Package deal: Welcome to Friday, intrepid innovators, as we seal the deal, tie the loose ends and otherwise put a bow on another busy workweek.
Just one more workday to cover. Don’t get boxed in – this innovation review will help you wrap things up nicely.
Weeding out narcotics: It looks like pot and smells like pot, but hemp is not pot.
Mighty, if not high: It’s April 21 out there, known best as International Hemp Day, a global celebration of the strong and versatile plant cultivated for numerous industrial and medicinal purposes (and often confused for the cannabis plants cultivated for marijuana and hashish).
That’s something you’ll want to get right on National Surprise Drug Test Day, an annual follow-up to yesterday’s worldwide 4/20 pot-a-thon.
Maybe if you hummus a few bars: Today is also National Chickpea Day, a love note to the protein-lacked legume, and the deliciously specific National Chocolate Covered Cashews Day.
Say what? And try not to be bumfuzzled by National Big Word Day, bane of the pauciloquent and favorite of flibbertigibbets, maundering with million-dollar words every April 21.
Early start: John Adams had a few things to say to the fledgling U.S. Senate, but we understand he kept it short when he was sworn in as the first U.S. Vice President on this date in 1789 (nine days before President Washington took his oath, for those keeping score).
Downward mobility: Also speeding things up was the famous firehouse pole, which replaced slow staircases and dangerous slide-chutes when it dropped into service in Chicago on April 21, 1878.
Pole vault: Cook (right) and North Pole rival/former friend Robert Peary still leapfrog through the history books.
Northern exposure: Speaking of pole-positioned milestones, American explorer Frederick Cook reached the North Pole 115 years ago today – although maybe he didn’t. (Debate still rages.)
Ups and downs: There’s no doubt that it was this date in 1962 when the Century 21 Exposition – known better as the Seattle World’s Fair – opened to the public, a defining moment for the Emerald City (though it started on kind of a down note).
Strange, new worlds: And it was April 21, 1992, when Polish astronomer Aleksander Wolszczan and Canadian astronomer Dale Frail shared evidence of two planets orbiting a pulsar in the constellation Virgo, located about 2,300 light-years away.
While everyone from Gene Roddenberry to Carl Sagan had long conjectured that alien stars hosted their own planetary systems (just like our Solar System), Wolszczan and Frail were the first to prove the existence of extrasolar planets.
Wheely big deal: English inventor James Starley (1830-1881) – who perfected the chain drive, invented the differential gear and otherwise fathered the bicycle industry – would be 193 years old today.
Existential crisis management: May ranks among history’s most influential psychologists.
Also born on this date were English novelist and poet Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855), whose “Jane Eyre” headlines an entire bookshelf of classics; German anatomist Walther Flemming (1843-1905), the founder of cytogenetics; American physicist Percy Bridgman (1882-1961), a pressure-packed Nobel Prize laureate; American psychologist Rollo May (1909-1994), trailblazer and best-known practitioner of existential psychology; and English monarch Elizabeth Alexandra Mary (1926-2022), known best as Queen Elizabeth II.
Through another dimension: And take a bow, Michael Hartley Freedman! The Fields Medal-winning American mathematician – whose science is so thick you can’t even get through his bio, let alone his four-dimensional proof of the Poincaré conjecture – turns 72 today.
Give the Microsoft Station Q cornerstone your best at editor@innovateli.com, where any closed n-manifold which is the homotopical equivalent of the n-sphere must actually be the n-sphere – and of course, news tips and calendar events are always appreciated.
About our sponsor: St. Joseph’s University 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, coeducational university provides a strong academic and value-oriented education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, preparing 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 60 majors, special course offerings and certificates and affiliated and pre-professional programs. Learn more here.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Like a good neighbor: Manna Supermarket and Zara Realty work well together.
Food for thought: From our Innovate Queens Bureau comes a blow against food insecurity, particularly among children.
