Morning line: And down the stretch we come, dear readers! It’s Friday out there, and we’re racing neck-and-neck toward the finish line of another exciting workweek.
It’s a fast track for sure, but before we reach the winner’s circle there’s one more workday on the card. Saddle up – here’s an across-the-board innovation review to spur you on.
Humanity survives: And it does not forget.
Never forget: We begin with a moment of quiet contemplation on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which doesn’t forget the atrocities but focuses instead on the Jan. 27, 1945, liberation of the last 7,000 Auschwitz prisoners by the then-heroic Red Army.
Quitting time: We know it’s Friday and you’re excited, but remember to punch your cards on your way out today – a must on National Punch the Clock Day, an annual homage to hourly employment.
Before you go, make sure to have a few laughs on National Fun at Work Day, a last-Friday-of-January staple designed to keep the humans happy (and productive).
Lightbulb moment: Usually enjoying his work was master innovator Thomas Edison, who marked a momentous step for human invention – and invention clichés – when he patented the lightbulb on this date in 1880.
National treasure: The National Geographic Society has promoted scientific pursuits since 1888.
Hi, Society: Also shining brightly is the National Geographic Society, one of the world’s largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations, which was founded 135 years ago today.
High and mighty: Also spreading its wings on Jan. 27 was the P-38 Lightning, the single-seat Lockheed Corp. World War II fighter plane that first took to the skies over California in 1939.
Playback is a bitch: Spreading a little slower was the first magnetic tape recorder, sold on this date in 1948 by the Wire Record Corp. of America for the hefty retail price of $149.50.
Sweetening the pot: And spreading super-fast was the peptide sweetening agent known chemically as aspartame – but known best by the stage name NutraSweet – which was patented on this date in 1970.
Including carbonated beverages, various desserts and a host of pharmaceuticals, aspartame is now found in an estimated 6,000 products around the world.
Rock me: Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) – an obscure nobody who achieved a modicum of international notoriety as the subject of this 1985 ditty by alt-rocker Falco – would be 267 years old today.
Never a Nastya word: Gotta Like that trust fund.
Also born on Jan. 27 were English mathematician Charles Dodgson (1832-1898), a conservative logician who occasionally let loose as fantasy author “Lewis Carroll”; American composer Jerome Kern (1885-1945), among the 20th Century’s most prolific and influential theater composers; American Naval officer Hyman Rickover (1900-1986), a Polish immigrant who became the “father of the nuclear navy”; pioneering American journalist Nancy Dickerson (1927-1997), hailed as the first TV newswoman; and Russian American dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov (born 1948), the preeminent male classical dancer of the 1970s and ’80s.
Guess college is paid for: And take a bow, Anastasia Sergeyevna Radzinskaya! The Russian American YouTube star known best as Like Nastya – a child-friendly sensation in seven languages, ranked among the social medium’s most-subscribed and most-viewed personalities – turns 9 today.
Give the influencer – whose estimated net worth eclipses $320 million, and that’s aiming low – your best at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips have great influence and nothing’s worth more than your calendar events.
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BUT FIRST, THIS
Healthcare section: Public libraries play a surprisingly important role in public health, according to a new Long Island-wide study.
Researchers from Stony Brook University’s Program in Public Health and Adelphi University’s Master in Public Health Program – with help from the Long Island Health Collaborative, the Nassau Library System and the Suffolk Cooperative Library System – report that mental health tops the list of concerns most often presented by library patrons to library personnel, followed by concerns about exercise and diet/nutrition. The findings, collating 97 staff interviews at 32 Long Island public libraries between 2017 and 2020, were published this month in the cross-disciplinary journal Library and Information Science Research.
While other concerns (including worries over housing, employment and technological literacy) were voiced by library patrons, the study confirms the critical public-health role libraries play in their communities – particularly lower-resourced communities, according to Long Island Health Collaborative Director Janine Logan. “Our public libraries are trusted resources in communities,” Logan noted. “This is why we are seeing more health and social-service programming occurring in our libraries.”
