Bartholomew's Notes

Charisma reports:

In a preliminary report to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Givot Olam Oil estimates there are 1.525 billion barrels of oil at its Rosh Ha’Ayin site, located about 10 miles inland from the Tel Aviv coastline.

…Christian supporters of Israel have long believed the Bible points to vast amounts of petroleum deposits in Israel. And some Bible prophecy teachers believe the final battle of Armageddon will stem from attacks against Israel over its oil resources.

Joel Rosenberg is among those who have declared the announcement to be the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

But Givat Olam’s report is a bit of déjà vu. Back in 2004 the UK Observer reported that

In an announcement that could shift the power balance in the Middle East, it claims to have discovered a £3 billion oilfield in the centre of Israel. But Tovia Lushkin says his company, Givat Olam, needs £18 million to develop wells and extract the oil.

And in 1998, a Christian Zionist newsletter had this to say:

Bridges for peace: Clarence H. Wagner, Jr., International Dir. –

Jerusalem: 11 Dec 98 OIL EXPLORATION IN ISRAEL“The Givat Olam Oil Exploration Company redrilled a well near Rosh HaAyin to confirm the presence of oil in the area. A huge gas flame, more than seven meters high, shot from the well, confirming the presence of gas or oil.

“Tests will be done over the next few days to determine the quality of the gas or oil. In addition, Givat Olam is trying to raise NIS 60 million on the Tel Aviv stock market to finance the drilling of another well three kilometers away.”

Looks like a six-year cycle. According to another 2004 report, from the AP:

Israeli oil expert Amit Mor said the company had made claims of oil discoveries in the past that had not born fruit. “They have a credibility problem,” he said.

While Charisma ponders the apocalyptic significance of the most recent announcement, Haaretz focuses on some rather more down-to-earth issues:

…Yesterday’s developments left analysts divided, professionals angry and speculators giddy.

…This is not the first time Givot has issued partial and less than definitive information that has had a major impact on the partnership’s share price. This time, however, the securities authority intervened until more information was provided.

…[An energy sector analyst] said the fact that investors have to turn to details in a 2009 prospectus is an indication of the incompleteness of the report. “The [current] announcement has no significance”.

…A geophysicist in the field… called the most recent announcement “speculative” and said the 1.525 billion figure appeared “exaggerated.”

I previously blogged on Givot Olam in 2004, here.

Incidentally, whatever the oil situation in Israel turns out to be, the idea that the Bible contains special information on the subject is utter rubbish, and reflects obsessions in modern American religion rather than the Bible’s intended meaning or anything in historic Christianity. See my blog post here.

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From Media Matters:

In an August 16 editorial, The Washington Times baselessly claimed that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is leading efforts to build the Islamic community center in New York City, “has supported” Hamas’ “cause.” The Times offered no evidence to support its claim.

Perhaps the Washington Times should give us a full account of Rauf’s questionable religious associations. For instance, the picture below shows Rauf speaking at a “Global Peace Festival” event in Malaysia in 2008; the GPF is an outreach programme of a controversial New Religious Movement whose leader has served time in prison in the USA:

That religious leader, of course, is Rev Sun Myung Moon – who founded the Washington Times to promote his political and cultural views, and whose son Preston Moon chairs both the Washington Times (although he’s currently trying to sell it off) and the GPF. According to a report in Unification News at the time (in a column directly below a picture of Preston Moon):

Speakers at the [GPF] International Leadership Conference called for a greater understanding between Islam and other Abrahamic faiths. “We share the same two commandments,” said Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf of the Cordoba Initiative. “We are to love God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Today, everyone is my neighbor. But we are not actually living the commandments.” Rauf, a leader of US/Muslim dialogue, heads a mosque near Ground Zero in New York, and is author of the book What’s Right with Islam.

It’s not known whether Rauf has one of Rev Moon’s “Ambassador for Peace” awards, but he appeared on a video that was shown at the Seventh Annual Ambassadors for Peace Awards Banquet. Apparently, his heading “a mosque near Ground Zero” wasn’t particularly controversial at that time.

