JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Greetings from lovely Cyprus! It’s great to be back. We love Cyprus and the Cypriots.
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You can have an industrial economy, or Net Zero, but nor both.
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“Net Zero” is certainly achievable. It just requires a dramatic and “unprecedented” lowering of the standard of living of non-Elites to Stone Age levels. People of the Palaeolithic era (Stone Age) did indeed lead a Net Zero lifestyle.
Australia’s Labor Government is leading the world in lowering the standard of living of all non-Elite Australians.
It’s something all Labor-voting Australia’s should be proud of.
211
I wonder why they think living standards will recover.
90
America’s Largest Grid Operator Warns Of Summer Power Shortages
by Tyler Durden Sunday, May 11, 2025
When America’s largest power grid operator warns of “growing risks” of summer power shortages, people pay attention—especially now, after witnessing Spain’s brief brush with net-zero collapse, when its failing green energy grid triggered the worst blackout in a generation.
PJM Interconnection, the largest power grid operator in the U.S., issued a warning Friday that extreme heat this summer could collide with record electricity demand, potentially triggering disruptions
“PJM continues to voice concerns about the supply and demand imbalance driven by generator retirements and the slow build of new resources in the face of accelerating demand growth.”
PJM’s warning about potential summer shortfalls is a direct consequence of aggressive net-zero and green energy policies, which have destabilized power grids and driven prices higher—particularly in Mid-Atlantic states governed by far-left lawmakers.
It’s now up to the Trump administration to push for the restoration of reliable fossil fuel generation to reestablish grid stability (some good news so far). A fragile power grid isn’t just an infrastructure issue—it’s a national security threat. Those who undermined the nation’s grid with green agendas to force grids to retire stable power production for unreliable power generation with Chinese solar panels must be held accountable.
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Texas Bill Would Require Solar Power Plants to Have Gas and Coal Backup
A bill working its way through the Texas legislature has caused some double takes with language that requires solar plants to provide power in the dark.
State bill S.B. 715 passed the Senate this week, and if adopted by the Texas house it would require any renewable power providers to buy backup power, typically from coal or gas plants, the Hill reported.
Texas consultant and energy expert Doug Lewin wrote in his analysis of the legislation that the measure would require solar plants to buy backup power to “match their output at night — a time when no one expects them to produce energy and when demand is typically at its lowest anyway.”
Double takes aside, the legislation is part of three Republican bills advancing through the state legislature that could offset Texas’ green energy progress and give fossil fuels an advantage in the state’s energy market, Reason reported. Texas generates the most renewable energy in the nation.
20
Britain could face months-long blackouts because of net zero
Grid operator has raised concerns that the switch from dependable gas to intermittent wind and solar power will ‘reduce network stability’
Ed Miliband’s net zero push risks leaving Britain increasingly vulnerable to a Spanish-style blackout, official reports have warned.
The grid operator has raised concerns that the switch from dependable gas to intermittent wind and solar power would “reduce network stability” and said the cost to taxpayers of funding measures to prevent the system crashing was set to “increase significantly” to £1 billion a year.
Meanwhile, the global energy watchdog has sounded the alarm over the “premature retirement” of gas power plants “without adequate replacements”.
It can also be revealed that Government officials have admitted it would take Britain “several months” to fully recover from a nationwide electricity outage.
Is net zero making us poorer?
Yes 96%
No 4%
Total votes: 17,096
Should the 2050 net zero target be scrapped?
Yes 95%
No 5%
Total votes: 43,983
Big companies are now increasingly installing their own gas-fuelled electricity generators amid concerns over the reliability of the electricity grid. Major suppliers have reported a surge in requests from businesses, including data centres, wanting their own on-site power plants.
20
Big companies are now increasingly installing their own gas-fuelled electricity generators amid concerns over the reliability of the electricity grid. Major suppliers have reported a surge in requests from businesses, including data centres, wanting their own on-site power plants.
This 20kVA, 415 Volt, 3 Phase Generac Home Backup Gas generator is an affordable standby generator that offers protection during an outage.
On Sale!
$11,218.90
$9,999.00 inc GST
Connected to your existing LP or Natural gas fuel supply, it kicks in within seconds of sensing power loss—automatically (when used with automatic switch) —and runs for as long as necessary until utility power returns.
100 Amp Generac Transfer Switch (SY000A00117-GG)
$1,865.33 inc GST
10
Did you know Net Zero has it’s own theme song?
