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Erin Brown-John

@eebeejay.bsky.social
2.1K followers 1.1K following 492 posts

Writer, science communicator, maker/mender. I like to spin yarns.

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Reposted by Erin Brown-John
Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 29/09/2026
A key component of the Cambridge Analytica outrage was your friends subjecting you to data theft without your consent or knowledge. Facebook is running the same playbook on your text messages. Even if you’re not on Meta properties, they’re ingesting your interactions.
Aten installed Muse on both his iPhone and a Mac mini that he uses to test out various Al agents and tech. It took Meta a single day to begin "helpfully" pitching article ideas based on texts he'd sent to a podcast co-host.
When he asked Muse how it got the information, it said that it read banners from incoming texts. But that's not true, either.
After doing a little digging, Aten says Muse synced 187,000 lines from his Messages database, despite Full Disk Access being Off.Unless Aten is the most popular person on the face of the planet, I sincerely doubt he'd gotten 187,000 lines of text in roughly 24 hours. What happened is that, without permission, Muse went into the app and downloaded the information.
He had not given Muse permission to access Messages, and full disk access was not enabled. It just went ahead and uploaded those texts anyway.
Muse can take "unexpected actions" indeed.
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Harsha Walia @harshawalia.bsky.social · 18h
Huge news! Charges against Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum, founders of the Drug User Liberation Front, have been stayed. Judge found parts of Canada's drug laws are unconstitutional and that the compassion club reduced the harms associated with the toxic drug crisis. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
Judge tosses drug trafficking convictions for B.C. compassion club founders after constitutional challenge | CBC News
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has ruled in favour of two harm-reduction activists convicted of drug trafficking who argued they were doing it to reduce the harms caused by toxic drugs.
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tyson singh kelsall @tsk.bsky.social · 17h
we have lost so many people while police & politicians created a spectacle, raided DULF, stopped the expansion of an alt to the toxic supply, and put its co-founders through the needless consequences of this process that took years. DULF saves lives bsky.app/profile/godf...
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 21h
If you love words, read this.
thewalrus.ca
Wild Buffalo Make a Comeback on the Canadian Plains | The Walrus
Herds are returning to lands they haven’t roamed in generations
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Canadian Dimension @canadiandimension.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Carney promised to protect Canada from Trump. Why does his agenda look so much like Reaganomics?
canadiandimension.com
Carney promised to protect Canada from Trump. Why does his agenda look so much like Reaganomics?
Mark Carney’s Liberal Party won the last federal election on a platform largely built around protecting Canada from Donald Trump’s imperialism. Eighteen months later, the prime minister’s strategy loo...
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Jenny Kwan @jennykwan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Liberal MP Sean Casey was demoted by Mark Carney last week after voting in favour of Jenny Kwan’s Bill C-233, the No More Loopholes Act. When will the Liberals stop punishing MPs for doing their job—and finally act to close this loophole?
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 28/09/2026
The lie that privatization will reduce wait times is already being exposed, but that won’t stop political leaders from continuing to try to destroy our public healthcare system.
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Patrick Canning 🇨🇦 @patrickcanning.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Fossil fuel companies are working hard on the right wing agenda. So when our governments, Carney and Eby, give them billions of dollars - that's what they use it for.
theguardian.com
Decades of fossil fuel influence paved way for Trump’s assault on university research, study says
Fossil fuel firms have spent years trying to regulate climate research by donating to US universities, study authors argue
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Paul Voosen @voosen.me · 28/09/2026
New Horizons is now *three days away* from shutting off its two heliophysics instruments, simply because NASA has not provided the $2M in funding it had promised to the mission last year or this year. There is no science basis for shutting these off. Our earlier coverage:
science.org
NASA’s New Horizons mission may shut down two instruments over lack of funding
Decision risks “incalculable loss” of data from the edge of the Sun’s influence, scientists say
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History Keeps Happening @historykeeper.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"...the Colonies are the breeding-ground for the type of fascist mentality which is being let loose in Europe today… The fight against fascism cannot be separated from the right of all colonial peoples and subject races to Self-Determination." -George Padmore, How Britain Rules Africa (1936)
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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 27/09/2026
It should really bother everyone more that these "AI" companies and the people that run them are always— ALWAYS— looking for ways to trick or coerce us into giving up more and more ourselves to them.
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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
It's really really difficult to see what's happening to you from inside your own life. You can't tell that you're being coarsened until you leave an environment that is key to making you more coarse. That's my experience at least.
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Joanne Hammond @joannehammond.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
white nationalists doing hate crime on the highway overpass in Dufferin neighbourhood of Kamloops now
A bunch of fucking losers dressed in black with white masks, standing on an overpass with a black banner that says “GOT BONES?”
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Lauren McKenzie @themckenziest.gay · 26/09/2026
Hey, AI wastes billions of gallons of water, but have you seen all of that water wasted on food crops
The data center with the highest known water consumption, Google's development in Council Bluffs, Iowa, consumes about 1.3 billion gallons a year. That sounds massive, but so is the amount of water used to irrigate Iowas corn crops. If Google had bought a cornfield four to six times as large as the data center's plot, or about eight square miles (roughly 0.04 percent of the total
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Michelle Cyca @michellecyca.com · 25/09/2026
bizarre to me that so much reporting on housing fails to interrogate the assumptions that homeowners (1) should always get to approve of changes to their neighbourhood (2) should be protected by government from any possible decline in property values www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
Toronto needs more homes. These neighbours say they're paying the price | CBC News
An elderly downtown couple says they’re shocked and upset that the city has approved a duplex next door to their three-story Victorian home that they say will tower metres above their chimney and rend...
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Erin Brown-John @eebeejay.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I think Grandad would have disputed the “safe and spectacular” bit. It’s the route of the infamous “holiday” where my great grandmother abandoned half her kids in the Caribou.
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David Moscrop @davidmoscrop.com · 21/09/2026
I think it's ill-advised and anti-democratic to introduce an omnibus bill, cite a crisis, and rush major changes to labour and environmental law. It's going to provoke aggressive resistance and risks, ironically, slowing down the projects the government is so keen on. It's going to be a huge mess.
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Staceroo was here @staceroo.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
We have a majority Liberal government, so there's little chance that this bill will not pass. But many of us live in Liberal ridings. Now's the time to write to your MP if you're concerned about them tabling a sweeping omnibus bill. Remember - this bill means all or nothing. No in between. #canpoli
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Kyla Houbolt @luaz.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
poets.org/poem/go-ahea... "Driftwood floats on waves. Music floats on air. Hidden in the depths of the ocean, pearls shine. We hear their dazzling echo."
poets.org
Go ahead, Lord, break our harp
Go ahead, Lord, break our harp. / We have thousands upon thousands of harps.
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Anthony Floyd @anthonyfloyd.ca · 21/09/2026
It's fall Go By Bike Week and **IT'S NOT RAINING** Ride your bike, record your rides: hubcycling.ca/gbbw #bikeyvr
hubcycling.ca
Go By Bike Week | HUB Cycling: Bike Events, Education, Action in Metro Vancouver
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Erin Brown-John @eebeejay.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Hey, Word Vancouver is on tomorrow at Robson Square! Go soak up some literature for free. www.wordvancouver.ca
wordvancouver.ca
WV
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Erin Brown-John @eebeejay.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Is that a cowbell in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
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Andrew Kurjata @akurjata.ca · 18/09/2026
I wonder if this person suggesting a reset of U.S. relations with the rest of the world will be easy because Japan and Germany did it are aware that both countries had their governments dismantled at a fundamental level and were controlled by foreign powers for multiple years before that happened
Oh, please. Is Germany not a reliable ally? Japan? That took, what, 10-20 years after WW2? A much bigger deal than Trump.
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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Vesuvianite may be a pretty gem but Skutterudite has played a role in art history as smalt, a pigment in paint, glass and ceramics for centuries so I am voting #Skutterudite! #MinCup26 #scicomm #artHist
Four cut Vesuvianite gems in different shapes (rectangular with cut corners and pale orange hue, round and olive hue, square orange and round orange) on a white background via the International Gem Society Rembrandt, Portrait of Margaretha de Geer
ca 1661


