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May 1, 2009 13:57:48 GMT 4
Post by kiek on May 1, 2009 13:57:48 GMT 4
Hi All, I found this article after searching for an English speaking article because on the front page of our Dutch newspaper 'De Telegraaf' it said: Mexicaanse griep is een complot' 'Mexican flu is conspiracy'! Amazing how many comments there are and how many people here think that that is true! Now, the article below is from PrisonPlanet, and I'm not a fan of that website. Maybe somebody can find a better article where this Wayne Madsen is quoted? www.agoracosmopolitan.com/ Swine Flu linked to origin of HIV-AIDSby Paul Joseph Watson [Excerpted], Prison Planet.com There are some factors that suggest the swine flu killing people in Mexico may be a biological weapon, but obviously no such conclusion can be drawn at this time. The World Health Organization and the U.S. government have been quick to deny such claims. The swine flu virus is described as a completely new strain, an intercontinental mixture of human, avian and swine viruses. Tellingly, there have been no reported A-H1N1 infections of pigs. According to a source known to former U.S. Government official Wayne Madsen, “A top scientist for the United Nations, who has examined the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa, as well as HIV/AIDS victims, concluded that H1N1 possesses certain transmission “vectors” that suggest that the new flu strain has been genetically-manufactured as a military biological warfare weapon. Madsen claims that his source, and another in Indonesia, “Are convinced that the current outbreak of a new strain of swine flu in Mexico and some parts of the United States is the result of the introduction of a human-engineered pathogen that could result in a widespread global pandemic, with potentially catastrophic consequences for domestic and international travel and commerce.” However, it’s important to stress that it is far too early to make this assumption. We have to bear in mind that the number of victims has been comparatively low when one considers the fact that hundreds of thousands in Mexico contract infectious diseases every year related to poverty like tuberculosis and malaria. Editorial reference: LINK I'm looking forward to what Dan has to say! It seems he is on his way back home!
Take care everyone! Much Love, Christa ;-))
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May 1, 2009 20:17:22 GMT 4
Post by towhom on May 1, 2009 20:17:22 GMT 4
The Evolving Scope of PLoS Neglected Tropical DiseasesPLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases Published: February 24, 2009www.plosntds.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pntd.0000379PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases is an open-access community journal that serves the needs of a small but active and robust community of neglected tropical disease (NTD) scientists, clinicians, and public health and policy experts. As stewards of that community, our editorial staff has very much molded the journal according to what we have learned from you in terms of mission, priorities, and scope. In the eighteen months since the launch of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, some of our most interesting editorial discussions and queries from authors are in regards to the journal's scope, particularly the specific conditions defined as NTDs (http://www.plosntds.org/static/scope.action ). What has emerged from these discussions is a journal focused on a fairly specific group of important infections endemic in developing countries with seven common features [1],[2]: - the NTDs occur in the setting of poverty where they are the most prevalent infections afflicting “the bottom billion,” i.e., people living on less than US$1 per day [3];
- they are chronic conditions—people can harbor their NTDs for years or decades;
- they generally disable, rather than kill;
- they are frequently disfiguring and stigmatizing [4];
- they are not typically emerging in character; instead, the NTDs have plagued humankind for centuries and many are described in ancient texts [5];
- they are not just diseases of poverty, but they also promote poverty because of their effects on child development, cognition, and education, adult agricultural worker productivity, and pregnancy outcome [3];
- and the NTDs are a critical component of the “other diseases” mentioned in the sixth Millennium Development Goal (“Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases”) [1],[2],[6].
HelminthsThere are certain diseases that easily meet these criteria. A good example are the helminth infections, especially the most common ones, such as hookworm infection, ascariasis, trichuriasis, strongyloidiasis, schistosomiasis, and lymphatic filariasis—each affecting more than 100 million people in sub-Saharan Africa or tropical regions of Asia and the Americas. We have included many of the less common helminthiases in our scope, including food-borne trematode infections, onchocerciasis, loiasis and other filarial infections, cysticercosis and other cestodiases, and other intestinal nematode infections. We also include helminth infections that are not exclusively tropical, such as enterobiasis, toxocariasis, and trichinellosis. In North America (and elsewhere in temperate regions) helminth infections such as ascariasis and strongyloidiasis are still considered diseases that primarily affect the poor, and they have been designated by some as “neglected infections of poverty” [7],[8]. In summary, we would consider almost any human helminth infections as an NTD and thus within the scope of the journal. ProtozoaSimilarly, most of the protozoan infections, including Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, human African trypanosomiasis, and many of the intestinal protozoan infections, are also considered NTDs. Conspicuous by its absence on the protozoan infection list is malaria. Certainly, no one would question the devastating global health impact of this disease, nor its predilection to affect the poor. Moreover, as with the NTDs, several investigators, including Jeffrey Sachs and others, have documented in some depth the poverty-promoting impact of malaria [9],[10]. We have chosen to omit malaria from our list of NTDs for three reasons. First, there is a comparatively large community of investigators working on malaria (in contrast to the smaller NTD research community). Second, while we acknowledge shortfalls in funding [11], there have been important infusions of funding and heightened advocacy for malaria control in recent times, including through the US President's Malaria Initiative, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, Roll Back Malaria, and several malaria advocacy groups, including Malaria No More ( www.malarianomore.org/). Third, malaria researchers already have a very wide range of open-access venues for their work, including the other six PLoS journals, all of which have published studies on malaria, as well as the Malaria Journal, published by BioMed Central ( www.malariajournal.com/). However, we continue to invite and publish malaria papers that examine malaria and NTD co-infection or co-endemicity, such as a recent study we published examining whether helminth infection in children affects malaria susceptibility [12] and another that surveyed trachoma and malaria together in Ethiopia [13]. In 2007, Ric Price and colleagues made a cogent argument for considering vivax malaria as a neglected disease and we largely agree with their comments [14]. But after some lengthy editorial discussions, we have decided for the moment to hold off on opening the door completely to papers on vivax malaria both because