Sure thing: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as this latest workweek – abbreviated for some – tips into its latter half.
Hey, here’s a hot tip: Whether you’re running a shortened track or a traditional five-day sprint, you can’t lose with this mid-week review. Put it all on innovation (to win).
Out with it: Colorful secrets will be revealed on National Coming Out Day.
Daughter cells: Don’t ever bet against the capable women in your life – another good suggestion, especially on the U.N.’s International Day of the Girl Child, first-born reference of our Oct. 11 edition.
Out bound: The LGBTQ+ community fills the winner’s circle on National Coming Out Day, when hidden sexualities are revealed, unconditional support is offered and unaccepting homophobes can go scratch.
Staying in? Well, order a pie, at least – you kinda have to on National Sausage Pizza Day, also oven-fresh every Oct. 11.
It all adds up: Your average round pizza pie has eight slices, and Wisconsin-based inventor Dorr Felt could have told you that even without patenting the comptometer – the first practical adding machine – on this date in 1887.
Revolution evolution: Also finding strength in numbers were the Daughters of the American Revolution, the lineage-based membership/service organization founded on Oct. 11, 1890, in Washington.
Cheese it, it’s the feds: Alaska Davidson, FBI.
Agent of change: Other daughters making their ancestors proud include Alaska Johnson, who became the FBI’s first woman special agent 101 years ago today.
As surreal as it gets: Other agents of change associated with this date include French dramatist Antonin Artaud and his Bureau of Surrealist Research (Centrale Surréaliste), which began exploring the unconscious – rather loosely – on this date in 1924.
This is only a test: And it was Oct. 11, 1968, when the first manned mission of the Apollo space program blasted off from Cape Kennedy.
Apollo 7 sent astronauts Walter Schirra, Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham into a 10-day Earth orbit, testing the Apollo command and service module and setting up Apollo 8, which put men into lunar orbit two months later.
Cloud calculations: English mathematician, physicist, meteorologist and psychologist Lewis Fry Richardson (1881-1953) – the first to apply modern mathematics to weather forecasting – would be 142 years old today.
Fifty-seven varieties: All from the mind of Henry Heinz.
Also born on Oct. 11 were English industrialist Joseph Gillott (1799-1873), an ink-pen pioneer; German American entrepreneur Henry John Heinz (1844-1919), the ketchup king who founded the H.J. Heinz Co.; American archeologist, nurse and professor Harriet Ann Boyd Hawes (1871-1945), a pioneering adventurer who led expeditions on the Aegean island of Crete; longest-serving American First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), who established herself beyond being the President’s wife; and all-growed-up American professional golfer Michelle Wie West (born 1989), who was the youngest to qualify for a USGA amateur championship (age 10) and an LPGA Tour event (age 13).
Put ’er there, PayPal: And take a bow, Peter Andreas Thiel! The German American entrepreneur and venture capitalist – co-founder of PayPal, general partner of VC fund-deluxe Founders Fund and Forbes’ 419th richest person in the world as of Tuesday afternoon – turns 56 today.
Wish the self-made multibillionaire well at editor@innovateli.com, where our founder wanted you to send your innovation stories – and our best pals always share their calendar events.
About our sponsor: Farmingdale State College delivers exceptional academic and applied-learning outcomes through scholarship, research and student engagement. Our commitment to student-centered learning and inclusiveness prepares exemplary citizens equipped to excel in a competitive, diverse and technically dynamic society. Long Island’s first public institution of higher education, Farmingdale State is a regional economic cornerstone, with 96 percent of graduates working in New York State and 75 percent working on Long Island. We prepare emerging leaders in the growing technology, engineering, business and healthcare fields. Learn more here.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Quality time: Long Island’s brightest students will once again battle nitrogen pollution.
The Long Island Regional Planning Council is accepting letters of interest through Nov. 12 for its annual Long Island Water Quality STEM Challenge, which invites regional sixth- through 12th-graders to tackle nitrogen pollution and stormwater runoff on their school grounds. Invoking the Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan – a comprehensive effort to reduce nitrogen entering ground and surface waters – the challenge distributes $2,500 grants to help schools execute the best student-designed solutions, with rain gardens, permeable pavement and “green roofs” among the leading strategies.
