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October 29, 2004
Pre-Election Back-and-Forth Turns (Pardon the Pun) Explosive
Those missing explosives in Iraq are spinning the spin machine like few other topics of late. If you're of the "Saddam had WMD all along" persuasion (with a hint of Commie intrigue thrown in), the Washington Times version of events is being linked heavily among bloggers.
Or if you're pretty certain that the U.S. invading forces had far more security troops defending the Iraqi oil ministry and oil fields than they had at the explosives-heavy Al Qaqaa, you're probably more inclined toward the footage from a Minnesota news crew that was reporting from the site just days after Bagdhad fell. Videographer Joe Caffrey and reporter Dean Staley jumped to Nos. 1 and 4 on today's Bursty People list. Also on the list at No. 2 is researcher Les Roberts, who reported this week that up to 100,000 more Iraqis have died, since the U.S. invasion, than would have been expected to die under normal circumstances in that country.
But if all this political blabbing and the incessant swing-state commercials have caused you to tune out already, maybe you'll get a laugh from commentary on this week's season-opening episode of South Park, perhaps the funniest slam yet of this year's election choices. Let's just say the kids at South Park Elementary were glad to keep the cow as their mascot rather than choose between the two options they otherwise faced (and please don't make me print it in public)
And don't forget to check BlogPulse's Campaign Radar 2004 Roundup, an analysis of politcal content in blogs during this campaign season. The graphic representations of bloggers' abilities to keep issues alive...or debunk them, if necessary is captured in these bottom-of-the-page analyses. It specifically tracks the blob buzz about the Swift Boat veterans campaign and the fallout of CBS' "memogate" reporting on President Bush's National Guard Service.
TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Today's Bush vs. Kerry graph shows just how close this election could/will/can/might be.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:18 PM | Permalink
October 28, 2004
Top Political Issue: Iraq...and Election Build-Up Buzz
From the first day that Intelliseek's Campaign Radar 2004 hit the web, the Iraq war has remained the most blogged-about issue, according to a deeper look at the topics, people, links and issues being discussed in political blog postings. And Iraq-related discussion, as well as discussion of jobs/economy, health-care and other issues, has either tracked or, in some cases, preceded ongoing events and campaign-related news as the nation heads toward next Tuesday's election.
Find all the results at the Campaign Radar 2004 Roundup page that went live on Wednesday, Oct. 27.
But the issues-related data highlights an interesting point: bloggers' political postings clearly mirrored ongoing news events, including the Presidential debates, the political party conventions, the milestone of 1,000 U.S. casualties in Iraq, the Swift Boat Veterans charges and fallout of the CBS "60 Minutes" report on President Bush's National Guard Service. Similar event-related spikes also appeared in tracking of blog buzz regarding the two major presidential candidates and the vice presidential candidates as well.
And what's happening in the blogosphere as the countdown to Election Day continues? Well, there's the case of 60,000 missing absentee ballots in everyone's favorite voting state, Florida. And someone who posted negative commentary about the sitting president in her Moon and Antarctica LiveJournal blog got a visit from the Secret Service and writes some insightful commentary about the experience. (Can't help myself here as I stuff my tongue firmly in cheek, but do you suppose it was same guys from the Cat Stevens patrol?)
And remember the Oct. 20 BlogPulse entry about "Silence of the Domes," the video showing John Edwards tending to his hair before a TV appearance? Today's BlogPulse 40th top link has the George Bush version of hair-taming...and a little frat-boy "one-finger victory salute" thrown in at the end. (Be patient...it may take a few seconds to load).
BLOGPULSE TREND OF THE DAY: Seems bloggers are more focused on potential voter fraud in next week's election than in the count that really counts -- the electoral college.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:56 AM | Permalink
October 27, 2004
Top Political Bloggers: Campaign Radar 2004 Results
For the past several months, Intelliseek's Campaign Radar 2004 has been analyzing politics-related discussion and postings of political content in blogs. And the findings, released today, show some very clear trends and favorites. Find them all at the Campaign Radar 2004 Roundup page.
