Lost time: Welcome to Friday, dear readers, and the end of another hit-or-miss summertime workweek – spotty rainstorms, half-speed productivity and a 50-50 shot that the person you’re looking for is on vacation.
Speaking of which, a gentle reminder that Innovate Long Island is taking an extended weekend ahead, so no Calendar Newsletter this coming Monday – back at you next week with your regularly scheduled Wednesday and Friday editions.
Hot shirt: Make like Magnum today. (And keep Maui in mind– see below).
It’s supposed to be bad: Today is Aug. 18, and between us and that weekend stands one more workday. And not just any workday…
Before we relax,
Before we can play,
We rhyme without reason
On National Bad Poetry Day!
Try all three: OK, that was awful, but today is also National Hawaiian Shirt Day, National Fajita Day and National Ice Cream Pie Day, so cheer up.
The thin yellow line: Definitely feeling cheery was French astronomer Pierre Janssen, who discovered helium on Aug. 18, 1868. (Not sure it was a “Ring of Fire,” but there was a solar eclipse in the mix.)
IP, eh: Also cheerful was Torontonian William Hamilton, who earned the first-ever Canadian patent on this date in 1869, with his “Machine for Measuring Liquids.”
Make it rain: Also measuring liquids was The Washington Post, which reported 132 years ago today that federally funded rainmaking experiments had produced .02 inches of “hard rain” in Texas – a gross overstatement of the boneheaded, scientifically challenged scheme.
Sea for yourself: The famous Belle Isle Aquarium opened 119 years ago today.
Swimming in it: Also all wet – in a much better way – is Detroit’s Belle Isle Aquarium, America’s oldest continuously running aquarium, which opened on Aug. 18, 1904.
You say you want a revolution: And it was this date in 1961 when the birth control pill first became commercially available to U.S. women.
Activists applauded, doctors cautioned and the pope raged – but love it or hate it, “the pill” gave women unprecedented power over their bodies.
Winters soldier: Ever-professional Shelley swims for it in “The Poseiden Adventure.”
Don’t call him “Bob:” Puerto Rican professional baseball icon Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker (1934-1972) – the legendary Pittsburgh Pirate who went by Roberto Clemente and was posthumously enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame after dying a hero – would be 89 years old today.
Also born on Aug. 18 were British mathematician Brook Taylor (1685-1731), a gifted artist and Newtonian disciple who helped develop calculus; American explorer, soldier and politician Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809), half-namesake of America’s most famous expedition; Indian freedom fighter, politician and diplomat Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1900-1990), the first woman elected president of the UN General Assembly; American actress and author Shelley Winters (1920-2006), an oft-honored star who graced more than 100 films; and American actor and filmmaker Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born 1936), who’s similarly done it all and won it all.
House of B: And take a bow, Brian Michael Bendis! The Eisner Award-winning American comic book writer and artist – the modern-day Stan Lee who updated the Avengers and created new-age fan favorites including Miles Morales and Jessica Jones – turns 56 today.
Give the ink-stained innovator your best at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips give us superpowers and our new age is powered by your calendar events. ’Nuff said, true believers!
About our sponsor: St. Joseph’s University has provided a diverse student population in the New York metropolitan area with an affordable education rooted in the liberal arts tradition since 1916. Independent and coeducational, the university provides a strong academic and value-oriented undergraduate and graduate education, aiming to prepare students for a lives characterized by integrity, intellectual rigor, social responsibility, spiritual depth and service. Through its Long Island, Brooklyn and online campuses, the university offers degrees in 60 majors, special course offerings and certificates and affiliated and pre-professional programs. Learn more here.
BUT FIRST, THIS
You’ve been chopped: Young learners sharpen their skills in Stony Brook Medicine’s healthy cooking class.
Now we’re cooking: Aiming to reduce fast-food consumption and promote healthier lifestyles, Stony Brook Medicine has invited kids into the kitchen.
Fourteen learners between the ages of 7 and 10 strapped on their aprons this week for a three-day Healthy Cooking and Baking series filled with farming facts, nutritional nuggets, produce-picking tips and a healthy smorgasbord of tasty recipes – hummus, veggie wraps, fruit smoothies and more – all organized and presented by Stony Brook Medicine’s Department of Family, Population & Preventive Medicine.