of the availability of other open-access journals that have malaria in their scope, as outlined above, and because of our concerns that the number of submissions on this topic would overwhelm the papers we are currently defining as NTDs. Having said that, we want PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases to be a “living” journal that reflects the needs of the community and our scope will thus continue to evolve over time. Therefore, on a case-by-case basis we will consider papers on vivax malaria and related topics. Bacteria and FungiWhen it comes to the bacterial infections, chronic infections such as leprosy, Buruli ulcer, and trachoma clearly qualify as NTDs. Similarly, leptospirosis, relapsing fever, and the treponematoses are important neglected bacterial diseases. We are not generally considering papers on tuberculosis for publication for much the same reason that we refrain from considering malaria papers, i.e., there is a sizeable group of comparatively well-funded experts in the field of tuberculosis and the disease falls in the scope of the other six PLoS journals. However, we are currently considering aspects of bovine tuberculosis that pertain to health in developing countries. Since the launch of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, we have had several lively editorial discussions about the important enteric bacterial infections, such as cholera, salmonellosis, and shigellosis. After talking to several experts in the field, including Richard Guerrant and Gerald Keusch, we are now welcoming papers on these topics, particularly as they relate to disease in developing countries. We continue to consider papers on tropical fungal infections, as well as some selected non-infectious NTDs, such as podoconiosis. VirusesWe are not considering papers on HIV/AIDS unless they pertain to NTD co-infections—an example of a paper we have published on HIV–NTD co-infection was the systematic review by Judd Walson and Grace John-Stewart that examined whether treating helminth infection affects the prognosis of patients with HIV-1 [15]. Among the other viral infections, we now welcome papers on arboviral infections and have taken measures to add experts in this area on our editorial board. In addition, we recognize the importance of rabies as an NTD, as well as some of the viral hemorrhagic fevers. Our journal continues to publish papers on the insect vectors that transmit NTD pathogens, as well as papers on intermediate hosts such as snails. We consider PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases a work in progress that operates in an iterative manner in order to best serve the needs of the community. It is our hope that the journal will continue to attract new researchers to the field and, by its heavy representation of editorial staff from endemic countries, continue to build scientific and public health capacity in developing countries. We are working particularly hard to reach out to authors in low-income settings (see www.plosntds.org/static/developing.action ), for example by providing additional editorial support to authors whose first language is not English. We are especially sensitive to supporting women in the sciences, medicine, and public health and this is also reflected in the composition of our editorial board. We further expect that papers published in the Magazine section will help to foster a cadre of NTD policy experts. From the number and quality of submissions received to date we feel that we are meeting those needs. At the same time, we very much want to hear from you about how we might continue to fine tune and improve the journal in order to ensure that open access continually enhances this important and vital pursuit. Please send us your feedback by adding your annotations to this article or starting a discussion thread using our innovative online tools. References[1] Hotez PJ (2008) Forgotten people, forgotten diseases: the neglected tropical diseases and their impact on global health and development. Washington (D.C.): ASM Press. [2] Hotez PJ, Molyneux DH, Fenwick A, Kumaresan J, Ehrlich Sachs S, et al. (2007) Control of neglected tropical diseases. N Engl J Med 357: 1018–1027. Find this article online [3] Hotez PJ, Fenwick A, Savioli L, Molyneux DH (2009) Rescuing the “bottom billion” through control of neglected tropical diseases. Lancet. In press. Find this article online [4] Hotez PJ (2008) Stigma: the stealth weapon of the NTD. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2: e230. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000230. Find this article online"]http://www.plosntds.org/article/findArticle.action?author=Hotez&title=Stigma: the stealth weapon of the NTD.]Find this article online[5] Hotez PJ, Ottesen E, Fenwick A, Molyneux D (2006) The neglected tropical diseases: the ancient afflictions of stigma and poverty and the prospects for their control and elimination. Adv Exp Med Biol 582: 23–33. Find this article online [6] Yamey G, Hotez P (2007) Neglected tropical diseases. BMJ 335: 269–70. Find this article online [7] Hotez PJ (2007) Neglected diseases and poverty in “the other America”: the greatest health disparity in the United States? PLoS Negl Trop Dis 1: e149. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000149. Find this article online [8] Hotez PJ (2008) Neglected infections of poverty in the United States of America. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2: e256. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000256. Find this article online [9] Sachs JD (2005) Achieving the Millennium Development Goals—the case of malaria. N Engl J Med 352: 115–117. Find this article online [10] Sachs JD, Hotez PJ (2006) Fighting tropical disease. Science 311: 1521. Find this article online [11] Snow RW, Guerra CA, Mutheu JJ, Hay SI (2008) International funding for malaria control in relation to populations at risk of stable Plasmodium falciparum transmission. PLoS Med 5: e142. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050142. Find this article online [12] Bejon P, Mwangi TW, Lowe B, Peshu N, Hill AVS, et al. (2008) Helminth infection and eosinophilia and the risk of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in 1- to 6-year-old children in a malaria endemic area. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2: e164. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000164. Find this article online [13] Emerson PM, Ngondi J, Biru E, Graves PM, Ejigsemahu Y, et al. (2008) Integrating an NTD with one of “the big three”: combined malaria and trachoma survey in Amhara region of Ethiopia. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2: e197. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000197. Find this article online [14] Price RN, Tjitra E, Guerra CA, Yeung S, White NJ, et al. (2007) Vivax malaria: neglected and not benign. Am J Trop Med Hyg 77: (Suppl 1)79–87. Find this article online [15] Walson JL, John-Stewart G (2007) Treatment of helminth co-infection in individuals with HIV-1: a systematic review of the literature. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 1: e102. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000102. Find this article online
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May 1, 2009 21:32:36 GMT 4
Post by ninathedog on May 1, 2009 21:32:36 GMT 4
