Half full: A happy and hopeful Wednesday to you, optimistic innovators, as we reach the midpoint of another progressive workweek.
That’s right – you’re already halfway to your next well-earned summertime weekend. On another positive note, here’s a forward-thinking newsletter to keep those good vibes flowing.
Thank ye for your service: It’s a largely thankless job — just ask “potato”-challenged former VP Dan Quayle.
Controversial decisions: Not to harsh the mood or anything, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t begin by referencing the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, the UN’s annual spotlight on the trampling of basic human rights by non-indigenous overlords around the globe.
Here in the States, where we clearly don’t have such problems, we can distract ourselves with National Veep Day, an annual rehashing of the crystal-clear U.S. Presidential Succession Plan (where we also suffer no issues whatsoever), and National Rice Pudding Day, which spoons out its own controversies every Aug. 9 (for the record, we’re big fans).
Playing the angles: Also tilting one way or the other is the infamous Italian belltower known best as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, where construction began 873 years ago today. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, the actual architect of the world’s best-known slanted spire remains a mystery.)
Church on time: Other Italian landmarks (fine, Vatican City landmarks, close enough) associated with this date include the Sistine Chapel, which hosted its first Catholic mass on Aug. 9, 1483.
Fuel duel: Also racing to the top was German inventor Rudolf Diesel, who earned a U.S. patent on this date in 1898 for his diesel internal combustion engine – the first rival of the still-nascent gasoline engine.
Night lights: Cincinatti’s Crosley Field, back in the day.
Under the lights: It was Major League Baseball burning the midnight oil on Aug. 9, 1946, when it scheduled night games for the entire league – 16 teams in all – for the first time ever.
Crime and punishment: And not entirely unrelated to National Veep Day, Richard Nixon officially resigned as President of the United States in an Aug. 9, 1974, letter addressed to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
The resignation elevated Gerald Ford to the presidency – making Ford the only man to serve as both U.S. president and vice president without being elected to either office.
Native intelligence: Cherokee American engineer and educator Mary Gold Ross (1908-2008) – the first known Native American female engineer, the Lockheed Corp.’s first woman engineer and one of the founding engineers of Lockheed’s famous Skunk Works project – would be 115 years old today.
Farewell and adieu: Ian Shaw (center) channels the old man in “The Shark is Broken.”
Also born on Aug. 9 were Scottish civil engineer Thomas Telford (1757-1834), who significantly advanced roads, bridges and canals; American dentist and physician William T.G. Morton (1819-1868), the first to use ether as a surgical anesthetic; Dame Elizabeth Kathleen Lane (1905-1988), the first woman appointed a judge of England’s High Court; Hollywood icon Robert Shaw (1927-1978), whose been reanimated by his talented, lookalike son; and American singer and actress Whitney Houston (1963-2012), the uber-talented embodiment of the Hollywood tragedy.
Scuuulllyyy! And take a bow, Gillian Leigh Anderson! The American British Actress – known best for chasing aliens in the dark with David Duchovny – turns 55 today.
Wish the “X-Files” alumna well at editor@innovateli.com, where the truth is in your news tips – and we want to believe in your calendar events.
About our sponsor: Whether it’s helping with 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
Pump action: The hepatic artery infusion pump significantly improves the odds for certain liver-cancer patients, according to Northwell Health Surgical Oncologist Sepideh Golami.
Liver of dreams: A cutting-edge chemotherapy implant is providing new hope for liver-cancer patients.
The hepatic artery infusion pump, a hockey puck-sized abdominal implant that treats colorectal cancer that’s already spread to the liver, has debuted at the Northwell Health Cancer Institute. After a complex surgical implant procedure, the pump – which was developed by Boston-based Intera Oncology in collaboration with the New Hyde Park-based Cancer Institute – delivers precise chemotherapy bursts to the liver, up to 400 times more intense than traditional chemotherapy treatments.
Sepideh Gholami, surgical director of the Northwell Cancer Institute’s Liver Multidisciplinary Clinic, praised the early returns. “Only a small percentage of [liver metastases patients] are eligible for liver surgery, and most of these patients will have a recurrence of their disease despite traditional systemic chemotherapy,” noted Gholami, who directs the center’s Hepatic Artery Infusion Pump Program. “HAI pump therapy has been shown to shrink tumors in patients to a point where tumors can be surgically resected… and [to decrease] the rate of the tumor coming back.”
