Bake and break: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as a February thaw overtakes Long Island – holy guacamole, 40 degrees! – and we bask in the glow of another busy workweek.
Before you go loopy with Spring fever, a reminder that Innovate Long Island is taking a quick Winter break next week – no newsletters until your regularly scheduled Monday Calendar Newsletter on Feb. 23. We’re good through this week, though, and we’ll remind you Friday.
Wonder women: Respect a woman of science today (and every day, for that matter).
She blinded me … with science! Today is Feb. 11, and as a matter of fact, we’re better than good, with two of our favorite holidays coinciding today – starting with the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, an annual UN recruitment poster highlighting current, future and historically overlooked contributions of women to laboratory and field discoveries.
Playing nicely with that is the gender-neutral National Inventors Day, another Innovate Long Island darling honoring thinkers and tinkerers – the bold backbone of the innovation economy. (Why today, of all days? Glad you asked. Read on.)
While my nonfat milk gently steams: Let’s raise a mug to the women scientists and other creators in our lives over at the local coffeehouse (an appropriate gesture on National Latte Day). And if we’re lucky, there’ll be live music when we get there (a good bet on National Guitar Day, also stringing us along every Feb. 11).
Open-door policy: There were no lattes in the house (and probably no guitars) on this date in 1794, when the U.S. Senate – looking to avoid the kind of “Star Chamber” accusations that often accompany secret votes – opened its doors to the public for the first time.
Take a steam: Also opening new doors – mostly for himself – was American engineer Robert Fulton, who cemented his historical legacy on Feb. 11, 1809, by patenting his famous steamboat. (For the record, he didn’t invent the thing.)
Oh, man: Meitner discovered fission — and got snubbed by jealous old men.
Gone fission: Having doors slammed in her face was Austrian-born physicist Lise Meitner, who published her discovery that atomic nuclei split during certain uranium reactions – and coined the word “fission” – on this date in 1939 (only to be ignored by the Nobel Prize committee, which awarded the discovery but not the woman.)
Land of the Rising Sun in spaaaaace: Kicking down the door to the International Space Club was Japan, which launched a satellite into orbit from its fledgling Kagoshima Space Center 56 years ago today to become the world’s fourth space power (after the Soviet Union, the United States and France).
Win some, lose some: And it was Feb. 11, 1978 – and about a thousand kilometers to the west – when China un-banned the collective works of Shakespeare, Aristotle and Dickens, all of whom had been on the communist country’s no-fly list since the Cultural Revolution of the mid-1960s.
It was a big gesture but not quite the counter-revolution some had hoped for, with books like “Alice in Wonderland” (for depicting talking animals) and “1984” (for depicting an authoritarian state) and movies like “Ben Hur” (for depicting “Christian propaganda”) and “Back to the Future” (for depicting time travel, true story) still banned to this day.
Invention personified: The relentlessly creative Wizard of Menlo Park compiled nearly 1,100 patents.
The Edison of inventors: Master American innovator Thomas Alva … Alva … Thomas Alva Something (1847-1932) – who inspired National Inventors Day, among other things – would be 179 years old today.
Also born on Feb. 11 were groundbreaking English ethnologist James Cowles Prichard (1786-1848), among the first to assign all human races and ethnic groups to a single species; Hungarian American physicist Leo Szilard (1898-1964), who first conceived the nuclear chain reaction in 1933 and patented the idea in 1936; American mathematician Richard Hamming (1915-1998), who greatly influenced computer science and telecommunications with his error-correcting Hamming code; American sexologist Virginia Johnson (1925-2013), one half of the prominent Masters and Johnson human sexuality tag team; and American actor, producer and director Burton “Burt” Reynolds Jr. (1936-2018), who also did his part to define sexuality.
The One With All the Stuff After “Friends”: And take a bow, Jennifer Joanna Aniston! The American actress, producer and businesswoman – an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winner, sturdy box office draw and successful personal-products entrepreneur – turns 57 today.
Send your best to the rom-cam staple (with serious dramatic chops) at editor@innovateli.com, where no one told us life was gonna be this way (except your news tips) and I’ll we’ll be there for you your calendar events.
About our sponsor: At Nixon Peabody, we deliver sophisticated legal services to our clients and our communities by combining high performance, entrepreneurial spirit, deep engagement and an unwavering commitment to a culture of collaboration, diversity and humanity. Visit NixonPeabody.com.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Metal round: Steel manufacturer Integrated Structures is looking to increase its production space.
Hot stove dealing: The frigid Long Island winter has not slowed down the region’s red-hot industrial development agencies.
The Brookhaven Industrial Development Agency has finalized a tax-benefits package assisting North Bellport-based Integrated Structures, a structural-steel designer and fabricator investing $8.3 million into the purchase and renovation of a vacant 19,000-square-foot facility on Old Dock Road. The projected second production facility is expected to add 11 employees – with an average salary of $80,000 – to Integrated Structure’s current payroll of 62 full-timers, according to the Brookhaven IDA.
The Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency, meanwhile, has preliminarily approved economic-development incentives benefitting a proposed mixed-use redevelopment project in the Village of Southampton. Pitched by Southampton Inn owner Dede Gotthelf, the nearly $30 million project involves the partial demolition of a circa-1974 commercial complex across from the inn on Hill Street, to be replaced/upgraded by a 35,000-square-foot luxury hotel (with staff housing), eight workforce-housing apartments (totaling about 7,500 square feet) and 3,000 square feet of commercial space. A full IDA review and final approvals of the PILOT deal are pending.
On second thought: Speaking of Suffolk’s purring economic-development engine, a partner company that received a $2.1 million tax break last June is pulling a significant switcheroo – with the county IDA’s blessing.
Deer Park-based Mason Technologies, a national leader in low-voltage technology integration, had originally planned to invest $20.8 million establishing a new headquarters facility in Hauppauge, including the purchase, renovation and expansion (from 50,000 to 71,500 square feet) of an existing Oser Avenue facility. Upon further review, however, the company has decided to knock down the existing building and raise a new 69,120-square-foot replacement, bumping the project price tag to roughly $30 million and requiring a transference of those previously awarded tax benefits, which the IDA preliminarily approved Jan. 29.
The new plan – which unlocks a host of current and future benefits for Mason Technologies, including an on-site footprint relocation that allows for future expansions – represents “a long-term investment in Suffolk County and in its workforce,” according to Suffolk County IDA Executive Director Kelly Murphy. “This project reflects the type of thoughtful, forward-looking development that strengthens our local economy and retains high-quality jobs.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Train schedule: After an innovative summit meeting in Medford, local government, regional transportation and national recycling leaders are all-in on increasing Long Island’s rail-freight capacity.
Numbers game: Five full seasons, 60 amazing episodes, dozens of A-list innovators sharing hundreds of socioeconomic lessons – with uncounted chuckles along the way. “Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast” invites you to do the math.
VOICES
Nonprofit organizations are often hamstrung by their own overblown language, robbing governments, donors and potential clients of their frontline wisdom – especially hurtful during the national affordability crisis, according to Family and Children’s Association President/CEO and Voices Social Service anchor Jeffrey Reynolds, who cuts straight through the BS.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Duplication consternation: Could a Paramount/Warner Bros. Discovery merger create “$6 billion in job cuts”? The Hollywood reporter issues spoiler warnings.
Overwhelming generosity: Behold, America’s top 25 philanthropists (and why Elon Musk is nowhere in sight). Forbes grows a giving tree.
Extra motivation: Designing products with disabilities in mind often sparks greater innovation. The Harvard Business Review heightens accessibility.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Gather AI, a Pennsylvania-based artificial intelligence-powered logistics platform, raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Smith Point Capital Management, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, Tribeca Venture Partners, Bling Capital, Dundee Venture Capital, XRC Ventures and The Hillman Company.
+ Sentra.app, a California-based enterprise general intelligence pioneer, raised $5 million in Seed funding led by a16Z speedrun and Together Fund, with participation from Parable, Precursor Ventures, Inovia, Backwards Capital, Antigravity Capital and numerous angel investors.
+ Alcove, a New York City-based developer of privacy pods for hospitality and residential uses, raised $1 million in Pre-seed funding led by Christine Wendell of Pronto Housing and Patrick Murphy of Togal AI.
+ Uptool, a California-based AI platform designed to accelerate manufacturing productivity, raised $6 million in Seed funding led by Khosla Ventures, Eclipse, Bessemer Venture Partners and Kleiner Perkins.
+ Sapiom, a California-based machine-native financial-infrastructure platform, raised $15.75 million in Seed funding led by Accel, with participation from Gradient, Array Ventures, Okta Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Anthropic, Coinbase Ventures, Formus Capital and Operator Collective.
+ Advance, an NYC-based financial platform for insurance providers, raised $8.55 million in Seed funding led by nvp Capital, with participation from Crystal Venture Partners, Vesey Ventures and Mensch 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 – on Long Island, and soon, across New York State (just ask Nixon Peabody). Gregory Zeller can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Black History Month Edition)
Like minded: Surprising nobody, X has awarded $1 million to a user who praised Hitler.
But we had to check: No, Florida law doesn’t ban the word “Black” from “Black History Month” promotions.
True colors: Even Black History Month couldn’t stop X from rewarding a known racist.
Whitewashed: Seeking racial balance in the Age of Trump.
Colorblind: Please continue supporting the fantastic firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Nixon Peabody, where justice is blind, collaboration comes first and humanity always wins. Check them out.
