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“Ironic” Consumer Spending Habits: Brooklyn Hipster Style

Brooklyn hipsters have found a new way of filling their bellies that would probably turn your stomach — rummaging for and then feasting on expensive food that grocery chains toss in the trash.

“Doing this saves me hundreds of dollars a month on groceries,” said Dumpster-diving college student Ashley Fields, 23, of Bushwick, who fills her fridge each week with produce, sandwiches, coffee and even sushi that she gathers from the garbage in Manhattan.

The food they find — including prepared sushi, prepared salads and fresh bread — isn’t thrown out because it’s gone bad but because stores such as Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods simply can’t sell it if it’s still left on the shelf at the end of the day, say Fields and her trash-chowing pals.

So while the average New Yorker might shell out $7 for a large salad at Starbucks during the day, just hours later, Fields and a growing population of educated and working hipsters are getting the same, although leftover, salads for free.

Fields, a theater major originally from St. Louis, Mo., didn’t even get her hands dirty when she took a Post reporter on a tour-de-Dumpster of four produce chains down Third Avenue last week.

Most of the fresh, still-packaged goods were separated from other, less appetizing garbage into their own trash bags, as if Mom herself had readied a personal care package for them.

“You never know what’s going to be in these bags on any given night,” said Fields, who makes $500 to $600 a week at a theater job while going to school and has been scrounging for food since the beginning of summer.

“Like tonight, I found a bunch of great, healthy breakfast sandwiches. They’re totally fine”

Upper West Side Trader Joe’s manager Mason Bly said a lot of his store’s leftover food is donated to charities such as City Harvest, which collects unused goodies from businesses.

But for items not meeting City Harvest’s standards, the grub ends up with people like Fields.

“They dig through everything,” Bly told The Post of the Dumpster divers. “They know what they’re doing. We’ve had to change our trash-disposal policies to prevent them from doing it, but they still manage to get into everything.”

And he means everything. On Wednesday, Fields single-handedly scrounged more than $160 worth of fresh groceries from stores such as Starbucks, Gristedes and D’Agostino. Her 42-item haul included plastic-wrapped sandwiches worth $10 a pop, cookies, fruit bowls, expensive salads and even a five-pack of Izze sparkling sodas, which sell for $3.50 a bottle.

Dumpster-diving is getting popular. Thousands of New Yorkers have formed trashy groups through social Web sites such as Meetup and regularly pounce on grocers’ refuse.

Fields and her pals aren’t part of the “freegan” movement, in which environmentalists live off throwaway food as a political statement against corporate waste and big agri-business.

These Dumpster divers are just in it for cheap food.

“I’m not a freegan. It’s just a really easy way to save money on groceries,” Fields said.

“All that money is going into my pocket, and I’m actually eating pretty well.

“This generation isn’t homeless, filthy or even impoverished — just thrifty with an iron stomach,” Fields said.

Read more: http://trade.cc/afj

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{Mugshot Photo} Woman Charged with Felony Pimping Teen at #Occupy New Hampshire

 

  • JUSTINA JENSEN
MANCHESTER – A city woman is accused of pimping a 16-year-old girl she met in Victory Park during the Occupy NH demonstrations.

Justina Jensen, 23, of 341 Hanover St., is charged with felony prostitution. Police allege Jensen met a teen at the local protest, which is an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, and used the Internet to arrange a first liaison for the girl with a man who turned out to be an undercover police officer.

Police said the teen’s mother called them Thursday about noon to say her daughter was missing and that her photograph had been posted on a website advertising adult party entertainment.

Court documents show the mother told police she and a friend had used the website to negotiate a deal for the friend to pay for sex with the teen.

Investigators looked at the website and found the girl’s photo posted there, along with pictures of three other women, in an advertisement offering men to “come and have fun with four beautiful ladies” in Manchester.

Police said a woman who called herself “Remy” negotiated a telephone deal for “Mad Mike” to pay $150 to have sex with the teen called “Jewel.”

An undercover officer, identifying himself as “Mad Mike,” called “Remy” to find out where to go and she gave him her 341 Hanover St. address.

When he arrived at the address and Jensen confirmed she was “Remy,” the officer identified himself as a police officer and told Jensen she was under arrest. Police said Jensen attempted to reenter the building to escape, but the officer was able to stop her and, after some resistance, handcuff her.

The missing teen was found inside Jensen’s third-floor apartment. Court documents show the teenage girl told police that Jensen had taken her photo and posted it on the website and said Jensen was going to start training her to be a prostitute, with her first customer scheduled to be “Mad Mike.”

