Gear here: It’s Wednesday already, dear readers, as we motor through the midpoint of another busy workweek and speed into the home stretch.
We’re downshifting just long enough for your midweek innovation review – you keep the pedal to the metal, we’ll steer for a few.
Day at the museum: We rev up with the 46th annual International Museum Day, celebrating global repositories of historical and artistic keepers.
Full cup: Why May 18? Who cares?!? Gimme one!
Sink or swim: May 18 is also National No Dirty Dishes Day, which encourages takeout (good), paper plates (bad) and domestic division-of-labor disputes (ugly).
Two great tastes: And it’s I Love Reese’s Day, created in 2010 by a 40,000-signature Facebook petition to celebrate the classic candy.
For those keeping score, H.B. Reese Candy Co. founder Harry Burnett Reese was born on May 24, 1879, died on May 16, 1956, and founded the candy empire on May 14, 1920, so perhaps petitioners chose May 18 for balance – like getting chocolate in your peanut butter, or peanut butter on your chocolate.
Get Dow(n): Speaking of proper formulations, Michigan industrialist Henry Dow founded the Dow Chemical Co. – now among the world’s largest chemical manufacturers – on this date in 1897.
Reinventing the wheel: The rotary dial marked a huge personal-communications advancement.
Dialing it in: Also giving innovation a spin was French inventor Antoine Barnay, who patented the rotary-dial telephone on May 18, 1923, allowing callers to connect with other parties without an operator for the first time.
Hollywood classic: Decorated with genuine temple bells, imported pagodas and other authentic artifacts, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre – now branded as TCL Chinese Theatre, after the Chinese electronics manufacturer – opened on this date in Hollywood in 1927.
The theater – which has undergone many name changes – has hosted numerous world premieres and Academy Awards ceremonies, and still boasts nearly 200 celebrity handprints, footprints and autographs across its concrete courtyard.
Invisible jet: You’ve heard of Chuck Yeager – but who was the first woman to break the sound barrier? American aviator Jacqueline Cochran, of course, who blasted into the history books 69 years ago today.
For the record, Yeager was in the back seat of the Royal Canadian Air Force F-86 Sabre jet, riding second stick on Cochran’s barrier-breaking flight.
Brits in spaaaaace: And flying even higher was English chemist Helen Sharman, who soared into space on May 18, 1991, aboard a Soviet Soyuz rocket – becoming the first British astronaut and the first woman to board the Mir space station.
On the surface: British engineer and innovator Lionel Lukin (1742-1834) – who specialized in coach-building, but floats through history as the creator of the modern “unsinkable” lifeboat – would be 280 years old today.
Reg-gie! Reg-gie!: Jackson, epitome of Yankee melodrama and dominance.
Also born on May 18 were American mechanical engineer Robert Horton (1875-1945), the father of modern hydrology; Italian-American filmmaker Frank Capra (1897-1991), creative force behind the biggest blockbusters of the 1930s and 1940s; American singer and actor Pierino Ronald “Perry” Como (1912-2001), whose life wasn’t all Magic Moments; Long Island’s own Diane Duane (born 1952), a prolific sci-fi/fantasy author known well in Trekkie, wizarding and superhero circles; and American actress, comedian, writer and producer Elizabeth Stamatina “Tina” Fey (born 1970), the creative mind behind some of television’s most iconic recent series.
Bar none: And take a bow, Reginald Martinez Jackson! The former Major League Baseball megastar – a 1993 National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee and one of only two New York Yankees with a namesake candy bar – turns 76 today.
Wish Mr. October a happy May 18 at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips are homeruns and your calendar events always advance the runners.
About our sponsor: Whether it’s helping in site selection, cutting through red tape or finding innovative ways to meet specific needs, businesses that settle in the Town of Islip soon learn that we take a proactive approach to seeing them succeed. If your business wants to locate or expand in a stable community with great quality of life, then it’s time you took a closer look at Islip.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Upper middle: The Midway Crossing proposal has earned some top-level regional endorsements.
Meeting them Midway: The Long Island Regional Planning Council has thrown its weight behind a proposed development that could raise a convention center, hotel, sports arena and new Long Island MacArthur Airport terminal on Town of Islip-owned land.
The LIRPC voted May 12 to name Midway Crossing – a $2.8 billion megaproject proposed by the Town of Islip, Suffolk County and Chicago-based commercial real estate ace Jones Lang LaSalle – a “project of regional significance.” The designation “underscores the economic viability, environmental sustainability and transformational nature of Midway Crossing,” according to the LIRPC, which trumpeted the intermodal, transportation-oriented hub as a major advance for regional tourism and the Long Island economy.