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_svdsjo1Nzu1yzbs45.mp4
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Video:
Simon of the History Debunked YouTube channel speculates about how far ordinary Britons can be pushed by the lunacy of their recent Governments. (Under 4 mins.)
https://youtu.be/MwD9iqSsS3o
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Congratulations Australia.
Total Government debt now over $2.088 trillion (federal, state and local) .
And it’s going up faster than ever with absolutely no limit in sight and with a mandate by the Sheeple to keep spending like crazy to pay for all the “free stuff” the Sheeple demanded and voted for.
See pseudo real-time debt clock at:
http://australiandebtclock.com.au/
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Yes, and that over 3 Trillion South Pacific Peso Superannuation honey pot looks a very tempting a target for any Guv’ment to get their hands on.
All they have to do is to legislate that one third of Super has to be invested in Australian Guv’ment Bonds and there they have a solution to halve the Debt. The poor dud Punters get to take on the crappy Bonds.
Then the Future Fund can be got at.
All along with increasing and inventing other taxes/fees/surcharges, etc.
Easy peasy to be in Guv’ment.
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Don’t forget the ability to tax unrealised gains.
That alone should take money out of the system and place it squarely in the government’s hands, ready to be pi&&ed against the wall. Just like the last lot we gave them.
140
The Pentagon has announced a June 6 deadline for the exit of all transgenders from the US military.
Many people who had previously been denied entry to the military for extremely minor medical issues might wonder how they didn’t get in with their issues but how these others got in with theirs.
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I recently saw am amateur radio call sign and it turned out to be from the Prince Edward Islands which are sub-Antarctic islands that are a possession of South Africa about 1769km SE of Port Elizabeth in South Africa. Legally they are part of the City of Cape Town.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Edward_Islands?wprov=sfla1
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I get SPAM emails from all over the world. It’s almost like you’ve gone back to the pre-industrial world, using amateur radio for communications. What next, string and can?
Come on David, get with the 20th century…..
/s if you hadn’t noticed. We’ll be looking for people like you to tell us about WW3 when the internet goes down and the lights flicker and die. Then again, those lights could be Bowen’d.
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Eng_Ian:
You might like https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/
I’m a power engineer. The Iberian grid collapse makes me very afraid for Britain
MAY 10, 2025
and some of the comments about personal precautions.
Strangely some people aren’t convinced that the Government (who know nothing about electricity) nor by the pronouncements by the BBC and certain Research establishment (who know nothing about electricity) nor by the Greenies (who know nothing about electricity).
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Thanks for the link. I hadnt realized before that although the UK is well connected to Europe they are HVDC links that dont help on the stability front.
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With all these DC links being incorporated, most often with ground returns rather than cable(s), I wonder how they are going with corrosion.
I remember, many years ago now, building a steel wharf and jetty, they had induced current corrosion protection. It worked by applying DC to the steel, which was all welded together, end to end, and having numerous earthing points embedded along the length of the steelwork, deep into the seabed.
If an induced current, from the DC transmission, is also present, that must surely induce a current into the soil, probably quite low but totally inescapable.
If the transfer current is significant, as it must be near to the connections, then they either are well protected against rust, (one end), and the other end must have high corrosion rates. Based on the concept of electron donation and acceptance comparing one earthed end to the other.
Has anyone seen if these huge DC transmission lines have corrosion issues?
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DC cables can be configured as monopolar or bipolar. Monopolar configurations, with just one conductor (either positive or negative) at a high voltage, are the simplest and cheapest, but bipolar configurations provide more flexibility and reliability.
For monopolar configurations, return circuits can be through the earth, sea or a metallic return cable.
I think for earth and sea return circuits, the terminal ends are susceptible to corrosion and any areas of leakage in the main cable, of course. I would think the return pathway can also induce corrosion currents in nearby structures.
I wrote an article on undersea cables:
https://www.siliconchip.com.au/Issue/2024/December/Undersea+Communications
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I think I’ve only ever seen a SWER system once. Neutral lines are there for a reason!
Actually a few reasons…
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J C II
Re “I think I’ve only ever seen a SWER system once. ”
If you’ve driven around rural Oz you’ve been past plenty of AC SWER systems.
I’ve only heard of earthing problems with sandy soil – our transformer pole has double the usual earth plate grid.
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The site of the 22 Sept 1979 Vela Incident when a US surveillance satellite recorded a ‘double flash of light’ underwater offshore from the islands, supposedly (?) a South African / Israeli nuclear experiment.