The Zara Charitable Foundation – a 501(c)3 supporting community-centered healthcare, education and emergency-aid programs on behalf of Jamaica-based Zara Realty Holding Corp. – has landed a crisp food-insecurity counterpunch in the easternmost borough, where one in five children lacks reliable access to nutritious food. The foundation will cover 365 days’ worth of “fresh, culturally appealing food items” for “200 diverse families,” according to a statement, with circa-2007 Hillside Avenue staple Mannan Supermarket bagging the goods.
The gratis groceries – bread, beans, peanut butter, rice, canned veggies and more, all distributed through Jamaica-based food-equity nonprofit The Gaton Foundation – flew off Mannan’s shelves after the expiration of COVID-era boosts in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. “Many families are struggling to put food on the table,” noted Tony Subraj, vice president of Zara Realty, which also works extensively in Hempstead. “After both SNAP and [the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children] got reduced, we knew how important it was to … help hardworking families maintain access to fresh, nutritious food.”
Poker faces: Powerful players are taking sides in the quest to build a multibillion-dollar casino in Uniondale.
The latest jockeying comes from Hofstra University, which says the Nassau County Planning Commission held private 2022 discussions on Las Vegas Sands’ proposed $4 billion hotel-casino and failed to notify the public about a March 2, 2022, public hearing on the plan – after which public comments were closed, with the commission still negotiating lease terms on the 72-acre site surrounding the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Those are all violations of county and state open-meeting laws, according to the Article 78 proceeding (appealing the decision of a local agency) Hofstra filed Tuesday in State Supreme Court in Mineola.
In a statement, Nassau County Director of Communications Christopher Boyle called the lawsuit a “frivolous” shot at a project strongly endorsed by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman – though the open-meeting allegations are also the latest voice in a growing anti-casino chorus that already includes Garden City lawmakers, grassroots protestors and the Hofstra University Board of Trustees, which labeled a world-class resort casino “entirely inappropriate” for suburban Long Island. Stay tuned.
TOP OF THE SITE
Now, that’s a long wait for a tee time: But 20 months later, X-Golf Westbury has finally brought an entertaining new option to high-end Samanea New York.
Full force: The Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency got aggressive this week on workforce housing in Baldwin.
Prequel trilogy: Season 4 is in production … catch up quick on Seasons 1-3 of Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast, featuring educational and entertaining one-on-ones with Long Island’s leading innovators. The stories so far.
ICYMI
Addition by subtraction at SUNY Old Westbury; multiplying clean-water work across New York State.
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 Massachusetts: Burlington-based data-security revolutionizer Sotero safeguards unstructured data with behavior-based ransomware protection.
From California: Los Angeles-based EV product innovator ShockFlo changes the electric-vehicle game with breakthrough Portable EV Charger.
From Georgia: Atlanta-based plant-based pioneer Almond Cow cracks open single-serve packets for fast, zero-waste electric milk-maker.
ON THE MOVE
Erika Floreska
+ Erika Floreska has been promoted to president of the Garden City-based Long Island Children’s Museum. She previously served as director of development.
+ Peter Hoffman has joined Uniondale-based Harris Beach PLLC as partner in its healthcare industry practice. He previously was a partner/director at Great Neck-based Garfunkel Wild.
+ Lauren Grasso has been promoted to director of marketing at Uniondale-based Ruskin Moscou Faltischek. She previously served as a senior marketing specialist.
+ Edward Kotlyanskiy has been promoted to partner at Jericho-based DDK & Co. He previously served as a tax supervisor.
+ William Gartland has been named deputy chairman of the Mergers and Acquisitions Practice at Bond, Schoeneck and King’s Garden City office.
+ Sharon Remmer has been promoted to vice president and director of planning at Melville-based H2M architects + engineers. She previously served as assistant vice president.
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 St. Joe’s). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD
I spy: They know what you watch, what you eat, when you sleep and just about everything else.
On paper: Don’t count out paper shopping bags just yet.
On call: Beware the AI-powered voice-clone phone scam.
On, always: Your smart appliances are constantly watching, listening and reporting.
On top: Please continue supporting the amazing institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including St. Joseph’s University, which has been helping student finish out in front for more than a century. Check them out.
