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AIBD will be at the NAHB International Builders' Show!
If you're coming to IBS this week, make sure to stop in at our booth: #W23!
Also be sure to catch AIBD Executive Director Steve Mickley in a live podcast recording at Norbord's booth W4571 on Tuesday at 11 AM.
Last chance to get free passes to IBS!
The 2017 NAHB International Builders' Show® (IBS) is from January 10-12 in Orlando, Florida. That's tomorrow!
If you haven't got your passes yet, you still can. We have three opportunities for free passes below.
Join Simpson Strong-Tie at IBS:
Registered IBS attendees can experience the exhibits of the Builders' Show and, as part of Design & Construction Week®, the exhibits of the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show®. This includes more than 2,100 exhibitors and 900,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor exhibits.
Click here to get access to the free pass.
And don't forget to visit them at booth #W4641!
VELUX is also offering one (1) free pass through their Builder's Show Page: www.BuildersShow.com/VELUXAmericaInc.
Be sure to stop by and thank them at booth #W3416.
Third, we have Goodwin also offering a free pass.
Click here to get your free pass from Goodwin.
They can be found at Booth #S2850, so make sure to say hi and thank them for the pass.
Now's your chance to give your input on a new BIM certificate program.
Date: Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Location: Orange County Convention Center, West Concourse, Level II, W 240 C
Time: 5:00pm EST
The Building Information Modeling – Residential (BIM-R) curriculum based certificate program is hosting an organizational and informational meeting at the International Builder Show in Orlando, Florida.
AIBD member Joseph Sirilla is leading the efforts to create the BIM-R educational program and has assembled a team of subject matter experts to begin writing curriculum for the nine-session, two-day, training program. Everyone able to attend is invited to be a part of this complimentary informal workshop and provide their input.
An official launch date has not been set, but the team envisions having the two-day certificate program ready to go sometime in April or May, 2017. For more information write to email@example.com or call 1-800-366-2423 and ask for Joe Sirilla.
AIBD Triad Chapter meeting on January 19th.
Justin Kiger with "Fantech" will discuss their inline fans for bathroom exhaust, dryer boosting & rado mitigation, as well as indoor air quality equipment such as heat recovery, energy recovery ventilators & whole house heap filtration.
Lunch will be provided.
Please bring any designers, builders or anyone you think would be interested.
Pella Window & Door, 220 Seneca Drive, Greensboro, N.C 27406
January 19th from 11:30 to 1:00
Dan Huckabee
Please RSVP as soon as possible!
For more information on the Triad Chapter, check out the chapter page on AIBD.org.
AIBD member David DiSpirito featured in "My Lottery Dream Home".
AIBD member David DiSpirito will have a house featured in HGTV's "My Lottery Dream Home".
This television show follows host David Bromstad as he shows homes to recent lottery winners as they finally are able to afford their dream home.
This episode, which aired last Friday night, had a retired couple in Hampton's East Bay at Buckroe Beach. The couple were looking vacation home along the Virginia Coast.
While DiSpirito has had his designs featured in newspapers and magazines, he said "it will be a new experience," to see his work on TV.
You can check out many of his other designs at http://www.homesiteinc.com/.
Cadsoft has two events coming up that you should check out!
"Home Design & Virtual Reality: Are you Immersed?"
January 11th, 2017 Noon at IBS. Room S3460
The International Builders Show (IBS) is offering a variety of forums for show attendees, and Cadsoft is presenting a class on virtual reality and the various ways it can be used for home design. VR is the future for many industries, especially ours. Attend this forum and learn how you can get started ahead of everyone else.
For more information, check out the website.
Learn the Envisioneer basics in this free webinar.
Learn how to get started using Envisioneer. This course is good for both beginners and those who have been using Envisioneer for years. There's always something you didn't know before!
WHEN: January 17, 2017 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm (Eastern)
WHERE: Online
COST: Free
- You'll learn:
- What program settings benefit you most.
- All about building locations.
- How to draw walls in many different ways.
- And much more!
There will also be a Question and Answer time at the end of the webinar so you can have all of your questions answered by someone who really knows the software through and through.
Upcoming GreenHome Institute webinars (free)!
Buildingomics: The Holistic Impact of Working in a Green Certified Building on Cognitive Function and Health
January 11 12:00 am – 1:15 pm (Eastern)
People underestimate the productivity benefits of green certified buildings. It turns out, the healthier the building, the healthier the people in it. The healthier the people in it, the better workers they are and the better work they get done.
This webinar follows a study conducted with 12 participants across 10 buildings and how green buildings helped increase productivity.
You'll learn…
- To identify the different things that cause health impacts in buildings.
- How to express that green buildings and enhanced ventilation affect health and productivity.
- The benefits of healthy work environments.
- To make smart choices in your business to ensure healthy and productive workplaces.
For more information or to get registered, click here.
How to use Residential Property Assessed Clean Energy Financing (PACE) 101
January 18, 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm (Eastern)
Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Financing is different than a typical home loan. Learn the benefits and how to get this special type of financing in this free webinar by the GreenHome Institute.
Even if you're not looking to get financed, the knowledge could help you better assist your clients.
You'll learn…
- How to use PACE financing to fund buildings that are above code energy / water efficient.
- Where to get more information about PACE financing in your state or county.
- How to get involved locally or at a state level to get residential PACE approved in your area.
- How to explain to clients that PACE will cover up front costs for safer and more sustainable building projects.
- And more!
For more information or to get registered, click here.
Welcome new AIBD members!
Please help us welcome those who joined or rejoined AIBD this past week.
We are pleased you have chosen AIBD as a resource for professional and personal growth. Membership provides technical information, advocacy, professional networking opportunities, as well as participate in programming sessions offered at various conferences throughout the year. All designed to help advance your career.
Visit "SearchHomeDesigners.com" to reach out and exchange information with other professionals in the building designer industry supporting the AIBD mission.
The Winter Edition of AIBD Magazine is available!
The Winter Edition of AIBD Magazine is now available to read online for free.
AIBD Magazine is a quarterly magazine discussing the latest AIBD and industry news, brought to you by members of AIBD.
This month's issue includes a recap of the 2016 American Residential Design Awards (ARDA) winners, an article on BIM for residential use by Joseph Sirilla, and an article on the benefits and drawbacks of air tightness in homes by Gord Cooke.
AIBD Magazine also contains notes written by AIBD's President Kevin Holdridge, Executive Director Steve Mickley, Past ARDA Chair Michael Battaglia, and the incoming ARDA Chair Karen Kassik-Michelsohn, and AIBD Magazine Editor Yu-Ngok Lo.
All issues, past and present, are able to be viewed online for free at AIBD.org/magazine. They are mobile friendly. We recommend you try full screen view.
Get free access to Lightspace California 2017.
Lighting is extremely important to not just the design of your buildings but also to the comfort of those will be using the building.
Luckily, there's a convention just for this. It's called Lightspace California and it's happening in Anaheim early 2017.
This event was created in London but is coming to the USA for the first time alongside The LED Show and Strategies in Light. These events all together provide a wide range of information across the entire lighting supply chain.
From the website:
"A line-up of thought leaders – including leading lighting designers and architects –will explore themes of integration of light and architecture, the role of darkness and shadow and collaboration across the disciplines."
Talks include…
- How to add value with light
- Creativity in human-centric design and circadian rhythm
- Lighting's role in the narration of museums and galleries
- And more!
The entire event is organized by Lighting magazine, so you know the people who are putting this together know what they're talking about.
Anaheim Convention Center
February 28th – March 2nd
Free to attend!
Click here to register now.
Air Vent Inc. Ask The Expert seminars are coming to a town near you.
Air Vent Inc. are bringing their "Ask The Expert" seminars to cities all over the USA, and there's bound to be one near you.
You'll learn…
- How to avoid obvious installation mistakes
- How to sell your services the right way
- What code violations will follow your whole career
- And much more!
These are technical seminars, not sales presentations.
AIBD, AIA, NARI, A.I.I., NAHI, RCI and ACHI members can receive CE credits by attending seminars.
There are 30 seminars around the country, so click here to locate the one that's nearest to you.
These seminars run from January to March 2017.
January's upcoming seminars will be:
- La Vista, NE – Tuesday, January 10, 2017
- Overland Park, KS – Wednesday, January 11, 2017
- St. Louis, MO – Thursday, January 12, 2017
- Billings, MT – Tuesday, January 17, 2017
- Sioux Falls, SD – Wednesday, January 18, 2017
- Orange, CA – Tuesday, January 24, 2017
- San Jose, CA – Wednesday, January 25, 2017
- Portland, OR – Thursday, January 26, 2017
- Houston, TX – Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Humor for your Monday!
This week's comic is by Roger Penwill of England.
Mr. Penwill has been a full-time professional cartoonist since 1999, following an architectural career in London. He was one of the first UK cartoonists to convert to producing fully digital artwork and was instrumental in promoting its acceptance in other countries.
For more information on Mr. Penwill or his comics, click here to check out his website.


