Open mike 24/08/2012

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 24th, 2012 - 81 comments
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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Step right up to the mike…

81 comments on “Open mike 24/08/2012 ”

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  1. Logie97 1
    24 August 2012 at 7:49 am

    Looks as though John-Mr-nice-and-natural-tell-it-how-it-is-Key’s off the cuff, unresearched sound bites are beginning to get him into trouble. Now it’s not only the Hungarian’s he has upset but also New Zealand’s hospitals and doctors
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7538178/PMs-euthanasia-claim-sparks-anger

    • jcuknz 1.1
      24 August 2012 at 8:12 am

      My belief runs with John Key on this matter. The doctors have PC image to maintain because of a foolish though well meaning law. I am much closer to the end than JK and would be greatly comforted if I knew that if terminal and in great pain I could decide to have the ‘plug pulled’.

      • Clashman 1.1.1
        24 August 2012 at 8:23 am

        Having the “plug pulled” is not euthenasia in the context of the bill being proposed.

      • Lanthanide 1.1.2
        24 August 2012 at 9:26 am

        Key is right in that it does happen, but I think it’s a lot more of a grey area than he intimated. I also expect that the ‘euthanasia by inaction’ that he’s hinting at comes quite late in the piece, when the individual involved probably would have chosen to end their life months earlier if they’d had the choice.

        • Dr Terry 1.1.2.1
          24 August 2012 at 10:18 am

          Lanthanide, it may well be a grey area, I cannot be certain (who can?), but it would be a change to see Key using a little more “grey matter”!

        • Morrissey 1.1.2.2
          24 August 2012 at 8:00 pm

          Key is right in that it does happen,

          Nonsense. Can you provide us with one example of a doctor killing a patient in this country?

    • tc 1.2
      24 August 2012 at 8:26 am

      Maybe they’ve had enough of this gov’t BS with all the porkys Ryall keeps telling about increased doctors and nurses and the slash by stealth they’ve been up to in the health sector along with farming out elective work off the waiting lists to their private hospital mates.

      They’re in a tough spot, taking the oath to preserve human life in a system where their paychecks are written by the born to rule neo liberal worhippers and the DHB’s are run by NACT’s mates.

      • aerobubble 1.2.1
        24 August 2012 at 3:28 pm

        A doctor in the UK kill many many older people without their consent.

        The question surely is, in cases where the individual cannot commit suicide then the
        consideration of euthanasia can be entered into, but doctor who quicken the end of
        life are committing murder and it should not be allowed.

  2. mickysavage 2
    24 August 2012 at 7:53 am

    I watched Parliament yesterday and I thought that a comedian had snuck in and was masquerading as John Banks.  Because the speech had to be a joke.  It is very difficult to achieve the amount of belligerence coupled with stupidity that was on show.  Then I confirmed it was actually Banksie.

    The speech was on the Government’s further undermining of the ETS.

    If the attitude of Banks is held by even a minority of the world’s population then the planet is fcuked. 

    • Carol 2.1
      24 August 2012 at 8:09 am

      This is the guy who thinks it’s still 1981 (the time of the 40th NZ government) and who says he’ll be back for the 50th term, when Shearer will be the leader of the opposition – except the current government is the 50th.

      He had the gall to say that the Greens can’t get elected in in an electorate seat – ignoring that the Greens have a bigger vote nationally than Act’s pitiful less than 1% (compared with Green Party’s 11-14%) …

      Banks is still living in 1981 First Past the Post NZ, when the issue of climate change had far less media attention.

      • Lanthanide 2.1.1
        24 August 2012 at 9:28 am

        Banks only got elected in an electorate seat because National did a deal. Labour did no such deals with the Greens, although I wouldn’t be surprised if they did something in 2014.

        • lprent 2.1.1.1
          24 August 2012 at 10:06 am

          It doesn’t look like the Greens are going to need it. If I was them I wouldn’t want it. Becoming too dependent on an electorate seat for a party seems to result in the party expending too much effort and mana defending it with the inevitable result that they wind up being unable to run a nationwide campaign and a slow descent into being a party of one MP.

