BATON ROUGE, Louisiana: A raccoon fell through the ceiling into a packed dining hall at Louisiana State University as students screamed and a cook tried to catch it in a basket.
Freshman Danielle Gipson told The Reveille student newspaper that everyone was standing up and looking around for a raccoon when she went into the 459 Dining Hall for dinner Wednesday.
“I went and still got my food because I thought that it was fake,” she said. “The raccoon then ran underneath my table and I immediately got on top of the chair.”
One video posted with the article showed the raccoon running between tables, then climbing onto a chair and looking around. Another shows people chasing it with a broom and a stick or perhaps two brooms. Screams are all that can be heard on either.
Gipson says she lost her appetite when friends told her the raccoon had been on top of her bag while she was gone.
“I am just scared that my bag has a disease,” she said. “Right now it’s funny to look back at, but at the moment, I was traumatized. My appetite is definitely gone.”
One of her friends, freshman Hannah Accius, said students got the raccoon into an area where it couldn’t run out.
“The raccoon was making its way toward me. It stopped and climbed onto my friend Danielle’s bag. Animal Control finally came and tried to catch it in a trash can. A cook even tried to use a basket to catch it. It was a mess,” she said.
Eventually, she said, it was caught.
Raccoon falls through ceiling into packed university dining hall
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Raccoon falls through ceiling into packed university dining hall
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Schools are competing with cell phones. Here’s how they think they could win
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Isabella Pires first noticed what she calls the “gradual apathy pandemic” in eighth grade. Only a handful of classmates registered for service projects she helped organize at her Massachusetts school. Even fewer actually showed up.
When she got to high school last fall, Isabella found the problem was even worse: a lackluster Spirit Week and classes where students seldom spoke.
In some ways, it’s as if students “just care less and less about what people think, but also somehow care more,” said Isabella, 14. Some teens, she said, no longer care about appearing disengaged, while others are so afraid of ridicule they keep to themselves. She blames social media and the lingering isolation of the post-COVID era.
Educators say their tried and true lesson plans are no longer enough to keep students engaged at a time of struggling mental health, shortened attention spans, reduced attendance and worsening academic performance. At the crux of these challenges? Addiction to cell phones. Now, adults are trying new strategies to reverse the malaise.
Cell phone bans are gaining traction, but many say they’re not enough. They argue for alternative stimulation: steering students outdoors or toward extracurriculars to fill time they might otherwise spend alone online. And students need outlets, they say, to speak about taboo topics without fear of being ” canceled ” on social media.
“To get students engaged now, you have to be very, very creative,” said Wilbur Higgins, lead English teacher at Dartmouth High School, where Isabella will be a sophomore this fall.
Lock them up
Cell phone pouches, lockers and bins have grown in popularity to help enforce device bans.
John Nguyen, a chemistry teacher in California, invented a pouch system because he was so distressed by bullying and fights on phones during class, often without adults interfering. Many teachers are afraid to confront students using phones during lessons, Nguyen said, and others have given up trying to stop it.
At Nguyen’s school, students lock their phones in neoprene pouches during classes or even all day. A teacher or principal’s magnetic key unlocks the pouches.
It doesn’t matter how dynamic the lesson, said Nguyen, who teaches at Marina Valley High School and now markets the pouches to other schools. “There’s nothing that can compete with the cell phone.”
Do something (else)
Some schools are locking up smartwatches and wireless headphones, too. But the pouches don’t work once the final bell rings.
So in Spokane, Washington, schools are ramping up extracurriculars to compete with phones after hours.
An initiative launching this month, ” Engage IRL ” — in real life — aims to give every student something to look forward to after the school-day grind, whether it’s a sport, performing arts or a club.
“Isolating in your home every day after school for hours on end on a personal device has become normalized,” Superintendent Adam Swinyard said.
Students can create clubs around interests like board games and knitting or partake in neighborhood basketball leagues. Teachers will help students make a plan to get involved during back-to-school conferences, the district says.
“From 3 to 5:30 you are in a club, you’re in a sport, you’re at an activity,” instead of on a phone, Swinyard said. (The district has a new ban on phones during class, but will allow them after school.)
