Posts filed under 'Scandal'
- Update: MoveOn Targets McCain Aides.
- Obama: Smear emails “not just a random sort of viral thing”.
- Racist Secret Service E-Mails. Oof. I mean really, oof. Stupid enough to think, even more stupider to email.
- How to spot Photoshop chicanery.
- Why is this site password protected? Burt Edwards wants to know.
- Can Bob Barr Tap Into Ron Paul’s Movement? C.f. Libertarian Bob Barr Hopes to Scoop Up Ron Paul’s Internet-Driven Support and Ron Paul Supporters, What Are Your Plans?
- MoveOn picks winner of Obama ad contest.
- Does his ad buy prove his critics wrong? Obama is online this week in WV, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania….
- On the Dangers of Hacked Computer Networks and Inadvertant Nuclear War.
- Unjustifiable Carnage, Uneasy Alliances, and Lots of Self-Doubt: What Grand Theft Auto IV gets right about gangland and illegal economies.
- Obama Looks Ahead to Oregon Primary in E-mail Push.
- How the Web Contest Predicted the Real Thing.
- Top Four Essentials of eCampaigning. C.f. The Essentials of Online Advocacy Begin With Email (e.politics sez, you better f*cking believe it).
- Why I like the Google Video Player.
- Quantcast Helps The Media Planner. Improve your advertising plans with free site demographics.
- Clinton Going Down, While the Web Dreams of an Obama Win.
- Another political PowerPoint, this time Clinton’s. See Politico and Wired.
- New Google Service Makes Web Pages Social.
- How Defense Research Is Making Troops More Effective in Wartime.
- Air Force Colonel Wants to Build a Military Botnet. Or not.
- The indie-rock fall and rise of R.E.M..
- OMG! WARNING: Over the top, offensive humor! Note comment: “Godwin’s Law: As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.”
- Obama’s online organization.
- Volunteers asked to help find dead spacecraft on Mars via online photos. Check out the size of those pictures!
- Republican Slogan Borrowed From Antidepressant. The jokes are too obvious to bother making.
- Concharto: Wikipedia for history/geography nerds. via GeoDog.
- The peak oil culture wars.
- Space porn! Virtual telescope brings the cosmos to your desktop.
– cpd
May 13th, 2008
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Newsweek’s current story on the Obama campaign’s internal dynamics contains this warning (via Mike Allen) for anyone who values civility and honesty in politics:
Another McCain adviser, who asked for anonymity discussing internal campaign strategy, bluntly warned: “It’s going to be Swift Boat times five on both sides — The candidates will both do their best publicly to mute it. But in a close race, I don’t see how to shut that down.”
For all of our sakes, let’s hope that some kind of rationality survives. No doubt much of the smearing will happen online, in websites, videos and the kind of behind-the-scenes emails that have already dogged “Manchurian Muslim” Obama. Bloggers will both help AND hurt, helping by researching and puncturing lies, hurting by spreading them. Ultimately, though, the onus is on mainstream journalists to try to separate truth from fiction. Print and online reporters have a far better record on this front so far this year; cable news has been a hellhole of unrepentant rumormongering and idle speculation. Don’t we deserve better?
– cpd
May 11th, 2008
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- Adding Video to Turn Dead-End ‘Thank You’ Pages Into Viral Marketing Campaigns. The Obama campaign finds yet another sweet spot for online recruiting.
- The Post Is Having A Rough Day. Spam attack!
- Reluctantly, a Daily Stops Its Presses, Living Online.
- Rev. Wright Baits the Soundbiters.
- The Internet Goes Green. The growth of the envirosphere, via Micropersuasion.
- Space war would leave destructive legacy.
- McCain: It’s “clear who Hamas wants to be the next president.” Fruits of a blogger conference call.
- Google Earth Outreach Aides U.N. Track Refugees and Save Lives.
- Beyond Bittergate, Barack Yields Success to His Supporters.
