Thursday, June 28, 2012

A Day of Significance


We reached 255 votes last night on Face Book so we have qualified to be one of the projects nationwide to be considered for a Chase small business grant of $250,000.


While it is definitely a long shot that we will get the actual grant it will be interesting to see how the project is viewed in the larger world of "social advocacy" outside of traditional business circles. 


Thanks to all that supported this effort. 



(This is the bumper sticker we posted on Face Book thanking all those who voted for us.)


On a far more serious note Lori receives her first treatment of the experimental chemotherapy, combined with the PARP 1 drug "Iniparib", regimen today at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC. 


We are all praying that she has no adverse reactions and that her body responds very positively to this treatment.


Finally, we are very close to having all the ponds at the production facility really for re-stocking at full commercial levels. That should be completed over the next few weeks. 


Today, is truly a significant day. 






Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Roosevelt 1910




It borders on the ironic to say I have been under a bit of pressure lately.

Truth is over the past month just about every time when I thought I could not handle one more piece of bad news; it was delivered to me the next day.

Almost everyone friend and foe alike has weighed on what I am doing wrong, what I could do better, the sins and mistakes of my past, etc.

People can’t help it. It is just the way we are made. Criticizing, and second-guessing, and passing judgment on others, despite admonition from virtually all religions on these actions, the judgments are made and these practices by the self-righteous continue.

Truth be told when you have been through as much as I have and when you reach the point in your life I have, the opinions of others outside of your loved ones and those closest to you, don’t really register.

That said, this morning when I opened an e-mail from my long time partner and friend John Aquilino and saw the following quote from my favorite all time American President, I could not help but smile.

I am sharing it with you because everyone who has ever faced impossible odds, or has been bombarded by the nay-sayers or who simply strives to stand against the crowd, needs to have this in their quiver of resolve.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910


Sunday, June 24, 2012

Enough


If the planet is to survive and if we as humans are truly going to alleviate poverty, offer a real “quality of life” existence to all, and halt the rape and depletion of the earth’s natural resources beyond recovery, we need to develop real jobs that are profitable, eco-friendly and sustainable.  Period.  End of story!

NGO’s and the world press can only expose and admonish, to me they have both evolved into bloated, self indulgent, self serving, lobbying organizations no different than the companies they criticize for being greedy and lacking compassion and ethics as they march to make an unseemly profit. 

When you peel away all the rhetoric, ultimately governments can only punish and administer.  Creativity, innovation, and real solutions to the world’s problems must and will continue to come from the private or corporate sector.  This epiphany admittedly runs counter to current and widely accepted dogma.  But it’s true.

In order to pay the bills, to raise the quality of life for all, to stop the ceaseless harvest of the world’s dwindling natural resources, we have to learn to practice ethical capitalism.  Let me repeat that and underscore the word “ethical” associated with “capitalism.”

Indeed, it has taken me over a decade and a lifetime of risk and heartache to develop a highly efficient, eco-friendly, job creating, natural system that is efficient in producing high-end marine protein and that has applications to produce hundreds of millions of pounds (or kilos, whichever you prefer) of natural, antibiotic free, marine protein with no negative environmental foot print.

Ironically, now that we have removed all of the technological risk from our system and demonstrated for the third time the productivity and eco-friendly aspects of the system, we are now facing a not unanticipated barrier to growth and expansion.

Remember all those ads from banks and financial brokers and mutual fund and insurance companies that want to “lend and invest so the world can become a better place” or that “care about you and you and me and jobs” well, in the words of the late Jim Nabors through his great TV character Gomer Pyle, “surprise, surprise,” their slogans, their claims, their TV ads stating that they “desire to put their money behind a greener, leaner, cleaner, local business” is lip service, nothing more. 

