Sunday, February 28, 2016

Mad Max Fury Road

Mad Max Fury Road is a movie that is up for a lot of Oscars. Here is a recap of what all happened during that movie.

Here is the setup of the movie. There was a nuclear holocaust and because of it the world is now a desert wasteland with no civilization. The name character is played by Tom Hardy, and his name is Max Rockatansky. He is captured by the War Boys, which is the army of the Immortan Joe. Max is then taken to Joe’s camp area town area thing, and Max is determined to be a universal blood donor. Therefore, he is imprisoned and used as a blood bag for a sick war boy named Nux. At the same time Charlize Therone, who in the movie is named Furiosa, is driving a war rig to collect gasoline. She takes Joe’s five wives and drives off route to escape, so Joe sends many of his men, the War Boys, and even more, after her.

Nux joined the chase and took Max along as his blood bag, in which Furiosa and Nux both drive into a sand storm, in which the later’s car is destroyed. Max then restrains Nux. Max then leaves with the War Rig with Furiosa and the wives, while the War Boys pick up Nux.

Furiosa then drives through a biker gang-controlled canyon to barter a deal for safe passage; however, with Joe's forces pursuing, the gang turns on her, forcing her and the group to flee while the bikers detonate the canyon walls to block Joe. Max and Furiosa fought bikers as Joe's car, with Nux now on board, passed the blockade and eventually attacked the War Rig, allowing Nux to board. However, as the Rig escapes, Angharad falls off in an attempt to protect Max and is run over by Joe's car, killing her and her child.

Furiosa explains to Max that they are escaping to the "Green Place," an idyllic land she remembers from her childhood. Capable finds Nux hiding in the Rig, distraught over his failure, and consoles him. That night, the Rig gets stuck in mud. Furiosa and Max slow Joe's forces with mines, but Joe's ally, the Bullet Farmer, continues pursuing them. Nux helps Max free the Rig while Furiosa shoots and blinds the Bullet Farmer. Max walks into the dark to confront the Bullet Farmer and his men, returning with guns and ammunition.

They drive the War Rig overnight through swampland and desert, coming across a naked woman the next day. Max suspects a trap, but Furiosa approaches the woman and states her history and clan affiliation. The naked woman summons her clan, the Vuvalini, who recognise Furiosa as one of their own who was kidnapped as a child. Furiosa is devastated to learn that the swampland they passed was indeed the Green Place, now uninhabitable. The group then plans to ride motorbikes across immense salt flatsin the hope of finding a new home. Max chooses to stay behind, but after seeing visions of a child he failed to save, he convinces them to return to the undefended Citadel, which has ample water and greenery that Joe keeps for himself, and trap Joe and his army in the bikers' canyon.

The group heads back to the Citadel, but they are attacked en route by Joe's forces, and Furiosa is seriously wounded. Joe positions his car in front of the War Rig to slow it, while Max fights Joe's giant son, Rictus Erectus. Joe captures Toast who manages to distract him long enough for Furiosa to kill him by hooking Joe's mask to the wheels and thus tearing his face. Nux sacrifices himself by wrecking the Rig, killing Rictus and blocking the canyon, allowing Max, Furiosa, the wives, and the Vuvalini to escape successfully in Joe's car, where Max transfuses his blood to Furiosa to help her survive her injuries.

At the Citadel, the impoverished citizens are overjoyed at the sight of Joe's corpse. Furiosa, the wives, and the Vuvalini are cheered by the people and welcomed by the remaining War Boys, but Max walks away, sharing a glance with Furiosa before disappearing into the crowd.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max:_Fury_Road

World War 2

World war 2 is something that many people like to learn about as doing so entertains them. Here is a very brief description of the war.

It start in nineteen thirty nine. However America did not join the war until nineteen forty one. That is because of Pearl Harbor. In nineteen forty one Japan attacked American base Pearl Harbor which was located at Hawaii. The war started in nineteen thirty nine because hitler came to power in nazi Germany and he blamed the Jews for the devastation of Germany due to World War One so they started trying to conquer everything and everyone. The war was then fought until nineteen forty five. In that time Japanese Americans were held in relocation camps in America as many were thought to be spies to help their home land of Japan. However America and its allies won the war in nineteen forty five and hitler killed himself so it was all over by then and we had won so yay.

