You bet your ash: Welcome to Wednesday, true believers, and not just any Wednesday but Ash Wednesday, the annual Christian holy day of prayer and fasting and traditional start of Lent.
Staring down 40 days and nights of penitence and sacrifice, not to mention the second half of this busy workweek, seems like a good time for an innovation intervention. Let’s get creative!
Bigger in Texas: Happy Independence Day, y’all.
Lone star: It’s March 2 out there, when we wish our many readers in Texas a festive Texas Independence Day (a.k.a. Texas Flag Day and Sam Houston Day), commemorating the territory-turned-republic-turned-U.S.-State’s declaration of independence from Mexico.
Read all about it: Want to learn more about Texas history, or any other subject? You’re in luck – it’s also the National Education Association’s annual Read Across America Day, dedicated to book smarts.
Also rising to the top: National Banana Cream Pie Day, celebrating the sweet combo of cream, custard and crust every March 2.
Texting came later: But the first “optical telegraph” transmission – involving a visual alphabet, handheld telescopes and pivoting-shutter towers situated five to 20 miles apart – was sent by inventor Claude Chappe on this date in 1791.
Traveling roughly 56 miles in mere minutes, the message read, “Si vous reussissez, vous serez bientôt couvert de gloire” (“If you succeed, you will soon bask in glory”).
Pound for pound: President John Adams basked in the afterglow of the country’s first weights and measures law, signed March 2, 1799.
King of the monsters: Today, on WOR-TV’s “Million Dollar Movie”!
King among men: The original “King Kong,” the innovative “Beauty and the Beast” epic that birthed the modern monster movie, premiered in New York City on this date in 1933.
Towering achievement: It was 60 years ago tonight when Philadelphia Warrior Wilt Chamberlain set the National Basketball Association’s unassailable single-game scoring record, pouring in a phenomenal 100 points against the defenseless New York Knicks.
Cue John Williams: And NASA’s Pioneer 10 – the first Earth spacecraft to navigate the Solar System asteroid belt (nice, but not like the Empire was in hot pursuit or anything) – launched on March 2, 1972.
Last heard from in 2003 (some 7.6 billion miles from Earth and speeding toward interstellar space), the probe remains unmatched for its interplanetary accomplishments.
Her honor: Mayor Susanna Salter.
Salter of the Earth: American politician and activist Susanna Madora Salter (1860-1961) – the first woman to serve as the mayor of an American city (Argonia, Kan.) and one of the first to hold any U.S. elected office – would be 161 years old today.
Also born on March 2 were aforementioned American statesman Sam Houston (1793-1863), the first (and third) president of the Republic of Texas; Russian physicist Prince Boris Golitsyn (1862-1916), a cofounder of modern seismology; American locksmith and entrepreneur Harry Soref (1887-1957), who invented the steel padlock and founded the Master Lock Co.; American children’s author, political cartoonist, illustrator, poet and animator Theodor Geisel (1904-1991), the immortal “Dr. Seuss”; and English actor Daniel Craig (born 1968), now the former James Bond.
The world according to John: And take a bow, John Winslow Irving! The American-Canadian novelist, short story writer and screenwriter – who achieved critical and popular acclaim with 1978’s “The World According to Garp” – turns 80 today.
Wish the world-famous writer well at editor@innovateli.com, where your writings – especially news tips and calendar events – are our world.
About our sponsor: Northwell Health is New York’s largest healthcare provider and private employer with 23 hospitals, more than 750 outpatient facilities and 70,000-plus employees. We’re making research breakthroughs at the Feinstein Institutes and training the next generation of medical professionals at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra/Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. Visit Northwell.edu.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Laser focus: The latest tax-incentives package working through the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency will help a thriving tech manufacturer expand – and put a cherry atop a town real estate deal.
The IDA has granted preliminary approval to a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes package for Bellmore-based Parabit Systems, a manufacturer of kiosks and ATM access-control systems for dozens of top U.S. banks. Parabit is eyeing a 7,820-square-foot addition to its Roosevelt manufacturing facility, on vacant Debevoise Avenue land purchased from the Town of Hempstead – a $3 million project that will include the acquisition of a state-of-the-art laser-cutting device, plump Parabit’s manufacturing space past 28,000 square feet and help the company “remain on Long Island,” according to the IDA.
