Here’s what an ass sounds like when he’s:

a) so full of himself, it starts oozing out of every body orifice.
b) so desperate to win that he…
c) tries to win over the idiot base by pretending he doesn’t believe in global warming science.

“I’m an amateur paleontologist, so I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the earth’s temperature over a very long time,” Gingrich said. “I’m a lot harder to convince than just by looking at a computer model.”

Pathetic.  Newt Gingrich once dreamed of becoming a zookeeper, read a couple of books on dinosaurs and kept a T-Rex skull in his office when he served as Speaker of the House and that, he believes, qualifies him to dismiss climate change data as erroneous.  Gingrich, the pseudo-intellectual, pseudo-scientist bullshit artist feels he’s better equipped to determine the validity of climate science than the 98% of the world’s climatologists who study this stuff day in, day out and warn of the impending danger of ignoring the data.

Gingrich’s statement is too ridiculous for words but yet they’re words of wisdom to those less knowledgeable than Newt.  That’s simply the way it works.

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Conservative, anti-science, knuckle-dragging ignorance is alive and well in Texas.

Top environmental officials under Perry have gutted a recent report on sea level rise in Galveston Bay, removing all mentions of climate change. For the past decade, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which is run by Perry political appointees, including famed global warming denier Bryan Shaw, has contracted with the Houston Advanced Research Center to produce regular reports on the state of the Bay. But when HARC submitted its most recent State of the Bay publication to the commission earlier this year, officials decided they couldn’t accept a report that said climate change is caused by human activity and is causing the sea level to rise. Top officials at the commission proceeded to edit the paper to censor its references to human-induced climate change or future projections on how much the bay will rise.

[...]

TCEQ even deleted a reference to the fact that the bay is currently rising by 3 millimeters a year—five times faster than the long-term average. The edited version that TCEQ sent back also killed a line noting that the bay’s “future will be strongly regulated by the now rising sea,” as well as the factual assertion that the disappearance of the wetlands is “due mainly to direct human intervention.” The officials also cut out the statement that the water level rise “is one of the main impacts of global climate change.”

The degree of willful ignorance on the part of GW deniers is astounding.  Fossil fuel lobbyists line the pockets of politicians as they go about the dirty business of censoring scientific research on the causes and effects of climate change.  None of this is new to conservatives and Republicans.  From day one, the Bush administration blatantly censored government funded research which ran counter to the story they were promoting.  From 2007.

The Bush administration was yesterday accused of systemic tampering with the work of government climate scientists to eliminate politically inconvenient material about global warming.

At a hearing of Congress, scientists and advocacy groups described a campaign by the White House to remove references to global warming from scientific reports and limit public mention of the topic to avoid pressure on an administration opposed to mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions.

Such pressure extended even to the use of the words “global warming” or “climate change”, said a report released yesterday by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Government Accountability Project. The report said nearly half of climate scientists at government agencies had been advised against using those terms.

And here’s a 2006 piece on James Hansen, head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and one of the world’s top climatologists.

…this imminent scientist says that the Bush administration is restricting who he can talk to and editing what he can say. Politicians, he says, are rewriting the science.

I’ve come to the conclusion that there is little point in discussing climate change with your run-of-the-mill, Fox News parrot.  These people are clueless.  Enough of them would believe that the earth is flat and the center of our solar system if Bill O’Reilly believed it to be so.  If these fools are unwilling to accept the scientific consensus of 98% of the world’s climatologists over that of a lying monkey, it’s fair to assume that anything anyone else has to say on the matter will have little impact on their beliefs.  It’s an old line but true nonetheless – you can’t fix stupid.

The focus needs to be on ensuring that as many as possible of the politicians who push an anti-science, GW denying agenda, remain out of power.  If there’s no Rick Perry or George W. Bush to appoint officials with the authority to censor and make a mockery of science, then maybe, truth and common sense can win out.

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Rick Perry has pulled ahead of the pack and Mitt Romney did what Romney does best – retreat from his core beliefs.

Romney – June 2011:

“I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that.”

