iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 27/07/2026

Where would you even begin to put this out? 🫣

Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/06/2026

I just hope a brave natural history museum managed to get hold of one of the dead ducks found in the reflective pool. It would be such an iconic specimen to turn into a museum piece that reflects current American politics. 🦆

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 26/06/2026

During my lifetime, these butterflies have dropped by half. 🫣

Graph showing a stark decline in butterflies, dropping by half between 1991 and 2023

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2026

Daar ging mijn eerste wetenschappelijk publicatie over! Tien jaar geleden voorspelde ik dit al, in 2015! 🐙 repository.naturalis.nl/pub/588033

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 07/05/2026

You have it in your power to make a difference. Don’t give up. There is a future for you. Do your best while you’re still on this beautiful Planet Earth that I look down upon from where I am now. - Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall in Gombe, when she was younger, holding her binoculars

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 01/05/2026

Wat is het verboden woord? 🫣

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 01/05/2026

Bijna knap hoe in deze duiding, in een artikel over de hevige bosbranden, één bepaald woord geheel ontbreekt… 😵‍💫 @nieuws.nos.nl #klimaat

Weerpresentator Peter Kuipers Munneke:
"Het weer is op dit moment erg ongunstig voor het
bestrijden van natuurbranden. Het regent niet, er is veel verdamping door de zon, en het waait flink. De wind wakkert het vuur aan, en leidt tot een snelle verspreiding van een brandhaard. Pas in de loop van zaterdag kan er plaatselijk wat regen vallen.
Deze maand was het uitzonderlijk droog: het is de op een na droogste aprilmaand ooit gemeten. Er viel maar een paar millimeter regen. Door de zon en de wind verdampt er bovendien veel water uit de bodem. Dat het zo vroeg in het jaar al zo droog is, komt minder dan eens in de twintig.jaar voor.
Doordat Nederland sterk opwarmt, neemt het neerslagtekort in het voorjaar en de zomer structureel toe. Veel extreem droge jaren zijn van recente datum, zoals recordjaar 2018, en ook vorig jaar was zeer droog. Als de temperatuur in Nederland in de toekomst nog flink toeneemt, ligt het neerslagtekort jaarlijks 80 procent hoger dan nu.
Dan wordt een recorddroog jaar als 2018 het nieuwe
gemiddelde. Dat vergt grote aanpassingen aan natuur en landbouw in ons land."

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 10/04/2026

Found this framed in the office 🫣

Showing the Nature paper 'The growing inaccessibility of science', but shielded by a paywall stating '199 dollar' for a subscription to read it.

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 07/04/2026

Let's share something positive! Last week, I was a judge in a seagull-imitation competition (dream job!!), and this was the juvenile winner. Isn't she amazing?! 🤩 "Three, two, one ... 🐦"

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 03/03/2026

Museum exhibition: “The number of large predators such as tuna has plummeted by 90%.” Museum restaurant: “Tuna mayo sandwiches!” @nhm-london.bsky.social 🫣

Losing large ocean predators
When this marlin swam in the Indian Ocean in the late 1800s, the world's seas were teeming with life. But, since industrialised fishing began in the 1950s, the number of large predators such as marlin, tuna and sharks has plummeted by 90%.
Scientists at the Natural History Museum are helping to survey huge new protected areas of ocean surrounding British overseas territories.
This work supports the United Nations pledge set out in 2023 to protect a third of the world's oceans from overfishing.

TUNA MAYO & CUCUMBER
BLOOMER
Tuna mayonnaise and cucumber on bloomer bread
£5.75

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 28/10/2025

It’s that time of year when this meme becomes relevant again… 🫣

A meme with two panels. The top panel shows trees at night completely wrapped in bright white Christmas lights, making the area glow intensely. The bottom panel shows a man in bed with his eyes half-closed and red, looking pained and exhausted as if unable to sleep. The caption across the bottom image says, “The bird trying to sleep in its nest be like.” The meme humorously suggests how birds might feel if their tree is covered in blinding holiday lights.

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 01/10/2025

I will forever remember Jane, her inspiring stories and her powerful message of hope, but also her humour, smile and the fun that we had. With a twinkle in her eyes, she once said to me: ‘The chimps would have the time of their lives grooming you’. Best compliment I ever had. 🐵

Jane Goodall and me, together with our stuffed animals 🐵

Jane impersonating how a chimp would be grooming me 🥰

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 19/09/2025

*Coot to meet you!* 🐦 Last day of posters at the Annual Conference of the Cognition & Behavior Evolution Network, find me and my coot there if you like! 🙌

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 18/09/2025

Sharing the stage with a co-presenter today 🐦 Delighted to be at the University of Antwerp for the Annual Conference of the Cognition & Behavior Evolution Network, and yes, the coot has its own chair! 🪑

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 27/08/2025

All I see is ripple bug robots now haha 😵‍💫

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 27/08/2025

A ripple bug robot just went full Van Gogh ✨🎨

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 15/08/2025

Can we stop putting happy faces in news stories about temperature records and heat waves?

