The ASU Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization that raises and invests private contributions to Arizona State University. It is one of Arizona's oldest nonprofits. In 2011 Arizona State University has launched a new contest called 10,000 Solutions. This was their website.
There are hundreds of ways you can be part of the solutions to the Challenges Before Us. Choose the way(s) you'd like to view your opportunities to participate and get started!
Help build a movement that sustains ASU's commitment to meeting the Challenges Before Us.
Arizona State University has launched a new contest called 10,000 Solutions open to anyone over 18, anywhere in the world, and it offers a $10,000 prize. Entries can take on one of the eight greatest challenges facing the world, like sustainability and the future of education. What makes the contest unusual is that participants are encouraged to collaborate and build on one another's solutions. ASU wants to create an open solutions bank that others can use to generate new ideas, and some students at ASU have already met up in person to talk over things they shared on the site. The school is promoting 10,000 Solutions as an experiment in collaborative invention and the National Science Foundation is funding a team of ASU researchers to study the contest and see how ideas are shared and developed.
The contest is off to a strong start, getting some high-profile entries like this one from Dan Ariely.
While many of the solutions share questions or ideas at the brainstorming stage, some groups are using the platform to promote working prototypes. This group of ASU student engineers is working on a low-cost smartboard technology based on the Wii that could be set up anywhere you can run a projector.
ASU hopes 10,000 Solutions will bring some fresh energy to problems that often seem overwhelming. If you have a minute to spare and a bright idea for making the world a better place, why not share it?
Ed Finn is an occasional contributor to Open Culture. He recently started working at Arizona State University in University Initiatives, an office focused on developing new projects and thinking big about the future of public university education. 10,000 Solutions is a project his team is helping to launch this year.
Arizona State University is a New American University, designed to address the greatest challenges before us. They are local challenges — and they are global. They involve educational success, individual and community opportunity, the environment and our health, scientific and technological progress, social justice and human worth.
ASU teaching and research have purpose and impact, changing the way we see the world and solve complex problems. We encourage collaboration with public and private partners and empower our students to think big, dream and achieve. We pursue creative and scientific solutions, ask foundational questions, welcome risk and innovation.
Assuming a fundamental responsibility for the economic, social and cultural well-being of the community, ASU provides the knowledge, discovery and creativity to help solve the challenges we face and build a better future.
how do we educate in a rapidly changing world?
Education is our single most effective strategy to ensure that the workforce of tomorrow is skilled, entrepreneurial, innovative, confident and prepared to succeed in 21st-century jobs. Yet high school graduation rates have stalled at 70 percent. Many students who attend college find themselves unprepared for college-level work, and more than 40 percent never complete their degrees.
We need to re-engineer our education system to ensure that all students graduate from high school ready to succeed. We must give qualified students access to quality instruction and design new teaching tools and techniques.
Teachers must have what they need to excel; and we need to teach students critical thinking, cultivate global perspectives, and promote education as a civic right and duty if Arizona and the nation are to keep pace.
how do we focus information and technology to produce meaningful change?
The pace of discovery in science, computing and emerging technologies is accelerating. There is enormous potential for progress in everything from medical diagnosis to urban infrastructure, the global environment and American manufacturing.
To be competitive in the nation and world, we must increase the number of engineers and computer scientists trained in Arizona, which currently ranks 21st in the nation for recent degrees in science and engineering. We must design the tools they'll need to further scientific progress.
Innovation can be pioneered in higher education and touch virtually every aspect of information technology, including new electronic components, high-performance computing, information assurance, flexible displays and advanced manufacturing.
how do we build strong, vibrant communities?
We can explore the idea and the development of human communities to help us shape our future together. We need to support and encourage both individual and governmental responsibility. We must identify and promote the concepts and circumstances that bring and keep people together.
A sustainable way of life now and for future generations is within our reach — if we begin today. We must identify the causes of our current environmental and social challenges.
We must understand how cultures and traditions impact behavior locally and around the world. And, we must craft social policies and scientific initiatives that address short- and long-term issues. Because by 2030, the world will consume 50 percent more energy than it does today.
On a solid foundation of research and freely shared knowledge, we can create socially, economically and ecologically responsive cities. We can adapt to climate change — and understand and preserve biodiversity. We can explain the human consequences of unsustainable practices and encourage the individual practices necessary for a sustainable way of life.
how do we promote economic opportunity and security?
To feel stable and secure is a deep human need. To have the means to provide for our own needs and those of our loved ones. To leave a legacy that contributes to the well-being of our family, community and world.
Yet nearly half of humankind, more than 3 billion people, lives on less than $2.50 a day. Of 2.2 billion children on the planet, 1 billion — every second child — live in poverty.
If global change begins at home, then we must build strong, stable economic foundations in our own community and state. We must unleash the potential of entrepreneurship, forge enterprising partnerships, empower the poor, establish new economic values and increase corporate accountability. We can lead the change — and be the catalyst — the nation and world need now.
how do we lead healthier, more fulfilling lives?
Challenges related to health and well-being include reversing the spread of obesity and improving health disparities. They also encompass encouraging creative expression and inspiring a sense of wonder about life.
In this multi-faceted approach, furthering mental wellness carries as much importance as innovating health care and medical technology. Because a challenge as diverse and individual as this demands imaginative solutions that cross boundaries and are far-reaching.
how do we defend and extend human rights?
