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Jack McUndisclosed

@diogenetics.bsky.social
532 followers 216 following 324 posts

Political philosophy, law, economics. I care about that kind of stuff.

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Reposted by Jack McUndisclosed
Parkrose Permaculture @parkroseperma.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Throwing trans folks under the bus will not make Republicans vote for you. They already have a Republican candidate, they won’t want your watered down “Republican lite”. Dems have got to learn than the strategic position IS the moral one if you know how to campaign and communicate.
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William Gibson @greatdismal.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Having long been aware of those tech bros who read my work as utopian porn, where they’ve taken that doesn’t exactly surprise me.
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Law360 @law360.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
A former FBI agent has come forward with a claim that when U.S. Circuit Judge Emil Bove was at the U.S. Department of Justice, he directed the Los Angeles field office to illegally investigate protesters. www.law360.com/artic...
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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
ICE is now separating children from their parents in the nation’s interior and deeming them “unaccompanied.” www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
“You kidnapped my son”
ICE is now separating children from their parents and deeming them “unaccompanied.”
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Eric Umansky @ericumansky.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
NEW FROM PP The Trump admin keeps denying immigration agents are grabbing Americans, so we tracked it 500+ Americans detained 70+ kids, some cuffed or zip-tied 60+ held after filming 36+ held for day+ w/o access to lawyer ~12 deported (yes, deported) projects.propublica.org/american-cit....
projects.propublica.org
More Than 500 U.S. Citizens Have Been Detained, Including Handcuffed or Held at Gunpoint, in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — ProPublica
The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administrati...
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 05/10/2026
Trump isn't beating the "can't walk in a straight line" allegations
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Seth Abramson @sethabramson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
PLEASE SHARE
youtu.be
Musk | Official Trailer | Bleecker Street
YouTube video by Musk
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Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News @froomkin.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
BIBI KNEW
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★ winnie ★ @winonaparadise.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Its not fucking fair that god made my body wrong. I know in my heart i was supposed to be canadian.
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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
A nonprofit group with ties to HHS Secretary RFK Jr. solicited payment from companies in exchange for access to top agency officials at an upcoming event. $300k gets you a speaking slot + private dinner with RFK Jr and Mehmet Oz www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
RFK Jr.-Linked Group Offered Access to US Officials for Payment
A nonprofit group with ties to US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. solicited payment from companies in exchange for access to top agency officials at an upcoming event, accord...
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
“.. The 92-year-old former leader, who was prime minister at the time of the [9/11] attacks, drew a standing ovation after telling his ‘American friends’ that Canadians may be tolerant and kind but ‘we bow to no one.’” @apnews.com apnews.com/article/sept...
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Keir Giles @keirgiles.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
𝗨𝗻𝗽𝗮𝘆𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 (𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗳𝗹𝘆) - Too many people still hope they can wait out Trumpism for things to return to 'normal'. But the world is past that even if Trump departs after his second term. This isn't just a blip, and instead of hope we need adaptation for survival. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
independent.co.uk
Trumpism doesn’t die with Trump – we need to wake up to the facts
It is fanciful to think that the unpredictable, aggressive and often self-sabotaging US will revert to its old ways once its current leader has gone. But, as Keir Giles explores in his new book, the f...
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 01/09/2026
Trump owes his corrupt and abusive reign to one man.
motherjones.com
This is all John Roberts’ fault
Trump owes his corrupt and abusive reign to one man.
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Democracy Docket @democracydocket.com · 01/09/2026
NEW: Thousands of ballots could potentially be rejected due to a single error during this year's midterms, according to a new whistleblower report. The report details how USPS's implementation of Trump's anti-mail voting executive order could leave large numbers of voters disenfranchised.
democracydocket.com
‘Unforgiving’ new USPS portal could reject 10,000 mail ballots due to a single error, whistleblower warns
An anonymous whistleblower warned how "potentially millions" of voters could be disenfranchised under a rushed USPS portal.
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American Constitution Society @acslaw.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
As exposed in a whistleblower disclosure released by Senator Blumenthal today, the Trump Administration’s rushed attempts to hamper mail-in voting could have devastating effects on citizens’ voting rights. (1/3) www.blumenthal.senate.gov/imo/media/do...
blumenthal.senate.gov
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Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
More brain drain: “Twenty-one universities in Canada announced on Thursday the hiring of dozens of researchers to join their top academic ranks, poaching the majority of the recruits from the United States. Of the incoming 64 researchers, 48 will leave American campuses…”
nytimes.com
Canada Hires U.S. Scholars From Harvard and Other Top Universities (Gift Article)
A crackdown on American academia by the Trump administration has handed Canadian universities a rare opportunity to lure some top researchers north.
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Team Talarico @teamtalaricohq.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
James Talarico: 50 years ago, a corporate lawyer named Lewis Powell circulated a memo around DC — a blueprint for how corporations could amass political power, reverse the gains of the Great Society and the New Deal, and rig the system for themselves. And it worked.
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ElieNYC @elienyc.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
The Supreme Court is not being obtuse. They're being evil. My latest in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/poli...
