Last month, we shared items we found on Gratitude and Kindness. Now, we touch on acts that naturally follow: Giving and Hope.
Continue readingOn Giving and Hope
2020 Smart Growth Summit Review
While the event was very long, and dug into many deep challenges, it was an overwhelmingly hopeful affair, grounded in real people doing real things, so much so that folks kept watching long after 5pm on Friday! In summary:
Continue readingFirefly Lights – December 2020
What’s going on at our own favorite small business, the community-oriented gallery created by local artists that Katie is proud to be a Managing Partner of….
Continue readingGive Smart. Give Local. LI Needs YOU!!!
We’ve shared the following before, and we’re going to keep doing it because it’s important.
Continue readingA Few Good Places to Give
Long Island needs more people to give to local organizations addressing our local challenges. Here are just a few to consider:
Continue readingJust As Important — Please Shop Local!
It’s ALWAYS of tremendous benefit to our communities to shop local and to support the places that not only give our villages such character, but also tend to support an awful lot of good stuff in the greater community! Now? In 2020? PLEASE, PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SMALL BUSINESSES!
Continue readingYOUR Picks: Favorite Local Shops
It’s that time of year again! Please shop local and keep the magic that is our beautiful downtowns alive!
Also, please help me update this list of favorite local shops! There are so many wonderful places run by great people out there. They only exist because people like you spend money there.
The list barely scratches the surface, please help add to it!
Continue readingVII – One Man’s Story
Asking for help is not a sign of failure or weakness; it is a sign of strength and the first step to success. This is something I know in my heart of hearts.
Continue readingA Tribute to John Kominicki
We were deeply saddened to hear of the passing of one of our local heroes: Journalist, publisher, wellspring of ideas and ever entertaining and insightful master of many ceremonies, among other things: John Kominicki.
As publisher of the Long Island Business News – the position that first brought him to grace our Island — John not only practiced excellent business journalism but served as a great force for the dissemination of broader ideas and the advancement of the common good. Highly intelligent, exceptionally well rounded, and deeply influential, he had a knack for recognizing and convening great people. His sense of humor made everything he did fun…and real.
Our personal experience of John relates to our involvement with Vision Long Island. As a founding board member in the early 2000s John offered full page ads in LIBN to help our motley little crew of community oriented folks advance Smart Growth; a complicated, interest-bridging idea that few understood, much less supported. That was huge, but really the least of what he did for us. When we think about all those who helped build the momentum that effected the amazing Smart Growth Summit we got to marvel at a few weeks ago, John figures prominently. Really, though, that was among the least of his contributions to this funny Island he chose to make his home.
In addition to his major contributions to journalism on Long Island, we believe John’s various efforts to advance the innovation economy and broader economic development were deeply significant. We were very excited to see how his qualities would manifest as the new head of the LI Press. Now, we are hopeful that he is on to some greater assignment.
Here are a few of the many tributes, each worth reading in their own right:
Remembering John Kominicki, by Jaci Clement in the Garden City Patch
John Kominicki, LI journalism icon, dies, by David Winzelberg in the Long Island Business News:
Remembering Publisher, Editor, Writer John Kominicki of Stony Brook, by Warren Strugatch in TBR Newsmedia
Icon, Journalist, Husband, Father, Friend, by Gregory Zeller in InnovateLI: Inside the New Economy
John Kominicki: Advancing Unconventional Wisdom on LI, by Nancy Douzinas Rauch in the Long Island Index
Remembering John Kominicki, written by LISTNET’s Peter Goldsmith for the Long Island Press
John, In his own words, and here accepting an award for being an Outstanding LI Journalist.
Said Vision Long Island in their Smart Talk Newsletter, “There are very few people as unique and dynamic as Mr. Kominicki. Certainly someone who made his mark in almost any area and group of people he put his focus into. We were honored to have worked with him and prayers go out to his family, colleagues and loved ones.”
Said Jed Morey of Morey Creative Studios, “John was a journalistic giant on Long Island without exaggeration. Yet LI was only one part of his long, glorious career and we were lucky to have him for as long as we did. He balanced journalistic integrity with keen business sense better than anyone in the game. Period. He was sharp. Clever. Funny as hell. Going toe-to-toe with him on a panel was an exercise in futility because he simply had more literary, cultural and political references immediately available in his back pocket. When he took the helm of the Long Island Press it was a triumphant moment of validation for our work all those years. A seal of approval from the best of us. There are so many people that will be hurting from this news. Prayers and love to his family. John, you could have taken your talent anywhere but you chose Long Island and for that we are forever grateful.”
