Dry wit: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as we slosh our way through the first week of April here on rainy Long Island.
Of course, you know what they say about April showers … so let’s stay positive and look forward to beautiful bouquets (and drier days) ahead. Here’s a midweek business/invention review to keep you covered, like an innovation umbrella policy (with a dry sense of humor).
Central theme: Williams injects passion into every film he scores.
Kool, gang: It’s April 3 out there, and if anything’s going to get your toes tapping it’s World Party Day, when there’s a party goin’ on right here, a celebration to last throughout the years … so bring your good times and your laughter, too! We gonna celebrate your party with you!
This goes well with National Don’t Go To Work Unless It’s Fun Day, an (un)officially sanctioned mental-health day.
Sensing a theme: Speaking of music you know, today is also National Film Score Day, when artists like Maurice Jarre (“Lawrence of Arabia”), Hans Zimmer (the Dark Knight trilogy) and John Williams (every great theme that lives in your head) strike up the band.
Raise a spoon today to these and other amazing movie-music composers – April 3 is also National Chocolate Mousse Day, celebrating the dessert made by folding beaten egg whites into a cold milk-and-sugar base, meaning it’s neither pudding (made by cooking the milk and sugar base and thickening with cornstarch) nor custard (made by cooking the milk and sugar base and thickening with whole eggs).
Owning it: Other minute differences separate the world’s first patents – some historians cite an ancient Greek culinary law, some say it’s a 1421 Italian industrial agreement benefiting Florentine architectural crane designer Filippo Brunelleschi, but most agree it was the first English patent, issued on this date in 1449 to Flemish stained-glass innovator John of Utynam.
Quick turnaround: Costly and dangerous — especially for the six riders who died on the job — the Pony Express was understandably short-lived.
Hoofing it: Less ambiguous are the first recorded shipments of the Pony Express, the horse-powered national mail delivery system that first saddled up on April 3, 1860.
Winging it: He still had a few things to learn about blood types, but Ukrainian surgeon Yuri Voronyi wasn’t horsing around when he performed the world’s first kidney transplantation on this date in 1933. (It did not end well, for those keeping score).
Watching it: Much more successful has been TV Guide Magazine, which first hit newsstands 71 years ago today and is still plugging away (biweekly these days, with a few other changes).
Probably not watching it: And speaking of television stations, WNYE TV – a former PBS affiliate now owned by the City of New York – first went on the air 57 years ago today.
The city’s official TV service, focused mostly on NYC people and neighborhoods, fills its airtime with religious programming, cooking shows, BBC news simulcasts and the occasional PBS-documentary rerun.
Ghost writer: American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian and diplomat Washington Irving (1783-1859) – the “first American man of letters,” remembered best for classics “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle” – would be 241 years old today.
Ape woman: Nobody knows the chimpanzees of Tanzania better than Jane Goodall.
Also born on April 3 were Russian American botanist Katherine Esau (1898-1997), who broke new ground on plant biology; American magazine magnate Henry Luce (1898-1967), who changed American news media by founding Time, Sports Illustrated and other major publications; American actor and activist Marlon Brando Jr. (1924-2004), ranked among history’s greatest and most influential actors; American engineer and U.S. Air Force pilot Virgil “Gus” Grissom (1926-1967), an original Mercury Seven astronaut who lost his life in the tragic Apollo 1 fire; and American comedian, actor and singer Edward Regan “Eddie” Murphy (born 1961), a stand-up legend (NSFW) counted among the most commercially successful African American actors of all time.
Chimp champ: And take a bow, Dame Jane Morris Goodall! The English primatologist, anthropologist and ethnologist – unparalleled in the world of chimpanzee research – turns 90 today.
Give the Bigfoot believer (it’s true, she is) your best at editor@innovateli.com, where we go ape over your news tips and we don’t monkey around with your calendar events.
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
By land: The National Science Foundation is boosting a Stony Brook University engineer’s mission to strengthen coastlines against storms like this week’s wet and windy nor’easter.
Assistant Professor Georgios Moutsanidis of SBU’s Department of Civil Engineering has received a roughly $500,000 NSF Faculty Early Career Development grant, targeting his efforts to increase the resilience of coastal structures against storm surges, tsunamis and other “extreme hydrodynamic events,” according to the university. The early-career grants support promising researchers whose projects can lead to significant advances in their department or organization and beyond.
