New Dictionary Words in 2024: Part 3 Climate, weather, & environment

   Recently, Dictionary Com provided a list of 300 words added to the dictionary for 2024. Today's blog includes a sampling of them from the weather and climate areas.  Words like Superfog and Climate Breakdown.  Here's today's sampling.

(Photo: Super fog forms when a mixture of smoke and moisture released from damp smoldering organic material such as brush, leaves and trees, mixes with cooler, nearly saturated air. Visibility is lowered to less than 10 feet. Under light wind conditions, super fog meanders through low terrain areas such as creek beds or drainage ditches. Super fog can be very dangerous when present over highways, and has been the cause of several large, multi-vehicle pileups. Credit: NOAA/Gary Curcio) 

There’s A Word For That: Our Dictionary Additions For Winter 2024

climate breakdown - noun. the collective effects of harmful and potentially irreversible trends in climate, specifically those resulting from unchecked global warming.

global boiling
 noun. a nonscientific term used to emphasize the trend toward and severity of extreme heat events, especially in regard to public health. 📝 Climate breakdown and global boiling have emerged as terms intended to communicate the severity of the effects of climate change, along with other prominent terms like climate crisis and climate emergency.

extreme heat event
 noun. Meteorology, Climatology. a heat event classified as being excessive enough to pose a serious threat to public health.

fire whirl
 noun. a tornadolike phenomenon created when turbulent air rapidly rising from the site of burning, as in a forest fire, sucks flaming gases, embers, and other fiery debris up into a twisting column, sometimes hundreds of feet in height.

fire tornado
 noun. a flaming tornado generated by intense wildfire, rarer, much larger, and more destructive than a fire whirl.

superfog
 noun. a combination of fog generated by weather conditions and wildfire smoke from damp, smoldering brush, leaves, trees, and other organic materials that often reduces visibility to less than 10 feet.

New Video Interview: Edge of the Rabbit Hole talks w/Rob about Ireland's Ghosts

NEW VIDEO! If you missed the Edge of the Rabbit Hole show on March 13, 2024 where Mike and Victoria welcomed me to talk about the "Ghosts of Ireland on a Medium's Vacation" - you can see it here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFJJrFb6ddA

Dictionary Additions for 2024: Part 2: Science Words

  Recently, Dictionary Com provided a list of 300 words added to the dictionary for 2024. Today's blog includes a sampling of them from Stellar Nursery to dendroglyph.  Here's today's sampling.

There’s A Word For That: Our Dictionary Additions For Winter 2024

stellar nursery
 noun. Astronomy. a molecular cloud in which new stars are being formed. 

 📝 The James Webb Space Telescope has captured some stunning images of these star-forming regions, including the one pictured below, named 30 Doradus and nicknamed the Tarantula Nebula. 

Located in the neighboring galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud, it is the largest and brightest stellar nursery in the Local Group, a group of galaxies near the Milky Way. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team

boring billion
 noun. a period in the earth's development occurring between 1,800 and 800 million years ago that is characterized by relative geological and climatic stability, slow evolutionary development, and low levels of atmospheric oxygen.

geoglyph noun. a large-scale design or pattern on the surface of the land made by arranging stones, rocks, or earth, or by removing ground cover to expose the rock or soil beneath.

 📝 Geoglyph is the most well-known of the terms listed here ending in -glyph, which comes from the Greek word for “a carving”; geo- means “earth.”

ammoglyph
 noun. a pattern or design originally created in sand by early humans and now fossilized. 

 📝 Coined in 2019 by Canadian geologist Charles William Helm and colleagues based on the Greek ámmo(s), meaning “sand.”

dendroglyph noun. an image, message, or symbol carved into a tree, especially by Indigenous people and often hundreds of years old, providing cultural and historical information not available from other sources. 

 📝 Coined in 1918 by Australian curator Robert Etheridge, Jr., with the combining form dendro-, meaning “tree." Its use has replaced that of the earlier term arborglyph.

