Tuesday, July 19, 2011

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Teller explains the psychology of illusions

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 11:10 PM PDT

HappySmurfday sez, "Without the assistance of Penn Jillette, Teller explains some of the psychology behind illusions."

Teller Speaks! (Thanks, HappySmurfday!)

Cubist Star Wars paintings

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 06:54 PM PDT


Tommervik, an artist who uses deviantART, paints beautiful cubist works, including some inspired by Star Wars and Star Trek.

TOMMERVIK on deviantART (via Neatorama)

Rich Fulcher on Craig Ferguson show tonight

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 06:47 PM PDT

fulcherphoto.JPG

Comedian Rich Fulcher, who has co-hosted the Boing Boing Video in-flight TV channel on Virgin America with me, and appeared in multiple BBTV episodes, will be on CBS TV's The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson tonight. Fulcher is best known for his work on the BBC series Snuffbox, and his many weird roles on The Mighty Boosh. He is a very funny guy, and I adore him.

(photo by Eric Mittleman)



Floor 13, the classic game of British crisis and cover-up

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 06:46 PM PDT

floor-13_4.gif Today seems a good day to remind the world of David Eastman and Shahid Ahmad's Floor 13, one of my favorite games of the 16-bit era. In it, you play the head of the British government's secret crisis management squad. If a standard spindoctor scores a 1 and In The Loop's Malcolm Tucker a 3, you are dialed to 11: fake news stories blend seamlessly into blackmail, warrantless wiretaps and people whose deaths, though unexplained, are not treated as suspicious. As secret government agency-em-ups go, it's unique and uniquely over-the-top (the conspiracies start out realistic but eventually go Dan Brownesque) and a great way to kill half an hour. Though long out of print, you can find it and its manual easily online. It plays well in DOSBox on Windows and Boxer on OSX. Chop chop!

Carmageddon: the autopsy

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 06:37 PM PDT

5944870482_02520416ba_b.jpg

Image: 405 shutdown, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivative-Works (2.0) image by photographer Anthony Citrano.

LOS ANGELES - JULY 16, 2011: The northbound lanes of the 405 freeway sit quiet Saturday afternoon during an unprecedented shutdown of the key southern California freeway. The shutdown lasted more than two days, and marked the first time the highway has been silent in more than 50 years.

Despite, or perhaps because of, widespread fear and publicity in advance—well, there wasn't much to "Carmageddon." The whole affair felt very Y2K. Linked thoroughfares were calm over the weekend, and all was peaceful in Los Angeles. Truth is, "Carmageddon" is every other day around here.

Flickr has published a collection of related images by users, here.

Meet Diana Nyad, arguably the world's most badass ocean swimmer, age 61.

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 06:45 PM PDT

A New York Times profile on 61-year-old open water swimmer Diana Nyad, who is also a commentator at local Los Angeles radio station KCRW. Any day now...
She will swim about 60 hours in the churning sea, 103 miles across the Straits of Florida from Cuba to Key West. Every hour and a half, she will stop to tread water for a few minutes as she swallows a liquid mixture of predigested protein and eats an occasional bit of banana or dollop of peanut butter. She will most likely hallucinate and endure the stings of countless jellyfish. Along the way, sea salt will swell her tongue to cartoonish proportions and rub her skin raw.


Telex: an infrastructure-level response to state Internet censorship

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 05:17 PM PDT


J. Alex Halderman and his colleagues have unveiled Telex, a "state-level response to state-level censorship." It's a network of censorship-busting major ISPs that provide infrastructure-level, hard-to-detect proxying that allows people in repressive regimes to get access to sites blocked by their national firewalls. The descriptive materials on the site are very easy to grasp and very exciting.
* Telex operates in the network infrastructure -- at any ISP between the censor's network and non-blocked portions of the Internet -- rather than at network end points. This approach, which we call "end-to-middle" proxying, can make the system robust against countermeasures (such as blocking) by the censor.

