End game: Welcome to Friday, intrepid innovators, and not just any Friday but the fifth and last Friday of May 2025 – yes, four full days after Memorial Day, we finally reach the end of the month (or close enough) and the precipice of another well-earned weekend.
Just one more workday before we wrap up this abbreviated workweek (and seemingly endless month) – here’s our latest innovative week-in-review to help you finish both on a high note.
Mint condition: Enjoy a julep today.
Multiple stories: It’s May 30 out there, when humanity pauses to acknowledge World MS Day, an annual awareness campaign focused on multiple sclerosis, the nefarious disease that turns the body’s immune system against its own central nervous system.
Also raising awareness is Loomis Day, which celebrates American dentist Mahlon Loomis, whose fascination with atmospheric conditions led to many failed and/or discredited scientific experiments – and ultimately registered him in the annals of history as the man who invented wireless communications. (Sorry, Marconi.)
Creative cloud: Loomis was certainly a prototypical right-brained type – and the perfect hero for National Creativity Day, when we’re encouraged to draw, paint, sculpt, cook, invent stuff, write poems and music, build something with the kids’ Legos and otherwise release our innermost artistry.
Once you’ve produced your masterpiece, celebrate with a blend of bourbon, sugar, water, crushed ice and fresh mint – a centerpiece of the Kentucky Derby and the core cocktail on National Mint Julep Day, quenching thirsts every May 30.
Like they wouldn’t have found that anyway: Likely raising a bottle to his success was Spanish conquistador and explorer Hernando de Soto, credited as the European who “discovered” Florida on this date in 1539. (This was before he discovered the Mississippi River, of course.)
Lady’s night: Legitimately breaking new ground was Margaret Cavendish, a “natural philosopher” (translation: scientist) who became the first woman allowed to attend a meeting of London’s Royal Society on May 30, 1667.
Pocket full of kryptonite: Actually, it was just krypton – the element, not Superman’s home planet – discovered 127 years ago today by Scottish chemist Sir William Ramsay and his student, English chemist Morris Travers. (And with that, please put your hands together for the Spin Doctors!)
Roundabout: After a roughly six-month journey to Mars, the Mariner 9 probe became the first Earth craft to circle another world.
Ancient Mariner: Krypton – Superman’s home planet, not the element – is fiction, but Mars is real, and it was the destination of NASA’s Mariner 9 space probe when it blasted off from Cape Canaveral on May 30, 1971, en route to the historical distinction of being the first terrestrial spacecraft to orbit another planet.
Disc jockeying: And it was this date in 1987 when Phillips Company introduced the compact disc video format, expanding on the already popular CD music format.
Arriving a full decade before DVD discs and players, the Phillips CD-V was a direct strike against slow and cumbersome VHS videotapes and technologically inferior LaserDisc home-video systems.
As Goodman as it gets: Nobody played the clarinet better than Benny.
Swing vote: American musician and bandleader Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman (1909-1986) – arguably history’s greatest clarinetist and the undisputed “King of Swing” – would be 116 years old today.
Also born on May 30 were American film director, producer and screenwriter Howard Hawks (1896-1977), quintessential auteur of the classic Hollywood era; Swedish electrical engineer and physicist Hannes Alfvén (1908-1995), the Nobel Prize winner who co-founded the science of plasma physics (the study of ionized gases); American voice actor and comedian Mel Blanc (1908-1989), the unrivaled “Man of a Thousand Voices”; Russian cosmonaut, aviator, Air Force officer, writer and artist Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov (1934-2019), the first person to walk in space; and American actress, singer, songwriter and philanthropist Idina Menzel (born 1971), still “Wicked” good.
Shine on: And take a bow, Marissa Mayer! The American computer scientist, executive and entrepreneur – Google’s first female software engineer, Yahoo’s former CEO and the founder of artificial intelligence-powered app-making startup Lumi Labs (now Sunshine) – turns 50 today.
Give the glass ceiling-smashing technologist your best at editor@innovateli.com, where you are our sunshine, our only sunshine – and you make us happy when you send news tips and calendar events.
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BUT FIRST, THIS
Repeat performance: From the Innovate Long Island Sports Desk comes the Adelphi University Men’s Lacrosse Team, which has repeated as NCAA Division II national champions.
The Panthers captured their second straight Division II national title May 25 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., topping the previously undefeated University of Tampa Spartans 9-8 in an overtime thriller. The win marked the second-ever consecutive Division II championships for the men’s lacrosse squad, which also captured back-to-back titles across the 1998 and 1999 seasons.
