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Polar bears resort to cannibalism as Arctic ice shrinks
CNN.com ^ | September 23, 2008 | Marsha Walton

Posted on 09/23/2008 11:58:28 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia

(CNN) -- Summer is over in the northern hemisphere, but it's been another chilling season for researchers who study Arctic sea ice.

"It's definitely a bad report. We did pick up little bit from last year, but this is over 30 percent below what used to be normal," said Walt Meier, a research scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.

This past summer, the Arctic sea ice dwindled to its second lowest level. Arctic sea ice is usually one to three meters, or as much as 9 feet thick. It grows during autumn and winter and shrinks in the spring and summer.

Scientists have monitored sea ice conditions for about 50 years with the help of satellites. Changes in the past decade have been alarming to climate researchers and oceanographers.

"It is the second lowest on record ... If anything it is reinforcing the long-term trend. We are still losing the ice cover at a rate of 10 percent per decade now, and that is quite an increase from five years ago," said Meier. "We are still heading toward an ice cover that is going to melt completely in the summertime in the Arctic."

--snip--

Scientists have noticed increasing reports of starving Arctic polar bears attacking and feeding on one another in recent years. In one documented 2004 incident in northern Alaska, a male bear broke into a female's den and killed her.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agw; animalrights; arctic; climatechange; environment; globalwarming; polarbears; theskyisfalling; wereallgonnadie
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1 posted on 09/23/2008 11:58:28 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
In one documented 2004 incident in northern Alaska, a male bear broke into a female's den and killed her.

PALIN'S FAULT!

2 posted on 09/23/2008 12:00:39 PM PDT by frogjerk (MSM: We will not question Obama bin Biden...)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

Male Polar Bears have always been canaibalistic —

WOW, the lack of knowledge by the CNN fact checkers, it’s truly awesome.


3 posted on 09/23/2008 12:03:26 PM PDT by Tarpon (Barrack Obama will ban all the guns he has the votes for ...)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

ummm this is the biggest bunch of BS I’ve ever seen.

Polar bears KILL one another, and males WILL kill females, and they certainly will kill cubs.

And “broke into a female’s den”????? What kind of idiot writes things like that about BEARS? Bears are ANIMALS.

And for God’s Sake the freaking polar region isn’t shrinking...


4 posted on 09/23/2008 12:03:54 PM PDT by Rick.Donaldson (http://www.transasianaxis.com - Please visit for latest on Russia/China/DPRK et al.)
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: rightwingintelligentsia

Isn’t this good news? It means they aren’t eating baby seals!


6 posted on 09/23/2008 12:05:31 PM PDT by Free State Four
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
"The Arctic sea ice melt is a disaster for the polar bears," according to Kassie Siegel, staff attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity. "They are dependent on the Arctic sea ice for all of their essential behaviors, and as the ice melts and global warming transforms the Arctic, polar bears are starving, drowning, even resorting to cannibalism because they don't have access to their usual food sources."

Scientists have noticed increasing reports of starving Arctic polar bears attacking and feeding on one another in recent years. In one documented 2004 incident in northern Alaska, a male bear broke into a female's den and killed her.

Anything more recent than one incident four years ago? Quite the misleading headline (not that anybody is surprised)...

7 posted on 09/23/2008 12:06:17 PM PDT by Constitutionalist Conservative (The Global Warming Heretic -- http://AGW-Heretic.blogspot.com)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia; george76; girlangler

CNN is truly pathetic writing a headline like this on a supposedly documented event from four years ago.


8 posted on 09/23/2008 12:06:41 PM PDT by jazusamo (DefendOurMarines.org | DefendOurTroops.org)
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To: Rick.Donaldson

No kidding. Didn’t they have an “expert” last year say that it was the first time in his life that he’d ever seen polar bears eating each other and then somebody pulled up a book he had written 20 years ago in which he had said the same thing?


9 posted on 09/23/2008 12:06:52 PM PDT by techcor
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

‘a male bear broke into a female’s den and killed her’

Then he stole her computer and DVD player and just bearly got away . The female bear didn’t have a permit to bear arms.

Sorry, I just couldn’t help it....


10 posted on 09/23/2008 12:07:12 PM PDT by Leg Olam ("Every dog, we are told, has his day, unless there are more dogs than days." Bat Masterson)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
Wild animals sometimes behave uncivilly.

I remember the time my hairdresser questioned why I was bothering to get my kittens fixed. She asked "They are brother and sister, they wouldn't, would they?"

As a farm girl I was floored that this would not be obvious. Maybe this is half the problem with the global warming/peta zealots. They have never lived in the real world and their only contact with wild animals is the animal storybooks their parents read them as children. They then apply human characteristics to dumb animals. I love animals, but understand that they are limited in their brain power. I guess the same could be said for liberals.

