Take your pick: Welcome to Friday, friends, and not just any Friday but the last Friday of Fall 2022 – Winter officially starts Wednesday, with a loaded holiday lineup to prove it.
Hanukkah actually gets a jump on the season (the eight crazy nights kick off Sunday), with jolly old St. Nick making the rounds one week from tomorrow, Kwanzaa on his jingling heals (Dec. 26-Jan. 1) and 2023 following close behind. Whatever your persuasions, enjoy them happily and healthily – and consider this weekly innovation wrap-up an early present!
Vacation plans: Before we dive in, this quick scheduling note – Innovate Long Island will be in Festivity Mode beginning Dec. 23, so watch for your regular slate of awesome newsletters Dec. 18, 21 and 23, then we’ll be back Jan. 3 with fresh content. (More reminders next week.)
This doesn’t look good: Even the ref seems doubtful.
They mean food: Back here on Dec. 16, we excitedly sink our teeth into National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day, when we get to dip and drizzle whatever we want (within reason).
Today is also National Underdog Day, a third-Friday-of-December rah-rah for longshots, overachievers and other unlikely winners, past and future.
Party city: Historical underdogs noted on this date include the rebellious colonists behind the Boston Tea Party – a major act of defiance against the mighty British Empire committed 249 years ago today.
Coin flip: Other beverages of Dec. 16 note include mineral water, which was dispensed with a coin deposited into a machine patented on this date in 1884 by Minnesota inventor William Fruen – officially, the world’s first vending machine.
Anchors aweigh: The Great White Fleet – a bold display of American sea power consisting of 16 new battleships and 14,000 sailors – set out from Virginia on a 14-month, six-continent tour on Dec. 16, 1907.
No. 1 hit: Songs on the radio became a thing that same day, when engineers in the Brooklyn Navy Yard transmitted a live version of “I Love You Truly” by vocalist Eugenia Farrar to salute the massive fleet.
She’s got legs: And Eumillipes persephone knows how to use them.
Leg work: And it was one year ago today when the journal Scientific Reports published a paper on the discovery of a new species – the world’s first true millipede.
Although “millipedes” (meaning “1,000 legs”) have been crawling through science texts for centuries, no previously discovered species actually had 1,000 legs (the record was 750) – until Eumillipes persephone, which boasts an amazing 1,306 legs.
Her own “Sensibility”: English literary giant Jane Austen (1775-1817) – who wrote “Pride and Prejudice” and five more historically acclaimed and ironically timeless novels critiquing the 18th Century British gentry – would be 247 years old today.
A man for all seasonings: Few throw together dinner like Yannick Alléno.
Also born on Dec. 16 were history’s most famous Ludwig, German master composer Beethoven (1770-1827); American astronomer Edward Barnard (1857-1923), a celestial photography trailblazer; influential American anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978), whose pro-diversity books, articles and lectures roiled Conservatives; legendary English sci-fi scribe Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (1917-2008), also an inventor, undersea explorer and television personality; and American biochemist Bruce Ames (born 1928), who sniffed out different chemicals’ cancer-causing potential with the famous Ames test.
Bon appetite: And take a bow, Yannick Alléno! The renowned French chef – a Michelin Star magnet ranked among the world’s greatest gastronomes – turns 54 today.
Wish the kitchen king well at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips are the main course and your calendar events make the perfect entremets.
About our sponsor: New York Institute of Technology’s 90-plus profession-ready degree programs incorporate applied research, real-world case studies and professors who bring decades of industry knowledge and research into the classroom, where students and faculty work side-by-side researching cybersecurity, drone design, microchips, robotics, artificial intelligence, app development and more. Visit us.
BUT FIRST, THIS
On like Megatron: Let the bot battles begin!
You heard it here, FIRST: Teams representing more than 40 Long Island high schools are expected to mingle Jan. 7, when the 2023 FIRST Robotics Competition kicks off with a global webcast.
Gathering at LIU Post’s Krasnoff Theater, regional students will join roughly 4,000 competition teams from 35 countries to learn about the upcoming FIRST Robotics season, sponsored by California-based Haas Automation and subtitled “Charged Up.” Regional competitions serving as preliminary rounds of the global challenge – wherein teams will construct 120-pound robots capable of performing a series of as-yet-unknown tasks – are scheduled for March at Hofstra University.
