Good morning, for those of you who were off from work yesterday – welcome to Day One of your (incredibly humane) four-day workweek.
For everyone else: It’s Tuesday.
Today is Ada Lovelace Day – a day that is celebrated on the second Tuesday in October that I know I’ve highlighted sometime before…the days and years all start blending together at some point. But I nevertheless think it’s worth mentioning again.
Launched in 2009 as a celebration of women in science, this day promotes programs that encourage girls and women to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) in which they are sorely under-represented, though that has started to change, which is great.
A daughter of the famed Romantic poet Lord Byron, Lovelace is widely believed to be the first person to recognize the potential of early computers and published what is known as an algorithm.
It was thanks to her privileged upbringing that Lovelace had the opportunity to study math and science, which were not subjects typically available to young ladies of her era (nor now, come to think of it, depending on where you live and your socioeconomic status).
Lovelace was mentored by Charles Babbage, the inventor of the mechanical calculator, who referred to her as “Enchantress of Numbers.” Sadly, her life was cut significantly short, as she died at the age of 36 of what was most likely uterine cancer.
(This type of cancer, BTW, is most seen in women over 40 these days…get your yearly internal exams, ladies).
Suw Charman-Anderson founded Ada Lovelace Day in 2009 to draw attention to Lovelace’s achievements and also promote the achievements of women in STEM careers.
As a cool aside: Festivities in the UK usually features the flagship Ada Lovelace Day Live! ‘science cabaret’ in London, at which women in STEM give short talks about their work or research in an informal, theatre-like setting.
Women make up only 28% of the workforce in STEM fields, and men vastly outnumber women majoring in most of these fields in college. Although women earn more than half of undergraduate college degrees in the United States, less than a quarter of them are in STEM fields.
The gender gaps are particularly high in some of the fastest-growing and highest-paid jobs of the future – like computer science and engineering.
Another partly cloudy day is on tap, with temperatures in low 70s.
In the headlines…
Climate protesters hit the D.C. streets yesterday, vandalizing a statue of former President Andrew Jackson and swarming the White House while warning President Biden to take their demands seriously.
An Afghan interpreter who helped rescue then-Sen. Biden after his helicopter was forced to land in a snowstorm 13 years ago has left Afghanistan.
The Bidens added a surprise stop yesterday while heading back to Washington, D.C.: the wedding of nephew Cuffe Owens to Real Housewives alum Meghan O’Toole King.
The president and the first lady, who had been in Delaware for the weekend, attended the “small, family wedding” at Owens’ parents’ home in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, according to the White House.
New York Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney called Pope Francis a communist a day after he met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the Vatican.
Southwest scrapped about 10% of its flight schedule yesterday, following hundreds of earlier cancellations over the weekend, as the carrier struggles to balance worker shortfalls, packed planes and a busy flight schedule.
Biden says his sweeping Covid-19 vaccination and testing mandate will boost the economy and save lives, but as businesses prepare for the new requirement, they’re wondering not only what will be in the regulation, but how it will be enforced.
The Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech has emerged as the world’s vaccine of choice.
Millions of people suffer from symptoms of long Covid, doctors estimate. Now, early research is offering some clues about whether vaccinations might help.
The number of eligible people still weighing whether to get a Covid vaccine has sharply dwindled, leaving an unvaccinated population that is mostly hard-core refusers.
Severely or moderately immunocompromised people who have been vaccinated should be offered an additional dose of the seven coronavirus vaccines the World Health Organization has authorized, an advisory committee recommended.
Pharmaceutical companies Merck & Co. and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics announced they requested emergency use authorization to the FDA for molnupiravir, an antiviral drug that offers the promise that COVID-19 could soon be treated by a pill.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order banning all state entities, including private employers, from enforcing vaccine mandates, the latest escalation in the Republican’s resistance to public health measures during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Amazon reversed course and announced in a blog post that it will allow many tech and corporate workers to continue working remotely indefinitely as long as they can commute to the office when necessary.
A parent has sued a southeastern Wisconsin school district after her son contracted Covid-19 from a classmate.
The 125th Boston Marathon, moved from its traditional April date because of coronavirus concerns, was a bit smaller and more subdued than usual but featured a familiar finish – with Kenyans claiming the men’s and women’s races.
Activists from Arizona attempted to target Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., at the Boston Marathon but the senator’s broken foot prevented her participation, her office said.
