Fact: Biden is the first POTUS to have a scented candle with his name available for sale.
Facts and Trivia
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(that’s approx. 9 empty cigarette cartons for the Americans)
I’m just curious, where does this phrase come from? did you just make it up or is it a Canadian term used to make fun of Americans? I have never heard of it before.
That’s just me thinking I’m funny and making it up.
I go ‘over the top’ to ensure people know I’m not serious. It seems to work in my mind, although beers help to rationalize anything. -
(that’s approx. 9 empty cigarette cartons for the Americans)
I’m just curious, where does this phrase come from? did you just make it up or is it a Canadian term used to make fun of Americans? I have never heard of it before.
That’s just me thinking I’m funny and making it up.
I go ‘over the top’ to ensure people know I’m not serious. It seems to work in my mind, although beers help to rationalize anything.See, that’s what I thought when I made my “Trump is a secret Muslim” post, and yet people took me seriously.
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In the 80’s, when spectators were still allowed to crowd along the tracks during rallying events, they’d sometimes reach out and try and touch the cars as they sped past at 100+mph. After one stage of a rally, the Peugeot team were doing some repairs and discovered two severed fingers in the engine compartment of their car.
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Aleister Crowley’s grandson is a jazz pianist, and he lists his being Crowley’s grandson as a work experience on LinkdIn. You can hire him to play a gig in the California Bay Area.
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In the 80’s, when spectators were still allowed to crowd along the tracks during rallying events, they’d sometimes reach out and try and touch the cars as they sped past at 100+mph. After one stage of a rally, the Peugeot team were doing some repairs and discovered two severed fingers in the engine compartment of their car.
SPOILER ALERT!!
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That looks like a nice camera that is about to be crushed.
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There is a Dutch football player named Jizz Hornkamp…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jizz_Hornkamp
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There is a Dutch football player named Jizz Hornkamp…
“Jizz” is his nickname. His birth name is Bukkake Hornkamp.
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Foible, “a minor weakness of character, a slight flaw or defect,” comes from the noun use of the obsolete French adjective foible “the weak point of the blade of a sword” (the strong point of a sword blade is the forte). Foible is first recorded in Old French about 1175; it derives from Vulgar Latin febilis, from Latin flēbilis “lamentable, worthy of tears, causing tears,” a derivative of the verb flēre “to weep, cry, lament.” In French, foible was replaced by faible, another derivative of febilis, and the source of English feeble. Foible, in the sense “the weak point of the blade of a sword,” entered English in the first half of the 17th century; the sense “defect in character” arose in the second half of the 17th century.
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Most white people with the last name O’Neil have ancestors who raped horses. Given that Clan O hAmmil was a split from Clan Ó Néill, this means Mark Hamill’s ancestors were probably horse-rapists.
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Most white people with the last name O’Neil have ancestors who raped horses. Given that Clan O hAmmil was a split from Clan Ó Néill, this means Mark Hamill’s ancestors were probably horse-rapists.
Most white people with the last name O’Neal are from the Irish Clan Ó Néill. Clan Ó Néill was the royal line. In pre-Christian Ireland, the king would rape a horse during the coronation. Thus it follows that most white people with the last name O’Neil have ancestors who raped horses
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Foible, “a minor weakness of character, a slight flaw or defect,” comes from the noun use of the obsolete French adjective foible “the weak point of the blade of a sword” (the strong point of a sword blade is the forte). Foible is first recorded in Old French about 1175; it derives from Vulgar Latin febilis, from Latin flēbilis “lamentable, worthy of tears, causing tears,” a derivative of the verb flēre “to weep, cry, lament.” In French, foible was replaced by faible, another derivative of febilis, and the source of English feeble. Foible, in the sense “the weak point of the blade of a sword,” entered English in the first half of the 17th century; the sense “defect in character” arose in the second half of the 17th century.
That’s a good one.
