text:
New Passion Church
Stay up-to-date with New Passion's current sermons through our weekly audio Podcast. It's Free! … [Read More...]
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New Passion values the gospel of Jesus, therefore we are committed to going into our world to extend grace to all people. We are involved in both local and global missions initiatives.
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text: Although the battle for woman suffrage began later in Australia than it did in Britain or the United States, success was achieved earlier. Concerted campaigns for woman suffrage in Australia date from the early 1880s and were supported by organisations and individuals representing a wide array of political and ideological platforms. In some ways, these campaigns signalled the start of women's participation in the Australian political process. Although linked to and inspired by the international campaigns and context of the time, the Australian suffrage movement had its own distinctive, regional characteristics. Matters of race and class, of geographical proximity to Asia and the need to build a healthy white nation at the turn of the century, combined with universal concerns about justice and the rights of the individual to create a uniquely Australian movement.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Need money for school, for your family, or just for yourself? You've come to the right place! Below you'll find a variety of job search engines and resume tips to help you find a way to make a little money on the side.
Resume Help
Teen Worknet Resume Tips:
Contains tips on what you should include on your resume and provides several sample resumes for you to look at. This is a good resource to get an idea of how to craft your resume, and a template is even included - though you could just as easily get templates through Microsoft Word or Google Docs.
City of Boston's Teen Resume Guide:
An excellent resource that breaks down what you should have on your resume - especially if you have next to no work experience. Much longer than Worknet's suggestions, but getting through it will help you craft an excellent resume.
Google Docs Resume Templates:
Google offers a huge amount of resume templates you can copy and edit to suit your needs. All you need to do is click on each section and add your own information. Just keep in mind that these are templates- you don't have to fill out every section that's listed. For anything that isn't relevant to you, simply highlight and delete the section. Be sure to create a free Google account so you can save your resume and access it from anywhere!
Job Search Resources
Snagajob for Teens
Snagajob offers jobs for adults, but also has a separate sections for teens seeking entry-level work in and around your area. This is a quick and easy way to see what jobs are available near you, but be sure to keep your eyes peeled for any other jobs in your neighborhood that this search engine doesn't find!


text:
Turn up the contrast with the new Fall 2015 CND Contradictions Collection. Textures and tones collide for an unexpected elegance: leather and lace, street and chic, metal and pearl.
"This season's trends celebrate an unexpected clash between gritty street elements and elegant details for a dynamic combination of glamour and grunge," says CND Co-founder and Style Director Jan Arnold. "Nails evoke an edgy narrative with blackened pigments and heraldic ornaments. Enhanced almonds in purple and red are deepened and oxidized with smoked pearl and steel finishes."
CND - SHELLAC CONTRADICTIONS 2015 - set includes:
CND Shellac sind hypoallergenen und enthalten kein DBP (Dibutylphthalat), Toluol, Formaldehyde.


text: On Wed, Sep 14, 2005 at 08:38:52PM +0200, Geert Hendrickx wrote: > On Wed, Sep 14, 2005 at 04:36:37PM +0200, Martin Husemann wrote: > > On Tue, Sep 13, 2005 at 03:17:23PM -0700, Jeremy C. Reed wrote: > > > What is the error? > > > > I'm not a telepath either, but gnome failed for me on -current last weekend > > with libtool errors that I did not understand at all (but have no log > > available right now, sorry). Has anyone successfully build it recently? > > I just successfully built meta-pkgs/gnome from scratch, without a hiccup. > pkgsrc from a few hours ago on NetBSD/i386 2.1_RC3. Sorry, meta-pkgs/gnome-base that is. The rest of gnome is building right now. I'll let you know whether it succeeded. GH


text:
Find all the solutions
y''(x) + y(x) = cos(x) + xy'(0) + y(0)
I found x sen(x) as 1 solution.
I dont know if its the only one.
You're expected to know that the solution to is the homogeneous solution plus a 'total' particular solution.
The homogeneous solution is the solution to and you're expected to be able to solve this.
You have a particular corresponding to the term on the right hand side of the DE. Now you need a particular solution corresponding to the term . I suggest trying one of the form and getting a and b in terms of y'(0) and y(0). Then the 'total' particular solution is .
If you're stuck on finding the homogeneous solution or the 'total' particular solution, post what you've done and where you get stuck.


text:
Mount Camphill Community, Wadhurst
Registered Charity Number: 307027
Wadhurst, East Sussex
Contact Us
Mount Camphill Community, Wadhurst
Faircrouch Lane
East Sussex
Phone: 01892 782025
Charity Choice Directory Listings
Mount Camphill Community, Wadhurst: Activate your charity profile today - and you can do all this for FREE...
- Publicise your appeals
- Receive legacy appeals
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- Share news and photos
- Get donations direct to your bank account
Free Charity Report
Find out more about Mount Camphill Community, Wadhurst including what their money is spent on, amount raised for every £1 spent on fundraising, 5 year financial information and how your donation helps.
Other Users Found These Links Useful
Financial Information from CharityFinancials
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If you have questions about the financial information listed above please contact Charity Choice at firstname.lastname@example.com
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Need further information on Mount Camphill Community, Wadhurst? Order a detailed financial report from Charity Financials.


text:
Three complete radio dramas featuring writer-cum-amateur detective Paul Temple, plus bonus archive material.
When it comes to classic crime partnerships, Paul Temple and his wife, Steve, are the crème de la crème. Between 1938 and 1968, their glamorous exploits enthralled generations of radio listeners around the world. Here, presented in chronological order, are some of the amateur detective's earliest adventures.
'Send for Paul Temple' (1940) is an early remake of the now lost original 1938 BBC production. 'Paul Temple Intervenes' (1942) finds Paul and Steve investigating a series of celebrity murders whilst 'Paul Temple and the Vandyke Affair' (the original 1950 production, presented here for the very first time) concerns the strange disappearance of the Desmond baby and her sitter.
Hugh Morton, Bernard Braden, Carl Bernard and Peter Coke play Paul in these episodes, with Bernadette Hodgson, Peggy Hassard and Marjorie Westbury as Steve. A bonus track features rare archive material from otherwise lost productions, including the final episodes of 'Send for Paul Temple' (1938) and 'Paul Temple and the Front Page Men' (1938).
Duration: 11 hours approx.
©2016 Francis Durbridge (P)2016 Random House AudioBooks
"Generally Enjoyable But Rather Erratic"
I have always enjoyed the later series of Paul Temple, so thought I would give this collection a try. It is excellent in parts (The Vandyke Affair is particularly good). However, there is a fair amount of musical padding and, at the end of the Vandyke Affair, the soundtrack mysteriously goes into episode 6 of The First Penguin. I had no idea what happened to episodes 1 to 5 of that series. It left me totally confused.
This collection is disorganised and confusing. At the end of The Vandyke Affair (10:05 into the soundtrack), episode 6 of The First Penguin starts. Why are episodes 1 to 5 not in sequence with this episode?
"Awful quality of recording."
Quality terrible, so much static you can't hear words properly. Individual recordings much better.
"Good stories, BAD VERSION"
I think that Audible could should have done a better job with this. There should have been audio markers betwean stories that identify the stories.
"Wonderful Paul Temple"
Love these recordings. They are like travelling back in time.
A little dated and sexist but still ripping yarns well produced by Auntie BBC.
YOU will love them too!
"A Lovely Celebration Of A Golden Age Of Radio"
These three Paul Temple stories started that golden age of radio, a time when drama was all we had. I am too young but I have always loved these stories. Anyone with an interest in archive material should give all three volumes a purchase.
"Paul Temple The Complete Radio Collection Volume One"
I enjoyed listening to this series it was however very dated but the By Timothys were a little bit over the top.
"Fantastic Show, well restored"
A great new version of Paul Temple audio. Audible really should update their audio and apps etc. to allow for better navigation in multi-story titles like this. Lack of this seems to have been the reason the previous reviewer have such a low score.
The plots are definitely dated now but that's part of the charm. Paul Temple is the best of the radio detectives and the stories are still as engrossing now as they were when first broadcast.
Fantastic value package compared to buying the individual CDs from the BBC. Roll on the remaining collections!
"Sound quality not good here on one of the stories"
These are great stories but the sound quality is very bad on the second story and I would not buy due to this - I found it not possible to enjoy listening to this.
"Poor, Poor, Poor - AVOID"
The quality of this book is terrible and AUDIBLE should 'warn' prospective purchasers regarding the same. Also the chapters are all over the place with repeated chapters at the end.
As I am an AUDIBLE user only for a trial period, my experience thus far can only be described as extremely disappointing.
"Die-hard fans only"
Unfortunately the sound quality of these early recordings, despite heroic attempts at remastering, is annoyingly poor. That, and the absence of the "definitive" Paul Temple - Peter Coke - mean that this, unlike the other volumes in this collection, is probably only for die-hard fans and aficionados.
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If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.


text:
Sports Execs Reveal Which Stories They Are Watching In '13
THE DAILY asked some top sports execs, "What is the sports business story you will be watching most closely in '13?" Below are their responses.
NHL SENIOR VP/INTEGRATED MARKETING SUSAN COHIG: The sale of AEG and its impact on the sports and entertainment landscape.
USOC CEO SCOTT BLACKMUN: Who emerges as the buyer(s) of AEG.
FORMER WNBA PRESIDENT VAL ACKERMAN: I'm interested in seeing how NCAA conference realignment progresses and what impact all of these institutional movements will ultimately have on athletic department budgetary decisions and on the student-athlete experience, especially in sports other than football and men's basketball.
NBC SPORTS GROUP PRESIDENT OF PROGRAMMING JON MILLER: How the NHL comes back from the lockout. Will the league regain the momentum it built after the Stanley Cup Final? How will fans react? Also, the impact of TV Everywhere on upcoming distribution deals. Digital distribution has been a positive asset to leagues, rights holders and fans.
HEAT EXEC VP & CMO MICHAEL MCCULLOUGH: The continued expansion of digital media and the tactics teams will implement to maximize their digital audience/fan base. Also, how will teams drive revenue associated with their digital-media assets?
DAYTONA INT'L SPEEDWAY PRESIDENT JOIE CHITWOOD III: The impact of the "new" NASCAR racecar from a competition and fan engagement perspective. A Chevy racecar looking like a Chevy production car is good for the sport.
CUBS EXEC VP AND CHIEF SALES & MARKETING OFFICER WALLY HAYWARD: Our effort to move forward with our Wrigley Field restoration project, which will enhance the fan experience and save Wrigley Field for the next generation of fans. Another key story will be the completion of our state-of-the-art Spring Training facility and ballpark in Mesa.
GMR MARKETING LATIN AMERICAN HEAD CELSO SCHVARTZER: The Confederations Cup, being held in June in six cities in Brazil, and the final draw for the FIFA World Cup in December.


