In the company of Emma McCune, misguided though she might have seemed to some, Ms Scroggins takes the reader by the hand into the hot dust of southern Sudan and the politics of the belly, where black meets white, rich meets poor and the fat white paunch of the West gets to look upon starving Africa's distended stomach.

ECONOMIST: Africa is a continent made for��and of��storytellers

Brushing the surface of rocks with Curiosity's dust removal tool first enables the arm-held hand lens camera and X-ray spectrometer, in particular, to see features that might otherwise be obstructed.

BBC: Curiosity Mars rover deploys its rock brush

The one-room building contained a table with a porcelain top and a hide-bottomed chair, both sitting under an unfrosted light bulb hanging from the ceiling on a long cord, and Obie went in and scraped dust and fallen dirt-dauber nests off the table with the side of his hand.

NEWYORKER: Idols