Other interesting word origins. all concerning sexual content, can be found in the words “venal,” “venereal,” and “pornography.” I used to believe “venereal” referred to veins when used for “venereal disease” but, like “venal,” it’s derived from the goddess Venus, the goddess of love (or desire, lust, sexual pleasure). Interesting point on Venus is that she is probably an import from Babylon and was originally the goddess Ishtar and worshipped long before the other Olympians.
“Pornography” naturally originally referred to written works where the “graphy” comes into it, but the “porn” is derived from the ancient Greek porne or pornai which usually is simply defined as “prostitute” but really in Ancient Greece was a female sex slave. The word itself does not derive from sexual meaning, but from the Greek pernemi meaning “to sell.”
Everyone knows that Greece and Rome and practically all iron and bronze age cultures had an extensive and complex culture of slavery and serfdom that was a crucial part of their societies, but the actual nature of slavery is rarely explored or examined in history and often a lot of what is believed such as the idea that the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt is often untrue.
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Most white people with the last name O’Neil have ancestors who raped horses. Given that Clan O hAmmil was a split from Clan Ó Néill, this means Mark Hamill’s ancestors were probably horse-rapists.
Most white people with the last name O’Neal are from the Irish Clan Ó Néill. Clan Ó Néill was the royal line. In pre-Christian Ireland, the king would rape a horse during the coronation. Thus it follows that most white people with the last name O’Neil have ancestors who raped horses
The idea of an important person killing a horse and doing something sexual is all over the Indo-European world. Early Hindu kings would force their new queens to be raped by a stallion, which was sacrificed to Indra. And since he’s Swedish, Anders’ female ancestors used horsecock as a dildo, since the pagan Norse would, at Yule, have a powerful man sacrifice a horse to Odin, and pass the penis around to all the virgins in the village, to use as a dildo.
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Lurid – another interesting word origin.
I assumed it meant to lure in a sense similar to sensational. Like something sinfully tempting like gossip, but it really means “in a dismal light” and comes from the root word for dull yellow associated with death and decay. So, really it is closer to morbid.
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Equinox: Almost Equal Day and Night
Equinox in Latin means equal night, giving the impression that the night and day on the equinox are exactly 12 hours long. And even though this is common wisdom, it isn’t entirely accurate.
The day and night are only nearly equal on the September equinox and the March equinox. In fact, most locations on Earth tend to enjoy more daylight hours than nighttime hours on these two days of the year, thanks to the Earth’s atmosphere and our definition of sunrise and sunset.
More Than 12 Hours of Sun
Sun’s Upper Edge Defines Sunrise
One of the reasons why most locations on Earth do not enjoy exactly 12 hours of daytime and 12 hours of nighttime on the equinoxes is how sunrise and sunset are defined.
If sunrise and sunset were defined as the moment the geometric center of the Sun passes the horizon, then the day and night would be exactly 12 hours long. But that is not the case. Sunrise and Sunset are defined as the exact moment the upper edge of the Sun’s disk touches the eastern and the western horizon, respectively. The time it takes for the Sun to fully set, which can be several minutes, makes the day just a bit longer than the night on the equinoxes.
Refraction: Light Lingers
Another reason for why the day is longer than 12 hours on an equinox is because the Earth’s atmosphere refracts sunlight.
This refraction, or bending of the light, causes the Sun’s upper edge to be visible from Earth several minutes before the edge actually reaches the horizon. The same thing happens at sunset when you can see the Sun for several minutes after it has dipped under the horizon. This causes every day on Earth, including the days of the equinoxes, to be at least 6 minutes longer than it would have been without this refraction.
The extent of refraction depends on atmospheric pressure and temperature. Our calculations in the Sunrise and Sunset Calculator assume the standard atmospheric pressure of 101.325 kPa and temperature of 15° C or 59° F.
Latitude Determines Day Length
Even if day and night aren’t exactly equal on the day of the equinox, there are days when sunlight hours and nighttime hours are both very close to 12 hours. This day is known as the equilux, and its date depends on a location’s latitude and can occur several days to weeks before or after an equinox.
