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Aaron Sankin

@asankin.bsky.social
1.1K followers 731 following 117 posts

Data Editor w/ The Marshall Project. More skeets about buildings and food. He/him. Signal: Sank.182

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Reposted by Aaron Sankin
Gareth Watkins @garethwatkins.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Since everyone started talking about Yudkowsky last week, I think we should talk about the other person who created contemporary AI discourse: Nick Land. This will be written for a general audience, and for something more substantial I'd recommend @eruditorumpress.com's Neoreaction: A Basilisk
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William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
There are two academic disciplines, computer science and sociology. Biology? Computer science. Physics? Computer science. Economics? Computer science. Computer Science? Actually, Sociology.
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Jim Lokay @jimlokay.com · 29/09/2026
If you want to really know how the outrage machine gets fired up: 1. Schmitt plans to drop “bombshell” on Smith 2. Someone plants story that Schmitt is a Vance VP contender to run same day 3. Right-wing Twittersphere gets talking points 4. Schmitt steps in it 5. Scheduled tweets go out anyway
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lit_patches @litpatches.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco but now you can sit in chairs during festivals.
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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
In 2008, California admitted 140,000 people to prison. In 2011, it admitted 97,000. In 2019, before Covid, it admitted 34,000. That's a SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT reduction in admissions. Yet we almost never talk about California's remarkable Realignment reforms.
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Tricia Lockwood @tricialockwood.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
all literature is stink lines coming off the alphabet
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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I’m sorry, what? This piece was not a joint publication/ reporting job (as some are). It was @propublica’s alone and the Times followed with a summary. This is so indicative of NYT. If they don’t ignore proper credit, they just go for stolen valor.
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J HELL P @jlp.systems · 26/09/2026
oblique strategies
a sign by a paved path that says “STAY OFF COURSE”
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 26/09/2026
NEW: ProPublica’s Jake Pearson lost $10,000 mimicking the betting patterns of a problem gambler on DraftKings to test the company’s “responsible gaming” safeguards. One week in, he was invited to become a VIP — and faced little pushback as he spiraled.
propublica.org
I Deliberately Bet Like a Problem Gambler. DraftKings Made Me a VIP.
Amid growing public health concerns, operators like DraftKings have touted “responsible gaming” tools and prompts. But as I went off the deep end, I found they were no match for the incentives and pro...
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Return of the Cmonmacques @cmonmaque.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Wow
Cheew Work Cimes
The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21 Century

