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Tom Sewell

Friday, November 8, 2019

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4 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

Or a general household-supply store, if you don't mind a slightly thicker dowel that probably has a plastic handle on one end and a mop-head or broom-bristles on the other. (It occurs to me that possessing a magic wand looks suspicious, but your average peasant hovel needs a broom.)

The Dresden Files has had more than one occasion when Harry stuck the end of his staff into a mop bucket because he couldn't just carry it around.  A cane, a baseball bat, a conductor's baton, knitting needles, a "Sirius Black's Wand" from the Franklin Mint or wherever, a jai alai or lacrosse stick....in the upcoming winter season, you could use a wooden-handled windshield scraper/brush combo or snow shovel.

As for other, ah, toys being used for such purposes, wood is indeed a questionable choice.  But, we don't know the magic-retention properties of other materials, such as plastic, silicone, batteries in the core, glass, steel, etc.  Such a choice would rather defeat the goal of being inconspicuous and easy to carry around.

 

On the glasses front, I was always told that we get less nearsighted as we age, generally becoming farsighted instead.  Hence the cliche of someone who's aging, but in denial about needing glasses, holding what they're reading out at arm's length.  I always hoped that somewhere along that transition, there would be a sweet spot where I'd have 20/20 vision....

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9 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

I always hoped that somewhere along that transition, there would be a sweet spot where I'd have 20/20 vision....

Considering that an extremely nasty campaign will most likely be the dominating story, I am not looking forward to the vision of 2020

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I'm slipping; I didn't even notice until the panel was posted on it's own on Discord: Yay for wide-rayed starburst background in panel two!

5 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

Or a general household-supply store, if you don't mind a slightly thicker dowel that probably has a plastic handle on one end and a mop-head or broom-bristles on the other. (It occurs to me that possessing a magic wand looks suspicious, but your average peasant hovel needs a broom.)

Hence the tradition of the Witch's broom.

20 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

On the glasses front, I was always told that we get less nearsighted as we age, generally becoming farsighted instead.  Hence the cliche of someone who's aging, but in denial about needing glasses, holding what they're reading out at arm's length.  I always hoped that somewhere along that transition, there would be a sweet spot where I'd have 20/20 vision....

I've been getting more nearsighted since at least my pre-teens (I first realized I needed glasses when I was 11). The process slowed down in my 20s and even more in my 30s, but it has never stopped, and my eye doctor has not given my any indication it's ever going to get better.

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31 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

On the glasses front, I was always told that we get less nearsighted as we age, generally becoming farsighted instead.  Hence the cliche of someone who's aging, but in denial about needing glasses, holding what they're reading out at arm's length.  I always hoped that somewhere along that transition, there would be a sweet spot where I'd have 20/20 vision....

Well, I can maybe agree that I'm getting less nearsighted, but I'm certainly not getting farsighted.

We're now at the point where I wear glasses to drive and take them off to read, while my lady puts glasses on to read and takes  them off to drive.

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20 hours ago, The Old Hack said:
23 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

My first impression was "Drumsticks aren't cheap", serious drumsticks are fairly precisely made for balance and feel. And, if your town does not have a well stocked music store, you will probably have to mail order them or drive a while; probably not a problem in Moperville.

I feel that a huge opportunity has been missed by not making magic dildos.

Are you SURE it was missed? All Nanase needs to do is ask.

9 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

As for other, ah, toys being used for such purposes, wood is indeed a questionable choice.  But, we don't know the magic-retention properties of other materials, such as plastic, silicone, batteries in the core, glass, steel, etc.  Such a choice would rather defeat the goal of being inconspicuous and easy to carry around.

I suspect plastic is not good ... but yes, there could be other good enough materials. Or, well, just because the "toy" is not GOOD wand doesn't mean it can't be A wand.

16 hours ago, The Old Hack said:
16 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

I'm sure that will be a thing roughly around the same time we start seeing uncensored non-furry nudity in the comic. ;)

I agree. But I can dream, can't I? :danshiftyeyes:

Note that it can become canon without being actually drawn.

18 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:
20 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Aren't lead holders a subtype of mechanical pencil?