11 posted on 09/23/2008 12:07:33 PM PDT by w1andsodidwe (Jimmy Carter(the Godfather of Terror) allowed radical Islam to get a foothold in Iran.)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

CNN Headline: Scores of Polar Bears Injured ... Scores of polar bears have been reported to have suffered back injuries over the last few months because signs have not be printed in Polareze the often ridiculed and misunderstood language Algore has discovered while in the Arctic measuring ice melt

12 posted on 09/23/2008 12:09:15 PM PDT by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

I always thought it a fact that polar bears have always dined on humans when given the chance...


13 posted on 09/23/2008 12:10:11 PM PDT by t1b8zs
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

Abhorrence of cannibalism and incest are human traits. Animals have no such ingrained taboos.


14 posted on 09/23/2008 12:10:29 PM PDT by CholeraJoe (Elect the Mommy, not the Commie.)
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To: techcor

Yes, they tried to say this before.

Same with the disappearing ice.

Polar bears are noramlly cannibalistic, and artic ice disappears and reappears all the time.


15 posted on 09/23/2008 12:10:32 PM PDT by ltc8k6
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

Perhaps there are too many polar bears now.


16 posted on 09/23/2008 12:11:19 PM PDT by rdax
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

Excuse me CNN, more ice this year than last year would indicate a trend reversal, not a continuation.


17 posted on 09/23/2008 12:11:57 PM PDT by jsh3180
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

So like fish and seals and other critters live in the ice? I thought they swam around like polar bears ..... the ice is just a campground for them ... read where they can swim almost 200 miles ....Canada is real close ....


18 posted on 09/23/2008 12:12:14 PM PDT by SkyDancer ("I Believe In The Law Until It Interferes With Justice")
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

19 posted on 09/23/2008 12:12:47 PM PDT by MarkeyD (I love Palin! McCain is p*ssing me off again.)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
"It is the second lowest on record ... If anything it is reinforcing the long-term trend. We are still losing the ice cover at a rate of 10 percent per decade now, and that is quite an increase from five years ago," said Meier.

Liar.

In one documented 2004 incident in northern Alaska, a male bear broke into a female's den and killed her.

And I suppose that a police investigation and grand jury inquiry determined that the attack was due to starvation...?

The enviros had better sharpen up their resumes. It won't be long before Global WarmingTM takes a back seat to real problems and the disposable cash that guilt-ridden armchair eco-warriors send to these sham organizations dries up.

(Hey--there is something positive about a depression!!)

20 posted on 09/23/2008 12:12:49 PM PDT by randog (What the...?!)
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To: Puppage
can you give us the recipe for that macaroon cookie?
21 posted on 09/23/2008 12:13:26 PM PDT by fish hawk (a taxpayer voting for Obama is like a chicken voting for Col. Sanders)
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To: frogjerk
Broke into??

Her den?

Where was daddy's den...Two blocks away?

How do they know that the "burglar" wasn't "daddy gone wild".

They sure like to create any story that fits their agenda.

22 posted on 09/23/2008 12:14:29 PM PDT by Sacajaweau (I'm planting corn...Have to feed my car...)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
In one documented 2004 incident in northern Alaska, a male bear broke into a female's den and killed her.

I wish I had a dollar for every nature documentary I saw that clearly stated that dominant male bears will kill and eat other bears. In addition, if the female is denned up, that is from November to March - or at a time where there is plenty of ice for hunting seals. What idiocy.

23 posted on 09/23/2008 12:15:04 PM PDT by dirtboy
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
Scientists have noticed increasing reports of starving Arctic polar bears attacking and feeding on one another in recent years. In one documented 2004 incident in northern Alaska, a male bear broke into a female's den and killed her.

Of course, this would have absolutely NOTHING to do with the fact that the Polar Bear population has increased... Over use of the food supply leads to 'other' food supply sources.

24 posted on 09/23/2008 12:18:34 PM PDT by rjsimmon
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To: Fudd Fan

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2088672/posts?page=19#19

Your yard?


25 posted on 09/23/2008 12:19:29 PM PDT by CedarDave (Gloom and doom Democrats cheer for financial despair, losing wars and hurricanes. That's leadership!)
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To: Rick.Donaldson
And “broke into a female’s den”????? What kind of idiot writes things like that about BEARS? Bears are ANIMALS.


26 posted on 09/23/2008 12:23:11 PM PDT by frogjerk (MSM: We will not question Obama bin Biden...)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

...cannibalism is normal...