* Telex focuses on avoiding detection by the censor. That is, it allows a user to circumvent a censor without alerting the censor to the act of circumvention. It complements anonymizing services like Tor (which focus on hiding with whom the user is attempting to communicate instead of that that the user is attempting to have an anonymous conversation) rather than replacing them.

* Telex employs a form of deep-packet inspection -- a technology sometimes used to censor communication -- and repurposes it to circumvent censorship.

* Other systems require distributing secrets, such as encryption keys or IP addresses, to individual users. If the censor discovers these secrets, it can block the system. With Telex, there are no secrets that need to be communicated to users in advance, only the publicly available client software.

* Telex can provide a state-level response to state-level censorship. We envision that friendly countries would create incentives for ISPs to deploy Telex.

Telex.cc

Anticensorship in the Internet's Infrastructure (announcement)

Canny fellow gets foreclosed $300K house for $16 adverse possession filing

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 07:23 PM PDT

A canny gentleman has taken adverse possession of a $300K McMansion in Flower Mound, TX. The house had been in foreclosure and the mortgage company that held its paper had gone under, so Kenneth Robinson spent $16 filing adverse possession paperwork with the county courthouse. He's living there without power or water, but if he stays for three years, the house is his. Predictably, his neighbors are upset because he figured out how to legally acquire a house without going into hock for the rest of his life.

But, Robinson said just by setting up camp in the living room, Texas law gives him exclusive negotiating rights with the original owner. If the owner wants him out, he would have to pay off his massive mortgage debt and the bank would have to file a complicated lawsuit...

Robinson posted "no trespassing" signs after neighbors asked police to arrest him for breaking in...

Lowrie and her neighbors continue to look for legal ways to get him out. They are talking to the mortgage company, real estate agents and attorneys. They're convinced he broke into the house to take possession, but Robinson told News 8 he found a key and he gained access legally.

"If he wants the house, buy the house like everyone else had to," Lowrie said. "Get the money, buy the house."

Stranger moves into foreclosed home, citing little-knownTexas law (via Consumerist)

Kids' lemonade stand shuttered by police chief

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 05:05 PM PDT

The police chief of Midway, Georgia, has shut down a kids' lemonade stand because the girls (10 and 14) who were operating it didn't have $180 worth of permits. The proprietors were saving up for a visit to a water-park.
By a city ordinance, the girls must have a business license, peddler's permit, and food permit to set up shop, even on residential property. The permits cost $50 a day and a total of $180 per year. City officials said it's their job to keep everyone safe and healthy, and there can be no exceptions to the rules.

"We were not aware of how the lemonade was made, who made the lemonade, of what the lemonade was made with, so we acted accordingly by city ordinance," Chief Morningstar said.

Midway Police Shut Down Girls' Lemonade Stand for not having a Business License (via Consumerist)

World timezones: the shapefile

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 05:01 PM PDT


The insane hairball that is the world's timezones has been rendered as a free/open shapefile for all your cartographic/temporal needs. The project, maintained by Eric Muller, has been going since 2008, and is a work of data-heroism, given how totally screwed up and complex the world's timezone divisions are.
The tz_world shapefile captures the boundaries of the TZ timezones across the world, as of TZ 2011b. The geometries are all POLYGONs, and a TZ timezone will sometimes have multiple polygons. There are about 28,000 rows.

The tz_world_mp shapefile captures the same boundaries. The geometries are either POLYGONs or MULTIPOLYGONs, and there is a single geometry for each TZ timezone. There are 394 rows.

There is a companion map for the TZ timezones used in Antarctica stations.

The geometries are primarily derived from the fip10s data (itself derived from the VMAP0 data), augmented with data presented in the pages for the maps of the United States, Canada, Russia and China.

tz_world, an efele.net/tz map (via O'Reilly Radar)

Help wanted: Makerbot is hiring a publicist

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 04:58 PM PDT

MakerBot, manufacturers of totally awesome DIY 3D printer kits, is hiring a publicist. What a great gig for the right mutant:
This brand new job will be a hands-on media relations staff position with the primary responsibility to raise awareness even more broadly, telling the story of MakerBot through creative, comprehensive media outreach, and effective placement in national and regional outlets. The ideal candidate will increase MakerBot's public awareness in new markets by creating and executing additional strategies to complement existing outreach efforts.