text:
I tried acupuncture for the first time, and I have to say it was a very interesting experience and not at all what I was expecting.
Without much preamble she placed needles in my elbows, my wrists and my hands, then my knees and my ankles, then my ears and the top of my head, and one between the eyes. She left me to "cook", and I closed my eyes and sank into myself.
At first it felt awkward, like I was waiting for something to happen without result. The usual muddy grey thoughts churning away inside my head, I tried to focus on the music, a New Age-y mix with flute and some sort of plucked string instrument. After a while I found myself identifying melodic intervals a la college ear training class, and then sinking further into it in such a way that I felt I could predict what the next phrase would be.
And that's when the weird things started happening.
My ankles twitched a couple times, moving my feet further apart. My wrists and fingers twitched a number of times as well, so that when I opened my eyes I found my fingers spread wider and my hands on the inner edge of the arm rests rather than the outer where they had started.
I went on to experience a strange sort of in-and-out of consciousness. The plucked instrument on the recording began to have a jolting sort of effect that was initially distressing but eventually passed.
Split-second dreamlike scenes and impressions began to interrupt the grey-mud-disorder at random intervals much like hypnagogic hallucinations. These seemed particularly emotionally charged and I moved quickly from one context to another, feeling intensity and then letting it fall away.
Meanwhile the pins in my ears ached and my face felt weirdly distant.
And then she came and pulled the pins out, and it was all over. When I moved my hands at first they felt like wood, very dry and stiff. I collected my things quietly, paid and left.
Veeery interesting …


text:
We've all got one of those moments from our gaming past that remains forever embedded on our consciousness. It could be an epic boss battle, memorable cut-scene or eyeball-popping vista. Whatever it might be, these are defining moments that make us sit up and take note of why we love our favourite past time – and long may it continue.
In our latest celebration of Classic Gaming Moments, we head back to the days of the PlayStation 2 and revisit one of the most cinematically stylish cut-scenes we've clapped eyes on – Devil May Cry 3's brilliant opening cinematic where hero Dante effortlessly dispatches a horde of demons while scoffing pizza.
– – – – – –
When Dante does something, he does it in style – and that includes eating pizza. Here, we see a younger, brasher incarnation of the demon slayer kicking back in his new shop, only to be assaulted by a legion of lesser demons; apparently an 'invitation' from his brother, Vergil. After being stuck numerous time with scythes, Dante casually wonders over to his karaoke machine, gives it a good punch, and then proceeds to effortlessly kill his attackers.
However, rather than simply eliminate them with well-placed headshots, our hero instead toys with them, making the art of demon slaying look like the best damn job in the world. He pummels them with his fists and feet – while still holding on to a slice of his pizza, we might add – and even uses one of them as a surfboard of sorts before gunning down his attackers. Hell, he even dispatches a few of them with a cue ball in his own, idiosyncratic game of snooker – one that involves using a bullet to propel the ball at lightning speed.
This scene is not only ostentatious in the very best of taste, but it succinctly tells you everything you need to know about this younger version of Dante. He's cocky, ballsy, skilled and every inch the badass we remembered from the original game. Many games fall flat when it comes to introductory sequences, but DMC 3 hits the ground running.
Enjoy the sequence again in all its glory below. Also, it's worth remembering you can now pick up DMC 3 in HD alongside the first two games via the Devil May Cry Collection for PS3 and 360.


text:
Charli XCX has two impressive albums to her name, but what's made her indispensable in the pop music world has been her behind-the-scenes efforts and co-writes. Icona Pop's "I Love It" and Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" come to mind first, but she also helped author Ryn Weaver's "OctaHate" — for my money one of the absolute best pop songs recently (and a real treasure to hear live).
Charli's third album, due out sometime this year, is poised to be a continuation of her shining pop flourish, or as she recently told i-D magazine, a complete game-changer. "This album could change the sound of pop music," Charli said. "It's the album I've been trying to make forever. And now I've done it."
I'm going to finish recording my new album next week.. pic.twitter.com/zV87q2qDGw
— CHARLI XCX (@charli_xcx) January 25, 2016
We've heard some snippets of what her third album might sound like via quickly teased SOPHIE collab "Vroom Vroom," and Charli also said she's working with BloodPop (of Justin Bieber "Sorry" renown), Stargate and Noonie Bao. The third album, which could be one of a few releases (plural), also has some "high-octane plastic moments and then more piano ballad situations," Charli said.
You can read the whole interview and see lots of pics of Charli in cool sunglasses for House of Holland at i-D. Oh, and Charli and Mr. Oizo have a new video out today, too.
H/T Stereogum
She's on in 5Read More
She's on in 5Read More
How would you better the world in 24 hours?Read More
Change makes a changeRead More


