Harris Educational Fan Page Archive June 2009

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www.harris-educational.com TM TM
Harris Educational Fan Page Archive for the Month of: June 2009
Harris Educational is the originator and manufacturer of "Reinventing Science" science kits and materials
that inspire experimenters of all ages to participate in science, math, technology, history and discovery. We
also provide services such as training and workshops, as well as eLearning, multimedia, and product
development. Our mission is to excite young minds (and older young minds) and inspire them to DO
science, math, and technology.
In June of 2009 we started a fan page on Facebook with the goal of promoting awareness of our products
and services. But we don't just want to advertise ourselves but rather to act as a service to educators,
parents, students, and science hobbyists. We post links and articles daily that relate to science, history,
education, and open source software. Also located on our fan page are photographs, information, and
discussion forums. Another of our goals is to become an interactive location where educators, students,
parents, and hobbyists can interact, share their ideas, and become more involved in science and science
projects.
Our fan page is located at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Harris-Educational-Reinventing-Science/86177094101
Please subscribe and become fan. Also help us grow our community by using “suggest to friends” one of
the first links under our logo picture in the upper left hand side of the page.
(Note: At some point we will be able to have a custom URL instead of the more clunky one we have now. I
am assuming the original link will continue to work even if that is the case. If you are viewing this document
and the link above does not work, then please do a search on Facebook for “Harris Educational” or
“Reinventing Science” we will update the link in future documents.)
About this Document:

This document is an archive of the activity on our Facebook fan page for a given month. Our goal is to
preserve links, useful content, and other materials so that new fans can benefit from stories that were posted
before they joined AND so that people who do not have or wish to have Facebook accounts can access our
information. All links are given based upon the date/time they were published and therefore may not contain
the same information or even still exist depending on when in the future you try to view them.
This document will be published to our account on Scribd and can be viewed there online, downloaded as a
PDF file, or printed. All hyperlink URL's in this document should be active and can be clicked in order to
launch your default web browser with that content loaded.
The content of this document is meant for educational and hobby purposes only. All copyright or trademark
terms or names are the property of their owners. No copyright infringement is intended. Harris Educational
is not responsible for the content posted at 3rd party sites.
phone: 336.506.6696 (9-5 est) Building Better Education twitter: twitter.com/reinventor32

fax: 866.306.3016 (toll free) youtube: www.youtube.com/reinventor32
document:www.scribd.com/reinventor32
Become a fan at our Facebook Fan Site:
www.facebook.com/pages/Harris-Educational-Reinventing-Science/86177094101
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Harris Educational Fan Page Archive for the Month of: June 2009
June 2, 2009
Hello World: This facebook page is being started today (6-2-09) as part of our effort to expand awareness of
our company and its Reinventing Science products. We are in the process of rebuilding our website, adding
social media like facebook and twitter, and creating a blog that we hope will be useful to educators, students,
hobbyists, or anyone interested in science, technology, history, or education.
June 2, 2009
Images of our Reinventing Science Kits including Reinventing Edison: Build your own Light Bulb, and
Reinventing Morse: Build your own Telegraph. We'll also post pictures of new kits here!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=82689&id=86177094101&ref=mf
June 2, 2009
Check out the Discussion Tab and take part in our discussion of Free Open Source software!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Harris-Educational-Reinventing-Science/86177094101?
v=app_2373072738&viewas=591561318&ref=ts#/topic.php?uid=86177094101&topic=8575
June 5, 2009
Where to purchase our Science Kits (a note)
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=120752598032&ref=mf
June 8, 2009
Happy 40th Birthday UNIX!
Also view a great video from 1985 all about UNIX at the Internet Archives:
“The Computer Chronicles”
http://www.archive.org/details/UNIX1985
June 8, 2009
Interesting article about Teacher Salary from Education.com
http://www.education.com/magazine/article/equityprojectcharterschool/?cid=90.250
June 9, 2009
Images of our Reinventing Science Kits (added more new images)
June 10, 2009

