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Jetow,
Here is the info of Kim's Texas silkworm house as you requested:
http://propertysearch.limestonecad.com/Property-Detail/PropertyQuickRefID/R132456/PartyQuickRefID/O0029236
They have a partnership with Stella McCartney's fashion company and she has made a couple prototype dresses from it, but no simple shirts that I know of.
How Spider Silk Could Help to Regrow Nerves:
I know people and I would get one, but Japanese sizes are smaller than US sizes. Their XL would be similar to a US Medium.
They have a watch strap:
https://www.omegawatches.com/en-us/omega-nato-straps-031cwz011621w
Yeah, I'm kicking myself for selling a chunk of my holdings at .12. I hope it will eventually drop enough to let be buy back in without too much of a loss.
Hey Jetow,
I am doing well, today was great! I didn't see the PR until my lunch break, so was very pleasantly surprised. I was able to make a nice chunk of change and hope to buy back in when things settle back down. I really look forward to see what kinds of products this collaboration can bring. I will be one of the first ones placing an order! Hope you are doing well, too!
I remember reading something in their patent applications that had some numbers that I don't recall off the top of my head, but they weren't even close to the 2GPa tensile strength that KBLB claims.
Spiber Japan produces around 20 metric tons a month, all going to R&D with a factory in the works that will produce on commercial scale. Bolt Treads also has a warehouse dedicated to production that I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't produce a metric ton a month. There is plenty of room for multiple spider silk companies and the properties of the silkworm based spider silk should give KBLB the edge assuming they ever get the final go ahead to scale up.
When did this happen? I don't remember reading anything about that.
Bolt has been pretty public about how they used to use salmonella, but moved away from it to yeast fairly early on when they couldn't get the properties they wanted.
"If I was able to cherry pick my best fiber sample ever I would show you strengths in excess of Kevlar and elasticity 50% higher than this study."
Wow! Hopefully with a decent selective breeding program in place, they will be able to get this kind of fiber consistently.
When Spidey Tek first debuted a acouple years ago, they looked extremely amaturish, so much that I thought for sure that they were a scam. The fact that they joined up with Randy Lewis made me take them more seriously. The spider glue, I suspect, wasn't actually made by Spidey Tek, but licenced from Lewis since he is the only one I know that was working on that.
Spidey Tek seems to use spider silk proteins made from bacteria to electro-spin fibers and mix both with polimers, and use that to 3D print frames and panels for drones and cars, at least that is what it looks like based on a quick skim over their patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20170226674
Thanks for the clarification! These articles released in such quick succession do seem like they are trying to spike the pps. Maybe someone is investigating because of it?
Now that Kim has indicated that it was his IR that paid for this promotion, would it still be partially his responsibility for contracting with them? After a quick check, I do know that someone in charge of Karolus Maximus Capital has been in trouble with and fined by the SEC for doing this exact sort of thing in the past with another company. Kim willingly associating himself with them after that means that he knew the risk of this sort if thing happening to him.
TRUTH included a link to the globe newswire, so it's definitely legit, but I know there have been instances in the past when a PR went out before it was supposed to.
I didn't get an email on this. It is not on their website yet either. Someone jump the gun?
A quick read through gives the impression that they are defending themselves about this. Have they recently been getting a lot of emails our posts criticizing them about this? I mean more than usual. Since I've been invested in this company, I've seen many many criticisms here and on other boards regarding their IR choices and how much they spend on it and this would not have been the first time that a paid promotion had been put out either by the company or someone else. What made them feel the need to put this PR out now? I haven't been following the board recently as actively as I have been in the past, is there something I missed?
Hey jetow,
Everything is good, I have been lurking here, but I've just have been swamped lately so haven't been able to research or post nearly as often as I used to. I am excited about getting the business license, but I am still waiting on official word that GMO silkworm imports have been approved. I know that TRUTH said that Ben said that Jon cryptically hinted at this being the case, but unless I see something official in a PR, newsletter, or elsewhere, I am taking that with a grain of salt.
It is a good step in the right direction, but there are many more steps before we will see a dime made on this endeavor. I predict 2020 will be our year for that, but there are still hurtles to clear before then and KBLB has had a history of stumbling.
I still believe in KBLB and am still holding just as many shares as I have been. I have also added a news alert for Prodigy Textiles to see if I can glean any more info as it comes out, but it will be a while for them to set up and breed enough silkworms to start selling anything, assuming they actually are approved to import.
Good find! That confirms what I had found last year on the location.
A zoom in on the picture of their investment certificate and quick translation pointed to the Dai Hiep Commune, Dai Loc Rural District as their approved location, so I knew it would be there, but then in March last year, this Vietnamese article pointed it at it being in the Dong Fu and Tich Fu communities. This location actually seems like it matches up with where the field they were touring based on the electical pylons in the background of the image compared to a satellite map of the power lines through Dai Loc. This seems to be a pending construction project of an industrial center at around that location, though i am not sure if KBLB has a hand in it, it is just something that I have been keeping my eye on.
