Good morning. Welcome to Friday and the final day of March.
April showers etc. and so forth. We’ll get into that more when we reconvene next week.
I have spoken before about my challenges in the realm of math and science. I am a word person, not a numbers person. Full stop. I do find science fascinating; math not so much, but you really can’t have one without the other.
One thing I did enjoy during my formative years (middle and high school) was earth science. It was approachable, dealing with things like weather and rock formations. And BONUS, there were no dissections, as biology required, which were really awful and I have never been able to look at earthworms or frogs or white rates or fetal pigs the same way since. (Do they even do that still?)
It was also taught by a really amazing teacher named George Campbell, who was one of those people who had endless energy and enthusiasm and was able to hold a class full of hormonal, antsy, otherwise disengaged 12 and 13 years olds completely enthralled.
George Campbell also ran a side hustle teaching people of all ages how to scuba dive. It was because of him that I got my NAUI and PADI certifications even before I was licensed to drive.
The earth science room was also my first experience of a science lab – with tables equipped with sinks and also Bunsen Burners. The idea of introducing fire to a bunch of young and irresponsible teens is pretty bold, but with the exception of the day that Mike Jarrett turned the bunsen burner into a torch using denatured alcohol, people were surprisingly responsible.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, a Bunsen Burner is a device that combines flammable gas with a controlled amount of air, which enables the production of a hotter flame than would be possible with just ambient air and gas.
It was introduced by a German chemist named Robert Wilhelm Eberhard von Bunsen in 1855, though he wasn’t the original designer. Bunsen needed the burner to conduct his research in isolating chemical substances.
What he wanted – and subsequently created – was a high-intensity, non-luminous flame that wouldn’t interfere with any colored flames emitted by the different chemicals he was testing.
Bunsen also invented the hydrojet filter pump, a photometer that measures intensity of light, and the Bunsen battery (a chemical battery). Early on in his career, he was blinded in one eye when one of his chemical experiments exploded in his face.
For those who aren’t in the fields of science, medicine, or research – all of which were significantly impacted by Bunsen’s burner – and think that you didn’t benefit from his genius outside of your high school lab, think again.
A Bunsen Burner (or a blowtorch, I guess) can also be used to caramelize the sugar layer atop creme brulee. And there are other culinary delicacies that also benefit from his invention.
I know you’re probably thinking: Well, this is all very interesting, Liz, but also a little out of left field…why the hell are you dedicating all this space to the Bunsen Burner? Bunsen may or may not have been born today – or maybe it was yesterday? Historians aren’t quite sure – in 1811. Assuming it was indeed today, that is why it’s National Bunsen Burner Day.
See? There is actually a method to the madness. Sometimes.
Today is going to be another bummer of a day, weather wise, with temperatures only in the mid-40s, clouds and rain in the afternoon and evening. And then we’re going to do a 180 and blast up into the 70s! But, alas, it’s also going to rain again – this is Saturday, mind you. Sunday will be back down into the 40s, but at least it will be sunny.
In the headlines…
A New York grand jury voted to indict former President Donald Trump in connection with a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, his lawyer said.
A spokesperson for Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said the office has contacted Trump’s attorney to “coordinate his surrender” for arraignment on “a Supreme Court indictment, which remains under seal.”
Trump is expected to be arraigned on the charges in Manhattan Criminal Court. The timing of the arraignment was not immediately clear, but the former president’s legal team said it’s likely to take place early next week.
Trump is likely to surrender and appear for his arraignment on Tuesday, his lawyer said.
Trump responded to the news that he had been indicted in a statement, calling the Manhattan grand jury vote “political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history.”
Trump and his aides were caught off guard by the timing of the indictment, believing that any action by the grand jury was still weeks away and might not occur at all.
Trump’s most fervent Capitol Hill allies erupted in fury as news of his indictment rocked the country. They rushed to his defense and blasted Bragg’s prosecution of the GOP presidential front-runner as a political witch hunt designed to influence the election.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, took to Twitter after the news of the DA’s request for Trump to surrender to say that his state would not help arrest and extradite the former president, should it come to that.
Amid all this news of the Manhattan indictment, it’s worth remembering that Trump also faces scrutiny in other investigations that could lead to charges of their own.
The indictment Trump is unlikely to derail his 2024 White House bid and could help in the GOP primary, but it could also further alienate swing voters turned off by the controversies that continue to swirl around him since he left office.
President Joe Biden urged federal regulators to take up a set of reforms to safeguard the banking system, following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
Biden issued an official proclamation declaring that transgender Americans “shape our nation’s soul” and established .Transgender Day of Visibility.
A day after visiting Capitol Hill, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin met with Biden at the White House in support of legislation calling for increased access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in schools.
Biden tweeted a photo of him with Hamlin in the Oval Office and said it was an honor to meet Hamlin and his family. In the photo, Hamlin is seen holding a Bills jersey in his lap.
The Kremlin accused a Wall Street Journal correspondent of being a spy, a move not seen since the Cold War. With this move, President Vladimir V. Putin signaled to the world that he was doubling down on Russia’s wartime isolation.
Pope Francis showed a “marked improvement” a day after he was hospitalized for a respiratory infection, the Vatican said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said that the state budget will definitely be late, because she and the Legislature need more time to work out the details of a budget that she hopes will include an affordable housing package and changes to the state’s bail reform laws.
