TGIF: A good Friday everybody and welcome new readers. It’s Oct. 23, on which we celebrate Italian scientist Amedeo Avogadro, who decreed that a “mole” of any substance has the same number of particles, which is 6.02 X 10 to the 23rd. Perspective from my high school chemistry teacher: If you saved $1 million a second it would take more time than the universe has existed to save a mole’s worth of dollars. (And that was…
ISOTOPIA: The Nuclear Science Advisory Committee is pretty much what it sounds like – a group of scientists that advises the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation on ways to keep America at the forefront of nuclear science. Membership does not require heavy lifting – the group gets around to issuing advice only every few years – but its recommendations can mean serious ducats for the places in which those ideas get built. Take Lansing,…
TGIF: A good Friday everybody and welcome new readers. Just five days to go until the Innovator of the Year awards and the chance to hob and nob with the brightest stars in local invention. Big-name presenters, clever opening banter, sticky buns. Not to be missed. WORD OF THE WEEK: Ratchet. A once-obscure financial device that guarantees returns for investors when startups finally get around to going to market. It’s become increasingly popular as VCs start to fret about…
The Beige Book is out this week, offering members of the Federal Reserve anecdotal economic data and sentiment from branch directors, businessfolk, economists and others. The report is produced eight times annually, just before the meetings at which interest rates are adjusted. Or not. The book’s been around since 1970, originally with a red cover, but was not released publicly until 1985, when a reporter from The Wall Street Journal bothered to ask for a…
TGIF: A good Friday everyone and a special welcome to new readers. This was a week during which even the cynics and doomers had to think, “Hmm, maybe there really is something to this innovation stuff.” For starters, welcome Chad Bouton, the neural research wunderkind who figured out how to harness brain impulses that allow paralyzed patients to move limbs, even their wheel chairs, by just thinking about it. He’s done loads more at Battelle, the giant Ohio…
TGIF: Greetings from the Long Island Business Development Conference in Montauk. Great opening keynote from Mark Lesko – on the eve of his new gig at Hofstra – plus panels on the issues most affecting local development: government red tape, job growth, public transit and, um, government red tape. Weather report: Cloudy with a declining chance of Joaquin. Today is National Manufacturing Day. Make the most of it. HEADLINES Cox Automotive completed its $4B all-cash acquisition of software juggernaut DealerTrack, which…
TGIF: A good Friday everyone and a special welcome to new readers. It’s National Research Administrator Day, so if you do that and have one, please celebrate responsibly. Oh, and we heard the Pope is in town. Don’t forget to send us news, trends, scoops, criticisms and corrections to editor@innovateli.com. It’s been a busy week, capped by news that Quirky, the NYC-based platform that helped inventors develop household products in exchange for a slice of sales, has declared bankruptcy and plans…
TOP O’ THE NEWS: The North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System ended years of internal debate and off-and-on public speculation this week by announcing it would rename itself Northwell Health and launch a giant rebranding campaign. While maybe not the punchiest sobriquet to ever emerge from Community Drive, the new name gets the job done. The system, now the 14th largest in America, is no longer a cobbling of Long Island health facilities with Gold Coast or…
TGIF: A good Friday to everyone and a welcome new readers. It’s Sept. 11, our National Day of Service and Remembrance. It’s also National Hot Crossed Buns Day. Other countries may not understand it, but that’s the exact sort of juxtaposition that defines American exceptionalism. AS WE MARK SEPT. 11: The Port Authority is running out of Twin Towers steel, which has been carefully given out for memorials in all 50 states and several countries, not…
TGIF: A good last Friday of the season, everybody. Time to repack those white bucks. Before you head off for Labor Day, remember we’re always on the hunt for story ideas, trends, criticisms and corrections via editor@innovateli.com. MONDAY ALSO IS: National Salami Day. If you happen to be in St. Louis, the best in the nation is reportedly at a place called Salume Beddu. They ship. POLITICAL PUFFERY: The Town of Riverhead has set a public hearing on a medical marijuana dispensary…
MOVING ON UP: North Shore-LIJ boss Michael Dowling has been named the 22nd most influential person in U.S. health care. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and President Obama topped the list, which is produced annually by Modern Healthcare. Noted: John Boehner was way back at 52. Elsewhere in health: Stony Brook’s medical school had its biggest White Coat Day ever. And there were free stethoscopes as door prizes. DUH: New Federal Reserve Bank research confirms what we all knew: Long Island used to…
I’M GOING TO NEED YOU TO GO AHEAD AND READ THIS: A study of more than 250K Enron emails found that company executives commonly used phrases made famous by Office Space boss Bill Lumbergh. JOB SEARCH ENGINE: Engineers at Google’s map unit are being heavily poached by Uber, the NYT reports. Though less interested in cartography, Airbnb has also targeted Alphabet staff, recruiting more than 100 this year. WE KNEW IT WAS A FAD: Social media usage may…
THE WORLD, SHOT: Yesterday was World Overshoot Day, the date mankind’s demands of the planet exceed its ability to regenerate, according to the Global Footprint Network. In 2000, the overshoot fell in October. Just saying. GATHERING PLACE: Convene, the NYC meeting and events company, is leasing 30K sf on the lobby level of Scott Rechler’s 237 Park Ave. building, which is undergoing a $50M facelift. Planned: 250 seats, a lounge and bar and a section for cooking…
SPEAKING OF BEER: Craft beer production climbed to 12.2M barrels in the first half of 2015, a jump of 16%, according to the Boulder-based Brewers Association trade group. That’s not as strong as the 18% growth posted in the same period last year, but let’s not quibble: Production has more than doubled since 2011. “Industry growth is occurring in all regions and stemming from a mix of sources including various retail settings and a variety of…
TGIF: A good Friday everybody and a special welcome to new readers. It’s National System Administrator Day, so be sure to give yours a hug. After you clear it with HR, of course. Also, remember that we’re always on the hunt for story ideas, trends, criticisms and corrections via editor@innovateli.com. BAD NEWS FOR MICE: State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe has dismissed a suit that sought “personhood” and freedom – to a reserve in Florida – for two…