“It’s important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may be significant contributors.”

Perry – August 2011:

“I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. And I think we are seeing almost weekly, or even daily, scientists are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change. I don’t think, from my perspective, that I want America to be engaged in spending that much money on still a scientific theory that has not been proven, and from my perspective, is more and more being put into question.”

Romney – August 2011:

“Do I think the world’s getting hotter? Yeah, I don’t know that but I think that it is.”

“I don’t know if it’s mostly caused by humans.”

“What I’m not willing to do is spend trillions of dollars on something I don’t know the answer to.”

“I do not believe in cap and trade and I do not believe in putting a carbon cap” on polluting industries, Romney said.

Just like he did on abortion, gay rights, gun control, immigration, campaign finance and health care, Romney has turned away from previously stated positions and sold his soul in hope of becoming the next president.  The latest Gallop poll has Perry taking a commanding lead over Romney as Republican’s candidate of choice – 29% for Perry, 17% for Romney.  Combine that with endorsements from climate skeptics in the Senate – yes I refer to the pathetically stupid Jim Inhofe…

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said Wednesday that he plans to endorse Texas Gov. Rick Perry for president.

“I called Rick Perry a year ago and told him, ‘If you’re running for president, I’ll be the first to endorse you,’” Inhofe said at a State Chamber of Commerce breakfast at the Tulsa Press Club.

“I’m going to be that person on Monday.”

Inhofe said he “likes Mitt Romney, but he’s a little mushy on environmental issues.”

…and what you’re left with is Romney pulling a 180…again.  He sees his second chance at fulfilling his dream in danger of slipping away at the hands of a Texas fool and his gut reaction is to immediately pander to the ignorance of the base he so desperately needs to win.

One can almost feel for Romney and the dilemma he finds himself in.  He has come to learn what it is to be a candidate in today’s Republican Party – a truth expressed so well by a reader at TPM.

You can’t have an informed, reasonable position on anything, i.e. one that is based on established fact or a preponderance of scientific evidence (e.g. climate change, evolution) and be a viable Republican candidate. Mitt knows this; Huntsman will learn it soon enough.

Faust is alive and well and living in the heart and soul of Mitt Romney.

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In the last post, Gary Johnson spoke of Republicans, social issues and intolerance.  Let’s now take a look at Republicans and the views on climate change held by those vying for the President’s job.

Rick Perry:

“I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. And I think we are seeing almost weekly, or even daily, scientists are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change. I don’t think, from my perspective, that I want America to be engaged in spending that much money on still a scientific theory that has not been proven, and from my perspective, is more and more being put into question.”

Michele Bachmann:

“I think all these issues have to be settled on the base of real science, not manufactured science.”

Rick Santorum:

“It’s just an excuse for more government control of your life.  And I’ve never been for any scheme or even accepted the junk science behind the whole narrative.”

Jon Huntsman:

“The minute that the Republican Party becomes the party – the anti-science party, we have a huge problem.  We lose a whole lot of people who would otherwise allow us to win the election in 2012.  When we take a position that isn’t willing to embrace evolution, when we take a position that basically runs counter to what 98 of 100 climate scientists have said, what the National Academy of Science – Sciences has said about what is causing climate change and man’s contribution to it, I think we find ourselves on the wrong side of science, and, therefore, in a losing position.”

And we won’t even get into Republicans and evolution.

Make no mistake about it, the Republican Party is the anti-science party.  But if critical thinking is not your thing and you happen to be a Fox News guzzling lapdog who watches and believes the crap served on that network, then Perry, Bachmann and Santorum are the ones you should be sticking with.  And if Sister Sarah joins the race, throw her into the moron heap as well.  But if you’re a thinking conservative, then you might want to consider Huntsman.  A presidential debate between Mr. Huntsman and President Obama would be a fine thing to watch and would do much to elevate American politics beyond the cartoon spectacle it has now become.  Sadly, it’ll never happen.

Who is leading the Republican primary?  Rick Perry. Who doesn’t have a chance in hell of winning the primary?  Jon Huntsman.

