Just relax: Welcome to Friday, dear readers, as we wrap up a busy and momentous week for America and her intrepid innovation economy.
Let’s stick politics in a sack and focus on the well-earned weekend ahead – after all we’ve been through, and with plenty of drama to come, we could all stand to blow off a little steam.
Missed the point: A symbol of stupidity now, the infamous cap was actually designed by John Duns Scotus to make the wearer smarter.
It’s scientific: Speaking of which, it’s Nov. 8 out there, known best as National STEM/STEAM Day, which has nothing to do with actual steam and everything to do with encouraging American youth to pursue studies – and eventually careers – in science, technology, engineering, art and/or mathematics.
At the other end of the spectrum, we find National Dunce Day, celebrating the dummies among us. (Worth noting: the “dunce cap” was invented by 13th Century scholar John Duns Scotus, who created the pointy hat not to highlight ignorance, but to funnel wisdom into the brain … not exactly Mensa-level thinking, but there it is.)
It’s brew-tiful: Also steamed (at least, the milk) is your favorite cappuccino – making National Cappuccino Day a no-brainer for foamy-espresso enthusiasts.
Need something a little stronger? Well, it’s also National Harvey Wallbanger Day, sipping the fruity cocktail – combining vodka, Galliano liqueur (sweet, with subtle vanilla, anise and citrus tones) and orange juice – every Nov. 8. (Named for a California surfing guru, according to legend).
The minister of mash: Speaking of booze (and legends), bourbon whiskey was first distilled from corn by teetotaling Baptist minister Elijah Craig of Bourbon, KY, on this date in 1789.
Big Sky: Whether it’s whiskey or whisky or whatever, raise a glass of your favorite spirit to Montana – the Treasure State officially signed on as the 41st State of the Union on Nov. 8, 1889.
Interior design: Röntgen’s discovery dove deep into human physiology.
X factor: A toast also to German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen, who discovered X-rays – not entirely on purpose – 129 years ago today.
Sizzle reel: Also electrifying the history books was Washington State-based inventor William Frost, who patented his “Electric Insect Destroyer” – history’s first bug zapper – on this date in 1910.
…so are the Days of Our Lives (and days, and days, and days…): And it was Nov. 8, 1965, when “Days of Our Lives” – chronicling the lives, loves and losses of the Brady, Horton, DiMera, Hernandez and Kiriakis families (and friends) in fictional Salem, Ill. – debuted on the NBC Television Network.
Although it exited the network in 2022, the resilient soap opera lives on as a staple of NBC’s streaming channel Peacock – making it one of history’s longest-running scripted TV shows, with new episodes airing nearly every weekday for the last 59 years.
Margaret Mitchell: One-hit wonder.
Going, going, “Gone”: American novelist and journalist Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (1900-1949) – who published only one novel in her tragically shortened lifetime, more than enough to earn a National Book Award for Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction – would be 124 years old today.
Also born on Nov. 8 were English astronomer, mathematician and physicist Edmond Halley (1656-1742), Britain’s second Astronomer Royal and the first observer to calculate the orbit of a comet; Irish author Abraham “Bram” Stoker (1847-1912), the gothic-horror master who created “Dracula”; English automotive engineer and entrepreneur Baron Herbert Austin (1866-1941), who founded the influential Austin Motor Co.; Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach (1884-1922), who ink-blotted his mark on psychological history; and South African cardiac surgeon Christiaan Barnard (1922-2001), who performed the world’s first human-to-human heart transplant.
Turbine trailblazer: And take a bow, Andrew Garrad! The English engineer, educator and business magnate – an award-winning wind-energy pioneer who founded the world’s largest renewable-energy consultancy – turns 72 today.
Give the alternative energy guru your best at editor@innovateli.com, where we’re energized by your news tips – and your calendar events provide plenty of interesting alternatives.
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BUT FIRST, THIS
Live, from Old Westbury: Student journalists from several states – including a team representing SUNY Old Westbury – proved to be 24-hours strong during marathon coverage of this week’s election.
College Internet radio station OWWR-Old Westbury Web Radio was on the air with Student News Live, a non-partisan news hub created by the iHeart Radio Network, the NBCU Academy and PBS Newshour Student Reporting Labs. Simulcast by iHeart Radio and PBS (and on various YouTube channels), future professional reporters kicked off a full day of presidential-election coverage at noon Tuesday, with a live broadcast from OWWR Studios taking over from 4-4:30 p.m. featuring Vincent Arroyo, executive editor of SUNY Old Westbury student newspaper The Catalyst, along with OWWR staffers Gabrielle Gambuzza and Patrec-Alexander Jones-Brown and Associate Professor of Politics, Economics and Law Thomas DelGiudice.
