Editorial Sun Feb 7th 2021
On Friday, at work in the adjacent suburb of Hallam, a lightning storm resulted in power going down across Hallam. Children at the tutorial centre at 8pm were forced to work from fading daylight across summer of Melbourne. Lights returned fifteen minutes later. Work was done and children got a new appreciation of Zeus. When I got back home, I found the internet was down from wifi, but I had phone data operative. I searched for internet failure and found nothing. I waited until next morning, and found a report of NBN failure the night before. I went to work in the morning. At work I was called by my estate agent who had tried to reset the modem in the share accommodation, without success. I told them of the NBN outage report, with the news that the anticipated recovery was on Monday at 6pm, the fourth day from the failure.
I went home and checked the internet again. Still down, I checked the outage reports, and there were none. Not even at my address. Clearly, the estate agent had not got the landlord to raise the issue with the ISP. There is no reason to believe the internet will be restored on even the fourth day if no one is looking at the issue.
What has caused this outage? Internet gets slow whenever there is a thunderstorm. I live in Dandenong, a suburb of Melbourne. There is no excuse for such poor service.
Editorial Thursday 11th February 2021
Having reported the outage to my landlord’s agent, I queried them as to why no fault was reported on the address a day later, two days later, three days later and four days later. The estate agent raised their voice to me “It is not my job to sit by a phone for a telecommunications company hours on end. I’ve alerted the landlord.”
“Yes, but the telecommunications company needs to know there is a fault or they cannot address it.”
“I take your point but I have told you I have alerted the landlord.”
“Have you advised them to report the fault?”
“They said they will fix it. If they haven’t fixed by the end of working day tomorrow I will see to it. Have a good day, sir”
It wasn’t working on day five, but another member of the share household found mail addressed to the landlord from the telecommunications company and opened it. It said that the company was sending a final warning before cancellation. The company was forced to close their cable service and link to NBN instead. The cancellation was to take place on the 15th February, ten days after they in fact cancelled it. Had the company been called when the ‘fault’ was detected, the problem could have been addressed immediately. The agent has still not apologised to me. Neither is the internet connected after seven days.
My oldest sister sent me a near fifty year old school photo of me. I told her that I had lost all my photos when FB booted me. I have no place for such memories, but I’m thankful she thought of me. I had been booted from FB after Jan 6th for not being a good citizen, as I endorsed Donald Trump for President. I am not uncivilised and never condone violence or racism, but FB booted me. My sister, a left wing loony, said I should go somewhere else where I’m accepted. She suggested I use the library to access the internet. She was taunting me. That is how they behave.
===
Written in tribute to my sister, Pamela Frances Ball who died on Valentines Day 1978 at age 13. Magnificent music/guitar by Frozen Entropy. This clip has been dedicated to the organization "Stop Aids Now" although Pamela never had aids .. she died from renal failure following a rejected Kidney transplant.
From Invisible Dyad 9, competition
http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=55206
Many many thanks to Frozen Entropy for his production, guitar and all round brilliance.
I've written this, once before. When I had written my autobiography. I had to delete it then because the government were keen to cover up information relating to the death of Hamidur Rahman and they needed to delete all my writing. But it isn't connected to his death, and only because it happened that you died it is connected to yours.
I had judged you harshly, and not to excuse myself, it was the custom of our family to do so. You were sick and I resented what blessings you had. My mother was sick too, but although I had contempt for her, I hadn't fully comprehended the nature of her disease. She did not know how to be a parent and she was hurt. She set us against each other. She didn't need to feel to blame if we were blaming each other.
It happened when Mother had been found out for drinking by Dad. She made out she was defending Cathy's right to have a cat, or John's right to push his fist through a glass door. Dad slapped her, once, simply across the face.
Mother got all shocked, and said she had never been hit before .. and told all of us to get in the car. Dad told us not to, but the two older ones were in the car with Mom, and you and I were firmly instructed to go to our rooms.
Mom drove down the hidden driveway and onto the street of 101 Winant Rd in Princeton NJ. I have a google Earth map showing it.
Not much time passed. Dad told us to stay in our rooms no matter what. But soon Cathy was at our windows, indicating we should go outside and get in the car.
I got out quietly, and you could have too, but you decided to argue. So Dad heard us leaving, and he got in his car and chased after us in mother's car. We were going down the highway, and John remarked that we had lost Dad, but Cathy said he'd know to come here, as it was the only way out of town .. and Dad was behind us. Mother pulled over and Dad got out of his car saying he only wanted you and me, the others could go.
