Pardon the interruption: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as we hurdle the hump and hustle toward a glorious three-day weekend.
With the unofficial start of Summer 2026 just days away, a quick reminder that Innovate Long Island is taking a quick holiday hiatus. Please enjoy today’s jam-packed newsletter, then go make some Memorial Day memories – no newsletters Friday or Monday.
We’ll be back patrolling the innovation economy’s front lines next week. Have a great weekend, and please celebrate responsibly!
Cold start: Pick your favorite flavor (and cool your jets) on National Juice Slush Day.
…and tribulations: Here on May 20, we get the ball rolling with an important observance on research-rich Long Island – Clinical Trials Day, acknowledging the vision, perseverance and spirit shared by innovative scientists, brave patients and many other healthcare heroes. (Why today? Read on.)
Also buzzing about is World Bee Day, the UN’s annual effort to highlight the critical role bees and other pollinators play in our global food supply.
Who wants to: It’s also the dare-to-dream Be a Millionaire Day, offering little concrete advice but lots of wishful thinking. (Maybe not as farfetched as it sounds: There are roughly 25 million Americans with a minimum-seven-figure net value – about 40 percent of the world’s millionaires, for those keeping score – with 1,000 new U.S. millionaires added every day).
You certainly don’t need a fortune to eat well on May 20 – not on National Pick Strawberries Day (cutting out middleman markups), National Juice Slush Day (an icy destiny for those strawberries and other frosted fruits) or National Quiche Lorraine Day (filling flaky crusts with eggs, cream, bacon and your cheese of choice – plus a dash of nutmeg, if you’re feeling like a million bucks).
Ye scurvy dogs! Sick sailors would start feeling better soon after this date in 1747, when HMS Salisbury Ship Surgeon James Lind initiated one of history’s first-ever clinical trials (arguably, the very first) – a careful course of experimentation and study that yielded a cure for scurvy (and, eventually, Clinical Trials Day).
Tight squeeze: All due respect to Brooke Shields, but not sure this is what Strauss and Davis had in mind.
Am I blue: Also embracing new ideas were inventors Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis, who added rivets to already popular denim workpants – and wound up patenting blue jeans on May 20, 1873.
Solopreneurs: Also taking off – literally – were American aviators Charles Lindbergh (who departed Roosevelt Field aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on this date in 1927, en route to Paris and history) and Amelia Earhart (who took off from Newfoundland, Canada, aboard her Little Red Bus on this date in 1932, en route to Northern Ireland and history).
Sphere of influence: Aiming slightly higher than the legendary pilots – at least, physically – was Naval Research scientist Robert Baumann, whose “Vanguard Sphere” structure scored the first U.S. patent for an orbital satellite system 68 years ago today.
Ready for its closeups: And higher still, it was May 20, 1990, when the Hubble Space Telescope – after nearly a month of diagnostic routines and system checks – opened its eyes and sent home its first picture from space.
The orbital observatory’s Wide Field/Planetary Camera captured a large field of stars – nothing fancy, but exactly what technicians needed to focus the mighty telescope.
Mr. Smith goes to Hollywood: American actor and U.S. Army Air Forces veteran James Maitland “Jimmy” Stewart (1908-1997) – the “American ideal” movie star who excelled as the everyman and earned loads of awards (from his Hollywood peers and his commanding officers) – would be 118 years old today.
Oh, baby: Sadaharu never played in the States but was still an international sensation.
Also born on May 20 were German geologist Ferdinand Zirkel (1838-1912), who pioneered the microscopic study of rock minerals; German American inventor Emil Berliner (1851-1929), credited with major innovations related to telephone receivers, phonograph records and aeronautics; Cuban writer, independent ethnographer and literary activist Lydia Cabrera (1899-1991), a leading authority on Santería and other Afro-Cuban religions; American engineer and business magnate William Redington Hewlett (1913-2001), who co-founded the Hewlett-Packard Co.; and Japanese baseball legend Sadaharu Oh (born 1940), who hit more home runs (an unassailable 868 dingers) than any other professional player.
And Cher alike: And take a bow, Cherilyn Sarkisian! The American singer, actress, product pitchwoman, television personality and all-around cultural icon – you know her as Cher – turns 80 today.
Send birthday wishes and other Shoop Shoops to the Queen of Pop at editor@innovateli.com, where I We’ve Got You Babe (and your news tips) – and, if we could Turn Back Time, we’d run your calendar events over and over again. (Just ask Fernando.)
About our sponsor: Burman Real Estate is poised to revitalize key Long Island communities with thoughtful, relevant redevelopment projects. Current projects include Hicksville’s The Shops on Broadway, a reimagined shopping destination featuring a restaurant row with rooftop and central plaza event spaces; Mineola Downtown, a transit-oriented development; and a nine-story residential tower with direct access to the Mineola LIRR station.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Raising the bar: The Suffolk County Bar Association has rechristened its Hauppauge headquarters in honor of a veteran attorney and past president.
