Money matters: A brief(ish) history of stocks (Part 4)
Graham Macdonald
MBMG International Ltd.
Undoubtedly the US is the place for stock action today.
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is the largest stock exchange in the
world by capitalization, although in those hazy crazy days of dot coms its
trading volume was exceeded by that of NASDAQ during the 1990s, even
though the total market capitalization of the NYSE (total number of shares
multiplied by their price) is five times that of NASDAQ.
The NYSE is located at 18 Broad Street, at the corner
of Wall Street (with a bull and a bear famously at either end). The 2,800
companies listed on the NYSE are valued at nearly $20,000,000,000,000
(that’s trillion in American or million in English) global market
capitalization. As of July 2004, of the thirty companies in the Dow Jones
Industrial Average only Intel and Microsoft were NOT listed on the NYSE.
The origin of the NYSE can be traced to May 17, 1792.
The NYSE is not, however, the oldest stock market in the USA - that
distinction belongs to the Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX) in
Pennsylvania (which dates back to 1790 but subsequently merged with the
exchanges at Baltimore and Washington in 1949 and 1954 respectively as the
regional exchanges consolidated) when the Buttonwood Agreement was signed
by twenty-four stock brokers outside of 68 Wall Street in New York under a
buttonwood tree. On March 8, 1817 the organization rented a room for $200
a month at 40 Wall Street and drafted a constitution in which it renamed
itself the “New York Stock & Exchange Board”.
The third oldest US exchange, the Boston Stock Exchange
in Massachusetts was founded in 1834. The NYSE took on its acronym in
1863. The exchange installed its first ticker in 1867 and telephones were
first seen in the exchange in 1878. The NYSE first installed electric
lights in 1882. Also in 1882 the San Francisco Stock and Bond was formed
(as was seven years later, the LA Oil Exchange. The 2 merged in 1957).
On September 16, 1920, a bomb exploded outside the NYSE
building on Wall Street in a terrorist attack, killing 33 people and
injuring more than 400 (sadly even terrorist attacks aren’t new). The
perpetrators were never found. The NYSE building and some buildings
nearby, such as the JP Morgan building still have marks in the facade
caused by the bombing.
Arguably even more damaging to the Exchange was the
great crash that began with Black Thursday (October 24, 1929) and the
subsequent sell-off panic of Black Tuesday, October 29, which precipitated
the Great Depression. In an effort to try to restore investor confidence,
the Exchange unveiled a fifteen-point program aimed to upgrade protection
for the investing public on October 31, 1938.
The frequently seen electronic display boards mounted
on the walls of the exchange were first installed in 1966, along with
radio pagers. A highly technical wireless data system increasing the speed
in which trades were executed was introduced in 1996. [NYSE trades, unlike
those on electronic exchanges (e.g. NASDAQ), always involve face-to-face
communication in a particular physical location. The human interaction and
expert judgement as to order execution differentiates the NYSE from fully
electronic markets and does give the place its unique flavour, which you
can sense even from the visitor’s gallery, bringing to mind the furious
actions in movies like “Wall Street”.]
Although 1974 also saw a major crash it was the then
record 554.26 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) on
October 27, 1987 that led officials at the Exchange for the first time to
invoke the “circuit breaker” rule to stop trading. This was very
controversial and prompted a quick change in the rule so that trading now
halts for an hour, two hours, or the rest of the day when the DJIA drops
10, 20, or 30 percent, respectively.
In the afternoon, the 10 and 20% drops will halt
trading for a shorter period of time, but a 30% drop will always close the
exchange for the day. The rationale behind the trading halt was to give
investors a chance to cool off and re-evaluate their positions in an
attempt to forestall the kind of panic seen in 1929.
For any readers from Illinois we’d better point out
that Chicago is the United States’ second major financial city. Although
the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange
(CME) were both founded as grain markets, the CBOT now handles heavy
trading in financial futures and options, including those based on United
States government and agency bonds.