- Obama’s Database Will Make Him the Power Broker. Another persistent political following! “Like Mussolini/ And Kennedy…”
- The chummy relationship of campaign professionals and journalists in Washington. Or, getting scolded for making fun of McCain on Facebook.
- Schism Grows Between Obama and Liberal Bloggers.
- Were Mesopotamians the first brand addicts?
- Subject Line, ‘From’ Address Crucial to Email Marketing.
- Who Stole the Plans for iRobot’s Battle Bots?
- YouTube vid inspires Obamacrombie t-shirts.
- Facebook as Weekly Evil.
- McCain on FriendFeed: “Considering the McCain campaign’s sometimes uneven online strategy, this is a step in the right direction.”
- Social Applications Dominate the Web.
- Gays, Lesbians More Receptive to Blog Ads than Heterosexuals.
- An overview of web mining in societal benefit areas.
- Top 10 Wireless Marketing Mistakes.
- 3 Top Tips to Improve Your Online Writing.
- Henry Copeland of Blogads: “As the social media winter looms, the winners will be the folks with strong relationships, low overheads, a strong commitment on innovation rather than coat-tail riding, and, most of all, a indelible passion for the business. We’re looking forward to seeing you after the bust.”
- Sorry Disney, But You’re Kind of a Skank Factory.
- DNC’s national cable ad buy. The RNC’s not so hot about it.
- Web Site Blames Sen. McConnell for Quorum-less FEC.
- The Twitter Disconnect. An introduction and how-to. Also, glimpse a hardcore Twitter-using life.
- Things Really Were Different Before Clinton-Obama. Time keeps on slippin’ slippin’ slippin…into the future.
- Which Government Agency Should Be Your Computer’s Firewall? HAL 9000 or black squirrels?
– cpd
April 28th, 2008
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Wired’s Sarah Lai Stirland picked up on a revealing micro-scandal a couple of days ago: Obama supporter Lawrence Lessig has been getting beaten up on Redstate.com and Rush Limbaugh’s radio show over a video he’s used as a mashup example in presentations. The crime? The clip depicts a somewhat swishy Jesus singing “I Will Survive” before a dramatic run-in with a bus proves otherwise (note that the RedState author immediately jumps to the conclusion that this Jesus is gay — musical numbers are always a dead giveaway).
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April 28th, 2008
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Post-Politics Online/pre-SXSW Quick Hits extravaganza.
- Does Good Design Matter? Todd Zeigler’s excellent follow-on to our Politics Online panel. C.f. lots of POLC coverage at Capitol Valley and Tech Daily Dose.
- Trusting Politics 2.0 Can be Difficult in Local Elections.
- Getting Duped: How the Media Messes with Your Mind.
- Online Video Audience to Hit Critical Mass in ‘08. “Nearly 80 percent of US internet users will watch online video at least once a month in 2008.”
- News and Media US Website Visits Up Sharply. Lindsey Lohan softcore locked in deathmatch with political coverage. C.f. Obama: Bigger than Britney.
- How-To: 6 Tips on Writing an Actionable Press Release. Basic but useful.
- Historically, Most Online Communities Haven’t Stuck. Facebook and MySpace: do not forget the lesson of Ozymandias.
- Crowd Enabling, the Obama way. A mighty bold claim: “Even if Obama fails to achieve his goal of becoming President of the United States, I predict he will have a deeper and more powerful understanding of the American people than anyone in the history of politics.”
- Did the Clinton Campaign Doctor Obama Footage to Make Him ‘Blacker’?
- Spying Fight about Emails, Not Phone Calls, DOJ Reveals.
- McCain’s Unfiltered Blog. Straight conversation.
- Hillary’s pop culture problem vs. Did SNL Save Clinton’s Campaign?
- Is the Obama Campaign Really Different?. Or is he the new New Coke?
- ObamaCycle: A Craigslist for Obama Campaigners.
- Hillary’s Classy Tweets to Ohio and Rhode Island. Not sure “Tweet” and “Classy” belong in the same sentence.