Name that HQ: One of Long Island’s leading hunger-relief organizations has rechristened its headquarters in honor of two longtime supporters.
In a dedication ceremony held last month, Melville-based Island Harvest Food Bank formally renamed its 43,560-square-foot headquarters the Zaki and Rahat Hossain Campus. The husband-and-wife Bangladeshi American philanthropists have donated more than $3 million through the years to the food bank, which promotes socioeconomic progress while annually addressing the needs of roughly 300,000 food-insecure Long Islanders.
The Hossains’ generosity has been instrumental to the formation of Island Harvest’s Workforce Skills Development Institute and Healthy Harvest Farm initiative, and led directly to the 2021 purchase of the food bank’s new Spagnoli Road campus HQ, according to Island Harvest CEO Randi Shubin Dresner. “Our building is so much more than brick and mortar,” the CEO noted. “It’s a beacon of hope for those who are in need, and the Hossain family are guardians of that beacon and the important work we do on behalf of our fellow Long Islanders facing uncertainty.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 28: John Nader, absolutely positive at Farmingdale State.
Our midsummer/midseason hiatus ends soon – catch up on the first half of Season 4 of Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast (not to mention the entirety of Seasons 1-3), featuring educational and entertaining conversations with one great innovation economy leader after another.
TOP OF THE SITE
Director approach: The Innovate Long Island Debrief returns with Jessica Cracchiolo, the workforce-development ace who’s taken the reins of Stony Brook University’s reborn Manufacturing and Technology Resource Consortium.
But, with newsletters: You know how you watch those YouTube videos where the producers ask you to subscribe to their channel, even though you watch for free anyway, because it helps them out? It’s like that.
VOICES
Nassau and Suffolk are both falling behind in the all-important, post-pandemic race toward modern office spaces – and they better catch up fast, according to Commercial Industrial Brokers Society of Long Island Co-president and Voices Commercial Real Estate Anchor David Pennetta.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Start spreading the news: Big cities are here to stay – but they do need to change. Vox explores urban futures.
I’m leaving today: The most-decorated battleship in U.S. Navy history has put to sea for the first time in decades. NJ.com sounds battle stations.
New York, New York: While partying in the Hamptons, billionaires bash the Big Apple. Fortune piles up potshots.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Persist AI, a California-based, AI-driven drug-formulation platform, raised $4 million in seed funding led by 2048 Ventures, Innospark Ventures, Fellows Fund, YCombinator and Pioneer Fund.
+ Lula, a Florida-based insure-tech startup, raised $35.5 million in Series B funding led by NextView Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund.
+ LightForce Orthodontics, a Massachusetts-based 3D-printed braces manufacturer, raised $80 million in Series D funding led by Ally Bridge Group, the American Association of Orthodontics and Kleiner Perkins.
+ Source, an Oregon-based B2B marketplace for commercial construction products, closed an $8.5 million Series A funding round led by M13, Rise of the Rest, Rogue Venture Partners, Founders’ Co-op and the Oregon Venture Fund.
+ Pelvital, a Minnesota-based women’s health pioneer, closed a $2.68 million seed round led by Boomerang Ventures, VisionTech Partners, Wisconsin Investment Partners and Edward Bergmark.
+ Silk Security, a New York City-based cyber-risk resolution platform, raised $12.5 million in seed funding led by Insight Partners, Hetz Ventures, CrowdStrike Falcon Fund and cybersecurity angel investors.
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 Town of Islip). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Epic Edition)
Who knew: Celine’s epic melodies can go on, but erotic motorcycles?
Epic fail? The A.I. investment frenzy is starting to resemble the Dot-Com Bubble.
Epic ensemble: “Fortnite” formulator Epic Games eyes fashion as its next big vertical.
Epic ballad: Remembering the Long Island balladeer who packed motorcycle erotica, vampirism and “Wuthering Heights” into a Celine Dion classic.
Epic saga: Please continue supporting the amazing institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including the Town of Islip Office of Economic Development, which has built a long and powerful business-development legacy across Suffolk County and beyond. Check them out.