A gigantic shasta mcnasty splashed across the page
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Incredible. First Secretary Mullin claimed that DHS had identified 15,903 noncitizens on Nevada’s voter roll. Then DHS officials told a skeptical Nevada, no no no, that’s just people we flagged. Here are the names of 185 people we KNOW aren’t citizens. All 185 were citizens. DHS got 100% wrong.
When the Department of Homeland Security sent Nevada a list of 185 names last month that it claimed identified noncitizens who had been improperly allowed to register to vote, state election officials got to work.
On Tuesday, the state sent a strongly worded rebuke to the federal government: Every single person on the list was a lawful citizen.
"As for the 185 individuals, our records indicate that they were citizens," Greg D. Ott, a deputy attorney general in Nevada, wrote, according to a copy of a letter sent to Department of Homeland Security officials obtained through open records requests.
"You have provided nothing of substance to suggest otherwise."Following the meeting, Ms. Vogt sent a clarifying email to Nevada officials. "I also wanted to be sure I clarified that we did not reduce the 15,903 to 185," she wrote. "We've manually reviewed some of the 15,903 and confirmed 185 are not U.S. Citizens."
Now, Nevada officials are saying even that 185 number is wrong. They also took issue with a letter D.H.S. sent them in early September, in which the agency reiterated its initial claims about nearly 16,000 noncitizens on the rolls and pressured state officials to review each case in a letter to Nevada officials in early September.
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William Turton @williamturton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
NEW STORY: Susan Collins Dismissed Our Reporting as Old News. Some of Her Claims Aren’t True. www.propublica.org/article/debu...
propublica.org
ProPublica Debunks Susan Collins’ Claims About FBI Anti-Corruption Probe
ProPublica revealed that the FBI was circling Sen. Collins over a defense contractor’s donations — until President Trump gutted the unit in charge. Collins has since mustered a defense with a series o...
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Nashville just canceled a holiday light show at the zoo because the Trump administration denied visas to the foreign artisans who set it up.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 22/09/2026
Sen. Susan Collins helped steer millions in federal defense contracts to Navatek, whose CEO illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her campaign. The FBI sought to launch a probe and was eyeing Collins and other lawmakers. Then Trump gutted the unit in charge. THREAD 🧵
Martin Kao, CEO of defense contractor Navatek, poses next to Sen. Susan Collins for a photo. Collins is holding a model of a boat in her hands. Behind them is a large sign with the Navatek logo.
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The Marshall Project @themarshallproject.org · 21/09/2026
While some states have gotten rid of the death penalty, and others carry out regular executions, California has ended up with a bloated, dysfunctional system that satisfies virtually nobody. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/09/10/n...
themarshallproject.org
Gavin Newsom Could Reshape the U.S. Death Penalty, But It’s Politically Risky
More than 560 people still face death sentences in California, despite a longstanding moratorium on executions.
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lxigh @dotorion.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
99% of ruminators quit right before they would have had a life-changing epiphany
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Tom [ghostly voice] Coooooooooooombe @calmtomb.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Peter Sellers and Sterling Hayden in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
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jenny tightpants @jtp.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
"the author of that harry potter story leads an insane cult that's captured much of the media in this country" is a different person if you're in the UK or the US
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Jonah Newman @jonahshai.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Some personal news, as they used to say at the old site: I'm thrilled to share that I'll be joining @themarshallproject.org next month as senior editor for local investigations and engagement, working with the talented journalists in the St. Louis, Cleveland, and Jackson bureaus!
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Elizabeth Sandifer @eruditorumpress.com · 15/09/2026
OK, if this is going to blow up my notifications this much I'm going to fess up and say that I have, in fact, written the book about these guys, and it's even a pretty good book if I may say so myself. www.amazon.com/Neoreaction-...
amazon.com
Neoreaction a Basilisk: Essays on and Around the Alt-Right
Neoreaction a Basilisk: Essays on and Around the Alt-Right - Kindle edition by Sandifer, Elizabeth, Graham, Jack. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Neoreaction a Basilisk: Essays on and Around the Alt-Right.
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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 15/09/2026
HR should let you scream until you pass out on one Teams call per quarter
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Andrew Tobolowsky @andytobo.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
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gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
AT&T Stadium reportedly is one of the venues that opposed Macklemore being on Ed Sheeran's bill. Worth noting that AT&T is hosting Kanye West in November.
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Jesse Myerson @jessemyerson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
25 years ago today, Barbara Lee cast the House’s love vote against the Afghanistan AUMF, to this day perhaps the most courageous act I have ever seen an elected official perform.
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eb99 @eb99.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I think it's more comforting for some people to think of OBL as some evil genius or tragic victim of imperialism rather than a bog standard delusional ideologically extremist billionaire failson who thought he could accellerationism his way to a theocratic utopia
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ellie lockhart (she/they) @eleanor.lockhart.contact · 11/09/2026
Anybody up for wandering into the old forest and crossing the moon-mirrored stream to the secret thicket where the faerie court gathers and making a deal with the beings that dwell in the shadow glade to gain the power to walk across dreams
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Stellbound: Stellraiser II @antlervel.vet · 11/09/2026
April 1805. Napoleon is master of Europe. Only the British fleet stands before him. It’s time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight.
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Nathan Edwards @grackle.space · 22/09/2025
dudes rock
Tumblr post from every-lemon 
Sep 8

