Good Thursday morning.
Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the 88th birthday of Charles K. Kao, the Chinese-born, British-American physicist and educator who is considered the father of fiber optics and the godfather of broadband.
Basically, without this guy, we wouldn’t have the telecommunication system we enjoy today – including the internet.
Take that, Al Gore.
Kao was born on this day in 1933 in Shanghai, China. He studied electrical engineering in England, and worked while in graduate school as an engineer at Standard Telephones and Cables.
That’s where he and a colleague, George Hockham published a groundbreaking paper in 1966 that proposed fibers fabricated with purified glass could carry a gigahertz (1 billion hertz) of information over long distances using lasers.
Kao was a resident of Honk Kong, but maintained citizenships in the U.S. and the U.K. He received the Nobel Prize for his work in 2009 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2010 for his services to fiber optic communications.
Kao died in 2018 at the age of 84.
Here’s a fun fact about New York that you might not have known: It’s home to Corning Glass, which according to its website, leads the the fiber optic industry in product quality and innovation, and is, in fact, the nation’s leading provider of the stuff. The process for making the cable is pretty cool.
Today, oddly, is also National Candy Day, which I honestly thought we celebrated last week…we call it Halloween.
The word ”candy” has been in use since the late 13th century and it derives from Arabic qandi, meaning ‘‘made of sugar”. Of course, we didn’t actually have refined sugar at the beginning of civilization.
People did love sweet things, because we’re hardwired for that. Instead we ate honey, and fruit, and eventually some from of chocolate.
As for sugar, that came later, with the slave trade, and while googling around for information on that I came across this amazing phrase:
“This food – which nobody needed, but everyone craved – drove the formation of the modern of the world.”
As for candy, ancient people ate nuts and fruit candied in honey. Hard candy – like peppermints and lemon drops – were popularized in the 19th century, and the first chocolate bars were made by Joseph Fry in 1847 using bittersweet chocolate. Milk chocolate was first introduced in 1875 by Henry Nestle and Daniel Peter.
Americas, for the record, were expected to spend a record $10 BILLION on Halloween this year, up from $8 billion the year before. That’s about $102.74 per average consumer on candy, costumes (for both humans and pets), and decorations.
I was not one of them. I confess that I totally forgot about Halloween until that first trick-or-treater knocked on the door (at 3:30 p..m.) and I raced around the house to unearth the KIND bars that I ended up giving out.
I do not believe in dog costumes. I embarrass Henry enough and make him do all sort of things he would rather not – like go for walks in the rain – I don’t have to force him into some weird hat on top of all the rest of it.
Today will again be a bit on the cooler side, with temperatures only in the high 40s. Skies will be partly cloudy.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden received an unwelcome wake-up call for his still-new presidency as the Democrat arrived back in Washington from a European excursion suddenly facing a transformed political landscape.
Biden offered his diagnosis for the Republican show of strength, acknowledging that “people are upset and uncertain.”
Democratic party officials say the White House and Congress must do more to address the electorate’s deep malaise or risk watching voters lurch back toward the G.O.P. by default.
Rallying around what it calls “parental rights,” the GOP is pushing to build on its victories this week by stoking white resentment and tapping into broader anger at the education system.
West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin spoke about the implications of the Virginia governor’s election as well as the tight New Jersey race, saying the results were a “wake up call” for Democrats.
New Jersey Democrat Phil Murphy, whose aggressive approach to controlling the pandemic became a focal point of the bid to unseat him, narrowly held onto the governor’s office in an unexpectedly close election.
Smarting from an off-year electoral rebuke, congressional Democrats pushed forward yesterday toward House votes as soon as today on nearly $3 trillion worth of social policy, infrastructure and climate change programs.
House Democrats released an updated version of the party’s social spending and climate package, adding back a paid-leave program that had fallen out of the bill and including a measure sharply raising the $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction.
In recent weeks, Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, spoke with U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand about joining the push to pass a national paid leave program.
Biden said that families separated at the border under the Trump administration’s so-called zero-tolerance policy will not receive payments of $450,000, but he did not go into detail about any possible monetary settlements for them.
The president denied reports that the White House is looking to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to immigrant families who were separated at the border under the Trump administration, calling the news “garbage.”
Biden disclosed that one of his granddaughters works for billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who briefly was one of his Democratic primary rivals.
At the U.S. Supreme Court, the conservative majority seemed ready to broaden gun rights by striking down a New York law that limits the right to carry concealed handguns.
But there was also concern during the two-hour argument about the proliferation of guns in public spaces, and it was unclear how broadly the court might go in clarifying the Second Amendment right.
