Category Archives: American Domestic Affairs

COVID-19, Biological Warfare, China Related with Short Reference List

02 Thursday Apr 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, China, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Spychology, United States of America

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The report, written by the Chemical and Biological Intelligence Unit of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate (WMDD), does not give the name of the Chinese scientist carrying the suspected SARS and MERS samples, or the intended recipient in the U.S. But the FBI concluded that the incident, and two other cases cited in the report, were part of an alarming pattern.

https://news.yahoo.com/suspected-sars-virus-and-flu-found-in-luggage-fbi-report-describes-chinas-biosecurity-risk-144526820.html

Whether in recent years or over many, there appears no end in relation to the breadth and depth of Chinese espionage in the United States. The cost to Americans: well into the billions of dollars.

Of immediate concern: could C19 (COVID-19) have escaped or even been ferried from the kind of lab that works with deadly pathogens?

According to a recent American Military News article (“Report: FBI warned of Chinese researchers transporting disease samples in US before coronavirus”, March 31, 2020 by Ryan Morgan), the FBI in 2018 had a least twice detained Chinese researchers transporting dangerous biological materials, and in 2019 U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents had stopped a Chinese researcher ferrying E.coli out of Detroit.

As Dr. Antilla proceeded with his academic career, United States officials changed their view of China’s recruitment programs, which they say have been used to steal sensitive technology from American laboratories.

In 2019, the Department of Energy barred its personnel from participating in recruitment programs from a handful of countries, including China. A few months later, a Senate committee declared China’s recruitment programs a threat to American interests.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/us/chinas-lavish-funds-lured-us-scientists-what-did-it-get-in-return.html

Casually going somewhere with a load of infectious material or toxins in pockets? Well, it’s not the kind of thing staff would do, but spies?

BackChannels will not cover the waterfront on Chinese espionage in America. Walk in anywhere and the subject expands. From the recruitment of scholars through the Thousand Lights Program through serious computer hacking and human infiltration into every potentially strategic walk in America’s operations, civilian and defense, the threats posed by China’s theft of industrial, scientific, and state secrets looms large. Examples may be found in a few proper nouns easily searched up on the web —

Candace Marie Claiborne (CIA mole)
Charles M. Lieber (Alleged Concealment of Chinese Funding)
Honjin Tan (Energy Storage)
Jerry Chung Shing Lee (CIA mole)
Kevin Patrick Mallory (CIA mole)
Qingshan Li, Military Radio Equipment
Xudong Yao (Industrial Infrastructure)
Xueha Peng (State Secrets)
Xudong Yao (Industrial Infrastructure)
Yanqing Ye (Foreign Agent, Boston University, Physics, Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering)
Zaosong Zheng (Cancer Research)

Related Online

Much of the reference section has been lifted from a previous post — “Note: COVID-19, Biological Warfare, and the Odds and Ambiguities” (March 19, 2020), but a few cogent others have been added to this growing collection of tributes to the theft of industrial, scientific, and state secrets by the People’s Republic of China on the world’s Internet-connected international stage.

Of course, where would any state’s security — or international agenda — be without its spies?

The trade is a fact of life also worldwide.

Nonetheless, this from Reuters provides a glimpse at the lucrative and powerful payoffs so far enjoyed by China given perhaps allowances for its investments (and recruitment) through the Thousand Light programs as well as an apparent absence of sufficient resistance to being intellectually tapped for the nation’s most sensitive scientific secrets.

China’s efforts to steal unclassified American technology, ranging from military secrets to medical research, have long been thought to be extensive and aggressive, but U.S. officials only launched a broad effort to stop alleged Chinese espionage in the United States in 2018.

“The theft of American trade secrets by China costs our nation anywhere from $300 to $600 billion in a year,” Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said in advance of Thursday’s conference.

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-china-espionage/top-u-s-officials-to-spotlight-chinese-spy-operations-pursuit-of-american-secrets-idUSL1N28S1B3

Ackerman, Todd. “MD Anderson ousts 3 scientists over concerns about Chinese conflict of interest.” Houston Chronicle, April 20, 2019.

AP. “Trump Disbanded NSC Pandemic Unit That Experts Had Praised.” The New York Times, March 14, 2020.

Arms Control Association. “Biological Weapons Convention Signatories and States-Parties.” September 2018.

Barry, Ellen and Gina Kolata. “China’s Lavish Funds Lured U.S. Scientists. What Did It Get in Return?” The New York Times, February 7, 2020.