The HQ has been renamed the Harvey B. Besunder Bar Center, honoring a lawyer who clerked for several Suffolk County District Court judges, served as a county attorney in Suffolk’s Family Court and Condemnation bureaus and rose to partner level in private practices throughout eastern Long Island. Besunder – who previously chaired the SCBA’s Condemnation, Grievance, Judiciary and Bench-Bar committees and currently co-chairs its Commercial Division Committee – was instrumental in the association’s 1985 purchase of the five-acre parcel off Wheeler Road in Hauppauge where the headquarters was finally constructed in 1993.
During a May 14 renaming ceremony, Besunder called the building “a great place for lawyers to gather” and said he was “overwhelmed” by the gesture. “The SCBA building is more than just a structure – it is an engine of opportunity,” added the Hon. John Leo, reigning SCBA president. “By making this space possible, Harvey enhanced the careers of his fellow lawyers and the lives of his clients – proving that, when we provide the right environment, the possibilities for growth are endless.”
Slam dunk: Rain barrels are a great way to keep nitrogen out of the groundwater (and maybe a cost-effective way, too).
Like shooting nitrogen in a barrel: Regional homeowners are once again being recruited to the front lines of the war against nitrogen pollution – and, in some cases, being paid handsomely for their service.
Now in its fourth year, the Long Island Garden Rewards Program – a collaboration of the Long Island Regional Planning Council, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission, the Long Island Sound Partnership and the Long Island South Shore Estuary Reserve – is offering reimbursements up to $500 to homeowners who implement “green infrastructure” projects on their properties. Rain barrels, rain gardens, native plantings and other efforts to reduce the amount of nitrogen seeping into regional groundwater, wetlands and marine habitats are all in play.
The competitive application process, targeting reimbursements on eligible purchases made after March 15, officially opened Monday. “Excess nitrogen pollution from stormwater runoff … is one of the most serious environmental challenges our Island faces,” noted LIRPC Chairman John Cameron. “By participating in the program, Long Island residents can make a lasting impact on water quality and environmental health while beautifying their own properties.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Golden rule: A good organizational crisis-management team can still control a bad story, according to Fair Media Council CEO Jaci Clement, but these digitized days, they’ve got mere minutes to respond.
Who’s who: Who’s on the podcast? Who’s been Debriefed? Who’s sharing their well-informed opinions on the op-ed page? The best and brightest of Long Island innovation, that’s who.
VOICES
The rebirth of the American mall – with modern retail, entertainment and social aesthetics woven in – is an intriguing prospect on Long Island, according to Burman Real Estate President and Voices Real Estate Anchor Scott Burman, who predicts an exciting future for property owners and experience seekers alike.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Recollection detection: Science unlocks the secret of Superior Autobiographical Memory. Popular Mechanics memorizes the answers.
A yuan for change: China pulls billions of investment dollars out of U.S. clean-energy projects. Gizmodo Trumps green energy.
Artificial flavor: Behold, the top 50 artificial intelligence companies. Forbes ranks the leaders.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Cimento AI, a Utah-based, artificial intelligence-native human-risk-management platform, raised $3 million in Pre-Seed funding led by Bowery Capital and Indie.vc, with participation from angels from Cloudflare, Palo Alto, Cursor, Nvidia and Okta.
+ Onramp, a Texas-based, bitcoin-centric financial services platform, raised $12.5 million in Series A funding led by Early Riders.
+ Arkeus, a Washington-based defense-technology innovator building AI-powered sensing systems, raised $18 million in Series A funding led by QIC Ventures.
+ Xpanner, a California-based construction-automation pioneer, raised $18 million in Series B bridge funding led by Korea Investment Partners Co., with participation from KB Investment Co.
+ Tomorrow.io, a Massachusetts-based weather-intelligence resilience platform, raised $35 million in Series F funding led by Pitango, Harel Insurance, Stonecourt Capital and HarbourVest Partners.
+ Recursive Superintelligence, a California-based developer of self-improving AI software and autonomous training systems, raised $650 million in funding led by GV and Greycroft, with participation from AMD Ventures and NVIDIA.
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 Burman Real Estate). Gregory Zeller can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Bad News For CBS News Edition)
Casting call: Forget the next Bond … who’s got the chops to play the next Cronkite?
Good night, and good luck: A century later, CBS News Radio is signing off forever.
Image problem: A right-wing ideological agenda has decimated “CBS Evening News.”
Cronkite – The Movie: Sony is bringing the legendary anchor to the big screen.
Big news: Please continue supporting the fantastic firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Burman Real Estate, where today’s top story is the same as yesterday’s and tomorrow’s – the conscientious and smart redevelopment of Long Island infrastructure. Check them out.
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