Feds dropping charges against pro-Israel lobbyistsBy MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090501/ap_on_go_ot/us_pentagon_spy_probeALEXANDRIA, Va. – Federal prosecutors moved Friday to dismiss espionage-related charges against two former pro-Israel lobbyists accused of disclosing classified U.S. defense information, ending a tortuous inside-the-Beltway legal battle rife with national security intrigue. Critics of the prosecution of Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee accused the federal government of trying to criminalize the sort of back-channel discussions between government officials, lobbyists and reporters that are commonplace in the nation's capital. AIPAC is an influential pro-Israel lobbying group. Acting U.S. Attorney Dana Boente said the government moved to dismiss the charges in the drawn-out case after concluding that pretrial rulings would make it too difficult for the government to prove its case. Boente also said he was worried that classified information would be disclosed at trial. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III had made several legal rulings that prosecutors worried would make it almost impossible to obtain a guilty verdict. Among them was a requirement that the government would have to prove that Rosen and Weissman knew they were harming the United States by trading in sensitive national defense information. The defense had also been prepared to put on a strong case that the information obtained by Rosen and Weissman, while technically classified, was not truly secret and that its disclosure was irrelevant to the nation's security. The federal government's former arbiter of classification, J. William Leonard, was prepared to testify for the defense that the government overuses classification and applies the label to information that by any practical measure does not need to be secret. The government had sought to bar Leonard's testimony. The trial had been scheduled to start June 2 in a case first brought in 2005. Rosen and Weissman had not been charged with actual espionage, although the charges did fall under provisions of the 1917 Espionage Act, a rarely used World War I-era law that had never before been applied to lobbyists. Weissman's lawyer, Baruch Weiss, called the dismissal a "huge victory for the First Amendment." Had Rosen and Weissman been convicted, he said it would have set a precedent for prosecuting reporters any time they obtained information from government officials that was later deemed too sensitive to be disclosed. While Weissman was overjoyed to learn the charges will be dismissed, Weiss said that the four-year prosecution "has been a tremendous hardship for both Rosen and Weissman," who have been unable to work while the charges have hung over their head and they faced the prospect of a lengthy jail term. A former Defense Department official, Lawrence A. Franklin, previously pleaded guilty to providing Rosen and Weissman classified defense information and was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison.
Had the case gone to trial, Rosen and Weissman had won the right to subpoena former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other top Bush administration officials. The defense believed their testimony would support the claim that the United States regularly uses AIPAC to send back-channel communications to Israel. Prosecutors had sought unsuccessfully to quash the subpoenas.The indictment had alleged that Rosen and Weissman conspired to obtain and then disclosed classified information on U.S. policy toward Iran, as well as information on the al-Qaida terror network and the bombing of the Khobar Towers dormitory in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 U.S. Air Force personnel. It will be up to Ellis to formally dismiss the charges, but it would be highly unlikely that he would refuse the government's request for dismissal. AIPAC spokesman Patrick Dorton said the organization is "pleased that the Justice Department has dismissed the charges. This is a great day for Steve Rosen, Keith Weissman and their families." AIPAC fired Rosen and Weissman in April 2005, when they were under investigation but had not yet been charged. Dorton declined to comment on whether AIPAC still thinks Rosen and Weissman acted improperly. The government's decision also won praise from the American Jewish Committee. "The Department of Justice has now reaffirmed that the law of the United States protects citizens who engage in the everyday and essential work of political advocacy," said AJC Executive Director David Harris. news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090501/ap_on_go_ot/us_pentagon_spy_probe
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May 1, 2009 21:43:27 GMT 4
Post by towhom on May 1, 2009 21:43:27 GMT 4
Immunogenicity and Protective Efficacy of a Live Attenuated H5N1 Vaccine in Nonhuman PrimatesPLoS Pathogens Received: September 18, 2008; Accepted: April 1, 2009; Published: May 1, 2009 www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1000409;jsessionid=DDF25B8AE8D9A7B8868059095B5AFF6FAbstractThe continued spread of highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza viruses among poultry and wild birds, together with the emergence of drug-resistant variants and the possibility of human-to-human transmission, has spurred attempts to develop an effective vaccine. Inactivated subvirion or whole-virion H5N1 vaccines have shown promising immunogenicity in clinical trials, but their ability to elicit protective immunity in unprimed human populations remains unknown. A cold-adapted, live attenuated vaccine with the hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) genes of an H5N1 virus A/VN/1203/2004 (clade 1) was protective against the pulmonary replication of homologous and heterologous wild-type H5N1 viruses in mice and ferrets. In this study, we used reverse genetics to produce a cold-adapted, live attenuated H5N1 vaccine (AH/AAca) that contains HA and NA genes from a recent H5N1 isolate, A/Anhui/2/05 virus (AH/05) (clade 2.3), and the backbone of the cold-adapted influenza H2N2 A/AnnArbor/6/60 virus (AAca). AH/AAca was attenuated in chickens, mice, and monkeys, and it induced robust neutralizing antibody responses as well as HA-specific CD4+ T cell immune responses in rhesus macaques immunized twice intranasally. Importantly, the vaccinated macaques were fully protected from challenge with either the homologous AH/05 virus or a heterologous H5N1 virus, A/bar-headed goose/Qinghai/3/05 (BHG/05; clade 2.2). These results demonstrate for the first time that a cold-adapted H5N1 vaccine can elicit protective immunity against highly pathogenic H5N1 virus infection in a nonhuman primate model and provide a compelling argument for further testing of double immunization with live attenuated H5N1 vaccines in human trials.Author SummaryH5N1 influenza viruses have caused human infections with more than 60% fatality in 14 countries and may yet be the source of the next pandemic. Therefore, the development of effective vaccines against these viruses is the highest priority for H5N1 pandemic preparedness. A high dosage or adjuvants improve the immunogenicity of H5N1 inactivated vaccines; however, limited production capacity for conventional inactivated influenza virus vaccines could severely hinder the ability to control the spread of H5N1 influenza through vaccination. Here, we generated and tested the efficacy of a cold-adapted, live attenuated H5N1 vaccine in mice and nonhuman primates. We found that the vaccine provided complete protection in these animals against homologous and heterologous H5N1 virus challenge. Since live vaccines require less processing than inactivated vaccines and do not require adjuvants, our study represents a major advance in vaccine development for H5N1 pandemic influenza. I am not so sure about this one. This research needs to be closely watched - for obvious reasons. I would like to see transparency in the protocols for the clinical trials, along with the complete ethical guidelines to be followed.