Moutsanidis aims to raise awareness regarding “fluid-structure interactions” among computational scientists, with outreach initiatives meant to enhance climate-resilience curricula in high schools and elsewhere. “Professor Moutsanidis’ research … reflects the importance of the research problem and his promise as a scholar and an educator,” noted Department of Civil Engineering Chairman Rigoberto Burgueño. “[His] novel computational approaches will enhance the ability of engineers to determine the effects of extreme loads from waves and coastal surges so that we may better prepare our … infrastructure for the effects of future climate conditions.”
Neighborhood watch: As offshore-wind farms proliferate, the Regional Wildlife Science Collaborative for Offshore Wind is keeping an eye on ocean habitats.
By sea: With historic wind farms proliferating in Long Island waters, a multistate private/government watchdog is keeping an eye on local wildlife.
The Regional Wildlife Science Collaborative for Offshore Wind – combining federal agencies, state governments, industry insiders and nonprofit organizations – has released a first-of-its-kind action plan to optimize ongoing research into offshore wind operations’ effects on wildlife and habitats. In addition to the project-by-project reviews already underway, the plan recommends “ecosystem-wide holistic studies,” with comprehensive recommendations for data management, collection and analysis covering marine mammals, birds, bats, sea turtles and protected fish, as well as oceanography, seafloor environments and other critical topics.
Far from a treatise against the development of offshore-wind farms, the plan “provides the blueprint for the region’s future work,” according to RWSC Director Emily Shumchenia. “This historic research plan will help provide the science we need to ensure that offshore wind is developed in a way that protects ocean wildlife,” Shumchenia added. “We need to be able to collect and compare findings easily so that the public and policymakers can learn quickly what the regional implications are and make any needed changes.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Big deal: It’s a relatively small warehouse, but that’s just what Western Suffolk needs, according to the Suffolk County IDA, which has given developers preliminary approval for an important 10-year PILOT program.
Genius a go-go: Success stories from across Long Island, with insights, tips and tools to help you achieve (and exceed) your goals – that’s Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast, featuring funny and informative one-on-ones with the leaders of the regional innovation economy. Nearly four dozen brilliant lessons queued up … so get going!
VOICES
Insurance companies – not healthcare providers – are making the big medical decisions, and that needs to change, according to Voices Healthcare Anchor and former Northwell Health Senior Vice President Terry Lynam, who says physician autonomy is best for patients and long-term costs.
STUFF WE’RE READING
A matter of facts: America’s growing distrust of actual experts could doom democracy. GQ cautions against cults.
Allergy apocalypse: Climate change has magnified seasonal allergies. The Atlantic considers pollen counts.
Strong language: How a great word game can make you feel super-smart – and really stupid. Vox makes the Connections.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ BioConsortia, a California-based agri-tech innovator, closed a $15 million internal financing round, led by Otter Capital.
+ InStride Health, a Massachusetts-based biotech manufacturing a specialty pediatric anxiety and OCD treatment, raised $30 million in Series B funding led by General Catalyst, .406 Ventures, Valtruis, Mass General Brigham Ventures and Hopelab Foundation.
+ Terragia, a New Hampshire-based biofuels startup, raised $6 million in seed funding led by Engine Ventures and Energy Impact Partners.
+ Coro, a New York City-based cybersecurity platform, secured $100 million in Series D funding led by One Peak, Energy Impact Partners and Balderton Capital.
+ Oka, a Utah-based carbon-insurance company, raised $10 million in funding led by Aquiline Capital Partners, firstminute capital and Overview Capital.
+ Cloverleaf, an Ohio-based automated-coaching technology platform, raised $7.3 million in Series A extension funding led by Advantage Capital, Conductive Ventures, Origin Ventures, ScOp Venture Capital, JobsOhio, Cintrifuse Capital and 1809 Capital.
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 (Numbers Game Edition)
Knight writer: Bad credit? No credit? Don Hankey will lend you cash (and maybe underwrite your bond).
One-hundred-seventy-five-million bad reasons: Dubious dealings abound with “king of subprime car loans” who underwrote Trump’s bond.
Two-hundred-ninety-two-million to one: Good luck in tonight’s $1 billion-plus Powerball drawing.
Eight wonders: Global studies highlight underrated health benefits of music, “awe” and more.
One-hundred-eight years and counting: Please continue supporting the amazing institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including St. Joseph’s University, which has provided quality educations – in and out of the classroom – for more than a century. Check them out.