So I have come to the inescapable conclusion that as important as it was to “build a better mouse trap” (and I apologize to all mice for the metaphor. I prefer “catch and release” as with bonefish played on my fly-rod knowing all the while that they are ultimately unharmed although a tad shaken), it is becoming just as critical that we broadcast our message to as wide an audience as possible through social media, being completely transparent, so we can overcome the cynicism of generations that have seen only the aforementioned lip service and few if any real solutions from any sector.

And for those of us who have lived in both camps, the NGO world and the world of private business, perhaps our only true opportunity to prove we can do what we say we can do, will be to find ways to employ that same phenomenon of social media to circumvent the risk adverse, staid, and unimaginative, (though very greedy, traditional sources of investment capital) and go straight to those of you who recognize that “talk is not action”, and that “if we want the world to be different than we have to begin to do things differently.”

Friday, June 22, 2012

Chase Grant


Okay so I have never really utilized Face Book. In fact, social media and I are still trying to understand one another.

Here's the deal, as you know we are trying to get our shrimp farm operations in Port Isabel Texas into an expanded commercial production. 
We recently engaged a company who works to secure funding for companies like ours, (companies, who do not have a historical income and expense record, but who do have proven new technology and an operating production capability). They are looking to secure a minimum of  2.5  million to a maximum of 10 million in funding to expand our production capacity asap.  
Until they secure those significant funds we need operating capital to keep operations moving and expand production slowly until we can build modules allowing from nearly a million to 10 million pounds per year.
To see our progress down at the Port Isabel facility go to www.globalbluetechnologies.net
Chase Bank along with a group called Living Social is offering 12 grants of up to $250,000 for small businesses.  We've registered. ( And it is probably a long shot, in any case), but as the old adage goes, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained".
The catch is that we have to have 250 votes of support before June 30 in order to qualify. Voting closes June 30th.  Voting is done only via Facebook.  Here's how:
 Click on the link:
https://www.missionsmallbusiness.com
Then scroll down and look at lower right hand side of page from Chase and click on the "log in & support" blue bar under the heading "Log in with Facebook".

This brings up your Facebook log in page:

Type in your Facebook password and this takes you to the:
 "Vote page" for "Mission: Small Business"
 At the bottom of that page there is a box for "company name."  Type in "Global Blue Technologies" that's us, or, in the state box type in "Texas" and city "Port Isabel." 
Then click the search button and GBT comes up on the list. 
 We would appreciate a "Vote" for us.  
If we get the grant and if we get our funding we will throw a huge shrimp feast at South Padre Island just down the causeway from Port Isabel.  It might be in two years but the fun will be worth the wait.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Dylan Thomas



Dylan Thomas as always been one of my favorite poets. 


When I first was old enough to understand death as a part of existence, not long after I found his poem.. 


He wrote it for his dying father but I have always seen it as a 'call to action" to any one who has a loved one in peril. 


To me it offers hope, encouragement, and inspiration and allows me (while recognizing as a good friend of mine always reminds me,"none of us get out of here alive"), there is no glory or honor nor purpose in having one lay down and resign oneself to the end, regardless of how inevitable those around you say may be the case. 


God still does show us miracles and "hope" is still and will always be stronger than despair.


Today, I needed to remind myself that fighting against sometimes seemingly overwhelming odds can lead to that miraculous victory, that exception to the rule, that atypical response. Conversely, not fighting with everything one has surely leads to defeat and loss. 


So here is in my opinion Dylan Thomas' gift to us all. 


Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Monday, June 18, 2012

HOPE


I am back in Texas trying to regain my focus and get some work done on our aquaculture operation. 


Two weeks ago tomorrow Lori was told her cancer which had again metastasized in the brain and now also her lungs meant she had less than a year to live.


The past two weeks through the efforts and contacts of numerous dear friends and the interventions on Lori's behalf by absolute strangers, we have sound reasons to believe that diagnosis was premature.


In an amazing sequence of events we have gotten Lori into a clinical trial at Georgetown University Hospital in DC, where they will be using a new PARP1 inhibitor in conjunction with chemotherapy to try and attack these new "metastasises". 


