Sept. 13--Two of the county's three school systems will dismiss students early Thursday and have canceled classes on Friday ahead of the expected local impacts of Hurricane Florence.
Officials with the Lexington and Thomasville city school districts announced the decisions Wednesday afternoon.
Davidson County Schools officials posted on the district's website late Wednesday afternoon that "current information regarding Hurricane Florence does not suggest a need to alter our instructional day on Thursday." System officials will monitor conditions and announce any decisions as they are made.
All three systems have canceled after-school activities Thursday and Friday, with Thomasville announcing activities scheduled for Saturday are canceled, as well.
Even as Hurricane Florence's path shifted dramatically by Wednesday morning, Davidson County residents were still bracing for a significant impact. Davidson County and Thomasville officials declared states of emergency.
Hurricane Florence, which meteorologists say shifted south overnight Tuesday, was listed as a Category 3 as of 5 p.m. Wednesday, classifying it as a major hurricane which has the potential to cause significant damage or loss of life, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The storm is now predicted to make a direct hit on the Wilmington and North Myrtle Beach areas, just along the North and South Carolina state line. Florence will likely then travel across South Carolina, though the storm, which is still over 300 miles off the North Carolina coast, could shift again.
With the new predicted path, Davidson County could see differing rainfall amounts. However, as of Wednesday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center was still predicting between six and 10 inches of rain in total over the next week. Significant rainfall increases the risk of flooding, particularly in low-lying areas.
Florence is reported to be more than 400 miles wide, meaning even though the eye may miss our area, the effects will still be significant.
Residents in Thomasville, Denton and parts of northern Davidson County should be especially vigilant for flooding as these areas are known to see high water during past storms.
Officials said Wednesday morning the storm's sustained wind speeds hovered around 120 mph. Tropical-storm-force winds, which are predicted to blow up to about 50 mph in Davidson County, are expected to reach the area by Friday morning. These winds extend outwards of 195 miles from the center of the storm.
The hurricane, which is now expected to make early Saturday, will begin to weaken and slow as it travels across land. The eye of the storm is now predicted to miss Davidson County, but will near central South Carolina by Sunday.
High winds and tornadoes remain a concern. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the strongest winds of a hurricane are focused on the right side of the storm. With Hurricane Florence's projected path, that leaves Davidson County in the at-risk area. Tornadoes are also most common in this area of the storm, according to Dr. Marshall Shepherd, director of the University of Georgia's Atmospheric Sciences Program.
Residents reported on The Dispatch's Facebook page that several stores in the area had run out of essential items like milk, bread and non-perishable foods early this week.
The Walmart on Lowes Boulevard in Lexington was out of milk and non-perishables like ramen noodles and microwaveable macaroni and cheese cups by Tuesday afternoon, while the Walmart on U.S. Highway 64 was shown out of bread by Monday.
The Food Lion on Winston Road received a shipment of water Tuesday and Conrad & Hinkle reported having milk and water still available Tuesday as well. The Food Lion in Tyro was also said to have run out of water on Tuesday, though the store was reportedly expecting a shipment on Wednesday.
Aldi was reported to have plenty of milk and bread remaining, but no water as of Wednesday afternoon.
The CVS on Center Street was reported to have received a water delivery Wednesday afternoon.
Le Blue Water Corporation posted on its Facebook page Tuesday informing area residents that water could be bought directly from their headquarters in Advance if local stores are out of stock. West Davidson residents who are closest to their corporation's headquarters may wish to take advantage of this. Call (336) 998-2894 or go to 3134 Cornatzer Road in Advance to pick up.
Essential supplies in many stores were still running low by late Wednesday afternoon.
Gas supplies were also expected to run low, according to AAA of the Carolinas. Stations in the county had not yet reported fuel shortages by Wednesday morning and gas stations were not seen with long lines at that time. As the storm nears and more residents head to the pump, this may change.
Emergency management officials recommend residents be prepared for up to 72 hours in their homes without power and to pack essentials such as food, water and medications in an emergency kit. Pet owners should purchase extra food and supplies, update collar tags with important information and all outdoor animals should be brought inside. Outdoor furniture and other belongings should be secured or brought inside.
With the declaration of a state of emergency by the governor, North Carolina's price gouging law is in effect. This law prohibits businesses from taking advantage of the storm to raise prices on essential goods, according to a press release from the office of Attorney General Josh Stein. The law will remain in effect until the state of emergency is lifted.
Service providers, including Lexington Utilities, Duke Energy, Energy United and Davidson Water, are preparing for the storm.
Lexington City Manager Alan Carson said city and contract crews will be ready to respond to power outages, but that they won't be able to until the expected tropical-force winds break or weaken.
The city's water and sewer plants each have backup generators, which have been tested and are functioning properly, Carson said. The natural gas pipelines are not a large concern during this storm, Carson said.
Duke said it's bringing in out-of-state crews, checking equipment and securing assistance from other energy companies to assist in restoring power should outages occur. Energy United is making similar preparations.
Davidson Water also issued a statement Wednesday, stating that the company has multiple generators to operate the water treatment plant and critical pump stations in the event of a power outage. The company also asked residents to conserve water before, during and after the storm to limit the strain on the system.
Lexington Utilities customers can report outages on the city's website or by calling (336) 248-2337. The company will strive to provide power outage updates on social media approximately every two hours throughout the storm.
Duke Energy customers can report outages by visiting duke-energy.com, texting "OUT" to 57801 or calling the automated outage reporting system at (800) 769-3766. To view power restoration updates, follow Duke Energy on Twitter (@Duke Energy) or Facebook (Duke Energy).
To report outages in the EnergyUnited service area, call 1 (800) 386-4833.
Davidson County Emergency Management Coordinator Maj. Alton Hanes said that a Coastal Region Evacuation Shelter is a possibility for Davidson County. He explained the state would match Davidson County with a coastal county in need, and those residents would come to Davidson County for shelter. The shelter would be funded by the state. Hanes said officials have identified a shelter in Thomasville if the state requires a Coastal Region Evacuation Shelter.