Dictionary Additions For Winter 2024: PART 1

Recently, Dictionary Com provided a list of 300 words added to the dictionary for 2024. Today's blog includes a sampling of them from bussin' to bed-rotting. Shakespeare is rolling over in his grave. Here's today's sampling.

There’s A Word For That: Our Dictionary Additions For Winter 2024 

mid
 adjective. mediocre, unimpressive, or disappointing.

bussin’ adjective. great; wonderful; amazing. 📝 Popular among Gen Z, this term originates in African American culture and is likely based on various senses of bust meaning “to explode,” “to do well,” or “to enjoy.”

The Ick. -noun. a sudden feeling of disgust or dislike, often in response to the actions of another person. 📝 This phrase, popular in dating culture and on TikTok, is thought to trace back to the late 1990s TV show Ally McBeal. The ick is also used as an informal term for an illness, especially a cold or flu.

cheat code - noun. a ploy or technique that bypasses traditional methods or rules in order to improve oneself or one’s success. 📝 This more recent sense of the term is an extension of its use in the context of video games, in which it refers to a hidden command, code, etc., used to gain an advantage, such as by advancing levels or enhancing a character’s strengths.

range anxiety - noun. the apprehension or fear that an electric vehicle’s battery will run out of power before reaching one’s intended destination or a charging station.

enshittification
 - noun. the gradual degradation of an online platform or service’s functionality, as part of a cycle in which the platform or service first offers benefits to users to attract them, then pursues more and more profits at the expense of users. 📝 Used in the critical discussion of platforms like TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and others, this term was popularized by writer Cory Doctorow.

skiplagging - noun. the practice of purchasing an air ticket for a flight with a layover at one’s true destination, getting off at the layover point, and skipping the last leg of the flight: a workaround to avoid paying a higher fare for a direct flight to one’s destination. 📝 The verb form is skiplag, a compound of skip, “to pass over,” and lag, “an instance of staying behind.”

bed rotting - noun. the practice of spending many hours in bed during the day, often with snacks or an electronic device, as a voluntary retreat from activity or stress. 📝 Despite the negative connotation of rotting, many use this term in a positive way to refer to what they consider a form of self-care. The verb form is bed rot.

Attended a Fascinating Local Lecture on Lizzie Borden

 Our local library is very active and has 1 speaker each month. I was honored to be a speaker back in October 2023 when I spoke about some of the paranormal cases I've been on. Recently, there was an historian and researcher, Christopher Daley, who spoke about the Lizzie Borden case. It was fascinating, as we never knew the whole story. His lecture was called "40 Whacks: The Lizzie Borden Case." Today's blog gives some history and highlights from the lecture. 

(Photo: Christopher Daley, historian at the Berwick Library. Credit: R.G.) 

WHO WAS LIZZIE BORDEN? Lizzie Andrew Borden was a woman who was tried and acquitted of the August 4, 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. No one else was charged in the murders, and, despite ostracism from other residents, Borden spent the remainder of her life in Fall River, Mass.

(Photo: Lizzie Borden in 1890. Credit: Wikimedia)

UNSOLVED -  The lecturer was quick to point out that the brutal murders of her father and stepmother were never "solved." 

MOTIVE AND OPPORTUNITY -

   There is little doubt that Lizzie Borden committed the murders. She hated her wealthy father for penny pinching and not moving the family to the wealthy section of town, and not allowing her and her sister more than 2 new dresses a year" - so there was motive.

   The Opportunity came when the Irish maid was napping, Lizzie was the only one in the house with her step mother (who was murdered first in the upstairs) and when the father came home, he was murdered in the parlor. Police shows say victims only let people they know get physically close to them, and that seems the case. 

(Photo: Rob and Tom waiting for the lecture to begin. Credit: R.G.) 

  The murderer (Lizzie) bashed her stepmother's skull  with19 strikes, and 10 into her father's head and face, making him unrecognizable. The murders took place approximately an hour and a half apart on the morning of August 4, 1892.   

CORONER STATED "A LEFT-HANDED KILLER" - The lecturer said that the coroner back in 1892 (not good) said he thought the cleaver or axe strikes to their heads were done by a left-handed person. So, I asked if Lizzie was right or left-handed. The lecturer said she was right-handed. - Although, I thought, she could have used her right hand and done the other 17 blows with her left hand.... 

