Blizzard condition: Welcome to Friday, friends, and not just any Friday but the Friday before what could be the biggest Long Island snowstorm since Winter Storm Izzy (a.k.a. the Blizzard of 2022).
As of press deadline Thursday night, Winter Storm Fern was barreling through the South and bulking up for an East Coast attack (with most tracts plotting a direct hit on Long Island, delivering 10 inches of snow or more late this weekend). Our backs are already aching from all the shoveling this winter – but it looks like our latest well-earned weekend will be all about digging in (and then digging out).
Write stuff: A beautiful form of written-word communications has been lost to history.
Crystal clear: Before we get to all that, today is Jan. 23 and we’re closing out the workweek with Better Business Communication Day, an absolute favorite of an innovation-news website that sincerely believes every one of us – doctors, lawyers, bankers, entrepreneurs, lawmakers, law enforcers, journalists and everyone else – is in the communications business.
Speaking of which, it’s also National Handwriting Day, celebrating a lost communications art.
In inches (not feet, ironically): More about tootsies than hands is Measure Your Feet Day, when we’re encouraged to quantify our lowest extremities from heel to toe – not because we’re bored, but as an essential step toward correct shoe size, proper arch support and other forms of podiatric health.
When you’re done, wash your hands and grab a dessert plate – it’s also National Pie Day, an upper-crust commemoration served fresh from the oven every Jan. 23.
Hail Ming: Also fairly fresh was the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese imperial bloodline that became a thing on this date in 1368 with the coronation of Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, kicking off three centuries of rule.
A-Hoya: Less dynastic, more parochial is Georgetown University, which became America’s first private Catholic university when it was founded on Jan. 23, 1789.
(Black)well done: That’s DOCTOR Blackwell, thank you.
Last laugh: Speaking of collegiate firsts, undaunted student Elizabeth Blackwell scored the ultimate victory over institutional and peer bigotry on this date in 1849, when she became the first U.S. woman to receive a medical degree.
Disc player: Other breakthroughs associated with this date include the flying plastic discs known best as Frisbees, which were introduced by toymaker Wham-O 69 years ago today.
Dwarf, tossed: And it was Jan. 23, 1930, when astronomer Clyde Tombaugh – working at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona – captured photographic imagery that would lead directly to the discovery of Pluto.
Officially demoted in 2006 to “dwarf planet” status, Tombaugh’s world spent the better part of a century as the Solar System’s official ninth planet.
Sign right here: American statesman John Hancock (1737-1793), a leading Revolutionary War rabble-rouser and, famously, the first patriot to sign the Declaration of Independence – would be 189 years old today.
Tour de force: Life sometimes imitates art for Mariska Hargitay.
Also born on Jan. 23 were Swedish botanist Karl Agardh (1785-1859), who systematically surveyed and categorized algae; French painter Édouard Manet (1832-1883), a 19th Century modernist master who led the transition from Realism to Impressionism; American biochemist Gertrude Belle Elion (1918-1999), a Nobel Prize laureate who championed rational drug design; American pilot and diplomat Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger III (born 1951), the U.S. Air Force veteran and now-retired commercial pilot who heroically captained 2009’s “Miracle on the Hudson”; and American chess great Ruth Haring (1955-2018), an international master and gifted consensus-builder who served as the U.S. Chess Federation’s second-ever woman president.
But I play one on TV: And take a bow, Mariska Magdolna Hargitay! The American actress, producer, director and activist – who’s portrayed Olivia Benson on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” longer than any other actor has portrayed any single character in primetime history (for so long, entire generations think she’s really a cop) – turns 62 today.
Send birthday wishes to Hargitay at editor@innovateli.com, where we lay down the law based on your news tips and calendar events (in that order). Cue the theme.
About our sponsor: St. Joseph’s University-New York, has provided a diverse population of students in the New York metropolitan area with an affordable education rooted in the liberal arts tradition since 1916. The independent and coeducational university provides a strong academic and values-oriented education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, aiming to prepare each student for a life characterized by integrity, intellectual rigor, social responsibility, spiritual depth and service. Through its Long Island, Brooklyn and online campuses, the university offers degrees in 100 majors, special course offerings and certificates and affiliated and pre-professional programs. Learn more here.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Bing bling: Welcome to the new home of SUNY supercomputing.
Binghamton bulletin: From our Innovate Binghamton Desk (and start getting used to the sound of that) comes a giant leap for State University of New York supercomputing.