Then, from 8-9 a.m. Wednesday, SUNY Old Westbury Media and Communications major Timothy Coventry helped break down the results of national, state and local races. “Journalists of all ages deserve a chance to cover the presidential race,” noted William Paterson University journalism Professor Nicholas Hirshon, who co-directs Student News Live with College Radio Foundation founder Rob Quicke. “We hope Student News Live can help young reporters across the country jumpstart their careers.”
A proposition for you: Suffolk County voters pushed aside their Election Day political differences to overwhelmingly support a countywide ballot proposition slightly raising sales taxes – and earmarking billions of dollars for critical wastewater infrastructure and clean-drinking-water programs.
Nearly three-quarters of county voters approved of Ballot Proposition 2, the Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act, which will enact a 1/8th of a percent sales tax-increase to implement the previously approved Suffolk County Subwatersheds Wastewater Plan – a comprehensive, 50-year wastewater-treatment strategy – and create a county-wide wastewater management district. Both the New York State Legislature and the Suffolk County Legislature had previously approved the funding legislation, but the final law required voter approval.
It earned that in spades (71 percent in favor, 28 percent against), with a $4 billion windfall (generated over decades) now projected for the modernization of wastewater infrastructure across Suffolk and $2 billion projected for the conservation of open space and various wildlife habitats, essential to drinking-water protection. “This victory is the culmination of decades of work and shows the power of dedication and collaboration,” noted Kevin McDonald, Long Island policy advisor for The Nature Conservancy. “The universal need for clean water transcends all politics.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Raising the oyster bar: Community volunteers, the Town of North Hempstead and the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County have united to restore the Manhasset Bay oyster population.
Always easy, always free, always a click away: The innovation economy rolls on! Roll with it with this informative, thrice-weekly innovation newsletter. (Yes, thrice weekly … our jam-packed Monday Calendar Newsletters are for subscribers only.)
ICYMI
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has been the home of super-advanced, Nobel Prize-level science for decades – and new high-profile collaborations with a powerful investor group and one of Long Island’s most prestigious business schools will make sure everyone knows it.
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 Georgia: Atlanta-based smart-parking pioneer ParkMobile teams with Texas-based EV charging champion Flash to energize the parking industry’s digital transformation.
From Michigan: Ann Arbor-based autonomous-driving developer May Mobility announces a multi-year deal to dispatch driverless vehicles through the Lyft app.
From Illinois: Chicago-based venture-capital catapult Nurse Capital announces its first seed-round investments in early-stage, nurse-led healthcare enterprises.
ON THE MOVE
Jerian Morales
+ Jerian Morales has been hired as account director at Melville-based Didit. She was vice president of client accounts and strategy at Hauppauge-based Linx Communications.
+ Joseph Saladino has joined Melville-based Advantage Title as vice president of sales. He was vice president of strategic partnerships at Melville-based Netrex Capital Markets.
+ Joe Verghese has been hired as chairman of the Department of Neurology at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. He was a professor of neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Manhattan.
+ Uniondale-based Rivkin Radler has added three new attorneys to its Long Island office:
- Alexander Blisko has joined the Insurance Fraud Group. He was a Queens County assistant district attorney.
- Katherine Lalor has joined the Insurance Fraud Group. She was an associate attorney with the Hollander Legal Group in Melville.
- Jessica Flores Lynch has joined the Insurance Coverage Group. She was an associate attorney at Rosenberg Calica & Birney in Garden City.
+ Bryan Cotton has been hired as an associate partner at Emtec Consulting Engineers in Ronkonkoma. He was managing principal at RSE in Manhattan.
+ Zachary Mike has been hired as a corporate associate by Riverhead-based Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley, Dubin & Quartararo. He was an associate attorney at Ronkonkoma-based Campolo, Middleton & McCormick.
+ Matthew Sikina has been hired as a sports medicine physician at HSS Long Island in Uniondale. He previously served as a sports medicine fellow at Stanford Health Care in California.
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BELOW THE FOLD (Stay Calm And Carry On Edition)
Happy place: There are surefire methods for dealing with post-election workplace trauma.
Get away: How to plan your happiest, most relaxing vacation.
Get to work: How to handle post-election anxiety in the workplace.
Get right: How to stay calm during the busy season, just like J.Lo.
Get it? Please continue supporting the incredible institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including St. Joseph’s University, where students get what they deserve – calm character-building, soothing spirituality and innovative intellectuality. Check them out.