Like I said that was a very very very very very brief description of the war but enjoy and there is a lot more to it than just what I wrote just now.
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Historical Movies

History is an important thing, and is pretty interesting at times (in my opinion at least). However, reading from a book about history can get really boring, and I mean it can get so boring that you might even fall asleep. That is especially the case with really dry, boring, and hard to understand history books and textbooks. This poses an important question: How to learn more about history without getting so bored? Learning about history can be very enjoyable and very entertaining-if done in an entertaining way that is. That means not just reading out of a textbook, or at least that is what it means for me. One way to learn about history is through movies. Whether it be a documentary, a short film, a television movie, or a feature film, many movies can teach a lot and be packed full with historical knowledge.

A large handful of movies it seems now a days are based on either a true story, are based on real people and real events, or are related to something that actually happened. This sometimes leads to a common misconception: that a movie is always one hundred percent correct over the topic it covers. This is sometimes the case, and if you are looking for a movie like that then your best bet is to look at a documentary. However, documentaries are sometimes dull and slow moving and not as entertaining as other movies and films. Some people are entertained by documentaries, but that is not me. I don't want to just learn; I want to learn, relax, and enjoy. That leads me to my favorite of the choices: a feature film. Whether the feature film is based on a true story, based on real people or real events, or just related to something that actually happened, I prefer those over documentaries and television movies or a short film. That is because they are made to entertain.

Feature films that deal with historical events are very entertaining. They usually have an interesting plot, characters that you usually learn to love or hate, and you learn something about history as well. If you're ever bored and want to be productive and entertain yourself at the same time, then I recommend a feature film dealing with a historic event in some way shape or form. Some examples of such feature films are: Pearl Harbor, The Patriot, The Passion of the Christ, Braveheart, Revolution, Annabelle, A Haunting in Connecticut, American Sniper, Schindler's List, Captain Phillips, Zero Dark Thirty, Argo, Black Mass, Pompeii, Apollo 13, Remember the Titans, We Are Marshall, Hotel Rwanda, and Gladiator. All of these feature films have something to do with a historical event; either are based on a true story, based on real people, real events, or are related to something that actually happened. However, some of these movies are more historically accurate than others. Also, this list is just a list of some movies that I have heard of or seen myself that are entertaining movies to watch and have to do with a history in some way shape or form. I highly recommend watching one or more of these movies, as they will entertain you and you will learn something from them as well.

However, some movies are very historically inaccurate. Here are some of the movies that are so inaccurate with their depiction of history. One of the said movies is 300, about Sparta. Another movie that is historically inaccurate is Gladiator, Jobs, JFK, and Shakespeare in Love.
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Sunday, February 21, 2016

2.20.2016

On February twentieth of twenty sixteen, Group All-State for IHSSA, or the Iowa High School Speech Association, IHSSA, is occurring. It will happen at the Iowa State Center, with opening ceremonies scheduled to begin at approximately around eight to nine in the morning, or eight or nine am. From Kennedy High School, there are five groups going to perform for all state; there are twelve overall. That means that Kennedy has seven non performing groups and five performing groups. Here are the five performing groups at All-State from Kennedy High School. There is the Choral Reading, entitled Invisible, and written by Melissa Osborn. Then, there is the Reader’s Theatre, which is entitled The Alzheimer’s Project, also written by Melissa Osborn. Then, Kennedy also had three Group Improvisation groups make it to perform at all state.

Now, that is not the only thing going on that day. Also on February twentieth of twenty sixteen is a show choir competition. It is at Davenport, Iowa. It is the Great Dance competition at Davenport, Iowa. Kennedy High School will also be performing and competing there on the same day as Iowa High School Speech Association. Only Happiness Inc., the varsity show choir from kennedy High School, and Protégé, the junior varsity show choir from Kennedy High School, will be at the Great Dance competition in Davenport. Chanteurs will not be performing there, even though they are the freshman prep group from Kennedy High School. That is because their season was shorter than that of the other two show choirs from Kennedy High School.