Other markets exist without physical exchanges - the
NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation
System - why isn’t it the NASDAQS?) is not an exchange in this sense. It
is an ongoing computer record of stock quotes (current buy and sell
prices) for a large number of companies. Brokers can use these quotes to
guide them in filling their clients’ orders. It also has a quotation
system for the stocks of smaller companies, which is called the OTC (Over
the Counter) Bulletin Board. A company does not have to meet very high
standards to be listed there, although the NASDAQ has since January 1999
required that listed companies at least file current financial information
with the SEC or other regulatory agencies. (The National Quotation Bureau
publishes weekly “pink sheets” of trade information about stocks of
3,600 or so companies that do not even meet the listing requirements of
the OTC Bulletin Board.)
Although companies such as Microsoft grew from OTC
listings, many of the companies listed in these secondary sources are in
poor shape and OTC BB (bottom board) tends to be prone to
price-manipulating frauds, such as boiler rooms. Some, however, are sound
businesses with stocks that do not trade at high enough prices or in large
enough volumes to require listing on major exchanges.
In the tech-stock recession of spring 2001, some
computer and internet companies were de-listed by the NASDAQ and added to
the OTC Bulletin Board because the price of their stocks fell to pennies
on the dollar. Some of these have been subsequently re-listed. AMEX, the
American Stock Exchange, is also now a subsidiary of the Association and
arguably represents a broader spectrum of American business than the NYSE
because it handles the offerings of companies that do not qualify for
listing on “the big board.”
NYSE Vital statistics
Listed companies: 2,780
Market cap: $19.7 trillion
Members: 1,366
DJIA Highest Close: 11,722.98 January 14, 2000
DJIA Largest Daily Gain: 499.19 March 16, 2000
DJIA Largest Daily Loss: 617.78 April 14, 2000
Highest Volume Day: 3,115,805,723 shares June 24, 2005
Lowest Volume Day: 31 shares March 16, 1830 Thanks to www.wikipedia.com
for some
of the above facts.
That’s enough history but, as the philosopher Santayana said, “Those
who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
The above data and research was compiled from sources believed to be
reliable. However, neither MBMG International Ltd nor its officers can accept
any liability for any errors or omissions in the above article nor bear any
responsibility for any losses achieved as a result of any actions taken or not
taken as a consequence of reading the above article. For more information please
contact Graham Macdonald on [email protected]
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Snap Shots: The secret of super-sharp landscape photographs
by Harry Flashman
Landscape photography is far more than just snapping a
tree in a field, with mountains in the background, and then moving on to
the next beer garden! All photographers have to avoid complacency, taking
a shot, “because it is there”, without any real input yourself. Like
all good shots, great landscapes are “made”, they just don’t happen.
And I am not talking about being “made” by some creator many zillions
of years ago. You have to create the shot!
Landscape
by Ansel Adams
Unfortunately, taking a good landscape requires just as
much thought, creative ability and visual “eye” as taking any other
type of great photograph. However, owing to the sheer size of it, taking
landscapes can be even more difficult, coupled with the fact that you
cannot tell a tree to move to its left by a couple of meters!
The first aspect to master is composition. The golden
rule with landscapes is to include some foreground interest as well as all
the other items in the shot. Sharp foreground items like fence posts,
bushes or even old farm equipment gives depth and scale to the photograph.
The other good reason is that the foreground item will draw the eye into
the picture.
It is always best to avoid putting the horizon line
slap bang in the centre of the photograph, so move the camera to only have
about 33 percent of the picture sky, and even experiment by making the sky
66 percent of the picture you see in the viewfinder. This is otherwise
known as “The Rule of Thirds” and although not absolute, when applied
to your photographs it will definitely improve them.
Another very interesting variant in landscape shots is
to turn your camera 90 degrees and take the landscape in the
“portrait” (vertical) mode. Of course, the Rule of Thirds still
stands!
Landscapes should also be very sharp, right the way
through from the foreground to the very back of the scene. The way to
ensure this is to run as small an aperture as you can. Try using f16 to
f22 or even f32 if your camera can get down that far.
Now this will give you slow shutter speeds, especially
in lower light situations, so this is one time where you really need your
tripod. The slow shutter speed will also give you that flowing look to
moving water, such as streams or rivers.
Time of day is particularly important for landscapes.
Early morning for that cold blue light and late afternoon for the warm
glow. Get those into a landscape and you are starting to put together a
good photograph.
