Logical leap: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, and not just any Wednesday but the fourth Wednesday in February, with one more day still to go in the extended-but-still-shortest month of the year.
Practically and mathematically, that can only mean one thing: We’re in a leap year and it’s Feb. 28th out there. But enough math … let’s innovate!
Scientific method: Truth, fact and old-fashioned hard work set the tone on National Science Day.
True that: Actually, let’s stick with math for a moment, as we begin with one of our favorites – National Science Day, when rigorous observation/experimentation and unassailable facts hold sway. (Alas, it’s not everyone’s favorite).
Meanwhile, eschewing science and logic for a leap of faith is National Tooth Fairy Day, a Feb. 28 celebration of a soothsaying, tooth-slaying magical being who dates all the way back the Middle Ages.
It gets better: There’s plenty to sink your teeth into today, starting with Global Scouse Day, both celebrating and truncating “lobscouse,” an olden-times seafood stew that combined a ship’s day-old biscuits with whatever fish was handy (and really caught on in Liverpool, for whatever reason, where residents are still known as “Scousers”).
After choking that down, get the nasty taste out of your mouth with National Chocolate Souffle Day, the delectably light cocoa-rama puffing up every Feb. 28.
It’s not brain surgery! (Actually, it is): Other old things still sticking around include “La méthode curative des playes et fractures de la teste humaine” (“Treatment Method for Wounds and Fractures of the Human Head”), the first book on brain surgery, published on this date in 1561 by French physician and “father of modern surgery” Ambroise Paré.
Slightly used: Was “Tom Jones” the first English-language novel? Maybe, maybe not.
Novel idea: Speaking of old books, Henry Fielding’s “The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling” – maybe the first English-language novel, it’s a little hazy – was published in London on Feb. 28, 1749. (For the record, humanity’s official first-ever novel in any language was written in 11th Century Japan.)
Hard science: Also standing the test of time (and just about everything else) is carborundum – a.k.a. silicon carbide, the second-hardest known industrial substance (behind diamonds) – accidentally discovered on this date in 1893 by Pennsylvania-based inventor Edward Acheson.
Bad science: The ghost noun “dord” – which is not a word, although it was erroneously defined as a scientific synonym for “density” – was discovered 85 years ago today in the second edition of Webster’s New International Dictionary, prompting a lengthy investigation.
M*A*S*H-up: And it was Feb. 28, 1983, when the final episode of beloved sitcom “M*A*S*H” – chronicling an American surgical unit on the front lines of the Korean War – aired on the CBS Television Network, ending an 11-year run (nearly four times longer than the actual war).
Roughly 77 percent of the U.S. viewing audience tuned in, for those keeping score.
Lyon roars: American educator Mary Mason Lyon (1797-1849) – a pioneer of higher education for women and founder of Massachusetts’ Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College) – would be 227 years old today.
Ozone Park’s own: Queens-born Peters has enjoyed a six-decade-plus career on stage and screen.
Also born on Feb. 28 were American chemist, biochemist, chemical engineer, author and peace activist Linus Pauling (1901-1994), the two-time Nobel Prize laureate who basically invented molecular biology; Canadian American architect Frank Gehry (born 1929), an audacious designer of international renown; Italian American racer Mario Andretti (born 1940), one of only two drivers to win races on the Formula One, IndyCar, World Sportscar Championship and NASCAR circuits; American actress, singer and children’s book author Bernadette Peters (born 1948), a Tony and Golden Globe award-winner; and Nobel Prize-winning American economist Paul Krugman (born 1953), an economic geography expert and longtime New York Times columnist.
Good guy: And take a bow, Richard Henry Blood Sr.! The retired professional wrestler – known best as Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, the rare top-level performer who never “switched sides” from “face” to “heal” – turns 71 today.
Give your best to the retired grappler – whose legendary battle with Randy “Macho Man” Savage at 1987’s Wrestlemania III may still be the greatest wrestling match of all time – at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips claim the title and your calendar events always raise the belt.
About our sponsor: Sahn Ward Braff Koblenz Coschignano PLLC is one of the region’s most highly regarded and recognized law firms. Our attorneys are thought leaders, dedicated to achieving success through excellence. With our broad experience in land use, development, litigation, real estate, corporate and environmental law, we have the vision and knowledge to serve our clients and our communities. Please visit sahnward.com.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Tongue tied: With 4,000-plus species in the family — all evolving from a common ancestor — snakes are a textbook example of “adaptive radiation.”
Why did it have to be snakes? A “burst of innovation in form and function” places snakes atop the reptilian evolution chain, according to a new study.