Obviously, the GOP has no intention of relinquishing its well earned title as the Party of Ignorance.

UPDATE:

Michael Tomasky is also impressed with Huntsman…

Far be it from me to fail to do my small part to help seal Jon Huntsman’s doom, so count me as one more impressed liberal. His tweet from last week about believing in science and evolution and his remarks from his This Week appearance on Sunday, in which he disparaged his opponents on various reality-based grounds, were the words of a man who actually occupies this planet (and I mean the 4.5 billion-year-old one, not the one formed divinely 6,000 years ago when caveman and dinosaur fell simultaneously from the sky). Occupying this planet, of course, gives him no chance of winning the GOP primary, but it does give the rest of us a narrow thread of hope about the future.

[...]

The Huntsman strategy here is obvious: position himself as the moderate and reasonable guy on the off chance Republicans decide to be moderate and reasonable. We must assume he is aware that his odds on this are rather long, so what he’s really hoping for is to be the consensus candidate of 2016. Maybe the party just has to go through this purge, this Reign of Terror; so just let it do that, and once it does and nominates an extremist who can’t beat a weak incumbent during a time of 9 percent unemployment rates, and the heads are piled high enough in the tumbrels and enough people finally have returned to their senses, he will ride the Thermidorian wave to victory after Obama leaves town.

…but with a warning for liberals.

Remember: at the recent Fox News debate, when the candidates were asked to raise their hands if they would oppose a long-term budget deal that cut $10 for every single dollar it raised in revenue, Huntsman’s hand shot up just like Mitt Romney’s and Newt Gingrich’s did. There are some forms of standing out he is clearly not willing to do, and let’s keep focused on those, because liberals are too easily won over (as he surely knows) by Republicans who sound reasonable on cultural issues.

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Fox continues doing what they do best – empowering idiots with their endless stream of misinformation and ignorance. Via MediaMatters we learn from a Guardian report that:

A special meeting of the United Nations security council is due to consider whether to expand its mission to keep the peace in an era of climate change.

Small island states, which could disappear beneath rising seas, are pushing the security council to intervene to combat the threat to their existence.

There has been talk, meanwhile, of a new environmental peacekeeping force – green helmets – which could step into conflicts caused by shrinking resources.

So what do those lovely, insightful people over at Fox have to say about the climatic threat to small islands?

GREG GUTFELD: U.N. Security Council is considering climate change peacekeeping. And they’re having a meeting to discuss whether they should intervene in conflicts, due to rising sea levels. They actually believe that, like, small island states are going to disappear because of climate change. And there are even people that are saying, and this is at the U.N., that climate change is worse than terrorism. Is that amazing, Eric?

ERIC BOLLING: The U.N. and tree huggers are kind of like the Mickey Mouse Club for liberals so they feel better about themselves, meanwhile at our taxpayer dime. That’s the problem. Neither one work.

[...]

GUTFELD: How can you build an entire U.N. initiative on a science that everybody is debating anyway?

I don’t want to hate anyone, really, but I’m seriously at a point where I’ve come to despise these ignorant sonsofbitches with a passion. These anti-science, GW deniers do the work of the fossil fuel industries, feeding their hapless viewers a sack of shit and lies on a daily basis. I just had a little ‘discussion’ on the topic of climate change with an acquaintance of a friend who swears by anything he hears on Fox. Hearing this guy parrot the nonsense he’s heard on Fox and elsewhere with no attempt at understanding the science behind it all was a good reminder that the next time I wish to waste 15 minutes of my life, I’ll go have a chat with a brick wall.

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How hot has it been across the U.S.?

