Almost there…it’s Thursday, CivMixers. Welcome to it.
On this day in 1958, the patent for what would become a worldwide hit – the iconic toy, Lego, was granted.
The plastic building bricks that are the cornerstone of so many childhood (and maybe also adult?) memories were originally created by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, a Danish carpenter.
“Lego” is a shortened form of the Danish words Leg godt, meaning “play well”…and Kristiansen originally made toys out of wood. He was first known for a pull-along wooden duck. He experienced a lot of setbacks that almost caused the company to go under entirely, including the Great Depression and a fire in 1942 in which the entire factory and all product blueprints were lost.
But Kristiansen persevered and built back. In 1947, the Lego company was the first toy manufacturer in Denmark to purchase a plastic injection moulding machine, which is where Kristiansen’s son, Gotfred, stepped in, as his father was more comfortable working with wood than with plastic.
It was Gotfred who spent a decade perfecting the design of the plastic interlocking bricks we have come to know and love. And he was the one who filed the aforementioned patent. The Lego company has since produced more than 500 billion Lego elements, which amounts to about 10 Lego towers stretching from Earth to the Moon.
The company has always put a premium on quality; it’s motto is “Det bedste er ikke for godt” – “”only the best is good enough” – which appears on a sign that greets Lego staffers as they arrive to work at the company HQ in Billund, Denmark.
Also on this day in 1985, the USA for Africa record “We Are the World” was recorded to benefit African famine relief. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, (who finished writing just one day before the scheduled recording date of Jan. 21), and produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian.
The album, which brought together some of the top performers in the music business at the time, sold some 20 million copies, it is the eighth best-selling physical single of all time.
Soloists included Paul Simon, James Ingram, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, Al Jarreau, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Loggins, Steve Perry, Daryl Hall, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Kim Carnes, Bob Dylan, and Ray Charles. Interestingly, a number of participants at the time have since confessed that they didn’t even like the song, and thought it sounded too commercial.
Today is the Jewish holiday of Tu BiShvat, (it actually started last night, technically speaking, and will end this evening), which celebrates the maturation of trees. It’s traditional to plant trees on this day, which, given the situation outside in the Capital Region, is certainly not happening, and also to eat dried fruit and nuts.
It’s going to be partly cloudy with a few flurries or snow showers today, and temperatures will be in the mid-20s. Tomorrow? It drops down to 15 degrees, which will feel like 1, thanks to the wind chill.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden signed a series of executive orders that prioritize climate change across all levels of government and put the U.S. on track to curb planet-warming carbon emissions.
Biden’s orders direct the secretary of the Interior Department to halt new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and waters, and begin a thorough review of existing permits for fossil fuel development.
President Vladimir Putin warned that the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated preexisting global problems and imbalances, and that these could deteriorate to a point where there is a fight of “all against all.”
Putin also criticized the growing influence of U.S. social media giants, saying their impact on society means they are now able to compete with elected governments.
Warning that the deadly rampage at the Capitol may not be an isolated episode, the Department of Homeland Security said publicly for the first time that the U.S. faced a growing threat from “violent domestic extremists” emboldened by the attack.
The bulletin did not cite any specific threat but described “a heightened threat environment across the United States, which DHS believes will persist in the weeks following the successful Presidential Inauguration.”
Federal prosecutors in California said that a man found with pipe bombs and ammunition may have been targeting Gov. Gavin Newsom and the offices of Facebook and Twitter in the wake of the social media platforms banning Trump’s accounts.
Enrique Tarrio, the chairman of the Proud Boys, a far-right nationalist group that is a major target of the sprawling investigation into the riot at the Capitol this month, has a history of cooperating with law enforcement.
Another cop who responded to the Capitol siege has committed suicide, the Metropolitan Police Department chief revealed to Congress.
Former President Donald Trump, who has kept a low profile since leaving the White House a week ago, will reportedly host the Republican House minority leader Kevin McCarthy at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida today.
After four years, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had finally had enough of Trump. But with most Republicans rallying around the former president, he sided with his colleagues trying to throw out the impeachment case.
California Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez announced he will introduce a resolution to expel Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, saying “her very presence in office represents a direct threat against the elected officials and staff who serve our government.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer took the procedural steps needed to end a Republican filibuster that is holding up the confirmation of Alejandro Mayorkas to serve as secretary of Homeland Security.
With all the unknowns about the novel coronavirus, and now its multiplying variants, pediatric health officials are trying to suss out whether any could pose more danger to children, especially when it comes to a rare but possibly life-threatening complication.
A Pfizer laboratory study found that coronavirus mutations identified in the U.K. and South Africa had only small impacts on the effectiveness of antibodies generated by the company’s Covid-19 vaccine.
People with the highly contagious UK strain of COVID-19 are less likely to report sky-high fevers than those with the original illness, according to a study released yesterday.
The European Union has been besieged by problems since it approved its first coronavirus vaccine in December and rushed to begin a vast immunization campaign, but now its woes have snowballed into a full-blown crisis.
The U.S. saw further declines in the number of people hospitalized because of Covid-19, while newly reported cases hovered around 150,000 for the third day in a row.
Biden’s coronavirus czar used the White House’s first public health briefing to issue a stark warning that the United States will remain vulnerable to the deadly pandemic unless Congress quickly passes a coronavirus relief bill.
A federal watchdog found that the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority has been used for the past 10 years as a “slush fund” to cover expenses unrelated to its core mission of fighting health threats like Ebola, Zika and the coronavirus.
YouTube has removed more than 500,000 videos containing COVID misinformation since February 2020, the platform said.
Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark R. Warner will quarantine after being exposed to someone who has tested positive for the coronavirus, a spokesperson said.
“Good Morning America” host and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan has tested positive for coronavirus.
r/WallStreetBets (WSB) forum, the Reddit group that became the discussion center for amateur online traders who fueled GameStop’s stock surge this week, briefly went private.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mocked Wall Street for wanting to crack down on a Reddit message board that helped GameStop’s shares soar.
Biden’s brother Frank promoted his relationship to the commander-in-chief in an Inauguration Day advertisement for the law firm he advises.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo that officials were assessing whether indoor dining could soon return with limited capacity in New York City, after he barred it last month.
“I fully understand how difficult it is that they’re closed, not just for the restaurants but all the people who are employed there,” he said during a briefing in Albany. “On the flip side is how fast this virus can take off. But we’ll have a plan by the end of the week.”
Cuomo also eased coronavirus-related restrictions on nonessential businesses and restaurants in several areas across the state, including parts of the city.
Cuomo was roasted for blaming COVID-19 deaths on “incompetent government” — without mentioning his own administration’s controversial nursing-home policy that’s been accused of leading to more than 8,700 senior deaths.
The Cuomo administration released detailed figures of nursing-home coronavirus vaccination rates amid criticism over the lack of information — revealing that less than half of workers at Big Apple facilities have received the jab.
A Hudson Valley lawmaker contends a state legislative hearing on the health budget was delayed by Cuomo’s office as some senators threatened to invoke subpoena powers to compel officials to provide answers on coronavirus deaths in nursing homes.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has agreed to pay New York $934 million to cover the projected statewide costs of administering the COVID-19 vaccine.
New York City will receive about 17,000 extra doses of the coveted coronavirus vaccine starting next week under Biden’s new push to get out more shots.
Repeated cancellations and technical problems with scheduling a shot is adding stress to an already difficult year, and a lack of supply means many older New Yorkers may have to wait weeks or even months before getting vaccinated.
Some New Yorkers have ended up on waiting lists, told by friends and family members who found luck by walking into some vaccine centers in New York City.
The Big Apple’s online appointment system for the COVID-19 vaccine is so bad, a team of volunteers have created their own website to help guide New Yorkers to the coveted slots.
NYC schools are reeling from a COVID-19-related 4% decline in enrollment — the number of students registered in the school system is down by 43,000, city officials said.