Hanes said county officials have also identified another shelter for Davidson County residents, if needed.
In addition to possible county shelters, The Light of the World Church, located at 1306 Thomason St., has set up a shelter open to any locals who need a place to stay during the storm. For additional information, call Atalia Cardenas at (336) 596-9205.
More information will be available as emergency departments continue to meet throughout the week. Residents can receive real-times updates and information by signing up for the county's CodeRED alert system at https://public.coderedweb.com/CNE/en-US/BFFFE65DACB9.
Lexington City Schools and Thomasville City Schools officials announced plans to dismiss classes early Thursday and cancel classes Friday. For more information, go to the systems' websites at www.lexcs.org and www.tcs.k12.nc.us .
For updates from Davidson County Schools, visit the district's website at www.davidson.k12.nc.us .
Davidson County Community College had not announced any changes to its schedule by 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Many universities, including N.C. State, UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, UNC Greensboro, High Point University, N.C. Central University and Elon University have also cancelled classes for the end of the week.
The Davidson County Courthouse will be closed on Friday. No other government buildings had announced closings as of Wednesday afternoon.
The Lexington Police Department's Community Watch meetings on Thursday in the North Central and Northside/Hillside neighborhoods have been canceled. The city's Surviving an Active Shooter event on Saturday was also cancelled.
More information about the storm's path and strength will be released as it nears the coast. For the latest updates on Hurricane Florence visit hurricanes.gov.
The Dispatch website will be dropping its paywall through Monday so residents can read all storm updates without restriction. For up-to-date hurricane coverage, check our website or follow our coverage on Twitter using #FlorenceDCNC.


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text:
WORLD CHAMPS PREVIEW: Men's discus and women's shot put
Loop Sports Created : 21 September 2019 Sport
Jamaicas's Fedrick Dacres sits second on the 2019 discus world list with 70.78m.
It's another six days to go before the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, and the excitement continues to build for the much-anticipated 10 days of action.
Leading up to the championships, LOOP SPORTS will roll out previews of events that Jamaica will be involved in.
Day 1 of the race previews began on Friday, September 20 with the men's and women's 4x100m relays.
The second set of previews are below.
MEN'S DISCUS
Only once in IAAF World Championship history has the men's discus required a 70-metre throw to strike gold, but on the evidence of what we have seen so far during a stellar year for the event, a throw beyond this distance could be a necessity to climb the top step of the podium.
Swede Daniel Stahl is the gold medal favourite in the men's discus.
Leading the way has been Daniel Stahl, the stocky Swede who has hurled the discus beyond 70 metres three times this year, led by a mighty world-leading 71.86m – the longest throw in the world for 11 years and a distance which elevated the 27-year-old to equal fourth on the world all-time list.
Stahl has been the world's dominant discus thrower in 2019, winning 12 out 15 competitions including four out of five meets on the IAAF Diamond League circuit.
Leading the opposition will be Fedrick Dacres, who set a Jamaican record of 70.78m to inflict a rare defeat on Stahl at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Rabat in June.
Dacres, who sits second on the 2019 world list, snared the Pan American title in July and has finished top two in 22 of his 23 discus competitions this year.
Among the other contenders, world and European champion Andrius Gudzius should not be discounted. The powerful Lithuanian boasts a season's best of 67.73m and while not quite at his best so far in 2019, given his rich championship pedigree it would be no great surprise to see the 28-year-old feature.
European bronze medallist Lukas Weisshaidinger is another with medal prospects. The Austrian thrower has enjoyed a consistent campaign, boasting four Diamond League podium finishes and a season's best of 68.14m in Rabat.
Norwegian Ola Stunes Isene has made a huge improvement in 2019 and if he can reproduce his lifetime best of 67.78m in Albufeira in Portugal in April then he too can feature in the medal picture.
Competing at his seventh World Championships, three-time medallist Piotr Malachowski is always a danger as the 36-year-old Pole demonstrated when winning at the European Team Championships in Bydgoszcz in August.
Another evergreen performer looking to make his mark is 2011 world bronze medallist Ehsan Hadadi. Aged 34, the Asian champion has a season's best of 67.19m and if the Iranian finds his groove he could also be a factor.
Romania's improving and World University Games silver medallist Alin Alexandru Firfirica (67.32m) could be a dark horse with Jamaica's Traves Smikle (67.57m), the Pan American silver medallist, also competing.
World bronze medallist Mason Finley of the USA is also slated to compete. However, since producing an early season throw of 67.13m, he has struggled to reproduce his best form. US champion Sam Mattis (66.69m) is also entered.
Martin Wierig (66.04m), who was fourth at the 2013 World Championships, leads the three-strong German challenge alongside Olympic champion Christoph Harting (66.01m) and David Wrobel (65.86m).
Also set to take to the discus circle inside the Khalifa International Stadium are Sweden's fourth-place finisher at the 2018 European Championships, Simon Pettersson, and the 2015 world silver and bronze medallists: Philip Milanov of Belgium and Poland's Robert Urbanek.
Chinese star Gong Lijiao is the gold medal favourite in the women's shot put.
After another nearly flawless season, Gong Lijiao arrives primed to successfully defend her title. If she succeeds, the 30-year-old Chinese star will become just the fourth woman to do so in the event.
Gong has won 12 of her 13 competitions in 2019 and has produced the four best throws, capped by her 20.31m effort to win another IAAF Diamond League title, her third straight, in Zurich last month. With a gap of more than 60 centimetres on her nearest competitor, Gong will start as one of the heaviest favourites at these championships. A medal of any kind will be her sixth at the World Championships, a record for the event.