Edmund Scientific has a fan page here on Face Book. They are one of the best sellers of our Reinventing
Edison kit.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Edmund-Scientific/89919758952

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June 10, 2009

Educational Innovations, another great catalog for science education and hobby also has a fan page here on
Face Book!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Norwalk-CT/Educational-Innovations/52405950666
June 11, 2009

Fedora Linux released their latest version this week, Fedora 11!
http://fedoraproject.org/
June 12, 2009

Its not Science, its Science Fiction, and really its barely science fiction... but its summer break time now for
many schools so enjoy!
Afterall when the Muppets aren't entertaining us they are teaching us a lot of useful lessons on Seasame
Street!
http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=92827276683&h=IOJhe&u=YfzRC&ref=mf
June 14, 2009

Reinventing Science and Harris Educational pictures from 2001 to 2009
June 14, 2009

Interesting Theory: could Earth's magnetic field actually be being generated by the action of ocean currents?
(electro-hydrodynamic motors have been made that place a magnetic field at right angles to an electric field,
in the presence of salt water (which supports electric current flow) the water will be pushed out the back of
the device. (following the right hand rule of electromagnetic fields and motion).
http://www.iop.org/News/news_35352.html
(following up.. posted on June 20th)
Following up on this article:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17340-earths-poles-may-be-tugged-around-by-oceans.html
Side Theory reported here is that perhaps the ocean currents don't create the magnetic field but perhaps
their weaker field does influence the location/flow of the larger field. Some scientists are calling the theory
"Garbage" others say it is worth investigating.
June 15, 2009

This is a very interesting article for those interested in either computer science OR biology. The
folding@home project makes use of millions of people's spare compute cycles on their home or work PC's
to perform computations for biological research that rival the power of super computers. If you have an
always-on internet connection and PC then consider joining to help advance science!
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2009/06/15/what-is-folding-and-why-does-it-matter/1

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June 15, 2009

Reinventing Morse: Build your own Telegraph
This is the most recent video clip we've produced describing our Reinventing Morse kit. My wife Jessica
provided the voice talent and I was the hand model ;) The video uses our old "shark" logo which we'll
replace in the next update we do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOTB5H8sMTI
June 16, 2009

New Technology may revolutionize how we drill into the Earth. Could make geothermal energy a convenient
reality. Interesting video clip from National Geographic. If you used this clip as a stimulus for discussion in
school you could use it to talk about the effects of friction on the efficiency of a drill.
(tags: Invention, Science, Education, Geothermal, Hydrogen Drill)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmxxsf_AJ3w
Teacher Tip: Use an ordinary power drill with a large sized bit to drill into different materials, soft wood/hard
wood/soft metal. Use a thermocouple or infra-red temperature sensor to measure before/during/after temps
of the bit and the material. Wait in between for the bit to cool to room temp then re-drill with a lubricant and
compare temperatures. Shows the practical effects of friction. Make sure to use safety glasses, and don't
handle the bit after lots of friction, it can get quite hot.
June 16, 2009

Reinventing Science and Harris Educational Pictures from 2001 to 2008
(more older pictures posted including catalog cover images from Edmund Scientific)
June 17, 2009

Introduction to “the Gimp” for Educators
(a note published to our “notes” tab)
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=125404728032&ref=mf
(followed up on June 18, 2009 by:)
Forrest Mims has joined our discussion of Free Open Source Software (under our discussion tab). There he
has shared the following links about ImageJ (a java based image analysis program for scientific analysis of
images)
A very good article from his site:

http://www.sas.org/tcs/weeklyIssues_2005/2005-10-21/feature2/
... Read More
And here is a link to the ImageJ software itself:
http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/
Also check out his article in Make Magazine number 18

