WOMEN'S WORLD CUP, SHOHEI AND CALVIN

The Women's World Cup begins play next Wednesday, July 19 in Auckland, New Zealand, with the home team playing Norway. There are four games on Thursday, two in NZ and two in Sydney, Australia. The USA-Vietnam match will beam from Auckland at 3PM. All games on FOX and FS1. Timing could be a problem, for 3PM Auckland on Friday is 11PM Thursday in New York. But 5PM Thursday in Hawaii, so perfect.

You will see USWNT a lot, standing for the United States Women's National Team. I won't even go into ICYMI, but can cite this FIFA Women's World Cup, where FIFA is the acronym for Fédération Internationale de Football Association. This only started with 7 teams in 1970 when Italy hosted and Denmark won. FIFA began to run it from 1991, held in China. The USA has won four times, including the previous Cup in 2019 from France, and also the 2015 games in Canada.

USA women are +225 favorites, meaning we have a 31% chance of winning. England is +375 (21%), followed by Germany, Spain and France. Japan was once a power, but this time is at +3000 (3%). Panama and the Philippines are at the bottom with a 0.1% chance of winning.

12% of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup from Australia and New Zealand are LGBTQ+. The world has changed, and being so is okay today. 87 women are gay+ among the 22 teams in the Cup this year. The number is higher, for there remain regions of the world where you cannot say what you are. 32% of male Broadway actors are too, as are around 50% of male flight stewards. Someday soon I'll be posting on this subject. This group is more and more beginning to make a difference in political races, for only a one or two percentage margin can affect close races. Republicans will further now be in trouble on 5November2024. Below, Marta (Brazil), Sam Kerr (Australia) and Megan Rapinoe (USA) are LGBTQ+.

Major League Baseball awaits the future of Shohei Ohtani. There are 2.5 weeks left before the trade deadline, and any contender who gets him will automatically be favored to win the World Series. The Los Angeles Angles lost Mike Trout for the season, and Ohtani too will go after the season ends, so why not get something in return now for the future? First billion dollar pro? The more likely number is half that, but he is the best baseball player in all of history.

I'll end with Ida Pieracci, a role model golfer.

That was in 2015. She passed away in 2021 at the age of 107.

Hurricane Calvin has strengthened into a Category 3 at 120 MPH, but is expected to weaken before bringing rain to Hawaii on Tuesday and Wednesday. But you never know. Be prepared.

Comments

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 suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

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 several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

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 are held every five years, and there have only been

Search This Blog