Her only loss came at the hand of rising US star Chase Ealey, who stole Gong's thunder in their 2019 Diamond League debut in Shanghai, where Ealey reached a near-PB 19.58m to beat Gong by 14 centimetres. The 25-year-old blasted on to the scene on 6 April when she threw 19.67m at the Sun Angel Classic in Tempe, Arizona, her first put beyond the 19-metre mark. She went on to throw beyond 19 metres in nine of her next 12 competitions, and improved to 19.68m in Zurich, where she eventually finished second.
Jamaica's Danniel Thomas-Dodd.
World indoor silver medallist Danniel Thomas-Dodd is another solid medal threat. The 26-year-old twice improved her own Jamaican record, first to 19.48m in April and again to 19.55m in August when taking the Pan-American Games title. While improving, she has been less consistent than Ealey.
Behind that trio, the picture is less clear. Five other women have thrown beyond 19 metres outdoors this season, Maggie Ewen, another US thrower on the rise, the most recent. The 25-year-old produced the best throw of her career, 19.48m, to win the US-Europe match on 10 September. But that was the only 19-metre-plus effort of the season for the multi-talented thrower who won NCAA titles in the shot put, discus and hammer during her collegiate career.
Christina Schwanitz, the 2015 world champion, is still showing solid form, and can't be discounted in the chase for podium spots. The 33-year-old German has reached 19.37m this season.
Brittany Crew (19.28m) of Canada, Aliona Dubitskaya (19.21m) and Sweden's Fanny Roos (19.06m) have also breached 19 metres this season but will have to produce breakout performances to be a factor.
Others to watch include Hungary's world indoor champion Anita Marton, European champion Paulina Guba of Poland, and Olympic champion Michelle Carter of the US.
Daniel Stahl
Gong Lijiao
Danniel Thomas-Dodd
WORLD CHAMPS PREVIEW: Men's and women's 4x100m relays
Briana Williams named in World Championships team
Allyson Felix named to US 4x400 relay pool for worlds

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
What to Do if Attacked by A Black Bear? 7 Best Tips
by Dharam nath jha
photo by Enric Cruz López / pexels
Attacks by black bears can be extremely hazardous, and they even occasionally result in death; nonetheless, the likelihood of ever being attacked by a bear is extremely low.
However, we'll learn about what to do if attacked by a black bear in this article.
According to research published in the Journal of Wildlife Management in 2011, only about 63 individuals were murdered by non-captive black bear attacks, and encounters in the United States and Canada combined between the years 1900 and 2009.
To see a mother bear with bear cubs from a range might be thrilling. Still, a bear encounter can quickly become hazardous, particularly if you startle the animal, mistakenly enter its feeding grounds, or go too close to its kids.
The National Park Service of the United States estimates that the likelihood of being wounded by a bear attack while visiting Yellowstone National Park is approximately one in 2.7 million.
However, venturing out into the wilderness requires you to be prepared for the chance of running into wild animals, especially black bears.
1. Do Black Bears Attack Humans?
When confronted by a black bear, it's normal to feel a little uneasy. Black bears aren't typically hostile, though. Black bear attacks are quite uncommon and an attack on a person by a black bear is highly unusual. However, it is not impossible.
According to the findings of a study conducted by The Wildlife Society, there were 59 fatal bear attacks between 1900 and 2009.
To put that into perspective, the possibility of accidentally suffocating yourself with your bedsheets is around one hundred fifty times riskier.
It is of the utmost need to maintain a safe distance when around wild black bears. The course of action will ensure the least amount of risk for both humans and black bears.
More specifically, it is against the law to intentionally approach a black bear within 150 feet or at any distance that causes the black bear attack to occur or to get agitated.
The National Park Service of the United States identifies two distinct categories of black bear attack charges that visitors should be on the lookout for. A bluff charge is the initial type of charge and the most prevalent type.
Bluff Charge
Before deciding whether or not to launch an actual assault, a bear will frequently engage in what is known as a bluff charge.
photo by Pixabay / pexels copyright2022
To give the impression that it is larger than it is, the bear may elevate its head and point its ears upward as it makes a bluff charge. You must remain calm in this situation when the bear approaches.
In order to be defensive, the bear shows signs of vigilance. It usually shows a brief outburst of anger in response to a perceived threat. The likelihood that a bear may act defensively when it becomes aware of its presence increases with your proximity to it.
It might thrash at the ground while blowing or snorting, burst its jaws, or even bluff charge in your direction. The goal of this conduct is to intimidate and drive away the threat. You can tell the bear is telling you to leave because you are getting too close.
Grizzly bears are one of the most lethal animals on earth, however, they never attack unless they are provoked or caught off guard.
The grizzly bear may charge at you while utilizing its front paws, but it will either veer off to the side or stop before the bear attacks. It may growl or maybe flee at this moment.
It is highly recommended that you should not flee the scene during the bluff charge. The bear may backward attack if you continue in this manner.
Instead, you should maintain your position, speak to the bear in a quiet voice, and wave your arms over your head to make yourself appear larger and assist the bear in understanding that you are a human, another option could be to leave your pack on and play dead.
Playing dead, may not seem easy at first, but one can try with your hands clasped behind your neck, and lying flat on the stomach. To make it more difficult for the bear to turn you over, spread your legs wide. Until the bear moves away, keep still.
If the bear pauses or walks backward, move away from it cautiously while ensuring that you can maintain a clear line of sight on the animal until it leaves the area or you reach a place of safety.
Aggressive Charge
When a bear charges aggressively, it almost always signifies that it is about to attack.
An aggressive charge is the second type of bear charge that can occur. This takes place most frequently when a bear is under pressure and has the perception that it needs to attack to defend either itself or its young.
Charges that are aggressive are quite hazardous. When a bear exhibits these actions, it is likely stressed out and preparing to charge. The bear will approach you like a freight train with its head lowered and ears pointed back. Prepare to defend and protect oneself.
When a bear is getting ready to make an aggressive charge, it will spread its mouth wide open, yawn, or clench its teeth together or huff while pounding the ground with its front paws. These behaviors are warning indicators.