With a mean midsummer temp of 7.7*C (46*F) in February, another 1.5 or even 2 mythical degrees of runaway warming would be most welcome on those inhospitable volcanic peaks.
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Interesting. I had not heard of those islands before.
Seems like they were not visited by Aubrey and Maturin!
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Master and Commander series, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin.. Just finished reading Blue at the Mizzen, Peter.
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FWIW
Another day, another mRNA
“Appropos for Mother’s Day, a quiet March jab study made the rounds this week. The study, published in the Journal Vaccines, was blandly titled, “Impact of mRNA and Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccines on Ovarian Reserve.” Scoffers complained it was “only” a rat study, but it was another iron nail in mRNA’s coffin.”
“There is now conclusive evidence of harm, even if not conclusive proof. And the evidence is strong, consistent, biologically credible, and peer-reviewed.
This study suggests the FDA skipped a critical step: before mass deployment, this kind of reproductive impact should have been studied in depth. Instead, it’s only being belatedly noticed by independent researchers after the needled horse is out of the barn. More research in human women is urgently needed— not to create panic, but to finally take the question seriously.”
More at
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/mrna-mayhem-saturday-may-10-2025?
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The Big Lie
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/05/09/the-graph-that-lied/
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Given that the HADCRUT temperature record starts at 1855 and is considered by Climate Scientists as the most accurate, yet the first 3 years the Southern Hemisphere record is from One Thermometer in (what is now) Indonesia, there may be some truth in the title.
40
FWIW
“Texas Bill Would Require Solar Power Plants to Have Gas and Coal Backup”
https://www.breitbart.com/local/2025/05/10/texas-bill-would-require-solar-power-plants-to-have-gas-and-coal-backup/
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And
Coming into fashion –
“America’s Largest Grid Operator Warns Of Summer Power Shortages”
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/americas-largest-grid-operator-warns-summer-power-shortages
40
FWIW – how it is done?
“VIDEO: I went to Bermuda to find the money Mark Carney hid from the CRA pic.twitter.com/3k4ZE1AglA
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) May 9, 2025 ”
And
https://x.com/RebelNewsOnline/status/1920641445456982056
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywdXZPD3x4Q
20
Charted: What the World’s Paying for Eggs – Published 3 days ago on May 6, 2025
50
Peter Dutton was correct!
31
Not quite. $4.22 US dollars is $6.58 local here in Oz. But I still can’t find any that cheap.
10
Coles – still zero stock, Woolies – low
Butchers – loads
IGA – loads
Farmgates – loads
20
“The outcome of this election shows us a truth the Coalition must accept: amid a cost-of-living crisis, Australians back renewables. In fact, the overall swing towards Labor in seats where anti-offshore wind campaigns were rife was greater than the overall statewide swing. ”
Either someone is deluded or there are some fascinating differences in interpreting facts…
https://www.smh.com.au/national/if-the-coalition-sticks-with-nuclear-the-fallout-will-be-toxic-20250505-p5lwmu.html
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The family seats Libs lost over work from home
‘Work from home’ cancellation hurt Dutton and Liberals in family zone
Voters in Queensland’s outer-suburban family zones punished Peter Dutton and the Liberal Party for an electorally toxic plan to cancel public servants’ working-from-home arrangements, driving big swings to Labor.
Analysis by The Australian shows last Saturday’s electoral rout has left the Liberals nationwide holding only eight “family zone” seats, where the percentage of voters in the key demographic aged 30 to 49 is higher than the national average.
Across the past two elections, the Liberals have surrendered two-thirds of their seats in areas where voters of prime working age are most heavily clustered, many raising children. After the 2019 election victory, the Liberals held 25 of these electorates.
Labor now holds 19 of the top 20 seats for voters aged 30 to 49 – and 56 of the 67 above the national average that have a confirmed winner from last Saturday. Two “family zone” seats, Bean and Calwell, remain in doubt.
The family rebellion against Mr Dutton and his party was strongest in his home state of Queensland, where the Coalition lost five seats to Labor – Forde, Bonner, Dickson, Petrie and Leichhardt. All five have above average numbers of voters aged 30 to 49.
The Liberal Party’s five worst primary vote swings in Queensland were also in seats with this demographic profile, reaching as high as 9.6 per cent against new candidate Jeremy Neal in Leichhardt in far north Queensland, where long-time member Warren Entsch retired, and 9 per cent against MP Ross Vasta in Bonner in Brisbane’s east.
60
“Across the past two elections, the Liberals have surrendered two-thirds of their seats in areas where voters of prime working age are most heavily clustered, many raising children.”
