The Midnight Library

By Matt Haig

    Nora Seed had so much potential. She could have been a rock star, an Olympic gold medalist swimmer, a glaciologist, a philosopher, or married her long-time boyfriend. But she did not walk those paths. But in this life, she still lives in her hometown of Bedford, working at a music store, mostly friendless. And her life seems to only get worse. First, she gets laid off because her boss believes she isn't fulfilling her potential. Then, she gets fired from her job teaching piano because she forgot to show up to a lesson. Then, she runs into an old bandmate, still bitter over the break-up that ensued when Nora began having mental issues. When she finally gets home, she finds that her cat has died. Feeling like a failure, she fires off some final social media posts, a sad call to her estranged brother, who also left her after their band broke up, and decides that her time is done.

    But when she wakes up again, it isn't in some post-humous world. Rather, she is in a vast expanse with a building in it - a library. In it, she meets Mrs. Elm, the former school librarian who nurtured her old dream of being a glaciologist. She tells her that Nora is in the Midnight Library, a library that contains the infinite possibilities Nora's life contained, each one caused by a different choice she could have made. She can choose any life to begin at exactly 12 AM on the day that Nora "died" in her root life. While she is in the library, time does not change, and it will stand until Nora finally dies in her root life. Once Nora chooses a life, she will stay here until she feels regrets and doubt about whether she wants to stay there. If that never happens, then she is permanently transplanted into that life, as if she had always been there.

    During her time in the library, Nora goes through many different lives, some of them reversing big decisions, some of them little ones. She even meets other people who are "sliding" through lives. But she can never seem to settle into one before regret sets in - even ones where her life seems like a dream.

    Eventually, she is on the verge of giving up. She is tired of doing this, feeling like an outsider stealing another person's life. And that, ironically, is the solution. Her root life is the one best suited for her, because it is her life - she "writes" it, so to speak. As the library collapses, Mrs. Elm gives her a blank book so that Nora can begin her own story.

    She returns to the life she had before, exactly the life that she was in the moment she tried to die for the first time, and realizes all the little things she had in her life to be grateful for, that her life has meaning.

CNN 10 10/18/2021 ~ 10/22/2021

Go to cnn.com/cnn10 for the latest video 

Monday, October 18, 2021

The US is changing its travel rules. Starting November 8th, fully vaccinated individuals will be able to travel to the US from most countries provided that they have a negative COVID test from the previous three days. This change removes countries like India, which had a high rate of coronavirus cases, from a list of restricted countries. US residents can also travel abroad, but need a negative COVID test from within one day of their flight home. The Indonesian island of Bali relies heavily on its tourism industry, which was disrupted due to COVID shutdowns last year. That put many people out of work, and people started to go hungry. One resident noticed this problem in his community and began a barter system called Plastic Xchange. People can pick up trash from local beaches, rivers, and even their own homes and exchange it for rice, which is a staple food in Bali. It is helping to control the plastic problem in Bali as well as ensuring people stay fed during the pandemic.

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Civil rights activist and former Secretary of State Colin Powell passed away on Monday after a storied career of service. He began in the Reserve Officer Training Corps, where he achieved its highest rank, went on to become a 4-star general after the Vietnam War. He went on to become the first Black National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of State. He was so well liked that two different presidents awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the country. A 21st century space race is heating up as China sends a new group of astronauts to work on its space station. The US military believes that China's space agency is controlled by its military and has barred NASA from working with them, which means they are also banned from the ISS. Potentially because of this, the country has begun construction of their own space station, for which it has 6 more missions planned to get it into full operation in the coming years.

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

The global supply chain problems are only getting worse as the holiday season approaches. Consumers are looking to star buying gifts and release pent up buying urges, but labor shortages and coronavirus restrictions are making it difficult for suppliers to stock their shelves. They're employing all manner of methods possible to try to get goods to warehouses and stores in time, but the problem stretches from ports to trucks. In Paris, there's a bit of a different problem - one between pedestrians and cyclists and cars. The government in Paris has been trying to move to greener forms of transportation and also encourage tourism along its major streets - that makes less space for cars, which along with lower speed limits, are causing big traffic jams and more than a few upset drivers.