- Air Force Launches Recruitment Campaign Touting Cyber Command. Check out the gee-whiz landing page, and also the fact that the Air Force has blocked access to many (most?) blogs.
- Obama Reaches 1 Million Donor Mark. Check out the comments on Micah Sifry’s article about it.
- Obama does not read blogs. No wonder he has time to run for president.
- Quote of the week: “‘It’s a love tap compared to the Wu-Tang fist of fury that’s coming at this guy in the fall,’ said Rick Wilson, a Republican media consultant.”
- Heather Havriskey interview with George Carlin. A must-read for anyone interested in writing or the creative process.
- Facebook Launches Band Pages. “MySpace also might start to get worried — I’m sure I’m not the only one who uses that site solely for auditioning bands.”
- New Source for News Vetted by Scientists. A peer-reviewed take on social news.
- The Charms of Wikipedia.
- Are Liberals and Conservatives Different Species? The Answer is Yes.
- Extended rant against microsites. Not sure if I agree, but it’s worth reading.
- A Whole Toolbox of Contention.
- ETech: Lessig Calls for Geeks to Code Money Out of Politics.
- Wanted: A More Digital Congress.
- Inside Obama’s Ground Game.
- Hillary’s Rapid Responders.
- Obama Lawyer Crashes Clinton Call. With audio!
- Politico 2.0: Ruffini Blogs, Twitters, Crowdsources Obama Donations. Via tPrez. C.f. Josh’s take on the candidates’ post-Tuesday splash pages
- Flickr and TechSoup to hand out free Flickr Pro accounts to nonprofits.
- Facebook changes political affiliation choices. Michael Whitney and Nancy Scola are not impressed.
- Over 1 million people have seen Robert Greenwald’s anti-McCain online videos.
- Geeking out before checking out: Spacecraft photographs avalanches on Mars. Don’t miss the accompanying Earth/Moon family portrait, taken from Mars orbit — such a cute couple. And, dig the new European automatic robotic space truck. Finally, some good advice for the Coast Guard, and a Farewell to the Dungeon Master.
– cpd
March 6th, 2008
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- Update: Primary Season Signals Adoption of Online Ads by Political Campaigns. “Not only are those ads relatively inexpensive; they’ve allowed often cash-strapped campaigns to determine whether their dollars were well spent, before voters went to the polls.” Lots of details in this one.
- Politics and tax top US search league. Also note that Huckabee’s site outdrew McCain’s by 50% in January, and that Obama’s site had double the traffic of Hillary’s and four times that of McCain’s.
- Story on McCain’s Relationship with Telecom Lobbyist Sets Bloggers Abuzz. Nothing like a potential scandal to wake up the pajama-clad warriors — and set up a fundraising frenzy.
- John McCain Abuses Email. Lithe, blonde email in question denies all allegations.
- UK-Based Facebook User Figures Begin to Plateau. Facebook dons waterskis, prepares ramp over shark tank.
- The race online: Obama, rivals bring Internet campaigning to new level. Overview article from Frank Davies of the Merc News.
- Ralph Nader’s Bid for Presidency Meets with Negative Online Buzz. No love for Nader in the Lefty blogs.
- Googlebombing McCain. Via tPrez. Warning: he’s no stranger to flak.
- U.S. online search up 10% since last year.
- GOP politics in a nutshell. Dissecting a Republican online video.
- U.S. Spies Want to Find Terrorists in World of Warcraft. Juan Cole replies:
“The recent alarmism about terrorist activity in virtual worlds seems designed to prey on the fears of the Internet common among the Great Unwired. Most of the concerns are simply unreasonable.”
- Viva Obama!. Lots of citizen vids. But wait: here comes the inevitable online Obama backlash.
- Ad Age: Creatives Have a Crush on Obama. One reason that Obama-supporting citizen media is so good — plenty of it is created by professionals. Via ReelPop.
- How much millet can a cellphone buy?.