Well, as CBS reports…

• 17 states have issued heat warnings and advisories
•  Oklahoma City has seen 47 consecutive days of 90+ degree temperature with only a single day this month below 100
• Record temperatures in various cities and towns has seen the high temperature record tied or broken over 800 times
• Tallahassee, Florida: 105 degrees on June 15 – Record high
• Amarillo, Texas: 111 degrees on June 26 – Record high
• Borger, Texas: 112 degrees  on June 26 – Record high
• Childress, Texas: 117 degrees on June 26 – Record high
• Gage, Oklahoma: 113 degrees on June 26 – Record high
• 29% of the U.S. is in drought and 12% is in exceptional drought – both are record highs

Tragic circumstances as the weather plays havoc with the lives of millions. So, what does Mary Fallin, Oklahoma’s Republican Governor, suggest people do?

Pray. Actually, she’s called for a statewide day of prayer.

“I think if we have a lot of people praying, it moves the heart of God.”

Is there anything wrong with people praying and asking for divine intervention at a time of crisis?

Definitely not if praying to one’s god helps comfort the soul and gives greater strength to deal with a difficult situation. In that case, it’s a positive. But if praying to one’s god is an excuse to sit on your ass and do nothing, then the practice is both dangerous and foolish.

In 2009, Mary Fallin, as a member of the United States Congress, voted against a global warming bill. Here was her rationale for doing so.

“Our state is a large producer of both oil and natural gas, and the restrictions this legislation places on the production and exploration of these resources will devastate our energy producers. That will not only destroy oil and gas related jobs, it will also lead to a reduction in tax revenue, which in turn will affect our ability to maintain and repair roads, bridges, schools and other public works and services.”

As a gubernatorial candidate in 2010, she said.

Protecting our nation should be a number one priority. Does leadership really think that our surveillance satellites should be aimed at polar ice caps and not terror cells, and that spies should be investigating global warming? Congress must adequately fund our intelligence operations. If we don’t, we may need to be more concerned about global warming in the U.S. caused by a nuclear attack in our own back yard.

She is on record as saying that climate legislation is completely unnecessary. Somehow, Fallin believes it makes much more sense to call for the citizens of her state to bow their heads, get down on their knees and pray to god to make it all go away even though climate science predicts the exact sort of extreme weather patterns which Oklahoma is currently experiencing.

Rest assured that while the ignorance displayed by Mary Fallin is astounding, it is secure and happy in the minds of Republican leadership everywhere.

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Two great minds discuss climate change.

Great Mind 1:  What about global warming?

Great Mind 2:  There is no such thing as global warming.

Great Mind 1 grimaces in approval.

Great Mind 1 (GM-1) is a present day Elmer Gantry-type huckster who excels at conning dimwits out of their money. He’s never met an anti-liberal conspiracy theory he hasn’t loved.

Great Mind 2 is a moralistic loon who somehow believes he has a chance at becoming President of the United States even though he got trounced in his 2006 Senate re-election bid. The good citizens of Pennsylvania rejected him by a margin of 18 percentage point.

GM-2 refers to global warming as “junk science”. He also believes that Intelligent Design should be taught in schools, that antiquated sodomy laws should be enforced and that gays should adopt a heterosexual lifestyle in the bedroom (“[I have] no problem with homosexuality. I have a problem with homosexual acts”). Lovely.

Glenn Beck and Rick Santorum are idiots. No news there. The former will keep on making his millions no matter what nonsense he spews while the former has little chance of becoming the GOP presidential nominee – not that it makes much of a difference in regards to climate science; the majority of Republicans, including most running in the GOP primary, also believe that global warming is a hoax. No, what is truly troublesome is a recent poll which outlines American’s global warming beliefs.  A survey conducted by Yale and George Mason universities finds that while 64% of Americans believe that the planet is in a warming trend, only 47% attribute global warming to human activity.

Beck, Santorum and their buddies in the fossil fuel industries are winning in their battle of misinformation. Even though there exists a broad consensus among climate scientists over the reality of global warming (98% of ALL climate scientists) and even though every National Academy of science in the world endorses climate science, when Americans surveyed were asked whether “most scientists think global warming is happening”, only 39% agreed with the statement. Sick.

Big oil and the fossil fuel industries have bought out enough Rich Santorums to make the words of Al Gore more true than ever; it’s a clear case of “wealth over reason.” Check out Gore’s great piece in Rolling Stone (Climate of Denial) to see what part you can play in overcoming the evil deeds of deniers. We can’t let the fools destroy our planet without a fight.