text:
Reprinted from VirusMyth.Net, Edited and Updated for Alive &
Well May 2004
Questions on HIV-Antibody Tests
By Matt Irwin, MD
"A 20 to 40% rate of indeterminate on Western Blot,
a test that supposedly determines life or death, is outrageously
high. Yet few medical experts question whether it is appropriate
to use it for diagnosing HIV infection. This is only the tip of
the iceberg regarding the problems with HIV tests…"
As an introduction to the problems with HIV test, the following
quote on the Western Blot, the heavily relied upon "confirmatory"
test for HIV, raises questions about the test's reliability
in making the life-altering diagnosis of HIV positive:
"Problems may be encountered when an HIV Western Blot is done
on someone at no identifiable risk of infection. For example, recent
studies of blood donors in whom no risk of HIV infection could be
ascertained, who were nonreactive on the ELISA, and for whom all
other tests for HIV were negative, revealed that 20% to 40% might
have an indeterminate Western Blot..." (Proffitt et al 1993,
page 209)
This excerpt from the medical literature demonstrates that indeterminate
results are hardly rare. It also shows the remarkable finding that
any person, if given a Western Blot HIV antibody test, will have
a 20% to 40% chance of having their serum react with proteins that
are supposedly specific to HIV. An indeterminate result by definition
means that the person's serum reacted to at least one of the "HIV-proteins"
used in the Western Blot. A 20 to 40% rate of indeterminate on a
test that supposedly determines life or death issues is outrageously
high, and yet Proffitt et al. do not mention having any doubts that
this is an appropriate test to use as the final determining factor
when diagnosing HIV infection. This is a common reaction from professionals
entrenched in the HIV-causes-AIDS belief system. The finding of
how incredibly common indeterminate results are on the Western Blot
is only the tip of the iceberg regarding the problems with these
There are two tests that are primarily used in the developed areas
of the world to diagnose HIV infection, the ELISA and Western Blot.
The ELISA is used as a screening test, and if the ELISA result is
positive, the Western Blot is performed as a confirmatory test.
When an ELISA result is negative, no Western Blot test is performed,
and the person is declared "HIV-negative". In order to
be considered HIV-positive one must test positive on both tests.
If someone tests positive on the ELISA but negative on the Western
Blot, they are considered HIV-negative. Following is a detailed
discussion of problems with the ELISA, Western Blot, and viral load
Problems with the ELISA Test
Everyone Tests Positive on the ELISA test
The most remarkable study of the ELISA test has unfortunately not
yet been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal. The study
was described by the physician who performed it, Roberto Giraldo,
M.D., in an article that he published in the magazine Continuum
(Giraldo 1998/1999).
Giraldo has worked in a laboratory of clinical immunology at Cornell
University Hospital in New York City since 1993. This lab regularly
performs the ELISA, Western Blot, and Viral load tests on the serum
of patients in the hospital. He became suspicious of the ELISA test
because when the test is run, the serum must be diluted 400 times
with a special diluting agent that is provided by the manufacturer
of the test, Abbott Laboratories. What is particularly unusual about
this practice is that no other antibody tests require such a high
dilution. Most antibody tests are run on straight serum, with no
dilution at all, as is the case for hepatitis A and B virus, rubella
virus, and many others. In Dr. Giraldo's own words:
"This extraordinarily high dilution of the person's serum
(400 times) took me by surprise. Most serologic tests that look
for the presence of antibodies use undiluted ("neat")
serum. For example, the tests that look for hepatitis A and B viruses,
rubella virus, syphilis, hystoplasma, and cryptococcus, to mention
a few of them, use straight, undiluted, serum." (Giraldo 1998/1999,
page 8)
The closest comparison to this level of dilution required for HIV
tests is the rheumatoid factor (RF) antibody test which is run at
a dilution of 40:1. It is well known, however, that RF is an antibody
that all humans produce, and it is used as a non-specific marker
for autoimmune processes where the body is attacking itself. Thus
RF is referred to as an "autoantibody", and is only elevated
when the immune system is hyperstimulated as occurs in illnesses
like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
Another test that uses diluted serum is the Western Blot, which
uses a ratio of 50:1. This may explain why the Western Blot test
is almost always positive when the ELISA is positive, because serum
that reacts at a dilution of 400:1 on the ELISA test is even more
likely to react if only diluted 50:1 on the Western Blot. One wonders
what would happen if Western Blot tests were run on healthy blood
donors undiluted serum, since even when diluted 50 times the indeterminate
rate is between 20 and 40%. Unfortunately, no one has yet tried
to repeat Dr. Giraldo's experiment or do similar tests with the
Western Blot.
Given the unusual dilution required by the ELISA test, Dr. Giraldo
investigated what would happen if he took serum that had tested
negative for HIV when it was diluted 400 times, and reran the ELISA
test on the same serum without diluting it as with tests for other
viral antibodies. Here is Dr. Giraldo's description of his findings:
"I first took samples of blood that at 1:400 dilution tested
negative for antibodies to HIV. I then ran the exact same serum
samples through the test again, but this time without diluting them.
Tested straight like this, they all came up positive. Since that
time I have run about 100 specimens and have always gotten the same
result. I even ran my own blood which at 1:400 reacts negative.
But at 1:1 [undiluted] it reacted positive." (page 8)
The results of this remarkable experiment seems significant enough
to immediately halt all ELISA testing until more detailed experiments
are done. This may be why Dr. Giraldo states that "No one will
be willing to publish my results because they are too threatening
to the HIV establishment" (Giraldo, personal communication).
As suggested by the comparison with RF antibodies mentioned previously,
one explanation for positive results on negative samples tested
as straight serum is that HIV antibodies are actually something
that all people produce and that they are not specific to any virus.
HIV antibodies might actually be "autoantibodies", rather
than antibodies to a viral invader. Another explanation is that
all people have been exposed to HIV, but some people produce more
antibodies than others. This is equally disconcerting if one considers
the psychological terrorism that accompanies the diagnosis "HIV-positive"
or the popular theory that only a small portion of HIV positives
do not develop AIDS as a result of exposure.
Papadopulos-Eleopulos et al. (1993a,b, 1995) have argued repeatedly
that since no one has completely isolated the virus, the specificity
of the tests used to diagnose HIV-infection is completely unknown.
Only by checking the accuracy of the tests against a gold standard
of purified HIV can specificity for the tests be established. All
available electron micrographic pictures of HIV show impure solutions
in which what is said to be HIV represents only a small minority
of the visible elements (Verney-Elliott 1999, de Harven 1998a,b),
and therefore there is no way to know whether the proteins that
are used in the ELISA and Western Blot tests are from HIV or from
the other cellular components present within the sample.
The opinions of Papadopulos-Eleopulos et al. are shared by Etienne
de Harven, Ph.D., who has been one of the world's leaders in electron
microscopy for over forty years. Dr. de Harven spent most of his
37 year research career studying retroviruses associated with leukemias
in animals. He spent 25 years at the Sloan Kettering Institute where
in 1958, he published the first electron micrographs of the Friend
leukemia virus, a retrovirus his colleague Charlotte Friend had
discovered in mouse leukemic cells. His electron micrographs from
1958 stand in stark contrast to micrographs claimed to show pictures
of HIV. This is because his micrographs of the Friend leukemia virus
show purified viral particles with only three small impurities viewed
in a field of hundreds of viruses (Verney-Elliott 1999, de Harven
The only micrographs claimed to be of HIV are 99% impurities which
makes it impossible to know for sure what the micrographs show.
(Verney-Elliott 1999, de Harven 1998a,b). De Harven, like Duesberg,
became disillusioned with retrovirology as he saw more and more
researchers trying to side-step the frustration of having their
work disproved. According to Dr. de Harven, researchers did this
by lowering their scientific standards and by using less precise
measures in order to get their desired results. De Harven began
to see that the idea that retroviruses could cause disease was highly
unlikely, and he was upset that retrovirologistsstudying the issue,
instead of admitting that this was so, used more and more dubious
scientific methods in an attempt to keep their research alive.
When in 1984, Gallo claimed that a retrovirus was causing AIDS,
de Harven, who was an emeritus professor of Pathology at the University
of Toronto at the time, was highly skeptical. He was not only skeptical
that HIV could be the cause of AIDS, as Duesberg was, but also skeptical
as to whether Gallo had even found a real retrovirus. De Harven
had worked with many researchers in the past who claimed to have
isolated a new retrovirus only to find upon electron microscopy
that there was no virus present. This is why true isolation was
discontinued by most researchers, according to de Harven, and why
the term "isolation" is now used when the presence of
questionable surrogate markers are identified. He and Papadopulos-Eleopulos
et al. argue that what are thought to be "markers" of
HIV may simply be a collection of proteins produced by the body's
own cells when under stress. Here are some quotes from Dr. de Harven
regarding these problems and how they relate to the ELISA and Western
Blot tests:
"When Gallo and his followers attempted to demonstrate that
certain retroviruses can [cause disease in humans], to the best
of my bibliographical recollection, electron microscopy was never
used to demonstrate directly viremia [the presence of viruses in
the blood] in the studied patients. Why? Most probably electron
micrographic results were negative, and swiftly ignored! But over-enthusiastic
retrovirologists continued to rely on the identification of so-called
'viral markers' attempting to salvage their hypothesis.
ELISA, then Western Blot tests were hastily developed, at sizable
profits eagerly split between the Pasteur Institute and the U.S.
'Seropositivity' [based on these two tests] became synonymous
with the disease itself, plunging an entire generation into behavioral
panic and exposing hundreds of thousands of people to 'preventative'
antiviral AZT therapy which actually hastened the appearance of
severe or lethal immunodeficiency syndrome." (de Harven 1998b,
page 21)
De Harven concludes his article with the following plea:
"Obviously, the HIV/AIDS hypothesis has to be scientifically
reappraised. And, most urgently, the funding for AIDS research should
no longer be restricted to laboratories working on a hypothesis
which has never been proven." (de Harven 1998b, page 21)
All tests are known to have false positives. In the case of antibody
tests this is much more likely to occur when antibodies are present
in large quantities, as often happens when the immune system has
been stimulated by multiple infections or by foreign agents injected
into the bloodstreams. Such immune stimulation is common among people
in the major risk groups for testing HIV positive in the United
States and Europe, including IV drug users, male homosexuals, and
hemophiliacs. The argument that ELISA and Western Blot tests simply
pick up false positives due to very high antibody levels is supported
by an article by Shallenberger on low CD4 counts. (Shallenberger
F, Medical Hypotheses: 50; 67-80 1998).
He argues that AIDS is not infectious at all, but rather that is
caused by an imbalance of the immune system with a hyperstimulated
antibody-mediated immunity. He documents that this is exactly what
happens to people in the risk groups for AIDS, and that hyperactive
antibody mediation causes suppression of cellular immunity. He does
not discuss the HIV antibody tests, but it appears that the finding
that HIV tests must be run on heavily diluted blood shows that the
test is a measure for excess antibodies in the blood, also called
Several reports discussing false positives published by researchers
who support the use of these tests and who support the conventional
explanations for AIDS shed light on why such concerns have been
raised. MacKenzie et al (1992) for example, found seven people who
had repeated false positives on the ELISA test apparently due to
flu vaccination, and estimate that "0.6% to 1.7% of blood donors
who received influenza vaccine this season had multiple false positives."
This rate is much higher than the prevalence of HIV in the US population
(which is officially estimated at about 0.4%) meaning that people
who receive a flu vaccine are much more likely to get a false positive.
If there is no independent measure or "gold standard"
for determining a true positive, how did MacKenzie et al decide
that the ELISA results they reported were false positives? They
based their decision on Western Blot confirmatory tests which were
negative or in one case indeterminate, and the fact that about 3
months later the six people available for follow-up tested negative
on the ELISA (Western Blot was not repeated after a negative ELISA).
Thus we see that the accuracy of the ELISA test is gauged by the
results of Western Blot tests.
A letter to the Western Journal of Medicine (Challakere 1993) reported
finding 5 false positives in a sample of 127 people for a false
positive rate of 4%. Through careful history taking Challakere determined
that the flu vaccine as well as previous viral infections like herpes
simplex 2 were the probable causes of these false positives. A rate
of 4% means that 1 in 25 people had a false positive which would
lead to ten times as many false positives as true positives since
only about one in 250 people in the United States are thought to
be HIV positive according to the most recent estimates by the Centers
for Disease Control. Challakere also relied on negative Western
Blots to decide which tests were true positives and which were false,
showing again how critical the accuracy of the Western Blot is to
current practices regarding the diagnosis of HIV infection. A summary
article on the use of HIV antibody tests that appeared in Infectious
Disease Clinics of North America (Proffitt et al. 1993) discussed
some of the known causes of false positives on the ELISA HIV-1 antibody
"Notable causes of false positive reactions have been antibodies
that sometimes occur in multiparous women and in multiply transfused
patients. Likewise, antibodies to proteins of other viruses have
been reported to cross react with HIV determinants. False positive
HIV ELISA's also have been observed recently in persons who received
vaccines for influenza and hepatitis B virus." (page 205)
Since such heavy reliance is placed on the Western Blot test, one
rightfully needs to know how specific it is and how this specificity
was determined. As it turns out, false positives and indeterminates
for the Western Blot test are also quite common and the claimed
specificity of the test is highly questionable. The specificity
of the Western Blot is called into question by other reports, including
Proffitt et al.'s 1993 article.
Problems with the Western Blot Antibody Test
The Western Blot has ten "bands", all of which have a
protein or antigen that is supposedly only produced by HIV. The
ELISA test also uses these "HIV proteins", but as a mixture
so only one band needs to be used. The patient's serum is run separately
through all ten bands of the Western Blot to see how it will react
with each one individually. When the serum reacts with a protein
in a given band it is considered to mean that the patient's serum
contains antibodies to that particular protein. Not all ten bands
have to be positive in order for a person to be diagnosed HIV-positive
however, and the combinations of reactive bands needed for a positive
result vary greatly from country to country. This fact alone shows
how arbitrary the tests are, since a person diagnosed HIV-positive
in one country may be considered "indeterminate" in another.
The following quote from Proffitt et al. describes the inconsistent
guidelines for the reading of this test (Proffitt 1993):
"Indeed, not even the interpretation guidelines in the brochures
of each FDA-licensed manufacturer of HIV Western Blots are the same.
However, the majority of the laboratories have accepted the recommendations
of the ASTPHLD. Following those recommendations, a negative Western
Blot would have no bands, a positive would have at least two of
the key bands, and an indeterminate would have a single band or
a combination that does not fit the interpretation of positive."
(page 208)
This comment hardly inspires confidence that interpretations of
results are based on sound scientific principles. It also explains
why different countries have widely varying criteria for when a
test is "positive" and when it is "indeterminate".
The most disturbing evidence they cite, however, is the rate of
indeterminates that appear for Western Blots in healthy blood donors
as discussed previously. An indeterminate occurs when an insufficient
number of bands come up positive or when the combination "does
not fit the interpretation of positive". One would expect,
since all of the bands contain proteins that are supposedly specific
to HIV that indeterminate results would be quite rare, but this
is hardly the case.
Problems may be encountered when an HIV Western Blot is done on
someone at no identifiable risk of infection. For example, recent
studies of blood donors in whom no risk for HIV infection could
be ascertained, who were nonreactive on the ELISA, and for whom
all other tests for HIV were negative, revealed that 20% to 40%
might have an indeterminate Western Blot. (page 209) This means
that any one of us, if given a Western Blot HIV antibody test, will
have a 20% to 40% chance of having our serum react with proteins
that are supposedly specific to HIV! As mentioned before, such a
high rate of indeterminates on a test that supposedly determines
life or death issues is outrageous in my opinion, and yet Proffitt
et al. do not question its accuracy in any way.
Given the high rate of indeterminate results on the Western Blot,
it is reasonable to wonder how the extremely high specificity claimed
for this test can possibly be true. It is claimed is that only 1
in 20,000 tests will give a false positive. An article from 1995
that also supports the use of these tests places these two seemingly
irreconcilable claims in the very same sentence:
"Thus, incidences of inaccurate results [on the Western Blot]
vary from a false positive rate of 1 in 20,000 to indeterminate
results in 20% to 40% of cases in which the ELISA test was serum
negative." (Cordes 1995, page 185)
The only conclusions that Proffitt et al. draw from this extremely
high false indeterminate rate is that the Western Blot should not
be used as an initial screening test, and the only potential harm
mentioned is that "the anxiety an indeterminate result creates
in a test subject is understandably intense." (Proffitt 1993,
