But who’s counting: Well done, intrepid innovators! You’ve bested another Summertime workweek and earned yourself another two-day respite.
Even better, there’s a three-day respite on the near horizon! In fact…
Labor (and delivery): This just in from Innovation Central Command – Innovate Long Island will take a few days around the end of August to wind down from the busy Summer and gear up for the even busier Fall.
So please enjoy your regularly scheduled newsletters next Monday (Aug. 25) and Wednesday (Aug. 27), then have a great Labor Day weekend while we rejigger a few things. Back at you with fresh awesomesauce on Tuesday, Sept. 2. More reminders to follow.
Cash crop: It doesn’t have to be National Tooth Fairy Day to monetize ejected baby teeth, but it doesn’t hurt.
Different strokes for different folks: Today is Friday, Aug. 22, on Long Island and around the globe (most of it – international timelines may vary), so we’re kicking off our week-ender with World Folklore Day, celebrating cultures, traditions and the importance of wisdom-rich stories passed orally from generation to generation.
Speaking of folklore, here in the States, we also flash our pearly whites for National Tooth Fairy Day, one of two such dates honoring the mythological pixie with a hankering for baby teeth and loads of disposable cash. (The other falls on Feb. 28, for those keeping score.)
Different tastes for different … er, folks: If you’re hungry, you’ll probably find something to your liking on today’s menu: National Bao Day (spotlighting the savory and sweet steamed buns, originally from China), National Eat a Peach Day (more of a call to action than National Peach Day, which is next week) and National Pecan Torte Day (which is fairly specific, but always delicious) are all served on Aug. 22.
In black and white: Hungry for success (and equality) was Ann Franklin, who took control of the Newport Mercury on this date in 1762, becoming America’s first woman editor and publisher. (Franklin, who was Benjamin Franklin’s sister-in-law, later became the first woman inducted into the University of Rhode Island’s Journalism Hall of Fame.)
Diplomatic immunity: Also making headlines was the Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field, which was adopted on Aug. 22, 1864, as the first-ever Geneva Convention (three more would follow) and established the neutrality of military medical personnel, who were bound to treat wounded soldiers regardless of nationality.
Clean living: New York City-based inventor William Sheppard also didn’t care where you were from, as long as you tried his ammonia-rich, molasses-thick liquid soap (patented on this date in 1865).
Make … and model?: It’s not a $325,000, all-electric, ultra-luxurious Cadillac Celestiq, but it is a Cadillac … and that is Henry Leland, who invented it.
The Cadillac of automakers: Also cleaning up was American machinist, inventor, engineer and automotive entrepreneur Henry Leland, who founded the Cadillac Automobile Co. 123 years ago today. (Some 15 years later, after selling Cadillac to General Motors, Leland also launched rival luxury brand Lincoln Motor Co.)
Perfect Storm: And it was Aug. 22, 2007, when the Storm botnet – one of the most infamous and sophisticated botnets of all time, likely created by highly organized cybercriminals somewhere in Eastern Europe, probably Russia – sent out a single-day-record 57 million SPAM emails.
The botnet’s then-groundbreaking peer-to-peer architecture accounted for 35 percent of all SPAM circulated globally on that date
Moonlight becomes you so: French composer Achille-Claude Debussy (1862-1918) – a leading figure in French musical impressionism, credited with influencing the course of 20th Century music (and with writing this familiar favorite) – would be 163 years old today.
What will she say next?: Dorothy Parker’s sharp wit was matched only by her pointed pen.
Also born on Aug. 22 were English railway engineer, cabinet-maker and architect Thomas Tredgold (1788-1829), a self-taught savant whose circa-1820 book “Elementary Principles of Carpentry” was the first serious manual on the subject; American poet, fiction writer, playwright and literary critic Dorothy Parker (1893-1967), a founding member of the Algonquin Roundtable known best for her merciless wit; American author Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), a bona fide fantasy man; American surgeon Denton Cooley (1920-2016), a cardiac-surgery pioneer who performed the first human heart transplant and implanted the first artificial heart; and American ecologist Thomas Lovejoy III (1941-2021), the conservation biologist remembered as the “Godfather of Biodiversity.”
Forget about the worries on your mind: And take a bow, James Curtis DeBarge! The American R&B and Soul singer – among the family members harmonizing their way to the top as eponymous mid-1980s vocal group DeBarge (here you go, tap your toes) – turns 62 today.
Wish DeBarge well at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips shake the blues right away – and without your calendar events, all of the madness has got us going crazy.
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, the multigenerational 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
Probably right: A Stony Brook University physicist will head up a top-tier team of global researchers in a new quantum-theory thinktank.
Nikita Nekrasov, a professor in SBU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been selected as principal investigator of the new Simons Collaboration on Probabilistic Paths to Quantum Field Theory, a Simons Foundation-funded collaboration focusing experts in probability, analysis and mathematical physics on problems related to quantum field theory, the framework uniting classical field theory, quantum mechanics and special relativity. The science is thick – Euclidean space, stochastic analysis, fractal structures and multiplicative chaos abound – but in simplest terms, the team aims to invigorate the interface between QFT and mathematics.