          They’d be better reaching a loose accord prior to the election so that they can fight to get the voters to vote for their policies to improve their negotiating position after election result.

          • Lanthanide 2.1.1.1.1
            24 August 2012 at 10:36 am

            Yeah, I agree with that assessment.

          • McFlock 2.1.1.1.2
            24 August 2012 at 8:17 pm

            I’d also add that the party that relies on one electorate MP tends to place more emphasis on the personal beliefs of that indispensable MP than on its policies, i.e. the common beliefs of its membership.

        • Fortran 2.1.1.2
          24 August 2012 at 2:34 pm

          So did Labour do a deal with Jim Anderton similar to Banks ?

    • tc 2.2
      24 August 2012 at 8:38 am

      Duh Mickey, that’s pretty much the attitude of the top 1%.

      The real movers and shakers don’t live in parliamentary type venues and would never be caught dead on record saying such things, like the Koch Brothers.

      Banks is a simply a distracting loon used by the Nat’s to divert attention from the great NZ swindle and should be treated like any child throwing a tantrum and ignored.

    • Draco T Bastard 2.3
      24 August 2012 at 1:50 pm

      He should have been kicked out for insulting elected members of parliament. List MPs are elected.

    • lostinsuburbia 2.4
      24 August 2012 at 3:59 pm

      I think his robot circuitry is affected by solar flares.

    • mike 2.5
      24 August 2012 at 4:55 pm

      Haha John Banks having a go at the Green MPs because they are list MPs and “would never get elected anywhere.”

      1. They did get elected, NZers gave the Green party their party vote. 11% to ACTs 1%.
      2. John Banks is only there because of a cup of tea ffs.

      Also love the challenge to “stand in Epsom in 2014” when JBs dodgyness has been so sorely exposed. It’s going to take a lot of cups of tea for him to get elected anywhere again. Even in BMWtown I mean Epsom.

  3. Carol 3
    24 August 2012 at 7:58 am

    Shame on Brownleee and NAct for focusing on Roads of Negligible Significance over the importance of revitalising KiwiRail after years of decline under private ownership:

    The Labour Party has asked tough questions about the state of KiwiRail after it won a temporary injunction preventing the publication of sensitive material from a leaked business plan.
    …
    But parts of it were read in Parliament yesterday by Labour MP Phil Twyford under the absolute privilege MPs have, without the source document being identified.
    …
    Mr Twyford asked several questions of the Minister of State Owned Enterprises, pointing to aspects of the report:

    * Has the board of KiwiRail advised him that from 2014 onwards the rail asset will decline and disruption will grow,
    …
    * Has the board of KiwiRail advised him that the amount to be spent on timber bridges will be cut substantially, projects on the main trunk line will be cancelled or deferred, the overall condition of railway sleepers will decline, …

    Good work by Twyford:

    http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Business/QOA/3/4/a/50HansQ_20120823_00000001-1-KiwiRail-Confidence-in-Board.htm

    • tc 3.1
      24 August 2012 at 8:47 am

      It takes them too long to revitalise KR so they can flick it off to their mates so they’ll ignore it as it can’t be achieved in their window of power.

      So they place their man Quinney atop and park the brownlee bus in front for his unique brand of arrogance and BS and stay the course Joyce set last term.

  5. Carol 5
    24 August 2012 at 8:57 am

    I see the Western Leader (West Auckland local paper) has a (hard copy) front page article slamming Charter Schools. Online version here:

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/western-leader/7539981/Charters-experiment-on-poor

    Charter schools are an experiment on our most vulnerable children, teachers’ union advocate Frances Guy says.

    More than 150 parents, teachers and education leaders gathered at the Kelston Community Centre on Tuesday to discuss the Government’s decision to introduce charter schools.

    With quotes from John Minto, Waikato University professor of education Martin Thrupp, Massey High School principal Bruce Ritchie, Massey Primary School principal Bruce Barnes, and Kelston Intermediate School teacher Sue Newby. They give a thumbs down to Charter Schools and refer to the fact that NZ already has a very good education system so why try something as dodgy as Charter Schools.