This is a chemo treatment that is far less draconian than the "end of life chemo" prescribed by MDA. 


This drug combination was originally recommended by Lori's Maryland oncologist. 


John Aquilino, my close friend and business partner for 17 years, after researching this approach, had been absolutely convinced this was both the correct approach and an essential piece of the treatment for Lori in order to battle the return of the triple negative breast cancer. 


Through incredible networking we managed to get a national clinical trial that had been closed for a month re-opened for Lori. 


We were told this could not be done, however today she is having the baseline MRI required for the clinical trial and her treatment starts a week from today.  


The PARP1 inhibitor called "Iniparib" has been in different stages of clinical trials for the past three years and PARP1 inhibitors from many drug companies are being tested and providing some optimism that they may be one of the keys to eventually eradicating cancer.


In addition, through more effort we have researched and discovered a second stage treatment also in clinical trials that involve the ImMucin vaccine. This treatment in combination with the Iniparib and chemo treatment could be a 1-2 punch that (if Lori's system is responsive) could actually prevent the triple negative cancer form continually reappearing in other organs. 


Through the efforts of a wonderful researcher at the Mayo Clinic, who has taken a personal interest in Lori's case, we had Lori's tissue tested and she is a "strongly positive" match for the ImMucin vaccine. This is a very good thing and an indicator that she "should" respond well to the vaccine therapy.


We are now beginning the effort to have Lori accepted in an ImMucin vaccine clinical trial as soon as she has progressed far enough along in the Iniparib treatments.


In a very encouraging meeting with a brilliant neurologist at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland last Friday we were told, 1) our combination approach of the Iniparib therapy and then the ImMucin vaccine therapy was both scientifically sound and rational and 2) through the use of focused radiation (stereotactic surgery)  to limited area's should the Iniparib therapy not shrink the new brain lesion which is very small at the moment we would have plenty of time to have it removed at John Hopkins. He also was quite adamant that given Lori's overall physical condition, current state of her triple negative cancer, and her age it was very premature to even begin to talk about "how long she has".


It has been an emotionally brutal and grueling two weeks. Lori still has a lot she has to undergo in the weeks and months ahead. 


But with friends like we have and the ability of those same friends to open up doors that seemed closed and to literally move mountains, and with God's will, we all expect to have Lori here with her dogs, her other pets, and her son, and us for many years to come. 


In future postings I will probably write about the absolute vital need to be an advocate for those you love as you navigate the medical system, and the difference a single doctor can make, and indeed how when at times during the past two weeks when I felt I could not take another disappointment God answers prayers. 


But for the moment I am just taking a moment to appreciate that we now have a treatment pathway for Lori that gives us real hope.  






Saturday, June 9, 2012

Nightmares



I am back on SPI and Lori is home in Maryland after our three days at MD Anderson.

It has been a nightmarish past four days and the next few months are going to be worse.

As we all know life does not stop for individual crisis regardless of how hurtful or awful they may be.

We have a project that will make tens of millions of dollars and it is ready today to expand.

All technology risk has been removed.

All operational protocols are in place.

All the "guesses' and "what ifs" are gone.

We have grown and sold (and they tasted great) the largest shrimp ever farmed. 

And they were produced in an "all-natural" system. 

I will be heading to Maryland on Sunday and will be there at least a week perhaps more. 

And at least until I have a strategy in play that I feel has some possibility to save my wife's life.  

Below is the update after this week's trip to MD Anderson that we sent to family, friends, GBT staff, etc. 

“The reappearance of new brain metastasizes as well as in her lungs has made Lori' situation far more critical. To that end we are considering a variety of unfortunately often inconsistent treatment regimens and next steps. 

