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Cool monsters in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #6
The Exile graphics in general look brighter and more vibrant than the Avernum graphcis, although sometimes the 2D postures were distractingly silly.

My favorite graphics from Exile:
-Empire Dervish
-Troglodyte Khazi
-Erika

From Avernum:
-Vahnatai Warrior
-Slimes, especially when they disintegrate upon death

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Eat It! in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #15
Chipotle uses much higher quality ingredients than any other fast food restaurant, which is why I am often willing to pay that premium for their behemoth of a burrito wrapped in glittering sparkles.

I just discovered something wonderful and new about Wendy's, too. I think the phrase "Jalapeño Cheddar Double Melt" says it all.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Eat It! in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #9
Wendy's has the other places beat in terms of menu selection, and their standard burger patties are way better than McDonald's. The super discount days at McDonald's are irresistible, however. Over the summer they had one of those days, and my friends and I collectively only had twenty dollars for lunch. We bought almost two dozen hamburgers.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
For all you physics gurus in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #12
OK, I definitely know how to solve Sticky's problem. Due to the nature of the problem, I'm going to assume that you are pretty familiar with the procedure I'm going to outline without all the equations.

Draw a diagram where the block is still sliding down in contact with the igloo. Label the appropriate angles. Make a free body diagram at that point, with one of the axis pointing toward the center of the igloo. Make sure that you have the correct angle in your FBD for the weight force. You know that the sum of forces in the radial direction will be equal to mv^2/r. When the normal force is zero, the object is about to slip off. You should now have an equation with two unknowns: velocity and an angle.

Now use conservation of energy to find out what v is in terms of the angle. You can do this because the object is on a spherical igloo, which allows you to use trigonometry. Then do the algebra.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
For all you physics gurus in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #11
Jesus, I can't believe I messed that problem up. Things get lost accidentally pretty easily when you have no diagram to look at.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
For all you physics gurus in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #4
Ideally, I could draw diagrams for you, and it would make this much easier to explain. But I'll try my best.

First, draw a free body diagram for the small block. The axis should be tilted counterclockwise 40 deg, so that the positive x-direction is parallel to the tension force T in the string. There should be four forces on the small block (I'm assuming you know which way these forces point):
1) normal force n, which prevents the block from falling through the floor
2) weight = mg
3) tension T
4) friction f = un where u = 0.4 = the coefficient of kinetic friction

The acute angle between the weight vector (which points straight down) and the y-axis of the rotated coordinate system is 40 deg. This will be necessary to know later on.

The sum of the forces in the y-direction should be 0 because the block does not accelerate into the floor.

n - mg cos(40 deg) = 0
n = mg cos(40 deg)

The cosine function comes from the triangle relationship you see on the FBD.

The sum of the forces in the x-direction is ma, where a is a positive acceleration.

T - f = ma
T - un = ma
T - mgu cos(40 deg) = ma

T = mgu cos(40 deg) + ma

Now draw a free body diagram for the bigger block. From here, it is a matter of personal taste regarding the labeling of the axis. Since the big block will accelerate downward when released, I will define the down direction as the positive x-direction so that the second block will have a positive acceleration a. Since the blocks are attached by a string, their accelerations should be same.

There should be two forces, the same tension T from the first part and a weight 2mg.

The following equation is the sum of the forces in the x-direction for the bigger block. Note that on the "ma" side of the F=ma equation that 2m is used since the bigger block has a mass of 2m. This is also why the weight is now 2mg.

2mg - T = 2ma
2mg - (mgu cos(40 deg) + ma) = 2ma
2mg - mgu cos(40 deg) - ma = 2ma
2mg - mgu cos(40 deg) = 3ma

Cancelling out the m's yields

2g - gu cos(40 deg) = 3a
a = (2g - gu cos(40 deg))/3
= 5.53 m/s^2

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
1 in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #28
What qualifies as pointless spamming anymore these days??

And I already have the corner on the market for new maths that involve using punctuation marks for mathematical symbols.

'+'="

Duh!

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Park rangers are cute in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #13
I can already imagine the people cowering in fear, rocking back and forth, eyes closed, and with their hands firmly pressed against their ears as the high-pitched giggles and Hi's of the GIFTs bear down on them relentlessly. Then there would be the high-pitched annoying person who never stops talking, and he would be willingly striking up conversations with all the spiders and trying to give handshakes to pedipalps.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Maddness or Genius??? in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #18
I theorize that for at least some geniuses, the problem is that their minds simply process too much information all the time. I believe this in part because I notice that when my mind is at its sharpest, a period of abnormal mental state often follows. Of course, my symptoms were mild, but they did have a noticeable impact on my life for the few days that they existed. For example, when I had symptoms of manic hyperactivity, I voluntarily slept only 5 hours per day during a week of vacation.

I extrapolate that a genius mind may experience these problems on a constant basis, and I personally find it horrifying. During my episodes of mental unrest, I often found that I get rid of my anxiety by fully fixating my mind on something and continually trying to make progress with whatever issue that happened to be. In this situation, a brilliant scientist could probably decide to tackle some revolutionary research to preoccupy his mind, and then, wonder of all wonders, a genius discovery is made.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Worst product name ever in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #16
I understand the lewd part of the double entendre, but what does "carbon neutral" have anything to do with "off"?

