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Katherine Drotos

@spiritofcavalia.bsky.social
2.6K followers 788 following 706 posts

Evolutionary biologist | Ongoing #fishgenomics & #lichens work | Evolution, philosophy, pedagogy, fungi, genomics | Justice & climate | she/her

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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Thank you to those who have helped so far!! Khalil has managed to get his family away from the area, but he is going to risk going back for their tent. They still need $150 to pay for the move (the land plots where the tents sit are all owned by somebody).
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
This is happening RIGHT NOW
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I toured/performed as a musician on two different cruises and at Disney World.
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
🚨URGENT Khalil just texted: "We just received an evacuation warning in our camp. We have been told the area may be bombed within the next hour. We must dismantle our tent and leave with our children immediately, but I need $200 urgently to move them to a safer place." chuffed.org/project/from...
chuffed.org
From the Heart of Gaza... Please Help Khalil and Noreen's Family
Please join us in defending Khalil and Noreen's kids from the brutality of war, winter, hunger and illness. Noreen suffers from damaged cartilege. She can't move easily. She also needs a corneal trans...
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Reposted by Katherine Drotos
Kasey Gifford @kaseygifford.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
To put this in perspective chestnut trees used to be dominant species in the United States. Billions of trees were killed by fungal blight and now fully grown America chestnuts are functionally extinct. There is no getting them back. Ever. All for a data center. www.gadgetreview.com/one-of-ameri...
gadgetreview.com
One of America’s Last Chestnut Groves Is About to Be Destroyed for a Data Center
A rare 200-tree American chestnut grove in West Virginia may be cleared for data-center development, but the project denies the site is on its land.
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
It’s simply unimaginable that CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz has just bowed to RFK Jr. and approved funding for an utterly unethical clinical trial that will withhold the birth dose of HepB vaccine in Guinea Bissau. It is to be conducted by researchers accused of academic misconduct.
rollingstone.com
CDC Is Moving Forward With a Previously Shelved Controversial Hepatitis B Vaccine Study
“It’s a wholly unethical trial, and it shouldn’t be allowed,” says Dr. Paul Offit of Guinea-Bissau study
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Laura @tutusntinyhats.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
The Sameer Project has put out a call for emergency funding: "But as aggression, displacement, and destruction increase, donations are falling. We cannot respond on the scale people need without the funding to do so." www.instagram.com/p/DeND7SlDTvl/
instagram.com
The Sameer Project on Instagram: "Three years of genocide. When will it end? Where is humanity? Where is the help? The Sameer Project community has shown up and stood by Palestinians in Gaza. But as ...
607 likes, 14 comments - thesameerproject on October 7, 2026: "Three years of genocide. When will it end? Where is humanity? Where is the help? The Sameer Project community has shown up and stood by ...
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Dr. Robin Bond, biogeochemist at a PUI 🧪 @diygeochemist.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
My ex was jealous of the time I spent reading to my kids and would constantly interrupt our sessions. This guy doesn't see there are multiple benefits--not just the learning to read and the engaging with language, but also the building of relationships.
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 08/10/2026
This picture will always be iconic. RIP Margaret Hamilton who wrote the software that successfully guided NASA’s Apollo missions through the moon.
Margaret Hamilton with printed computer code in 1969. Credit: NASA/Alamy
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Khalil has been working so hard, hasn't had a proper night's sleep in who knows how long, and still is struggling to pay for food and medicine for his children. Even $5 goes a long way toward helping them stay alive. They are so grateful for every dollar. chuffed.org/project/from...
chuffed.org
From the Heart of Gaza... Please Help Khalil and Noreen's Family
Please join us in defending Khalil and Noreen's kids from the brutality of war, winter, hunger and illness. Noreen suffers from damaged cartilege. She can't move easily. She also needs a corneal trans...
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Reposted by Katherine Drotos
Sarah Hird, PhD @sarahhird.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
That time I put almost all the chipmunk species in the western USA on one map. Did you know there’s 1 species of chipmunk in Asia, 1 in eastern USA & >20 in western USA? (I’m not the crazy one here. The chipmunks are the crazy ones.)
Map of the western USA with 20 overlapping chipmunk species distributions in different colors.
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Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Not sure I’ve ever seen an essay that so precisely hits the mark as this. Read it. Share it.
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Carrie Brown @brizzyc.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"So much of what I found was that universities were violating their own policies constantly, doing a completely different process than what they told students they would do or what federal regulation required."