TOP POLITICAL BLOGS: Matt Drudge's Drudge Report (nearly 7,800 citations), Markos Moulitsas Zuniga's DailyKos (7,700) and Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit (6,900) are the blogs that other bloggers cite most frequently in their political postings. Other top blogs: Atrios ranked 4th, Powerlineblog ranked 5th, Talking Points Memo ranked 6th, Little Green Footballs was 10th, and Wonkette was 15th. John Kerry's campaign blog came placed in 22nd place with 1,616 links, while President George Bush's blog placed 50th with 581 links.
TOP MEDIA SOURCES: Bloggers just LOVE to include lots of links to news stories and articles published elsewhere, and when they do, they rely most heavily on the New York Times (45,000 citations), followed by the Washington Post (33,000), Yahoo! News (27,000), CNN (24,500), MSNBC (17,000), the National Review (12,400) and the BBC (10,500).
TOP ISSUES: Iraq remained the top issue throughout most of the campaign, flirting only briefly with the economy. Iraq-related postings grabbed anywhere from 11%-30% of citations in all political blog postings, while the economy ranged from 7%-13%, followed by health care issues at 3.5%-9.5%.
For full results and illustrative graphs, visit the brand spankin' new Campaign Radar 2004 Roundup Page or check back in coming days on BlogPulse for more findings and commentary.
OTHER BLOGPULSE NEWS: The ability to search links is now available at BlogPulse! Thanks to the amazing BlogPulse team (especially Natalie, Mark, Cecilly and Sundar), BlogPulse visitors can now type a URL into the search box, and BlogPulse will return the posts which link to that URL. The same function is available via BlogPulse's advanced search function by using the drop-down box titled "Find blogs that link to". Enjoy!
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:34 AM | Permalink
October 25, 2004
A Milli Vanilli Moment...and Wolves!
I didn't watch Saturday Night Live over the weekend, and I didn't need to. Bloggers took care of it by including plenty of links and references to Ashlee Simpson's embarrassing lip-synch performance all over the blogosphere by Monday.
(If you didn't see it, she began mouthing the words to the wrong song during her second tune of the night and ran off-stage while the band played on). For that bit of musical lore, she jumped to No. 2 on Monday's top people list, squeezing in nicely between the Prez and the Senator, and references to the evening took the top four spots among BlogPulse's key phrases. Even Milli Vanilli, that late '80s pop group shunned out of popdom for faking the lyrics, got a few mentions. Hint to Ashlee: it's called Saturday Night LIVE for a reason.
And wolves? Have you seen the latest Bush commercial that uses bristly-looking wolves to carry the message that Sen. John Kerry isn't prepared to fight the war on terror? No sooner did it hit the air than one animal-loving conservationist with a serious message launched Wolfpacksfortruth.org. On the not-so-serious front, The Poor Man blog re-styled the wolves advertisement to remove some of the fear and add in a bit of warm-'n'-fuzzy adorability.
What does it say about an incumbent conservative when even The American Conservative has nothing good to say? For equal time, Sun-Times columnist Mark Steyn has no soft spot for Kerry, either.
TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Electoral jitters continue to climb as Nov. 2 approaches.
The Freedom for All blog also used BlogPulse's trend-graphing abilities to plot some intriguing candidat-related concepts. Who is the liar? The good man? Evil?
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:56 AM | Permalink
October 22, 2004
Homerun Whackers, Wacky Cousins and Witch Wackiness?
First, you've gotta give credit to the Boston Red Sox, the come-from-behind, what-curse? baseball team whose win over the New York Yankees this week earned a whopping 16 of the top 20 key phrases in Thursday's BlogPulse results. Making it to the No. 3 spot among the most blogged-about people was player Johnny Damon, one of many Sox team members who sealed the win; Sox owner Larry Lucchino made it to the burstiest people list at No 2. Says everyone in Boston (and New York, for that matter): Bring on the Cardinals!
From baseball, we delve directly into genealogy and Thursday's third most trafficked link: Bush Relatives for Kerry. Seems Dubya's distant cousins, most of whom have never met the Prez, have taken family matters into their own hands on a web site where they explain why they're voting for his opponent in the upcoming Presidential election ("because blood is thinner than oil!"). Speaking of cousins, are Bush and Kerry really ninth cousins once removed? That family tree appears as No. 7 among Thursday's top links.
