peter smith
LightNews LightNews
peterandreysmith.com
peter smith
@peterandreysmith.com
220 followers 120 following 230 posts
reporter and researcher. senior contributor @undark.org. my work has appeared in the nyt, wired, stat, businessweeek, wnyc radiolab, and elsewhere

peterandreysmith.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
peterandreysmith.com
'tis squarin-up time in newfoundland (source)
1967 SMALLWOOD The Book of Nild., iv, 235 In the autumn the fish had to be shipped, gardens taken up, wood brought down from the bay and at "squarin-up time" groceries procured to last till spring. [Life in the Outports]
October 21, 2025 at 7:15 PM
peterandreysmith.com
in case you were wondering the origins of the phrase “keep maine green” (from Ten Million Acres of Timber)
18. KEEP MAINE GREEN SLOGANS ° The Keep Main Green program started in 1948, but the first record of slogans began in 1955. It was initiated by Joel Marsh, Supervisor of Infor- mation & Education of the Maine Forest Service 1955 Keep Maine Green in 1955 1956 Be Sure Our Program Clicks, Keep Maine Green in '56 1957 In 1957 So As You Say Keep Maine Green Every Day 1958 Let's Make It A Date Keep Maine Green in '58 1959 The Responsibility Is Yours ind Mine To Keep Maine Green in 1959 1960 Woodland Fires Are Very Risky So Keep Maine Green in '60 1961 Make Sure You are The One to Keep Maine Green in '61 1962 There is Something You Can Do, Keep Maine Green in '62 1963 We'll Have The Forests to Use & Sights to See, If We Keep Maine Green in '63 1964 The Forests For Evermore: eep Maine Green in 6 1965 1966 eep Maine Green in 196 Fire and Forests Do Not Mix So Keep Maine Green in '66 1967 In '67 Do As You Say Keep Maine Green Every Day 1968 Let's Make a Date Keep Maine Green in '68 1969 The Responsibility is Yours and Mine To Keep Maine Green in '69 1970 Now that '70 Is On The Scene Get Together and 1971 Keep Maine Green Make Sure You Are The One To Keep Maine Green In '71 1972 There is Something You Can Do Keep Maine Green in '72 * Although these are state-wide fire prevention slogans, the message was spread to French-speaking pulp and lumber camps, sportsmen and fire personnel in the Maine Forestry District.
October 6, 2025 at 12:17 PM
peterandreysmith.com
roads are melting back into the forest but I do wonder if old-growth trees are commonly found along roads (in and around south woodstock) that are lined with stone walls
Vermont feels like the frontier of climate change in the Northeast. Farmers in the bottomlands, who previously planted wheat and barley, are beginning to plant rice, which can be underwater for two days without damage to the crop. The old roads that early Vermont settlers hacked out on hilltops, which lasted for more than two hundred years, are melting back into the forest. Extreme-rain events scour the roads down to bedrock ledges, rendering them impassable, and, because no one then uses them, any blown-down trees don't get cleared. The next storm brings more blowdowns. A road that I went mountain biking on ten years ago, when it was a distinct pathway with old-growth trees on each side, lined by aged stone walls, is now such a tangle of fallen trees, branches, and rocks that it's hard to tell a road was ever there.
July 22, 2025 at 1:04 PM
peterandreysmith.com
'tis wobbling season in newfoundland
The end of June and the beginning of July were the times when "wobbling" began. Last winter's rubber boots were cut off and thus became "wobbling boots". An old pair of pants became a swimsuit. Wobbling was a youngster, running through the water, his legs hammering like pistons, driving spray high in the sunlight.
July 17, 2025 at 6:09 PM
peterandreysmith.com
what they say about snow that falls in may in newfoundland
May 22, 2025 at 12:14 PM
peterandreysmith.com
THIS IS MY LAND oF IT ALVIN WILLIE, PAIUTE AGE 14 I must therefore again advise you that you are here as trespassers. I must further advise you that ... G.S.A. Newsletter
May 6, 2025 at 5:59 PM
peterandreysmith.com
in newfoundland the white blossoms of chuckley pear signal that “summer is really on its way”
In other parts of Canada they are called Serviceberry or Saskatoons. The Chuckley Pears appeal most to the palate in the autumn but it is in the spring when they are most beautiful. They are abound along roadsides and streams where their white flowers and reddish leaves proclaim that summer is really on its way. https://collections.mun.ca/digital/collection/elrcdne/id/13618/rec/1
May 4, 2025 at 12:15 PM
peterandreysmith.com
The company making headlines is working to replace the surrogates it “would” use with artificial wombs; the company hasn’t actually used them yet.