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From the Lusaka Times:

Former Lusaka Catholic Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo will this weekend be installed as a patriarch of Africa in charge of the southern African region.

…Archbishop Milingo told the Times in Lusaka that the ceremony would follow a similar one held in Cameroun which was organised by five churches.

…He said the gathering would be held under the auspices of the Ecumenical Catholic Apostolic Church of Peace and would be witnessed by several married bishops.

…Among the churches which would be represented are the Old Catholic Church, Orthodox, Liberal Catholic of Spain, Charismatic Church of Brazil, Independent Catholic and others from the United States of America and other parts of the world.

…Founder of Imani Temple of America, Augustus Stallings is among the clerics expected from the US.

This is a story I’ve been following for some time; Milingo and Stallings are both close to Rev Sun Myung Moon (Milingo declared that Moon is the Messiah in 2007, while Stallings played a central role in Moon’s 2004 “coronation” in a Senate office building), and the “Church of Peace” is part of the Unifcation Church’s strategy. The word “Peace” looms large in Unification Church branding: the formal name of the religion is “Family Federation for World Peace and Unification“, and groups and events it has established include the Universal Peace Federation, the Global Peace Festival, and a number of “Peace Embassies”. In 2007, the Catholic Apostolic National Church of Zambia was launched at one such “Peace Embassy”, and Moon referenced the creation of a “United Family Church of Peace” in a 2004 speech.

Along with Zambia and Cameroon, Unificationist-linked schismatic Catholic groups have been established in Kenya and Uganda.

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Minister denounces sceptical “fuckers”

The Wall Street Journal reports on developments following the supposed discovery of relics of John the Baptist in Bulgaria:

“I’m not religious but these relics are in the premier league,” says Simeon Djankov, Bulgaria’s finance minister and an avowed atheist. “The revenue potential for Bulgaria is clear.”

Bulgaria’s Orthodox church hierarchy has declared that the bones are authentic. “This is a holy find. It doesn’t matter about the science,” says Metropolitan Bishop Joanikii of Sliven, who oversees church affairs in Sozopol. “The holy relics of St. John radiate miraculous force. I cannot explain it by using words.”

Kazimir Popkonstantinov, the archaeologist responsible for the finding in Sozopol and now hailed as a national hero, insists his discovery is in the same league as the Shroud of Turin. “This kind of discovery happens perhaps once every two hundred years,” he says. “We have very strong proof that this is genuine. I know this is very important for the whole Christian world.”

Meanwhile, Focus Information Agency has a quote from Bozhidar Dimitrov, a historian and Bulgaria’s Minister without Portfolio in charge of the Bulgarian Diaspora:

“After the discovery of the relics of St. John the Baptist, and at the presence of other two precious Christian relics in Sozopol, which turn the city into a ‘Second Jerusalem’ – the piece of the Holy Cross presented by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, and the relics of St. Andrew, given by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew; it became clear that with regard to the preservation, development and millions of pilgrims expected to come here, we should have a worthy feretory for these precious relics,”

Dimitrov claims that an inscription found with the relics proves their authenticity, and Christian reverence for John the Baptist’s earthly remains moved him to a pious rebuke against sceptical archaeologists. The Sofia News Agency has the quote:

“Why, damn it, why, where is all this envy coming from?! This is what I cannot find an explanation with this fucking people, with these fucking colleagues,” the Diaspora Minister and a former Director of the Bulgarian National History Museum, said when expressing his indignation that some of the Bulgarian archaeologists had declared the triumph over the relics of St. John the Baptist premature.

