Hardy boys (and girls): Welcome to Wednesday, robust readers, as June hangs tough – the fifth Wednesday this month! – and we muscle our way through this busy summer workweek.
Fourth and long: Before we dive in, a quick scheduling update from Innovate Long Island Central Command, where we’re grilling and chilling this Independence Day weekend – so please don’t look for a Calendar Newsletter on the Fourth of July.
Do watch for your regularly scheduled newsletter this Friday, then enjoy your three-day holiday blow – and for a few days, at least, let’s all just be Americans and leave it at that.
I turn my camera on: Take your best shot today.
Shutter at the thought: For today, take a picture – it’ll last longer, and it’s the whole point of National Camera Day, imaging this and every June 29.
Done clicking? Start crunching: It’s also National Almond Buttercrunch Day, another (oddly specific) June 29 celebration.
Getting a Handel: It’s harder to hear over all the almond butter-crunching, but what’s remembered as history’s first musical recording was made on this date in 1888, when George Frideric Handel’s “Israel in Egypt” was committed to a paraffin cylinder.
For the record (ahem), this was not the first known musical recording – but the first one that could be audibly played back.
Bridge networking: Music was playing on both sides of the Arthur Kill on June 29, 1928, when the Outerbridge Crossing and the original Goethals Bridge – both connecting Staten Island to New Jersey – opened to vehicular traffic.
By George: Cohan, uplifter.
Yankee Doodle boy: Speaking of striking up the band, American playwright, composer, lyricist, performer and producer George Cohan became the first artist to earn a Congressional Gold Medal on June 29, 1936, bestowed by President Franklin Roosevelt for Cohan’s efforts to raise U.S. morale during World War I.
Road to somewhere: The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, which paved the way for a modern national highway system, became law 66 years ago today.
Big dig: And it was June 29, 1994, when San Diego State University geologists unearthed a virtually complete woolly mammoth skeleton buried on California’s Santa Rosa Island.
Now on display at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, the elderly male pygmy mammoth – tiny, compared to his bigger brethren – died about 12,800 years ago, according to science’s best guess.
Prodigal sun: American solar astronomer George Ellery Hale (1868-1938) – who discovered magnetic fields in sunspots and helped plan and/or construct several world-leading telescopes – would be 154 years old today.
Slim chance: Pickens’ big finish in “Dr. Strangelove.”
Also born on June 29 were English electronics engineer Alan Blunlein (1903-1942), who secured an astounding 128 patents covering telecommunications, stereophonics, radar and more; American actor and rodeo performer Louis Burton Lindley Jr. (1919-1983), known best as Slim Pickens; American pathologist Roy Walford (1924-2004), who had an appetite for portion control; prolific English romance novelist and television writer Charlotte Bingham (born 1942), famous for her steamy historical fiction; and American comic book writer and illustrator Don Rosa (born 1951), who chronicled Scrooge McDuck.
Gopher it: And take a bow, Fredrick Lawrence Grandy! The American actor – known best as “Love Boat” purser Burl “Gopher” Smith – and former U.S. Representative from Iowa turns 74 today.
Give the Harvard University graduate (magna cum laude, thank you) your best at editor@innovateli.com, where we’re expecting you (at least, your news tips) – and if you let your calendar event float, it floats back to you.
About our sponsor: Northwell Health is New York’s largest healthcare provider and private employer, with 23 hospitals, 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
Image conscious: Canon USA, the domestic subsidiary of a $30.6 billion international conglomerate and one of Long Island’s largest employers, is hitting the road.
No, the Melville mecca isn’t relocating, though it has sent some of its brightest minds off-Island: Canon USA has revived its Canon Roadshow Events, a popular traveling convention showcasing the consumer, B2B and industrial digital-imaging giant’s latest and greatest products. After a three-year, COVID-induced hiatus, the reincarnated roadshow welcomed top dealers, solution analysts and other Canon partners to live events in Princeton, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta and Irvine, Calif., held throughout May and June.
A key theme throughout the roadshow was addressing customer needs in new hybrid and remote work environments – but the real takeaway, according to Canon USA Senior Director of Dealer Sales Karin Harrington, was the return of critical in-person networking with corporate partners. “These events provide the ability to offer demonstrations, answer questions and solicit feedback from our dealers,” Harrington said. “[That] is a key part to strengthening our relationships even further.”
