:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Monday, August 18, 2008 ::

The Evil Apple

The Evil Apple
Originally uploaded by gusset.

Labels: Flickr, Food, Humour

:: Dan 18.8.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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DwC Hangover Special 10
Originally uploaded by gusset.

Popcorn helps out with some new Drinks with Chunks reviews.

Hangover Cure Special

Young Coconut Juice with Jelly

Labels: Drinks with Chunks, Flickr, Food

:: Dan 22.7.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Art with Chunks 09
Originally uploaded by gusset.


When I started the Drinks with Chunks blog I never imagined it would be crossing into the world of modern art. And likewise, the staff at the Arnolfini never saw me coming. Today, a clashing of cultures was staged; the Far West Cross-Artform Project meets Drinks with Chunks. What better way to introduce our respective audiences to each other?

Labels: Art, Drinks with Chunks, Food

:: Dan 8.7.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Theremug from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo.
[also via grom]

Labels: Electronic Music, Food, Instruments

:: Dan 6.7.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Vegetarian Journal September / October 2001 Vegetarian Action: Are Those Brains Vegan? A Vegan in Zombie’s Clothing



[found by accident]

Labels: Food, Humour

:: Dan 14.6.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Drinks with Chunks...


DwC 129
Originally uploaded by gusset.


...they're back and they're on form!

Labels: Drinks with Chunks, Flickr, Food

:: Dan 27.4.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Nutritionally Balanced
Originally uploaded by gusset.

Doesn't it seem strange that something for which it's main selling point is it's nutritional balance, it contains eight things you might be allergic to?

Labels: Flickr, Food

:: Dan 11.4.08 [Arc] [2 comments] [links to this post] ::
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as simple as 1 2 3
Originally uploaded by gusset.

Noodle instructions. The guy flicking the Vs in the centre makes it all the more amusing by looking a little bit like "the actor Kevin Eldon."

Thanks Jules

Labels: Flickr, Food

:: Dan 7.4.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Food Fight is an abridged history of American-centric war, from World War II to present day, told through the foods of the countries in conflict. Watch as traditional comestibles slug it out for world domination in this chronologically re-enacted smorgasbord of aggression.



Breakdown of the foodstuffs
Breakdown of the actual battles portrayed in the film

Labels: Animation, Food, Humour, Politics, Video

:: Dan 12.3.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Thinking about the plethora of USB gadgets available these days (usually lazily named by adding an ‘i’ or an ‘e’ in front of its everyday name) a clever pun suddenly struck me. Has anybody ever made an eWok? A quick google found this wok based wifi antenna. Close, but not close enough.

Labels: Food, Gadget, Humour

:: Dan 5.2.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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I mentioned some time ago about my love of natural, identifiable, food based scents (coconut in particular) in perfumes and my dislike of strong chemical-mix unnatural smells. Well, it looks like men may have the same irresistible food based effect on women soon (if this ad is to be believed).

'Lynx Dark Temptation
New deoderant...smells of chocolate
It's "made from" chocolate, frozen ginger, coriander, sage, black basil, pear sorbet and whipped cream...yum!'
Their quotes on 'made from', not mine.

Labels: Advertising, Food, Smell

:: Dan 14.1.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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'When you eat broccoli, do you pretend you are a giant eating a tree?'
[quote Nick the Greek, Transco]





More

[thanks hardoff]

Labels: Food, graphics, Humour, Photography

:: Dan 6.1.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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When discussing cheese-dreams earlier today someone mentioned this article, Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Cheese, from the British Cheese Board. It's over two years old but still the first Google hit for "cheese dreams."

I've never held with the popular myth that cheese gives you nightmares but do feel that it can give me freaky dreams. In fact, I quite enjoy some late night cheese nibbling for that very reason. It seems that the pun happy British Cheese Board – whose aim is to "increase consumption of cheese in the UK" – has come to the same conclusion, based on some fairly unscientific and marketing department friendly testing. For a start, no control group was used, which invalidates everything.

That point aside, the article is worth reading for the snippets of dreams people have described quoted in the text. For example, "Cheddar eating participants tended to dream of celebrities ... and one lucky girl helped to form a human pyramid under the supervision of Johnny Depp."

'Human pyramid' eh? Under Johnny Depp you say? Hmm. I'm sure marketing can clean that up a little.