An earlier version of this article misstated the current stage of research on using Asian elephants as surrogates for woolly mammoths.
April 7, 2025 at 7:51 PM
peterandreysmith.com
does the fork date to 1932?
On the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration, Mr. Musk told a roaring, jubilant crowd that the election marked “a fork in the road of human civilization.” He promised to “take DOGE to Mars” and pledged to give Americans reasons to look “forward to the future.” In 1932, when civilization stood at another fork in the road, the United States chose liberal democracy, and Franklin Roosevelt, who promised “a new deal for the American people.” In his first 100 days, Mr. Roosevelt. signed 99 executive orders, and Congress passed more than 75 laws, beginning the work of rebuilding the country by establishing a series of government agencies to regulate the economy, provide jobs, aid the poor and construct public works.
April 5, 2025 at 4:47 PM
peterandreysmith.com
another explanation about sheila’s blush
March 21, 2025 at 6:21 PM
peterandreysmith.com
why it snows on the 18th of march in newfoundland
March 18, 2025 at 1:23 PM
peterandreysmith.com
spiders eat at least half a billion tons of meat per year, not half a billion pounds
An earlier version of this article misstated the amount of meat consumed annually by spiders.
March 7, 2025 at 2:52 PM
peterandreysmith.com
a little late but when the snow fills in the woods of newfoundland in early february it is a filldyke
Filldyke is a term used to mean the month of February. Some old people still use it in Cape Broyle, but according to these oid folk it is not used now as often as it used to be. Filldyke means the filling up of the dykes and hollows, especially in the woods. It doesn't include the whole month of February only up until the madle of February. Around the last of January you will often hear people saying, "Pilldyke will soon be here? The dykes and Hollows become filled with snow. Heard fron Mes. Matilda Rice, retired, aged 86. still uses the term and first heard old folk use it in 1895.
March 4, 2025 at 7:07 PM
peterandreysmith.com
February 20, 2025 at 4:23 PM
peterandreysmith.com
February 20, 2025 at 4:23 PM
peterandreysmith.com
February 20, 2025 at 4:21 PM
peterandreysmith.com
what exactly prompted the editors to completely remove several sentences from this feature on lucy letby
The trial covered questions at the edge of scientific knowledge, and the material was dense and technical. For months, in discussions of the supposed air embolisms, witnesses tried to pinpoint the precise shade of skin discoloration of some of the babies, a concern that arose from the 1989 paper. But skin discoloration is a feature in many medical crises, and, in Myers's cross-examinations, he noted that witnesses' memories of the rashes had become more specific and florid in the years since the babies died. [Editor's note: A portion of this paragraph has been removed and language has been altered, following concerns raised by an English court.]
February 12, 2025 at 3:46 PM
peterandreysmith.com
when snow blankets newfoundland
Devil's feathers Seal Cove, F.B. These are all types of things said about the weather at Seal Cove. The old people have nick names put on almost everything, and snow is no exception. I have heard my grandfather call it "dung-mixin", "shit", and other words as well, such as "the devil's blanket", "devil's feathers". These word show disapproval of it, especially when there is a lot of it on the ground and prevents him from doing his work. All the old people don't want to see too much snow, at Seal Cove, It polsons them. These words are used more by the old people (50- oldest) more so than by younger people. Heard from grandfather, Bert Langdon, fisherman, aged 67. Oliver Langdon English 340, 67/68
February 12, 2025 at 2:15 PM
peterandreysmith.com
today is the day that the bears come out to drink in newfoundland
Glovertown South Groundhog. Day ...one of the beliefs we used to have about Candleman Day, Feb. 2nd., was that one [sic] that day the boars used to come out of their dens for a drink... People used to call this day "Groundhog Day' but we used to think of bears rather than groundhogs emerging from their dens. Harold Stroud, 65-2326-101 JH6/71
February 2, 2025 at 2:50 PM
peterandreysmith.com
how to say light snow in newfoundland
fluxing For... any light fall of snow really, my Grandmother would musingly look through the window and say "Well the old woman is 'fluxing' her geese again." Velma Dalton, 71-37/68 JH- 2/72
January 29, 2025 at 12:19 PM
peterandreysmith.com
once upon a midnight dreary while I ponder the use of computational systems to deport the weak and weary themarkup.org/artificial-i...