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Joseph Strauss, the designer of the Golden Gate Bridge, mandated that nets be slung beneath the bridge during its construction in case any construction workers fell – a revolutionary safety measure at the time. The nets saved 19 lives.
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Anatoli Bugorski is a Russian physicist who was accidentally shot through the head by a particle accelerator. Protons were fired at nearly the speed of light through the back of his head and exited through his nose, giving him a beyond lethal dose of radiation. He survived however, with relatively minor side-effects.
He is 78 years old and currently lives in Protvino. To date he has not gained any super-powers.
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To date he has not gained any super-powers.
Well, that’s disappointing.
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He is 78 years old and currently lives in Protvino. To date he has not gained any super-powers that we know of.
Fixed that for you, Steve (and Todd).
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He is 78 years old and currently lives in Protvino. To date he has not gained any super-powers beyond the ability to survive getting shot with a beyond lethal dose of radiation to the fucking head by a particle accelerator.
Fixed the fix.
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Yeah. I didn’t put it in the weird news thread because I didn’t want to embarrass it in front the other stories there.
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Have I mentioned this here already? A quirk of the Australian constitution was brought to my attention a few weeks ago when the hubbub around Harry and Meghan had people speculating that the British would dump the Royal Family.
Highly unlikely, of course, but were it to happen – the UK becoming a republic – the Australian constitution includes a clause that is interpreted to mean that the incoming President of the UK would become Australia’s head of state.
I included that as a question when it was my turn to do the team meeting quiz via Teams – this was something we started when Covid kicked off and we were all stuck at home, as a means of “having a bit of fun”. We’re only a small team so I think I’ve accumulated 14 sets of quiz questions over the past twelve months.
Other notables:
Tiramisu was only “invented” in the 1960s/70s – I thought it was much older.
Marlon Brando’s ethnic ancestry is a mix of German, Dutch, English, and Irish (original name Brandau).
5% of Australians (humans) are left handed.
Parrots, Kangaroos and Toucans are all predominantly left “handed”.
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Parrots, Kangaroos and Toucans are all predominantly left “handed”.
Do they do a lot of writing?
During the 6 years Jack Kirby spent at DC, Marvel published more Kirby material than DC did, thanks to all the reprints they were producing.
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Marlon Brando’s ethnic ancestry is a mix of German, Dutch, English, and Irish (original name Brandau).
And coincidentially, the name of the most internationally famous German-language (he was actually Austrian) actor in the eighties was Klaus Maria Brandau-er.
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Parrots, Kangaroos and Toucans are all predominantly left “handed”.
that’s why Kangaroos are good boxers. It is all that “Southpaw” power.
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Also, even Kosher for Passover Diet Coke has a yellow cap, to signify it was made on equipment that was cleaned very thoroughly since the last regular Coke run.
I’m also glad that the article said only Ashkenazim don’t eat Kitniyos. I once saw a TV News story about a locust invasion in Israel, and how people were collecting them because locusts are Kosher. While that’s true, the only Jews who keep kosher who eat locusts are the Yemenite Jews- all other populations have not kept a tradition on which species are Kosher, and thus we treat them all as non-Kosher.
Kitniyos also includes all legumes, mustard, sesame, poppy, and any similar seeds, and some include quinoa, because they believe the tradition banned all grain-like seeds, whether known at the time or not.
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The opposite of disgruntled is gruntled:
grun·tled
/ˈɡrən(t)ld/
Learn to pronounce
adjectiveHUMOROUS
pleased, satisfied, and contented.
Definitions from Oxford LanguagesThe opposite of ruthless is ruth:
NOUN
archaic
A feeling of pity, distress, or grief.‘The young men, fiery savage children of a gentle civilized mother, slew with neither ruth nor pity.’
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Cool. I’ll try to use “gruntled” in conversation in the future.
I would’ve thought both of those to have lost their individual meaning. Fun fact: morphemes in composite words that have lost their meaning outside of those composite words are called “cranberry morphemes”, for obvious reasons.