Labels: Food, Humour

:: Dan 2.1.08 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post] ::
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'This is our world: the acoustics of vegetables'
The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra serves up a musical feast at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
[via grom]

Labels: Acoustics, Food, Music, Video

:: Dan 18.12.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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I've just finished reading The Road to Wigan Pier. It contains a selection of derogatory references to stereotypical Socialists and Liberals - who drive others away from their cause with their eccentricity - as 'creeping Jesus, sandal wearing, vegetarians.' These comments culminate in Chapter XI with this brilliant quote:

"Any Socialist, he probably felt, could be counted on to have something eccentric about him. And some such notion seems to exist even among Socialists themselves. For instance, I have here a prospectus form another summer school which states its terms per week and then asks me to say ‘whether my diet is ordinary or vegetarian’. They take it for granted, you see, that it is necessary to ask this question. This kind of thing is by itself sufficient to alienate plenty of decent people. And their instinct is perfectly sound, for the food crank is by definition a person willing to cut himself off from human society in hopes of adding five years onto the life of his carcase; that is, a person out of touch with common humanity."

Things have changed a bit since the '30s haven't they.

Labels: Food, Humour, Literature

:: Dan 14.12.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Japanese Louis Vuitton commercial by Takashi Murakami

[music by Fantastic Plastic Machine]

Takashi Murakami is probably best known for his Manga related work. "[His] style, called Superflat, is characterized by flat planes of color and graphic images involving a character style derived from anime and manga. Superflat is an artistic style that comments on otaku lifestyle and subculture, as well as consumerism and sexual fetishism. Social commentary is nothing new, nor is appropriation of mass media or popular culture." [source wikipedia]

Murakami - Army of Mushrooms


Which reminds me. I bought the recent Pop magazine because I was intrigued by the article about creating mushrooms out of designer clothes with similar sounding names. eg Shitake Versace:

Labels: Animation, Art, Fashion, Food, graphics

:: Dan 8.12.07 [Arc] [2 comments] [links to this post] ::
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FBI Hoped to Follow Falafel Trail to Iranian Terrorists

Like Hansel and Gretel hoping to follow their bread crumbs out of the forest, the FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists.

The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents in the south San Francisco-San Jose area.

The brainchild of top FBI counterterrorism officials Phil Mudd and Willie T. Hulon, according to well-informed sources, the project didn’t last long. It was torpedoed by the head of the FBI’s criminal investigations division, Michael A. Mason, who argued that putting somebody on a terrorist list for what they ate was ridiculous — and possibly illegal.

[via dev.null]

Labels: Food, Humour, Politics

:: Dan 8.11.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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I've collected up a lot of links that I have little to add to recently, so here's a link dump of things you might find interesting, useful or humorous:

The definitive Lorem Ipsum resource

Microsoft error messages in haiku form

The blog of "unnecessary" quotation marks

Vector Magic: image to vector converter

The 88 Fast Food Items Most Likely To Kill You
U.S. centric. I've never heard of most of these chains. And wtf is this at #54: "Jack in the Box Sausage Biscuit"? The mind boggles.
[via slashfood]

The Honeypot, West St, Bedminster

[via hijack]

For the musicians:
Octavcat remix competition
Expired Two Loan Swordsmen remix competition, but you can still grab samples if you want them. (Of course, you then shouldn’t use them.)
Virtual cct bent speak & spell

Labels: Electronic Music, Food, graphics, Humour, Literature, Typography

:: Dan 8.11.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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DwC 113
Originally uploaded by gusset.


I've given the Drinks with Chunks blog a major update post. Get your molars around that.

Labels: Food, Humour

:: Dan 29.10.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Bacon dates redux
Originally uploaded by mollyali.

The Bacon flickr pool is making me salivate.

Labels: Flickr, Food

:: Dan 11.9.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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"When is a paddy not a paddy? When it's a canvas, of course. But as staff writer YOKO HANI discovered in northern Aomori Prefecture, what's nice to look at is rice to eat as well." [from Japan Times]

Labels: Art, Food

:: Dan 30.8.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Previous post here

CUBE COLA ALL SPIRITS NIGHT
Sat 8th Sept/ 7pm/ £3

The Cube Microplex is possibly the only cinema in the UK to manufacture its own cola from scratch. Internationally famed and media-courted, cube-Cola tonight celebrates 4 years on the path to food science enlightenment.

A non-brand promotion bar party, expect guantanamo libres, home brewed snacks, bands and dancing.

On Saturday Sept 8th (rescheduled from Aug 25th) Cube home-brewers will be celebrating 4 years of adventures in producing our inhouse cola drink. We would like to invite anyone who also makes produce* to join us and sell their fruits from the bar.

*cakes, wine, moonshine, pies and modified commercial produce.

Arrive hungry and decaffeinated.

Labels: Food, FOSS

:: Dan 30.8.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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My parents came over last weekend to help me with some plumbing. I offered to cook a Sunday roast in payment. I'd been planning a Moroccan lamb tagine, as I like to spice up plain meals. Usually when I plan something like this I get a phone call from my dad a few days beforehand warning me to tone it down because, "You know your mother has a sensitive stomach," but for once that didn't happen. This time, my mum phoned and said, "You know, your father would never say this to you, but he doesn't really like the spicy food you cook, can you do something normal, like bangers and mash?" They're both blaming each other! I don't know whether it's my mums stomach or my dads fag charred taste buds to blame or both.

