On the bright side: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as we hit the pause button on international war crimes, domestic affordability crises, mad dictators, complicit lawmakers, Medicaid mayhem, vacationing schoolkids and tax-day deadlines – anything and everything that may be stressing you out.
Instead, let’s take a few minutes to focus on sound science, compassionate collaboration and all the other wonderful things that promote socioeconomic progress. That’s what your favorite innovation-economy newsletter is all about – and, we suspect, why you’re here. Onward and upward!
Mystery munchie: Veggie? Meat? Savory? Sweet? You’ll have to try the empanada to know for sure.
Every dog has its day: Today is April 8 and while we’re all about human achievement, there’s no denying that the date has truly gone to the dogs – not only is it National Dog Fighting Day, sinking the ASPCA’s teeth into the most heinous of animal-cruelty practices, it’s also Dog Farting Awareness Day, which stinks (literally) but could be a sign of serious health issues, so stick your nose in as necessary.
Keeping with those animal instincts, today is also National Zoo Lovers Day (count us out – we do not approve of caging or otherwise imprisoning wild animals, no matter how well they’re treated or how closely their natural habitat is simulated) and National Draw a Bird Day (encouraging chicken depictions, cartoon loons and other soaring drawings).
Have it your way: For lunch or dinner (or both), we highly recommend National Empanada Day, an annual April 8 celebration of the Latin American (or southern European) fried pastry (or baked) with savory (or sweet) fillings. Try them all!
Feeling enlightened yet? You know who loved empanadas? The Buddha. (Actually, we can’t prove that.) But we do know that Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, was born on this date in 563 B.C. (Actually, we can’t prove that, either – it’s more of a historical best guess. Verifiable birthdays below.)
Out on a limb: Venus was already disarmed when she was re-discovered in 1820 — or was she?
Venus, if you will: Buddhism, of course, is rooted in mindfulness, compassion and nonviolence. Also not bearing arms is the Venus de Milo, arguably the most famous surviving work of ancient Greek sculpture, which was re-discovered on the Island of Milos (sans arms, according to the official story) on April 8, 1820.
Natural selection: Other museum-quality exhibits are to be found in the American Museum of Natural History, which came to be 157 years ago today via a charter drafted in New York City by well-to-do Knickerbocker, famed philanthropist and presidential father figure Theodore Roosevelt Sr.
Square space: Elsewhere in the Big Apple, world-famous Times Square became a thing on this date in 1904, when New York City Mayor George McLellan officially renamed “Longacre Square” in honor of The New York Times, which had recently relocated its headquarters to the midtown hub.
Try, try again: And it was April 8, 2016, when SpaceX successfully landed a reusable Falcon 9 rocket booster on a sea-based robotic platform for the first time.
After sending its second-stage rocket flying off into space and dropping a SpaceX Dragon supply capsule at the International Space Station, the booster settled gently onto a drone barge waiting a few miles off Cape Canaveral in the Atlantic Ocean – the first successful soft landing after four explosive crashes.
Annan among men: Kofi was a leader, a facilitator and a world-class peacemaker.
United front: Ghanian diplomat Kofi Atta Annan (1938-2018) – the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, remembered as a staunch human-rights advocate, champion of African development and progressive bridge-builder between the UN and private-sector interests – would be 88 years old today.
Also born on April 8 were American physician, pathologist, bacteriologist and medical-school administrator William Welch (1850-1934), a modern-medicine pioneer and cofounder of Johns Hopkins University; American biochemist Melvin Calvin (1911-1997), the Nobel laureate who discovered the Calvin Cycle, which facilitates photosynthesis; Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie (1912-1969), a three-time Olympic Champion and 10-time World Champion who became a Hollywood star; First Lady of the United States Elizabeth Anne “Betty” Ford (1918-2011), who set a new precedent as a politically active presidential spouse; and American actress, producer and director Robin Wright (born 1966), a former soap opera star who captured hearts as “The Princess Bride” and inconceivably turns 60 today.
Hey, Jude: And take a bow, Julian Charles John Lennon! The Grammy Award-nominated English musician, photographer, author and philanthropist – who escaped his famous father’s shadow to forge his own path – was born 63 years ago today.
It’s Too Late for Goodbyes – but you can always say “hello” to Julian (and us) at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips and calendar events rock through the generations.
About our sponsor: St. Joseph’s University-New York, 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. The independent and coeducational university provides a strong academic and values-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 100 majors, special course offerings and certificates and affiliated and pre-professional programs. Learn more here.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Stamp of approval: Always held on the second Saturday of May, Stamp Out Hunger reigns as America’s largest one-day food drive.
Special delivery: One of Long Island’s busiest social-service organizations is mailing it in, once again.