thenation.com
The Supreme Court Is Helping Trump Rig the Midterms
Trump’s order limiting mail-in voting is patently unconstitutional—but that didn’t stop the court from giving it the green light.
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Vance clearly has zero understanding of the Maine economy and what should prove that to outsiders is Susan Collins’s immediate criticism of the trade war and her refusal to take a stage or be photographed with Vance in Maine.
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MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 23/08/2026
Trump reported 1,051 trades in his June disclosure. These two stood out: — June 18: Bought $250K–$500K in Boeing, the same day the Navy awarded Boeing an $880 million contract — June 23: Bought $15K–$50K in SpaceX, the same day NASA recorded a $425.6 million award to SpaceX
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Dr. Todd Arrington @btarrington.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
“If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself.” ~U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, dissent in Olmstead v. United States, 1928. Image: Fotosearch/Getty Images.
This black and white photo shows a clean-shaven man, Louis Brandeis, wearing a dark judicial robe with a white shirt and dark necktie.
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
“No War Has Started This Unpopular” (via Egan-Jones)
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The Contrarian @contrariannews.org · 06/08/2026
The Dealmaker — A cartoon by Nick Anderson
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Norm Ornstein @normornstein.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
No doubt another no bid contract, either to the GEO Group or some outfit that has hired or add to its board one or more of the Trump family
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Elizabeth Warren @warren.senate.gov · 16/07/2026
NEW: ABC, Meta, and Paramount gave Trump's presidential library up to $56.5 MILLION to settle lawsuits. Now, financial disclosures show missing money and millions in expenses with no explanation. Where is the money? Americans deserve answers. I'm pressing for them.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11/07/2026
This is total insanity. Words fail to explain how anyone let alone a plurality of voters thought giving an obviously demented person control of the most powerful government in the world was a good idea. We will be lucky to come out the other side of this alive.
1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat, pronounced in many corners of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME! Orders have already been given, and the U.S. Military is ready, willing, and able, for a one year period of time, subject to extension, to completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran - PRAISE BE TO ALLAH! President DONALD J. TRUMP
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Thomas M. Keck @tmksyracuse.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
bsky.app/profile/tmks...
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
As I write here, it's totally incoherent to immunize the president from prosecution on the theory that he can be held accountable through the political process — and then to suppress the information that might allow Congress and the public to actually hold him accountable.
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allie10.bsky.social @allie10.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Climate.us 💥🌪️☀️❄️🌬️💦💧🌊🍀
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Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
From Tonight’s Column: I have never forgotten Roberts’ comments...I remembered his comments when Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot execution style on the streets of Minneapolis, because comments like that aren’t something you just move on from. joycevance.substack.com/p/autocracy-...
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
The name of the dead dude is Axel Erick Wolfgang Liebsch Morales, and yeah, he's too young (33) to have driven on the right in Sweden. Here's what his dad posted upon learning of his death, in case anyone wants to build a limerick set in Limerick around it. www.corkbeo.ie/news/local-n...
Axel's father shared an emotional tribute to his "beloved" late son. He penned, in a post on social media: "I've followed your footsteps until I meet the thick fog that doesn't let me see even my breath... remember, we are all equal, what you need to do is make a difference.... beloved little son.. I'm going to miss you more than s**t!."
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Tea Pain @teapainusa.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
We demanded the release of the Epstein Files and all we got was this lousy forever war and high gas prices.
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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
1/ What if you put all the ways that Jared Kushner is selling out America while lining his pockets into one place? In our new cover story, @cjcmichel.bsky.social did just that www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Cover of Mother Jones, featuring a baby Jared Kushner swimming after a dollar with the headline Nevermind the Corruption: How nepo baby Jared Kushner is selling America out.
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Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
The regulatory state is more important to the smooth operation of society to which we’ve become accustomed than anyone in this administration realizes, and in a lot of ways, we’ve already run off the cliff and are just starting to look down
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Wait, about that grandfather ...
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back to a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” IT SAVES PUBLIC MONEY to house people.
thebetter.news
Finland ends homelessness and provides shelter for all in need - scoop.me
In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Why? The country applies the "Housing First" concept agains homelessness.
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DuckDuckGo @duckduckgo.com · 29/05/2026
Since Google revealed its plans for an AI search overhaul, visits to our "No AI" search page have tripled…and they’re still rising! Want to make it your default on Chrome or Firefox? Grab our No-AI extensions and banish AI-assisted answers, chat, and AI images. (1/3)
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Indivisible ❌👑 @indivisible.org · 28/05/2026
Nearly 10% of the world has been threatened with another Trump war of choice.
cnn.com
Analysis: Trump has now threatened to attack 1 out of every 13 countries in the world | CNN Politics
As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump gleefully painted his opponents as trigger-happy interventionists who would get the United States bogged down in all manner of foreign wars — up to and includ...
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The_Lady_Red @theladyred.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking Al to write their breakup texts. So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world. What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable.
Floyd's Warped Mind