In honor of John and his endeavors to help us recognize so many notable Long Islanders, we will be making space here to remember people whose lifetime contributions to the Long Island community continue to inspire us. As we formalize plans for precisely how to do this, we invite you to submit nominations of folks you find worthy of enduring remembrance..
Wherever you are now, John, please accept our great thanks. Our hearts are with all who love you.
Why Basic Research. Illustrated via “Dominoes — HARDCORE Mode”
Destin Sandlin, creator of the YouTube channel, “Smarter Every Day,” is a rocketry engineer at the Redstone Arsenal. Arguably, his breakout video demonstrated the remarkable ability of chickens to keep their heads stable independent of their bodies. You can google “Inverted Pendulum” for an idea of how important a problem this is for engineers. His channel was a golden opportunity to get his children involved performing experiments and learning science by experience, while also supplementing their college funds. He also leveraged his success to help build an orphanage in Peru. His videos range from slow-motion videography of Prince Rupert’s Drops and explosions, to the mechanics of insect flight, to entomology adventures in South America.
In particular, I’d like to mention the recent Episode #182: Dominoes — HARDCORE Mode. There’s amazing subtlety in something as simple and whimsical as a chain of falling dominoes and Destin captures it beautifully. Destin’s experience as an engineer sees a pattern, the signature of the corrections that rockets make mid-flight. Dominoes and rockets may seem unrelated, but no chain of dominoes is perfect and rockets have to fight through turbulence. We hope that our dominoes all fall in a row, and we seriously hope that our rockets don’t spiral out of control. Maybe dominoes can tell us something about stability, and studying dominoes might help us make better rockets.
This is where Destin makes an appeal for Basic Research. We don’t get some obvious economic benefit from understanding how dominoes fall, but we learn a lot in the process. There are many curiosities in the world and dozens of mysteries even in the most mundane aspects of daily life. For some, curiosity is enough. To others, these questions sound frivolous. However, we don’t always know what rewards we will reap when we empower thoughtful individuals to follow their noses and give them the freedom to explore.
In particular, I’d like to mention the recent Episode #182: Dominoes — HARDCORE Mode. There’s amazing subtlety in something as simple and whimsical as a chain of falling dominoes and Destin captures it beautifully. Destin’s experience as an engineer sees a pattern, the signature of the corrections that rockets make mid-flight. Dominoes and rockets may seem unrelated, but no chain of dominoes is perfect and rockets have to fight through turbulence. We hope that our dominoes all fall in a row, and we seriously hope that our rockets don’t spiral out of control. Maybe dominoes can tell us something about stability, and studying dominoes might help us make better rockets.
This is where Destin makes an appeal for Basic Research. We don’t get some obvious economic benefit from understanding how dominoes fall, but we learn a lot in the process. There are many curiosities in the world and dozens of mysteries even in the most mundane aspects of daily life. For some, curiosity is enough. To others, these questions sound frivolous. However, we don’t always know what rewards we will reap when we empower thoughtful individuals to follow their noses and give them the freedom to explore.
For some, curiosity is enough. To others, these questions sound frivolous. However, we don’t always know what rewards we will reap when we empower thoughtful individuals to follow their noses and give them the freedom to explore.
History has shown that the rewards can be numerous, and sometimes fundamental. The transistor, the cornerstone of modern technology, would make no sense were it not for our understanding of quantum mechanics. The foundation of quantum mechanics was laid by scientists who were puzzled by the colors that objects glow when they get really hot (from red to white to blue). The eureka moment that solved that riddle changed everything about how we see the world at the smallest scales, and produced one of the most important technological revolutions of all time.
This is the foundation of science; dues that must be paid if we intend to advance. While the development of the transistor paid great dividends, it wasn’t remotely obvious that the specific color a hot poker glows would ever be understood as anything more than a novelty. Another example, we don’t study fruit flies because we want to develop medicine for fruit flies. We study fruit flies because their genetics are simple and easy to probe. As we improve our understanding of genetics in the abstract, we improve our capacity to provide treatments for people.
