Mid-season finale: Welcome to Friday, friends, and the final episode of another sunny summer workweek.
Hope your episodic effort is good for a few laughs, with minimal melodrama. Here’s an innovative “cold open” to start it right – roll the opening credits!
Any which way you can: Help save the orangutans today.
Rough start: We open this Aug. 19 in a bit of crisis mode – today is World Humanitarian Day, shining the brightest light on multiple humanitarian crises in progress.
Also circling the globe today is International Orangutan Day, encouraging action to protect the great apes in their native habitats.
Tongue twister: After saving humanity and the orangutans, enjoy a little treat – it’s National Soft Ice Cream Day, also spiraling atop double cones every Aug. 19.
Picture it: He may have celebrated afterward with a sugary crème glacée, though there’s no photographic proof – either way, French artist Louis Daguerre exposed the secrets of quick and accurate photography on this date in 1839.
Conceived with fellow French visualist Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce, the daguerreotype imprinted positive images on silver-plated copper sheets by combining iodine and warm mercury vapor.
Condensed form: Speaking of sweet creams, Brooklyn inventor Gail Borden earned a U.S. patent on Aug. 19, 1856, for his Improvement in Concentration of Milk.
Nothing new: Also hitting the sweet spot – a century-and-a-half before Tesla – were London’s first electric-powered taxicabs, which hit the capital’s streets on this date in 1897.
Dammed Yankee: Probably wouldn’t swim or fish in the Deerfield River, back in the day.
Critical acclaim: Switching energy sources, Massachusetts’ now-decommissioned Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Station – which logged 31 years of service as one of the nation’s oldest, most productive and most reliable nuclear plants – first achieved criticality 62 years ago today.
Fungi in spaaaaace: And on that exact same day – Aug. 19, 1960 – Sputnik 5 blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying two dogs and a mishmash of mice, rats, flies and plants (even a fungus specimen).
After one day in orbit and a preprogrammed reentry, the cabin and crew were successfully recovered by Soviet scientists – marking the first recorded Earth organisms to survive a trip to space.
Wing man: American master innovator Orville Wright (1871-1948) – a high-flying champion bicyclist who wound up in the National Academy of Sciences, and the history books – would be 151 years old today.
Cuckoo for Coco: Stylish Chanel.
Also born on Aug. 19 were English clockmaker Edward John Dent (1790-1853), famous for his chronometric accuracy; American pharmacist and entrepreneur Charles Hires (1851-1937), who made a name in root beer; French fashion designer and businesswoman Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel (1883-1971), who defined post-WWI “chic”; American inventor Philo Farnsworth (1906-1971), who tuned up all-electronic televisions; and American physician Franklin Story Musgrave (born 1935), a six-time NASA astronaut.
Clinton rules: And take a bow, William Jefferson Clinton! The 42nd U.S. President – of the four most recent presidents, one of three to serve two terms and one of two to be impeached – turns 76 today.
Give the co-progenitor of the Clinton Rules – proof that the Clintons smugly flout the law/also proof that they’re innocent targets maligned by right-wing media – your best at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips and calendar events always rule.
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BUT FIRST, THIS
Sounds familiar: From the Department of Political Motivations comes Gov. Kathy Hochul, who this week “announced” two already-announced programs advancing Island socioeconomics.
On Wednesday, Hochul “announced that construction has begun” on a $33 million East Hampton affordable-housing development promising 50 new energy-efficient apartments. A joint effort of Georgica Green Ventures LLC and the East Hampton Housing Authority, the project – not the first partnership between Jericho-based Georgica Green and the EHHA – earned $18 million in state Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and $3.4 million from New York State Homes and Community Renewal’s Housing Trust Fund, all through a $25 billion “comprehensive housing plan” previously revealed in the campaigning governor’s FY2023 State Budget.
Also Wednesday, Hochul officially launched a previously announced Life Science Business Competition staged through the much-touted $350 million Long Island Investment Fund, another staple of the FY2023 budget. The $50 million competition – highlighted by a new business-accelerator program that will “work collaboratively with Long Island universities and research institutions to support life-science startup businesses,” according to the governor’s office – aims to attract and nurture companies in the health-technology and medical-device sectors, starting with a competitive RFP round.
Matter of fact: Dark matter, in a nutshell, according to NASA.
Sounds complicated: Turning to the most complex theoretical physics, Stony Brook University scientists are knee-deep in a stellar hypothesis with “profound” universal implications.
In a huge conjectural step toward solving the mysteries of dark matter, a new study published this month in Nature Communications proposes a novel method of searching the universe for undiscovered particles not defined by current particle physics. Ostensibly, this could shed new light on hypothetical dark matter – a literal truth, in this case, involving supermassive black holes, transient stars and the theoretical “ultra-light bosons” they leave behind.
The science (all about “superradiance” and stellar tidal-disruption rates) gets thicker from there, but the researchers – including two SBU professors and Stony Brook postdoc Peizhi Du – envision a useful tool for detecting those ultra-light bosons, a potential “[revolution] for fundamental physics,” according to Rouven Essig, a professor in the C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics. Stony Brook Physics and Astronomy Professor Rosalba Perna added that “the work could open up windows into a complex, dark sector that hints toward more fundamental descriptions of nature, such as string theory.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Powering up: Next month’s New York City clean-energy summit AEC 2022 looks to pick up where it left off before the pandemic.
Brain food: A legendary lineup of LI leaders lifts Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast – a smorgasbord of clever innovation and C-suite ingenuity in chuckle-filled 30-minute chunks. Fill your plate (and your mind).
ICYMI
The Long Island Rail Road’s long-awaited “Third Track” is open for business.
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 Ohio: Dublin-based fast-food forerunner The Wendy’s Company reimagines restaurant layouts to enhance customer, crew and digital experiences.
From Virginia: Vienna-based Internet content evaluator Seekr Technologies teams with leading life and business strategist Tony Robbins to increase media literacy.
From Massachusetts: Boston-based dental AI innovator Overjet enters Canadian markets with cutting-edge X-ray analysis technology.
ON THE MOVE
Ira Berkowitz
+ Ira Berkowitz has joined Garden City-based FCA as vice president and chief financial officer. He was previously CFO of the New York City-based National Academy Foundation.
+ Alexander Pirraglia has been promoted to associate in the Banking and Financial Services Practice Group at Garden City-based Jaspan Schlesinger. He was previously a law clerk at the firm.
+ Rebecca Moulton has been promoted to partner at Syosset-based Hammill O’Brien Croutier Dempsey Pender & Koehler. She was previously an associate at the firm.
+ Marko Glavadanovic has been hired as first vice president at Melville-based CBRE. He was previously senior director at Melville-based Avison Young.
+ Jennifer Porti has been hired as community relations manager for Bank of America in Melville. She was previously development director for the American Heart Association in Manhattan.
+ Carlos Palomeque has been hired as a construction inspector at Syosset-based Lockwood, Kessler and Bartlett. He was previously regional and local construction monitor for the New York State Department of Transportation-Region 10 in Hauppauge.
Like this newsletter? Innovate Long Island newsletter, website and podcast sponsorships are a prime opportunity to reach the inventors, investors, entrepreneurs and executives you need to know (just ask SUNY Old Westbury). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD
Hot rod: Roosevelt rolled through the ’34 midterms.
Rerun: The midterms suddenly look a lot like 1934.
Been there: The return of the “boomerang employee.”
Done that: Brave souls volunteer their most embarrassing moments.
Repeat: Please continue supporting the amazing institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including SUNY Old Westbury, where they’ve got the student-success formula down pat. Check them out.