- Lost in Wisconsin. “Again and again, following Super Tuesday, the Clinton campaign failed in basic on-the-ground organisation.” Also check out this reader comment about “Camp Obama,” Deconstructing an Obama Victory and Clinton on the ropes: How she got there (the last a Burt Edwards suggestion).
- “In Canon” Voter-Generated Content. Interesting model for considering citizen media.
- How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love Domestic Wiretapping.
- Email best practices: What are the best days and times to send bulk email?. And, Using Images in Email.
- Map of the Political Blogosphere. Via Technology Evangelist, who argues that it shows the continuing value of having original content.
- Two Articles on Political Online Advertising. Eric Frenchman adds to Kate Kaye’s excellent Clickz reporting.
- EBay Boycott Ends Today; Impact Disputed. Online activism ain’t just political.
- Grassroots organizing online, post-Ron Paul. Top-down vs. bottom-up — the battle continues.
– cpd
February 25th, 2008
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From the Nevada debate: “In the internet age, there are going to be lies that are spread all over the place. I have been victimized by these lies. Fortunately, the American people are, I think, smarter than folks give them credit for.”
More on dirty politicking and internet rumors on Wednesday.
– cpd
January 16th, 2008
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A couple of interesting scandal-related stories today: first off, as Wired and others are reporting, some excellent research by an expert with the company SecureWorks has found the spammer behind the recent barrage of unsolicited Ron Paul emails. Still unknown: who hired him.
Stewart’s detective work identified the botnet as part of a criminal operation in Eastern Europe called Reactor Mailer that offers spammers a convenient web interface to manage their illegal campaigns. The Ron Paul spam was managed by a spammer-for-hire who goes by the handle “nenastnyj.”
The political messaging was a departure for nenastnyj, and for the Reactor Mailer network, which is normally hired out by scammers offering fake watches, work at home opportunity and male enlargement products.
Was an over-eager supporter footing the bill? Or was someone managing a convoluted scheme to discredit Paul? Next, on to the Democratic side of the race, where a Hillary Clinton county chair in Iowa has lost her volunteer job for forwarding around an email accusing Obama of being a Muslim manchurian candidate bent on fomenting an Islamic revolt in the U.S. Thanks to Salon for the tip.
– cpd
December 6th, 2007
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Just got a “breaking news” alert from The Politico that Barack Obama has accused the Clinton campaign of engaging in “the old ‘Swift boat’ politics,” using as evidence a Bob Novak piece from earlier today that claimed that Clinton was holding scandalous material on the Illinois senator, refusing to use it in public, but spreading rumors about it behind the scenes. The Novak article ran in Human Events rather than in the columnist’s high-profile perch at the Post, but it spread widely over the Web, no doubt in part because it appeared on Drudge. Obama’s statement is quite strongly worded, as is the Clinton campaign’s response (delivered by email), which basically accuses Barack of being such a callow youth that he’ll fall for an obvious Republican dirty trick.
Regardless of where the truth lies, and it’s going to be interesting as hell finding out, what jumps out at me is the sheer speed of this transaction, particularly for a Saturday. Those of us in the online advocacy community often talk about using this tool and that tool to help mold opinions or win votes, but what I wrote after last year’s mid-term election still stands: the most important effect of the Internet on politics comes from the unfathomable volume of information now available and the speed with which it can spread. The existence of electronic networks has utterly transformed all forms of communications to the extent that we hardly notice it anymore, and the aggregate effect of all of our actions online far outweighs their sum alone. All of which is another way to say, damn, that was fast.
– cpd
November 17th, 2007
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Online politics has turned nasty, vicious, ugly, brutish AND short…just the way we like it. First off, there’s the throwdown between the Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney over the PhonyFred.org website, which Josh Levy wraps up ably at tPrez. Lots of twists in this one, no doubt with more to come; we get to sit back and watch the fun.