A portfolio of successful past media placements is required that specifically demonstrates results-driven interaction with top-tier national and regional consumer media, and broadcast outlets. The ideal candidate is a self-starter who independently initiates and follows through with opportunities; has established contacts; has strong problem-solving skills; and has proven experience juggling multiple, high-pressure deadlines.

MakerBot Publicist: Share. Us. Loud. « MakerBot Industries

Deliberate punch in the testes is not an "accident" and thus not an insurable injury

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 04:56 PM PDT

A court has found that State Farm need not pay for the medical care required by Patrick Frake after his friend John King punched him in the testicles. The California Second Appellate Division found that Frake and King had made a long habit of getting drunk and punching each other in the balls, and that this habit meant that the injury wasn't an "accident," and thus wasn't covered by Frake's insurance.
During this 'consensual' ritual, one person would normally try to 'slap or hit [another person] in . . .the groin area,' and the recipient would then 'attempt to return [the slap or hit].' According to Frake, the practice was so common that his friends would 'greet each other with a one-arm hug,' while covering their 'groin area' with the other arm for 'protection in case [someone] decided to . . . instigate th[e] horseplay." Frake stated that [he] and his friends had, 'per usual,' been engaging in 'horseplay . . . [that] continued throughout the whole weekend."
Court Rules Punch to the Groin Was No "Accident"

Vintage sugar-cube packet art

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 04:51 PM PDT


Flickr user Ussiwojima collects and photographs sugar cube packet wrappers; they're really beautiful packaging design from a lost era, and there's more than 850 of them!

ussiwojima's photostream / Tags / sugar (via Craft)

Help save Toronto's libraries!

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 04:47 PM PDT


Emily sez, "Toronto's new Mayor Rob Ford is 'outsourcing everything that isn't nailed down.' Taking advice from KPMG, a private consulting firm, all social services are at threat including: public libraries, the Riverdale Farm zoo, the High Park zoo, and so much more that makes Toronto a great city. Bike lanes have already been scheduled for costly removal, for his goal of making downtown more accessible to cars, and it looks like this is just the beginning. He wants to privatize everything and turn us into MacDonald's-town."
How could a private company make a profit running a free service that is funded by taxpayers?

The mandate of the private operator would be to reduce the level of public funding that now supports our libraries. At the same time, they need to make a profit. There is an inevitable conflict here which signals bad news for all library users, from children to seniors. First, local branches of the Toronto Public Library would almost certainly be closed. Library users would see higher user fees, fewer books and less access to the information and other vital services our public libraries offer for little or no cost as hours of operation are limited. The cuts to library staff that have been going on for years will be accelerated.

It's also bad news for our city. We would lose a powerful educational and cultural force that opens books and opens minds, taking from Toronto a public service that all other great cities jealously guard.

The Toronto Public Library and its local branches are under threat. (Thanks, Emily!)

Water Cat: Origins

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 04:47 PM PDT

[ Video Link]. This is the source of an animated GIF which made the rounds last week on G+. (thanks, Max Kingsbury!)

How The Pirate Bay brought Spotify into existence

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 04:43 PM PDT

Brendan sez,
Spotify launched this week in America; last month I spent some time in Sweden with Daniel Ek, Spotify's founder, and Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, one of the founders of the Pirate Bay. What's interesting for Boing Boing, I think, is how intricately Spotify's commercial success is tied up with Sweden's history of file sharing. Spotify distinguishes itself in the streaming market through speed; this speed is possible by an elegant application of Bittorrent-like file-sharing technology. Ludvig Strigeus, who wrote uTorrent, was the chief architect of the Spotify beta.

Politically, too, the labels in Sweden would not have been incentivized to champion Spotify (which they did, with their bosses in London and New York) had they not been hit so hard and so early by file-sharing. Specifically with the Pirate Bay, they were fighting a battle for public opinion in Sweden; the Pirate Bay trial took place around the same time the labels were pushing to implement in Sweden a European directive on IP protection. One executive told me that, to agitate for stronger laws against file-sharing, they needed "services for the kids."