Another little trick is not to pack up and go home as
soon as the sun disappears. There is often enough light to catch some
stunningly coloured different kinds of shots after sundown. You can really
put in some creative flair at this time by lighting the foreground, while
exposing for the background. You can do this by shining your car’s
headlights on the aforementioned fence posts, bushes or old farm
equipment. The yellow light on the foreground item will make for a very
pleasant effect.
Even when the sun’s influence has completely gone,
you can still take interesting shots with just the moon as the light
source. You will get an eerie atmospheric feel to shots taken that way.
The exposure details are a bit “hit and miss” I’m afraid, but try
taking some shots at 5 minutes time exposure. You’ll get something
different, I’ll guarantee.
Even bad weather should not put you off having a go at
some landscapes. On a completely foul day try putting some black and white
film in the camera and see what you get. You may be very surprised with
the end result. Another little wriggle is to use the flash when taking
shots in the rain. You can stop the rain drops as bright splashes of light
in an otherwise grey shot.
With a little creative thought you can manipulate the final landscape
images in many varied ways. Not all will be successful, but some shots
will turn out to be show stoppers. Try some of these tricks this weekend.
Modern Medicine: Colonoscopy - just another pain in the bottom?
by Dr. Iain Corness, ConsultantCancer,
the big “C” word that brings fear and dread to us all, is most usually a
disease of aging. Now that people are living longer, they are more likely to
have lived long enough to develop a cancer. A sort of, what you gain on the
swings, you can lose on the roundabouts.
To try and see if you are a candidate, quietly growing a
cancer somewhere in the bowel, there are many tests available to us. One of
the most “popular” (if you can consider any invasive test as being
“popular”) screens is the colonoscopy. I was actually reminded of this
the other day when a friend asked who they should see about getting one of
these screening tests done.
Colonoscopy is used to examine your entire colon and
rectum under direct vision, for abnormalities. Now to be able to do this
requires some preparation beforehand. To prepare your colon during the 24
hours before the exam you must stop taking iron pills or medications
containing iron, as iron can alter the color of your colon lining. Take
laxatives and sometimes even enemas prescribed by your doctor. Avoid eating
solid foods and opaque liquids. Drink and eat only clear, nonalcoholic
liquids such as black coffee, tea, water, or clear broth and juices. Avoid
liquids that are red in color, as they can appear as red in the colon and be
confused with blood.
If you have diabetes or take blood thinners, including
aspirin, your preparation for colonoscopy may be slightly different, and you
should inform the doctor of any chronic conditions you may have.
So what is involved? Basically, a long, flexible tube
about the thickness of an adult finger (the colonoscope), is inserted into
your rectum. The colonoscope is long enough to view the entire length of
your colon. It contains a fiber-optic light and a channel that allows your
doctor to pump air into your colon, inflating it to get a better view. The
colonoscope also contains a small video camera that transmits images to an
external monitor. It is also possible to insert instruments through the
colonoscope’s channel to remove polyps, take tissue samples, inject
solutions or destroy (cauterize) tissues.
A colonoscopy is relatively painless, but the exam can
cause sufficient anxiety that people generally tolerate the procedure better
when they have some form of mild sedative beforehand. This does mean that
you should not drive yourself home after the procedure, and perhaps it is
safer not to drive for the rest of the day.
During the exam you lie on your left side. The doctor
inserts the colonoscope into your rectum and watches as the video camera
shows the condition of your bowel. If a polyp or abnormal tissue is found,
the doctor may choose to remove it with a snare or cautery, or may take a
biopsy.
After the procedure, you may see a small amount of blood
with your first bowel movement. Usually this is no cause for alarm, but see
your doctor if you continue to pass blood or blood clots, have persistent
abdominal pain or have a fever of 38 C or higher.
If no abnormalities are found, you can probably wait
several years before repeating the colonoscopy. The American College of
Gastroenterology recommends another colonoscopy in three years if you had
more than two small polyps (less than 1 cm in diameter) or a large polyp
(larger than 1 cm diameter), if the polyp removed shows cell changes, or if
you have a first-degree relative - a sibling, parent, or child, with a
family history of colorectal cancer. If only one or two small polyps are
found and you’re otherwise at average risk, you can probably wait five
years before having another exam.
Learn to Live to Learn: A Journey of Faith
with Andrew Watson
It’s sometimes funny how art seems to imitate life.
