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I'd rather have charter news considering the due date, but I'd take army.
Thanks Sickzone,
Very good info. It would be great if Quang Nam Silk JSC and Ma Chau silk company become involved in this project. I can't see how they will survive the revitalization with subpar silk.
One possibility with financing that I don't believe has been brought up has been the amount of shares sent over to Kenneth Le for "consulting services". It is hard to gauge exactly how many shares he has received because the 10-Q filings never name the consultant the shares are being issued to. But I would venture to guess that Kenneth Le has been given a significant amount.
These shares that he has been issued may be what is being used to get prodigy up and running. Hell, Kenneth might even be allocating a portion of those shares to the co-ops in exchange for their services for now. Making these Vietnamese entities (co-ops, banks, reelers, etc) stakeholders with equity in this project will only strengthen it. And those shares could have easily been transferred to Kenneth with that intention, to set up shop (of course, some of those shares he would keep for himself). So the statement that "KBL has spent millions setting up shop", might not be true.
If this is what's happening, then the question is, what is the disclosure protocol? We've discussed that Kenneth is referred to as a consultant, and not an employee of KBL, so is what he does with the shares given to him grounds for disclosure? I'm not sure. But there is a real possibility that no money has been exchanged yet, and no contract for financing has been signed. The 3 co-ops could now all be shareholders by way of Kenneth Le's "consulting services".
This is just a suggestion. I could be way off base.
-GT
reduced interest hi tech agriculture loan the Vietnam government were pushing last year.
Hi Yankee,
That would be great. If that were the case, it could not only keep rates competative, but also indicate to the world how massive this project is.
There could be more than one Vietnam bank sharing the risk due to the size of the Quang Nam project.
VietinBank is also Vietnams largest bank
Nice catch Truth.
As of 2012, VietinBank was Vietnams 13th largest company.
Not bad, KBL. Not bad at all.
Pretty sure they don’t need greenhouses in Vietnam.
Hi Ocho,
Below is a quote from Q1 2017 Spider Sense:
This has been one of the busiest quarters in the Company’s history when it comes to international expansion. At the request of officials in Vietnam, the Company’s management attended a meeting in January with leaders of Quang Nam province. This meeting was designed to outline a path for near term large scale production of the Company’s high performance silks. This visit included tours of the regions mulberry production, silkworm rearing, and textile weaving facilities to assess the region’s available capacity. Following that successful trip the Company was requested back again to conduct extensive site surveys in Quang Nam. After reviewing numerous locations, Company management met with the leader of Quang Nam province and selected two key locations.
The first was a 50 hectare parcel of land which has been outlined as the future location for an operations center to include mulberry growing, silkworm breed, hatching, rearing, cocoon storage, and potentially silk thread reeling. This location offers significant future potential, but will require development. As such, the Company also selected an existing facility nearby that can be very quickly put into operation. This facility was originally constructed for silk production and was later adapted into a garment factory. This combination of a Greenfield location and existing infrastructure will allow us to rapidly move from the introduction of our silkworms to the Vietnamese climate to metric ton scaled operations. The Company has set aggressive, yet attainable, goals for the first year’s production volume from these facilities and we are actively working to achieve those results.
From what I have seen in the silk industry that building would be one of the best and cleanest silk farm buildings around.
Most I have seen were damn near grass huts.
Look again MOST of the roofs you see are greenhouses.
Many jumped into saying its ready, we sent worms already, etc. No. We are months away from even sending worms.
You can see right past Jon and out the other side of the LARGE EMPTY crude metal warehouse building. It's an abandoned rough looking empty warehouse.
I agree. Pretty good find by Kraig Labs.
Keep in mind what looks like urban development right nearby is just tons of greenhouses of various kinds.
No tantrum. I am actually impressed with the building and happy about it. Others think it should look like Dole's headquarters.
I'm not trying to start an argument. I'm trying to figure out what your expectations were for this first facility. What should it be surrounded by? how big should it be? is it bad that the building is metal?
I don't understand the points you were making.
The coordinates that Ocho posted are correct. You can see the center beam to the 2nd story in the satellite image. Although it could just be a higher part of the roof. The building is too big for you to jump to the conclusion that it is empty.
well done. I know theres no street view. I found it early this morning. big building
Rusty wheels on that gate. Not new.
you still haven't found it
you beat me to it
It's the straight up boonies.
You mean the metal building shell with bare concrete floor?
Didn't I read somewhere it doesn't even have electricity yet?
Wire over main entrance too thin to be electric, gotta be phone
Dirt driveway
no gate
That's our 'lab' space. Hahahaha
And just pointing out, the whole town and all mulberry in area are on a mud flat, prone to seasonal flooding which will be exacerbated by global warming.