If an indeterminate result creates "intense" anxiety,
a result considered to be a true positive will create levels of
stress and anxiety that are many times more intense. I have called
the fear and social isolation caused by a positive HIV antibody
test result "psychological terrorism" because of how devastating
it can be, and yet the decision about what is "true",
"false" or "indeterminate" does not appear to
be based in any well controlled experiments and appears to ignore
many conflicting results.
The arbitrary nature of the Western Blot has been analyzed in detail
by Papadopulos-Eleopulos et al. (1993) who document that all of
the proteins used in the Western Blot, which are supposedly specific
to HIV, have been commonly found in people who are HIV-negative
on the other HIV tests. They also point out that HIV was never isolated
so there is no way to know if these proteins are from HIV or from
other cells and viruses. Before analyzing their work, however, here
is a quote from a team of researchers who reported a number of false
positive results on the Western Blot tests:
"Our results document a fourth source of false positive HIV-1
Western Blot results which is the reproducible but nonspecific reactivity
[to proteins from HIV]... Preliminary studies suggest that the basis
for this cross reactivity with HIV-1 gp 41 proteins may be infection
by paramyxoviruses, carbohydrate antibodies, or autoantibodies against
cellular proteins. (Sayre et al., 1996, page 48-49).
The authors also looked at rates of these types of false positives
among all tests performed on blood donors in the U.S. and concluded
that 1992 had the highest rates to date with 52 out of 683, or 8%
of Western Blot positives on donated blood actually being false
The quote above from Sayre et al. mentions false positives due to
reactions with the "gp 41 proteins" which include gp 41
and gp 120/160. However, there have been problems with the proteins
in all the other bands used in the Western Blot as well. It has
been shown in a number of studies that none of the ten proteins
are actually specific to HIV. "Gp" stands for "glycoprotein",
which is a protein with some sugar molecules attached to it, and
the number after the letters represents the molecular weight of
the protein, in kilodaltons. Glycoproteins of all shapes and sizes
are extremely common components of cells in both plants and animals.
(These proteins are sometimes referred to with only a "p",
i.e. "p41" and "p120/160" instead of "gp".)
The research calling into question whether any of the "HIV
proteins" is really specific to HIV is presented in detail
in an article published in Bio/Technology, by Papadopulos-Eleopulos
et al., entitled "Is a Positive Western Blot Proof of HIV Infection?"
(Papadopulos-Eleopulos et al.1993). The authors point out that even
the original papers by HIV co-discoverer Luc Montagnier found gp41
to occur in normal cells which were not infected by HIV, and that
Montagnier's group concluded that gp41 "may be due to contamination
of the virus by cellular actin which was present ... in all the
cell extracts" (Barre-Sinoussi et al. 1983). Actin is an extremely
common protein that is present in all cells, including bacteria
and viruses. The gp 120/160 protein was shown in 1989 to actually
be several gp 41 proteins hooked together ("oligomers"
of gp 41), so it is equally non-specific. This was reported by Pinter
et al in 1989 in the Journal of Virology in an article entitled,
"Oligomeric Structure of gp41, the Transmembrane Protein of
Another protein, gp24, is of special significance because it is
often used alone as a test to claim the presence of HIV and gp24
testing is commonly done in newborn children where the ELISA and
Western Blots are thought to give false positives due to antibodies
passed on by an HIV positive mother. Additionally, when HIV is "cultured",
it is the finding of gp24 that is used to say HIV has been found.
In other words, the way they test for HIV is to test for gp24. Thus,
this glycoprotein has special importance, and one would expect that
it would be extremely rare to find it in people considered HIV negative.
As Papadopulos-Eleopulos et al. put it:
"Detection of p24 is currently believed to be synonymous with
HIV isolation and viremia. However, ... Gallo and his colleagues
have repeatedly stated that the p24's of HTLV-1 (a different retrovirus)
and HIV cross-react." (Papadopulos-Eleopulos et al.1993 page
697, Wong-Staal & Gallo 1985).
Papadopulos-Eleopulos et al. continue with further examples showing
how incredibly common it is to find gp 24 and antibodies to gp 24
in people who are considered HIV-negative:
"Genesca et al (1989) conducted Western Blot assays in 100
ELISA-negative samples of healthy blood donors. 20 were found to
have positive bands which ... were considered indeterminate Western
Blots, with p24 being the predominant band (70% of cases). Among
the recipients of Western Blot indeterminate blood, 36% were Western
Blot indeterminate 6 months after transfusion, but so were 42% of
individuals who received Western Blot-negative blood samples. Both
donors and recipients of blood remained healthy. They concluded
that Western Blot indeterminate patterns "are exceedingly common
in randomly selected donors and recipients and such patterns do
not correlate with the presence of HIV-1 or the transmission of
HIV-1... Most such reactions represent false positives."
Antibodies to gp24 have been detected in 1 out of 150 healthy, ELISA-negative
individuals, 13% of randomly selected otherwise healthy patients
with generalized warts, 24% of patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma,
and 41% of patients with multiple sclerosis (Ranki et al. 1988).
Conversely, the p24 antigen is not found in all HIV positive or
even AIDS patients. In one study of patients at various stages from
asymptomatic (HIV positive) to AIDS, p24 was detected in only 24%
(Delord et al. 1991).
Here we have researchers discussing the "exceedingly common"
occurrence of Western Blot indeterminate results and deciding that
they represent false positives because the ELISA is negative. As
noted previously, ELISA positives are considered to be false when
the Western Blot was negative. The incredible reliance of patients,
doctors, and scientists on tests with such obvious inconsistencies
is a cause for alarm, and yet it appears that the only people sounding
the alarm are not being heard, or at least not being listened to.
The rest of the article by Papadopulos-Eleopulos et al. goes on
to discuss similar findings with the rest of the Western Blot "HIV
proteins" and concludes with a relatively conservative call
for reappraisal:
"We conclude that the use of the HIV antibody tests as a diagnostic
and epidemiological tool for HIV infection needs to be reappraised."
(page 696)
Of even greater concern than the existence of these problems is
the fact that no one in the conventional medical and scientific
establishment seems to be asking questions about them.
Problems with the Viral Load Test
Two papers published in 1995 in the journal Nature appeared to resolve
the dilemma of either not being able to find any actual HIV particles,
or finding only extremely small quantities of HIV, in people diagnosed
HIV-positive (Ho 1995, Wei 1995). These researchers used a new genetic
detection system called "quantitative PCR", which relies
on a complex mathematical formula to quantify the amount of virus
in people's blood. This abstract quantification system is what is
still used today to find what is called a person's "viral load",
and has become a major method used by clinicians to determine the
health status of people diagnosed HIV-positive. Contrary to what
most people believe, however, PCR does not directly detect any intact
viral particles, but only tiny fragments of what is thought to be
HIV's genetic material. Thus, "viral load" is not determined
by counting even one intact particle of HIV, but rather by using
a complex mathematical system of estimation. This quantification
system has serious problems that have been largely ignored in spite
of being clearly reported in the medical literature, and yet it
has become the primary marker of health both in research as well
as in treatment decisions with people diagnosed HIV positive.
How many HIV particles does "viral load" really
Viruses can only cause damage if they are infectious. They cause
ill health by infecting cells and then causing cell death. Researchers
attempting to see what portion of the huge numbers of HIV reported
by quantitative PCR represent active, infectious viruses, have found
that as few as 1 in 10 million of the "HIV" reported
are actually infectious. They determine this by "culturing"
the virus, which usually means looking for surrogate markers of
HIV like gp 24. As outlined previously, these proteins are actually
quite non-specific and are often found in people who are HIV-negative.
A virus that cannot infect another cell is essentially sterile since
it cannot harm any cells if it cannot infect them. Here are some
comments on the results from one major study published in Science
in which researchers found that the vast majority of "viral
particles" found by viral load/quantitative PCR were non-infectious:
"Circulating levels of plasma virus determined by [quantitative]
PCR correlated with, but exceeded by an average of 60,000-fold,
numbers of infectious HIV-1 that were determined by quantitative
culture of identical portions of plasma... Total virions have been
reported [in other studies] to exceed culturable infectious units
by factors of 1,000 to 10,000,000, ratios similar to those we observed
in plasma." (Piatak et al., 1993, page 1752)
In other words, these researchers estimated that only about 1 in
60,000 "virions" found using "quantitative"
PCR were actually infectious, and that other studies have found
even more dismal results. Because they use the presence of gp24
which is a non-specific protein found in 41% of patients with multiple
sclerosis (Ranki et al. 1988) to determine if a cell has become
infected, even their estimate of 1 in 60,000 is probably exaggerated.
Even using a non-specific marker like gp24, these researchers were
not able to culture any virus at all in more than half (35 of 66)
patients. This means that people with no infectious virus at all
had "viral loads" as high as 815,000 "copies per
milliliter"! The study subjects had all tested positive on
the ELISA and Western Blot antibody tests, the two tests currently
used to diagnose people as being "HIV-infected". They
all had extremely high "viral loads", and yet the majority
of them had no "culturable infectious units" of HIV. Results
like these bring up some obvious questions about what proof exists
that testing positive on antibody tests means that a person had
an active infection. Unfortunately, in the world of HIV science,
no one seems to question these tests. Instead, articles commonly
quote amazing levels of specificity and sensitivity.
This difficulty in finding active HIV particles is not surprising
to those familiar with the literature on this topic, since similar
results have been found by many researchers who have tried to confirm
the presence of HIV in people's blood (Chiodi 1988, Gallo 1984,
Learmont 1992, Popovic 1984, Sarngadharan 1984, Schupbach 1984).
Based on results like these, the abstract system used by quantitative
PCR technology in which tiny bits of genetic material are amplified
by a complex set of mathematical equations into frighteningly large
numbers is highly questionable. Most people diagnosed HIV positive,
even with high viral loads, may have noinfectious virus in them
at all. As will be discussed in the next section, many people who
test negative on both the ELISA and Western Blot have substantial
viral loads when tested using "quantitative PCR". This
brings up the question of whether PCR is capable of mistaking tiny
bits of a person's own genetic material for genetic material of
HIV. Since the human genome has about 3 billion base pairs while
that of HIV has only about 10,000, and PCR only looks for about
3% of HIV's genetic material, about 300 base pairs, it appears likely
that some of the 3 billion base pairs in the human genome could
accidentally be attributed to HIV.
As mentioned before, "viral load" has become the only
measure of alleged health in clinical trials of new drugs. News
reports about people "doing well" on the new anti-retroviral
cocktails often speak about people whose "disease is controlled"
on the drugs, or whose "disease came roaring back" after
stopping the drugs. What they are referring to, however, is not
clinical health at all. Careful reading of such articles reveals
that the person in question often feels much better when they discontinue
the drugs because of the numerous toxic effects suffered while taking
them. The description of the disease "roaring back" is
based entirely on the fact that their "viral loads" have
risen, even though they may be feeling much better and have no clinical
symptoms of illness.
As often occurs in studies that fundamentally challenge HIV science
like Piatak et al, the authors appear unphased by their results
and focus completely in the discussion section of their paper on
other aspects of their study that fit better with conventional views
about what it means to be "HIV-positive" and to have a
high "viral load". They do not even mention in their discussion
that the majority of their subjects had no infectious viral particles.
While it is of questionable significance to have such high "viral
loads" if only a tiny minority, or none of the particles is
actually infectious, it can still be terrifying to be told that
one has several million copies of HIV in every milliliter of blood.
This type of news has a powerful symbolic meaning to clinicians
and patients, which may result in profound immunosuppression whether
HIV is causing damage or not.
High viral loads in people who are "HIV-Negative"
Adding further confusion to the issue, PCR technology has found
extremely high viral loads in people who are HIV negative by the
ELISA and Western Blot antibody tests. For instance, Schwartz et
al. (1997) found a person with a viral load of 100,000 who was negative
on the ELISA and Western Blot antibody tests. The authors concluded
that lab error had led to this reading, which would be a reasonable
explanation if not for the presence of other studies finding similar
Gerberding et al. (1994) conducted a study of HIV contaminated needle
sticks and in the process uncovered data that calls into question
the value of viral load/PCR testing. They conducted PCR tests on
133 of the 327 healthy workers who had experienced needle sticks
in their clinic. All of these 133 subjects remained HIV negative
on the ELISA antibody test, but seven of them had "indeterminate"
PCR results and four others had one or more actual positive results
for a false positive rate of 3%. If the "indeterminate"
results are counted as well, the false positive rate is 8%. For
a very rare infection like HIV, with an estimated prevalence of
only 0.4%, these rates of false positive results in perfectly healthy
people are extremely high. The ratio of 3% to 0.4% reveals that
for every 30 people with "positive PCRs" only 4 will be
considered true positives. The decision regarding which are actual
positives is based on the ELISA and Western Blot antibody tests,
which are also highly questionable as discussed previously. Gerberding
et al. comment on their findings with PCR as follows:
"The failure to demonstrate seroconversion... among those
with positive PCR tests suggests that false positives occur even
under stringent test conditions. The low predictive value of a positive
or indeterminate PCR test... contraindicates the routine use of
gene amplification in this clinical setting." (Gerberding
et al. 1994, page 1415)
Other cases of people with positive PCR tests but who were negative
on the ELISA test were reported by Rich et al. (1999). They report
on three such cases which occurred over a two month period. The
third case has a particularly interesting series of conflicting
"[Case 3] had a positive result on ELISA and an indeterminate
result on a Western Blot (WB) test... During a four month period
after her initial indeterminate result, she had a positive result
on ELISA and another indeterminate result on WB test, on separate
occasions. Five months later, both ELISA and WB tests yielded negative
results, but the patient had a plasma viral load of 1300 copies/ml."
(page 38).
Another study looking at this question was published in 1992 in
the Journal of AIDS (Busch et al. 1992). In this instance, researchers
performed PCR tests on 151 ELISA-negative people and found that
18.5% (28 people) had positive PCRs. Furthermore, they found that
only 25.5% of people diagnosed HIV-positive had "positive"
Finding viral loads and false positive PCRs in HIV-negative people
should be a major wake-up call to people diagnosed "HIV-positive,"
their doctors, scientists working in the field, and the public at
large because these tests are repeatedly used to make clinical decisions
about treatment. What makes results like these even more surprising
is that they were never reported in the media, nor were they discussed
in the research community, nor were they presented to physicians
at AIDS conferences, and finally, they were definitely never shared
with people diagnosed "HIV-positive".
Perhaps this is why Kary Mullis, the scientist who won the Nobel
Prize in chemistry in 1993 for inventing the PCR test says that
the "viral load" is meaningless (Duesberg 1996). Kary
Mullis is one of the signatories of a statement calling for a reappraisal
of the causes of AIDS.
The manufacturers of these tests know that their tests are of questionable
accuracy, although it is doubtful that they realize just how questionable
the accuracy really is. They reveal this knowledge through the following
disclaimers that they include with their test kits:
1) Abbott Laboratories puts the following statement in their ELISA
test kit: "ELISA testing alone cannot be used to diagnose AIDS."
(Abbott 1997) This warning is not surprising since current practice,
at least in the United States, suggests that the Western Blot test
is the way to assess infection.
2) Epitope, the maker for one of the Western Blot kits warns in
their package insert: "Do not use this kit as the sole basis
for HIV infection." (Epitope 1997). This is somewhat more alarming,
since the Western Blot is supposed to be a highly accurate test
used to confirm that the ELISA is not a false positive.
3) Roche, the maker of a popular "viral load" test kit,
state: "The amplicor HIV-1 monitor test is not intended to
be used as a screening test for HIV, nor as a diagnostic test to
confirm the presence of HIV infection." (Roche 1996). This
is also not surprising, since viral load is not normally used to
diagnose HIV infection.
In summary, all the test makers deny that their test is accurate
to diagnose HIV infection when used "alone". Yet combining
three inaccurate tests will create yet another inaccurate test,
especially given the evidence showing how severe the accuracy problems
I continue to be amazed that these tests are relied upon daily to
make life or death decisions. I would propose that simple but thorough
experiments be carried out by an independent and unbiased body of
researchers. In the meantime, I could not in good conscience recommend
that anyone take these tests.
While attending medical school at George Washington University,
Matt Irwin, MD wrote several literature reviews on HIV and AIDS.
In addition to his degree in medicine, he holds a Master's degree
in social work from the Catholic University of America. Dr. Irwin
uses nutritional, psychological, social and spiritual interventions
as well as classical homeopathy in his practice of family medicine
near Washington, D.C.
Smart HIV Test is Dumb After All
to Risk Realities