Yes, the obvious result of pushing welfare handouts up into middle-class families.
People vote for what makes their personal life better, the ultimate failing of a failed system. No-one will ever vote for the hard times that are needed to get Australia’s Govt debt under control, our grandchildren will be paying taxes just to cover the interest on the debt, never mind the principal. ..unless the JC11 world crash hits first!
20
FWIW
“NOAA’s Forecast Model Has A Drop Out Problem”
GFS
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/05/10/noaas-forecast-model-has-a-drop-out-problem/
10
FWIW
“What Corporate Media Isn’t Telling You About Trump’s Cuts To Decades-Old Energy Efficiency Program”
How about an Energy Star certified “gas powered alarm clock”?
“GAO noted in its report that it created a variety of “bogus” products to covertly test if it could obtain Energy Star certifications for them. GAO reported it was able to acquire Energy Star certifications for 15 of the fake products, including a gas-powered alarm clock, while two of the “bogus” products were rejected by the program and three did not receive a response.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/05/10/what-corporate-media-isnt-telling-you-about-trumps-cuts-to-decades-old-energy-efficiency-program/
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FOR PEOPLE WHO MISSED IT YESTERDAY
A TRIBUTE TO ANTON AND PAUL, THE PIONEERING WIND WATCHERS
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/australian-pioneer-wind-watchers
Jo brought their work to the world on this blog and The Energy Realists of Australia took up the story but officialdom took no notice at home or abroad, although we hear more about wind droughts nowadays than we did five or six years ago.
The stories of Anton and Paul need to be told so I collected them in good time so they won’t be lost.
In case you wonder why their work matters.
Recognition of wind droughts, wind lulls, or Dunkelflautes, could have averted the waste of trillions of dollars to get more expensive and less reliable power with massive damage to the planet.
Mariners and millers would have known about them for centuries, at least at the local level. https://www.flickerpower.com/images/The_endless_wind_drought_crippling_renewables___The_Spectator_Australia.pdf
Independent Australian investigators documented the impact of wind droughts on the electricity supply over a decade ago.
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/the-late-discovery-of-wind-droughts
Dirt farmers are alert to the threat of rain droughts, how come the wind farmers never checked the reliability of the wind supply to become aware of wind droughts?
https://open.substack.com/pub/rafechampion/p/we-have-to-talk-about-wind-droughts
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Hey thanks Rafe. I’m basically pretty much humbled really.
What I did find about those (what is now referred to as) wind droughts was really a fluke, and even though I’d been ‘doing’ work on wind generation for years, I had not really associated it with those huge hovering High Pressure weather systems, hovering over that area where two thirds of all Australian industrial wind plant Nameplate were located ….. until I looked at the Synoptic Chart ‘parked’ conveniently alongside wind generation at Andrew Miskelly’s site. So I went back and checked and, lo and behold, it was startlingly obvious. So, I wrote it up ….. without the knowledge that Paul Miskelly had, umm, ‘beaten me to it’ many years earlier, and, now in touch with Paul, it was he who explained that was the reason that Synoptic Chart was in fact parked directly alongside that daily wind generation chart. (Huh!, sometimes you wait years for an overnight revelation)
Incidentally, I’m in the process of updating that 2020 three part series, showing what has happened since 2020 till now, and that’s even more eye opening really. What I have found is that the problem is now getting worse.
We’ve been told that as Nameplate increases, then that problem is minimised ….. when in fact, the exact OPPOSITE is what is happening.
In the earlier series the losses showed a maximum loss of around 4200MW over 15 hours or so. (and here, keep in mind that’s the equivalent of the loss of eight or more of those coal fired Units, and if that happened, we’d never hear the end of it)
So, in this new updated Post, I actually used that 4200MW loss as the ….. start point. (there were many more times when it was again, similar in size and time frame to the earlier series losses, but here I just started at the previous maximum, to highlight the losses were becoming larger, and over shorter time periods)
And since 2020, there has been almost 40 occasions where wind has lost 4200MW+, sometimes in as little as five and six hours, and up to a maximum loss of 5500MW on three or four occasions. There was one occasion when power fell from the high to low of 6800MW over 26 hours with a slight rise in the middle.
