This was a good year. Avoided COVID. Am at the best Body Mass Index in at least the past quarter century. I've never been, as such, fat. Well, maybe when I was around 1 year old. But to the present.- I saw 146.8 pounds on the scale a couple days ago. My BMI is thus 23.0, just above average in the optimal green category.
- My weight before the pandemic was 165, or a BMI of 25.8, in the overweight category.
- Through a strict vegetable and little solid carbohydrate diet, with few snacks and almost no dessert, my weight dropped to 154, a BMI of 24.1, which placed me just in the optimal category.
- I just returned from a five-week trip, including a 21-day Regent Seven Seas Explorer cruise, and saw 155.4 pounds, a BMI of 24.3, still barely in the optimal category. But the amazing thing is that I thought I had gained at least 6 pounds, for I ate and drank a lot. Too much.
- The solution, I determined, was a lot of sleep.
- The USA is very close to reaching 100 million cases, with 1.1 million deaths. The mortality rate is thus 1.1%.
- This has dropped to around 0.6%, but is still much higher than the seasonal flu, which is about 0.01%.
- South Korea is now down to 0.1%, which is ten times higher than the flu.
- The world has had 663.3 million cases and 6.7 million deaths, once at close to 1% mortality, but now at 0.4%.
- China started this all just around 3 years ago, kept infections low through stringent rules, but recently opened up, resulting in an exponential jump in new cases and new deaths. How the country and world react to this blow will determine the future of this pandemic. 2023 will be severely challenged.
- In addition to the continued pandemic, Russia invading the Ukraine ranks up there at the top. Most early on predicted a quick finish, but continued resistance, led by TIME Person of the Year Volodymyr Zelensky, has been a surprise. There is always that lurking fear that everything could escalate to nuclear warfare, placing this WAR as the most significant event this year.
- No question that Western aid has helped. How much? Europe has agreed to provide $55 billion, with the U.S. at $51 billion. Putin has for 2023 pledged $155 billion for his war in Ukraine.
- There was some worldwide inflation and crises in Iran, Pakistan and South/Latin America, but nothing earth-shaking.
- The UK had some issues at the top and in the USA the diminution of Donald Trump was nice. The House did release his taxes for 2015-2020 today.
- Some say global warming is finally beginning to show, but there were only a few rather minor natural disasters this year. Floods and droughts hit here and there, with the worst being floods which killed 1739 in Pakistan. An earthquake killed 1,036 in Afghanistan. Some wildfires.
- The U.S. had 15 weather disasters, where perhaps 342 died, maybe 400 after this latest winter storm is included. Hurricane Ian caused at least $20 billion in damages, and maybe up to $100 billion, but with "only" 157 fatalities.
- World leaders reached a new climate change agreement, but with little true commitment and a lack of enforcement. What can you expect for a gathering held in Egypt? The next attempt will be made next year in Abu Dhabi.
A pleasant surprise was the eye candy provided by the James Webb Space Telescope. Here is an article that listed 344 ways this project would fail after launch. Employing 20,000 over two decades, and costing far more than originally stated (first funding was for a billion, and the total cost exceeded $10 billion), this was another successful NASA effort. Read my Wednesday posting of another.
On the sports front, Argentina beat France for the World Cup. Ten times more watched this game than any Super Bowl match.
We long ago forgot, but there was a Winter Olympics this year in Beijing. Norway won with 37 medals. Biggest star? Eileen Gu. Her mother is from China, so she competed for that country. However, she was born in San Francisco, and here is a photo of her first day at Stanford, with mother and grandmother.
Here is one list of the ten top songs of 2022. Don't recognize any. #1 was Titi Me Pregunto by Bad Bunny. To quote TIME:
“Titi Me Pregunto” is much more than its sheer sonic brilliance. While the first two verses show Bad Bunny playing the carefree, chauvinist playboy, he eventually confesses that it’s all a shield for his emotional fragility. “I’d like to fall in love but I can’t… I don’t even trust myself,” he sings despondently. “I don’t want to be like that anymore.” Just another day in the office for the biggest pop star in the world.
Topping the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022 was English singer Harry Styles' As It Was, which spent 15 weeks at #1, breaking the length record of Candle in the Wind (Elton John, 1997), I Will Always Love You (Whitney Houston, 1992) and We Belong Together (Mariah Carey, 2005) . Incidentally, #1 the first week of January 2022 and final three weeks of December was Carey's 1994 All I Want for Christmas is You.
From Box Office Mojo, Top Gun: Maverick (Rotten Tomatoes: 96/99) earned $1.5 billion worldwide this year. #2 was the only recently released Avatar: The Way of Water (RT: 78/92), at $1.1 billion and #3 was Jurassic World: Dominion (RT: 29/77) at $1 billion. On just one plane flight, from Honolulu to Seoul, I last month saw #1, #3 and #15, Elvis ($286 million, RT: 77/94). Below, Tom Cruise, in 1986 and 2022. He has been divorced three times: Mimi Roger in 1990, Nicole Kidman 2000 and Katie Holmes 2012. Is currently seeing no one.
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