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June 17, 2009

Check out our latest article "Introduction to the Gimp for Educators" including links and resources for those
interested in digital image editing and digital photography, particularly educators. You can find the article
under our "Notes" tab. Also feel free to take part in a discussion of Open Source software under our
"Discussions" tab.
June 18, 2009

(posted by fan Bill Stevens)
Here's some of the science behind Pixar's UP. Just for fun...
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/650215
June 18, 2009

An English market has installed "kinetic plates" to convert the motion of cars in its parking lot into electricity
to help power the store. The article is a bit vague about the technology but it sounds like they are using the
weight of the cars to create hydraulic pressure that drives a turbine generator. Another way to convert
pressure/motion into electricity is through piezoelectric electric materials.
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-14013-Energy-Technologies-Examiner~y2009m6d16-England-market-
produces-green-energy-with-kinetic-plates
Teacher Tip: This article is a great place to talk about the difference between kinetic and potential energy
AND to talk about the idea of recovering waste energy. Have students brainstorm ways of converting
processes of every day life (such as driving your car) into another form of energy (like Electricity). Also talk
about the costs of doing ... Read Moreso, for example the costs of the generator equipment, or any drag
effects from friction that may also in turn may mean that the cars have to use more gasoline to go the same
distance, a good place to talk about unintended consequences and the idea of efficiency.
Tags: Energy, Green Energy, Kinetic, Potential, Piezoelectric
June 18, 2009

"The All American Boy's Adventure Catalog" by The Vision Forum is one of the catalogs that sell our kits.
They honored us by producing this entertaining commercial for our "Reinventing Edison: Build your own
Light Bulb kit"
Their catalog Page: http://www.visionforum.com/search/productdetail.aspx?

search=light+bulb&productid=50122
Thank you Vision Forum and thanks to the talented young actors!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4jNBuVJiXI

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June 19, 2009

Did you know? For years Edison knew several materials that would work as a filament BUT they always
burned out due to mechanical strain as they got hot. He spend years developing many mechanical
"regulators" that used complicated heat sensitive springs trying to stabilize the filament materials as they
expanded and contracted due to heating. Finally he found that carbonized cotton thread worked on its own.
(follow up)
Sorry that should be spent, not spend. Haste makes waste! and spell check is worthless if you just put the
wrong correctly spelled word. (a good lesson for students too) Every moment can be a teachable moment!
June 19, 2009

In 2002 Harris Educational partnered with "the Science Source" and The Center for Microcomputer
Applications at the University of Amsterdam" to deliver a workshop for the NC Dept of Public Instruction and
the Technology Students Association. We built towers from cardboard, tested them with sensors to predict
how they'd fail, and then destructively tested them to see which tower design would hold the most weight.
June 20, 2009

Two Words: Edible Lasers (well sort of)
Did you know? Laser is an acronym that stands for Light Amplification through Stimulated Emission of
Radiation. The first lasers used ruby crystals as the lasing medium, in this article they've used Jello(tm).
http://www.opnmagazine-digital.com/opn/200905/?pg=16
Teacher Tip: In science fiction and action movies they often show a laser blasting away with a bright colored
beam, shooting through space with that sound that we all associate with "laser"... BUT this is bad physics. A
laser beam is only visible along its path if its interacting with a particulate like dust. Lasers powerful enough
to do damage ... Read Moreas a weapon would not fall into the visible spectrum and would not even be
visible. Finally you wouldn't hear a laser in space because not only does a laser beam not make any sound
since its just photons BUT space does not contain an atmosphere so there wouldn't be any sound anyway!
Use examples from well known or popular movies to show your students BAD physics in movies and also
point out examples of GOOD physics anywhere you find them!
June 21, 2009