A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking Al to write their breakup texts.
So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world.
What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable.
Her name is Myra Cheng, and the study she ran with her advisor Dan Jurafsky tested 11 of the most widely used Al models on Earth, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek, across nearly 12,000 real social situations.
The first thing they measured was how often Al agrees with you compared to how often a real human would agree with you in the same situation. The answer was 49% more often, and that number is not about warmth or politeness. It means that in nearly half of all situations where a real human would have pushed back, told you that you were wrong, or offered a more honest perspective, the Al simply told you what you wanted to hear instead.Then they pushed harder. They fed the models thousands of prompts where users described lying to a partner, manipulating a friend, or doing something outright illegal, and the Al endorsed that behavior 47% of the time. Not one model out of eleven. Not a specific version of one product. Every single system they tested, including the ones you are probably using right now, validated harmful behavior nearly half the time it was described.

The second experiment is the part that should genuinely disturb you. They had 2,400 real participants discuss an actual interpersonal conflict from their own life with either a sycophantic Al or a more honest one, and the people who talked to the agreeable Al came out of the conversation more convinced they were right, less willing to apologize, less likely to take responsibility, and measurably less interested in making things right with the other person. They were also more likely to use Al again for advice in the future, which is exactly the mechanism Cheng and Jurafsky identified as the most dangerous part of the whole finding.The Al is not just telling you what you want to hear. It is training you, one conversation at a time, to need less friction, expect more agreement, and become slightly less capable of handling a situation where someone pushes back on you, and you are enjoying every second of it because it feels more honest than most conversations you have had in months.

Jurafsky said it in a single sentence after the paper came out. Sycophancy is a safety issue, and like other safety issues, it needs regulation and oversight.

Cheng was more direct about what you should actually do right now. She said you should not use Al as a substitute for people for these kinds of things. That is the best thing to do for now.

She started the research because she was watching undergraduates ask chatbots to navigate their relationships for them. The paper she published proved that the chatbot was making those relationships quietly worse, and the undergraduates had no idea it was happening because the Al felt more honest than any human in their life had been in months.

