The Chron today ran a story about a bear cub that was killed because it was begging for food by coming up to tourists and hugging them. The bear had apparently learned this technique from its mother, and, having great success getting food this way, lost its natural fear of humans. The bear had to be killed because, having grown impatient with the hugging, it swatted at an 11-year-old Boy Scout to get the food in his knapsack (Always Be Prepared, I suppose).

People, don't feed bears. Haven't you seen the pictures hanging in Yosemite's Curry Village of the damage they can do to your car? Plus, you could die and be eaten. That's no good.

You kind of have to applaud the ingeniousness of a hugging bear, though. It's kind of like the new Badly Drawn Boy video for "The Year of the Rat."