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Spicing Up The Biotech Portfolio – Curagen and Curis
Posted on February 23, 2009 by ohadhammer
The past six months have not been kind to microcap biotech stocks, as it is hard to find a lot of love in today's market for tiny, high risk, cash burning biotech companies. Honestly, who can blame investors for throwing stocks that offer a distant dream with minimal success rates and heavy spending? Surprisingly (or not), the negative sentiment also presents unprecedented opportunities in the microcap arena, as some microcaps are making tremendous progress, which is not yet reflected in their stock prices.
There are quite a few companies with market cap under $100M active in the fields of oncology and inflammatory diseases, the two fastest growing segments in the pharmaceutical industry. Hypothetically, these companies represent huge upside potential in the form of imaginary returns over a period of several years. The issue with these companies is that they usually have only one or two drugs in very early stages, the vast majority of which are doomed to eventually fail. While identifying the right drugs based on concrete clinical data is complicated but possible, evaluating drugs based on earlier results is even more challenging. The idea is therefore to identify companies who have already reached proof of concept in humans, thus facilitating better visibility to investors. Since investors today focus primarily on risk mitigation, they typically ignore potential reward and shrug off any positive developments. This, in turn, may result in an "arbitrage-like" situation, where companies with a potential success rate of 25% are traded as if they had a potential success rate of 10%, simply because the progress they have made is not factored into stock price.
In order to identify some of these companies, two primary criteria should be employed. First, the company must be financially stable (as much as a cash burning biotech company can be), with cash reserves for at least one year of activity. The next thing investors should look for is a drug candidate with clear signs of activity as a single agent. This is highly important because when an investigational agent is given in combination with another drug it is very hard to evaluate each drug's contribution to the activity. In oncology, the most important early sign of activity is tumor shrinkage, although it does not necessarily mean the drug can lead to real benefit in the form of prolonged survival or slower disease progression. On top of these two criteria, there are obviously the usual factors such as the indication for which the agent is designated, registrational path, competitive landscape and management team.
We managed to identify two companies that meet these pre-requisites: Curagen (CRGN), and Curis (CRIS). These companies have promising agents with early signs of activity and a broad market potential, coupled with a cash position that should last for at least 18 months. The two companies are still highly speculative plays, but at current prices, both represent an attractive risk/reward ratio.
Curagen
Curagen has only one drug in clinical development, CR011-vc-MMAE (CR011), an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) currently evaluated in two phase II studies, one in metastatic melanoma and the other in advanced breast cancer. The company identified GPNMB, a novel target which is highly expressed on some tumor cells and tried to hit this target with an antibody. In preclinical studies, the antibody did not demonstrate any anti-cancer capability, so instead of abandoning it in favor of other candidates, Curagen took a bold step by arming the antibody with Seattle Genetics' (SGEN) ADC technology, which was still not validated back then. This step turned out to be brilliant, as the initially ineffective antibody became a potent anti-cancer agent and one of most advanced ADCs in the clinic.
CR011 entered the clinic in the summer of 2006, only two months after Genentech (DNA) had launched the phase I study for T-DM1 and approximately five months before Seattle Genetics' SGN-35 entered the clinic. The first indication Curagen was going after was metastatic melanoma. CR011 demonstrated impressive activity in a phase I study, including multiple cases of tumor shrinkage and a dose dependent response. I discussed the data in some of my previous articles here and here. Several months ago, Curagen announced initial results from a 40 patient phase II study that were very encouraging as well.
Originally, CR011 suffered from two major drawbacks. It was directed against a novel target with no prior validation and relied on a non-validated ADC technology. This has dramatically changed by 2008. Curagen showed that targeting GPNMB not only results in some sort of clinical benefit, but is also very safe, whereas the ADC technology was validated by Seattle Genetics' SGN-35, which employs the exact same conjugation technology of CR011. Despite the promising signs, I remained cautious about Curagen's prospects since metastatic melanoma is considered the toughest cancer indication in the industry, with a 100% failure rate to date. Many of the drugs that failed had demonstrated good activity in early testing, which could not be reproduced in large comparative trials. It was the clinical development in breast cancer that turned CR011 into a promising agent.
Shortly after announcing initial clinical data in melanoma, Curagen launched a trial in metastatic breast cancer patients. Data from the trial will be presented later this year at ASCO, and according to remarks made by the company, there is a good chance of a positive surprise.
During a business update call last week, Curagen's CEO, Timothy Shannon, said they are seeing early signs of activity in the breast cancer study, including tumor shrinkage. Despite the vague nature of this remark, it instantly turned CR011 into a very interesting drug, for several reasons. First and foremost, we now know there is some sort of single agent activity in breast cancer, a huge indication with a multi-billion dollar potential and a relatively high success rate (especially compared to that of melanoma…). The strong activity in the melanoma studies further supports CR011's activity and serves as a prior validation of GPNMB as a relevant target in cancer. Finally, as a targeted agent, CR011 enjoys a good safety profile, so there is no limit on the cycles patients can receive. This bodes well for the durability of responses and perhaps for turning minor tumor shrinkage into objective responses over time.
Since CR011 is a targeted agent, one of the most intriguing questions is whether there will be a correlation between high levels of GPNMB and tumor shrinkage, thus implying that patients likely to respond to CR011 could be identified in advance. The breast cancer trial was not limited to patients whose tumors express GPNMB and it is still unclear what portion of breast cancer patients express this target, but the activity at such an early stage of the study may imply that this portion is substantial. Assuming a correlation is observed, Curagen will probably target only this patient subpopulation going forward, which will dramatically improve chances for approval. This strategy is the basis for Herceptin's huge success, with annual sales of $5 billion.
GPNMB is believed to be expressed on advanced breast tumors, particularly bone metastases, and is associated with poor prognosis in some studies. In addition, it has been commonly found in a subgroup of patients with "triple negative" breast cancer. These patients represent the highest unmet need in breast cancer, as they do not benefit from the two most important breakthroughs in targeted therapy for breast cancer: hormonal therapy such as Tamoxifen, and Her-2 targeted drugs such as Herceptin and Tykerb.
The breast cancer study commenced in June 2008, so by last week's call, Curagen probably had efficacy data for 10-15 patients. Seeing tumor shrinkage in just one or two of these patients will be very encouraging, considering the unselected patient population and the advanced stage disease. Just to put things in perspective, as a single agent, Herceptin leads to tumor shrinkage in 25% of Her-2 positive patients. Her-2 positive patients account for about a quarter of all breast cancer patients, so theoretically, Herceptin's activity in unselected patients is roughly 7%.
Unlike naked antibodies, which may work by various mechanisms, ADCs have one primary mechanism of action: They bind specific targets on tumors, get into cancer cells and release their toxic payload. This may enable drug developers to accurately identify the right patient population solely based on a particular target's expression profile. With naked antibodies such as Herceptin and Erbitux, things are more complex, as their mechanisms of action entail multiple factors that cannot always be identified and examined in every patient. For example, several studies show that genetic variations in patients' white blood cells affect the potency of Herceptin, even if their tumors express Herceptin's target, the Her-2 protein. With T-DM1, which comprises Herceptin and Immunogen's (IMGN) ADC technology, these variations, which account for many cases of Herceptin resistance, are irrelevant. Likewise, if GPNMB is a relevant target, identifying the right patients for CR011 should be straightforward.
There is no doubt that CR011 is still a speculative bet, miles away from approval, as no data from the breast cancer study has been officially published. Curagen's remarks about activity in breast cancer will have to be supported by actual results and larger trials, which may not live up to expectations. Nevertheless, the fact the company is seeing activity so early in the trial, the strong data in melanoma and the novelty of the target all make CR011 an intriguing candidate that could turn into the next big thing in breast cancer over night.
With respect to financial stability, Curagen ended 2008 with $88 million in cash and 19 million worth of convertible debt. The company burns approximately $ 4 million per quarter, so it can remain independent of the equity markets for several years at the current burn rate. Evidently, the further CR011 advances, the more expensive its development will be, but assuming the data at ASCO June support the initiation of large trials, Curagen will probably strike a licensing deal with a large partner. Investors assign minimal value to CR011 and its potential. With a current market cap of $36 million, Curagen is traded for less than its cash balance, despite the clear clinical activity in melanoma and the positive signs from the breast cancer program. In that sense, Curagen is ridiculously cheap.
Curis
Curis has been getting a lot of attention these days, owing to its collaboration with Genentech for Curis' GDC0049, a drug that is garnering a lot of interest in the industry. GDC0049 is a kinase inhibitor that inhibits the hedgehog pathway, a signaling pathway that is strongly associated with a variety of cancers. This signaling network is also believed to be activated in cancer stem cells, which have the ability to initiate new tumors and survive the most aggressive chemotherapy treatments, making GDC0049 ideal for combination regimens.
Genentech started a phase I in January 2007 and following a dramatic response in a patient with basal cell carcinoma (BCC), decided to initially focus on BCC. According to results published last year, GDC0049 is very active in BCC, as 6 partial responses and 4 cases of stable disease were reported in 11 patients (response rate of 55%). BCC is very common, but can be easily cured in the vast majority of cases, so the commercial potential of this indication is limited. Nevertheless, the trial is very important because it serves both as a clear proof of concept for the drug's anti cancer activity as well as a validation of the hedgehog pathway as a relevant target in cancer.
Encouraged by the drug's clear activity, Genentech embarked upon an aggressive development plan, which includes 3 large phase II studies in BCC, colorectal cancer and ovarian cancer. This type of aggressive development plan is a testament to Genentech's enthusiasm with the compound, which can also be echoed in the company's presentations. For example, at the recent JP Morgan conference, Genentech's CEO, Art Levinson brought up GDC0049 as the first example for innovative agents in Genentech's pipeline, speaking at length about its promise and the role of the hedgehog pathway in cancer biology.
In contrast to most phase II agents, one can safely assume that GDC0049 will hit the market, but in a tiny indication, estimated at less than $100 million worldwide. Because Curis licensed GDC0049 as part of an early stage deal, it will receive low royalties in the 5-8% range, so the real potential is in additional indications.
Genentech decided to jump straight to randomized placebo controlled phase II trials in ovarian and colorectal cancers, which is uncommon for such an early stage drug. It is always harder to generate good data in randomized trials, but it also enables companies to reach proof of concept earlier or discontinue a program prior to long and costly phase III studies. It will not be surprising if Genentech launches additional trials, given the high prevalence of hedgehog activity in most types of solid tumors, from pancreatic to prostate cancer. The ability to pursue multiple paths in parallel is the most important advantage of having a large partner, especially an active one such as Genentech.
One disadvantage in Curis is the competitive landscape it operates in. There are several inhibitors of the hedgehog pathway under development. To date, GDC0049 is the only one with clinical data, but results from a phase I trial of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) and Exelixis' (EXEL) compound are expected this year. Another hedgehog inhibitor that recently got into the clinic is Infinity's (INFI) IPI-926.
Curis' value is derived mainly from the Genentech collaboration, however, the company has been developing a line of wholly-owned candidates based on a unique disruptive technology, which could transform the tiny company into an oncology powerhouse. Without going too deep into technical details, these agents are hybrid drugs with two sites of activity, leading to a dual mode of action. For example, the most advanced of these compounds is CUDC101, a drug that inhibits an enzyme called HDAC with one side of the molecule, and EGFR with the other side.
The concept of simultaneously hitting multiple targets has been all the rage in oncology lately, with two basic ways to inhibit more than one target: Multi-targeted kinase inhibitors, whose active site fits several targets, or a combination of several compounds, each one specific for its target. Curis' approach is unique in its ability to inhibit more than one target with one compound, but in two different sites on the drug. This platform may represent the potential advantage of targeting a kinase and a non-kinase with the same drug. Furthermore, Curis' compounds may be advantageous over multi-targeted kinase inhibitors due high selectivity, which may lead to a better safety profile and higher maximal doses.
The company will get its first shot of proving the platform in the middle of 2009, when results from a dose escalation phase I study of CUDC101 are published. So far, the company says it observed encouraging biomarker signals among patients who received lower doses of the drug, and that it hopes to see clinical effect at higher doses. If the data is positive, Curis will have a 100%-owned promising agent, and more importantly, a set of novel agents it could license for a high price.
Biotech portfolio updates
We are initiating new positions in both Curagen and Curis, as we believe that at current valuation, their risk/reward ratio is attractive. Both stocks face transformational events this summer with virtually non-existent expectations. Curagen will report results from its breast cancer study and Curis should report preliminary phase I data for its novel platform. In both cases, the market does not expect much, leaving room for a meaningful upside. In addition, we are buying Threshold Pharmaceuticals (THLD), another microcap with a promising agent, but with limited financial resources, which is why we are buying only a small portion. Also on our buying list for this week is one of Europe's best biotech companies, Crucell (CRXL) and biotech giant, Genzyme (GNZM), both considered top acquisition targets in the biotech industry.
We are selling our position in Genentech, as we believe the risk for near volatility surpasses the chances of seeing a sweetened offer from Roche in the coming months. We are also selling our Novartis (NVS) holdings.
In the next article we will present another promising European biotech, Morphosys (MOR.DE). Involved in tens of development projects with some of the leading pharma giants, this profitable company can be viewed as a diverse ETF for the global antibody market.
Portfolio Holdings as of February 22nd, 2009
This entry was posted in kinase inhibitors, Monocloncal antibodies and tagged CRXL, GNZM, MOR.DE, NVS, SGEN by ohadhammer. Bookmark the permalink.
9 thoughts on "Spicing Up The Biotech Portfolio – Curagen and Curis"
avatiah on February 24, 2009 at 12:33 am said:
Wouldn't you say that instead of risking your money on a one trick pony like CRGN, it is far better to bet on CR011 with SGEN? If this drug is successful, they'll get tons of royalties and if it fails, no one will notice.
I liked the Morphosys story, are they traded somewhere in the US?
Inky on February 26, 2009 at 4:45 am said:
great blog
what do you think about ANIK?
Ohad Hammer on February 26, 2009 at 8:27 am said:
It's all a matter of risk tolerance.
If CR011 ends up as an effective drug for breast cancer, SGEN will surely enjoy a nice stream of royalties but it won't be as meaningful as CRGN explosive move (if CR011 is a success). CRGN has a market cap of 38 mil and owns ~85-87% of the drug as opposed to ~5% SGEN (with a market cap of ~$700 mil) owns. Do the math yourself for a $1B drug…
As far as I know, Morphosys is not traded in the U.S.
I think that eventually they will have to get the stock to Nasdaq. I am supposed to speak with the company's CEO next week, and will definitely bring that up. This great company is still flying under the radar of American investors.
Thanks, Inky.
Sorry, I don't follow ANIK.
Tony on February 27, 2009 at 3:09 pm said:
SNTA failed their trials. You are right on to avoid companies trying to develop drugs against melenoma.
Robert on February 27, 2009 at 9:38 pm said:
buy stock symbol ARIO
sam on February 27, 2009 at 11:25 pm said:
what do you think about capstone theurapetics (caps) who some have claimed that this 40 cent stock is worth 1.14 in cath as of earlier this week?
Also, do you have short biotech plays?
Ohad Hammer on February 28, 2009 at 12:00 am said:
Melanoma is a horrible indication and SNTA's failure is perhaps the ultimate proof for that, since they were the only ones with stat. significant phase II data. This also doesn't bode well for other compounds with phase III data this year, esecially ONXX's Nexavar and MEDX's ipilimumab.
There is some reason for optimism though, as perhaps novel targeted therapies will break the spell, just like in Renal cancer. Renal cancer was once considered to be as challenging as melanoma, and today there is so much going on in the field.
Haven't been following CAPS but they look interesting at first glance. thanks
Obviously, there are companies I like and ocmpanies I don't like but I am not a big fan of shorting.


