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He kind of decided there would be no retirement after the Medvedev/Gaddafi combo, and I think Kazakhstan (where the former dictator retired, tried to hold onto some security, and then got ran out by the new guy in the first crisis) hammered it home. He leaves office in a coffin.
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Mar 28, 2023 21:44
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cinci zoo sniper posted:That was a perfectly fine post. Then I must've had a stroke because I can't parse that ship flag post at all. And yeah, I know you like to micromanage this thread, just order the sixer and get on with it.
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Mar 28, 2023 22:01
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I mean, all I know is that I've been getting things wrong, I'm no more an expert than any other dumbass American, and anything we "know" is being filtered through rumor and propaganda. Regarding 4) though, I do think popularity matters a lot. It is obviously manipulated through the control of the media and elimination of alternatives, but he actually needs to make stuff popular with the population. Weren't there legit protests over pension reform or some poo poo? And if like 90% were against this war, it wouldn't be happening. He just got there by pushing propaganda about nazis for a decade. So the support is there, for now, though I do wonder what will happen when it finally tanks to like sub-Iraq levels.
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Mar 28, 2023 22:06
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mutata posted:Then I must've had a stroke because I can't parse that ship flag post at all. Bar Ran Dun posted:You are in the in the flag country on a ship of whatever flag. On a ship of whatever flag, you count as in the country the flag belongs to.
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Mar 28, 2023 22:08
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ignore me
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Mar 28, 2023 22:27
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go play outside Skyler posted:another thing i heard on the radio today is that it marks the final nail in the coffin for any hope he might have of peacefully retiring his government. as soon as he loses his presidential immunity it will be game over for him, even within russia. Yeah I'm real far from an expert, but the ICC verdict seems to be more of a long-term thing, something that will further constrain Putin in the medium to long term, possibly in unpredictable ways, similar to how the sanctions are doing. Here's someone talking (on Quora) a bit more about the ICC indictment. I'm not sure if this guy is fully on the level, but he makes some interesting points: image/PR damage to Putin and his regime, which will probably discourage wealthy westerners from being pals with Putin; similar discouragement for Putin's underlings, such as the (relatively low-level) lady who was also indicted and for whom this will be a much bigger problem than for Putin; also discouragement for countries like Serbia in the diplomatic/political sense; etc. It all adds up. Semi-related, here's an interview with one of Putin's former speechwriters, with some more thoughts about Putin's future. While a lot of this is speculative, this guy is also fairly pessimistic overall about how Putin is doing with the war and the domestic audience, including all the (potentially) powerful wealthy businessmen and oligarchs. Well to be fair, he also predicts Medvedev might (again) be Putin's designated successor. So maybe he's completely full of poo poo. 
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Mar 28, 2023 22:31
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mobby_6kl posted:So the support is there, for now, though I do wonder what will happen when it finally tanks to like sub-Iraq levels. It's been a lot worse than Iraq for over a year now.
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Mar 28, 2023 22:33
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I think one of the most interesting effects of the ICC indictment is that by focusing squarely on the large scale child abduction, they seem to have gotten through to a lot of the Global South, where Russia's propaganda narrative has been otherwise pretty effective. Even those who like to see Russia as a champion against Western imperialism have a hard time shrugging off stealing children in order to indoctrinate them against their families.
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Mar 28, 2023 23:23
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mutata posted:Hey, you ok buddy? No that’s how the Putin on a boat thing works for whatever ship. If you are on a ship or flagged vessel not alongside in a port, the laws of the flag state are the laws. You are basically in the flag state country while on that ship.
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Mar 28, 2023 23:26
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cinci zoo sniper posted:On a ship of whatever flag, you count as in the country the flag belongs to. Yeah On commercial vessels sometimes you even have to get customs clearance to board (and cannot do so until customs clears the ship ) like you would if you physically traveled to another country on a plane. If you board a Chinese and Panamanian ship at anchor off a US Port you’ve basically gone to China and Panama briefly. International waters is not what people think it is. You’re on a ship in international waters, you are under the laws of the ships flag state.
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Mar 28, 2023 23:35
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Owling Howl posted:It's been a lot worse than Iraq for over a year now. Whoa, the last time I checked it was in the 70% I think Bar Ran Dun posted:No that’s how the Putin on a boat thing works for whatever ship. Anyway this is kind of tangential, the whole flag thing like all international law is just a question of whether you think you can get away with it. Like the US could but probably wouldn't do it because  but Ukraine absolutely would given a chance, because what are they gonna do.
