The COVID-19 pandemic and its evolving aftermath are reshaping the world around us, and myriad Long Island forces – large and small, corporate and nonprofit, industrial and academic – have risen to the challenge. Innovate Long Island presents Innovation in the Age of Coronavirus as a real-time journal of this region’s resourceful response to the greatest global challenge since World War II. Stay healthy, dear readers. This year, the real trick is staying…
By GREGORY ZELLER // An all-season “net zero” nature and energy educational resource has risen on the climate battle’s front lines. Less than two years after it was first announced, the Jones Beach Energy & Nature Center has officially opened its doors, offering an informative and entertaining journey through New York’s natural systems – and a glimpse at the state’s ambitious plans to combat climate change. A few things have changed since the emission-free center…
Autumnal equalizer: Give yourself 10 seconds to forget POTUS, SCOTUS and every other fuss, dear reader, and consider this – you’ve completed the gauntlet of another busy workweek, and the first weekend of fall awaits. Aaahhh. Couldn’t do it without you: It’s Friday all right, Sept. 25 to be exact, and that’s one of Innovate LI’s favorites – National Research Administrator Day, when we honor the fiscal stewards, faculty assistants and other project managers…
By GREGORY ZELLER // The annual Dropping of the Junk has once again killed two birds with one stone, while saving a whole bunch of fish. In what has become a yearly splashdown event, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation on Wednesday continued what Albany plugs as “the largest artificial reef expansion in state history,” dumping rail cars, a tugboat, a steel turbine and other defunct machinery along a 744-acre stretch of the…
So hard to keep this smile from our face: Inventors to the left of us, investors to the right – happy to be stuck in the middle with you, dear readers, as we hurdle the hump of this latest busy workweek. And with that, ladies and gentlemen – please welcome Stealers Wheel! Island hopping: It’s Sept. 16 out there, which is of course Independence Day (in Papua New Guinea), Malaysian Armed Forces Day (in…
Roll with it: Here we go, dear readers – the third and final leg of already legendary 2020, complete with an ongoing pandemic, history’s most important presidential election (maybe) and, we hope, oodles of ingenious innovation. Let’s rock. By the numbers: It’s Wednesday, Sept. 9 – a.k.a. 9/9, which will have special significance to Sudoku players and, naturally, makes this International Sudoku Day. Hungry? You’re in luck – it’s also National Steak Au…
By GREGORY ZELLER // Note to the party crowds on SUNY’s 64 statewide campuses: Big Doctor is watching. With colleges and universities across the land reporting significant COVID-19 outbreaks – and a coronavirus cluster already closing one state university campus for the entire fall semester – Albany and SUNY are getting a little more proactive, with the launch of a system-wide COVID-19 tracking system. The new dashboard, officially introduced Sunday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and…
Wrapping it up: Here we are, dear readers – midpoint of this latest workweek and just about done with Summer 2020, at least unofficially. With that, a scheduling note: Innovate Long Island will be sticking our toes in the sand this Labor Day weekend, so no newsletters Friday (Sept. 4) or Monday (Sept. 7). Look for a special-edition Calendar Newsletter to ease you back into the flow Sept. 8, followed by your regularly scheduled…
Cooler heads prevail: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, midpoint of another warm workweek – good news from the weather desk, though, which promises this latest heatwave breaks today. Stay tuned. Twice as nice: It’s Aug. 26 out there, a big one for our many readers in Namibia, where’s it’s both Herero Day (a gathering of the Herero people to honor historical chieftains) and the unrelated Heroes’ Day (marking the 1966 start of the southwestern…
By GREGORY ZELLER // After a relatively brief search for a successor to former Chancellor Kristina Johnson, SUNY has found its new head honcho – inside SUNY. Jim Malatras is more a veteran of Albany’s corridors of power than the State University of New York system – his résumé includes director of state operations and deputy secretary for policy management under Gov. Andrew Cuomo – though he is the first SUNY graduate to take the…
Good Friday: You’ve done it again, dear readers … another long workweek bested, another summery weekend earned. Well done. Since we can’t do it properly – bellying up in your favorite dive and getting lost in some smokin’ house band – ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Cowboy Junkies! An even 50: Before we jump in, aloha to our many readers in Hawaii, where Statehood Day – marking the 1959 admission of the 50th…
By GREGORY ZELLER // Your gym is reopening. Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled the good news Monday, announcing a multifaceted plan that sees statewide gyms and fitness centers gearing back up Aug. 24 – with several caveats, first and foremost the ability of local health departments to delay reopenings at their discretion. Only facilities meeting “rigorous health and safety standards” can reopen, according to the governor’s office, and “local elected officials may choose to delay the…
Engines of innovation: Welcome to Friday, dear readers, as we race to the end of another sticky summer workweek and throttle down for another well-earned weekend. Low key: It’s Aug. 14 out there, and honestly, the pickings are very slim – the best we could do is the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of the Fatherland in Abkhazia, which is, like, not even a real country. It’s also National Financial Awareness Day, which…
Right where you left us: Here we are, dear readers – about a week past due, it’s long-awaited Newsletter No. 522, back on track after the surprising and frustrating disruption that was Tropical Storm Isaias. It’s Wednesday, Aug. 12, on Long Island and around the world, and the children shall lead: Today marks the U.N.’s annual International Youth Day. Jan Brady Syndrome: Some youth have it a little harder than others, and so we…
By PETER STEIN // The COVID-19 pandemic has decimated the restaurant industry. While many are still operating for pickup and delivery, they have shorter hours and far fewer employees. The effects of restaurant hardships go far below the surface, threatening small, independent farmers and suppliers who depend on restaurants for their livelihoods. That’s why my business took a hit. Fortunately, in large part because of free and low-cost digital business tools, many in the food…