Montenegro Foods is a stores and supermarket based in Kitchener, Ontario. Montenegro Foods is located at 192 Activa Avenue. You can find Montenegro Foods opening hours, address, driving directions and map, phone numbers and photos. Find helpful customer reviews for Montenegro Foods and write your own review to rate the store.


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Finding Common Ground: Former AMMACHI Labs Intern Attends COP21
vilasini-admin December 28, 2015 Uncategorized
On December 12th 2015, the world united to
Ban Ki-Moon, U.N. Secretary General, speaks at a plenary session at the conference.
adopt the Paris Agreement, a legally binding consensus that aims to combat the adverse impacts of climate change. Conference of Parties (COP) led by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), hosted 193 UN Member States, who gathered in Paris, France to work towards a compromise and discuss the future of today's troubled world.
Former AMMACHI Labs Intern, Vidya Nair attended the conference as part of the Republic of Kiribati's delegation. Kiribati—a small-island developing state in the South Pacific—is on the frontline of climate change impacts, as rising sea levels threaten their very survival. Vidya and three other colleagues a part of the Master of Development Practice program at the University of Waterloo in Canada worked with Kiribati during the negotiation process by outlining its position within this ambitious agreement.
Former AMMACHI Labs intern Vidya Nair at the Paris Agreement to end the damaging effects of climate change
For Vidya, the experience proved to be similar to that of her times in the villages a part of Women Empowerment: Sanitation through AMMACHI Labs. She learned to further advocate for those who are the most vulnerable in our world and strengthened her ambition to stand up for fair and just opportunities for all. She explained, "my time in the villages taught me to appreciate different viewpoints while learning from those who were at the front of AMMACHI Labs' projects."
In her opinion, the Paris Agreement assures that the world hears the plight of those susceptible to the impacts of climate change. She linked her experience of working with Kiribati to her time spent in Bhoi Sahi, where poverty-stricken villagers often felt abandoned by their communities. Her time in Paris confirmed her strong belief that the global community has not given up on these people, but will continue to work towards solutions. The world now looks forward to the implementation of this agreement and more to come, ensuring a safe, just, and environmentally conscious international community.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


By this time of the year, it's exciting to finally get tomatoes, peppers, and other late summer vegetables. But those greens . . . they keep coming! And if you're like me, you have probably already used your favorite greens recipes and NOW in addition the herbs are going crazy!
This Tuna Pesto Pasta Salad is one way to use up whatever greens you have on hand. Several years ago I took a cooking with greens class and learned the trick about adding chopped kale, Swiss chard, or spinach to the last few minutes of boiling pasta. I've discovered that adding pesto complements the tuna flavor making this a complete meal that is a snap to throw together.
The recipe below doesn't include directions for making the pesto, but you can use your favorite recipe OR use the handy formula provided below to use any herbs that you might have on hand. Watching carbs? I recently tried Ezekiel sprouted pasta and it wasn't bad. You could also use up even more vegetables by making zucchini noodles.
Cook pasta according to package directions. During last 5 minutes of boiling, add the chopped kale.
Meanwhile, make your pesto (if making from scratch).
Add tuna and pesto and mix well.
The market is located a half block west of the corner of Fulton and Fuller Streets east of downtown. They are the end stall on the North end, near Fountain St.
They are usually near the west end of the market, about 8 stalls in on the north side of the aisle.
What vegetables are you enjoying these days? Comment below!


