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Eight trendy issues you’ll at all times remorse spending hard-earned cash on

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When something is trending it often means that at some point it will fall out of trend to make way for a new one.

If you’ve bought this year’s must-have kitchen accessories and spent money making the perfect match for your living room, chances are you’ll want to do the same again next year.

Yankelovich, a research firm, said the average modern person was exposed to 5,000 ads a day in 2007 – imagine what that number will look like today.

Most of the ads we see are based on social media and are very good at convincing us that we need something new and that the items are worth the money to be bought.

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Shopping for fashionable items can be bad for our savings plan

This is a recipe for disaster for those looking to save their money or work on a tight budget. Here are some ways to avoid spending money on fashionable items, or at least keep costs to a minimum.

Popular jeans styles

Jeans styles are coming in and out of fashion and as one of the staples of our casual wardrobe, it’s no surprise that they are one of the most alluring pieces of clothing in our closet to freshen up.

This is a tricky purchase, however, and if you read a fashion blog about “Buying Jeans That Fit Me” you will know that there are rules about what looks good.

And when you feel comfortable about something, wear it and the more often you wear it, the better the value for money.

Not everyone goes with baggy jeans, and not everyone can wear mid-rise or flared pants, so the best advice is to wait for your feel-good style to become fashionable and invest in a really good pair instead of buying many different models that You buy will never wear.

Instagram cookware

Spending money on cookware for less than its functionality and durability is a gray area.

If you’re a home improvement lover or follow aesthetically pleasing accounts on social media platforms like Instagram or Pinterest, you’ve likely come across the flawless displays of matching cream pans, marble accessories, and crystal drink stirrers.

Keep in mind that what you see may not be an accurate representation of the product, or at least it may not look like what it looks like in your kitchen – there’s a reason stainless steel and black Teflon work well in most kitchen designs.

Some trendy sets reach hundreds of pounds and others add up the more pieces you buy and after you’ve used the cream pan a few times it can look worn out. So think about practicality, durability and the space you have in your closet.

Personalized vitamins and nutritional supplements

Vitamin packs tailored to your body’s needs are popular right now, and over the past year many health gurus have led them to check whether they are worth the money or not.

You can take a quiz and the result is often a chewy candy supplement and a monthly subscription of up to £ 30.

Caring about what you put into your body is always great, but the reality is that personalizing a vitamin regimen is difficult and at £ 360 a year it’s an expensive expense.

Our NHS says most people don’t need to take vitamin supplements if they have a healthy and balanced diet.

In a review in Men’s Health magazine, after trying a popular brand, a registered nutritionist said, “Ultimately, I decided not to buy it.

“I just couldn’t justify the cost, especially for so many things that I really didn’t need.”

So the bottom line is that the million pound industry promoting healthy vitamins and supplements may not be for you, and if you know you are lacking (maybe vitamin D for those in the UK?) It is a pharmacy buy much cheaper.

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Social media food

Making something “instagramable” can sometimes mean paying more attention to its looks than its true functions.

It also means that people are willing to spend more money on it, and that goes for food and where we spend our food.

Keep a cool head when choosing restaurants or cafes to make sure you are getting good value for money and eating something delicious.

Very expensive paint

For some people, there is nothing better than picking the perfect shade of ‘elephant breath’ gray and repainting the color in their hallway, or maybe you prefer to freshen up a living space with a new statement wall in multiple colors.

Either way, paint can get very expensive, and if you’re looking to rent, change things or follow interior design trends, these costs are not the long-term investment you were hoping for.

Fortunately, there’s a world of duplicates to discover, so the advice from lifestyle blogs is to find a shade that costs £ 49 for 2.5 liters and then go to a cheaper store and buy two cans of the same or one similar color to buy the same price.

Expensive fragrances

Scented dupes are popular with bargain hunters looking for luxury without the huge price tag.

Whether it’s perfume, body mist, or candles, there will most likely be a smell or two of the same kind.

One of the newest dupes on the market is for lovers of Jo Malone’s Lime Basil and Mandarin perfume, which costs £ 50 for a 30ml bottle but can be bought from Superdrug’s Bloom perfume range for 98p.

It’s only for a 10ml bottle but even buying three of these will save you £ 47.60.

As trends come and go, it is likely that your favorite smelly product will be in a sale. So if you are patient it can save you some money.

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Unusual planners

A new planner or journal means the start of a new chapter, or at least that’s what it’s meant for if you’ve used the one you already have.

Recording and recording your life in the form of notes has many benefits to your sanity, organization, and creativity which is probably why there are so many options when it comes to buying.

