Finding balance: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as we tip toward the latter half of another busy springtime workweek.It’s April 13 out there, and there’s invention to the left of us and innovation to the right, with all kinds of creativity swirling about. Steady on, innovator – we’ve got your back.
Cobble together: If you’re going to do it, do it right.
Less observant: The Long Island innovation economy is bristling with excitement, but we’ve honestly seen busier days, insofar as observations and faux holidays. Today is the fairly self-explanatory National Peach Cobbler Day and National Scrabble Day, which we spell out below, and that’s about it.
Well, not quite – it’s also National Make Lunch Count Day, a circa-2016 observance created by TGI Fridays to spice up boring midday meals. So, there’s that.
Bless this “Messiah”: This sets a more celebratory tone – Handel’s “Messiah,” a soaring masterwork now largely associated with Christmas, premiered in Dublin on April 13, 1742.
Hard stop: Bringing innovation to a screeching halt (in a good way) was inventor George Westinghouse, who patented the steam-powered brake – a major upgrade for mighty locomotives – on this date in 1869.
Impressive start: Now the Western Hemisphere’s largest art museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was formally established by the New York State Legislature 152 years ago today.
A Penney earned: The longstanding department store chain survived Chapter 11.
Penney wise: Also enjoying a strong start was department store magnate James C. Penney, who opened his first store in Wyoming on this date in 1902.
Significantly weakened in the e-commerce era, the formerly bankrupt JCPenney department store chain – now a subsidiary of mall managers Brookfield Property Partners and the Simon Property Group – is still clinging to life.
No problem: And while it sparked an unprecedented combination of technological innovation and scientific teamwork, leading to one of history’s greatest engineering achievements, things looked pretty bleak on April 13, 1970, when an oxygen tank exploded aboard NASA’s Apollo 13 space capsule.
Tragedy turned to triumph four days later, when the crew of the crippled spacecraft touched down safely in the Pacific Ocean.
Unmasked: English Catholic conspirator Guy Fawkes (1570-1606) – who tried (unsuccessfully) to blow up British Parliament, met a gruesome end, is annually burned in effigy by loyal Brits and lent his mug to the most famous counterculture mask of all time – would be 452 years old today.
Bilingual Beckett: Samuel lived in Paris most of his adult life.
Also born on April 13 were American wine aficionado Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), who also had other interests; American entrepreneur Frank Winfield Woolworth (1852-1919), who built one of America’s most successful retail chains; American architect Alfred Mosher Butts (1899-1993), whose most famous design wasn’t a building or a bridge, but the eternally popular board game Scrabble; Irish novelist, playwright, short-story writer, theater director and poet Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), a Noble Prize laureate who wrote in both French and English; and American physician and humanitarian Robert Hingson (1913-1996), who made several monumental healthcare innovations.
As Goodman as it gets: And take a bow, Amy Goodman! The Bay Shore-born broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter and author – a tenacious researcher who co-founded the independent, award-winning progressive-news masterpiece Democracy Now! – turns 65 today.
Wish the crusading journalist well at editor@innovateli.com, where we also like to dig for progressive stories (your news tips and calendar events are a huge help).
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, this 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
For rent: The push for new rental-housing opportunities continues across Long Island, with the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency issuing final approvals for an incentives package that will bring 200-plus restricted-income rental units to Hempstead Village.
The IDA on March 24 greenlighted tax breaks for Carman Place Apartments LLC, a joint venture of the Community Development Corp. of Long Island and multistate property manager Conifer LLC aiming to replace an existing 15,573-square-foot building at the Main Street/Bedell Street intersection with two residential buildings. The new buildings will contain 140 one-bedroom apartments, 57 two-bedroom apartments and 30 studio apartments (all “workforce housing” restricted to individuals and families earning up to $116,910 annually), as well as 22,600 square feet of commercial space.
The $121.5 million demolition/construction project is projected to generate 200 building-phase jobs and seven permanent positions, with work slated to begin this summer – a sure-bet investment for the IDA and “major step … toward the reinvigoration of Downtown Hempstead,” according to Town of Hempstead IDA Chief Executive Fred Parola. “At the same time, (it) brings much-needed affordable workforce housing to the area, allowing households of all ages to remain in the community.”
Eye of the storms: The 2020 North Atlantic hurricane season set several destructive records.