With both of these two events going on, many people will have to travel between the two. Because of the fact that Protégé will be performing early in the morning, it is unable for anyone to make both the opening ceremonies as well as proteges performance. However, many people will be performing at Iowa State Center and then traveling to Davenport to perform for Happiness Inc.

With awards at IHSSA All State competition, Kennedy earned the banner for group improvisation. The team with leader Rizwan Sidhu won it for Kennedy High School, and now Kennedy High School has it in its possession until next year at All-State.

At finals, Happiness sadly did not make it to finals. This is the first time that they have not made it to finals in about twelve years I believe. It was a low moment for Happiness Inc., but it is something that they will be able to recover from in time for Nationals in Nashville.

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Set up for Failure

One way that teachers may seem to set the students up for failure is by the way they give second chances. Now, believe me, I think second chances for grades are an amazing opportunity for some people to be able to regain some points that they had previously missed. However, if the teacher only allows people with a grade below x percent to retake, then it would be reasonable to think that the other grades above x percent must be decently good. However, if after the retake, the people who did the retake are able to get a grade that is above x percent, and therefore subsequently better than the grade of those who were not allowed to retake or redo the assignment or activity for the missed points, well that is just unfair. It is awarding students for being jag offs by not being prepared for when the assignment or activity was due, and then awarding them more than others who were more prepared than those who had the option to do the retake.

One last way that some teachers may seem that way is if they are so strict in their grading of pop quizzes. If, for example, students are supposed to take notes from a textbook, a lot of students place the notes into their own words because there have been studies that prove that that helps to learn those concepts and terms more than just copying what the book says. However, then it should be acceptable to be able to write, in your own words, the correct answer to a question on a pop quiz. That therefore means that if you were to write down the correct answer on a pop quiz in your own words, you should get the question correct. However, some teachers would disagree and state that because the answer did not match the book definition or description word by word, then the answer is incorrect. That is complete crap because if you were to write something down that is the same thing as the correct answer, then you should get the answer correct. However, some teachers will say no, even when the quiz is a pop quiz and you still have the correct answer, just worded very slightly differently from w2hat the teacher expected, when the teacher expected everyone to somehow memorize the entire textbook reading word for word without letting the class or classes know.

Overall, there are some teachers that seem to set you up for failure. That is a horrible thing for some teachers to do, and it is just something that students have to overcome in the end.

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Unjust to Students

One thing that is not entertaining is when people seem to just try to be annoying, or mean, or they just try to be stubborn. I will be discussing something that is not entertaining today. I can do that because the topic of my blog is Entertainment, so something that is not entertaining, but rather the opposite of entertaining, is open to me to be able to write about and discuss. So here goes.

Some teachers are notorious for doing this. It seems as if they are just trying to get on the students bad side, just trying to go out of their way in order to make the student do bad or fail either the class or the assignment. Sometimes, teachers do not mean to do this and it just seems that they are doing so, from the student’s point of view that is. However, some teachers, it seems, just try to do it on purpose. I know not why or how or the reasoning of the teachers that employ that thinking, and I do not understand why they do so, I only know that some teachers do. Here are some examples as to how some teachers employ some decisions, with the result of students feeling the way that I described.

One way that teachers make students to feel as though they are trying to be mean and fail the students is if the teachers change their grading ways randomly. For example, if the class is a two semester class, then the teacher may change the way that he or she grades various things, such as assignments. If, during the first semester, the teacher goes about that type of specific assignment or activity in such a manner that a certain effort would get an A grade, then it would be reasonable for the students to expect to have that certain effort to be what they strive to earn in order to get an A. However, if the teacher then decides to change the way that they grade the assignment or activity so that that certain effort gets you a C or D instead, that seems unfair to the student as it seems as if the teacher is just setting them up for failure.