Well worth the price of the latest A4 planner with life-affirming quotes, matching multi-colored pens and daily stickers, but make sure you use it – otherwise you have spent up to € 50 on a book ornament, they have a few scribbled to- Do lists.

It is said that the satisfaction of finishing a planner or diary is equal to that of the first page perfectly written, so start with a cheap option.

Houseplants

Many home-bound Scots have spent money on little green friends to care for and care for, and it has been a huge success for those who can keep them alive – a huge waste of money for those who cannot.

If you are one of those people who cannot strike the right balance between sunlight and water, you may be wasting your money.

Opting for an artificial plant that will forgive you no matter how much dust it collects is an inexpensive option, or look for plants that require very little sunlight and don’t mind getting thirsty.

At the top of most lists are cactus and snake plants.

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Benefit from worldwide service programs to study a brand new language totally free

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Illustration for the article titled Use Foreign Service Courses to Learn a New Language for FreePhoto: pathdoc (Shutterstock)

There’s no shortage of apps and online courses that are purportedly the best way to learn a new language. Whether you want to brush up on your high school Spanish or start over, you can turn to Duolingo (the been accused looting users’ personal information) or a paid option like Rosetta Stone or Coursera, but there is another proven, completely free alternative: you can learn a new language like a US diplomat.

The Institute for the Foreign Service (FSI), which trains professionals to live overseas serving the U.S. government, is known for its excellent foreign language teaching – and you have free access to its course materials and detailed audio instructions.

How to use the Foreign Service’s language courses

Unfortunately, you can’t call the FSI and ask to send you the full curriculum of their Yoruba or Hebrew courses, but you can find both languages ​​- in addition to many, many others on the Live Lingua language learning site. The FSIs were previously available online elsewhere (we even wrote about them.) more than a decade ago), but this site is no longer accessible.

While Live Lingua is primarily an online Spanish teacher, the website has much of the official FSI curriculum for 40 languages, including audio lessons and downloadable PDFs. All FSI offers include 127 courses, 161 e-books and 4,169 audio lessons.

The curriculum has proven effective; It was developed to prepare people to live and work in countries where they have important tasks to perform, even though they have a limited understanding of the mother tongue. You need to be somewhat self-sufficient and commit to studying with only audio files and PDFs (although Live Lingua offers online tutoring for a fee).

The materials you will be consulting are quite old – several decades or more – which is not ideal if you prefer your teaching to be anchored in a more modern context, but the very foundation of a language has not really changed dramatically since then, let’s say in the 1980s, so the materials will still be quite effective. And don’t worry about abusing government resources or stumbling over something that is only for civil servants, as all of the FSI materials Live Lingua hosts are in the public domain (as are other free language learning resources on the website of the Peacekeepers and the Defense Languages ​​Institute).

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GameStop shares soar after the corporate raised over $ 1 billion for inventory gross sales

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A GameStop store is pictured in New York on January 29, 2021.

Carlo Allegri | Reuters

GameStop shares rose after the video game retailer said it sold 5 million additional shares and raised $ 1.13 billion in capital to accelerate growth.

The original Reddit favorite meme stock rose 10.6% Tuesday morning after the company announced the completion of its stock offering program, first published on June 9, on the stock exchange. Late in the morning the daily gain was about 6%. . GameStop said it will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, as well as investing in growth initiatives and maintaining a strong balance sheet.

This is the second stock sale GameStop has made since the company became a star on Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum, where retailers sought to drive stock prices higher and crowd out hedge fund short sales. GameStop sold 3.5 million additional shares in April, raising $ 551 million.

Investors were encouraged by the moves and looked past the dilution of their stakes as GameStop used its monstrous rally this year – more than 1,000% – to accelerate its e-commerce transformation.

White Square Capital, a London-based hedge fund, is closing its main fund and returning capital after suffering losses from betting against GameStop, the Financial Times reported Tuesday.

Earlier this month, GameStop named former Amazon executive Matt Furlong as its new CEO. The company also hired several other former Amazon executives, including Jenna Owens, its new chief operating officer; Matt Francis, its first chief technology officer; and Elliott Wilke, their chief growth officer.

For the first fiscal quarter, GameStop reported lower-than-expected losses per share and revenue that exceeded Wall Street estimates. Mai said GameStop had paid off its long-term debt and was running out of loans under its asset-based revolving credit facility.

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Go into Cara Delevingne’s LA House with a “Vagina Tunnel”

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You have probably never seen a home like this before Cara DelevingneLos Angeles pad.

While the white brick building looks like a traditional residential home from the outside, once visitors step inside, they will find that it is everything else.