The proposal still requires approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration and other agencies, but the unanimous LIRPC confirmation follows endorsements by the HIA-LI, the Long Island Association and other regional business-boosters. “Midway Crossing is a forward-thinking, public/private endeavor which will be transformative … in establishing the very center of Long Island as a preferred destination for business and relaxation,” noted Town of Smithtown Supervisor and LIRPC board member Edward Wehrheim. “Most significantly, the project will create thousands of jobs.”
Healthy choice: Health clubs operated by Suffolk County Community College will now offer free access to disabled veterans of the U.S. armed forces.
The SCCC Board of Trustees voted May 12 to waive membership fees for disabled veterans, residing in Suffolk County, who wish to use the college-run health clubs on SCCC’s Eastern Campus in Riverhead or Michael J. Grant Campus in Brentwood. The board previously voted to lower membership costs for military veterans, active-duty reservists and past and current National Guard members.
Disabled Suffolk County veterans can obtain the membership-fee waiver by displaying a Suffolk County Veteran Discount card (confirming a “service-connected” disability), a NYS Lifetime Liberty Pass or a Suffolk County Parks Disabled Veteran Green Key Card. “Suffolk County Community College will always honor the sacrifice of our veterans,” SCCC Board Chairman E. Christopher Murray said in a statement. “Providing free access to our college’s health-club facilities to Suffolk County disabled veterans is a small but important recognition of [their] service to our country.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 23: Donna Drake, crossover co-host.
Only Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast brings you frontline perspectives from university presidents, corporate champions, marketing masters, professional athletes, paranormal pioneers and other ingenious innovators with Island-centric stories – in fact, two full seasons’ worth.
TOP OF THE SITE
War room: With its new state-of-the-art headquarters and colorful rebranding, Island Harvest Food Bank is rising to meet unprecedented Long Island food insecurity.
Dry bar: Severe global droughts will cause mass human migrations over the next century, according to a new scientific study led by Stony Brook University.
Do everyone a favor: The more always-easy, always-free subscriptions this engaging newsletter gets, the easier it is to keep sharing them. Tell your friends.
VOICES
Family and Children’s Association Chief Executive Jeffrey Reynolds has a big problem with Big Data – at least when it comes to “innovative” statistical algorithms designed to prioritize investigations into potential child-abuse cases, which can do more harm than good, according to the Voices nonprofits anchor.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Silicon Valley-ish: The NSF promises $160 million to each of five regions creating new research-commercialization zones. The American Association for the Advancement of Science thinks big.
Anti-social … or pro-health? A one-week social media break can noticeably improve your health. SciTech Daily feels better.
Lots of Trotz plots: Even with his successor named, questions linger about why the Islanders fired their successful head coach. The Athletic seeks answers.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ GravyStack, an Arizona-based app-maker focused on gamified family finances, raised $5.2 million in seed funding led by Altrus Capital, Chad Willardson, Mark Timm, Gino Wickman, Jim Kwik, Kate Wells, Loral Langemeier and David Meltzer.
+ Mathison, a New York City-based, diversity-focused hiring and retention platform, closed its $25 million Series A funding led by F-Prime Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, SemperVirens, ANIMO Ventures, GTM Fund, Gaingels and JP Morgan.
+ Princeton NuEnergy, a New Jersey-based clean-tech startup, raised $7 million in seed funding led by Wistron Corp., Shell Ventures, Greenland Technologies, CleanTech Open, AIBasis Fund, WorldQuant Ventures and angel investors.
+ Tignis, a Washington State-based innovator in AI process control for semiconductor manufacturing, raised $7.2 million in Series A funding led by DN Capital, with participation from Clear Ventures, Paul Maritz and Harel Kodesh.
+ Noble Gas Systems, a Michigan-based provider of hydrogen gas storage tanks, raised $3.5 million in Series A funding led by AP Ventures.
+ Invetx, a Massachusetts-based biotech focused on protein-based therapeutics for animal health, raised $60.5 million in Series B financing led by F-Prime Capital, Novo Holdings, GV and Eight Roads.
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 the Islip IDA). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (What You Eat Edition)
Dinner 2120: The future of food is not what your think. (Illustration: Haruko Hayakawa, Bon Appétit)
Au naturel: Is eating organic really any better?
Time to eat (or is it?): When you eat, or don’t, can make all the difference.
Hold the Soylent Green: How food will evolve over the next 100 years.
Gourmet quality: Please continue supporting the amazing professionals who support Innovate Long Island, including the Town of Islip Office of Economic Development, which is always cooking up new ways to nourish small-business owners. Check them out.