Happy Fathers Day: Did you know? All throughout the 1800's many inventors and scientists were working to
perfect an electric light bulb. Edison is credited with the patents and is well known, but many scholars agree
that the Father and Son team of Isaac Adams and Isaac Adams actually had working carbon light bulbs 14
years earlier than Edison?
http://www.debook.com/Bulbs/LB22calendar.htm
Every student can confidently tell you that Anton van Leeuwenhoek invented the light microscope and
Galileo invented the telescope. But did you know that around 1590 Dutch father-and-son spectacle makers
Zaccharias and Hans Janssen while experimenting with lenses in a tube noted that with different lenses they
could make images look larger or smaller. Thus opening up the way for later inventors?
http://inventors.about.com/od/mstartinventions/a/microscope.htm

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June 22, 2009

To all of our fans, just a quick thank you for joining our page. For those who have commented or taken part
in our discussions, suggested links, recommended us to your friends, a very special thank you. We hope to
grow through interaction and provide useful, educational, or entertaining articles and links. Remember, if you
like us, help us get more fans, use the "share" button to post us to your profile!
(follow up)
Also, don't forget to follow us on Twitter if you use it:
http://twitter.com/reinventor32
Coming Soon: A brand new website, and a blog. We are going to take our articles and information and make
them available to a wider audience. Stay tuned for updates.
This now ends our shameless plug for the week!
(Question from Fan Fray Close) When do we get to learn about time travel?
Thanks for the question:
This (http://www.scienceinschool.org/2009/issue11/timetravel) is a GREAT article that talks about the
theoretical physics of Time Travel AND how to use that, plus popular cultural references to time travel
(movies, TV, comics) to help teachers introduce Einstein's theory of Relativity. Enjoy!
June 22, 2009

Open Source: Navigating Source Forge for non-programmers!
Sourceforge is a repository and interactive community for software developers that hosts their open source
projects. Their source code is stored there as well as binary files that you can run on your own computer.
Check out the "comments" on this article for tips on how to use this wonderful site even if you aren't a
programmer yourself!
http://sourceforge.net/
1) Finding Stuff: If you know what you are looking for (like "the Gimp" just search for that term.
Otherwise you can use the first link "find software" to see a list of all the software projects by
categories.
2) Filters are the key: Once you have a category of software listed, above the list on the right hand side
of the page are options for the list. Click on "filter" which then adds some options for your search.
(see 3 and 4 below)
3) Filter for Operating System: Some software is cross platform, but some software is only developed for
one given platform (such as Linux or Windows). If you use Windows, you'll probably want to pick "32
bit ms windows nt/2000/xp" if it will run here it will probably run on Vista as well. Otherwise pick Vista
or Linux or MAC os.
4) Filter by Development Status. Many projects are in "planning stage" with no work at all done. Some
are abandoned or inactive. Others are in Alpha or Beta tests and are not stable enough for use. To
avoid this problem, filter your results to only show projects at status 5 (stable) or 6 (mature). These
projects have been around a long time and will likely not crash any more often than any other
software you might pay money for in the store!

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5) Once you click on a piece of software you are interested in, you will be taken to its page. There you
can find a link to download the software, as well as a LOT of information. 90% of this information is
probably most interesting to programmers. If you are a more casual user, I'd advise looking at
"website" to go to a more "everyday people friendly" site relating to that software. Also the "screen
shots" button will show any posted screen shots.
June 22, 2009

Open Source for Educators! http://www.schoolforge.net/
A play on words for "sourceforge" schoolforge is a great website for educators who are looking for free open
source software to use in their classrooms or to help them do their jobs. Included are software like grading
programs, science educational programs, office style programs, and many many others. A lot of the software
runs on Windows or Apple.
June 22, 2009

Reinventing Science and Harris Educational Pictures from 2001 to 2008
Posted more new pictures, including pictures of our older “brown base” light bulb kits.
June 22, 2009

(posted by fan Bill Stevens)
Where would you look for dark matter? Space? Bah! How about 8,000 below the Earth's surface.
“Work begins on world's deepest underground lab – Yahoo! News” news.yahoo.com
June 23, 2009