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“Ruth” has long since dropped out of use, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone use it even jokingly or ironically (partial exception: to make a pun of a girl’s name in Swallows and Amazons.
“Gruntled” is a bit different, I do hear it used deliberately by people who know it isn’t a “real” word (or maybe that’s just me
). But it’s not archaic, it’s a modern back-formation coined by Wodehouse for (obviously) humorous effect. -
Best. Trivia. Ever.
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Four of the top ten World’s Best-selling Albums were released in 1976-77.
I’m trying to guess what they are without Googling the answer.
Rumours by Fleetwood Mac I’m confident on.
Saturday Night Fever soundtrack I’ll have a stab at.
My last two guesses are Hotel California by The Eagles and something by Bob Marley as I know his albums keep selling but I don’t really know them at all.
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Four of the top ten World’s Best-selling Albums were released in 1976-77.
I’m trying to guess what they are without Googling the answer.
Rumours by Fleetwood Mac I’m confident on.
Saturday Night Fever soundtrack I’ll have a stab at.
My last two guesses are Hotel California by The Eagles and something by Bob Marley as I know his albums keep selling but I don’t really know them at all.
I’m guessing one of them is a greatest hits of the The Eagles.
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Ah sorry, misunderstood and thought we were on the four from 76-77. Yeah Thriller is 82.
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Saturday Night Fever soundtrack I’ll have a stab at.
I’m pretty sure Grease was one of the (if not “the”) biggest selling soundtracks of all time so Grease would be my guess.
Except, “biggest soundtrack” might not be that big in absolute terms. No idea
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I’m pretty sure Grease was one of the (if not “the”) biggest selling soundtracks of all time so Grease would be my guess.
It was huge at the time but of course the best selling includes all the years after and I think SNF has had more staying power with the songs. You hear them more frequently now than stuff like ‘Summer Nights’. I am guessing of course though but I’m not sure how much patience I have before I Google. 😂
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Since you asked…
1. Michael Jackson THRILLER (1982)
2. AC/DC BACK IN BLACK (1980)
3. Meatloaf BAT OUT OF HELL (1977)
4. Pink Floyd DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (1973)
5. Whitney Houston et al THE BODYGUARD (1992)
6. Eagles GREATEST HITS 1971-1975 (1976)
7. Bee Gees et al SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977)
8. Fleetwood Mac RUMOURS (1977)
9. Shania Twain COME ON OVER (1992)
10.Various artists GREASE (1978) -
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Bat out of Hell is interesting. It was famously in the (UK) album charts for eighty-seven billion trillion consecutive weeks, but I wasn’t sure how that mapped to absolute numbers. I suspect you could sit at #99 in the charts while only selling a comparative handful, even back then.
It’s probably my #1 favourite album though, so I’m happy with that result
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Shania Twain is the surprise for me. I wouldn’t have thought of her for an all-time top 10.
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There were lots of dads around in the 90s.
As opposed to other decades?
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Does an explanation require a joke to begin with? 😉
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She has been around in several decades, as have we all.
I’ve only ever been around in the 70s.
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Yes but then you get a lot of frog legs which may explain French Humor
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William (or Bill) Roache has played the same character in the soap opera Coronation Street since the first episode in 1960. He’s now 88.
Roache is currently the world’s longest-servingtelevision actor in a continuous role (as of March 2018) after the 2010 cancellation of the American soap opera,As the World Turns, whereDon Hastingsplayed Bob Hughes since October 1960 without a break.
An actor having the same job for 61 years is rare, actually anyone having the same job for 61 years is.
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The guy who invented artificial fertilizer also gave us the humble stock cube.
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Breakfast cereals were developed by John Harvey Kellogg as a bland food that is supposed to stop people masturbating.
According to Scopes.com that “fact” is mostly false.
Are you saying his source is….
…flaky?
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I have a more obscure Kellog fact.
