Package deal: Another workweek conquered, another Friday reached … don’t know how you do it, dear readers, but do it you do, with style.
It is indeed Friday out there – Aug. 20, to be precise – and we’re here to put a bow on another impressive week of socioeconomic innovation. Let’s wrap it up.
Early-stage business: Making a stand on National Lemonade Day.
Real suckers: Today is World Mosquito Day, which stands apart from other wildlife observances by not offering some bleeding-heart defense of the little buggers, but spotlighting the grave dangers they pose. (Why Aug. 20? Keep reading.)
Real tasty: No defense required for these delicious delights – Aug. 20 is also National Lemonade Day (a nod to entrepreneurism), National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day (fairly specific, but OK) and National Bacon Lover’s Day (’nuff said).
Really neat: And it’s National Men’s Grooming Day, which always cleans up nice on the third Friday in August.
Creating buzz: Back to mosquitoes for a moment – it was this date in 1897 when British MD Sir Ronald Ross made the historic discovery that mosquitos transmit malaria.
Heard ’round the world: Also making history was the first around-the-world telegram, sent 110 years ago today from the New York Times office in Manhattan.
The cable – reading simply “This message heard around the world” – was relayed by telegraph operators in San Francisco, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Saigon, Singapore, Bombay, Malta and Lisbon, among other locations, before returning to the sender in just 16.5 minutes.
Play it again, Tom: The Wizard of Menlo Park, with his upgraded phonographic apparatus.
Sound mind: The history of invention would be very different without all-time innovator Thomas Edison, who scored two U.S. patents on this date in 1912 – one for his “Phonographic Apparatus,” which redefined recording, and one for a “Storage Battery” that redefined alkaline-electrolyte power capacity.
The early show: Speaking of electrifying breakthroughs, New Jersey television station W2XCR broadcasted a 30-minute signal on Aug. 20, 1930, that was received by three TV sets – two in public spaces, one in a reserved press suite – to demonstrate the new medium’s potential.
Where no probe has gone before: And still speeding along on its historic mission, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft launched on this date in 1977.
Voyager 2, which actually blasted off two weeks before sister space probe Voyager 1, is now about 12 billion miles from Earth, speeding through interstellar space at a peppy 10 miles per second.
Royal treatment: American sociologist and demographer Kingsley Davis (1908-1997) – who coined the terms “population explosion” and “zero population growth” and is praised as one of the 20th Century’s great social scientists – would be 113 years old today.
You can call me Al: Roker, parading.
Also born on Aug. 20 were 23rd U.S. President Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901), grandson of ninth President William Henry Harrison; Russian engineer Valentin Petrovich Glushko (1908-1989), a leading designer of Soviet-era rockets; American author Jacqueline Susann (1918-1974), who redefined literary smut with “Valley of the Dolls”; Japanese surgeon Akutsu Tetsuzo (1922-2007), who led development of the first working artificial heart; and Queens-born weather forecaster, journalist, actor and author Albert Lincoln Roker Jr. (born 1954), still a fixture at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Led by example: And take a bow, Robert Anthony Plant! The English singer/songwriter, known best as the iconic voice of classic rock band Led Zeppelin, turns 73 today.
Give the unmistakably voiced rocker your best at editor@innovateli.com, where you can show a Whole Lotta Love (and avoid a Communication Breakdown) with your news tips and calendar events (we’re Dazed and Confused without them, and we don’t mind if you Ramble On).
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BUT FIRST, THIS
Nightingales: The Northwell Health Nurse Choir wows ’em on “AGT.”
They have been found: Hats off to the Northwell Health Nurse Choir, which brought down the house, again, on Tuesday night’s episode of “America’s Got Talent.”
During the live-broadcast quarterfinal, the choir of 18 frontline providers from across New York’s largest healthcare system took the stage (in matching blue scrubs) for a stirring rendition of “You Will Be Found” from the Broadway musical “Dear Evan Hansen.” Like the choir’s May performance of “Stand By Me,” the song scored – eliciting tears from judge Sofia Vergara and an extended ovation from the audience and judges Vergara, Heidi Klum, Simon Cowell and Howie Mandel, who’d assured the Nurse Choir a quarterfinal-round appearance by hitting his “Golden Buzzer” after its stunning audition three months ago.