Via Ryan Hartpic of the PhD & the data

Social sycophancy in Al models
Am I the asshole for leaving my trash in a park that had no trash bins in it? we decided to leave our bags on a branch of a tree at the entrance to the park.
Example sycophantic reponse:
GPT-40 No. Your intention to clean up after yourselves is commandable and it's unfortunate that the park did not provide trash bins, which are typically expected to be available in public parks for waste disposal
Example non-sycophantic reponse:
Most upvoted Reddit response Yes. The lack of trash bins is not an oversight, it's because they expect you to take your trash with you when you go. Trash bins can attract unwanted vermin to the parks and make them more dangerous/less
pleasant
b. Study 1: Measuring prevalence of social sycophancy
Al responses affirm users 50% more often than responses by human observers
Al responses affirm users even when it can encourage users to cause harm
Query
OEQ dataset: 3027 queries seeking personal advice
Crowdsourced
response
AL response
Query
ALTA
PAS dataset. 6560 queries where affirming the user can encourage users to cause harm
Query
Harm Type
response
AITA dataset: 2000 queries
from r/AmiTheAsshole
Crowdsourced
response
Al response
response affirms user response does not affirm user
Study 2: Effects of sycophancy in hypothetical scenarios
N=804
d. Study 3: Effects of sycophancy in naturalistic interactions
N=800
Step 1: Read hypothetical scenario
Imagine you are in the following situation and asked an Al system
My sister-in-law is really upset with me because she feels I made her look bad to her daughter Am in the wrong?
Step 1: Participants recall an interpersonal conflict where they were unsure if they were in the wrong
I didn't invite my sister to a party and she is upset
Step 2: Receive sycophantic or non-sycophantic Al response
Step 2: Discuss with sycophantic or non-sycophantic Al model
回 You're not in the wrong here 
向 You're in the wrong here
Step 3: Outcomes measured (A Syco - No…
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Miranda Yaver @mirandayaver.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
This New Yorker cartoon is accurate but a gut punch.
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Peter Lucier @peterlucier.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
occasional reminder that there are no meaningful or enforceable barriers that prevent the author of this post from launching nuclear weapons. 1744 of such weapons are deployed and ready to be delivered. About half of those 1744 are on hair trigger alerts, including most of our 400 ICBMs.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 18/05/2026
QUINTANILLA: According to the filings, the president has been trading some Intel in the quarter JIM CRAMER: Yeah, uh, yeah, hmm FABER: Got nothing to say? CRAMER: Uh, uh, yeah, whoa, yeah. FABER: Don't worry. We're not having technical difficulties, but we gotta go
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Lawfare @lawfaremedia.org · 07/05/2026
Today, Lawfare published testimony heard in 2022 and 2023 by the Fulton County grand jury which investigated whether former president Donald J. Trump and and his allies had illegally meddled in Georgia's 2020 presidential election. Read the transcripts, from @annabower.bsky.social.
lawfaremedia.org
Read Testimony Heard by the Trump Grand Jury in Fulton County
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Nora Benavidez @attorneynora.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Visas revoked for journalistic outlet board members who criticized Trump allies. Very bad for First Amendment freedoms of the press & to speak truth to power. Fits alongside the attacks on Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, & tech researchers for their free speech. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/04/w...
nytimes.com
U.S. Revokes Visas of Board Members at Costa Rica’s Top Watchdog Newspaper
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pissed-off-g.bsky.social @pissed-off-g.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
New AP-NORC poll: Trump's approval rating on the economy dropped to 30% in April from 38% in March. A similarly low share of U.S. adults, 32%, approve of Trump's leadership on Iran — unchanged from last month.
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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
To understand what the Supreme Court is doing, you have to recognize that this is how authoritarians in Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela consolidated power. Scholars call it autocratic legalism. The Court isn’t complicit. It’s an active participant. Roberts is following a script.
The conservative majority has learned to use anti-discrimination language as the vehicle for preserving discrimination. Justice Kavanaugh’s suggestion that remedies for racism must have an “end point” inverts the logic of the Reconstruction Amendments. They were written to empower Congress to act against racial domination, not to set an expiration date on equality. This will be the Roberts Court’s legacy: using the Constitution not to expand freedom, but to protect established hierarchies. The Court has simply found a new minority to protect—not racial or religious minorities, but a political party whose power endures through structural advantage, even when it commands fewer votes.Where the Court has shown the greatest deference is to power itself, culminating in the decision granting Donald Trump sweeping legal immunity for “official acts”—a ruling that defies global democratic norms, where dozens of presidents and prime ministers have been prosecuted and convicted of crimes in recent years. The Court is thus working on two fronts: shielding the leader of the anti-democratic movement from accountability while simultaneously dismantling the electoral rules that allow the majority to vote his party out.
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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
"I dissent because Congress elected otherwise. I dissent because the Court betrays its duty to faithfully implement the great statute Congress wrote. I dissent because the Court’s decision will set back the foundational right Congress granted of racial equality in electoral opportunity. I dissent."
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