After learning the rules, students will work with engineering mentors to build their automatons, with more than $80 million in college-scholarship funds at stake worldwide. “We are thrilled to get our 2023 season underway,” said Larry Toonkel, competition co-director at FIRST Long Island. “We are also excited to bring the Long Island Regional back as more teams are looking to be part of our annual event.”
O my: A drug-free, nonsurgical, non-invasive women’s sexual-health treatment that’s “painless and without side effects” – at least, bad ones – is now available on Long Island.
Introducing Cliovana, a patented, three-step soundwave-technology treatment developed by Canadian surgeon Robert Gordon, a world-renowned medical-device innovator and former president of the International Society for Medical Shockwave Treatment. Now offered by board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist Diana Leon at Three Village Women’s Health offices in Patchogue and Setauket, Cliovana uses sound waves to boost genital cell regeneration, improving clitoral blood flow and revving up the patient’s sexual responsiveness.
Essentially, the soundwaves cause microscopic tissue trauma, triggering healing processes (both neurogenesis and neovascularization, for the record) that create new blood vessels and additional nerve endings – a sexual revolution for women who struggle to finish what they start. “So many women don’t orgasm … and are embarrassed to address it,” Leon noted. “Cliovana uses soundwaves to change that in just a few simple sessions.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Accelerated: One of Long Island’s most dynamic business-incubation networks has earned five years of NYSTAR funding to boost outreach and programming.
The cards you’re dealt: A state senator from Long Island is encouraging Congress to pass a new law breaking the Visa-Mastercard duopoly.
Special guests: The head of Long Island’s loftiest museum, a regional social justice champion, a young radio producer with supernatural talent, the globally renowned father of bioelectronic medicine, LI’s king of downtown redevelopment – and that’s just the last five episodes. Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast keeps getting better.
ICYMI
Mid-market CEOs are worried, but only kinda; East Hampton cemeteries are historical, maybe officially.
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 Colorado: Englewood-based electro-optic polymer pioneer Lightwave Logic patents integrated-circuit tech designed for high-volume chip manufacturing.
From California: San Francisco-based work-solutions provider Swit Technologies improves Korean employee experiences with digital collaboration tool.
From New York City: Tech-driven fertility network and family-building benefits provider Kindbody expands in-person services with new Dallas clinic.
ON THE MOVE
Isaiah Paige
+ Isaiah Paige has been hired as a staff engineer at Melville-based H2M architects + engineers. He was a staff electrical engineer for the Federal Aviation Administration in Queens.
+ Todd Griffin has been appointed vice president for clinical services and vice dean for clinical affairs at Stony Brook Medicine. He is a professor in and chairman of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine.
+ Daniela Gagliano has joined Uniondale-based Forchelli Deegan Terrana as an associate in the Banking & Finance Practice Group. She was an associate at Hempstead-based Lawrence and Walsh P.C.
+ Uniondale-based Ruskin Moscou Faltischek has welcomed four members of law firm Levy, Stopol & Camelo: Larry Stopol and Dianne Camelo have joined as partners in the Corporate and Securities Department; Paul Juergensen is of counsel in the Litigation Department and the Intellectual Property and Digital Media practice groups; and Loretta Camelo has joined as a paralegal.
+ Lori Kranczer has been elected to the Port Washington-based Helen Keller Services Board of Trustees. She is the CEO of Link Elevating Philanthropy in Manhattan.
+ Shawn Gallagher has been promoted to partner at Melville-based Frisch Financial Group. He’s been a wealth management advisor with the firm for seven years.
+ Nancy Costopulos has been elected chairwoman of Hauppauge-based Discover Long Island’s Board of Directors. She is the president and CEO of Old Westbury Gardens.
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 New York Tech). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
Tall tale: And kind of a long story — Santa’s little helpers actually predate Christianity.
BELOW THE FOLD (Xmas Marks The Spot Edition)
Seasonal employee: AI Santa sleighs it at your local drive-thru.
Fir the best: Keeping your Christmas tree fresh all season long.
Shelf life: Who invited the elves, anyway?
A visit from St. Sponsor: Please continue supporting the amazing institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including the New York Institute of Technology, where what to our wondering eyes do appear but robotics, microelectronics and other cutting-edge degree programs focused on 21st Century industry. Check them out.