Please hold your applause: It won’t officially open until November, but the new Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame has already received a warm reception.
Long hall: The Long Island Music Hall of Fame has found a permanent home.
The trustees of the slightly nomadic nonprofit, which briefly hung a shingle in Port Jefferson but has mostly existed since its 2004 founding as a mobile museum/tour bus, have signed a long-term lease with the Ward Melville Heritage Organization. The renamed hall – known now as the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame – is scheduled to begin occupying a two-story, 8,800-square-foot space tucked in the Stony Brook Village Center later this week, with an official ribbon-cutting expected in November.
The new museum is slated to feature plaques and exhibits recognizing the hall’s 100-plus (and counting) inductees, as well as classrooms, a music-and-entertainment library and a small theater. “We are thrilled that [we have] found a permanent home in such a wonderful location,” said Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame Chairman Ernie Canadeo. “We’re looking forward to creating world-class displays that showcase Long Island’s rich and diverse musical and entertainment history in new and exciting ways.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 25: Bob Catell, energetic innovator.
The wait is over, dear listeners! First-run episodes of “Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast” are back … and they’re back in a big way, as we welcome all-time Long Island energy-industry legend Robert Catell, the former KeySpan/National Grid U.S. chairman and major-league socioeconomic influencer.
Sponsored by Huntington-based professional-communications ace Brandtelling, Season 3 starts right at the top. School’s out for the summer – but your masterclass in advanced innovation is back in session!
TOP OF THE SITE
Foundation’s end: Not exactly – but the longtime president of the Garden City-based Rauch Foundation is stepping down, and the foundation is shifting its focus to New England.
Sipping from the cup: Two Long Island towns are among 11 statewide municipalities benefiting from Albany’s $70 million water-infrastructure initiative.
Here’s a hint: Forwarding them this informative newsletter is the second-best thing you can do for your innovation team. The first-best? Well … they’re always easy, always free.
VOICES
Underfunded, understaffed and otherwise overwhelmed mental-health agencies across the nation – including two on Long Island – will be further challenged by July’s scheduled launch of the 9-8-8 national suicide-prevention hotline, warns Voices nonprofits anchor Jeffrey Reynolds, president and CEO of the Garden City-based Family and Children’s Association.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Four score: This alleged Fourth Industrial Revolution needs some parameters and definitions. A critical review by The Conversation.
Salad daze: Is the dessert mashup known as Watergate Salad really named for Nixon? Jell-O journalism by Mental Floss.
Frac this: “Fractal” strategies are keeping global conglomerates nimble and competitive. An innovation blueprint by Fortune.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Post Script Media, a Massachusetts-based, audio-first media company focused on climate change, raised $2 million in seed funding led by Prelude Ventures.
+ Tibit Communications, a California-based fiber-broadband solutions provider, raised $30 million in Series C funding. Backers included Liberty Global, Swisscom Ventures, Intel Capital, Ciena, Juniper Networks and Solasta Ventures.
+ Symbrosia, a Hawaii-based biotech advancing a seaweed-based feed additive designed to reduce livestock methane emissions, raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Danone Manifesto Ventures, Pacific6, HATCH, Presidio Ventures, Kamehameha Schools and Mana Up.
+ Posh, a California-based provider of electric-vehicle battery-recycling solutions, raised $3.8 million in seed funding. Backers included Helium-3 Ventures, Y Combinator, Metaplanet, Outbound Capital, Starling Ventures, Uphonest Capital and Global Founders Capital.
+ Airspace Link, a Michigan-based drone-safety software and data-solutions provider, closed a $23 million Series B funding led by Avanta Ventures, Morningside and Caprock, with participation from Altos Ventures, Indicator Ventures, 2048 Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners and Thales Group.
+ Elevate K-12, an Illinois-based live-stream instruction provider for K-12 classrooms, raised $40 million in Series C funding led by General Catalyst.
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 (Four Out Of Five Dentists Recommend Edition)
Gumming up the works: Chew those sugary cravings away.
Sweets surrender: Science creates a chewing gum that helps kick sweet cravings.
White flag: Avoid these harmful toothpaste ingredients at all costs.
Dental record: The truth about that mysterious fifth dentist.
Real bite: Please continue supporting the amazing organizations that support Innovate Long Island, including Northwell Health, which is always sinking its innovative teeth into the next great healthcare challenge. Check them out.