    • OneTrack 5.1
      24 August 2012 at 10:52 pm

      Maybe because 20% are falling out of the bottom of our current system and they want to be proactive and do something about it. All the education establishment will agree to do is the same as they have always been doing so nothing will change.

      • Draco T Bastard 5.1.1
        24 August 2012 at 11:04 pm

        Bollocks

        You do know that the biggest influence is poverty right? Get rid of the poverty and the few percent who are having difficulty will mostly disappear. Do what NACT want and our education will actually suffer – just as what happened in the US and UK after similar reforms.

        The education establishment is always doing the research and changing. That’s why schools are better today than when I went to school 30+ years ago. You’re just one of the people who are too stupid to realise that.

        • McFlock 5.1.1.1
          24 August 2012 at 11:13 pm

          yep.
                 
          Most of our social ills are symptoms of a deeper malady, not maladies themselves.

        • OneTrack 5.1.1.2
          25 August 2012 at 9:29 am

          The trouble is they are getting worse results than they were getting 30 years ago. The education system is being dumbed down with focus on soft subjects such as “inquiry (aka googling on the internet), kapa haka and “enviro”(aka recycling).

          Maths especially is actively demoted, probably because most teachers just dont like it. It is left to one or two teachers in a school to pick up the slack. Same with English with “text” language not being acceptable. And all though this “yes of course little Jimmy’s doing well” – except he’s not and the parents dont find out until the next teacher or he next school. Or the student doesnt find out until he tries to get a job or tries t go to uni and has to do a year of catch up or woese yet just cant get in at all.

          In addition to that, the far left-wing bias of the teachers unions and most teachers leaves the students with little exposure to radical ideas such as working hard to achieve goals, looking after yourself and not depending on the state for handouts. Everyone one is a “winner”, no matter how hard they try (or not). It’s “mean” not to give everyone a “reward” (talk about newspeak- even words are changing their meaning) just for turning up.

          Yeah the education system is doing real well.

          • Draco T Bastard 5.1.1.2.1
            25 August 2012 at 5:05 pm

            The trouble is they are getting worse results than they were getting 30 years ago.

            But they’re not are they? 30 years ago 50% passed and the results of the pupils were altered to ensure that.

            The education system is being dumbed down…

            From what I’ve read/seen it seems that it’s actually getting more challenging. Actually being able to think is far harder than wrote learning.

            In addition to that, the far left-wing bias of the teachers unions and most teachers leaves the students with little exposure to radical ideas such as working hard to achieve goals, looking after yourself and not depending on the state for handouts.

            Individualism is a dead end – quite literally. You must be a part of a society to survive so it’s not a question of looking for handouts on the left but working together. The right is the home of the handouts. Just look at the RoNS, the cronyism that’s shining through and the massive increase in government borrowing.

            It’s “mean” not to give everyone a “reward” (talk about newspeak- even words are changing their meaning) just for turning up.

            Got any proof of that or is it just another RWNJ meme?

  6. prism 6
    24 August 2012 at 9:13 am

    Om charter schools. It is concerning that at a regulated NZ school a dedicated trickster and paedophile found a way to breach the barriers to staying in teaching. He ingratiated himself into a Maori community by adopting a Maori-centric behaviour. That was an extra breach of trust by someone who was not even NZ pakeha on top of the whole bad behaviour of false friendship with children serving his own personal desires. Procedures were not followed that should have sent a red flag of warning before he could get so entrenched. The Teachers Council were duped, the police did not have the confidence and evidence to proceed further etc. The system failed the children and their parents.

    Now if charter schools are to be able to widely employ non-teachers they will be fertile fields for this sort of twisted individual.

    • Carol 6.1
      24 August 2012 at 9:18 am

      Yes, prism, Nania Mahuta quizzed Parata on that very issue this week. I’m not convinced by her replies:

      http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Business/QOA/1/7/2/50HansQ_20120822_00000007-7-Teaching-Staff-Non-registered-Application.htm

      Hon Nanaia Mahuta: Is she aware that teachers are police vetted every 3 years when they have to reregister, and can she assure the House that non-registered teachers working in charter schools will also be police vetted every 3 years?

