Thanks, Bruce! Things are fine here and depending on the grand-daughters and their plans for college, I might even be retiring and spending even more time outdoors..
Bear-people relationships are far more complicated than would appear - and so the book I suggested. Things go far beyond the simple triggering of a response and then suffering an attack. There are no simple answers, and our way of thinking gets in the way.
Bear attacks happen when people get between a bear and some food that it's defending. People here still go jogging along logging roads in hunting season, though, when bears can be guarding piles of moose guts. You are really not much better off walking slowly with a magnum at the ready, because there's not going to be a build up with threats from each side.
The same goes for mother and cubs, or walking around a camp at night when a bear is also wandering around checking it out.
That goes against most people's feelings. The bear isn't playing fair or being reasonable. But that's just tthe way it is.
Bears will go after kids just like they'd go after anything small vulnerable and tasty. But everything will depend on if the feeding frenzy for winter has begun. Kids get frightened and run which really complicates things, so the first step is to put a bullet in the bear's head. For sure that's not totally fair or reasonable either - but it's the way things are. Other times bears will come up out of curiousity and wouldn't bother kids. After a while of being around bears, a person will easily recognize when bears are in hunting mode.
Sometimes things are complicated..
A friend of mine got into bow hunting and decided to add a bear. So he went and found a bear which is pretty easy here. He stalked it up a hill trying to get a good shot. The bear then turned around and stalked him right back down to the truck. Arrows don't kill fast so he had a very very exciting time. When he got to the truck he took out a rifle and had a choice. Usually people kill what makes them fearful, but he couldn't shoot that bear.
I got faced down by a little black on a creek and I couldn't shoot it, but instead faced it down. Now facing down a bear, even a little one, at a few feet is a pretty stupid thing to do, because a moment of weakness and it will be snacking. For sure though, there is the point that a magnum slug gun at a few feet is pretty thorough. Years later the best I can come up with is that I became part of that little facing down ritual, and I just had to see if I could face that bear down.
Strangely, that's not the first time that's happened. Decades ago my wife and kids walked ahead from truck to a little creek while I was loading the rifle. Next was yells, wife and kids running past me, pumping a cartridge into the 30-06 pump rifle that I luckily had at the time, and having a chasing bear come to halt at the muzzle. In those days I regarded bears about the same way most people would regard the meat counter if they were giving away free steaks, so I still wonder about what passed and why both the bear and I backed off.
Years ago I went to murder a bear. I wanted nothing more than to exterminate it and have its body drop in a nice open place where other bears feeding on it wouldn't pose a problem for people fishing the river. That one was a big black who had tried to brace me on two occasions where poor light made things uncertain at close range. That one knew his business and I saw a real problem to people, because he was in a popular fishing spot. The only problem I did see was where he had to be killed. Obligingly, though, on a nice morning he went and stood next to the ranging pole that I'd put up in the best possible spot. I couldn't kill him like that, though, and instead harassed him out of the area. If anyone thinks that's a story of morals, then they've never attempted to harass a skilled bear.
A few stories - but I can certainly see where otherwise rational people feel that they have some sort of "link" with bears. I've known people who have been killed by bears and others who have been terribly mauled. I choose not to hunt now, but I've eaten enough bear and if things get tough in retirement I might be eating lots more. I might have a lot more reverence than people shopping the meat counter, but get it I will. Explaining how I'd be able to hunt anmals after years of studying them is difficult. It comes down to the fact that I've got hundreds of stories but few explanations, even for myself.
How many bear were killed by people in the same period of time? and how many people were killed by people..... 