Infanticide and Cannibalism of Juvenile Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus)
in Svalbard
A.E. DEROCHER
1
and Ø. WIIG
2
(Received 29 January 1999; accepted in revised form 9 June 1999

….
Intraspecific predation, infanticide, and cannibal-
ism have been reported in polar bears (Belikov et al., 1977;
Hansson and Thomassen, 1983; Larsen, 1985; Lunn and
Stenhouse, 1985; Taylor et al., 1985).

http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic52-3-307.pdf


27 posted on 09/23/2008 12:23:47 PM PDT by Bulwinkle
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
Polar bears resort to cannibalism as Arctic ice shrinks

Pictures?

28 posted on 09/23/2008 12:24:30 PM PDT by Stentor (Obama supporters: Letting the little void do the thinking for the big void.)
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To: frogjerk

As the world continues to cool, prepare to read many more articles such as this one. There are so many factual errors in this article that I wouldn’t know where to begin.

First mistake, satellite data showing polar ice goes back to just 1979. This is not 50 years ago, this is only 29 years ago. There have been numerous times even during the past century when it was been predicted that the North Pole would melt completely. This is because sea ice levels were lower than they were last year.

Sea ice was depleted more than normal last year because of changing ocean and wind currents, not global warming.

The polar bear population has been on the increase for several decades. It is normal for a population of predators to increase to a point where their environment will not be able to support them all. There are only so many baby seals to go around.


29 posted on 09/23/2008 12:25:53 PM PDT by fireman15
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To: techcor

“Didn’t they have an “expert” last year say that it was the first time in his life that he’d ever seen polar bears eating each other and then somebody pulled up a book he had written 20 years ago in which he had said the same thing?”

Yes. here is the link to the article in at CBC.com and I am also posting the comments I contributed to that site.

Here is the story banner:

Beaufort Sea polar bears starving to death, scientist finds
Desperate animals resorting to cannibalism, wandering south to find food

Thursday, April 10, 2008 | 11:48 AM ET
CBC News

Here is the link

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/04/10/polar-bears.html

Here are my comments:

Dr. Sterling’s claims that “We found four different incidents where the bear had been killed by an adult male to eat — in other words, cannibalism.I thought that was very unusual. I’ve never seen it, anywhere.” As another poster to this comments section pointed out, and then provided a link to the passages, Dr Sterling described just this kind of behavior in a book he published in 1999.

What could make a formerly well respected scientist lie about behavior he has previously described in his own published work? Maybe devotion to the Church of Global Warming? Maybe because scientists have found the Global Warming hysteria a cash-cow with real financial gains to be had in government supplied research grants? Maybe because they see it as a way to funnel tax money into their very own field of research? Maybe because they can rationalize their dishonesty believing that any money being put into environmental research, irrespective of the truth of their claims, is a good thing? Explain to me what other reason Dr Stirling, or any other scientist, would lie about facts he has already established?

Last week in a British Newspaper, the Times, there was an article quoting members of the IPCC and a Greenpeace spokesman who claim that the reason we had record cold on every continent this winter is because, you guessed it, Global Warming. I almost laughed myself unconscious reading it. Leave it to the propagandists preaching the religion of Global Warming to proclaim that its too cold because it is too warm. The true believers, and most of the European Socialists that seek control over all of us, will stop at no absurdity to convince we are all doomed unless we give up our freedom, and our money, so THEY can save us from ourselves.

Interestingly enough, solar scientists from both Canada and the Soviet Union have, independent of each other, published papers in the last two weeks that claim that solar activity has not increased as was expected during this phase of the usual 11 year solar cycle. In fact, scientists in both countries claim that the Sun has become dramatically less active and they are worried that we might be entering a “Maunder Minimum”, a period of inactivity on the Sun that scientists have long blamed for the “Little Ice Age” which began roughly in 1550 and continued till the mid-nineteenth century. The Little Ice Age is blamed for the extermination of many Norse tribes as well as starvation and famine in Europe. According to the study prepared by both groups of scientists, the absence of increased sunspots and solar flares could be an indication we are entering a period of global cooling, and perhaps a period of precipitous cooling.

Add this to new data provided by 3,000 underwater Argos system sensors that indicate the oceans have actually cooled over the last five years. as well as the independent study commissioned by our government which slams the International Panel on Climate Change for using flawed statistical methodologies and models, and you start to see the depth of the deception by these power and money-hungry socialist scumbags.

Which is it? Global Warming or Global Cooling? All I know for sure is that science has been hijacked by environmental zealots and unprincipled Leftist politicians and bureaucrats who stand to profit handsomely, both politically and financially, by convincing us that its too cold because its too hot. If they really believe it, maybe they are so dumb because they are so smart. Makes just as much sense does it not?

This is, as others have pointed out, the biggest scam ever perpetrated on mankind.

Charles McFarling
Indianapolis, IN


30 posted on 09/23/2008 12:26:51 PM PDT by PresidentFelon
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To: Free State Four

Ooh, maybe I can get Pam Anderson to go “clubbing” with me! Bwahahahaha!!!