Bender, Bryan and Megan Cassella. “Will Trump be able to get emergency medical supplies fast enough?” Politico, March 18, 2020.

BESA. “China and Viruses: The Case of Dr. Xiangguo Qiu.” January 29, 2020.

Bocchi, Alessandra. “China’s Coronavirus Diplomacy: Rome praises Beijing’s ‘solidarity’ in sending ventilators, face masks, doctors and nurses.” WSJ Opinion, March 20, 2020.

Geraghty, Jim. “The Comprehensive Timeline of China’s COVID-19 Lies.” National Review, March 23, 2020.

Hosenball, Mark. “Top U.S. officials to spotlight Chinese spy operations, pursuit of American secrets.” Reuters, February 6, 2020.

Jaschik, Scott. “Chinese Med Student Charged with Stealing Research.” Inside Higher Ed, January 2, 2020.

Kolata, Gina. “Vast Dragnet Targets Theft of Biomedical Secrets for China.” The New York Times, November 4, 2019.

Lanese, Nicoletta. “Only one lab in China can safely handle the new coronavirus.” Live Science, January 22, 2020.

Lee, Bruce Y. “No, COVID-19 Coronavirus Was Not Bioengineered. Here’s The Research That Debunks That Idea.” Forbes, March 17, 2020.

Morgan, Ryan. “Report: FBI warned of Chinese researchers transporting disease samples in US before coronavirus.” American Military News, March 31, 2020.

Nedelman, Michael. “Scientists with ties to China ousted from US cancer center amid fears of foreign influence.” CNN, April 25, 2019.

Oppenheim, James S. “Note: COVID-19, Biological Warfare, and the Odds and Ambiguities.” BackChannels, March 19, 2020.

Pauls, Karen. “Canadian government scientist under investigation trained staff at Level 4 lab in China.” CBC, October 3, 2019.

Qiu, Jane. “How China’s “Bat Woman” Hunted Down Viruses from SARS to the New Coronavirus.” Scientific American, March 11, 2020.

Shoham, Dany (Lt. Col. res.). “China and Viruses: The Case of Dr. Xiangguo Qiu.” The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, January 29, 2020.

The Conversation. “Why Singapore’s coronavirus response worked – and what we can all learn.” March 18, 2020.

Toosi, Nahal, Daniel Lippman, and Dan Diamond. “Before Trump’s inauguration, a warning: ‘The worst influenza pandemic since 1918’.” Politico, March 16, 2020.

Tsan-Yuk Lam, Tommy and Marcus Ho-Hin Shum, Hua-Chen Zhu, et al. “Identification of 2019-nCoV related coronavirus in Malayan pangolins in southern China.” bioRxiv, February 13, 2020. This technical paper points to the Pangolin as a potential intermediate conveyor of COVID-19 between bats and humans.

Vorndick, Wilson. “Weaponizing Biotech: How China’s Military is Preparing for a ‘New Domain of Warfare’.” Defense One, August 14, 2019.

Weinberger, Sharon, Jana Winter and Martin De Bourmont. “Suspected SARS virus and flu samples found in luggage: FBI report describes China’s ‘biosecurity risk’.” Yahoo News, March 30, 2020.

War is Boring. “Chinese ‘student’ studying in US is indicted for actually being a Chinese Army officer.” January 29, 2020.

Wikipedia. “Biosafety Level”.

Wikipedia. “Pangolin“.

Wikipedia. “Thousand Talents Plan”.

Wikipedia. “Wuhan Institute of Virology”.

World Health Organization. “Fact Sheet: Biosafety and Biosecurity.” PDF. March 20, 2018.

Zaveri, Mihir. “Wary of Chinese Espionage, Houston Cancer Center Chose to Fire 3 Scientists.” The New York Times, April 22, 2019.

Poster Source: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/counterintelligence/yanqing-ye | PDF Readable Location: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/counterintelligence/yanqing-ye/@@download.pdf

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Perspective on COVID-19 in the United States of America

02 Thursday Apr 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, United States of America

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Copied from the previous post to help make the image of the state of affairs clear.