Medium: oil
Support: canvas
Size: 130.5 x 97.5 cm
Art period: Baroque
National Gallery London
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Pigments include smalt via ColourLex. The portrait shows an older woman in black holding a handkerchief with a brown scarf and large white ruff seated in a large dark chair on a black background. Title: Snuff Bottle with Antiquarian Design
Period: Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
Date: late 18th–early 19th century
Culture: China
Medium: Blue glass [made with smalt/skutterudite] with rose quartz stopper
Dimensions: H. 2 11/16 in. (6.8 cm); W. 1 5/16 in. (3.3 cm); D. 1 3/8 in. (3.5 cm)
Classification: Snuff Bottles
Credit Line: Bequest of Mrs. Fanny Shapiro, 1971
Object Number: 1971.117.3a, b
Curatorial Department: Asian Art

Via The Met. Title: Cup
Date: 17th century
Geography: Attributed to Iran
Medium: Stonepaste; luster-painted on opaque blue glaze [smalt/skutterudite] (exterior) and white glaze (interior)
Dimensions: Ht. 1 9/16 in. (4 cm)
Diam. 3 in. (7.6 cm)
Classification: Ceramics
Credit Line: Edward C. Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891
Object Number: 91.1.190
Curatorial Department: Islamic Art

Via The Met. 