So after making us leave the rooms we had been ordered to stay in, Mother turned us over to Dad, whom she had stoked into a rage.
He raged a lot on his way back home. Saying we had betrayed him. We got out of the car in the carport, and walked up the steps to the landing at the kitchen. Dad told us to stop there. He cornered us against a wall and continued to rage at our betrayal. He slapped us down, and then began to kick at us .. not hard, but the rage and spit and threat were terrifying.
We couldn't get up, we were lying on the ground as he swung his shoe into us with slow but determined strides. You said "Dad, stop. My colostomy bag."
I didn't think he intended to hurt us .. but I could tell he wasn't thinking straight either. I said "If you are going to kick, then kick me."
He didn't stop what he was doing, but something of what was said penetrated his rage. "You want me to kick you?" he asked.
"No. I don't want you hurting Pam."
Forever after he would call me a martyr, and say I was sanctimonious. He eventually let up and ordered us to our rooms again and said if we betrayed him again he would kill us.
It wasn't long after you got the offer of a new Kidney. A possibility of a life without that colostomy bag. No more dialysis.
I resented you. But I love you too. Happy valentines day, Pam.
===
(2011)
You would have been 46 years old had you not died on this day at age 13.
So much that might have been and so much that may have been shared. Yours was a painful and short life. Born with a kidney disease. You underwent many operations in your short life. From dialysis to a colostomy bag. You underwent a transplant and your body rejected it. But that wasn't all. You were raised without what many of my Christian friends recognise as love.
Todays is a day where love is celebrated. What sweet irony that you who missed out on so much of it should pass on this day. I, your younger brother am not without fault here. I was the one who had ripped a chair from beneath you when you were stirring a pot, as you had begged your mother to do, and she was so proud to let you. Boiling water filled your shoe, spilling down your thigh. I understand surgeons had to cut away the shoe and clothing because they couldn't remove your clothing without de-gloving your skin. Or the time some bullies at school stole your bike and you wanted to use mine because you were embarrassed, or possibly threatened. I did my best to make out it was your fault. Those are two instances, I'm sure you can remember more.
Father never forgave himself, although you forgave him. It took me a long time to work it out. It wasn't really his fault, mother was quite manipulative and it suited her to live like that. She divorced father soon after you died, it seemed to allow her some latitude to be manipulative, but it failed like many of her hare brained schemes. She blamed her father. But looking back on it I don't think either mother or father understood love. They would rather score points than seek redemption or admit they lost something. They didn't believe in God so why ask him for forgiveness? Yet only one man has ever been perfect.
I heard a sermon on love recently, a good theme for Valentines Day. In it, the preacher referred to the good samaritan and compared him with the others on the scene who ignored one in desperate need. The preacher wondered at why anyone would ignore someone in need. Thoughts passed through my mind. Maybe they felt the traveller was unclean and that God didn't want them to go near? But mostly I felt "Maybe that desperate traveller was family."
I see many families being raised in the church I attend, some with people that are quite smart .. they could almost have been one of us, if we had been better, more gracious people. There is a lot to be said for raising children with love. I remember that time when dad was kicking you and me after mother had raised his temper threatening to take all of us away from him. I asked him to stop kicking you and to kick me instead, you had been worrying about your colostomy bag breaking. He never forgave me that, years later he would ask if I enjoyed being kicked. He never forgave himself either, trying very hard to erase anything that might remind him.
I sometimes wonder what if, after you had that last procedure and the kidney was rejected, you had agreed to go on dialysis again and get another kidney? It was a possibility, but you decided you couldn't go on with more procedures. What if you had known of the future with a hope for love? You asked mother for permission to give up. You forgave everyone. Mother, keen not to admit blame, said that you might be reincarnated in a better body, and I don't think anyone who heard her believed her, including herself. But what if there had been love?
You might say you had been loved. By many. That father and mother loved you. That all those family friends and doctors and nurses loved you. You had good times, enjoyed some silly movies, read some silly comics. You went bathing nude as often as you could. You stood up for mother when she had left you at a church so she had time to write letters to her friends, and the church challenged you on why your mother didn't believe in God. But what if you had known of grace and redemption? Would you have had the strength to carry on then? Or maybe it isn't about carrying on. Maybe there is another important thing I have been missing which completes this puzzle for me this year.
On this Valentines Day, I thank God for you. That what time we had we had. That there is love, there is hope. Not to say that a little girl died, having struggled a whole difficult life, but that you had lived.