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Thank you to the kind souls who donated!! $95 left, can anyone do $10? So close to getting this baby's medicine ...
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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
In the last couple of years, we've seen multiple critical collections (museums, herbaria) close. The IUCN--the global authority on the status of biodiversity--recently published on how important these kinds of facilities are in conservation. Every day, the dead are working to protect the living.
iucn.org
From collections to conservation: the indispensable role of natural history museums
The IUCN Species Survival Commission has published a Position Statement on the vital role of biological collections in biodiversity conservation: a formal acknowledgement that natural history museums,...
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Liam Kirkaldy @liamkirkaldy.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"It's more of a cormorant than a question", I say, with a wry smile, as my pet cormorant repeatedly dive bombs the panel, pecking at their eyes
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Dr. Divya (🔔 logged out) @divyampersaud.com · 06/10/2026
It's my birthday and we're keeping hope alive 🎈 I'm after YOUR pledges for a new campaign partnered with 12 families + experts on the ground to meet emergency needs. I want 32 people to gift a monthly pledge of 32. Click "Divya's birthday drive." Let's DO IT 💖 chuffed.org/project/hope...
A colorful graphic decorated with a black and white ink drawing of a white wagtail bird perched on a rock and colorful eggs. Text: It's my birthday and we're keeping hope alive. I'm getting 32 signups of 32/month for 12 families and 2 camps. Pledge for Palestinian life. tiny.cc/hef
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Khalil still doesn't have enough to buy his son's asthma medication! Remember that they are living in a tent with constant dust swirling around them - this is incredibly dangerous for a child with asthma. Please donate if you can, share if you can't. chuffed.org/project/from...
chuffed.org
From the Heart of Gaza... Please Help Khalil and Noreen's Family
Please join us in defending Khalil and Noreen's kids from the brutality of war, winter, hunger and illness. Noreen suffers from damaged cartilege. She can't move easily. She also needs a corneal trans...
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ctcnews.bsky.social @ctcnews.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
📰 A province-wide Amber Alert is active for seven-year-old Aspen Wilson, who police say was taken from a Valleyview home by her stepfather Alexander Stone. Investigators believe the pair may be travelling in a grey 2004 Chevrolet Venture van toward Slave Lake or Red… 📡 Read full story here 👇
ctcnews.ca
Amber Alert issued for Aspen Wilson in Alberta
A province-wide Amber Alert is active for seven-year-old Aspen Wilson, who police say was taken from a Valleyview home by her stepfather Alexander Stone. Investigators believe the pair may be travelling in a grey 2004 Chevrolet Venture van toward Slave Lake or Red Deer.
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
It's a beautiful day to do some good. Khalil has been working around the clock but still needs $165 to buy his son's asthma medication. Ghaith is only 2.5 and with the horrific air conditions he cannot go long without the medicine. Please help this baby breathe! chuffed.org/project/from...
chuffed.org
From the Heart of Gaza... Please Help Khalil and Noreen's Family
Please join us in defending Khalil and Noreen's kids from the brutality of war, winter, hunger and illness. Noreen suffers from damaged cartilege. She can't move easily. She also needs a corneal trans...
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Micheeel @micheeel.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Bara’a writes directly from her tent in Gaza: ​"In the absolute dark, when the sounds of fear outside grow too loud, I hold Ibrahim’s tiny hand. His skin is warm, his breath quiet, and in that small touch, I hold my entire universe." 🧵
An adult hand holding a child's hand before a tent ceiling.
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jenna newman phd @jennanewman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
“‘Learning happens as a consequence of cognitive processing. Cognitive processing is typically effortful, & that’s what AI effectively removes,’ says cognitive psychologist Daniel Willingham at UVA. ‘People are really worried about that’.”🧪
“And science - in which people need to critically evaluate theories and data - is one important area that's under threat from the Al revolution in large language models (LLMs). "There is a risk that students outsource precisely the activities through which scientific thinking develops: formulating hypotheses, interpreting evidence, considering alternatives and struggling with uncertainty," says Thomas Nygren, who studies education and critical thinking at Uppsala University in Sweden.”
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
It's been a rough few days but there is hope: Khalil is still free, and paid for Noreen's care (thanks to those who helped!!!). He needs to now pay for the license for his e-bike so he can continue to work. He's mostly there, just needs $50 more! chuffed.org/project/from...
chuffed.org
From the Heart of Gaza... Please Help Khalil and Noreen's Family
Please join us in defending Khalil and Noreen's kids from the brutality of war, winter, hunger and illness. Noreen suffers from damaged cartilege. She can't move easily. She also needs a corneal trans...