Given the new and negative test results  Lori's original oncologist Dr. Hendricks in Suburban Hospital Maryland is recommending a different chemo treatment for the new lymphatic type tumors in Lori's lungs. This would be using the drug INIPARIB that is in trials in John Hopkins, which has shown great promise with triple negative breast cancer. (This is what Dr. Hendricks is suggesting Lori consider versus the treatment Dr. Marjorie Green (MDA) has suggested) 

The MDA team lead by Dr. Marjorie Green, are suggesting a very strong chemo (I&C) "called end of life treatment" which is a combination of "Ixabepilone and Capecitabine". It is brutal and once she gets on it, it is for the rest of her life and it will eventually kill her if the cancer does not. 

On a more positive front the Israeli's have been accepting and saving terminal TNC patients with brain metastasizes using a vaccine in conjunction with chemo., The vaccine is called ImMucin . It is not even available in the USA but working through contacts we have been in touch with a Dr. Gendler, a TNC researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona who has been working directly with the head researcher in Israel at Hadassah Medical Center and it is appearing that if Lori's tissues are IMMUCIN positive she is an ideal candidate for the vaccine. 

So, Lori's tissue slides will be FedEx-ed to Dr. Gendler and Dr. Cohen (Mayo, Arizona) in Arizona tomorrow. If she is IMMUCIN positive she is then a candidate for the vaccine.

All sides seem to agree she must have the brain lesion taken care of immediately with the caveat that the gamma knife procedure does not disqualify her from the INIPARIB trials. Her gamma knife surgery is scheduled for 6/22 in Houston at MDA.


Lori is experiencing real pain in her sternum, her chest, and on one side of her pelvic area. 

So here is where we are. Do we go with "end of life chemo" treatment recommended by MDA, the Ixabepilone and Capecitabine (I&C chemo) or do we go to Hopkins and try the INIPARIB, And in either scenario we must pray her tissue is a match and then we start trying to secure the ImMucin 1 vaccine in Israel as ASAP.

I will be flying home to Maryland this Sunday and pray 1) her tissue is a match for receptability for the IMUCIN 1 vaccine, 2) that the INIPARIB trail at Hopkins will accept her quickly and 3) we can discard the end of life chemo scenario recommended by MDA. By the way, I wrote months ago how impressed I was with MDA. I know they have saved thousands of cancer victims but at this moment I truly feel they have failed Lori”. 

Friday, June 1, 2012

1 Year Ago


Just about one year ago I wrote my first blog.


Hard to believe what can and cannot happen in a year. 


Last year at this time we had just begun to move dirt for the construction of our 1/4 scale production module here in Texas.


Now as I write this we have harvested and sold our first group (over 2600 hundred pounds) of very large, very tasty, shrimp and are in the process of preparing the module for stocking at commercial densities.


We are developing an investment proposal to try and secure funding to expand that production to an initial objective of slightly more than 2 million pounds annually.


You can check out our newly created web site at :
www.globalbluetechnologies.net


Lori's cancer got worse, We got her admitted into MD Anderson and her initial treatments seemed to have arrested the cancer growth for now. We continue to watch here closely and pray that she proves to be atypical and beat this very evil disease. For now she is doing remarkably well. 


My book "UNDERCOVER" is now available on Kindle and there is a newly edited paper copy available as well on Amazon.com



Lori's book "Half-Baked , The Confessions of a True Anti-Chef" is still doing well and should be available as an E-book in the very near future. 


So on a small microcosm for a few individuals a lot has transpired.

On the larger world stage and taking a macro look at the state of the planet's resources and environment every where I read things look more distressing. I provide just one small example from a plethora of articles and news stories all similar in reporting dire news about the oceans, the weather, loss of species, habitat destruction, pollution and disease. 

The world is preparing for RIO + 20 as governments and corporations continue to give "lip service" to the incredible need for cleaner energy, more sustainable production of food, greater protection of wild resources, and the implementation of social equity value that can begin to alleviate poverty which along with greed is the underlying catalyst for so much of the misuse of the world's resources. 