===
Don't give up on hope. Valentines Day is today, with all the hope and tragedy that entails. For Jews around the world, they have memories of atrocities against them. Which some survived. James Cook was killed in Hawaii by friendly natives keen to avenge the invasion of Australia that had not yet taken place, and never would. Horatio Nelson acquired celebrity with disobeying an order at Cape St Vincent.
The Strasbourg Massacre of Jews in 1349 took place during the Black Death plagues. The root cause being blood libel which ignorant peasants held, with the encouragement of learned peoples. Jews at the time were often money lenders because they weren't legally allowed to be farmers. Even today blood libel is raised to justify killing Jews. And ignorant claims are made that Jews control money around the world.
Turnbull is still incompetent, still hurting the Liberals and the Nationals. Turnbull is trying to force Barnaby Joyce out of office. It looks like Turnbull will succeed. At issue is Joyce's affair with a staffer. It is a tragedy for Joyce's family, but Turnbull is exploiting it to secure his tenuous grasp on power. Joyce has been an effective leader and one of the few to shine brightly despite Turnbull's malevolent presence. It was Turnbull's office which leaked a cabinet to the ABC. Turnbull cannot continue in office and be competent. But Turnbull can dither, snarl and weaken the conservative parties. The affair had been long known, but the release of the scandal has been timed by Turnbull's office.
Star Trek Discovery is not as awful as it could be thanks to Sonequa Martin-Green. The cast includes many fine performers and performances, but the awful story lines are saved because Sonequa's turns of phrase recalling the moral choices of Union soldiers during the Civil War. The terrible moral turpitude of the times was in many cases ameliorated by exceptional young soldiers who navigated precipice with honour and valour.
In 2015, I wrote Turnbull should resign as he had nothing left to offer, except damaging Liberal governments. Today, Turnbull has proved me right. At the moment, Turnbull is being lauded by the partisan media for insulting Bill Shorten, the ALP leader. A real Liberal leader would not insult Shorten, but point to his failed policy record. Turnbull still has the support of Miranda Devine. But non partisan conservative commentators say that Abbott is the best alternative. Meanwhile, I am hostage to abysmal political leadership and hopeless journalists. My shopfront has opened on Facebook.
It is always easy for a Liberal to be heard by the media, just criticise the Liberal party, as Queenslander Andrew Laming has found. One challenge to Laming is to outline the governments policy successes to date to those reporting his words.
Execution nears for nine in Kerobakan jail in Bali. Two Australians are among them and Australia's consulate staff have been summonsed to hear the process. Mr Abbott has done everything he can to have their lives spared, but the ABC cut his legs out from beneath him in Indonesia last year. If Mr Abbott is not successful, and he can be relied on to do what he can, then any flowers for the dead men should be sent to ABC studios, which can be found in Sydney's alternative district, but nowhere near the country.
Obama normalises anti Semitism. Caroline Glick writes
Today, the most outstanding example of Obama’s exploitation of anti-Semitic tropes to diminish US support for Israel is his campaign to delegitimize Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ahead of his scheduled speech before the joint houses of Congress on March 3.Sad moments in Valentines day celebrations .. 1349, Several hundred Jews were burned to death by mobs while the remainder of their population was forcibly removed from the city of Strasbourg. 1400, Richard II died, most likely from starvation, in Pontefract Castle, on the orders of Henry Bolingbroke. 1556, Thomas Cranmer was declared a heretic. 1779, James Cook was killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii. 1797, French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Cape St. Vincent – John Jervis, (later 1st Earl of St Vincent) and Horatio Nelson (later 1st Viscount Nelson) led the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in action near Gibraltar. 1929, Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, were murdered in Chicago, Illinois. 1945, World War II: On the first day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces began fire-bombing Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony. Also 1945, World War II: Navigational error led to the mistaken bombing of Prague, Czechoslovakia by an American squadron of B-17s assisting in the Soviet's Vistula–Oder Offensive. 1979, in Kabul, Setami Milli militants kidnapped the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who was later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police. 1981, Stardust Disaster: A fire in a Dublin nightclub killed 48 people. 1989, Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. 1998, an oil tanker train collided with a freight train in Yaoundé, Cameroon, spilling fuel oil. One person scavenging the oil created a massive explosion which killed 120. 2005, Lebanese self-made billionaire and business tycoon Rafik Hariri was killed, along with 21 others, when explosives, equivalent of around 1,000 kg of TNT, were detonated as his motorcade drove near the St. George Hotel in Beirut. Also 2005, seven people were killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit the Philippines' Makati financial district in Metro Manila, Davao City, and General Santos City.