What is called a mechanical pencil and what is called a lead holder are as I described them, at least in the US. Technically, either could be considered to be a sub-type of the other, a mechanical pencil holds (thin) leads in a manner not dissimilar to how a lead holder does, and a lead holder is mechanical, and is used as a pencil. In a practical sense, the leads are different diameter and length, and you'd better know which one you need. Mechanical pencils are ubiquitous, lead holders are a specialty item. I can walk into any pharmacy, grocery store, <stuff>mart, or dollar store and find mechanical pencils. I would have to go to an art supply store, engineering store, university book store, or some such to find a lead holder. Well, I'd probably order it online, but you know what I mean.

Ok. What diameter is the breaking point? Because the wikipedia page seem to include all and ...

18 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

I read the wiki article you linked, they gloss over the difference. Their earliest examples are clearly lead holders. the integral ratcheting mechanism is a hallmark of a "mechanical pencil". Leads are manually inserted into a lead holder through the spread jaws; they typically just hold the one lead you are using. Mechanical pencils, if they are loadable, load from the back end through the eraser, which acts as a plug and a lead advance button; they typically hold several spare leads. IIRC, the all-plastic cheapies are not reloadable, you buy a fixed supply of spares sealed in the pencil.

Mechanical pencils, with thin lead, do not need sharpening. Also, I am recalling, back in the day there were thicker but still thin leads, and those and today's are not compatible. Lead holders have special sharpeners for their thicker lead. The design prevents the sharpener blades from contacting the holder.

... oh. I see. Makes sense. (Also, yes, there were thicker: it used to be 0.7mm and it's 0.5mm now.)

BTW, I had both kinds in school.

14 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

It occurs to me that possessing a magic wand looks suspicious, but your average peasant hovel needs a broom.

Broom is more like (magic) staff than wand. But yes, I find this reasoning plausible. Witches had problems with inquisition as-is ...

11 hours ago, Scotty said:

The thing is, the comic started with Tedd always wearing glasses, but then we have Tedd saying that he only wore them to make himself look less girly, and even stated that he had 20/20 vision, the question is then, had Tedd been tested before and told he had 20/20 vision, or had Tedd just been assuming it?

Even if he wasn't assuming, it's possible the examiner just didn't noticed his squinting. I mean, it's unlikely he was tested SO thoroughly when there was no reason to suspect he needs glasses.

11 hours ago, Scotty said:

it could have caused a decent amount of strain

I don't think strain can actually cause nearsightedness. Recent research suggest it's not too much reading, but not enough light which causes the problems.

11 hours ago, Scotty said:

A good possible candidate though is Tedd's encounter with the whale, the psychic blast Tedd took as part of the whale's method of communication left Tedd with a nasty headache after, it might have been enough to cause some damage to Tedd's eyes.

While technically possible, why eyes? Eyes were not involved in that. She could just as easily got general brain damage and needed to re-learn how to talk ... but more likely, the whale was careful enough to not cause permanent damage.

10 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

His doctor told him that the problem was he had blue eyes

... what has it to do with color?

9 hours ago, ChronosCat said:
9 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

On the glasses front, I was always told that we get less nearsighted as we age, generally becoming farsighted instead.  Hence the cliche of someone who's aging, but in denial about needing glasses, holding what they're reading out at arm's length.  I always hoped that somewhere along that transition, there would be a sweet spot where I'd have 20/20 vision....

I've been getting more nearsighted since at least my pre-teens (I first realized I needed glasses when I was 11). The process slowed down in my 20s and even more in my 30s, but it has never stopped, and my eye doctor has not given my any indication it's ever going to get better.

Healthy eye can focus in some range. Nearsightedness means that you can't focus far enough, while farsightedness means you can't focus near enough. With age, the range you can focus on gets smaller ... while it can also move, I find perfectly possible you never get the ability to focus on tested distance for 20/20 vision, and you certainly won't get healthier eyes.

Eventually, the range you can focus on is totally useless and you need multiple kinds of glasses.

9 hours ago, Don Edwards said:
9 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

On the glasses front, I was always told that we get less nearsighted as we age, generally becoming farsighted instead.  Hence the cliche of someone who's aging, but in denial about needing glasses, holding what they're reading out at arm's length.  I always hoped that somewhere along that transition, there would be a sweet spot where I'd have 20/20 vision....

Well, I can maybe agree that I'm getting less nearsighted, but I'm certainly not getting farsighted.

.... of course, some people might be so lucky that they actually need weaker glasses ...

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4 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Even if he wasn't assuming, it's possible the examiner just didn't noticed his squinting. I mean, it's unlikely he was tested SO thoroughly when there was no reason to suspect he needs glasses.