Read the following summary from a study that calls for cutting in half the world's catch of "Forage Fish for Crucial Prey Species". 

I sourced the summary of this very depressing article (below in italics) from the following link: 
http://www.seafoodsource.com/newsarticledetail.aspx?id=14935



Who was it that once said, "the more things change the more they stay the same". 



Thirty plus years ago when I first got professionally and personally involved in dealing with issues of environmental and animal abuse the "greenies" said they would expose the causes and make the world a better place" and the use groups corporations and governments alike said, " it is not all that bad but we will be more responsible and develop a greener and more compassionate way to do business".

They both lied.   




Expert Task Force Recommends Halving Global Fishing for Crucial Prey Species

Forage Fish Twice as Valuable in the Water as in the Net

WASHINGTON – Fishing for herring, anchovy, and other “forage fish” in general should be cut in half globally to account for their critical role as food for larger species, recommends an expert group of marine scientists in a report released today. The Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force conducted the most comprehensive worldwide analysis of the science and management of forage fish populations to date. Its report, “Little Fish, Big Impact: Managing a crucial link in ocean food webs,” concluded that in most ecosystems at least twice as many of these species should be left in the ocean as conventional practice.
           
A thriving marine ecosystem relies on plenty of forage fish. These small schooling fish are a crucial link in ocean food webs because they eat tiny plants and animals, called plankton, and are preyed upon by animals such as penguins, whales, seals, puffins, and dolphins. They are primary food sources for many commercially and recreationally valuable fish found around North America, such as salmon, tuna, striped bass, and cod. The task force estimated that, globally, forage fish are twice as valuable in the water as in a net—contributing US$11.3 billion by serving as food for other commercially important fish. This is more than double the US$5.6 billion they generate as direct catch.

These species play a growing role in the everyday lives of industrialized nations. Their demand in recent decades has greatly increased for use as fish meal and fish oil to feed farmed fish, pigs, and chickens that people consume on a regular basis. Fish oil is also used in nutritional supplements for humans. 

“Traditionally we have been managing fisheries for forage species in a manner that cannot sustain the food webs, or some of the industries, they support,” says Dr. Ellen K. Pikitch of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University, who convened and led the Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force. “As three-fourths of marine ecosystems in our study have predators highly dependent on forage fish, it is economically and biologically imperative that we develop smarter management for these small but significant species.”

Small schooling fish are an important part of the ecosystem on both coasts of North America.  Many marketable species on the Pacific coast, such as salmon, lingcod, Pacific hake, Pacific halibut, and spiny dogfish, feed on them.  A large number of seabird species relies on them as well, and research shows that the breeding success of the federally endan­gered California least tern may depend on the availability of local anchovy populations. On the eastern seaboard, more menhaden are caught (by weight) than any other fish off the Atlantic coast. Taking out excessive amounts, however, means less food for tuna, bluefish, and striped bass ― as well as whales, dolphins, and seabirds – and affects fisheries and tourism industries from Maine to Florida.

“Around the globe, we’ve seen how removing too many forage fish can significantly affect predators and people who rely on that system’s resources for their livelihoods,” said Dr. Edward D. Houde, a professor at the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science and task force member. “We need to be more precautionary in how we manage forage fish in ecosystems that we know very little about.”

Made up of 13 preeminent scientists with expertise in a wide range of disciplines, the Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force was established to generate specific and practical advice to support better management of forage fish around the world. This group of experts, with support from the Lenfest Ocean Program, synthesized scientific research and other information about these species and conducted original simulation modeling to reach their conclusions. 

“The Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force has provided guidance on how to prevent overfishing of these small prey species,” said Dr. P. Dee Boersma, professor and director of the Center for Penguins as Ocean Sentinels at the University of Washington and task force member. “Our hope is that fishery managers will put our recommendations into action to protect penguins, cod, whales, and a whole host of other creatures that need them to survive.”