Thursday, October 21, 2021

17 American missionaries are being held hostage by a gang in Port au Prince, Haiti. The poorest country in the western hemisphere was already struggling before this. The president was assassinated three months ago, leading to increased gang violence, and supply shortages along with corruption and lack of security enforcement have plagued the country for years. A "megapod" of over 100 humpback whales was recently spotted off the coast of Australia. The leader of the tour group that saw them said that sightings of these massive whale feeding have become more common over the past few years. In China, a new railroad was recently completed between it and one of its neighboring countries, Laos. China says that it plans to expand a railroad throughout Asia and parts of Africa in the coming years.

Friday, October 22, 2021

The US has seen three major spikes in COVID cases so far. One at the beginning of the pandemic, one in the spring, then a steep decline before another spike largely attributed to the emergence of the delta variant in September. Since then, cases have gone down, which is a hopeful sign. These spikes have not been uniform across the world. Russia, for example, is seeing a spike right now and has a lockdown scheduled for Moscow in the coming weeks. Halloween is fast approaching, and surveys indicate that around 65% of Americans plan to participate. While that's not a record, the amount of money people plan to spend - over $10 billion - is, and that's good news for retailers who saw a massive dip in sales last year during the height of the pandemic. Debbie Blount is a golfer and sophomore at Reinhardt University. But she isn't your average student - she's the first in her family to go to college, and she's 63 years old. Back when she graduated from high school, her family didn't have the money to send her to college, so she worked a variety of jobs, and eventually married a husband who got her into golfing. After her husband and father both passed away, she decided to take the opportunity to become a full-time student. She tried out for the university golf team and now attends the school with a full sports scholarship. Along with her golfing skills, she also brings the invaluable mentality of an experienced player to the team.

CNN 10 11/15/2021 ~ 11/19/2021

Go to cnn.com/cnn10 for the latest video

Monday, November 15, 2021

Bitcoin has hit a new high of around $64,000 USD. There is a lot of controversy around cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin. There isn't a lot of regulation around it yet, and the money isn't held by any central bank or large corporations, so its value fluctuates frequently. Still, there are many people who believe in the new form of currency, purporting that it is owned by the people and that the deregulation is a benefit. These cryptocurrencies can't actually be used to make everyday transactions like groceries yet - but what they are currently very useful for are selling NFTs, which have been on the rise lately. Another limitation is transaction time - because all transactions are recorded by supercomputers that break codes, it can take a long time for money to go through - as long as 20 minutes for Bitcoin. And because all those supercomputers are needed for transactions, it also sucks up an enormous amount of power and leaves a big carbon footprint. There are analysts on both sides, but it remains to be seen whether cryptocurrencies can stabilize and become useful for everyday consumers. Many things have been hit hard by COVID-19 shortages. Two unlikely subjects are turkeys and Christmas trees. As it gets closer to the holidays, more people are going out to buy those two commodities, and many suppliers say they might be running out.

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Gasoline prices are rising across the country, and nowhere more so than in California, where residents who were used to paying higher prices for gas are seeing costs upwards of 5 dollars in certain areas. Other areas are also seeing major jumps - everything from food to toys are getting more expensive, nowhere more so than in Atlanta, Georgia, where the cost of living has skyrocketed over the past year with an inflation rate of more than 7%. Many people struggle to maintain a consistent workout plan. A new virtual reality gym called Black Box VR is trying to change that through virtual reality. It is using private rooms outfitted with resistance equipment to allow users to work out and play in an immersive, VR game at the same time. Users can earn points and levels, just like in any other game, and it helps time go by much more quickly while also getting lots of exercise in.