Aside from the actual cooking (participants also learned about meal preparation and the proper use of kitchen equipment), the program focused primarily on the nutrition provided by fresh vegetables, with visits to the Stony Brook Heights Rooftop Micro-Farm. The 2,242-square-foot garden, located on the third-floor roof of Stony Brook University Hospital, produces approximately 1,500 pounds of fresh vegetables and herbs per year, feeding patient meal trays and local charity efforts including the Stony Brook University Food Pantry and Port Jefferson-based Hope House Ministries.
Fire alarm: A leading regional food bank is urging Long Islanders to step up following the devastating Maui wildfires – and to do so carefully.
Melville-based Island Harvest Food Bank – a member of Feeding America, the nation’s leading hunger-relief organization – is advising donors on this island who want to help victims on that island to do so directly, by contributing straight to Hawai’i Food Bank (a Feeding America co-member) or to Feeding America itself (the parent org has established a Maui relief fund). The help is certainly needed: The death toll from the Hawaiian disaster climbed past 110 on Thursday, with at least two local food pantries among the ruined infrastructure.
Feed America and its affiliated members do more than cover crises in their hometowns, noted Island Harvest Food Bank President and CEO Randi Shubin Dresner, who recalled assistance flowing this way after 2012’s Superstorm Sandy. “Island Harvest and the Feeding America network … band together to assist each other when needed,” Dresner told Innovate Long Island. “We continue to monitor the situation in Hawaii through Feeding America and stand ready to help in any way we can.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Welcome back: The T7 Protein Expression System – a research-critical, born-at-BNL technology – has come full circle via Applied DNA Sciences’ latest corporate acquisition.
What pause button? Don’t let our summer hiatus slow you down – you know there are episodes of Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast you haven’t heard yet. We’ll be pouring fresh awesomesauce into your earbuds soon enough … catch up quick!
ICYMI
Appetizing farmer/foodie advocate East End Food is promoting Eastern Long Island gastronomic adventures with digital and print “Passports.”
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 Minnesota: Minneapolis-based data dynamo Outsell adds customer-value scoring system to upgraded Customer Engagement Platform.
From Texas: Houston-based computer-graphics gamechanger The Stephanie Michaels Software Co. brings Hollywood-quality animation to the masses.
From Minnesota: Minneapolis-based women’s health low-dose cannabis brand Jane debuts premium line to battle menopause symptoms.
ON THE MOVE
Carol Gomes
+ Carol Gomes has been appointed chairwoman of the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council. She is chief executive officer and chief operating officer of Stony Brook University Hospital.
+ Cheryl Katz-Erato has been appointed vice chairwoman of the Nassau County Bar Association’s Surrogate’s Court Estates and Trusts Committee. She is a partner in the Tax, Trusts and Estate Group at Uniondale-based Forchelli Deegan Terrana.
+ Christopher Washousky has been hired as an assistant principal at the Samoset Middle School in Lake Ronkonkoma. He was a teacher at the Floral Park Bellerose School in Floral Park.
+ Lonnell Harrington has been promoted to director of the Family Center for Achievement at Life’s WORC in Garden City. He was previously assistant director.
+ Keri Crocco has been hired as director of technology and 21st Century learning for Valley Stream Union Free School District 30. She was an IT staff developer in the Manhasset Union Free School District.
+ Anne Young has been hired as director of sales and new business for Stony Brook-based Biocogent. She was director of cosmeceutical actives for Washington-based UNIGEN Inc.
+ Donald May has been hired as vice president/digital experience at Hauppauge-based Austin Williams. He was group account director at Valtech Solutions 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 St. Joe’s). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (We Still Love Indiana Jones Edition)
Heartbreak fridge: Indy’s excoriated escape might actually have worked.
Misdialing destiny: Why we’re so bad at predicting the future.
Why’d it have to be snakes? Harrison Ford’s new namesake would rile Dr. Jones.
Nuke the fridge: Science says Indy’s unlikely atomic-blast escape wasn’t so farfetched after all.
Fortune and glory: Please continue supporting the amazing institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including St. Joseph’s University, where knowledge is the treasure – and support comes from a higher power. Check them out.