Next, some online fallout over MoveOn’s “General Petraeus or General Betray Us” ad in the NY Times, as the GOP sends out a fundraising email with MoveOn as the hook (apparently, MoveOn is part of some overarching liberal conspiracy — my cabal membership card must have been lost in the mail). Fascinating: a political party founded in the 19th century is using an email list to raise money over the Internet based on a newspaper print ad purchased by a political organization that was founded ten years ago in part as an email list…the mind boggles.
– cpd
September 12th, 2007
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Writing in Salon, Glenn Greenwald hits on an aspect of the Larry Craig story that ought to raise questions about the intellectual honesty of certain segments of the right-wing blogworld — the vast disparity between many authors’ comments 10 months ago and today. Shortly before last Fall’s mid-term elections, the first stories of Craigs’ (then-) alleged men’s room encounters surfaced on Mike Roger’s site, and many on the right jumped on the rumors as a clear example of left-wing perfidy, with some even claiming that a backlash would swing the election their way. Many questioned the very idea of bringing up a candidate’s sexuality: as Greenwald puts it, “the same political movement that impeached Bill Clinton and which has made a living exploiting issues of private morality for political gain insisted that Rogers had reached a new and despicable low in politics even by reporting this.”
Now that the election’s safely behind us? They can’t run away from Craig’s “despicable” behavior fast enough. Greenwald collects a damning array of then-and-now quotes from a number of stars of the conservative blogosphere, which sure as hell ought to raise questions among these sites’ readers about basic trustworthiness. Talk radio hosts and TV pundits too often blather on in a self-contradictory frenzy, but they can usually get away with it because catching them requires someone to go to lengths to gather and post the audio or video files or the transcripts (thank you, Media Matters). Bloggers’ words, though, are painfully easy to track down via Google or a site’s own search feature, and there’s no hiding from what you’ve written.
Now, being wrong is normal and honorable — it’s a natural consequence of having opinions and being willing to state them in public, and as long as you own up to your errors, your audience will generally understand. Senator Craig’s journey from paragon to villain in many bloggers’ eyes seems like a different story entirely: from here, it looks flat-out dishonest.
– cpd
August 28th, 2007
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Wow, here’s a wild one to end the week with:
The California National Guard has placed on leave the personal assistant to its top general and started an investigation after questions were raised about a Web site he maintains that advocates mass violence.
“I, honestly, would like nothing more than to assist in the wholesale slaughter of every idiot on the face of the planet,” Senior Airman Travis Gruber, of Sacramento, Calif., writes on the site, HowToKillPeople.com. In other postings and in a related blog, Gruber denigrates African Americans, Jews, Asians, women, gays and people with physical disabilities.
Oof! I’m a free speech purist, believing that the best form of censorship is your own good judgment. This guy clearly lacks the slightest shred — a National Guard general is a government official, and our blogger here is in essentially the same position as a political staffer. I’d obviously rather not have someone in any position of influence or authority having thoughts like these in his head, but you can’t court-martial a man for thinking. It’s ten times crazier to actually print this in public:
Gruber blogged that when ordered to drive “the big guy” to Oakland this year, he loaded a shotgun with extra shells and filled a pistol “to the brim with hollow-point” bullets because he feared entering the city unarmed.
In a separate posting, he wrote of a woman who once approached him with a question as he waited for Wade at the state Capitol and that he later regretted not “crushing her windpipe” and slamming his car door into her legs for bothering him.
How can you write this stuff online and not expect it to be traced back to you eventually? Here’s the site; all the content except for a brief statement has been removed. Thanks to the Wayback Machine, though, we can read Gruber’s bio and sample some of his collected wit and wisdom. Note to prospective writers who want to keep their jobs, reputations and body parts intact: you probably don’t want to adopt this guy as a role model. Thanks to Burt Edwards for passing the article along.