When a black bear attacks, its ears, and head may be lowered during an explosive charge, displaying an aggressive posture. If you happen to be carrying bear spray with you, this would be a good moment to use it.
When a grizzly bear attacks and charges at you aggressively, it will almost always make contact with you or attempt to harm you in some way physically.
2. What to Do if Attacked by A Black Bear?
You may stay safe and feel at ease by understanding how to act around bears and how uncommon bear attacks are.
A native Minnesota black bear, while being a massive and muscular animal, is typically timid and afraid of people, even the bears who are often two to three times heavier than the average person.
2.1. Pre-planned itinerary
A pre-determined hiking itinerary drawn out on maps based on recognized trails and likely camping places is the greatest approach to prevent interactions with most bears while out in the wilderness.
Always remember to check with the local visitor center or backcountry office as soon as you arrive in a National Park or State Park to obtain the most up-to-date information on bear safety and recommendations on where to hike and where to set up camps.
Stay on designated hiking trails, never approach a bear to take its picture, and under no circumstances should you ever attempt to feed a bear.
However, nothing ensures complete protection from bears. Therefore, one needs to keep in mind other tips and strategies to use if faced by any bear- be it a black bear, grizzly or brown bear.
photo by Ibrahim ALbrdawil / pexels copyright 2022
2.2. Do Not Run
The most important thing, one should pay attention to is fighting your instinct. No matter, how much you've read or listened to but if you come across a bear, it is obvious to fall prey to the temptation to flee.
However, here comes your strong will to NOT RUN AWAY. Therefore the most important thing to remember is to resist the temptation to flee, regardless of whether or not the bear is aware of your presence.
The majority of black bear species can reach a speed of up to 30 miles per hour. They can cover 100 meters in approximately seven seconds, making them significantly quicker than the best Olympic sprinters in the world. Hence, running might be the most illogical move in the situation.
Additionally, If you run, you may arouse the bear's natural drive to hunt, leading it to pursue you to protect itself from potential danger. This is especially true if the bear is still young.
Also, If the bear has not yet spotted you, try to remain hidden as much as you can and make every effort to move in such a way as to portray yourself moving downwind. This is an effective technique to avoid being sighted by the bear.
This will also help to prevent the bear from smelling your scent or any food that you may be carrying. In case of a bear approaches you, you must get rid of any eatables. you should throw away your packs as far as possible from you to divert the bear.
Then, you should get out of there as quickly as possible, even if it means you have to change your route.
2.3. Make Loud Noises
If a black bear attacks or is aware of your presence, you should talk to it in a loud and steady tone. While doing this, wave your arms above your head.
Try to appear as big as possible without making any sudden movements and stand your ground. This will help you appear more intimidating and the bear might feel threatened.
Black bears like to escape than battle. Black bears usually flee if you act threateningly by swinging your arms, yelling, shouting, and making yourself large.
Making loud noises threatens black bears and makes them turn away. However, this is not the same for grizzly or brown bears.
2.4. Play Dead
During an encounter with a grizzly or brown bear, never try to be loud and come out as strong and massive.
On the contrary, if grizzly or brown bear attacks, playing dead is a great idea. Try to play dead and do not fight back.
You're attempting to persuade the bear that you are not a threat to it or its cubs by remaining still and making no noise. The bear can still be nearby if you stand up soon away. Wait until you are certain the bear has left for a few minutes.
2.5. Avoid Eye Contact
By: Viculia/Depositphotos
Avoid making direct eye contact with black bears, as they will take it as an act of aggression. Avoid looking at the bear's face since this could incite them to attack, but also keep an eye on them to see what behavior it displays next and wait till the bear leaves.
The grizzly bear may quickly flee just like the brown bear, but it is also possible to stare at you and then continue with whatever it was doing before. Alternatively, it might come up to you.
Nonetheless, you should avoid eye contact with them as well.
2.6. Make Sure the Kids and The Pets Are Safe
Gather any small children you see into your arms so you can prevent the possibility of them running, screaming, or crying out loud, as it might provoke the bear's attention.
Also, make sure that every pet- dogs, etc. are kept on a leash at all times.
2.7. Back Away Slowly
Stay calm. You should back away gently while keeping your eyes on the grizzly bears, but you should make every effort to avoid making direct eye contact with them.
You should never turn your back on the bear for two reasons: one so that you don't lose track of what it's doing, and second, you don't set off its Pursue reflex.
If the bear gets scared and flies away, you should follow a perpendicular path to the one it traveled. Get out of there if you don't want to run into more trouble.
Stop moving and maintain your position if the bear moves closer to you. Maintain your composure and watch the bear closely for any hints about its state of mind or intentions.
2.8. Do not climb up a tree
Another myth set in our minds because of childhood stories is to climb a tree during a bear encounter. However, this could be dangerous in real-life situations. Since bears are excellent climbers, you can not outclimb a bear.
2.9. Put up A Fight
Fight back with all your force if a black bear charges against you. Do not play dead; use bear spray, boulders, branches, and direct kicks and punches at the bear's face to defend yourself.
Fight back if a bear attacks you inside your tent or if it sneaks up on you while you're hiking and then the bear attacks you.
This type of attack occurs relatively infrequently. Still, it can have significant consequences because it almost always indicates that the bear is searching for food and views you as potential prey.
Suppose you are out hiking and come across grizzly bears. In that case, you must contact a park ranger or another official working for a land agency as quickly as possible to assist in the prevention of other hikers coming into contact with bears.
A grizzly or brown bear attack normally becomes worse if you fight back, but if the attack keeps happening, fight back with all that you've got.
2.10. Bear Spray (Pepper Spray)
When venturing into the backcountry, it's good to bring along some bear pepper spray just in case or for the worst. It is a defensive weapon to use during the attack mode that can stop an aggressive bear that is charging toward or attacking the user.
If growing big or staying calm doesn't help, grab the pepper spray. This can be used against all species of bear.