…”I am starting a discussion. Today [Nikolay] Ovcharov came out with his name, and started quarreling with me. The “fuckers” are no longer anonymous. We are now going to be fighting personally, with our names,”

…The conflict between Bozhidar Dimitrov and Nikolay Ovcharov goes back two years ago when Dimitrov claimed he had established the identity of the mysterious muralist of the 13-th century Renaissance like-images in the Boyana Church near Sofia, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

As an encore for this abusive tirade, Dimitrov attacked Bulgarian women for entering churches with “only their nipples covered”:

“…So this is how they come to see the holy relics. This is no good, damn it,”

“Some people are now angry with me, and they want me to apologize to them. I am not going to apologize. When they put clothes on, then I will apologize. Nobody can say about me that I don’t love the Bulgarian women. I have shown that in past 60 years or so. I am always loved the Bulgarian women, and they have always loved me. But one must know when to take their clothes off and when to put clothes on,”

Prime Minisrer Borisov, meanwhile, has donated a silver reliquary to house the remains.

Meanwhile, CNN points out that:

Several sites already house relics purported to be John, such as the Grand Mosque in Damascus, Syria, and Amiens Cathedral in France, which both claim to have his head…

That needn’t be a problem, though, if we recall Umberto Eco’s novel The Name of the Rose. One of the main characters, William of Baskerville, mentions having seen the skull of the twelve-year-old John the Baptist at Cologne Cathedral. When his assistant queries how this could be possible, given that John the Baptist lived for much longer than twelve years, William mock-gravely replies that the skull of John the Baptist at an older age must be somewhere else.

A few years ago, Ovcharov claimed to have found the tomb of Orpheus in Bulgaria, prompting a row with Greece.

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Andrew Breitbart’s rehabilitation following his national disgrace is underway: later this month he will be speaking at an event in Florida (a “Transparency Summit“, no less), and after that he’ll be standing alongside the likes of Newt Gingrich and John Bolton at Pamela Geller’s 11 September anti-mosque rally in New York. Here’s the list of speakers, as published on her website (titles etc. from original):

911 WTC families
Ambassador John Bolton
Newt Gingrich
Geert Wilders, Dutch Parliamentarian
NY Senator Candidate Gary Berntsen
Jordan Sekulow (ACLJ)
Ginny Thomas (Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife)
Pete King (invited)
Michael Grimm Staten Island House of Representatives, 911 First Responder
Andrew Breitbart

Geller is linked to Breitbart as a writer for his Big Government website, although perhaps not all her allies share her enthusiasm for him: another site commended by Geller, entitled Silent Majority, cites her list of speakers but leaves Breitbart’s name off.

Silent Majority promises “the largest Caravan in America coming cross-country to 9-11 Rally”.

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Back in April, a website called Hackney Hive published details of a literary festival in Stoke Newington involving Farah Damji, author of a memoir called Try Me. Among those who left comments was Charlie Flowers:

Farah has written a great book. You may not like her or even know her but read the book. I know this will be a terrific event. Back off her, Precious, Alex, we’re watching you.
-Black Eyed Girls

“Black Eyed Girls” is a reference to himself and some associates who call themselves “the Cheerleaders”. Flowers, as I’ve written previously, is a bully and cyber-stalker who hides behind a pretence of political activism, and he tries to deflect criticism of his behaviour by suggesting that critics must be in league with Islamic extremists. He has gathered a wider gang of supporters on Facebook, but it’s doubtful that most of them know what he’s really like.

Farah Damji has been at the centre of various controversies over the years; the media has dubbed her “London’s most dangerous woman”, and in January she was jailed for a short time for housing benefit fraud. She also regards a number of people as being her enemies, whom she subjects to abusive tirades. One of her targets – for reasons unknown –  is another author, named Precious Williams, and this is the woman whom Flowers is threatening in the comment above. Here’s a typical example of one of Damji’s tirades against her:

My views on Precious-the-cunt-Williams are not unknown to her. She is a headcase… Her book’s been dumped. Serves the little fame-fucking desperate saddo right.

(In fact, Williams’ memoir was recently published by Bloomsbury)

Similar comments have also appeared on Damji’s Twitter feed, although she has recently deleted some of these; in one, she expressed the wish that Williams (who is of Nigerian heritage) had died of malaria.

