Bold prediction: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as we hurdle the wet and windy hump – and if you think this is bad, wait until next week, when Long Island gets its first significant snow in almost two years. Six inches plus. Yeah, we said it. Write it down.
For now, we dry out from last night’s torrential rains and ride northerly gales into the second half of a busy workweek. Bundle up and let’s rock.
Stock up: Hug a shareholder today.
League of their own: It’s Jan. 10 out there, known around the world as League of Nations Day, commemorating the 1920 founding of the predecessor of the modern United Nations – and if that excites you, keep reading.
Taking stock: Today is also National Shareholders Day, cheering the individuals (or other entities) registered as legal owners of shares of public or private corporations.
Our Jan. 10 menu is replete with acquired tastes: Today is both National Oysters Rockefeller Day, celebrating half-shell hors d’oeuvres named for bigwig John D. Rockefeller himself (and if that excites you, keep reading), and National Bittersweet Chocolate Day, the annual exploration of cocoa’s dark side.
Subway map: It was fairly dark down there when the world’s first subterranean railway opened in London on this date in 1863.
Old money: Magnate, monopolizer, philanthropist, namesake of oyster recipes … few men can boast a legacy on par with John D. Rockefeller.
Well oiled: But flames burned bright when Standard Oil Company formed on Jan. 10, 1870, with aforementioned oil baron Rockefeller and several partners all making a killing (but none so much as “the world’s first billionaire”).
Future imperfect: Featuring several well-oiled machines, Austrian filmmaker Fritz Lang’s pioneering science-fiction epic “Metropolis” – a genre-defining dystopian masterpiece listed among the greatest and most influential movies of all time – premiered in Berlin on this date in 1927.
Singular achievement: Also redefining genres was the 45 RPM record, introduced 75 years ago today by RCA.
Assemble! And with 51 nations represented, the first session of the United Nations General Assembly was held in London on Jan. 10, 1946.
Exactly five years later, on this date in 1951, the UN – after operating for years out of a sprawling Lake Success warehouse – opened its New York City world headquarters building, constructed on land donated by the twice-previously-mentioned John D. Rockefeller.
Mr. Peanut: American agricultural scientist and inventor George Washington Carver (1864-1943) – who developed hundreds of practical uses for soybeans, sweet potatoes and peanuts (but did not invent peanut butter, a common misconception) – would be 160 years old today.
Best shot: Long Island native (and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee) Patricia Andrzejewski, known best as Pat Benatar, has racked up four Grammy Awards.
Also born on Jan. 10 were German astronomer Simon Marius (1573-1624), who named Jupiter’s four largest moons; Swiss French horologist and inventor Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823), the leading watchmaker of his day; English biochemist Norman Heatley (1911-2004), who paved the path for the mass production of penicillin; American prize fighter, entrepreneur, minister and author George Foreman (born 1949), an Olympic gold medalist and two-time heavyweight champion who stunned the world (and Micheal Moorer) at age 45; and Greenport’s own Patricia Mae Andrzejewski (born 1953), the multi-platinum American rocker known best as Pat Benatar.
Young Turk: And take a bow, Sir Roderick David “Rod” Stewart! The Grammy Award-winning British rock and pop singer/songwriter – among history’s best-selling music artists – turns 79 today.
Wish the Forever Young music man well at editor@innovateli.com, where This Old Heart of Mine Ours thinks your news tips are sexy and your calendar events always have (Hot) Legs. (Maggie May agrees).
About our sponsor: Northwell Health is New York’s largest healthcare provider and private employer, with 21 hospitals, 900 outpatient facilities and 85,000 employees. We’re making research breakthroughs at the Feinstein Institutes and training the next generation of medical professionals at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. Visit Northwell.edu.
BUT FIRST, THIS
A long time ago: A 19th Century maritime-safety effort is the latest Long Island site nominated for inclusion on the state and national Registers of Historic Places.