Before spraying it on the bear, wait until it is 10 meters away, and then immediately leave the location.
Also, at times of danger, one can not get a proper hold of the situation. Therefore, before going on a hike, practice using bear spray so you will be prepared. Use your bear spray correctly.
Bear spray and human pepper spray are not the same things, even though they are used on an aggressor in the same way that mace is used on a person attacking you.
Be sure to go with a product bear country that has been given the go-light by the EPA and is intended to put an end to bears being aggressive. Because it is not a repellent, you should not apply it to any part of your body or your gear.
Check with the visitor center of the national park you intend to visit to see whether or not the use of bear pepper spray is recommended or permitted for the activities you have in mind.
3. What Measures Do People Take if They Get Involved in Bear Encounters?
photo by Janko Ferlic / pexels
A trip to a national park rarely fails to be complete without at least one unforgettable bear sighting. Even while it is a thrilling experience, it is essential to keep in mind that the bears that live in national parks are wild and have the potential to cause harm.
Attacks on people are extremely uncommon, but they often result in serious injuries or even fatalities when they do happen. Their actions might often be difficult to predict. Because every bear and every encounter is different, no one approach can be applied universally to ensure one's safety and work in all circumstances.
Keeping your food and trash in the right places is one of the easiest methods to prevent running into a bear outdoors. Because of their keen sense of smell, bears could be drawn to a campsite by the aroma of food.
All food should be stored inside or in a vehicle. Keep all food and smelly objects together, preferably in an odor-proof container. Ideally, this food will be far from your tent. Food scraps and other smelly items should be disposed of in a garbage container, advised Goldes.
It's also crucial to check the direction of the wind. To prevent their odors from wafting into an area where people are sleeping, all food and foul waste should be kept downwind of your tent. You don't want a bear to pass by your tent on its route to look for the source of the fragrance.
Keep a safe distance from the bears if you wish to observe them wisely. The majority of national parks mandate that you keep at least 200 feet or 300 feet away from bears, though the exact amount will depend on the terrain and the species you are seeing.
You can also prevent a bear attack by traveling in groups and avoiding bear cubs.
Your safety may be contingent on whether or not you successfully calm the bear. The vast majority of run-ins with bears result in no injuries. By adhering to some fundamental standards, the risk of potential harm can be reduced.
Always make sure to check with the nearest visitor center or backcountry office as soon as you reach a national park to obtain the most recent information on how to stay safe around bears.
To read more with us, click here.
black bear attacks
what to do if a black bear attacks
Dharam nath jha


text:
Portraiture in the Legal Profession Volume 7 • Issue 1 • November/December 2020
Portraiture in the Legal Profession
John Robinson Wilkins and the Resources of the Law
Testing the limits of race, law and development, and the American legal profession.
Following in Their Footsteps
What the data says about multigenerational lawyers.
America's Missing Stories
The HistoryMakers's effort to preserve Black leaders' experiences in their own words.
Revealing the Invisible
From the Journals: A Portrait of Eunice Carter.
Barriers Beyond the Bar
Speaker's Corner: A conversation with Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot.
Portraiture in the Legal ProfessionVolume 7 • Issue 1 • November/December 2020Currently Viewing
A conversation with Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
David B. Wilkins, faculty director of the Center on the Legal Profession, recently sat down with Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Emily Hargroves Fisher Research Professor of Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education and the first African American woman in Harvard's history to have an endowed professorship named in her honor, for a conversation on the art and science of portraiture.
David B. Wilkins: Sara, it is such an honor to be interviewing you for "Speaker's Corner." You have been such a friend and an inspiration to me for so many years, and one of the things that I've admired the most about you is your ability to tell the story of our people and of our country and of big concepts like respect or caring or teaching through the lens of deep engagement with individual stories. And, to be very honest, you have been an inspiration not just to me in my own work but in this issue of the magazine where we're trying to connect the personal intergenerational stories of Black lawyers with larger themes.
I'd love to just start this conversation by asking you to talk a little bit about the idea of "portraiture," which you have created and which has developed into a rich and vibrant methodology now being used by scholars and researchers all over the world in many different fields.
There is an intentional focus in portraiture on "goodness." The portraitist is interested in asking what is working, what is strong, what is worthy?
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot: Portraiture is within the realm of qualitative research. It resides within the phenomenological tradition and shares many of the characteristics of ethnography, for example. One of the main things that makes it different from other methods is that it is wedded to science—rigorous empiricism, systematic description, careful attention to detail and context—but it also includes a focus on the aesthetic. Portraiture bridges and balances science and art.
It not only recognizes the tensions that are often there between art and science, between making it accurate and truthful, and making it beautiful and inspiring, but it also recognizes the ways in which science and art need one another in order to closely and deeply examine questions of the human identity, experience, and perspective in a way that captures the specific and the granular, always within a social, cultural, and organizational context.
The other thing that is very important and somewhat different from the whole tradition of social science inquiry is that there is an intentional focus in portraiture on "goodness." That doesn't mean that we idealize or romanticize reality or look at life through rose-colored glasses. So much of social science research tends to be preoccupied with documenting weakness, pathology, and disease. By contrast, the portraitist is interested in asking what is working, what is strong, what is worthy? Although this shift in lens might seem trivial, it makes a big difference in what you will see, what you will focus on, what you will document, how you will interpret the data and shape the narrative. The focus is on goodness in its most complex form. I truly believe that there is a way in which the focus on goodness, in fact, allows us to reveal the weaknesses and imperfections that are always part of any human enterprise.
Another thing that is unique about portraiture is that it hopes to speak to broad and diverse audiences. You are not only addressing your academic colleagues and students—you're seeking to speak to people beyond the walls of the academy, whom you want to invite into the conversation, and who you hope will be able to see themselves reflected in the work. The perspective and experiences of people working in the field can ultimately contribute to good theory building, to breakthroughs in ways of knowing. My work, for instance, is certainly taught in the academy, but it is also meant for whoever picks up the book, finds it interesting, and wants to be engaged by the ideas and insights found in the work. Portraiture hopes to both inform and inspire. It hopes to speak to the heart and the head. My hope is that people reading the portraits will see themselves in the narratives, that they will feel identified with the protagonists and provoked to respond, even act.