From there, head on down to Link No. 29, What Kerry Stands For. It's one college student's attempt to add a dose of levity to the world of fabricated, hyped journalism. And it's worth a few laughs, too.
First dodgeball restirctions, now this. If you had any hankering to put on your witch costume and go trick-or-treating at a school in Pullayup, Washington, you can forget it. The district's canceled Halloween celebrations because they distract from learning, take up too much time and might be offensive to real Wiccans (witches). That's why spokeswoman Karen Hansen is among Thursday's burstiest people, and so it skeptical parent Silas Macon.
TODAY'S TREND GRAPH: Name-calling, political labels, smear tactics. Call the practice what you want. Here's how it looks.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 02:13 PM | Permalink
October 21, 2004
The Warm, Fuzzy Side of Blogs: Bygone Baseball Curses and Electoral Kids
How about those Red Sox? Bloggers who were tuned into the Yankees vs. Red Sox showdown were active this week, wowed not only by Sox pitcher Curt Schilling but by the team's record-breaking come-from-behind wins in the American league playoffs.
As for the youth movement, Nickelodeon news host Linda Ellerbee jumped to the top of BlogPulse's top people based on the results of Nickelodeon's mock youth vote. Noting that Nick's kids have correctly picked the Presidential winner in the last four elections, Nick News announced that Kerry won this year's contest with 57% of the vote; incumbent President Bush got 44%. (Although one astute child observed that in 2000, the kids chose Bush, while Al Gore actually won the popular vote).
On the adult political front, some of us wonder why and how Pat Robertson continues to be sought out as an "expert," but that's another essay. His comments to CNN newswoman Paula Zahn are drawing fire from all sides -- Democrats who are using it as more proof that the Bush Administration rushed into the war in Iraq unprepared and misugded, and Republican officials claiming Robertson obviously didn' t hear, mean or recall what he said he did.
Today's 14th burstiest phrase is vague ("Bush Administration and the failure of Congress to gain release") but piqued the curiosity nonetheless. It hints to a CIA post 9/11 report, one that's been completed since June but whose release is being delayed (conveniently?) until after the Nov. 2 election. The fullest reference is at W. David Stephenson's homeland security blog.
And whether a military draft is a forced issue or not, it's out there, and today's 18th top link is to EnjoyThe Draft.com. Yes, that's Jenna and Barbara in military fatigues.
TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Can you guess how many hurricanes Florida endured recently? And when Mount St. Helens started acting up again? Mother Nature tells the story.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:09 AM | Permalink
October 20, 2004
Good Hair Days, More TV Politics...and BlogPulse Link Search!
First, an announcement about new features at BlogPulse. In addition to searching for key words or phrases, BlogPulse users can now take advantage of link search. Simply type a URL into the search box (top of the home page), and BlogPulse will return the posts lining to that URL. Link Search is also available on the advanced search page by using the "Find blogs that link to" function. Search away!
Now to today's Blogosphere: When Sen. John Kerry chose Sen. John Edwards as his running mate, he joked about Edwards' healthy head of hair. A short video clip called "Silence of the Domes" appeared as Wednesday's third-most-linked-to item in BlogPulse (it requires Windows Media Player for viewing). He's ready for his cameo now....
For those Republicans who long for the good ol' days of the Grand Old Party, here's an essay by former Michigan Gov. William G. Milliken on why he's a Republican for Kerry.
And over in TV land, comedian Jon Stewart continues to get blog hits all over the place for his appearance last week on Crossfire, bumping him to the No. 3 spot among key personalities. Meanwhile, new on the TV-related blog scene is now-fired John Lieberman, former Washington Bureau Chief for Sinclair Broadcasting. Lieberman was fired earlier this week for describing his employer's airing of a one-hour anti-Kerry documentary this week as partisan politics masquerading as news and a disservice to viewers who expect objectivity and fairness from the newsroom. Sinclair, meanwhile, has stirred the pot on a variety of fronts -- media commentators, stock analysts, government regulators.
On the issue of separation of church and state, this bit of news about the Catholic Church and John Kerry. Do we really want spin.....from the clergy?