The incentives package would expand an existing PILOT agreement with the town (set to expire in 2024) and must still undergo an IDA review and final vote. But Parabit, which plans to add 13 full-time jobs to its existing roster of nearly 60 employees, is too valuable to lose, according to Town of Hempstead IDA Chief Executive Fred Parola, who said he was “thankful” the company has “chosen to expand within the town and create additional good-paying jobs.”
New leash on lysosomes: With the NIH’s help, Satoru Kobayashi is battling diabetic heart failure.
Failure fund: A chunky National Institutes of Health grant will support Long Island scientists investigating innovative, potentially life-saving responses to diabetic heart failure.
The New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine has landed a three-year, $428,400 grant from the NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, fueling research by Biomedical Sciences Instructor Satoru Kobayashi centered around diabetic heart failure, which occurs when excess blood sugar damages cardiovascular tissue. Team Kobayashi is using fluorescent microscopy and other cutting-edge imaging technology to zero in on lysosomes, tiny structures that – when healthy – repair and maintain heart muscle cells.
Damaged lysosomes, particularly those damaged by diabetes, stop heart cells from repairing themselves – sending Kobayashi and a multidisciplined collaboration of New York Tech researchers on a quest for new diabetic heart failure treatments. “Excess blood sugar may lower [lysosomes’] acidity, impairing the cell’s defense system,” Kobayashi noted. “Even worse, the injured lysosomes leak acids and undigested wastes … this may explain why the diabetic heart cannot heal itself.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 21: Kevin Law, Long Island socioeconomic statesman.
From the basement laboratory to the busy commercialization circuit to the heights of socioeconomic power, Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast gives listeners direct access to the leaders of the regional innovation economy.
Sponsored by clean-gen pioneer ThermoLift, Season 2 goes one-on-one with the Island’s top academicians, executives and influencers – and they’re waiting for you right now.
TOP OF THE SITE
Less-risky business: Hauppauge-based Intelligent Product Solutions has launched a Risk Management Consulting practice.
Remote chances: Reflecting the times, Adelphi University will add six new online degree programs over the next two years.
No secret: Our thrice-weekly newsletters celebrate science, invention, commercialization, entrepreneurism, job creation, social equity and all that good stuff – and subscriptions are always easy and free. Tell your friends.
VOICES
Joe Rogan’s myriad controversies are just the beginning, according to ZE Creative Communications Executive Vice President and Voices media anchor David Chauvin, who advises government and private enterprise to regulate the hypersonic podcasting industry before it’s too late.
STUFF WE’RE READING
The bigger they are: Larger, more complex businesses often find it difficult to innovate. Forbes simplifies.
The harder they fall: Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is not going according to plan. Vox evaluates.
Herstory lesson: Thirteen things you might not know about Women’s History Month. Mental Floss enlightens.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Palmetto, a South Carolina-based clean-energy marketplace and technology-services platform, raised $375 million in funding led by Social Capital, ArcTern Ventures, Gaingels, Lerer Hippeau, and MacKinnon, Bennett & Co.
+ dbt Labs, a Pennsylvania-based analytics engineering company, raised $222 million in Series D financing led by Altimeter, Amplify Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Databricks and Salesforce Ventures, among others.
+ Tutored by Teachers, a New York City-based Ed-tech startup, raised more than $10 million in Series A funding led by GSV Ventures, TMV, A-Street Ventures, NewSchools Venture Fund and private angels.
+ Canela Media, a NYC-based minority-owned digital media company, closed a $32 million Series A funding round co-led by Acrew Capital and Angeles Investors, with participation from Link Ventures, TEGNA Ventures and Samsung NEXT.
+ RightHand Robotics, a Massachusetts-based leader in data-driven, autonomous-robotic order fulfillment, secured $66 million in Series C financing led by Safar Partners, Thomas H. Lee Partners, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Zebra Technologies and Global Brain, among others.
+ Willow Industries, a Colorado-based cannabis microbial-decontamination company, raised $2 million in Series A funding backed by Panther Group, LAGO Innovation Fund, PhytoPartners and Halley Venture Partners.
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 (just ask Northwell Health). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Perfection Edition)
Positive prognosis: Farmer was famously optimistic about the future of global healthcare.
Perfect partner: Remembering optimistic Paul Farmer, a true global health visionary.
Perfect score: Whatever you do, “psychovisualization” can improve your performance.
Perfectly natural: How to deal with the perfectionist in your life, even if it’s you.
Always improving: Please continue supporting the amazing organizations that support Innovate Long Island, including Northwell Health, where perfection is a road and innovation leads the way. Check them out.