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For some time, rindopepimut was the major reason why many have invested in Celldex Therapeutics (CLDX). However, late last year, Celldex generated a great deal of excitement after the final results from the company's Phase 2b metastatic breast cancer study of CDX-011 were released. The results were so good that the company plans to initiate a randomized trial suitable for accelerated approval in patients with triple negative breast cancer in the second half of 2013.
In addition to the CDX-011 accelerated approval study, Celldex plans to initiate new clinical studies and expansion studies for four other Celldex programs this year.
Celldex's primary focus is in oncology. There are four programs currently in clinical development for treatment of several cancers, and additional oncology programs are progressing toward clinical development. Celldex also expects data from three clinical studies by year end, including results from its Phase 2 study of rindopepimut with Avastin (bevacizumab) in refractory glioblastoma. The company also hopes to complete enrollment in the Phase 3 rindopepimut ACT IV registration trial in frontline glioblastoma.
Celldex's expertise is the design of new therapeutics and treatment regimens that maximize the beneficial aspects of the immune system, and counter its negative elements that are exploited by cancers and pathogens. These innovative programs include:
- APC Targeting Technology, a new class of vaccines based on Celldex's proprietary antibody-targeted vaccine technology that is used to generate an immune response against cancer and other diseases;
- Therapeutic Antibody Programs, a well validated approach to using antibodies that target cancer and other diseases directly or by interfering with the disease; and
- Immune System Modulators, drugs that activate or suppress specific parts of the immune system, including such molecules as Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists that can activate patients' innate and adaptive immunity.
Rindopepimut (CDX-110)
In June 2010, Celldex stock crashed after Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) decided to end its collaboration with Celldex for CDX-110. Celldex vowed to continue research and development of rindopepimut, also known as CDX-110. CDX-110 is a immunotherapeutic that targets the tumor-specific molecule, epidermal growth factor receptor variant III, or EGFRvIII.
EGFRvIII is a mutated form of the epidermal growth factor receptor, or EGFR, that is only expressed in cancer cells and not in normal tissue, and can directly contribute to cancer cell growth. EGFRvIII is expressed in approximately 30% of glioblastoma tumors, also referred to as glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer.
Glioblastoma multiforme tumor cells show a high resistance to radiation and chemotherapy. These tumors spread and infiltrate tissue so quickly that eradicative surgery is often impossible with recurrence occurring within months of the initial treatment.
According to the US National Cancer Registry, approximately 28,000 new cases of malignant gliomas are diagnosed in the United States and the European Union each year. The current standard of care involves surgery, followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The relative survival rate for adults diagnosed with glioblastoma is less than 30% within one year of diagnosis. According to the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States, only 3% of patients live longer than five years after primary diagnosis. The median overall survival does not exceed 15 months despite surgical resection, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy even in selected clinical trial populations.
The research firm, GlobalData, estimated that the global glioblastoma multiforme therapeutics market was valued at $370 million in 2010. GlobalData forecasted that the market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 2.4% to reach $449 million by 2018. This low growth rate is primarily attributed to the patent expiry of Merck & Co.'s (NYSE:MRK) Temodal/Temodar (temozolomide) in Europe in 2009, and in the United States in 2014. GlobalData research found that the entry of low cost generics in Europe in 2010 led to a decrease in the market valuation.
According to the pharmaceutical industry research firm, Decision Resources, there is a significant opportunity for investigational glioblastoma drugs. Despite advances in treatment such as adjuvant radiotherapy in combination with Temodar/Temodal, prognosis remains poor as the majority of glioblastoma patients experience disease recurrence.
Both the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), have granted orphan drug designation to rindopepimut for the treatment of EGFRvIII expressing GB. The FDA has also granted a Fast Track designation to the investigational drug.
On November 15, 2012, Celldex announced the presentation of three-year survival data from the Phase 2 rindopepimut clinical program in EGFRvIII-positive glioblastoma, a more aggressive form of glioblastoma typically associated with reduced long-term survival in comparison to the glioblastoma population as a whole. Across three Phase 2 studies of rindopepimut, survival data has remained consistent, suggesting that a substantial and continuing survival benefit exists in comparison to independent control datasets at the median and at three years.
In the multi-center Phase 2 ACT III study, the median overall survival was 24.6 months from diagnosis (21.8 months from study entry) and overall survival is 26% at three years. In the Phase 2 ACT II study, the median overall survival was 24.4 months from diagnosis (20.5 months from study entry) and overall survival is 23% at three years.
The long-term survival data across all three rindopepimut Phase 2 clinical trials was consistent and suggested that rindopepimut provided long-term survival beyond what is historically seen in this subset of EGFRvIII-expressing glioblastoma patients, a group that typically has more aggressive disease associated with a worse prognosis than the general glioblastoma patient population.
In addition to the presentation of updated survival data, Celldex also announced the presentation of data from a retrospective analysis of EGFRvIII expression status and associated clinical outcome in the Phase 3 Radiation Therapy Oncology Group's (RTOG) 0525 study. This analysis was conducted by the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in cooperation with RTOG to provide an assessment of the prognosis for patients with EGFRvIII-positive disease contemporary with the ACT III data.
"The results presented at SNO provide further validation for the rindopepimut clinical program," said Anthony Marucci, President and CEO of Celldex Therapeutics. "The median and long-term survival rates are impressive in comparison to both the MD Anderson and RTOG historical control datasets, with 23% to 33% of patients on rindopepimut surviving to the three-year mark versus 6% to 18% of patients in the historical control datasets. In addition, while the ACT II and ACT III data continue to mature, across all three Phase 2 rindopepimut studies, approximately 15% of patients are alive at five years compared to an expectation of 0%. These results support our belief that rindopepimut has the potential to dramatically alter the prognosis for patients with EGFRvIII-positive glioblastoma. To that end, we continue to actively enroll patients in the pivotal ACT IV study with more than 150 clinical sites around the world selected to participate and, to date, 118 of these sites actively screening patients."
In December 2011, Celldex initiated ACT IV, a pivotal, randomized, double-blind, controlled Phase 3 study of rindopepimut in patients with surgically resected, EGFRvIII-positive GB. The primary objective of the study is to determine whether rindopepimut plus adjuvant GM-CSF improves the overall survival of patients with newly diagnosed EGFRvIII-positive GB after Gross Total Resection, or GTR, when compared to treatment with TMZ and a control injection of KLH. KLH is a component of rindopepimut and was selected due to its ability to generate a similar injection site reaction to that observed with rindopepimut.
The ACT IV trial will enroll up to 440 patients at over 150 centers worldwide to recruit approximately 374 patients with GTR to be included in the primary analysis. Celldex expects to complete patient accrual by the end of 2013 and anticipate receiving data 18 to 24 months after completing accrual. The company anticipates ACT IV to cost over $60 million during its duration.
In December 2011, Celldex also initiated ReACT, a Phase 2 study of rindopepimut in combination with Avastin in patients with recurrent EGFRvIII-positive GB. ReACT will enroll approximately 95 patients in a first or second relapse of GB following standard therapy. The study will be conducted at approximately 20 sites across the United States. Approximately 70 patients who have yet to receive Avastin will be randomized to receive either rindopepimut and Avastin or a control injection of KLH and Avastin in a blinded fashion. Another 25 patients who are refractory to Avastin having received Avastin in either the frontline or recurrent setting with subsequent progression will receive rindopepimut plus Avastin in a single treatment arm. We expect data from this study to be available in the second half of 2013.
In addition, researchers at Stanford University are conducting an investigator sponsored, pilot trial of rindopepimut in pediatric patients with pontine glioma. Patient enrollment is ongoing for this trial.
In June 2012, a survey of US oncologists surveyed conducted by the research and advisory firm, Decision Resources, found that they would prescribe CDX-110 to 36% of their newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme patients if the drug is approved.
Decision Resources predicted that CDX-110 would earn an 18% patient share in the US newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme market by 2020 because only about one-third of glioblastoma multiforme patients harbor the EGFRVIII variant targeted by the drug. The firm concluded that this limitation, combined with increased competition in the glioblastoma multiforme drug market, will limit the patient population eligible for the therapy.
CDX-011, also known as glembatumumab vedotin, is a fully-human monoclonal antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) that targets glycoprotein NMB (GPNMB). GPNMB is a protein overexpressed by multiple tumor types, including melanoma, breast cancer and glioma. The FDA has granted Fast Track designation to CDX-011 for the treatment of advanced, refractory/resistant GPNMB-expressing breast cancer.
GPNMB has been shown to be associated with the ability of the cancer cell to invade and metastasize, and to correlate with reduced time to progression and survival in breast cancer. The GPNMB-targeting antibody, CR011, is linked to a potent cytotoxic, monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE), using Seattle Genetics' (NASDAQ:SGEN) technology.
In June 2008, Celldex initiated a Phase 1/2 study of CDX-011 administered intravenously once every three weeks to patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer who had received prior therapy. For all patients treated at the maximum dose level, tumor shrinkage was seen in 62% (16 of 26 patients) and median progression free survival (PFS) was 9.1 weeks. A subset of 10 patients had "triple negative disease," a more aggressive breast cancer subtype that carries a high risk of relapse and reduced survival as well as limited therapeutic options due to lack of over-expression of HER2/neu, estrogen and progesterone receptors. In these patients, 78% (7 of 9 patients) had some tumor shrinkage, 12-week PFS rate was 70% (7 of 10 patients), and median PFS was 17.9 weeks.
In December 2012, Celldex presented positive final results from the Phase 2b EMERGE clinical trial of CDX-011 in patients with both triple negative breast cancer and high GPNMB expression. In December 2012, Celldex announced final results from the EMERGE study which suggested that CDX-011 induced significant response rates compared to currently available therapies in patient subsets with advanced, refractory breast cancers with GPNMB over-expression (expression in greater than 25% of tumor cells) and in patients with triple negative breast cancer. The overall survival, or OS, and progression free survival, or PFS, of patients treated with CDX-011 was also observed to be greatest in patients with triple negative breast cancer who also over-express GPNMB and all patients with GPNMB over-expression.
In December 2012, Celldex had its end of Phase 2b meeting with the FDA for the CDX-011 program. Based on this meeting, Celldex intends to initiate a randomized study of CDX-011 for accelerated approval in patients with triple negative breast cancer that also over-express GPNMB in the second half of 2013.
Since triple negative breast cancers do not express estrogen, progesterone, and HER2 receptors, these cancers are resistant to conventional targeted treatments, including hormonal and HER2-targeted therapies. According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, triple negative breast cancer occurs in about 10% to 20% of diagnosed breast cancers.
Celldex plans to initiate a pivotal, randomized, accelerated approval study of CDX-011 in patients with triple negative breast cancers that over-express GPNMB in the second half of 2013. Last year, the FDA drafted new guidelines for clinical trials researching early stage triple negative breast cancer in an effort to expedite the development of drugs to treat these cancers.
CDX-1401, developed from Celldex's APC Targeting Technology, is a fusion protein consisting of a fully human monoclonal antibody with specificity for the dendritic cell receptor, DEC-205, linked to the NY-ESO-1 tumor antigen.