We tend to think of technology from the 1930's and 1940's like vacuum tubes as being somehow "simple" or
"old" or "quaint" but in reality a LOT of science and technology went into a humble vacuum tube. Here is a
WONDERFUL two part film originally by RCA and now posted on youtube showing the technology and
craftsmanship that went into these marvels of technology. (part two in the comments)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCksgN7kiv4
Part 2 of this film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J61hHMjxzC4
Did you know: Thomas Edison discovered "the Edison effect" (the tendency of a metal conductor to loose
electrons as a space charge when heated in a vacuum) which lead to the development of Vacuum tubes?
Which in turn lead to Transistors, and Integrated Circuits, and then Microprocessors, and ultimately the PC
or Phone you are reading this on now?
June 24, 2009

Even if you aren't a programmer or computer scientist YOU TOO can get involved in the Open Source
Community and help out. Some of the people behind Open Office (a GREAT FREE office software suite) are
making a video to help make people aware of Open Office and how it can benefit them.
You can learn more about taking part by going here:
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/videos_get_involved#videos_get_involved

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June 24, 2009

If you are into woodworking (doing it yourself, or if you teach it in school) this site has some good resources,
including some interesting calculators.
http://www.woodbin.com/calcs/index.htm
June 24, 2009

Highly Recommended to Science Educators: Partnership for Learning
Father and Son Team Lee and David Walker have a combined 59 years of experience teaching in the public
schools and together have built "Partnership for Learning" to bring science adventures, workshops, and
exciting hands-on-science to students and educational training workshops to teachers. I agree with them
that students learn science best by DOING!
http://www.partnershipforlearning.com/
I also just noticed that Partnership for Learning's website is built using the open source platform "Joomla"
http://www.joomla.org/
Correction: Lee and David are brothers not father and son! But none-the-less a family of Science Educators!
(sorry for the mistake, I'm sure I flattered one at the expense of the other!)
June 25, 2009

15 year old student invents green power system and wins 20K scholarship.
http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/06/24/versatile-system-by-javier-fernandez-han/
June 25, 2009

Here is a video showing our Reinventing Edison: Build your own Light Bulb kit in action. This video is a few
years old but still shows what experimenters will build and what the bulb looks like using a piece of carbon
pencil lead as a filament material. We plan to post a new video (showing a few updates to the kit) in the very
near future. Watch this space!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG0_LAefrnI
June 26, 2009

Amazing pictures of a volcano erupting caught by astronauts on the International Space Station.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1195215/Stunning-pictures-hole-clouds-astronauts-witness-
volcano-eruption-International-Space-Station.html
June 27, 2009

Open Source: Today JOOMLA (a Free Open Source Content Management System). Thank you Kendall
Cabe for adding to our discussion on FOSS and introducing us to JOOMLA. Kendall is a professional who is
making a career out of Open Source Software. Take a look at our Discussions Tab (The Discussion on Open
Source Software) to learn more!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Harris-Educational-Reinventing-Science/86177094101?
v=app_2373072738&viewas=591561318&ref=ts#/topic.php?uid=86177094101&topic=8575

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June 27, 2009

Researchers use high speed camera footage and determine that sand (a solid) can sometimes act like a
liquid (forming droplets) even though it shouldn't have surface tension. May represent new 5th state of
matter. (from Wired Science)
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/sandgrains/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsptPKzA3zQ
June 29, 2009

In the past, a product or idea grew over decades, and then competed with other products or ideas over
decades. The Internet, much like a fruit fly, offers a rapidly increased life cycle for the study evolution of a
product, idea, or company. You wouldn't necessarily think of a search engine being the primary competitor to
a social networking site. This article from wired offers a possible look into the future.
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-07/ff_facebookwall
June 29, 2009

Many thanks to face book user "Houston Texan" who this morning clicked on "become a fan" and became
our 100th fan! I'm humbled by the achievement of reaching 100 fans in less than a months time! Thanks to
all of our fans!
June 29, 2009

