Gray matters: Welcome to Wednesday, intrepid innovators, as we slog through a soggy workweek covered in clouds and soaked in spring showers.
There are some breaks of sun here and there, and (for now, at least) a warm and bright weekend forecast for Long Island. So, let’s bet our bottom dollar and hurdle this overcast hump – there’s innovating to be done, rain or shine.
OK, boys … let’s get some pictures: Good press, bad press … as long as it’s honest press (and free).
“Honest” being the operative word: We begin this May 3 with the UN’s World Press Freedom Day, recognizing that no democracy can function without government transparency – and that truth in leadership relies on honest and free journalism.
Caught on camera: So, what should you do if you spot something paranormal? Make sure you record it, send it to the Travel Channel and definitely make a big deal about it on National Paranormal Day, an annual celebration of spirits, cryptids and everything supernatural.
And custard, pudding, pudding, custard … let’s not argue on National Chocolate Custard Day, putting the pudding (cocoa-style) into every May 3 (with whipped cream on top).
Dr. M: Also finishing on top (or starting, maybe) was pioneer doctor John Morgan, anointed by the College of Philadelphia as America’s first medical professor on this date in 1765 (preluding North America’s first medical school).
D.C. Inc.: Speaking of historical firsts (or seconds, maybe), Washington, D.C. – which was actually founded in 1790 – was incorporated as a city on May 3, 1802, creating a federal district under the control of Congress.
HQ: The NCAA letters in excellence.
NCAA all the way: Other alphabet soup you know includes the NCAA, aka the National Collegiate Athletics Association, which emerged from a reformed Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States 113 years ago today.
Call letters: Surely you’re familiar with NPR – National Public Radio, in full – which became a thing on this date in 1971 with the debut episode of “All Things Considered.”
Initial reports: And no, email “spam” – hatched on May 3, 1978, by a Digital Equipment Corp. marketing maverick who plastered every ARPANET address on the West Coast – is not an acronym for “stupid pointless annoying malware.”
Unsolicited commercial emails actually get their tasteless name from the infamous canned meat product (a portmanteau for “spiced ham”) via a classic Monty Python bit.
He felt good! American musician James Joseph Brown (1933-2006) – the “Godfather of Soul” and central progenitor of funk music – would be 90 years old today.
Twelve months of Christmas: The best-selling recording artist of all time did other things, you know.
Also born on May 3 were Renaissance Era Italian philosopher, diplomat, author and historian Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527), who kept busy; Italian mathematician Vito Volterra (1860-1940), who dabbled in electromagnetism and analysis and basically invented calculus; Israeli teacher and Prime Minister Golda Meir (1898-1978), the first woman to head any Middle Eastern government; American crooner and actor Harry Lillis “Bing” Crosby (1903-1977), the best-selling recording artist of all time; and Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani (1977-2017), the first Iranian (and first woman) to win a prestigious Fields Medal.
Oil’s well, ends well: And take a bow, Akio Toyoda! The grandson of Toyota Motor Corp. founder Kiichiro Toyoda – a Big Oil supporter who stepped down last month after 14 years as Toyota president and CEO, amid mounting pressure from electric-vehicle supporters – turns 67 today.
Give the loyal soldier of fossil fuel’s old guard your best at editor@innovateli.com, where we’re all in on EVs – and, of course, your news tips and calendar events, which always rev our engines.
About our sponsor: New York Institute of Technology’s 90-plus profession-ready degree programs incorporate applied research, real-world case studies and professors who bring decades of industry knowledge and research into the classroom, where students and faculty work side-by-side researching cybersecurity, drone design, microchips, robotics, artificial intelligence, app development and more. Visit us.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Nitro type: The Long Island Regional Planning Council is recruiting Island homeowners in the fight against nitrogen pollution.
Partnering with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Massachusetts-based, Northeast-monitoring water-quality watchdog NEIWPCC, the council has introduced the Long Island Garden Rewards Program, offering homeowners rebates up to $500 to offset installation costs for new “green infrastructure” on their properties: rain barrels, rain gardens and native plantings. Such installations can significantly reduce fertilizer usage, pesticide usage and stormwater runoff, the toxic triangle pumping poisonous nitrogen pollution into surface waters and underground aquifers.