Researchers have detected NY-ESO-1 in 20% to 30% of all melanoma, lung, esophageal, liver, gastric, prostate, ovarian and bladder cancers. CDX-1401 is intended to selectively deliver the NY-ESO-1 antigen to dendritic cells to generate strong immune responses against cancer cells expressing NY-ESO-1.
Celldex is developing CDX-1401 for the treatment of malignant melanoma and a variety of solid tumors which express the proprietary cancer antigen NY-ESO-1, which the company licensed from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in 2006. Preclinical studies have shown that CDX-1401 is effective for activation of human T cell responses against NY-ESO-1.
On October 29, 2012, Celldex announced that The Phase 1 study of CDX-1401 was the first clinical study to demonstrate that an off-the-shelf vaccine targeting dendritic cells in vivo through DEC-205 could safely lead to robust immunity when combined with TLR agonists in cancer patients. Significant anti-NY-ESO-1 titers occurred in 79% of evaluable patients.
In 2013, Celldex plans to initiate a Phase 2 study of CDX-1401 in combination with CDX-301 sponsored by the Cancer Immunotherapy Trials Network of the National Cancer Institute.
CDX-1127 is a human monoclonal antibody that targets CD27, a potentially important target for immunotherapy of various cancers. Celldex entered into license agreements with the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom for intellectual property related to uses of anti-CD27 antibodies and with Medarex, a Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) subsidiary, for access to the UltiMab technology to develop and commercialize human antibodies to CD27.
CDX-1127 has been shown to activate immune cells that can target and eliminate cancerous cells in tumor-bearing mice and to directly kill or inhibit the growth of CD27 expressing lymphomas and leukemias. Both mechanisms have been seen even at low doses in appropriate preclinical models.
In November 2011, Celldex initiated an open label, dose-escalating Phase 1 study of CDX-1127 in patients with selected malignant solid tumors or hematologic cancers at multiple clinical sites in the United States. The Phase 1 study is designed to test five escalating doses of CDX-1127 to determine a Phase 2 dose for further development based on safety, tolerability, potential activity and immunogenicity.
On April 8, 2013, Celldex reported the results of an in vitro study analyzing the activation of human T cells with CDX-1127 at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting.
"The results of this study confirm that CDX-1127 elicits potent activation of T cells by inducing their proliferation and release of important immune modulating cytokines," Tibor Keler, PhD, Celldex's Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer stated. "Most importantly, we have shown that the activation is highly regulated, which limits any safety concerns related to non-specific stimulation of the immune system that similar candidates in this class have faced. This finding is supported by the good safety profile seen to date in our ongoing multi-dose Phase 1 human clinical trial. We believe CDX-1127 is an exciting entrant to the field of immunotherapy and look forward to presenting clinical data from planned solid tumor and hematologic expansion cohorts from our Phase 1 study by year-end."
The company anticipates reporting data from the CDX-1127 program in the second half of 2013.
CDX-301 is a FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 ligand, or Flt3L, stem cell mobilizer and dendritic cell growth factor. CDX-301 has demonstrated a unique capacity to increase the number of circulating dendritic cells in both laboratory and clinical studies. In addition, CDX-301 has shown impressive results in models of cancer, infectious diseases and inflammatory/autoimmune diseases.
Celldex licensed CDX-301 from Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) in March 2009.
In February 2013, Celldex presented final results from a Phase 1 multi-dose study of CDX-301 in 30 healthy subjects. The Phase 1 study evaluated seven different dosing regimens of CDX-301 to determine the appropriate dose for further development based on safety, tolerability, and biological activity. The data from the study were consistent with previous clinical experience and demonstrated that CDX-301 was well-tolerated and could effectively mobilize hematopoietic stem cell populations in healthy volunteers. Based on the safety profile and the increases observed for CD34+ stem cells and dendritic cells, Celldex plans to initiate a pilot study in hematopoietic stem cell transplant by the end of 2013.
CDX-1307 utilizes monoclonal antibodies to deliver vaccine directly to the patient's immune system and focuses the immune system against hCG beta (hCG-β), a cancer-associated target believed to play a role in more aggressive forms of the disease. hCG-β is an established tumor-associated antigen that is over-expressed in a variety of common cancers including those of the colon, lung, pancreas, esophagus, breast, bladder, cervix, stomach, and prostate, but not expressed in most normal tissues.
CDX-1307 has been evaluated for the treatment of advanced colorectal, pancreatic, bladder, ovarian and breast cancers in two Phase 1 trials.
In October 2009, Celldex announced positive results from Phase 1 studies of CDX-1307 in patients with advanced epithelial cancers, including breast, colon, bladder and pancreatic cancer.
The studies enrolled more than 80 patients with heavily pretreated, advanced-stage breast, colon, bladder and pancreatic cancer, with an average of 4.6 prior therapies across the treatment population. All patient cohorts demonstrated a favorable safety profile with no dose limiting toxicity to date.
Researchers found that the combination of CDX-1307 with TLR agonists significantly enhanced immune responses against hCG-β, providing strong humoral responses in 88% of patients and cellular immune responses in 57% of patients analyzed to date. Immune responses occurred even in the presence of high circulating levels of hCG-β, suggesting that the CDX-1307 can overcome antigen tolerance in advanced and heavily pretreated cancers. Nine patients in the studies experienced disease stabilization from 2.3 months to 11.4 months following the initiation of CDX-1307 vaccination. Two of these patients have received multiple courses of CDX-1307 and continue treatment with stable disease at 6.4 and 11.4 months.
Celldex believe these data provide the basis for advancing CDX-1307 into a front-line patient population selected for hCG-β expressing cancers.
CDX-1135 is a molecule that inhibits a part of the human immune system called the complement system. The complement system is comprised of proteins that are initiators of the body's inflammatory response against disease, infection and injury. Excessive complement activation also plays a role in some persistent inflammatory conditions.
CDX-1135 is being assessed for certain rare renal diseases involving dysregulated complement and therapeutic intervention in Antibody-Mediated Rejection (AMR) and other inflammatory conditions where the complement system is thought to have a critical role in the disease pathogenesis.
Celldex is conducting a Phase 1 study of CDX-1135 as a therapy for dense deposit disease (DDD), a rare genetic condition affecting 2 to 3 people per million worldwide. DDD is a devastating disease that is caused by uncontrolled activation of the alternative pathway of complement and leads to progressive kidney damage in children. There is currently no treatment for patients with DDD and about one-half of those with DDD progress to end-stage renal disease within 10 years. Because DDD recurs in virtually all patients who receive a kidney transplant, transplantation is not a viable option for these patients. In animal models of DDD, CDX-1135 treatment showed evidence of reversal of kidney damage.
Celldex is planning to initiate a pilot study of CDX-1135 in a small number of DDD patients to determine the appropriate dose and regimen for further clinical development based on safety, tolerability and biological activity with data expected by the end of 2013.
Celldex is developing therapeutic human antibodies to a signaling molecule known as CD89 or Fcα receptor type I (FcαRI). CD89 is expressed by some white blood cells and leukemic cell lines, and has been shown to be important in controlling inflammation and tumor growth in animal models.
Celldex has proprietary, fully human antibodies to CD89 in preclinical development. Depending upon the specific antibody used, anti-CD89 antibodies can either be activating and thus stimulate immune responses, or down-regulating and anti-inflammatory.
Celldex also has a preclinical program, CDX-014, a fully-human monoclonal antibody-drug conjugate that targets TIM-1, a molecule that is highly expressed on renal and ovarian cancers with minimal expression in normal tissues. CDX-014 has shown potent activity in preclinical models of ovarian and renal cancer.
Celldex and Rockefeller University investigators are collaborating on an effort to develop a vaccine against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus known to cause Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The vaccine, called DCVax-001, is an APC-targeted vaccine consisting of a fusion protein of a human monoclonal antibody with specificity for the dendritic cell receptor, DEC-205 linked to an HIV antigen. This program has been funded through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The vaccine is currently being tested in a Phase 1 trial in healthy volunteers at Rockefeller University.
On March 7, 2013, Celldex announced financial results for the fourth quarter and the year ended December 31, 2012. The company reported a net loss of $16.8 million, or ($0.27) per share, for the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to net loss of $12.7 million, or ($0.29) per share, for the fourth quarter of 2011.
For the twelve months ended December 31, 2012, Celldex reported a net loss of $59.1 million, or ($1.02) per share, compared to a net loss of $44.8 million, or ($1.13) per share, for the twelve months ended December 31, 2011.
The company explained that the increase in net loss of $4.1 million between the fourth quarters of 2012 and 2011 was primarily due to higher research and development (R&D) expense as a result of higher clinical trials costs for the rindopepimut Phase 3 and Phase 2 programs. General and administrative (G&A) expense in the fourth quarter of 2012 increased by $0.3 million from $2.3 million in 2011 due primarily to higher personnel-related expenses in 2012. The increase in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $6.3 million from September 30, 2012 primarily reflects the issuance of 3.5 million shares during the quarter through our Cantor ATM facility that raised net proceeds to Celldex of $20.9 million, partially offset by the company's fourth quarter operations-related cash burn of approximately $13.3 million and principal payments on its term loan of $1.3 million.
The net loss of $59.1 million for 2012 represents an increased loss of $14.3 million when compared to the net loss of $44.8 million for the same period in 2011 and was primarily due to increased R&D expense. R&D expense in 2012 increased by $15.0 million compared to 2011 and was primarily a result of increased later-stage clinical trials costs of $14.3 million in 2012 related to the rindopepimut program. G&A expenses increased by $0.8 million to $10.0 million in 2012 compared to $9.2 million in 2011, primarily due to increased personnel-related expenses and rindopepimut-related commercial planning costs in 2012.
At December 31, 2012, Celldex reported cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $84.0 million. Following recent financings, as of February 28, 2013, Celldex had cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of approximately $189 million.
Conclusion: Buy
Firms analyzing Celldex hold the company in high regard. On March 8, 2013, Roth Capital reiterated Celldex as a "Focus Pick" due to its broad pipeline and the potential for accelerated approval for either ORR or PFS. Shares are "Buy" rated with a $16 price target. On March 8, Jeffries raised their price target for Celldex stock to $15 from $9. On March 8, Cantor Fitzgerald increased their Celldex price target to $16 from $13, predicting that Celldex will begin obtaining revenues from both CDX-011 and rindopepimut in 2016 versus its original forecast of 2017. The firm maintains a "Buy" rating on the stock. On March 6, Leerink Swann initiated coverage of Celldex with an "Outperform" and an $18 price target. On February 26, 2013, Oppenheimer reiterated their "Outperform" rating for Celldex and increased their price target to $13 from $10.
Celldex is well-financed. In the first quarter of 2013, Celldex raised net proceeds of $114.1 million. The company's current cash position allows it to support operations and clinical development through 2015.
Celldex ended 2012 reporting positive data from four clinical programs, including final results from their Phase 2b clinical trial of CDX-011 in metastatic breast cancer. The company now plans to initiate a randomized trial suitable for accelerated approval in patients with triple negative breast cancer that also over-express GPNMB in the second half of 2013.
In addition to the CDX-011 accelerated approval study, Celldex plans to initiate new clinical studies and expansion studies for four other Celldex programs in 2013. The company expects data from three clinical studies by year end - including from its Phase 2 study of CDX-110 (rindopepimut) with Avastin in refractory glioblastoma.
The 962M market cap company has six wholly-owned clinical-stage drug candidates that were derived from the company's antibody focused Precision Targeted Immunotherapy (PTI) platform, which consists of a complementary portfolio of monoclonal antibodies, antibody-targeted therapeutics and immunomodulators used in combinations to create novel disease-specific drug candidates.
There is a lot to like about Celldex Therapeutics.
Disclosure: I am long AMGN. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