Also repeating history was Adelphi’s Women’s Lacrosse Team, which faced Tampa’s Women’s Lacrosse Team in the women’s Division II championship match for the second straight year and finished as national runners-up again, dropping the title tilt 15-9 – still an “incredible season,” noted Adelphi University President Christine Riordan, including a Northeast-10 Conference championship for the women’s squad. “I’m so proud to congratulate our student-athletes and coaches on an extraordinary year as an athletic powerhouse,” Riordan added. “It’s inspiring to see their excellence on display in front of the nation, wearing Adelphi gold and joyfully celebrating their hard-earned achievements.”
Cup runneth over: The Breeders’ Cup World Championships are expected to race into the new Belmont Park in 2027.
Horse sense: Also from the Sports Desk comes word that the 2027 Breeders’ Cup World Championships – outside of Triple Crown races, arguably thoroughbred horseracing’s most prestigious event – will be held at the all-new Belmont Park.
Governor Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday that the Elmont-based racetrack – currently undergoing a $455 million renovation that forced the annual Belmont Stakes, one of those elite Triple Crown races, to be held in Saratoga for the last two years – will host the Breeders Cup, a two-day series of 14 races. The event changes locations annually, with this year’s championships scheduled to kick off Oct. 31 in California.
As of now, Belmont Park is slated to host the 2026 Belmont Stakes next June – before the refurbished racetrack officially reopens – followed by the 2027 Belmont Stakes and the 2027 Breeders’ Cup. “Mark your calendars,” Hochul said Wednesday. “The world’s best horses, jockeys and trainers will ride into Belmont for two unforgettable days of championship racing – and what I love is the … 50,000 fans who will follow them, opening up their wallets to support our restaurants, our hotels and all of our other attractions. This is going to be spectacular.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Micro wave: The New York Institute of Technology has refocused Long Island scientific investigations – on microscopic and macroscopic scales – with its next-generation Biomedical Research, Innovation and Imaging Center.
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ICYMI
Through her innovative med-tech startup, a Renaissance School of Medicine professor has crafted a cutting-edge mobile app that can predict and prevent dangerous falls – big news for the elderly and others who might take a dangerous tumble.
Something to say? Welcome to The Entrepreneur’s Edge, Innovate Long Island’s new promoted-content news feature platform – a direct link from you to our innovation-focused audience. Progressive product to promote? Singular service to sell? Sociopolitical position to push? Shine a bright light on the big picture, the little details and everything in between with The Entrepreneur’s Edge. Living on the edge.
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 New York City: Assistive-technology architect SubLinq eyes the hearing impaired with “smart-subtitle” eyewear.
From Washington: District of Columbia-based travel-tech titan AirHelp details delays and ramps-up reimbursements with unlimited flight-tracking app.
From New York City: Renowned dating coach Sara-Ann Rosen launches 10-week, science-backed program designed to revolutionize how women date.
ON THE MOVE
Cynthia Danner
+ Cynthia Danner has been hired as senior vice president and chief nursing officer at St. Francis Hospital and Heart Center in Roslyn. She held the same positions at Brown University Health and Hasbro Children’s Hospitals in Rhode Island.
+ Christopher Giamo has been appointed to the Advisory Board of BEB Credit, an affiliate of BEB Capital, in Port Washington. He is vice chairman of the Haugland Group in Melville.
+ Nicholas Tantone has joined Riverhead-based Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley, Dubin & Quartararo as an associate. He was an associate at The Law Firm of Elias C. Schwartz in Great Neck.
+ Francesco Pizzolla has been hired as an associate at East Meadow-based Certilman Balin Adler & Hyman. He was a senior associate attorney at Huntington-based Lynch & Associates.
+ Nicholas Bekker has been named an associate attorney in the Trusts & Estates Practice Group at Forchelli Deegan Terrana in Uniondale. He was a law clerk at the firm.
+ Lisa Braun has been hired as a medical malpractice paralegal at Davis & Ferber in Islandia. She was an accounting clerk for the Town of Brookhaven.
+ Chris Cosentino has been hired as executive director at the Theodore Roosevelt Association in Oyster Bay. He was chief marketing officer at the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association in Pennsylvania.
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BELOW THE FOLD (To A Certain Extent Edition)
In the bag: L.L.Bean says 4Imprint’s tote bags are too similar to Bean’s “Boat and Tote” bag (pictured), which debuted in 1944.
Chaos theory: The only constant is uncertainty – might as well embrace it.
Are you sure? Federal officials continue to incorrectly identify the “true origins” of COVID.
Are you 4Imprint sure? Why L.L.Bean is hauling the promotional-products king to court.
Absolutely positively: Please continue supporting the fantastic firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Sahn Ward Braff Coschignano, where experience and certainty always set the tone. Check them out.