      Hon HEKIA PARATA: Indeed, they are often vetted more often than every 3 years, and we will be expecting the same level of probity, protection, and safeguarding of all students in all schools.

      Hon Nanaia Mahuta: If there is no difference whatsoever in the vetting and background checks for non-registered charter school teachers, why did officials warn the Minister last year that “There is the challenge of ensuring that students are not put at risk by mentors who are not necessarily subject to professional licensing.”?

      • prism 6.1.1
        24 August 2012 at 10:45 am

        Carol
        I have a tape of an old piece of advice for budding politicians on how not to answer a question. I don’t know if it was meant to be cutting analysis or spoof. But Parata has learned well. Is there a psychological and speaking test before the NACTs will endorse a candidate for parliament?

        I am entirely unreasonable of course. In wanting NZ policies to be more effective and well researched. As I have got older the accretion of examples of our she’ll-be-right, research and expertise lite, approach have grown so I can no longer overlook our innate capacity to go into almost everything on a wing and a prayer. And we aren’t a very religious society either. This is an important revelation to me and so while we must keep trying for better, we are bound to get this sort of vague shit from politicians in answer to searching questions. And this can apply for Left and Right. I just felt I had to get this off my chest. There, there I feel better now.

    • Rob 6.2
      24 August 2012 at 3:26 pm

      So you are condeming charter schools for heinous issues that are hapening in the current system?

      • prism 6.2.1
        24 August 2012 at 3:45 pm

        Rob 6.2
        Good point. But it is obvious that conditions where there are no or fewer controls will allow worse situations or more bad ones to surface. Don’t you think?

  7. prism 7
    24 August 2012 at 9:51 am

    A black mark for Tonga. A Tongan now a decorated NZ policeman goes home to attend his grandfather’s funeral and ends up dead there after violence with Tongan police involvement. Very sad for his family. Very sad for the state of Tongan male culture. And following my former piece about the destructive power of alcohol when it isn’t carefully limited, an unhappy example that reinforces the rightness of my point.

  8. Pascal's bookie 8
    24 August 2012 at 10:12 am

    The PM should apologise to the Hungarians.

    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1208/S00354/hungarian-defence-minister-on-nz-afghanistan-deaths.htm

    Honestly, our Prime Minister is a dick NZ.

    • vto 8.1
      24 August 2012 at 10:16 am

      What a bozo.

      Bozo the clown. Hungary, euthanasia, John Key is seriously lacking not just wisdom and depth but also basic knowledge.

      What the fuck is he doing?

      • bad12 8.1.1
        24 August 2012 at 10:53 am

        The Slippery little Shyster’s empty suitcase of intellectual rigor has been opened and exposed for all to see,

        Having alienated everyone but the National core 40% of the vote Slippery is beginning to lash out in anger and not having a particular group of people to be angry at,

        Making accusations that Doctors and Nurses are regularly killing people in New Zealand hospitals will sure as hell get em all voting for ya,

        All but accusing the Hungarian PRT serving in Baghlan Province of being COWARDS is likely to have one of them pay some deviant Afghani to plant road-side explosives in reply to the Prime Ministers abhorrent utterance,

        The sooner the country gets rid of this Slippery used-car-salesman the better…

        • McFlock 8.1.1.1
          24 August 2012 at 4:42 pm

          All but accusing the Hungarian PRT serving in Baghlan Province of being COWARDS is likely to have one of them pay some deviant Afghani to plant road-side explosives in reply to the Prime Ministers abhorrent utterance,

          That’s as big a slur against the Hungarians as what Key said.

      • Pascal's bookie 8.1.2
        24 August 2012 at 11:53 am

        Well, he “won’t be commenting” on the Hungarian open letter according to Felix Marwick.

        Dick. (not Marwick, he’s just doing his job)

        • mike 8.1.2.1
          24 August 2012 at 3:12 pm

          If ever an apology was painfully obviously required it’s here. The Hungarian minister of Defense writes an open letter than says a) you’re wrong, and b) it’s a shame your “comradely spirit” appears to be lacking.

          I think that’s diplomatic speak for “f*ck you.”