Police said Jensen was using her residence to facilitate prostitution involving an individual under the age of 18, so she is charged with felony prostitution. She was also charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest.

In Circuit Court-Manchester District Division Friday, Jensen repeatedly dozed off while waiting to be arraigned.

Jensen could enter no plea to the felony in Circuit Court, so a probable cause hearing was set for Nov. 10, when there will be a status hearing on the misdemeanor resisting arrest charge.

Police prosecutor Capt. Robert Cunha asked Judge Gregory Michael to set bail of $10,000 cash/surety for Jensen, with bail conditions that include no contact with the minor girl and a waiver of extradition.

Cunha said that in addition to concern for public safety, there is concern about two suicide attempts made by Jensen following her arrest.
He said she attempted to strangle herself with her shoelaces when she was left alone briefly in an interview room at the police department and, after she was taken to the Elliot Hospital, attempted to strangle herself with the ties of the hospital jonny. Cunha said Jensen struggled so violently at the hospital that she had to be sedated.

Cunha also said Jensen’s ties to the city are not strong. He said she was convicted of a similar charge earlier this year in New York.

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Obama vs. GOP on the Big Issue of Jobs

he partisan debate over jobs creation has descended into a blame game between President Obama and congressional Republicans.

President Barack Obama
Photo by: Pete Souza
President Barack Obama

“Over and over, they have refused to even debate the same kind of jobs proposals that Republicans have supported in the past – proposals that today are supported, not just by Democrats, but by Independents and Republicans all across America,” Obama complained in his radio address Saturday morning. “Meanwhile, they’re only scheduled to work three more weeks between now and the end of the year.

Republicans in the House respond that they’ve passed 15 job-creating bills only to have those measures bottled up in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

“We call these bills the ‘forgotten 15’,” Rep. Bobby Schilling of Illinois said in the Republican address Saturday.

“These are common-sense bills that address those excessive federal regulations that are hurting small business job creation,” said Rep. Schilling, a freshman lawmaker whose family owns a pizza business in Moline. “A number of them have bipartisan support. Yet the Senate won’t give these bills a vote, and the president hasn’t called for action.”

The essence of the divide remains: Increase federal investment to stimulate job creation versus easing environmental and other regulatory restrictions that critics say can hinder job creation.

As with much of the debate in Washington these days – including the effort by the bipartisan congressional “super committee” to cut the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion before draconian budget cuts kick in automatically – this one can’t avoid the subject of taxes.

READ THE REST HERE 

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Google’s YouTube Adding Original Programming

Google Inc. (GOOG)’s YouTube, the most popular video-sharing service, is adding new channels of original programming, an effort to attract viewers with professionally produced content.

The new programming will include channels created by celebrities and producers from the fields of music, television, film, news and sports,YouTube said yesterday. The first of these channels will appear next month, with more coming over the next year. The project’s budget is about $100 million, a person familiar with the plan said earlier this year.

“The Web is bringing us entertainment from an even wider range of talented producers, and many of the defining channels of the next generation are being born, and watched, on YouTube,” the company said in a blog posting.

Google, which mostly relies on Internet-search advertising, is looking to YouTube to help boost revenue from video ads. U.S. Web surfers watched an average of 19.5 hours last month, up from 18 hours in August, according to ComScore Inc.

The new channels will feature content from actress Amy Poehler, actor Ashton Kutcher and basketball star Shaquille O’Neal, as well as news and how-to content.

Last year, YouTube unveiled a program that provides grants to promising video producers.

Google rose $1.47 to $600.14 at the close in New York yesterday. Shares of the Mountain View, California-based company have climbed 1 percent this year.

SOURCE 

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Flash: Now More than 1 Million Without Power on East Coast

A rare October snowstorm bore down on the heavily populated U.S. Northeast on Saturday, knocking out power to a million customers, delaying flights and threatening some areas with up to a foot of snow.

By 2 p.m. EDT, New York City had broken an October snow record with 1.3 inches in Central Park, making this the snowiest October there since records began being kept in 1869, NBC New York reported.

Snow was coming down hard from central Pennsylvania to southeastern New York and Connecticut after hitting parts of Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland earlier in the day.

More than 1.1 million customers lost power in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey and Maryland, and utilities were bringing in crews from Ohio and Kentucky to help restore it. Officials had warned that the heavy, wet snow combined with fully leafed trees could lead to downed tree branches and power lines, resulting in power outages and blocked roads.

Delays were reported at Philadelphia International Airport and at New York area airports. At John F. Kennedy International Airport, some arrivals were delayed by more than four hours, and six hours at Newark Airport. One live flight tracking site, FlightAwaretweeted more than 1,000flights had been cancelled nationwide.