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Mar 28, 2023 23:50
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Popete posted:I don't think it makes much a difference to Putin because a nation attempting to arrest him even in internationals waters is tantamount to war, it just won't happen. Except Ukraine, who obviously don't really have to worry about a declaration of war from Russia right now. They probably can't do much about it, but I suspect the prospect of dropping Putin off at the Hague has given Zelensky some pleasant daydreams at least.
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Mar 29, 2023 00:38
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cinci zoo sniper posted:On a ship of whatever flag, you count as in the country the flag belongs to. The other thing here is that I can’t imagine Putin sailing around without some heavy security nearby, so you wouldn’t be able to arrest him without basically engaging Russian military and effectively starting a war before you even touch him.
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Mar 29, 2023 00:53
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I mean, all I know is that I've been getting things wrong, I'm no more an expert than any other dumbass American, and anything we "know" is being filtered through rumor and propaganda. I'm just quoting Hieronymous but as a general note to this whole conversation, if anyone wants to get a "feel" for how Putin's Russia operated circa twenty years ago, Anna Politkovskaya's stuff is illustrative of some of it. She was also murdered under shady circumstances, so she was probably upsetting a lot of folks in high places.
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Mar 29, 2023 02:44
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Small White Dragon posted:The other thing here is that I can’t imagine Putin sailing around without some heavy security nearby, so you wouldn’t be able to arrest him without basically engaging Russian military and effectively starting a war before you even touch him. Exactly, it's the same as China or whatever 'arresting' Joe Biden in international waters.
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Mar 29, 2023 03:17
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Cpt_Obvious posted:Yeah the idea that there are no accents or regional dialects in the United States is kind of ridiculous. Counterpoint : India. Nenonen posted:Are we now discussing a hypothetical kidnapping of the head of a nuclear state? The guy with the nuclear football? When non-Americans read "nuclear football" do they picture a football or an American football?
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Mar 29, 2023 03:27
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Only one kind of football gets carried - the superior American kind.
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Mar 29, 2023 04:26
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Ynglaur posted:Counterpoint : India. I thought english was the lingua franca due to British colonialism?
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Mar 29, 2023 05:19
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MikeC posted:I thought english was the lingua franca due to British colonialism? Not generally, only about 10% of the population speak it (which is a huge number of people), but this can be the case in special contexts like software industry where English may be far more widespread due to the role US plays in it. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population is pretty interesting, though it misses Ukraine --- English is widely taught there, but for older generations it never turned into something usable, probably pretty different now with the internet) OddObserver fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Mar 29, 2023 |
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Mar 29, 2023 05:29
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As I understand it, English is absolutely a lingua franca in India in certain contexts, but it's the one more associated with being more educated/upper class (and in some cases younger or more tech-literate?), with Hindi being the more broad-based lingua franca.
Cicero fucked around with this message at 07:31 on Mar 29, 2023 |
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Mar 29, 2023 07:26
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Interview and analysis of that video of the soldier fighting off a BMP and subsequent demounted infantry from a trench. Battle was on February 16, 2023, near Svatove. 1 soldier clearly killed, others seen getting shot at, bullets impacting and flying over, explosions A solid account of the hell of war; the soldier knows he used to be his buddy in the trench who couldn't do anything but hand the ammo over just a few years earlier. He and the interviewer jest at armchair generals critiquing the events of the video.
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Mar 29, 2023 08:10
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Charliegrs posted:I always get the impression that Russia and China *should* be pretty closely aligned for many reasons such as they are both awful dictatorships and see themselves as a counter to the liberal world order after WW2. But, for whatever reason they are always suspicious of each other so they can never really form a alliance on the level of NATO. Why? I don't know. Like many things geopolitics I'm sure it's very complicated. Maybe there's still some lingering tension from the Sino-Soviet split. Even farther down history - Russian empire was very happy to lay claim on some territories in China, Russo-Japan war was fought over Manchuria. The main answer on why there was not much alliance is logistics - Russian population and industries are skewed towards the western part of the country, so it is just logical and natural that most trade goes to regions neighbouring the European part of Russia. Reorientation towards new best friend is going but it is immensely expensive: good luck rerouting Moscow truck hauling from Poland and Finland to China and not going bankrupt in process.