GREAT ARTICLE- Smithsonian Magazine did an article about Borden's history and summed it up in the title and subtitle of the article: "Why 19th-Century Axe Murderer Lizzie Borden Was Found Not Guilty Nativism, gender stereotypes and wealth all played a role in letting Borden, the prime suspect in her father and stepmother’s violent deaths, go free."   The lecturer was great!!

IS THE HOUSE STILL STANDING?  - Yes, and it's turned into a gruesome bed and breakfast. I do know it's been investigated by paranormal investigators often, and they find ghosts. Not surprising the ghosts of the father and stepmother would be there, and I wouldn't be surprised if Lizzie herself were there, as once she died as an old woman, she would realize murder would possibly put her in a bad afterlife spot (really the lowest level of the afterlife) and stayed behind at the site of her crime.  

  The B&B allows people to sleep over, but you wouldn't catch me there. I also asked the lecturer, and he said he would never stay there!

 For more on the house visit: https://lizzie-borden.com/ 

Idiot of the Week: Senior Citizen Felon Found with Over 850 Guns and Ammo

This week's idiot should have known better since he's a senior citizen and a felon. How in the world he obtained 856 guns as a felon is beyond comprehension. Obviously the system of gun checks is seriously broken. Here's the story.

(Photo: Not from the man's home, but looks similar. This pic is from another guy in Flushing, NY in 2018 Credit: ABC News) 

Man gets 3 years for being a felon with 856 guns 

January 9, 2024, by Christopher Williams, Sun Journal

PORTLAND — A Hebron man convicted of being a felon with hundreds of guns was sentenced Monday to three years in federal prison.

A federal jury found 75-year-old Dario Giambro guilty of being a felon in possession of firearms at his two-day retrial in October, two months after the first trial ended in a hung jury.

U.S. District Court Judge George Z. Singal imposed a sentence of three years and a $250,000 fine plus three years on supervised release.

Agents seized 856 guns from his mobile home  in January 2022 while executing a search warrant.

Investigators discovered a variety of firearms, including shotguns, rifles, pistols and revolvers. Some were leaning against walls and lying on a bed. Some were in boxes, some in cases and crates. They also recovered a large amount of ammunition.

Giambro was prohibited from possessing firearms due to a prior federal conviction in the District of Maine for possessing an unregistered firearm, which is a felony.

In September 2007, Giambro was convicted by a jury in federal court on a charge that he was in possession of weapon in violation of the National Firearms Act.

His conviction stemmed from having an unregistered firearm among the more than 200 guns in his possession when he lived in Auburn.

Giambro had been free on bond until his sentencing Monday, Jan 8, 2024 when he was taken into federal custody.

Heroes of the Week:: North Davis Fire District Rescues Dog in Icy Waters

This week's heroes are the firefighters in the North Davis Fire District, Utan who rescued a large dog that fell through ice into a frigid lake!

(Photo: A firefighter with the North Davis Fire District in Utah rescues a dog from an icy pond. (Courtesy of North Davis Fire District)

 

North Davis Fire District Rescues Dog in Icy Waters

(NewsNation,Tyler Wornell, Updated: JAN 16, 2024 / 11:08 PM CST

  Firefighters in Utah jumped into action this week to rescue a dog that was trapped in an icy pond.

The video posted to Facebook on Sunday by the North Davis Fire District shows a firefighter crawling across the ice to reach Bob — the dog — that had fallen into the water and couldn’t get out.

“Bob the dog loves the water but the ice shelf prevented him from being able to get out after his polar plunge,” the fire department said.

LINK TO VIDEO: https://www.facebook.com/Northdavisfire/videos/703617451572222/

The firefighter, identified as Logan, was tethered to a rope being handled by other crew members on the bank. Wearing a buoyant wet suit, Logan crawled to the edge of the ice shelf before entering the water to grab Bob. The pair were then pulled back up onto the ice shelf.

Fire officials are reminding people to remain vigilant and stay safe in winter weather conditions.