Keeping a desk Science current events 2019 on your office desk is share of the corporate culture. Many people have them in their homes too! Its a good complement to have. If you would gone to own a desk calendar which has got a design of your choosing, we recommend you to choose any one of clear printable Desk calendar Templates we have compiled here. The templates are tall atmosphere and you can personalize the designs in any exaggeration you like. All Calendar templates are now also OpenOffice compatible.Free blank printable Calendar Templates for Excel. Ideal for use as a spreadsheet calendar. All Excel Calendars are blank and ideal for printing. All calendars are expertly designed for easy enhancing and printing. For additional layouts see hyperlinks on the left. We are offering the best quality photographs of calendars which are free to obtain on any device. The whole world is now using the calendars for multipurpose and the month-to-month ones are used at large scale. download Printable Calendar 2019 with day-to-day planner template, including vacations and area for daily notes within large boxed month-to-month calendar grid.


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Cop Who Hosed Motorcyclists With Pepper Spray Says It Was For His Own Safety
Sean MacDonald
Remember that Texas police officer who was caught on video spraying pepper spray into the road as motorcyclists passed by? He now admits he did it, but claims it was because he could not safely approach the truck he'd just pulled over.
Watch A Cop Allegedly Pepper Spray Passing Motorcyclists For No Apparent Reason
A helmet cam from a rider in Fort Worth, Texas shows what looks to be a police officer, who was…
Open tools.kinja-labs.com
Local Dallas news station NBCDFW obtained the official documents from the investigation into Officer W. Figueroa regarding the incident, which occurred on the 287 North near Rosedale Street, in Fort Worth, Texas.
The report contained the officer's reasoning for his actions:
"...multiple motorcycles would not vacate the lane closest to my marked patrol car. I deployed my pepper spray into the lane closest to me, at which point approaching motorcycles began to vacate the lane, allowing me to conduct a traffic stop."
In a message to other officers nearby, Officer Figueroa went on to say:
"287 NB is shut down by a bunch of delinquents."
He also claimed the reason he pulled the truck over was because it was driving slowly in the center lane, and had two men in the back who were filming the motorcyclists. He also stated:
"The motorcyclists were driving on one wheel and weaving in and out of traffic not allowing motorists to pass."
The woman driving the truck Officer Figueroa pulled over said she could see the pepper spray wafting intro traffic and that it then hit them and she started choking. Five people were treated for exposure to the spray and one man was taken to the hospital for minor injuries from the incident.
I'm at a loss for words, and don't really know who to hate more.
As a motorcyclist, my initial reaction was to place the fault, or at least find the fault more egregious, with the police officer, because you're all special little humans until proven otherwise in my eyes. And because I've been in cars where it wasn't safe to get out of, and where I managed to wait until it was safe rather than try and assault passing traffic. Why couldn't he have just done that, or used a baton or some other device to wave to the riders to give him room, rather than spray them and risk a crash?
After watching this video many more times than I'd like to admit, I noticed several things. Like how, even though the video is taken from behind the bars of cruiser, it starts with the familiar sound of sportbikes being revved too high.
Or how it actually looks like the rider in front of the guy wearing the camera is wheelie-ing. Or how there are guys in the bed of the truck. Or how the riders behind the bike, when the camera turns to face the cop, are sportbikes and dual sports. These guys weren't just out for a mellow cruise.
Not that it makes the cop's tactics justified by any means, but these guys were in fact riding like assholes (something that went unnoticed during the initial watch.) The cop didn't react well, but it makes a little more sense why he perceived an aggressive attitude from the riders.
However, my team teaching students with emotional disorders taught me that public service professionals are the ones who are supposed to de-escalate the situation, regardless of how they feel about it. He should have known better.
Now everyone go to your room and think about what you've done and how you can get along better next time.
Thanks for the link, Cris!
Beyond CarsMotorcycles


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GIPC Commends Private Sector –
The award winners
CHIEF EXECUTIVE Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC), Yofi Grant, has commended the private sector for their resilience during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking at the Ghana Club 100 awards held in Accra over the weekend, the GIPC boss said the immense support by the private sector contributed significantly in saving the Ghanaian economy in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The private sector in Ghana has had to change significantly to accommodate the exigencies of the pandemic. Entrepreneurs and businesses were compelled to seek out and adopt new strategies to modify their business operations to remain productive and stable," he said.
Mr. Grant said the silver lining at the edge of the cloud of COVID -19, was the ignition of the innovative spirit leading to the development of numerous novel approaches to addressing the essential needs of the society and critical sectors of the economy.
"From the way, work was conducted to where work was conducted; it is safe to say that virtual work and other innovations have become the new normal," he said.
Senior Advisor to President Akufo-Addo, Yaw Osafo Maafo, said the country will recover from the global shocks if the private sector attracts more investments into Ghana.
"As a catalyst to the Ghanaian economy, the private sector has done very well and with more investments more can be done to fight any external shocks," he said.
Zeepay Ghana was adjudged the best company in Ghana at the 19th edition of the Ghana Club 100 Awards organised by the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC).
The fintech company topped a ranking of the best companies in Ghana beating competition from Newmont Ghana Gold Limited and Multipro Limited, which came 2nd and 3rd respectively.
The rankings were based on vigorous exercise that focused on size, profitability and growth of companies in the year under review.
Other companies were awarded for contributing to the success of the Club 100 awards.
The Ghana Club 100 is an annual compilation of 100 outstanding companies in Ghana's business landscape, with the goal of honouring and rewarding businesses that are making remarkable accomplishments in their respective business fields.
This year's event was on the theme "Ghana's Private Sector, A Catalyst For Post-Pandemic Economic Transformation."
BY Jamila Akweley Okertchiri


In politics, sometime the most vicious attacks are served with a smile.
Right to Rise, the super PAC backing former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, released a new video Tuesday morning attacking Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's selection of boots, missed Senate votes and sometimes shifting positions. It's a sing-a-long, with karaoke rainbow hues, that boldly ignores the fact that boots don't really flip or flop. But who cares, if you can sing-a-long?
The deeply biting personal attack shows just how bitter the fight between the former mentor and mentee. Rubio drew mockery for wearing boots with substantial heels, which rivals saw as an attempt to appear taller than his 5'10" frame.
The primary flip-flop accusation concerns Rubio's past support for comprehensive immigration reform, a plan that Bush has also supported at times in his career. Rubio still maintains that he supports the parts of the Senate bill he sponsored in 2013, but now says that the bill should be split up because of political pressures, into an effort to better secure the border and enforce workplace immigration laws, followed by a bill that would provide an eventual path to citizenship for those currently in the United States without documentation.
Accusations of flip-flopping on immigration have dogged Bush as well. At times, he has supported a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. He now says he does not support a path to citizenship for those same people. Bush has not, however, been photographed wearing boot heels like Rubio.


Traffic sent to and from Google, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft was briefly routed through a previously unknown Russian Internet provider Wednesday under circumstances researchers said was suspicious and intentional.
The unexplained incident involving the Internet's Border Gateway Protocol is the latest to raise troubling questions about the trust and reliability of communications sent over the global network. BGP routes large-scale amounts of traffic among Internet backbones, ISPs, and other large networks. But despite the sensitivity and amount of data it controls, BGP's security is often based on trust and word of mouth. Wednesday's event comes eight months after large chunks of network traffic belonging to MasterCard, Visa, and more than two dozen other financial services were briefly routed through a Russian government-controlled telecom, also under suspicious circumstances.
According to a blog post published Wednesday by Internet monitoring service BGPMon, the hijack lasted a total of six minutes and affected 80 separate address blocks. It started at 4:43 UTC and continued for three minutes. A second hijacking occurred at 7:07 UTC and also lasted three minutes. Meanwhile, a second monitoring service, Qrator Labs, said the event lasted for two hours, although the number of hijacked address blocks varied from 40 to 80 during that time.
Little is currently known about AS39523, the previously unused autonomous system that initiated the hijacking. AS39523 hasn't been active in years, except for one brief BGP incident in August that also involved Google.
It remains unclear what engineers inside AS39523 did with what could be terabytes of data that passed through their servers. Generally, email and Web traffic is encrypted using transport layer security or other schemes. For years, researchers have devised ways to weaken or altogether break such encryption protections or work around them. To accomplish this, they've used attacks with names including Logjam and DROWN. To date, there are no known instances of BGP hijackers successfully decrypting rerouted traffic, but it's also not possible to rule out such feats. At a minimum, the Russian provider could have copied the data and is storing it in case a new crypto attack is discovered in the future.
The comments are highly informative.


