Working on it: Welcome to the first Wednesday of November, dear readers, and the midpoint of the penultimate month’s first workweek.
Election Day is behind us, Veteran’s Day is in sight and Thanksgiving is peaking over the horizon – but today, we innovate! Gear up and let’s get to work.
Well red: Redheads rule today.
Remember, remember: Today is Nov. 5 and we open with a wave to our many readers across the United Kingdom, where it’s Guy Fawkes Day (or Bonfire Night, or both), celebrating that masked “Matrix” villain who tried to kill Queen Amidala in “V for Vendetta.” (Actually, it commemorates the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.)
General “Red” Tsao: Here in the States, give it up for coppertops, carrot-tops and other gingers rocking the auburn spectrum – it’s National Redhead Day.
Redheads, blondes, brunettes … even bald eagles can agree that dinner is in the bag on National Chinese Takeout Day, celebrating a decidedly American spin on Asian cuisine every Nov. 5.
False start: Speaking of interesting spins, New York-based inventor and patent lawyer George Selden issued himself a U.S. patent for the first gasoline-powered automobile engine on this date in 1895 – a bit of a dubious case, according to the official story.
Winning drive: Selden may have lapped him, but iconic automotive innovator Henry Ford patented his motor carriage on Nov. 5, 1901.
Marie Curie: I’ll do the talking.
Madame lecturer: Ford may have driven past Selden, but Polish French physicist/chemist Marie Curie really hit the gas on this date in 1906, when the alumna became the first woman to lecture at Paris’ prestigious Sorbonne University.
The one (and only): Curie may have struck a major blow for womankind, but Franklin Roosevelt went where no U.S. President had gone before 85 years ago today, when he was elected to an unprecedented third term.
Continental drift: And FDR may stand alone as the United States’ only three-term president, but Danish scientists Helge and Anne Ingstad rewrote the book on American history on Nov. 5, 1963, when they presented evidence of pre-Columbian Viking settlements in North America.
According to the husband-and-wife archeologists, Norse explorer Leif Erikson reached what’s now known as Newfoundland nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain.
Packard it in: American industrialist James Ward Packard (1863-1928) – who teamed with his brother, William, to launch the innovative Packard Electric Co. and later the titanic Packard Motor Car Co. – would be 162 years old today.
Wound up: O’Neal mowed them down as talented hurler Amanda Wurlitzer.
Also born on Nov. 5 were American writer, historian and philosopher Will Durant (1885-1981), a bit of a history buff; American astronomer Fred Whipple (1906-2004), a giant of 20th Century astronomy who broke down comets (more comet stuff below); American singer, actor and television host Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye, 1911-1998), undisputed “King of the Cowboys”; French aviator Jacqueline Auriol (1917-2000), a fearless test pilot and long-reigning “fastest woman in the world”; and American singer, actor and poet Art Garfunkel (born 1941), pride of Forest Hills.
Make it nine ballet lessons: And take a bow, Tatum Beatrice O’Neal! The American actress – who won an Academy Award at age 10, with a touch of tragedy – turns 63 today.
Send your best to the ace hurler of “The Bad News Bears” at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips and calendar events are always good news.
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BUT FIRST, THIS
To the rescue: With the nationwide Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program held up, a Long Island-based small-business champion is rallying its Moms and Pops to support a leading regional food bank.
Citing the federal government shutdown, now into its fifth week, the White House continues to drag its feet on releasing federal SNAP funding. In response, Long Beach-based online marketplace/last-mile logistics service Trellus is encouraging local small businesses and their customers to contribute directly to Melville-based Island Harvest Food Bank, with a special Island Harvest donation link added to the Trellus website and each $25 donation promising 50 meals for those in need.
Trellus Co-founder and CEO Adam Haber said the food-insecurity rescue mission puts a compassionate spin on his 2021 startup’s Main Street focus. “Trellus is honored to support Long Islanders who have been negatively affected by the cuts in SNAP benefits due to the federal government shutdown,” Haber said Monday. “Helping the Long Island community is what our business is all about.”