At a time of high absenteeism, he also hopes the activities will be the extra push some students need to attend school. In a Gallup poll conducted last November, only 48 percent of middle or high school students said they felt motivated to go to school, and only 52 percent felt they did something interesting every day. The poll was funded by the Walton Family Foundation, which also supports environmental journalism at AP.
Vivian Mead, a rising senior in Spokane, said having more after-school activities helps but won’t work for everyone. “There’s definitely still some people who just want to be alone, listen to their music, do their own thing, or, like, be on their phone,” said Vivian, 17.
Her 15-year-old sister, Alexandra, said morning advisory sessions have improved participation in the drama club that keeps the sisters busy. “It forces everyone, even if they don’t want to get involved, to have to try something, and maybe that clicks,” she said.
Get outside
Thirteen middle schools in Maine adopted a similar approach, bringing students outdoors for 35,000 total hours during a chosen week in May.
It’s empowering for students to connect with each other in nature, away from screens, said Tim Pearson, a physical education and health teacher. His students at Dedham School participated in the statewide “Life Happens Outside” challenge.
Teachers adapted their lessons to be taught outdoors, and students bonded in the open air during lunch and recess. At night, about half of Dedham’s students camped, incentivized by a pizza party. Several students told Pearson they camped out again after the challenge.
“Whether they had phones with them or not, they’re building fires, they’re putting up their tents,” Pearson said. “They’re doing things outside that obviously are not on social media or texting.”
Plea to parents
Parents must also make changes to their family’s cell phone culture, some teachers say. At home, Ohio teacher Aaron Taylor bars cellular devices when his own children have friends over.
And when kids are at school, parents shouldn’t distract them with check-in texts throughout the day, he said.
“Students are so tied to their families,” said Taylor, who teaches at Westerville North High School, near Columbus. “There’s this anxiety of not being able to contact them, rather than appreciating the freedom of being alone for eight hours or with your friends.”
Fight fears of being ‘canceled’
Some say other forces behind teen disengagement are only amplified by the cell phone. The divisive political climate often makes students unwilling to participate in class, when anything they say can rocket around the school in a messaging app.
Taylor’s high school English students tell him they don’t talk in class because they don’t want to be ” canceled ” — a term applied to public figures who are silenced or boycotted after offensive opinions or speech.
“I’m like, ‘Well, who’s canceling you? And why would you be canceled? We’re talking about `The Great Gatsby,’” not some controversial political topic, he said.
Students “get very, very quiet” when topics such as sexuality, gender or politics come up in novels, said Higgins, the Massachusetts English teacher. “Eight years ago, you had hands shooting up all over the place. Nobody wants to be labeled a certain way anymore or to be ridiculed or to be called out for politics.”
So Higgins uses websites such as Parlay that allow students to have online discussions anonymously. The services are expensive, but Higgins believes the class engagement is worth it.
“I can see who they are when they’re responding to questions and things, but other students can’t see,” Higgins said. “That can be very, very powerful.”
Alarmed at her peers’ disengagement, Isabella, Higgins’ student, wrote an opinion piece in her school’s newspaper.
“Preventing future generations from joining this same downward cycle is up to us,” she wrote.
A comment on the post highlighted the challenge, and what’s at stake.
“All in all,” the commenter wrote, “why should we care?”
This bird species was extinct in Europe. Now it’s back, and humans must help it migrate for winter
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- The feat moved the species from a “critically endangered” classification to “endangered” and, Fritz says, is the first attempt to reintroduce a continentally extinct migratory bird species
PATERZELL, Germany: How do you teach a bird how, and where, to fly?
The distinctive Northern Bald Ibis, hunted essentially to extinction by the 17th century, was revived by breeding and rewilding efforts over the last two decades. But the birds — known for their distinctive black-and-iridescent green plumage, bald red head and long curved beak — don’t instinctively know which direction to fly to migrate without the guidance of wild-born elders. So a team of scientists and conservationists stepped in as foster parents and flight instructors.
“We have to teach them the migration route,” said biologist Johannes Fritz.
The Northern Bald Ibis once soared over North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and much of Europe, including southern Germany’s Bavaria. The migratory birds were also considered a delicacy and the bird, known as the Waldrapp in German, disappeared from Europe, though a few colonies elsewhere survived.