I had one of your little "swine flu vaccine shots" offered "for free" due to the alleged "possible re-emergence" of this influenza in the 70s. I reacted violently to the vaccine. It was not fun running a 106 degree temperature with severe chills that caused my bed to move across the floor. No - I did NOT go to the hospital at their doctors' "urging" (or should I say their threats to send an ambulance over to get me). It was a good thing I always run high temperatures without convulsions when sick. I already knew what to do.
Do I trust vaccinations? NO. Under NO circumstances will I EVER have another one.
So, let's see the data on this. ALL OF IT. Don't bother with the legal jargon and consent forms. It means nothing.
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May 1, 2009 23:20:59 GMT 4
Post by gzelle on May 1, 2009 23:20:59 GMT 4
hahahaha I just found this link - it is a HOAX - but just had to share to lighten our days. I have this picture of someone I am watching die and they jump up at me - I would be joining them right then. bouncewith.me.uk/europe/8027043.htm
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May 2, 2009 3:24:01 GMT 4
Post by nodstar on May 2, 2009 3:24:01 GMT 4
Blue Laser Could Lead to Autism Cure[/size][/b] dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/04/29/brain-autism-laser.html] 2009-05-01 Lasers could one day cure, or at least aid in the search for drugs that treat diseases ranging from autism to schizophrenia, according to two new studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University and published in the online issue of the journal Nature.
A blue laser shined into a live mouse brain triggered gamma waves, which are a kind of brain wave necessary for concentration and cognition that people with autism and schizophrenia often lack.
"There are lots of theories about why [gamma wave oscillation] is impaired," said Li-Huei Tsai, a professor at MIT and a co-author on one of the Nature papers.
"This is the first proof that a specific set of neurons are responsible for gamma waves."
The specific neurons that trigger gamma waves are called fast-spiking interneurons. Connected to hundreds of other neurons, interneurons regulate which neurons fire and which neurons remain silent. The coordinated firing of these neurons creates a variety of brain waves, from ten waves per second of alpha waves to 40 waves per second of gamma waves.
Scientists have known about gamma waves for decades. Using techniques that measure the brain's electrical activity, like EEG, scientists detect gamma waves when subjects concentrate during activities like test-taking.
One characteristic of people with autism, attention deficit disorder and schizophrenia, is that they either don't have gamma waves at all, or that the gamma waves they do have are irregular. Triggering gamma waves in people with these psychiatric conditions, might, the thinking goes, alleviate symptoms.
For decades scientists have suspected that fast-spiking interneurons trigger gamma waves, but lacked the means to prove their theory. Two different technologies, detailed in the two Nature studies, gave scientists the tools to prove their suspicion.
First scientists genetically engineered mice by splicing a gene, originally isolated by algae, that responds to blue light. Next they activated the gene by injecting a genetically engineered virus into a specific region of the brain known as the somatosensory cortex.
The fast-spiking neurons were now primed and ready to fire. All they needed was a spark, and the blue laser was that spark. When the scientists shined a blue laser onto fast-spiking interneurons infected with the engineered virus, they began to fire in sequence, 40 times each second, just like the scientists expected.
The neurons fired as long as the light shined on them, from a few seconds to a few minutes. The neurons continued to fire after the laser was removed, but scientists didn't measure how long the effect lasted. The mice were anesthetized during the procedure, so the induced gamma waves didn't change how the mice behaved.
"This is really powerful technology," said Edward Scolnick, Director of the Psychiatric Disease Program at the Broad Institute. "It allows you to turn on and off specific circuits inside the brain."
This is still basic research, caution scientists, limited to the lab and years away from any clinical or therapeutic use.
But Konstantinos Meletis, another MIT co-author, believes that the blue laser could directly treat autism, schizophrenia or attention deficient disorder.
A much more likely use for the combination of laser and genetic engineering is to indirectly treat psychiatric diseases by helping researchers identify drugs that induce gamma waves, as well as just learning more about how fast-spiking interneurons work, all of which future studies at MIT will examine.
"This is the first type of work addressing these cells, and theoretically you could expect that within years or decades this could be applied to human brains, but there is still plenty of work that needs to be done," said Meletis.
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May 2, 2009 3:27:53 GMT 4
Post by towhom on May 2, 2009 3:27:53 GMT 4
Feds dropping charges against pro-Israel lobbyistsnews.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090501/ap_on_go_ot/us_pentagon_spy_probeALEXANDRIA, Va. – Federal prosecutors moved Friday to dismiss espionage-related charges against two former pro-Israel lobbyists accused of disclosing classified U.S. defense information, ending a tortuous inside-the-Beltway legal battle rife with national security intrigue. Critics of the prosecution of Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee accused the federal government of trying to criminalize the sort of back-channel discussions between government officials, lobbyists and reporters that are commonplace in the nation's capital. AIPAC is an influential pro-Israel lobbying group. Edited for length only.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090501/ap_on_go_ot/us_pentagon_spy_probe Hi jen!
This was (unfortunately) to be expected. When anything impacts the alphabet intelligence (oxymoron) agencies WORLDWIDE, it will be "hushed"...and there are many ways this is accomplished.
Most of these "games" are played with pawns. However, there are times that the "game controllers" are implicated. Much time is spent gathering "insurance" for just this application. You can bet your last dollar that those who play will make you pay if you try to fold during the game.