Be ready.
I hope they put their heavy processing equipment on higher ground.
Great photos Zen!
That warehouse behind them definitely doesn't look like a shoebox. This project is going to be massive.
Wish that blue document was zoomable ;)
Thanks
50 milion$ to grow some trees in VN seems rather steep!?
But we are also speaking of Dragon silk as we know it
The army wanted a custom fiber that was not as flexible.
They did not get the bid but we got to blow up some trucks
Hi es1,
Thanks for your response.
Ballistic protection and vest are not interchangeable. A vest is ballistic protection but ballistic protection does not mean a vest.
The 2 inch armor on a tank is also ballistic protection.
tents, underwear can also be ballistic protection.
I am not saying they wont be using it in vests ever.
Great find!
haha!
I've realized that some people just like to hear themselves talk. Even if it's just to change their story. lol
EOD
Hi Pennies,
Thanks for sending this info.
The issue with Entogenics is they could never get the spider silk protein integrated into the structure of the silk. They successfully were able to produce the proteins in small amounts within the silkworms. So their silk never had any significant mechanical properties over regular silkworm silk.
Also, you can make almost any material bulletproof if you make it thick enough. In fact, Thai police officers have used regular silkworm silk for ballistics protection for years. It just takes a lot of layers. My guess is Entogenetics made thick shootpacks that performed the same as normal silkworm silk would. Just a guess on my though.
A critical value in the performance of shoot packs is the speed of sound through the material. The faster the speed of sound, the more surface of the material will absorb the shock, leading to a wide backface signature with little depth. A slower speed of sound means that less of the material will absorb the impact, thus creating a more narrow and deep impression.
There's no topic like an old topic that was talked Ad nauseam two years ago.
ds on its own is too flexible for a bullet proof vest...
“The US ARMY’s choice to exercise the base contracts option period and to dramatically increase the total contract value gave us the ability to boost our research and development efforts substantially,” said Jon Rice, COO. “Under this expanded scope we are directed to develop new transgenics, with greater strength and toughness than anything we’ve ever seen before. With the allocation of the remaining contract funding, the US ARMY has now obligated all of the dollars committed in that contract award.”
i have no idea if you are being funny or what...the army liked ds....it may be suitable for some things..but not a bullet proof vest..
kblb can customize their silk...so why not just ask for exactly what you believe you need?...which is what the army did..and what kblb is trying to provide..
what would be the reason for the army to try to force ds, as is, to meet their needs by dipping it in various elixers and weaving it into untold configurations just to get what kblb could give it with a custom fiber?...
it is fiber whose flexibility has been tested and quantified
it is too flexible to be used, as is, in a bullet proof vest
I don’t think its going to significantly matter how you weave it
the army does this for a living
they tested the fibers and requested a custom fiber with specs they feel are more appropriate
ds is a new form of fiber...but it isn’t extraterrestrial...it isn’t going to defy the laws of physics
i doubt the army wants to use a too flexible fiber and weave the flex out of it...probably they would want to start with a fiber that already has the right specs to begin with..
it’s too flexable..
Thanks Yankee.
I know with physics, there are too many variables to just use generalities. Especially when discussing something very complex like a materials reaction to different sized projectiles at different speeds.
For instance, imagine how many people looked a shear-thickening fluid and would immediately say "there is no way it could absorb an impact because, I mean, just look at it, it just runs through your fingers".
I believe all of your examples aren't just possible, but probable. There will be many different blends when outside companies start working with DS and discover their own custom needs for their end products.
are you suggesting that kblb get into the dreaded goo business?...wouldn’t that give some credibility to the “goo” makers?
I dont personally think DS is for vests at all.
"Jon Rice, the Company’s COO, is in Vietnam this week reviewing the new facility"
I think this first sentence is very important. It says that we actually have a facility in Viet Nam. Up until now, it had always been that they were looking at "potential facilities". This is confirmation that they are already in a building. And I doubt Ken Le will be sitting on an empty building. Jon Rice will be inspecting the progress of this build-out.
I think this news, although fairly expected due to SickZone's dd, is much better than people are letting on. Once eggs arrive, like ES1 said, the countdown begins. There is no point in breeding a generation and then freezing them. Once eggs start hatching, it becomes its own force with a lot of momentum.
i'm not so sure it is a report now.
i think it is another meeting with kbl.
That is great to hear SZ. Thanks for continuing to dig. I'm curious to see what they put out. It at least seems like this is a priority to Viet Nam/Quang Nam and they a really trying to get the ball rolling. If this report is soley on KBL, that would be a nice vote of confidence.
No worries. It's a little confusing because I think you may have been thinking of Mountain Meadows. That's the company that they mixed silk and wool to make a..... wait for it...... beanie!