It’s raining, it’s pouring: Global warming is supercharging Atlantic Ocean hurricanes, with hourly rainfall totals as much as 10 percent higher than with tropical storms of the pre-industrial era.
So says a new study analyzing the 2020 North Atlantic hurricane season (among the most active on record, with 30 named storms producing unprecedented rains and storm surges). The research, published this week in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Communications, shows how greenhouse-gas emissions have raised Earth’s global surface temperature more than 1 degree Celsius since 1850, with oceanic surface temperatures across the North Atlantic basin spiking during the 2020 hurricane season – precisely what inbound tropical storms needed to rev their destructive engines.
The study – supported by Pennsylvania State University and California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – was led by Stony Brook University Associate Professor Kevin Reed, the associate dean of research in SBU’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. “Hurricanes are devastating events,” Reed said Tuesday. “Our findings indicate that environmental changes caused by humans are signaling more and quicker rainfall, which have direct consequences for coastal communities and sometimes outlying areas.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 3: Adrienne Esposito, campaigning citizen.
True story: Kevin Law, Donna Drake, Terri Alessi-Miceli, Mitch Pally, Adrienne Esposito, Timothy Sams, Susan Poser, Matt Cohen, Christine Riordan, David Hamilton, Renee Flagler, Michael Dowling and more than a dozen other giants of the Long Island innovation economy walk into a podcast … and it’s awesome.
Sponsored by Hauppauge-based marketing consultant Brandtelling and Stony Brook-based clean-energy pioneer ThermoLift, Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast boldly goes where no LI podcast has gone before – straight to the top. Turn it up.
TOP OF THE SITE
Brisk business: Stony Brook University’s new international business accelerator is already halfway to graduating its first two Iceland-based clean-energy innovators.
Real good: The vintage-clothing business may be simulated, but its business plan is authentic – and strong enough to earn top honors for these clever high school e-entrepreneurs.
It all adds up: The more (always easy, always free) subscriptions we get, the longer we can bring you this incredibly entertaining and enlightening newsletter. Tell your friends.
VOICES
Welcome to the deep and distinguished Voices library, an exclusive podium for the leaders of the Long Island innovation economy – the ultimate crash course in law, media, education, healthcare, workforce development, food-and-beverage commercialization and other key socioeconomic areas, packed with unique experiences and front-line perspectives. Class is in session.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Le réveillé: American-style “woke-ism” meets stiff French resistance. NPR opens some eyes.
Awakening: Fox News fans were paid to watch CNN for a month. The Guardian chronicles their transformations.
Rude awakening: Gasp … have we been using “gaslight” incorrectly? The Atlantic simplifies the semantics.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ CertiK, a New York City-based global Web3 and blockchain-security company, closed an $88 million Series B3 financing round led by Insight Partners, Tiger Global, Advent International and Goldman Sachs, among others.
+ Ansa Biotechnologies, a California-based developer of an enzymatic DNA-synthesis technology, raised $68 million in Series A financing led by Northpond Ventures, RA Capital, Blue Water Life Science Advisors, Altitude Life Science Ventures and others.
+ Covr Financial Technologies, a Connecticut-based digital life insurance platform, raised $15 million in series B funding led by Stone Point Ventures, IVG, Aflac Ventures, Allianz Life Ventures, Connecticut Innovations, Fairview Capital, Contour Venture Partners, Commerce Ventures and Tribeca Early Stage Partners.
+ Triana Biomedicines, a Massachusetts-based biotech, raised $110 million in Series A funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Pfizer Ventures, Surveyor Capital and Logos Capital.
+ August Schools, a NYC-based SaaS platform for school-based health and wellness practitioners, raised $5 million in seed funding led by Tiger Global, with participation from Bienville Capital.
+ Nudge Security, a Texas-based cybersecurity startup, raised $7 million in seed funding led by Ballistic Ventures.
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). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD
Snooze clues: A little deeper than counting sheep.
Going up: The U.S. inflation rate hit a 40-year high in March.
Ups and downs: Why gas prices always rise faster than they fall.
Going down: Simple tricks for falling asleep faster.
Levelheaded: Please continue supporting the amazing firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Presberg Law, which keeps a steady hand on the region’s spinning real estate wheel. Check them out.
