Thanks: Gratitude abounds, intrepid innovators, as we reach the end of a busy Autumnal workweek – and the precipice of not only a well-earned weekend, but the shortest regularly scheduled workweek of the year.
Talking turkey: Just say it nicely … one of the best ways to keep the peace around the Thanksgiving table.
Yes, the four-day Thanksgiving weekend is on final approach, preceded by this reminder that Innovate Long Island will be brining turkeys, baking pies and otherwise gearing up for some family-filled festivities all next week. Please don’t miss our newsletters too much – we’ll be back Dec. 1 with your regularly scheduled Monday Calendar Newsletter.
Between now and then, we’ll take out a second mortgage to cover our holiday feast (actually, it’s cheaper than last year’s, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation) and try to avoid blowouts with politically disinclined relatives (maybe this will help). And, of course, we’ll remain thankful for you – our audience, our sponsors, our friends, the entire regional ecosystem of inventive innovators and brave businesspeople, without whom there would be nothing for Innovate Long Island to write (and nobody to read it).
Have a safe and a happy, and all that good stuff. And while it can be hard to hold onto in these selfish and ugly times, try to remember that there’s still plenty in the world to be thankful for.
No static at all: You’ve come a long way, baby.
Tune in: For one thing, today is Nov. 21 and we’re appreciating World Television Day – a small-screen salute that’s less a celebration of “Hollywood Squares,” Walter Cronkite and Lucille Ball than a deep appreciation for the unparalleled, century-old power of the boob tube. (And yeah, we know … screens are not so small anymore.)
Turn on: Speaking of boobs (and tubes?), it’s also World Vasectomy Day, a third-Friday-of-November deep cut encouraging sexually active men to take a proactive role in family planning and reproductive health.
And ’tis the season for National Gingerbread Cookie Day, getting a jump on Christmastime with cut-above creativity every Nov. 21.
Air apparent: Getting a jump on human flight (at least, giving it a big lift) were physics professor Jean François Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis Francois Laurant d’Arlandes, who made the first recorded hot-air balloon flight (a 25-minute float over Paris) on this date in 1783.
First (?) in flight: Other locales associated with human flight include Kitty Hawk, which is in North Carolina, which ratified the U.S. Constitution on Nov. 21, 1789, to earn admittance as the 12th State of the Union.
Classic Edison: Slightly north, in New Jersey, the Wizard of Menlo Park unveiled one of his all-time innovations on this date in 1877, when he announced the invention of the phonograph – the first practical machine for recording and playing back sound.
Well, obviously: Energy is equal to mass multiplied by the speed of light squared, just like Einstein said.
Hip to be squared: Other names you know associated with this date include Albert Einstein, who first dropped E=mc2 – his mass-energy equivalence formula and, arguably, history’s most famous scientific equation – 120 years ago today in the journal Annalen der Physik.
Narrows vision: And it was Nov. 21, 1964, when the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge – connecting southwestern Long Island to northeastern Staten Island – opened to vehicular traffic.
Following a five-year, $325 million construction project, the Verrazzano opened as the world’s longest suspension bridge. (Fifty-one years later, it’s only the 17th-longest – though it’s still the longest in the United States, for those keeping score.)
Full steam: British Canadian shipping magnate Sir Samuel Cunard, 1st Baronet (1787-1865) – founder of the Cunard Line, which provided the first scheduled steamship connection between Nova Scotia and North America and later the first powered transatlantic passenger services – would be 238 years old today.
You da man: Musial collected seven National League batting titles while compiling a .331 lifetime batting average.
Also born on Nov. 21 were French playwright, philosopher, satirist and historian François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), the Enlightenment standout known best by the nom de plum Voltaire; American businesswoman Henrietta Howland Robinson Green (1834-1916), the Gilded Age financier known derisively as the “Witch of Wall Street”; Swedish metallurgical engineer Johan August Brinell (1849-1925), progenitor of the metal-rating Brinell hardness test; American physician Martha Wollstein (1868-1939), a pioneer of pediatric pathology and crusader for female doctors; and American professional baseball Hall of Famer Stanley “Stan the Man” Musial (1920-2013), a lifetime St. Louis Cardinal widely considered one of the game’s greatest hitters.
Good as Goldie: And take a bow, Goldie Jeanne Hawn! The American actress, producer, singer and dancer – a gifted graduate of “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” turned Academy Award-winner who’s riffed with Meryl Streep, Peter Sellers, Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton and a dozen other Hollywood heavyweights – turns 80 today.
Give Private Benjamin your best at editor@innovateli.com, where we go Overboard for your news tips and always suspect Foul Play when you don’t share calendar events (particularly when There’s a Girl in My Our Soup).
About our sponsor: Located in Old Bethpage, the Museum of American Armor chronicles our shared heritage of America’s defense of freedom and the nation’s legacy of military technology. Start your adventure through history right here.
