This blows: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as the days grow longer, brighter and warmer – and seasonal allergy victims grow frantic, including an increasing number of adult-onset sufferers.
By the way, we know you’re stuffy, but you might not want to keep popping those daily allergy medications for too long – just saying.
You need to calm down: Take it slow on World Hypertension Day.
1, 2, 3, 4, pressure! For the allergic and non-allergic alike, today is May 17, and we are indeed hurdling the hump of another busy workweek.
Gently, though – it’s World Hypertension Day, an annual effort to lower blood pressure by, ironically, raising blood pressure awareness.
Healthy dessert: Today is also National Bike to School Day (if you’re not already there, and National Employee Health and Fitness Day (which might encourage you to bike to work, if you’re not already there).
And celebrate all that physical fitness with a true slice of Americana – it’s also National Cherry Cobbler Day, always baked fresh on May 17.
In exchange: Also cooking up something new were the 24 stockbrokers who inked the Buttonwood Agreement on this date in 1792, forming what would become the New York Stock Exchange.
Blue ribbon: Photography, in (almost) living color.
Color commentary: Adding a dash of color was Scottish physicist Sir James Maxwell, who shared history’s first color photograph – depicting a tartan ribbon – with the Royal Institution on May 17, 1861.
Sub text: Adding new depth was Irish American inventor John Philip Holland, who launched the first submarine with two separate motors – gasoline for surface travel, electric for underwater travel – 126 years ago today.
Growing con-CERN: Speaking of ingenious engines, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (stage name: CERN) officially broke ground on its inaugural site in Geneva on this date 1954.
What did Brown do for you? And it was that same day – May 17, 1954 – when the U.S. Supreme Court delivered its unanimous ruling in the groundbreaking case Brown v. Board of Education.
Marking a historical equal-rights victory, the ruling determined that state-sanctioned public-school segregation in Kansas violated the 14th Amendment – and was therefore unconstitutional.
Lockyer loaded: British astronomer Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer (1836-1920) – credited with discovering helium, pioneering the study of sunspots and founding the influential science journal Nature – would be 187 years old today.
Famously fast: Cool Papa was known more for his legs than his bat.
Also born on May 17 were English physician Edward Jenner (1749-1823), who discovered the smallpox vaccine; American automobile magnate Horace Elgin Dodge Sr. (1868-1920), who cofounded Dodge Brothers Co.; American baseball player James Thomas “Cool Papa” Bell (1903-1991) a Negro League star who may have been the fastest player of all time; American former professional boxer, motivational speaker and actor “Sugar” Ray Leonard (born 1956, still as sweet as ever; and Irish singer, songwriter and musician Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin (born 1961), known best as Enya.
Windows on the world: And take a bow, Alan Curtis Kay! The American computer scientist and A.M. Touring Award-winner – most famous for creating the “windowing” graphical user interface – turns 83 today.
Wish the personal-computer icon well at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips often open in another window – and your calendar events always get through the door.
About our sponsor: St. Joseph’s University has provided a diverse population of students in the New York metropolitan area with an affordable education rooted in the liberal arts tradition since 1916. Independent and coeducational, the university provides a strong academic and value-oriented education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, aiming to prepare each student for a life characterized by integrity, intellectual rigor, social responsibility, spiritual depth and service. Through its Long Island, Brooklyn and online campuses, the university offers degrees in 60 majors, special course offerings and certificates and affiliated and pre-professional programs. Learn more here.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Ideally: Dean Babak Beheshti sees plenty of commonalities between the College of Engineering and Computing Sciences and the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network.
KEEN eye: The New York Institute of Technology has joined an elite partnership of nationwide engineering educators.
The institute’s College of Engineering and Computing Sciences is the newest member of the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network, which unites engineering professors from 55 partner institutions to promote technical skills, an entrepreneurial mindset and commercialization opportunities among engineering students. As a partner, New York Tech will leverage KEEN curriculum resources into new programming at its Old Westbury and New York City campuses, while providing new connections and value for next-generation engineers.