          A no comment response from Key here is pretty much like extending the middle finger in reply. Key is not capable of seeing that there are exceptions to every rule, including the politicians ‘Never admit you are wrong, never apologize’ rule. Sometimes you put your foot so far in it that not apologizing is worse. This dick is supposed to be representing us. Thanks JK.

          What a wanker.

          • Colonial Viper 8.1.2.1.1
            24 August 2012 at 4:33 pm

            I wonder houw our diplomatic corp’s already high esteem for John Key is doing now.

      • mike 8.1.3
        24 August 2012 at 4:18 pm

        “What the fuck is he doing?”

        He’s making up as he goes along.

    • Murray Olsen 8.2
      24 August 2012 at 9:34 pm

      I’ve made an open Facebook group about this, which I intend to bring to the attention of the Hungarian Ministry of Defence and as many Hungarians as I can.
      http://www.facebook.com/groups/172650396204620/
       

  9. Dr Terry 9
    24 August 2012 at 10:27 am

    What weight would any apology from the PM carry? What self-respecting nation would want to receive a chunk of his insincerity?

  10. Bored 10
    24 August 2012 at 11:05 am

    The ongoing saga of the Murdochs and MSM….

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/7540529/Murdoch-profit-alone-a-disaster

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!( Pleased to see they have a dark sense of humour)….

  11. bad12 11
    24 August 2012 at 11:17 am

    Yay, the news on RadioNZ National, we are saved, the balance of trade tipped firmly in New Zelands favor for this quarter we exported 100 and something million dollars worth of stuff more than what we imported,

    Party anyone???

    Yeah i’m friggin lying, the whole thing took another tiny step towards the column over to the right of the profit one, you know the one what sez ”gone tits up”

    Imports are down 1.4% for the quarter and more telling exports are down 0.4%, expect another 2000 unemployed…

  12. joe90 12
    24 August 2012 at 11:44 am

    Ta-Nehisi Coates: Fear of a Black President

    “The thing is, a black man can’t be president in America, given the racial aversion and history that’s still out there,” Cornell Belcher, a pollster for Obama, told the journalist Gwen Ifill after the 2008 election. “However, an extraordinary, gifted, and talented young man who happens to be black can be president.”

    Belcher’s formulation grants the power of anti-black racism, and proposes to defeat it by not acknowledging it. His is the perfect statement of the Obama era, a time marked by a revolution that must never announce itself, by a democracy that must never acknowledge the weight of race, even while being shaped by it. Barack Obama governs a nation enlightened enough to send an African American to the White House, but not enlightened enough to accept a black man as its president.

    […]

    While Beck and Limbaugh have chosen direct racial assault, others choose simply to deny that a black president actually exists. One in four Americans (and more than half of all Republicans) believe Obama was not born in this country, and thus is an illegitimate president. More than a dozen state legislatures have introduced “birther bills” demanding proof of Obama’s citizenship as a condition for putting him on the 2012 ballot. Eighteen percent of Republicans believe Obama to be a Muslim. The goal of all this is to delegitimize Obama’s presidency. If Obama is not truly American, then America has still never had a black president.

    Meanwhile….

  13. Dave Kennedy (bsprout) 13
    24 August 2012 at 11:50 am

    John Beattie, Director of FiordlandLink Experience (monorail) needs to understand that the World Heritage status of our parks is based on the pristine, unaltered nature of the environment and most tourists want to experience that too and if they don’t, there is always Disneyland.
    http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/fiordland-or-disneyland.html

  14. jcuknz 14
    24 August 2012 at 12:14 pm

    I saw a ‘story’ which showed Michelle Obama at a soup kitchen handing out food etc and to mark the occasion the final photo showed the young female beneficiary taking a photo with her $500 iPod.

    This to me smells of bene-bashing that why should somebody with such a phone get food for free. Completely ignoring the upheavals sadly so common in America and around the world and seemingly requiring one to drop all one’s assets before getting help.

    • vto 14.1
      24 August 2012 at 12:58 pm

      Well that would make no sense because pods and pads and phones are cheaper than food. But it will make for a good ignorant rant by many ignorant ranters.