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Mar 29, 2023 08:22
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MikeC posted:I thought english was the lingua franca due to British colonialism? I think Modi wants to make Hindi the Lingua franca. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/25/threat-unity-anger-over-push-make-hindi-national-language-of-india There's a lot of countries that forcefully tried to stomp out all languages and dialects. The French Parisian elite loses it's collective poo poo if a teacher in 'la Province' tries to teach a local language. I don't know how this used to be in Ukraine during the USSR.
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Mar 29, 2023 08:24
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mrfart posted:There's a lot of countries that forcefully tried to stomp out all languages and dialects. The French Parisian elite loses it's collective poo poo if a teacher in 'la Province' tries to teach a local language. Soviet enforcement over language in Ukraine was less harsh than in Empire (where it was outright banned in late XIX century) and fluctuated. Teaching of Ukrainian was allowed, Ukrainian books and academic journals were allowed to be published however since official language was Russian (with government and any public offices working on Russian) Ukrainian had been gradually ostracized over time, having the stigma of "country bumpkin from west Ukraine" language.
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Mar 29, 2023 08:36
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mrfart posted:I think Modi wants to make Hindi the Lingua franca. Watch France lose it's poo poo when you mention the Breton language. 
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Mar 29, 2023 09:05
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Moon Slayer posted:I never thought I had an accent either until I went to college and literally every person I opened my mouth around went "you're from Minnesota, aren't you?" I have had similar reactions watching americans talk about other amreicans, sometimes one would say something about some other persons accent and to me they had all just sounded the same. Not that I can't hear some accents in english though like southern drawls or hillbilly accents, but a lot of them seem to be too slight for my non english ears to pick up as anything but regular english.
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Mar 29, 2023 09:08
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It's not just non-English speakers. I've been in a group of Americans/Brits/South Africans and cranked up my accent to super-Fargo levels for fun (we were drinking); the Americans fell out of their chair laughing while the others just went "I don't hear any difference."
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Mar 29, 2023 16:27
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Orthanc6 posted:Interview and analysis of that video of the soldier fighting off a BMP and subsequent demounted infantry from a trench. Battle was on February 16, 2023, near Svatove. Vouching for this interview. The video is already the craziest footage I’ve seen during the whole war, and getting subtitles for it really shows how insane the situation was. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Mar 29, 2023 16:34
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Cocoa Ninja posted:Vouching for this interview. The video is already the craziest footage I’ve seen during the whole war, and getting subtitles for it really shows how insane the situation was. Its quite possibly the most epic bit of combat footage ever recorded. 1 Ukranian hero and loader buddy with singularities for balls waxed 12 russians and a BMP assaulting their position. If it were printed in some pulp novel I would have written it off as over the top unbelievable. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Mar 29, 2023 17:17
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Go play Call of Duty instead of gawking at a bunch of people losing their lives in a horrific war.
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Mar 29, 2023 17:22
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Popete posted:Go play Call of Duty instead of gawking at a bunch of people losing their lives in a horrific war. I truly understand and respect this perspective. I also believe there can be some genuine value in appreciating the bravery and valor of others. Such a visceral and raw video is absolutely not appreciable--or even appropriate--for most people, but it has a legitimate place. If I'm inferring incorrectly from your post then I apologize: you do, of course, use the word "gawk", and I agree that such video does not deserve thoughtless viewing.
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Mar 29, 2023 17:33
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Orthanc6 posted:Interview and analysis of that video of the soldier fighting off a BMP and subsequent demounted infantry from a trench. Battle was on February 16, 2023, near Svatove. DandyLion posted:Its quite possibly the most epic bit of combat footage ever recorded. 1 Ukranian hero and loader buddy with singularities for balls waxed 12 russians and a BMP assaulting their position. If it were printed in some pulp novel I would have written it off as over the top unbelievable. don't post video where a soldier is "clearly killed" and especially don't cheer it on as epic combat footage of a Ukrainian hero with balls of steel waxing a dozen Russians edit: it's maybe borderline "newsworthy" because there's an interview attached, but there's no real value in sharing it in this thread and cheerleading combat footage is a rabbit hole we don't want to go down, I think.
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Mar 29, 2023 17:34
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Ynglaur posted:I truly understand and respect this perspective. I also believe there can be some genuine value in appreciating the bravery and valor of others. Such a visceral and raw video is absolutely not appreciable--or even appropriate--for most people, but it has a legitimate place. I'm not trying to back seat mod I just don't see what purpose a video of combat footage including obvious deaths serves in the discussion of the war in Ukraine. We know combat and fatalities are happening and it is sad regardless of the side taking losses. I think it's disrespectful to call someones death "epic combat footage" and I personally don't want to see it.
