Temperature check: Break out the short sleeves, dear readers, as we bask in the early Spring’s warmest stretch – and the innovation economy heats up accordingly.
Yes, it’s been six long months, two brutal blizzards and an otherwise icy winter since Long Island last topped 80 degrees Fahrenheit, which it did in many locations yesterday (and may again today). But you’re cool with that – especially with this hump-hopping Wednesday Newsletter bringing the chill.
Glaze of glory: You don’t need a special occasion to enjoy a delicious spiral ham.
File checker: Before you get too relaxed, a quick reminder that today is April 15 and that is, of course, National Tax Day, the filing deadline for your annual federal and state tax returns. (Haven’t started yet? No worries – you have until 11:59 p.m. local time to file.)
In a much better sign, today is also National ASL Day, a salute to American Sign Language – the primary language of roughly 500,000 hearing-impaired Americans.
Big Mac deal: If you’re hungry, it’s a great day to get your McNuggets on – though McDonald’s Day is less a celebration of the Quarter Pounder than a recollection of the first franchised restaurant opened by businessman Ray Kroc (in 1955 Iowa), heralding a global phenomenon.
Actual foodstuffs on today’s menu include elongated, edible fruits produced by large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa (always a-pealing on the third Wednesday of April, a.k.a. National Banana Day) and swine slathered in brown sugar and honey (a fine centerpiece on National Glazed Spiral Ham Day, always served fresh on April 15).
10 years (!) of debate: They’ve been roasting pigs for thousands of years – not quite as long as they spent planning the crucial Erie Canal, which was finally codified into a complete (and well-funded) plan on this date in 1817, but close.
99 and 44/100 percent pure: Hope also floated (literally) with Ivory soap, a future staple of American households introduced on April 15, 1878, by marketing masters Harley Procter and James Gamble.
Looked good on paper: The RMS Titanic, on a better day.
2 hours, 40 minutes: Not floating very well at all was the British ocean liner RMS Titanic, which sunk in the North Atlantic Ocean 114 years ago today, less than three hours after striking an iceberg.
0 miles: That’s how many interstate miles were covered in the first Rand McNally Road Atlas (titled the “Auto Chum”), which included hand-drawn maps of dirt roads in all 48 states but predated interstate highways by nearly 30 years when it was published on this date in 1924.
No. 42: And it was April 15, 1947, when brave Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson defied deaths threats and carried the nation into the future by becoming the first Black player to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier.
Though Robinson’s No. 42 has been officially retired by all MLB teams, every player on every team wears the number on this date to commemorate the courageous breakthrough.
Veni, vidi, vici, from Vinci: Italian polymath Leonardo da .. da … Leonardo da Something (1452-1519) – an engineer, scientist, inventor, painter, sculptor, architect, political theorist and all-around big thinker who founded the High Renaissance and is easily Vinci’s most famous son – would be 574 years old today.
All grown up: Emma Watson has turned childhood fantasies into adult activism.
Also born on April 15 were Indian spiritual leader Gurū Bābā Nānak (1469-1539), who founded Sikhism; American physician Mary Harris Thompson (1829-1895), the first U.S. woman surgeon, according to some accounts, and certainly the co-founder of the Chicago Hospital for Woman and Children; American botanist and geneticist George Shull (1874-1954), the “Father of Hybrid Corn”; American physicist Emory Chaffee (1885-1975), whose mastery of electron tubes supercharged long-distance telephone communications; and Icelandic politician, teacher and theatre director Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (born 1930), the first women democratically elected president of any country and history’s longest-serving elected female head of state.
Witchcraft: And take a bow, Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson! The English actress, activist and model – more focused on social justice than starring roles since hanging up Hermione Granger’s magic wand – turns 36 today.
Give the Hogwarts heroine your best at editor@innovateli.com, where we do justice to your news tips – and your calendar events always enjoy top billing.
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BUT FIRST, THIS
Aging well: Northwell Health is learning new tricks for servicing old patients.
A two-year, $125,000 grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation will help the New Hyde Park-based health system develop a first-of-its kind consulting and training program for non-Northwell hospitals, filled with compassionate practices designed to better serve the country’s growing senior population. The pilot program – which will help hospitals meet federal requirements demonstrating best practices in caring for people over 65 – will leverage resources from the Northwell Institute for Healthy Aging and input from Indiana-based healthcare-improvement consultant Press Ganey.