    • joe90 14.2
      24 August 2012 at 2:02 pm

      A quick search on Ebay shows a used Apple iPhone 1st Generation at $50 through to an Apple iPhone 3G at $95.

  15. captain hook 15
    24 August 2012 at 1:58 pm

    what about “KILLER” key.
    he has an opinion on anything and everything these days.
    next time he goes to the “states” maybe he should stay there.

  16. mickysavage 16
    24 August 2012 at 4:33 pm

    The Waitangi Tribunal has ruled that the asset sales process must be stopped until the water claim is resolved.

    Cat meet pidgeons. 

    • Bill 16.1
      24 August 2012 at 5:03 pm

      pfft. Just a recommendation, innit? I’m sure Johnny Boy can pull any number of other recommendations from, erm…well, out his arse really. And be guided by them. (Don’t know how to categorise that [unfortunate?, disturbing?, amusing?…all of the pre-mentioned?] image I just had of JK following his recommendations and so disappearing up his own arse )

    • William Joyce 16.2
      24 August 2012 at 5:16 pm

      “nom nom nom …pigeons!” *burp*

  17. William Joyce 17
    24 August 2012 at 5:14 pm

    The Week in Pictures
    “Whistle-blower”, speaking from the Ecuadorian embassy, maintains right to reveal restricted information
    Link

  18. Vicky32 18
    24 August 2012 at 6:03 pm

    Loathe as I am to bring it all up again (who am I kidding, I am not loathe! 🙂 ) have a shufti at tnis:
    http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m90539&fb=1
    The bizarre, unhealthy blinding media contempt for Julian Assange.

  19. Colonial Viper 19
    24 August 2012 at 6:37 pm

    30% of recent US fatalities in Afghanistan were ‘Green on Blue’ killings by Afghan “allies”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_WM64iCt24&feature=g-all-u

    The highest ever in the history of the Afghanistan conflict. Its a fuck up. And our troops are dying over there.

  20. HalfCrown Millionare 20
    24 August 2012 at 7:14 pm

    A warning to all those heading off over the Tasman to live in Australia. Things may not be all that good there as a flock of Aussie Pelicans have settled in the Kaipara Harbour. Perhaps they know something we don’t!

  21. Anne 21
    24 August 2012 at 8:01 pm

    Picked this video up on the Herald site:

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/video.cfm?c_id=1&gal_cid=1&gallery_id=127574

    John Key is hamming it up on the dance floor with a bunch of youngsters. Nothing wrong with that. All in good fun.

    But does anyone remember when Pete Hodgson and another Labour minister (can’t remember who) did exactly the same thing in 2007/8? They were derided and lampooned by a spiteful MSM.

    What’s the bet Key will be lauded by the same MSM as a… good fellow who joins in the fun and makes everyone smile and laugh.

    • Morrissey 21.1
      24 August 2012 at 8:14 pm

      Similarly on NewstalkZB this afternoon, host Larry Williams and NBR hackette Ellen Read snarled that the law needs to come down far more heavily on people who drink too much. When token liberal Tim Watkin pointed out that they usually slam talk like that as “nanny state”, Williams and Read did not miss a beat.

      “That’s not nanny state!” shouted Read.

      “No,” agreed Williams, “That’s just doing something about drinking!”

      As usual, Watkin declined to challenge them any further.

  22. Draco T Bastard 22
    24 August 2012 at 8:05 pm

    An interesting take on transfer pricing.

    “The point of the treaty-based international consensus was to make it comfortable for multinationals to romp around the world while paying minimal tax.”

    and

    “A pernicious fiction propagated by the OECD is that the arm’s-length method produces precise results, while all other methods of allocating income are sloppy. The arm’s-length method is illusory.. . . fiction piled on top of fiction”

  23. prism 23
    24 August 2012 at 10:12 pm

    The KiwiRail report has the figure of $200 million over 3 years as a shortfall or reduction in funding. With unfortunate consequences for its effectiveness. Brownlee throws in the ‘information’ that the government is spending hundreds of millions on it. I think the job he’s in is too big for him. The roads are using up hundreds of millions or is it billions. The difference is that it is glamorous to float along in the BMW or the latest humvee, while only peasants and hard working productive firms are using rail.

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