Program Director Doug Melton of the KEEN-sponsoring Kern Family Foundation welcomed the new partner institution, noting the engineering college’s curriculum “promotes creative and critical thinking across all programs” and “[prepares] engineers to identify opportunities that create significant positive societal impact,” while College of Engineering and Computing Sciences Dean Babak Beheshti highlighted several similarities between the college and the network. “Developing an entrepreneurial mindset is in line with our mission of delivering to the workplace new generations of doers, makers, inventors and innovators,” Beheshti said Monday.
Seductive offer: From our Innovate Boston desk comes an inventive adult-entertainment website with a unique job offer for out-of-work writers.
Introducing CamSoda (that’s an NSFW link, obviously), a comprehensive virtual services provider (ahem) that’s reaching out to workaday wordsmiths trapped in payment limbo by the Hollywood writer’s strike. The XXX emporium – largely a digitized peepshow featuring “cam girls” and other performers – is offering up to $2,500 apiece for well-written erotic scenes to be produced by the absolutely-not-Hollywood-affiliated Boylston Street pornography company.
The striking Writers Guild of America – waging an existential war that touches on artificial intelligence in the workplace, unfair corporate compensation structures and other cornerstone societal issues – represents 11,500 screenwriters, at least some of whom will surely want to “put their creative juices to use and get paid handsomely doing so,” according to CamSoda Vice President Daryn Parker. “The writers currently on strike have tremendous spunk,” Parker noted. “We’d love for them to write scripts for erotic scenes featuring their favorite cam girls and pornstars.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 33: Eric Alexander, downtown shuffle.
Season 4 of “Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast” officially drops in June – you’re running out of time to catch up on all the awesomeness from Seasons 1-3, featuring the lions and lionesses leading the regional innovation pack. Hear them roar (and giggle).
TOP OF THE SITE
Only as old as you feel: By discovering and studying a distant supernova, Stony Brook University scientists are helping to solve the mystery of the universe’s actual age.
Biting remarks: State-of-the-art technology and significant human reinforcements will help keep swimmers off Long Island’s South Shore safer during shark-bite season.
Same difference: You know how you watch all those free YouTube videos and the producers ask you to click “like” and subscribe to their channel, because it helps them out? Same with us, only we produce awesome newsletters.
VOICES
From the most rural areas to the most crowded cities, loneliness is crippling individuals and overtaxing the entire healthcare system, according to Family and Children’s Services CEO and Voices Social Services/Nonprofits Anchor Jeffrey Reynolds, who cheers federal and local efforts to combat social isolation.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Foreign intrigue: Forbes’ deal to sell itself to an American electric-vehicle CEO might not be what it seems. Axios digs deeper.
Domestic strife: Artificial intelligence innovation is easily outpacing U.S. technology policy. TechCrunch sets guidelines.
Fits all: Tips for recent grads that can actually help all professionals. Vox offers some free advice.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Modern Hydrogen, a Washington State-based clean energy innovator, raised $32.8 million in Series B-2 funding led by NextEra Energy, Miura and National Grid Partners.
+ Amino Health, a California-based digital healthcare-guidance platform, raised $80 million in debt and equity financing led by Transformation Capital and Oxford Finance.
+ Werewool, a New York City-based sustainable textile-fibers distributor, raised $3.7 million in seed funding led by Material Impact and Sofinnova Partners.
+ Datanomix, a New Hampshire-based manufacturing-intelligence platform, raised $12 million in growth funding led by MK Capital, Joint Effects and Hub Angels.
+ Pudgy Penguins, a NYC-based Web3 IP company and NFT collection, closed its $9 million seed funding round led by 1kx, Big Brain Holdings, Kronos Research, the Founders of LayerZero Labs, Old Fashion Research and CRIT Ventures.
+ Mycocycle, an Illinois-based biotech processing industrial waste into reusable materials, raised $2.2 million in seed funding led by Anthropocene Ventures, TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, Alumni Ventures and Telescopic 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 St. Joe’s). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Real Estate Edition)
Thawed tundra: There’s more to Green Bay than Lambeau Field.
Location: Forget the “national housing market” – ZIP codes matter more than ever.
Location: Billy Joel’s $49 million Oyster Bay mansion is on the market.
Location: Why Green Bay, Wis., is the best place to live.
On location: Please continue supporting the amazing institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including St. Joseph’s University, home base of well-educated, character-driven graduates for more than a century. Check them out.