BUT FIRST, THIS
All that glitters is gold: And gems … gems also glitter, including Stony Brook University’s iGEM team, which brought home the gold – again – from last month’s iGEM Giant Jamboree.
Held Oct. 28-31 in Paris, the synthetic-biology world expo attracted 421 international teams of mathematicians, biochemists, computer scientists and researchers representing other scientific disciplines, including SBU’s International Genetically Engineered Machine team. The iGEM innovators’ synthetic-bio challenge involved the creation of a cutting-edge, protein-based delivery system for an RNA-targeting CRISPR enzyme, aimed at disrupting the human immunodeficiency virus’ ability to replicate.
The science behind the HIV-inhibition mission was thick, but the Stony Brook squad – 15 sophomore-, junior- and senior-year undergraduates studying biology, psychology, environmental sciences and more – emerged as one of 17 gold-medal U.S. teams, earning top honors for the second consecutive year and fourth time in the jamboree’s 12 years. “I continue to be amazed at the impact that participating in iGEM is having on student growth and development,” noted SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Peter Gergen, one of several SBU faculty members who co-advise the team. “And on the success our teams have enjoyed at this international competition.”
Constructive ideas: The PSEG Foundation is helping United Way of Long Island build momentum for VetsBuild.
Veteran arms: A major-league energy company is helping a scrappy Long Island nonprofit step up to help those who served.
The United Way of Long Island has received a $40,000 grant toward VetsBuild, a career-training/employment-support program for Long Island veterans and their families, from the PSEG Foundation, the charitable arm of the New Jersey-based interstate utility. The grant will facilitate hands-on education for 20 veterans in green construction technologies and techniques – including heat pumps, solar panels, EV charging stations, high-efficiency HVAC units and more – while helping the United Way’s regional satellite transform its Deer Park headquarters into a net-zero energy facility.
VetsBuild is part of United Way of Long Island’s Workforce Development Training Academy, which is designed to help veterans develop long-term career paths, gain financial empowerment and otherwise transition into civilian routines. “An important part of our mission is to give back to the communities where we live and work,” noted PSEG Long Island COO and Interim President David Lyons, who also sits on the United Way of Long Island board. “Supporting the VetsBuild program helps veterans and provides a more sustainable future for Long Island.”
TOP OF THE SITE
CIBS celebration: The Commercial Industrial Brokers Society of Long Island honored the cream of its crop at Wednesday’s Annual Meeting & Holiday Party, with clever thinkers, innovative developments and smart dealmaking in the spotlight.
Triumphant tales: Featuring personal and profound success stories from across the innovation economy, “Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast” is a must-listen resource for anyone doing business on the Island or anywhere else. Go for the win.
ICYMI
Stony Brook University, Accelerate Long Island and a large gathering of regional innovators caught full-moon fever at the first-ever Wolf Den networking event, designed to trigger eager entrepreneurs into beast mode.
Something you’d like to add? The Entrepreneur’s Edge is open for business! Innovate Long Island’s 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 Texas: Dallas-based healthcare-at-home technology innovator Axxess opens Caregiver University to train and certify professional caregivers and family members.
From Massachusetts: Boston-based health-tech Embr Labs keeps the hot side hot and the cool side cool with app-controlled cooling and warming wristbands.
From Virginia: Arlington-based stock media platform Storyblocks improves creative freedom and maximizes workflow with voiceover- and video editing-enabled AI Toolkit.
ON THE MOVE
Michael Schlank
+ Michael Schlank has been hired as executive director of the Sid Jacobson JCC in East Hills. He was chief executive at NJY Camps in New Jersey.
+ Ghania Fatima has been hired as a digital analyst at Austin Williams in Hauppauge. She was a marketing analyst at Staten Island-based TechShoreIT.
+ Kevin Sheehy has joined J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Garden City as a vice president and private banker. He was a private wealth advisor at New York City-based American Capital Partners.
+ The Garden City-based Long Island Children’s Museum has announced two appointments to its Board of Trustees:
- Genevieve DellaFera, manager of business development at Fera Pharmaceuticals in Locust Valley
- Jessica Boccio, director of marketing and communications at the Long Island Children’s Museum
+ Lorna Lewis has been hired as an associate at District Wise Search Consultants in Woodbury. She is a retired superintendent of the Malverne Union Free School District.
+ Daria Teller has been promoted to president at Executive Alliance in Commack. She was vice president of recruiting.
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 Museum of American Armor). Gregory Zeller can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Lost In Space Edition)
All wet: Nineteenth Century astronomers claimed the canals on Mars were built by aliens — and humanity kinda rolled with it.
Stable orbit: One Chinese space station crew rescued, another crew stranded.
Unstable ex: An astronaut’s estranged wife has admitted to fabricating the “first crime in space.”
Spoiler alert: How the forgotten “discovery” of 19th Century Martians quietly prepared Earthlings for disclosure.
Time and space: Take a trip through both at the Museum of American Armor, one of the innovative institutions that support Innovate Long Island – and the only one where World War II and other eras of American history come alive. Check them out.