The efforts of Fritz and the Waldrappteam, a conservation and research group based in Austria, brought the Central European population from zero to almost 300 since the start of their project in 2002.
The feat moved the species from a “critically endangered” classification to “endangered” and, Fritz says, is the first attempt to reintroduce a continentally extinct migratory bird species.
But while Northern Bald Ibises still display the natural urge to migrate, they don’t know which direction to fly without the guidance of wild-born elders. The Waldrappteam’s early reintroduction attempts were largely unsuccessful because, without teaching the birds the migration route, most disappeared soon after release. Instead of returning to suitable wintering grounds such as Tuscany, Italy, they flew in different directions and ultimately died.
So the Waldrappteam stepped in as foster parents and flight instructors for the Central European population, which was made up of descendants from multiple zoo colonies and released into the wild in the hopes of creating a migratory group. This year marks the 17th journey with human-led migration guides, and the second time they’ve been forced to pilot a new route to Spain due to climate change.
To prepare them for travel, the chicks are removed from their breeding colonies when they are just a few days old. They are taken to an aviary that’s overseen by the foster parents in the hopes of “imprinting” — when the birds will bond with those humans to ultimately trust them along the migration route.
Barbara Steininger, a Waldrapp team foster mother, said she acts like “their bird mom.”
“We feed them, we clean them, we clean their nests. We take good care of them and see that they are healthy birds,” she said. “But also we interact with them.”
Steininger and the other foster parents then sit on the back of a microlight aircraft, waving and shouting encouragement through a bullhorn as it flies through the air.
It’s a bizarre scene: The aircraft looks like a flying go-kart with a giant fan on the back and a yellow parachute keeping it aloft. Still, three dozen birds follow the contraption, piloted by Fritz, as it sails over alpine meadows and foothills.
Fritz was inspired by “Father Goose” Bill Lishman, a naturalist who taught Canadian geese to fly alongside his ultra-light plane beginning in 1988. He later guided endangered whooping cranes through safe routes and founded the nonprofit “Operation Migration.” Lishman’s work prompted the 1996 movie “Fly Away Home” but features a young girl as the geese’s “mother.”
Like Lishman, Fritz and his team’s efforts have worked. The first bird independently migrated back to Bavaria in 2011 from Tuscany. More have flown the route that’s upwards of 550 kilometers (342 miles) each year, and the team hopes the Central European population will be more than 350 birds by 2028 and become self-sustaining.
But the effects of climate change mean the Waldrapp are migrating later in the season now, which forces them to cross the Alps in colder, more dangerous weather — without the aid of warm currents of air, known as thermals, that rise upward and help the birds soar without expending extra energy.
In response, the Waldrappteam piloted a new route in 2023, from Bavaria to Andalusia in southern Spain.
This year, the route is roughly 2,800 kilometers (1,740 miles) — some 300 kilometers (186 miles) longer than last year’s path. Earlier this month from an airfield in Paterzell, in upper Bavaria, the team guided 36 birds along one stage through bright blue skies and a tailwind that increased their speed.
The entire journey to Spain could take up to 50 days and end in early October. But Fritz says the effort is bigger than just the Northern Bald Ibises: It’s about paving the way for other threatened migratory species to fly.
Paralympics tickets popular with Parisians who snubbed the Olympics
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- In July, Parisians had left the city in droves ahead of the Olympics as they feared the disturbance and traffic problems many thought the Games would bring
PARIS: Parisians are the main buyers of tickets for the Paralympic Games, organizers said, rushing to grab a second opportunity to see competitions in some of the Games’ spectacular venues, after many chose to snub the Olympics or missed out on tickets.
In July, Parisians had left the city in droves ahead of the Olympics, with entire neighborhoods turned eerily quiet as residents decamped as they feared the disturbance and traffic problems many thought the Games would bring.
But the Games turned out to be a global success. The Paralympics will allow them to see Olympic sports in the same venues, including at the feet of the Eiffel Tower or in the gardens of the Versailles castle outside Paris.
Organizers said that of the more than 1.75 million tickets already sold ahead of the Aug. 28 start of the Paralympics, 92 percent came from French buyers, with buyers from the Ile-de-France region around Paris taking the lion’s share of 73 percent.