Quantum theory has come a long way since Albert Einstein dismissed it (famously noting God “doesn’t play dice”), says Nekrasov, who will partner with collaboration Director Scott Sheffield – a Massachusetts Institute of Technology mathematics professor – to set the thinktank’s course and tenor. “Despite [Einstein’s] doubts, quantum field theory … has become the most precise description of nature we possess,” Nekrasov added. “This joint effort continues the Stony Brook tradition of deep interaction between physicists and mathematicians.”
Manuel labor (of love): Accomplished trumpet player Thomas Manuel leads The Jazz Loft Jazz Orchestra.
All that jazz: A multimedia musical concert/gallery presentation will close out an innovative instructional series by fusing visual art and Jazz.
The Spring/Summer season of The Jazz Loft @ Southampton Concert Series – a production of Stony Brook Southampton’s Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center and The Jazz Loft, a Stony Brook-based 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to genre preservation and education – is scheduled to wrap up Aug. 28 at Southampton’s Avram Theater with a gallery presentation spotlighting legendary Greenport painter Vincent Quatroche and an electrifying performance by The Jazz Loft Jazz Orchestra, an 18-piece ensemble under the direction of jazz historian and SBU Endowed Artist in Residence Thomas Manuel. Quatroche, a contemporary of Pollock-Krasner House namesakes Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, opened Greenport’s first art gallery in the 1960s.
The artistic amalgamation is the perfect sendoff for the seasonal series, according to Stony Brook Southampton Executive Director and Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Wendy Pearson. “The Jazz Loft partnership has brought extraordinary artistry to our campus … as part of our broader revitalization efforts to make Southampton a true community hub,” Pearson noted. “Welcoming these world-class musicians signals the kind of vibrant, cultural energy we want to share with the East End.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Symbol-ic: Voices historian Tom Mariner travels through time with Long Island-based Symbol Technologies, from ambitious 1970s startup to high-profile SEC target to the backbone of Zebra Technologies’ worldwide mobile-computing supremacy.
Busy season: Summer is almost over and the innovation economy is about to kick into high gear. Track all the exciting developments on Long Island and beyond with Innovate Long Island’s intel-packed, thrice-weekly newsletters – and make sure your entire innovation team does the same. Subscriptions are always easy, always free.
ICYMI
The Debrief catches up with Pal-O-Mine Equestrian Founder and CEO Lisa Gatti, a socially conscious educator and entrepreneur whose horse-sense nonprofit now ranks among the nation’s most-trusted therapeutic organizations.
Something to say? Welcome to The Entrepreneur’s Edge, Innovate Long Island’s new promoted-content news feature platform – a direct link from you to our innovation-focused audience. Progressive product to promote? Singular service to sell? Sociopolitical position to push? Shine a bright light on the big picture, the little details and everything in between with The Entrepreneur’s Edge. Living on the edge.
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 Wisconsin: Sussex-based marketing-experience boutique Quad announces strategic partnership with a Scandinavian home-furnishings manufacturer.
From California: Los Angeles-based women’s undergarments startup CAKES Body bakes its first brick-and-mortar collaboration with a major national retail chain.
From Georgia: Atlanta-based national foodservice platform GoTo Foods teams with Doordash and drone-delivery dynamo Wing to airlift goodies all over Texas.
ON THE MOVE
Kai Tsao
+ Kai Tsao has been named system chief of solid tumor oncology at the Northwell Cancer Institute. Tsao, who was also named medical director of the R.J. Zuckerberg Cancer Center and director of the Northwell Cancer Institute’s Medical Oncology Prostate Cancer Program, was medical director of the Ruttenberg Treatment Center at Mount Sinai Hospital’s Tisch Cancer Institute.
+ Daria Hagemeyer has been hired as director of special education in the Babylon Union Free School District. She was assistant director of special education in the Riverhead Central School District.
+ Linda Tierney has been appointed vice president of the Association of Legal Administrators-Long Island Chapter. She is director of office management at Uniondale-based Forchelli Deegan Terrana.
+ Pamela Abshire has been named chairwoman of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department in Stony Brook University’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, effective Sept. 1. She was affiliated with the University of Maryland Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
+ Michael Levitz has been promoted to managing attorney at Garden City-based Ajlouny Injury Law. He was an associate attorney.
+ Garden City-based ZE Creative Communications has announced two promotions:
- Azaria Vargas has been promoted to senior account executive. She was an account executive.
- Lola Rivera has been promoted to senior account executive. She was an account executive.
+ George Germano has been hired as a market specialist-energy at Melville-based H2M architects + engineers. He was vice president of asset optimization at Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses in Valhalla.
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 Presberg Law). Gregory Zeller can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (World Folklore Day Edition)
Roaches DO check out: Disgusting? Certainly. Hard to kill? Quite. But radiation-proof? Not so much.
New roach approach: The old cliché about cockroaches surviving a nuclear war may be bupkis.
Persistence personified: What an old folktale says about political comedians.
Oh, the horror: The rise of “folk horror” – and how you, too, can write it.
Nice folks: Please continue supporting the fantastic firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Presberg Law P.C., the family-run, all-business bedrock of corporate and real estate law. Check them out.
