Cold air, warm wishes: Welcome to a seasonably nippy Friday on Long Island, dear readers, as another Autumnal workweek cools its jets and October officially establishes its chilly presence.
Before we warm your cockles with this week-in-innovation review, Shanah tovah to everyone who this week observed Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest of holy days, which wrapped up last night after 24 hours of fasting, atonement and intense prayer. G’mar chatima tovah! (Or, for the uninitiated, “May you be sealed in the Book of Life for good.”)
Smoothing things out: It’s a fruit! It’s a protein! It’s superfood!
Building bloc: Today is Oct. 3 and with everyone back at work and school, we’re opening up with National Manufacturing Day, an annual first-Friday-of-October homage to modern manufacturing techniques and careers, jam-packed with hundreds of events across the country.
Coincidentally, and conveniently, today is also National Techies Day, applauding the big brains who imagine, invent, build, program and maintain the technologies (including manufacturing technologies) driving our world.
Smoothie operator: Raise a cold one to your favorite technician today – par for the course on Global Smoothie Day, which travels the four corners to celebrate silky beverages combining pureed fruits and veggies with milk, yogurt, nuts and other whole foods.
Too healthy? Fine … dig instead into National Caramel Custard Day, an Oct. 3 treat covering your sweet milk/cream/egg pudding with an even sweeter layer of buttery caramel.
Suck up: Made a mess preparing your smoothie and/or custard? Thank goodness Missouri-based inventor John Thurman patented history’s first motorized vacuum cleaner on this date in 1899.
Cue up: Other inventions worth repeating include high-resolution videotape recordings, field-tested for the first time by engineers at Bing Crosby Enterprises (yes, that Bing Crosby) on Oct. 3, 1952 – the first time motion pictures were produced by something other than photography.
Rock you: Similar in form and function to U.S. counterpart “Fat Boy,” Britain’s “Hurricane” bomb vaporized an anchored frigate and thousands of tons of rock, mud and seawater.
Blow up: Cameras were rolling on that same day 73 years ago today, when Britain became the third nation to test an atomic bomb – an improvised plutonium-implosion device detonated at Australia’s Monte Bello archipelago.
Snuggle up: Also involving cameras were three of American television’s most beloved family programs, all of which debuted on this date – the CBS Television Network’s “Father Knows Best” (in 1954), the ABC Television Network’s “Mickey Mouse Club” (in 1955) and the classic CBS sitcom “The Andy Griffith Show” (in 1960).
Speed up: And speaking of great television, NASA’s X-15 rocket plane set the longstanding record for fastest manned aircraft on Oct. 3, 1967.
With cameras rolling far below, the suborbital aircraft (and fearless test pilot William Knight) hit Mach 6.72 – a phenomenal 4,520 miles per hour, a manned-vehicle speed that’s never been bested – high over the California desert.
“Great” stuff: British veterinary surgeon and novelist James Alfred Wight (1916-1995) – a lifelong rural vet who was well into his 50s when he achieved international acclaim by chronicling “All Creatures Great and Small” under the pen name James Herriot – would be 109 years old today.
Making his point: The Rev. Al Sharpton has never been shy about speaking his mind.
Also born on Oct. 3 were American playwright, journalist and social activist Sophie Treadwell (1885-1970), a globetrotting modernist known for her thoughtful plays and in-depth interviews; Northern Irish physician, cardiologist and professor James Francis “Frank” Pantridge (1916-2004), the “Father of Emergency Medicine” who transformed the field by inventing the portable defibrillator; Spanish American biologist and oceanographer María de los Ángeles Alvariño González (1916-2005), an all-time innovator of zooplankton research; American novelist and actor Gore Vidal (born Eugene Luther Gore Vidal, 1925-2012), an outspoken and witty intellectualist; and American civil rights activist, politician, minister and talk-show host Alfred Charles “Al” Sharpton Jr. (1954) forever outspoken, controversial and focused on social justice.
With a “Twist”: And take a bow, Ernest Evans! The American rock-and-roller and dancer – known best as Chubby Checker, a stage name the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2025 inductee adopted to honor the iconic Fats Domino – turns 84 today.
Come on, baby – wish the iconic rocker well at editor@innovateli.com, where we do the Twist when we receive your news tips (and always fatten up on your calendar events).
About our sponsor: The Long Island Business Development Council has helped build the regional economy for 56 years by bringing together government economic-development officials, developers, financial experts and others for education, debate and networking.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Big HELP: The single-largest grant ever bestowed upon Suffolk County Community College will expand the college’s healthcare curriculum.
Selden-based SCCC announced Thursday that it has received a five-year, $4.98 million grant from the New York State Department of Health’s Healthcare Education and Life-Skills Program. With the first tranche slated to arrive in January 2026, the award will fund new full-time positions to coordinate educational programs, oversee student clinical placements and provide “comprehensive life-coaching and support” for learners, according to the college, while offsetting tuition costs for students enrolled in SCCC’s Registered Nursing, Practical Nursing, Clinical Medical Assistant and Certified Nursing Assistant programs.