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Floods are sweeping across the western United States, and while they might not all be record breaking like the California gas prices reported on yesterday, they are having significant impacts, such as the closure of I-5, a highway running all the way from Canada to Mexico. On the western border of the country of Belarus, the standoff between refugees and Polish border authorities continues. The migrants are mostly from war-torn countries, and they want to get into the European Union by way of Poland. Polish authorities blame Belarusian authorities for sending migrants across the border and vice versa. Researchers at the American University of Cairo believe that they have found a new way to recycle the mask waste produced as a result of COVID-19 - concrete. Based on preliminary tests, they believe that it can replace some natural resources used in concrete mixes and also reduce shrinkage and cracks. Our last story for today are the three newest inductees into the NASA Hall of Fame: Michael Lopez-Alegria, Pam Melroy, and Scott Kelly. Alegria is currently the title hodler for the second most spacewalks in the world, and the most of any NASA astronaut. Melroy was the second woman to command a NASA mission and is a veteran of three missions to help build the ISS. Kelly may be the most recognizable name from the list - he has spent 521 days in space, including a single stretch of a year during a study involving him and his twin brother, Senator Mark Kelly, who is also an astronaut.

Thursday, November 18, 2021

India and the surrounding region in Southeast Asia has some of the worst air quality in the world. India alone had 21 out of the 30 most polluted cities in the most recent rankings. As the country gets more and more industrialized, the air is only expected to get worse, and has been getting worse, despite a plan instituted in 2019 to reduced air pollution levels by 30% by 2024. The government has been implementing stopgap measures like shutting down all unnecessary power plants and trucks for a day, but experts say that larger, regional solutions will be necessary in the long run. Over the past few years, the population of sunflower sea stars off the US West Coast has been declining. They are currently at around 5% of their historic numbers and are listed as critically endangered. Scientists still aren't fully certain what causes the "melting" of stars that they have seen, but researchers in Washington are attempting to breed these animals and reintroduce them into the waters. Loss of top predators like these starfish, which eat a variety of animals on the ocean floor, can have devastating ripple effects. For example, sea urchins, whose main predator is sea stars, have grown rapidly and wiped out many kelp forests, which in turn are home to a diverse range of species.

Friday, November 19, 2021

The opioid epidemic has been a problem since around 2016, when higher death rates from overdoses first came into the picture. Now, a mere half decade later, new projections estimate that someone dies from another overdose every 5 minutes. Chief among the culprits is fentanyl, a particularly potent drug that is also found is many other prescription drugs, meaning many people don't even know they are taking it. Every presidential administration has poured billions of dollars into it, but the problem still remains unresolved. The Special Olympics serves many purposes; it encourages people with intellectual disabilities to participate in sport, but it also aims to reduce discrimination against this group. One of the people supporting this mission is Usain Bolt, once the fastest man alive. He has partnered with the Special Olympics program to further outreach and inspire more young runners. He sees something in them as well - their determination to succeed despite everyone being against them.

CNN 10 10/25/21 ~ 10/29/21

Go to cnn.com/cnn10 for the latest video 

Monday, October 25, 2021

There is violent weather in store this week across the US. On the California coast, heavy rains are expected as an atmospheric river moves in from the Pacific Ocean. This is good news in terms of the fires still raging in the state, but it comes with its own dangers as the ashes that have piled up could turn into dangerous debris slides. In the central US, a cold front from the north will collide with warmer air, turning into a huge severe weather system that will result in hail, rain, and even flooding. This front will carry cold air into New England, which, if the conditions are right, could spark a weather pattern called a nor'easter, bringing coastal flooding along the East Coast. This coincides with the beginning of fall, which is more commonly associated with the fall colors of trees. The phenomenon occurs because the chlorophyll that normally appears as the green pigment in leaves as a result of photosynthesis goes away in the winter when there is no sunlight, allowing the red and yellow pigments underneath to show through. Hundreds of people across the Midwest saw what appeared to be a failed Russian satellite reentering the Earth's atmosphere last Wednesday. It was described as a "long-lasting fireball". COVID-19 has disrupted supply chains around the world, and it isn't going away any time soon. Toy stores are being hit particularly hard by the shortages as they try to stockpile for the holiday season; it's hard to know if and when any orders are coming, and they are telling people to do their holiday shopping early.