The largest academic endowment in SUNY Binghamton history – a $30 million gift from a donor group led by alumnus Tom Secunda, co-founder of Bloomberg LP – will help establish the Center for AI Responsibility and Research, billed as the first-ever independent artificial intelligence research center at a U.S. public university. Bolstered by an additional $25 million SUNY investment, the center will anchor the Empire AI Consortium, Albany’s attempt to unite public and private researchers on a groundbreaking quest for the scientific discovery and fantastic socioeconomic gains promised by responsible AI computing.
With its state-of-the-art research center attracting national attention, SUNY Binghamton is the consortium’s founding member – but the AI advances will play huge across the entire State University system (Stony Brook University, for instance, will leverage the SeaWulf Computational Cluster and other supercomputing setups). “This new center will help create the tools, standards and talent pipeline the country needs,” Secunda noted, “so AI is not only powerful, but also secure, transparent and worthy of public confidence.”
Albany alert: From our Innovate Albany Desk (also has a nice ring to it) comes an annual announcement with ramifications from the state capital to Long Island and everywhere else in New York.
Governor Kathy Hochul’s Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Budget proposal dropped Tuesday – a $260 billion plan that keeps New York’s AA+ credit rating intact, maintains a significant rainy day reserve fund (roughly $14.6 billion) and commits billions to expanded infrastructure, healthcare, public safety and other cornerstone socioeconomic initiatives (including a record $39.3 billion for school aid and another $4.5 billion for statewide childcare and pre-K programs). It even proposes to eliminate state income taxes on tipped wages up to $25,000 annually, while keeping all other personal income taxes at current levels.
The Executive Budget – which projects a 9.9 percent increase in state revenue, offsetting a $10 billion reduction in federal aid – is designed to “protect taxpayers and … deliver the services New Yorkers need most,” according to Hochul. The State Senate and State Assembly will now pick the thing apart, propose politicized amendments and hammer out a final version, hopefully before the FY2026 budget expires March 31. Stay tuned.
TOP OF THE SITE
Campus collaboration: Stony Brook University looks to kill two birds with one stone as it unveils an ambitious public-private housing initiative.
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ICYMI
Jaci Clement understands the growing mistrust of news media, which function largely online, where dubious mistruths are wired in – but the Fair Media Council CEO/executive director insists that for honest journalists (and the nation itself), all hope is not lost.
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: San Jose-based video-creation platform NemoVideo trims production time on high-quality marketing vids with AI-powered “conversational editing.”
From California: San Francisco-based marketing-performance platform Channel99 powers up B2B marketers with new Paid Search Optimization capabilities.
From Illinois: Chicago-based alcohol alternative WhirlWined pours the world’s first booze-free, hemp-derived, Delta-9 THC-infused wine.
ON THE MOVE
Alexander Orlov
+ Alexander Orlov has been elected chairman of the American Chemical Society’s Environmental Division and vice chairman of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Sustainability Engineering Forum. He is a professor in Stony Brook University’s Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering.
+ Gia Foster has been promoted to partner at LambZankel in Melville. She was an associate.
+ John Gross has been hired as an attorney at Guercio & Guercio in Farmingdale. The veteran education-law attorney is counsel to the Suffolk County Bar Association and the former senior managing partner at Hauppauge-based Ingerman Smith.
+ Woodbury-based D&B Engineers and Architects has announced multiple new hires:
- Isabela Valencia has been hired as an engineer I in the Wastewater Division. She is a recent graduate of Farmingdale State College.
- Michael Hayes has been hired as engineer I in the Water Supply Division. He was an engineer at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
- Luke Neilson has been hired as an engineer I in the Water Supply Division. He is a recent graduate of SUNY Buffalo.
+ Anthony Bagnuola has been hired as an attorney at Greenberg Traurig in Garden City. He was senior trial counsel for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
+ Gia Foster has been promoted to partner at LambZankel in Melville. She was an associate.
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 St. Joe’s). Gregory Zeller can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Board Of Peace Edition)
Take a seat: Might be the best move of your professional life.
Pay to play: Chairman Trump says $1 billion-per-seat club could rival the UN.
It’s who you know: England, France and Germany decline, but autocrats line up.
Director’s cut: Why joining the right board (of directors) is always a great career move.
A separate peace: Please continue supporting the innovative institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including St. Joseph’s University, where rigorous academics are tempered with serene spirituality. Check them out.
