Making your mark: Here we are again, dear readers – another busy workweek in hand, another relaxing weekend on tap. Don’t know how you do it, but always impressed when you do.
Monkey business: It’s Friday on Earth – April 9 to be precise – and that’s Name Yourself Day, one of our faves, when you can adopt that awesome handle you always wanted.
Just be careful, Koko – it might stick.
Good point: It’s their day, real or not.
All over the place: Turns out April 9 offers something for just about everyone – it’s also National Chinese Almond Cookie Day, National Unicorn Day, National Gin and Tonic Day and National Cherish an Antique Day.
It’s even National Chicken Little Day, when sky-is-falling exaggerations are routinely reexamined. Keep it real.
Read all about it: The world’s first free public library supported by taxation opened on April 9, 1833, in New Hampshire.
The Peterborough Public Library is still turning pages 188 years later.
High and dry: New York City inventor Samuel Percy patented his Improvement in Drying and Concentrating Liquid Substances by Atomizing – remembered as the invention of dry milk – on this date in 1872.
Also patented on this date, in 1895, was a newfangled street sweeper, created by fellow New Yorker John Doherty.
Opening days: It’s a big date for baseball, at least baseball stadiums – Fenway Park (1912), Ebbets Field (1913) and the Houston Astrodome (1965) all hosted their first games on April 9.
True story: The hometown Astros beat the New York Yankees 2-1 in that 1965 exhibition game, but Mickey Mantle clubbed Major League Baseball’s first indoor homerun.
Seven ups: The intrepid Mercury Seven, suited up.
Just saying, they never actually went to Mercury: But the Mercury Seven – America’s first astronauts, all military test pilots – made their public debut on this date in 1959.
Maybe something pithy, like “Mito”: And too bad it wasn’t Name Yourself Day on April 9, 1981, when the science journal Nature first published the systemic name for human mitochondrial DNA – a genomic mouthful stretching 207,000 letters.
Father of the “frozen tundra”: Earl Louis “Curly” Lambeau (1898-1965) – an American professional football player and coach who co-founded the Green Bay Packers (at age 21) and later lent his name to the team’s famous field – would be 123 years old today.
Hefner: Image maker.
Also born on April 9 were British civil and mechanical engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859), who epitomized the Industrial Revolution in England; American endocrinologist Gregory Pincus (1903-1967), who co-invented birth control pills; American magazine magnate Hugh Hefner (1926-2017), who turned erotica into a billion-dollar international enterprise, but kinda screwed himself; New Zealand-born Australian physician Frederick Cossom Hollows (1919-1995), who famously restored sight to thousands of vision-impaired Australian Aborigines; and influential American author, journalist, comedian and freethought publisher Paul Krassner (1932-2019), a Mad magazine alum who invented “yippies” and founded The Realist.
Complex crusader: And take a bow, Cynthia Nixon! The Emmy Award-winning American actress and progressive activist – known best for her LGBT and human rights advocacy – turns 55 today.
Give the one-time gubernatorial candidate and all the other April 9 innovators your best at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips and calendar events always get our vote.
About our sponsor: Presberg Law P.C. is Long Island’s premier “IDA” and business law firm for businesses locating, relocating and expanding on Long Island. Founded in 1984, this multi-generational practice focuses on the purchase, sale, leasing and financing of commercial and industrial real estate, SBA and other loan transactions, construction projects and business sales and acquisitions.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Waste not: New York State is throwing millions of dollars into a new “carbon-to-value” initiative designed to protect the environment and spur the innovation economy.
The $10 million Carbontech Development Initiative will “establish New York State as a world-class hub of carbon-to-value research, technology transfer and commercialization,” according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority is now accepting proposals from institutions and organizations capable of designing and managing the multifaceted initiative, which will engage industry, help secure funding for early-stage enterprise and otherwise build carbon-to-value momentum.
The big picture: capture waste and atmospheric carbon before it pollutes water, soil and air, and turn it into useful products – facilitating an economy-wide “deep decarbonization,” according to the governor’s office. “Capturing carbon and using it requires innovation,” Cuomo noted. “The Carbontech Development Initiative will help us to establish this innovative practice right here in New York, while simultaneously fueling economic growth and community engagement.”