31 posted on 09/23/2008 12:28:39 PM PDT by Camel Joe (liberal=socialist=royalist/imperialist pawn=enemy of Freedom)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
From "Observations of Intraspecific Aggression and Cannibalism in Polar Bears, Arctic Vol 38, No 4 December 1985".

Cannibalism in Polar Bears appears to occur as carrion feeding and attacks by males on small cubs or incapacitated individuals. Direct observations indicate that intraspecific killing and cannibalism occur among polar bears throughout the Arctic.

pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic38-4-303.pdf

32 posted on 09/23/2008 12:29:56 PM PDT by Ben Mugged (Success begets knowledge; failure begets wisdom.)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
Photobucket
33 posted on 09/23/2008 12:32:06 PM PDT by GitmoSailor (AZ Cold War Veteran====McCain/Palin 2OO8==My Mouse is a MOOSE=Donate to FR)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
Poor things. Let's put them out of their misery then.


34 posted on 09/23/2008 12:35:05 PM PDT by reagan_fanatic ("And how can this be? For I am the Kwisatz Haderach! " - Barack Obama)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
In a related item, another polar bear prowls the Barrow airport intent on some "airline food"


35 posted on 09/23/2008 12:38:56 PM PDT by Species8472 (Alaska girls kick ass!)
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To: Tarpon
Male Polar Bears have always been cannibalistic —

Same with Brown and Grisly

36 posted on 09/23/2008 12:39:43 PM PDT by D Rider
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
How do you stop a polar bear from whining about the loss of ice??? You eat her.

I write as well as CNN.

37 posted on 09/23/2008 12:40:05 PM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi
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To: t1b8zs

.....;]

38 posted on 09/23/2008 12:41:49 PM PDT by Salamander (McCain/Palin 08. Country FIRST!)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

Polar Bear-the Other White Meat


39 posted on 09/23/2008 12:43:04 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Looks like I squandered my 401K just in time. Who's the fool now?)
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To: techcor
“expert”

Swede shoe, silver tongue, POS, know nothing 50 miles from home!

Last week he was selling ice boxes to Eskimos.

40 posted on 09/23/2008 12:43:09 PM PDT by dalereed
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
URPP!! This cannibalism is too much to bear.


41 posted on 09/23/2008 12:45:38 PM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

....polar bears eat beluga whales - something that swims. Why would more water = dwindling food supply?


42 posted on 09/23/2008 12:48:45 PM PDT by Tzimisce (How Would Mohammed Vote? Obama for President!)
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To: Lee Heggy123
The female bear didn’t have a permit to bear arms.

We need to protect the God-given right to arm bears!

43 posted on 09/23/2008 12:56:24 PM PDT by SlowBoat407 (Obama will give us enough hope to hang ourselves.)
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To: t1b8zs
I always thought it a fact that polar bears have always dined on humans when given the chance...

Yes, but there is a limit to the available NY Times reporters doing remote smears on Sarah Palin
44 posted on 09/23/2008 12:57:39 PM PDT by BigEdLB (Let's get serious - there is only one choice - McCain/Palin 2008)
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To: t1b8zs
I always thought it a fact that polar bears have always dined on humans when given the chance...

Yes, but there is a limit to the available NY Times reporters doing remote smears on Sarah Palin
45 posted on 09/23/2008 12:57:41 PM PDT by BigEdLB (Let's get serious - there is only one choice - McCain/Palin 2008)
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To: Rick.Donaldson

“broke into a female’s den”

I guess the cold’s hell on those deadbolt locks...


46 posted on 09/23/2008 1:00:48 PM PDT by jagusafr ("Bugs, Mr. Rico! Zillions of 'em!" - Robert Heinlein)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
Every time you breathe out CO2, you are killing a Polar Bear.

You know what you have to do...

47 posted on 09/23/2008 1:01:49 PM PDT by gridlock (The Democrats have attacked Motherhood. Now, if they attack Baseball and Apple Pie, we got it made!)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
I'm voting for "Polar Bear Cannibalism" to be added to the FR Lexicon.

As in...."Bush's fault. Doomed. Dogs and cats living together. Polar Bear Cannibalism. Total Anarchy!"

48 posted on 09/23/2008 1:03:43 PM PDT by wbill
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

Let’s see.....

They want to put polar bears on the endangered list.

That would make it illegal to kill one.

Polar bears kill and eat each other.

So, who’s gonna go arrest all the polar bears? GreenPeace?


49 posted on 09/23/2008 1:05:50 PM PDT by G-Bear (Obama 08-- Change you'll regret!)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

The spiders in my basement resort to that every winter.


50 posted on 09/23/2008 1:05:52 PM PDT by DungeonMaster (Proverbs 24:21 My son, fear the LORD and the king; Do not associate with those given to CHANGE)
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