subset: commoncrawl


text: #938: cabal test does not tail standard output of the running test executable ---------------------------------+------------------------------------------ Reporter: fushunpoon | Owner: Type: defect | Status: new Priority: normal | Milestone: Component: cabal-install tool | Version: 22.214.171.124 Severity: minor | Keywords: Difficulty: easy (<4 hours) | Ghcversion: Platform: | ---------------------------------+------------------------------------------ == Problem: == cabal test does not tail standard output of the running test executable. Instead, any output from the executable is output right at the end of the test process in one batch. == Motivation: == It is incredibly useful to have cabal test tail the stdout of the test executable currently being executed such that CI tools such as TeamCity can be made to record the time it takes to run individual tests. == Reproduction: == Run the following simple executable as a test executable with {{{cabal test --show-details=always}}} {{{ module Main where import Control.Concurrent delay = 5000000 main = do putStrLn "First message" threadDelay delay putStrLn "Second message" threadDelay delay putStrLn "Third message" threadDelay delay }}} Instead of outputting each line ("First/Second/Third message") five seconds after another, all three lines are output along with test result reporting all at once at the end of the test suite. -- Ticket URL: <http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/hackage/ticket/938> Hackage <http://haskell.org/cabal/> Hackage: Cabal and related projects


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It's the clear frontrunner for the Best Picture Oscar and it's collecting awards left and right from critics' groups. But it's easy to forget that "Zero Dark Thirty" still won't actually be released for another week, with its nationwide rollout coming even later than that.
The final trailer for director Kathryn Bigelow's hunt-for-Bin-Laden film was released Thursday, featuring a counterintuitive but beautiful choral cover of Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters":
Stay tuned on the site next week for a review of "Zero Dark Thirty"


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Cheney to House Ways & Means: CU Tax Status About Structure
In a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the oversight subpanel of the House Ways and Means Committee, CUNA President/CEO Bill Cheney said the bank lobby "absolutely refuses" to accept the fact that credit union tax status has always been a function of the ownership structure of credit unions.
"It has never been about the power or mission of the credit union," Cheney wrote to Chairman Charles Boustany (R-La.) and Ranking Member John Lewis (D-Ga.).
Cheney was responding to a letter submitted for the record by the American Bankers Association during a July 25 hearing by the subcommittee on taxes.
Although the hearing did not address credit union taxation, the ABA nonetheless asserted credit unions are "complex" and "indistinguishable from banks", and therefore deserve to be taxed, especially when they offer products or services that don't target those of "modest means."
"'One member, one vote' is a critical component not only to the membership structure but also to the credit union philosophy; a member of greater means has just as much right to the use of the credit union as a member of small means," Cheney wrote.
And, despite all the evolution and development that has taken place at credit unions over the past century, one thing that has remained the same is credit unions' cooperative ownership structure and democratic governance, he said.
"The members of the credit union own the credit union; a bank is owned by its shareholders. This means what motivates credit union leaders and bank executives is different, and it boils down to this: credit unions use members' money to help members; banks use customer's money to make money for shareholders," Cheney wrote.
When the bank lobby calls on Congress to tax credit unions, what they are really demanding of Congress is to do away with credit unions, Cheney wrote, because that would be the end result.
"If taxed, a very significant number of larger credit unions are expected to convert to banks and an equally significant number of smaller credit unions would simply liquidate," he said.
Remaining credit unions would have to pass the costs of taxation on to their members because they are wholly owned cooperatives, increasing the cost of accessing mainstream financial services.
"As a result, the ability of millions of American consumers and small businesses to rely on a system of financial cooperatives for affordable access to mainstream financial services, which is made possible by the credit union tax exemption, undoubtedly would be jeopardized," Cheney wrote to the congressmen.
"When that outcome is considered side-by-side with the credit unions' historic record of member service and mission fulfillment, the absurdity of the bank lobby's demand is self-evident," he concluded.


