Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back: Who’d have thought they’d lead us right back here where you need us?
Come on, dear readers – you never doubted it for a second! And to help celebrate Innovate Long Island’s return from summer vacation … please welcome Mr. John Sebastian!
Piling on: No height limits on National S’Mores Day.
Putting the “pro” in “procrastination”: It’s Aug. 10, 2022, and we are indeed back on the ever-busy innovation beat – ironically, at least for us, on National Lazy Day, an annual nod to layabouts and low ambitions.
Fortunately, it doesn’t take much get-up-and-go to start a campfire – an essential ingredient of National S’Mores Day, always melty and delicious on Aug. 10.
Reflex action: For reasons defying logic, today is also Duran Duran Appreciation Day.
Hey, we love their music – but for the record, none of the band’s five primary members (Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, Roger Taylor, Andy Taylor, Simon le Bon) was born on this date, and the English New Wave group dropped its first album on June 15, 1981.
Reuse and recycle (Age of Enlightenment Edition): Speaking of new English waves, British Astronomer Royal John Flamsteed laid the foundation stone of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich on this date in 1675.
Construction was completed about a year later at a reasonable project price of £520. (Builders used recycled materials to control costs.)
Show me something: Happy anniversary, Missouri! You became the 24th U.S. state 201 years ago today.
Show me everything: Happy anniversary also to the Smithsonian Institution – leveraging funds bequeathed by British scientist James Smithson, the U.S. Senate passed the act organizing the future world’s largest museum on Aug. 10, 1846.
The fire within: Diesel’s internal-combustion engine broke the mold.
Show off: French-born German inventor Rudolf Diesel publicly demonstrated his groundbreaking internal-combustion engine for the first time on this date in 1893.
Reuse and Recycle (Space Race Edition): And it was Aug. 10, 1960, when NASA’s Discoverer 13 mission – designed to test the latest deceleration and re-entry technologies – blasted off from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base.
One day (and 17 orbits) later, an ejected space capsule was plucked from the Pacific Ocean off Hawaii, marking the first human-made object recovered from space. (The launch vehicle burned up on re-entry three months later.)
Quik thinking: German-Swiss confectioner and entrepreneur Henri Nestlé (1814-1890) – an apprentice pharmacist before he founded what would become the world’s largest food and beverage company – would be 208 years old today.
Lady in red: Betsey Johnson, ever bold.
Also born on Aug. 10 were Persian astrologer Abu Ma’shar al-Balkhi (Latinized as Albumasar, 787-886), a 9th Century genius considered the greatest Muslim astronomer; British builder William Willett (1856-1915), credited with concocting Daylight Savings Time (a.k.a. British Summer Time); American vaudevillian John Joseph “Jack” Haley (1897-1979), a song-and-dance veteran remembered best as the squeaky Tin Man seeking “The Wizard of Oz”; American inventor Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender (1909-1991), the guitar god most famous for the Fender Stratocaster; and American fashion designer Betsey Johnson (born 1942), a champion of feminism and whimsey.
Catching fire: And take a bow, Suzanne Collins! The American author, screenwriter and television writer – creator of the immensely popular “Hunger Games” series, with an entire childhood’s worth of popular kids shows also highlighting her impressive résumé – turns 60 today.
Wish the wondrous writer well at editor@innovateli.com, where we always hunger for news tips and your calendar events are no game.
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BUT FIRST, THIS
Latest developments: The sultry summer isn’t slowing Long Island’s economic-development agencies, with favorable tax deals arriving at a torrid pace.
The latest include the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency’s preliminary approval of sales-tax exemptions (for building materials) and a 10-year property-tax break for WHBH Real Estate, a Melville-based LLC planning an $11.5 million redevelopment project that will bring a new boutique hotel to Westhampton Beach. The deal still requires final IDA approvals, but the 16-room luxury hotel (set to replace the former Grassmere Inn on Seven Beach Lane) is a terrific investment, according to Suffolk County IDA Deputy Executive Director Kelly Murphy, who referenced data showing tourism-sector rebounds driven by “people in the tri-state region … opting for vacation destinations that do not require air travel.”