More High Speed Camera Footage:
Supersonic shockwave from an F-22 Raptor captured by a high speed camera.
Teacher Tip: This photo would be a great way to introduce the speed of sound, the scientist Earnst Mach,
and the concept of air pressure. (see comment for more)
http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=73057
[Science Activity] Cut a piece of notebook paper into strips about 2 to 3 inches wide. If you hold two strips
about 1/4 to 1/2 inch apart, and then blow between them intuition tells you they should move apart, but in
reality they move closer together. This illustrates how faster moving air (between the strips) causes a
reduced air pressure (the paper pulls together). This same idea is the concept behind how an airplane wing
works.
June 29, 2009

(from fan Bill Stevens)
Very cool Flash Animation showing the progression of the ISS over the years.
http://i.usatoday.net/tech/graphics/iss_timeline/flash.htm
Thanks for the link Bill. Very timely considering that July 16th is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11
mission's launch, and July 20th the 40th anniversary of the first man on the moon!

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June 30, 2009

Open Source: Today Mozilla has released Firefox version 3.5. This new version includes bug and security
fixes, new features, and faster browsing. A great cross platform alternative to other web browsers.
Here at Harris Educational we also use the Thunderbird e-mail client and recommend it to anyone who
wants to try it.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/
June 30, 2009

In acknowledgment of the 40th anniversary of the first manned moon landing, during the month of July we
are going to post several space related stories. Please feel free to send us links or post your own space
stories too!
June 30, 2009

Did you know? NASA has a twitter feed: http://twitter.com/nasa
They post multiple stories per day, including real time feedback and information on active space missions
including shuttle launches, international space station news, and unmanned probes to the moon, mars, and
other scientific missions.


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About this Document:

phone: 336.506.6696 (9-5 est) Building Better Education twitter: twitter.com/reinventor32

June 10, 2009

phone: 336.506.6696 (9-5 est) Building Better Education twitter: twitter.com/reinventor32

June 10, 2009

June 11, 2009

June 12, 2009

June 14, 2009

June 14, 2009

June 15, 2009

phone: 336.506.6696 (9-5 est) Building Better Education twitter: twitter.com/reinventor32

June 15, 2009

June 16, 2009

June 16, 2009

June 17, 2009

A very good article from his site:

Also check out his article in Make Magazine number 18

phone: 336.506.6696 (9-5 est) Building Better Education twitter: twitter.com/reinventor32

June 17, 2009

June 18, 2009

June 18, 2009

Tags: Energy, Green Energy, Kinetic, Potential, Piezoelectric

June 18, 2009

Their catalog Page: http://www.visionforum.com/search/productdetail.aspx?

phone: 336.506.6696 (9-5 est) Building Better Education twitter: twitter.com/reinventor32

June 19, 2009

June 19, 2009

June 20, 2009

June 21, 2009

phone: 336.506.6696 (9-5 est) Building Better Education twitter: twitter.com/reinventor32

June 22, 2009

June 22, 2009

phone: 336.506.6696 (9-5 est) Building Better Education twitter: twitter.com/reinventor32

June 22, 2009

June 22, 2009

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June 23, 2009

June 24, 2009

phone: 336.506.6696 (9-5 est) Building Better Education twitter: twitter.com/reinventor32

June 24, 2009

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June 25, 2009

June 25, 2009

June 26, 2009

June 27, 2009

phone: 336.506.6696 (9-5 est) Building Better Education twitter: twitter.com/reinventor32

June 27, 2009

June 29, 2009

June 29, 2009

June 29, 2009

June 29, 2009

phone: 336.506.6696 (9-5 est) Building Better Education twitter: twitter.com/reinventor32

June 30, 2009

June 30, 2009

June 30, 2009

phone: 336.506.6696 (9-5 est) Building Better Education twitter: twitter.com/reinventor32

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