To chart our own course. To realize our unique potential. To be secure in our private lives. In Western countries, tradition and law largely protect and preserve our individual rights. We can expect equal treatment from our judicial systems.
Yet this is not true for millions living throughout the world. Individuals are denied free speech, the ability or right to make basic decisions about their personal destinies, even refuge from violence. Many victims are women, children and minorities.
If global change begins at home, then we need to understand the causes of injustice. We need to find ways to share our values while respecting others. And, we must create definitions of concepts like "a free press," "tolerance" and "equality" that people the world over can understand and embrace.
how do we understand the past and present for the sake of our future?
The public university is uniquely equipped to answer the most fundamental questions we can ask, questions of who we are and where we are going. They require collaboration and broad inquiry.
University scientists can take us back to the very beginnings of time and space. They can help us grasp the ground rules of the universe, how time and circumstance have shaped our earth.
In order to improve our quality of life on Earth today and for future generations, we must understand how our current ecological state came to be.
The complexity of human nature requires adaptive communities that can withstand the tests of time and consider all citizens.
In one of the sunniest places on Earth, the possibilities are endless for light to fuel our lifestyles, build better materials and transform medicine.
We must encourage leading businesses to create sustainable infrastructures and then ensure that they remain efficient and flexible for future needs.
Since water supports life, we take cues from nature to develop technology that assures the safety of our sources.
Much of our current energy sources face a limited life span, so we seek alternative solutions that have the ability for widespread use.
Closer inspection of the farm-to-table cycle indicates a need to improve our practices for better health and better quality.
Each person has the capability to begin a movement with access to the right resources.
We pursue research and community programs that identify the best methods for helping people of all ages learn how to make active, healthy choices.
The spectrum of health and well-being is broad and inclusive. It ranges from understanding and combating disease all the way to building appreciation for literature and the arts.
Creating healthy lives begins with researching their building blocks, including efficient health care, lowered health disparities and community integration.
Multidisciplinary research is a vital step toward identifying causes and treatments for health disparities of all kinds.
Our research translates into real-world practice to develop wellness and prevention programs for infants, children and parents.
Being well mentally and emotionally is an essential aspect of overall health and well-being.
We are discovering the mechanisms behind disease, and new and innovative approaches to treatment.
The project develops central locations near the region's chapter houses for community members to be active through recreation, food production, education and elderly care. This resource would allow the community to preventively battle obesity, curtailing the onset of Type II diabetes that is prevalent throughout the nation.
A Latino youth exercise prevention study being conducted through ASU's Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center.
Through collaborative efforts, the Center for Metabolic Biology is striving to not only discover the mechanisms involved in the development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, but to extend that knowledge to the bedside and the community in order to improve the lives of countless people.
To find and prepare our next new generation of scientists, Arizona and the nation must enhance STEM education at every level.
Building sources of renewable energy, sophisticated new IT systems and other advanced technologies relies on breakthroughs in materials science.
University research, public policy and industry initiatives can work together to build improved, sustainable environments for the future.
The information age is built on the ever-widening application of media innovation to business and industry, national security and personal communications.
The nation's health care programs can deliver high-value care for all citizens by incorporating the kinds of policies, practices and tools we are developing.
In Western countries, tradition and law protect and preserve our individual rights. This is not the case for millions throughout the world, and we must work toward improving justice for all.
A mutual understanding of human rights is essential to defending them against violation.
Exposure to the diversity of our species leads to constructive dialogue, rather than conflict.
We have a right to live in a violence-free world and it is everyone's responsibility to work toward this goal.
As a nation founded on democracy that considers the rights of all citizens, we must serve as models for other nations to do the same.
Creating a culture of understanding and peace will bring about a world free of conflict and violence.
Our Constitution provides for equal rights under the law for all, and we must work toward guaranteeing that this is upheld.
The persistent, complex questions about ourselves; our place in the universe; and our traditions, culture and communities are the foundations of knowledge. They are the heart of a New American University's work.
The origins of the universe and Earth are critical contexts for understanding the forces that ultimately govern our future.
How we emerged as humans from the earliest forms of life on the planet has immediate, contemporary relevance.
ASU scientists work across a broad spectrum of disciplines, including physics and astrobiology.
Alternative bodies of knowledge, cultures and perspectives usefully question and illuminate dominant assumptions and systems.
A multidisciplinary approach combining science, engineering, social science and computing is advancing synthetic biology and sensor technology.
This initiative integrates the strengths of the natural sciences, technology, the humanities and the social sciences to address large, global issues.
Ninety percent of well-paying jobs today require postsecondary education or training. Ensuring that every person is well-educated increases our local and national competitiveness.
Today's successful students have a broad range of skills to draw from and apply toward our increasingly interconnected world.
Teachers become more effective educators, mentors and role models when they receive adequate support and resources.
We cannot do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.
By encouraging students to pursue curiosity and ask — and attempt to answer — big questions, we transform how they think and live.
Effective leadership involves innovative thinking made possible by creative thought and imagination.
Economic vitality is important to individuals, communities and countries alike. By promoting economic opportunity and security, we improve the condition of not only ourselves, but of mankind and the world.
As an embodiment of the American values of hope and freedom, entrepreneurs revitalize society by implementing innovations that produce economic impact.
By attracting investment and increasing our regional and national competitiveness, we create more economic opportunities.
Confronting complex business problems improves our ability to comprehensively manage organizations in an ever-changing global environment.
Innovation is the process by which we improve and advance society.
How do we build strong, vibrant communities? Because the world is getting smaller, we must learn to collaborate across borders and beliefs. We need to respect diversity, find common ground and work toward common goals.
We research broad aspects of population and community growth, creating solutions for policy decisions and economic, social and environmental health.
Families are at the core of humanity, and strengthening them has direct impact on the overall well-being of the broader community.
Our research and service programs target adolescents, young adults and college students, promoting an understanding of and commitment to service on all fronts.
Our research is advancing knowledge, seeking solutions and informing policy to create a world where religious understanding and tolerance thrive.
As international boundaries become more and more blurred, we must establish the necessary infrastructures for living and working in a global age.
Student innovators took one step closer to realizing their dreams, as 16 teams won a total of $48,000 in grant funding through the ASU Innovation Challenge. Under the soft glow of chandeliers in Old Main's Carson Ballroom, student innovators stood to the applause and cheers of their peers, mentors, friends and supporters.
This year, 16 teams were selected from 30 finalists to win grants – the culmination of the Innovation Challenge, a funding opportunity for ASU students looking to make a difference in local and global communities.
More than 150 teams that consisted of more than 400 students applied this year for $48,000 in funding with individual grants ranging up to $10,000.
"They are living the ideal of what a New American University is, a place where students can go to make their ideas happen," said Audrey Iffert of University Initiatives. Iffert served on the competition's advisory board and gave opening remarks at the winner's announcement.
"Those are 400 students who are bold enough to put forward an idea and have the eagerness to move that idea forward," Iffert said.
One of the winners, Tyler Eltringham, team leader of OneShot, covered his face with his hands in astonishment, hugged his mentor and bound across the stage, accepting the largest grant of the evening to the tune of $10,000.
"I feel like the last six months of my life of not breathing, sleeping or eating has been completely justified," he said.
OneShot is a nonprofit dedicated to providing meningococcal meningitis vaccinations for college students. In a one-for-one fashion, every vaccine given locally means one donated to an area of Africa where the illness is prevalent. OneShot will use the grant to further their plans and implement their idea.
Eltringham and his team, along with all winners, were congratulated by a long line of university leaders as they accepted their award, including deans from the School of Sustainability, W. P. Carey School of Business, College of Technology and Innovation, and College of Public Programs, to name a few.
Student teams faced tough competition and challenges, both against their peers and within themselves to put together impressive ideas for social innovation, submit a well-rounded proposal and then present their ideas to a panel of judges in a nerve-wracking elevator pitch competition.
Another Innovation Challenge winner, Susanna Young, along with her team, Project LOCAL, won a $2,000 grant to continue their work in turning retired shipping containers into safe, clean places for African mothers to give birth, along with establishing training programs for midwives.
"The road getting here was long but exciting," Young said. "We learned a ton from it. There is huge value in taking something that is in your head and actually getting it on the page."
Young said the most nervous she felt came from listening to the names of winning teams being announced and wondering if hers would be called.
"My heart rate (was) continually increasing," she said. "Winners were being ticked off and then (I was) just elated when our name was called."
Other winning teams included an after-school science program that emphasizes the mastery of scientific principles, an online music school that gives teachers the ability to conduct real-time lessons with students from anywhere in the country, and a proof-of-concept development for delivering personalized medicine through new technologies.
This was the second year of the Innovation Challenge, a competition made possible by a generous grant from the Ewing Marion Kaufmann Foundation in Kansas City, and two Innovation Challenge sponsors, James Culver and John Dorsey.
Culver, who also served as an Innovation Challenge Final Round Judge, described the competition as an outstanding opportunity for student entrepreneurs and innovators.
"We talk about the ability and the need to find the balance between profitability and our social conscience, and to see the teams try and create something to bind those two things together," Culver said. "I thought it was awesome."
Charlie Lewis, vice president of venture development at ASU's Venture Catalyst, encouraged students to continue pushing their ideas forward whether they won or not.
"As trite as it might sound, by not winning today it is certainly not the end of the road for those that are here, as long as you chose for it not to be," Leis said. "Here at the university, there are countless resources at your disposal to continue to advance your entrepreneurial dreams."
The ASU Foundation would like to take this opportunity to thank you for participating in the ASU Challenges website.
For four years, we have had the privilege of showcasing how ASU is taking responsibility for the social, cultural, economic and physical well-being of the community. We have shown you how ASU students and faculty are thinking big and pursing risk and innovation. We have created a mosaic of stories that, together, create a portrait of a university that is pursuing creative and scientific solutions to life's greatest challenges.
ASU's work on the forefront of discovery is ongoing, and we invite you to continue following its progress at ASU News Now at asunews.asu.edu.


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UCLA Professor and Psychologist Annette L. Stanton
The Konza Praire Has a Stark Kind of Beauty
Annette L. Stanton is a distinguished professor and the department chair of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research focuses on how people adjust to health-related hardships and identifying the factors that help them through the process. Sitting in our new green room at the ASU California Center at the Herald Examiner, the "How Do We Begin Again?" panelist spoke about passion fruit, her favorite place to go on UCLA's campus, and the way she deals with stress.
Why Is It so Hard to Mourn the Vast Number of COVID Dead?
An Empathy Scientist Reveals How Our Brains Get in the Way of Comprehending Calamity on This Scale
by Sara Konrath | December 7, 2020
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the first U.S. death from COVID-19 on February 29. Within a month, more than 1,000 Americans were dying on a single day. …
Can Anything Cure the Pandemic of Waiting and Worrying?
A Psychologist of Uncertainty Has Some Ideas to Help Us Cope With This Unprecedented Time
by Kate Sweeny | August 17, 2020
The sources of uncertainty are numerous right now. Will my job still be there when the pandemic ends? When can I see my friends and family again? Is it safe …
The Renowned Psychologist Who Fathered a Theory of Child Development, a Rhesus Monkey, and Me
Remembering Kurt Fischer and His Complex, Varied, and Dynamic View of Humanity
by Seth Fischer | July 20, 2020
A few hours after I learned my dad had died, my stepmom called me on speaker to ask if we wanted a post-mortem COVID-19 test. I was pacing my living …
Modern Ideas About Genes Were Conceived in 18th Century Asylums
Long Before Mendel Bred His Peas, Doctors Claimed Heredity Explained Madness
by Theodore M. Porter | January 29, 2019
Sitting at my desk, reading the archived pages of an old British anthropological journal, an entry from 1899 caught my eye. The police at New Scotland Yard had a "Central …
How Digital Technology Is Making Us Subservient, Anxious, and Uncertain
The Threat of Constant Surveillance Provokes Fears That We're Losing Our Liberty and Autonomy
by Randolph Lewis | December 14, 2018
In the anxious years since 9/11, surveillance has become one of the essential infrastructures for 21st-century social life, commerce, and government. With an endless number of drones, sensors, scanners, archives, …

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June 1st, 2019 | Issue one hundred twenty-five
Stuff I've Been Reading: June/July 2019
by Nick Hornby
Illustration by Kristen Radtke
10 Snaps
[Unnameable Novel 1] (abandoned)
Little—Edward Carey
Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen: Reflections at Sixty and Beyond—Larry McMurtry
Fools—Joan Silber
The Library Book—Susan Orlean
The Friend—Sigrid Nunez
Grant and I: Inside and Outside the Go-Betweens—Robert Forster
News of the World—Paulette Jiles
How to Read Water: Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea—Tristan Gooley
The Quest for Queen Mary—James Pope-Hennessy
Fierce Attachments—Vivian Gornick
The first column I ever wrote for The Believer, over fifteen years ago, provoked a mild rebuke from the then editors. I had made a little joke about a sentence in a novel I'd read, a sentence I had decided was infelicitous, and it was pointed out to me that the magazine was a snark-free zone. I was and remain a supporter of that policy, and, a little embarrassed, I removed the joke before publication. That tiny contretemps changed my reading life forever, and for my own good. I realized the novel I'd poked fun at was not a novel I'd expected to like, particularly; I had picked it up because everyone else was reading it at the time, and I'd wanted to ask myself, What is all the fuss about? That particular question is almost always, in my experience, followed by the answer "Nothing," because it is rarely asked in a spirit of generosity, and from that day on I started only books that looked as though they were going to suit my tastes and needs as a reader. Of course, you can't always tell, but disposition is all, and now I am always well disposed toward the contents of my fiction and nonfiction even before the first paragraph.
So what went wrong with my two abandoned novels this month? I got more than halfway through both of them, and one of them was really long, but I reached a point where I simply ran out of steam and patience, and each paragraph seemed to consist of a mix of mud and treacle. The shorter of the two was, I'm afraid, a what's-all-the-fuss-about choice, an act of recidivism that was severely punished by Tedius, the wrathful god of Boredom; the longer one was bought from a secondhand-book store some years ago as a result of the gushing quotes on the front and back covers, but proved to be, underneath its corpulence, a much leaner work than I'd anticipated: one that had let itself go. Is one allowed to fat-shame a novel? I don't suppose so. But I'm not going to post a photograph of it on Instagram, and I'm not going to name any names, so hopefully I'll get away with it. Why give books up? Why not plough on until the bitter end? Because, young friends, we want to do everything we can to break the link between literature and grim duty. You wouldn't stick with a long Spotify playlist consisting of music that displeases you; you wouldn't wade through a Netflix series you were hating. Do reading a favor and treat it as if it were just like everything else you enjoy. You're doing it in your leisure time. You don't have enough of that.
Edward Carey's Little, which I began shortly after giving up on the twin disappointments, was, now that I look back, a big risk for me, mostly because it's a freely imagined novel about the history of Marie Grosholtz, who would eventually become Madame Tussaud. And Madame Tussauds, the famous waxwork museum in London, is a tourist attraction that brings my city into disrepute. I pass it quite often, and there is always a long queue of foreign visitors, and I fear that once they get inside and realize they have paid good money to see pointless, life-size replicas of Benedict Cumberbatch and Posh Spice, they will hate my country and all who dwell therein, me and my family included, forever. (In one of today's cheaper newspapers—like, literally, today's paper—there is a photograph of Lucas Torreira, one of my team, Arsenal's, successes this season, doing Usain Bolt's signature pose alongside a waxwork Usain Bolt. If he ends up hating me and my family, we're in trouble. He's irreplaceable.) Anyway, none of this matters, because Little is brilliant—horrifying, unique, savage, funny, sad, beautiful, and ambitious. Edward Carey had the extraordinary vision to see that this material could, if played right, enable him to write about everything that matters: love, death, war, class, ambition, politics, money.
As far as one can tell, Little uses history as a base and flies off every now and again, not in search of adventure—Grosholtz lived through the French Revolution, when she was frequently called upon to cast recently decapitated heads—but in search of a rich, heartbreaking interior life. She was held in slavery by her landlady; fell in love with her son; was sent to Versailles to be the plaything of Princess Elisabeth, with whom she also fell in love; was imprisoned, prepared for execution, and freed. Some of these things may be true, and many of them are apparently taken from Tussaud's own memoir, much of which cannot be corroborated, and some of them Carey invents, gloriously. Google "Jacques Beauvisage," the thuggish young vagrant that Marie and her household adopted and apparently tamed before he went off to do the revolution's dirty work, and you will be led only to the novel; Google "Benjamin Franklin and Tussaud," by contrast, and you will find that Franklin probably did know Marie. Little is the novel Dickens might have written if he had seen the films of Tim Burton (and had ever come to understand women). It's even been illustrated, rather wonderfully, by the author himself, rather than by Phiz, the guy Dickens used. Tedius didn't raise his head for a single page.
I wrote about my newfound devotion to Joan Silber in my last column, and I read Fools because I was pretty sure she wasn't going to let me down. She didn't. Like Improvement, Fools consists of cunningly, surprisingly interlinked short stories, which in this case wind their way through the last American century—in particular, the last one hundred years of belief, commitment, monogamy, integrity, all the things that complicate our lives and take us out of ourselves. The first story, the one that gives the collection its title, is about the lives and loves of a group of anarchists in 1920s New York, and the last is about a former investment banker and clubber now raising funds for lepers. "You don't know what you're going to be faithful to in the world, do you?" asks the narrator of "Two Opinions" plaintively, and Silber's characters illustrate this unpredictability with a whole range of dilemmas, all of them carefully and intricately imagined. Silber, I can tell, is never going to let me down, and I will keep a copy of one of her books, one I haven't yet read, on a special emergency get-out-of-book-jail-free shelf.
Finally, two books about books, and therefore two books about much, much more than books: Susan Orlean's The Library Book and Larry McMurtry's Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen. To say that McMurtry's memoir is about his relationship with literature is to risk having you skip on to the next paragraph or page: Yeah, yeah. A writer has a relationship with literature. Big deal. But McMurtry, author of The Last Picture Show and Lonesome Dove, probably the best book I have read in the last decade, grew up in Texas, and not in Houston or Austin, either. He lived in Archer County, ranching country, almost uninhabited when his grandparents arrived there in the late nineteenth century; fewer than ten thousand people live there now. One of McMurtry's neighbors when he was a boy was a woman who had been traded for pelts when she was a young girl, and who, when the author knew her, no longer spoke. Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen is an elegant, wise, moving account of how he read his way toward Europe, a place so densely populated that writers "could no more escape culture than I could escape geography." It's a particularly rich book for an Englishman of my age and interests, I think, as I have spent much of my cultural life trying to head the other way—toward accessibility, excitement, vulgarity, the demotic, and away from snobbery, fustiness, and deadening Bloomsbury intellectualism. And yet I still think of McMurtry as a kindred spirit, to me and to everyone who has gotten this far into a magazine dedicated to the arts, and a column dedicated to reading. Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen will take you two or three hours to read, and some of its aperçus and stories may remain with you forever.
Perhaps wisely, given the suggestion carried in her book's title, Susan Orlean's publishers have created a gorgeous, seductive object, and you'll be on your way out of the bookstore before it even crosses your mind that you could have borrowed The Library Book. It has an embossed red cover that gleams in the sun, no dust jacket, and it comes equipped with a facsimile of an old-school slip tucked into its cardboard wallet. It's a book I'm very happy to own, and a book I'm even happier to have read.
The Library Book is, at its core, a history of the Los Angeles Central Library. And if that sounds boring, then you have clearly never read anything else about that extraordinary city. The history of the LA Central Library is as colorful, bewildering, and quite frequently as insane as the history of Hollywood. Orlean takes as her starting point the 1986 fire that destroyed four hundred thousand books, reached a temperature of 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, and raged for seven hours. (Orlean wonders how she missed the news of the fire. Even though she was living in New York City at the time, she found it hard to believe that a literary tragedy of this magnitude would have escaped her notice. A quick trawl through contemporary newspapers explained her oblivion: the big story that week was another fire, at a Soviet nuclear plant in Chernobyl.)
Orlean provides a gripping account of the fire and its aftermath—a seven-year period, with profound psychological implications for grief-stricken staff members, a fund-raising drive, and an arson investigation. (Arsonists, it turns out, frequently target libraries.) But she also burns a book to see what it feels like, provides a brief history of book-burning both ancient and modern, and tells the story of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. There is also some startling but depressingly believable information about Hollywood's use of the library: researchers used to chuck books out of the window to colleagues waiting outside, simply because they knew they'd be needing the books for a long time and didn't want to pay the fines.
If you are determined to write a library-based motion picture, there are three or four ideas in here. I'd probably start with the Great Library War of 1905, when Mary Jones was asked to leave her post as city librarian on the grounds that she was a woman. The women of LA didn't take this lying down, and there were protests; Jones, meanwhile, just carried on as if nothing had happened until she realized that her cause was hopeless. She was replaced, had already been replaced, by Charles Fletcher Lummis, an adventurer and eccentric who walked to LA from Ohio, and who published poems printed on translucent slivers of bark. His extramarital conquests were rumoured to include Kate Douglas Wiggin, the author of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. His wife discovered a diary listing fifty such liaisons, thus scotching the theory that it was easier to keep adultery secret in the pre-electronic era. He was fired, in the end, for a great variety of infractions. Disgruntled, he pointed out that he had gone "to the roots of that Sissy Library and made it, within two years… a He-Library." I think it's fair to say that he would not have come to grips with the twenty-first century.
And, meanwhile, I keep buying books—about water, and Queen Mary, and all sorts. I don't suppose I'll read all of them, but I like to think I might, one day. Larry McMurtry and Susan Orlean and their books about books have left me with an appetite for anything and everything, just when I feared I was losing the taste. I can't wait to start whatever it is I'm reading next, and finishing it, and starting the book after that. And so on, and on.
Nick Hornby lives in North London. His latest novels are Slam (2007), Juliet, Naked (2009) and Funny Girl (2014). He also produces and writes screenplays, adapting Lynn Barber's memoir An Education and Colm Toibin's Brooklyn for the big screen.
More by Nick Hornby
Ask Jeannie: Advice from Jean Grae for December
Stuff I've Been Reading: December 2019/January 2020
Stuff I've Been Reading: October/November 2019
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Justin Atkins is the third FLW Tour rookie to win the Forrest Wood Cup.
Nine years ago, a wide-eyed 18-year-old named Justin Atkins sat inside Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, S.C., and watched Michael Bennett win the 2008 Forrest Wood Cup with bass caught at Lake Murray.
Last August, Atkins rode around Wheeler Lake at the Cup, watching the competitors pick apart the lake, all the while wondering and wishing and dreaming about the day he�d get the chance to be in their shoes.
Wonder and wish no more.
Atkins� opportunity arrived this week, way faster than he could have ever imagined and today, inside the same building where Bennett won $1 million, Atkins carved out his own spot in Forrest Wood Cup lore with a tournament-best 22-01 bag that helped him overtake roommate Brandon Cobb and hold off fellow Cup rookie Travis Fox to win with an eye-popping 3-day total of 59-04.
Who knows, maybe the 2027 Cup winner was somewhere in the crowd today at a packed Colonial Life Arena, watching Atkins calmly capture FLW�s top prize with a massive mid-summer weight that took everyone by surprise.
Atkins is the third Tour rookie to win the Cup and is the fourth-youngest champion in the event�s 21-year history at 27 years old. His winning weight this week (this was the first time the Cup was a 3-day event) exceeded all but three of the previous 4-day versions of the Cup.
�It�s hard to put it into words,� Atkins said. �I�ve looked up to these guys a long time. I�ve dreamed about getting to be here. To win it is unbelievable.
Fox, an eight-year Tour pro who qualified for his first Cup through the FLW Series Championship last fall and opted not to compete on Tour in 2017, made an incredible final-day charge with 21-11 to finish 2nd with 56-11.
Cobb, the leader after day 2, slipped to 3rd after catching just four fish for 15-10 and finished with 54-10.
Reigning Angler of the Year Bryan Thrift sacked 18-02 and wound up 4th for the second straight year with 51-05. Anthony Gagliardi, the 2014 Cup winner at Murray and odds-on favorite this week, struggled early, but managed 15-02 to slip two spots to 5th with 51-03, one ounce more than his 4-day winning weight in 2014.
In a tournament that blew away the most optimistic of weight predictions, this Cup will be remembered for the return of pencil popper-style baits as topwater fishing dominated this event like no other and Atkins was happy to lead the way.
He relied on his Humminbird electronics to dissect manmade clumps of bamboo cane (vertical brush piles) from Bear Creek all the way to the southeast corner of the lake. Once he learned how the fish positioned in and around the cover, he used a chrome IMA Lures Little Stik 135 to call fish to the surface and to imitate herring that passed through the areas.
Atkins, a former Bassmaster Weekend Series champion, whose pathway to the Tour was cleared this year solely because he�s a Ranger owner, joins close friend and Bassmaster Classic winner Jordan Lee as the current title holders of the sport�s two marquee events. It�s the first time since 2006 that the reigning Classic and Cup champions are both under 30 years old. Lee was 25 when he won the Classic last March.
Today�s conditions more resembled Saturday�s than Friday�s and there was a good spell during the morning when there was little to no breeze. That forced some of the finalists to go to backup plans, like up the Saluda River, but cloud cover in the afternoon seemed to re-activate the topwater patterns that most relied on all tournament.
It�s been quite a year for Atkins, who collected five money finishes during his rookie season on Tour, including two top-10s. In early June, he finished 3rd at the BFL All-American and got married later that month. The Cup victory is just the icing on the cake.
The first couple of cane piles Atkins fished this morning yielded nothing, which was surprising to him. He idled over them to get a better grasp of how the fish were setting up and he could tell they were holding tight to the cane stalks.
Then his situation improved immensely.
Not long after, he boated another 5-pounder to set the tone for the day.
He said checking that first spot with his electronics was the key to getting dialed in on other spots the rest of the day.
He finished out his limit and made his final upgrade around 1 p.m. to push past the 22-pound mark, giving him two 20-pound bags in the tournament.
Travis Fox would like to return to the FLW Tour next season.
A critical element to his success as the tournament played out was how he deftly managed his group of spectators. He moved upwards to 10 to 20 times a day, but he was careful in how he approached the spot he was heading to, knowing an armada of boats would follow.
Fox nailed down his career-best finish in a multi-day tournament by making a key adjustment today that produced his biggest fish of the event.
Using a retrieve that saw him let the spoon fall for a couple seconds then rip it up in the water column, he caught a 6-pounder, but also lost two good ones on it.
Fox had registered to compete on the Tour this year. His deposits were paid as well, but once he realized the two February tournaments would force him away from his firearms sales business during a busy time of year, he opted to back away from the Tour. He hopes to return possibly as soon as next year.
Brandon Cobb came in one fish short of a limit today.
A combination of spectator boat traffic and some bad luck conspired against Cobb today. He had the bites to possibly hold off Atkins, but lost several key fish, including one he said was a 4-pounder in the final hour.
The impact of the spectator traffic was something he admits he wasn�t prepared to deal with. As the leader heading out on the final day, he had at least two dozen boats chasing him initially this morning and that number fluctuated through the day.
�I knew I would have a lot of people follow me, but there were more than I ever thought,� he said. �A lot of them weren�t real courteous. I had a hard time going back to places. I�d been running to pretty much the same places over and over until they bite.
All of his fish were caught on a walking bait or a soft-plastic jerkbait worked just under the surface in areas where fish were relating to herring or cane piles.
Thrift stayed with what he�d been doing the first two days, which was targeting fish relating to herring on points in the morning, then probing brush piles later on.
His only regret was not putting more stock in the herring fish. He figured it wouldn�t hold up considering the time of year.
�I shouldn't have underestimated those herring fish as much as I did,� he said. �Usually, they�re not this big of a factor in August, at least not like they were this week. You usually can�t piece together three days of it. I did it a little bit, but it was ridiculous.
Bryan Thrift shows off his day-3 kicker at the Forrest Wood Cup.
Nobody in the field had more options of where and what to fish at Murray than Gagliardi, but he was kicking himself for sticking with one spot too long this morning and not devoting more time to cane piles in general.
�Over the next hour, I had 12 to 15 bites, all on the D Shad,� he added.
> Day 2 stats � 10 anglers, 6 limits, 2 fours, 1 two, 1 one.
> FLW announced the attendance at this year�s Cup (weigh-in and Expo combined) was 68,315. Next year�s Cup will be at Lake Ouachita with Hot Springs, Ark., serving as the host city.


So where's the one-off prototype been all these years? After Chrysler execs vetoed production of the XNR, it was sent back to Italian coachbuilder Ghia, which originally assembled the car. From there, it changed hands between several notable foreign collectors before finally being turned over to RM Restoration in Paris in 2008. The car was fully restored in March, 2011, and was displayed for the first time in the U.S. since the 1960s at last year's Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance. Now, the car will go to the highest bidder when it crosses the auction block at RM's Monterey sale on August 17-18. No auction estimate has been assigned to the XNR, but considering its one-off status and sharp, jet-age styling, we'd guess it's for high-rollers only.


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Samsung is always tight-lipped about its new phones before launch events, so you'll have to wait and see.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 releases on February 9th. Here's everything we know so far
Posted: Feb 7, 2022 / 06:59 AM MST
Updated: Feb 7, 2022 / 06:59 AM MST
The latest in Samsung's flagship phone line will launch on February 9, but there's still some mystery around what consumers should expect. The details of the Samsung Galaxy S22 are thin on the ground so far. While there have been rumors, facts remain elusive.
Although you won't find much concrete information yet, you don't have long to wait until the launch when Samsung reveals all.
Samsung Unpacked
Samsung Unpacked is a twice-yearly event from Samsung where it launches its latest products. The next Unpacked event is on February 9, and you'll be able to find out the full details of the new S22 line. You can watch a livestream on the Samsung website on February 9 from 7 a.m. PST. In previous years it has also been livestreamed on Samsung's YouTube channel, and this year it is likely to happen again.
New Samsung Galaxy models unveiled
As in previous years, you can expect an S22, an S22+ and an S22 Ultra to be unveiled on February 9. Although still a great phone, the S22 will be the base-level model, the S22+ will be the mid-level model that will be slightly bigger with slightly better specs, and the S22 Ultra will be the top-end offering with the largest screen size, best specs and most impressive camera array. The Ultra is rumored to incorporate some features from the Galaxy Note phone, such as an S-Pen stylus, which hasn't had a new model since 2020 and may now be defunct.
Probable camera evolution
Flagship Samsung phones are known for their great cameras, but a teaser video on the Samsung website suggests that a significant upgrade might be due. The video is cryptic, but it appears to show someone taking photos in dark environments with the tagline "break through the night, break the rules of light" popping up on the screen at the end of the teaser. This seems to suggest an impressive upgrade to the night mode feature for better low-light photography.
The Samsung Unpacked event on February 9 is the launch event for the new S22 range, but it isn't technically the release date. You can already reserve one via Samsung's website, but preorders are likely to open officially after the event. The shipping date isn't yet confirmed but it's likely to be near the end of February for the S22 Ultra and around mid-March for the S22 and S22+. Samsung is experiencing delays in manufacturing due to pandemic-related supply chain issues, which is why you'll have to wait a little while from the launch until you can hold one of these new phones in your hand.
