Slam it home: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, and not just any Wednesday but BrandSlam Eve – the day before our first-ever audience-interactive “marketing improv” event for small businesses in need of a brand boost, coming tomorrow evening to LaunchPad Huntington.
Brilliant innovators, expert marketing collateral, energetic networking, adult beverages and lots of laughs, brought to you by Innovate Long Island, Stony Brook University Economic Development, Huntington-based PR boutique Brandtelling and event sponsor ZE Creative Communications – with an “AfterSlam” afoot.
This is your absolute last chance for free seats … make it snappy!
Classy: Thank a teacher today.
Yom Tov: Today is Oct. 5, and if you understood that kicker you probably won’t read this until tonight at the earliest – it’s Yom Kippur, the holiest of Jewish holy days, which began at sundown Tuesday and lasts through this evening. G’mar tov!
Hot for teacher: With schools closed today, we also celebrate World Teachers’ Day, an annual United Nations bouquet to hardworking, big-hearted educators around the globe.
Rhode scholar: Here in the States, Oct. 5 is kind of a headscratcher – it’s National Rhode Island Day, although the date appears to have no particular significance in the Ocean State (which became the last colony to join the Union on May 4, 1776, for those keeping score).
Maybe we can figure it out over some warm brown betty – the dessert of choice on National Apple Betty Day, also sweetening the deal every Oct. 5.
Turbulent trip: Not sure about her favorite desserts, but Brooklyn-born aviatrix Laura Houghtaling Ingalls – a card-carrying Nazi, since you asked – took off from Roosevelt Field on this date in 1930, en route to becoming the first woman to fly solo across North America.
Rough landing: Exactly one year later – on Oct. 5, 1931 – pilots Clyde Pangborn and High Herndon Jr. proved that any landing you can walk away from is a good one, controlled-crashing in Washington State to (barely) complete the first nonstop transpacific flight.
The Truman show: The president (left) gets ready for his closeup.
My fellow Americans: Also in control was President Harry Truman, who delivered the first televised presidential address on this date in 1947.
For England (and Hollywood): Moviegoers got to know Bond, James Bond 60 years ago today, when “Dr. No” – the first big-screen 007 adventure based on Ian Fleming’s popular spy novels – premiered in London.
Something completely different: And it was just before 11 p.m. in London on Oct. 5, 1969, when “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” debuted on the BBC.
Featuring John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin and other names you know, the Flying Circus would define absurdist comedy – and force the word “Pythonesque” into standard dictionaries.
Keane understanding: American cartoonist William Aloysius “Bil” Keane (1922-2011) – whose most famous creation, the syndicated newspaper comic strip “The Family Circus,” has outlived its maker – would be 100 years old today.
Stick figure: Lemieux, on ice.
Also born on Oct. 5 were American soldier Robert Parrott (1804-1877), who invented new and deadlier artillery; French inventor Louis Lumière (1864-1948), who teamed with his brother to pioneer motion pictures; American engineer and physicist Robert Goddard (1882-1945), the father of modern rocketry; horrifying English novelist, playwright, film director and visual artist Clive Barker (born 1952), endorsed by Stephen King himself; and Dame Laura Jane Davies (born 1963), Britain’s most accomplished woman golfer.
Le Magnifique: And take a bow, Mario Lemieux! The Canadian hockey star, businessman and philanthropist – who defeated Hodgkin’s disease and just about everything the NHL threw at him – turns 57 today.
Give Super Mario your best at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips are a fantastic assist and your calendar events always score.
About our sponsor: ZE Creative Communications is a full-service, fully integrated marketing communications agency specializing in public relations, creative marketing, crisis communication and social media. Founded in Great Neck, ZE Creative Communications has been helping clients create compelling and successful messaging campaigns for more than three decades. Learn more here.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Putting on a clinic: A leading Long Island not-for-profit has earned a $4 million federal grant earmarked for improved treatment of mental-health and substance-use disorders.
The Garden City-based Family & Children’s Association, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit, will receive $1 million over each of the next four years from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The funds will help establish Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics – which provide integrated mental-health services and substance-use disorder treatments – inside FCA’s existing Hempstead and Hicksville facilities.