Wilkins: That's so helpful and so beautifully said. I'd like you to maybe drill down a little bit on the kinds of questions you ask to try to get at the goodness but also to reveal the broader context. As I read your work, there have been some central questions that have preoccupied you in your inquiries.
Lawrence-Lightfoot: There are always questions about how the protagonist—and I say "protagonist" rather than "subject" because that means people have agency and perspective; they are embodied in the work in an important way. How do they tell their story, where do they begin, what are the kinds of things they talk about, how do they compose their narratives and navigate their life journeys? But I am also interested in recording the silences, the hidden places. And I want to discover both the text and the subtext of their talk.
In telling their stories, people often discover something about their feelings and their perspectives that they never understood before. In the process of doing this work, you're engaging people in a process of discovery, revelation, and insight. As one adolescent said to me several months ago during an interview, surprising himself with his fluency of thought, "Could you stop the tape and could you play it back to me? I never knew I was so smart!"
The conversations around our dinner table often reflected this yin and yang: the individual interior human experience against the backdrop of the structural, institutional, cultural, and historical forces that mold us.
Originally I pioneered portraiture because I wanted to study the culture and character of high schools, research that resulted in my book The Good High School. I had been well trained in quantitative methods. After all, I was originally a mathematics major in college. I loved numbers. I loved the discreet, clear, reliable way of seeing the world and counting things. I had also been trained in ethnography. But, neither of those approaches seemed to be ample enough—complex enough—to document the culture of these high schools. I found these school environments deeply theatrical, and I wanted to find a way to convey that sense of drama. The flatness of so much ethnography on the one hand and the numerical counting of discrete variables on the other just did not capture what I hoped to study.
So, I was trying to invent this way of seeing, interpreting, and recording that would begin to capture the theater, the art, and the science. Initially it was an act of exploration and invention, and it was not supported by my senior colleagues, who warned me, "Don't do this now before you have tenure. It will not be seen as sufficiently rigorous or academically serious." How could a junior scholar possess the audacity to try to invent a new social science methodology?
Wilkins: You talked a little bit about the marriage of art and science, but there's also a deep marriage of the personal and the more observational or theoretical. For me, I encountered this in reading, from my point of view, the most beautiful book that you have written, which I've given to everyone to give to their mothers and to celebrate their mothers, Balm in Gilead. I wonder how you think about taking the idea of something so deeply personal—your own way of seeing the world, which was wrapped up for you in the history of not just your mother but your father and your whole family history—and using that as a lens to speak about these broader structural issues of race and class and gender and history. How do you think about putting those realms together, realms that oftentimes you're told to keep totally separate?
Lawrence-Lightfoot: I often think about my favorite storyteller, Eudora Welty, who always said, "I never begin with the general, always the particular." In the particular resides the general. This is a very different way of thinking about generalization. Artists of all kinds use this perspective in their work. As we get closer and closer to the specific, the particular, we discover the universal human experience. And good storytelling always requires attention to the specific details and context of a person's experience. When we read a story well told, we often discover ourselves in it, even if the narrative takes place in a strange land, very far away.
If I'm interviewing you or if I'm talking to my brother, who is also a law professor, it immediately becomes apparent that you have deeply etched motivations for doing the work that you do—and those motivations are largely related to life stories and even more particularly to family stories.
Another reason I join the personal and the public, the micro and the macro, in my work has even older origins. I grew up in a family with a mother who was a psychoanalyst, a psychiatrist, and a pediatrician who always began stories looking from the inside out, focused on the interior landscape of a person. That's where she landed first, and that's what she was interested in. She was deeply introspective herself, but in her conversations with others, she would always begin by exploring individual perspective and feeling. My father was a sociologist—a macrosociologist and theoretician—who studied structural and historical phenomena, focusing on race, class, gender, and large social and political movements, exploring things from the outside in. So the conversations around our dinner table often reflected this yin and yang: the individual interior human experience against the backdrop of the structural, institutional, cultural, and historical forces that mold us.
How do I create a narrative that reflects the convergence of both these realms? It just seems to come very naturally. I do believe that these private, intimate, deeply probing conversations I had with my mother in Balm in Gilead reveal larger structural issues and expose them in a way that makes them more dynamic and less abstract and much more understandable on a granular level. Portraiture allows for that meeting of two worlds, that crossing of boundaries. I have to also say that my mother was an extraordinary and gifted interviewee. As a psychiatrist, and by temperament, she was deeply introspective and reflective and not afraid to explore ancient feelings of struggle and trauma or trace the origins of her strength and resilience. So Balm in Gilead not only reflects the soul of a relationship between a mother and a daughter, it is also, interestingly, a conversation between Margaret, the psychiatrist, and Sara, the sociologist.
The preparation and training of lawyers needs to be more humanistic, supporting an environment of teaching and learning that allows students to express their whole selves, their gifts, their life stories in preparation for their work as advocates and justice seekers.
Wilkins: In describing your parents, in addition to their personal histories and their social context, you also emphasize their professional identities. I wonder how you think that aspect fits in. I'm particularly interested, of course, in the professional background of lawyers. I know that you have painted portraits of several other lawyers in your writings, so I wonder if you have anything that you've learned around professional identity generally, but also in particular, around lawyers' professional identity, as you do this work.