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 16/06/2025

I was today years old when I learned about bird nest fungi!! 🪹🍄 And I’m literally a scientist who studies bird nests... MIND IS BLOWN 🤯

Bird nests fungi, photo: Creative Commons.

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 11/06/2025

That sequence of music snippets! 🤯🎶 Very impressive video editing and science storytelling from the YouTube channel 'How do they know', created by Adam Cole and Joss Fong. Thank you for covering my research, and high fives to the editor! 🤩👏

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

If you enjoyed this thread and want more people to find out about these tiny caddisflies, please consider sharing the first post! 🧵🐛 It's very much appreciated if you made it here and read about my research! Curious to hear your thoughts below! 💭 22/22

Auke-Florian holding a caddisfly larva. Photo: Liselotte Rambonnet

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

Hi! 👋 I'm Auke-Florian, and I study how animals adapt to the Anthropocene, this new age shaped by pollution, and how that shows up in the things birds or insects build. 🪹 Curious about the weird and wonderful world of animal architecture? Follow along for more! 🙏 21/x

Biologist Auke-Florian Hiemstra, photographed by Alexander Schippers.

Biologist Auke-Florian Hiemstra, standing next to his discovery 'Bird nests made from anti-bird spikes', photographed by Alexander Schippers.

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

Our work is published #openaccess in the Journal of Limnology, which means that everyone can read it, and I invite everyone curious to do so! 💚 www.jlimnol.it/jlimnol/arti... 🐛 Researchers can also find me and my papers on ResearchGate! www.researchgate.net/profile/Auke-Florian-Hiemstra ✨

The title page of our recent publication: 'A curious case: caddisfly cases built from brick and sewage overflow microplastics'

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

Urgent action is needed to minimise sewage overflows. ⚠️ They release high loads of microplastics, which are picked up by caddisflies, allowing plastics to enter and spread through the food chain. Overflow events are already common and expected to increase with climate change. 😵‍💫 🔥 19/x

Raw sewage mixing with clean water. What a contrast, this nasty brown water mixing with this beautiful green/blue water. Photo: Getty

After rain, the sewer system is draining wastewater into canals and streams. Photo: stock.adobe

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

From diamond to debris? I first heard about caddisflies thanks to the amazing artist Hubert Duprat. 🐛 He famously allowed them to build casings with e.g. gold and diamonds in the 1980s. 💎 These legendary creatures deserve more than the filth we flush their way. They deserve clean water!! 18/x

Trichoptera larva building its case (view from the workshop), 1980-2000, gold, pearls, turquoise, length 2.5 cm.

© Hubert Duprat, adagp, 2024
Courtesy the Artist and Art : Concept, Paris
Photo F. Delpech

Trichoptera larva building its case (exhibition view), 1980-2000, gold, pearls, length 2.5 cm.

© Hubert Duprat, adagp, 2024
Courtesy the Artist and Art : Concept, Paris
Photo F. Delpech

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

Brick is lighter than natural stone, and plastic is even lighter. But weight matters for caddisfly larvae to avoid being swept away by currents, so some add side extensions as ballast stones. Using a light brick particle as ballast might be an evolutionary trap... 🐛🪨 17/x

A) Casing of caddisfly larva from the genus Silo with a brick particle as ballast stone, collected in the Noor (RMNH.INS.1658127; Noorbeek 5.1). B) Detail of brick particle as ballast stone. Retrievable in jar BE.2289651 in the collection of Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Images credit: Isabel van der Velden and Auke-Florian Hiemstra.

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

The total mass of bricks on Earth is 92 gigatons. All animals combined? Just 4 gigatons. Let that sink in: we are profoundly reshaping the world around us. 🧱🌍 16/x

Art piece 'Brick Ball' by Colin Rose. A ball made from 2000 bricks.

