This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.

As y'all know, today is Memorial Day. Time to enjoy a long, relaxing weekend marking the beginning of summer. But let's make sure to take some time and remember the men and women who've died in military service, keeping us safe.

Did you know that brewing beer was one of humankind's first-ever biotech experiments, harnessing the power of living organisms?! Yup, it's the World Science Festival this week. There are panels on quantum mechanics, nanomedicine, mapping the brain and even one on the joy of six-legged sex (an evening of insect courtship & cocktails!). Don't miss the keynote by Nobel Laureate James Watson (who co-discovered the DNA double helix with Francis Crick), the Rap Guide to Evolution on Saturday and the Science Street Fair on Sunday!

And don't miss this weekend's Angelhack (aka The Largest Global Hackathon Competition with $100,000 in prizes and a chance to pitch the Valley's top investors). There will also be pre-hackathon workshop & drinks at Animoto on Thursday. Also this week are Digital DUMBO's dd:IMPACT Groundswell Conference (panelists from VICE, the Onion, Reddit, Buzzfeed and Digg) on Thursday and TechDrinkup (open bar summer kickoff rooftop party!) also on Thursday.

I've also got five FREE tickets to Startup Grind this Wednesday (featuring Jon Steinberg, ex-Googler and currently President/COO of BuzzFeed). Coming up on June 6 is the Personal Democracy Forum (with Nate Silver, Seth Godin, Joi Ito, Doug Rushkoff & others). Use GARY2013 code to get 20% off! And on July 20 is MoonWalk NYC when thousands of women (and men) in decorated Maidenform bras will walk all night long through the streets of the city to raise money and awareness for breast cancer initiatives. Register here.

$1.25 million has a nice ring to it, no? :) That's the prize money at stake in Downtown Alliance's Take The H.E.L.M. competition to attract innovative companies to relocate to / expand in Lower Manhattan. Winners get $250,000 and runner-ups $50,000. Nice! Deadline is July 15. Here's something else awesome. The good folks at eBay are looking to support the next wave of NYC startups by offering FREE office space! Now that's a hard offer to refuse. Apply by June 3. Also don't forget that the deadline for the NYC BigApps competition is June 7.

And if you like hacking, you're in luck. This week, in addition to Angelhack, we also have Science Hack Day, NYC Public Hackathon, EDesign Hackathon, Hack the Rock and the BigApps City Camp (part of America’s National Day of Civic Hacking). Time to get your hack on!

Sir Ken Robinson (who gave a famous TED talk on how schools kill creativity), will be speaking tomorrow at the Blue School (started by the original members of the Blue Man Group).

Don't forget, tomorrow and Wednesday evening at 8:15pm, we'll be experiencing Manhattanhenge! Best cross streets for viewing are 14th, 34th, 42nd and 57th.

And now lets see whats going down in the Alley this week...

From Product to Monetization: A Panel Discussion
With John Ernsberger (cofounder, STELLAService), Bill Lee (CRO, Quirky), David Blanke (COO, Sailthru), Jake Dunlap (founder, Skaled), Danielle Weinblatt, (founder & CEO, Take The Interview) and Joe Essenfeld (founder & CEO, JIBE). Moderated by John Biggs (TechCrunch).
Tuesday (May 28), 6:30 p.m. @ The Loft in Prince, 177 Prince Street

Bitcoin Startups Meetup #2
With Charlie Shrem (CEO, BitInstant), Aric Fedida (CEO, OpenWallet) and Margaux Avedisian (cofounder, AlphaPoint).
Tuesday (May 28), 7 p.m. @ The Hatchery, 1601 Broadway, 12th Fl.

Commerce & Conversion Roundtable
With Sonia Sahney Nagar (cofounder & CEO, Pickie), Nick Taranto (cofounder, Plated), Chris Steib (VP, Delivery.com), George Eberstadt (founder & CEO, TurnTo), Michael Lackman (COO, Petflow), Matt Wilkerson (cofounder, AhaLife) and others.
Wednesday (May 29), 8:30 a.m. @ ZAG/S&W, 1633 Broadway

NYC Data Business Meetup #16
With Cathy O'Neil (Senior Data Scientist, Johnson Research Labs), Claudia Perlich (Chief Scientist, M6D), Drew Conway (Scientist-in-Residence, IA Ventures), Chris Wiggins (Professor, Columbia University and Co-founder, HackNY) and Max Shron (former data scientist, OkCupid).
Wednesday (May 29), 6 p.m. @ Bloomberg LP, 731 Lexington Avenue, 28th Fl.