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Sunday, February 14, 2016

Urbandale Show Choir Competition

Yesterday was Saturday, February the thirteenth of the year twenty sixteen and it was also the day of the twenty sixteen Urbandale High School Show Choir Competition which was located in the state of Iowa. It began early in the morning, and is about a two hour drive or so from Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids, depending on the driving conditions. Kennedy High School went and performed and competed there yesterday, so it was an entertaining day to say the least for the Kennedy High Schoolers and family. Chanteurs, the freshmen show choir group from Kennedy High School, performed right around 10:30 in the morning in the freshmen category. They got second in that division I believe. Then Protégé performed at around noon, and Protégé is the junior varsity prep show choir from Kennedy High School. They got third in their division of prep groups. Then, Happiness Inc., which is the Varsity show choir from Kennedy High School, performed right around four o’clock. They competed in the varsity division, and for day rounds they placed second. That qualified them for finals, in which they performed around 8:35 or so. The finals awards were then held around ten o’clock in the auditorium that night, and Kennedy High School’s Happiness Inc. placed third in the finals rounds I believe. All in all it was an entertaining day.

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Deadpool

Entertainment. Some things are entertaining. Others are not. That is the way that the world works as it spins around and around and around both its axis and the sun. There, that was a good waste of a long time. Just under oh wait now it will be right at about fifty words or more. Okay, back to the topic. Entertainment. One movie that just came out that is very entertaining is the movie Deadpool. I will now start writing about Deadpool that movie that was released on February eleventh, twenty sixteen.
Deadpool stars Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson who is also Deadpool. Basically the movie is an adult version of a Marvel comics superhero movie because that is exactly what it is. So it is very inappropriate, with a hard r rating for sure. In the movie Wade Wilson is an ex special force op who becomes a mercenary and then finds out that he has cancer. Oh no he will be able to make it through right? Wrong. The cancer is in many vital places such as hi liver, lungs, brain and prostate. Very live able and treatable, right? Wrong. He dies. From cancer. Movie over. Only lasted about three minutes. Just kidding. So this guy who is dubbed the name Agent Smith because he looks like Agent Smith from the Matrix movies convinces Wade Wilson to undergo treatment to become a mutant and receive incredible gifts. Well the guy running the place wants to be called Ajax but Wade finds out his name is Francis so Francis is pissed at Wade and tortures him. Wade then blows up the building and fights Francis only to die. Oh no the movie is over now time to go home. Nope. Wade lives. Because he is a mutant. An indestructible one who also looks like two avocados had sex and out he came because he is haunting to look at. Well then he wants to go see his girl, Vanessa, who is a hooker and a stripper, but people laugh at him so he is insecure and doesn’t because he looks horrible. So he tries to find Francis to reverse the effects. He convinces two X-Men to join him (because the studio did not have enough money for a third) and go find Francis. But oh no Francis has Vanessa what will Deadpool do well Deadpool will make a smart comment because that is what he does and he will fight Francis and destroy the building thing that they are at (after spelling out Francis’ name with dead bodies). Then Deadpool will save Vanessa and have Francis laying in a heap and Deadpool has a gun pointed at his head. An X-Men tells Deadpool a hero is only made out of four or five moments, in which you save or spare someone’s life and do something right. Well, Deadpool shoots Francis anyway because he was a jerk and a mean person and he deserved to die. The End. Overall it was a very good and entertaining movie.

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Thursday, February 11, 2016

Track And Field Anticipation

Monday, February fifteenth of twenty sixteen is fast approaching. It is almost here, and for people in Cedar Rapids Community School District in Iowa that means one thing for some high schoolers, both male and female. It means that track is about to start up again. Track officially begins on Monday, February fifteenth of twenty sixteen for this year’s track season. At Kennedy High School, that is getting many people excited. They are ready for track to begin and they cannot wait. In Track and Field, for those of you who do not know and are unaware, there are two sections: the track and the field. The field contains field events that you compete in. There are the jumps, which are the long jump and the high jump. In the long jump the goal is to jump the farthest, while in the high jump the goal is to jump the highest. There are also the throwers. They compete in events such as the discus and the shot put. The discus is a disc that you throw as far as possible. The shot put is a shot that you also throw as far as possible. While these two events sound similar, they are incredibly different.

