Virgin Releases IPad-only Magazine, Project
By David Dahlquist, Macworld
At a New York City press conference on Tuesday, Virgin CEO Richard Branson and his editorial team from customer engagement agency Seven Squared showed off Virgin's new digital publication for iPad, Project.
Branson bills the publication as the "first truly digital magazine for creative people, by creative people." Its editorial sections will focus on technology, entrepreneurs, design, and entertainment, and will profile influential people in these fields.
Branson noted that the focus of the magazine will be on people who are important to their fields, rather than on celebrities and big name stars. Though, with Jeff Bridges adorning the first issue's cover, it's clear they've made room for marquee names as well.
Project's editor in chief, Anthony Noguera, said he believes the iPad is "the most exciting thing to happen in generations" for media; he describes Project as "an agenda-setting magazine that spotlights the people who are changing the world in large and small ways."
During the press conference, Noguera gave a live demonstration of the app. The "cover" of the magazine closely resembles a print magazine, but from that point on, the differences quickly become apparent. The publication takes full advantage of the iPad's gesture-based controls, and was clearly designed to maximize reader interaction.
You can take a virtual tour through Tokyo, led by five prominent city residents; you can view high-resolution photos of the new Jaguar concept car--and even listen to the sound of its engine purring; touch a picture of Jeff Bridges, and watch him come to life. This is what the future of print media should look like.
Project will also make heavy use of crowdsourcing and user-generated content for its stories--a contest to develop next month's cover design is already underway.
By completely abandoning print media in favor of a digital medium, Project will be free of the constraints of typical magazines--an advantage Branson clearly plans to build on. All content can be custom-tailored to capitalize on the iPad's interactive abilities. Even the advertisements will be designed to be as engaging as possible--something entrepreneur Branson is especially excited about.
The Project app is free, but each month's issue will cost $3 as an in-app purchase. Unlike traditional magazines, however, the content of each issue will evolve throughout the month, with updates made on a regular basis. The first issue, featuring Tron: Legacy actor Jeff Bridges, is available now.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Three Great Writers Born on This Day
It's the birthday of Louisa May Alcott, born in Germantown, Pennsylvania (1832). She's the author of Little Women (1868), a book that over the last century has been adapted into numerous stage plays, an opera, a Broadway musical, several Japanese anime films, and about a dozen Hollywood movies — including movies starring Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Susan Sarandon, Kirsten Dunst, and Claire Danes.
And this 1868 children's book inspired the novel that won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize: Geraldine Brooks's March (2005), which is a retelling of Little Women, this time narrated by the girls' absent father. And in 2008, a dual biography of Louisa May Alcott and her dad won the Pulitzer Prize for biography. That book: John Matteson's Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father (2007).
Little Women begins:
"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.
"It's so dreadful to be poor!" sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.
"I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all," added little Amy, with an injured sniff.
"We've got Father and Mother, and each other," said Beth contentedly from her corner.
The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened at the cheerful words.
It's the birthday of the writer who said: "When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." That's C.S. Lewis, born in Belfast (1898), the author of the seven-volume children's series The Chronicles of Narnia, which begins with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950), the story of four children sent away from London because of wartime air raids. He also said, "Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."
As a teenager, he went off to boarding school in England. He hated it there. He said that English accents sounded to him like the "voices of demons." Worst of all was the landscape; he first looked at it and in that moment, he said, "conceived a hatred for England which took many years to heal." Also, he felt that his favorite poet, W.B. Yeats, — "an author exactly after [his] own heart" — was totally underappreciated in England. He wrote to a friend: "Perhaps his appeal is purely Irish — if so, then thank the gods that I am Irish." But despite all his disdain and contempt for England, he chose to live and teach at Oxford University for almost 30 years — while acquainting himself with other Irish people living in England as much as possible.
Besides fairy tales and children's classics, he wrote theological books, including The Screwtape Letters (1942), a novel in which a demon writes to his nephew; and The Great Divorce (1945), where residents of hell take a bus ride to heaven, and Mere Christianity (1952), based on talks he gave on the BBC during World War II.
C.S. Lewis said, "Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see."
From the archives:
It's the birthday Madeleine L'Engle, born in New York City (1918), who struggled to find any success as a writer with novels about ordinary families and ordinary situations. But after reading about the ideas of Albert Einstein, she wrote a science fiction novel called A Wrinkle in Time (1962), about a group of children who have to rescue their father from a planet where individuality has been outlawed. The book was rejected by 26 different publishers, who all felt that it was too difficult for children but too fantastic for adults. But when it came out in 1962, the novel won the Newbery Medal, and it sells about 15,000 copies a year.
Madeleine L'Engle said, "You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children."