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Selections from L'Assedio di Corinto, La Cenerentola, La Donna del Lago, Guillaume Tell, Otello and ?Semiramide. Sinfonia Varsovia, Warsaw Chamber Opera Choir, Minkowski. ?Texts and translations. Naïve V 5221
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Domingo Garcia has a tough choice to make.
In his bid to become the first representative from the newly created 33rd Congressional District in North Texas, he can either continue to appeal to black and white voters outside of his base, or he can focus most of his energy on electrifying a Hispanic electorate that could propel him past rival Democrat Marc Veasey.
Neither option is ideal.
Veasey, D-Fort Worth, is a black candidate who overwhelmingly won that demographic in the first round last week. The strength of the black vote gave him a 12-point lead, and his Tarrant County base seems impenetrable.
On the other hand, one of the hardest things to do in politics is to turn out the Hispanic electorate. All over the state, Hispanics showed up in disappointing numbers in last week's primary, losing in areas where their numbers should have translated into victories.
Still, Garcia's best chance to grow as a candidate rests with Hispanic voters.
They make up 39 percent of the district's eligible-to-vote population. In contrast, the black voting age population is about 25 percent. So if Garcia can significantly increase Hispanic voter turnout, he could erase his deficit and have a shot at winning the July 31 runoff.
How does he do it?
Garcia must give Hispanic voters an unvarnished reason to participate in what could be a small-turnout runoff.
As noble as it may be, he must put aside his desire to appeal to every demographic in the district and make his candidacy a crusade to put a Hispanic from North Texas in Congress.
He must fire up Hispanics by telling them that their time is now, and that through him they have the chance to make history.
Garcia has to test the pride of Hispanics voters. He's got to let them know that oddsmakers are betting against them, that his rivals and analysts don't think they will show up at the polls, no matter what's at stake.
He should point out that past opportunities have slipped away because of apathy, but in two months, all that can be forgotten with a strong turnout.
One of Garcia's best political assets is his wife, Elba Garcia, the first Hispanic elected to the Dallas County Commissioners Court. It would be smart to use her as a symbol of what can happen when voters are motivated, though she did win with crossover help.
Elba Garcia and others have already sounded the alarm. On Monday, they sent a letter to members of the Latino Redistricting Task Force setting an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss ways for Hispanics to unify around her husband.
Domingo Garcia is no stranger to movement politics.
After all, he worked for both of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns.
And he was arm-and-arm with other minorities in the struggle for equal representation on the Dallas City Council.
And don't forget the 2006 immigration march and rally in downtown Dallas, which was estimated by some to have attracted 500,000 people.
While most crusades include brothers and sisters from other ethnic backgrounds, movements tend to benefit from the emotional appeals made to the masses of people who would be most impacted by the successful result.
When Garcia talks about putting away the black, brown, blue and red jerseys and putting on American jerseys in order to move the country forward, he's right.
But if he's going to win July 31, he'll have to do what Veasey has done under much easier circumstances — target and turn out his own.
¿Si no hoy, cuando? — if not now, when? — should be Garcia's mantra, though I'm sure he can come up with something more original.
And even if he comes up short, the foundation would be there for another shot at history. Given the growing Hispanic population, it's inevitable.
Mayor's campaign cited in Price inquiry
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings' name has been injected into the public corruption investigation of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price and his cohorts.
Rawlings has not been accused of doing anything improper and is not a target of any investigation.
His misfortune is that about $5,000 of a $25,000 payment to Kathy Nealy, one of his southern Dallas consultants, made his way back to Price, according to allegations federal authorities made last week.
Perhaps the most troubling revelation is that the Rawlings campaign, led by Allyn Media of Dallas, paid Nealy more than $300,000 over a few months for grass-roots consulting work in southern Dallas.
Rawlings did beat former council member Ron Natinsky and former Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle for the southern Dallas vote.
But the high price tag suggests his campaign overpaid for the work.
Davis back in business on the airwaves
Nice start by Mark Davis on his new morning radio show on KSKY-AM (660). His guests included Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. and Senate candidate David Dewhurst and Republican Reps. Pete Sessions, Jeb Hensarling and Joe Barton.
Davis, long the leading local conservative talk host, and the owners of WBAP-AM (820) parted ways this spring after a contract dispute.
Kirk to be at Dems' state convention
Looks like U.S. Trade Representative and former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk is making an appearance this weekend at the Texas Democratic Party Convention in Houston. I'll ask him about his future. He recently announced he wouldn't serve in a second Obama term.
The Texas Republican Party is meeting this weekend in Fort Worth, with former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum giving one of the keynote speeches.


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PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk - BRI is recognized as the biggest state-owned commercial banks in Indonesia, headquartered in Jakarta. As of December 2012, Bank BRI supported by approximately 8,888 office networks across the Country, including 4,925 BRI Units and 1,790 Teras BRI. Based on BRI Full Year 2012 Financial Statement (Audited), the Company sucessfully maintained profitability. Bank BRI reported total comprehensive revenue worth of Rp18.52 trillion for the end of December 2012, representing a growth of 20.08% from total comprehensive revenues in 2011 amounting to Rp15.29 trillion. The recognition of recent achievements by Bank BRI in 2011 include World Finance's Best Corporate Governance in Indonesia, as well as Forbes Indonesia's Best of The Best Awards 2011.
To support its progressive growth and build the organizational capability, we are seeking for suitably qualified and professional candidates to join as
Resident Auditor (RA)
- Having experience as Auditor in Public Accounting Firm (KAP), Consulting Group Auditor, or Bank / Financial Institution at least 3 (three) years.
- Age under 35 years old (35 years old yet when the initial selection).
- S1/S2 from the Faculty of Economics, Law, Engineering, Faculty of Social (Business Administration), Agriculture and Animal Husbandry of the PTN / PTS accredited A / B.
- S1 min 2.75 (scale of 4)
- S2 min 3.25 with S1 provisions GPA and faculty eligible items 3 and 4.1.
- Proficiency in English
- Willing to be placed around the working area of BRI in Indonesia
Official Source


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October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month for humans. I doubt that anyone in today's world hasn't been touched by this disease either personally or by knowing someone who has.
But did you know breast cancer also affects pets? And some of the research for people helps cats and dogs–and vice versa.
Breast cancer accounts for half of the cases of canine cancer, and about 50 percent of canine breast tumors are malignant. High-risk breeds include the poodle, English spaniel, English setter and terriers, while low-risk breeds for mammary cancer include the boxer and Chihuahua. The older the dog, the greater the risk of tumors–you can learn more about canine cancers, diagnosis and treatment in both the aging dog book and also the cutting-edge medicine book.
Breast cancer is not as common in cats as in dogs, but it's more deadly in felines. Nearly 90 percent of feline breast tumors are malignant. Male cats and dogs almost never get mammary cancer.
In almost all cases, you will find the lump or bump on your cat or dog while petting her. Breast exams, particularly for older female cats and dogs, are a great idea because they can detect lumps and bumps very early. Survival time depends on the size of the tumor when first treated. The smaller the tumor when treated, the better the chance your pet will do well.
Therefore, it's extremely important to have your veterinarian evaluate potential problems immediately. Never settle for a "wait and see" approach—that gives the cancer more time to grow and spread, and reduces the chance of a good treatment outcome. Isn't it better to find out that your dog's lump was nothing to worry about, than to discover too late that it's cancer and no longer treatable?
The standard treatment for mammary tumors is surgical mastectomy (removal) of the affected glands. That may be a single breast, or multiple breasts (usually) on one side of the abdomen. Your regular veterinarian may be able to perform this surgery, or you may wish to contact a veterinary oncologist.
Sometimes chemotherapy is suggested in addition to the surgery if not all of the tumor can be removed and/or if it has already spread. Some veterinary cancer specialists recommend using chemotherapy first to help shrink the tumor before it is surgically removed. Please remember that cats and dogs don't lose their hair, and rarely feel sick during chemotherapy treatment. Pets don't even know they're sick, so they don't become upset just at the mention of the "C-WORD" that fills people with terror.
Unlike some other cancers where a roll of the dice seems to decide who will be affected, mammary cancer can be prevented—or the risk drastically reduced—in our pets. Spaying female dogs before their first heat cycle will nearly eliminate the risk. Intact (un-spayed) dogs will have seven times greater chance of developing mammary cancer.
Cats benefit from spaying prior to first heat, too, and spaying before 6 months gives cats 91 percent lower risk compared to unaltered cats. There's still a benefit to spaying up until two years (about 11 percent less risk), but if you wait any longer the incidence of mammary tumors is the same as unaltered cat. Siamese cats have two times greater risk of developing breast cancer than other cats, and at a younger age.
Cancer tends to be a disease of aging pets. My cat Seren is both a Siamese, and now a senior citizen, so I am particularly vigilant. Starting this month, I hope everyone will pay more attention to their cats and dogs, starting with breast exams. I promise, your pet will thank you for the extra tummy rub.
Have your pets been touched by cancer? Often I'm told the dogs and cats who go through this prove to be inspirational to their human families, living in the moment and still finding joy despite health challenges. What advice would you offer pet lovers who must face such trials?
I love hearing from you, so please share comments and questions. Do you have an ASK AMY question you'd like answered? Do you have a new kitten and need answers? Stay up to date on all the latest just subscribe the blog, "like" me on Facebook, listen to the weekly radio show, check out weekly FREE PUPPY CARE newsletter, and sign up for Pet Peeves newsletter. Stay up to date with the latest book give aways and appearances related to my THRILLERS WITH BITE!