During oral arguments, two conservative justices raised concerns with the discretion the regime grants to local licensing officers in deciding whether to approve applications from New Yorkers seeking to carry their firearms in public for self-defense.
The justices mulled over the implications of more New Yorkers legally packing heat at Yankee Stadium or on the subway during the roughly 90 minutes of oral arguments.
As Greece broke another record in daily coronavirus infections this week, registering 6,700 new cases within the past 24 hours, the country’s health minister announced a series of new restrictions aimed at flattening the spike.
The World Health Organization has approved an emergency use license for a COVID-19 vaccine developed in India that’s been in use for months.
Tim Pool, one of the more prolific and popular political YouTubers on the right, has come down with a bad case of COVID-19, as he described it in a video posted yesterday.
Hospitals in Colorado are being allowed to turn away patients as the state experiences its worst Covid surge in a year.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers reportedly has tested positive for COVID-19 and will not play against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
The Green Bay Packers star indicated during training camp that he had been vaccinated. But after his positive result, he has been placed into protocols for unvaccinated players.
Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles tested positive for the coronavirus as he was attending a conference on climate change in Glasgow. The mayor’s Twitter account announced the positive test.
The New York Giants are taking precautions as more than a dozen members of the organization tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday.
Ford Motor will require U.S. salaried employees to be vaccinated by Dec. 8 or face unpaid leave.
A Houston doctor who promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 from the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court has been reprimanded by the Texas Medical Board.
As many Americans plan larger Thanksgiving celebrations this year, the immunization status of dinner guests is becoming a topic of conversation, concern and conflict.
If workers die of Covid and weren’t vaccinated, their families may not get death benefits they would otherwise have received.
Covid-19 cut into third-quarter results at MetLife as deaths linked to the Delta variant increased among workers. It was one of the costliest quarters since the pandemic began for the insurer’s business of providing employer-sponsored life insurance.
Pharmacies with locations in the Capital Region plan on being able to give Pfizer’s COVID vaccine to kids by the weekend now that the Food and Drug Administration has approved its use on an emergency basis for children ages 5-11.
The FDA’s and CDC’s moves opened eligibility to 28 million children. Availability will be limited for the first few days, as venues cannot simply use the vaccines they already have for ages 12 and up.
For some families eager to get their children vaccinated, holiday travel is back on—at least for now.
Biden urged millions of parents to get their young children vaccinated against the coronavirus, touting the government’s authorization of inoculations for children between 5 and 11 as a major milestone in the nation’s effort to end the pandemic.
Some parents are rushing to get their kids vaccinated, while others are struggling with the decision.
Coronavirus vaccinations for children 5 to 11 years old are expected to begin today in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio.
New York Democrats were left reeling after startling electoral losses from the tip of Long Island to the shores of Lake Erie, as a re-energized Republican Party showed it could make deep inroads even in one of the country’s liberal strongholds.
Even in New York City, where Eric Adams and his fellow Democrats easily retained control of City Hall and the City Council, Republicans were nonetheless poised to expand their presence in city government after another low-turnout election.
After his victory, Adams must now turn to the hard part: Putting together an administration and running a deeply divided city. “I’m going to be a mayor that is going to be a G.S.D. mayor: Get Stuff Done,” he pledged.
Hours after handily winning the election, Adams made it clear he thinks the city has been headed in the wrong direction, using words like “dysfunctional,” “failure” and “reset.”
Adams pays a lot of attention to what he wears. He once told a class of college graduates: “People look at your presentation before they take you seriously. Everything about you must say power.”
Adams, the first New York City mayor with a plant-based diet, enjoyed the first tasting of the Mayor’s Breakfast Wrap at Bushwick’s Marinello’s Gourmet Deli.
Mayor-elect Adams and his defeated GOP opponents Curtis Sliwa both said that their long-friendly relationship will remain warm despite a fiery finish to the general election race for mayor.
Adams is mulling a short list of candidates — including frontrunners former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best, Philadelphia top cop Danielle Outlaw and former Newark Police Chief Ivonne Roman — to take the reins of the NYPD.
Unlike New York City’s outgoing first lady, Tracey Collins keeps a low profile — in fact, she was conspicuously absent during her partner Adams’ mayoral campaign and Tuesday victory parties in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
He was being eyed as the next City Council speaker — now Brooklyn Democratic Councilman Justin Brannan is just trying to hold onto his seat. Republican Brian Fox leads Brannan by 255 votes in the unofficial machine count.
Brannan wrote on Twitter: “Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. You know when people say “every vote counts”? Well, this is what what they mean. We will be fine.”
The coming class of 51 City Council members includes many first-time candidates and more women serving than in any time in its history.