text:
Compuline International, Inc.
B-408379: Jul 19, 2013
Additional Materials:
- Full Report:
(202) 512-8278
Kenneth E. Patton
(202) 512-8205
Office of Public Affairs
(202) 512-4800
Compuline International, Inc. (Compuline) protests the rejection of its proposal by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), under Request for Proposals (RFP) No. SOL-624-12-000005, for expert technical assistance and services for the implementation of USAID/West Africa's Trade Hub and African Partners Network Project. Compuline argues that its proposal provided the best value, and that USAID violated the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and failed to evaluate its proposal pursuant to the RFP.
We deny the protest.
Matter of: Compuline International, Inc.
File: B-408379
Date: July 19, 2013
Gadema K. Quoqoui, for the protester.
R. Rene Dupuy, Esq., United States Agency for International Development, for the agency.
Sasan J. Najmi and Sharon L. Larkin, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.
Agency reasonably rejected a proposal that failed to comply with requirements of a solicitation.
Compuline International, Inc. (Compuline) protests the rejection of its proposal by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), under Request for Proposals (RFP) No. SOL-624-12-000005, for expert technical assistance and services for the implementation of USAID/West Africas Trade Hub and African Partners Network Project. Compuline argues that its proposal provided the best value, and that USAID violated the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and failed to evaluate its proposal pursuant to the RFP.
We deny the protest.
On August 16, 2012, USAID issued the RFP for the implementation of USAID/West Africas Trade Hub and African Partners Network (Trade Hub Network) Project. RFP at 1. Offerors were to develop proposals to assist a network of West Africas farmers and firms, through their associations and alliances, to increase international trade in staple foods within the region, and trade in value-added products to the world, in particular the United States. Id. at 12. The selected contractor was to provide expert and technical assistance for the implementation of the Trade Hub Network Project. Id. at 16.
The RFP contemplated the award of a cost-plus-fixed-fee completion-type contract, with a maximum value of $55 to 60 million. Id. at 1. The contract duration was for a 3-year base period with two 1-year options. RFP amend. 4, at 2. The contract was to be awarded to the responsible firm whose proposal represented the best value, based on technical, cost, and other considerations. Id. at 135. The technical evaluation involved an assessment of technical approach, management and staffing plans, institutional capability and experience, and past performance. Id. at 135-39. Cost was to be evaluated for realism, allowability, and reasonableness. Id. at 139. The various evaluation factors were weighted as follows:
Technical Approach
40 points
Management and Staffing Plan, including Key personnel
1. Management and Staffing Plan (10 points)
2. Key Personnel (20 points)
30 points
Institutional Capability and Experience
15 points
Past Performance
15 points
100 points
Id. at 140.
Section L of the RFP set forth specific requirements for the organization and substantive content of the technical and cost proposals. Among other things, the solicitation required that the proposal address an approach to the project, performance targets, a 1-year integrated work plan, a management and staffing plan (including key personnel), institutional capability and experience, and past performance. Id. at 117. For each of these topic areas, the RFP described in detail what the proposal was to include. Id. at 117-23; see also id. at 136-38. The RFP stated that [p]roposals not conforming to this RFP will be determined as non-responsive, thereby eliminating them from further consideration. Id. at 116.
Six offerors, including Compuline, submitted proposals in response to the RFP. AR at 1. After evaluating initial offers, USAID determined that Compulines proposal would be excluded from further competition, and on May 24, 2013, informed Compuline that its proposal was rejected because the proposal was not responsive to the RFP. AR, Tab 4, Letter of Exclusion from USAID. On May 30, Compuline filed a protest with our Office, arguing that its proposal should have been viewed as the proposal offering the best value, and that the agencys evaluation was unreasonable.
Compuline protests the agencys rejection of its proposal, arguing that USAID did not comply with requirements of Part 15 of the FAR, and that it failed to reasonably evaluate Compulines proposal in accordance with the RFP.[1] Protest at 2. In response, USAID argues that Compulines proposal was properly rejected because it did not include some of the most basic information required by this RFP. AR at 2-3. We agree with the agency.
The evaluation of proposals is a matter within the discretion of the procuring agency; we will question the agencys evaluation only where the record shows that the evaluation does not have a reasonable basis or is inconsistent with the RFP. Hardiman Remediation Servs., Inc., B-402838, Aug. 16, 2010, 2010 CPD ¶ 195 at 3. Since an agencys evaluation is dependent on the information furnished in a proposal, it is the offerors responsibility to submit an adequately written proposal for the agency to evaluate. Id.; Pacifica Servs., Inc., B-280921, Dec. 7, 1998, 98-2 CPD ¶ 137 at 3. An offeror risks having its proposal evaluated unfavorably where it fails to submit an adequately written proposal. Recon Optical, Inc., B-310436, B-310436.2, Dec. 27, 2007, 2008 CPD ¶ 10 at 6. Where, as here, a proposal fails to meet material requirements of the RFP, it may be rejected as unacceptable. Blocacor, LDA, B-282122.3, Aug. 2, 1999, 99-2 CPD ¶ 25 at 2 n.1; Diversified Collection Servs., Inc., B-406958.3, B-406958.4, Jan. 8, 2013, 2013 CPD ¶ 23 at 11.
Based on our review of the record, we find that the agency reasonably rejected Compulines proposal. Among other omissions, Compuline did not provide a management or staffing plan or key personnel; did not include required information for past performance references; and did not submit a cost proposal. In addition, the proposal did not follow the format or organization required by the RFP, did not substantively address the topics identified in the RFP (or did not include sufficient detail), and instead addressed topics that the solicitation did not require. Given that Compuline failed to adhere to the clear instructions in the RFP for proposal content, we find that the agency reasonably rejected the proposal as non-responsive.
The protest is denied.
Susan A. Poling
General Counsel
[1] In addition, Compuline also argued that USAID failed to follow certain requirements of the Department of Defense supplement to the FAR (the DFAR). For the record, the requirements of the DFAR have no application to procurements conducted by USAID.
Feb 21, 2018
Veterans Electric, LLC
We deny the protest.
VT Halter Marine, Inc.
We deny the protest.
ManTech Advanced Systems International, Inc.
We sustain the protest.
Transworld Systems, Inc.; Account Control Technology, Inc.
We sustain TSI's protest and deny ACT's protest.
MicroTechnologies, LLC
We deny the protest in part and dismiss it in part.
Feb 16, 2018
CSI Aviation, Inc.
We deny the protest.
Heskett and Heskett Services
We deny the protest.
Feb 15, 2018
OST, Inc.
We deny the protest.
Feb 14, 2018
Castro & Company, LLC
We sustain the protest.
SysVets, LLC
We deny the protest.
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text:
Pittsburg Ken Jennings, whose quick recall of a vast array of information made him a wealthy man as the all-time champion on television's "Jeopardy!" game show, says it's important for people to keep learning things throughout their lives.
"We call this kind of knowledge trivia as if it were trivial or unimportant," Jennings said Thursday night at Pittsburg State University, one of a series of college stops he has been making in the wake of the celebrity he won last year. "Knowing stuff about the world around you, it really changes the way you live your life."
Jennings said learning can help people connect and build relationships with others.
"Trivia can pay off in many different ways and sometimes hold a person back when there is something unknown," he said. "It makes you enjoy things more. It makes it easier to know other people. I think sometimes that information comes in handy."
Jennings won more than $2.5 million during his 74-game "Jeopardy!" win streak.
"After I lost, there was a flicker of disappointment and then suddenly, it was an incredible relief," he said. "I realized I'd been in this incredible suspense for six months not knowing what was going to happen. To know I could finally go back home with my family and the ride was over was actually a relief."
Jennings, a computer programmer from Utah, remains on leave from his job while making the rounds on the college speaking circuit, working on a book and developing a TV game show.
The book, about the history and culture of trivia, is due to be published by Random House next year.
The television show would be called "Ken Jennings Versus the Rest of the World," and he said he hopes to have that on the Comedy Central cable channel, also some time next year.
On Thursday night, he matched wits in a 10-question quiz with Bob Ratzlaff, Pittsburg State's academic affairs vice president, and Andrew Johnson, a senior at the school. Not surprisingly, he blew them away, getting five correct answers to one each for his competitors.
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. We strive to uphold our values for every story published.


