds.

While suspicions abound, Morefar’s ownership remains confidential. Perhaps most galling, considering taxpayers now have a controlling stake in AIG, is that everyday golfers are still restricted from using the course.

Military Makes Children’s Toy
The United States military isn’t known for designing products for children (their hands are too small?), but a recent invention shows the odd directions that defense research can sometimes take. When the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) began working on biologically inspired locomotion and sensor-based controls for robotics, few could have expected the project to eventually transform into a kids’ toy.

The hexapodal robot RHex, designed by DARPA, has six legs and changes its motions based on sensor detection or user commands. Developers at Bossa Nova Robotics found a way to reconfigure the machine to make it appealing to children while also bringing its Defense-budget cost of $20,000 per unit down to under $100 for the consumer market.

The resulting Prime-8 robotic toy not only can run fast and shoot rockets, but is also equipped with infrared sensors that allow it to race and play laser tag with other robots. “Triggered by loud noises, it can become angry or happy, stomping around or break-dancing,” according to Fast Company this week. “It can be programmed as a guard, to shoot intruders.”

Bossa Nova Prime8 from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

Great Strides in Zombie Research
In a recent paper published in a book on infectious diseases, mathematicians from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University calculated a mathematical model to show humanity’s survival chances under a zombie attack. Our odds aren’t good.

“An outbreak of zombies infecting humans is likely to be disastrous, unless extremely aggressive tactics are employed against the undead,” the paper’s Canadian authors assert.

The hypothetical scenario is intended to provide an analysis of quarantine, treatment and control methods for large-scale biological disasters, and may have additional applications in understanding political allegiances or diseases with dormant infections. Above all, the researchers warn that humans have to act fast to wipe out a threat of this magnitude. The study concludes that “a zombie outbreak is likely to lead to the collapse of civilisation, unless it is dealt with quickly.”

But zombies aren’t all bad. A new game released by the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) relies on zombies to teach teenagers how to follow proper safety procedures at work. The game, called Don’t Be a Zombie at Work, has players help coworkers avoid zombification by addressing common workplace hazards in a warehouse, an office and a restaurant.

The overall message from both zombie apocalypse research and zombie safety training: The living dead should never be ignored.

Gloves are So Last Year
Suffer from cold hands? Want a solution that’s nifty and makes a statement? Look no further than this “invention”: