THIS WILL BE A BIG WEEK

THIS WILL BE A BIG WEEK...for me, and maybe for the rest of humanity, too. Why?

To begin, the Houston Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies for the baseball World Series Championship. For them, this was redemption, for their previous triumph in 2017 turned out to be scandalous.

Astros manager Dusty Baker woke up yesterday morning as the one who had coached the most games, never having won a world series. He did it yesterday at the age of 73. I also did well in fantasy baseball this year.

The New York Marathon this morning was won by two Kenyans, Sharon Lokedi and Evans Chebet.

There were around 50,000 runners.
This was 28-year old Lokedi's first marathon in her life.

Chebet earlier this year won the Boston Marathon. Kenyan men have won all six major city marathons this year: also Eliud Kipchoge in Tokyo and Berlin, Amos Kipruto in London and Benson Kipruto in Chicago.
Chebet's time was 2 hours, 8 minutes and 41 seconds, but Swiss Marcel Hug won the wheelchair race in 1 hour, 25 minutes and 25 seconds.

Okay, now, how many of you know that there will be a total lunar eclipse tomorrow, November 7/8? In Honolulu this all begins at 10:02PM, with a maximum at 12:59AM on November 8.

Join us Monday, Nov. 7, 11PM-2AM (HST) for a

TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE LIVE STREAM

on our YouTube Channel

(weather permitting)

with astronomer Q&A during the stream

Bessie Hendricks, our oldest American, will be 115 years old tomorrow, November 7. She lives in Iowa, and is on the right.

I'll have a lot more to say about this tomorrow, but Tuesday, November 8, is the day of the U.S. midterm elections. The future of democracy is at stake, and the Democrats have tried, but largely failed to convince the masses of this danger.

Another issue should have been global climate warming. Republicans are to blame for the fact that the USA has done almost zilch about this major problem confronting humanity. So what have Democrats done to embarrass Republicans? NOTHING!

The COP27 climate talks began today in Egypt. More than 40,000 participants have been registered, and 120 world leaders will attend, including President Joe Biden. Reflecting the chances for any kind of cooperation, China's President Xi Jinping and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not go. Further these talks are being overshadowed by the Ukraine War.

If you know this, then you are spending too much time on trivia, but Wednesday, November 9, is Chaos Never Dies Day. This goes back to the ancient Greeks and the god Khaos, who reigned over empty space at the beginning of time. In 1963 Edward Lorenz coined Butterfly Effect, and in 1975 James Yorke refined that into Chaos Theory.

On Thursday, November 10, the U.S. Marine Corps will be 247 years old. The United Nations also observes this day as World Science Day for Peace and Development. First celebrated in 2002, this is the 20th anniversary.

Friday, November 11, is Veterans Day, a federal holiday in the U.S. Only Wisconsin does not consider this a state holiday, although their State Assembly is close to approving it. Anyway, most schools and businesses remain open. Click here for Hawaii details. Originally known as Armistice Day, our military veterans are honored. At 11AM you are asked to observe a moment of silence, first commemorating the cease-fire in World War I. Memorial Day is the last Monday of May and honors those fallen in war.

Then on Saturday, we depart on Asiana to South Korea, immediately transferring to Bangkok, where we will stay a few days. Then on to Dubai to board the Regent Seven Seas Explorer for Singapore. We will be back in Honolulu on December 18.

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A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicio...

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for...

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

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