Do the math: It’s Wednesday, dear readers, and the 230th day of the year, with only 135 days left in testy, taxing 2021.
Mathematically, that makes today Aug. 18; practically, it drops us in the middle of another busy workweek. Let’s calculate some socioeconomic greatness.
Fry day: Slices of life on National Fajita Day.
Put a sonnet in your bonnet: Roses are red, violets are blue, rhyming is nice, but not on Bad Poetry Day.
Howdy, Tex-Mex: If haiku’s not your thing, grab a skillet – today is also National Fajita Day, sizzling your way every Aug. 18.
Wash down that authentic Tejano cuisine with one of the world’s most versatile wines (it’s National Pinot Noir Day), then complete your meal with a summertime favorite (it’s also National Ice Cream Pie Day).
Intellectual property, eh: Meanwhile, north of the border, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office issued the first-ever Canadian patent on this date in 1869, locking up inventor W. Hamilton’s Eureka Fluid Meter, which mechanically measured liquids.
United States patents issued on this date include the first-ever horticulture patent, protecting green-thumbed New Jersey inventor Henry Bosenberg’s “Climbing Rose” plant.
Check is in the mail: Also climbing fast was the Montgomery Ward catalogue, first printed on Aug. 18, 1872, and remembered as the first-ever mail-order catalogue.
Tanks a lot: Thanks to volunteers, the Belle Isle Aquarium is back in business.
Fish tale: Detroit’s Belle Isle Aquarium, the oldest continually operating aquarium in North America until it closed in 2005, opened on Aug. 18, 1904.
The aquarium reopened in 2012 as part of the all-volunteer Belle Isle Conservancy.
Mother knows best: Twenty-two-year-old U.S. Rep. Harry Burn of Tennessee changed his vote on the 19th Amendment from “nay” to “aye” on this date in 1920 – thereby cementing ratification and giving women the right to vote – after receiving a stern letter from his mother.
Sexually revolutionary: And an even truer symbol of women’s liberation, the birth control pill, became commercially available to U.S. women 61 years ago today.
On a Dare: American colonist Virginia Dare (1587-????) – the first English baby born in the New World and a prominent figure in American folklore, who vanished as a child along with her entire North Carolina colony – would be 434 years old today.
Picture of health: Swayze, before the cancer came.
Also born on Aug. 18 were American explorer, solider and politician Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809), half of the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition; American engineer and science historian Bern Dibner (1897-1988), who helped electrify Cuba and curated major collections of science literature; English plant pathologist Sir Frederick Bawden (1908-1972), who decoded plant viruses and helped global farmers grow healthier crops; Major League Baseball star Roberto Clemente (born Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker, 1934-1972), the first Latino enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame; and gone-too-soon American heartthrob Patrick Swayze (1952-2009), much more than just a dirty dancer.
The natural: And take a bow, Charles Robert Redford Jr.! The retired American actor, director and activist – who won two Academy Awards, a Presidential Medal of Freedom and a closetful of accolades in between – turns 85 today.
Wish the Sundance Kid a happy birthday at editor@innovateli.com, where Ordinary People (and All the President’s Men) can soothe The Sting with news tips (even if they’re Barefoot in the Park), and calendar events help make us The Way We [Are] (even if they’re Indecent Proposals).
About our sponsor: Nixon Peabody is an international law firm with an office in Jericho that works with clients who are building the technologies and industries of the future. We have the experience necessary to drive your business forward and help you negotiate risks and opportunities related to all areas of business and the law, including startup work, private placements, venture capital and private equity, IP and licensing, labor and immigration and mergers and acquisitions.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Prostating their case: A “prostate-specific membrane antigen imaging agent” facilitating advanced detection of prostate cancer has made its way to the Stony Brook University Cancer Center.
Known commercially as PYLARIFY, the piflufolastat F 18 injection – developed by Massachusetts-based biotech Lantheus – works in conjunction with targeted Positron Emission Tomography imaging to enhance visualization of lymph nodes, bone and soft tissue metastasis, helpful in determining the presence (or absence) of recurrent and/or metastatic prostate cancer. The SBU Cancer Center, in concert with Stony Brook Medicine’s advanced-imaging services, is the first Long Island provider to offer the PSMA option.