This is a small, rounded slightly conical ceramic cup which is white inside and dark blue outside with a darker stylized floral pattern.
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Emmett Macfarlane 🇨🇦 @emmettmacfarlane.com · 16/09/2026
There is zero evidence of a strategy, and lots of reasons to think we'll regret what Carney is trying to do here.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 16/09/2026
This nasty form of photography was a big part of the UCP’s 2023 election campaign after Vancouver is Dying came out. Aaron Gunn replica Arthur Green even got hired for his invaluable service as the public safety ministry press secretary.
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ᵀᴴᴱꀤNGᒪOᖇIOᑌᔕ¹🇨🇦 @inglorious.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Keep in mind, this isn't a partisan issue. Both parties have sold the shit we all own for a jar of shinola. It's nothing short of robbery. This is stealing from all of us.
Three panels from The Watchmen comic showing Dr. Manhattan sitting in Mars. 

First panel reads: "It's 1995 and the Liberals are privatizing CN Rail."

Second: "It's 2016 and the Liberals are privatizing Ontario Hydro".

Third: "It's 2026 and the Liberals are privatizing airports."
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Erin Brown-John @eebeejay.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Today I mostly tuned out of social media except to post a picture of a bird I saw and I think that was a good choice.
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Tabatha Southey🇨🇦 @tabathasouthey.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
“When we were being stolen from our parents and experienced genocide in Indian Residential Schools, we wondered, ‘Who are the people that will help us?’ Today, we are those people. Today we offer our help, support, and jurisdiction to override these dehumanizing laws.”
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Erin Brown-John @eebeejay.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Hey Vancouver have you seen this bird? I saw it at Trillium Park near the new Saint Paul’s on Sunday and it is the first Clark’s Nutcracker seen in Vancouver since 1995. Send photos, time and location to Melissa Hafting: bcbirdalert.blogspot.com/p/vancouver-...
Clark’s Nutcracker perched on a chain link fence. It has a black beak, black eyes, light grey head and dark grey to black wingsClark’s Nutcracker perched on a concrete brick in an inflatable pink wading pond. It has a black beak, black eyes, light grey head and dark grey to black wings
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
First excerpt from End Times Fascism! So happy The Guardian went for the part of the book about the wonder of THIS world, and the people doing everything to commit to it. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
theguardian.com
The end times fascists are plotting their escape from our world. Our mission is clear
An unholy alliance is working toward an apocalyptic future from which only a chosen few will emerge unscathed. It’s becoming clear how we stop them
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The Breach @breachmedia.ca · 10/09/2026
Mark Carney says his glitzy investment summit will attract major capital to Canada. But as Nikolas Barry-Shaw & Martin Lukacs write, what Carney may be putting on the table is Canada itself—and a fire-sale of the country’s essential public infrastructure. breachmedia.ca/mark-carneys...
breachmedia.ca
Mark Carney’s investment summit could pave the way to a corporate carve-up of Canada ⋆ The Breach
Bay Street has been on a full court press for the government to privatize Canada’s public infrastructure. The Prime Minister might be ready to do it
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Mary Gillis @marygillis.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Most people don't know that the best way to make a service more efficient is to bring in a layer of upper management devoted solely to extracting a profit from it. It takes a doctorate in economics to figure that one out.
cbc.ca
Government to open up Canada's 4 largest airports to private investment, Carney says | CBC News
Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government will open up Canada's four largest airports to private investment, but that Ottawa will maintain ultimate ownership.
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Dr. Mike P. Moffatt @mikepmoffatt.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Productivity Mega Deduction vs Productivity Super Deduction is my all-time favourite kaiju film.
static.klipy.com
Vincent X Vincent
ALT: Vincent X Vincent
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Erin Brown-John @eebeejay.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Hello! I’m reading with a pretty excellent lineup of folks this Wednesday! Check the @wordvancouver.bsky.social website for many, many more free readings and workshops coming up this Saturday. www.wordvancouver.ca/offsite-even...
wordvancouver.ca
Twisted Poets — WV
In  Sublime: Poems for Vanishing Ice , poets from across Turtle Island explore what it means to enter into conversation with ice.
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Anna Mehler Paperny @mehlerpaperny.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Canada considers the US to be a safe country for asylum-seekers. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/u...
nytimes.com
‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Used Small Cages to Confine Migrants, DHS Watchdog Report Says
The Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog provided new details about conditions at the now-shuttered Florida detention center.