This is one of the reasons why, as difficult as it is to state, those who have "messed" with the majority need to just withdraw into their "little tunnels" with their "little buddies" and leave the rest of us alone. Too many innocents have already died, and too many innocents will be taken down if attempts are made to "bring these people to justice".
Frankly, I can think that the justice they face when they leave this plane will be beyond even their evil imaginations - as it is, so it shall be.
This is beyond politics. This is a display of stupidity - how ironic that it is due to the manipulations of the "intelligence" community. It wouldn't matter what country or countries were implicated - they are all the same.
I thank you for sharing this. It is a shame that some are praising the decision to withdraw based on a "perceived threat" to National Security. Yes, the threat is very real - but not as stated.
Peace and Joy Always
Sally Anne
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May 2, 2009 3:42:26 GMT 4
Post by nodstar on May 2, 2009 3:42:26 GMT 4
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM DR BURISCH[/SIZE][/B]
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May 2, 2009 3:55:45 GMT 4
Post by towhom on May 2, 2009 3:55:45 GMT 4
More-Precise Genetic Engineering for PlantsNew technology makes it possible to alter plant genes precisely and efficientlyTechnology Review Thursday, April 30, 2009 By Courtney Humphrieswww.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/22562/Genetically engineering plants is a time-intensive process. Methods currently used to deliver genetic changes are imprecise, so it's often necessary to generate thousands of plants to find one that happens to have the desired alteration. Two papers in this week's Nature detail the use of a genetic technology that allows scientists to target plant genomes more precisely. The method, which has previously been used in animals and in human cells, can be used to introduce a new gene, make small changes in existing genes, or block a gene from being expressed; it also makes it possible to introduce several different genetic changes into the same plant. "We now have some control over the plant's genetic code," says Daniel Voytas, lead author of one of the papers and a geneticist at the University of Minnesota. The technique not only allows for more precise changes, but it greatly increases the efficiency of generating genetically engineered plants for use as food or fuel, or for absorbing carbon and cleaning the environment. "If you can deliver a gene to the same location every time with precision, that might change the regulatory landscape and decrease the cost of creating these transgenic plants," he says. Vipula Shukla, a scientist at Dow AgroSciences, who led the other study, says that for plant scientists, "all of the conventional tools that are available to us are based on methods that make random modifications to plant genomes." These methods include using a bacterial vector to transfer DNA into a plant cell, or physically blasting DNA-coated particles into cells. DNA introduced these ways, Shukla says, can land anywhere within the plant's genome and have unintended side effects like altering an existing gene or producing multiple copies of the gene of interest. Scientists typically generate many plants and then screen them to find the ones in which the desired change was successful. Both of the new studies--one was led by Dow and another by an academic consortium--employed a gene-targeting technology called zinc finger nucleases--synthetic proteins that can precisely target locations in the genome and make specific genetic changes.Zinc finger nucleases work by breaking both strands of DNA at a specific site in the genome. This double break prompts the cell's own repair machinery to patch the rift. The machinery will often search for a piece of DNA that is similar to the damaged region to copy and paste back into the genome. By supplying a piece of DNA that contains sequences from the original gene with the desired changes--either the addition of a new gene or a change in sequence--scientists can induce the cell to change the genetic code as it repairs the break. The technology can also be used to block a gene by taking advantage of another repair mechanism in which the cell simply joins the two broken ends back together, which often deletes or inserts new DNA sequences into the repair site, resulting in DNA code that can't be read properly.The Dow group used the method to introduce two changes into maize, a plant that is often used for animal feed. The researchers targeted a gene involved in the production of phytates, chemicals in maize that most animals can't digest, and used the gene as a landing pad to insert another gene that gives the plant tolerance to herbicides. At the same time, they disrupted the target gene so that the plant produces fewer phytates, which Shukla says can also accumulate as waste in water runoff from farms. The ability to "stack" desired traits in this way is not easily performed with existing technologies. The academic group used a similar method, developed by the Zinc Finger Consortium, an international team of researchers committed to developing a publicly available platform for engineering zinc finger nucleases. Rather than add a new gene into a plant, the researchers used zinc finger nucleases to introduce an altered genetic sequence into an existing gene in tobacco plants; the protein encoded by the gene is a target of herbicides, and the alterations make the plants herbicide resistant. Voytas says that being able to make such subtle changes within a gene will give researchers a new way to study plant biology. The method still requires generating multiple plants and screening them to find the ones that were successfully altered, but the numbers are in the tens or hundreds, rather than the thousands or tens of thousands. Shukla estimates that the technology cuts the time required to engineer a plant by about half. The method also requires the creation of zinc finger nucleases that are specific to a particular application. Shukla says that Dow is already employing its platform for creating the molecules across its internal products as well as in academic research projects, and it's planning to license the technology for academic, commercial, and humanitarian use. Voytas says that the Zinc Finger Consortium is making its method available publicly and will be offering training sessions in the technique. Matthew Porteus, a biochemist at the University of Texas at San Antonio, who wrote an accompanying editorial in Nature, says that the two papers are the first examples of investigators who have picked a gene of interest, designing zinc finger nucleases for that gene, and using the nucleases to create specific modifications in plants. Porteus, who has been investigating zinc finger nucleases as a method for gene therapy in humans, says that interest in zinc finger nucleases has been growing in the past few years. They are being used as a way to create precise mutations in zebra fish, and a human clinical trial is just beginning that will test the use of zinc finger nucleases to create genetic alterations in the T cells of patients with HIV, with the hope of making their cells better able to fight infection.Now - here's some additional information not shown in the article above:Rapid “open-source” engineering of customized zinc-finger nucleases for highly efficient gene modificationPubMedCentral PMCID: PMC2535758 NIHMSID: NIHMS65651 Mol Cell.Author manuscript; available in PMC 2008 September 13. Published in final edited form as: Mol Cell. 2008 July 25; 31(2): 294–301. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2008.06.016. www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2535758"...While using ZFNs to modify human genes, we observed two limitations that have not been emphasized in previous reports. First, not all zinc-finger arrays that possess sequence-specific DNA-binding activities (as measured in the well-established B2H method) will function as ZFNs in human cells. ZFNs for one of the four sites targeted in the HoxB13 locus, for three of the five sites targeted in the VEGF-A locus, and for one of the five sites targeted in an integrated EGFP reporter gene failed to induce mutagenic NHEJ repair in human cells. In addition, some ZFNs we made to the HoxB13 gene were active in 293 cells (Figure 3C) but not in K562 cells (data not shown). We speculate that the transcriptional status and chromatin configuration of a target site may influence ZFN access to target sites: HoxB13 is transcriptionally active in 293 cells (data not shown) but bears chromatin marks consistent with a repressive state in K562 cells (B. Bernstein, personal communication). Additional studies will be needed to determine whether lack of ZFN activity results from chromatin effects on DNA accessibility or other reasons such as ZFN expression/stability or target site methylation. Second, although the use of vinblastine increased the frequency of gene targeting, DNA sequencing reveals that many alleles still underwent insertions or deletions caused by error-prone NHEJ and that some alleles underwent both a gene targeting event and an insertion. These findings demonstrate limitations in relying solely on PCR- or Southern blot-based assays and suggest that DNA sequencing should always be performed to verify ZFN-induced gene targeting events."
