Long story: Welcome to Friday, dear readers, and not just any Friday, but the last Friday in May, which of course means a glorious three-day weekend is on tap.
On that note, Innovate LI will be opening our pool and cleaning our grill this weekend, so no calendar newsletter on Memorial Day. We’ll be back on the beat Tuesday, with a regularly scheduled newsletter waiting in your inbox first thing Wednesday – enjoy the long weekend, please celebrate responsibly.
Otherwise, well done: No cheese? That’s rare.
The rights stuff: It’s May 28 out there – Downfall of the Derg Day in Ethiopia, as you well know, and Amnesty International Day everywhere else, highlighting human-rights crusades around the globe.
Meat market: It’s also a big one for carnivores – May 28 is both International Hamburger Day and, here in the States, National Brisket Day.
Ace of clubs: Carnivores, herbivores and lovers of s’mores are all welcome in the Sierra Club, now the world’s largest grassroots environmental organization but somewhat smaller – just 182 charter members – when it was founded on this date in 1892.
There’s always room for Jell-O: New York cough medicine manufacturer Pearl Wait trademarked Jell-O (collagen extracted from boiled bones, mixed with sugar and fruit flavors) on May 28, 1897.
Golden anniversary: Still a breathtaking combination of art and engineering, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge opened to vehicular traffic 84 years ago today.
Monkeys in spaaaaace: America’s first space travelers made headlines.
Monkey business: The first animals to fly into space and return alive – the squirrel monkey Miss Baker and the rhesus monkey Able – blasted off aboard a Jupiter ballistic missile on May 28, 1959, and splashed down in the South Atlantic 15 minutes later.
In other space news, the USSR’s Mars 3 probe – comprised of an orbiter and a 4.5-kilogram rover – launched on this date in 1971, en route to becoming the first spacecraft to land successfully on Mars.
Send in the clones: And it was May 28, 2003, when the first cloned horse – also the first cloned mammal birthed by its genetic mother – was born in Italy’s Laboratory of Reproductive Technology.
Marking the seventh species to be cloned (more than 25 have now been replicated, including the endangered black-footed ferret), Prometea the Halfinger cross mare is alive and well 18 years later.
A man among men: Thorpe, cross-cultural icon.
Wa-Tho-Huk: Native American athlete Jim Thorpe (1887-1953) – a child of the Potawatomi and Sac and Fox nations (with French and Irish roots), All-American high school footballer, professional baseball and football star and double gold medal-winner at the 1912 Olympics (both were revoked on a technicality) – would be 134 years old today.
Also born on May 28 were French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814), a staunch death-penalty opponent who lobbied for a more humane “machine that beheads painlessly”; British geographer/meteorologist Hugh Robert Mill (1861-1950), who changed how we teach geography; German-American astronomer Rudolph Minkowski (1895-1976), who soared into nebulae and supernovae; American educator and civil rights activist Betty Shabazz (1934-1997), the widow of Malcom X; and Canadian cartoonist Lynn Johnston (born 1947), known best for the popular newspaper strip “For Better or For Worse.”
Drake’s cake: And take a bow, Frank Drake! The American astronomer and astrophysicist – hailed as the father of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence and creator of the famous Drake Equation, which originally calculated somewhere between 1,000 and 100,000 intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy – turns 91 today.
Wish these and all the other May 28 innovators well at editor@innovateli.com, where our search for terrestrial intelligence begins and ends with your story tips and calendar events.
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BUT FIRST, THIS
You gotta have art: A $2 million cultural arts center – a “key component” of local economic-development efforts, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office – has risen in the Village of Westbury.
Funded through a $10 million award the village earned in 2016 through Albany’s $100 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative, the 2,500-square-foot center will serve as the new home of registered 501(c)3 Westbury Arts, providing an art gallery, arts-education classrooms, meeting rooms and public-performance spaces in the heart of the downtown area. The state-of-the-art facility is the result of a renovation effort that overhauled the existing building’s interior, installed an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant elevator and spruced up plumbing, electrical and fire-suppression systems.
