Dec 16 2022 - Who is the richest of us all?

 

There was a hint of delight inn CNN's coverage of the news that Elon Musk has lost his position as the richest person on the planet. As CNBC put it, Elon Musk was dethroned by Bernard Arnault and family. Bernard Arnault, co-founder, chair, and CEO of LVMH, is the richest person and the richest man in the world with a net worth of $172.9 billion.  Think Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Hennessey, Marc Jacobs, and Sephora.  Behind Arnault is co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk. Other billionaires with some of the largest net worths include India's Gautam Adani, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Microsoft's Bill Gates. Six of the top 10 billionaires made their fortunes in technology, with Arnault, Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett, Adani Group founder Gautam Adani, and Reliance Industry's Mukesh Ambani being the exceptions. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg dropped off the top 10 list in February 2022. Waren Buffet is #6 and it is noted that he has $1.1 billion in cash. Compare that to Bill Gates who has $55 billion in cash and Bernard Arnault who has $10.3 billion in cash.   There are lots of charts to compare who has how much money.  Here's the world's richest billionaires in the last 10 years, followed by the world's richest countries.    Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Nick of Time

Sometime round about the 1580s the phrase in the nick or in the very nick began to be used for the critical moment, the exact instant at which something has to take place. The idea seems to have been that a nick was a narrow and precise marker, so that if something was in the nick it was precisely where it should be. 'Nick of time' came to my mind yesterday when I raked the leaves under the grand maple out front.  It is the 'last tree to drop' in the entire neighbourhood. Everything is bare, and only willows keep their leaves longer than this one maple.  It still has leaves today.  So yesterday's raking could be a critical moment - especially if a snow storm ensues today.   There are many references to critical moment  - from analysis of conversation and communication to sports athletics. Fascinating is the title of the 2010 book 'The Critical Moment.' It was attributed to the former Chinese Premier, Li Peng, covering the events leading up to and shortly after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.  The publication was withdrawn due to copyright concerns as it was supposedly from his diaries. I wondered about Christmas critical moments, as Santa coming down the chimney and flying across the sky seem to involve an enormous number of these.  I did find a vintage print from Harper's Weekly with critical moment in the title. I guess we have our own version of this with Guinness records: The largest human Christmas tree consists of 4,030 participants and was made in India on December 19, 2015, of school children from the village of Chengannur.