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio will give updated guidance on the near-term future of city middle and high schools next month.
Overnight subway closures will impede COVID-19 vaccine distribution and should be ended, says a group of 15 NYC Council members.
Zach Iscol ended his long-shot bid for the NYC mayoralty, dropping into the race for comptroller instead.
Barbara Kavovit, chief executive and founder of a construction company, entered the Democratic mayoral primary; she is perhaps better known as a former cast member on “The Real Housewives of New York City.”
Residents of one of the most controversial converted hotel shelters on Manhattan’s Upper West Side are organizing a forum to quiz the city’s leading mayoral candidates over the vexing homelessness crisis next week.
The NYC is expected to vote today on a bill that would add 4,000 full-time mobile-vendor permits for street-food sellers, phased in over a decade with 400 each year starting in 2022.
A study released by the state Gaming Commission raises the possibility of delaying the licensing of new casinos in New York City in order to let the existing upstate facilities better recover from the damage wrought by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Republican Sen. Pam Helming will be holding an in-person fundraiser in Albany on Feb. 9 at the Fort Orange Club, signaling an end to an unofficial moratorium on such events that has lasted close to a year.
A Western New York radio station has placed a conservative talk show hosted by Republican Assemblyman David DiPierto on hiatus in the wake of the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Chemung County is threatening to require residents to quarantine if they may have been in contact with a COVID-19 patient or returned from certain restricted states
In her first year as Queens district attorney, Melinda Katz has led major culture shifts in the borough. But some hope for more.
The Hamptons real estate market is booming, thanks to the ongoing pandemic.
Two months after crews began scooping toxic sludge from the bottom of the Gowanus Canal, a dollop of the notorious “black mayonnaise” may already have found its way right back into the water.
A man who was known as a far-right Twitter troll was arrested and charged with spreading disinformation online that tricked Democratic voters in 2016 into trying to cast their ballots by phone instead of going to the polls.
A Bronx man was charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting a New York City police officer assigned to a unit that investigates illegal gun trafficking, police officials said.
A snowy owl was spotted in Central Park for the first time in a century.
A former Suffolk County assistant district attorney should permanently lose his law license over failing to turn over evidence in prior cases, the Innocence Project and a prominent criminal defense lawyer say.
The Albany County Department of Health will advise school districts that they cannot resume high-risk winter sports until the county’s coronavirus positivity rate falls below 4 percent.
Greg Aidala, a comedian and actor from Colonie, is the fourth candidate to express an interest in the city’s mayoral race.
Random coronavirus testing at four Capital Region school districts and one private school has so far uncovered few positive cases, bolstering the theory that schools are not drivers of infection rates in the larger community.
A new Albany police contract, which includes four years of retroactive raises, made several sergeants and lieutenants the city’s highest paid employees in 2020.
Pakistan’s top court acquitted the man convicted in 2002 of orchestrating the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
After Leon Black announced this week that he would be stepping down as chief executive of Apollo Global Management amid revelations that he had paid $158 million to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, several art world figures called on the Museum of Modern Art to remove him as the chairman of its board of trustees. He’s still there.
Some local lawmakers and nonprofit organizations have seized on the coronavirus pandemic’s pulse of Adirondack visitors as reason to call for more state investment — and more forest rangers — in New York’s 2022 budget.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders infamous Inauguration Day mittens have helped raise $1.8 million over the past five days for charitable groups in his home state.
The New York Times promoted its metro editor, Cliff Levy, in a move that puts him in charge of the audio unit that recently returned a Peabody Award after its Caliphate podcast series was discredited.
The hit show “Bridgerton” is officially the most-watched Netflix original series in the company’s history.
RIP Cloris Leachman, the hilarious and irrepressible Oscar winner who found stardom on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and soon became TV’s most Emmy-honored actress, who has died at the age of 94.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame class of 2021 is empty. None of the 25 eligible candidates received the minimum of 75% of ballots cast to be elected, according to a news release. Of the 25, there were 11 new candidates and 14 returnees.
The Wolf Moon is coming.