Native plant gardens and even a new gardening club were among the solutions presented by the four winners of the 2022-23 competition, with the 2023-24 winners slated to be announced in March. The contest “provides students with the opportunity to learn about the seriousness of this issue and collaborate with their peers to … develop ways to reduce nitrogen runoff,” noted Long Island Regional Planning Council Chairman John Cameron. “These are valuable lessons that will make a long-lasting positive contribution in the community.”
Coming soon: Millions of next-generation heat pumps will be installed across the nation in the next several years.
Pumps up: Half of the nation’s states have officially accelerated their new-construction decarbonization strategies.
Founding member New York State and 24 other states in the U.S. Climate Alliance – collectively representing 55 percent of the U.S. population and 60 percent of national economic activity – have committed to quadrupling previously mandated installations of energy-saving heat pumps between now and 2030 (in lieu of traditional furnaces and boilers). That equates to 20 million total heat-pump installations across the coalition over the next six-plus years, with members further agreeing that at least 40 percent of those decarbonization benefits must target “disadvantaged communities.”
The members also committed to phasing out fossil fuel-based heating and cooling in all new constructions by 2027 and to exploring additional zero-emission actions across the construction industry. “It’s critical that we continue the transition to create an affordable clean-energy future that benefits all New Yorkers,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. “I am proud to stand side-by-side with my fellow governors in the U.S. Climate Alliance to show our commitment to bold action to decarbonize the buildings sector.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 44: Laura Curran, cutting to the chase.
Season 4 of Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast hits another high note with former Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, a Canadian-born once-and-future journalist and the first woman to occupy Nassau’s top office.
Laura joins Spark host Gregory Zeller to discuss her early career reporting for the Big Apple’s biggest tabloids, her new talk radio/podcasting gigs and, in between, her tumultuous, innovative and eye-opening decade as a Nassau County public servant.
TOP OF THE SITE
Act now: The sprawling Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 hasn’t lived up to its ambitious promises, according to the respondents of the latest Marcum-Hofstra CEO Survey.
Do you remember: You can always read these newsletters on our website, but remember, we don’t archive the subscriber-only Monday Calendar Newsletters. (Also remember: You don’t have to miss a thing, with always easy, always free subscriptions.)
VOICES
The biggest thinkers from across Long Island socioeconomics – experts in media, law, healthcare, real estate, social services, technology, workforce development, education and more – sharing their freshest front-row perspectives and most innovative ideas.
That’s Innovate Long Island’s amazing Voices rotation. Pick a topic and get smarter fast.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Old friend: A veteran of Nassau County politics is among the challengers lining up to replace laughingstock criminal George Santos. Politico catches up.
Collaborations in spaaaaace: Northrop Grumman surrendered a $125 million solo contract to team up on a new NASA space station. Gizmodo enters orbit.
Taxable income: The second-biggest lottery prize in U.S. history is exciting, but $1.73 billion ain’t what it used to be. Forbes totals tariffs.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Regent Craft, Rhode Island-based manufacturer of all-electric Seaglider seaplanes, raised $60 million in Series A funding led by 8090 Industries and the Founders Fund, with participation from Lockheed Martin, Caffeinated Capital and Mark Cuban.
+ Vibrant Planet, a California-based wildfire-protection and ecosystem-restoration company, raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund and Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund.
+ Concentric Educational Solutions, a Maryland-based education-support system, raised $5 million in Series A funding led by New Markets Venture Partners.
+ Diana Health, a New York City-based network of women’s health practices, raised $34 million in Series B funding led by Norwest Venture Partners, .406 Ventures, LRVHealth and AlleyCorp.
+ Ounce, a Washington-based health and housing innovator, raised $5.2 million in seed funding led by Meridian Street Capital and Flare Capital, with participation from Chelsea Clinton’s Metrodora Ventures.
+ Peak Energy, a Colorado-based giga-scale energy-storage pioneer, raised $10 million in funding led by Eclipse and TDK Ventures.
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 Farmingdale State). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Temperature-Taking Edition)
Can’t take much more: Unchecked global temperatures will rocket beyond human tolerances.
Cold facts: “Cold plunging” can have psychological benefits – but are they worth the physiological risks?
Warm oceans: With most of the country primed for a brutal winter, an essential El Niño primer.
Hot topic: Climate change will soon push global temps beyond human survivability.
Climate controlled: Please continue supporting the incredible institutions that support Innovate Long Island, including Farmingdale State College, where equal measures of citizenship and scholarship create well-tempered graduates. Check them out.
