March on: Welcome, dear friends, to the March that wouldn’t die – the fifth Wednesday of the month and still a day to go!
The workweek, however, proceeds on schedule – we’re halfway through and ready for an innovation update. Lucky for you, we’ve got one right here.
Reality TV: No, no … it’s REAL Doctors Day.
Raise your stethoscopes: It’s March 30 out there, and while we should always honor physicians’ skills and dedication, we really check the chart on National Doctors Day, an annual salute to our healthcare heroes.
Wish you were there: This date also delivers celebrations old and new – March 30 is both National Turkey Neck Soup Day, an annual serving of the old-school consommé, and National Virtual Vacation Day, a decidedly modern augmented-reality observance.
Erased from history: Actually, quite the opposite – by adding an attached rubber eraser to a lead pencil and earning a patent on this date in 1858, Pennsylvania inventor Hyman Lipman wrote himself into the history books.
Everyone’s a critic: Lamented by media observers as “Seward’s folly” and worse, Secretary of State William Seward’s $7.2 million deal to purchase Alaska from Russia was completed 155 years ago today.
Today, the 586,412-square-mile state – even at a meager $100 per acre – boasts a real estate value greater than $37 billion, without even factoring the value of its rich oil reserves.
Cantilever well enough alone: The Queensboro Bridge – a rigid cantilever span known alternately as the 59th Street Bridge, the Ed Koch Bridge and Blackwell’s Island Bridge – opened to vehicular traffic crossing the East River between Manhattan and Long Island City on March 30, 1909. (Blackwell’s Island, you ask? Well, it’s also had many names – but none as famous as Roosevelt Island.)
See the world: The RMS Laconia served alternately as a luxury passenger liner, an armed merchant ship and a World War II troopship.
Around the world in 130 days: Also crossing waters was the Cunard Line’s RMS Laconia, which made port in New York City on this date in 1923 after 22 international stops, becoming the first passenger ship to circumnavigate the globe.
The four-month-plus voyage – which included passage through the Panama and Suez canals and long steams across the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea – made stops in Honolulu, Manila, Batavia, Singapore, Rangoon, Calcutta, Bombay, Egypt, Naples and many other exotic ports.
It happened to them: And it was March 30, 1984, when Dobbs Ferry Police Detective Robert Cunningham famously offered to split a lottery ticket with Phyllis Penzo, his favorite Yonkers pizzeria waitress – and wound up tipping her half of a $6 million winner (true story).
Gotta Gogh: Dutch post-Impressionist master Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) – who battled mental instability en route to producing thousands of influential artworks, mostly over the last few years of his troubled life – would be 169 years old today.
Can’t touch this: Hammer, nailing it.
Also born on March 30 were German chemist Robert Bunsen (1811-1899), more than just an old flame; British author Anna Sewell (1820-1878), who crafted the gorgeous prose of “Black Beauty”; American engineer and manufacturer Arthur Herrington (1891-1970), who designed many military vehicles, including the iconic World War II jeep; Soviet aircraft designer Sergey Ilyushin (1894-1977), who designed the Il-2 Stormovik, the most-used and most-successful Soviet plane of World War II; and American rapper, songwriter, dancer and record producer Stanley Burrell (born 1962), known best as 1980s powerhouse MC Hammer.
Très bien! And take a bow, Céline Marie Claudette Dion! The Canadian singer – the best-selling Canadian recording artist and best-selling French-language artist of all time – turns 54 today.
Wish the talented vocalist well at editor@innovateli.com, where A New Day Has Come thanks to your news tips and [Our] Heart Will Go On because of your calendar events – we know you send them Because You Loved [Us], and That’s The Way It is.
About our sponsor: St. Joseph’s College has been providing 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 and coeducational college provides a strong academic and value-oriented education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, preparing each student for a life characterized by integrity, intellectual and spiritual values, social responsibility and service. Through SJC Long Island, SJC Brooklyn and SJC Online, the college offers degrees in 50 majors, special course offerings and certificates, affiliated and pre-professional programs. Learn more here.
BUT FIRST, THIS
So long, and thanks for all the fish: Artist Rossella Faleni’s take on the extinct Rododelphis stamatiadisi.
Day of the dolphin: First “Sharknado,” now this – million-year-old killer dolphins with rows of razor-sharp teeth and a scientifically proven taste for flesh.
