Chilling and thrilling: Welcome to Friday, dear readers, as another wintry workweek – Winter 2021’s wintriest one yet – reaches its cold climax.
It’s a blustery Jan. 29 out there, leaving just two days for applications to the 2021 Hofstra Veterans Venture Challenge, a business-accelerator/competition offering $160,000 in seed funding and early-stage development services to enterprises founded by military veterans, their spouses or any Gold Star family member. Good stuff!
Chipping in: It’s also National Corn Chip Day, so there’s that.
Cue “The Raven”: Narrative poet Edgar Allan Poe’s creepy masterwork was first published on Jan. 29, 1845, by The Evening Mirror of New York City.
Cue Toto: We’re in Kansas now, baby – the 34th state joined the union on this date in 1861.
Big time: Steinmetz (right) overcame obstacles and ran with Einstein, among others.
AC-ing is believing: Inventor Charles Steinmetz ushered in a new era of global power grids on Jan. 29, 1895, patenting his unique alternating-current distribution system.
True story: Steinmetz – a child prodigy in mathematics and physics remembered as the “father of electrical engineering”– was a hunchbacked dwarf who inherited severe hip dysplasia from his father and grandfather.
Don’t spray it: Worried by early – but mounting – evidence of harm to the Earth’s ozone layer, Sweden became the first nation to ban aerosol sprays 43 years ago today.
Around we go: And a United Airlines Boeing 747SP (for “special performance”) took off from Seattle on Jan. 29, 1988, on a fundraising flight for the Friendship Foundation that would set a global circumnavigation record of 36 hours, 54 minutes and 15 seconds.
The record was short-lived: Just one month later, a state-of-the-art Gulfstream IV jet circled the world in 36 hours, 8 minutes and 34 seconds.
But it doesn’t end well: McKinley won the Spanish-American War and saved U.S. industry with protective tariffs.
Paine in King George’s side: “Voice of the American Revolution” Thomas Paine (1737-1809) – an English-American writer whose “Common Sense” pamphlet and other rebellion-sparking works rank him among history’s great political propagandists – would be 284 years old today.
Also born on this date were 25th U.S. President William McKinley (1843-1901); English aviation pioneer Lawrence Hargrave (1850-1915), who invented the box kite; Russian playwright and short-story master Anton Chekhov (1860-1904); Canadian-American chemical engineer Lewis Frederick Urry (1927-2004), who powered up both alkaline and lithium batteries; and queen of all media Oprah Winfrey (born 1954).
Take a dive: At least take a bow, Gregory Efthimios Louganis! The gold medalist, author, life coach and longtime LGBT activist – the only competitor to sweep the men’s diving competitions at consecutive Olympics – turns 61 today.
Give the definitive diver, the controversial colonist and all the Jan. 29 innovators in between your best at editor@innovateli.com, where story tips and calendar listings are among Oprah’s Favorite Things – at least, our favorite things.
About our sponsor: Bridgeworks is Long Island’s modern coworking and office space. Headquartered in Long Beach, our workspace offers flexible month-to-month private offices, meeting rooms and innovative amenities for companies of all types. Membership includes onsite management, high-speed Internet access, mail services, full café, onsite parking and easy access to the Long Island Rail Road. Members also gain early access to the Airbnb for commercial real-estate, DropDesk.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Robo-house: The world’s first 3D-printed house for sale, in Riverhead.
Built droid tough: The nation’s first-ever sale of a 3D-printed house is underway in Suffolk County. Patchogue-based construction technology company SQ4D has listed the house, built by the company’s patent-pending Autonomous Robotic Construction System, on the Multiple Listing Service for $299,999. Awaiting a certificate of occupancy, the energy-efficient structure – sitting beside a detached two-car garage on a quarter-acre property on Millbrook Lane in Riverhead – features more than 1,400 square feet of living space, with three bedrooms, two full bathrooms and “an open floor plan,” according to SQ4D.