KBLB has historically moved their location periodically, so I wasn't sure that this would be the true location, but it seems like they are intent on establishing themselves here.
Looks like they corrected it in the actual article at some point, that must be why I missed it.
Ha! Yeah it was, I didn't even notice that part. The author obviously can't keep their facts straight.
Yeah, they never sold any yet. I have been watching for them to, but it has yet to happen.
That is awesome! Thank you for checking up on them. I have read elsewhere that it takes about 3 years for a mulberry tree to mature enough, so despite them claiming that they would start harvesting the leaves back in late 2017, I suspect they won't fully utilize the output of these trees until 2020, hopefully growing new trees around that area as well. I believe around that time would likely be when they start looking into starting up a small scale worm farm there.
Hopefully they will be off the ground in Vietnam by then...
Dr. Amanda Brooks mentioned in the article started up Brooks Biomimetics a few years back and I believe also studied under Randy Lewis at USU before that.
This is the first I have heard from Spidey Tek in a couple years back when they claimed to achieve a 40 GPa strength with their proprietary process that allows for 3D binding to achieve a higher strength. 40 GPa is a hard pill to swallow, though, so I look forward to seeing if they maintain that claim while working with Randy Lewis.
They have only really gotten one contract from the government, a one million dollar one that was broken up based on performance. Prior to that, they used a financer that they sold stock to at a 20% discount, $100k worth each month.
Their financials are dismal, the majority of the people here are either trading or holding due to believing in the science with hopes that the Vietnam or similar facility is approved that can support large scale production of consistent quality fibers. It is a gamble, definitely, but one that will pay off if done right.
I completely agree, even if it is in limited supply, Just take the Bolt Threads approach and make like 50 limited edition pairs of underwear or whatever. I would buy it and it would help the stock price immensely.
Do you have a link to the report? I would like to read it as well.
So, does anyone know what happened to Entogenetics?
I haven't heard anything from them for a couple years now and just checked their website and it is down. WHOIS data shows that it is still registered to David Brigham. Does anyone know what happened? Are they defunct?
He never left it, really. It just hasn't really been his focus. He seemed more interested in focusing on spider silk based glues rather than fibers recently.
Looks like they are $200 knit caps: https://www.bestmadeco.com/microsilk
B. Good
I think Kim does a good job at furthering the development of KBLB's silkworms, has made good decisions for the most part regarding the use of the company's money, and the hiring of Jon Rice was likely one of his best recent decisions. I think he is doing well attempting to expand in Vietnam while growing domestically at small scale as well. Overall, he does a good job at running a publicly traded company that will likely not profitable for years still. His passion for this is what keeps him in the game and is what will make this company great eventually.
Unfortunately, I do not think he does a good job with shareholder communication. He has done much better recently (likely due to Jon Rice), but his past communications we're extremely vague and seemingly intentionally misleading. I also feel that his investments in extremely biased studies and paid promotions at this stage of the company are just wasting the company's money and reducing long term shareholder confidence. It might be just to try to boost the share price to sell at a better rate, but it makes KBLB look no different from any other penny stock.
Everything above just my opinion, obviously.
That particular group, the Japanese National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS), did open a research facility in India shortly after this study, though they are focusing on trying to cure a particular silkworm disease rather than creating spider silks.
Also, I know that there is another effort in Japan also trying to make genetically altered silkworms that create spider silk called the "Isanago Project". I have been monitoring them for a few years now and they are growing mulberry and operating at very small scale out of an old elementary school, but are having trouble getting funding to really do much. The person running the project does closely follow KBLB and has even put out a comparison study with his silk that I translated a while back here: https://imgur.com/a/5MvJ2
It has been done successfully, though not on KBLB's silkworms. I think graphene is still to expensive and carcinogenic for it to be worth doing at any setting outside of a lab.
Their CEO did a public Q&A back in March where he confirmed that they are still working with Unifi.
Kaplan, to my knowledge, has more spider silk related patents to his name than any other researcher. He is very accomplished in the field, though it seems he is not all that interested in commercializing his achievements.
Really positive outlook until you look at the fine print:
Publisher has previously been compensated a position of 4 million shares; this should be viewed as a definite conflict of interest and as such, the reader should take this into consideration!
Bolt Threads is making a lot of progress in the short time that they have been out of hiding. Their CEO and COO are well spoken and very good at branding and marketing, I expect them to do very well overall.
There is just one thing about them that I have noticed, though. Their necktie and their debut Stella McCartney fashion clothing, every thing that they have shown off this far, are all knit material. Nothing actually woven. I know that was where KBLB hit a bit of a snag, I wonder if Bolt Threads is in the same boat.
The second and fourth links are the place
If looking down the driveway, it was adjacent to it on the left side across from the house.
I know the tax information about them shows that there is 15 acres of land there, but the house is on one acre and I think there is a couple small ponds and some other trees on another acre or two, but should be at least 10 usable acres of land as is for Mulberry production.