The Blue Marble photograph of our planet Earth, Apollo 17, December 1972

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

Not all artificial particles are plastic; masonry waste used for streambank protection is also picked up by insects. While humans in Egypt have built with brick since 14,000 BC, caddisflies are now doing it too! 🏠 Gotta love these urban caddisflies in their tiny brick houses! 🧱🐛 15/x

Examples of brick particles in caddisfly cases, all collected in the Eyserbeek. A) Sericostoma personatum, RMNH.INS.1658133from Simpelveld 4 and detail (B). C) Drusus annulatus, RMNH.INS.1658135 from Simpelveld 7, and detail (D). E) Drusus annulatus,RMNH.INS.1658134 from Simpelveld 4 and detail (F).All retrievable in jar BE2289653 of the Naturalis Biodiversity Collection. Images credit: Isabel van der Velden and Auke-Florian Hiemstra

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

Bright plastics could make a caddisfly larva more visible to predators. But in our new paper, we introduce the term "confetti sediment". 🎉 A deceptively cheerful phrase for creeks so polluted that NOT using microplastics might actually make you stand out more. A troubling reality. 🐛 14/x

Sediment in a stream, still rather naturally looking! Photo: Auke-Florian

Confetti on the ground. Is this the future of our streams? Photo: Getty.

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

Plastic in caddisfly cases is not a rarity anymore. 😔 This is the first time that sewage overflow microplastics are linked to uptake by caddisflies. This scares me. Plastics are not only flushed in a stream, they are flushed in the food chain! Caddisflies are the base of a complex food web... 😵‍💫 13/x

An overview of groups and species predating on caddisfly larva and their adult form. Spreading microplastics both by adding it to their casing as well as ingesting microplastics while nibbling on the material, preparing it for their casing. Caddisflies are at the base of a diverse food web.

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

In the Eyserbeek creek, more than half of all the caddisflies contained presumed artificial material!!! 🫣 In Noor, with just one valve, it was already 16,6% 😵‍💫 EDX analysis shows plastic additives as titanium, chloride, and sulphur. Below you see colourised SEM images and the EDX mapping. 🟦 🟩 12/x

A) Chaetopteryx villosa casing with larva with a blue particle incorporated (RMNH.INS1658128, Noorbeek 5.1). B) ColorizedSEM photograph of the artificial particle. C) EDX mapping visualization showing the chemical elements found, in this case titanium. D)Chaetopteryx villosa casing with green and flat particle (RMNH.INS.1658129, Noorbeek 2). E) Colorized SEM photograph of the artificialparticle (F,G,H) EDX mapping visualization showing the chemical elements found, in this case titanium, chloride and sulphur. Both casingsare retrievable in jar BE.2289652 in the collection of Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Images credit: Isabel van der Velden and Auke-FlorianHiemstra.

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

We also sampled the Eyserbeek, a creek running through the Dutch village of Simpelveld. 🏠 Here, 21 separate overflow valves spew sewage into the stream. What a time to be a biologist! An emoticon for every sewage overflow in that town: 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩 11/x

A sign reading 'Eyserbeek', standing next to the creek (not visible), with some houses of Simpelveld in the background. Photo: Auke-Florian

A sewege overflow valve in Simpelveld. Photo: Auke-Florian

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

To study overflow pollution, we went to the Noor, a stream running through a beautiful forest area in the Netherlands. Not even 100 meters away from the source, a sewage overflow adds raw sewage to the pristine water. Spewing sewage, with all its toxins and trash, into a nature reserve... 😵‍💫 10/x

Isabel collecting caddisflies in the Noor stream. Photo: Auke-Florian

A close-up of the stream. Photo: Auke-Florian

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

These insects build protective cases from sand, stones or plants. 🍂 Since 2018, we've known they incorporate plastic, but last month, our team dropped a paper showing that caddisfly casings from the 1970s already contained microplastics. 👀 The story was picked up by both Nature and Science! 🙏 9/x

A caddisfly from 1986 with bright blue pieces of microplastic attached to it. Found in the collection of Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Photo: Auke-Florian

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

To measure overflow pollution, we worked with material experts, with much experience in the field of freshwater ecology. 🔬 These professionals collect samples daily and build up collections of particles reflecting the pollution of the creek. 💪 Those being, insects! 🐛 Say hi to the caddisfly! 👋 8/x

A caddisfly larva with a beautiful natural protective casing, made from pine needles. Photo: Auke-Florian

A caddisfly larva with a beautiful stone collection as a protective casing. Photo credit: Bob Hendricks via Flickr, Creative Commons

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

On average, nearly 3,500 items of microplastics are emitted per person, per day in household wastewater. 😵‍💫 Artist Bonnie Monteleone recreated Hokusai’s The Great Wave using ocean debris. This is what sewage overflow really looks like: waves of plastic. 🌊 7/x