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Funkshion Swim Fashion Week and Peroni presents Young Designer Award with Fashion Group International at The Tent: Local designers display their best Italian-inspired resort wear, bikinis and one-piece swimsuits. 9 p.m. at Collins Park, between 21st and 22nd Street, Miami Beach. Go to www.funkshion.com.
Where South Florida July Issue Release Party: This swanky bash is hosted by boxing champ Michael Oliveira. Enjoy sounds by DJ Marcello and free drinks by Reyak Vodka. The party will also feature runway show by Amour Luxury Swimwear. 7 to 9 p.m. at the Florida Cookery Patio inside the James Royal Palm Hotel, 1545 Collins Ave., Miami Beach. RSVP to firstname.lastname@example.com.
Style Saves Swim third annual fashion fundraiser: Check out runway shows and trendy swimwear from Atrium, Cabana and the runway debut of Crasqí men's swimwear. There will be an open bar and plenty of sexy people. 9 p.m. at Soho Beach House, 4385 Collins Ave., Miami Beach. Go to Stylesaves.org.
Ford Artists Beauty Suite and Style Lounge: Up-and-coming designers will feature their Italian-inspired swimwear in hopes of becoming a winner at this Peroni-sponsored event.
Soho House, 4385 Collins Ave., Miami Beach. RSVP to firstname.lastname@example.com
Saffron and Sommer: the new clothing boutique, teams up with Rica Swimwear at this trunk show, which features free bites and complimentary cocktails. 4 to 7 p.m. at 1235 Alton Rd., Miami Beach. Call 305-778-0369.
Escape Miami Swim Week Lounge: Flirt with sexy models, meet local fashion bloggers and enjoy free spa treatments by Bobbi Brown. noon to 5 p.m. at the Sagamore Hotel, 1671 Collins Avenue., Miami Beach. RSVP to firstname.lastname@example.com
Swim X Galore Rooftop Party: Galore Magazine hosts a sexy bash with models Nina Agdal, Julie Henderson and Ashley Sky hanging out poolside. DJs Joshua Menedez, Ess N Em, Gabby Mejia, Girls of Gramps and Stacie Todd. 2 to 6 p.m. at the Gale Hotel, 1690 Collins Ave., Miami Beach. RSVP to www.ugstrategies.com/swim
Don't Worry Baby: Model Amanda Del Luca host the Skinny Kings pop up shop at the hostel featuring swimwear by IShine365. Enjoy free drinks and grab a swag bag on your way out. 2 to 7 p.m. Sunday at the Freehand Miami, 2727 Indian Creek Dr., Miami Beach. No RSVP required.


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Teach English in Korea! Get ready for the adventure of a life time.
To apply to teach English in Korea, click here.
Location: Gangnam, Seoul
Gender: male or female
Starting date: April 1st 2017
Type of Students: kindergarten and elementary
Nationality: US, CA, UK
Working days a week: Monday~Friday
Full time Payment: 2.2 million won
Completion bonus:
Current foreign teacher: 7
Operating hours: 9 am~6 pm
Airfare one way provided
House provided
Teacher`s Vacation: 10 day
Health Insurance: 50%
Pension: 50%
For you want to teach English in Korea and need more information, click here.
To take our quiz to find out if you should teach English in Korea, click here.


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Car won from casino still undelivered
Woman claims she was taxed $134,000 for Aston Martin she never got
Don Bauder 3 p.m., Nov. 23
I don't know who in the neighborhood was responsible, but every six weeks or so, Tundra would come home with eyebrows or glasses drawn on him with a black permanent marker. His white fur was the perfect canvas. The glasses were always round granny glasses complete with a nose bridge but sans temple stems. And there was the one time he came home with a monocle. At least, I think it was a monocle. Maybe the drawer had grown bored and hadn't finished the glasses that I'd grown accustomed to. But, for some reason, it made me feel better to believe it was supposed to be a monocle. April, too, had to admit that Tundra looked more sophisticated with a monocle (we wished we could have found a tiny top hat for him to wear), and it was easy for us to imagine him discussing current economical issues and modern art at cocktail parties with the same polished elegance that Eustace Tilley and Mr. Peanut surely possess.
The eyebrows, however, were as varied as the drawer's moods must have been. Sometimes Tundra came home appearing very angry. Two diagonal lines beginning at the bridge of his nose and extending at severe upward angles to the bottom of his forehead registered his apparent disapproval of the world. On other occasions the eyebrows expressed sadness, surprise, inquisitiveness, and sometimes neutrality, with the eyebrows themselves, not their positions, being the focal point. I had seen the deadpan monobrow, which was a single line over both eyes. Thin Clara Bow-like arches had made an appearance, as had the thick brows of Joan Crawford.
Tundra didn't know that the world viewed his temporary eyebrows as gauges of his moods, and he behaved no differently than he ever had. There was something funny about Tundra fighting Mushroom with surprised eyebrows drawn on him, or people in the alley seeing him watch them from his perch on the fence with angry eyebrows that appeared to judge and chastise them with seething hostility. Most people in the alley smiled when they saw Tundra's angry eyebrows scowling down at them, but others seemed to bow their heads shamefully as they hurried away with the elements of their private guilt.
One day I watched Tundra cautiously approach Josie and Ron's back door. They didn't have air conditioning either, and they also left their doors open in the summer to bring fresh air in through the house. Tundra looked this way and then that before he crept up the three stairs to their doorway. Low and stealthily he entered their kitchen to pilfer Mushroom's food bowl. He vanished from my view but reappeared momentarily. He trotted from the kitchen and down the steps with no sense of urgency as Josie shooed him away with a broom. "Go home, Tundra," she scolded. The dark blocks drawn on his forehead didn't faze Josie one bit; Groucho Marx eyebrows on her neighbors' cat weren't anything she hadn't seen before.
At that moment, I wondered if the eyebrows and glasses were forced on Tundra or if it was an experience that he accepted willingly. Perhaps he was bribed with a can of white albacore tuna packaged in spring water. A dollar and ninety-seven cents was a small price to pay when the need to express and amuse was so great. I could picture Tundra happily eating the tuna while the drawer quickly and masterfully drew the eyebrows over Tundra's eyes. But maybe it wasn't like that at all. Maybe he was strapped painfully to a table, or perhaps it was a two-man job, one person, with an oven mitt over each hand, held Tundra captive while the other drew maliciously on Tundra's face. Tundra never seemed traumatized when he came home with the eyebrows. And wherever it was he got them, he kept returning to, so the first scenario was probably the more accurate.
A few minutes later, I heard cats fighting in another neighbor's yard, and I knew Tundra and Mushroom had found each other.
Loved this story, and love that picture, Quill!!!
LOL. Funny. Too bad you don't have any pictures, or do you?
And yeah, I would worry about him being traumatized, too, but after the first or second time, I'm sure he wouldn't allow it to happen again. He probably experienced it as "facial massage."
I like to think the folks that used Tundra as their canvas treated him nicely. I just tested it on my cats with an unopened Sharpie. Results:
Tiger - took some convincing but he allowed my to rub the Sharpie on his brows. Did not appear to enjoy it much, but was not afraid.
Peanut - no dice. Ran in the opposite direction.
Pickle - the meanest of the cats, she actually pushed her forehead into the Sharpie and enjoyed the cranial massage that AG alluded to. When I stopped, I received the expected nip, only because I stopped.
Synopsis: Depends on the cat.
We were going to take pictures but never got around to actually doing it. I suppose, like all things, then as now, we just assume that good and funny things are always going to be there for us to enjoy.
Yes ....
BTW, I used to marker up my cats' faces with my daughter's nontoxic markers. They weren't particularly keen on it, but like so many things human, put up with my odd sense of humor. This cat had a mostly white face and body, was great for doodling.
We had a white ferret named Snowball that we tried to draw eyebrows on, but he was way too hyper and squirmy to allow us to draw them on him correctly.