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NEWS
May 2, 2009 4:00:24 GMT 4
Post by stan on May 2, 2009 4:00:24 GMT 4
NOTICE TO ALL THINK TANK MEMBERS, WHOMEVER YOU ARE:
DAN WILL BE SPEAKING WITH YOU PERSONALLY ONCE THE WAR FOR EVERYTHING IS DONE.
IF YOU RECEIVE ANY EMAIL USING THE NAME OF ANYONE WHO MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN A MEMBER OF THE THINK TANK, ASKING FOR ENTRY CODES?
WE RECOMMEND YOU DO NOT RESPOND TO IT.
PARASITES ARE TRYING THE BARRIERS USING HOAXED IDENTIFICATIONS.
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NEWS
May 2, 2009 4:02:11 GMT 4
Post by nodstar on May 2, 2009 4:02:11 GMT 4
Hi Everyone .. I just finished reading this and HIGHLY RECOMMEND you guys have a read of it too .. ( there were too many images to load to cut and paste it here LOL ) From David Wil*ock about the current media hype and the "swine flu" THE GREAT DISTRACTION Great Awakening II: Swine Flu + Mainstream Media = $$$[/SIZE][/B] Tuesday 4 / 28 / 09 The criminal NWO cartel desperately needed another 9/11 to throw the public off the scent. Explore the ‘story behind the story’ you won’t hear in mainstream OR alternative conspiracy media! divinecosmos.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=471&Itemid=70
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NEWS
May 2, 2009 4:54:47 GMT 4
Post by towhom on May 2, 2009 4:54:47 GMT 4
Huge impact crater discovered on MercuryNASA's spacecraft also observed evidence of ancient volcanoesMSNBC updated 5:52 p.m. ET, Thurs., April 30, 2009New observations from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft reveal about 30 percent of the planet Mercury that has never been seen up close before. A giant crater and evidence of ancient volcanoes are among the findings. The photos show a giant impact crater that spans a length equivalent to the distance between Washington, D.C., and Boston. MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft) made its second close-approach flyby of Mercury in October 2008, after being launched in 2004. The spacecraft is the first to visit the diminutive planet since the Mariner 10 spacecraft's sojourn in the 1970s. Until recently, scientists say the closest planet to the sun remained the least understood of the four terrestrial planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. For a long time it was thought to be very similar to Earth's moon in composition, since both worlds have a similar gray, pockmarked appearance. More like MarsThe new observations reveal that Mercury's crust was largely created through volcanism, with past volcanoes spitting out lava that spread and dried on the surface. In contrast, volcanism is thought to have played less of a role in forming the moon's crust. "Volcanism was a really important process on Mercury, which is pretty exciting because before MESSENGER's flybys of Mercury we were really not even sure that volcanism existed on Mercury," said Brett Denevi, a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. Denevi is lead author of a paper in the May 1 issue of the journal Science describing MESSENGER's new global map of Mercury. In fact, Mercury's surface now appears to be more similar to that of Mars than of the moon. The newly-discovered gigantic crater, called Rembrandt, stretches more than 700 kilometers (430 miles) in diameter. The bowl-like indentation in Mercury's surface was likely formed about 3.9 billion years ago by an impacting space rock. It has managed to survive with parts of its original floor still intact, without being filled in by later flows of volcanic lava, as most craters have been. "This is the first time we have seen terrain exposed on the floor of an impact basin on Mercury that is preserved from when it formed," said Thomas Watters of the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, lead author of a paper describing the crater in the same issue of Science. "Terrain like this is usually completely buried by volcanic flows." Unique craterThe crater's floor reveals important details about Mercury's history, including multiple stages of volcanic and tectonic activity that occurred over time. "This is really exciting because this pattern of tectonic landforms is unlike any we've seen in any other impact basin in the central solar system," Watters said. The second MESSENGER flyby uncovered new chemicals in Mercury's tenuous atmosphere, including magnesium, which was not previously known to exist there. The discovery confirms that magnesium is an important constituent of Mercury's surface. Understanding the different elements present on Mercury helps scientists reconstruct the planet's history and its formation. During the spacecraft's second close approach to Mercury, it also measured a much more dynamic magnetic field around the planet than was seen during the first flyby. These changes in magnetic field are tied to the powerful radiation streaming off the nearby sun, and drive variability in Mercury's atmosphere. Researchers hope that even more secrets of Mercury will be revealed this fall, when MESSENGER makes its third and final flyby of the planet before setting into orbit around it. For more information and images see this link at NASA:www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/multimedia/release_telecon_20090430.htmlExcerpt:Radically Different MagnetosphereMESSENGER observed a radically different magnetosphere at Mercury during its second flyby, compared with its earlier January 14 encounter, writes MESSENGER co-investigator James Slavin, of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, lead author of another paper. “During the first flyby, MESSENGER entered through the dusk side of the magnetic tail, measuring relatively calm dipole-like magnetic fields closer to the planet, and then exited the magnetosphere near dawn,” Slavin says. “Important discoveries were made, but scientists didn’t detect any dynamic features, other than some Kelvin-Helmholtz waves along its outer boundary, the magnetopause.” But the second flyby was a totally different situation, he says. “ MESSENGER measured large magnetic flux leakage through the dayside magnetopause, about a factor of 10 greater than even what is observed at the Earth during its most active intervals. The high rate of solar wind energy input was evident in the great amplitude of the plasma waves and the large magnetic structures measured by the Magnetometer throughout the encounter.”