New York’s political heavyweights began flying to Puerto Rico yesterday, fresh off Election Day, for the influential annual SOMOS conference promoting Latino representation in government.
Democratic Socialist Indian Walton conceded the Buffalo mayor’s race to Byron Brown, saying that that one of her campaign’s greatest accomplishments was “ending the era of complacent Buffalo politicians.”
In her concession statement, Walton did not mention Brown, but she was clearly frustrated by the tactics employed against her.
Walton won 41% of the vote, while write-in candidates including Brown accounted for about 59%, according to the Erie County Board of Elections. Officials said they would begin examining the write-in ballots on Nov. 16. The AP hasn’t declared a winner.
Three ballot initiatives that would have re-made New York’s voting system died on Election Day.
The state Democratic Party spent no money on the three ballot proposals that it unexpectedly lost Tuesday that were intended to expand voting access, according to Chairman Jay Jacobs.
The fastest growing political affiliation in New York isn’t the Democratic or Republican parties. Instead, over the last decade, more New York voters are registered as political independents — unaligned with any of the major or minor parties on the ballot.
Republican Bruce Blakeman has declared victory in what looks like a stunning upset of Democratic incumbent Nassau County Executive Laura Curran. Republicans also won both district attorney’s races — in Nassau and Suffolk counties — in blowouts.
Absentee ballots have yet to be counted. Curran released a statement stating in part, “This is not over, and we must trust the process. Every Nassau resident who participated in this election is owed the opportunity to have their voice heard.”
New York officials said they had struck a deal with the largest holder of taxi loans in the city to help rescue thousands of cabbies who have been crushed under paralyzing debt after years of exploitative practices in the industry.
The city initially only offered to let drivers borrow yet more money to pay off the loans on their artificially-inflated taxi medallions. Now the city will be giving taxi drivers $30,000 off the bat.
The deal was brokered by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who convinced the private equity firm MarbleGate — which owns loans on roughly 4,000 of the city’s 13,500 yellow taxi medallions — to reset its medallion loans to $200,000, officials said.
A Black Lives Matter activist and protester who live streamed his standoff with cops outside his Hell’s Kitchen apartment in June is suing the NYPD over the six-hour siege.
State Sen. John Liu ripped the city’s Gifted and Talented parent engagement meetings as staged “Orwellian” theater.
Gov. Kathy Hochul put her imprint on an ambitious plan to restore Pennsylvania Station, saying she would place a priority on improvements at the busy rail hub while scaling back a development deal that her predecessor launched to help fund the project.
Hochul announced a plan for the Midtown transit hub that will include a new, “sunlit” train hall, higher ceilings, new escalators, staircases and elevators and an underground pedestrian concourse that connects the station to Herald Square.
Hochul revised her predecessor’s controversial plan to remake the rail hub and much of Midtown by adding housing and shrinking skyscrapers, rejecting some of the more challenging elements of what ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed.
Hochul signed bills that create two new Nassau public water authorities, as the state Department of Public Serivce released a joint settlement proposal that includes new terms for Liberty Utilities’ $607 million purchase of New York American Water.
The state regulatory body tasked with implementing the legalization of marijuana announced that it has approved the creation of new standards for processing, manufacturing, testing and packaging hemp products including CBD.
All hemp-derived cannabinoid products – such as trending CBD oils and salves – will be required to meet state manufacturing, laboratory, packaging and labeling guidelines.
As Democrats cruised to victory across Albany County on election night, one municipality proved to be a major loss for the party: the town of Colonie.
It was a clean sweep for city of Albany Common Council members seeking re-election. All 10 members, six of whom ran unopposed, were re-elected to four year terms.
Albany voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure that would give the city’s Community Police Review Board expanded powers and financial resources, including the power to conduct their own investigations into allegations of police misconduct.
Troy police officer who suffered a severe gunshot wound in June when his semiautomatic handgun fired a round while holstered has filed a federal lawsuit against the gun’s manufacturer, SIG Sauer, Inc.
Democrat James Montagnino, the winner in the Saratoga Springs public safety commissioner race, said one of his first actions will be to call for a grand jury investigation into the death of Darryl Mount Jr., the biracial man who died in 2014 after a police chase.
A former Rochester radio host is under investigation after boasting on social media that she used a fake vaccination card to gain entry into last Sunday’s Buffalo Bills vs. Miami Dolphins game at Highmark Stadium.
North Country Public Radio calls it “a huge error in judgement.” Congresswoman Elise Stefanik calls it “illegal.” It all has to do with a retired NCPR news director using her station email for politics.
The messaging functions on Facebook and Instagram suffered an hourslong outage yesterday afternoon before appearing to come back online, the third disruption to Meta Platforms Inc. products in a month.