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Reposted by Katherine Drotos
Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
If you are part of an academic society or a professor of any kind, public statements that you do not condone Drexel cutting off the academy of natural sciences from the public of Philadelphia is very important right now. We need your voices. Urgently.
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Dr Sho Jacobs 🍁 @shoshanahjacobs.ca · 02/10/2026
What will our world feel like when the Climate collapses? Sci-Fi authors partnered with artists and scientists to imagine. They created the prototypes of our uncertain future #ManufacturedEcosystems is funded by @sshrc-crsh.canada.ca New Frontiers in Research books.lib.uoguelph.ca/manufactured...
books.lib.uoguelph.ca
Manufactured Ecosystems
Manufactured Ecosystems offers seven visions of ecosystems services in the future by science fiction writers from across Canada and North America. Featuring stories by Chinelo Onwualu, Jennifer Gougé,...
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Please continue to support this family if you can. If Khalil can't pay for Noreen's medical care, he will be arrested. His wife will be stuck and his kids will be alone. I really want to emphasize how serious this is. They do not have anyone else there they can rely on.
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Dr Hannah M. Rowland @hannahmrowland.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Hope your day was better than Darwin’s, on this day 165 years ago
I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody &everything.

Charles Darwin
Letter to Charles Lyell
1st October 1861
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The Farwanas desperately need help to survive. I know we say it daily, but it needs repeating: it is very expensive to be poor. Khalil must pay his wife's medical bills, or authorities will arrest him. His wife will be stuck in the hospital and his children alone. chuffed.org/project/from...
chuffed.org
From the Heart of Gaza... Please Help Khalil and Noreen's Family
Please join us in defending Khalil and Noreen's kids from the brutality of war, winter, hunger and illness. Noreen suffers from damaged cartilege. She can't move easily. She also needs a corneal trans...
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Grace Zhang @gmzhang.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Hello plant folks - anyone have a kit they'd recommend for short-read whole genome sequencing library prep? We have about 500 samples, so looking for a high-throughput/96-well workflow. Thanks!
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Jimmy Thomson @jameswsthomson.com · 01/10/2026
Carney begins his announcement of a new oil pipeline by acknowledging the climate-linked wildfire that came close to levelling the town where he's announcing the new oil pipeline. A flat circle.
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
One of my favourite things in academia: when someone's name matches what they study. I was searching through some tree bark chemistry papers. Lead author on one was J.J. Barkman.
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Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
23,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules. That’s the amount of heat the oceans absorbed in 2025. A number so huge it’s almost meaningless…until you realise it’s roughly 40× humanity’s annual energy use. The ocean is buying us time. We’re running out of it. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
World’s oceans absorbed record heat equal to 40 times annual global energy use
The injection of thermal energy comes amid an increasing rise in sea levels and continuing acidification
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
From Khalil: Noreen keeps experiencing hemolysis, and they don't know why. The docs want to do testing, but it costs $260, and that's on top of treatment. She currently weighs less than 40kg because of malnutrition. Khalil works around the clock but he needs help to take care of his family!!!
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Omigod, this is the most heartwarming story possible! Backpack (bear 89) is the son of the 2019 winner of Fat Bear Week, Holly (bear 435). In 2007, he injured his foot & a practice of riding on momma's Holly's back had a new meaning: he was mobility-restricted while it healed. So Holly moved him.
From DISCVR blog's Facebook page, a momma bear & a yearling cub on her back in the shallow water.  I think the background has been swapped out, and I can't rule out some AI use there?  God, Facebook has become the social media for AI slop : (

The title of the article, which I link below, is "How Bear 89 earned the name Backpack"
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Khalil messaged me this morning - Noreen is in hospital again, and they need to pay for treatment. He is doing everything he can but everything is so expensive. They desperately need support to allow Noreen to heal, please help if you can! chuffed.org/project/from...
chuffed.org
From the Heart of Gaza... Please Help Khalil and Noreen's Family
Please join us in defending Khalil and Noreen's kids from the brutality of war, winter, hunger and illness. Noreen suffers from damaged cartilege. She can't move easily. She also needs a corneal trans...