Lawrence-Lightfoot: There's always a life story that is deeply embedded in people's chosen professional identity. I prefer to call it "work identity." But one of the things that often happens in professional training of all kinds—whether it be a lawyer, a doctor, or a teacher—is that we tend to diminish or submerge our life stories. We might forget, for instance, to use our life experiences as a catalyst for shaping our work, doing our research, or writing, as part of our pedagogy if we're teaching or as an anchor for our care and empathy if we're doctors. Those connections between work identity and autobiography are compelling. If I'm interviewing you or if I'm talking to my brother, who is also a law professor, it immediately becomes apparent that you have deeply etched motivations for doing the work that you do—and those motivations are largely related to life stories and even more particularly to family stories. Where does this passion, this insight, this intention, this intelligence in the work come from? How has it grown up in you and given your professional identity shape?
Your piece on your uncle John Robinson Wilkins does not come out of the blue. It's very much part of a long, enduring, and deeply rooted family story. So, part of understanding yourself and part of doing your work well is learning about and exploring that particular story. It's particularly important for people who are teachers because we are guiding and shaping new generations of professionals.
From my point of view, the preparation and training of lawyers needs to be more humanistic, supporting an environment of teaching and learning that allows students to express their whole selves, their gifts, their life stories in preparation for their work as advocates and justice seekers.
Wilkins: You and I were recently talking about some of the difficulties in this time of COVID—of being home, of loneliness, of dealing with death, of social unrest and protest. Many of the people reading this are experiencing similar things. I wonder what you might say to them about how to try to claim the beauty and the voice and the narrative in their own lives in these challenging times.
Lawrence-Lightfoot: Let's begin with this: those of us who have work that consumes us, who are living in homes that shelter us with refrigerators that are full of food, must recognize that we are privileged and fortunate people. Part of seeing the beauty is recognizing how fortunate we are to be able to enjoy this abundance. During these anxious and difficult times, I have tried to develop a discipline of seeing the beauty around me. The other day I was feeling as low as I have ever felt. I was changing sheets on my bed, feeling just generally wiped out and too focused on these quotidian tasks that seem to be overtaking my life. I decided to put a gorgeous bedspread and lovely pillows on my bed and sit down for a moment to gaze at all of the beauty around me. I wanted to remember all of the stories and experiences that were reflected in my surroundings. I wanted to count my blessings. I was deep into this meditation when I heard some footsteps on the stairs. The only footsteps that sound like that are my son's, and they sounded exactly the same way when he was 12. He's 36 years old now and he'd come in just for a brief visit, popped in, and I thought, again, "There's a blessing." This is a whole kind of experience of mothering this child who's no longer 12, who's 36, who's grown into a fine man. And he came in my room and immediately said, "Oh, Mom, this is a beautiful place. You're surrounded by beautiful things." There is a way of meditating on that which is good.
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot is the Emily Hargroves Fisher Research Professor of Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education and the first African American woman in Harvard's history to have an endowed professorship named in her honor.
David B. Wilkins is the Lester Kissel Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, vice dean for Global Initiatives on the Legal Profession, and faculty director of the Center on the Legal Profession.


This is, what bugs me most about my sparkcube: The hotend isn't easy to reach. Don't get me wrong, the coreXY-system is great, but it's impractical to mount the hotend underneath the carriage, like the sparkcube does. So I did something about it, I invented a magnetic hotend changer for the standard groove-mount.
Pico-ATX-powersupplies want to be cooled. If getting too warm, the pc will just go off.
To mount a fan above the PSU, I designed a mount to fit into the RAM-slot nearby.


Hearing aids for Buckinghamshire at the Chalfont Hearing Centre. We pride ourselves on being at the vanguard of hearing technology here at the Chalfont hearing centre. Leon Cox the lead audiologist is a first class audiologist who keeps up today with the new tech that comes out constantly. Today we are looking at the recently announced Phonak Marvel. For those who don't know what this product is here is a sample from their Press release.
See the rest of the info on the Phonak Marvel product bellow.
New hearing aids are being launched al the time. Here at the Chalfont hearing centre, We keep an eye on what is new and what is exciting to report back. Today we are telling you of a very exciting new addition to the Starkey hearing aid line up for 2018.
Starkey® Hearing Technologies is said to have "reinvented both the hearing experience and the hearing aid" with Livio AI. Livio AI is reportedly "the world's first" Healthable™ hearing aid to utilize integrated sensors and artificial intelligence and the first device to track physical activity and cognitive health as measured by hearing aid use in social situations, Starkey announced.
The launch also includes a brand-new mobile app—Thrive™ Hearing—and three new wireless accessories, the Starkey Hearing Technologies TV, the Remote, and the Remote Microphone +. With the Remote Micorophone+, Livio AI is also the first hearing aid to feature Amazon® Alexa connectivity.
According to Starkey, the new Hearing Reality™ technology is said to provide an average 50% reduction in noisy environments, significant reduced listening effort, and newly enhanced clarity of speech, while the use of artificial intelligence and integrated sensors enables it to help optimize the hearing experience.
Designed to help users live their healthiest life, Livio AI is available as a RIC 312 and BTE 13 in a variety of colors. In addition to the above features, Livio AI also includes Starkey's feedback cancellation, high-definition music prescription, Multiflex Tinnitus Technology, and Surface™ NanoShield pioneering water, wax, and moisture repellant system to help protect and ensure durability and dependability.
This technology may allow people to take a proactive and personal approach to treating hearing loss, which has been linked to various health issues including dementia, cognitive decline, anxiety, stress, social isolation, and an increased risk of falling.
Livio AI is reportedly the first device utilizing the ears to help users better understand not only how to improve their overall health and wellness, but also the deep connection between treating hearing loss and reducing health risks. This helps to improve key areas of wellbeing by reconnecting users to the people, places, and activities they love.
Livio AI is available in the United States and Canada at this time, with a global rollout to more than 20 countries in 2019. For more information about Livio AI hearing aids, the Thrive mobile app, and new Starkey Hearing Technologies accessories, visit www.starkey.com.
Also see Hearing Review's follow-up article detailing Starkey's launch of Livio AI.
Unitron announced the release of its latest hearing instrument, Moxi ALL.
