Middle man: Or woman, or nonbinary individual, as the case may be – either way, we’re sure happy to see you, dear reader, as we reach the halfway mark of this latest week of exciting socioeconomic innovation.
Masked marvels: Keeping it real on National Superhero Day.
Let’s be careful out there: It’s Wednesday, April 28, perhaps best known as the World Day for Safety and Health at Work, when occupational hazards get lots of attention, and also should be avoided.
Ricocheting from one end of literature to the other, today also delivers unto the world Great Poetry Reading Day and, unto us Americans, National Superhero Day.
Blue alert: It’s also National Blueberry Pie Day. We’ll take ours à la mode, please and thank you.
Red alert: The world’s first municipal fire alarm system – with call boxes and a centralized office and everything – went live in Boston on April 28, 1852.
Yellow alert: Completing the color theme, it was April 28, 1932, when scientists attending an American Societies for Experimental Biology meeting in Philadelphia announced a new human vaccine for the dreaded Yellow Fever.
Zàijiàn: Headed (eventually) to Hong Kong, the China Clipper bids farewell to San Francisco and the incomplete Golden Gate Bridge.
Island-hopping: Pan-American Airways’ China Clipper completed the first transpacific passenger flight on this date in 1937, connecting San Francisco and Hong Kong.
While significantly quicker than the fastest steamboat of the day, the trip required 65 hours in the air – and seven full days to complete, thanks to its circuitous San Francisco-Hawaii-Midway Island-Wake-Island-Guam-Manila-Macau-Hong Kong route.
The raft of Kon: Captained by courageous Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl, the balsa-wood raft Kon-Tiki launched on its historic 4,300-mile voyage on April 28, 1947.
The underequipped crew of six, out to prove prehistoric South Americans could have colonized the Polynesian islands, arrived at the Tuamotu Archipelago 101 days after leaving Peru.
One night in Midtown: And, after killing it in London’s West End, the Tim Rice/Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus musical “Chess” opened on Broadway 33 years ago tonight.
The limited run lasted only 68 performances; lead Murray Head’s “One Night in Bangkok” is eternal.
Their way, or the Milky Way: Two Dutch astronomers who made great strides in understanding the nature of our Milky Way galaxy – Jan Oort (1900-1992), who also thought up Oort clouds, and Bart Bok (1906-1983), who also discovered “Bok globules” – were born on April 28.
Boo: Harper Lee, great American novelist.
Also born on this date were German chemist Franz Achard (1753-1821), the first to extract sugar from beets; British physicist Hertha Marks Ayrton (1854-1923), the first woman nominated as a fellow of the Royal Society; American psychologist George Crane (1901-1995), a longtime conservative columnist and the father of two U.S. Congress members; heroic German industrialist Oskar Schindler (1908-1974), who kept a list; Italian industrialist Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916-1993), who started a tractor company and wound up producing the world’s fastest, most desired sports cars; and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist Harper Lee (1926-2016).
Justice is served: And take a bow, Elena Kagan! The fourth woman to become an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, nominated in 2010 by President Barack Obama, turns 61 today.
Give the justice a supreme salute at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips make great opening statements and your calendar events always win on appeal. Case closed!
About our sponsor: Farrell Fritz, a full-service law firm with 15 practice groups, advises startups on entity formation, founder and shareholder agreements, funding, executive compensation and benefits, licensing and technology transfer, mergers and acquisitions and other strategic transactions. The firm’s blog, New York Venture Hub, discusses legal and business issues facing entrepreneurs and investors.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Edward Bonahue: Full circle.
Welcome home, Dr. Bonahue: The State University of New York Board of Trustees has selected a local kid to lead SUNY’s largest community college.
The board on Monday named longtime higher-ed exec Edward Bonahue, who boasts 20-plus years of community college experience, the new president of Suffolk County Community College in Selden. Bonahue, currently provost and vice president for academic affairs at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Fla., packs a résumé heavy with community college-level achievement: Responsible for nine new baccalaureate programs and millions in federal grants, the provost has chaired Santa Fe College’s Department of Humanities & Foreign Languages and coordinated its Department of Creative Arts & Humanities, while co-chairing several other departments.
