Hyvää keskiviikkoa! And a happy Wednesday to you, dear reader – not just the Day of the Finnish Identity, of course, but the midpoint of this latest exciting week of socioeconomic innovation.
Fudge it a little: Or a lot, it’s a big day.
Day and Nightingale: It’s May 12 out there, known globally as International Nurse’s Day, and you’ll see why in a minute.
It’s also National Nutty Fudge Day, absolutely worth mentioning.
Rhyme time: There once was a thrice-weekly newsletter, whose writers got better and better … they smartened up folks, and threw in some jokes, and rescued the holiday forgetters.
That includes National Limerick Day, also celebrated on May 12, and you’ll actually learn more about this, too, coming right up.
Not your type: Sure, you love QWERTY now, but the Dvorak Keyboard was all the rage when it was patented on this date in 1936.
Strokes of genius: Dvorak devotees are known to exceed 120 WPM.
Featuring a more intuitive layout and different versions for lefties and righties, the keyboard actually worked too well: People typed so fast that typewriter hammers kept jamming, leading to QWERTY’s sustained dominance.
Oh, two: Also issued on this date, in 1903, were two patents for processes and equipment related to the Linde Oxygen Process, masterwork of German scientist Carl von Linde, the father of modern refrigeration.
The power of Zuse: German inventor, businessman and computer-science pioneer Konrad Zuse completed his work on the Z3, the first programmable digital computer, 80 years ago today.
NORADical: The agreement creating the North American Aerospace Defense Command – which provides continuous worldwide detection and validation of ballistic missile attacks on the North American continent – was formalized by the U.S. and Canadian governments on this date in 1958.
Ooold school: And it was May 12, 2004, when archaeologists in Egypt announced the discovery of humanity’s oldest seat of learning, the Library of Alexandria.
With 13 lecture halls and room enough for 5,000 students, the 2,000-year-old excavated site on the Mediterranean coast is believed to be the world’s oldest university.
Victorian icon: Nightingale also championed women in the workforce and was a prolific writer who pioneered the use of infographics.
The Lady With the Lamp: British nurse and social reformer Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) – the founder of modern nursing, who formed foundational views about sanitation during the Crimean War – would be 201 years old today.
Also born on May 12 were British poet Edward Lear (1812-1888), a witty wordsmith credited with inventing the limerick; American geologist, explorer and activist Matilda Coxe Stevenson (a.k.a. Tilly E. Stevenson, 1849-1915), a groundbreaking ethnologist and proponent of women in science; Austrian pediatrician Clemens Peter Freiherr von Pirquet (1874-1929), who invented a skin test for tuberculosis that bears his name; Hollywood legend Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003); and Nobel Prize-winning British chemist Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994), who supercharged X-ray crystallography.
D’oh! And take a bow, Homer Simpson – the banana-skinned centerpiece of the longest-running scripted series in television history (32 seasons and counting) turns 65 today (kinda … the fictional character’s in-universe birthdate is officially May 12, 1956).
Wish the forever-39 cartoon creation a happy birthday at editor@innovateli.com, where news tips and calendar events – from any universe – are gratefully accepted.
About our sponsor: The Long Island Business Development Council has helped build the regional economy for 52 years by bringing together government economic-development officials, developers, financial experts and others for education, debate and networking.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Natural intelligence: Hirsch (left) and Zanos, smart enough to incorporate AI in their patient-centric digital tool.
Sleep on it: A heavy-hitting duo representing Manhasset’s Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research has one of the best ideas in the world, according to Fast Company.
An artificial intelligence-powered clinical tool conceived by Feinstein Institutes researchers Theodoros Zanos and Jamie Hirsch was a finalist in Fast Company’s hyper-competitive 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards, a pay-to-play competition designed to empower positive change across myriad industries and applications. One of 13 finalists in the AI and Data Category, Zanos and Hirsch’s idea – dubbed “Let Sleeping Patients Lie” – determines if patients staying overnight in the hospital should be woken up for vital sign checks, or left alone to get a full night’s sleep.
A prototype is slated to debut at Northwell Health’s Huntington Hospital this summer, with an app in development that will draw on a vast health-records database to influence recovery procedures, discharge protocols and more. The WCIA’s 2021 AI and Data Category was ultimately won by Checkr Assess, a digital tool designed to reduce bias during hiring processes by filtering out irrelevant background-check returns.
Paint, by numbers: A Nassau County Industrial Development Agency tax-abatement deal will keep a major-league paint, lumber and hardware distributor in Port Washington, and trigger a $7 million expansion of its Harbor Park Drive headquarters.
