“Google is launching balloons into near space to provide internet access to buildings below on the ground. About 30 of the superpressure balloons are being launched from New Zealand from where they will drift around the world on a controlled path. Attached equipment will offer 3G-like speeds to 50 testers in the country”. – BBC News. Photo: A Google balloon sails through the air with the Southern Alps mountains in the background, in Tekapo, New Zealand. (Photo by Jon Shenk/Associated Press)

San Francisco-based design professor Miguel Cardona is selling his custom-drawn “Sketchcups” at Café Sophie for US$20 a piece to benefit Project Night Night, a charity that donates baby blankets, books, and toys to children in homeless shelters. Cardona discusses the project in an interview with Coolhunting. If you'd like to purchase or commission one of Cadona's pieces for yourself, you can do so for US$30 at his Sketchcups Store.

With more than 40,000 followers on Twitter and 26,400 fans on Vine, it looks like Marutaro the hedgehog from Japan is one of the most popular hedgehogs on the Internet. And as his owner keeps on posting Marutaro’s pictures online daily, Marutaro’s popularity continues to grow. There are hundreds of cute photographs and videos of this little fellow, but the ones with little paper cut-out faces are probably the cutest. As Marutaro lies on his back, his owner gives him a variety of silly expressions and smiles. The 20 best of them will definitely boost your mood!

Short answer: no.

I know, this answer was a little too short, so let me explain in a little more detail.

Imagine tossing a coin. Normally, any normal coin toss has two possible outcomes - heads or tails - with each one having a 50% chance of happening. Ideally, that is, because factors like the force of your finger tossing the coin, gravity, the wind, the moon phase and a passing TARDIS can all influence the outcome of the toss - but I have deviated from the subject.

A 15-year-old girl denied a horse from her parents has turned to a cow to fulfil her riding dreams. Teenager Regina Mayer, from southern Germany, is able to ride her cow, Luna. She has even trained her bovine pet to soar over a beer-crate hurdle like a regular show jumper. Why, you may well ask, when most cow-owners are surely content to let the creatures chew and lactate and sit down to indicate the imminent arrival of rain? Well, Regina's parents wouldn't let her have a horse.

Passionate fans are doing something unique (wacky) to celebrate the World Cup. They’re getting the likeness of their favorite player shaved into the back of their head. Photo: England fan Joel Moore (23) has had a haircut featuring the face of World Cup star Theo Walcott by Daren Terry from Lotus Styling in Bognor Regis, West Sussex. (Photo by Southern News & Pictures)

“A small British company with a dream of building a re-usable space plane has won an important endorsement from the European Space Agency (ESA) after completing key tests on its novel engine technology. Reaction Engines Ltd believes its Sabre engine, which would operate like a jet engine in the atmosphere and a rocket in space, could displace rockets for space access and transform air travel by bringing any destination on Earth to no more than four hours away”. – Chris Wickham via Reuters. Photo: Artist's impression of Skylon. (Photo by Reaction Engines Ltd)