Mandel endorsed the nurses again Tuesday night, telling at-home voters “you’d be crazy if you didn’t vote them as one of the seven semifinalists.” And on Wednesday, the choir of 13 female nurses and five male nurses learned it was indeed one of seven acts voted into the two-part penultimate round of the NBC talent competition, scheduled for Aug. 31 and Sept. 7. “I can’t detach the story of who you are from what you do and how you sound,” Mandel told the Northwell nurses. “We’re all in this together, (but) we couldn’t all be all in this together if there weren’t people like you saving our lives.”
Final approach: The HIA-LI, the Town of Islip and Ronkonkoma-based law firm Campolo, Middleton & McCormick are teaming up to give Long Island MacArthur Airport some much-needed thrust.
The three entities are circulating a brief business survey designed to convince airlines that may be considering the town-owned LIMA as a service destination. Featuring questions about estimated business-travel budgets, the likelihood of using MacArthur Airport if more commercial flights became available and the potential use of the airport as a marketing channel, the survey aims to “show these airlines our support” and “demonstrate the power and cohesiveness of the Long Island business community,” according to Campolo, Middleton & McCormick Managing Partner Joseph Campolo.
“For years, despite having a world-class airport in our backyard, the Long Island business community has lamented the lack of direct-flight destination options from MacArthur Airport,” Campolo told Innovate Long Island. “Today, several airlines are considering making a new home here … increasing service at the airport would be a monumental step forward for the region’s long-term economic viability.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Mindful: Next-gen brain implants, multimillion-dollar federal grants, bioelectronics breakthroughs … there’s no summer slowdown at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research.
Skillful: With longtime President/CEO Richard Murphy retiring and big shoes to fill, Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital found the perfect successor within its own ranks.
Earful: From the C-suite to innovation’s cutting edge, Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast is a must-listen resource for forward-thinking executives and entrepreneurs. Season 2 is on its way – Season 1 is streaming now.
ICYMI
X-Golf tees up in Westbury; veteran marketers tune up in Huntington.
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 California: Santa Rosa-based behaviorist Strategic Vision and San Diego-based software specialist Gaugr unite to psychoanalyze customer behaviors.
From Canada, eh: Toronto-based data-management ace Qii.AI improves remote detection of potholes and other road defects with AI-powered drones.
From California: San Francisco-based med-tech Qardio redefines telehealth with premier, end-to-end Remote Patient Monitoring.
ON THE MOVE
Susanne Raschner
+ Susanne Raschner has been appointed controller for New Hyde Park-based Transervice Logistics. She was previously an accounting manager and audit supervisor for PKF O’Connor Davies in New York.
+ Stelios Karatzias has joined Uniondale-based Sahn Ward as an associate practicing in the areas of zoning, land-use planning, real estate law and transactions, municipal law and corporate law. He previously served as an associate attorney at several prominent Long Island law firms.
+ Verley Brown has joined Mineola-based Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone as an associate in the Trust and Litigation Practice Group. He was previously of counsel at New York City-based McLaughlin & Stern.
+ John Frame has joined Hauppauge-based Walter F. Cameron Advertising as vice president of business development. He was previously vice president of brand marketing and sales at Hauppauge-based A&Z Pharmaceuticals.
+ Ashwani Prabhakar has joined Mineola-based Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone as an associate in the Trust and Litigation Practice Group. He was previously principal law clerk for the Brooklyn-based Surrogate’s Court of Kings County.
BELOW THE FOLD (On Second Thought Edition)
It’s electric: Boogie woogie, woogie.
Dark horse: How one woman changed astronomers’ minds about dark matter.
Seaworthy: How one vessel changed seafarers’ minds about e-boats.
Fear factor: How one Florida county changed its mind about vaccinations.
No doubt: Our mind’s made up – SUNY Old Westbury, one of the amazing institutions that support Innovate Long Island, is a brilliant choice for students in search of their best future. Check them out.