Meanwhile, in the Land of Idiots…

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Hey, Fox sheeple, don’t let them mess with your heads any longer.  Listen up, I’m here to help you on this climate change thing.

During their recent coverage of winter storms, Fox News has repeatedly mocked former Vice President Al Gore and cited the cold and snowy weather to attempt to discredit global warming. Fox News and other right-wing media routinely use snow to cast doubt on global warming, and internal emails from Fox News’ Washington bureau show that in the past Fox employees have been instructed to question climate science.

Example…

On the January 27 broadcast of Fox & Friends, host Steve Doocy reported from outside of Fox News’ studios to show viewers how much snow fell in New York City during the previous evening’s storm. During the segment, he asked, “I wonder where Al Gore is this morning?” He then added: “That global warming is really taking its toll. Isn’t it?”

and…

During one segment about the recent snowstorm, Fox & Friends aired an on-screen graphic that read, “What Global Warming?”

and…

On his January 25 radio show, Glenn Beck suggested that cold weather and snow mean that global warming isn’t happening, saying during a discussion of a NASA website on climate change, “By the way, has anybody noticed the record temperatures and continual driving snow in Manhattan?” Beck has also used January snowstorms to mock Al Gore, saying on the January 14 edition of his radio show, “Al Gore, you suck for being so wrong.”

The information is out there explaining the clear distinction between weather and climate.  It really is.  Google ‘climate versus weather’ and you’ll discover that a snowstorm in January is no more telling than a heat wave in July.  Don’t let the connivers at Fox mislead you any longer.

I know that most of you who watch Fox regularly are a sorry lot who wouldn’t know the truth if it hit you on the side of your silly, little heads, but let’s try anyway…

• 2010 was the warmest climate year on record.
• 2000 – 2009 was the warmest decade on record.
• December 2010 recorded the lowest arctic sea ice cover on record.
• The 10 warmest years on record have all occurred within the last 12 years.
• Weather deals with the behavior of atmospheric conditions over a short period of time.
• Climate does the same but covers a relatively long period of time.

Got that?  Good, but there’s a lot more to learn.  Prove us wrong – ‘us’ being those who mock you so relentlessly.  Show us you actually care about the planet you live on.  Show us that on a matter as important as this one, you’re willing to do more than just blindly believe the words of a Glenn Beck or a Steve Doocy.

Just this once, climb out of that dark, dark place you’ve all found refuge in for so long a time. I for one choose to believe that you’re not all as woefully ignorant as you’ve shown yourselves to be.  You can’t be.  No one can be so consistently stupid.

So go now and research climate change and report back here in a week.  You can thank me then.

(Here’s a head start as you begin your exciting new quest for truth and knowledge: the world is not flat!)

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It appears that the two sides in the climate change ‘debate’  are getting ready to do epic battle.

In the red trunks and weighing in at a mere 98 pounds, the Deniers.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the incoming head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has pledged to hold hearings on the “Politicization of Science,” which will consist of a rehashing of the so-called ClimateGate “scandal.” He’s also called for greater oversight of the Environmental Protection Agency’s coming regulations of greenhouse gases. With Issa in charge, the oversight committee will devote a good deal of time to hauling government and university climate scientists before Congress.

A Republican politician is complaining about the “politicization of Science’?  Funny.  I wonder who he might think is doing the politicization.

In the blue trunks and weighing in at a whopping 255 pounds, climate scientists.

Faced with rising political attacks, hundreds of climate scientists are joining a broad campaign to push back against congressional conservatives who have threatened prominent researchers with investigations and vowed to kill regulations to rein in man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

The still-evolving efforts reveal a shift among climate scientists, many of whom have traditionally stayed out of politics and avoided the news media. Many now say they are willing to go toe-to-toe with their critics, some of whom gained new power after the Republicans won control of the House in Tuesday’s election.