Excess nitrogen kills fish, wrecks wetlands and triggers other ecological hazards – and enlisting homeowners in the resistance is critical to “the quality of our surface waters and of our drinking water beneath us,” according to LIRPC Chairman John Cameron. “While municipalities … are addressing stormwater runoff and nitrogen pollution, the Long Island Regional Planning Council saw the need to encourage homeowners to become a part of the solution in their own small but significant way.”
Delivering hope: The USPS will do the heavy lifting on May 4’s Stamp Out Hunger day.
Stamp of approval: Island Harvest Food Bank is the regional agency of choice for this year’s national Stamp Out Hunger food drive.
The May 13 collection, managed by the National Association of Letter Carriers and the United States Postal Service, collects nonperishable food donations – the usual assortment of cereals, pastas and canned goods, plus diapers, toothpaste and other personal-care items – left by donors near residential mailboxes. All Long Island donations will flow this year to Island Harvest, replenishing its network of food pantries, soup kitchens and emergency feeding programs.
The food drive – cancelled by COVID in 2020 and 2021 – has collected more than 1.75 billion pounds of food from donors in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands since launching in 1991. “Participating in Stamp Out Hunger is easy,” noted Island Harvest Food Bank President and CEO Randi Shubin Dresner. “I am confident that the past generosity displayed by our Long Island neighbors will help make this year’s Stamp Out Hunger food drive one of the most successful.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 18: Mitch Maiman, innovation transition.
Coming soon: A dozen engaging one-on-one interviews with the biggest names in regional innovation.
Available now: Three dozen engaging one-on-one interviews with the biggest names in regional innovation.
Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast is standing by to educate and entertain … what are you waiting for?
TOP OF THE SITE
Today’s specials: Las Vegas Sands has a century-long lease obligation, a lucrative gaming license up for grabs and a NIMBY fight on its hands – but it sure can set a table.
Top that, “Rudy”: If you thought a relatively small suburban community college couldn’t possibly send dozens of student-athletes to the NFL – well, you thought wrong.
Tell your friends (or just sign them up, they’ll appreciate it): The more subscribers we get, the easier it is to keep these stellar newsletters coming – fortunately, always-easy always-free subscriptions are always standing by.
VOICES
Long Island Bio Executive Director and Voices historian Tom Mariner time-trips in Shoreham, where Nikola Tesla’s boldest wireless-transmission experiments took shape more than a century ago – and energetic present-day leadership is recreating not only his physical spaces, but the master innovator’s greatest scientific ambitions.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Nuclear past: For just the second time ever, the U.S. Navy is (carefully) scrapping a nuclear aircraft carrier. Business Insider drops anchor.
Nuclear future: Cheaper, safer and not nearly as big – behold, the next generation of nuclear power. Vox goes subatomic.
Nuclear family: Conservative pundits rise in defense of the traditional family structure. The Foundation for Economic Education plays it straight.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Foresight Diagnostics, a Colorado-based med-tech focused on cancer detection, raised $58.75 million in Series B funding led by Foresite Capital, Civilization Ventures and The University of Colorado Healthcare Innovation Fund.
+ Imagia, a California-based innovator of lens technologies, raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Gates Frontier and MetaVC Partners.
+ DeepHow, a Michigan-based, AI-powered, video-centric knowledge-capture and learning platform, raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Owl Ventures and LG Technology Ventures.
+ Pinecone, a New York City-based vector-database tech firm focused on long-term memory for AI applications, raised $100 million in Series B funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from ICONIQ Growth.
+ CurbWaste, a NYC-based waste-management innovator, raised $4 million in seed funding round led by TTV Capital, Mucker Capital and B Capital.
+ Octet Scientific, an Ohio-based specialty chemical maker focused on sustainable batteries, raised $1 million in funding led by the Advanced Manufacturing Fund.
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 New York Tech). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD
Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow: ‘Tis the season to give the mower a rest.
Long story: It’s No Mow May, and your lawn will thank you later.
Short work: How to kill off household insects – from a safe distance.
Equal time: Why balancing global growth is way harder than it sounds.
Extra mile: Please continue sponsoring the incredible institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including New York Tech, which always goes the distance to prepare tomorrow’s high-tech workforce. Check them out.