I took the bangers and mash suggestion and ran with it. I scoped The Sausage Shop in St Nicks Market early in the week and decided on the Cotswold, with it Somerset pork with herby sage, basil and coriander flavouring. Potatoes were bought (I never normally keep them in, I find them boring), kidney beans were picked from the garden, and home grown spring onions livened up the mash.

Friday lunchtime I nipped to the market and bought the sausages (£4.80 for eight, bargin!) and put them in the fridge in the office for the afternoon. Concerned about forgetting them – my memory in notorious – I wrote "SAUSAGES!" on a post-it note and stuck it to my bus ticket.

At the end of the day I was proud of myself for not even needing to find the reminder, I remembered to get them from the fridge all on my own. In the bag they went, and off to the bus stop with me. When the bus arrived I pulled the ticket out of my pocket and without looking at it handed the driver a note saying "SAUSAGES!" He looked confused and looked at me oddly. Surely this is the most unusual proposition he has received, wanted or otherwise. I calmly removed the sticky note and handed the ticket back to him as straight faced as I could.

It was worth it. The meal was great and went down well with the olds. Apart from a minor grumble about one of the beans being a bit stringy. They are getting a bit big, I need to eat them faster.

So if I ever hand you a note offering "SAUSAGES!" at some point in the future, please remember that it wasn't really intended for you and is not an offer of meat stuffed intestines for you.

When I am offering that I'll put a question mark on the end.

Labels: Food, Humour

:: Dan 24.8.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Started
Originally uploaded by coconinoco.


Slashfood reports on the possibilities of Solar Cooking; with a pot, a sheet of glass, and a solar reflector you can have a slow cooker without any power requirements other than the light of the sun. There is a How To guide to building one here and downloadable plans at solarcooking.org. Coconino has some flickr photos of his solar cooking experiments in the UK.

Labels: Cooking, Environment, Food, Physics

:: Dan 20.8.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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How Not to Eat the World's Hottest Chili
[via /food]

Labels: Food

:: Dan 14.8.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Taste the Same
Originally uploaded by gusset.

Sainsbury's "Basics" Vodka and Mouthwash taste the same. I have a theory that all of the "Basics" clear liquids are the same thing. I'll be taste testing the bleach next.

Labels: Flickr, Food

:: Dan 14.8.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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I couldn't help grinning stupidly all the way through this. [via grom]

Labels: Food, Video

:: Dan 2.8.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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How to Make Open Cola [via Natali]
Sounds like a royal pain in the ass to make something that tastes like sugary crap.

It made me wonder how many cola recipes are around, but a Cookin' with Gusset search only found recipes with cola in them, every single one of which sounds disgusting. Cola salad, cola soups, cola chicken; do these people have no taste buds?

Notes on Making Cola (chemistry lesson warning) on the Cube Cinema site. To my knowledge they aren't still serving the home brew. I'll check next time I'm there.
Edit: update

Urban legend* has it that those wanting to recreate something closer to the original Coca-Cola recipe need merely mix up coffee, red wine and cocaine. I don't know what sources or quantities of any of those three you would need but I'm sure it would be one hell of a party if you wanted to find out.

* Wikipedia confirms that it still contains coca leaf extract and snopes confirms that it did once contain trace amounts of cocaine.

Labels: Food, FOSS

:: Dan 30.7.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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dorset muesli review
Originally uploaded by gusset.

• Super High Fibre: Hmm. My fave. Lots of dates. 9/10.
  
• Really Nutty Muesli: V. nice and fruity, good juicy apricot chunks and tasty cashews. 8/10.
  
• Fruit Nut & Seed. V. nice and fruity, good juicy apricot chunks. 7/10.
  
• Simply Delicious Muesli: Bog standard muesli but still very good. 6/10.
  
• Super Cranberry, Cherry & Almond (Discontinued): Seems to have been replaced with the Berries and Cherries, losing the almond that was the best thing about it. 3/10.
  
• Berries & Cherries: V. fruity but turns milk an unnatural looking purple/grey colour, and the cranberry is a bit tart. 2/10.
  
• Tasty, Toasted Spelt, Barley & Oat Flakes (Not shown): Far too much soggy cereal. 1/10.

Labels: Food

:: Dan 29.7.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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"Everything Should Taste Like Bacon"

Htf is it vegetarian?

Labels: Food

:: Dan 24.7.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Curry may combat Alzheimer's!
I'll tell my nan.

Labels: Food

:: Dan 19.7.07 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Freegan.info
"Freegans are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. Freegans embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed."

Sounds great in principle but I wouldn't recommend going as far as eating out of supermarket bins. When I worked in a supermarket you couldn’t open the lid of the bin without retching. Given the choice I wouldn't go near one of those again never mind scamper around inside it like the image on the website gaily depicts.