Daniel Ek's Spotify: Music's Last Best Hope (Thanks, Brendan!)

Tesco security considered as a Portal level

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 04:09 PM PDT


I was walking past my local Tesco's store yesterday when I noticed this peculiar security sign; my wife said, "Huh, their security must be supplied by the same people who design Portal levels."

LulzSec hacks The Sun, Murdoch's largest UK tabloid

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 03:54 PM PDT

The_SUn_hacked_front_page_small.jpeg LulzSec claimed responsibility today for hacking the website of The Sun, another Murdoch newspaper and the sister publication to recently-deceased News of the World. Though the defacement--a fake story reporting Murdoch's death--is gone, the website currently redirects to LulzSec's twitter feed. More is promised: "We're sitting on their emails. Press release tomorrow," writes AnonymouSabu, a Twitter user frequently associated with the group. MURDOCH'S THE SUN NEWSPAPER HACKED BY LULZSEC [Dangerous Minds]

Who holds the copyright to a picture taken by a monkey?

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 02:29 AM PDT

Caters News Agency claims to have bought exclusive rights to the iconic self-portrait taken by a macaque that snatched a photographer's camera while the latter was shooting on Sulawesi. Caters has sent copyright threats to some sites that reproduced the image, prompting Techdirt (one of the nastygram recipients) to delve deeply into the question of the copyrightability of works created by non-humans.
Under US law (we'll deal with elsewhere soon), you have to have made the creative contributions (the copyrightable aspects) to the image to have it qualify for any copyright protection (and then, it's only the creative aspects that get the copyright). Thus, you could argue that if the photographer had set up the camera, framed the shot, and simply let the monkey click the shutter, perhaps there is some copyright there (though, even then it would likely be limited to some of the framing, and not much else). But David Slater has already admitted that the monkeys found a camera he had left out by accident and that he did not have anything to do with setting up the shot. He's stated that the monkeys were playing with the shiny objects and when one pushed the shutter, the noise interested them and they kept it up. It would be difficult to argue he made any sort of creative contribution here to warrant copyright.

Can the monkeys get the copyright? No. As Justin Levine kindly pointed out, according to the rules published by the US Copyright Office:

503.03 Works not capable of supporting a copyright claim.
Claims to copyright in the following works cannot be registered in the Copyright Office:
503.03(a) Works-not originated by a human author.
In order to be entitled to copyright registration, a work must be the product of human authorship. Works produced by mechanical processes or random selection without any contribution by a human author are not registrable. Thus, a linoleum floor covering featuring a multicolored pebble design which was produced by a mechanical process in unrepeatable, random patterns, is not registrable. Similarly, a work owing its form to the forces of nature and lacking human authorship is not registrable; thus, for example, a piece of driftwood even if polished and mounted is not registrable

Can We Subpoena The Monkey? Why The Monkey Self-Portraits Are Likely In The Public Domain

Video tour by a guy who lives in an abandoned hotel

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 02:44 PM PDT


[Video Link] A dapper fellow by the name of Augustus Gladstone (is that his real name?) posted a video to Youtube showing the room he lives in. It's a whimsically decorated place, but it's not until he takes you out into the empty hallway that it gets a little weird. He explains, "There ain't really any people who live here no more; I've got my one little place and that's about it." He goes on to tell us about the potential of moving into other vacant rooms and stealing electricity from the basement. Toward the end, he says, "No one is aware that I'm here."

Be sure to check out his other videos, too. He is quite a character.

Situflator: a tire-pumping rowing machine

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 02:19 AM PDT


The May, 1930 ish of Modern Mechanix featured this pneumatic tire-pump that appears to be a direct ancestor of the rowing machine: "The seat slides forward and backward on runners just as the seat on a racing boat does, enabling the operator to get a long, strong pull on the pump handle. As the work is distributed over the leg and back muscles, as well as those of the arms, the pump is pleasant and not fatiguing to use. The invention is appropriately called a Situflator."