The Twin Cities Claims Association is a local organization made up of claims professionals, attorneys and vendors within the insurance community. Our gatherings offer learning and networking opportunities. So mark you calendars for the second Tuesday of the month!
We host monthly luncheons at Poor Richard's Commonhouse in Bloomington,MN with various speakers on related insurance topics. The luncheons are held on the second Tuesday of each month, which begins at Noon and lasts for approximately 1 hour.
We are planning our speaking list for the upcoming months and we would love to hear your ideas.
We also host a golf tournament each year in September and we're excited to announce the location is Minnesota Valley Golf Course in Bloomington again this year. In December, we host a half-day seminar and a dinner. Both events offer fun, prizes and sponsorship opportunities.
If you would like to become a member and be on our email list, please send us an email with your contact information. We appreciate your continued support and participation this past year.


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March 19, 2004 (vol. 113, iss. 116)
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March 19, 2004 (vol. 113, iss. 116) • Page Image 1
…Friday, March 19, 2004 News 3 Prof urges more cohesive activism Opinion 4 Sports 9 Columnists Khatri and Rahim discuss attacks in MSpain Icers matchup with Northern Michigan The cast and crew of "Eternal Sunshine" speak ... Arts, Page 8 £4iti4un Weather hIe 45 LOW: 35 TOMORROW: 61/30 One-hundredthirteen years ofeditorialfreedom www.michigandaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXIII, No. 116 ©2004 The Michigan Daily ' ' agrees to tuitio...…
…0 2 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 19, 2004 NATION/WORLD Poland may withdraw from Iraq NEWS IN BRIEF; ___ __ __ ___ __ __ ___ __ __ ___ __ __ ___ _E W S I B R E a5' . HEADLINES FROM AROUND THE WORLD- WARSAW, Poland - President Alek- "But naturally I also feel uncomfort- sander Kwasniewski, a key U.S. ally, said able due to the fact that we were misled 4 ... I alsO feel uncomfortable due to the fact ISLAMABA, Pakistan yesterday that ...…
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…a Friday March 19, 2004 arts.michigandaily.com artseditor@michigandaiiy.com iftAd#q=J9Wv RTS 8 'Cabaret' titillates 'U' audience By Dawn L Low For the Daily FINEAT Is it possible to reinvent a show that's seen two Broadway revivals, an iconic film and countless college stagings? If you ask the directors of MUSKET's pro- duction of "Cabaret," they'll answer yes. If you're looking for blindly happy musical theater, look elsewhere. If you...…
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March 19, 2004 (vol. 113, iss. 116) • Page Image 10
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What's the deal with "brainwaves"?
Why does the brain have waves?
The brain has neurons which approximately perform function evaluations on their inputs. How would this cause brainwaves of different frequencies? Why are they related to the level of arousal in the brain (sleep/meditation etc)?
Is there some sort of "controller" that synchronizes the firing?
This is an excellent set of questions!
1. Why does the brain have waves?
There is no consensus on their functional role, but some researchers think oscillations facilitate flexible coordination and communication among neurons.
2. The brain has neurons which can approximately be understood as performing function evaluations on their inputs, though the actual mechanisms are more complex. But how would this cause brainwaves of different frequencies to exist?
There are several possible mechanisms that can cause the input-output transformation of neurons to lead to oscillations when the neurons are connected in networks. Furthermore, neurons themselves often have intrinsic oscillatory properties (other than basic spiking), such as rebound excitation following inhibition.
3. Is there some sort of "controller" that synchronizes the firing?
Even though we use the generic term 'brain waves', there are actually a variety of distinct mechanisms at work that lead to rhythmic behavior in different frequency bands. And in many cases we still don't know what the mechanism is that causes a particular brain rhythm, or can't decide among multiple plausible mechanisms.
Even though I'm a computational neuroscientist, I find it hard to conceptually integrate all the different perspectives on neural activity. But I've been thinking about this a lot lately, so here goes!
The most fine-grained perspective involves measuring the voltage of an individual neuron. This voltage can change in various ways. The most well known is the spike, or action potential. Spikes travel efficiently down the axon, and typically cause vesicle release in the synapse, which allows neurotransmitters to affect the post-synaptic neuron. But spiking is not the only kind of voltage fluctuation in a neuron. There are also 'sub-threshold' fluctuations, which are often oscillatory. These oscillations may represent oscillatory and/or synchronized inputs to the neuron that are insufficient to cause spiking. Single-electrode and multi-electrode recordings of cell activities can pick up both the sub-threshold fluctuations and the supra-threshold spiking.
Brain waves were first discovered through electroencephalography (EEG), which has been around for a century or so. Unlike electrode-based recording, EEG is non-invasive (meaning we don't have to poke any sharp objects into anyone). But the main drawback of EEG is that it is a coarse-grained measure of neural activity. It measures the cumulative electrical activity of very large numbers of neurons.
It's also important to realize that EEG essentially measures the synchronized inputs to a brain area, rather than the firing outputs. This has to do with the biophysics of the technique, which you can read about in more detail in my answer to the question "Are EEG voltages related to the average action potential firing rate of the cortical neurons near the electrode or are the voltages the average of low frequency voltage oscillations of the neurons?" EEG effectively measures the degree of synchronization of neurons that send inputs to the brain region directly underneath the EEG electrode.
Other techniques that can pick up oscillatory activity include magnetoencephalography (MEG) and Electrocorticography (ECoG).
Brain rhythms tend to be grouped into frequency bands. The most well-studied bands have been assigned Greek letters that reflect the order of their discovery. Here's a list of the bands, along with their frequency ranges in hertz (Hz). I've linked to their Wikipedia pages, when available.
What are the mechanisms that cause brain waves?
Through a combination of experimental techniques and theoretical approaches, neuroscientists have come up with several mechanisms that can explain oscillations in various frequency bands. In many cases it is not clear which mechanism is in fact at work.
The E(xcitatory) cells excite the I(nhibitory) cells, which in turn inhibit the same excitatory cells. This results in an oscillation whose frequency is determined by the rate of integration of the I-cells. Fast I-cells can produce fast rhythms.
There are plenty of other mechanisms for oscillations, but the PING model will give you a flavor of how they can be constructed. Arousal levels can by incorporated into models by incorporating factors such as neurotransmitter level fluctuations, and the effects of such fluctuation on the sub-threshold and/or firing properties of neurons. Changes in behavioral state can also change the inputs to various brain areas from the body and from the outside world, which in turn will affect the network activity mode. This is a vast topic for theory and computational modeling.
What is the purpose of brain waves?
This is actually still a very contentious issue. The field of neuroscience can be broadly divided into researchers who care about oscillations, and researchers who don't. People who don't care about oscillations are more interested in the firing activities and the input-output transformations of neurons and networks. Some of these researcher even go so far as to claim that oscillations are 'epiphenomena' — mere side-effects of the 'main' neural processes, such as integration, contrast enhancement, switching, resetting, and so on. I was broadly in the 'skeptics' category for many years, but I've started to realized that oscillations can't be ignored. The power in various frequency bands often correlates strongly with behavioral measures, so oscillations are at the very least telling us something important about how the brain works.
One theory of brain waves that is becoming popular is the idea of coordination, or "communication through coherence". The idea is that neurons which are in the same sub-threshold oscillatory state are more likely to be able to communicate spikes with each other. This is shown diagrammatically below . The black neuron is out of phase with the blue neuron, so it communicates with the blue neuron less effectively that the red neuron.
As I mentioned earlier, synchrony and rhythmicity are completely distinct. Presumably you can get coherence without any rhythms, just by synchronizing groups of neurons. But maybe rhythmic behavior is more easy to control.
I've only scratched the surface of this topic. There is definitely a lot more to the story of brain waves, and in the coming decades hopefully researchers will work towards an integrated theory.
Are EEG voltages related to the average action potential firing rate of the cortical neurons near the electrode or are the voltages the average of low frequency voltage oscillations of the neurons?
What changes occur in the brain when we close our eyes?
Is working memory associated with synchronization between oscillations in the prefrontal cortex and oscillations elsewhere in the brain? (e.g. parietal cortex)?
Medical Imaging: How strong is the correlation between a fMRI and an EEG?
Does the membrane time constant of neurons put a constraint on the frequencies seen in neuronal brain waves?
Posted on April 2, 2016 by Yohan.	This entry was posted in Quora and tagged brain rhythms, brainwaves, neuroscience, oscillations. Bookmark the permalink.


Please give 30 minutes notice because of small children. Beautifully maintained inside & out. Tasteful decor throughout. Home office is perfect to work from home. Bright, open, cheerful family room and kitchen. Gorgeous counters, backsplash and cabinets. Spacious dining area adjacent to kitchen and it is all open to the large family room. Luxurious master and master bath. Game room up is perfect for the kids to hang out and the 2 spacious bedrooms up share a well appointed bath. Big patio and yard too!