But how about those Red Sox? Boston fans are ecstatic at the down-to-the-wire finish for their team...and hoping that curses are soon a thing of the past.
And for the gadget-hungry, here's one called "TV-B-Gone," from inventor Mitch Altman. Seems he's come up with a remote control that can turn off just about any TV from a distance, and he has a special dislike for public TVs (those in restaurants, etc...). The reviewers at Gizmodo.com have special dislike for Altman, while a few other bloggers hint that they'll make sure to hide such a device -- if it ever hits the market -- from their wives.
TODAY'S BLOGPULSE TREND: Flu shots and health-care coverage. Will they emerge as an election-year issue? See how buzz is tracking now...
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:00 AM | Permalink
October 18, 2004
The Comedic Influence on This Year's Election
What does it say about a presidential election when comedians, in the form of fake news show anchors and puppet animators, get more than their fair share of "buzz" among bloggers? It's true.
Over the weekend, the number of links and mentions of Jon Stewart's not-so-funny appearance on CNN's Crossfire increased on BlogPulse. "The Daily Show" host didn't play such a yuck-yuck to hosts Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson, instead calling their behavior "partisan hackery" and damaging to democracy.
Likewise, references to Matt Stone's and Trey Parker's new movie, "Team America: World Police" also picked up over the weekend, with the bloggers at Evilcon calling it a "laff riot."
It didn't take long for Sunday's New York Times endorsement of Sen. John Kerry to show up in the blogosphere. And accompanying it was Ron Suskind's article in the paper's Sunday magazine about Bush's intersection of faith and politics. Read the article here (registration required). Will moderate Republicans revolt starting Nov. 3 if the President is re-elected?
Friday's BlogPulse results also thrust into the spotlight at least seven U.S. military personnel, their relatives and their Congressman, all because a reservist unit in Iraq refused to go on a supply run because they felt their trucks and equipment were unsafe. In fact, seven of Friday's burstiest people are involved in the ongoing dispute.
On the technology front, Google's Desktop Search Download caught attention last week and continues to garner blog traffic and discussion. And if ongoing world events didn't make us jittery enough about stuff like safety and security, the shortage of flu vaccines is there to remind us that something is always out to get us.
TRACK THE CAMPAIGN NOW: Be sure to use Intelliseek's Campaign Radar 2004 to track the political campaign buzz now through Nov. 2 Election Day.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:20 AM | Permalink
October 14, 2004
Now Things Are Getting Really Interesting (That's an Understatement)
Observers predicted this Presidential election would be close. But did anyone think it would get this, what shall we call it, intense? Downright nasty at times? Enough to want to make you just turn off the TV and quit buying the newspaper for a few more Tuesday's until it's all over?
Yesterday's brou-ha-ha over Sinclair Broadcast Group's decision to air an anti-Kerry documentary "Stolen Honor" is joined today by concerns about voter registration fraud linked to the GOP-funded Voters Outreach America. Did some registration workers tear up and throw away the registration forms of Democratic voters and turn in only the forms for Republican voters, as former workers claim? The name of political organizer Nathan Sproul, fourth on Thursday's bursty people list, keeps popping up in connection with the controversy.
And if that's not ALL, how's this for an extra soap-opera-ist twist to your election coverage? "No-Spin Zoner" Bill O'Reilly, 55, has been sued for sexual harassment by one of his show's 33-year-old producers. Legitimate or extortion? Bloggers will no doubt blog about it, you decide...
On another totally unrelated topic, the curious name of "Shel Silverstein Six" tops today's bursty people list. Shel Silverstein is a late children's book author (and one of my personal all-time favorite poets), but Shel Silverstein Six? Seems that a Silverstein poem was posted on numerous blogs commentaring this week's sixth anniversary of the death of gay student Matthew Shepard.
DEBATES ARE OVER: LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN: Now that the debates are officialy over, be sure to rely on Intelliseek's Campaign Radar 2004 to follow blog "buzz" about the political scene from now through Nov. 2 and for a week or two beyond.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:36 PM | Permalink
October 13, 2004
The Surprising Topics That Surface in Blogs
Three weeks from now, we'll know who the next President is. The World Series countdown is on. The final Presidential debate is tonight. But Monday's designation as National Coming Out Day moved the late Matthew Shephard to the top of Tuesday's bursty people list. Shepard, for those who don't remember, was beaten to death six years ago in Wyoming because he was gay, and the anniversary of his death has become a rallying point for the gay community, especially teens who face the challenges he did.