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Common Gallinule returns to Mendocino College
Expand Messages
- Hi Everybody,
This afternoon around 2:30 I spotted a COMMON GALLINULE at the small south pond on the Mendocino College campus. I have not seen this species here since February when it was reportedly eaten as evidenced by a pile of Moorhen feathers. Well this may be a different bird but it is in the same location hanging around with an AMCO. Also on site was the resident GREEN HERON. I have seen a Red breasted Nuthatch here and a couple of Rufous Hummingbirds in the past couple weeks too, none today though.
Great spring day today, lots of Bullfrogs, some dragonflies, and wildflowers in bloom. There were Butterflies too, a West Coast Lady, a Mourning Cloak and a Western Tiger Swallowtail as well as some other little flying things I could not identify. I know this isn't MendoButterflies but I thought I would give them a mention.
Enjoy the Spring weather, Seth LaRosa
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Thanks for helping. You can VOTE every 24 hours until the 8th of Sptember.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Vote for Tommy
Hello. Long time no talk...I have a PLEA to make to you today!! this is Tommy. He is not an orphan and in order to help him you DON'T have to give money. He is hoping to win a smart brailler from Wonderbaby.org The smart brailler is REALLY cool as it talks what you type and you can read it on the screen and it makes what you type into a word document. Then you insert a FLASH drive into it and you have what you typed. So like an IPAD for blind kiddos. His family is in the running for a FREE one valued at $3000.00. ALL you have to do to help is go here and VOTE for the Kovaks family....they are in second place currently can we get them to first??
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Think you need test speed? Ask this astrochemist.
Dr. Shipman is a chemistry professor at New College of Florida. He's a rotational spectroscopist. What's a rotational spectroscopist, you ask? It means he watches how molecules rotate, and uses that to learn about them. Since a molecule's rotation is a function of its three dimensional shape, its rotational spectrum acts as a unique "molecular fingerprint". Rotational spectroscopy has many applications, but Dr. Shipman's research focuses on astrochemistry. He is trying to find out how and why complex molecules formed in interstellar space, and ultimately how our life-bearing planet came to be the way it is. Along the way, he also has interest in continually pushing the technology to make better and faster measurements. That's where modular instrumentation comes in, in this case, AXIe.
To understand the measurement challenge, it is important to understand how rotational spectroscopy measurements are made. A chirped pulse is created that shifts from 0 to 5GHz in just 250ns. To create this chirped pulse, Dr. Shipman uses an AXIe Arbitrary Waveform Generator, the Agilent M8190A. It is a two channel AWG with a sample rate up to 12Gs/s. This pulse is filtered, frequency shifted up to 26.5GHz, and amplified using a variety of external microwave components.
The amplified signal interacts with the rotating molecule, which then generates its own phase-coherent signal that is downconverted and digitized. The main challenge is that the signals are both extremely weak and short-lived, 10 microseconds at most. An enormous amount of averaging is required to achieve the signal-to-noise ratio needed to study the molecules in detail. Dr. Shipman explained that they historically averaged two million cycles, requiring roughly seven hours. That's a lot of time for researchers and students to be waiting for measurements, time lost from their primary research. The averaged signals were then analyzed using publicly available spectroscopy programs, or scripts that Dr. Shipman and others have written in Python.
Traditionally, the throughput bottleneck was the overhead of off-board averaging. To combat that, Dr. Shipman selected an AXIe digitizer, the Guzik ADC6131. The ADC6131 captures signals at 40Gs/s with 13GHz of bandwidth and 8 bits of resolution. Each module has 64GBytes of on-board memory, a PCIe (PCI Express) Gen 2 backplane interface, and a high-speed local bus. Most importantly, it also includes an on-board FPGA-based signal processing system based on Altera FPGAs.
Readers may recall my blog post "FPGAs supercharge instrument flexibility" earlier this year. Supercharge is an understatement in this case, as the digitizer performs the averaging itself, and sends the averaged data to the computer. "It used to take me approximately 3.5 hours to collect a million averages," Shipman claimed," I can now do this in roughly 12 seconds with the new digitizer." For those without a calculator, that's a 1000x speed improvement.
Besides freeing up time for him and his students, the fast measurement and average times also give Dr. Shipman other options. While an average of two million samples was the previous standard, the system has shown excellent phase stability out to one billion averages, improving the signal to noise ratio even further.
The figure below shows a block diagram of the system.
Dr. Shipman plans to make the system available over the web to other researchers through a remote control interface. For this they are developing a web interface based on Python and Labview. By changing the upconverters and downconverters, Dr. Shipman plans to upgrade the system to cover 110 to 170 GHz in the future.
Now, back to astrochemistry. Once the spectra of various molecules have been collected, many different things can be done with the data. Of particular interest to Dr. Shipman is the mapping of molecules in the interstellar medium with radio telescopes. By determining exactly where molecules are located, it is possible to see which compounds are correlated or anti-correlated with each other. This in turn gives clues about how the molecules are formed and destroyed, which may eventually lead back to why the planet Earth is the way it is.
Besides astrochemistry, rotational spectroscopy has applications in trace gas detection in environmental monitoring. This is useful for understanding atmospheric chemistry, and monitoring industrial processes to ensure they are operating correctly.
Dr. Shipman can be contacted via email at email@example.com, and his other contact information is available at the New Florida College website here. While Shipman's test system is a particularly unique application, the desire for performance and speed is shared by many engineers. Dr. Shipman has demonstrated the performance capability of a modular AXIe system in a dramatic fashion. His own words sum it up well, "The speed with which it can acquire data is still breathtaking."
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A lifetime designing PCBs: Switching to eCAD
Einstein paper outlines mass-energy equivalence, November 21, 1905
Rocket-powered auto sets land speed record, October 23, 1970


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Flash Draw Created Feb 27, 2007 470 x 338px Unless noted Copyright 2007 izzbaby.
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666yaoiluver666 Mar 02, 2008
Try using more transparents to make it look better. :)
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Taser makers tell police to avoid chest shots
Stun-gun maker Taser International has started telling police agencies to avoid firing the devices at suspects' chests, explaining that there's an "extremely low" risk of ill effects on the heart and that doing so will make defending lawsuits easier.
Amnesty International said more than 350 people in the US died after they were shocked with Tasers, and that in 50 of those cases, medical examiners cited a link between Taser shocks and death.
The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company made the recommendation in an October 12 revised training manual, saying it "has less to do with safety and more to do with effective risk management for law enforcement agencies".
The manual also includes a lengthy explanation about deaths caused by sudden cardiac arrest.
"Should sudden cardiac arrest occur in a scenario involving a Taser discharge to the chest area, it would place the law enforcement agency, the officer, and Taser International in the difficult situation of trying to ascertain what role, if any, (the device) could have played," according to the manual.
The manual includes a graphic displaying the human body and "preferred target areas."
The company recommends firing Tasers anywhere but at the head, neck and chest. The manual says to avoid chest shots "when possible" and "unless legally justified".
Taser critics call the company's new recommendation an admission that the devices can cause heart attacks.
"It's a sea change, a passive acknowledgement that Taser has indeed been overconfident about its claims of safety," said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado.
"It underscores the question marks that have been adding up along with hundreds of bodies."
Taser officials said the new recommendation is designed only to "avoid any potential controversy on this topic".
"There is no significant shift," Taser spokesman Steve Tuttle said in an e-mail. "Just a slight change by literally a few inches when intentionally targeting the preferred target zone ... Medical and field studies continue to demonstrate that the Taser carries a lower risk of injury than traditional force options, leading to lower officer injury rates and safer communities."
Belfast Telegraph