“My job requires me to put on a variety of hats and costumes,” the 28-year-old model said in the latest issue of Architectural Digest. “I love to slip into these different characters, so I wanted my home to reflect a lot of different themes and moods.”

Each room in Delevingne’s house has a different theme. There’s the nature motif seen through her Gucci heron wallpaper, a row of plants, and the stair carpet on which leopards climb the steps, as well as her inspiration for fun and games that can be seen through her costume closet, poker tent, arcade machines, and giant balls is coming.

“The meaning I have of this house is never to grow up, you know?” continued the actress. “Always maintain a kind of childlike innocence or joy or just the need for fun. They’re really great against stress. You can’t cry in a ball pit. I’ve tried.”

You need to know that

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A woman reacts as she receives the Johnson & Johnson vaccine against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as part of a government plan to vaccinate Mexican border residents on the common border with the United States in Tijuana, Mexico, June 17, 2021 .

Jorge Duenes | Reuters

Some countries, like the US and UK, have already signaled that they could introduce Covid-19 booster vaccinations within a year. Now pressure is mounting on governments to mobilize refresher programs – not an easy task given the ongoing uncertainties surrounding the pandemic, vaccines and variants.

However, there are no concrete plans for Covid-19 booster vaccinations. Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said last month it was “just something we need to find out over time.”

As the talk of booster shots increases, so far we know this:

What?

First off, there are question marks as to whether we actually need a third dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as we don’t know how long the immunity is currently lasting.

The US and UK use vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, with the UK also relying heavily on AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine.

There are also unknowns as to whether people should receive a booster vaccine that is identical to the vaccines they originally had. And also whether the vaccinations have to be adapted to variants, similar to the flu vaccine, or whether they can stay as they are.

When?

How?

Experts argue that any booster program requires extensive planning to help health services deal with it. This is especially important as not only are they under pressure from running current vaccination programs, but they also care for the health needs of patients whose procedures and treatments have been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In the UK, the chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Martin Marshall, told the BBC radio program “Today” that the UK’s National Health Service needs to know what it will do in the fall.

“First of all, we need to know if a booster program is needed … who needs it, such as the more vulnerable and the elderly. We need to know where to get it. ” [the booster shots] and by whom, “he said on Monday.

“Our general practitioners and nurses are very busy, so is it possible for a booster to be carried out by non-clinically trained vaccination staff?” He asked, pleading for a booster vaccination alongside the winter flu vaccination.

On the same radio broadcast, Anthony Harnden, vice-chairman of the Joint Vaccination and Immunization Committee (which advises the UK government on vaccination policy) warned that careful consideration should be given to who a refresher campaign is targeting.

He said priority needs are “data driven” despite recognizing the need for the NHS to plan ahead.

moral

There is a moral argument about whether booster vaccination programs are the right thing to do when many less developed countries are lagging behind on their vaccination programs.

The World Health Organization has urged richer countries to donate vaccines to poorer ones before they consider booster vaccinations. In fact, the jury at the WHO is on whether a booster vaccination is needed at all.

“We don’t have the information needed to make a recommendation on whether or not a booster is needed,” World Health Organization chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said in a Zoom call on Friday, Bloomberg reported, adding that it was the “science still evolving”. . “

Delta variant

WHO officials also said last week that there were reports that the Delta variant caused more severe symptoms, but that additional research was needed to confirm those conclusions. However, there is evidence that the Delta strain may cause different symptoms than other variants.

So far, the vaccines have proven to be resistant to new variants and remain largely effective in preventing serious Covid-19 for fully vaccinated people. An analysis published by Public Health England last Monday found that two doses of the Pfizer BioNTech or AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines were highly effective against hospitalizations from the Delta variant.

On Friday, WHO’s Swaminathan said scientists needed more data on the variant, including how it affects the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines.

“How many become infected and how many of them are hospitalized and seriously ill?” said Swaminathan on Friday. “That is something that we are watching very closely.”

– CNBC’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr. contributed to coverage of this story.

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that just over 55% of adults in the US are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

How one can make your individual bouquet garni

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Illustration for the article titled How to make your own bouquet garniPhoto: 13Smile (Shutterstock)

Fresh herbs are beautiful, fragrant, and vibrant, but they lose their look and taste when simmered in soup pots or fried with stews. Losing their flavor is kind of the whole point – they eventually lose it to your dish – but the look and texture of soaked, heat-parched herbs is unattractive, as is fishing out small stems and bits from a pot with steam liquid. Fortunately, there is a very elegant French solution: the bouquet garni (or “garnished bouquet”).