I've had my eyes tested numerous times, every time I went for my drivers license tests I had to look into a machine that displayed letter and number groups at varying sizes and try to read them off, any hesitation in trying to determine 0's from O's and 1's from I's was enough to have the clerk tell me I should get glasses.

And even at an optometrist they're watching when you have the paddle over one eye trying to read off the bottom row of an eye chart to see if you are straining to focus on the characters.

Mind you Tedd said she's slightly nearsighted, which basically boils down to things in the distance being a bit more fuzzy that they should be, which is what I have too, and I was rated at about 25/30 vision which isn't enough that I can't see without glasses, but for legal purposes with my drivers license, I have to have them. I wouldn't be surprised if Tedd's the same way.

We've seen Tedd drive before, which I really hope means Tedd did get a driver's license at some point before the comic started, 16 years old is usually the age people in the US and Canada can get their license, it'd be assumed Tedd had their eyes tested then which might explain how they knew they have 20/20 vision.  The question still stands as to what prompted Tedd to get tested again, cus normally, once you have your license, they don't worry about your eyesight again until you're in your 60's.

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2 minutes ago, Scotty said:

I've had my eyes tested numerous times, every time I went for my drivers license tests I had to look into a machine that displayed letter and number groups at varying sizes and try to read them off, any hesitation in trying to determine 0's from O's and 1's from I's was enough to have the clerk tell me I should get glasses.

And even at an optometrist they're watching when you have the paddle over one eye trying to read off the bottom row of an eye chart to see if you are straining to focus on the characters.

I never needed test on machine, not even when getting driver's license. Just the looking at the chart.

3 minutes ago, Scotty said:

We've seen Tedd drive before, which I really hope means Tedd did get a driver's license at some point before the comic started, 16 years old is usually the age people in the US and Canada can get their license, it'd be assumed Tedd had their eyes tested then which might explain how they knew they have 20/20 vision.  The question still stands as to what prompted Tedd to get tested again, cus normally, once you have your license, they don't worry about your eyesight again until you're in your 60's.

Hmmmm ... yeah, he totally should've been tested when getting drivers license, the information about having 20-20 must be from that, so quite fresh ... either that optometrist who allowed him the license was criminally negligent or there is really something fishy about how fast his eyes got worse.

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15 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:
22 minutes ago, Scotty said:

This same comic proves that EGS exists in a fantasy world where a huge black man can hide in a bush at night in a rich white suburb of Chicago without being arrested.

Maybe cops just already know him?

Also, he's huge enough to scare EDWARD VERRES.

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14 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

This same comic proves that EGS exists in a fantasy world where a huge black man can hide in a bush at night in a rich white suburb of Chicago without being arrested.

And kick in a door...

Granted not for a few more strips

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16 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:
16 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

This same comic proves that EGS exists in a fantasy world where a huge black man can hide in a bush at night in a rich white suburb of Chicago without being arrested.

And kick in a door...

Granted not for a few more strips

Yeah ... that would get him arrested even in case of normal house, and this is house of FBI agent.

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57 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Yeah ... that would get him arrested even in case of normal house, and this is house of FBI agent.

That might actually explain it.

Cop #1: "Hey, that guy just kicked in the door of that house!"
Cop #2: "Yeah, but the guy who lives there is a federal agent. If we even as much as breathe at the place, the FBI will be all over us howling about jurisdiction."
Cop #1: "Man, screw those guys! I am not touching that mess. Let the feds handle this on their own."

:danshiftyeyes:

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31 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

That might actually explain it.

Cop #1: "Hey, that guy just kicked in the door of that house!"
Cop #2: "Yeah, but the guy who lives there is a federal agent. If we even as much as breathe at the place, the FBI will be all over us howling about jurisdiction."
Cop #1: "Man, screw those guys! I am not touching that mess. Let the feds handle this on their own."

:danshiftyeyes:

Or it's part of fantasy universe with weird changes from American law enforcement. 

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8 minutes ago, mlooney said:

Or it's part of fantasy universe with weird changes from American law enforcement. 

That, too.

I personally feel that the most likely explanation is that Greg Sensei just wasn't noticed. I wouldn't put it past him to have developed an anime style martial arts form of stealth that involved spiky multicoloured hair, a glowing aura, a transformation dance and lively action music, all of which combined somehow made it so he wouldn't be noticed by anyone around him.

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34 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

 ...spiky multicoloured hair, a glowing aura, a transformation dance and lively action music...

If I saw that I might pretend I didn't see it.

