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Long-term regional droughts are, unfortunately, a common occurrence on our little planet. Typically though, only droughts that are long-term in their duration are reported on, giving us the impression that the problem is relegated to particular geographies, and not generally widespread. However, a new study from the Netherlands has incorporated short-term droughts into the picture, revealing water scarcity as a much more widespread problem.
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It’s a day full of flowers here in Southern California. Evening is slipping down from a gentle sky, the light slow and soft, and I am traveling along the deep memory road.

I have been looking through our Valentines, Darling. I find that I have about thirty of them, going all the way back to the first year.

They draw me down the shadowed path to those days, recalling your bright voice in the eternity of youth and the magic that you spoke, and the deeper magic you said with your eyes. We were so happy, two little outsiders who had done the impossible: we had found someone who wanted us.

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A new experimental fusion reactor built by the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics in Germany received a brief test run on February 3, bringing the promise of clean and sustainable fusion-generated power one step closer to reality.

This new reactor, called the Wendelstein 7-X, is a doughnut-shaped, 425-ton device, made up of a series of winding magnetic segments. The reactor was test-fired using helium last December, since helium is easier to convert to plasma than hydrogen (the intended fuel for a fusion reaction), and helium plasma can clean the interior of the plasma chamber of any dust left over from the unit’s construction.
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