Full force: The new Empire Automotive Group Technology Center is another example of Suffolk County Community College’s commitment to workforce development, according to President Edward Bonahue.
Engines of ingenuity: A 38,000-square-foot Automotive Technology Training Center is coming soon to Suffolk County Community College’s Brentwood campus.
The Empire Automotive Group Technology Center – revealed by the Suffolk Community College Foundation and Huntington Station-based car dealer Empire Automotive Group at an October groundbreaking ceremony – will include advanced classrooms, training spaces, workshops and “simulation zones” equipped with the latest vehicles and diagnostic tools. The new Michael J. Grant Campus program will run concurrently with SCCC’s existing automotive technology program on Selden’s Ammerman Campus.
Suffolk County Community College President Edward Bonahue said the school was “delighted to partner with Empire Automotive Group … to advance and enhance our automotive technology training program,” and referenced the Empire Automotive naming partnership as one of several SCCC workforce-development efforts. “We also continue to work collaboratively with our state elected officials and the Suffolk County Legislature,” Bonahue added. “Thanks to this powerful combination, our regional economy will continue to enjoy the benefits that flow from a trained, skilled workforce.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 58: Jim Morgo, political scientist.
Before he was an influential politico, before organizations clamored to get him on their boards of directors, way before he was a leading government-relations consultant, Jim Morgo was an English teacher.
He’s still teaching today, only now his tutorials focus on professional communications and constructive civics – with the occasional history lesson mixed in, particularly during the latest episode of “Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast.” Fifty years of Long Island socioeconomics in 35 entertaining minutes!
TOP OF THE SITE
Gravity of the situation: Serial clean-energy entrepreneur Ramuel Maramara is back with Cold Volt, a Stony Brook-based startup looking to (literally) lift energy-storage technologies to new heights.
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VOICES
Voices Historian and Long Island Bio Executive Director Tom Mariner recounts four decades of progress at Stony Brook University’s Center for Biotechnology, a New York State Center for Advanced Technology and uber-influential cornerstone of Long Island economic development.
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STUFF WE’RE READING
Blue by you: Recapping the epic night for Democrats in New Jersey, Virginia, California and the Big Apple. The Hill exits polls.
Amazon … Perplexed? It’s David vs. Goliath with automated shopping, artificial intelligence, crawlers, bots and bullies. Forbes files suits.
Vice grip: Remembering the powerful and polarizing Dick Cheney, the “Darth Vader” of vice presidents. AP News knows the power of the dark side.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Infravision, a Texas-based aerial robotics innovator focused on power-grid infrastructure, raised $91 million in Series B funding led by GIC, with participation from Activate Capital, Hitachi Ventures and Energy Impact Partners.
+ AUI, a New York City-based software maker developing a neuro-symbolic foundation model for conversational AI, raised $20 million in funding led by eGateway Ventures and a New Era Capital Partners investor group.
+ Popai Health, a California-based health-tech creating a patient-conversation intelligence platform, raised $11 million in funding led by Team8 and NEA.
+ Teleskope, a New York City-based data security pioneer, raised $25 million in Series A funding led by M13, with participation from Primary Venture Partners and Lerer Hippeau.
+ Lettuce Financial, a California-based fintech focused on solopreneur solutions, raised $28 million in funding led by Zeev Ventures.
+ Indomo, a Massachusetts-based health-tech developing at-home prescription dermatology treatments, raised $25 million in funding led by Atomic, Foresite Capital and Polaris Partners.
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 – on Long Island, and soon, across New York State (just ask SUNY Old Westbury). Gregory Zeller can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Comet 3I/ATLAS Update Edition)
Am I blue: And why the hell is it changing colors?!?
Leadfoot: Emerging from its solar cloak, the “comet” is inexplicably speeding up.
Nickelback: An extreme abundance of nickel is one of 3I/ATLAS’s many mysteries.
Prism break: How the interstellar visitor proved a truly bent Einstein theory.
Stellar: Please continue supporting the innovative institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including SUNY Old Westbury, where meteoric success is written in the stars (and in the cutting-edge academic programming). Check them out.