Paintings, music, movies, literature, poetry, they all have the
potential to resonate with life’s experiences. They can drag us from
the depths of despair to the euphoric heights of ecstasy. They can calm
the wildest tempest within us. They can bring hope. If we give them a
chance.
Hold on though, we shouldn’t be surprised by this,
should we? After all, these art forms surely spring from the well of
life, do they not? Actually, I’ll go further. Art is life!
(That’s another one of my mantras, I’m afraid.) Be reassured, I
don’t intend wandering into a philosophical treatise on the ontology
of art. All that I will add is that, if I claim that art is life, and
life is art, then this doesn’t mean it’s all good art.
The real point I want to make regards the role of art
in raising awareness of the possibilities which life has to offer.
Reading, for example, can awaken the soul. A piece of music can search
for and find, our inner most feelings. Music can provoke an emotional
reaction within us. Just consider that for a moment. So, how powerful
does that make music? A movie can teach us graphic lessons in ethics,
morals, history, or turn them all on their head.
Goebbels realised the power of visual propaganda,
demonising and dehumanizing the Jew, before his despicable master
attempted a final solution. A painting, let’s take Grunewald’s
crucifixion as an example, teaches us of the suffering of Jesus Christ
in a way that seems even more moving than Mel Gibson’s “Passion of
Christ”, with all its blood and gore.
So, what’s to learn? What can we take from all of
these renderings of humanity and import into our personal, everyday
lives? I think the answer is: as much or as little as we choose, with
commensurate effects on whom we are and whom we might become.
On one hand, if I cast my mind back long ago, I
recall with a clarity bereft of embellishment that only truthful memory
can bestow, without doubt one of the most outrageously preposterous
figures I have ever had the displeasure to encounter in education. Of
farcical proportions, although less overtly vindictive than Roald
Dahl’s nemesis, Captain Hardcastle, he was nevertheless a cold,
obsolete dinosaur of a person. The twin grotesque disfiguring ironies of
him were that firstly, he was a teacher and secondly, he was a teacher
of English literature. I don’t suppose he’s alive now, for gorgon
that he was, I wouldn’t want to despoil someone living. But I remember
to this day, how he rejected with a vehemence that only profound
ignorance can generate, any association at all between literature and
real life.
I recall, upon meeting him in later life, summoning
the courage to ask him, what if anything it was that he felt he could
incorporate into his daily being from his reading of books in general
and heroic tales in particular? His reply echoes in eternity like a wet
fart; “There’s nothing to take. They’re just books”. His reply
said more about him than I could ever have done.
You see, his eyes and his heart were empty and this
emptiness had drained his soul of life. Somewhere along his path, he had
lost any sense of faith. But his rejection was so comprehensive that he
seemed to wilfully banish any possibility of redemption unto the wind.
In retrospect, like so many of my friends, I pitied him.
Ghandi said, “Even the longest journey begins with
a single step”. Life’s journey is long, arduous, sometimes joyous
and uplifting, often unfair, unjust (was anyone promised otherwise?). So
I reckon, you have to keep on going, whatever the weather. It’s a
journey of faith. But around us, all around us, are examples of parallel
experiences, in literature, film, whatever, which can help us on our
way, to discover a right path, or a better path with limited suffering.
Nonetheless, individuals in this world seem inexorably bent on repeating
the mistakes of history, and who can deny that repeatedly making the
same mistake is a sign of idiocy?
When I’m teaching Visual Arts, one of the first
(and subsequently reoccurring) lessons is about “learning to see”.
How many of us look without seeing, hear without
listening? It’s a tough lesson, because it necessarily involves
reassessing all you previously held to be true and most disconcertingly,
it often involves discovering that what you held to be true, isn’t.
You can’t help but be humbled by this revelation.
Later, this undoing brings inner peace, which (as
I’ve written before) can often be mistaken for arrogance. But the most
humbling thing of all is, you realise that you could have found all this
stuff out before, if only you’d listened, either to your heart, or
really genuinely to your parents, or to the movie you saw last night. Or
to the book you read last month, or the sermon you remember from when
you were young, or the song you sang along to at the party last week.