Setauket’s Old Field Point Light Station is one of 37 new recommendations by the New York State Historic Preservation Office, joining an 1820s South Farmington cemetery, an early 20th Century Colonial home (now a residential subdivision) in upstate Troy, a circa-1915 schoolhouse in northernmost Washington County and proposed historic districts around the state. The current, electric-powered Setauket lighthouse was built around 1869, but the site’s original oil-powered lighthouse and keeper’s dwelling date back to 1824 – making the site both a historical testament to boater safety and a prime example of lighthouse evolution.
Inclusion on the historic registers is no little thing, noted New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Commissioner Erik Kulleseid. “Nominations to the [registers] are opportunities for us to pause and recognize that every day we live with historic infrastructure that not only has a past, but can and does have a future,” Kulleseid said. “Communities … are interested in investing in their historic resources for revitalization projects, housing initiatives and economic development.”
Galaxy watch: Astronomer Jin Koda has his eyes on distant Galaxy M83.
In a galaxy far, far away: The unprecedented exploration of a distant galaxy has uncovered critical clues about the mysterious birth of new stars.
Led by Jin Koda, an associate professor in Stony Brook University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, international researchers have peered deep into 23 “molecular clouds” at the edge of spiral galaxy M83, located roughly 15 million light years from Earth. These concentrations of molecular gas are, essentially, stellar nurseries – similar to the unfathomably huge pools of atomic gas known to produce stars in denser central-galactic regions, but a heretofore undiscovered birthplace located on galactic outer fringes.
Achieved via the combined resource of Chile’s Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, New Mexico’s Jansky Very Large Array and West Virginia’s Green Bank Telescope, the new findings don’t solve every star-birth mystery, but do open the door to better understanding of how molecular clouds form and new suns rise. “The star formation at galaxy edges has been a nagging mystery since their discovery by NASA’s GALEX satellite 18 years ago,” Koda noted. “Astronomers are eager to understand how stars form, and our discovery provides a clue to star-formation processes.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Cents, and sensibility: With a $4 billion-plus budget deficit looming, Gov. Hochul introduced a more pragmatic annual agenda in Tuesday’s State of the State address.
Full house: Coming soon … the exciting return of Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast, with a Season 5 slate of innovation-economy leaders sure to fill your hearts and minds. Now playing … Seasons 1-4. Get your fill!
VOICES
From the Oval Office down, U.S. lawmakers are old and getting older – and the issues most important to younger Americans are being ignored, according to Sahn Ward Braff Koblenz Managing Member and Voices Law Anchor Michael Sahn, who says tough-to-pass age and term limits may be the only way forward.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Down time: Your brain really needs to relax. WaPo throttles down.
Wake up: The economy is improving, but most Americans won’t admit it. The Atlantic runs the numbers.
Warming up: 2023 was the hottest year in recorded Earth history – by far. Rolling Stone feels the heat.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Rincell Corp., a California-based silicon-graphite battery manufacturer, raised $1.2 million in seed funding led by NextGen Battery Chem Ventures.
+ Claris Bio, a New Jersey-based late-clinical stage biotech, raised $57 million in funding. Backers included Novo Holdings A/S, RA Capital, Mass General Brigham Ventures and Janus Henderson Investors.
+ UrbanStems, a New York City-based floral-gifting pioneer, raised $5 million in Series C funding led by SWaN & Legend and DF Enterprises.
+ Remix Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based clinical-stage biotech developing small-molecule therapies, raised $60 million in funding led by The Column Group, Atlas Venture, Foresite Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments.
+ GreyOrange, a Georgia-based, AI-driven fulfillment-automation specialist, raised $135 million in growth funding led by Anthelion Capital.
+ Health In Her HUE, a NYC-based digital-health platform for women of color, raised $3 million in funding led by Seae Ventures, Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures, Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab, Genius Guild, HBCU Founders Fund, Stanford Impact Fund and 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 Northwell Health). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Technology Risk/Reward Edition)
Distance learning: Remote experimentation via “automated workcells” is in play at the Strateos Cloud Lab.
Get on board: The critical importance of technological evolution.
Get out of the way: Welcome to Cloud Labs. (No humans required).
Get off your @$$: Research shows robot workers make humans lazier.
Get better: Please continue supporting the amazing institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including Northwell Health, where top technology and irreplaceable humanity consistently create newer and better healthcare outcomes. Check them out.