Like all hearing instruments driven by the Tempus™ platform, Moxi ALL was designed around the company's core philosophy of putting consumer needs at the forefront. The new hearing solution is designed to deliver "amazing sound quality," according to Unitron, and advanced binaural performance features that help consumers hear their best in all of life's conversations, including those on mobile phones.
After powering up overnight, a rechargeable battery is designed to help "keep them in the conversation" for up to 16 hours, including two hours of mobile phone use and five hours of TV streaming. Plus, consumers never have to worry if they forget to charge because they have the flexibility to swap in traditional batteries at any time.
Consumers can take home Moxi ALL hearing instruments to try before they buy with FLEX:TRIAL™.
As the latest addition to the FLEX ecosystem, Moxi ALL is proof of Unitron's ongoing commitment to putting consumers at the center of its mission to provide the most personalized experience on the market when it comes to choosing hearing instruments.
Want to know what A.I. Hell is like?
How about interacting with a machine that repeatedly professes stupefaction when you just know it should know what you're talking about?
I was excited when I heard last fall that Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google's new wireless ear pieces would perform a kind of "real time" translation of languages, as it was billed.
The ear pieces, "Pixel Buds," which arrived in the mail the other day, turn out to be rather limited and somewhat frustrating.
They are in a sense just a new way to be annoyed by the shortcomings of Google's A.I., Google Assistant.
The devices were unveiled at Google's "Made By Google" hardware press conference in early October, where it debuted its new Pixel 2 smartphone, which I've positively reviewed in this space, and its new "mini" version of the "Google Home" appliance.
The Buds retail for $159 and can be ordered from Google's online store.
Getting the things to pair with the Pixel 2 Plus that I use was problematic at first, but eventually succeeded after a series of attempts. I've noticed some similar issues with other Bluetooth-based devices, so I soldiered on and got it to work.
The sound quality and the fit is fine. The device is very lightweight, and the tether that connects the two ear pieces — they are not completely wireless like Apple's (AAPL) AirPods — snakes around the back of one's neck and is not uncomfortable.
The adjustable loops on each ear piece made the buds fit in my ears comfortably and stay there while I moved around. So, good job, Google, on industrial design.
One has to first install Google Translate, an application from Google of which I'm generally a big fan. Google supports translation in the app of 40 languages initially.
You invoke the app by putting your finger to the touch-sensitive spot on the right ear piece and saying something like, "Help me to speak Greek." When you lift your finger, it invokes the Google Assistant on the Pixel 2 phone, who tells you in the default female voice that she will launch the Translate app.
Several times, however, the assistant told me she had no idea how to help. Sometimes she understood the request the second time around. It seemed to be hit or miss whether my command was understood or was valid. On a number of other occasions, she told me she couldn't yet help with a particular language, even though the language was among the 40 offered. It seemed like more common languages, such as French and Spanish, elicited little protest. But asking for, say, the Georgian language to be translated stumped her, even though Georgian is in the set of supported tongues.
When it does work, the process of translating is a little underwhelming. The app launches, and you touch the right ear piece's touch-sensitive area, and speak your phrase in your native language. As you're speaking, Google Translate is turning that into transcribed text on the screen, in the foreign script. When you are fully done speaking, the entire phrase is played back in the foreign language through the phone's speaker for your interlocutor to hear. That person can then press an icon in the Translate app and speak to you in their native tongue, and their phrase is played for you, translated, through your ear piece.
Even this doesn't always go smoothly. Sometimes, after asking for help with one language, the Google Assistant would launch the Translate app and the app would be stuck on the previously used language. At other times, it was just fine. In the worst instances, the application would tell me it was having audio issues when I would tap the ear piece to speak, requiring me to kill the app and start again.
This is all rather cumbersome.
I went and tried Translate on my iPhone 7 Plus, using Apple's AirPods, and had pretty much an equivalent experience, with somewhat less frustration. All I had to do was to double-tap the AirPods and say, "Launch Google Translate," and then continue from there as normal. It's slightly more limited in that the iPhone's speaker is not playing back the translation for my interlocutor; that plays through the AirPods. But on the flip side, it's actually a little easier to use the app because one can maintain a kind of "open mic" by pressing the microphone icon. The app will then continuously listen for whichever language is spoken, translating back and forth between the two constantly, rather than having to tell it at each turn who's speaking.
All in all, then, Pixel Buds are just a fancy interface to Google Translate, which doesn't seem to me revolutionary, and is rather less than what I'd hoped for, and very kludgy. It's a shame, because I like Google Translate, and I like the whole premise of this enterprise.
At any rate, back to school, Google, keep learning.


text:
Q: How can I target Windows 98? I have a pressing need to develop an application for Windows 98, and do not have the option of using a different operating system. In this day and age, is there any modern SDK that I can use to develop the application? What would be awesome, is if there was some way to target Windows 98 from Visual Studio 2015 but as far as I know there is no way of doing this.
Can I write and compile an application for Windows 98 using Visual Studio 2015? If not, then what is my next best option?

A: I assume you are writing native code: Windows 98 uses the Win32-API, like XP and modern Windows versions too. Some things are different, e.g. APIs like VirtualAllocEx() are missing. If you avoid these APIs (https://msdn.microsoft.com has a minimum requirements section for each API) and write native code, your program should run on Windows 98 too. If you have problems with Visual Studio, you can use good old gcc and an IDE like Eclipse, Code::Blocks, etc. Just make sure you don't compile it for the 64-bit plattform. Otherwise you will get a PE+ binary which won't run on Windows 98.
EDIT:
According to the discussion in the comment sections a few updates: Although a PE for 32-Bit (compiled on a modern Windows box) is compatible to Windows 98, there might be problems with Visual Studio due to its runtime library. As an alternative, you could try to

*

*compile without runtime

*use MingW as it uses msvcrt.dll

Nevertheless, it is still tricky to check which Windows version supports certain APIs due to updates in the MSDN. An older copy of the MSDN could help at this point.

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