“It’s going to be wet, sticky and gloppy,” said NWS spokesman Chris Vaccaro. “It’s not going to be a dry, fluffy snow.”

Snow, snow and more
Communities inland are expected to get hit hardest by the storm. The heaviest snow was forecast for the Massachusetts Berkshires, the Litchfield Hills in northwestern Connecticut, southwestern New Hampshire and the southern Green Mountains.

Cherry Grove, W.Va., on the edge of the Monongahela National Forest, received at least 4 inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service.

Relatively warm water temperatures along the Atlantic seaboard could keep the snowfall totals much lower along the coast and in cities such as Boston, National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Simpson said, with 3 inches of snowfall forecast along the I-95 corridor.

While October snow is not unprecedented, this storm could be record-setting in terms of snow totals.

October snowfall records could be broken in parts of southern New England, especially at higher elevations, National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Simpson said. The October record for southern New England is 7.5 inches in Worcester in 1979.

READ THE REST HERE 

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SHOCK: U.S. State Dep’t Has it’s Own Foxconn Sweatshop Factory Program

For years, it has been touted as a form of vacation diplomacy: a U.S. government program that selects college students from across the globe to come work at beach resorts, amusement parks and other seasonal jobs. In the process, the visitors are expected to imbibe American culture, practice English and take home fond memories.

But in August, students complained that their work conditions were closer to a sweatshop than a summer break, sparking demands for government intervention and a firestorm of bad publicity that federal officials are trying to tamp down.

More than 300 young foreigners, packing candy in a warehouse in Pennsylvania, staged a high-profile walkout and protest against their employers and the State Department, which oversees the program. They alleged that they had been worked to exhaustion and had met few Americans except supervisors who pressed them to pack faster and threatened to have them deported.

“My parents agreed to send me because it would be a way to improve my English,” wrote Aysel Kiyaker, a student from Turkey who paid $3,000 for her airfare and work visa. “They told us the job would be easy and fun and they would have pizza parties for us.”

Instead, Kiyaker found herself lifting heavy boxes on long shifts in the rural factory, owned by the Hershey Co. “After work my whole body was numb,” she wrote in an affidavit for the National Guestworker Alliance. She said one friend was threatened after she complained, and another was fired for not working fast enough. “After that happened, people were more afraid.”

The nonprofit guest-worker group took up the students’ cause and filed a formal complaint against the State Department, as well as Hershey and the Council for Educational Travel USA (CETUSA), charging that they had exploited the students as cheap labor. The strike ignited a media frenzy and raised alarms in Congress, in part because of concerns that American workers were being displaced.

CETUSA, which manages the program for the State Department, denied the allegations. Company officials suggested that the striking students had been misled by union activists and said other students had been placed at Hershey for seven summers without any problems. Hershey officials said they owned the building but had no role in hiring or supervising the students, which were handled through subcontractors.

“If any of them were dissatisfied, we were not hearing it,” said Terry Watson, CETUSA’s president. “We sponsor thousands of students every summer. The great majority of them have a wonderful experience and go home spreading the good word of America.”

But the bad publicity stunned and embarrassed the State Department. Officials there promised to investigate the alleged abuses and review the program, which brings more than 100,000 foreign students to the United States every summer. Department officials said they are planning a major overhaul to prevent such problems from recurring and to reinforce the program’s diplomatic purpose.

“We want to make sure it meets our goals for worthwhile exchanges that promote better relations with other countries,” said Michael Hammer, an acting assistant secretary of state, adding that the summer jobs are supposed to be part of a “positive cultural experience.”

In July, before the Hershey case erupted, the department tightened program rules after reporting an increase in “fraudulent job offers, lax job vetting” and other problems. Yet Hammer said that more than 90 percent of students report being satisfied with their experiences — and that many reapply for a second summer.

Vlad Bicu, 26, a student from Romania, worked in Colonial Williamsburg for two summers and returned in June to work at an amusement park in Ohio. Each time he has saved his wages to travel around the United States before returning home. “I have seen all America now,” Bicu said this week while visiting New York. “Your Grand Canyon is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.”

Yin Fung Tan, 23, a student from Malaysia, spent the summer at Morey’s Piers, an amusement complex on the New Jersey shore, earning an average of $300 a week as a cashier and ride operator. The most important thing she learned was “to look people in the eye and speak to them,” she said. “In our culture we never do that.”