Damji also boasts that a harassment case brought against her by Williams was dropped by the CPS in May, supposedly due to lack of evidence. However, Williams gives her version of the background here, and suggests that cases are still pending. Also, around the same time as Damji made her boast, Flowers left a comment on his Facebook page that he “loves it when a plan comes together”, and in June he made a posting suggesting that he and Damji had been interviewed by the police:

just back from today’s three hours of CSI: London with Farah. We’re getting good at this LOL

Flowers’ association with Damji goes back to last year; she used to be listed as an “officer” of his “Cheerleadered” Facebook page, and in December a bookreading of Try Me was held at a pub in central London under the “Cheerleadered” name. However, she appears to have removed her name in recent weeks.

Flowers seems to have a need to threaten and harass people, but also to feel good about himself for doing so. He rationalised his harassment against Tim Ireland, for instance, by claiming that he was acting to protect Nadine Dorries MP. It seems to me that he has some sort of vigilante complex, although in the case of Williams his sole self-justification appears to be that he’s friends with Damji.

UPDATE: Not completely unexpectedly, and true to pathetic type, the “Cheerleaders'” response to the above was to create a fake Facebook account in my name supposedly showing me hassling an old lady for a date. A screenshot was then posted to the “Cheerleadered” Facebook page so that comments could be left calling me a “sex pest” and such. It seems that Flowers thought better of it after a few hours and deleted it all.

Also, Flowers is now raving about how I’m supposedly a Communist and in the SWP – not true on either count, although, as noted above, my political leanings are neither here nor there; whatever kind of person I may or may not be does not change the facts about what kind of a person he is.

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Back in January, I noted Nigerian sceptic Leo Igwe’s campaigning on behalf of Daberechi Anongam, a ten-year-old girl from his home village who has accused a powerful man from the same location of rape. Leo and his father have been harassed by the local police and accused of murder, and worse has now come:

Around midnight on Wednesday August  4 2010,two gunmen invaded my family house in Mbaise in Imo state in Southern Nigeria. They shot twice in the air and my mother fainted. They later descended on my aging father and started beating him. They blindfolded him with a piece of cloth and hit him several times with stones.

He later fainted and the hoodlums ransacked the whole house and made away with whatever they found valuable. My father  bled from the right eye, nose and mouth. He had bruises on his head, hands, legs and chest. After the attack, some neighbours came and rushed him to a nearby hospital. From there, I moved him to an eye hospital in Lagos where the doctor confirmed that he had extensive injuries in the right eye and recommended that it be removed. Yesterday, August 11, 2010, he underwent a surgery and the right eye was removed. He is currently recuperating at the hospital. I called the police to inform them, and they said I should send a formal petition.

… The police and judicial systems are corrupt, inept and ineffective. Police officers are only interested in making money from petitions, not in fighting or preventing crimes. And the court system is slow and expensive. So in Nigeria police and court actions are used by criminally minded people to harass and intimidate others, and block access to justice particularly for the poor and less privileged…

These issues must be raised with the Nigerian authorities at the highest level. They should be kept on the front burner of international relations and human rights advocacy until the Nigerian authorities take appropriate actions. The Nigerian government must be made to understand that the international community is aware of the facts of this case. And that the world is outraged at the way they are handling it. The human rights community should join hands with the IHEU in bringing this disturbing trend to the attention of the world.

Leo’s full statement can be seen on Butterflies and Wheels.

I’ve been following Leo’s activism for some time. Back in 2005 I noted his role in debunking a “man raised from the dead” tale that was being touted by WorldNetDaily and some neo-Pentecostal churches; more recently, Leo has taken on followers of Helen Ukpabio, who promotes the idea that children can become “witches” who then harm other people – a year ago, I was proud to host a guest post by him on the subject. An event he organised to highlight the grim consequences of Ukpabio’s teaching was invaded by her followers, and he was handled roughly; Ukpabio also tried to sue him on the grounds that attacking her beliefs amounts to an infringement of her rights. Leo also advocates an end to the persecution of gay men and lesbians in Africa, and Peter Tatchell describes him as “a voice for reason, justice and compassion”. An overview of his opinions can be seen here.