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Vancouver Public Space Network @vpsn.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Mark your calendars and get ready to rumble - Last Candidate Standing is back! Thurs, Oct 1 - 7pm York Theatre, 639 Commercial Dr This is Vancouver's only ALL candidates’ exchange. Everyone running for Mayor or Council is invited to join. Tix: thecultch.com/event/last-candidate-standing/ #vanpoli
thecultch.com
Last Candidate Standing
Who says local politics needs to be boring? Join us for Last Candidate Standing - Vancouver's only ALL candidates’ debate! A contest for the future of the city. Thurs, Oct 1 at the York Theatre.
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aaron boothby @ellipticalnight.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
we need to stop saying "the public overestimate etc" and talk about the endless rightwing campaign to vilify liberal cities because they rightly understand those cities largely reject the fear and bullshit they're trying to sell
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Ryan Calo @rcalo.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Guess it’s time to resurrect my essay from 2023 undark.org/2023/06/22/a...
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Seth Klein @sethdklein.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"I read the new UN climate report so you don’t have to." Highly recommend this summary of last week's UN climate report by @ayanaeliza.bsky.social: ayanaelizabeth.substack.com/p/i-read-the...
ayanaelizabeth.substack.com
I read the new UN climate report so you don't have to.
TL;DR they are calling for radical transformation of our society.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 09/09/2026
Timnit is being shy and not telling you guys to PREORDER HER BOOK ABOUT THIS www.simonandschuster.com/books/Deep-U...
simonandschuster.com
Deep Unlearning
Timnit Gebru, one of the fiercest voices in the world speaking truth to power, chronicles her journey as a refugee and Black woman in STEM—deliveri...
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Dale Smith @journodale.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
This is what Carney's new Digital Transformation Canada should be doing, not trying to find new ways to implement digital asbestos.
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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
hello liberal democracies around the world, i hate to say it but you need to take a look at how successful the funding of fascist media in america has been for the far-right and you need to start counteracting this with your own dollars funding progressive media here
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Erin Brown-John @eebeejay.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Yesterday was a very offline day making a dry leaf indigo vat with the class I’ve been teaching. Flavonoid extraction took forever with a slooow burner but we finally got there! #textiles #dyeing How it started / how it’s going:
Crushed dry leaf indigo in a fine mesh laundry bag in a deep stock potIndigo vat ready to dye with. Note the foamy blueish, metallic oxidized indigo on top. That’s how I you know it’s working but all that needs to be removed before dyeing
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Owen @oweninvan.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I think it needs to be said: OneCity has been the ONLY party willing to stick their necks out to reduce carbon emissions, especially on land use policy, where City Hall can actually make a difference (& where it's cheaper than free)
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Romy @romygarrido.ca · 06/09/2026
I only found the Canadian climate report via another search. The below article is paywalled, but the headline says it all. The environment groups sounding the alarm are correct. Timing of government news matters, and their chosen rollout is telling.
nationalobserver.com
Carney government accused of burying climate report warning of worsening impacts
The report, which analyzes the impacts of climate change in Canada, was posted to a government website with no fanfare on Thursday evening ahead of the Labour Day long weekend.
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Climate Justice Victoria @climatejusticeyyj.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
"Canada has a serious climate literacy problem. Only about half of Canadians correctly identify burning #fossilfuels as the primary source of climate pollution." Why? " #climatehushing the downplaying, omission or avoidance of climate change in public communication." Tara Mahoney #cdnpoli #bcpoli
nationalobserver.com
Wildfires are front-page news. Why isn't their cause?
Canada has a serious climate literacy problem. Only about half of Canadians correctly identify burning fossil fuels as the primary source of climate pollution.
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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
An oldie, but a goodie! Vote #quartz. It’s shockingly amazing! #MinCup26 ⚒️ sci-fi 🧪 🖖🏼 scifi Geosciences #WomenInSTEM geology #geosky #GIS 🍎 🪐 🔭 🌋
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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
An unforgivable, steady line of Canada's PMs, whether Liberal or Conservative, have been in love with pipelines and lining pockets of their Big Oil and Gas pals. PM @mark-carney.bsky.social is no exception during a critical time of #ClimateCrisis. Next time you vote, #VoteEarth. #ClimateActionNow
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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Support for Quartz from years past. It’s still the best choice for #MinCup26! It’s bananas that it’s trailing in the first round but #TeamQuartz we only need 30 votes in the next 9 hours to take the lead. Vote for Quartz!
mineralcup.org
Vote in Round 1 Match 6 — Mineral Cup & Ore Cup
Vote in Quartz vs Asagiite Credit: John Sobolewski and Chris Emproto
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