Never doubted you for a moment: Another workweek in the books, another weekend on the horizon – once again, you’ve beaten the odds and shocked the world, dear readers (though we’re not the least bit surprised).
It is indeed Friday out there, May 21 to be precise, and we’re here to wrap up this latest socioeconomic sprint in style. Thanks for the opportunity.
Fit to a tea: Earl Gray, hot.
Tea-ing it up: To start, we check in with the United Nations, where there’s always something brewing – today, for instance, is International Tea Day, a big one in poorer nations where tea exports are a critical revenue source.
Tea’s not your bag? Try National Strawberries and Cream Day, always May 21, or National Pizza Party Day, always the third Friday in May.
Talk backwards, you can: Today is also National Talk Like Yoda Day, recalling the May 21, 1980, U.S. premiere of “The Empire Strikes Back,” featuring the galaxy’s wisest Muppet.
Something’s fishy: London Zoo’s famous “Fish House,” remembered as the world’s first public aquarium, opened on May 21, 1853, in Regents Park.
Cross road: Still there when needed most, 140 years later.
Red-letter day: Humanitarians Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons founded the American National Red Cross on this date in 1881.
Today, the 90-percent-volunteer Red Cross responds to an average of one humanitarian crisis or local accident – from hurricanes to individual house fires – every eight minutes.
To the limit: On May 21, 1901, Connecticut became the first U.S. state to pass a motor-vehicle speed limit into law, restricting speeds to 12 MPH on city streets and 15 MPH on country roads.
Horrifying: Counted as the very first horror movie, the silent film “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” premiered in Chicago on this date in 1908.
Anything you can do…: Aviator Charles Lindbergh, aboard the famous Spirit of St. Louis, landed in Paris on May 21, 1927, completing the first-ever solo transatlantic flight.
And exactly five years later – on May 21, 1932 – aviator Amelia Earhart completed a solo flight from Newfoundland to Ireland, becoming the second pilot to cross the Atlantic alone and the first woman to do it.
Need for speed: Speaking of impressive aeronautics, American aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss (1878-1930) – a bicycle racer-turned-motorcycle enthusiast-turned-aircraft manufacturer remembered as the Father of Naval Aviation and the founder of the American aircraft industry – would be 143 years old today.
Prison guard: Elizabeth Fry fought to reform brutal 19th century prisons.
Also born on May 21 were English social reformer Elizabeth Gurney Fry (1780-1845), a contemporary of Queen Victoria and Florence Nightingale who championed prison reform; untrained English geologist Mary Anning (1799-1847), who doggedly hunted fossils and facilitated modern paleontology; Nobel Prize-winning Dutch physiologist Willem Einthoven (1860-1927), who invented the electrocardiogram; American inventor and industrialist William Coleman (1870-1957), remembered best for the Coleman lantern and other camping equipment; and American physician, researcher and educator Robert Good (1922-2003), who performed the first successful bone marrow transplant.
With a capital T: And take a bow, Lawrence Turead! The American actor, wrestler, bouncer, bodyguard and TV personality – who gained fame as Clubber Lang in “Rocky III,” parlayed it as B.A. Baracus on “The A-Team,” was last seen as a 2017 contestant on “Dancing With the Stars” and is known best as Mr. T – turns 69 today.
Wish the mohawked macho man and all the other May 21 innovators well at editor@innovateli.com, where we love it when a plan comes together and we pity the fool who doesn’t send us news tips and calendar events.
About our sponsor: Northwell Health is New York’s largest healthcare provider and private employer, with 23 hospitals, 750-plus outpatient facilities and more than 70,000 employees. We’re making research breakthroughs at the Feinstein Institutes and training the next generation of medical professionals at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra/Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. Visit Northwell.edu.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Icono-ic: The ARTIS icono, now in operation at the Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital.
Precision decision: North Shore University Hospital’s Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital has become the first medical facility in the Northeast to install Siemens Healthineers’ cutting-edge catheterization laboratory – or not cutting, as the case may be.