These little herb bunches are used almost all the time in French cooking, so you can buy them dried and pre-tied at almost any French grocery store. (A few years ago I brought some from France as souvenirs, and everyone who got one was accordingly bewitched.) But you don’t have to go to France to use the ostrich garni; Like most French things, the name, which sounds fancy to American ears, belies a very simple maneuver. Just tie a few herbs together with some kitchen thread. There. You now have a bouquet garni. (Sometimes people tie dried herbs in a little cheesecloth to make a pouch, but I prefer to bundle them up.)

You can use any herbs you like, although the combination of parsley, thyme, and a bay leaf is considered classic. Grab about five sprigs of fresh parsley, two sprigs of fresh thyme, and a single bay leaf, tie everything together with twine, and toss it in your soup, sauce, sauce, or braised beef. If you mix it up and want to add to the classic range, then tarragon, chervil, savory, marjoram, or any herbs that you happen to grow in your garden will work wonderfully. You can also add lemon, orange, or lime peel, some fresh ginger, or some vegetables like celery, spring onions, or carrots.

You can also match your bouquet to your meal: My Thanksgiving bouquet garni, for example, contains a mixture of sage, parsley, rosemary and thyme. You can also make bouquet garni for drinks and syrups – just add your herb bundle to a saucepan with water, bring it to a boil, simmer for 15 minutes, then add the sugar and stir until it dissolves. Let it steep for at least an hour, then remove the bouquet and use the syrup to flavor your lemonade, tea or cocktail. Lavender and rosemary are a good start, but don’t keep sleeping Bay leaf. Bay leaves don’t get nearly enough play in beverages and syrups.

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Reese Witherspoon reacts to the uncommon picture of daughter Ava along with her boyfriend

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Reese Witherspoon weighs down her daughter’s budding romance.

On Monday June 21st, the star’s 21-year-old daughter, Ava PhillippeShe went to Instagram to share a touching picture of herself and her boyfriend Owen Mahoney on vacation in Austin, Texas. The couple had apparently hoped to see the bats soar from under the city’s bridges, which is a famous tourist attraction, but sadly it wasn’t meant to be.

“The bats felt shy … so here’s a picture of us instead,” Ava captioned the recording.

In the photo, she is wearing a red polka dot outfit while he is wearing a faded button-down denim shirt. Ava and Owen both attend UC Berkeley and have made their relationship public since 2019.

One person who is clearly a huge fan of the pairing is Reese, who shares Ava and the 17-year-old deacon with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe, and stocks Tennessee, 8, with husband Jim Toth.

“These two,” commented the 45-year-old Oscar winner, adding a heart-eye emoji.

When to see the “Strawberry Moon”, the final supermoon of the 12 months 2021

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Illustration for article titled When to See the 'Strawberry Moon', the last supermoon of 2021Photo: Kresimir Rajakovic (Shutterstock)

If you’re an avid stargazer, June alone was a crowded month in an otherwise busy year of heavenly events. A Solar eclipse, a planetary conjunction, and an asteroid is racing Somewhat close to the planet have added a nice cosmic intrigue as the days get warmer and longer.

When it comes to super moons, however, the book will end soon in 2021, as the last super moon of the year will light up the sky for three days later this week, June 24-26, and the common practice of nicknamed moons will be this one special moon called Strawberry Super Moon, although unfortunately it is not strawberry colored.

This is how you see the strawberry supermoon

It’s either the last full moon of spring or the first full moon of summer, depending on your seasonal loyalty. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, this moon derives its name from a variety of Indian tribes who associate this season with certain “June-bearing” fruits such as strawberries (at least in certain parts of North America). Every 20 years the strawberry moon coincides with the summer solstice, which is a beautiful cosmic coincidence.

The June full moon has also been given other names, reflecting the wider abundance of crops that are typically harvested when spring turns into summer.

As the Notes on the peasant almanac:

Blooming moon (Anishinaabe) indicates the flowering period while Green corn moon (Cherokee) and Whore moon (Western Abenaki) suggest it is time to take care of young plants.

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This moon is nicknamed “Awesome,” but it shouldn’t be quite as dramatic as April’s pink super moonwhich lived up to the name. The concept of a “supermoon” is a kind of false scientific term that is supposed to inspire some anticipation, but technically it only occurs when a moon is within 90% of perigee, which is closest to Earth within a radius Orbit. Super moons are slightly brighter and larger than normal moons.

As NASA says:

At its next point, the full moon appears about 17 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than the weakest moon of the year, which occurs when it is furthest from Earth in its orbit.

The Strawberry Moon will be perigee on Wednesday, June 23 at 5:56 p.m. ET. according to NASA. The space agency says the moon will appear the next day, June 24th at 2:40 p.m. east through Saturday.