The magnetospheric variability observed thus far by MESSENGER supports the hypothesis that the great day-to-day changes in Mercury’s atmosphere may be due to changes in the shielding provided by the magnetosphere.
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NEWS
May 2, 2009 4:55:06 GMT 4
Post by nodstar on May 2, 2009 4:55:06 GMT 4
Dr Stan ..
A PM awaits you ;D
Nod
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NEWS
May 2, 2009 5:02:00 GMT 4
Post by towhom on May 2, 2009 5:02:00 GMT 4
Comet dust collected by NASA is old as dirtLarge percentage of grains predate the formation of the solar systemMSNBC updated 1 hour 40 minutes ago, May 1, 2009www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30519840/An innovative plan to retrieve comet particles from Earth's stratosphere has hit pay dirt, with the discovery that a large percentage of grains collected during a 2003 excursion predate the formation of the solar system. "It was the largest number ever found," Henner Busemann, with the University of Manchester's School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, told Discovery News. The samples analyzed by Busemann and colleagues were collected by a high-altitude NASA research jet flying in April 2003 as Earth traveled through the dusty wake of Comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup."This was the equivalent of sampling a meteor shower. Nobody had previously collected samples of a comet in that way," said University of Washington's Donald Brownlee, who heads a science team analyzing particles returned by the Stardust spacecraft, which flew by Comet Wild-2 in January 2004. Scientists believe our solar system was formed out of the exploded remains of an older star. Isotopic analysis of what are known as interplanetary dust particles, culled from meteorites and other sources, show some grains are older than the 4.5-billion-year-old solar system. Scientists don't know how long interstellar dust grains can survive space. They are made in stars and destroyed by shock waves, Brownlee said. Thousands of grains have been analyzed, but so far the richest haul of pre-solar particles appears to be from the sample collected on plastic plates covered in sticky silicon oil flown outside the NASA U2 aircraft. The Stardust team has been looking for similar particles among its samples, but so far has come up empty-handed. "All this is quite perplexing, actually," Brownlee told Discovery News. It's possible that the comets were made at different time and formed from a different variety of materials, Brownlee added, or that pre-solar grains from Wild-2 were destroyed as they were captured by the probe. "It's a mystery," said Brownlee, "but that's what makes science run." Busemann presented his findings the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science conference at the University of Hertfordshire last week.
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NEWS
May 2, 2009 5:51:17 GMT 4
Post by towhom on May 2, 2009 5:51:17 GMT 4
Did Pentagon lose billions, pennies at a time?40 years later, whistle-blower still unable to force accounting changeMSNBC updated 8:21 a.m. ET, Fri., May 1, 2009www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30456930/In 1969, an aeronautical engineer at North American Rockwell discovered a discrepancy in his paycheck: Every hour, he was being overpaid by roughly 2 cents, or one-third of 1 percent of his pay. Spurred by an incentive program that rewarded employees for finding wasteful spending, Walter T. Davey submitted the discovery to his superiors and suggested a simple fix. “It was so simple to correct,” said Davey, a 79-year-old retired Air Force colonel now living in Newport Coast, Calif., “just change a few digits in the coding software.” A surreal experience followed: For decades, Davey has attempted to correct a calculation that he believes has cost taxpayers several billion dollars. He has alerted contractors, legislators, and federal auditors -- all to no avail, even though a 1981 federal report seemed to confirm his calculations. Through it all, he said, no one has challenged the numbers. “I’ve been frustrated since I was denied that suggestion back in ’69,” Davey said. “Doggone it, I’m going to put it in my will that someone keep pursuing this.” As President Barack Obama seeks to crack down on costs overruns in the defense industry, Davey’s experience provides a telling illustration of the challenges facing reformers. Legislators ignored Davey’s letters. Federal auditors deferred to Congress. Lobbyists “descended on it and tore it into a piece of Swiss cheese,” in the words of a former executive member of the Cost Accounting Standards Board, which is charged with reviewing accounting standards for high-dollar federal contracts.New era for contractors?But now, reform advocates say, the tenor has changed in Washington as the Obama administration has, on several occasions, signaled its intent to fundamentally overhaul the relationship between the Pentagon and defense contractors. Last month, Obama declared an end to the “days of giving defense contractors a blank check.” “There’s optimism that this administration wants to reverse some of the pro-contractor trends of the past 15 years,” said Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit that investigates allegations of federal misconduct. “Contracting has become a front-burner issue.” That has renewed hope for citizen activists like Davey, who said he has encountered endless obstacles and congressional dead-ends. “Until recently I don’t even think you could bring an issue like this up,” said Richard C. Loeb, an adjunct professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law who reviewed Davey’s documents. “The fact you couldn’t have that debate until recently is really the bigger problem. At least now you can have a discussion about it without being thrown out of the room.” But Loeb and other critics say legislators aren’t eager to challenge the powerful defense lobby about a figure that’s a relative pittance in the overall defense budget – even if it exceeds $100 million annually.