This first preliminary description of outcomes among patients with COVID-19 in the United States indicates that fatality was highest in persons aged =85, ranging from 10% to 27%, followed by 3% to 11% among persons aged 65–84 years, 1% to 3% among persons aged 55-64 years, <1% among persons aged 20–54 years, and no fatalities among persons aged =19 years.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6912e2.htm

Annual Rate of Death for the United States of America

Number of deaths: 2,813,503
Death rate: 863.8 deaths per 100,000 population
Life expectancy: 78.6 years
Infant Mortality rate: 5.79 deaths per 1,000 live births

Number of deaths for leading causes of death:

Heart disease: 647,457
Cancer: 599,108
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 160,201
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 146,383
Alzheimer’s disease: 121,404
Diabetes: 83,564
Influenza and Pneumonia: 55,672
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis: 50,633
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 47,173

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm

BackChannels has more questions than answers in relation to the general stand-down of America’s basic restaurant, events, and services economy and related financial and labor impacts throughout the nation.

In the event of CBRN threats, emerging infectious diseases, or natural disasters, state, local, tribal, or territorial health departments may need medicines and medical supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile if local supplies are depleted. Through the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) program, CDC collaborates with states and local jurisdictions to ensure they have plans and processes in place to receive and provide life-saving medicines and supplies.

https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/readiness/mcm.html

How much money have Federate and State governments poured into emergency preparedness in the region of Chemical Biological Radiation and Nuclear (CBRN) preparedness?

California had made itself ready for a C19 type event for years — and then it decided the price associated with foresight was too high.

Who else?

One more note–

The simplest way to judge whether we have an exceptionally lethal disease is to look at the death rates. Are more people dying than we would expect to die anyway in a given week or month? Statistically, we would expect about 51,000 to die in Britain this month. At the time of writing, 422 deaths are linked to Covid-19 — so 0.8 per cent of that expected total. On a global basis, we’d expect 14 million to die over the first three months of the year. The world’s 18,944 coronavirus deaths represent 0.14 per cent of that total. These figures might shoot up but they are, right now, lower than other infectious diseases that we live with (such as flu). Not figures that would, in and of themselves, cause drastic global reactions.

Lee, John. “How deadly is the coronavirus? It’s still far from clear.” The Spectator, March 28, 2020.

Related Online

Ebhardt, Tommaso, Chiara Remondini and Marco Bertacche. “99% of Those Who Died From Virus Had Other Illness, Italy Says.” Bloomberg, March 18, 2020.

Renwick, Danielle. “Is coronavirus hitting young Americans harder than we thought?” The Guardian, April 1, 2020.

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And the Final Word on COVID-19 Goes to . . . . Liza

25 Wednesday Mar 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Political Psychology

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Related Online

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Severe Outcomes Among Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) — United States, February 12–March 16, 2020.” March 18, 2020.

Bendavid, Eran and Jay Bhattacharya. “Is the Coronavirus as Deadly as They Say?” WSJ Opinion, March 24, 2020.

Taghipour, Delaram J. “Immunity to COVID-19: Front line health workers consider deliberate infection.” ABC News, March 24, 2020.

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COVID-19: Pandemic Pandemonium

21 Saturday Mar 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Epistemology

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The District Department of Health said the first known death in the city as a result of the virus is that of a 59-year-old man who was admitted to a hospital last week. The man had fever and a cough, as well as other underlying medical conditions, health officials said.

• A Baltimore County resident in his 60s who suffered from underlying medical conditions has become the second known person to die of coronavirus in Maryland.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2020/03/20/coronavirus-dc-maryland-virginia-updates/

The incident reports would seem as generally expected regarding COVID-19 and who dies from it.

Read and reflect a moment (boldface added) —

This first preliminary description of outcomes among patients with COVID-19 in the United States indicates that fatality was highest in persons aged ≥85, ranging from 10% to 27%, followed by 3% to 11% among persons aged 65–84 years, 1% to 3% among persons aged 55-64 years, <1% among persons aged 20–54 years, and no fatalities among persons aged ≤19 years.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6912e2.htm

Of course, the experience with older adults involves a virus target numbering in the millions, so the something-new-to-die-of has been making its mark, especially above age 65 with underlying conditions, highest estimates for death ranging from 3 to 11 percent as age increases.

Ageing is not for sissies?

Count the ways: cancers; heart disease; severe respiratory illness (!); other diseases associated with our kidneys and livers.

Most Wanted: a predictive feature for determining whose case may need mechanical or other treatment while others survive in the normal way and may move on with immunity provided by the antigens developed while ill.

Disclosure: the editor of this blog has cause to believe he experienced his worst of the latest between February 15 and February 25 with spiking into a full Bronchial Symphony of Wheezing (you have no idea how many the sounds!) and days and nights without sleep between the 21st and 24th (right on time). Impression: whatever it was dominated the immune system (the symptoms of other illnesses, including allergies – to dust – and cancer (lung) were poking about [but to clear up with the recovery of the immune system]. Three weeks out: all passageways (and voice) stunningly clear and normal! Thank God. Note: the patient was 64 years old with a present but slowly moving leukemia.