“Please be safe with your pets and children as ice conditions are still not as safe as we’d like them to be,” the fire department said.

About the fire district: https://www.northdavisfiredistrict.com/

Facts about Maine: Nickname, population, history and more

Today's blog provides a look at the northeasternmost state, Maine! You may find out some things you didn't know!

ABOUT MAINE: Maine, the northeastern-most U.S. state, is known for its rocky coastline, maritime history and nature areas like the granite and spruce islands of Acadia National Park. Moose are plentiful in Baxter State Park, home to Mt. Katahdin, endpoint of the Appalachian Trail. Lighthouses such as the candy-striped beacon at West Quoddy Head, dot the coast, as do lobster shacks and sandy beaches like Ogunquit and Old Orchard.

FAST FACTS (from National Geographic) -Capital: Augusta -Population: 1.372 million (2021) -Unemployment rate: 3.7% (Nov 2022) -Nickname: The Pine Tree State - Why? in honor of its many white pine trees, which are the biggest eastern conifers (or evergreen trees that bear cones) in the United States. -Statehood: 1820; 23rd state -Capital: Augusta -Biggest City: Portland -Abbreviation: ME -State bird: black-capped chickadee -State flower: white pinecone and tassel -Attorney general: Aaron Frey (Democratic Party) -Governor: Janet Mills (Democratic Party) -Motto: Dirigo -Senators: Susan Collins (Republican Party), Angus King

 

HOW LONG WOULD IT TAKE TO DRIVE THE ENTIRETY OF MAINE ? The state is loaded with scenic drives, coastal roads, city streets, and village cut-throughs. Maine also includes the most famous road in the entire country, U.S. Route 1. The North-South highway is over 2,300 miles long and stretches from Fort Kent all the way down to Key West. In fact, it's quite a tourist attraction on the little island. I probably have a picture or two from it somewhere on my phone when I was down there a few years ago. 

HIGHWAY DRIVING - Time: 5 hours 48 minutes and miles: 362

MAINE HISTORY (from National Geographic) The first inhabitants of the land now called Maine probably arrived around 12,000 years ago. Over the course of this land’s history, Native American tribes such as the Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, Abenaki, and Penobscot lived on the land.

Viking explorer Leif Ericsson and his crew possibly sailed to the area in the year 1000. About 600 years later British and French colonists established some of Maine’s first permanent European settlements. In 1652 southwestern Maine became part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

In defiance of Britain’s high taxes, Maine’s residents burned a shipment of British tea in 1774, one year after the Boston Tea Party. In response, British forces shelled and burned Falmouth, Maine. After the Revolutionary War started in 1775, Maine’s residents participated in the first naval battle of the war.

When the American Revolution was over, Maine joined the United States as part of Massachusetts. But many Maine settlers wanted to have their own state. In 1820 Maine separated from Massachusetts, becoming the 23rd state in the union. This was done as part of the Missouri Compromise, a deal that admitted Missouri as a state as well.

Several Native American tribes still exist in Maine, including descendants of the original Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Penobscot tribes.

Enjoyable Mystery: Murder, She Wrote: Death on the Emerald Isle

Because my own book about Ireland recently came out, I decided to read the latest in the Murder She Wrote paperback mystery series called "Death on the Emerald Isle," by Terrie Farley Moran.  It was another enjoyable read of Jessica Fletcher's sleuthing into a murder, and this time it was in Northern Ireland. Although enjoyable, there are a LOT of characters in this book, and at times, it was a little difficult to remember who is who, especially if you don't read the whole book in one sitting (takes me a week or so). I've enjoyed all of the Murder She Wrote series, especially when the late Donald Bain was writing them. This one was good, but not one of my all-time favorites.

ABOUT THE BOOK: A trip to Northern Ireland becomes unexpectedly grim for Jessica Fletcher in this new entry in the USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote series.

Jessica Fletcher is quick to accept an invitation to replace a speaker who couldn’t attend a Book Festival in Belfast, Ireland. When her Cabot Cove neighbor Maeve O'Bannon hears about the trip, she asks Jessica to deliver some paintings to her family in the village of Bushmills. Happy to extend her travels and see more of the Irish countryside, Jessica agrees.
 