text:
Paul J. Paiva
Paul J. Paiva 51, of 323 Main St. Woonsocket, died Sunday in Woonsocket Health and Rehabilitation Center. He was born in Swansea, MA a son of the late Manuel and Rose (Wineta) Paiva. Mr. Paiva was a Maintenance Supervisor for Cumberland Farms Headquarters where he work for nineteen years.
He is survived by his children Paul J. Paiva Jr. and his wife Amy, of Milford, MA., Paula Varola and her husband James, of W Kingston, RI., Elizabeth Paiva of Westport, MA., Jonathon, Sarah-Beth, and Samantha Paiva all of N. Smithfield, RI., three brothers Manuel Paiva of Swansea, MA., Robert Paiva of Brighton, CO., Anthony Paiva of Somerset, MA, three sisters Patricia DaRocha, of Rumford, RI., Anne Fillion of N. Darthmouth, MA., and Rosemary Pelissier of Charlestown, RI.
Visiting hours will be held Wednesday from 5-8 pm. in the Fournier & Fournier Funeral Home, 99 Cumberland St. Woonsocket. RI. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers donations to the American Cancer Society, 30 Speen St. Framingham, MA. 01701 in his memory would be appreciated.


text:
Lonestars and friends,
Please join us on Sunday at John H Reagan High School on E 14th St for Week 5 of Fitness Through Footy. A link to the Week 5 training plan is at the bottom of this email (copy and paste link in your web browser if the hyperlink does not work).
Please note that we will be starting at the earlier time of 11.00am sharp to allow people to get to Superbowl parties etc. Please arrive by 10:45am if you want to have a warmup kick before training.
We are only 3 weeks away from the coveted Lonestars Combine and Karbach Draft (28 Feb), and the Spring Metro season will commence the following week (06 Mar). That doesn't leave much time to get some miles in the legs and work on skills before competitive games start, so now is the perfect time to get back into training.
To get a better idea of what all players want out of the club this year, a player survey has been developed by the coaching group for all players to complete. The link to the survey can also be found below, and hard copies will be available at the AGM on Saturday and Sunday training.
Please take the time to complete this survey, as your responses will help create an enjoyable and successful season for everyone in 2016.
Training Location Map: https://goo.gl/maps/kRB5YgyFcUN2
Session 5 Training Plan and 2016 Player Survey:


