...Exceptional drought has gripped West Texas for the past several months, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The lack of rain has parched vegetation and dried the land surface, making the region particularly susceptible to erosion and dust storms.

Fierce winds and thick plumes of blowing dust led to traffic accidents, flight disruptions, school closures, power outages, and red and orange skies throughout the state and region, according to news reports. One particularly severe dust storm on March 3 sharply reduced visibility and contributed to a 21-car accident near Roswell, New Mexico...

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/154015/storm-brings-a-potpourri-of-hazards-to-the-us

...Dust, in Owens’s view, is “intensely political”. Early in the book, for example, she unpacks (all too briefly) the history of hygiene, exploring how dirt and our relation to it has changed over centuries, and cleanliness – or the pursuit of it – defines our modern lives. After the Industrial Revolution, emerging ideas about the relationship between dirt and disease made dust something to be fought against – a responsibility that inevitably fell on women and minorities. The poorest people tended to have the least time and money to clean a house; often, their jobs were to clean the houses of others. “The history of 20th-century cleanliness is, thus, a history not only of the making of gender and class distinctions, but racialised inequalities.”

Perhaps the most haunting chapter in the book is that in which Owens retells the story of the nuclear age not through mushroom clouds, but through the radioactive dust they left behind. One study by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War estimated that the effects of atmospheric nuclear testing would eventually result in the deaths of 2.4 million people from cancer, a threat “that has gone substantially unnoticed because radioactive dust is such a diffuse and delayed killer”. Between 1945 and the signing of the test ban treaty in 1963, America was exposing “tens of thousands” of its own citizens to the direct effects of nuclear explosions. Indigenous communities were particularly affected. Extensive uranium mining was performed on Navajo land, and in 2015 a study found that dust in 85% of Navajo homes contained the radioactive metal...

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/17/dust-by-jay-owens-review-the-stuff-that-surrounds-us

...In the 1930s, drought covered virtually the entire Plains for almost a decade (Warrick, 1980). The drought’s direct effect is most often remembered as agricultural. Many crops were damaged by deficient rainfall, high temperatures, and high winds, as well as insect infestations and dust storms that accompanied these conditions. The resulting agricultural depression contributed to the Great Depression’s bank closures, business losses, increased unemployment, and other physical and emotional hardships. Although records focus on other problems, the lack of precipitation would also have affected wildlife and plant life, and would have created water shortages for domestic needs.

Although the 1930s drought is often referred to as if it were one episode, there were at least 4 distinct drought events: 1930–31, 1934, 1936, and 1939–40 (Riebsame et al., 1991). These events occurred in such rapid succession that affected regions were not able to recover adequately before another drought began.

Effects of the Plains drought sent economic and social ripples throughout the country. For example, millions of people migrated from the drought areas, often heading west, in search of work. These newcomers were often in direct competition for jobs with longer-established residents, which created conflict between the groups. In addition, because of poverty and high unemployment, migrants added to local relief efforts, sometimes overburdening relief and health agencies...

https://drought.unl.edu/dustbowl/

Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just...
Tom Jefferson, Notes On The State of Virginia 1784

onolatry
noun:
1. Worship of the donkey or ass.
2. Devotion to foolishness.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek ono- (ass) + -latry (worship). Earliest documented use: 1903

https://wordsmith.org/words/today.html

You have probably heard about the great Marie Curie, but how many women scientists could you list to your friends beyond her? Let’s discover 10 formidable women in science who have revolutionized the world. Tales of determination and the quest for a better world...

[The photo above is of] Lise Meitner, born in 1878, was a physicist who made groundbreaking contributions to nuclear physics. Her most notable discovery was the explanation of nuclear fission. Together with Otto Hahn, she elucidated the process by which atomic nuclei could split, crafting the foundation of nuclear energy and subsequent advancements in atomic physics.

Meitner's exclusion from the Nobel Prize for the discovery of nuclear fission remains a point of controversy. However, her contributions to the field were widely recognized, and she received numerous awards and honors later in her life...

https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/women-in-science/

Conjunction of Crescents

... A waxing crescent Moon and a waning crescent Venus are found at opposite corners of this twilight telephoto field of view. The close conjunction of the two brightest celestial beacons in planet Earth's western evening sky was captured on February 1 from Rosario, Argentina. On that date, the slender crescent Moon was about 3 days old...

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250208.html

...Captivating thousands with his videos of pushing the yoga ball around his paddock, Earl Grey the donkey received donations of dozens of yoga balls after his first one deflated.

Homes for Hooves animal rescue shelter in British Columbia took in a rescue donkey in 2024 that had lived its whole adult life alone, which for a herd animal can be extremely detrimental...

The donations which totaled more than 40 yoga balls were followed by the arrival of three rescue donkeys, the chance at regaining a herd which Singleton always hoped would come for the once depressed animal...

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/after-his-beloved-yoga-ball-deflates-lonely-donkey-receives-donated-balls-from-across-bc/

Ever notice how much more tempting it is to pick up fast food for dinner after being stuck in traffic? It's not just you. New University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign research shows that traffic delays significantly increase visits to fast food restaurants, leading to unhealthier eating for millions each year.

"In our analysis focusing on Los Angeles County, unexpected traffic delays beyond the usual congestion led to a 1% increase in fast food visits. That might not sound like a lot, but it's equivalent to 1.2 million more fast food visits per year in LA County alone...

..."If there's traffic between 5 and 7 p.m., which happens to be right around the evening meal time, we see an increase in fast food visits," Taylor said. "Drivers have to make a decision about whether to go home and cook something, stop at the grocery store first, or just get fast food."...

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/02/250203164009.htm

Oslo — Almost 96% of new cars registered in Norway in January were electric, an unparalleled proportion in the world and close to the country's goal of selling only zero-emission vehicles as of this year. A total of 9,343 new cars were sold in January, of which 8,954 were all-electric, the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) said...

By comparison, the share of electric cars sold in Europe was just 13.6% in the full-year 2024 — a decline for the first time since 2020, according to the car manufacturers' lobby ACEA. Even that far out-paces EV sales in the U.S., where, according to MotorTrend data from last year, only about 6% of new vehicles sold were electric...

Despite being a major oil and gas producer, Norway aims for all new cars sold to be "zero emission" starting in 2025, which is 10 years ahead of the goal set by the European Union, of which Norway is not a member...

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/electric-vehicles-ev-sales-norway-96-percent-new-cars-january-2025/

...Ear movement is crucial in many animals, not least in helping them focus their attention on particular noises and work out which direction they are coming from...

"It is believed that our ancestors lost their ability to move their ears about 25m years ago. Why, exactly, is difficult to say," said Andreas Schroer, the lead author of the research from Saarland University in Germany.

"However, we have been able to demonstrate that the neural circuits still seem to be present in some state, [that is] our brain retained some of the structures to move the ears, even though they apparently are not useful any more."...

"Almost nobody [in the study] had the ability to voluntarily move their ears, so our results are not related to a person's ability to do this," said Schroer, although he noted other research has shown people can learn to move their ears.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jan/31/neural-fossil-human-ears-move-when-listening-scientists-say

The dog pix is from Lake City (FL) Animal Hospital site
https://lakecityanimalhospital.com/blog/dog-ear-body-language/

...C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) sports a tail of sunlight-reflecting dust and glowing gas that spans several times the apparent size of a full moon...over trees and a grass field in Sierras de Mahoma, San Jose, Uruguay about a week ago...

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250128.html