The festival goes off without a hitch, and it seems like Jessica is in for a relaxing vacation. But then Maeve’s cousin Michael is discovered dead under suspicious circumstances. Jessica finds herself once again in the midst of a murder investigation, and she’ll have to dig into the O'Bannon family’s secrets to unmask the killer. 

Study Estimates Rape Caused 65,000 Pregnancies In States With Abortion Bans

  Today's blog is about the findings of a study published in the Journal of American Medicine that shows how alarming the strict anti-abortion laws in the conservative / Republican states are on people. Imagine being a woman raped in one of these states, and the State Lawmakers tell you that you have to give birth to the Rapist's baby.  Are we really this cruel as a society?  I hope not. 

That's what women all over the U.S. should be fighting against. Here's the study. Let this sink in.

Study Estimates Rape Caused 65,000 Pregnancies In States With Abortion Bans 

The tally suggests rape-related exceptions to abortion bans are not sufficient, the study's author says. 

Lydia O'Connor, Jan 24, 2024, 10:39 PM EST

A study published Wednesday, January 24, 2024, estimates that there have been nearly 65,000 rape-related pregnancies across the 14 states that banned abortion in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s crumbling 18 months ago.

The study, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of American Medicine, was led by Dr. Samuel Dickman, a Montana abortion provider and plaintiff in several lawsuits challenging the state’s abortion restrictions. Dickman’s team said the results of their study indicated that the four rape exceptions in place across those 14 states do not provide sufficient access to abortion.

“In this cross-sectional study, thousands of girls and women in states that banned abortion experienced rape-related pregnancy, but few (if any) obtained in-state abortions legally, suggesting that rape exceptions fail to provide reasonable access to abortion for survivors,” the study concluded.

Rape exceptions to total abortion bans are in place in Idaho, North Dakota, Indiana and West Virginia.

The study’s estimates “have limitations,” its authors cautioned, because “such highly stigmatized experiences are difficult to measure accurately in surveys.”

To arrive at a figure of 64,565 pregnancies caused by rape between July 1, 2022, and the start of this year, the researchers first used multiple government sources to estimate the number of vaginal rapes that occurred, landing at approximately 520,000. They then calculated that around 12.5% of those rapes resulted in pregnancy.

325 million-year-old shark graveyard discovered deep within Mammoth Cave harbors new fossilized species

The latest dinosaur-era discovery are prehistoric sharks, whose fossilized remains were found deep in Mammoth Cave. Having lived in Kentucky and been to Mammoth Cave (it extends to Alabama where the fossils were found), it's not surprising that it harbors fossils, but we're still exploring it as there are over 400 miles of caves in the system. Here's the story from LiveScience.

(A reconstruction of the new Middle to Late Mississippian ctenacanth sharks from Mammoth Cave National Park and northern Alabama. Glikmanius careforum is seen swimming in the foreground, with two Troglocladodus trimblei swimming above. Artwork by Benji Paynose. (Image credit: NPS/Benji Paynose)

325 million-year-old shark graveyard discovered deep within Mammoth Cave harbors new fossilized species

By Melissa Hobson, LIVE Science, Feb 8, 2024

Two new ancient shark species have been uncovered in Mammoth Cave with teeth that "look like they just came out of the shark's mouth yesterday."

Two new shark species that lived 325 million years ago have been discovered in Kentucky's Mammoth Cave National Park and northern Alabama. The sharks would have lived in an ancient seaway that existed before the supercontinent Pangaea formed, locking them away in the fossil beds we see today.

The two new species have been identified as Troglocladodus trimblei and Glikmanius careforum. Both are ctenacanths, ancient cousins of modern sharks with defensive comb-like barbs on their spines.

Because the fossil specimens in Mammoth Cave aren't exposed to the elements, they are often much better preserved, and retain much more detail, than fossils found on the surface.

"In such a stable environment, those things look like they just came out of the shark's mouth yesterday," John-Paul Hodnett, a paleontologist at the Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission who works with the National Park Service's paleontology program, told Live Science.