New Easy-to-Operate Tire Pump (May, 1930)

Encyclopaedia of Hell by Satan: book preview

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 02:18 PM PDT

Hell-Book-01


Our friends at Feral House have published a bizarre and funny book in the vein of Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary, called Encyclopaedia of Hell by Satan: An Invasion Manual for Demons Concerning the Planet Earth and the Human Race Which Infests It. It was written by accomplished comedy writer Martin Olson, and designed by the wonderful Sean Tejaratchi creator of the exquisite Crap Hound clip art zine.

Hell-Book-02

A tour de force of darkness, Encyclopaedia of Hell is a manual of Earth written by Lord Satan for his invading hordes of demons, complete with hundreds of unpleasant illustrations, diagrams, and a comprehensive and utterly repulsive dictionary of Earth terms.

Since the customs and mores of humanity are alien and inconceivable to demons, Satan wrote this strangely poetic military handbook for the enlightenment and edification of his demon armies. A masterpiece expressing Satan's hatred for humanity and himself, the Encyclopaedia includes "Techniques of Stalking and Eating Humans," "Methods of Canning Human Pus," and "Dicing and Slicing Orphaned Children."

Why the invasion? During the last century in particular, Hell has become seriously overcrowded. Satan needs more land mass for the damned and to use the human livestock to feed his hungry demon invaders. Since this book is the 666th commemorative edition, this Encyclopaedia contains special commemorative material.

Here's a video of Ed Asner at his foul-mouthed best, cursing the praises of the book.

Martin Olson will be doing a signing at Comicon, Friday and Saturday (July 22 and 23), from 11 - 12. Geekscape will be hosting him at booth number 4016. And here's a link to a PDF preview of Encyclopaedia of Hell.

Buy Encyclopaedia of Hell on Amazon.

Woman grows nipple on sole of foot (NSFW?)

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 02:16 PM PDT

footnipple.jpg A 22-year-old woman sought medical care after noticing a "well-formed" nipple growing on the sole of her left foot. The nipple, complete with areola, hair, sweat and sebaceous glands, is the first known example of a "pseudomamma" in this unusual location. "Anomalies associated with breast development are not uncommon," wrote Dr. Délio Marques Conde et al., authors of a clinical report published in Dermatology. " ... Supernumerary breast tissue is rarely found beyond the mammary line. However, the back, shoulder, face, and thigh have been described as sites of SBT development. ... To our knowledge, this is the first report of SBT on the foot." Pseudomamma on the foot: An unusual presentation of supernumerary breast tissue [Dermatology via QT3]

TWIT TV: Xeni joins Leo Laporte, with Denise Howell, and Gina Smith (all-female-guests edition!)

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 02:39 PM PDT

[Video Link] and [Audio download]

I joined TWIT TV host Leo Laporte, and fellow guests Gina Smith (BYTE magazine, just re-launched) and Denise Howell (internet law expert) for the final episode from TWIT's longtime home in a cottage at Leo's house. TWIT will continue, of course, just not from that location: Leo and his team have built a swank new studio from which future editions will be webcast.

It's always a blast to join Leo for TWIT TV. And this rare "all-chicks edition" was particularly fun. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed recording it for you. Topics included...

Instantaneous Spotify, Netflix split, animated cat gifs, HTC infringement, tech and morality, and more.
Also flying uteruses.

Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/twit. Show notes, wiki page, links to stories we covered (and then some), transcript, and various downloadable versions are all here on the episode #310 page.

Running time: 01:32:58.

Brazilian bodges: "Gambiologia"

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 02:17 AM PDT


We Make Money Not Art features images and text from ""Gambiólogos - Kludging in a Digital Era," a Brazilian art show ("Gambiologia" is a Brazilian term for kludgey fixes and bodges). The show features art inspired by these makeshifts, as well as some of the makeshifts themselves. I'm fond of this replacement automotive side-mirror.
Gambiologia is something like "The science of gambiarra", which is a Brazilian cultural practice of solving problems creatively in alternative ways with low cost and lots of spontaneity, or giving unusual functions to everyday life objects. There is no exact translation for 'gambiarra' so we initially used kludge which means (from Wikipedia): 'a workaround, a quick-and-dirty solution, a clumsy or inelegant, yet effective, solution to a problem, typically using parts that are cobbled together'. In the US they'd call it makeshift. Gambiologia is the study of 'gambiarra' in a technological context.