In asking students, or each other for that matter, to
think for longer than the ‘cult of immediacy’ generally allows or
encourages, we are asking each other to consider the possibility that
“others, with their difference can also be right.” (IBO Mission
statement - again). Through critical but compassionate friendship, we
may thus progress, as individuals, as humans. But hold on! Let’s take
it back a few millennia. What is Psalm 23 asking us to do if it isn’t
precisely this? “The Lord prepareth a table before me in the presence
of mine enemies; my cup runneth over.”
[email protected]
Next week: My Cup Runneth Over: Metamorphosis
Heart to Heart with Hillary
Dear Hillary,
I have been here for two years and have just bought a car. As I didn’t
have a Thai license I said my Thai girlfriend would drive the car when I
took out the insurance. I had done the right thing and made sure it was
insured, but after we had an accident the insurance company refused to
pay up. They said that the reason was because my girlfriend didn’t
have a license, even though she’d been driving for 15 years! I
wasn’t to know, so surely I’m not at fault. They accepted the money
quickly enough. I pay for the insurance in good faith and everything,
but they won’t pay. Is there something I can do, or is it another case
of TIT?
Uninsured It Seems
Dear Uninsured It Seems,
This is not really Hillary’s field of expertise, Petal, but when I
asked an insurance broker, he said that this is a standard requirement.
It is not the insurance company’s responsibility to make sure that the
driver of your car has a license. It is yours, unfortunately. There’s
nothing you can do about this accident, but make sure your girlfriend
gets a license before she gets back behind the wheel. The old way used
to be ‘get your license first and learn to drive later’, and while
that would have got you out of this predicament, you probably would have
had more accidents. Get her a license, and get one yourself too. You
never know when you might need it.
Dear Hillary,
There are some really fantastic looking birds in this town, and it’s
hard to walk down the street without turning around and following some
of these cuties. I know what everyone says, that they’re just trying
to get your money, but they can’t all be like that? What advice,
Hillary?
Stunned by Beauty
Dear Stunned by Beauty,
Petal, how long have you been here? It sounds like 10 minutes. Here’s
the tip while following your “fantastic looking birds”. The best
looking ladies in town are almost always men, the second-best looking
ladies who indicate they are available are professionals. There are many
dangers from all this, including communicable diseases. If you don’t
want to catch it, don’t get too close to these “birds” as you put
it. You might get “bird flew”, generally taking your money as well!
Dear Hillary,
I have read the books and the letters, but thought I was smarter than
all the other guys. I had found the girl who was different from all the
others, even though I had met her in the go go bar. She was drop dead
gorgeous, and I thought I was just so lucky. She really was beautiful
and always looked after me very well. House clean, reasonable cook and
good in the bedroom. Her salary was 20,000 baht a month, and she never
asked for one baht more. She was smart and I trusted her. Then one day I
come home and she wasn’t there. I thought she must have been with one
of her girlfriends, but when it became dinner time I started to worry. I
went through to the bedroom and all her clothes were gone, and
everything that she owned. There was no note, nothing to say why or what
was wrong, nothing. For a couple of days I tried her mobile, but it was
off. I went back to the bar, but nobody knew, or weren’t saying. It
was only three months, but the best three months I’d ever had. I
bumped into her about six months later and all she said was that her old
boyfriend had come back, so she went back to be with him. Are they all
like this, or what? I want to try again, but I don’t want to end up
like this one did. 20,000 baht a month for three months, down the drain.
How do you tell if they are honest?
Dumped
Dear Dumped,
You have to grow up a little, my Petal, and decide what you want. Do you
want a chief cook and bottle-washer and live-in lover and want me to fix
her salary for you, or find you a replacement? The simple answer is that
there isn’t one! If you go looking for your paragon of virtue and
housekeeping, you won’t find one in the chrome pole palaces. These are
the hangouts of the professional ladies who will market their
commodities to the highest bidder. Your 20,000 baht wasn’t enough,
Petal. If you are looking for a long term relationship, you don’t
start at the a Go-Go. Those relationships soon turn into a Gone-Gone, as
you have already found out. However, you may take solace in the old
adage that used to be on the Bangkok Rules website (unfortunately long
gone also) which stated “You never lose your girl, you only lose your
turn.” If you really are looking for a long term loving relationship,
then do as you would do in your own country. Stay away from
“professional” ladies and give any relationship time to develop. Try
to let some emotion come into your relationships with women, not just
blue diamond lust. Finally, you don’t measure your relationship like
paying a monthly salary to the maid. If you want someone to share your
life, then you have to realize that means everything! Beware. I think
you’re still a little young for this.