T. trimblei is thought to have reached about 10 to 12 feet (3 to 3.6 meters) long. "They have kind of like forky-looking teeth," Hodnett said, which is the reason for the name Troglocladodus, meaning "cave branching tooth." The species name, trimblei, honors Barclay Trimble, the superintendent at Mammoth Cave, who found the first specimen in 2019.

G. careforum would also have been about 10 to 12 feet long and had a powerful bite that allowed the predator to eat other sharks, as well as bony fish and orthocones (ancient squid relatives). Hodnett said the primordial predators were "cruising around, probably behaving similar to what we see in lemon sharks or gray sharks."

Mammoth Cave is the world's longest cave system, with over 420 miles (676 kilometers) — about the distance from Boston to Washington, D.C. — of passages cut into the limestone by underground streams and rivers.

Experts have been examining Mammoth Cave's lengthy passages as part of the Paleontological Resource Inventory, an ongoing survey of the fossil records in various U.S. national parks. "It turns out, they [Mammoth Cave's passages] have scores and scores of fossilized sharks," Hodnett said.

(IMAGE: Artist illustration of Glikmanius careforum swimming in the foreground with two sharks swimming above.)

A reconstruction of the new sharks from Mammoth Cave National Park and northern Alabama. Glikmanius careforum is seen swimming in the foreground, with two Troglocladodus trimblei swimming above. (Image credit: NPS/Benji Paynose) T. trimblei was identified as a new genus and species through adult and juvenile teeth in Mammoth Cave and the Bangor Formation in Alabama.

 To get to the first T. trimblei specimen, "you have to crawl on your hands and knees for a quarter mile [nearly half a kilometer]," Hodnett said. "And that hurts, for me, after a while."

G. careforum was identified through teeth found at Mammoth Cave and the Hartselle and Bangor formations in Alabama. A partial set of jaws and gills from this species was also in a Mammoth Cave passage that was so small, Hodnett couldn't fit in it. Because of their fragility, the fossils still haven't been extracted.

These two shark species would have hunted close to shore in an ancient seaway connecting North America, Europe and northern Africa at the time, and where Kentucky and Alabama are located today. This seaway disappeared as Africa collided with North America and Europe during the formation of Pangaea.

Big News! 6 of my 11 books are now available as Audio books

BIG NEWS FOR AUDIO BOOK LOVERS- -  6 of my 11 books are now available as Audio books through Amazon or Audible Books!  

• Ghosts of Ireland on a Medium’s Vacation
• Ghosts of England on a Medium’s Vacation
• Pets and the Afterlife 3: Messages from Spirit Dogs
• Kindred Spirits: How a Spirit Befriended a Medium
• Ghosts and Spirits: Explained
• Case Files of Inspired Ghost Tracking

   I’m working on the remaining 5, but in the meantime, I’m happy to announce these titles are now Available! 

They went live on March 3, 2024, and on the very first day of release four of them achieved TOP 100  In Various Categories

KINDRED SPIRITS AUDIO BOOK #68,624 in Audible Books & Originals  #37 in Supernaturalism (Audible Books & Originals) #83 in Reincarnation (Audible Books & Originals) #93 in LGBTQ+ Biographies (Audible Books & Originals)

PETS AND THE AFTERLIFE 3: MESSAGES FROM SPIRIT DOGS

AUDIO BOOK

Best Sellers Rank#76,010 in Audible Books & Originals 

#43 in Supernaturalism 
#159 in Pets & Animal Care

#202 in Grief & Loss (Audible Books & Originals)

GHOSTS AND SPIRITS EXPLAINED AUDIOBOOK #98,665 in Audible Books & Originals  #63 in Supernaturalism (Audible Books & Originals) #112 in Reincarnation (Audible Books & Originals) #360 in Ghosts & Hauntings

GHOSTS OF ENGLAND AUDIOBOOK

#100,148 in Audible Books & Originals 
#70 in Supernaturalism (Audible Books & Originals)
#94 in Europe Travel & Tourism

#109 in Medieval European History