We actually stopped translating Gambiologia at all :^)

I 'd say it is a specific kind of hacking - it's the proposal of hacking not only electronics or codes, but objects as well. It's about using things (or bits, maybe) in functions they were not initially proposed to. Modify them or join them in improvised and creative ways so they'll not accomplish the original task anymore. Using parts that were not supposed to be together to create a distressing whole. In our case it's also deeply linked to Brazilian folk culture.

Gambiologia, the Brazilian art and science of kludging

Brooks husband tries to reclaim mystery computer found in trashcan near home

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 01:33 PM PDT

The husband of former News of the World editor and Murdoch lieutenant Rebekah Brooks tried to claim possession of a computer, papers and cellphone discarded in a trashcan near her home today. He claims it is his computer, not hers, and that he "left the bag with a friend" who "dropped it in the wrong part of the garage" where the bin is. Someone handed it in to garage security, which gave it to police. From The Guardian:
Detectives are examining a computer, paperwork and a phone found in a bin near the riverside London home of Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International. ... It is understood the bag was handed into security at around 3pm and that shortly afterwards, Brooks's husband, Charlie, arrived and tried to reclaim it. He was unable to prove the bag was his and the security guard refused to release it.
Losing your computer in the trash immediately after your wife's arrest on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications? Really? Police examine bag found in bin near Rebekah Brooks's home

Olly Moss's new Captain America posters

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 12:24 PM PDT

 Images 2011 07 18 T-Magazine 18Olly-Viladas 18Olly-Viladas-Custom1  Images 2011 07 18 T-Magazine 18Olly-Viladas 18Olly-Viladas-Custom2

In the New York Times T Magazine blog, our pal Ben Marks of Collectors Weekly profiled designer/illustrator Olly Moss, whose work we've featured on BB several times. Most recently, Moss created limit edition posters for the new Captain America film. From the NYT:
One of the prints is dark and heroic, obviously the work of Allied propagandists. "A IS FOR VICTORY" it playfully proclaims. This is Moss at his finest — bold graphics, serious inspiration and a wry sense of humor. But this poster's evil twin is the apparent handiwork of an Axis artist, who has turned the Captain's mighty shield into an arrow-pierced target. As for its Nazi-style lettering, in German no less, it's downright creepy...

"I tend to prefer things with a really strong idea," Moss says, "things that are concept-focused. I kind of like the work to be functional, so it needs to be as simple as possible." Moss has employed this hard-working-minimalist approach throughout his brief career; the 24-year-old graduated in 2008 from the University of Birmingham in England, where he studied literature. "Design was a hobby that took off," he explains.

"Poster Boy Wonder"



Fibreboard rockets and subs

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 01:48 AM PDT


How To Be A Retronaut's got some tantalizing images of fibreboard rocketships and submarines, as advertised in the cheap classifieds of comic books for decades. These things are the perfect metaphor for the promise and reality of golden age science fiction, something between Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet and Fortress of Solitude.

Fibreboard Rockets & Sub

Fish uses tool

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 11:41 AM PDT

Fishtoooll
A series of shots including the one above are thought to be the first photographic evidence from the wild of a fish using a tool. It shows a blasckspot tuskfish about to smash a cockle against a rock to expose its flesh for eating. Scott Gardner took the photos back in 2006 at a depth of 60 feet in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Scienctists have just now published their study on the images and related data, titled "Tool use in the tuskfish Choerodon schoenleinii?." "Carry-out Cockles"

Tiny dinosaurs in minuscule bottles

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 11:42 AM PDT

Brontosaurus-Bottle
Japanese artist Akinobu builds architectural models as his day job, and creates exquisite "Tiny Worlds In A Bottle" for kicks. He sells them on eBay. Tiny World In A Bottle (via Smithsonian)

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