diff --git a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantrecalibration/GaussianMixtureModel.java b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantrecalibration/GaussianMixtureModel.java
index 5e7bf3575..3fa9c3883 100755
--- a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantrecalibration/GaussianMixtureModel.java
+++ b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantrecalibration/GaussianMixtureModel.java
@@ -44,7 +44,6 @@ import java.util.List;
 public class GaussianMixtureModel {
 
     protected final static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(GaussianMixtureModel.class);
-    public final static double MIN_ACCEPTABLE_LOD_SCORE = -20000.0;
 
     private final ArrayList<MultivariateGaussian> gaussians;
     private final double shrinkage;
@@ -214,14 +213,7 @@ public class GaussianMixtureModel {
         for( final MultivariateGaussian gaussian : gaussians ) {
             pVarInGaussianLog10[gaussianIndex++] = gaussian.pMixtureLog10 + gaussian.evaluateDatumLog10( datum );
         }
-        double lod = MathUtils.log10sumLog10(pVarInGaussianLog10); // Sum(pi_k * p(v|n,k))
-
-        // Negative infinity lod values are possible when covariates are extremely far away from their tight Gaussians
-        // Cap the values at an extremely negative value and spread them out randomly
-        if( lod < MIN_ACCEPTABLE_LOD_SCORE ) {
-            lod = MIN_ACCEPTABLE_LOD_SCORE - GenomeAnalysisEngine.getRandomGenerator().nextDouble() * MIN_ACCEPTABLE_LOD_SCORE;
-        }
-        return lod;
+        return MathUtils.log10sumLog10(pVarInGaussianLog10); // Sum(pi_k * p(v|n,k))
     }
 
     // Used only to decide which covariate dimension is most divergent in order to report in the culprit info field annotation
@@ -235,14 +227,7 @@ public class GaussianMixtureModel {
             normal.setState( gaussian.mu[iii], gaussian.sigma.get(iii, iii) );
             pVarInGaussianLog10[gaussianIndex++] = gaussian.pMixtureLog10 + Math.log10( normal.pdf( datum.annotations[iii] ) );
         }
-        double lod = MathUtils.log10sumLog10(pVarInGaussianLog10); // Sum(pi_k * p(v|n,k))
-
-        // Negative infinity lod values are possible when covariates are extremely far away from their tight Gaussians
-        // Cap the values at an extremely negative value and spread them out randomly
-        if( lod < MIN_ACCEPTABLE_LOD_SCORE ) {
-            lod = MIN_ACCEPTABLE_LOD_SCORE - GenomeAnalysisEngine.getRandomGenerator().nextDouble() * MIN_ACCEPTABLE_LOD_SCORE;
-        }
-        return lod;
+        return MathUtils.log10sumLog10(pVarInGaussianLog10); // Sum(pi_k * p(v|n,k))
     }
 
     public double evaluateDatumMarginalized( final VariantDatum datum ) {
@@ -269,13 +254,6 @@ public class GaussianMixtureModel {
                 }
             }
         }
-        double lod = Math.log10( sumPVarInGaussian / ((double) numRandomDraws) );
-
-        // Negative infinity lod values are possible when covariates are extremely far away from their tight Gaussians
-        // Cap the values at an extremely negative value and spread them out randomly
-        if( lod < MIN_ACCEPTABLE_LOD_SCORE ) {
-            lod = MIN_ACCEPTABLE_LOD_SCORE - GenomeAnalysisEngine.getRandomGenerator().nextDouble() * MIN_ACCEPTABLE_LOD_SCORE;
-        }
-        return lod;
+        return Math.log10( sumPVarInGaussian / ((double) numRandomDraws) );
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantrecalibration/VariantRecalibrator.java b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantrecalibration/VariantRecalibrator.java
index d34a13427..df4faebd1 100755
--- a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantrecalibration/VariantRecalibrator.java
+++ b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantrecalibration/VariantRecalibrator.java
@@ -272,7 +272,7 @@ public class VariantRecalibrator extends RodWalker<ExpandingArrayList<VariantDat
                     // Loop through the training data sets and if they overlap this loci then update the prior and training status appropriately
                     dataManager.parseTrainingSets( tracker, context.getLocation(), vc, datum, TRUST_ALL_POLYMORPHIC, rodToPriorMap, training, truth, known, badSites, resource ); // BUGBUG: need to clean this up to be a class, not a list of all the rod bindings
                     double priorFactor = QualityUtils.qualToProb( datum.prior );
-                    //if( PERFORM_PROJECT_CONSENSUS ) {
+                    //if( PERFORM_PROJECT_CONSENSUS ) { // BUGBUG: need to resurrect this functionality?
                     //    final double consensusPrior = QualityUtils.qualToProb( 1.0 + 5.0 * datum.consensusCount );
                     //    priorFactor = 1.0 - ((1.0 - priorFactor) * (1.0 - consensusPrior));
                     //}
diff --git a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantrecalibration/VariantRecalibratorEngine.java b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantrecalibration/VariantRecalibratorEngine.java
index 52b48ff08..20f3a9fe1 100755
--- a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantrecalibration/VariantRecalibratorEngine.java
+++ b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantrecalibration/VariantRecalibratorEngine.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 package org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.walkers.variantrecalibration;
 
 import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.GenomeAnalysisEngine;
 import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.exceptions.UserException;
 
 import java.util.List;
@@ -43,6 +44,7 @@ public class VariantRecalibratorEngine {
     /////////////////////////////
 
     protected final static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(VariantRecalibratorEngine.class);
+    public final static double MIN_ACCEPTABLE_LOD_SCORE = -20000.0;
 
     // the unified argument collection
     final private VariantRecalibratorArgumentCollection VRAC;
@@ -78,7 +80,12 @@ public class VariantRecalibratorEngine {
                     throw new UserException("NaN LOD value assigned. Clustering with this few variants and these annotations is unsafe.");
                 }
             }
-            datum.lod = ( evaluateContrastively ? (datum.prior + datum.lod - thisLod) : thisLod );
+
+            datum.lod = ( evaluateContrastively ?
+                            ( Double.isInfinite(datum.lod) ? // positive model said negative infinity
+                                    ( MIN_ACCEPTABLE_LOD_SCORE + GenomeAnalysisEngine.getRandomGenerator().nextDouble() * MIN_ACCEPTABLE_LOD_SCORE ) // Negative infinity lod values are possible when covariates are extremely far away from their tight Gaussians
+                                    : datum.prior + datum.lod - thisLod) // contrastive evaluation: (prior + positive model - negative model)
+                            : thisLod ); // positive model only so set the lod and return
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/public/scala/qscript/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/qscripts/MethodsDevelopmentCallingPipeline.scala b/public/scala/qscript/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/qscripts/MethodsDevelopmentCallingPipeline.scala
index a28f6f949..7c249c2bb 100755
--- a/public/scala/qscript/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/qscripts/MethodsDevelopmentCallingPipeline.scala
+++ b/public/scala/qscript/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/qscripts/MethodsDevelopmentCallingPipeline.scala
@@ -236,6 +236,7 @@ class MethodsDevelopmentCallingPipeline extends QScript {
   // 3.) Variant Quality Score Recalibration - Generate Recalibration table
   class VQSR(t: Target, goldStandard: Boolean) extends VariantRecalibrator with UNIVERSAL_GATK_ARGS {
     this.memoryLimit = 4
+    this.nt = 2
     this.reference_sequence = t.reference
     this.intervalsString ++= List(t.intervals)
     this.input :+= ( if ( goldStandard ) { t.goldStandard_VCF } else { t.rawVCF } )