With other projects funded by the $10 million award pending or already finished, the completion of the cultural arts center marks “another milestone” for Westbury’s downtown revitalization, according to New York State Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas. “The facility is a vivid example of what can be achieved when a proud community works together and devotes their energy, imagination and dedication to making their village a better place,” Visnauskas added. “Projects such as these will draw residents and visitors alike to downtown to support businesses, creating a bustling and thriving community with a strong local economy.”
On tap: South Africa’s Hey Joe Brewing Co. won a Platinum Crushie for Best Tap Design in the Middle East/Africa region.
Beer here: Hundreds of international judges have spoken, and the winners of the 2021 Craft Beer Marketing Awards – known affectionately as the “Crushies” – have been announced, including a big win for the Blue Point Brewing Co.
The Patchogue pintmasters took the gold in the high-profile Best Can Design/Americas competition – one of 10 platinum and/or gold awards earned by New York microbrewers in the second-annual competition, which was judged by a panel of 300-plus experts representing the brewing, marketing and graphic-design fields. A production of Melville’s EGC Group and presenting sponsor Hillebrand, the contest expanded to 33 categories for Year Two, with competitions focused on Pandemic Marketing and Human Rights joining returning categories such as Best Bottle Design, Best Logo, Best Beer Tap Design and Best Use of Social Media, among others.
The innovative competition, which this year accepted entries from five global regions, bestowed a total of 196 coveted awards during a May 18 Facebook Live ceremony. “Our panel … had their work cut out for them this year,” noted EGC Group Account Manager Jackie DiBella, who co-founded the Crushies with EGC Craft Beverage Executive Director Jim McCune. “The difference between winners came down to a quarter of a point in some cases – it was a tough competition!”
TOP OF THE SITE
To the e-rescue: An extensive Long Island Business Council report explores regional retail’s post-pandemic struggle – and details a comprehensive rescue plan.
Making it worth your while: Albany is upping its game as vaccination incentives proliferate around the nation.
Master builder: Longtime Long Island Builders Institute CEO Mitch Pally joins “Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast” to discuss paramount socioeconomic issues (and his insatiable bagel habit).
ICYMI
International exposure for unique battery-storage devices; smoother sailing for Long Island motorists.
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 Pennsylvania: Media-based robotic-dinosaur manufacturer Dino Don scores big on “Shark Tank.”
From Wisconsin: Prescott-based additive-design ace Infinite Material Solutions rolls out “microporous 3D printing material” for greater design freedom.
From Washington: District of Columbia-based reality-augmenting app-maker Museum Edutainment enhances national-monument visits with short audiovisual stories.
ON THE MOVE
Patrick McCormick
+ Patrick McCormick has been elected second vice president of the Suffolk County Bar Association. He is a senior partner and chairman of the Appellate Practice Group at Ronkonkoma-based Campolo, Middleton & McCormick.
+ Ismini Scouras has been hired as executive director for Uniondale-based Tomorrow’s Hope Foundation. She previously served as vice president for institutional advancement for La Salle Academy in Manhattan.
+ Jennifer Gonzalez has joined New York City-based New York Health. A board-certified primary care physician and geriatrician, she will practice in East Setauket.
+ Paul Vertullo has been appointed to the Port Jefferson-based JTM Foundation’s Board of Directors. He is the chief operating officer and treasurer for Garden City-based Seviroli Foods Inc./Vertullo Imports LLC.
BELOW THE FOLD
…and beyond: Is digital storage truly infinite?
Getting crowded in here: Uh, oh … is humanity running out of digital storage space?
Cachinnation is the best medicine: Weird and wonderful words you should start using today.
A pot in every brownie: Cooking with Alice B. Toklas, the celebrated “mother of edibles.”
Your business is their business: Please continue supporting the amazing firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Nixon Peabody, where unmatched international-law acumen drives your success. Check them out.