And this 1868 children's book inspired the novel that won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize: Geraldine Brooks's March (2005), which is a retelling of Little Women, this time narrated by the girls' absent father. And in 2008, a dual biography of Louisa May Alcott and her dad won the Pulitzer Prize for biography. That book: John Matteson's Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father (2007).
Little Women begins:
"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.
"It's so dreadful to be poor!" sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.
"I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all," added little Amy, with an injured sniff.
"We've got Father and Mother, and each other," said Beth contentedly from her corner.
The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened at the cheerful words.
It's the birthday of the writer who said: "When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." That's C.S. Lewis, born in Belfast (1898), the author of the seven-volume children's series The Chronicles of Narnia, which begins with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950), the story of four children sent away from London because of wartime air raids. He also said, "Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."
As a teenager, he went off to boarding school in England. He hated it there. He said that English accents sounded to him like the "voices of demons." Worst of all was the landscape; he first looked at it and in that moment, he said, "conceived a hatred for England which took many years to heal." Also, he felt that his favorite poet, W.B. Yeats, — "an author exactly after [his] own heart" — was totally underappreciated in England. He wrote to a friend: "Perhaps his appeal is purely Irish — if so, then thank the gods that I am Irish." But despite all his disdain and contempt for England, he chose to live and teach at Oxford University for almost 30 years — while acquainting himself with other Irish people living in England as much as possible.
Besides fairy tales and children's classics, he wrote theological books, including The Screwtape Letters (1942), a novel in which a demon writes to his nephew; and The Great Divorce (1945), where residents of hell take a bus ride to heaven, and Mere Christianity (1952), based on talks he gave on the BBC during World War II.
C.S. Lewis said, "Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see."
From the archives:
It's the birthday Madeleine L'Engle, born in New York City (1918), who struggled to find any success as a writer with novels about ordinary families and ordinary situations. But after reading about the ideas of Albert Einstein, she wrote a science fiction novel called A Wrinkle in Time (1962), about a group of children who have to rescue their father from a planet where individuality has been outlawed. The book was rejected by 26 different publishers, who all felt that it was too difficult for children but too fantastic for adults. But when it came out in 1962, the novel won the Newbery Medal, and it sells about 15,000 copies a year.
Madeleine L'Engle said, "You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children."
Sunday, November 21, 2010
A Digital Newspaper for the iPad?
Website: Media magnate Murdoch preps digital newspaper for iPad
By Craig Johnson, Special to CNN
(CNN) -- Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is developing a digital newspaper exclusively for the iPad and other electronic tablet devices, according to the Women's Wear Daily website.
Murdoch, who has made no secret of his ambitions to charge internet users for news content, has assembled a team of journalists for the project, called "The Daily," and hopes to roll out a beta version around Christmas, WWD reported.
Available to the public in early 2011, the Daily would cost 99 cents a week, about $4.25 a month, and true to its name, publish seven days a week, according to WWD.
Murdoch and Apple CEO Steve Jobs have long been bullish on projections that the iPad, and devices like it, will soon evolve into the premiere content-reading device for the web.
Charging for news content has long been a challenge and philosophical crux for news organizations with large online presences such as News Corporation, which Murdoch owns. The Daily would focus on national issues and combine the features of a tabloid and broadsheet publication, WWD reported.
To show the seriousness of the project, Murdoch has enlisted top-tier talent from his media empire to run the show, according to WWD.
Jesse Angelo, former managing editor of The New York Post, will lead the effort, along with journalists culled from media outfits such as Page Six, AOL, ABC News and The New Yorker, WWD reported.
By Craig Johnson, Special to CNN
(CNN) -- Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is developing a digital newspaper exclusively for the iPad and other electronic tablet devices, according to the Women's Wear Daily website.
Murdoch, who has made no secret of his ambitions to charge internet users for news content, has assembled a team of journalists for the project, called "The Daily," and hopes to roll out a beta version around Christmas, WWD reported.
Available to the public in early 2011, the Daily would cost 99 cents a week, about $4.25 a month, and true to its name, publish seven days a week, according to WWD.
Murdoch and Apple CEO Steve Jobs have long been bullish on projections that the iPad, and devices like it, will soon evolve into the premiere content-reading device for the web.
Charging for news content has long been a challenge and philosophical crux for news organizations with large online presences such as News Corporation, which Murdoch owns. The Daily would focus on national issues and combine the features of a tabloid and broadsheet publication, WWD reported.
To show the seriousness of the project, Murdoch has enlisted top-tier talent from his media empire to run the show, according to WWD.
Jesse Angelo, former managing editor of The New York Post, will lead the effort, along with journalists culled from media outfits such as Page Six, AOL, ABC News and The New Yorker, WWD reported.
