Good morning, we made it to Friday. Collective exhale.
Here’s a question you probably haven’t contemplated much – if at all – as I sure hadn’t until I started doing the research for today’s post.
What is a mole? It is:
A. A small and usually harmless skin growth that is brown, tan, black, or pink in color.
B. A small, furry small, blind or tiny-eyed burrowing mammal that mostly eats earthworms and insects and lives underground.
C. A rich and complex sauce in Mexican cooking comprised of chiles, spices, nuts, seeds, aromatics, and a small amount of chocolate or fruit.
D. A large stone and/or concrete pier constructed to protect harbors from rough waves.
E. A chemistry unit.
F. All of the above.
If you selected “F” I probably made this too easy for you, but you’re also 100 percent correct.
For today’s purposes, we are focused on “E” – a mole is the base unit of measurement used to determine large amounts of very small substances – think atoms, molecules and/or particles – in the science of chemistry. (Stay with me here, fellow non-science people; I believe you can understand this).
One mole represents a very large amount of units, specifically 6.02214076 × 1023, to be exact. This figure was accepted by the Generable Conference on Weights and Measures for the International System of Units, effective May 20, 2019.
The number of units in a mole is also known as Avogadro’s number (or perhaps Avogadro’s constant, depending on your reference source). The namesake of this term is the Italian physicist Amedeo Avogadro, who lived from 1776–1856, and is famous for proposing that equal volumes of gases under the same conditions contain the same number of molecules.
Today is 10/23, which corresponds to 1023, which is why those in the chemistry community selected this date to celebrate National Mole Day. The day is observed from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m. – a nod to the other piece of Avogadro’s number. The whole goal is to spark interest and excitement in the field of chemistry…which worked for me, clearly.
Cool, right?
It will be slightly cooler tomorrow, with temperatures topping out in the mid-to-high 50s. Skies will be bright and sunny. The weekend is looking pretty good, too, with temperatures in the low-to-mid 60s and a mix of sun and clouds. No precipitation in the forecast, so get out there and soak up all the fabulous fall atmosphere.
In the headlines…
President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act on Thursday, announcing that the government would be spending $150 million toward boosting domestic gas and diesel production as the White House looks to ease consumer pain at the gas pump.
The announcement was made in a presidential memorandum, but the president detailed the exact amount of spending expected during a campaign rally in Sioux City, Iowa.
The Justice Department has reportedly opened a criminal investigation into Corey Lewandowski over accusations that he personally profited from his role as a top adviser to the Department of Homeland Security.
The inquiry, a rare instance in which an ally or appointee of President Trump’s has been investigated for potential wrongdoing during his second term, is in response to a referral from the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general.
Calley Means, senior adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., resigned on Thursday over frustrations that the Make America Healthy Again agenda had stalled inside the White House.
President Trump called Elon Musk last week and asked him to restore Ukraine’s full access to the Starshield satellite communications network, according to a senior administration official and a person briefed on the exchange.
The Treasury Department on Thursday proposed a rule to curb American high-tech investments, including AI, outbound to U.S. adversaries like China, Russia, North Korea and other “countries of concern.”
The rule expands restrictions in the Outbound Investment Security Program (OISP) on hypersonic systems and quantum information technologies, high-performance computing, supercomputing, as well as AI. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent added biotechnology.
President Trump on Thursday defended an attack ad that has engendered bipartisan backlash, and urged the Republican candidate in the Ohio governor’s race, Vivek Ramaswamy, to continue airing it.
Sen. Bernie Sanders was so irate when he learned that the nation’s top pro-Israel lobby planned to spend as much as $9 million to defeat Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee in Michigan’s Senate race, that he immediately transferred $1 million to him.
Gov. Kathy Hochul encouraged members of a committee she’s charged with looking into a potential bid for the 2042 Winter Olympics to join her vision for a downstate/upstate event, and suggested the decision has already been determined.
Hochul signed new firearm legislation in an effort to reduce injuries and deaths. The measure expands gun storage safety rules and prevents individuals prohibited from owning guns from purchasing ammunition.