Alternatives to the Galaxy S22 line
If you just can't wait for the S22, or you want to pick up a cheaper deal after the new model's release, last year's S21 is still a solid choice. It has an excellent array of cameras, 8K video capabilities and an intuitive battery that lasts all day.
The iPhone 13 Pro Max is Apple's current top-of-the-line smartphone, and it performs exceptionally. It has excellent cameras that take photos in a more true-to-life color palette than Samsung phones, and it's speedy with a beautifully sharp display.
OnePlus isn't quite able to keep up with Apple and Samsung's top phones, but it isn't far behind. This phone is an excellent choice for buyers who want flagship-level features but don't have the budget for the Galaxy S22.
The Pixel 6 Pro is another phone with features on the lower end of high-end but with a more affordable price tag than the S22. It's highly responsive with a great camera and is more than adequate for most people.
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Every year as you get older just gets faster and faster. I feel like it was literally just 2016's New Year's Eve and then I blinked and here we are a whole trip around the sun later. It's crazy and I will never not be shocked by how fast a year goes by. Luke Bryan put the feelings into words that, "I believe that days go slow, and years go fast". Some days feel like they're never going to end, but then you turn back around, and they actually flew by.
I don't know about any of you, but 2017 was torn between the best and worst year of my life. I went to Tennessee, attended 3 of the best concerts I've been to, fell in "love", started this blog, went through a difficult breakup, found what I'm most passionate about and what I'm meant to do, went to Wisconsin (twice!), struggled more with my mental health since high school, started working on my dreams, and so much more all within 12 months – which is insane to me. There were a lot of lessons learned and growth this year which I can not be more grateful for.
The one where my friend and I went to a mall an hour away to shop at Lush.
Well, February was also uneventful since these are also my only photos of the month…I promise it gets a little more exciting in March.
The one where I went to Walmart and the sky looked like this. Like, come on, look how beautiful that is.
The one where I was probably late to class.
The one where we see Thomas Rhett, Kelsea Ballerini, Russell Dickerson, and Ryan Hurd. I have the biggest girl crush on Kelsea.
The one where we road trip to Tennessee for spring break.
The one where we cross the North Carolina border to use the bathroom. Then we turned right back around into Tenneessee.
The one where I go to the Chicago Art Institute. Personally, I am not a big art guy so this was torture but I had to go for class.
The one where I take a picture of a pond.
The one where I dyed my hair back to dark brown. My hair had been half blonde and half brown and the dividing line had to go.
…I literally did nothing in May either.
The one where it's Mother's Day.
The one where I had a dance recital. My mom has helped every year since I was three!
The one where we bought a slip 'n slide.
The one where I babysat my cousins all summer. We made brownies!
The one where we went to Prairie Fest.
The one where we go to Starved Rock for my friend's 19th birthday.
The one where we road trip to Wisconsin all squished together. Things that had been tested on this trip: patience.
The one where I spent 4th of July at a lake in Wisconsin.
The one where we ran all over town. My cousin and I had to stop for a cute picture, of course.
The one where I went to a lake in Wisconsin…again.
The one with the spooky lake house and a gnome. I was later caught in the rain, too.
The one where I go to Green Bay.
The one where I launch my blog with my first post about self-love! I was so excited and a little nervous about it.
The one where I start my sophomore year of college.
The one where my aunt & uncle take me to see Luke Bryan, Brett Eldredge, and Granger Smith. It was hands down one of the best concerts I have ever seen. If I could live at concerts, I would.
The one where my best friend takes me to see Brad Paisley, Dustin Lynch, Chase Bryant, and Lindsay Ell.
The one where I turn 20! I spent the day with my friend and the pumpkins.
The one where I'm literally at school all day every day.
The one where it's Halloween. I dressed up as Pooh Bear for work!
The one where I got bangs.
The one where it's Thanksgiving. My brother was forced into this picture even though he was sick.
The one where it starts becoming festive.
The one where it snowed for the first time of the season. It was just a dusting, but still exciting.
The one where we drive around looking at Christmas lights.
The one where we go to Brookfield Zoo and see a peacock. It was blocking the door we wanted to go in.
The one where it's Christmas!
So, no matter what the "lows" were to my year, the "highs" and positive progress rise above. And for that, I'm proud of myself. But I know 2018 will not have to be split as the best/worst year because I'm more determined than ever to make it the best and most successful year so far.
I'm also incredibly blessed to have the entire family that I have because I have never felt so loved when I had my months where couldn't see anything positive. So, thank you to my whole family for letting me talk your ears off about the same things over and over again, for letting me be able to just cry without giving me advice all the time, for making me laugh a lot, for taking me on fun adventures, and helping me get through some difficult times. I love you guys more than anything.
What was your favorite part of 2017, and what's one of your goals for 2018? I hope everyone has a happy (and safe!) New Year!
I love this post! Your pictures are so adorable and your hair grew a lot over the year! This was such a great idea for a New Years post! I agree with you (and Luke Bryan) 100%, it always seems like the days go on forever, then you blink and a month has gone by. It's strange, but that's life I reckon. I look forward to following along with your content this year! Great blog!


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