It is concerning that the US government share of basic research funding has fallen below 50% for the first time in the post-World War II era. While some of this is due to an increase in corporate investment, particularly on the part of the pharmaceutical industry, a significant part of it is because we as a nation are increasingly declining to contribute budget dollars. While the increase in private investment since 2012 is helpful, the findings of private and corporate investment are not as openly shared as public endeavors, including even basic data as to whether the research being conducted is actually basic or applied.
Basic research is not really conducive to business, at least not at the early stages that can have the greatest impact. The outcomes are too uncertain, desirable tangents are too frequent, and the timelines are too long. The risky and meandering path of basic research is often not good for business. It’s not just unrealistic to expect captains of industry to conduct this kind of research; it’s not really a fair expectation because people depend on them to ensure the bottom line and provide safe investments.
It’s not just unrealistic to expect captains of industry to conduct this kind of research; it’s not really a fair expectation because people depend on them to ensure the bottom line and provide safe investments.
Occasionally, a singular individual arises like Elon Musk, who seems to regard profit as a means to innovation rather than the other way around. However, the ability, desire, and charisma required to make that work and bring people along is rare. People like him are important, but we cannot rely on them alone to address the issues that we face. Not only is his combination of qualities rare, we must also acknowledge that he’s still very limited in what he alone will champion. The kinds of things he is trying to develop are still technologies with immediate practical application and relatively short-term monetary benefit.
This is not the pursuit for those who want to take advantage of the opportunities in the marketplace. This is the pursuit that creates those opportunities. We have to decide, as a society, if we wish to pursue them and how much we will invest. Philanthropists are important, but the truly altruistic are rare and, quite frankly, can’t do everything we need alone. We still need public funding that supports the kinds of basic research that are only really feasible in universities and national labs.
This is not the pursuit for those who want to take advantage of the opportunities in the marketplace. This is the pursuit that creates those opportunities. We have to decide, as a society, if we wish to pursue them and how much we will invest. Philanthropists are important, but the truly altruistic are rare and, quite frankly, can’t do everything we need alone. We still need public funding that supports the kinds of basic research that are only really feasible in universities and national labs.
MIT released a report in 2015 highlighting 15 research opportunities that could boost the US Economy. It also noted that while other nations are boasting great discoveries, our commitment has fallen from 10% of the national budget in 1968 to less than 4% in 2015. A 2014 article illustrated some of the extraordinary yields our past commitment enabled, from GPS, to the discovery of cancer cells and other medical breakthroughs, to LiquiGlide, which was named by TIME magazine as among the best inventions of 2012. From the article:
For more than 60 years, MIT and other American research universities have led the world in discovery and innovation—with benefits to the entire country—due to federal funding. This vital support, however, is now on the decline. In 1960, for example, 55 percent of MIT’s campus revenue came from federal research dollars. By 2013, it fell to 22 percent. Chisholm says the decline is disrupting the research process.
‘Researchers are focusing on projects with a high probability of results, because these projects have a better chance of getting funded. What’s happening is faculty are doing safe things because they know they’ll work. They take fewer risks, but then the probability of discovering something really new and exciting goes down.”
The challenges we face are great, and we will not meet them by hoping that great men will resolve them on the way to seeking their own fortunes. There are some endeavors that require us to come together and make investments into the pursuit of knowledge for the common good. Basic scientific research is one of them. From dominoes to rockets, from a quirk of light to the computer, we don’t always know what we will find when we veer off the beaten path. It may seem like we’re merely taking the scenic route. However, we rarely find something truly new when we stick to the main road; the innovations that touch billions of lives lie in yet-undiscovered country.
The challenges we face are great, and we will not meet them by hoping that great men will resolve them on the way to seeking their own fortunes. There are some endeavors that require us to come together and make investments into the pursuit of knowledge for the common good. Basic scientific research is one of them.
Spencer Thomas is a PhD candidate in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He also happens to be Katie’s brother. He studies metals at the atomic level; the way atoms are arranged in a material can change its properties. There are ways to take an ordinary metal and make it 10-100x stronger, but they return to normal over time by a process called grain growth. In his recent publication in Nature Communications, he develops a rudimentary theory, backed by simulations, for understanding the fundamental mechanisms of grain growth and what they mean for attempts to stabilize these materials. While we and many involved in the study of very small things are excited about that, here we look forward to sharing with you other things that stimulate his very sharp mind.