Sideswipe: August 10: The Conservation Minister or Himalayan tahr

A tahr was tagged on TV as being Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage.

Is stress-baking making your partner fat?

People started baking bread in lockdown, and for many households that has continued. It's called stress-baking and it actually has a lot of benefits, like mindfulness. This carb curation can be a much kneaded break for both your brain and body. Harvard Medical School says mindfulness "teaches people to live each moment as it unfolds. The idea is to focus attention on what is happening in the present and accept it without judgment". Allow yourself the time to bake without a deadline. Slowly measure each ingredient and notice its texture, colour and smell. You should make baking about the journey, not the destination.

Dementia villages

Hogewey is a small community outside of Amsterdam and looks like any other Dutch town. Residents go about their lives — picking up groceries, going to the movies and catching up with friends — but are monitored by surveillance cameras 24/7. Hogewey is a nursing home disguised to look like a village, designed for people suffering from severe dementia. Inhabitants live in shared houses, they have a theatre, grocery stores, a post office, gardens and clubs. Every shopkeeper, every waiter, and every housekeeper is a Hogewey employee playing their part, in Truman Show-style. Some question whether it is ethical to deliberately deceive vulnerable people by creating a fake, manufactured utopia. But proponents of dementia villages argue that it is creating the effective impression of being more independent, self-responsible, and in control of things and situations.

Five-star isolation

Lockdown food doesn't look so appetising.

Bryce Henderson of Auckland writes: "My sister and brother-in-law are in mandatory isolation at a '5 STAR' downtown Sydney hotel (the Marriott). This was last night's dinner... left on a chair outside their room. I wonder what 2 star gets you?"

Official advice on bear attacks is dark

Bear attacks are a rare but real threat in parts of the United States and there are a few potential reactions to being attacked by a bear – stand your ground and attempt to scare it off, run away or perhaps curl up into the foetal position and hope for the best. The US Government has now, however, officially advised against the most cowardly option: pushing over a slower friend to save yourself. On its Facebook page, the National Park Service has warned against sacrificing another person to an irate bear "even if you think the friendship has run its course".

Increasing the odds

A US man made a lucky windfall when he bought 25 identical lottery tickets for the same draw and won 25 times for a total prize of US$125,000 ($189,500). Raymond Harrington says he decided to buy 25 tickets for the July 17 draw when "something just told me to play 25 times".