The certified clinics must meet strict federal standards, including 24/7 crisis services and no-questions-asked services for anyone who requests them, regardless of their ability to pay. “We can’t overstate that this federal grant award is a huge and consequential victory for FCA and for all of Long Island,” FCA President and CEO Jeffrey Reynolds said. “Establishing better links between mental-health and addiction-treatment services means that consumers … will no longer have to travel from site to site and from organization to organization, begging for help, all the while getting sicker.”
Total disaster: Zucker School of Medicine students put their EMT training to the test.
Worst day ever: The Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine had a tough day Sept. 23, handling a terrorist bombing, a train derailment, an active-shooter situation and a massive chemical spill, among other disasters.
Fortunately for staff and students, this was only a test: Alongside the Nassau County Fire Service Academy and the Nassau County EMS Academy, the Hofstra/Northwell medical mecca hosted a full day of Mass Casualty Incident training for first-year medical students. The edge-of-your-seat simulations – complete with realistic injuries, smoke, fire, screams and other chaotic distractions – concluded nine weeks of emergency medical technician training for the 99 members of the Class of 2026, dating back to the start of classes in August.
The Zucker School is among the nation’s first medical institutions to establish a certified-EMT curriculum for all students. “Our EMT curriculum is an innovative early-clinical immersion that builds skills, confidence and critical thinking,” noted Zucker School of Medicine Dean David Battinelli. “The program not only helps students contextualize the basic sciences within clinical practice but gives them a better understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of medicine.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 16: Brian Fried, thinking man’s inventor.
Featuring an intriguing cross-section of executives, academicians, influencers and entrepreneurs, Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast sets new standards for informative and entertaining discussion, one terrific half-hour at a time.
Produced by Huntington PR pioneer Brandtelling, Season 3 continues soon – catch up quick on everything you’ve missed (30 great conversations and counting!).
TOP OF THE SITE
Group therapy: Family, friends and colleagues remember the late Jack Kulka, who brought the American Dream to Long Island.
Cultural significance: The founder and CEO of one of Long Island’s top workplaces knows a happy office is a productive (and loyal) office.
Cultural reference: Keep your humans happy and productive with their own Innovate Long Island newsletter subscriptions – always easy, always free, always loyal.
VOICES
With U.S. governors throwing around migrant families like so many political pawns, Sahn Ward Braff Koblenz LLC managing member and Voices legal anchor Michael Sahn entertains objections over the legality of such moves – and detects a possible migrant crisis heading straight for Long Island.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Defying convention: Want to win a Nobel Prize? Better mix it up. The Conversation reveals formulas.
Never waste a crisis: How recessions have historically reshaped innovation. Forbes reviews patterns.
Across the pond: Surging European innovation is luring U.S. investors. Science|Business compares continents.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ OneD Battery Sciences, a California-based EV battery innovator, raised $25 million in Series C funding. Backers included GM Ventures and Volta Energy Technologies.
+ CXL Ophthalmics, a Massachusetts-based clinical-stage biotech focused on keratoconus treatments, raised $32 million in Series A funding led by AXA IM Alts.
+ PetPair, a Texas-based pet-adoption platform, raised $1.2 million in pre-seed funding led by Bling Capital, Expansion Ventures, Divide by Zero, Newlin Ventures, Great Oaks VC and Hornet Ventures.
+ Onyxia, a New York City-based AI-powered cybersecurity platform, raised $5 million in seed funding led by World Trade Ventures, with participation from Silvertech Ventures.
+ Wicked Kitchen, a Minnesota-based plant-based food manufacturer, raised $20 million in bridge funding led by Woody Harrelson, Ahimsa VC and NRPT.
+ Taqtile, a Washington State-based AR-enabled work-instruction platform for deskless workers, closed a $5 million equity funding round. Backers included Mesmerise, Downer Group, 5G Open Innovation Lab and Ascend.
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 (just ask ZE Creative). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Tech Tutor Edition)
Screening process: “Online” is coming for them.
Smarter phones: How your cellphone can sharpen your memory.
Smarter children: How to raise “digitally resilient” kids.
Smarter coin: How cryptocurrency will destroy us all.
Smartest choice: Please continue supporting the amazing agencies that support Innovate Long Island, including brand-new sponsor ZE Creative Communications, where big brains are always thinking about your best message. Check them out.