How Many Classics Have You Read?
Attention literary friends:
The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. How do you measure up? A friend of mine just e-mailed that she’s read 56 of the 100.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas.
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. How do you measure up? A friend of mine just e-mailed that she’s read 56 of the 100.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas.
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Agenda for Monday Night's City Council Meeting
WARSAW COMMON COUNCIL
November 15, 2010
7:00 PM
I. ORGANIZATION OF MEETING
1. Call to Order
2. Invocation
3. Pledge of Allegiance
4. Approval of Minutes for: November 1, 2010
II. RECOGNITION OF VISITORS
1. Terry White & Grace College Journalism students
III. REPORTS / ORAL & WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS
1. Fort Wayne Business Weekly articles:
• “OrthoWorx supports continued life sciences innovation in state”
• “Experience made Robertson the right choice as county’s
new development director”
• “Grace College starts grad program on orthopedic regulatory,
clinical affairs”
2. Fire Dept. - October Activity Report
3. Comcast Cable quarterly Franchise Fee
IV. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
V. NEW BUSINESS
1. Ordinance No. 2010-11-03: Aviation – Additional Appropriation
2. Ordinance No. 2010-11-04: Aviation – Transfer Funds
3. Resolution No. 2010-11-01: Amendment of Redevelopment Plan
Authorizing Notice of Public Hearing for an Additional Appropriation
4. Ordinance No. 2010-11-05: Additional Appropriation to pay for
Acquisition of Property by the Redevelopment Commission
5. Street Light Request at Scott & Smith Streets
VI. OTHER MATTERS THAT MAY COME BEFORE THE COUNCIL
VII. MEETING REVIEW
1. Items Carried Forward
2. Visitors’ Questions & Comments
VIII. ADJOURNMENT
November 15, 2010
7:00 PM
I. ORGANIZATION OF MEETING
1. Call to Order
2. Invocation
3. Pledge of Allegiance
4. Approval of Minutes for: November 1, 2010
II. RECOGNITION OF VISITORS
1. Terry White & Grace College Journalism students
III. REPORTS / ORAL & WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS
1. Fort Wayne Business Weekly articles:
• “OrthoWorx supports continued life sciences innovation in state”
• “Experience made Robertson the right choice as county’s
new development director”
• “Grace College starts grad program on orthopedic regulatory,
clinical affairs”
2. Fire Dept. - October Activity Report
3. Comcast Cable quarterly Franchise Fee
IV. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
V. NEW BUSINESS
1. Ordinance No. 2010-11-03: Aviation – Additional Appropriation
2. Ordinance No. 2010-11-04: Aviation – Transfer Funds
3. Resolution No. 2010-11-01: Amendment of Redevelopment Plan
Authorizing Notice of Public Hearing for an Additional Appropriation
4. Ordinance No. 2010-11-05: Additional Appropriation to pay for
Acquisition of Property by the Redevelopment Commission
5. Street Light Request at Scott & Smith Streets
VI. OTHER MATTERS THAT MAY COME BEFORE THE COUNCIL
VII. MEETING REVIEW
1. Items Carried Forward
2. Visitors’ Questions & Comments
VIII. ADJOURNMENT
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Want to Earn Some Money . . .
. . . and get good journalism experience at the same time?
The Warsaw Times-Union is looking for correspondents to cover some of the outlying town boards, meetings, etc.
Here is a note the editor, Gary Gerard, sent me:
Did you notice the ad at the bottom of page one? Any of your students
interested? It pays $25 per meeting plus mileage. Correspondents cover
the meeting and e-mail me a story for the next day's edition. Great way
to get practical experience and clips.
Thanks,
Gary
Sure would be great if one or several of you could help meet his need, and get this good experience (and clippings) at the same time!
Contact Gary at:
Telephone
574.267.3111
Sports/News Fax - 574.267.7784
Advertising Fax - 574.268.1300
E-mails:
News - news@timesuniononline.com
The Warsaw Times-Union is looking for correspondents to cover some of the outlying town boards, meetings, etc.
Here is a note the editor, Gary Gerard, sent me:
Did you notice the ad at the bottom of page one? Any of your students
interested? It pays $25 per meeting plus mileage. Correspondents cover
the meeting and e-mail me a story for the next day's edition. Great way
to get practical experience and clips.
Thanks,
Gary
Sure would be great if one or several of you could help meet his need, and get this good experience (and clippings) at the same time!
Contact Gary at:
Telephone
574.267.3111
Sports/News Fax - 574.267.7784
Advertising Fax - 574.268.1300
E-mails:
News - news@timesuniononline.com
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