Word: horvath
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They weren't the first designer plush dolls, and they probably won't be the last, but a cast of 15 unattractive, ever evolving characters called Uglydolls?each accompanied by a quirky, amusing narrative?have plopped down at the forefront of the designer-toy movement. The dolls' creators, David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim, are themselves outsiders in a nearly monopolized corporate toy industry. Their first doll, a snaggle-toothed, apron-donning orange blob named Wage who, the story goes, works at a grocery store and lives for chocolate-chip-cookie dough, was born...
Since then, over a million Uglydolls have been sold in 2,500 stores around the world (including high-end retailers like Barneys and Takashimaya), and last year Kim and Horvath's company, Pretty Ugly, did $2.5 million in sales. The dolls have amassed a cult following, with a fifth-anniversary convention, UglyCon, to be held in Los Angeles in December. "I'll bet there are toy-company boardrooms filled with Uglydoll samples and that they're scratching their heads as to why it works and why they didn't do it first," says Eric Nakamura, owner of L.A.-based Asian...
...then, however, a carrier might have slipped into the country, at which point the challenge for Australian authorities would start in earnest. Theoretically, Horvath could assume extraordinary powers by invoking the Quarantine Act. But the CMO says he would advise government leaders on closing schools and canceling sporting events in an attempt to control the virus' spread, and on distributing antivirals from the country's stockpile of 4 million doses. That sounds like a lot of antivirals - and per capita only Finland has more - but it would be "woefully inadequate" if the bug were rampant, says Peter Curson, director...
...minimum of three months from the time a pandemic started and the exact strain was identified. If a pandemic does break out, authorities would hope that H5N1 was the culprit, since CSL's project is to some extent based on that premise. "This is a good scientific gamble," says Horvath, "but if it's (a different strain) . . . well, it's a bit like buying a battleship that you don't ever fire a gun from. If the eventual pandemic is H5NI and the virus hasn't drifted significantly, then we've hit the jackpot. If it drifts somewhat, then there...
...H5N1 does make it to Australia - about a 10% chance, according to government assessments - then it's more likely to happen within months than weeks, Horvath says. As to when the threat will be deemed over and people can get back to worrying about more mundane crises, "I have no idea," the CMO says. "But my colleagues in the (veterinary) world don't think this threat is going to abate in the foreseeable future." In the case of an avian-flu pandemic, it's unlikely that the waiting would be the worst part...