DAVID ADAMS writes about the odder side of life…
• A full-sized working “Origami car” was unveiled in the UK last month. Made out of 1,700 laser-cut cardboard sheets, the Lexus IS executive saloon is driveable thanks to an electric motor and has fully functional doors, wheels and headlights. Inspired by the practice of production-line employees who make Origami models to improve their dexterity, the car was made by Lexus with LaserCut Works and Scales and Models, a south London design company. You can find out more here. Meanwhile, not to be outdone, Nissan has also unveiled a life-sized version of its ‘Juke’ model to celebrate the car’s fifth birthday in the UK. It took British artist Owen Gildersleeve 2,000 pieces of paper and 200 hours to build.
• If you’ve ever been ‘stuck’ with the horrible job of cleaning gum off a piece of furnishing spare a thought for the cleaners of a famous “gum wall” in the US – they’re looking at removing a million pieces of the stuff from a wall. The rather gross trend to stick gum on the wall of Post Alley in Seattle reportedly dates back to 1991 and owes its origins to theatre-goers who clearly couldn’t be bothered looking for a bin. But local authorities, concerned at the damage the sugar in the gum is causing to bricks, have decided it’s time to clean-up. To celebrate the end of the landmark, the Pike Place Market, where the wall is located, is asking people to submit their photos of the wall to its Facebook page here.
• A Spanish doctor missing for almost 20 years has been found living in an Italian forest – and has apparently decided to stay there. Carlos Sanchez Ortiz de Salazar, 47, had been reportedly missing for 14 years when he was declared dead in 2010. Two weeks ago mushroom pickers came across a man claiming to be the missing man who told them he had been living there since 1997 – showing his passport for them to photograph as proof – before disappearing back into the woods. His family have reportedly confirmed his identity.