so my spouse is part of a weirdly intense but mostly benign men's workout group that meets at like, 5:30am outside every day, even in winter. they do a lot of burpees and lugging cinder blocks up hills and stuff.
they take turns leading the workouts and tomorrow is his turn. I asked what he was planning. he handed me a sheet of William Carlos William poems from a large stack he'd printed.
I said "what" and he explained, helpfully, "it's a William Carlos William themed workout." I asked what inspired it and he said "l've been planning this for months."
Follow up tumblr post 
every-lemon
Sep 9
it was a smash hit.
a dozen guys showed up (more than usual). spouse brought a red wheelbarrow and they took turns bringing cinder blocks up the hill with it. then they broke up in teams and did a relay with an "icebox" (cooler filled with 40lbs of ice). at the end he opened the cooler to reveal it was full of beach plum lacroix and all the guys cheered. they drank sparkling water as he read 'approach of winter' out loud.
he was home by 6:30am.
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Micah @rincewind.run · 10/09/2026
that’s right the internet started going irreversibly downhill the day Reader died
Technology you’re most nostalgic for: Google Reader
Especially when I was a writer and business journalist, but even afterwards, I loved Google Reader as a way to organize news articles and feel like I got through them. It was just a great interface. I use Feedly now, which is pretty good to read news, but doesn't quite hit like Google Reader used to hit.
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hockey bear dot space @hockeybear.space · 09/09/2026
Climate change will manifest as a series of empty cafés viewed through phones with footage that gets closer and closer to where you live until you’re the one filming it
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lit_patches @litpatches.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Beowulf v0.1: Fixed a bug that prevented legendary creatures from awarding extra XP in some contexts.
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gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I reposted a picture of Jim Adler the Texas Hammer on the houston tgirl baseball instagram ahead of practice and his social media people responded. Houston TGirl baseball endorsed by Jim Adler The Texas Hammer
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Jerry Chen @jcsalterego.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
jim downey on conan o'brien's podcast with the caption: "A popularity contest? On the website for humorless scolds?"
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post malone ergo propter malone @proptermalone.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
ok look The Odyssey is very much a sequel
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I don't want to pick on the two NY Times reporters here, but they are primarily NYC government reporters. This is their beat! If you look at the stories they have been covering, it is mostly about political conflicts in NYC rather than the nuts and bolts of governing.
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J. L. Westover @mrlovenstein.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
YOU DON'T "CONSUME" ART MOTHERFUCKER. YOU EXPERIENCE IT. YOU FEEL IT. YOU ENGAGE WITH IT. YOU WRESTLE WITH IT. YOU LIVE IT. ART ISN'T A LITTLE MORSEL YOU GOBBLE UP.
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dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
NEW: "...The code WIRED collected holds Flock’s user interface and shows both the network calls it makes and the answers it expects in return... Two notification systems are aimed at human beings." @dmehro.bsky.social's and my latest www.wired.com/story/flock-...
Screenshot of a mock-up web interface labeled FlockOS. A red-bordered banner at the top reads: "This is a mock-up rebuilt from Flock Safety's own published code. It holds no police data—every plate, camera, and record in it is invented. What officers see in a live system may differ."

Below the banner is a navigation bar with "Search" (selected) and "Alerts," then a row of tabs: Search, Lookup, FreeForm (selected), Convoy, Multi-Geo, Visual.

The panel is titled "Flock FreeForm." Under it, two radio buttons labeled Vehicle and People, with People selected.

A yellow advisory box headed "People Search Advisory" states that only video cameras compatible with People Search will appear in the device selector, and that LPR cameras are not supported for this feature.

Under the heading "Run FreeForm Search" is an empty text field with placeholder text "Enter body, make, color, etc." Beneath it, a green example line reads: Good: "person wearing scrubs".

A bordered box instructs the user to "Use short, literal descriptions of the vehicle or person," with two bulleted examples in green: Good: "blue BMW M3 with red stripe on roof" and Good: "person wearing scrubs".