Back on the campaign trail, avid readers want to know: Who are some of the nation's best-known novelists voting for this November? Slate.com asked and got these opinions.
Christopher Reeves' death also touched off plenty of discussion and reminiscing among bloggers, many of whom included links to Patti Davis' Newsweek essay on the death of her father, the late President Ronald Reagan. As one blogger noted, get out your hankie.
Also appearing for the first time are references to the recently released report from Human Rights Watch, which found that at least 11 Al Qaeda detainess in U.S. custody are missing. Can't be found. No record of what's happened to them. Not only that, CNN also reports that nuclear materials in U.S.-occupied Iraq also have disappeared. (Do you feel safer yet?)
BLOGPULSE GRAPH OF THE DAY: PRIME-TIME TELEVISION. Which of the new-season TV shows are getting the most traction? Seems those housewives aren't so desperate after all.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 04:38 PM | Permalink
October 11, 2004
Now Everybody's Asking: "Was Bush Wired?"
Seems everybody else is talking about it: just what WAS that square thing under President Bush's suit jacket during the first debate in Miami? A seam wrinkle? A shadow? Or a wireless device from which someone off-stage was feeding him answers to debate questions?
Salon.com posted an article hypothesizing its purpose, then bloggers started buzzing about the photos and the phenom late last week, and the issue is all over the mainstream media by now, including a Saturday shortie in the New York Times and Monday-morning mentions in Technology Review's online newsletter and Online Media News' online newsletter. An entire web site, Is Bush Wired? has been set up to examine the issue (although high traffic to its servers might make it temporarily unavailable at times). Which raises the next question: if it WAS a wireless device, whose voice was prompting the president? And how often does this sort of "prompting" happen? (And what does that say about our leader's ability to think on his feet? With his own brain?)
That's the heavy part of politics today. But who said politics had to be serious business all the time? Those guys at JibJab are back at it again, and while the novelty factor might not be the same, you gotta give 'em credit for creativity. "Good to be in DC" is a satire-heavy equal opportunity animated clip that pokes fun at everything election-related and most things D.C.-related. By comparison, the You Forgot Poland web site, No. 35 among Saturday's burstiest phrases, pokes direct fun at the current resident of 1600 Pennylsvania Avenue. Making it to the fifth spot among Sunday's key phrases is Trey Parker and Matt Stone's (the South Park guys) new movie, "Team America: World Police," a puppet version of the war on terror and apparently a big poke in the eye with a sharp stick for politicians, governments and just about everything held sacred, according to sneak previews.
For Boston baseball fans, the words Red Sox won" are as full of hope and another chance at a World Series are they weighted down by a sense of foreboding and a fear of longstanding curses.
BLOGPULSE NEWS: Thanks to everyone for the feedback and suggestions that continue to filter our way. Campaign Radar 2004, the politics-only showcase of our blog-tracking technology, was featured Oct. 8 in the Cincinnati Business Courier. We certainly appreciate the traffic, and we we apologize for any disruption of service or slow results at BlogPulse and Campaign Radar 2004 because of some glitches we've encountered the past few days. Our tech gurus are hard at work tweaking and fixing, and things should be running smoothly very soon.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 02:06 PM | Permalink
October 07, 2004
It's A "Get No Respect" Kind of Day....
First, a tip of our "Caddyshack" golf hats to the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield, whose death this week generated numerous mentions and remembrances among bloggers. I saw him only once in person, when he christened Cincinnati's Riverbend Music Center, and my stomach muscles literally ached for days afterwards. He might not have gotten any respect, but he sure got the laughs
In a similar vein, what some people don't get, apparently, are the correct domain names of certain web sites. When Veep Dick Cheney told debate listeners Thursday night to indepently verify Sen. John Edwards' charges about Halliburton, he told them to visit FactCheck.com, which defaulted for some reason to George Soros' anti-Bush site. In actuality, Cheney meant to direct listeners to FactCheck.org. Traffic at both sites has been, let's just say, heavy the past few days. (In fact, FactCheck.org might not load because of the volume of traffic it's been receiving).