For the overwhelming majority of those who experience COVID-19, albeit with exceptions very small, the memory will be that of having had an awful, infamous, and interesting bout with the flu.

Related Online

Rettner, Rachael. “COVID-19 spread is fueled by ‘stealth transmission’.” Live Science, March 17, 2020.

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FTAC: A Note on COVID-19 and America’s Complex Basic Services Economy

18 Wednesday Mar 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs

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This period of catching up and becoming prepared (what emergencies have we been preparing for — and paying for — all along?) needs must be truncated at some near rather than far point.

Inspiration: Foer, Franklin. “The Coming Bailout Is a Moral Failure.” The Atlantic, March 17, 2020.

As fits BC’s normal operating routines, I posted Franklin Foer’s essay to the BackChannels page on Facebook but with this rant following the placement of the URL.

BackChannels believes America has only a short window — two to six weeks, best and worst case — to get back to business or watch (in horror) for lack of earning and spending in the complex ecology defining dining and event services in their totality. Eviction relief and a thousand-dollar payoff against normal business, family, and personal expenses: who’s kidding whom on that?

We generally understand basic checks against basic expenses, but we don’t always take in larger images where, when restaurants close, even the rats may starve — or start to hunt new food sources. I’ll post above this one an example of how complex our economy has become and dependent on the reliability of basic private business services. Suffice it to say that every small business we have — and some, as with the chains, quite large — serve a lot more “stakeholders” than their owners and customers. That little bit of financial productivity down on the corner pays for space and insurance, supports suppliers of every kind (even if just a little bit as they make their rounds) — and then all engaged, employed, and investing have their lives and spending _upward_ (money trickles up in healthy economies before it trickles back down in discretionary spending). This period of catching up and becoming prepared (what emergencies have we been preparing for — and paying for — all along?) needs must be truncated at some near rather than far point.

Posted on BC/FB above Foer’s piece: Paynter, Ben. “This App Delivers Leftover Food to The Hungry, Instead Of To The Trash.” Fast Company, May 3, 2018.

So far, the company claims to have diverted 900,000 pounds food—about 850,000 meals. In some cases, that’s pre-made sandwiches, but it’s also bulk ingredients, which community groups figure out how to use.

Imagine taking out that kind of carefully developed and efficient service for three months.

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FTAC: COVID-19: One Question, Please

17 Tuesday Mar 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Epistemology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation

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From CDC —

The complete clinical picture with regard to COVID-19 is not fully known. Reported illnesses have ranged from very mild (including some with no reported symptoms) to severe, including illness resulting in death. While information so far suggests that most COVID-19 illness is mild, a report out of China suggests serious illness occurs in 16% of cases. Older people and people of all ages with severe chronic medical conditions — like heart disease, lung disease and diabetes, for example — seem to be at higher risk of developing serious COVID-19 illness.

Situation Summary, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March 15, 2020

So how much higher are COVID-19 rates of infection and morbidity compared to the full suite of respiratory illnesses involving the same set of variables, especially x patient / target’s age, preexisting conditions, and vulnerability (physical condition)?

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FTAC: A Speculation Involving Bernie Sanders and Felix Adler

27 Thursday Feb 2020

Posted by in American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, North America, Philosophy, Political Psychology, Politics, United States of America

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America’s “Far White Right” Republicans, who haven’t had much to do with reality either these days, have scraped up the mud mixture to attempt to splatter the Democrats thoroughly in the old Soviet zeitgeist and call their opposition “Un-American!”

Times of Israel blogger Fred Maroun asked on his Facebook page, “Is Netanyahu racist, as Sanders claims?”

After taking care of the Netanyahu question — not racist! — Maroun went on to defame Sanders. Here’s what he said:

Sanders, on the other hand, is an antisemite. He’s using the antisemitism of many on the left to gain support, and he has no problem associating with virulent antisemites like Linda Sarsour. He’s never apologized for any of it, on the contrary, he only gets worse. His accusation against Netanyahu is part of his game to attract those people. If he wants to criticize Netanyahu on the settlements, fine, but he knows that wouldn’t distinguish him from other Democrats, so he accuses the leader of the Jewish state of being a racist, code word for Jews being racist. His antisemitic base loves it. He uses exactly the same tactics to attract antisemites that Trump uses to attract right-wing racists.