Michael Jordan is in “total unison” with the NBA in a preseason marked by controversy around players’ hesitance or outright refusal to get vaccinated, saying he’s a “firm believer in science.”
The Grammy Award-winning heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne credited Satan for covering him during the pandemic, even as close family members contracted COVID-19.
New York state is on the frontline of a national legal battle over the use of an anti-parasitic drug, ivermectin, to treat COVID-19 patients, despite it lacking federal approval for treating the respiratory disease.
The return of social gatherings, reduced mask wearing and loosening of other pandemic precautions likely contributed to a spike in COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections in New York as the highly contagious delta variant spread, a new study found.
A state Department of Health study suggests modest declines in vaccine effectiveness among New Yorkers infected with Covid-19 this summer may have been driven by the delta variant and reduced public health precautions rather than declining immunity.
MTA officials said as many as 6,800 of the agency’s employees have received a COVID-19 vaccine but have so far failed to provide proof of their shots.
A surge in electric-powered mobility devices during the pandemic is likely to become a lasting feature, transforming the New York City streetscape.
Tappan Zee Constructors has – for now – dropped a lawsuit accusing the state Thruway Authority of refusing to pay nearly $1 billion in extra costs spent building the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge at a “breakneck pace” imposed by the Thruway.
Business groups and the insurance industry say a state directive temporarily suspending the preauthorization requirement for surgeries and other medical procedures is likely to increase the cost of health care plans for employers and their personnel.
Some 65% of NYC school buses have been issued at least one speeding or red light camera ticket since 2014. Those tickets were issued to 6,895 of the 10,497 buses registered in the city to transport schoolchildren.
Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani are not on trial, but their names will likely feature prominently in Manhattan Federal Court as their former associate Lev Parnas faces a jury of his peers beginning today.
Parnas is facing a trial on campaign finance charges that include contributions to the super PAC and a state candidate in Nevada, where he wanted to operate a cannabis business.
Cheers, and a few jeers, echoed down Fifth Ave. yesterday as Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Bill de Blasio joined thousands of New Yorkers for the return of the annual Columbus Day Parade.
Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa proposed placing one of the recently removed Christopher Columbus statues that stood in neighboring cities on Staten Island.
De Blasio was spotted enjoying a sunny lunch date in Brooklyn yesterday as scrutiny continued to mount over his alleged misuse of NYPD security resources.
More than $4 billion has flowed from City Hall to scandal-tarred shelter operators over the last eight years, accounting for more than a quarter of the money spent by the Big Apple to tackle its homelessness crisis, an examination of city records reveals.
The owners of a small milk delivery firm said they’re getting milked by the de Blasio administration with tens of thousands of dollars in parking tickets they can’t contest because hearings have been suspended since the pandemic hit in March 2020.
More than 40 city and state elected officials signed onto a letter calling on Hochul to deny permits for the Gowanus Repowering Project.
New York City is giving every public school kindergartner $100 in a college savings account. Here’s why every penny matters.
With a staffing emergency disrupting the basic functions of the jail system on Rikers Island, detainees have had free rein inside.
The timeline of the account by a female aide who accused Gov. Andrew Cuomo of groping her at the Executive Mansion last year has been supported by electronic records gathered by investigators for the state Assembly’s Judiciary Committee.
Hochul will continue to work with her disgraced predecessor’s appointees at the SUNY Board of Trustees, as well as SUNY Chancellor James Malatras, a longtime confidant of Cuomo who was installed by the board a year ago.
State Police investigators are working to determine if newly-appointed Niskayuna Police Chief Jordan Kochan’s pre-employment files, which the town maintains in a police station file cabinet, were leaked to at least one local media outlet.
Public safety officials said the pilot of a powered paraglider is lucky to be alive after the craft he routinely flies became entangled in the high tension wires of a power line outside the entrance to Indian Ladder Farms late yesterday afternoon.
After 25 years as the town clerk of Galway, Margaret DeFoe and her deputy quit their jobs on Tuesday, Oct. 5 – one month before the November election. (Her name will remain on the ballot, and she’s unopposed).
City police of Albany investigated an email threatening that “bombs have been planted” at the Jewish Community Center on Whitehall Road but determined it was a hoax.
A Wyoming coroner will give an official update on Gabby Petito’s autopsy during a briefing with news reporters today.
Jon Gruden stepped down as the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders football team hours after The New York Times detailed emails in which he had made homophobic and misogynistic remarks, following an earlier report of racist statements about a union leader.