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Robert Spencer has a post discussing SIOA’s relationship to John Joseph Jay. He acknowledges that Jay is a “member of the SIOA board”, but tells us that

Jay is, contrary to the hysterical claims that are circulating now, not a founder or co-founder of SIOA. He has no role in the running of the organization. And he does not advocate carte blanche killing of one’s liberal relatives, nor of Muslims.

Spencer asserts that Jay has been “misrepresented”, and he links to a lengthy and semi-coherent response by Jay himself. I suppose on reflection it is inaccurate to call Jay a “co-founder” of SIOA, despite my previous post’s headline; Geller and Spencer actually inherited SIOA from Kendra Adams a few months ago, and the articles of agreement on which Jay’s signature appears are for the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which runs SIOA, rather than for SIOA itself. But, curiously, while complaining about “hysterical claims”, neither Spencer nor Jay explain the actual reason why Jay appears on the document. This leaves the impression that they are dodging the main point.

As for Jay’s complaint of “misrepresentation”, he simply asserts that his views amount to self-defence. He ends with a birther flourish, accusing “Daisy Cutter” – who noted his link to SIOA and brought his writings to wider attention – of working

for the very man who promulgated the fraud on barack obama’s birth certificate.

Presumably this is a reference to the fact that she’s a diarist for the Daily Kos, which published Obama’s short-form birth certificate in 2008.

UPDATE: Jay’s background is as an attorney, and Geller confirms in an American Thinker article that he gave her advice about Rifqa Bary:

Now that Rifqa has turned eighteen, one of her lawyers, Kort Gatterdam, has done an interview with Tom Trento, an activist with the Florida Security Council. Trento has in turn sent around an e-mail raising funds on the name of Rifqa Bary and excoriating “so many friendly ‘arm-chair’ lawyers and bloggers who so viciously attacked their own side.” By “arm-chair lawyers,” Trento means my associate, the attorney John Jay, and by bloggers, he means me.

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UPDATE: See this entry.

A diarist at Daily Kos using the name “Daisy Cutter” has had a look over the articles of agreement of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which runs SIOA (Stop Islamization of America).  As expected, we see the signatures of Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, and Anders Gravers, but there is also a certain Richard Davis, and a certain John Joseph Jay.

“Daisy Cutter” notes John Joseph Jay’s Israel Insider reader page, which in turn leads us to his blog, Summer Patriot, Winter Soldier. The blog includes rambling and paranoid political diatribes, and murderous fantasies of political empowerment through violence:

if we are to excise the ruling class, it will be with violence.  they used violence to attain their privilege, they use it nakedly to attain their privilege, they use it nakedly in the form of the s.i.e.u. and black panther thugs in elective politics to maintain it, they contemplate relocation camps to preserve it, and they will violently resist and suppress any and all efforts to be removed from their privilege.

buy guns.  buy ammo.  be jealous of your liberties.  and, understand, you are going to have to kill folks, your uncles, your sons and daughters, to preserve those liberties.

And as for Muslims:

…every person in islam, from man to woman to child may be our executioner.

 … there is no innocence.  there are no innocent muslims.  islam is subject to killing on grounds of political expediency on the same basis as islam kills its victims, and islam cannot ethically and morally claim otherwise.

We can assume that Geller is fine with this, as his TypePad profile page shows he has expressed similar views in comments to her site; here’s a comment from 2008, following the Mumbai massacre:

 …islam has declared war on the west and its political and social institutions, and upon the two great religions which are the pillars of same… the left enables it, and indeed, encourages it as they see the declared aim of islm ot destroy the west congruent with their own goals.