Those who support Sanders are engaging in the the exact same moral acrobatics as those who support Trump. Shame on them.

Bernie Sanders may or may not be far from the habits known to the most religious of synagogue goers — the form of his personal ablutions are an I-Don’t-Know for me (and I don’t want to know!) — but one may recognize in Sanders the crossing point where Judaism became a Jewish Humanism so oriented toward people — and not so obsessed with God — that the rabbi who chose his conclusions over his upbringing (Felix Adler) would go on to establish a new American religious society represented by the term “Ethical Movement”.

From the Awesome Conversation

My response to the accusation: Sanders — anti-Semite!

Sanders has the frameworks of the New Old Now Old Far Out and Lost Left — a term I used to use as I arrived here a conservative, and, sigh, the Left of my youth seemed to have drifted toward Noam Chomsky and Chris Hedges on the barricades. That could have been just the way I arrived and “channeled” into Facebook.

Judaism’s Orthodox–>Conservative–>Reform Spectrum has had a last note pinned to it in the figure of Felix Adler.

— In 1876, Adler at age 26 was invited to give a lecture expanding upon his themes first presented in the sermon at Temple Emanu-El. On May 15, 1876 he reiterated the need for a religion, without the trappings of ritual or creed, that united all of humankind in moral social action.[7] To do away with theology and to unite theists, atheists, agnostics and deists, all in the same religious cause, was a revolutionary idea at the time. A few weeks after the sermon, Adler started a series of weekly Sunday lectures. In February 1877, aided by Joseph Seligman, president of Temple Emanu-El, Adler incorporated the Society for Ethical Culture. —

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Adler_(professor)

One might imagine, easily, that those promoting and living a strongly behavioral view of Judaism and Jewish Law bound into Jewish Obedience to the Commandments and related codes (“613 Commandments”) were not too happy with Professor Adler.

Sanders may have that ethical-humanist strain of ultimately Jewish thought in him, but he must also know as a Jew that he is not part of Russo-Soviet complex on the left that spread the “Protocols” throughout Russia and conveyed the same through White Russian emigre into Germany. America’s “Far White Right” Republicans, who haven’t had much to do with reality either these days, have scraped up the mud mixture to attempt to splatter the Democrats thoroughly in the old Soviet zeitgeist and call their opposition “Un-American!”

Bernie’s a liberal Jew. (I’ve been part of Reform Judaism — and Ethical Society much, much earlier — but am tired now “of all that” and prefer a quiet supper in a good restaurant on the Sabbath). Regarding Sanders’ political and social views, I would bet his position similar to Adler’s and what I without study would refer to as “Jewish Humanism”.

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FTAC: Jews Beware Conservative Agitprop

27 Thursday Feb 2020

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The Facebook post directed to a publication that screamed, “Report: Chief Dem Staffer Says Office Doesn’t Care About Anti-Semitism.”

So there!

The poster had claimed that not one of the Democratic Party candidates for President had condemned anti-Semitism within the party.

That might be so — and here the modern propaganda challenge weighs in: how much TIME has one to check the assertion?

And how cogent is the issue, really?

And can anything be done about it?

Always check the dateline, sez I!

January 19, 2018 – and fairly balanced by journalist Aaron Bandler, who at least sought to verify the alleged quote by an “unidentified staffer” (to Sen Patty Murray, D-WA) that began this way: “We don’t care about anti-Semitism in this office. We care about transgenders, we care about blacks. We care about Hispanics, we care about lesbians . . . .” Bandler checked, and Murray’s office disputed the accusation, suggesting, at the least, that a responsible Democratic senator would not endorse such a claims if it had been made!

Before coffee, right?

“Not one Democratic Party candidate condemns anti-Semitism within the Party!”

And there’s the proof of an article right there — expect it dates back more than year, so it had to be dredge from that past, and then it doesn’t really pan out, but, hey, the damage, presumably, would have been done.

Who else (but yours truly) would take a second look?

Instead, heads will nod!

This answered the “What is to be done” part of the puzzle earlier this morning.

Editor here — and Indie Influencer, perhaps — chose to tweet Seema Nanda, CEO of the Democratic Party with this:

Another “Seema Nanda” is a mathematician, and I tweeted in a hurry.

😦

A mistake was made, and I will apologize here for my confusion — and what might have been a stunning opener but may be still no less true for being a little less custom than supposed. So let it fly — the American Democratic Party will have to grapple with devious Republican agitprop — near disinformation and innuendo — as the opining season heats up many fold for the November contest.

Related on BackChannels

Active Measures

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