Parisian Mathieu Bucella is set to boost these numbers a little further.
“I’m seriously thinking about it because I’m a bit annoyed that I didn’t think of getting tickets for the (Olympic) Games, so this is my second chance,” he said.
Organizers said several sessions were nearly sold out already, notably wheelchair fencing and para taekwondo in Grand Palais, para track cycling in Saint Quentin, para equestrian in Chateau de Versailles and blind football at Champ de Mars.
“We were watching the Olympic Games on TV, but after that you get that gut feeling that you want to come and see everything with your own eyes,” Mexican tourist Arlet Haro said.
US tourist Asad Rahman said he was glad to have come to Paris for the Paralympics.
“Things are a little bit more open than what we heard with the Olympics, where they closed off some areas. So it works out, as a tourist,” he said by the Eiffel Tower, where workers were converting the beach volleyball pitch into a blind football pitch.
Heavy security during the Olympics made movement across the city center difficult as many key thoroughfares were blocked.
The Paralympics will run until Sept. 8.
The twins are here! A second set of giant panda cubs has arrived in Berlin
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- The cubs are tiny, weighing just 169 grams and 136 grams respectively
BERLIN: Berlin Zoo announced Friday that longtime resident giant panda Meng Meng has given birth to twins — for a second time.
The cubs were born on Thursday and are doing well, the zoo said in a statement. They were born only 11 days after ultrasound scans showed that Meng Meng, 11, was pregnant. Their sex has not yet been determined “with certainty.”
“Now it’s time to keep your fingers crossed for the critical first few days,” the zoo said. The cubs are tiny, weighing just 169 grams and 136 grams (about 6 ounces and 4.8 ounces) respectively, and are about 14 centimeters (5.5 inches) long.
As with other large bears, giant pandas are born deaf, blind and pink. Their black-and-white panda markings only develop later.
Meng Meng and male panda Jiao Qing arrived in Berlin in 2017. In August 2019, Meng Meng gave birth to Pit and Paule, also known by the Chinese names Meng Xiang and Meng Yuan, the first giant pandas born in Germany.
The twins were a star attraction in Berlin, but they were flown to China in December — a trip that was contractually agreed from the start but delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. China gifted friendly nations with its unofficial mascot for decades as part of a “panda diplomacy″ policy. The country now loans pandas to zoos on commercial terms.
Giant pandas have difficulty breeding and births are particularly welcomed. There are about 1,800 pandas living in the wild in China and a few hundred in captivity worldwide.
Meng Meng was artificially inseminated in March. The zoo noted that female pandas are only fertile for about 72 hours per year.
How do you pronounce Kamala? Her grandnieces explain at the DNC
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WASHINGTON: The final night of the Democratic National Convention included a tutorial on pronouncing Kamala Harris’ name — featuring none other than the candidate’s great nieces.
The actress Kerry Washington introduced the girls by saying “it’s come to my attention that there are some folks who struggle — or pretend to struggle — with the proper pronunciation of our future president’s name.”
She added, “Confusion is understandable. Disrespect is not. So tonight we are going to help everyone get it right.”
Out came Amara, 8, in a pink pant suit and Leela, 6, in a light blue frilly dress. They’re the daughters of Harris’ niece Meena Harris.
“First you say ‘comma’ like the comma in a sentence,” Amara said.
“Then you say ‘la’ like la-la-la-la-la,” added Leela.
“OK, let’s practice,” Washington said.
Amara pointed stage left and said, “Everybody over here say comma!”
Leela turned to stage right and said, “Everybody over here say la!”
The United Center roared in response — “Comma! La!”
Some of the speakers at the Democratic National Convention have stumbled over Harris’ first name, including former President Bill Clinton who said it as “CAM-UH-LA” in his speech on Wednesday night.
But Republican candidate Donald Trump has relished opportunities to mangle the pronunciation, which Democrats describe as a sign of disrespect.
He usually says “Kah-MAH-la.” When asked why, Trump said last month that he had heard Harris’ first name said “about seven different ways.”
“I said, ‘Don’t worry about it, it doesn’t matter what I say,’” Trump said. “I couldn’t care less.”