Interviews from Radio 4:
"Tom Feilden reports on the political creed known as Freeganism which is based on the conviction that pretty much ever area of economic activity is based on some form of exploitation." [About 20 mins in here]
"We continue our discussion on Freegonism and are joined by Kevin Hawkins the director general of the British Retail Consortium." [About 10 mins in here]
And as an aside, "Research being conducted at the University of Hertfordshire suggests that robots can help children with autism form relationships. We speak to Dr Ben Robins who is leading the team." [About 10 mins in here]
[Real Audio links]

Dear Today programme,
Why have you stopped putting individual story links on your website? The half hour chunks are nowhere near as useful when sharing stories with others. Thanks.

Labels: Food, Politics, Radio4, science

:: Dan 31.5.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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I commented on the fractal like qualities of a Romanesco a couple of years ago. Someone else has now taken it a whole stage further:
Fractal Food: Self-Similarity on the Supermarket Shelf by John Walker
[via grom]

Labels: Food, Maths

:: Dan 30.5.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Neneh Cherry and Andi Oliver cooked up a beautiful looking Curried Goat recipe (although they substituted mutton for the goat meat) on Neneh & Andi: Dish It Up last week. It even had chocolate in it. Hmm. Think I'm going to have to try that.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's curry goat recipe here.
Plenty more via Cookin' with Gusset

Buy goat meat at the descriptively named goat-meat.co.uk or alternativemeats.co.uk (Does exactly what it says on the tin url.)

Surprised Osgrow don't stock it, would be better if I could pick up locally.

Edit: Slashfood: Mexican goat blood

Labels: Food

:: Dan 14.5.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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They say that when you become a parent your diet goes a bit strange*. I witnessed this earlier this week, and Mrs P's brother and his four year old son are staying with us for the week. I spotted the brother-in-law eating a two day open packet of Quavers for breakfast. Now today I've fallen into the same trap as I've just eaten some reheated filled pasta, formerly clearly labelled "do not reheat", and pesto for lunch, and I'm starting to feel a bit sick.

* Can't find a reference link, searches only seem to find articles about parents effect of children's diet.

Labels: Food

:: Dan 27.4.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Great Photo Opportunity I Have Missed #3 has been rectified:



The White Nancy Goats Cheese has been photographed, purchased, and used to make lunch:



Ciabatta with Fried Black Pudding, White Nancy Goats Cheese, Pitted Black Olives, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Freshly Ground Black Pepper. Mmmm.

Labels: Food, GPOIHM

:: Dan 21.4.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Help! Someone has just given me one of these Meenk Bizon Dutch Triple Salt Liquorice gums to try. Only for the hardened sweet junkies. I normally like liquorice but I'm not too much of a salt monster. This is far too much for me. It reminds me of the mouthfuls of salt water you invariably swallow when swimming in the sea. It's even burning the inside of my nose now. Agghhhhh!

Just calming it down with a sour lemon pip now. Aah, I'm actually salivating again. That's better.

I don't know what the actual salt content of that thing was. I might have to contact the shop and ask them what date I'll be able to eat anything with salt in again. I imagine it won't be for a couple of months. I think my heart rate it still a little faster than it should be.

Labels: Food

:: Dan 16.4.07 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Thai scientist deodorizes the durian. Good news as it may allow more people to try it, and at least it was a cross breed rather than genetically modified, but sill, is it necessary?

Sweet review.

Labels: Durian, Food

:: Dan 10.4.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Sign on one of the cheese stalls at the farmers market on Corn St today advertising "White Nancy (Goats)" If only there weren't any brackets there! Hopefully it'll be there again next week, when I think I'll also be procuring some for my own devious ends.

Labels: Food, GPOIHM, Humour

:: Dan 4.4.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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durian, originally uploaded by gusset.

One of Amanda’s work colleagues recently returned from a holiday in Thailand with a box of sweets for everyone in the department. They were Durian fruit flavoured but she had no idea what that was. She was shocked to find everyone who took one spitting them out and complaining that it tasted of manure / vomit / rotting corpses / horses ass etc.

Personally I thought it was quite an interesting flavour; a methane gas like smell that catches the roof of the mouth with undertones of pineapple and coconut on the back of the tongue. I'd eat it again, and I'm intrigued to try the full durian fruit experience, but I won't be doing it in Amanda's presence as she refused to come near me for hours afterwards. As far as making a post out of it, Fraser over at blogjam has already beaten me to it obviously, as well as pointing out that you can buy them in London's Chinatown. Presumably any other city's Chinatown would also do. Some candy blogs suggest you can pick the sweets up there too but stupidly advise you not to do so. Ignore them, try it.

Labels: Durian, Food

:: Dan 4.7.06 [Arc] [2 comments] [links to this post] ::
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