Island Harvest Food Bank will be the final destination for tons of food items collected on May 9, this year’s date for the National Association of Letter Carriers’ annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, wherein United States Postal Service employees collect donations left outside private residences and transport them to centralized distribution points. Billed as the nation’s largest single-day food drive, Stamp Out Hunger gathered enough nonperishable foodstuffs to support nearly 600,000 meals for food-insecure Long Islanders in 2025, according to Melville-based Island Harvest, which is counting on another strong showing this year.
Canned goods, pasta, rice, nut butters, shelf-stable milk and hygiene products are all in short supply among roughly 250,000 food-insecure Long Islanders, “including children, families, older adults and veterans,” according to Island Harvest Food Bank President and CEO Randi Shubin Dresner. “Virtually every ZIP code is affected,” Shubin Dresner added. “The Stamp Out Hunger food drive is an easy yet powerful way for our community to come together – when Long Islanders act as one island for one day, the impact is extraordinary.”
Earning an A in AI: A new Hofstra University interdisciplinary certificate program will promote artificial intelligence literacy among undergraduates – and not just computer science students.
Open to all undergrads, the AI Foundations, Ethics & Applications Certificate – developed by Hofstra’s AI Literacy Task Force, a multidisciplinary cohort representing computer science, engineering, philosophy, communications, psychology, and writing-studies faculty – will get busy in the Fall 2026 semester. Designed to function like a “concentration,” without extending the time or cost to earn a degree, the nine-credit combo involves two AI-specific core courses (an overview of the science and an exploration of its ethics) and a discipline-specific capstone aligned with each student’s major.
With AI rapidly reshaping career paths and, in so small measure, the very fabric of society, the idea is to prepare students for what’s coming next, according to Hofstra University President Susan Poser. “Hofstra will ensure that all interested students, regardless of their area of study, have the opportunity to learn about the multiple dimensions of artificial intelligence,” Poser noted. “Students will wrestle with the ethical and social issues related to AI, while considering its utility in academia and in their chosen career.”
TOP OF THE SITE
Breaking news: Or broken, as a damning new Fair Media Council survey reveals the public’s trust in national news media has bottomed out.
Guessing game: Who’s next on “Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast?” That’s a good question and we have a great answer. But the better question might be: Who have you missed over our first 61 amazing episodes? No. 62 is coming up quick … so catch up fast!
VOICES
A system that champions chemically maintained lawns over ecologically sound native plantings makes little sense to Innovate Long Island Voices Environmental Anchor Frank Piccininni, who wants more logic in Long Island landscaping.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Well-preserved secret: Why “precision fermentation” is set to explode across food-manufacturing sectors. Food Safety Magazine converts carbohydrates.
Where no one has gone before: Following Apollo 13’s “successful failure” trajectory, Artemis II sets humanity’s new space-distance record. Reuters boldly goes.
Breakaway goal: The National Hockey League Innovation Lab pursues the latest and greatest in player-safety and fan-appreciation technologies. NHL.com lights the lamp.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Miravoice, a California-based agentic artificial intelligence startup enabling automated phone surveys and interviews, raised $6.3 million in Seed funding led by Unusual Ventures, with participation from Neo, 25madison and angel investors.
+ Soma Energy, a Vancouver, Canada-based power provider using AI technology to unlock existing grid capacities and accelerate transmission time to data centers, raised $7 million in Pre-Seed and Seed funding led by Category Ventures, with participation from Haystack, RRE Ventures, TO VC, Uncork Capital, Panache Ventures and Walter Kortschak.
+ Insight Health, a New York City-based clinical agent platform for healthcare providers, raised $11 million in Series A funding led by Standard Capital, with participation from Pear VC, Kindred Ventures, Eudemian, ElevenLabs and 43.
+ Noon, a California-based AI-powered platform that allows designers to create products directly from a codebase or indigenous design system, raised $44 million in Seed funding led by Chemistry, First Round Capital, SV Angel, Scribble Ventures, Elevation Capital, Afore Capital and angel investors.
+ Beacon Biosignals, a Massachusetts-based biotech leveraging brain scans to advance human health, raised $97 million in Series B financing led by JSL Health, Palo Santo VC, Kicker Ventures and Samsung Next.
+ Stipple Bio, a Massachusetts-based biotech creating targeted cancer therapies, raised $100 million in Series A financing led by RA Capital, a16z Bio+Health and Nextech Invest, with participation from Emerson Collective Investments (managed by Yosemite), Google Ventures, LoLa Capital Partners and GordonMD Global Investments.
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 St. Joe’s). Gregory Zeller can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (April Showers Bring … Edition)
It’s raining, it’s pouring: Those April showers ain’t what they used to be.
Rain, rain: Why April showers have become April downpours across the nation…
Go away: …except where severe drought conditions are stifling U.S. agriculture.
Another day: You know the rhyme, but do you know its 16th Century origins?
The sun will come out: Please continue supporting the innovative institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including St. Joseph’s University, which showers students with strong academics and wholesome values to ensure a brighter tomorrow. Check them out.