 

No, let me change that.  I would pretend I didn't see that, no might about it.

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Just now, mlooney said:

No, let me change that.  I would pretend I didn't see that, no might about it.

This actually strikes me as being how much anime stealth and masquerade works.

You see something absolutely and completely impossible, then you realise that if you tell people about it they will think you are completely out of your mind, and eventually you convince yourself that it just didn't happen and that you hadn't slept enough or something when you thought you saw it.

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18 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

The Dresden Files has had more than one occasion when Harry stuck the end of his staff into a mop bucket because he couldn't just carry it around.  A cane, a baseball bat, a conductor's baton, knitting needles, a "Sirius Black's Wand" from the Franklin Mint or wherever, a jai alai or lacrosse stick....in the upcoming winter season, you could use a wooden-handled windshield scraper/brush combo or snow shovel.

I haven't seen a wooden handled scraper for years, admittedly ice scrapers are not common where I live. I have noticed though, that over the years, fewer items use wood vs a substitute. Even in drumsticks, there were non-wood options.

I estimated the dimensions desired to be roughly 3/8" diameter, roughly close to a cm, and in the ballpark of 12" long, roughly 1/4 m to 1/3 m. The toy Harry Potter ones are around that, but have thicker handles.

 

18 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

As for other, ah, toys being used for such purposes, wood is indeed a questionable choice.  But, we don't know the magic-retention properties of other materials, such as plastic, silicone, batteries in the core, glass, steel, etc.  Such a choice would rather defeat the goal of being inconspicuous and easy to carry around.

The toy watches Tedd was using were presumably plastic, and those seemed to work well. You're right though, we don't know the rules of magic with respect to materials in Dan's comic's universe(s).

 

18 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

On the glasses front, I was always told that we get less nearsighted as we age, generally becoming farsighted instead.  Hence the cliche of someone who's aging, but in denial about needing glasses, holding what they're reading out at arm's length.  I always hoped that somewhere along that transition, there would be a sweet spot where I'd have 20/20 vision....

The lack of ability to focus becomes the overriding concern. My friend who's had one f the laser treatments and no longer needs glasses to drive keeps reading glasses at his desk.

 

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7 hours ago, hkmaly said:

I never needed test on machine, not even when getting driver's license. Just the looking at the chart.

There was a kind of box that you looked into, the clerk would then display various letter/number codes not only at different sizes to simulate distance, but at different locations so that you had to move your eyes around.

7 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Hmmmm ... yeah, he totally should've been tested when getting drivers license, the information about having 20-20 must be from that, so quite fresh ... either that optometrist who allowed him the license was criminally negligent or there is really something fishy about how fast his eyes got worse.

That's why I was giving possible examples like looking at magic too frequently, or the whale's psychic thingy (the blast does hit Tedd in the face that's why I used it as a potential cause)

 

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17 minutes ago, Scotty said:

That's why I was giving possible examples like looking at magic too frequently, or the whale's psychic thingy (the blast does hit Tedd in the face that's why I used it as a potential cause)

Or maybe it was an incident like this one. Fortunately, in this particular instance Elliot's eyes seem to have escaped damage.

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8 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

This actually strikes me as being how much anime stealth and masquerade works.

You see something absolutely and completely impossible, then you realise that if you tell people about it they will think you are completely out of your mind, and eventually you convince yourself that it just didn't happen and that you hadn't slept enough or something when you thought you saw it.

That sounds like it would also explain why everyone ignores the poorly-disguised Uryuoms as well.

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10 hours ago, The Old Hack said:
11 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Yeah ... that would get him arrested even in case of normal house, and this is house of FBI agent.

That might actually explain it.

Cop #1: "Hey, that guy just kicked in the door of that house!"
Cop #2: "Yeah, but the guy who lives there is a federal agent. If we even as much as breathe at the place, the FBI will be all over us howling about jurisdiction."
Cop #1: "Man, screw those guys! I am not touching that mess. Let the feds handle this on their own."

.... makes sense :)

9 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

I personally feel that the most likely explanation is that Greg Sensei just wasn't noticed. I wouldn't put it past him to have developed an anime style martial arts form of stealth that involved spiky multicoloured hair, a glowing aura, a transformation dance and lively action music, all of which combined somehow made it so he wouldn't be noticed by anyone around him.

Well, it would match the method Edward Verres uses to mask aliens.