Startup Grind NYC
Fireside chat with Jon Steinberg. Jon is an ex-Googler and currently President/COO of BuzzFeed! We're giving away five free passes to the event.
Wednesday (May 29), 6 p.m. @ Thoughtworks, 99 Madison Avenue

Gap App Challenge Demo Night
See the nine winning solutions, talk with the developers, and socialize with our community of educators, makers, and innovators.
Wednesday (May 29), 7 p.m. @ General Assembly East, 902 Broadway, 4th Fl.

dd:IMPACT Conference Groundswell: The Next Wave of Content (presented by Digital DUMBO)
Join Digital DUMBO & panelists from VICE, The Onion, Reddit, Buzzfeed, Pulse, Digg and more for a half-day conference exploring the new era of campaigns, content, storytelling, media formats, and more!
Thursday (May 30), 1 p.m. @ Galapagos Art Space, 16 Main Street, Brooklyn

Venture for America 2013 Summer Celebration
With Barry Dillar (Chairman, IAC), Arthur Sulzberger (Chairman, New York Times), Bob Safian (Editor-in-Chief, Fast Company), Jack Stahl (President, Coca Cola), Bill Ford (CEO, General Atlantic), Mike Perlis (CEO, Forbes) and others.
Thursday (May 30), 7 p.m. @ IAC HQ, 555 W. 18th Street, Main Lobby

#techdrinkup - Open Bar Summer Kickoff Rooftop Party
A party for the world's brightest and savviest people in tech to get together at exclusive venues and mingle over drinks and food.
Thursday (May 30), 7 p.m. @ XVI Lounge, 251 W. 48th Street

NYCpublic.org Design Hackathon
Join forces with other talented folks to create apps and tools designed to help the city’s public school parents.
Friday (May 31), 10 a.m. @ Brooklyn Public Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Shelby White & Leon Levy Info Commons, Brooklyn

AngelHack NYC - Spring 2013
Win $100,000 in prizes, hack your way into the accelerator program, get flown out to Silicon Valley, pitch the Valley's top investors, and ALL that for just winning the hackathon! Boo-Ya!
Saturday (June 1), 9 a.m. @ Huge Inc, 45 Main Street, #220, Brooklyn

EDesign Lab Hackathon
Education-focused hackathon! Design+Build your own learning apps and games addressing high-impact needs and themes for public schools. And contribute to open source prototypes of K-12 learning applications.
Saturday (June 1), 9:30 a.m. @ Center for Social Innovation, 601 W. 26th Street, Ste 325

NYC BigApps CityCamp
Part of America’s National Day of Civic Hacking. Explore NYC’s civic technology community.
Saturday (June 1), 10 a.m. @ New York Law School, 185 W. Broadway

Blogologues: The Internet Performed (Greatest Hits)
Nothing but the best sketches from 2 years worth of shows, or in layman's terms, 12 shows! This is the perfect time to get your comedy feet wet and slippery.
Saturday (June 1), 9:30 p.m. @ The People's Improv Theater, 123 E. 24th Street

More events on the horizon...
UES Tech Breakfast on June 5 @ Eli's Manhattan
World Maker Faire New York Town Hall on June 5 @ SVA - Products of Design Department
10th Annual Personal Democracy Forum on June 6 @ NYU Skirball Center
Queens Borough President Candidates Tech Forum on June 6 @ Museum of the Moving Image
Dutch Demo Night! Meet 6 of the Netherlands Best Startups! on June 6 @ Wework
Bizzabo Networking NYC Event on June 7 @ WeWork Labs
Gotham Ruby Conference (GoRuCo) on June 8 @ Altman Building
Startup Brunch on June 9 @ East Village (TBA)
NY 13 Institute for Social Innovation Launch Party on June 9 @ 121 Fulton Street
F.A.T. Session 2: Sales/Use Taxation for 21st Century Commerce on June 11 @ Marks Paneth & Shron
NYTECH Presents: The Truth About VC Investing in New York and How To Get Funded on June 11 @ PwC
June 2013 NY Tech Meetup on June 11 @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts
Inbox Awesome on June 13 @ The DUMBO Loft
Future Energy Investor Feedback Forum on June 13 @ Microsoft
Hack to the Future on June 15 @ Bitly HQ
NYTECH Presents: The Big Data Explosion: Using Cloud Computing to Clean Up the Mess on June 26 @ 10gen
Moonwalk NYC 2013 on July 20 @ Venue

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)

Mr. Yang (Photo: Venture for America)

It's a sad fact about modern American society that a vast amount of our brightest minds are plucked straight from college graduation every year and thrown into finance--which, you might be surprised to hear, is not the most noble of industries. Enter Venture for America, which wants to yank all those promising, freshly-graduated young people from the clutches of investment firms and land them at startups.

New York-based Venture for America was started by UPenn grad Andrew Yang, who dreamed up the concept while employed at test prep company Manhattan GMAT. According to Bloomberg, it functions a lot like the popular post-grad program Teach for America, placing budding entrepreneurs in companies with less than 10 people. The companies are located all over the country, and Mr. Yang hopes that padding their ranks with Ivy Leaguers will help kickstart local economies.

It sounds like an innovative engine for job creation. But considering startup failure rates, let’s just hope Venture for America doesn't add to ranks of the unemployed.