In 1920 Nansi Richards was a famed Welsh harpist who was touring the US playing concerts and got invited to play to the 900 workers at the Kellog factory. Later on while dining with Kellog she pointed out the family name sounded like ‘ceiliog’ the Welsh word for cockerel which they later used in marketing their mascot for branding.
Also his name is Cornelius Rooster which I never knew before I went and double checked that one.
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the 900 workers
I read that as “the GOO workers”, and wondered what the hell a goo worker was. Stupid fonts!
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Coming soon. Kellog’s Goo. Brought to you in conjunction with Otto Sump.
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play to the 900 workers
what font do you use that makes a 9 look like a g? i am using the base font and as you can see they look nothing alike. Are you just trying to be difficult, Gar?
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Movie facts that I learned from playing SPORCLE
Movie previews are called ‘trailers’ because they were originally shown at the end of a film.
Schwarzenegger faked interest in Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot to trick Stallone into starring in it.
Jack Black’s Nacho Libre is based on a true story of a priest wrestling to support an orphanage.
Avatar had a $2.8b box office, which is less than half the amount grossed by the GTA V video game.
The title character, Aurora, has only 18 lines of dialogue in Sleeping Beauty.
Robert Downey Jr. was paid over $20,000 for each second spent on screen in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Pixar’s most productive week of work on Toy Story resulted in just 3½ minutes of footage.
The title of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was translated in Israel to It’s Raining Falafel.
George Lucas made Star Wars because he couldn’t get the rights to make a Flash Gordon film.
The filming of Monty Python’s The Life of Brian was fully funded by George Harrison of the Beatles.3 users thanked author for this post.
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Queen Elizabeth II is 2 years older than Martin Luther King or Anne Frank would be if they were alive today.
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Even if you reject 1096 and accept one of the other dates from the paragraph below for the “founding”, it’s amazing that Oxford predates the Aztec Empire, don’t you think?
It grew quickly from 1167 when English students returned from the University of Paris.[2] The historian Gerald of Wales lectured to such scholars in 1188, and the first known foreign scholar, Emo of Friesland, arrived in 1190. The head of the university had the title of chancellor from at least 1201, and the masters were recognised as a universitas or corporation in 1231.[2][22] The university was granted a royal charter in 1248 during the reign of King Henry III.
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Yesterday was national Pig Day and my sister sent me a email with a bunch of Pig Facts.
-Pigs have 15,000 taste buds compared to our 9,000.
Next time someone tells you you eat like a pig, treat it as a compliment because of your refined palate.
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The title character, Aurora, has only 18 lines of dialogue in Sleeping Beauty.
She and Philip also don’t have any lines in the last 15 minutes or so of the film (I think from when Philip is sent off to rescue her) IIRC and it’s really weird when you notice it.
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Every C in Pacific Ocean is pronounced differently.
Joe Biden was born closer to Abraham Lincoln’s presidency than his own.
27 US states reach further north than Canada’s southern tip.
Edinburgh is to the west of Bristol.
John Tyler, 10th President of the USA born in 1790, has a living grandchild (he fathered a child aged 63 and his son fathered a child at 71 who is now in their 90s).
The Chupa Chups lolllipops logo was designed by Salvador Dali
Lionel Jeffries played Dick Van Dyke’s father in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang even though he was a year younger than him.
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Joe Biden was born closer to Abraham Lincoln’s presidency than his own.
I believe he’s also the first president to have a scented candle named after him.
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Chile looks like a super thin, long country on the world map but at most points it’s wider than the Netherlands.
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Chile looks like a super thin, long country on the world map but at most points it’s wider than the Netherlands.
The reason for this being that Chile is a super thin, long country.
Netherlands are just ever so slightly bigger than the county (not country) I’m living in. (Just twice the size, and Västra Götaland County isn’t even that big)
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I learned today that horses like drinking beer (and it isn’t bad for them.)
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I learned today that horses like drinking beer (and it isn’t bad for them.)
Did a horse tell you that?
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