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Intel patches critical security bug in vPro software
Intel has released a patch for its series of silicon-based security protections after researchers from Poland identified flaws that allowed them to completely bypass the extensions. The implementation errors in Intel's TXT, or trusted execution technology, mean the feature can't be counted on as advertised to protect sensitive …
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48 Station Road Bruthen 3885 VIC
TRANQUIL SETTING - under application
This charming two (2) bedroom cottage is situated in the peaceful village of Bruthen. A third (3rd) room can be used as either a study, sewing room or room for guests. Lovely lounge room with polished boards and gas heater. Kitchen features electric cooking and wood heating. Light filled bathroom with separate bath and shower. Lawns and gardens will be maintained. Outside a large backyard with a car port. Enquire today at our office. Inspections by appointment only.
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Well I'm back from my tour of the slightly northern yet still southwestern mining towns. And I barely survived. Back in the place that's as barren, bleak, bland and wide open as anywhere else in the world. The place that I love, for no great reason. It's good to be back, but I missed Saturday's game (and usual weekend posting, my apologies) due to the immense amount of extracurriculars I've been involved in, being topped off with a blackout (typical me).
So I figured, being that it's a West Coast road trip, I'd use my bad habit of staying up late to recap the game for all the Wings' fans not able to stay up past midnight to watch their team play a bunch of snotty Communist-territory-based expansion teams.
We also seem to be pretty good in games I'm recapping in LB fashion, something like 14-0-0. Or was it 13-0-0? Whatever, let's do this:
Already angry that I have the usual FSD feed blacked out because the NHL wants me to watch it on the NHL Network. Great, I hate intermission reports anyway. John Keating reminds me of the older neighbor I had growing up who used to ask us to use his in-house workout room.
Kings Feed. S***!
It's a whole lot easier for these foreign (non-Detroit) 'tators to refer to Justin Abdelkader as The Red Wings, as in: "And now the puck is carried in by…the Red Wings."
Great start by the Wings, only down 1-0 after the first 5 minutes. PP goal on a strange set of events. Somewhere, someone is blaming the first goal against on Jonathan Ericsson.
Drew Miller gets a softy from Quick as he fires one from the corner and catches Quick cheating.
Jiri Hudler with a shot that's actually a pass (surprise!) and Cleary deflects it from about 15' out. Beauty. And just like that it's 2-1 Wings.
Thank the 3-1 Wings lead to Mike Modano's speed. Really came in flying and the Kings couldn't recover, great work and glad to have him back.
So Franzen's out, wife just had their baby. Salei recently was out, same reason. Anytime I hear of a minute baby boom, I always ask myself "Well what was going on 9 months ago?" 9 months ago was the end of May, so definitely some off-season re-acquainting. Way to go, gang!
Great pressure by Detroit's PK unit after Huds runs interference on Kopitar (and Eddie Olzyck will tell you, that never gets called against us).
Jakub Kindl has been very inconsistent this year, but this game he seems strong. Making quick decisions, short passes and isn't panicking.
Just noticed Pavel taking faceoffs. Not his usual dominant self, but still a good sign.
For the most part, the Wings play lackadaisical and uninspired for the first half of the second. A few grinding, speedy, hard working shifts helps right the ship, though.
Datsyuk wins a defensive zone faceoff late in the period, then picks up the puck later in the neutral zone on the rush, dekes one, dekes another and draws a hook. On the PP he finishes his Epic Greatness with a wicked wrister beating Quick's glove high. Adding injury to insult, he then blows a ferocious Datsyukian snot rocket into a Kings' Ice Girl's hair extensions. 4-1 Wings. 1-0 Snot Rockets.
Ridiculous start as Hudler gets called for a hook the moment the puck hits the ice. Jim Howard says "no problem" and absolutely stones the LA Kings' PP units. Darren Helm feeds off of Howard's aura, bounces one off the boards and goes around the point-man and scores us a shorty. 5-1 Wings.
The next few minutes are what Wings fans commonly associate with Skate. To. Throat.
This is followed by yet another Drew Miller goal, a typical 4th liner goal. Bounce, peeng-pang-bong-dink and it's in, Pinball fashion.
Later on, the Kings' colour analyst accuses Detroit of "sending a message", then diving (with a 6-1 lead? Get real) and of course, sending a message once again with a 7-1 lead. Idjuts.
Kings came into this game 13-1-1 in their last 15 games and the Red Wings were more than happy to put them in their place, sans a couple stars (Ozzie, Raf and the Johan). My record improves to 21-0-0 when I LB the games for NOHS. Not too shabby.
Great win. Oh, and the last 'Yoats game I was in attendance for was against the Kings. Seats were just across the aisle from the Kings' Ice Girls. They are pictured below. They were actually very sweet and one of them even knew what icing was.


text: Is Israel a strategic asset or liability for the United States? Interesting question. We must thank the Nixon Center for asking it. In my view, there are many reasons for Americans to wish the Jewish state well. Under current circumstances, strategic advantage for the United States is not one of them. If we were to reverse the question, however, and to ask whether the United States is a strategic asset or liability for Israel, there would be no doubt about the answer.


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TECHNIQUES used at Greenham Common are being used by protesters to highlight Fylingdales and Menwith Hill radar stations in President Bush's "Son of Star Wars" defence system.
Helen John, 63, a founder of the Greenham Common protest, Angie Zelter, 49, another Greenham veteran, and Anne Lee were found guilty yesterday of criminal damage and told they could face prison. The women, now members of the Menwith Hill Women's Peace Campaign, had cut a hole in the wire fence around Menwith Hill, near Harrogate, north Yorks, to gain access to the site.
A warrant was issued for the arrest of Zelter, who had asked to be tried in her absence. All three had pleaded not guilty at Harrogate court on the grounds that if the truth was known about the station it would be clear that entering it with the intention of causing damage was not a crime.
"I had a hammer and we were hoping to cause as much damage as we could," said John after the case. The women have been campaigning against the station for four-and-a-half years. John said: "This is not a defensive system. This is an offensive system. America is dominating space to protect their commercial interests.
We have entered the era of resource wars - oil, mineral, water - and the US intends to dominate the world." The women are due to be sentenced on May 21. Zelter was one of the protesters acquitted by a Liverpool jury in 1977 after causing £1.5 million damage to a Hawk jet bound for Indonesia. They had pleaded they were preventing a worse crime, genocide.
In a separate case yesterday, Anni Rainbow, 52, from Otley, Leeds, a veteran campaigner at Menwith Hill, was charged with obstructing RAF bylaws. Ms Rainbow, who says she has been arrested up to 20 times, said: "I don't like having to go to court but this is so important that we have to do what we can and if we get arrested for peaceful protest then that's the way it goes."
Last week her colleague, Lindis Percy, 59, a former Greenham Common protester, was acquitted of criminal misuse of an American flag, which she had lain on the road from the base so that servicemen had to drive over it.


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Freya Retro Basic Underwire Padded Plunge Bra AA3411
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"New York's ability on into the future to remain the communications capital is really questionable."
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"Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you."
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"The ability to think straight, some knowledge of the past, some vision of the future, some urge to fit that service into the well-being of the community - these are the most vital things that education must try to produce"


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New Balance 990v3 Girl's Athletic Shoe
A smaller version of the celebrated 990 heritage running shoe, the 990v3 offers girls a sports shoe that has reflective detailing, a foam footbed for cushioning, and a solid rubber outsole for long-wearing durability.


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Zero Hedge
Nov 28, 2012
Great and wondrous things seem to be afoot among the righteous bankers of the world. A few months ago Matt Zames was named to get JPMorgan's CIO office out of trouble – and also happens to be the Chairman of the all-powerful Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee. Just yesterday, Mark Carney completed Europe's full-house of ex-Goldman Sachs alum running the region's monetary policy. Today we hear Lloyd Blankfein will be sidling up to Obama tomorrow. And now this; from the never-crony-capitalist himself, billionaire Warren Buffett has publicly blessed Jamie "apart from the failure of control" Dimon as the best man for the top job at the Treasury. "If we did run into problems in markets, I think he would actually be the best person you could have in the job," Buffett added (sounding more like the 'we' meant he) and dismissed the London-Whale "failure of control" with sometimes "people go off the reservation." With Zames running the Shadow Treasury and Dimon running the Real Treasury, is it any wonder that inquiring minds are asking who really runs America (and for whom)? Of course, in the pre-Fed era – over 100 years ago, JPMorgan Sr. 'bailed-out' America before…
This article was posted: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 at 7:12 am


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I cant seem to find the right form to get a picture to pop up in (a new iframe?) a box, when i mouse-over a text link.
if anyone can help me on this i'd be very thankful
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April 1, 2016
Transfer report: Chelsea and Manchester City both chasing brilliant young Atletico Madrid star
Chelsea and Manchester City are both interested in Atletico Madrid defender Jose Gimenez.
The 21-year-old is tipped for a big future by many in Spain and already has over 20 caps for Uruguay.
Real Madrid have been linked with a sensational £51m bid this summer and Paris Saint-Germain have scouted the centre-back too.
But, according to Marca, both Chelsea and City are also very interested in trying to land Gimenez this summer.
The Premier League pair are both in need of defensive reinforcements at the end of the season and have earmarked the Uruguayan as a target.
Atletico, however, are reluctant to sell and are likely to rebuff any approaches.