Other debate tidbits? Remember when Cheney said he'd never met Edwards before? They'd met, on several occasions. The Kerry-Edwards blog quickly posted at least one photo. In post-debate days, Cheney moved into the top position of BlogPulse's key people, while Edwards is second.
He's baaaaaack, in more ways that one. Whether you love him or detest him, filmmaker/loudmouth Michael Moore is one presence who won't go away. This week's release of "Fahrenheit 9/11" on DVD is one reason for his continued presence in the blogosphere. So are excerpts from an upcoming book, published recently in The Guardian. These excerpts include letters written to Moore by soldiers who are serving or have served in Iraq/Afghanistan. He's also being lambasted by Michigan newspapers for bribing voters...with free underwear, Tostitos and Ramen noodles. Moore's on a nationwide "Slacker Tour" to drum up new voters.
Out of nowhere appears arms inspector Charles Duelfer, whose report to Congressional officials this week said Saddam Hussein had the "intent" to build weapons of mass destruction but none of the materials that the Bush Administration claimed existed as their excuse for the corporate takeov..., excuse me, the invasion of Iraq.
TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: They found him in a spidey hole. He's still in prison. He was interrogated for information included in the most recent arms inspector's report. He won't go away. Deposed bad-guy Saddam Hussein continues to get talked about more than his active Iraqi replacements.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 03:48 PM | Permalink
October 04, 2004
Things are MOVING...Election Polls, Lava Domes & Fox News Web-Site removals
Here we are, still hashing out last Thursday's presidential debate, wondering what the Cheney-Edwards encounter in Cleveland will bring on Tuesday, and trying to guess how this Friday's town-hall-style re-match between Sen. Kerry and President Bush will shake out.
But what are people REALLY talking about? Mount St. Helens, for one, the Washington volcano that's waking up again. A "volcano cam" is now available online with images that refresh about every five minutes. References to the camera appear in the No. 10 spot on today's list of burstiest phrases.
Taking the top spot on that list is the latest Newsweek Poll that gives Sen. Kerry a two-point edge in its first post-debate poll of registered voters. Also high on the list are references to "aluminum tubes" and "nuclear weapons programs," the result of a New York Times weekend article about the Bush Administration's apparent decision to downplay Energy Department officials who disputed intelligence about the purpose of aluminum tubes found in Iraq before the U.S. invasion. The Bush Administration claimed the tubes were evidence of Iraq's re-entry into a nuclear weapons program, while doubters said the tubes were for launching small arterillery rockets, not nuclear weapons. It's obvious now who won that debate.
Speaking of debates, Sen. Kerry's reference to a "global test" for pre-emptive strikes brought about this tonque-in-cheek Global Test. Take it today!
On another matter, a few bloggers are claiming that Sen. Kerry broke the voluminous debate rules by pulling something -- notes, they say -- out of his pocket just before the debate started. But as the InDC blog explains, he removes "what look like note cards or papers from his right jacket pocket" at the podium. Or was it a handkerchief? A pocket pack of tissues? We'll never know.
Fox News' political reporter, Carl Cameron, is surfacing for several reasons: a fake news story that poked fun at Kerry's debate performance was posted (erroneously and "without malice," Fox later claimed) on the Fox web site after the debate. References to it and other Cameron tactics are available at the Talking Points memo blog (10/2 entries). In the Dan Rather spirit of political coverage, will Fox demand the resignation of one of its own? Hmmm....
Does any remember Abu Ghraib? Guantanamo Bay? Lieut. Col. Anthony Christino and David Rose are Nos. 2 and 4, respectively, among Sunday's burstiest people because of an upcoming report on intelligence failures at the Cuban detention prison. Christino retired last year after 20 years in the military, and British journalist Rose authored the upcoming report, to be published this week.
GET THE FULL POLITICAL PICTURE of ongoing discussions on the key issues in this year's Presidential campaign at BLogPulse's Campaign Radar 2004.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:12 AM | Permalink
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