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Anne Helen Petersen @annehelen.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is *the* piece. Kate Manne, professor of philosophy at Cornell, speaks truth to the totality of failures at the university — and why students protesting the war in Gaza have faced far harsher consequences than any of the Cornell 7: www.thecut.com/article/what...
thecut.com
What It Feels Like at Cornell Right Now
As a professor at the Ivy League school, Kate Manne has known many, many victims. There’s a palpable feeling on campus, she writes, that this is big.
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Exactly. And extra appropriately for today, take a moment to learn about the Seven Generations Principle: www.gensqueeze.ca/thinking_dif...
gensqueeze.ca
Indigenous Peoples have a rich tradition of thinking like good ancestors
As we begin National Indigenous History Month in Canada, we have much to learn from Indigenous peoples' rich traditions of intergenerational solidarity. The Gen Squeeze team deeply appreciates the opp...
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Just added this whole list to my StoryGraph!
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
In a surprise to no one: '“It’s deeply alarming that so much money has been spent on for-profit surgeries and, yet, we don’t have the results to show what Ontarians are getting for those dollars,” said Andrew Longhurst, senior researcher at the centre.' www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
Wait times for most priority surgeries in Ontario have increased since 2017, study says | CBC News
Wait times for most of the province’s publicly funded priority surgeries and procedures have increased between 2017 and 2025, according to a study released Monday.
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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I’m seeing a lot of posts about talking to your sons in light of the Cornell article. And yes. Talk to your sons. Here are some things you should say, based on anti-violence research about what they need to hear:
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Almost no donations have come in for the Farwanas - Noreen is lying on a gurney desperately in need of blood products. Each unit costs $50, and the doc estimates she needs 5. Please help this family if you can! If everyone who sees this gives $5 or $10 they can do it. chuffed.org/project/from...
chuffed.org
From the Heart of Gaza... Please Help Khalil and Noreen's Family
Please join us in defending Khalil and Noreen's kids from the brutality of war, winter, hunger and illness. Noreen suffers from damaged cartilege. She can't move easily. She also needs a corneal trans...
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Indrapramit Das @indrapramitdas.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
You can help Alaa's children & months-old baby survive Israel's genocide right now by sharing & donating. They're starving, homeless, & sick from Israel's destruction of sanitation & healthcare. Her husband is a prisoner of the occupation, she's struggling all alone:
chuffed.org
Donate and help Ala’a and her children
My name is Alaa, and I am a mother of four children from North Gaza. My husband is a prisoner, and since his imprisonment, I have become both a mother and a father to my children, carrying the respons...
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Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I don’t think it’s enough to raise men to be “good men.” I think we have to accept, with the society we have and the influences we have, if you want your son to be one who would step in, one who would never be silent, you have to raise them to be *exceptional.”
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
When I say this is urgent, I am not exaggerating. Khalil sounds frantic, he is terrified that Noreen won't survive if they can't get her blood soon. She is literally lying on a hospital gurney waiting.
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Brandon Moore, PhD @rando.insalubrio.us · 27/09/2026
Dogs may be better at picking up patterns in human speech than previously thought. EEG recordings show that they track consonant patterns more strongly than vowel patterns, just like people do when segmenting speech! 🧪 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
A cute brown dog sitting comfortably on a couch, prepared for an EEG measurement.

Credit: Sarolta Sziliágyi
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
🚨URGENT: The Farwanas need help IMMEDIATELY to save Noreen's life! She managed to get Khalil released, but soon after collapsed from exhaustion. The docs have said she needs $250 worth of blood products. Please donate if you can and share if you can't!! chuffed.org/project/from...
chuffed.org
From the Heart of Gaza... Please Help Khalil and Noreen's Family
Please join us in defending Khalil and Noreen's kids from the brutality of war, winter, hunger and illness. Noreen suffers from damaged cartilege. She can't move easily. She also needs a corneal trans...
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I'm continually impressed by how far gnome research has come in biology.
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Katherine Drotos @spiritofcavalia.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
It's been days, but Noreen only needs $20 more to pay for Khalil's release!!! He's been held on debts, we NEED to get him home to his family. They need each other. Can anyone help with this last little bit?? chuffed.org/project/from...
chuffed.org
From the Heart of Gaza... Please Help Khalil and Noreen's Family
Please join us in defending Khalil and Noreen's kids from the brutality of war, winter, hunger and illness. Noreen suffers from damaged cartilege. She can't move easily. She also needs a corneal trans...
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Dr. Jey McCreight 🏳️‍⚧️🧬 @jeymccreight.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Reposting because all of my jobs have always come from someone in my network referring me or knowing someone who needs a science communicator 🤞
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