– cpd
August 24th, 2007
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As Joe Trippi has been making the rounds lately, one thing he’s been talking about is the rise of a culture of authenticity in politics as we move from a broadcast television era to an Internet-dominated era. I heard him make the point at last week’s Connecting with Young Voters event (ably summarized by Kate Phillips in The Caucus), and he said something similar this week to The Guardian (thanks, Josh).
“Before TV, what mattered was how your voice sounded. Then with TV it matters what your candidate looks like … Anybody can fake it on TV: all the Joe Trippis and Alastair Campbells get really good at making sure our guy looks great for the eight seconds that are actually going on the news.
“We are now moving to a medium where authenticity is king, from what things look like to what’s real … You have to be ‘on’ 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
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June 13th, 2007
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Josh Levy raised some serious questions yesterday in a techPresident piece about Obama’s preferred treatment in the launch of Facebook’s new Platform application, which lets users build tools for the Facebook community:
But when Platform launched, Obama was the only candidate with an application. Why didn’t John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Ron Paul, or anyone else get in on the possibility of reaching 20 million or more Facebook users and potential voters?
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The other campaigns found out about Platform with the rest of us, on Friday, May 25. If Facebook let the Obama campaign in but kept all of the other campaigns out, this was a serious breach of trust.
Serious breach of trust, or maybe even an FEC violation? This is the first election cycle in which campaigns are depending on such a huge variety of Internet companies for exposure: YouTube, Google, MySpace, Facebook, Meetup, Eventful, etc etc. These corporations have a tremendous social responsibility, and if they don’t live up to it, they may face some real consequences — and not just in the court of public opinion.
– cpd
June 5th, 2007
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Quick Hits is a harsh mistress, but I can ignore her no longer. Special Edition! When the bizarre meets the sublime, plus some scary stuff.
- Gen Y Reads More Print, Not Less, than Older Counterparts. Damn kids, quit hogging my magazines.
- Speaking of magazines: Islamic extremists say Web as vital to them as AK-47. But can you field-strip it?
- Speaking of field-stripping, it’s Ron Jeremy for President! This’ll get a rise out of the political system.
- On a related note: A Meticulous Data Trail May Have Saved ‘D.C. Madam’. Back up those hard drives! And then back ‘em up again…and again…and again….
- Study: Banner Ads Trigger Warm, Fuzzy Feelings.
- Just like the lolcats phenomenon — 2 much Internets indeed. “If cheezburger’s plan unfolds successfully, we’ll soon have a site that combines cute animals plus caption-writing plus a voting competition. That should be just about unstoppable.” Where’s that damn robot army when you need it?
- Ah! The military borrowed it. Bots on The Ground: In the Field of Battle (Or Even Above It), Robots Are a Soldier’s Best Friend. Suggested by a loyal reader (thanks, dad!).
- E-Stonia Under Attack. Real robot warfare breaks out — “And if you thought that terrorists headquartered in ungovernable bits of the undeveloped world were our worst problem, think again.”
- For instance, Global web censorship on the rise.
- Don’t worry, here are some Democratic and Republican presidential candidates who just might save us all (before you scoff, think: how many brains would a zombie Ronald Reagan REALLY need to eat to survive?)
- DEFINITELY one hit too many: NASA analysis of asteroid risk deeply flawed, critics say. WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!! Don’t forget to find the dimensions of the crater you might one day call home — it’ll help when you’re sizing the drapes.
– cpd
May 22nd, 2007
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Michael Scherer has an excellent article in Salon today on a significant way that the Internet is altering the pace and direction of political campaigns, while also subtly changing the role of political journalists, not for the better. To boil it down, the growth of blogs and alternative journalistic outlets (Drudge Report, etc.) has given political opposition researchers a huge number of new avenues to distribute dirt or distracting information about a rival while still maintaining their own anonymity. In the process, political reporters risk losing their investigative role in favor of being channels for stories that campaigns are driving behind the scenes. Some excerpts:
Though reporters, and blogs like the Drudge Report, take credit for scoops, the news of the day is more often than not produced by the invisible hand of one campaign or another.
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May 14th, 2007
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