Port bow: SUNY-Old Westbury Professors (from left) Laura Chipley, Samara Smith and Ashok Basawapatna are exploring New York Harbor like never before.
Under the sea: A $30,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant will help three SUNY Old Westbury professors dive deep into New York Harbor, on an augmented-reality exploration of the critical port’s past, present and future.
Welcome to Virtual Aquapolis, an “interactive virtual reality documentary” about the New York Harbor ecosystem and its complex relationship with the massive city above. Funded by the NEH’s Digital Projects for the Public program, principal investigators Ashok Basawapatna, Laura Chipley and Samara Smith – a computational-thinking researcher, electronic-media artist and documentary media producer, respectively – will examine centuries of trends based on ethics, labor, industry and sustainability, all shaping the harbor’s present and future, and all seen from beneath its surface.
Basawapatna (an assistant professor in the college’s Mathematics, Computer and Information Sciences Department), Chipley and Smith (both associate professors in the American Studies/Media & Communications Department) landed one of 17 nationwide grants issued in this Digital Projects for the Public funding round. The Virtual Aquapolis is part of the Billion Oyster Project, a citizen-science effort aiming to restore New York Harbor’s health through public initiatives.
TOP OF THE SITE
Mutant hunters: One of Long Island’s busiest biotechs will help mighty Northwell Health detect and track dangerous COVID-19 variations.
Sharing is nice: And we love it when you do – but really, your entire innovation team should have free Innovate LI newsletter subscriptions. They’re just so easy.
Innovation in the Age of Coronavirus: A well-armed SUNY goes on the offensive – dispatches from the front lines fill Long Island’s one-and-only pandemic primer.
ICYMI
Adelphi travels the world with its new degree program; lasers flash across Long Island in a historical patent war.
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 Hampshire: Hanover-based Ivy League research university Dartmouth College activates virtual AI assistant for remote students and teachers.
From Illinois: Chicago-based online food-ordering service platform BellyMelly debuts in sports stadiums, theaters and other event venues.
From Colorado: Denver-based market analyzer PriceCharting.com tracks an across-the-board, pandemic-flavored spike in retro videogame prices.
ON THE MOVE
Ellen Savino
+ Ellen Savino has joined Uniondale-based Sahn Ward as a partner focusing on real estate law and transactions. She was previously a partner at Islandia-based Lewis Johs Avallone Aviles.
+ Mohammad Azad has been hired as a senior engineer at Woodbury-based D&B Engineers and Architects. He was previously a senior electrical engineer at Manhattan-based WSP Inc.
+ Gordon Tepper has joined the Plainview-based ACDS Board of Directors. He is the director of communications for the Town of North Hempstead.
+ Benjamin Laine has been hired as clerical support for the Accounting and HR departments at Woodbury-based D&B Engineers and Architects. He was previously a schedule manager at Maspeth-based National Data Surveying Services.
+ Danielle Visvader has been promoted to partner, focusing on guardianship law, at Lake Success-based Abrams Fensterman.
+ Former Town of Hempstead Councilwoman Erin King Sweeney has joined the Corporate and Securities Department of Uniondale-based Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, and will serve as of counsel to the firm.
+ Neetu Singh has joined Farmingdale-based Integrated Medical Professionals as controller. She previously served as controller for New Hyde Park-based Dental365.
+ Matthew McBride has joined H2M architects + engineers as a staff engineer. He is a recent graduate of the State University at Buffalo.
BELOW THE FOLD
What is … rerouting the warp plasma flow through the toranium subspace nullifier? Corrrect!
Paying the bills: How New York will spend its new $212 billion budget.
Playing to type: To find the right job, you must know yourself first.
Beaming him up: Why LeVar Burton is the best choice for “Jeopardy!” host.
Making it happen: Please continue supporting the amazing firms that support Innovate LI, including Presberg Law, a true Long Island stalwart with nearly four decades of business-law experience. Check them out.