Stony Brook University Assistant Professor of Macroevolution and Macroecology Pascal Title is among nearly two dozen authors of “The Macroevolutionary Singularity of Snakes,” a research article published last week by the peer-reviewed journal Science that considered 60,000-plus snake and lizard specimens – and 66 million years of progress – before crowning snakes the evolutionary winner. Although some lizards evolved venom, limbless movement and other snakelike qualities, profound shifts in feeding patterns separate snakes from the reptilian pack, researchers say, leading to the roughly 4,000 different species slithering around today.
The snake success story is a case of “adaptive radiation” (numerous species evolving from a common ancestor), the cause of which remains a modern mystery. “Snakes are like the Big Bang ‘singularity’ in cosmology – a dramatic expansion of diversity in species and their ecologies, linked to some event that might have occurred early in the evolutionary history of snakes,” Title noted. “Our study shows this remarkable concerted ‘acceleration’ in evolutionary tempo across many aspects of snake ecology.”
Inwood investment: A 68,000-square-foot warehouse/distribution center will rise in a rehabilitated pollution zone, with a nod to the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency.
The IDA has granted final approvals for a tax-abatement deal benefiting AIREF JFK IC, an LLC spun out of Los Angeles-based global real estate investor Ares Industrial Management, which is planning a $48 million demolition/construction project in the Town of Hempstead’s Inwood hamlet. The 3.68-acre site – once home to a scrap-metal recycler and later owned by Nassau County, according to the IDA – is located about five miles from John F. Kennedy International Airport’s main cargo terminal.
The benefits package, which received preliminary IDA approval in December, will help developers demolish existing structures (including a single-family home on Cerro Street) and construct a new facility featuring 14 loading docks and 12 permanent full-time positions, in addition to 50 construction-phase jobs. “As this project moves forward, it will transform a long-blighted property into a productive one and an active employment center,” noted Town of Hempstead IDA Chief Executive Frederick Parola. “We welcome Ares’ interest and its investment in the Town of Hempstead.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Linguistic relativity: United Way of Long Island and several program partners have graduated the first Spanish-speaking cohort of a workforce-development program focused on renewable-energy industries.
Yes, you can: Engaging one-on-ones with the biggest brains in all of Long Island innovation … that’s Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast, where only the occasional belly laugh slows the flow of new ideas. New episodes on the way – with almost four dozen already in the can.
VOICES
Voices Food and Beverage Anchor Zelory Gregler is hearing voices from beyond, or at least from Ronkonkoma-based Long Island Psychics – stars of the show on Psychic Night at Carrabba’s Italian Grill, where the menu was restricted but the metaphysics were limitless.
STUFF WE’RE READING
With this ring: Samsung’s latest wearable gives healthcare the finger. The Verge puts a ring on it.
Pricey plea: At $111,000 a day, those interest rates really pile up when appealing a $354.9 million fraud verdict. Forbes does the math.
Win-win: How renewable-energy innovation benefits the economy along with the environment. The Conversation calculates the green transition.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Tuned, a New York City-based healthcare startup focused on digital hearing, raised $3.2 million in seed extension funding led by Unum Group and Distributed Ventures.
+ Elve, a California-based millimeter wave-amplifier technology manufacturer, raised $15 million in Series A funding led by TomEnterprise Private AB, Green Sands Equity and Lockheed Martin Ventures.
+ Prowler, a Maine-based open-cloud security company, raised $6 million in seed funding led by Decibel VC.
+ Uhnder, a Texas-based manufacturer of digital radar chips and software, raised $50 million in Series D funding led by ACME Capital, Magna and Qualcomm Ventures.
+ Blackbird Health, a Pennsylvania-based youth mental-healthcare provider, raised $17 million in Series A funding led by Define Ventures, Frist Cressey Ventures and GreyMatter.
+ ZipLines Education, a California-based edu-tech pioneer, raised $6.4 million in Series A funding led by Jackson Square Ventures, Wildcat Venture Partners and WGU Labs.
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 Sahn Ward). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (We All Scream For Ice Cream Edition)
Cone head: Who thought this was a good idea?
Stupe scoop: Predictably, President Biden discussing a Gaza ceasefire while eating ice cream didn’t go over well.
Hot scoop: NYC’s most popular ice cream shop is coming to Long island.
Last scoop: A once-popular ice cream flavor is facing extinction.
With a cherry on top: Please continue supporting the amazing firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Sahn Ward, where the flavor of the month is always a double-scoop of land-use excellence. Check them out.