It’s also right in the wheelhouse for the New York City-based JAH Foundation, which prioritizes the care of older adults and other family-caregiving causes. “This pilot program will meaningfully advance age-friendly care by giving hospitals a hands-on opportunity to learn from Northwell’s experience,” noted JAHF President Rani Snyder. “The evaluation component through Press Ganey will help participants and other hospitals understand how age-friendly care can improve patient experience by focusing on what matters to older adults.”
Are you in there?: Stony Brook University scientist Sima Mofakham is going to find out.
Conscious decision: Anyone with covert consciousness fears should look away immediately.
But there’s actually good news for people who are at least somewhat conscious while clinically unconscious (a phenomenon affecting as many as one-fourth of all “unresponsive” hospital patients): A five-year, $2.5 million-plus National Institutes of Health grant will help Stony Brook University researchers develop “SeeMe,” a next-generation brain-behavior synchronization system that uses electrophysiological signals, computer vision and artificial intelligence to detect early signs of consciousness – and promote recovery – in brain-injury patients suffering cognitive motor dissociation.
The NIH-funded R&D project – during which SeeMe which will search for subtle brain-command signals in 80 traumatic brain injury patients and create “closed loop stimulation systems” to promote consciousness – has major potential for thousands of patients who are conscious but can’t show it, according to Sima Mofakham, vice chairwoman of research in the Renaissance School of Medicine’s Department of Neurosurgery and associate professor in SBU’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “It’s this disconnect … that we are hoping to solve with SeeMe,” the lead principal investigator said.
TOP OF THE SITE
Again with the Moon: With technological innovation and human courage to spare, Artemis II was one for the books – but the story is 50 years old, and by now, we should be smarter than that.
(De)brief interlude: Your exclusive sit-down with the biggest brains in regional innovation – the high-stakes property broker, the cutting-edge comp sci professor, the biotechnologist on the ecological crusade … behold, the Innovate Long Island Debrief.
VOICES
Sure, it’s Long Island’s largest publicly traded company now – but it was an epic climb to the top for global medtech distributor (and former mom-and-pop) Henry Schein, as retold by Voices History Anchor Tom Mariner.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Just did it: Nike’s leadership purge continues as the global conglomerate’s innovation chief shows himself out. Retail Dive laces ’em up.
Take me to the pilot: Too many tech chiefs are directing AI pilots, instead of leading AI innovation. CIO puts progress in the portfolio.
A question in every pot: Cannabis legalization is a proven innovation motivator – but that’s not always a good thing. The Conversation hosts a sesh.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Flashpass, on Ohio-based digital skills-building platform for employees and students, raised $4.25 million in Seed funding led by J2 Ventures.
+ Primepoint, a California-based construction-intelligence platform for workflow project teams, raised $10 million in Seed funding led by Navitas Capital, Penny Jar Capital and NextView Ventures, with participation from GS Futures and Aglaé Ventures.
+ Citra Space Corp, a Colorado-based space-technology innovator developing new Space Object Identification capabilities, raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Washington Harbour Partners, with participation from Industrious Ventures, Reliable Properties, Scout VC, Squadra Ventures, Alumni Ventures and Flex Capital.
+ Quartzy, a California-based vertically-integrated procurement platform for the life sciences industry, raised $23 million in funding led by Avenue Capital Group and BroadOak Capital Partners.
+ Critical Loop, a California-based energy solutions provider focused on battery storage, flexible power generation and autonomous control, raised $26 million in Series A funding led by Conifer Infrastructure Partners and Hanover, with participation from Better Ventures, Climate Capital, Adapt Nation Capital and Cyrus Ventures.
+ Slate Auto, a Michigan-based electric-vehicle manufacturer, raised $650 million in Series C funding led by TWG Global.
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 (Jesus Is My Copilot Edition)
Thou shalt have no other gods: Not even the King of MAGA.
Another fine mess-iah: First Pope Trump, now Jesus Trump? Righteous indignation soars.
WWJD: You get the acronym, you know the idea – but have you heard the origin story?
Got it: How “He Gets Us” became a massive marketing success.
Old (Westbury) testament: Please continue supporting the innovative institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including SUNY Old Westbury, where cutting-edge programming and conscientious character development ordain student success from on high. Check them out.