The $3 million catheterization lab, the first of five slated to be installed inside the specialized Manhasset hospital, is equipped with Siemens’ proprietary ARTIS icono technology, designed to reduce patient radiation exposure through high-definition imaging, which provides more precise placements of cardiac stents. The stents, routinely inserted in minimally invasive arthroscopic procedures that enter the body through the wrist or groin, hold open clogged arteries and restore compromised blood flow to the heart.
Other procedures expected to be performed in the new catheterization lab include operations to fix ailing heart valves and new treatments involving leg-based blood vessels. “The latest Siemens technology is integral to providing the highest level of care to patients,” said Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital cardiology chief Rajiv Jauhar. “Coronary arteries are about 3 millimeters in diameter, and enhanced visualization improves the view of vessels and blockages, which helps with the placement of stents.”
Innovation in motion: A Long Island biotech has announced a new collaboration that will provide mobile COVID-19 testing throughout the nation.
Along with partner Test Today USA, a medically staffed startup focused on rapid saliva-based coronavirus testing, Acupath Laboratories – a molecular pathology expert that pivoted into coronavirus detection last year – will provide COVID-19 testing throughout the Northeast and elsewhere, including “specimen collection sites” and mobile tests (by appointment) for individual patients and large groups. The collaboration aims to “further facilitate the reopening of local economies by easing testing access,” according to a statement from the Plainview-based biotech.
The deal marks another significant COVID-testing collaboration for Acupath, which earlier this month trumpeted a partnership with Florida-based Benasource, a group-purchasing platform that’s deploying the biotech’s COVID assays throughout its national system of independent pharmacies. Even as vaccinations proliferate, fast-and-accurate testing is “critical to helping slow the spread of the virus,” according to Jeff Boschwitz, Acupath’s general manager for COVID-19 testing. “Test Today USA is truly the model partner to help Acupath bring COVID-19 testing to where it is needed the most.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Mishra accomplished: The new co-director of Northwell Health’s Institute for Bioelectronic Medicine is a renowned cancer and translational-medicine expert.
Going to the Matt: The influential Long Island Association has selected a new president/CEO from within its own ranks.
Bright “Spark”: Ann-Marie Scheidt, who directs economic development for Stony Brook University and influences it just about everywhere else, joins our engaging podcast series.
ICYMI
COVID masks on their way out; Envisagenics’ SpliceCore on its way up.
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 Virginia: Arlington-based restaurant commerce platform GoTab rings up cloud-based point-of-sale system that maximizes efficiency based on customer demand.
From California: Irvine-based hologram/communications trailblazer DVEholographics introduces “hologram meeting experience” without studios or projectors.
From Massachusetts: Boston-based better-health-through-light innovator Brilli debuts residential lighting fixtures packing UV-free antimicrobial LEDs.
ON THE MOVE
Michaela Rome
+ Michaela Rome has joined the Old Westbury-based New York Institute of Technology as associate provost. She was previously associate provost for institutional effectiveness and accreditation at The New School in New York City.
+ Michelle Greenberg has been promoted to partner at Uniondale-based Sahn Ward. She’s served as counsel at the firm since 2019.
+ Alex Lafaras has joined New Hyde Park-based Transervice Logistics as chief financial officer. He previously held the same position at New Jersey-based GGI.
+ Garrett Gobillot has been promoted to senior engineer at Bohemia-based P.W. Grosser Consulting. He previously served as a project engineer.
+ Nick Virgintino has joined Farmingdale-based Emerald Document Imaging as operations manager. He was previously a purchasing manager for Commack-based CARR Business Systems.
BELOW THE FOLD (Good For A Laugh Edition)
You crack me up: Don’t worry, he’s laughing WITH you.
Laugh-in: World Laughter Day was May 2, but the impressive health benefits of a hearty hoot never end.
The best medicine: Laughter was just part of the prize when a young woman befriended a lonely old man during the lockdown.
And the world laughs with you: Science identifies 65 species (including humans) that enjoy a good guffaw.
No joke: Innovation is serious business at cutting-edge Northwell Health, one of the amazing institutions that support Innovate Long Island. Check them out.