The native Long Islander – who earned his master’s degree and PhD in English literature at the University of North Carolina, and has been a visiting assistant professor of humanities at the University of Florida, among other teaching gigs – succeeds Interim SCCC President Lou Petrizzo. “We thank Interim President Petrizzo for making sure our students could succeed in their studies during this pandemic,” SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras said in a statement. “We are pleased to have Dr. Bonahue join the SUNY family to lead this multi-campus college.”
Favorable winds: Stony Brook University has scored a major financial commitment from Ørsted and Eversource, the venture partners developing the Sunrise Wind offshore wind farm in New York coastal waters.
The $5 million funding commitment is ticketed for SBU’s Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center, which will host new research initiatives tied directly to the Sunrise Wind Project. On the drawing board are new engineering, construction and logistical designs related to offshore-wind operations, along with a host of technological innovations designed to maximize efficiency in the collection, transmission and storage of wind-generated electricity.
The work is ideally suited to the AERTC, a conservation-focused New York State Center of Excellence focused on energy-efficiency research and new-technology deployment. “Since opening AERTC in 2010, Stony Brook has been effectively advancing renewable-energy research and training … the next generation of energy experts,” said SBU President Maurie McInnis. “With this research partnership and collaboration, we are poised to make a real impact on the future production and efficiency of offshore-wind energy.”
POD PEOPLE
This week on Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast, Citizens Campaign for the Environment Executive Director Adrienne Esposito dives into groundwater protection, carbon reduction and offshore-wind power – plus, the monumental challenge of changing made-up minds in a hyper-political world. Episode 3 is streaming now!
TOP OF THE SITE
Another bright idea: Stratospheric Aerosol Injection may be coming soon to an upper atmosphere near you – but first, scientists have questions about the anti-warming tech.
Blocker party: A juicy VC investment brings a Farmingdale biotech’s unique enzyme-blocking cancer treatments one step closer to human trials.
Innovation in the Age of Coronavirus: Long Island’s one-and-only pandemic primer is welcoming walk-ins and putting fannies in the seats. Try to keep up!
VOICES
Do you know who owns your corporate website? Here’s a hint: It’s not you. Fortunately, media master David Chauvin has read the fine print, and knows what you need to do to protect your company’s most important digital asset.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Running on empty: A shortage of qualified tanker drivers could leave gas stations high and dry this summer. CNN Business fuels up.
Beyond expectations: Beyond Meat’s newest burger boasts even less fat. Fox Business digs in.
Next go-round: The circular economy now turns to plastics, sure to drive the next wave of climate-tech innovation. Forbes take a spin.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Vector Remote Care, an Oregon-based digital-health company focused on data generated from cardiac devices, closed a $12.5 million Series A funding round led by Updata Partners.
+ CareRev, a California-based labor-marketplace platform connecting hospitals, health systems and local providers, closed a $50 million Series A financing led by Transformation Capital, with participation from Industry Ventures, Zach Coelius, Michael Siebel, Gaingels and others.
+ Outlier.org, a New York City-based online education platform focused on providing access to college educations and reducing student debt, raised $30 million in Series B funding led by GV, Unusual Ventures, GSV, Harrison Metal and Gaingels.
+ BastCore, an Alabama-based hemp-fiber processing and manufacturing company, completed a $2.8 million Series A financing. Poseidon Asset Management participated in the round.
+ Boundless Immigration, a Washington State-based immigrant-empowerment organization, raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Foundry Group, Forefront Venture Partners, Industry Ventures, Pioneer Square Labs, Trilogy Equity Partners, Two Sigma Ventures and new investors Emerson Collective and Jerry Yang from AME Cloud Ventures.
+ Ophelia, a NYC-based health-tech startup focused on Opioid Use Disorder, raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator, General Catalyst, Refactor Capital and the founders of Flatiron Health, Warby Parker, Harry’s, Allbirds, PillPack, Carbon Health and Lambda School.
BELOW THE FOLD
Clocked out: Time moves funny sometimes.
The hurrier you go…: Signs that you’ve got “hurry sickness,” and what to do about it.
…the behinder you get: Why your chronic tardiness might not be your fault.
Slow down: The U.S. vaccination rate is slowing down, according to the CDC.
Fast friends: Please continue supporting the amazing firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Farrell Fritz, best buddy of entrepreneurs and investors alike. Check them out.