Company officials at Morey’s Piers said they recruit more than 700 foreign students each summer, traveling to job fairs from Singapore to Dublin. All start at $7.25 an hour and work alongside American students. “They learn from each other, and it changes their lives,” said Denise Beckson, director of human resources.

But labor activists asserted that the alleged abuses were far more typical than officials acknowledge. They said even students in lighter hospitality jobs are often underpaid, poorly housed and threatened with losing their visas or right to return if they complain.

“While the State Department was asleep at the wheel, this entire program has turned into a captive labor source where students are exploited for profit,” said Saket Soni, executive director of the guest-worker group. He said the program left U.S. workers “locked out” of steady jobs and foreign students “locked in.”

The State Department already has rules in place to protect foreign student workers, who must be paid minimum wage and are banned from certain risky or sensitive jobs, such as patient care and adult entertainment. Department officials said they are planning to add further safeguards before the next students arrive.

In the Hershey case, however, officials said only that their investigation is “ongoing” and that they have taken no action against CETUSA, Hershey or its subcontractors. In detailed formal complaints, the guest-worker group described systematic efforts to intimidate students who complained and charged that government investigators had worked in tandem with factory managers.

CETUSA, in turn, has fought back with competing affidavits from former Hershey workers. It quoted Lenka Vavrova, a Polish student, as saying she was “ashamed” of her co-workers for causing a fuss. They all knew what to expect at the candy factory, she wrote. “If they did not like it, they should have chosen something else.”

SOURCE  

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THE GREAT HALLOWEEN SNOWSTORM SURPRISE OF 2011 #Snowtober

FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVCE FOR THE TRI-STATE REGION

Winter Storm Warning

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
427 PM EDT SAT OCT 29 2011

...A HISTORIC EARLY SEASON SNOWSTORM FOR THE TRI-STATE REGION
TONIGHT...

NJZ006-NYZ071>075-176>178-300430-
/O.CON.KOKX.WS.W.0008.000000T0000Z-111030T0600Z/
HUDSON-SOUTHERN WESTCHESTER-NEW YORK (MANHATTAN)-BRONX-
RICHMOND (STATEN ISLAND)-KINGS (BROOKLYN)-NORTHERN QUEENS-
NORTHERN NASSAU-SOUTHERN QUEENS-
427 PM EDT SAT OCT 29 2011

...WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 AM EDT SUNDAY...

* LOCATIONS...THE NEW YORK CITY METROPOLITAN AREA.

* HAZARD TYPES...HEAVY SNOW AND WIND.

* ACCUMULATIONS...6 TO 10 INCHES OF SNOW.

* WINDS...NORTH 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 55 MPH.

* TEMPERATURES...IN THE LOWER 30S.

* VISIBILITIES...ONE QUARTER MILE OR LESS AT TIMES.

* TIMING...HEAVY SNOW WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THIS EVENING. SOME
  RAIN MAY MIX WITH THE SNOW AT TIMES. THE SNOW WILL TAPER OFF
  FROM WEST TO EAST LATE TONIGHT. IN ADDITION TO THE HEAVY
  SNOW...WINDS WILL INCREASE THIS EVENING...AND LAST THROUGH MOST
  OF THE NIGHT.

* IMPACTS...WIDESPREAD DOWNED TREES AND POWER OUTAGES CAN BE
  EXPECTED. TRAVEL WILL BE EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS...ESPECIALLY
  AFTER DARK.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER
CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW
ARE FORECAST THAT WILL MAKE TRAVEL DANGEROUS. ONLY TRAVEL IN AN
EMERGENCY. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL...KEEP AN EXTRA FLASHLIGHT...FOOD...
AND WATER IN YOUR VEHICLE IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.

&&

$$

 

Special Weather Statement

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
436 PM EDT SAT OCT 29 2011

CTZ007>010-NJZ006-106-108-NYZ071>075-176>178-300030-
NORTHERN MIDDLESEX-NORTHERN NEW LONDON-SOUTHERN FAIRFIELD-
SOUTHERN NEW HAVEN-HUDSON-EASTERN ESSEX-EASTERN UNION-
SOUTHERN WESTCHESTER-NEW YORK (MANHATTAN)-BRONX-
RICHMOND (STATEN ISLAND)-KINGS (BROOKLYN)-NORTHERN QUEENS-
NORTHERN NASSAU-SOUTHERN QUEENS-
436 PM EDT SAT OCT 29 2011

...EXTREMELY DANGEROUS TRAVEL CONDITIONS...WITH WIDESPREAD DOWNED
TREES...TREE LIMBS AND POWER OUTAGES EXPECTED THROUGH 8 PM...

