To paraphrase Tom Lehrer, 2022 was the year that was. And indeed, what a year it was: the bomb cyclone that buried a large swath of the lower 48 in deep drifts and paralyzing cold seemed a fitting grand finale for a year that began with real bombs of the detonating sort, aimed at Kyiv and the Ukrainian people.

In many ways, it was a Cruel Summer. Extreme weather, multiple high-profile strikes, and the threat of yet another government shutdown cast long shadows.

And just like that…the metaverse collapsed, leaving us to ponder whether a digital tree falling in a cartoon forest makes a sound. The answer is, apparently, no—and most assuredly not once ChatGPT has entered the conversation.

The odds of selecting a perfect bracket for the men’s NCAA basketball tournament are 1 in 9.2 quintillion. To put that in context, the odds of correctly guessing which one of the estimated 7.5 quintillion grains of sand on earth will stick to the bottom of your foot as you walk across a beach actually exceed the odds of creating a pristine bracket.