text:
Chapter 5
Country Bumpkin
I felt someone move my white hat up a bit and woke up without opening my eyes. "Is she asleep?" A woman's voice asked.
"Well we can't just leave her on the bus either way, I just hope she doesn't slap me when she wakes up." A guy with a country accent said. I felt my body being lifted up out of the seat and two strong arms held on to me. "She's heavy! What does she eat?"
"Yah! That's not nice!" I felt tired again and soon fell back into slumber... Wait a minute! I can't go to sleep when being practically kidnap!
I woke up and stared up at the person who noticed and stared back down at me. "What are you doing?"
"She's awake, Mom." The guy setted me down on my feet. "You were going to sleep forever, or so it seemed."
Oh, they were just trying to help me. "Ah, it's okay! Um... Where are we?" I looked around to realize I was in the country. No wonder he had that country accent.
"Ah, you're at a huge country side in South Korea. You don't find us in maps but there's still buses in Seoul that takes you to here." The guy smiled at me. "Where are you from?"
"Hmm? Oh, um... Incheon, South Korea, soon to be... Kirin Art School student..." Dang, I hurt my heart a bit there saying that.
"Kirin Art School? You mean the Kirin Art School that has all those talented singers and dancers?" He blurted out.
"Y-Yeah..." Ouch, pride got stabbed again. "Um... So where's the nearest hotel or motel?"
"I think it's about twenty miles away from here or more. I'm not sure." I gaped at him and felt a sudden unhappiness. It was already dark outside. "But you shouldn't walk all the way there for something like a place to sleep."
"Yeah," The mother grabbed both of my hands and held it in her rough hands. "You can stay at our place!"
"Mom!" The guy snapped at his mother. "She's still a stranger!"
"You're the one who suggested it and I am the official decider of our household." The mom stuck out her chest. "Besides, Anku, this is a great chance to ask her about that school of your dreams."
"Ah, I'm not a student yet so I don't know anything about it!" I tried to avoid that topic. "I won't be able to tell you anything about that place... Besides, I was only riding the bus so I can meet someone who's going to be recruited into Kirin like me."
"What's the person's name?" The mom stared at me with excitement.
"Mom, it's not going to be me and I don't dream of going to Kirin and become a singer like Father before he died." Anku looked sad.
"Um..." I searched for the piece of paper that should've had the person's name. "I have it written down... Somewhere..."
"Yoki!" My head shot up when I heard my name and noticed Daiku running over after getting off the bus. "Wait up!"
"What's he doing here?" I muttered to myself quietly, but somehow not quiet enough since Anku looked at me mysteriously.
"Yoki," Daiku caught up and hunched over while breathing hard. "Y-You f-f-found him! And you didn't even see a picture of him, that's awesome!"
"What are you talking about, Daiku? I found who?" I looked at him weirdly.
"He's the one. He's the Special Kirin student! You found him without my help!" He looked up with a big fat grin on his face. "You do care about our dreams, huh?"
I stared at Daiku, dumbfounded. Anku was the Kirin Special student along with me and Daiku. We were classmates. We were... "Well then, who wants to give this area a performance?" I suggested out of the blue.
"Eh? I'm sorry but I'm not following your guy's conversation." Anku finally entered the conversation. "Start from the beginning please."
So Daiku gave him the brief summary of what was going on and allowed me to tell the mom what was happening. "Miss, your son has been selected as a student to go to Kirin Art School. You can possibly call us the recruiters but we are also one of the few to be selected as a special student. That means that we didn't do the try-outs or auditions to get in but we were selected to go. Do you allow your son to go to Kirin with us tomorrow?"
Before the ma'am said anything, Anku pushes me out of the way while bear-hugging his mother. "Mom, I can't believe this! I'm going to Kirin!"
"Sheesh, it's nothing that special." I grumbled unhappily but with a small smile. "It's just Kirin who's in the major dumps and is soon going to be closed."
I am soon embraced though by Anku while he's screaming in my ear, "Thank you so much for this awesome opportunity! You're awesome and cute!"
"Ugh, can't breath here." That was all I could reply since I really couldn't breath. He was strong for someone from the country. "Calm down please."
"Sorry," He lets go but he still has this silly yet very admiring grin on his face and looks like he's about to throw me in the air and catch me when I came down. "But this is just so awesome. I've always dreamed about going to Kirin like my dad but never thought I would get a chance to go there! This is so awesome!"
"Now, now," His mother moved forward. "Call me Mother if you please, and I certainly cannot allow either of you two to leave tonight. Please come sleep comfortly at our humble house."
"Tell me a bit about your guy's dreams since we are classmates." Anku asked with full excitement in his golden eyes.
I shifted uncomfortable in the futon they gave me. I didn't care for that type of question nor did I want to answer it. Daiku, somehow full of energy, answers, "I dream of becoming a famous guitar player and a teacher. You, Yoki?"
"Um... I guess I don't technically have a dream. I just try and help others reach their dreams." I said lamely.
"You've gotta have some sort of singing, dancing, or acting dream to want to go into Kirin." Anku had to point out with Daiku agreeing.
"Nah, to me it's all just a bunch of blah. In my personal opinion, Kirin can go to the dumps and die. I don't care for Kirin, I'm just getting forced into there." I told them the truth about my thoughts and opinion.
"Why are you forced?" They asked at the same time.
"Like I said eariler, I just want to help others reach their dream. If I don't go to Kirin then you don't go to Kirin. I'm helping you reach your dreams, that's all and the reason why I agree attending a school I despise so much." I scowled at myself.
"Eh, so that's why Koriko was surprised to see you at his house!" Daiku made the connection. "He didn't think you would show up from his reaction."
"I'm surprised I'm even here. Too much is happening all at once and I don't like where it leads to. I just wish that I wasn't forced to go to Kirin." I shrugged my head. "Kirin will most likely fall if I'm in it."
"You sing that horribly?" Anku asked and Daiku somehow agreed.
"I sing awesomely." I boasted. "I just refuse to say I'm a singer for Kirin."
"How can we trust you?" Anku frowned but soon grinned evilly. "Sing right now and here."
"Huh?" I asked with no changing expressions. "Do you have a guitar or an instrument?"
"No..." Anku went sad but Daiku butted in saying, "I got my guitar."
So Daiku opens his guitar case and hands me the guitar. It's a black and white one and it's an acoustic one. I lay it comfortably on my lap, already knowing where I usually had it comfortably. I pick a few of the strings and nod my head with satisfaction. I play a few chords and start singing while swaying.
"Way back on the radio dial Oh I can hear 'em playin Downtown is where I used to wander Oh I can hear 'em playin Some dreams stay with you forever Oh I can hear 'em playin Oh I can hear 'em playin Keep on dreaming even if it breaks your heart Keep on dreaming Don't let it break your heart."
The fire got lit inside a bright eyed child
Every note just wrapped around his soul
From steel guitars to Memphis all the way to rock and roll
I can hear the ringing of a beat up old guitar
Oh I can hear 'em singing
Keep on dreaming even if it breaks your heart
Old enough to get there but too young to get inside
So I would stand out on the sidewalk
Listen to the music playin every Friday night
I can hear the ringing of a beat up old guitar
Oh I can hear 'em singing
Keep on dreaming even if it breaks your heart
Drag you around and bring you back to where you were
Some dreams keep on getting better
Gotta keep believing if you wanna know for sure
I can hear the ringing of a beat up old guitar
Oh I can hear 'em singing
Keep on dreaming even if it breaks your heart
I can hear the ringing of a beat up old guitar
Oh I can hear 'em singing
Keep on dreaming even if it breaks your heart
Oh I can hear 'em playin
Downtown is where I used to wander
Oh I can hear 'em playin
Some dreams stay with you forever
Oh I can hear 'em playin
Oh I can hear 'em playin
Keep on dreaming even if it breaks your heart
Keep on dreaming
Don't let it break your heart."
I stopped to look at their reaction and they were both looking at me with disbelief. "What? Was it horrible?"
"That's... There's no real word or words to describe how awesome that was. As if I was at a concert for the real live person." Anku said
"Uh, that's because I can copy the same exact notes and sound after listening to the song twice. I can also do vocaloid though it's a bit hard on the throat." I replied.
"Isn't Vocaloid that Japanese computer-made singers?" Daiku asked while Anku tried to ask who was Vocaloid.
"Yeah, that's why it's hard to copy them but I'm still able to." I grinned. "Anyways, let's get some rest. I'm tired out."
I lay down and quickly fell fast asleep without remembering where I was.


text:
Queens Of The Stone Age helped kick off the new year playing Austin City Limits this past Saturday night., kicking off the second half of the show's 39th season with a hard-rocking hour-long set.
Their set consisted mostly of tracks from their latest album, . . . Like Clockwork, including "My God is the Sun," "I Sat By the Ocean," "If I Had A Tail," "Smooth Sailing," and "The Vampyre of Time and Memory." ACL will have a January 18th broadcast.
Watch the performance here.


text:
Difference between revisions of "User:Janet B. Matsen/never forget"
From OpenWetWare
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=== Metrics of yield/success ===
=== Metrics of yield/success ===
* Yield (%), titer (g/L), productivity (g/L/hr) - Eli Groban of Intrexon 2/2013
* Yield (%), titer (g/L), productivity (g/L/hr) - Eli Groban of Intrexon 2/2013
===Why are yeast a favorite industrial organism? ===
===Why are yeast a favorite industrial organism? ===
Revision as of 05:17, 5 April 2013
- 1 Significant Figures
- 2 Chemicals
- 3 Biotechnology
- 4 Protein Modeling/Fusion Proteins
Significant Figures
- If you have a measurement like 12.34, and you are showing the error, would you write
- (a) 12.34 ± 1.56
- (b) or do you include the number of significant figures in your measurement: 12.34 ± 1.567?
- Mary: I would go with (a). That is certainly how all of the journals I publish in handle this.
- If you are using a lac promoter and you add IPTG, arent you also inducing expression of LacZYA?
- I think so. But if you have a high copy plasmid, you are making much much more of your enzyme. :w
- DTT is a reducing agent which will help keep the Cys thiol groups from getting oxidized
- Tris-HCl and Tris are NOT the same! (2012/11/14)
Why are bacteriophages a big problem for bacterial biotech, but viruses in mammalian biotech not?
Ans (from dialogue with Mary Lidstrom 8/2012)
- Phage can be encapsulated in tough capsids. However, viruses infecting multicellular organisms, they evade the immune system by coating themselves with a portion of the cell membrane, but that makes them fragile outside a host.
- That doesn't happen for yeast, but the yeast viruses seem to be transmitted through the yeast mating process and don't infect the host cells from the outside. I don't know why that would be, except perhaps because it is a safe mechanism for transfer and yeast do mate at a high frequency. That means of course that even if an infection occurs, sterilization to get rid of the infected yeast gets rid of the virus also. That's much less problematic than having to scrub all the ventilation systems, walls, etc. to get rid of phage.
Metrics of yield/success
- Yield (%), titer (g/L), productivity (g/L/hr) - Eli Groban of Intrexon 2/2013
- byproduct profile & strain robustness - "From the first drop to the first truckload: commercialization of
microbial processes for renewable chemicals" by Stephen Van Dien 2013
Why are yeast a favorite industrial organism?
- Oxygen transfer is the largest thing to scale in industrial processes, so you want an organism that can grow anaerobically. You don't, however, want an obligate anaerobe because it is so much harder to work with and grow starter cultures of.
- Example: clostridium naturally produces butanol, but the fact that it is an obligate anaerobe motivated scientists to move its butanol production pathway into E. coli.
Protein Modeling/Fusion Proteins
Can you use a protein structure from a database to preduct whether you can use that protein as part of a fusion protein?
Ans: from 2012_09_11 summary from e-mail from Justin about visualizing FLS &
- You may have the structure file, but you are going to run into two issues:
- "First, the floppy ends of the proteins are not in the structures. At the N and C terminal, you will often see a discrepancy between the actual sequence and what you see in a crystal. This is because you can only see parts of the protein that are essentially fixed in space and not moving around much. So where exactly to overlay the proteins won't be totally clear.
- Second, as long as the ends are floppy you really won't be able to predict how it looks and the units interact. The only reason to look at a structure for fusions is to know if the ends are highly structured and an integral part of the protein (i.e. in a sheet or helix). If this is the case it is best to avoid fusing those sections. However, if the ends are "floppy" or "unstructured" (as in not a helix or sheet, and not an integral part of the protein... this is for sure the case if you can't see the actual ends in the structure) you can most likely make a functional fusion. Now... there may be empirical differences between how well an N vs C terminal function, but their will really be no sound way to predict that. This is generally speaking, there are special cases, such as a protein that ends in a helix and a fusion made starting at a helix so the two proteins are very specifically oriented relative to each other. But these cases are extremely rare."