Fortunately, that’s fish flesh (as opposed to mammalian flesh, more on that in a moment), and that’s a major clue courtesy of Rododelphis stamatiadisi, an all-new species of ancient sea beast discovered in 2020 on the Greek Island of Rhodes. According to a newly published study co-authored by New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine Professor Jonathan Geisler, the extinct dolphin, which cruised Pleistocene epoch seas, had less in common with Flipper than the infamous killer whale of today’s oceanic environs – except it ate fish, according to its dental records, whereas the modern orca preys largely on other marine mammals.
Much more important than revealing Rododelphis’s preference for cold-blooded snacks, there were many key revelations in that 2020 fossil find, according to Geisler, who co-authored the study with University of Pisa (Italy) paleontologist Giovanni Bianucci. “Fossil evidence from the Pleistocene epoch is exceedingly rare,” Geisler noted. “We’re now beginning to fill this gap and better understand the repeated evolution of feeding adaptations in oceanic dolphins.”
Chamber cheer: Activists are applauding the New York State Assembly for taking a big step toward the creation of a statewide Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Study Task Force.
The task force would explore the needs and limits of a hypothetical blockchain regulatory environment, with a focus on maximizing job creation, encouraging economic growth and protecting New York investors from digital grifters. The bill – now in the hands of the State Senate, which has referred it to the Senate Banking Committee – also includes provisions for lowering the environmental impacts of blockchain mining.
Among the organizations cheering the bill’s progress is the newly minted, Virginia-based Chamber of Progress, a self-described “center-left tech industry policy coalition” focused on the advancement of progressive tools. “It’s great to see that the Empire State wants to become a crypto-friendly state,” Chamber of Progress CEO Adam Kovacevich said Monday. “Crypto has the potential to be the next big thing – and this task force can write the rules so that it thrives responsibly in New York.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 12: Terri Alessi-Miceli, leading industrial revolutions.
Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast is a hit – and no wonder, with an A-list of smart and funny guests sharing winning perspectives from across the innovation economy.
Sponsored by clean-energy pioneer ThermoLift, Season 2 sits down with corporate executives, educational administrators, ingenious inventors and master communicators – all to make you a better innovator, 30 minutes at a time. Select today’s lesson.
TOP OF THE SITE
News leak: A Stony Brook-based tech firm that’s already enjoyed industry-changing success is close to doing it again, this time with “smart” gas-leak detectors.
Poll positions: The newest Hofstra University Kalikow School Poll is full of bad news for President Biden and anyone who thinks the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack wasn’t “normal.”
Help wanted: Thank you for sharing this engaging newsletter with your fellow innovators. Now really help them out – individual subscriptions are always easy, always free.
VOICES
Northwell Health veteran Terry Lynam, healthcare anchor of our esteemed Voices rotation, shares the frustration of doctors and nurses on Long Island and around the globe who can only watch and wait as the humanitarian crisis spirals across Ukraine.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Waste not: As fuel prices spike, food waste has become a realistic renewable-energy alternative. The BBC digs in.
A simple plan: As innovation unnecessarily complicates, Elon Musk reveals his straightforward “innovation equation.” Inc. takes notes.
Follow the money: As cryptocurrency soars, business students are choosing Web3 over Wall Street. Morning Brew follows the trail.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Outgo, a Washington State-based provider of freight-carrier banking solutions, raised $3.4 million in funding led by Neo and PSL Ventures, with participation from Bezos Expeditions, Dan Lewis, Jason Droege and Jason Davis.
+ Native Pet, a Missouri-based pet-nutrition manufacturer, raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Cavu Venture Partners, with participation from the Mars Companion Fund and Selva Ventures.
+ Perch Energy, a Massachusetts-based clean-energy tech and services provider, raised $7.2 million in Series A funding led by Arborview Capital.
+ MixMode, a California-based real-time cyberattack-defense specialist, raised $45 million in Series B funding led by PSG, with participation from Entrada Ventures.
+ TemperPack, a Virginia-based manufacturer of sustainable thermal insulation for cold-chain packaging, raised $140 million in funding led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Grosvenor Food & AgTech, Harbert Growth Partners, Tao Capital Partners, Revolution Growth, SJF Ventures and Arborview Capital.
+ Skyline Robotics, the New York City-based manufacturer of window-cleaning robots, closed a $6.5 million pre-Series A funding round led by Skyline Standard Holdings, with participation from Karcher New Venture GmbH, Gefen Capital and others.
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
One-two: Smith led with his right, but his follow-up was better.
Slap: Will Smith’s Twitter apology was a modern-day communications masterstroke.
Punch: A short-story anthology that packs a global wallop.
Kick: A successful fantasy author has backed every publishing project on Kickstarter.
Peace: Please continue supporting the amazing institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including St. Joseph’s College, where integrity and social responsibility rank alongside top academics. Check them out.