Psychological Perspectives: Crisis in France:Research reveals relationship between people’s response to stress and cholesterol levels
by Michael Catalanello,
Ph.D.
Stress is an inescapable part of our
lives. From exposure to major traumatic events like the Asian tsunami, to
minor hassles like negotiating our way through rush hour traffic on
Sukhumvit, dealing with the stress of life is the name of the game.
Taken individually, most stressful events might seem
rather harmless and inconsequential. Few would think twice about the health
consequences of routine annoyances we all have to contend with on a daily
basis; the difficult coworker, the reckless motorcycle driver, running out
of money before we run out of month. Nevertheless, there is gathering
evidence that even minor stressful events can have an important impact upon
health.
Stress, for example, has been shown to increase heart
rate, lower resistance to the common cold, and increase some indicators of
tissue inflammation. Now it appears that stress can also increase
cholesterol levels, at least for some people. New evidence for the link
between stress and cholesterol was published in the November issue of Health
Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association.
Cholesterol is a fat-like compound that is found in many
foods, in the bloodstream, and in cells of the body. Our bodies produce
cholesterol, and we take in additional amounts in many of the foods that we
eat. Cholesterol is necessary for several essential body functions.
The word “cholesterol,” of course, has some negative
connotations for many of us. We hear talk of “good” and “bad”
cholesterol. Bad cholesterol refers to low-density lipoprotein (LDL) which
can deposit on artery walls, dangerously reducing, or possibly blocking the
flow of blood. Good cholesterol refers to high-density lipoprotein (HDL),
which is thought to provide protection against artery blockage.
When your doctor tests you for cholesterol he is
measuring the amount of cholesterol circulating in your blood. Most of the
cholesterol detected, about 85%, is produced by the body. The rest comes
from what you eat and drink. Because high levels of total cholesterol, low
levels of HDL (“good cholesterol”), high levels of LDL (“bad
cholesterol”), and undesirable ratios among these factors place a person
at risk for developing coronary heart disease, it is important to
understand the variables that affect cholesterol levels.
Researchers Andrew Steptoe and Lena Brydon of University
College London exposed 199 healthy middle-aged men and women to moderately
stressful tasks in a laboratory setting. Before and after their exposure to
stress, subjects’ cardiovascular, inflammatory and hemostatic functions
were examined. Results showed that averages for total cholesterol, LDL, and
HDL levels increased following the stressful behavioral tasks. Individuals,
however, varied considerably in their level of increase in cholesterol,
some showing more dramatic increases than others.
Three years later, these subjects’ cholesterol levels
were again measured. As expected, cholesterol levels had increased with the
passage of time. Surprisingly, those who had responded greatest to the
laboratory stress showed significantly greater increases in cholesterol
than those who had responded least. These changes were unrelated to
baseline cholesterol levels, or to such factors as gender, age, body mass,
smoking, and alcohol consumption.
The researchers speculated that the stress responses
they observed in the lab were indicative of the way these people responded
to everyday stresses. Those who showed the largest cholesterol increases
might be expected to respond more dramatically to daily challenges of life.
As those experiences accumulate they could result in an increase in fasting
cholesterol years later.
It is quite interesting that individual differences in people’s
response to stress would be associated with increases in cholesterol levels
three years later. Although the stress responses in this study were not
exceedingly large, techniques like these could provide a means of
identifying those whose response to stress might be a risk factor for
developing coronary heart disease. Such individuals could then be offered
early interventions to help maintain their cholesterol levels within a
healthy range. It also reinforces the notion that psychological
interventions designed for stress management could help those who respond
unhealthily to stress to learn more adaptive ways of handling the
inevitable hassles and annoyances of everyday life.
Dr. Catalanello is a licensed psychologist in his home State of Louisiana, USA, and a member of the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Asian University,
Chonburi. You may address questions and comments to him at [email protected], or post on his weblog at
http://asianupsych.blogspot.com
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