At the bottom is a green button labeled "Run FreeForm Search," followed by gray text: "Freeform searches can only be run on increments of 30 days or less. Please refine your search."
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The Marshall Project @themarshallproject.org · 02/09/2026
Police say the head of Fox Run Center for Children and Adolescents drove nearly 200 miles to meet with someone he believed was a 14-year-old girl. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/09/01/t...
themarshallproject.org
Teen Treatment Center CEO Accused of Unlawful Sexual Contact With Minor
Police say the head of Fox Run Center for Children and Adolescents drove nearly 200 miles to meet with someone he believed was a 14-year-old girl.
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Keith Law @keithlaw.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
the goose chasing a man meme where the goose says “what else did he say” and then “WHAT ELSE DID HE SAY” as the man runs away
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
if only there was a country making new electric vehicles in massive quantities at rock-bottom prices whose domestic market is direly oversaturated!
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Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Was just watching “I’m Still Here”, a film about a family suffering under the Brazilian dictatorship, and one thing not discussed enough about the rise of fascism is: for a lot of people, it’s the perfect chance to unleash hate as a recreational activity. For them, it’s fun.
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The Marshall Project @themarshallproject.org · 29/08/2026
Ohio’s residential treatment centers left them with trauma and questions. The friendships forged inside helped them heal and find answers. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/08/26/t...
themarshallproject.org
The Young Women Who Helped Each Other Survive
Four survivors of Ohio’s residential treatment centers found strength in the friendships they formed behind locked doors.
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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
"Parra also posted a racial slur to refer to Black people several times and the phrase 'White Power' in X posts in June and July."
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Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
"My piece was inspired by Picasso's Guernica...The patterns near Renee Good and Alex Pretti’s mouths are actually their last words in Morse code: ‘I’m not mad at you,’ and ‘Are you okay?’” -Jennifer Nelson (quoted in the linked booklet, alongside other extraordinary pieces)
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The Marshall Project @themarshallproject.org · 26/08/2026
More than 45,000 people were detained by ICE last month, the highest number since Donald Trump retook office, according to data the Deportation Data Project released Monday. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/08/25/i...
themarshallproject.org
Trump’s ICE Has Detained More People Than the Population of Atlanta
Unlike prior administrations, in Trump’s second term, ICE is aggressively arresting people far from the border and detaining them longer.
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The Marshall Project @themarshallproject.org · 26/08/2026
Ohio’s residential treatment centers left them with trauma and questions. The friendships forged inside helped them heal and find answers. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/08/26/t...
themarshallproject.org
The Young Women Who Helped Each Other Survive
Four survivors of Ohio’s residential treatment centers found strength in the friendships they formed behind locked doors.
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(spo)okie 🎃 @okie.gay · 25/08/2026
Texas’s drag ban was found to be unconstitutional this morning and one of the plaintiffs who brought the suit was an Austin-based drag queen who often impersonates Dolly Dolly was named in the final judgement itself and after hearing about the lawsuit, she sent that drag queen a signed guitar
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Boo!-per Lund @cooperlund.online · 25/08/2026
I, for one, think it’s bad that this kind of content is served to me by Facebook without me asking for it and I think they should be responsible for showing it to me
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Deportation Data Project @deportationdata.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
🚨 We just released new ICE data updated through August 6, 2026, adding almost five months of data to our previous release. The new dataset contains a field recording the city of each arrest. deportationdata.org/news/2026-08...
deportationdata.org
ICE data release: Oct. 2022 - Early Aug. 2026 – Deportation Data Project
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
An employe at McMahon's company, WWE was accused of systematically sexually assaulting vulnerable boys who worked at the company. McMahon persuaded them not to sue, and told one she would support his education. When his grades dropped, she stopped paying tuition support. He later killed himself.
In 1992, Cole, then twenty-one years old, and another ring boy told the San Diego Union-Tribune that Phillips had molested them. They said that he groped their feet for hours at a time. (Phillips would lock the kids into wrestling holds.) Sometimes he rubbed their feet on his penis. (Later, other ring boys alleged that Phillips had forced them into oral sex, ejaculated on them, and attempted to have penetrative sex with them; the McMahons have denied knowledge of the actions.) Cole later accused a W.W.E. executive named Pat Patterson of groping his butt, and an executive named Terry Garvin of turning on pornography and asking to perform oral sex on Cole during a work conversation.

When the story broke, the three men left the company. According to one account, the McMahons let Patterson go personally, at the mansion, and both Vince and Linda cried. (Patterson was reinstated soon afterward.) Vince held a series of damage-control phone calls with Phil Mushnick, a sports writer with the New York Post. Mushnick later testified in a deposition that Vince told him, “We had known for some time that Mel had a peculiar and unnatural interest and attachment to children.” Vince said that they’d fired Phillips before, years earlier, but had subsequently rehired him “out of the goodness of our hearts.” He framed this as a joint decision: “We brought him back with the caveat that he steer clear of children.”Cole threatened to sue the company. At a meeting with the McMahons in New York to discuss a settlement, Cole’s attorney left the room several times, leaving him alone with the McMahons. Cole recollected that Linda seemed compassionate. “I thought having her present and a mother’s instincts were invaluable,” the company’s longtime lawyer, Jerry McDevitt, later said. Cole said she told him that she believed him, and that she wanted to help. He remembered her saying, “I consider you in a sense like a son. I want to look at it that way. I want you to come to me with your problems.” Cole opened up. At a later meeting at W.W.E. headquarters, according to Cole, the McMahons sought the names of other potential accusers with whom he, along with his brother Lee, was communicating. At the McMahons’ coaxing, he gave them access to his brother’s answering machine. (Vince denies this.) His lawyer had sought a monetary settlement, but Cole, who’d left the company, said that he just wanted his job back. The McMahons agreed, and also gave him fifty thousand dollars in back pay. Linda McMahon and Cole also made a separate agreement: he’d be paid as an employee but would return to school, as McMahon wanted. “I talked to this young man as I would my son, and told him how supportive of him we would be,” she later recounted. He signed a document that she’d prepared, agreeing that his employment was contingent on his academics.As the journalist David Bixenspan, who has reported on the ring-boy allegations, has detailed, Cole enrolled at a community college. McMahon corresponded with his professors. Cole found that he was still traumatized by the abuse and had a hard time concentrating. He asked McMahon if he could drop out and resume working for the company. She told him to stick with it. Cole stopped attending class. He failed. His transcript was sent to McMahon. “I was very disappointed in your performance,” she wrote to him. “At this point we believe that we have done everything we can. Therefore, this letter is to advise you of your termination with Titan Sports, effective immediately.” She concluded, “The opportunity of a lifetime is a terrible thing to waste.”
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