Also passing economic-development muster is Hempstead’s Evergreen Charter School, which has earned final Town of Hempstead Local Development Corp. permission to sell $72 million in tax-exempt and taxable bonds, with proceeds earmarked for the construction and furnishing of a new 85,000-square-foot classroom building. The bilingual K-10 school, scheduled to expand to K-12 in the 2023-24 school year, earned preliminary LDC approvals for the bond sale in June.
Gone fishin’: Tackle Box lets anglers remotely check statewide water conditions.
Fishing hook: New York State is always interested in improving its fishing and tourism industries, but Albany is literally phoning in its latest attempt.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has cast off its new Tackle Box mobile-phone feature. Part of the DEC’s HuntFishNY mobile app, Tackle Box compiles state fishing regulations, stocking information, waterbody conditions and other useful data on boating and fishing sites owned by various government agencies, including the DEC and the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; there’s even a handy photo library to help anglers identify whatever the hell they just pulled out of that stream.
Featuring a map-based interface designed by the DEC, the HuntFishNY app also includes several offline features for spots where cell service runs thin, including offline Tackle Box elements. “[These] features allow anglers to easily get vital information from the convenience of their smartphones, with or without an Internet connection,” noted DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos. “Tackle Box is another great example of New York’s commitment to make fishing easier for everyone to enjoy.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 28: John Nader’s positive charge.
Forward-thinking, ever-optimistic Farmingdale State College President John Nader is a full-throated advocate for higher education – and now, as co-chairman of the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council, one of the region’s busiest and most influential innovators.
The master academician (and former mayor of Oneonta) joins Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast to share his thoughts on the power of positivity, Farmingdale State’s remarkable enrollment surge and the growing need to defend higher education itself, and not just in “red” states.
TOP OF THE SITE
Succession success: When Founding President Elaine Gross steps down next month, Syosset-based social-justice champion ERASE Racism will still be in great hands.
Get their own: Thank you for forwarding this outstanding newsletter to your entire innovation team, but you’re not, like, the messenger boy – individual subscriptions are always easy, always free.
VOICES
Without the right framework, healthcare transparency – including instant access to clinical notes and test results – is just a data dump, and it can be terrifying. Fortunately, Voices nonprofits/social services anchor (and cancer survivor) Jeffrey Reynolds has added more clever context to our deep-and-detailed Voices library.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Look up: With the Perseid meteor shower peaking, these are best U.S. stargazing spots. HuffPost watches the skies.
Look out: If the Mar-a-Lago raid returns classified documents, Trump could be disqualified from seeking future office. Vox explains the law.
Look within: A breakthrough “ultrasound patch” can record heart and lung activity for 48 hours straight. Scientific American shows some sticktoitiveness.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Project Solar, a Utah-based e-commerce brand for solar installations, raised $23 million in Series A funding, led by Left Lane Capital.
+ Orange EV, a Missouri-based electric-vehicle manufacturer focused on zero-emission heavy-duty trucks, closed a $35 million funding round led by S2G Ventures and CCI.
+ Cybrary, a Maryland-based cybersecurity training platform, raised $25 million in Series C funding led by current investors BuildGroup and Gula Tech Adventures.
+ Territorium, a Texas-based edu-tech, closed a $4.4 million seed funding round led by Cometa.
+ Li Industries, a Virginia-based lithium-ion battery-recycling company, raised $7 million in Series A financing led by Khosla Ventures, Xerox Ventures and Shell Ventures.
+ Grasshopper, a New York City-based digital bank serving small businesses and the innovation economy, raised $30.4 million in equity funding. Backers included Patriot Financial Partners, Endeavour Capital Advisors, FJ Capital Management, Carpenter & Co. and GCP Capital 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 Sahn Ward). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Saw It Coming Edition)
Called it: “The Jetsons” and other old TV shows did a fair job of predicting futuristic technologies.
Stop this crazy thing: Modern tech predicted by “The Jetsons.”
Strange new worlds: Modern tech predicted by “Star Trek.”
D’oh! Modern problems predicted by “The Simpsons.”
Predictably awesome: Please continue supporting the amazing firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Sahn Ward, where your best legal interests are always in sight. Check them out.