How Do I Implement A Video Strategy For Search Engines?
Video marketing is becoming more and more important as more users gain access to mobile and tablet devices, as well as faster Internet connections. This is then taking a huge impact on businesses as it is encouraging them to re-think their marketing strategy. Seeing as video has taken such a rise in popularity, it would be rude not to follow the crowd. Videos are especially helpful for driving traffic to your website. Search engines such as Google recognise that videos offer high-quality content and that they take time and effort to produce. For this reason, they place a lot of importance and keywords on videos as they see them as supporting signals for the quality of your sites content.
To improve and maximise your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) you need to make sure that you go down the right path. Your obvious choice to host the video would surely be the most common video site on the Internet, YouTube. YouTube is considered the second best search engine in the world behind Google, so not a bad place to host your video from. Make it easier for your customers to find you, searching for something on a video site will be a lot easier to find that looking for your product on Google. To make it easier for your viewers, search engines bring searches with the most relevant data to their query, and inbound links help the search engines determine how relevant the data is.
However, all of this talk can only take you so far as realistically it's all down to the video content. You could have the best marketing strategy, but it wouldn't be relevant if the video quality is poor as people won't be interested. Before you even think about promoting the video, have a think about who the video is for and what purpose does it hold. Then you can decide on how to bend your marketing around the video and what resources are at your disposal, such as social media and video sharing sites.
When someone is trolling through YouTube or a social media site and they come across your video, it will only take a matter of seconds before they loose interest or decide to stay because they like what they see.
When your video is ready to be released to the wonderful world of YouTube or another video sharing site or even your website. The next stage to helping people find your masterpiece is to include title tags and keywords in the title and description. As Google and YouTube are the two biggest search engines on the web, title tags are going to be the best mark up for your video. Tagging your videos thoroughly is the best way to optimize your video, using as many as possible, however just make sure that they are relevant.
Google will display the tags and key words in its search engine when people search relevant topics. If your video is a poor video regardless where people found it, users are not going to like it, which means they won't engage or write comments, etc. This sends negative signals to Google, which can result in your video staying low in the ranking system. So think twice before you pull everyone towards your videos, is it worth their time?!
Sam Richardson – A Creative at www.phinkproductions.com who has big interest's in visual content marketing as well as writing articles/blogs in and around the creative industry. Outside the office he is a very competitive sprint triathlete!


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text:
Q: c# Equality operators on null type on the c# 6.0 tutorial it says: Lifted equality operators handle nulls just like reference types do. This means two null values are equal:
Console.WriteLine ( null == null); // True
Console.WriteLine((bool?)null == (bool?)null); // True

While I tried first express in IDE, it won't compile, complains

Not sure what is the reason?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Uber Passenger Joked With Alleged Kalamazoo Shooter: 'You're Not The Shooter, Are You?'
Matt Novak
In a dark and grisly series of events Saturday night, police allege that Uber driver Jason Dalton shot 8 people in three different locations, killing six people. But the story gets even crazier, as Dalton allegedly not only picked up passengers between shootings, he continued to drive people around after his last shooting at 10:24pm at a Cracker Barrel restaurant. One of his last passengers before Dalton was arrested even joked, "You're not the shooter, are you?"
A man from Indianapolis who was visiting the Kalamazoo area talked with the local news and wished to be known only as "Derek." He, his wife, and his in-laws were at a restaurant, Bell's Eccentric Cafe, when they heard about the shootings. They decided that they'd be safer using Uber than walking. They were picked up at 12:12am, roughly a half hour before Dalton was arrested.
"My father mentioned from the back seat, you know, the situation with the shooter," Derek told Wood TV-8. "I kind of jokingly said to the driver, 'You're not the shooter, are you?' He gave me some sort of a 'no' response… shook his head…'"
At that point, nobody knew that the alleged shooter was an Uber driver, but for some reason Derek pushed him for another response.
"I said, 'Are you sure?' And he said, 'No, I'm not, I'm just tired,'" Derek told the local news. "And we proceeded to have a pretty normal conversation after that."
Derek and his family were dropped off at 12:19am and Dalton was arrested roughly twenty minutes later. Derek provided the news channel with his receipt as proof that he was likely Jason Dalton's last passenger that night.
Previously it had been reported that the ride he gave to one man between Dalton's alleged murder of two people at a Kia dealership and the Cracker Barrel shooting was chaotic and frightening. Derek said that Dalton seemed calm during their entire ride.
It has also been reported that a woman had hailed an Uber around 11pm, roughly a half hour after Dalton's last shooting spree at Cracker Barrel. There's no word yet on precisely how many people Dalton drove around that night. Nor the more inappropriately macabre question of what ratings he received for his rides.
Update, February 22, 5:40pm: Uber had a conference call with some reporters today and said that Dalton passed a background check and had an Uber driver score of 4.73.
"Overall, his rating was good," Joe Sullivan, Uber's chief security officer was quoted as saying by Quartz. "Before the events it was a 4.73."
Quartz points out that a 4.73 isn't actually considered good.
But on Uber, a rating of 4.73 isn't good. In fact, it's a number that Uber has previously defined as "below average, needs to improve," and close to the threshold at which drivers risk deactivation.
Either way, this guy probably isn't going to be getting near the steering wheel of an automobile anytime soon—Uber driver or not.
[Wood TV-8]
Open kinja-labs.com