That was the field part of Track and Field. Now, onto the track section of Track and Field. In the track part, it is all races in which you run to compete. There are various distances, and there are also hurdles. For hurdles, there are three events. There is the Shuttle Relay, which is a relay in which four people run and each runs a one hundred meter hurdle event. Then there are the 110 Highs which are also hurdle events. This is an individual event, in which the individual competes by running one hundred and ten meters with the hurdles high up. Lastly for hurdles, there is the 400 hurdles, which is also an individual competition of a four hundred meters of hurdles.

There are three sections for races. There are the short sprints, long sprints, and long distance. I run long distance. Short sprints are the 100 and the 200 for individual events. For relays, there is the 4x200 Relay. The long sprints have the 400 and the 800 for individual events. For relays there is the 4x400 Relay and the 4x800 Relay. There are also the two Medley Relays. One is a one hundred, one hundred, two hundred and then a four hundred. The other is a two hundred, two hundred, four hundred and then the eight hundred. Lastly, there are also the long distance events. The long distance events include the 1600 m, which is just nine meters short of being a one mile race, and the 3200 m, which is just eighteen meters short of being a two mile race. The sixteen and thirty two races are located in the middle of the meet and at the very beginning, respectively. They are not in any relays, and multiple people compete in each heat, as more can compete at once in long distance events than those that compete in the shorter events.

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Thursday, February 4, 2016

The Revenant Ending

I left off in the Revenant where Glass had just escaped the Indians by floating down a river. He finally got off the river and hobbled onto the land.

There he met a friendly Indian, who told him “Revenge is in the Creator’s hands.” The Indian gave him food and traveled with him, but French in the area found the Indian and hung him. Glass then snuck into the French’s camp, planning to steal a horse. However, the French had a young Indian woman hostage as a sex slave, and she was being used by the horses. Glass snuck up behind them, gave the Indian woman a knife, and told her to keep the Frenchman silent. Glass then stole a horse and rode away, and the Indian cut off the Frenchman’s testicles and escaped. Glass escaped successfully with the horse. However, the next day the French and Indians found Glass and he barely escaped with the horse, but by doing so both Glass and the horse fell off a cliff. As a blizzard was coming, Glass had only one choice to survive: he gutted the dead horse, and climbed inside the horse’s dead carcass to survive the cold night. However, at this time someone showed up at the Fort that Fitzgerald and Bridger were at with Glass’ canteen that Bridger had left him. Realizing that Glass was alive, a party was sent out and took Glass back to the fort. However, Fitzgerald stole the fort’s money and some weapons and a horse and escaped. Glass tracked down Fitzgerald and fought him in a graphic and brutal encounter. However, the Indian’s saying “revenge is in the hands of the Creator” drifted into Glass’ head, and he threw the severely wounded Fitzgerald into the river, where the Indians grabbed him and brutally murdered him. The Indians then walked right by Glass, with the woman whom he had saved from the French, supposedly Powaqa. Glass was once again severely wounded, but he saw the ghost of his deceased wife, finally feeling the peace to die happily before the screen cuts black.

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The Revenant Part 2

“The Revenant” is an edge of your seat movie. I will continue my blog about it now.

After Fitzgerald had tricked Bridger to leave Glass alone and travel with himself, Hugh Glass regained consciousness. There were no Indians present, unlike what Bridger was told by Fitzgerald. Glass painstakingly crawled out of the grave that Fitzgerald had thrown him in, and he crawled to his son’s body even with all his broken bones, open lacerations, and exposed ribs. He found his sons’ body, frozen, lifeless lying next to a tree with blood on his stomach from his stab wound that had been from Fitzgerald. Glass let his son know that he was there, and he laid down next to his son.

However, Indians were making progress on Glass and the others, still believing that they had captures the chief’s daughter, Powaqa. Glass woke up, and he crawled away and started wondering the vast forest. All Glass had with him was the bear pelt from the grizzly he had killed, his clothes, and a canteen that Bridger had left him with a defining mark on it. However, after a few days of wondering the forest, the Indians had caught up with Glass. By the time that they had caught up with Glass, he had been able to start walking with the help of a stick, and he was able to cauterize his neck. He did so by placing some gunpowder in a few of the holes still open in his neck, and he started a fire. His neck wound was a problem because he couldn’t consume anything due to the hole and damage. He started a fire, and placed a stick in it. When the end of the stick caught fire, and placed it against his neck, which ignited the gunpowder, cauterizing his neck. When the Indians caught him, he escaped by floating down the river, and he ended up floating off a waterfall. He survived, and climbed onto a log and floated until he could get off the river and onto land.

