Boeing 737 turned into a luxury villa

Developer Felix Demin converted a retired Boeing 737 aircraft into a luxurious two-bedroom villa perched on a cliff in Bali, offering stunning ocean views.

Private Jet Villa by Hanging Gardens is one of the most sought-after accommodations on the Indonesian island, despite its steep nightly rates. The cockpit was converted into a stylish bathroom with views of the sky and ocean, while one of the wings was turned into a terrace surrounded by an invisible glass barrier.

The villa’s precarious location raises safety concerns, but Felix Demin stresses that the aircraft has been through numerous safety checks and meets safety regulations, including a barrier installed on the rock sustaining it.

Beef-infused super rice created

Researchers at Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea, have created a rice hybrid laced with beef protein and fat cells. The new pink rice has eight percent more protein and seven percent more fat than regular rice.

It doesn’t taste like beef, but has a “unique blend of aromas, including a slight nuttiness and umami which are characteristic of meat”. To help the beef cells latch onto the rice grains, the latter were coated in fish gelatine and left to culture in a petri dish for up to 11 days. The hybrid, bright pink rice is firm and more brittle than natural rice, and retains their traditional appearance when cooked. The possibility of lacing the rice with other types of meat or fish, to cater to different tastes, is being explored.

Man hides stolen horse in apartment

Police officers in Wejherowo, Poland, received a call about a man trying to lead a horse to his third-floor apartment and arguing with disgruntled neighbours trying to stop him.

It turned out that the man had stolen the animal and was trying to conceal it in his apartment. Police officers estimated the price of the horse at around 15,000 Polish zloti ($3,800). They managed to get the animal back to the owner, who had already reported it stolen, safe and sound.

The 19-year-old man has been charged with theft and risks spending up to five years behind bars.

Dead Humpback whale found in Amazon jungle

A humpback, weighing 10 tonnes, was found in an undergrowth 50ft from the sea on the island of Marajo, at the mouth of the Amazon river. Experts estimated that the whale was a 12-month-old calf, but they are not sure how it died.

The team, sent by the NGO Bicho D’Agua Institute, published a Facebook post that suggested that the creature was floating close to the shore and the tide, which has been pretty considerable over the past few days, picked it up and threw it inland, into the mangrove. The calf may have been travelling with its mother and probably got lost or separated during the migratory cycle between the two continents.

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 23rd, 2024