The HELP funding is projected by SCCC to increase first-year RN program retention by 12 percent and add dozens of CMAs and CNAs annually to the regional healthcare workforce, among other benefits. “This transformative investment ensures that more Suffolk students will have the resources, guidance and opportunities they need to succeed in high-demand healthcare careers,” noted Suffolk County Community College President Edward Bonahue. “It will strengthen the pipeline of skilled healthcare professionals serving Long Island and beyond.”
Rainmaker: Albany’s latest funding package focuses on clean water for New York farms.
Water works: A six-figure stipend for the Suffolk County Soil and Water Conservation District is part of a $25 million funding package designed to protect water quality at statewide agricultural operations.
Flowing through Albany’s Environmental Protection Fund and, for the first time, through the state’s Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act, the largest-ever funding round in the three-decade history of New York’s Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution Abatement and Control Program supports 50 total projects across 25 counties. That includes $183,694 for the Suffolk SWCD, which will work directly with four farms located in the Long Island Sound Watershed.
The Finger Lakes region earned the lion’s share of the funding round, including $4.6 million and $1.9 million stipends for SWCDs in Wyoming County and Ontario County, respectively. “Our Ag Nonpoint program has long been a … robust resource to our farmers,” noted New York State Agriculture and Markets Commissioner Richard Ball. “With an infusion of funding from the Bond Act, we are able to grow the program, investing in projects that will not only ensure the health of our environment but will also help ensure farms can remain competitive, profitable and sustainable.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Dialed in: SUNY Old Westbury’s OWWR will be part of World College Radio Day’s marathon broadcast today, featuring 24 consecutive hours of content from school-based stations in 20 countries.
Here’s the catch: You can always catch yourself up with Innovate Long Island’s resource-packed Newsletter Archive, even without an always easy, always free subscription – but you’ll never catch our informative, invigorating, subscriber-only Monday Calendar Newsletters. Catch our drift?
ICYMI
As longtime President and CEO Paule Pachter bids farewell to Long Island Cares-The Harry Chapin Food Bank, he offers gratitude – and a dire warning about fading federal funding and rising food insecurity.
LIVIN’ ON THE EDGE
Tom Stebbins: Civil disagreement.
The Entrepreneur’s Edge – Innovate Long Island’s new promoted-content section – gets an essential mission debriefing from the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York, which aims to fix Albany’s economically ruinous civil liability laws.
Something you’d like to add? The Entrepreneur’s Edge is open for business! Innovate Long Island’s exciting promoted-content platform provides a direct link from startups, established corporations and nonprofits to our forward-thinking audience – your future clients. Progressive product to promote? Singular service to sell? Sociopolitical position to push? Here’s your chance to shine a bright light on the big picture, the little details and everything in between, from the perspective of your innovation-focused enterprise. Learn more here!
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 California: Los Angeles-based B2B executive search firm The Talent Studios tips the war for top talent with an artificial intelligence-powered cognitive candidate engine.
From Georgia: Atlanta-based cybersecurity specialist Raxis beefs up advanced penetration-testing services with its AI-augmented “pentesting.”
From California: Los Angeles-based cocktail creator Hello Soju uncorks Korea’s national drink in its first-ever premium spirit.
ON THE MOVE
Sunday Coward
+ Sunday Coward has been appointed executive director of the Cornell Cooperative Extension-Nassau County Board of Directors. The president of the Freeport Board of Education has served in leadership roles at esteemed higher-education institutions including Stony Brook University and Columbia University, among others.
+ Jeffrey Forchelli has been named trustee emeritus of at Brooklyn Law School. Forchelli, who served on the school’s Board of Trustees since 2005, is chairman and co-managing partner of Uniondale-based Forchelli Deegan Terrana.
+ Melville-based H2M architects + engineers has announced two new hires:
- Marissa Robins has been hired as a proposals coordinator 1. She was a biller at Tantillo Auto Group in St. James.
- Ella Schwartz has been hired aa a staff engineer 1. She is a recent graduate of the University of Miami.
+ Alexis Honya has been promoted to associate attorney at Hankin & Mazel in Great Neck. She was a paralegal at the firm.
+ Edwin Maldonado has been elected to a one-year term on the Long Island Hispanic Bar Association Board of Directors. He is an associate attorney at Uniondale-based Rivkin Radler.
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 – on Long Island, and soon, across New York State (just ask the LIBDC). Gregory Zeller can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Shutdown Edition)
House cleaning: The Trump Administration is wasting no time enacting its shutdown agenda.
Shut outs: Recalling Trump’s 2019 retreat and other federal shutdowns over the last 50 years.
Part of the plan? Already nixing critical funding for blue states, the 2025 shutdown could trigger mass federal layoffs.
Don’t worry, ICE is unaffected: But expect air traffic controller “sick outs,” Social Security delays, unemployment spikes and other socioeconomic turmoil.
Open for business: Please continue supporting the outstanding organizations that support Innovate Long Island, including the Long Island Business Development Council, which is always hard at work strengthening the regional economy. Check them out.