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Tuesday, February 2, 2016

The Revenant Part 1

The revenant, according to dictionary.com, means a person who returns, or a person who returns after death. “The Revenant” is currently in theatres now. It stars Leonardo Dicaprio and Tom Hardy, and it tells the story of Hugh Glass, his mutilation from a bear, and his fight for survival.

Hugh Glass was a real frontiersman. Around 1828 he was with a team, when he stumbled upon a grizzly bear and its two cubs. The grizzly bear brutally attacked and mauled Glass, but Glass was able to kill the bear. However, Glass suffered from severe wounds all over his body, exposed ribs, and many broken bones. The leader of the team that he was with tried to help him, but it was no use; Glass was about to die, as his condition was horrible. The leader left two other men, Fitzgerald and Bridger, to stay with Glass. They were instructed to help him, but to give him a proper burial when he died. Fitzgerald and Glass took Glass’ weapons and left him for dead, claiming that there were Indians nearby about to attack. Glass, however, regained consciousness and fought his way back home. There were no Indians nearby, but he had to fix his broken leg and he had to survive the conditions in the horrible condition that he was in. He ended up crafting a raft, and then floating down a river for about six weeks to tackle the two hundred miles between him and the nearest American base. A Native American helped him along the way, sewing his bear pelt to his back to protect his open flesh in his back, as well as providing Glass with some weapons and supplies. When Glass made it to the base, he found and forgave Bridger due to his youth and that he was lied to and manipulated by Fitzgerald into leaving him. However, Glass searched for Fitzgerald because he had left him for dead. He later found Fitzgerald, but Fitzgerald was enlisted in the U.S. Army, and there was a steep penalty for killing a soldier, so Glass let Fitzgerald go.

The movie “The Revenant” depicts those events, but in a different light. The movie is a very well made movie; however, it is not for the faint of heart. Just a warning, there will be spoilers in this blog post about the movie “The Revenant”, and the movie is also a very intense, brutal, graphic and gory movie, but in my opinion it is a great movie to watch.

The movie starts with the thirty or forty or so team of American frontiersman, which included Glass (depicted by Leonardo Dicaprio), Glass’ son, the leader, Bridger, and Fitzgerald (depicted by Tom Hardy). Indians attack them, as they are looking for the chief’s stolen daughter, Powaqa. Only about ten of the American team survive and they escape by climbing onto their boat to escape via the river. They abandon the boat as that is where the Indians would look for them and they would be as good as dead. They camp out for a while, and it becomes apparent that Fitzgerald is a jerk and really dislikes Glass. One morning, Glass goes for a walk with his gun, hunting for anything to provide food it seems. He hears something, only to discover two cubs. He turns around just as the mother bear, a giant grizzly bear, charges him and starts to maul him. After the grizzly starts to walk away, Glass gets a shot off at it; then Glass and the bear have a long fight, in which Glass’ back is all torn up, his leg gets broken, his neck gets cut, and he gets beat to hell over and over. However, he gets his knife out and manages to kill the grizzly just as the two roll down a hill, in which the grizzly lands on top of Glass. Later, the team arrive and see Glass’ condition. They help him and stich up his neck, as well as try patching him up. However, they cannot carry him back to the base due to the terrain, so his son, Bridger, and Fitzgerald stay with him to find an alternate route and to bury him should he die. However, Fitzgerald, when alone with Glass, attempts to kill Glass to make it easier on himself; Glass’ son sees this, so Fitzgerald kills Glass’ son in front of Glass. Later, he tells Bridger there are Indians nearby and forces Bridger to leave Glass.

The movie, “The Revenant”, continues from there, but this will be continued in another blog post.

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