6 × 102: Welcome to Wednesday, June 9, and a very special edition of your Innovate Long Island newsletter.
As it says right there at the top, this is officially our 600th issue – though not actually.
Kominicki immortal: Innovator, publisher, wordsmith, gourmet, world traveler, husband, father, mentor … but mathematician? Not so much. (Miss you, man.)
Math lesson: As faithful followers surely know, our unique misnumbering system begins with the Myth of the Missing 22 – our newsletter archive, while endlessly entertaining, inexplicably begins at No. 23, with no word on the content or fate of issues 1-22.
Then there are our Monday calendar newsletters – just as constant, just as enriching, but for reasons unknown not numbered or archived, as per the design of late, great founder John Kominicki.
The Man took these secrets with him to the great newsroom in the sky, along with the earliest Innovate Long Island e-blasts, which he shared only with a small group of professional associates when he lit this fire back in 2015.
But who’s counting? Bottom line, they’re just numbers. If nothing else, “600” is big and round and very pretty.
And it’s fairly impressive, that we should still be plugging away, whatever the heck issue number this is, years after losing John’s broad shoulders and steady hand. As his confidant and successor, Innovate LI President Marlene McDonnell, so aptly says, “We all benefitted from knowing him.”
We’ve said it before, and it bears repeating: We literally could not reach these milestones without you, dear reader. So, as we check off this one, thank you, from the tops of our brains and the bottom of our hearts.
Here’s to 600 more!
This is a recording: Edison, phonographing it in.
For the record: Who better to help us celebrate this cornucopia of innovation than Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein?
So, we reverentially note the five different patents Edison received on this date, all related to his groundbreaking phonograph – including one in 1891 (something about aligning phonograph reproducing points) and four in 1914 (related to recording and reproducing sound).
And we further salute Einstein, who published his analysis of Max Planck’s quantum theory on June 9, 1905, part of the body of work that earned Einstein his one-and-only Nobel Prize (in 1921).
Medicine woman: Speaking of groundbreaking scientists, self-taught English physician and social reformer Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917) – the first woman in Britain licensed to practice medicine and the first female member of the British Medical Association – would be 185 years old today.
Futurist: Fox, still fighting for a cure.
Also born on June 9 were Russian Tsar Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov (a.k.a. Peter the Great, 1672-1725), who grew Russia into an empire; English-American mechanical engineer Samuel Slater (1768-1835), who built the first successful U.S. cotton mill and is credited with founding the American cotton-textile industry; British civil engineer George Stephenson (1781-1848), a locomotive pioneer remembered as the “father of the railways”; American linguist and anthropologist Kenneth Pike (1912-200), who invented tagmemics; and beloved Canadian actor and Parkinson’s disease activist Michael J. Fox (born 1961).
A few good scripts: And take a bow, Aaron Sorkin! The American playwright, screenwriter, actor, producer and director – known best for the Broadway play “A Few Good Men,” the television drama “The West Wing” and the Academy Award-winning film “The Social Network,” among other smash hits – turns 60 today.
Give the “walk and talk” master your best at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips and calendar events keep us walking and talking, 600 newsletters later.
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
To the rescue: The pandemic is waning in the United States – at least, in states where lawmakers appreciate science – but COVID-19 is still devastating large swaths of humanity around the globe.
To that end, Mount Sinai South Nassau – the Long Island flagship of the New York City-based Mount Sinai Health System – has collected roughly $100,000 in essential medical supplies, earmarked for the international Wheels Global Foundation, which partners with regional nonprofits to assist large rural populations. Hospital staffers, collaborating with the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin-Queens Long Island, is sending the supplies and an additional $55,000 in cash donations to aid hospitals in India, where a deadly COVID outbreak continues to wreak havoc.
Rajiv Datta, chairman of the Mount Sinai South Nassau Department of Surgery, noted a two-part mission with “equally important aspects”: to give healthcare providers and the ravaged population the necessary supplies, and to inspire those populations to pull through these dark days. “It is our hope that this donation is a help to India’s hospitals and their patients,” Datta said this week. “At the same time, the AAPQLI and Mount Sinai South Nassau physicians join me in adamantly advising the people, and our family and friends in India, to follow every recommendation that will keep them safe and healthy.”