Hochul’s vision for New York has been largely shaped by her upbringing in a failing western New York town and her family’s move up from a trailer park to affluence.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will hit the campaign trail with Hochul — the democratic socialist’s first in-person appearances to boost the moderate Democrat’s reelection.
Republican Bruce Blakeman said he was thrilled that his rival Hochul will be campaigning with Mamdani, calling it a “big boost” for his gubernatorial campaign.
A New York tradition more than a century old is ending. The City Council yesterday voted to ban horse-drawn carriages, winding down a historic tradition that’s popular among tourists and fiercely opposed by animal rights groups.
The ban passed in a veto-proof 40-7 vote, with two Council members abstaining – despite a last-minute attempt to amend the proposal and push the ban back in 2030.
Businessman John Catsimatidis boldly claimed that the Big Apple’s new ban on the horse-drawn carriage industry was part of a scheme to make millions of dollars for the real estate industry.
Trump slammed the Big Apple’s push to ban the horse-carriage industry, calling the Central Park activity “a great tradition”, adding that he’s sad to see it go “for political reasons.”
The union representing the roughly 200 carriage horse drivers and owners pledged to file a lawsuit against the city moments after the City Council voted to kill the industry and their livelihoods.
Big Apple delivery drivers are demanding a sit down with Mamdani over his plans to ban Amazon from hiring them as third-party contractors — but they say City Hall has snubbed them, even as experts warned the bill could leave thousands unemployed.
The New York City Council plans to hold a hearing on why a highly anticipated $650 million deal to modernize and fix pollution at the Hunts Point Produce Market in the South Bronx fell apart over the summer.
COPA has again been approved by City Council, this time with mayoral support, marking a key milestone in the long trajectory of a bill that gives nonprofits and certain city-designated joint ventures a first chance to purchase distressed buildings that are up for sale.
The MTA is temporarily shutting down its bus fare enforcement teams after a Brooklyn school dean was roughed up by agents who suspected he hadn’t paid, MTA Chair Janno Lieber announced, adding that a second incident had also come to his attention.
“I’m not willing to keep our teams in the filed until I know that all protocols are being followed,” Lieber said. “I’m ordering an immediate safety stand-down until these investigations conclude.”
Anthony Herbert, a former Adams administration aide, faces new federal charges that he took more than $120,000 in kickbacks from a nonprofit that was supposed to spend the money on community programs, including for public housing residents.
The former NYPD detective accused of shooting and killing a man in a fit of road rage on the George Washington Bridge on Tuesday was held on $1 million bail at his arraignment in Manhattan court on Thursday.
The alleged shooter tailgated the victim “aggressively” before firing a fatal shot through the victim’s rear windshield, prosecutors said.
Chinatown residents filed suit to try to stop the city from building a new “megajail” in their neighborhood — arguing that subjecting them to nearly round-the-clock construction noises for the next six years was “inhumane and cruel.”
Former longtime New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney is suing a former Upper East Side constituent and the Big Apple for over $1 million — claiming an icy sidewalk slip-and-fall sent her to the hospital last winter.
The race for NY-19 was a marquee contest two years ago, as U.S. Rep. Josh Riley bested incumbent Republican Marc Molinaro in one of three congressional seats flipped by Democrats in the state. This year, the race is getting far less attention.
Much like the Capital Region State delegation on both sides of the aisle, Hochul voiced (or wrote) her displeasure of the Albany Common Council’s passage of a “Commuter Tax.”
A state appellate court issued a unanimous ruling that compels the Third Judicial Department’s Attorney Grievance Committee to release a letter of admonition it issued in a disciplinary matter involving First Assistant U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III.
Police arrested a suspect linked to the vandalism that caused $30,000 in damage earlier this month to a fleet of buses used by the Schenectady City School District.
A homeschooler who has finished Calculus II and linear algebra is asking to graduate high school early — but Bethlehem Central School District has instead told him to come back to public school.
Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault and County Executive Steve McLaughlin say the arrest of a 25-year-old Guatemalan man accused of raping a 16-year-old girl is an example of why the county must be allowed to continue its cooperation with ICE.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