The moon is relatively easy to see by looking up at the sky, but virtual resources are available if you want to view it through your computer screen or mobile device. The Virtual telescope project has a livestream of the rising of the moon over Rome, which is likely a more romantic view than looking out of your own window.

Vivendi is ready for almost all shareholders’ vote on the spin-off of the Common Music Group

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Taylor Swift performs on stage during the Taylor Swift Reputation Stadium Tour at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on August 11, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia.

John Shearer – TAS18 – Getty Images for TAS

The French media group Vivendi is waiting for a close vote from investors about its planned spin-off of the legendary Universal Music Group.

If approved, the world’s largest music label – home to stars like Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift – will complete its listing on Euronext Amsterdam in late September, Vivendi said.

The shareholders are expected to vote on the proposal on Tuesday.

It comes after billionaire William Ackman’s SPAC Pershing Square Tontine Holdings signed a deal to buy 10% of UMG for around $ 4 billion, the companies announced over the weekend. The deal gave UMG an enterprise value of 35 billion euros (41.55 billion US dollars) for 100% of its share capital.

A consortium led by the Chinese Titans Tencent Holdings already owns 20% of the shares in the group. UMG accounts for around three quarters of Vivendi’s profits.

Vivendi’s shareholders’ meeting began at 9 a.m., London time. Investors will vote on the proposed distribution of 60% of UMG’s share capital to shareholders through the listing in Amsterdam.

Although the spin-off is expected to receive support at the first meeting, criticism has been voiced by activist hedge funds Artisan Partners and Bluebell, which claim that larger shareholders, including Vincent Bollore, are benefiting disproportionately from smaller investors.

The French billionaire Bollore holds 30% of the voting rights in UMG. For the spin-off to take place, 50% must vote in favor.

“Assuming the French regulators do not intervene at any point, as some of the activists have urged them, it seems that Vivendi today should just pass an ordinary resolution by a simple majority,” said Matti Littunen, European media analyst at Bernstein.

Littunen noted, however, that some investors had reservations about the tax implications for smaller shareholders, along with a question why Vivendi wasn’t spinning off a larger portion of the company and instead selling small stakes in companies like Ackmans SPAC.

“Why sell some of it for cash and stop distributing it to shareholders and let them figure out what to do with the proceeds?” he told CNBC’s Street Signs Europe on Tuesday.

“In general, after this deal, there is still a lot of suspicion about the capital allocation for Vivendi, so as mentioned many controversial aspects of this allocation.”

Shareholders will also vote on a plan to buy back and delete up to 50% of Vivendi’s shares, which will require two-thirds of the support.

Ice cream deserves to be eaten out of a cup

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Illustration for the article titled Ice Cream Deserves To Be Eaten Out Of A CupPhoto: Joel Kahn

Even if the pandemic subsides (somehow – get vaccinated!) and we put the political controversy of 2020 in the rearview mirror (wait, actually …), there is still a lot to be angry with every day. So let’s leave our combined fear aside and agree on one thing: ice cream is best enjoyed from a coffee cup.

Listen, bowl folks: you need the tall sides of a cup to properly scoop the ice cream onto your spoon. The bowl walls are too low and cause you to push your ice cream around and around so as not to ever get it into your hungry mouth. In addition, the mug handle keeps your body heat away from the frozen treat, thus delaying melting.

Illustration for the article titled Ice Cream Deserves To Be Eaten Out Of A Cup

Speaking of melting, when your ice cream finally starts to melt, I have good news for you! It’s already in a cup! So you can easily tilt the cup back and drink your newly formed soup. Or even better (like another Joel suggested), add some coffee and now you have a whole new drink – with less tidying up.

This is the best way to eat ice cream – at home

I have to narrow down this universal truth by pointing out that ice cream cones are great, but 1) on a hot summer day the ice cream melts and inevitably all over your hand, and anyway, 2) ice cream cones are best when buying ice cream from a small shop. This cup rule is for enjoying ice cream at home. Boxes of store-bought cones are never as good as the ones you get from a soda fountain served by a clerk in a funny paper hat. (This is my idealized version of the 1950s suburbs.)

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After all, nothing says “fun!” like eating out of a cup. It stands for overnight stays, movie nights and cuddling time. It’s the perfect occasion jar to say, “I’m just going to have a small midnight snack, but I don’t have much of a sweet tooth” … and then allow you to eat 12 ounces of ice cream yourself.

This article was originally published August 2020 and updated on June 21, 2021 to be in line with current Lifehacker style guidelines and because it’s summer, dammit.

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