Sideswipe: July 20: Tanks for the approval

A man in London was denied permission to redevelop a vacant piece of land so he got permission to install a "tank" on the site. The council thought he meant a septic tank, however he installed this Soviet tank with the gun pointing right at the council building.

Killer art concept

A museum in the German city of Wolfsburg recently removed a controversial art installation by English artist Damien Hirst after animal rights group Peta filed a complaint about it killing flies. The controversial art installation features a fly-killing UV light. Titled "A Hundred Years (1990)" the installation is a commentary on the fact that many flies die when exposed to public light. It consists of a transparent cube split into two areas – one where the flies hatch and another where a UV lamp is hanging from the ceiling. The flies are attracted by the light, and whenever they fly to it through a small hole between the two areas, they are burned to death. Hirst described the artwork as "a life cycle in a box". Germany's Animal Welfare Act bans the killing or harming of animals without proper reason. Whether flies fall under that law or not is yet to be determined, but the decision has already sparked controversy in Germany.

Not for the claustrophobic

Overlong office hours are famously an issue among employees in Japan and the country even has a term for people sleeping during the day to make it through a full shift or a long commute: inemuri. The nap box user will sleep in the pod like a flamingo, standing upright. The initial design has been made to ensure that the head, knees and rear are all comfortably supported so that the person will not fall over.

Be your own hero

Hasbro can now make you into an action figure. Using advances in 3D printing and digital scanning, the toy company has created its Selfie Series of customisable action figures, Yahoo reports. People scan their faces using its app and they can be turned into six-inch action figures. So far, you can choose to have your mug on a GI Joe, Ghostbusters, Power Rangers or Marvel character, or one inspired by Star Wars. The figures will cost $60 and fans at San Diego Comic-Con next week will be the first to create action figures based on themselves.

How to get the pay you're owed

A co-worker took a work truck "hostage" until my boss paid him the $100 that he was owed from a pay cheque. He then sent her a pin on Google Maps of where it was parked in the middle of downtown.