text:
Serendipity, Research, and Passion: Septime Webre On Hong Kong Ballet's Upcoming Tour To New York City Center
Interview | 0 |
Image courtesy of Hong Kong Ballet.
by Thomas Baker
I first met Septime Webre, Hong Kong Ballet's Artistic Director, in 2018 while working on the role of the White Rabbit in his ALICE (in wonderland). I had spent weeks working on my interpretation of the role prior to his arrival; I preciously went over how I wanted to approach each step, my character arc, and each rabbit-like thump of my foot. When Septime arrived at Oregon Ballet Theatre to coach us, he entered the room with an infectious energy so robust it was simultaneously inspiring and intimidating. It was out with precious and in with a "rock 'em, sock 'em" attack, as he liked to say.
I quickly understood how this man was able to grow The Washington Ballet's budget by %500 percent, attract well known talent, and develop a loyal audience during his tenure as Artistic Director there. Having the opportunity to meet with him from his Hong Kong home via zoom to talk about his production of Romeo and Juliet's tour to the New York City Center only further developed my awe for this incredibly creative and energetic human. We dove into serendipity, creativity, research, and a love of storytelling in a way that has left me anxiously awaiting watching Hong Kong Ballet's Romeo and Juliet at New York City Center January 13th and 14th!
Can you tell us a little bit about the creation of Romeo and Juliet and what the process was like?
I fell in love with Hong Kong when I moved here(from Washington DC) in 2017. For the previous 10 or 15 years, I almost exclusively had been making original full length ballets using great works of American literature. I knew I wanted to tackle a work that would reflect Hong Kong culture. The Hong Kong I fell in love with. I'm not the right choreographer to tackle Chinese literature. But I thought that something that would reflect the fusion nature of Hong Kong would be appropriate.
And of course, Prokofiev provides that amazing score. It's almost choreographer proof. You can't screw it up – it's so good! I happen to have been a history major in undergrad during a period when I was essentially hiding from my parents how much I wanted to be a ballet dancer and telling them I would be a lawyer to deflect attention. I have always been interested in history and social context.
The early sixties in Hong Kong was a period of great social turbulence. There was a mass immigration from Shanghai to Hong Kong of people fleeing communism. It was a city that was becoming very wealthy and there were a lot of issues of class that seemed parallel to Romeo and Juliet.
I started the [choreographic] process in the early pandemic, so we had a long rehearsal period, but no performances scheduled yet because of the nature of the pandemic. Our dancers trained about six hours a week for quite some time in proper Hong Kong style Kung fu. So that's another way that there's a fusion – that the martial arts is woven into the ballet language. That's a little bit of the genesis [of the piece].
This version is sort of a re-imagination of the classic Romeo and Juliet. What elements have been reimagined and what remains true to Shakespeare?
Well, when you're making a big new work, there's a lot of serendipity that's involved in discovering how you'll deal with different passages. The direct narrative essentials remain the same. There's no real change in what happens, but characters and context have been adapted significantly. Here are maybe five or six small examples. Tai Po, the Tybalt role, is not only a triad up from the street, but he's also a business partner to Juliet's father and Juliet's mother's lover, adding another kind of family intrigue to the scenario.
The role of Friar Lawrence and essentially the Prince of Verona have been combined into Romeo's Sifu- Romeo's martial arts master. In Chinese culture, the Sifu is a master of any field. There's thousands of years of apprenticeship tradition and mastering of a thing.
And often, Chinese medicine and martial arts are housed in the same person. That allowed this character of Romeo's Sifu, both to be his kind of surrogate father figure, and also a kind of spiritual leader who might lead a symbolic commitment ceremony and also might know about medicines and give Juliet a potion.
During the early pandemic, there was a small opening [of stay at home restrictions] at some moment, during it, the city was relatively quiet. I was wandering through a neighborhood, thinking about the production, kind of absorbing the energy. I stumbled into a Mahjong parlor and I had played Mahjong as a kid in New York. I was fascinated.
It was so aggressive and chaotic and I thought, how brilliant. Actually, on my walk over there, I had been thinking about the fact that Prokofiev wrote a lot of music in Act two that doesn't really tell the story; it's yet another dance for the Harlot or for the street citizens. And it seemed redundant to act one and I thought, well, they're going to stumble into a mahjong parlor. So I've created this really quite wild mahjong table that's made a fun adaptation.
And that was one of those serendipitous kind of moments that you were talking about.
I was also scratching my head about how to deal with the Commedia dell'Arte, the first scene of Act Two. I was drinking a beer in Hong Kong's Soho district one night, they had closed off the street and a film was being made. This is something you see all the time, films being made on the street.
So I thought, all right, we'll have that be a film that comes by on the street. I hadn't figured out what to do with that film and the next day I went for a meeting at the China Club here in Hong Kong in an iconic club that is in the 1930s Shanghai style.
There was a collection of comics from the 1960s of this character Lo Fu, Old Master Q. They would be the equivalent of Archie comics in the United States. It's a funny old guy who's really tall and skinny and his potato shaped friend, and they're always after pretty girl Ms. Chan. Lo Fu is iconic in Hong Kong and so I knew Hong Kong people would know what it was. We changed the brand a bit because we didn't quite have the rights for it.
One thing about Hong Kong is that street life is specific here. It's very energetic. There's food sold on the street. There's kanji sellers and noodle sellers, dim sum sellers. So there's a lot of little elements of street life that have been embedded in[to the production].
It's so amazing hearing about your inspirations! It speaks to your creativity, in adapting the story, and it also speaks to Romeo and Juliet; that story that humans can relate to from all over the world.
You've already touched on your background studying history and falling in love with Hong Kong. How did you learn about all of these cultural references that you've been able to incorporate? Was it all through your own research or did you have people helping you?
I worked with a dramaturg, actually Yan Pat To, a local playwright and dramaturg based in Hong Kong with an international career – they helped me make some choices to ensure I didn't make mistakes.
I mentioned I was a history major in undergrad and that I have a kind of eclectic background. My family traveled a lot when I was young. My six older brothers grew up in Cuba. I grew up in The Bahamas, South Texas, and Sudan. Spent a fair amount of time traveling in Europe as a kid. My worldview, I guess, is through an international lens and I am naturally drawn towards historical context; historical context of what's happening around me or what the lineage is.
I did a lot of research and when I moved to Hong Kong, I just started to really soak in the city and really learn about it. Some of the elements come from the assistant of a wonderful dramaturg, some of it was just my own understanding of the city.
Some of it is just stuff where a light bulb went off – particularly the ballroom scene. I wanted it to feel like the early sixties. I wanted to show that the society was quite elevated so it would contrast from the street life. The designer has pushed the early sixties. Some of them have a Judy Jetson, atomic age, peplum to the Cheongsam that you would see at that time. Mac cosmetics designed the makeup and so there's a lot of fun with early sixties liquid eyeliner and whatnot.
A lot of what we talk about now is kind of the context of design decisions. At the end of the day, the heart of the ballet though, is housed in that story and in the choreography and how the story manifests through this particular staging.
Images courtesy of Hong Kong Ballet.
You're so fascinating and you share so much. I love it. Like you mentioned, you're particularly well known and have a knack for telling stories of American literature and full-length ballets. How do you approach telling stories that we all know so well, and where do you think your innate ability for entertaining and storytelling came from?
I definitely came at storytelling organically. I came from the generation of artists who were influenced by Balanchine and Cunningham. And as a matter of fact, early in my career, I left ballet for a period and danced in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Serious choreographers weren't making narratives. New work was generally abstract, shorter, and existed in a triple bill. I certainly came out of that.
Early in my career, I was an Artistic Director at Princeton Ballet. I was 30, and suddenly I wasn't in charge of my choreographic career. I was a steward of a civic institution that needed some big ballets to grow the box office and grow the audience base. So I began to make work that did that. Initially, I used scores that existed, like Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, I adapted a Giselle, a Coppelia, all over the course of some years.
After this period of time, I felt ready to be my own author. I felt ready to tackle works where a score was not yet written. So about 10 years ago I created the first of these, a series of big ballets that were kind of from scratch. I looked to great works of literature and I created a Great Gatsby. I went back to the book, read it maybe twice cleanly, and then the third time began to make notes and imagine what scenes could be.
Essentially that became my process, and I came at it organically. I started as an abstract artist, and then eventually just naturally found my voice. Having said that, when I really realized I was a storyteller, I looked back to see where that came from and when I was a kid, I was naturally theatrical and I was a playwright.
When I was 10 I wrote my first play. It was called The Case of the Recurring Ennui. I had heard the word ennui, and I knew it meant something like boredom. My sister, who was eight, was my muse. She was wearing a white strapless, fishtail gown I'd made out of the canopy of her bed with safety pins and was lying on a chez I'd made out of suitcases and a red crushed-velvet blanket. As a Cuban-American, you don't have to ask why I had a red crushed-velvet blanket.
I mean, stories just came naturally when I was a kid. And honestly, I'm just interested in the storytelling and I'm interested in technique and movement.
That's so funny – you took me on this journey of your artistic maturation and process while also realizing that it all stems from the root of who you are as an entertainer and a storyteller.
I could do that for you because I am a storyteller.
You have worked all over the world. You've also, I found out, have lived all over the world. You are very multicultural and now you have this opportunity of bringing Hong Kong Ballet and Romeo and Juliet to New York City Center. What are you looking forward to, or what it means to you to have this tour?
It's a terrific moment. It's certainly a homecoming for me. I'm a New Yorker and a Washington DC person. Both cities are home to me and City Center is the epicenter of so much important dance over the last 75 years or more.
I'm also excited because I came to Hong Kong Ballet in 2017 and Hong Kong Ballet is, and was already, a beautiful ballet with a great bone structure and a really elegant repertoire.
What I hope I have brought, is a fresh energy to it. I'm anxious to share this re-energized company with New York and with American audiences. It's also a really great celebration for Hong Kong.
During the pandemic we've been so isolated. Everyone's been isolated. I'm happy for Hong Kong Ballet to be the first major kind of cultural ambassadorship from Hong Kong to the world to remind everyone of the energy and special nature of Hong Kong. Hong Kong's also a city that has a special glamor to it and I think you'll see a little bit of that with the company as well. The company definitely reflects the energy of the city.
Well, I am so happy to chat, chat with you and reconnect and I am looking forward to seeing you in New York.
Me too! Thank you so much for taking the time to chat.
Hong Kong Ballet will perform Septime Webre's Romeo and Juliet at the New York City Cener January 13th at 8pm and the 14th at 2pm. More information and tickets here!
Thomas Baker is a retired dancer living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He loves all things performance, art, and design.
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I'm currently breeding Beldums using Ditto in FireRed. The Beldum is from Emerald. Here's its current Stat Spread at Level 5.
How do I get a Beldum with good Attack and Hp IVs if I breed my current Beldum with the Stat spread above? Ditto and Beldum are Genderless. I have a few eggs now.
There is a way to breed parents' IVs onto their offspring, but we first need to figure out whether your Beldum and Ditto can produce your desired Pokemon. I've put your Beldum's stats into Serebii's IV Calculator and assuming your Beldum has no EVs and a neutral nature, your Beldum's HP IV is between 0-9 and your Attack IV is between 0-19. Both are extremely vague indicators, but they indicate that your Beldum has far from perfect IVs in those stats.
Realistically, the only thing you're able to do now is to continue hatching eggs until you get a Beldum with a good HP and/or Attack IV. Note, you don't need perfect IVs in both stats, but its preferred; more on that later. Also try searching for Ditto in the Pokemon Mansion and get a Ditto with a perfect HP and/or Attack IV. There needs to be a perfect HP and a perfect Attack IV somewhere between your Beldum and Ditto couple. With every Pokemon you hatch/encounter, be sure to use the IV Calculator I linked above. Fill out the other stuff I left out, such as your Pokemon's nature and overall potential (the latter indicated by the Pokemon Judge near the Battle Tower PC), as these will give you a more precise indication of your Pokemon's IVs.
Once you have gotten your two Pokemon, put them in the Daycare and wait patiently! The breeding mechanics work in that two IVs will come from one parent, and one IV will come from the other. I'm not sure how the probability works here, but I believe a higher probability results in having one perfect IV on one parent and the other IV on the other parent. That being said, the best probability is when both Pokemon have perfect HP and Attack IVs! That takes a bit of effort though, so do what you can. It will take a bit of hatching, but if you persevere, eventually you'll get your desired Beldum.
answered Jan 18, 2017 by !'•-Indigo-•'!
Thanks, this was a detailed anwser enough to help me. I Guess I have to catch another ditto and hatch more Beldums and breed until I get the perfect one.
How do you know if a Pokèmon has perfect IVs, i.e. 31 in each stat?


