StrangeSights

• Nothing like having a back-up plan. Authorities in Japan are taking the Scouts’ motto of ‘Be Prepared’ to the next level - they’ve reportedly proposed building an entire back-up city for Tokyo should it be hit by an earthquake or natural disaster again. To be called the IRTBBC (Integrated Resort, Tourism, Business and Backup City), it’s been proposed that the city will be built on a 1,236 acre site 300 kilometres west of Tokyo and will provide accommodation for 50,000 residents and 200,000 workers who will commute from nearby Osaka.

• The “world scariest bridge” has reportedly opened on the top of Tianmen Mountain in China. The bridge, a narrow, 200 foot long glass-bottomed walkway, is suspended from the side of a cliff 1,220 metres above sea level. Opened last month, it’s creation comes in the wake of a similar glass-bottomed walkway known as the Skywalk, which projects over the Grand Canyon (and the Eureka Skydeck, of course!).

• It’s an unusual crime prevention measure. A priest in Lodz, Poland, has been blessing manhole covers after town authorities asked him to do so to stop them being stolen by scrap metal thieves. All 4,000 of the town’s manhole covers were blessed at a church service.

• Fancy some sausage and mash. An ATM in London’s east is offering customers the choice of conducting their banking in English - or cockney. The Leytonstone machine reportedly offers those who choose Cockey the chance to obtain a Charlie Sheen (balance on the screen) and the chance to change their Huckleberry Finn (pin number). Cash is dispensed in various denominations including a Lady Godiva (fiver or £5) and a Horn of Plenty (£20).

• It’s an amateur snapper’s dream. An American company has produced a camera that takes images which, if unfocused at the time, can be focused later on. The pocket-sized Lytro uses “light field” technology to capture complete light field data and thus enable photographers to “shoot now and focus later”. The camera starts at $US399 for an eight gigabyte version.

• A mysterious Lego man has washed up on a US beach. The eight foot tall fibreglass Lego man reportedly washed shore last week on a Florida beach but is now being held in police custody until an owner comes forward. Named ‘Ego Leonard’, the figure bears the slogan ‘No real than you are’ on its top. It has been suggested that the man is the work of Dutch “guerilla artist” Leon Keer. A similar figure appeared on a Netherlands beach in 2007.