text:
They say the West Coast and specifically California leads major trends that overcome the greater U.S. and the world. Nowhere is this more apparent than the region's conservation of water. Long known for wasting water with lawns, pools and golf courses, parts of the West are now recycling and conserving water in the face of one of its longest droughts in recent years, four years and still counting.
And no one expects significant help to come to either California or other Western states in 2015. This year is shaping up in the entire world to be the warmest on record. Even if the Western states of the U.S. face a strong El Nino that will bring a lot of rain, the rest of the world should have another record year of heat. March, May and June 2015 have each set monthly "hottest" records. This puts the first half of the year in the record category for the entire world.
Actually drinking recycled water is gaining adherents in the face of the drought. While recycled sewage water has been used for more than a decade in San Jose and Santa Clara for irrigating golf courses, landscaping and industrial purposes, it is now being proposed as drinking water for the populace. San Jose and Santa Clara mayors drank a glass of recycled sewage water in April of 2015. They argued it is time to mix the recycled water with the normal water supply and serve it back to the population of both cities.
This is a new option that is being inserted between consuming surface water and water table or underground aquifers. Our technology is now offering us another way of postponing our depletion of fresh water sources.
We completely agree and suggest this become the predominate option to postpone the looming water shortage worldwide. We believe that the reuse or recycling of sewage water for drinking is an absolute necessity that will significantly slow our use of our most critical asset, our water table. The rest of this article will further describe the problem this addresses.
Fully recycled water has been added to the normal water supply in a number of cities including Wichita Falls and Big Springs, Texas. This remixing of recycled water with drinking water has also been used since 2008 in Orange County, California. A June 2015 article in The Star states, "The Orange County Water District began filtering treated sewage water in a three-pronged process – purifying it through reverse osmosis and ultraviolet – and infusing it into aquifers. It remains there for a year before being pumped into the drinking water system."
Recycled water has long been used for non-drinking purposes. The City of Los Angeles has been reusing water for irrigation since the 1990's. A few cities in Australia have been using recycled water for irrigation and experimenting with the drinking of former sewage water.
Of course cities around the world are seeing their surface water disappear. With the absence of rain, the melting of high mountain glaciers and the falling levels of stored water in lakes and reservoirs, cities around the world are using up their sources of surface water.
Cities such as Las Vegas are putting in lower access pipes to their major water source and the U.S.'s largest reservoir, Lake Mead. Lake Mead's water is down to a level of 1,080 feet. The Lake's water level drop is equal to the width of a football field, down from a high of 1,225 feet in 1983. Since the year 2000 this represents a reduction of almost 4 trillion gallons of water. The problem is the projected level of 1,075 feet in January of 2016 would cause cutbacks in water use in Arizona and Nevada.
At 1,000 feet the water intakes to Lake Mead from Las Vegas will run dry denying the City of Las Vegas almost all of its drinking water. This reality is causing the Southern Nevada Water Authority to spend in excess of $800 million to build a lower, new access pipe to Lake Mead. This access pipe would be twenty feet in diameter. This adds more water resources for a city that already reuses 93% of its water for irrigation and non-drinking purposes.
Cities are now using their underground water to a greater degree to make up for shortages. They are using their underground water for irrigation and drinking. This is a worldwide problem. Unfortunately these underground natural water tables or aquifers require a much longer time for replenishment. Large swaths of the Earth are running out of water.
In a nutshell our natural tendency is to run out of surface drinking water, then to use underground sources and then, as a final option, to recycle our water and reuse sewage water. Because this underground water in the natural aquifer takes so long to replenish, sometimes hundreds or thousands of years, it must be the last option we choose.
We must recycle our water and drink former sewage water immediately to protect our underground aquifers as the last option for a thirsty planet. In this our astronauts are once again showing us the way. In space, they have been recycling their own water for many, many years.
This article celebrates the mayors of cities all over the world that take the lead encouraging their citizens to recycle and drink the resulting water. We also salute the astronauts of the world who led the way we all need to go.
Use the following links to obtain additional information or access the original documents used to prepare this article.


text: Electronic discovery (also called e-discovery or eDiscovery) refers to any process in which electronic data is sought, located, secured, and searched with the intent of using it as evidence in a civil or criminal legal case. In the process of electronic discovery, data of all types can serve as evidence. This can include text, images, databases, spreadsheets, audio files, animation, websites, and computer programs. Irosoft's eDiscovery solution, DocUnik, allows information-rich organizations to sift through large amount of data in search of evidence, or simply to clean up legacy data (e.g. remove duplicates and near duplicates) prior to content archiving. This solution:


text:
Say something comforting. Okay, comforting, comforting. Uh, Da...
Marge: (To Bart) Say something comforting.
Bart: Okay, comforting, comforting. Uh, Dad? Whenever I would hang out with Grandma she would always ask me about you and I'd say, "You suck." And she would say, "You don't suck that bad."
Homer: She said I didn't suck?
Bart: That bad.
Homer: That bad. Wow.
Bart: Yeah.
- Characters:
- Homer Simpson, Marge Simpson, Bart Simpson
- Episode:
- The Simpsons Season 19 Episode 19: "Mona Leaves-a"
- Show:
- The Simpsons
- Related Quotes:
- Homer Simpson Quotes, Marge Simpson Quotes, Bart Simpson Quotes, The Simpsons Season 19 Episode 19 Quotes, The Simpsons Quotes
- Added by:
- Steve Marsi
- Added:


text:
Uncle Ho´S
166-E(-29 Jose Calama and Diego de Almagro La Mariscal, Quito, Ecuador
Uncle Ho´S Quito Reviews
2 reviews
great staff and food Jun 28, 2011
I really like this place, they have a fantastic $5 lunch special and the staff are super friendly! Free Wi-fi, good location in the mariscal area. I definitely recommend a visit if you are staying in Quito!
Join TravBuddy to leave comments, meet new friends and share travel tips!
2 reviews
Where it´s at Apr 03, 2010
The food at Uncle Ho's is great. Every plate is expertly prepared and served with uncommon focus and attention to flavor, detail, and presentation. The menu has just the right touch of variety while maintaining quality by offering a handful of items to choose from.
Whenever I visit there are new faces and regulars enjoying the small restaurants well chosen cocktail menu and sampling spring rolls, calamari, and salads.
The food and staff at Ho's are among the best in Quito. The prices are reasonable and the owners dedication to quality and adding to what they are doing is well worth visiting again and again. Don't miss out on this one of a kind restaurant the next time you are visiting Quito.


text:
Azelia H.
Care Companion in Camby, IN 46113.
Looking for full or part-time work as a care companion.
Enhanced Background Check not run.
Enhanced Background Check(Not Run)
Basic Background Check not run.
Basic Background Check(Not Run)
Motor Vehicle Records Check not run.
Motor Vehicle Records Check(Not Run)
CPR Training
CPR Training
Camby, IN
- Age 35
- 10 years paid experience
- Female
Last signed in: More than 6 months
Home Care Rates
$13 per hour
$100 per half day
$150 per full day
$450 per week
$2000 per month
Azelia's Bio
I am a very hard worker I have work in the direct care and health care for teen years plus I am certified nurse aide I love working with the elderly I'm very reliable outgoing talented person I am willing to learn new things.I have work with kids I have work with preteen I have work with all types of youth.I'm a very honest person willing to work.and grow with a company .
Age Specific Experience
10 years paid experience with:
- Under 55 years old
- 55 to 64 years old
- 65 to 74 years old
- 75 to 84 years old
Experience with providing basic care services:
- Conversation and companionship
- Safety supervision
- Meal preparation
- Medication reminders
- Social activities
- Light housekeeping
- Exercise/Physical activities
- Laundry and linen changes
- Shopping
- Mobility assistance
Experience with providing personal care services:
- Bathing
- Dressing
- Grooming
- Feeding and special diet
- Toileting
Experience with providing individualized services:
- Medication Assistance
- Grooming Guidance
- Meal Planning
- Mobility Training
Availability & Job Preferences
Availability Duration
Prefers to provide visiting care
- Permanent (1 to 2 years)
- Permanent (2 or more years)
- On call (as needed)
Job Duration
- Will consider either a part time or full time position
- Start date is flexible
My availability is valid through 3/26/14
- Weekday Early Morning
- Day-time Weekdays (M - F)
- Weekday Evenings
- Weekends Daytime
- Weekends Evenings
|Edwanna K. is a reference for Azelia H.
|Relationship: Family
|Join Now to Contact Reference


text:
In a victory for the record labels, the First Circuit has issued its decision in Sony v. Tenenbaum, finding meritless all of Tenebaum's arguments against the constitutionality of statutory damage awards in file sharing cases. The long-awaited decision, released Friday, restores the original jury award of $675,000 and remands back to District Judge Gertner to consider remittitur.
A key argument raised by Tenenbaum (and inherently adopted by the District Court in its opinion) is that the Copyright Act's statutory damages provisions do not apply to "consumer-copiers" or non-commercial infringement. The First Circuit quickly and authoritatively rejects that argument.
Tenenbaum is not a "consumer-copier," a term he never clearly defines. He is not a consumer whose infringement was merely that he failed to pay for copies of music recordings which he downloaded for his own personal use. Rather, he widely and repeatedly copied works belonging to Sony and then illegally distributed those works to others, who also did not pay Sony. Further, he received, in turn, other copyrighted works for which he did not pay. Nor can Tenenbaum assert that his was merely a "non-commercial" use and distribution of copyrighted works as those terms are used elsewhere in the Act. His use and distribution was for private gain and involved repeated and exploitative copying.
Had Congress intended to limit copyright actions against so-called "consumer infringers" as Tenenbaum hypothesizes, it easily could have done so. … Instead, subject to exceptions not relevant here, it extended liability to "anyone" who violates a copyright owner's exclusive rights and allowed those owners to pursue actions against "any infringement."
Where Congress intended to create other exceptions for solely personal or non-commercial use, it did so expressly. In two amendments which do not apply here, it drew such distinctions: (1) the Sound Recording Act of 1971, Pub. L. No. 92-140, 85 Stat. 391, which fully extended federal copyright protections to sound recordings but exempted certain reproductions of sound recordings made for personal use, and (2) the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (AHRA), Pub. L. No. 102-563, 106 Stat. 4237, codified at 17 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq., which provided some exemptions in other situations from copyright liability for infringements "based on the noncommercial use by a consumer." 17 U.S.C. § 1008. These statutes refute Tenenbaum's argument [that statutory damages do not apply to "consumer copiers"].
The First Circuit, in remanding back to the district court to consider remittitur, briefly discusses the district court's reliance on the Gore factors instead of Williams in determining that the jury award was unconstitutional. Without directly holding that Gore does not apply, the First Circuit makes clear its belief that it is inapplicable here.
We note that in Gore, the Supreme Court did not overrule Williams. See Rivers v. Roadway Express, Inc., 511 U.S. 298, 312 (1994) (hierarchical relationship of Supreme Court to lower courts mandates that where "the Court has spoken, it is the duty of other courts to respect that understanding of the governing rule of law"). Nor has the Supreme Court to date suggested that the Gore guideposts should extend to constitutional review of statutory damage awards. The concerns regarding fair notice to the parties of the range of possible punitive damage awards present in Gore are simply not present in a statutory damages case where the statute itself provides notice of the scope of the potential award.
In the long-running District of Minnesota Elektra v. Thomas case, Judge Davis followed Judge Gertner's district court decision in Tenenbaum, finding that the jury award of statutory damages was unconstitutional, but used the Williams factors instead of Gore in reaching his decision. Judge Davis also tried remittitur once before reaching the constitutional question, so it will be interesting to see how the Eighth Circuit treats the inevitable appeal on the Thomas case.
The First Circuit's Opinion is below:
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