Bonnie Monteleone’s rendering of The Great Wave by the Japanese artist Hokusai made with ocean debris

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

The cutest way possible to show the effects of a sewage overflow on waterlife... do you see the difference before/after? 🫣🧑‍🚀 Next to poop, our sewers hold many shitty things, including microplastic: tiny particles from laundry fibers, personal care microbeads, and tire runoff from streets. 6/x

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

In Brussels, Belgium, the clean-up group 'Canal it Up' put up signs asking people to wait until after the rain to use the toilet. 🚫 The reason? Sewers can’t handle both rain and flushing without polluting the river, and you can’t ask the rain to hold it. 🌧️ 5/x

Newly designed street signs by Canal it Up, which were placed all over Brussels, depicting people who are holding their pee during the rain. Photo: Canal it Up

Newly designed street sign by Canal it Up, depicting people who are holding their pee during the rain. Photo: Canal it Up

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

Raw sewage is spewing wildly into our poor waterways. 👀 In 2023, the UK alone recorded 464,056 sewage spills from 14,241 monitored overflow valves. 🇬🇧 That’s 3.6 million hours of intense outflow. 💦 Every single day, over 1,000 spills. 🤢🤮 4/x

A build up of trash at an English sewege overflow point. Only 14% of rivers in England have “good” ecological status. Photo: manchester.ac.uk

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

When intense rain overwhelms the sewers, these big valves are yanked open... and then the shitshow begins! 🌊💩 Left: our Dutch sewage valves, student for scale, or I may now say: co-author Isabelle! 😎 On the right: in America, these valves are even more terrifying... they start rivers 😨🇺🇸 3/x

Isabel measuring water quality next to a sewage overflow valve at the Noor, the Netherlands. Photo: Auke-Florian

The gigantic(!!) combined sewer outfall at Edgewater Beach with an adult standing next to it. Quite a brave place to be posing for a photo, I would say. Photo: Peter Krouse, cleveland.com

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

Colleagues of mine at @naturalis.bsky.social, just a few desks away, study coral reefs and have the time of their lives doing fieldwork in tropical waters. 🐢 For us, it’s Dutch creeks fed by sewage overflow pipes. No turtles, but tampons drifting by. 😭🧻 2/x

A green turtle is gently swimming by, surrounded by seagrass. What a shot!! Photo: Ralph Pace

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/05/2025

NEW PAPER, NEW THREAD! 👀 We collected insects in creeks polluted with raw sewage. 🤢 Microplastics in caddisflies were once rare. But now, in some creeks, more than half of all cases include artificial material! 🤯 A shitty thread on plastics and poop, thankfully, without the smell of it 💩 1/x 🧵👇

A sewage overflow valve in Simpelveld, the Netherlands. One of our sample locations where raw sewage mixes with the Eyserbeek stream. Yes, it smelled. Photo: Auke-Florian

A caddisfly casing, Chaetopteryx villosa, with green flat particle (RMNH.INS.1658129). On the left, beneath the specimen, a colourised SEM photograph of the artificial particle, and on the right, EDX mapping visualization showing the chemical elements found, in this case titanium, chloride and sulphur. This casings is retrievable in jar BE.2289652 in the collection of Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Images credit: Isabel van der Velden and Auke-Florian Hiemstra.

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 23/05/2025

Goed vastgelegd! 🙏 Als onderzoeker van plastic in vogelnesten weet ik dat de American Robin hier helaas bekend om staat. Het eerste slachtoffer wereldwijd van rondslingerende mondkapjes was ook een American Robin. Arm beest… 😢

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 13/05/2025

Wat pijnlijk dit ook 😵‍💫

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 07/05/2025

Hoe kunnen mensen zo’n lieve baby-vogel toch lelijk noemen? 🫣 Je piept wel anders als er eentje piepend binnenkomt in de vogelopvang…. ze zijn zo prachtig!! 😍

Met een baby meerkoet in mn handen bij de Leidse vogelopvang

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 04/05/2025

Today, we remember the Second World War in the Netherlands. 🇳🇱 I’m sharing the story of Emanuel Speijer, a Jewish entomologist deported to Nazi camps. Studying insects there helped him endure the horror, and his work helped fight diseases. He survived, and so did part of his collection. 🐝🧪

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 29/04/2025

Started strong. Still relevant. 🌍

The book 'Silent Spring' by Rachel Carson.

A quote from Albert Schweitzer, on the book's first pages: 'Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth."

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