“(Davey) has always had a good point,” Loeb said. “It would be extremely easy to fix. It could save taxpayers upwards of tens and tens of millions of dollars a year.” Spokesmen for several congressional representatives contacted for this story declined to comment, saying the issue had only recently come to their attention. The office of Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., which has been in communication with Davey in recent weeks, said it is “looking into this issue.” [Note: Duhhhh...We're, uh, looking into it...Yeah, right. Well guess what - SO IS THE AMERICAN PUBLIC. Sometimes I wonder if the Hill of Beans members could find their "posteriors" with both hands tied behind their backs.]An Open SecretWhat Davey stumbled across in 1969 is an open secret. Davey, a father of 10 children, said he and his wife always scrambled to find extra income for their growing family. At the time, Rockwell offered a reward to workers who discovered ways to save money. Davey submitted his idea. “I have to be frank,” Davey said. “I was hoping to get some small financial award out of it. Then, as it grew over the years, I thought, ‘Wow, this is bigger than me.’” How big remains a matter of debate: The Project on Government Oversight, which reviewed Davey’s findings last year, estimated the change could save taxpayers $270 million a year. Multiply by 40 years – the length of time since Davey made his discovery -- and the figure grows to an astounding $10.8 billion. (That figure, however, doesn’t account for inflation or yearly shifts in spending.)[Note: It also doesn't include the "Black Budget".]The federal government has acknowledged problems with the conversion rate, which once applied to federal employees but can still be used by defense contractors. In 1981, a study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that this tiny conversion factor cost taxpayers $120 million a year in faulty payments to federal employees alone – not including employees like Davey at private contractors. Four years later, as the Reagan Administration attempted to rein in federal spending, Congress passed the Budget Reconciliation Act, which changed the calculation for federal employees. But it exempted defense contractors for reasons that remain unclear.[Note: It's called "Selective Governmental Cataracts" - a disease known to afflict those people associated with "Big Budgetitis" carriers.]“Had Congress thought it necessary, they could have expanded its coverage to contractor employees as well,” the GAO’s director of acquisition and sourcing management wrote to Davey in 2008. “For whatever reason, Congress chose not to.” [Note: "Congress and Lobbyists" are a match made in Washington.]40 years later, the discrepancy remainsToday, the discrepancy remains. Federal employees are paid based on 2,087 hours in a work year, which accounts for the leap-year cycle. Though a full audit has apparently never been completed, “most” defense contractors are paid on a 2,080-hour workweek, according to the GAO. [Note: A full audit would find trillions of dollars in cost overruns, pay-offs, fraudulant accounting practices, "pocket-money", etc. Don't kid yourselves.]What does that mean? Take an engineer at a defense company who earns $104,000 each year. When that engineer is assigned to a federal contract, he or she is paid at an hourly rate, according to the Project on Government Oversight, which estimated the costs. Divide $104,000 by 2,080 to get the hourly rate that the defense company can charge the government: $50. However, use 2,087 hours a year – the rate for federal employees - and the contractor can only charge the government $49.83. In other words, the defense engineer at this pay level earns an additional 17 cents for every hour, the group found. That sounds minuscule. But contract employees account for more than half of the federal workforce, an estimated 7.6 million jobs in 2005, according to Dr. Paul C. Light, a professor at New York University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute. “How much of a savings will it be? It’s millions,” Loeb said. “Reasonable people can’t disagree on this. It’s standard arithmetic.” [Note: The operative phraseology is "Reasonable people". The Defense Department has very few of these.]As contracts grew, oversight fellThe discovery by Davey is a small part of a much bigger problem: The massive cost overruns in federal contracts. [Note: Massive cost overruns = most Congressional legislation.] Since 2000, federal contracting has more than doubled to $532 billion last year. Federal cost-plus contracts – like those targeted by Davey – grew 75 percent under the Bush administration, and development costs for the Defense Department’s major weapons programs exceeded their original budgets by $300 billion in 2008, the Government Accountability Office said in a report last month.Critics say the problem stems from the cost-plus contracts, which allow the defense industry to preserve profits even if projects go over budget or if the Defense Department underestimates the initial budget. [Note: The Defense Department is known for defending its budget to the point of idiocy. The stories I could tell about the Telcom industry and the DoD would have the same ramifications.] The contracts have long been used to encourage research and development -- including big-ticket projects such as the Trident II Missile and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Otherwise, supporters say, such projects might otherwise be too risky in the initial research stages for contractors to undertake. “They are essential, particularly when you are dealing with the research and development,” said Cord Sterling, vice-president at Aerospace Industries Association, which represents major defense and aerospace businesses. “If you are really reaching to develop a new technology and new capabilities, you are going to see an increase in that type of activity.” But those contracts are increasingly being used for less-risky service contracts, according to Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based foreign policy think tank. And even as those contracts ballooned, the number of federal employees overseeing them grew only slightly and the federal Cost Accounting Standards Board shrunk to a single staffer, making it necessary to abandon active investigations, according to Loeb, the board’s former executive secretary and counsel. “The contractors hated the CAS Board and got the Bush people to basically shut it down,” Loeb said by e-mail. A ‘time-consuming and fruitless effort’That has only made Walter Davey more resolute. Three years ago, he and his son, Jim, a commercial airline pilot, signed and mailed letters to each of the 535 members of Congress. They received three form letters in response. “It was an expensive, time-consuming and fruitless effort,” Davey said. “There’s a long list of people we’ve been rebuffed by. But I don’t want to just give up.” Amey, the Project on Government Oversight’s legal counsel, applauded Davey’s efforts but sought to dampen optimism that change is coming despite the Obama administration’s pledges to rein in defense overruns. “A lot of people have taken advantage of the system to reap as much in taxpayer dollars as possible,” Amey said. “But when you’re going up against the contractor lobby – whether you’re an individual across the country or a public interest group or a government employee – it’s a tough road.” [Note: That's it? That's the best you can come up with? Dude - you need to move on or move over. And what, pray tell, are we paying you for THAT "profound" advice?]
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