OCCASIONAL BANDS OF HEAVY WET SNOW WILL CONTINUE TO AFFECT THE
AREA THROUGH 8 PM...WITH SNOW FALL RATES OF UP TO 1 INCH PER
HOUR. EMBEDDED THUNDER WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE IN THE HEAVY SNOW
BANDS. RAIN MAY BRIEFLY MIX IN WITH THE SNOW WHEN PRECIPITATION
LIGHTENS. EXTREMELY DANGEROUS TRAVEL CONDITIONS WILL CONTINUE WITH
SNOW COVERED ROADS AND VISIBILITIES REDUCED TO 1/4 MILE OR LESS AT
TIMES.

WINDS WILL ALSO BE INCREASING THROUGH THE EVENING HOURS TO 20 TO
30 MPH WITH GUSTS 40 TO 55 MPH...HIGHEST CLOSER TO THE COAST. THE
COMBINATION OF STRONG WINDS AND HEAVY WET SNOW ON TREES WITH
PARTIAL OR FULL FOLIAGE WILL CONTINUE TO PRODUCE WIDESPREAD DAMAGE
AND POWER OUTAGES.

THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM...WITH NON ESSENTIAL TRAVEL NOT
RECOMMENDED. MONITOR THE NATIONAL WEATHER FORECASTS FOR THE
LATEST.

$$

 

Coastal Flood Advisory

COASTAL HAZARD MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
419 PM EDT SAT OCT 29 2011

...WIDESPREAD MINOR COASTAL FLOODING EXPECTED DURING THE TIMES OF
HIGH TIDE TONIGHT...

...HIGH SURF FOR ATLANTIC BEACHES TONIGHT...

NJZ006-106-108-NYZ072-074-300430-
/O.CON.KOKX.CF.Y.0021.000000T0000Z-111030T0500Z/
HUDSON-EASTERN ESSEX-EASTERN UNION-NEW YORK (MANHATTAN)-
RICHMOND (STATEN ISLAND)-
419 PM EDT SAT OCT 29 2011

...COASTAL FLOOD ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1 AM EDT
SUNDAY...

* LOCATIONS...COAST OF NEW YORK HARBOR.

* TIDAL DEPARTURES...2 TO 2.5 FEET TONIGHT.

* TIMING...TODAY AND TONIGHT.

* IMPACTS...WIDESPREAD MINOR COASTAL FLOODING. THERE IS THE
  POTENTIAL FOR LOCALLY MODERATE COASTAL FLOODING WITH THE HIGH
  TIDE TONIGHT.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A COASTAL FLOOD ADVISORY INDICATES THAT ONSHORE WINDS AND TIDES
WILL COMBINE TO GENERATE FLOODING OF LOW AREAS ALONG THE SHORE.

&&

...NEW YORK HARBOR WATER LEVELS FOR TODAY AND TONIGHT...

COASTAL............TIME OF......FORECAST TOTAL.....FLOOD.....
LOCATION...........HIGH TIDE.....WATER LEVEL.......CATEGORY..
.................................(MLLW/NGVD).................

THE BATTERY NY.....1111 PM...........6.8...........MINOR.....
BERGEN POINT NY....1107 PM...........7.2...........MINOR.....

$$

 

Hazardous Weather Outlook

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
403 PM EDT SAT OCT 29 2011

NJZ006-106-108-NYZ072-074-302015-
HUDSON-EASTERN ESSEX-EASTERN UNION-NEW YORK (MANHATTAN)-
RICHMOND (STATEN ISLAND)-
403 PM EDT SAT OCT 29 2011

...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 AM EDT SUNDAY...
...COASTAL FLOOD ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 1 AM EDT SUNDAY...

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY AND
SOUTHEAST NEW YORK.

.DAY ONE...TONIGHT.

PLEASE LISTEN TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR GO TO WEATHER.GOV ON THE
INTERNET FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FOLLOWING HAZARDS.

   WINTER STORM WARNING.
   COASTAL FLOOD ADVISORY.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY.

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME THAT WOULD MEET
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WARNING CRITERIA.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER
CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES.

&&

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK PROVIDES A SUMMARY OF POTENTIAL
WIDESPREAD HAZARDOUS WEATHER EVENTS THAT MAY REACH NWS WARNING
CRITERIA. MOST LONG FUSED NWS WATCHES...WARNINGS AND ADVISORIES IN
EFFECT ARE HIGHLIGHTED.

PLEASE REFER TO THE LATEST NWS FORECASTS FOR WEATHER NOT MEETING NWS
WARNING CRITERIA.

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