Cheesy opening line: Welcome to Friday, dear readers, and the last leg of another exciting and exhausting socioeconomic sprint.
It’s March 5 out there, still living in infamy in Boston – we’re thinking about you, Crispus Attucks – and now everywhere else, thanks to the creation of National Cheese Doodle Day (not our bag, but you go right ahead).
Yes, it’s legal: And no, it doesn’t cause hallucinations.
Absinthe of malice: Today is also National Absinthe Day, so drop the doodles and step up (if you dare).
Smoke gets in your eyes: In other self-destructive vices, it was this date in 1558 when Spanish explorer/physician Francisco Fernandes introduced Mexican tobacco leaves – “herb panacea,” he said – to Spain’s King Phillip II.
Tobacco soon conquered Europe.
Eat lead: Drawing on his recently patented revolver pistol, firearms forefather Samuel Colt formed New Jersey’s Patent Arms Manufacturing Co. on March 5, 1836.
Put a stop to this: Pennsylvania-based engineer and entrepreneur George Westinghouse patented his revolutionary air brake – the first reliable automatic brake for trains – on this date in 1872.
Jet age: A modern recreation of the original Gloster Meteor.
Per ardua ad astra: This is a big date for the Royal Air Force, starting in 1936, when the monoplane fighter plane K5054 – prototype of Britain’s super-successful Supermarine Spitfire – made its first test flight.
Exactly seven years later – on March 5, 1943 – the Gloster Meteor, architype of Britain’s first combat-ready jet fighter, made its maiden flight.
Curtain call: Speaking of British fortitude, once-and-future Prime Minister Winston Churchill coined the phrase “Iron Curtain” in a speech delivered at Missouri’s Westminster College 75 years ago today.
For the record, Russia considered this the first shot of the Cold War.
Hulking up: And it was March 5, 1979, when “off the scale” gamma rays from deep space blasted the Earth, fritzing a bunch of satellites along the way.
Officially, no Avengers were created by this astronomical event – though it did lead to the discovery of magnetars.
Captain courageous: Scottish natural historian and zoologist Charles Wyville Thomson (1830-1882) – who braved rough seas aboard the retrofitted British Navy battleship HMS Challenger to explore undiscovered marine environments and rewrite the science of oceanography – would be 191 years old today.
Real cut-ups: Penn (left) and Teller, still headlining at Caesar’s Las Vegas.
Also born on March 5 were prolific Italian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770), counted among the 18th century masters; British mathematician Benjamin Gompertz (1779-1865), remembered best for the somber “Gompertz law of mortality”; Polish philosopher, economist, anti-war activist and all-around-revolutionary socialist Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919); Japanese supercentenarian Misao Okawa (1898-2015), who credited her 117-year run to “eating delicious things”; and American magician, actor, inventor, scientific skeptic and author Penn Fraser Jillette (born 1955), a multitalented thinker known best for working with the mostly muted Teller.
Son of a preacher man: And take a bow, Joel Scott Osteen! The American pastor, televangelist, businessman and best-selling author – whose weekly televised sermons reach 10 million U.S. viewers and millions more around the world – turns 58 today.
Wish the multimillionaire minister, the partly paranormal Penn and all March 5 innovators well at editor@innovateli.com, where we have great faith that your news tips and calendar events will magically appear. Abracadabra!
About our sponsor: Northwell Health is New York’s largest healthcare provider and private employer, with 23 hospitals, 750 outpatient facilities and 70,000-plus employees. We’re making research breakthroughs at the Feinstein Institutes and training the next generation of medical professionals at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra/Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. Visit Northwell.edu.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Let’s get physical: No stranger to string theory or statistical mechanics, Stony Brook University has earned high praise from a leading college-ranking organization, which places SBU’s Physics and Astronomy program in the world’s top 100.
Officially, QS World University Rankings rates the Stony Brook program as the world’s 89th best physics and/or astronomy program, just behind the Institute of Physics at Leiden University in the Netherlands and just ahead of the Institut für Physik at Germany’s Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. It’s a noteworthy achievement for SBU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, which boasts several joint faculty appointments between the university and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and has played a key role in the development of the burgeoning quantum Internet, among other mind-bending advances.
“It is so rewarding to receive this recognition,” noted Distinguished Professor and Department of Physics and Astronomy Chairman Axel Drees, one of the leaders of BNL’s ongoing PHENIX experiment. “It highlights the outstanding work and dedication of our faculty, staff and, in particular, our students, who are an integral part of our research efforts.”
Babak Beheshti: Clever programming.
Let’s get digital: A unique industry-academia partnership will give New York Institute of Technology computer-science students a running start on their future cybersecurity careers.
Noting a growing need for trained-and-ready digital defenders, New York Tech has inked a deal with California-based cloud-security ace Zscaler that will help NYIT College of Engineering and Computing Sciences students earn industry-recognized certifications while completing their degrees. The Zscaler Internet Access and Zscaler Private Access certification courses will be available free of charge to the students, who can also earn credits toward their New York Tech degrees upon course completion.
The certifications cover a host of technicalities and best practices related to cybersecurity, giving New York Tech learners a professional edge before they even leave campus, according to CECS Dean Babak Beheshti. “Preparing our students by providing them a career-oriented and deep technical education has always been our focus,” Beheshti noted. “This partnership with Zscaler equips our students with highly in-demand skillsets in cybersecurity while integrating these skillset acquisitions in their curriculum.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Small windows: And big opportunities for small-business owners, who must commit to post-pandemic digitalization, according to Bank of America exec Bob Isaksen.
Separate peace: Long Island innovators are creating peace of mind for staff, students and parents with detached, anti-COVID school-nurse offices.
Innovation in the Age of Coronavirus: The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has arrived on our shores – see where in the world’s only Long Island-flavored pandemic primer.
ICYMI
Stony Brook University scientists are kicking sand and chipping in (literally) as Long Island battles contaminated drinking water.
BEST OF THE WEST (AND SOMETIMES NORTH/SOUTH)
Innovate LI’s inbox overrunneth with inspirational innovations from all North American corners. This week’s brightest out-of-towners:
From Virginia: Newport News-based holographic-technology pacesetter LitiHolo introduces the world’s first desktop 3D hologram printer.
From Oregon: Beaverton-based “integrative healthcare” team CHP Group massages, acupunctures and chiro-practices cost reductions for chronic conditions.
From Virginia: Alexandria-based cybersecurity ace Dark Cubed empowers small businesses with automated threat detection/blocking tool for internal devices.
Edward McWilliams
ON THE MOVE
+ Edward McWilliams has been promoted to partner on the Marketing, Tax and Business Advisory Team at Bohemia-based Cerini & Associates.
+ Christian Batista has joined Ronkonkoma-based Emtec Consulting Engineers as an electrical engineer. He previously held the same position at Long Island City-based Rosini Engineering.
+ Kayla Goldman has joined H2M architects + engineers as an environmental technician. She previously interned at the Suffolk County Water Authority.
+ Steven Pecorini has been appointed president of the Board of Directors at Levittown-based New Ground. He is a retired JPMorgan Chase bank executive.
BELOW THE FOLD
Big finish: SpaceX’s starship lights up after touching down.
Persona non grata: A new documentary explores the dark side of personality tests.
Blaze of glory: Aerospace experts are cheering SpaceX’s latest achievement, which ended in fiery destruction.
Say anything: Science confirms that people literally don’t know when to shut up.
Raising the stakes: Please continue supporting the amazing institutions that support Innovate LI, including Northwell Health, where the interactive, forward-thinking Raise Health effort is more than just a marketing campaign. Check it out.