“It’s becoming clear that the budget will not be meeting the April 1 deadline,” Hochul said. “But as I’ve said all along, it’s not about a race to a deadline, it’s about a race to getting the right results.”
Top Democrats in the state Legislature signaled a willingness to “clarify” New York’s 2019 bail law as conversations surrounding the issue remain a key sticking point in the unresolved state budget talks.
Four Assembly members told City & State that the Assembly had no plans to accept Hochul’s proposal to further roll back the state’s landmark 2019 bail reform law.
“Our bail reforms have no correlation with an increase in crime,” state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) insisted to reporters.
New York’s acting health commissioner is making a push to ban flavored tobacco products in New York amid opposition from Democratic lawmakers in the Legislature.
FDNY firefighters who previously worked in the department’s Emergency Medical Services bureau are calling on Hochul and lawmakers to allow time spent serving on an ambulance to count towards their current pension and retirement.
State Assembly Republicans backed a package of measures meant to make schools safer in New York — from adding more school resource officers to addressing mental health concerns.
Family court lawyers representing children are urging Hochul and state lawmakers to address a funding shortage that has led to stagnant salaries and widespread departures, depriving vulnerable New Yorkers of their right to counsel and timely services.
Bonuses on Wall Street dropped by 26% last year, falling to $176,700 on average, according to a report released by New York state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
Safety-net health care providers in the Capital Region are desperate to thwart a change in the way Medicaid recipients in New York receive drug coverage — set to go into effect Saturday.
The battle for control of Congress next year is already being waged in a New York appellate court where Democrats are seeking to revive a case challenging the redrawing of state congressional boundaries after 11 New York Republicans won elections last year.
One of the two women who accused Queens Assemblyman Juan Ardila of sexual assault years ago said she’s cooperating with a criminal probe of the lawmaker.
Maria Danzilo, 66, a former state Senate candidate, says a random man slugged her while she walked her dog in Central Park — and then strolled away as if nothing had happened.
Mayor Eric Adams wants JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other major employers to come together and agree on ways to force more to return to the office as the city’s economy struggles to recover from the pandemic downturn.
Adams joined the crowd of lawmakers blaming social media for society’s ills, saying he wants to hold the platforms accountable for a growing number of car thefts in the city.
Adams continued his habit of blaming social media such as TikTok for some of New York City’s ills during a news conference yesterday morning.
Users of the social media app have been posting videos of themselves jump-starting Hyundais and Kias with a USB cord and a screwdriver, due to a technology glitch that makes it easier to bypass antitheft mechanisms, city officials said.
Adams signed off on a contract that will eliminate traditional Medicare coverage for retired city government workers and shift them into a privatized version of the program instead — a controversial move that drew a lawsuit threat from a grassroots retiree group.
Adams hosted an undisclosed dinner on Saturday at Gracie Mansion with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive with a national platform who has openly criticized the mayor in the past, along with other Democratic lawmakers.
A closely watched report from the city Rent Guidelines Board released yesterday showed signs of flagging financial health for buildings that include apartments subject to rent regulation.
The number of rent-stabilized New York City apartment buildings operating in the red jumped from 6.5% to 8.8% as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on landlord’s finances.
The shooting of Raul de la Cruz, who was mentally ill and in distress, in the Bronx has renewed the debate over whether police officers are equipped to respond to people in emotional distress.
Starting yesterday, 20 years after the subway stopped using tokens, the transit workers who staff what many New Yorkers still call token booths have finally been set free from their cramped booths.
Three of Gotham’s five boroughs saw some of the largest population declines in America last fiscal year, with only Manhattan bucking the post-COVID trend, according to US Census data released yesterday.
New Yorkers painted the Bronx in pinstripes yesterday for the Yankees season-opener against the San Francisco Giants.
Yankees fans have blasted Adams following his Opening Day appearance in the Bronx, when he referred to ‘Yankees Stadium’ as ‘Yankee Park’ during a live interview on TV.
Following an incident in downtown Saratoga Springs, Vermont Deputy Sheriff Vito Caselnova faces a charge of possessing a firearm in a so-called sensitive location under a contentious provision of the state’s revised gun law, which appears to be a first.
Those following the current taping of the 20th season of the ABC dating competition series “The Bachelorette,” have listed one suitor whose name will be of note to the Capital Region, Sean McLaughlin, a son of Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin.
City police said they arrested a Schenectady man after investigating a threat someone made to “shoot up the school.”
Several Capital Region school districts went into lockdown yesterday morning in response to unfounded reports of active shooters.
The landmark village of Scotia eatery along the shore of the Mohawk River, Jumpin’ Jacks, served up its traditional fare yesterday despite the cold temperatures. A hungry crowd responded.
Albany County’s highest paid employee, Shaker Place Rehabilitation and Nursing Center’s executive director, is leaving to return to Long Island to work for a Suffolk County nursing home.
The campus of the now-closed Cazenovia College is for sale.
Gwyneth Paltrow emerged triumphant yesterday after winning her two-week trial against a man who accused her of crashing into him on a ski hill in 2016.
The actress and lifestyle entrepreneur, whose testimony generated memes and steady debate among livestream viewers throughout the trial, welcomed the verdict and thanked the jury for “their thoughtfulness in handling this case.”