Round trips: There’s not lots to see on the Wantagh Parkway, and IronMan 70.3 New York participants will see lots of it.
I am Iron Man/Woman: Gear up, Long Island triathletes – the first-ever Ironman 70.3 is coming to Jones Beach.
Sponsored by the Ironman Group, the world’s largest operator of mass-participation sports, the Ironman 70.3 is half the total distance of a full Ironman Triathlon, but still throws down a brutal gauntlet: a 1.2-mile ocean swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run. Organizers have scheduled the first Island Ironman for Sept. 23 – a brisk Zach’s Bay swim, a few round-trip rolls up and down the Wantagh Parkway and a half-marathon run along the scenic Jones Beach Boardwalk – with priority registration underway and general signups slated to begin Feb. 1.
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Commissioner Erik Kulleseid hailed the arrival of an “electrifying competition” on Long Island’s shores. “The IRONMAN 70.3 New York will bring … thousands of athletes and fans to the beautiful Jones Beach State Park,” Kulleseid said Wednesday. “Long Island’s most popular state park will be a great stage to showcase these athletes’ incredible determination and skill.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Value added: Saving the world with solar energy is swell, but if Energia can find additional ways to help its school-district clients, it will definitely work them in.
Hot tip: A 3D-printed nasal swab created and distributed by Northwell Health and friends has won hearts, minds and a USPTO Patents for Humanity award.
Top stories: Executives, entrepreneurs, academicians, athletes, innovative engineers and international experts … the cast of characters gracing Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast is incredible, and their advice is invaluable. Learn from the best.
ICYMI
Trellus shares the spoils with Long Island mom-and-pops; Albany shares $19 million with Long Island downtowns.
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 Indiana: South Bend-based purchase-to-pay pathfinder Nimbello launches advanced automated accounts-payable solution.
From Washington: D.C.-based nonprofit advocate End Rape on Campus powers online tool comparing sexual assault policies and stats at 750 colleges and universities.
From Washington State: Bellevue-based consumer-engagement curator Growth Natives unleashes AI-driven marketing analytics platform.
ON THE MOVE
Richard Carvajal
+ Richard Carvajal has been appointed deputy physician-in-chief and director of medical oncology at the New Hyde Park-based Northwell Health Cancer Institute. He previously led the Developmental Therapeutics Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan.
+ Douglas Gladstone has been hired as chief of hematologic malignancies at Northwell Health Cancer Institute in Lake Success. He was clinical director of the Outpatient Bone Marrow Transplantation Program at the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center in Maryland.
+ Jodi Hoffman has been promoted to co-chairwoman of the Real Estate Group at East Meadow-based Certilman Balin Adler & Hyman. She is a partner at the firm.
+ Chris Long has been promoted to CEO of Old Bethpage-based Family Residences and Essential Enterprises. He previously served as president.
+ Andrew Mulvey has been hired as government relations manager at National Grid in Melville. He was previously Nassau County regional representative for Gov. Kathy Hochul.
+ Hannah Levine has joined Uniondale-based Harris Beach as an associate in the Business and Commercial Litigation Practice Group. She previously held the same position for Washington-based The Employment Law Group.
+ Jerry Balentine has been appointed provost of the New York Institute of Technology. He is a New York Tech executive vice president and former dean of the institute’s College of Osteopathic Medicine.
+ Robyn Fellrath has been hired as Long Island regional director of the Workforce Development Institute. She was director of downstate labor affairs at the New York State Department of Labor in Hauppauge.
+ Divendra Jaffar has been appointed to the Garden City-based Child Care Council of Nassau’s Board of Directors. He is a senior public relations manager at MetroPlusHealth in Manhattan.
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 Nixon Peabody). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (We’re Number One! Edition)
I did it my Raye: The British singer didn’t need a big label to score her first UK No. 1 hit.
Table for one: The pleasure and privilege of dining alone.
One and done: The FDA is considering annual COVID boosters, à la flu shots.
And all for one: Why recording stars are ditching major labels and going it alone.
Job No. 1: Please continue supporting the outstanding firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Nixon Peabody, where the best client results are always front and center. Check them out.
