The Wee Ones

I've long been curious about the beliefs that there are beings among us too small, fast or otherwise elusive to qualify as real. 

Recently, exploring a collection of ancient English folktales, I happened upon an extensive list of supernatural beings that have come down to us through the centuries:

Boggles, bloddy-bones, ignis fatui, brownies, bugbears, shelycoats, scrags, breaknecks, fantasms, boggy-boes, dobbies, hobthrusts, fetches, kelpies, warlocks, mock-beggars, mum-pokers, urchins, satyrs, pans, fauns, and on and on, ten times as many names as these.

People have often claimed that these tiny creatures explain the odd twists of fate that otherwise defy explanation.

Many modern classics, including Tolkien's "Hobbit" and J.K. Rowling’s "Harry Potter," have tapped into the ancient British superstitions to create new fictional worlds.

When it comes to journalists, all we have are mysterious shadows and unanswered questions. But somewhere deep in our soul, we may hope that magic exists, and that angels watch over us as we fall, urging us to rise again, and tell our stories in a more hopeful vein, one that just might inspire yet another generation to find its own magical voice.

HEADLINES:

• Iran exposes Donald Trump’s pressure point (Reuters)

• Iran, US still ‘far’ from breakthrough amid Strait of Hormuz impasse (Al Jazeera)

• Trump accuses Iran of violating ceasefire with Strait of Hormuz ship attacks (NBC)

• Iran closes Strait of Hormuz again over US blockade and fires on ships (AP)

• Lebanon president says country is no longer a pawn amid Israel ceasefire (Al Jazeera)

• The FBI Director Is MIA (Atlantic)

• The birth of the Supreme Court’s shadow docket has long been a mystery. (NYT)

• Exposing a Global Surveillance Empire (Reveal)

• Meta plans to lay off 10% of its workforce in May, according to report (NBC)

• Ukraine Has Finally Given Up on Trump (Atlantic)

• Food crisis worsens as Sudan war drags on (Reuters)

• ‘We should absolutely be concerned about non-college-educated men today’: higher rents, living at home, falling out of the labor market (Fortune)

• Saving a Lost Generation of Young Men—with Chop Saws (New Yorker)

• Stanford scientists discover “natural Ozempic” without side effects (ScienceAlert)

• Make America Sober Again (BI)

• The AI Doomers Who Are Playing With Fire (Gizmodo)

• Language models transmit behavioural traits through hidden signals in data (Nature)

• There’s an ‘art’ to writing AI prompts for personal finance, MIT professor says (CNBC)

• Inside a growing movement warning AI could turn on humanity (WP)

• Amazon uses AI to aid early-stage drug discovery (Reuters)

• How Do You Measure an A.I. Boom? (NYT)

• Sabrina Carpenter Turns Body Fully Inside Out In Horrific New ‘Juno’ Position (Onion)