8 hours ago, The Old Hack said:
8 hours ago, mlooney said:

No, let me change that.  I would pretend I didn't see that, no might about it.

This actually strikes me as being how much anime stealth and masquerade works.

You see something absolutely and completely impossible, then you realise that if you tell people about it they will think you are completely out of your mind, and eventually you convince yourself that it just didn't happen and that you hadn't slept enough or something when you thought you saw it.

I think that the part with convincing yourself wouldn't work in reality, not if it's clear enough. But as method to make you never tell it works well.

8 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:
On 11/9/2019 at 0:00 AM, CritterKeeper said:

As for other, ah, toys being used for such purposes, wood is indeed a questionable choice.  But, we don't know the magic-retention properties of other materials, such as plastic, silicone, batteries in the core, glass, steel, etc.  Such a choice would rather defeat the goal of being inconspicuous and easy to carry around.

The toy watches Tedd was using were presumably plastic, and those seemed to work well. You're right though, we don't know the rules of magic with respect to materials in Dan's comic's universe(s).

Actually, the toy watches did NOT worked well - as mentioned, they lack the ability to store magic, which means they don't work outside Moperville hight ambient magic area.

3 hours ago, Scotty said:
11 hours ago, hkmaly said:

I never needed test on machine, not even when getting driver's license. Just the looking at the chart.

There was a kind of box that you looked into, the clerk would then display various letter/number codes not only at different sizes to simulate distance, but at different locations so that you had to move your eyes around.

Yeah I didn't needed to do that. Seems that in my country they don't worry about young people having bad sight so much.

 

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52 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

I think that the part with convincing yourself wouldn't work in reality, not if it's clear enough.

While I am inclined to agree with you, I still sometimes wonder. Denial is a powerful thing, especially when strong cognitive dissonance is involved. Even so, you are right. Something very clear in full view that you got a good close look at would be much harder to deal with. Then again, if it is sufficiently traumatic to your worldview, your brain may actually suffer damage from it and attempt to repress it in order to cope...

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1 hour ago, The Old Hack said:
2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

I think that the part with convincing yourself wouldn't work in reality, not if it's clear enough.

While I am inclined to agree with you, I still sometimes wonder. Denial is a powerful thing, especially when strong cognitive dissonance is involved. Even so, you are right. Something very clear in full view that you got a good close look at would be much harder to deal with. Then again, if it is sufficiently traumatic to your worldview, your brain may actually suffer damage from it and attempt to repress it in order to cope...

Possibly, but I wonder how many thinks can be that traumatic for your world view, especially given you have alternative mechanisms to repress you ever saw it ... like, convince yourself that you saw it but it was fake. That the monster/alien you saw was actually someone in costume, for example.

(I wonder how much effort is necessary for aliens to pretend they are costumed humans going to sci-fi con ... or if it would be the other way and they would need to spend effort to convince someone they are genuine, even if they are three meters tall.)

Related to stealth, sufficiently flashy method of stealth might generate enough disbelief that it may work that guards might not realize that the definitely-not-stealthy person they saw actually crossed the guarded zone.

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1 minute ago, hkmaly said:

Possibly, but I wonder how many thinks can be that traumatic for your world view, especially given you have alternative mechanisms to repress you ever saw it ... like, convince yourself that you saw it but it was fake. That the monster/alien you saw was actually someone in costume, for example.

I read a fanfic where an elf from The Dragon Prince crossed dimensions and inadvertently ended up at Gen Con. To her bewilderment and confusion, she won the prize for "Best Original Character Cosplay." :demonicduck:

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58 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

(I wonder how much effort is necessary for aliens to pretend they are costumed humans going to sci-fi con ... or if it would be the other way and they would need to spend effort to convince someone they are genuine, even if they are three meters tall.)

54 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:
58 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Possibly, but I wonder how many thinks can be that traumatic for your world view, especially given you have alternative mechanisms to repress you ever saw it ... like, convince yourself that you saw it but it was fake. That the monster/alien you saw was actually someone in costume, for example.

I read a fanfic where an elf from The Dragon Prince crossed dimensions and inadvertently ended up at Gen Con. To her bewilderment and confusion, she won the prize for "Best Original Character Cosplay." :demonicduck:

Exactly. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't even won.

(I think Halo from grrrlpower is not only superhero who failed to win contest of best cosplay of said superhero.)

The fact that everyone assumed she's cosplaying is totally expected. And unlike costume balls from some story, noone is expected to unmask at end of event.

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