And Singapore is known for its comparatively high standard of English comprehension, especially in international business. So if the i.Beat Blaxx name was really a mistake, it was an inexcusable one.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Worst product name ever in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #9
This is the worst I've seen in a long time. Maybe it caters to the crowd of people who have unconscious desires.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Educational Segregation in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #5
I think the controversial debate concentrates on how much money should be spent on each of these educationally segregated classes, not whether we should have them. I think we can all agree that after the first few years of elementary school, the differences in learning proficiency in particular subjects become pronounced enough to justify the existence of multiple levels of difficulty for classes.

I do not know much about the funding distribution in other schools, but mine definitely spends enough on the honors students in my opinion. I find that many people in lower level classes are capable of high classes, but are simply not motivated. Unfortunately, wildly throwing money at this particular problem does not solve it.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Random name generators in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #17
How's this for redundancy: Rotstench the Stinking

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Splitting up items. in Nethergate
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #1
Um, no it's not? Are you playing on a laptop?

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Fat Attack? in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #45
The best answer is just to eat less sugar and live without the sweet tooth, which was probably rotting away all the other teeth anyway.

And as I understand it, methanol does not accumulate in the body. It can be excreted by the kidneys like any other water miscible liquid.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Avernum what is cool in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #7
Actually, that reminds me of something that always peeved me about the Geneforge and later Avernum games user interface. You couldn't select and edit text as one would normally be able to do on a computer. Changing the save file names was always such a hassle like Yama pointed out.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Colverfeild ? in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #4
It's not a very good viral video in my opinion. It doesn't raise a firestorm of interest in me.

Godzilla attacking NYC? I think I'll pass.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
My Poll in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #8
Don't you think the topic of the poll warrants some actual discussion instead of musings about whether Salmon could cause a lemmings doomsday scenario?

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Fat Attack? in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #31
McDonald's doesn't even have complete control over the fast food market anymore. And its menu selection is slowly improving in terms of healthiness and variety.

I agree with you on the objection to added chemicals in food, though, uponmars. Though I do not think it is likely that the preservatives in our processed foods will significantly harm us, I would much prefer living without them. And I am gradually trying to cut artificial sweeteners out of my diet.

And Alorael, did you seriously just compare the dangers of aspartame to those of calories??

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Fat Attack? in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #26
quote:
Originally written by Nioca:

I mean, you don't see television programs on making 6 people stop an addictive drug, or stop drinking, or any other such problem. Why? They're private struggles, not something for the entire country to know. Having such a problem is often embarrassing enough with just family and friends involved, but does the rest of America really need to know too?
Intervention

Engaged and Underage

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Avernum 5, July Update in Avernum 4
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #22
That's a shame. I always liked the riddles in your previous games. They added a more intellectual aspect to the hack&slash action. Some of them were extremely clever, in my opinion, and I reminisce fondly about those in Exile 3.

I personally think Spiderweb's graphics have come a long, long way from back in the Escape from the Pit days. With the inclusion of area of effect spells, the ability to cast buffs on NPCs, weather effects, scripts, missile weapons actually worth having, and everything else, tiny gripes about graphics seem picayune and trivial to me.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Fat Attack? in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #18
quote:
Originally written by Nioca:

I know first hand, losing weight is not easy, nor is it just as simple as eat right, exercise, and lose weight by the ton. It's about striking the right balance. If you do too little about it, you start losing ground, but if you do too much, you can end up causing more problems for yourself.
I know from experiences with some of my family members and friends that losing weight is certainly not easy. But for most overweight individuals, the only obstacle to losing weight and becoming healthier is in their minds. I am not going to insult all of them and say that they are too weak to have any willpower, but they do have to acknowledge that only a few unfortunate individuals have medical complications that exculpate them from personal responsibility.

And I do have a fairly good idea of what I'm talking about. Cushing's Disease, Prader-Willi syndrome, and hypothyroidism, for example, would be diseases that make it nearly impossible for one to lose weight by himself.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Fat Attack? in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #7
These shows give the audience kicks and giggles at the expense of these overweight individuals, but I don't think they're being excessively derogatory. The shows do make fun of fat people, but the emphasis is always on helping them lose weight. This is not a bad message to give. I doubt these shows will cause there to be any more people with anorexic disorders than there would be from all the other sources of media influence anyway. Awareness about obesity is especially important in a country where over a fifth of its adult population is overweight.

Granted, I am young, athletic, and thin, and I eat basically whatever I want. But still, obesity should not be condoned.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Harry Potter in General
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #43
I never appreciated Rowling's writing very much. I thought the Harry Potter books were slightly better than mediocre, and I think it is very commendable and admirable for a person like her to follow through with her dreams and succeed. However, in my opinion, there are hundreds of better fantasy writers out there whose characters are better developed and whose writing style is more literarily cultivated and advanced.

I think the movies are pretty enjoyable to watch for PG-13, though.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Avernum 5, June Update in Avernum 4
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #78
Monsters do respawn in a few areas in his latest games. Perhaps we would be appeased if they respawned in large groups.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00

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