As we belatedly learned from a small correction at the bottom of a New York Times article on January 30, contrary to the White House’s claim, Netanyahu did not blindside Obama when he accepted Speaker of the House John Boehner’s invitation to address the Congress. He informed the White House of his intention to accept Boehner’s offer before he accepted it.
Netanyahu did not breach White House protocol.
He did not behave rudely or disrespectfully toward Obama.
The only one that behaved disrespectfully and rudely was Obama in his shabby and slanderous treatment of Netanyahu. It was Obama who peddled the lie that Netanyahu was using the speech not to legitimately present Israel’s concerns regarding the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran, but to selfishly advance his political fortunes on the back of America’s national security interests and the independence of its foreign policy.
It was Obama and Vice President Joe Biden who spearheaded efforts to coerce Democratic lawmakers to boycott Netanyahu’s speech by announcing that they would refuse to meet with the leader of the US’s closest ally in the Middle East during his stay in Washington.
So far only 15 members of the House and three Senators have announced their intention to boycott Netanyahu’s speech. But even if all the other Democratic lawmakers do attend his speech, the impact of Obama’s campaign to defame Netanyahu will long be felt.
First of all, if all goes as he hopes, the media and his party members will use his demonization of Netanyahu’s character as a means to dismiss the warnings that Netanyahu will clearly sound in his address.
Second, by boycotting Netanyahu and encouraging Democrats to do the same, Obama is mainstreaming the anti-Semitic boycott, divestment and sanctions movement to isolate Israel.
It is Valentines Day and a time for reflection on matters of love. Everyone is a child of someone. It is a blessing and a privilege to have children, not undertaken as lightly or easily as they are produced. Children are resilient and can be raised right under extraordinary circumstances, but also falter and stumble over what seems like nothing. So the issue of child protection is important. It is all about choices, but those choices aren't always clear when present. A mother from a well to do family had a child with a wild guy. He was apparently a good father, but a lousy partner. He got involved with drugs. Her family got her a good house close to the dad so he could be present in raising the boy. But he became violent. He was violent to the mother, but she made the choice to keep his access to the boy so the boy would have a father in his life. This rings home for me as my father abandoned me several times in my life, partly because of my mother's choices. It is a cruel injustice the woman's faith and love were answered so badly by the father killing his son in a murder suicide. Not her fault, but his. It is Valentines Day, time to hold your loved ones tight.
In 1804, Karadjordje led the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire. 1831, Ras Marye of Yejju marched into Tigray and defeated and killed Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay. 1835, the original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in the Latter Day Saint movement, was formed in Kirtland, Ohio. 1849, in New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken. 1852, Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children (The National Children's Hospital in Dublin was founded over 30 years previously in 1821), was founded in London. 1855, Texas was linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas. 1859, Oregon was admitted as the 33rd U.S. state. 1876, Alexander Graham Bell applied for a patent for the telephone, as did Elisha Gray. 1879, the War of the Pacific broke out when Chilean armed forces occupied the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta. 1899, Voting machines were approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.
In 1900, Second Boer War: In South Africa, 20,000 British troops invaded the Orange Free State. 1903, the United States Department of Commerce and Labor was established (later split into the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor). 1912, Arizona was admitted as the 48th U.S. state. Also 1912, in Groton, Connecticut, the first diesel-powered submarine was commissioned. 1918, the Soviet Union adopted the Gregorian calendar (on 1 February according to the Julian calendar). 1919, the Polish–Soviet War began. 1920, the League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago. 1924, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). 1929, Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, were murdered in Chicago, Illinois.
In 1942, Battle of Pasir Panjang contributed to the fall of Singapore. 1943, World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia was liberated. Also 1943, World War II: Tunisia Campaign – General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's Fifth Panzer Army launched a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia. 1944, World War II: Anti-Japanese revolt on Java. 1945, World War II: On the first day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces began fire-bombing Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony. Also 1945, World War II: Navigational error led to the mistaken bombing of Prague, Czechoslovakia by an American squadron of B-17s assisting in the Soviet's Vistula–Oder Offensive. Also 1945, World War II: Mostar was liberated by Yugoslav partisans. Also 1945, President Franklin D. Rooseveltmet with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially beginning U.S.-Saudidiplomatic relations. 1946, the Bank of England was nationalised. 1949, the Knesset (Israeliparliament) convened for the first time. Also 1949, the Asbestos Strike began in Canada. The strike marked the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec. 1950, Chinese Civil War: The National Revolutionary Army instigated the unsuccessful Battle of Tianquan against the People's Liberation Army. 1956, the XX Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Unionbegan in Moscow. On the last night of the meeting, Premier Nikita Khrushchevcondemned Joseph Stalin's crimes in a secret speech.