So, in effect, as Nameplate increases those losses become even greater, and longer lasting. (5500MW is the loss of eleven of those coal fired Units)
Here, Angus McFarlane has produced a couple of graphs (and I’ll include those graphs in the new Post) showing exactly what all my text has explained over these seven years of daily data recording, showing it all on the one graph, and it shows the trend line, proving also that as Nameplate increases, then the losses also increase, and again, and (Huh!, silly me for not seeing it) this is a mathematical probability, and AGAIN, as Paul Miskelly (ever so patiently) explained to me, that was also what he found in his much earlier work, so basically, all I’ve done is just update all that earlier work he did on the exact same subject.
I’ve been off in WA recently, so I haven’t completed that Update, now with even more to add to it, but hopefully, it should be ready in a week or so, and Rafe, I’ll send you the link when that happens.
Again Rafe, thanks for everything you’ve done ‘in this space’.
Tony.
60
Here is a fascinating video from the US during WW2 about making quartz crystal resonators for radios for the war effort.
https://youtu.be/duZlWWwxIPQ
30
I think I will go out on a risky politically correct terminology limb and wish any Mothers we may have a very happy Mothers Day.
A good day to celebrate the ones we have and remember the ones we have lost.
110
It will be my first Mother’s Day without my Mum.
90
Happy mother’s day to all mothers. 💗 💐
Mine departed many many years ago…
And a reminder to the Max Klinger squad that your Mother’s day is April 1st.
30
Latest video from Climste Discussion Nexus about how Germany just blew up a six year old coal plant and other crazy stuff
https://youtu.be/zR2wARlBywA
20
6 years old, the idiots truly are running the asylum.
20
FWIW – a numbers game
“The Prime Minister of Poland says… –
*”How can 500 million Europeans ask 300 million Americans to protect
them from 140 million Russians…??
Then he adds: “But I’ll tell you something even more astonishing—
there are 2 billion Muslims askinq the world to protect them from 7 million Jews !!? ”
https://accordingtohoyt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/495443973_722925360260841_613643652829424151_n.png?w=490
20
I saw a funny the other day –
“Are there any Chinese Products that you could go without?”
“Yes. The Greens and LayBore”.
LOL.
21
I would have said the Xian H-6 and the YJ-21 lol
10
https://open.substack.com/pub/philipmcmillan/p/why-scientists-are-worried-about?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=15jnh4
What is better than one mRNA shot to screw with your immune system and cause all manner of disease, why two of course.
20
FWIW
“STEVE MILLOY: What Exactly Have NIH Grants Got Us?”
“But the critical questions are: “What does NIH-funded research actually accomplish?” and “Are the accomplishments worth the money?” The answers, at least according to NIH itself, seem to be shockingly little for the vast sums spent.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/05/10/steve-milloy-what-exactly-have-nih-grants-got-us/
10
After shutting down all their nuclear (I don’t know if they blew them up – I think not) they had to get rid of any reliable power sources to make the socialists partner in the coalition happy.
Since renewables failed in December-February it means they can import electricity when needed EXCEPT the Norwegian & Swedes are fuming about the higher prices this causes to their home markets. Indeed they aren’t that pleased about Denmark using up their hydro because the Danish wind farms aren’t going that well.
At some stage Germany will want lots of electricity from its neighbours but if they cut their cables (as has been foreshadowed) then Germany will be left with France (except the French aren’t & haven’t been that cooperative), Belgium, The Netherlands and Denmark cannot supply enough anyway, nor can Austria. That leaves Czechia (some nuclear) and Poland (coal-fired) both of whom have already installed phase changing transformers to prevent this. And Finland with lots of nuclear from their new plant and others and lower prices has flatly refused an interconnection to Germany.
Germany can bluster about the EU but that won’t help. A new election (after another Dunkelflaute) would end the reign of incompetents – which it why the current parties are trying to ban the AfD (to ‘save Democracy”).
10
Always thought the term Indian Summer was coined by some frightful G&T-addled English chap reminiscing over his youthful days in the Raj back when Queenie ruled India and the seven seas…
Doh!
Erroneously called ‘Indians’ by Europeans arriving in the New World, the numerous tribes of ‘New England’ would burn/hunt during spells of fine weather in autumn, a time of smoke and mildness in Fall after the first frost (1778, Wiki).
Other names/phrases are Saint Martin’s Summer, Old Woman’s Summer, Halcyon Days (Gk) and to show it’s a global phenomenon, southern South Americans call it Veranico for Little Summer, when April/May lingers on with calm, sunny, warm(ish) weather – which is what we’re enjoying this year (as we did last year) apart from the more southern alpine nether-regions of NZ which are covered in snow: they can have it, give me warmth any day. 🌞
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