Paint Applicator Corp. of America, a busy circa-1974 wholesaler that claimed roughly $100 million in 2018 revenues, will leverage a 15-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement into a 21,300-square-foot addition to its existing 91,250-square-foot facility. The supersized warehouse/distribution center will retain 127 full-time employees and add six new jobs, while “initiat[ing] an economic output of more than $500 million over the course of the 15-year PILOT,” according to the IDA.
The company will also pay more than $8.6 million to various taxing districts during that time, more than the $5.6 million that would have been collected without the expansion, according to Nassau IDA Chairman Richard Kessel. “Not only does our economy grow from the company adding full-time jobs and more than 70 construction-phase jobs, but all of the other companies that spend money here to utilize their goods and services means the expanded generation of tax dollars,” Kessel said.
POD PEOPLE
You can call me Al: Debra Markowitz has stories to tell.
This week on Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast, it’s lights, cameras, action with former Nassau County Film Commissioner Debra Markowitz, who drops some names you know, recalls Nassau’s three-decade journey to premier moviemaking location and focuses on the personal challenge of creating her own feature films. Episode 5, now playing on a website near you!
TOP OF THE SITE
Admission addition: Farmingdale State College and the New York Institute of Technology are the latest Long Island institutions to announce a joint admissions deal.
Heavy lifting: The YMCA of Long Island is innovating interventions as anxiety, depression and other pandemic-flavored mental burdens weigh heavily.
Did you hear? You would’ve, if this informative and entertaining e-newsletter popped into your inbox three days a week. Luckily, subscriptions are always easy, always free.
VOICES
Innovate Long Island rolls out the red carpet for the newest A-lister to join our all-star Voices cast: innovator deluxe Tom Mariner, a regional sparkplug who’s personally witnessed (and contributed to) three decades of amazing Long Island innovation.
Tom brings a unique historical prospective to our esteemed team, starting with this knew-him-when retrospective of LI impresario Phil McLoughlin and red-hot EEG Enterprises.
STUFF WE’RE READING
If you rebuild it: While luring new industry, post-pandemic cities must also cater to the industries already there. Bloomberg CityLab rebuilds with purpose.
Home stretch: The numbers are in, and telecommuting isn’t all it’s cracked up to be (50 percent even miss the commute). The Atlantic does the math.
New dogs, old tricks: How an old-time cable industry technology helped megaretailer PetSmart survive the pandemic. Forbes wags the dog.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Dyno Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based biotech applying artificial intelligence to gene therapy, raised $100 million in Series A financing led by Andreessen Horowitz, Casdin Capital, GV, Obvious Ventures and Lux Capital, with participation from founding investors Polaris Partners, CRV and KdT Ventures.
+ CognitOps, a Texas-based global provider of artificial intelligence-based warehouse operating applications, raised $11 million in Series A funding led by FirstMark Capital, Chicago Ventures, Schematic Ventures, Haystack and CEAS Investments.
+ Obviously AI, a California-based no-code tool enabling anyone to build and run AI models, raised $3.6 million in seed funding led by TMV, B Capital Group, Golden Gate Ventures, Arka Venture Labs and several angel investors.
+ MentalHappy, a Wisconsin-based, Y Combinator-backed online mental health platform, closed a $1.1 million seed funding round led by Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, with participation from Social Impact Capital, Chai Angels and Peter Reinhardt, among others.
+ Cultured Decadence, a Wisconsin-based cellular agriculture company producing environmentally friendly, nutritionally superior seafood products, closed its $1.6 million pre-seed financing. Backers included Bluestein Ventures, Joyance Partners, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, gener8tor, GlassWall Syndicate, Bascom Ventures and China-based Dao Foods.
+ Material Bank, a Florida-based search-and-sample marketplace for architectural, design and construction materials, secured $100 million in Series C funding co-led by General Catalyst and Durable Capital Partners, with participation from Bond, Lead Edge Capital, Bain Capital Ventures and Raine Ventures.
BELOW THE FOLD (Four of a Kind Edition)
Good thinking: Head honcho Michael Dowling (second from left) congratulates innovative Northwell Health employees (from left) Jared Huston, Anne Marie Donough and Alina Segal.
In house: Northwell’s 2021 Innovation Challenge has awarded $1.3 million to four breakthrough ideas.
In the can: Beverage companies know a successful pandemic launch starts with these four marketing strategies.
In development: True artificial intelligence is still years away, according to a new paper that laments four common AI myths.
In crowd: The big four – developers, financers, industrial leaders and government regulators – know all economic-development roads lead to the Long Island Business Development Council, five-decade steward of regional socioeconomics and one of the amazing organizations that support Innovate LI. Check them out.