On Monday, the American Geophysical Union, the country’s largest association of climate scientists, plans to announce that 700 climate scientists have agreed to speak out as experts on questions about global warming and the role of man-made air pollution.

About time.

“This group feels strongly that science and politics can’t be divorced and that we need to take bold measures to not only communicate science but also to aggressively engage the denialists and politicians who attack climate science and its scientists,” said Scott Mandia, professor of physical sciences at Suffolk County Community College in New York.

“We are taking the fight to them because we are … tired of taking the hits. The notion that truth will prevail is not working. The truth has been out there for the past two decades, and nothing has changed.”

Actually, I’m happy that Republicans have decided to make climate change an issue in the next Congress.  Let them subpoena climate scientists by the dozen and let’s hear these guys being vocal about what science has to say.  The question becomes how effective the truth will be against the forces (and money) the Deniers have going for them.  You can’t force people to hear what they don’t want to hear.

I honestly wanted to get through this short post without hurling a single insult at the people who trash science in the way that they do…but, I just can’t do it.  So, if you’re a climate change denier, then please understand that you are the most ignorant, naive and gullible type of person I could ever imagine.  Anyone who believes that 97 percent of the world’s scientists could all be so wrong but that Bill O’Reilly and  Exxon’s CEO have it right are, in my view anyway, as pathetically stupid as stupid gets.  You’re idiots.

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I tend to classify climate change deniers into two distinct groups.  a) Self-Serving Bastards and b) Dummies.

Self-serving bastards include executives of the fossil fuel industries as well as the politicians who serve their needs.  Both of these profit financially by promoting the idea that climate change is a hoax.  They do so by funneling millions into propaganda campaigns with the sole purpose of playing down the real threat of global warming.

With no real science of their own to back up their claims, they have been successful in muddying up the waters and creating the false impression that there is a raging debate within the scientific community as to whether man plays a critical role in advancing global warming.  There is no such debate.   Climatologists have the data.  Self-serving Bastards have the lies.

The target audience for Self-serving Bastards is the second group, the Dummies.  Dummies are typically your Fox News groupies who think it reasonable to believe a Beck or Limbaugh (also members of the Self-serving Bastards group) over those of the world’s top scientists.

At a recent debate in Indiana, Democratic Rep. Baron Hill noted that:

“Climate change is real, and man is causing it.  That is indisputable. And we have to do something about it.”

Here is how one Dummy (and a Tea Party founder) reacted to the statement.

“It’s a flat-out lie,” Mr. Dennison said in an interview after the debate, adding that he had based his view on the preaching of Rush Limbaugh and the teaching of Scripture. “I read my Bible,” Mr. Dennison said. “He made this earth for us to utilize.”

Lovely.  The earth is dying and jackasses like Dennison are hanging on tight to the preaching of Rush Limbaugh and the Bible on matters of science.  And you thought you needed another reason to keep teabaggers out of political office.

Skepticism and outright denial of global warming are among the articles of faith of the Tea Party movement…

Those who support the Tea Party movement are considerably more dubious about the existence and effects of global warming than the American public at large, according to a New York Times/CBS News Poll conducted this month. The survey found that only 14 percent of Tea Party supporters said that global warming is an environmental problem that is having an effect now, while 49 percent of the rest of the public believes that it is. More than half of Tea Party supporters said that global warming would have no serious effect at any time in the future, while only 15 percent of other Americans share that view, the poll found.

And 8 percent of Tea Party adherents volunteered that they did not believe global warming exists at all, while only 1 percent of other respondents agreed.

And this:

The oil, coal and utility industries have collectively spent $500 million just since the beginning of 2009 to lobby against legislation to address climate change and to defeat candidates, like Mr. Hill, who support it, according to a new analysis from the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a left-leaning advocacy group in Washington.

Their message appears to have fallen on receptive ears. Of the 20 Republican Senate candidates in contested races, 19 question the science of global warming and oppose any comprehensive legislation to deal with it, according to a National Journal survey.

There are a hundred good reasons why voting Republican this November is a serious mistake but if you needed only one, the battle to save your planet might be it.

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