In 1961, Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, was first synthesized at the University of California. 1962, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy took television viewers on a tour of the White House. 1966, Australian currency was decimalised. 1970, the iconic live album Live at Leeds by The Who was recorded. 1979, in Kabul, Setami Milli militants kidnapped the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who was later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police. 1981, Stardust Disaster: A fire in a Dublin nightclub killed 48 people 1983, United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapsed. Its president, Jake Butcher, was later convicted of fraud. 1989, Union Carbide agreed to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster. 1989, Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. 1990, Ninety-two people were killed aboard Indian Airlines Flight 605 at Bangalore, India. Also 1990, the Voyager 1 spacecraft took the photograph of planet Earth later it became famous as Pale Blue Dot. 1998, an oil tanker train collided with a freight train in Yaoundé, Cameroon, spilling fuel oil. One person scavenging the oil created a massive explosion which killed 120.
In 2000, the spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker entered orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid. 2004, in a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapsed, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others. 2005, Lebanese self-made billionaire and business tycoon Rafik Hariri was killed, along with 21 others, when explosives, equivalent of around 1,000 kg of TNT, were detonated as his motorcade drove near the St. George Hotel in Beirut. Also 2005, seven people were killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit the Philippines' Makatifinancial district in Metro Manila, Davao City, and General Santos City. Also 2005, YouTube was launched by a group of college students, eventually becoming the largest video sharing website in the world and a main source for viral videos. 2008, Northern Illinois University shooting: A gunman opened fire in a lecture hall of the DeKalb County, Illinois university resulting in six fatalities (including gunman) and 21 injuries. 2011, as a part of Arab Spring, the Bahraini uprising, a series of demonstrations, amounting to a sustained campaign of civil resistance, in the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain began with a 'Day of Rage'.
=== Bible Reading ===
=
Today's reading: Leviticus 14, Matthew 26:51-75 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible Gateway
Today's Old Testament reading: Leviticus 14
Cleansing From Defiling Skin Diseases
1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "These are the regulations for any diseased person at the time of their ceremonial cleansing, when they are brought to the priest: 3 The priest is to go outside the camp and examine them. If they have been healed of their defiling skin disease, 4the priest shall order that two live clean birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop be brought for the person to be cleansed....
Today's New Testament reading: Matthew 26:51-75
51 With that, one of Jesus' companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.
=== Morning and Evening ===
=
"A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing;
Nor fear with thy righteousness on,
My person and offerings to bring:
The terrors of law and of God,
With me can have nothing to do;
My Saviour's obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view."
=== Bible Quote ===
=== Message ===
===
I am a decent man and don't care for the abuse given me. I created a video raising awareness of anti police feeling among western communities. I chose the senseless killing of Nicola Cotton, a Louisiana policewoman who joined post Katrina, to highlight the issue. I did this in order to get an income after having been illegally blacklisted from work in NSW for being a whistleblower. I have not done anything wrong. Local council appointees refused to endorse my work, so I did it for free. Youtube's Adsence refused to allow me to profit from their marketing it. Meanwhile, I am hostage to abysmal political leadership and hopeless journalists. My shopfront has opened on Facebook.
===
I am publishing a book called Bread of Life: January.
Bread of Life is a daily bible quote with a layman's understanding of the meaning. I give one quote for each day, and also a series of personal stories illustrating key concepts eg Who is God? What is a miracle? Why is there tragedy?
January is the first of the anticipated year-long work of thirteen books. One for each month and the whole year. It costs to publish. It (Kindle version) should retail at about $2US online, but the paperback version would cost more, according to production cost.If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofund.me/27tkwuc (Gofundme finished the fund raiser, 2017)
===
Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August, September, October, or at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482020262/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_dVHPub0MQKDZ4 The kindle version is cheaper, but the soft back version allows a free kindle version.
The Amazon Author Page for David Ball
UK .. http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B01683ZOWG
French .. http://www.amazon.fr/-/e/B01683ZOWG
Japan .. http://www.amazon.co.jp/-/e/B01683ZOWG
German .. http://www.amazon.de/-/e/B01683ZOWG
===
Other Stuff
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I'm now on MAGAbook to sidestep FB censorship
https://www.magabook.com/register?invite=11673951025fadd3f055eca4.00045664
===
I'm looking for former students to endorse me
https://www.superprof.com.au/write-recommendation-13371374-1cc2cf0f56166c9b04ad4097fc7d0b67.html
===
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