Big-budget berries

Developed by Mikio Okuda a Japanese farmer with over 45 years of experience growing strawberries over 15 years of trial and error BijinHime is one of the worldrsquos most highly regarded strawberry varieties The largest fruits are about the size of a tennis ball and weigh around 100 grams but itrsquos not the size that makes the Beautiful Princess special Well actually it is but not in the way you expectGenerally the larger a strawberry is the less flavor and sweetness it has but that is certainly not the case with BijinHime strawberries They are rated at 13 degrees Brix which makes them considerably sweeter than the 10degree Brix strawberry standard and have a flavor reminiscent of roses The texture of BijinHime strawberries is said to strike a perfect balance between soft and firm and the vibrant red color of its shiny skin is said to permeate right down to its core It also lacks any of the acidity and funky aftertaste that one usually gets from supermarket varietiesLike many other Japanese strawberry growers Mikio Okuda grows his Beautiful Princess variety during the winter months carefully monitoring the temperature of the soil and the air inside his greenhouses at Okuda Farms in Hashima Gifu Prefecture The slow ripening may be one of the secrets behind the sweetness and intense flavor of the strawberries but Okuda isnrsquot inclined to give out too much information And for good reasonAfter spending 15 years crossbreeding strawberries to create BijinHime Mikio Okuda finally achieved what he set out to docreate a large perfectlyshaped strawberry that also provides excellent flavor The process is still not perfect though as some of the fruits tend to come out round like fleshy globes Those arenrsquot fit for commercialisation and CNN reports that Okuda only produces around 500 marketworthy strawberries per yearIn a country where quality fruits are literally worth their weight in gold if not more Mikio Okudarsquos Beautiful Princess strawberries are highly soughtafter At one auction a single particularly large BijinHime strawberry sold for 50000 yen 350 Some sources claim that the most expensive one sold for 500 but we havenrsquot found any proof of that Still 350 for a single strawberry sounds ridiculousTurning water into beerA California company is recycling wastewater from an apartment building to make beerEpic Cleantec a water treatment company teamed with Devilrsquos Canyon Brewing Co to create an ale made using recycled water from showers sinks and washing machines in Fifteen Fifty a 40story luxury apartment building ldquoBuildings globally use 14 per cent of all potable waterrdquo Aaron Tartakovsky CEO and cofounder of Epic Cleantec told CNN ldquoAlmost no buildings reuse that water Thatrsquos what wersquore trying to changerdquo The beer is not currently for sale due to regulations banning recycled wastewater from being used in commercial beverages but it proved to be a big hit at a conference on sustainable building technologies Tartakovsky said the company is now in talks with other breweries worldwideCan headJapanese national Shunichi Kanno 31 has reclaimed his own Guiness World Record by attaching 11 cans to his head using air suction He had initially set a record in 2009 with nine cans but it was broken by Jamie ldquoCanheadrdquo Keeton who replicated the feat with 10 cans Kanno who upped the ante to 11 cans said that the trick was learning to create air suction on his templesBarbearicPICINSTAGRAMA zoo in eastern China denied claims that some of its bears are actually humans in costume A video of one of its sun bears standing on slender hind legs with loose baggylooking skin went viral and users suggested the animal wasnrsquot the real thing They accused Hangzhou Zoo of dressing humans up like bears Posting on social media the zoo insisted the sun bears native to Malaysia were the real dealAccidental pay raiseA man temporarily became rich after the company he worked for paid him 367 times more than he earned While he was owed only 238 euros an error in converting the currency from Hungarian forints to euros meant the man was paid 92549 euros insteadMonkey at the terminalMalaysia Airports posted a video to Facebook showing a monkey climbing high up on a window support inside Kuala Lumpur International Airportrsquos Terminal 1 Department of Wildlife and National Parks of Peninsular Malaysia were summoned to the airport to rescue the primate A followup post revealed rescuers had used a lift to bring it to safety90minute croc attackFalmira De Jesus an Indonesian woman was collecting water from a shallow stream when she was attacked by a crocodile As she approached the water the reptile leaped up from the foliage grabbed her leg and dragged her into the water The croc reportedly gripped Falmira for 90 minutes trying to drag her down before help arrived