“Shorts” is an annual feature found here on my Home page. Admittedly, I didn’t make much use of it last year. Maybe this year I’ll have more time for it. This page is set aside for sharing (sans commentary) brief excerpts — probably, just a sentence or two — from things I’ve read recently, or in the past. Check back, periodically, for new material. It’s that simple.
(14) “Rice’s whales existed before humans. Now Trump could make them extinct / The US has invoked national security to remove protections for the endangered cetacean, of which only about 50 are left” (The Guardian, Apr. 5, 2026)
“Nothing surprises me with this administration but if I was still capable of shock, this would do it,” said Pat Parenteau, an environmental law expert at the Vermont Law School.
(13) “Only seven countries worldwide meet WHO dirty air guidelines, study shows” (The Guardian, Mar. 11, 2025)
“Nearly every country on Earth has dirtier air than doctors recommend breathing, a report has found.”
(12) “Toothpaste widely contaminated with lead and other metals, US research finds” (The Guardian, Apr. 17, 2025)
“About 90% of toothpastes contained lead, 65% contained arsenic, just under half contained mercury, and one-third had cadmium.”
(11) “A.I.’s Prophet of Doom Wants to Shut It All Down” (New York Times, September 12, 2025)
“To have the world turn back from superintelligent A.I., and we get to not die in the immediate future. That’s all I presently want out of life.” — Eliezer Yudkowsky
(10) Should your therapy session be outdoors? More Therapists are trying it.” (Washington Post, Feb. 17, 2026)
“She said they made more progress in one session outside than they had in two years meeting in her office.”
(9) “Hillary Clinton accused Republicans of ‘fishing expedition’ in Epstein testimony” (The Guardian, Feb. 26, 2026)
“If this committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein’s trafficking crimes, it would (…) get answers from our current president on his involvement; it would ask him directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files.” — Hillary Clinton
(8) “Plantation weddings and pre-civil war fashion: the film that critiques the historical fantasy of Natchez” (The Guardian, Feb. 14, 2026)
“One can walk through history during these tours without ever having to live with its consequences. As one tourist remarks while sipping drinks on a mansion’s porch, the pilgrimage offers a way to escape the present, to ‘pick and choose’ what to think about. [The documentary’s director, Suzannah] Herbert frames this not as naivety but as a philosophy of selective memory, a white nostalgia that functions as retreat and refusal at the same time.”
(7) “Bill Maher Issues Blunt Response to Gavin Newsom ‘Trolling’ Donald Trump” (TV Insider, August 23, 2025)
“I feel like Gavin has grasped the essential thing about American culture in this day and age. Don’t try to outsmart people. You have to outstupid them.” — Bill Maher
(6) “In Smithsonian Role, John Roberts Encounters History, Pandas and Trump” (New York Times, July 27, 2025)
“In speeches, the chief justice often tells an anecdote about how he had wanted to become a historian, but changed his mind after a taxi driver told him that he, too, had been a history major at Harvard.”
(5) “Flesh by David Szalay review — brilliantly spare portrait of a man” (The Guardian, Mar. 6, 2025)
“In Flesh, Szalay has written a novel about the Big Question: about the numbing strangeness of being alive; about what, if anything, it means to amble through time in a machine made of meat.”
(4) “Manta man: film profiles unlikely bond between diver and giant sea creature” (The Guardian, June 8, 2025)
“(…) mantas can recognize themselves in a mirror, demonstrating a rare sign of self-awareness.”
(3) “The pet I’ll never forget: Stevie, the chicken who joined my dog pack” (The Guardian, Feb., 23, 2026)
“I still visit her from time to time, she remembers me just like a puppy would.”
(2) “Florida teacher loses job for calling student by preferred name” (Washington Post, Apr. 10, 2025)
“Not only is this a direct attack on educators who support trans students, but it also is an indicator of the bureaucratic overreach of antitransgender policy. A teacher could potentially be fired for calling a student Tim instead of Timothy.”
(1) “White Rural Rage review: Clinton’s ‘deplorables’ jibe at book length” (The Guardian, Apr. 7, 2024)
“By 2040, 70% of Americans will reside in the 15 most populous states and choose 30 of the 100 US senators, …“