Something to build on: Habitat for Humanity of Suffolk is hammering home the details of its 2021 CEO Build.
The unique networking opportunity – in which companies financially sponsor Habitat for Humanity’s mission to support Suffolk County families in need, and chief executives swap business attire for hardhats and coveralls – is scheduled for Sept. 14 this year. The beneficiaries are a young couple with twin 1-year-old daughters (and two cats), currently crammed into a small two-bedroom apartment; he suffered a hemorrhagic stroke in 2018 that left him unable to work or drive, she’s busy caring for her elderly father, who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2015.
And they really need the extra space. Enter Habitat for Humanity, which is building the family an energy-efficient, 1,800-square-foot, four-bedroom ranch in Shirley, with the assistance of a small army of C-suite executives. Sponsorship opportunities are available, and there’s always room for more builders; more information here.
POD PEOPLE
Bowes: Offshore thing.
This week on Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast, Eversource Energy Vice President Kenneth Bowes discusses two offshore wind-power farms rising off the Montauk coast – and Long Island’s critical role in the rising U.S. offshore-wind industry. Episode 9 is blowing in the wind!
TOP OF THE SITE
Gave them a break: And it worked, according to the Nassau County IDA, which says corporate tax breaks approved in 2020 shielded the county from COVID’s fiscal ruin.
Chemical reaction: It’s all positive as Port Washington-based chemicals manufacturer Aceto Corp. completes another key takeover, this time planting its flag in Oregon.
Hundreds of good reasons: You don’t want to miss another 600 newsletters, do you? Certainly not … thankfully, Innovate Long Island newsletter subscriptions are always easy, always free.
VOICES
Vaccine enticements – ranging from free drinks at the local pub to million-dollar lotteries – are fine, but only if they’re inventive incentives and not diluting duds. Fortunately, media master David Chauvin, executive vice president of ZE Creative Communication, knows the difference.
STUFF WE’RE READING
See through it: Why transparency is key to innovation. Forbes looks in.
Are we there yet? How you’ll know when we’ve officially recovered from the pandemic. Quartz clues you in.
Winners always quit: From overthinking to overeating to your soul-sucking job, how to quit almost anything, properly. Good Housekeeping pulls a hard stop.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ One Concern, the California-based provider of a platform that models community resilience and response to natural disasters, received a $45 million investment from Sompo Holdings.
+ Thirty Madison, a New York City-based healthcare company focused on chronic conditions, raised $140 million in Series C funding led by HealthQuest Capital, with participation from Mousse Partners, Bracket Capital, Polaris Partners, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Northzone, Greycroft and others.
+ Next Energy Technologies, a California-based energy-tech developing transparent energy-harvesting windows, raised $13.4 million in Series C funding led by Alon Blue Square Israel, Gear Innovation Network, Viracon and Rincon Advisors.
+ Stellanova Therapeutics, a Texas-based biotech advancing cancer therapies targeting the tumor microenvironment, closed a $15.5 million Series A financing led by Sporos Bioventures.
+ Garwood Medical Device, a NYC-based biotech specializing in antibiotic-resistant bacterial biofilm infections, raised $4 million in Series C funding led by the WNY Impact Investment Fund and the Murray family, along with global investors in the orthopedics/healthcare space.
+ Ganaz, a Washington State-based agri-tech producing a workforce-management platform for agriculture businesses and food manufacturers, raised $7 million in Series A funding. Backers included Bessemer Venture Partners, Founders’ Co-op, Taylor Ventures, AgFunder and Techstars.
BELOW THE FOLD (600 And Counting Edition)
Roll with it: Southern California is being swarmed by small earthquakes.
Emergency situation: With 600 COVID-related emergency use authorizations, has the FDA crossed a line?
Shake it up: Scientists are still investigating the 600 small earthquakes that rattled California this week.
Almonds are actually peaches: And 599 other useless (but interesting) facts.
Six-hundred in sight: Please continue supporting the amazing firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Farrell Fritz, which opened its doors on Long Island 545 months ago – way back in 1976 – and has been adding new talent and practice areas ever since. Check them out.