The eco-friendly, high-roofed ranch also comes with a 50-year limited warranty on its 3D-printed, robot-assembled components, including interior and exterior walls, footings and foundations. “This home is priced 50 percent below the cost of comparable newly constructed homes in Riverhead,” noted Realty Connect agent Stephen King, adding the innovative construction “represents a major step toward addressing the affordable housing crisis plaguing Long Island.”
Recovery room: A Levittown-based physical therapy practice with two decades of service under its gait belt has developed a recovery program for COVID-19 patients.
While the novel coronavirus’ long-term effects on the brain and on cardiovascular systems are still being studied, NY Physical Therapy & Wellness has created a Post-COVID Recovery Program designed to counter “the major known effects of COVID.” Available via teletherapy and in-home PT services – and at all 10 of the practice’s facilities in Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties – the program addresses fatigue, weakness, joint/muscle pain, headaches, shortness of breath and other symptoms that hinder patients during and after their COVID-19 course.
Marking 20 years in service in 2021, NY Physical Therapy & Wellness “felt a need to do our part,” according to CEO Ron Bredow. “COVID-19 has affected so many people across Long Island and Queens … now that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, we need to provide care to those suffering from COVID-19’s lingering effects.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Sports model: It’s a big win in Detroit for hometown innovator Janam Technologies, which will safeguard NBA and NHL fans at Little Caesar’s Arena.
Admit it: Adelphi University and Farmingdale State College have announced a joint-admissions program feeding four key Adelphi master’s programs.
Innovation in the Age of Coronavirus: When is COVID-19 like heartburn? (Hint: Never, though they may share some common treatments). Learn more in Long Island’s one-and-only pandemic primer.
ICYMI
Planes, trains and next-generation fiber-optics.
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: Redwood City-based e-learning leader Emergency University transitions workforces to remote mode with sleek transformation platform.
From Florida: West Palm Beach-based organic-superfood supplier Z Natural Foods wheys in with mocha-mushroom protein powder.
From California: Santa Clara-based digital engineer WinWire Technologies streamlines logistics – and speeds up distribution – with Vaccine Management solution.
ON THE MOVE
Jerry Balentine
+ Jerry Balentine has been named executive vice president and chief operating officer at the Old Westbury-based New York Institute of Technology. He will also retain his responsibilities as vice president for health sciences and medical affairs.
+ Fred Millán has been named a State University of New York Hispanic Leadership Institute Fellow. He serves as director of SUNY Old Westbury’s Master’s in Mental Health Counseling Program and interim Psychology Department chairman.
+ Gerard Luckman, partner and chairman of Uniondale-based Forchelli Deegan Terrana’s Bankruptcy and Corporate Restructuring practice group, has been appointed to the Institute of Management Accountants-Long Island Chapter’s Board of Directors.
+ Robert Larocca has been promoted to chief strategic relations officer at Woodbury-based SterlingRisk Insurance. He will also retain his title of executive vice president.
+ Gordon Tepper has been appointed to the Plainview-based ACDS Board of Directors. He is director of communications for the Town of North Hempstead.
+ DeAnna Goldfeder has been hired as an associate human resources generalist at Melville-based Korg USA. She previously served as a human resources supervisor for Hicksville-based Sam Ash Music.
+ Leigh Schuckman has been hired as chief growth officer at Melville-based Zuma Payroll and Processing. She was previously director of business development at Hauppauge-based Sandler Training.
BELOW THE FOLD
Going up: Stronger economies will recover from the pandemic faster.
The rich get richer: Expect the world’s largest economies to rebound in 2021.
The poor can, too: How free-market entrepreneurism can finally defeat poverty.
Spending plan: Why America must invest way more in innovation.
Budget friendly: Please continue supporting the amazing firms that support Innovate LI, including Bridgeworks, where flexible co-working arrangements balance work, life and corporate accounts. Check them out.