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Mar 29, 2023 17:41
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Ynglaur posted:I truly understand and respect this perspective. I also believe there can be some genuine value in appreciating the bravery and valor of others. Such a visceral and raw video is absolutely not appreciable--or even appropriate--for most people, but it has a legitimate place. This is not GIP/TFR, and the purpose of this thread otherwise will also not be celebration, or objectification in the case of freshly probated commenters, of bravery and valour. The original poster survives only because they meant to post an interview, arguably as useless as it was for this thread, because this again isn't TFR or GIP.
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Mar 29, 2023 17:43
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Fritz the Horse posted:don't post video where a soldier is "clearly killed" and especially don't cheer it on as epic combat footage of a Ukrainian hero with balls of steel waxing a dozen Russians I believe I put in the proper precautions per thread rules; I gave a warning, spoiler tags and the video is not hotlinked. I understand not everyone can or should watch this, but I believe the account is an important contribution to anyone trying to understand what really happens in warfare. This is what we're asking people to do when nations order them to fight. You certainly have a personal right to not watch it or think people should see it, and it certainly it should not be glorified, even though this is a man defending his home land and people. But I would argue there is important social utility in having the option to experience this piece of war, and war being all about death, I'd say it's appropriate for it to be there. Absolutely no critique of anyone who chooses not to watch it, it's the real hell humans make for themselves on this Earth, and some of us have enough of that to deal with already.
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Mar 29, 2023 17:55
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https://mobile.twitter.com/rogue_corq/status/1641081545435000834 How come there are conflicting reports coming from Ukraine on the counter offensive? Zelensky said that the counter offensive wouldn't happen until there's more aid like a week ago, and Podollyalk said that reporters shouldn't guess on when the offensive will happen to keep Russia from responding.
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Mar 29, 2023 17:58
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Willo567 posted:https://mobile.twitter.com/rogue_corq/status/1641081545435000834 Why do you think Ukraine would want everyone to know their detailed plans a month in advance? It's likely deliberate disinformation to keep Russia guessing.
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Mar 29, 2023 18:01
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Orthanc6 posted:I believe I put in the proper precautions per thread rules; I gave a warning, spoiler tags and the video is not hotlinked. I understand not everyone can or should watch this, but I believe the account is an important contribution to anyone trying to understand what really happens in warfare. This is what we're asking people to do when nations order them to fight. You certainly have a personal right to not watch it or think people should see it, and it certainly it should not be glorified, even though this is a man defending his home land and people. But I would argue there is important social utility in having the option to experience this piece of war, and war being all about death, I'd say it's appropriate for it to be there. What you have missed is a recent update that included a placeholder for a rolling out rules change: cinci zoo sniper posted:For the avoidance of doubt, violent imagery is tolerated here only inasmuch as it offers clear newsworthiness, novelty, or educational value for a would-be conversation. Exceptionally graphic content, as well sharing any violent imagery in a bloodthirsty connotation, in mods' and admins' subjective view, will be punished with a ban and a 30-day probation on the first offence. Your interview fails the first two tests, clear newsworthiness and novelty. It did offer educational value, however, which makes it sufficiently borderline for Fritz to stop just at removing the video.
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Mar 29, 2023 18:03
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Ukraine is not going to send Russia a meeting invite for the counter offensive. The only people who know the conditions of if, when, and where any offensive happens aren't going to talk to the media, and anyone who does talk to the media is going to have no idea, or is going to make statements that aid the war effort (i.e. ask for more weapons, or be deliberately misleading).
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Mar 29, 2023 18:07
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cinci zoo sniper posted:What you have missed is a recent update that included a placeholder for a rolling out rules change: Ok I did miss that addendum, maybe some of that can be bolded in the rules post to draw more attention since that is quite an important qualifier with substantial consequences. In regards to the counter-offensive timing chat, of course no one but those in charge should know exactly when it's going to happen. Sure it's hard to hide the buildup of forces and Russia has satellites, but not knowing the exact time and date of an attack is still essential in warfare. We will never have anything more than an educated guess until it happens and I don't know why people would expect to know more.
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Mar 29, 2023 18:12
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