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

An apparent military coup has taken place in Sudan. The African country is not a stranger to power struggles, and has seen several in the past. This time, amid rising tensions, the military has dissolved a power sharing government it had with civilian leaders and said that it will maintain power until an election is held in 2023. Many are taking to the streets - some in favor of the coup, others in opposition to it. Several countries including the United States have called for an end to the coup and a return to peace. A cold front has been traveling quickly across the United States. It has hit several states with tornados, storms, and floods. For the state of California, its effects have been two-fold. On the one hand, it has helped firefighters gain full control over the Dixie Fire; on the other hand, it is also causing flooding and mudslides from the dirt loosened by the fires. While only a few types of potatoes can be found in supermarkets, over 4,000 species exist in the wild, many of them cultivated by "potato custodians" in the Peruvian Andes. These custodians have grown potatoes for many generations, and many conservationists believe they are one of the best ways to maintain genetic diversity - they go through the natural cycle over and over and adapt to the changing world.

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

The troubles on the Caribbean Island of Haiti continue. The US government and Haitian authorities have been working to free the American missionaries captured by a Haitian gang for a ransom of $17 million. Another issue in the country is a lack of fuel. There is a law there that restricts the maximum price of gas, and when international prices exceed that, the government has to make up for lost revenue. However, as one of the poorest countries, Haiti doesn't have enough money to buy additional fuel, and when it can buy it, it often can't distribute it effectively, leading to shortages and protests. While we explore space, there is a vast portion of our planet that remains unexplored - the ocean. We have a more complete map of Mars than we do of our oceans, but the Nippon Foundation's GEBCO Seabed 2030 project along with many startups are hoping to change that before the end of the century. Ocean mapping is usually a costly process involving a large crew and countless hours of analysis. New experimental methods involve autonomous mini submarines equipped with sonar that can scan and map the ocean floor.

Thursday, October 28, 2021

The 100 day countdown to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing has begun. Like the 2020 Tokyo games, held just a few months ago after being postponed for a year, this one will be full of restrictions from COVID-19. Japan did show that the Olympics could be held without a massive increase in cases, and China, with its no COVID policy, has increased restrictions over the past week to bring cases back down from below double digits. Outside its ability to hold the games safely, China will also be battling politics. Most of the world views the rising superpower as a dangerous enemy, and the country is taking the opportunity to market themselves as much of a progressive leader as possible. The first nor'easter of the year has ripped across the New England coast, leaving many homes and businesses dark and dumping rain. A nor'easter forms when a low pressure front moves up the coast, causing northeasterly winds. Facial recognition may soon be used for security checks at airports. While there are privacy and security concerns, for those who opt in, the technology may significantly speed up transit through TSA checking lines.

Friday, October 29, 2021

Scientists believe that they have found the first planet outside our own galaxy. What is believed to be a planet was found in the whirlpool galaxy 28 million light years away. A telescope that picks up x-rays "found" the planet when it passed in front of some of the radiation given off by stars in the galaxy, temporarily making it appear as if the signal has gone away. Scientists will attempt to confirm the discovery in 70 years when the planet should pass by the same area again. Mount Etna has released more plumes of ash into the air. The most active volcano in Europe has seen activity some 50 times already this year, but none of them have been harmful to residents. Tons of plastic packaging, often designed for single use, are thrown away every year. The problem is that they take centuries, even millennia to degrade, piling up in our landfills more and more as time goes on. Notpla is one of the companies trying to fix that problem. The new plastic alternative that they have developed is based on seaweed, and it can biodegrade in a matter of weeks. It isn't as strong as traditional plastic, but it can still be used in applications like storing small amounts of liquid or to line take out containers.