Kickstart: Up, up and away

Ever have one of those days when you just want to get away? Like, far away?

How about a trip to space, via a polyethylene balloon, for you and a few friends? All it'll cost is $125,000 per person.

"Space Perspective reimagines the thrill of space exploration with the world's most radically gentle voyage to space," the company says. "Space explorers and travel adventurers looking to upgrade their bucket list can now savor 360-degree views of planet Earth from 20 miles above in a luxurious six-hour trip, inside Spaceship Neptune, propelled by a state-of-the-art spaceballoon the size of a football stadium."

The endeavour is being developed by Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum, who previously worked on the air, food and water systems for Biosphere 2. The ship itself includes a bathroom. And a bar. All the necessities.

The balloon will take about two hours to ascend, spend two hours at altitude and another two hours returning to Earth. It won't begin commercial flights until 2024, but backers note there was a successful uncrewed launch on June 18, with cameras taking photos of the sunrise high above Florida.

Anyone in a household with Legos knows the pain of stepping on a brick with bare feet. Don't expect any sustainable future bricks to feel any better.

In a video posted by Lego as part of a news release about its new prototype bricks made using recycled PET rather than ABS, the company noted the injection molded items are undergoing a series of tests. One of them? To show it can be stood on.

I'm pretty sure the researchers are testing its strength so they won't break easily, but that barefoot pain is part of the legacy of Legos too, right? Of course the company is also testing its ability to be used seamlessly in its injection molding tools and presses and whether it has just the same level of a satisfying "snap" when combined with other bricks.

As Lego researchers have said in the past, part of the big issue with new Lego bricks is that they must work with bricks that have been played with for more than 50 years.

It turns out that plastic straws can be good for you after all, at least if you suffer from hiccups.

Ali Seifi, the director of the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit at the University of Texas, has developed a special L-shaped straw called the HiccAway that essentially resets the brain when you use it to drink, stopping the hiccups. (Obviously, it's more complicated than that. You can click over to the explaination at the HiccAway website and blog for more details.)

The straw is made in the U.S., but Seifi didn't provide any further specifics about it.