screenshot of a story by Alex Shultz from The Markup If mass deportation of undocumented immigrants come to pass, as Trump has promised, that would require a wide variety of technologies, including AI tools. Homeland Security already employs an Al system called the Repository for Analytics in a Virtualized Environment, or RAVEn, a nine-figure government contract. The department also has access to an extensive biometric database, and monitors certain undocumented immigrants outside of detention centers via a surveillance tool that utilizes AI algorithms to try to determine whether an immigrant is likely to abscond. "We know from Trump's first administration that there are going to be fewer guardrails with the use of this tech, and agents will feel even more emboldened," said Sejal Zota, co-founder and legal director of Just Futures Law, a legal advocacy group focused on immigration, criminal justice and surveillance issues. "That's one area where we're going to see increased AI use to support this mass deportation agenda."
January 24, 2025 at 12:06 PM
peterandreysmith.com
battycatters describe the various formations of frozen spray along the shoreline in newfoundland (and possibly chapped lips after a bastely night out)
Baddycadders [badkatan] Enslee, While Bay His lips are as thick as baddycadders in the spring. Thick ice left on shore afth-after the ice moves out in The Spring Robert Keefe Age: 20 J. D. A. WIDDOWSON J. Courage ENO. 230 VOU 21 1966 COLLECTOR'S PERMANENT FILE
January 21, 2025 at 1:51 PM
peterandreysmith.com
certainly one of the more curious unresolved chapters in the history of fact-checking
Writer's Notes Suddenly Appear By Roxanne Roberts and Annie Groer Washington Post Staff Wrtters The celebrated and never-ending legal battle between New Yorker writer Janet Malcolm and psychoanalyst Jeffrey Masson has turned a new page: Malcolm says her 2-year-old granddaughter has discovered what may be long-lost evidence supporting her claims against his libel case. Malcolm said the child, Sophy Malcolm Tuck, was playing near a bookcase in her country house two weeks ago and apparently pulled from the bottom shelf "a thin book with a shiny red cover" that turned out to contain what malcolm said are 1983 notes from a Masson interview. "I immediately knew what it was. I guess I sort of felt weak in the knees," said Malcolm in a telephone interview from the country home in Sheffield, Mass. Masson was highly skeptical. "I am convinced these are fabricated, just like the quotes," he said from his home in Berkeley, Calif. "This is the adult version of 'the dog ate my homework,' or, in this case, 'the dog just spat up my homework after 12 years.'"
January 16, 2025 at 5:53 PM
peterandreysmith.com
nothing demonstrates the capacity for human credulity quite like a tool that only gets the verifiably “correct” answer when its operator already has the answer key
Appellant presented the testimony of Doctor Mary Cablk, who runs a multi-million- dollar federally funded K-9 program. Doctor Cablk reviewed Copper’s training records and testified that she was concerned about the lack of double-blind training for Copper. Doctor Cablk testified that the lack of double-blind training means that Copper might not be successful when nobody present knows the trail. Doctor Cablk pointed to the incidents in the deployment record in which Copper was unable to follow a trail his handler didn’t know.
January 7, 2025 at 1:09 PM
peterandreysmith.com
new to winter in newfoundland? you’re a whitenose
A youngster who has graduated in the school of winter experience thus: Himself not knowing how severely frost could freeze and whiten his nose, his companions kept him in ignorance till he suffered the ordeal "unknowest." They enjoyed the joke at his expense, and surprised him by applying snow to the part. Then, with a clap on the back, they told him he was a youngster no longer but a whitenose.
December 24, 2024 at 5:24 PM