That’s good news for the estimated one man in eight men who will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime. “For years, there has not been good imaging modalities for prostate cancer,” noted Dinko Franceschi, chief of nuclear medicine and director of clinical PET in the Renaissance School of Medicine’s Department of Radiology. “Now we have this tool to see exactly where the tumor is in a patient, which will help in determining the best approach going forward.”
Go fund me: Undocumented workers protest for support.
Documented need: A $300,000 state grant will assist Suffolk County residents who’ve lost income during the COVID pandemic – and have fallen through the cracks of various federal relief programs.
Funneled through the not-for-profit Economic Opportunity Council of Suffolk, the $300,000 stipend is part of the $2.1 billion Excluded Workers Fund approved this year as part of the New York State budget. Specifically, the fund – managed by the NYS Department of Labor – aims to compensate undocumented workers who lost their jobs (or lost significant hours) due to the pandemic, and did not qualify for federal unemployment benefits or stimulus checks.
Applicants must be able to prove that they lost at least 50 percent of their weekly earnings between February 2020 and April 2021; they must also show that they are state residents, have not received other unemployment benefits and earned less than $26,208 during the 12 months prior to April 2021. “This historic fund offers desperately needed help to the undocumented community,” noted EOC of Suffolk County CEO Adrian Fassett. “Excluded workers have faced months of lost income for themselves and their families.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 1: Michael Dowling, setting a high bar.
What has Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling learned over two decades in the C Suite? Hear all about it – and that’s just one of the amazing conversations that made Season 1 of Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast a must-listen for regional executives and entrepreneurs. Season 2 is coming soon … better catch up fast!
TOP OF THE SITE
Teeing it up: High-tech golf simulator X-Golf has joined the intriguing mix populating Westbury-based retail/dining/entertainment destination Samanea New York.
Name that agency: A successful Huntington-based marketing firm has rebranded itself to better reflect its unique services – something it’s done for clients for years.
No brainer: We love it when you share this e-newsletter – but is there any reason your entire innovation team shouldn’t have individual free subscriptions? No, there isn’t.
VOICES
Voices healthcare anchor Terry Lynam thought Simone Biles was a “choker” – until he realized the young U.S. gymnast was precisely the hero America needs as the rejuvenated COVID crisis takes a dramatic mental-health toll.
STUFF WE’RE READING
See you out of court: Innovation, not litigation, is the key to mitigating global warming. Forbes rethinks.
Learning to spend again: Rising consumer confidence has boosted spending on back-to-campus college essentials. Deloitte budgets.
Home runs: Making your home safer, smarter and more functional than ever. Popular Mechanics scores.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ WoodSpoon, a New York City-based community-focused marketplace empowering professional chefs and immigrant cooks to commercialize cultural cuisines, raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Restaurant Brands International, with participation from World Trade Ventures, Victor Lazarte and other individual investors.
+ GentiBio, a Massachusetts-based biotech developing T cell therapies for immunology, closed a $157 million Series A financing led by Matrix Capital Management, with participation from Avidity Partners, JDRF T1D Fund, OrbiMed, RA Capital Management, Novartis Venture Fund and the Seattle Children’s Research Institute.
+ TaxBit, a Utah- and Washington State-based tax and accounting software provider, raised $130 million in Series B funding led by IVP and Insight Partners, with participation from Tiger Global, Paradigm, 9Yards Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Madrona Venture Group and Anthony Pompliano.
+ Nitricity, a California-based agtech startup focused on renewable nitrogen fertilizers, closed a $5 million seed funding round led by Energy Impact Partners, with participation from Fine Structure Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital and MCJ Collective.
+ Branch Energy, a Texas-based green energy provider, raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Comcast Ventures, with participation from Global Founders Capital, Inovia Capital and Hippo CEO Assaf Wand.
+ OwnBackup, a New Jersey-based data-protection platform, raised $240 million in Series E funding co-led by Alkeon Capital and B Capital Group, with a secondary investment by BlackRock Private Equity Partners and Tiger Global.
BELOW THE FOLD
Hot spot: This is not the first time the globe has warmed.
Blast from the past: An ancient global-warming era was a real scorcher – and could be a preview of what’s to come.
Present-day revision: How America’s “historic peace deal” with the Taliban – brokered in 2020 – set up today’s Afghanistan crisis.
Fear the future: In the coming decades, COVID-19 could become a common childhood disease.
The time is now: Please continue supporting the amazing firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Nixon Peabody, which understands the past, present and future of business formation. Check them out.