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Q&A: What Food Processors Can Learn from Huy Fong Foods
The heated battle between Sriracha-maker Huy Fong Foods and the city of Irwindale, Calif., has fired up in recent weeks, highlighting the importance of food companies maintaining a positive relationship with their surrounding community.
Interview with Mitch Carrel, Partner, Real Estate Practice Group and Food Industry Team, Freeborn & Peters
The battle between Sriracha-maker Huy Fong Foods and the city of Irwindale, Calif., has fired up in recent weeks, highlighting the importance of food companies maintaining a positive relationship with their surrounding community. Mitch Carrel spoke with Food Manufacturing about the case, what considerations food manufacturers should make when choosing a new plant site and how a facility's location plays an important role in its ability to do business.
Q:What are your thoughts on the Los Angeles County Superior Court's decision to deny the city of Irwindale's request for a temporary restraining order? Will this set a precedent for other similar cases?
A:The moving party for a temporary restraining order (TRO) generally must show a likelihood of prevailing on the cause of action and irreparable harm without an adequate remedy at law. The court in the case of Huy Fong Foods determined that the city's request for a TRO on 24-hour notice was "too radical." In lieu of ruling, a hearing was scheduled within a very short time frame.
After subsequently hearing the evidence, the court found that the city was likely to prevail on the public nuisance claim and that irreparable harm may occur. The court also found that the Mitigated Negative Declaration connected with the initial Facility Permit requires the company to reduce the potential for odors if strong odors are verified off-site. Because of these facts and findings, the company was ordered to immediately make changes in its site operations to reduce odors and the potential for odors–consistent with its initial permit. However, the court declined to enjoin the "operating or using of the property generally," as requested by the city in its complaint.
While this ruling may provide a road map for those similarly situated for what may constitute reasonable efforts and measures necessary to avert a finding of a public nuisance, TROs are fact-specific and each case is evaluated on its own merits.
Q: In your opinion, how well is Huy Fong Foods handling this situation, and why? How might this company improve its community relations?
A: Based on news reports and the facts alleged in the city's complaint, there may be opportunities to improve communications between the parties. The reports suggest that the parties were originally cooperative, but that efforts slowed or halted possibly in response to the city's suggestion of the installation of an expensive filtration system.
Often, poor communications lead to unnecessary and costly litigation. Instead of allowing communications to falter, maintaining open and timely communications between the local government and company decision-makers is essential. Such efforts not only apprise all parties of the efforts being taken, but also build trust — which is essential to a long-term, collaborative and mutually beneficial relationship.
An action plan should also be developed and implemented. This allows the company to understand the available solutions. Once the options are determined, they should be explored and a final solution diligently pursued. Taking appropriate and timely action also leads to improved community relations.
Q: What considerations should food manufacturers make when considering new plant sites?
A: The site selection process for food manufacturers involves more than just picking a "good location." It's the process of evaluating your options by clarifying your short- and long-term goals, establishing the measurable objectives you want to reach, and weighing the entitlement and incentive opportunities available to help you get there.
To best understand all available options and opportunities, a site selection strategy should be developed. The strategy should address the need for flexible zoning approvals that allow for future expansion — in capacity as well as product lines. If possible, the zoning should not only address current and future needs, but also efforts that may be taken to minimize risk that incompatible uses may put the company at an operational disadvantage.
When evaluating possible new sites, companies should begin by looking at a lot of options, and then use their goals and objectives to narrow the field. The site selection strategy should include a coordinated outreach plan to ensure timely communications with interested parties, which may include community members as well as local businesses and government officials and staff. These and other considerations — including evaluation of financial incentive opportunities, the local workforce and a comparison of operating costs for each option — should help a company narrow the field to three to five locations.
A successful site selection strategy involves coordinated efforts to secure entitlements and other approvals, permits and licenses. This usually requires early and heavy coordination with government authorities and other community members to get the best results, to ensure proper timing for receipt of the necessary approvals and to ensure compatibility.
Q: What are some common performance standards and other restrictions that cities may impose on food companies?
A: Common performance standards include restrictions on noise, vibration, lighting and particulate matter. There may also be limitations on 24-hour operations and roadway use for heavy truck traffic. These and other limitations should be evaluated during the due diligence portion of the site selection process. It is also important to ensure that all potential operations and planned and proposed uses within the property legally are permitted to avoid any operational issues or business interruption.
Q: How can food manufacturers help ensure their operations are compatible with the surrounding community, and how can companies best engage in community outreach?
A: As part of the site selection process, the proposed business uses and operations should be evaluated to ensure compliance with zoning and other regulations and restrictions. However, as the Huy Fong Foods' situation illustrates, companies may also be subject to other claims. Effective community outreach efforts may provide the necessary nexus and community connection to avoid unnecessary and costly community disputes. Best practices for community outreach generally include the commencement of a dialogue and the building of trust between interested parties at the time of business inception, rather than after a problem arises.
Community outreach involves ongoing and continuous efforts to positively integrate a business into the community, and it is recommended that businesses have a community outreach plan.
Becoming a constructive part of the community allows a company to communicate directly with other community stakeholders. It also allows the company to be an active participate on issues that may impact the community — and ultimately its own business interests. These efforts are dynamic and may take many forms. A combination of messaging, local hiring, support for local interests and integration with the local community may all be part of a coordinated outreach plan.
Mitchell A. Carrel is a Food Industry Team lawyer and Partner in the Real Estate Practice Group at Freeborn & Peters LLP in Chicago. His practice focuses on representing public and private companies, land owners, developers and investors and helping them secure land use and zoning approvals, public incentives, local regulatory and siting approvals, as well as performing zoning due diligence.


The Veterinary Technology program is fully accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association. The program is located on the Loudoun campus in Sterling, Virginia and includes a small animal veterinary teaching clinic, laboratory, radiology, and surgery areas, classrooms and kennel facilities.
A: Veterinary Technology is a hands-on, applied medical field in which people are educated to assist in veterinary practice, biological laboratories, animal research and other areas requiring knowledge of medicine and animals.
A: Most people become a Veterinary Technician by completing a formal two-year college program, receiving an Associate of Applied Sciences (A.A.S.) degree and then successfully completing a national and state board examination to become legally certified.
Q: Describe the Veterinary Technology program at NOVA.
A: The program begins in the fall semester and continues for five consecutive semesters until graduation after the spring semester. The program is a combination of basic medical science and practical hands-on courses conducted on-campus as well as at off-campus sites.
A: Some of the classes offered include: Anatomy and Physiology of Domestic Animals, Pharmacology, Hematology, Diseases of Domestic Animals, Microbiology, Radiology, Animal Behavior, Clinical Pathology, Advanced Clinical Practices, Anesthesiology. Students also participate in clinical practice situations in the veterinary hospital on campus, visits veterinary clinics, and a semester-long preceptorship at a veterinary facility.
Q: I really want to become a veterinarian. Is this the best place to start?
A: No. While some graduates of the veterinary technology program have in fact continued their education and became licensed veterinarians, the classes required for both disciplines are completely different. The veterinary technology program prepares graduates to start a career providing excellent nursing skills as a licensed veterinary technician and the courses do not transfer as credit for vet school.
Q: If I have taken a college course(s) which appears to be similar to the degree requirements for the curriculum, must I take the same course again?
A: A. This will be determined after you compare courses taken with the program of study advising sheets available from the NOVA main website. If you are seeking advanced standing and want your previous college courses to be recognized as transfer credits, you will need to have your college transcript(s) properly evaluated by NOVA Loudoun campus. Submit a Request for Evaluation of Transcript Form (Form 125‐049E) which must be completed online (click here) for transfer credit purposes. Paper transcript evaluation request forms will no longer be accepted. You must submit a separate request for each transcript you would like to be evaluated. All international high school and international college transcripts must first be evaluated for course‐by‐course credit by an evaluation agency. Transcript evaluation takes a minimum of 6-8 weeks and you must be enrolled in at least one NOVA course for the transfer credits to post on an official transcript.
Q: If I already have an Associate's or Bachelor's degree, must I still take general education courses?
A: Those students who have completed an Associate's or Bachelor's degree from an accredited U.S. institution will automatically be given credit for fulfilling all of the general education courses listed above with the exception of the CHM101 or CHM111(4 credits with a lab), VET111 Animal Anatomy and Physiology (4 credits with a lab), MTH133 and SDV 101 Orientation to Veterinary Technology course. These four courses are program-specific requirements for degree completion in veterinary technology. If you have taken a 4-credit Chemistry course with lab as part of your degree curriculum and achieved a letter grade of C or better (C-minus grades and lower do not transfer to NOVA) then you are exempt from taking the Chemistry course as well. If you have not taken a 4-credit Chemistry course or did not achieve the minimum transfer credit grade then you will still need to take this requirement before applying to the program.
Q: Does the program always have to be completed in two years?
A: Yes, due to the course sequencing and schedule of classes. The specific veterinary technology courses within the degree curriculum are designed to be completed in sequence and are only offered in a particular semester. Acceleration through the program courses is not possible as would result in student course scheduling conflicts. However, students are required to complete prerequisite course (SDV101 Orientation to Veterinary Technology, ENG111, CHM101 or CHM111, MTH133, VET111) prior to applying to the Veterinary Technology program.
Q: Do I have to take general education support courses at the Loudoun Campus?
A: No, you may take your non-veterinary technology course at any of the six NOVA campuses, or through NOVA Extended Learning Institute (on-line), or at another community college. You can discuss this further with a Loudoun counselor or your faculty advisor.
Q: How do I get into the Veterinary Technology program?
A: Follow the application procedures listed in under Apply Here section on this website. Students are accepted into the program based on such credentials as previous grade patterns, overall GPA, current experience in the field, completion of support (general education) classes and residence within the commonwealth of Virginia. Please see the Profile of Accepted Students section for more information.
Q: How likely is it that I will be accepted into the Veterinary Technology program the first time I apply?
A: Although the Veterinary Technology program has set minimum requirements for application, all candidates applying actually compete with that particular year's qualified applicant pool. For profile information on the currently accepted Fall semester class of full-time students, please see the Profile of Accepted Students section of this website.
A: The courses that will transfer vary with the college. Most VET-prefixed courses are very content-specific and are designed only for completion of the applied science degree in Veterinary Technology. Individuals interested in transferring should contact the college or university to which they plan to transfer to discuss this further. Alternately, make an appointment to meet with a transfer counselor located in the campus Student Counseling office at any of the NOVA campuses.
A: There are many job openings in the field locally and in other parts of the country. Prospective employers often contact NOVA regarding employment and a job board is maintained at the Veterinary Technology Department. Most of our Veterinary Technology students secure employment before they graduate. The current job outlook information can be found in link below to the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
A: The total program cost will depend on whether you are paying in-state or out-of-state tuition. It will also depend on how many course credits you will already have earned before entering the program. For the most current tuition rate per credit hour information, click here.
The total number of credits required for the program can also be found on the program of study or academic advising sheets searchable from main NOVA website for either the on-campus or on-line program. Count the number of credits for any classes you have not yet taken and multiply the number of credits needed by the current tuition rate per credit hour.
Examples of other potential expenses will be in the form of a campus parking pass, transportation expenses associated with campus commuting, course textbooks, lab supplies and equipment, required clothing for clinical labs, and travel to off-campus sites such as field trips/rotations/preceptorships.
Q: Where can I obtain the required pre-exposure rabies vaccinations?
A: You can obtain the Rabies vaccinations from most county health departments; contact them directly for specific information on cost and appointment scheduling. Alternatively, you may be able to obtain this through your current healthcare provider or national retail pharmacy vaccine clinics for travelers. The pre-exposure Rabies vaccine is a series of three vaccinations which must be completed prior to starting your fall Veterinary Technology courses. You will be required to submit original proof to the program of Rabies vaccination. If you have a previous Rabies series, you must obtain proof of current protective Rabies titer if it has been more than two years since vaccine from your Health department or Healthcare provider.
A: A financial aid counselor on any NOVA campus can help you. The Loudoun Campus financial aid counselors are located in the LR building (Reynolds), Room 249 for the Loudoun campus. Call toll-free to 1-855-323-3199 first to confirm their weekday walk-in hours before you visit. You can find the information for financial aid offices at all NOVA campuses here.
More information about financial aid can be found under the Financial Aid FAQ.
The six-digit identification code for Northern Virginia Community College is 003727.
Q: If I have further questions about the requirements or application process, who should I contact?
A: If you need help or have questions regarding the Veterinary Technology program requirements or the application process, submit them using the Contact Us form.


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Tag Archives: Christopher Robin Milne
Goodbye Christopher Robin Movie Review
*Warning: this review contains minor spoilers. Read at your own risk if you have not seen the film.
Winnie The Pooh is one of those childhood books that we all cherish. Written by A.A. Milne in the 1920's, the world of Winnie The Pooh and the characters who inhabit that world have lasted generations.
The new movie, Goodbye Christopher Robin, is not only the story of how Mr. Milne came to the idea of Winnie The Pooh, but also the eventual toll it took on his son, Christopher Robin Milne. Domhnall Gleason plays A.A. Milne and Margot Robbie plays his wife, Daphne. Their son is played by Will Tiltson at age 8 and Alex Lawther at age 18. Kelly Macdonald plays Olive, the nanny who is like a second mother to Christopher Robin.
While the narrative went a little overboard on the drama at certain points, I really enjoyed the film. I enjoyed it because the characters were alive, flawed and thoroughly human. The marriage between Mr. and Mrs. Milne was not all sunshine and roses and Christopher Robin, known to his family as Billy Moon, did not escape the fame came with his father's success unscathed. I also appreciated that the filmmakers focused on the PTSD that affected Mr. Milne after he returned from World War I. It added another layer of humanity to the character and the narrative.
Goodbye Christopher Robin is presently in theaters.
Filed under Books, History, Life, Movie Review, Movies
Tagged as A.A. Milne, Alex Lawther, Christopher Robin Milne, Domhnall Gleason, Goodbye Christopher Robin, Kelly Macdonald, Margot Robbie, Will Tilston, Winnie The Pooh, World War I


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FECR Opens New Train Dispatch Center
Volumes Up 26% in First Year of New FECR Intermodal Facility at Port Everglades
FECR Announces Amendment to Collective Bargaining Agreement
JACKSONVILLE, Fla, July 15, 2015 – Maximizing Train Efficiency And Safety – On Saturday, July 11th, Florida East Coast Railway (FECR) successfully transferred its train dispatching operations to a state-of-the-art Dispatch Center equipped with its new Wabtec Train Management Dispatching System (TMDS). "The new dispatching system has been in development by FECR and Wabtec for almost 8 months", said Fran Chinnici, SVP Engineering, Mechanical and Purchasing for FECR, "and both Wabtec and our Dispatch System Implementation Team did an outstanding job of developing and integrating the new TMDS system into our rail operations".
The transition to the new Dispatch Center and the technology provided by the new Wabtec TMDS system certainly takes FECR into a new era for train operations and further demonstrates the commitment to leading edge technologies at FECR," said Jim Hertwig, FECR President and CEO. "The functionality of both the new TMDS system will provide increased efficiency, enhanced customer service and prepare FECR for future growth as we prepare for the expansion of the Panama Canal and the strategically positioned Ports on Florida's east coast.
"We are proud to be part of this successful technology project. FECR is a very efficient railway operation and they facilitated a very smooth project implementation", said Ray Betler Wabtec President and CEO.


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Абыкь  — абхазский народный язычковый духовой музыкальный инструмент.  Абхазская труба, ее называют язычковая свирель типа рожка.

Длинная деревянная труба с изогнутым концом-  это рожки из коры лапины, мелкого ореха, конической формы. Это сигнальный инструмент.

Восстановлением инструмента занимался народный артист Абхазии Отар Георгиевич Хунцариа.

Обрядовая культура
Считается древним по своему происхождению абхазским народным инструментом. Благодаря его фанфарным звукам, которые разносятся далеко, при помощи него объявляли военную тревогу. Игрой на инструменте начали созыв людей на праздник.

Сейчас труба вышла из употребления, но встречалась еще, как помнят очевидцы, во 2-й половине XIX в. при дворе последнего абхазского владетельного князя Михаила (Ахмут-бея) Чачба (Шервашидзе). Это сигнальный инструмент. Благодаря его фанфарным звукам, которые разносятся далеко, им объявляли военные тревоги, собирали общину на сход, созывали людей на полевые работы. Абыкь также употребляли и в религиозных целях. Священнослужитель — жрец оповещал трубными звуками о предстоящем молении.

Роль народных сходов Ш. Д. Инал-ипа в монографии «Абхазы» описывает так: «В деле регулирования общественных отношений особое значение имели народные собрания, где решались, важнейшие вопросы жизни общины и отправлялось правосудие. В случае необходимости народные собрания созывались трубным гласом под названием «абыкь». Народные сходы для обсуждения повседневных хозяйственных и других дел проводились в каждой сельской общине. Это были собрания взрослых мужчин, женщины на них обычно отсутствовали. Большую роль на собраниях играли старшины – влиятельные и опытные люди, не располагавшие, однако, никакой особой  властью. На собрания приходили по родам, или патронимиям»

Инструментальные коллективы
В современной Абхазии существует множество народных инструментальных ансамблей, которые исполняют композиции на абыки. Используется в оркестрах народных инструментов, самый известный ансамбль «Гунда»

Литература
 Хашба И. М. Абхазские народные музыкальные инструменты Издание второе Сухуми: «Алашара», 1979 240 с. Тираж 1500.
 Хашба И. М. Из музыкальной культуры абхазов // Современное абхазское село: Этнографические очерки. 1967.
 Зельницкая Р. Ш. Трансформация социальных отношений в абжуйской абхазии на примере села Джгерда (середина XIX — начало XXI века). Специальность: 07.00.07 — этнография, этнология и антропология Диссертация на соискание учёной степени кандидата исторических наук Научный руководитель: кандидат исторических наук Ботяков Юрий Михайлович Санкт-Петербург 2017.

См. также
 Апхьарца
 Ачамгур

Примечания

Абхазские музыкальные инструменты
Язычковые духовые музыкальные инструменты

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