…to me, the answer is simple.

they wage war on us, so we kill them, and we kill them in sufficient number and with sufficient purpose and zeal that it causes them to stop killing us, and then we should kill them a little bit more, just to drive the point home. by this i mean.–

our governments should not only declare war on “terrorism,” but on the states and societies that support it. we should declare war on iran, syria, egypt and saudi arabia, as well as libya and the sudan and somalia, and we should kill people by the scores. no science. no precision bombing. no shock and awe designed to “impress” and send “signals,” but old fashion war with wholesale slaughter including indiscriminate death of innocents and babes. down to the last muslim, if necessary.

in addition, private institutions and individuals should wage war on islamic terrorists. our domestic law should accord recognition to our inherent rights of self defense under natural law doctrines, those rights as recognized in the recent decision of the united states supreme court in upholding the individual’s right to keep and bear arms, and when a private individual feels justifiably threatened by a person reasonably identified as being a terrorist, or as aiding and abetting teh same by either fund raising or spouting pernicious silliness in support of terror, … , that private individual ought to be recognized under the law as exercising his rights under natural law in killing the same.

finally, our religious leaders, such as the pope, and the recognized spokesmen of the great religions and affiliations of the world, ought to lend their sanction and approval to both governmental and private killing of identified terrorists, or their aiders and abetters. this is not unprecedented in the religions of the world: during the crusades papal bulls were issued justifying the faithful of christianity in killing muslims or those who attacked the faith. the pope should issue such bulls, the leaders of the world religions should follow suit, and those who feel constrained by matters of faith to not kill should be released of religious duty, and authorized to defend themselves, their religions, and their civilization.

He also calls for the deportation of all “muslims/arabs” from the USA; presumably that was written in a comparatively liberal mood.

Richard Davis, meanwhile, is probably Rich Davis of the Chester County Victory Movement, which counter-protests anti-war protests and holds rallies.

A few months ago, SIOA diassociated itself from the Christian Action Network because of Martin Mawyer’s coarse anti-gay screeds (or more accurately, because his homophobia became widely reported and embarrassed Gert Wilders).

UPDATE: CAIR draws attention to a detail I overlooked, from Jay’s Israel Insider page: Jay describes “rabbi meir kahna” as one of his “heroes and inspirations in life”. This is an obvious reference to Meir Kahane, the late Israeli far-rightist who is regarded in Israel as having been a racist. Followers of Kahane have been involved in various terrorist acts and threats of violence, mostly against Palestinians but also against certain Jewish organisations and Israeli officials of whom they disapprove.

(Hat tips: Loonwatch; Spencer Watch)

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Jamal Jivanjee, one of the pastors close to Rifqa Bary in Ohio, has made a Facebook posting entitled “4 Vital & Hidden Truths that Rifqa Bary’s Situation Revealed“. Number 4 in this list is of particular interest, although tantalisingly vague (his weird spellings of “Islm” and “Muslms” appear to be deliberate):

4. Former Muslms who leave Islm need to be protected from being exploited from the corrupt ‘underbelly’ of the Right Wing political movement.

Several months ago, I was asked to look into some potential unethical behavior going on behind the scenes regarding Rifqa’s situation. Without getting into details at this point, I discovered some things that were absolutely unethical and needed to be addressed. (Note: I am not talking about what I perceived as bad motives, I am talking about clear and specific unethical behavior). I confronted the parties involved and nothing was settled. I did not speak openly about the specifics of these things, but I was clear to Rifqa’s inner circle what I found. Understandably, Rifqa was told not to speak to me anymore because I did not understand the case and was causing problems. What Rifqa’s case revealed in this situation however is the need for people in her situation to be protected from a highly charged political culture in which the specific types of unethical behavior that I discovered is unfortunately a way of life.

People who leave Islm to follow Jesus are enigmas in our western culture, and it is easy for them to be corrupted or used for personal gain in unethical ways. These allegations that I have made have been hurtful to many people and have caused much division. It has cost me relationally as well, and I’m sure will continue to do so. There may even be some legal ramifications for myself because of some of the things that I am asserting. At this point, I am prepared to stand behind what I am implying if need be. I am convinced that Rifqa’s life and her case have been used to reveal many hidden things, and this is certainly one of them. While there is nothing in me that takes pleasure in saying these things, I have learned that when the truth is silenced for the sake of keeping ‘peace’, lies prevail…

No names are given, although this could be a dig at John Stemberger of the Florida Family Policy Council; Stemberger represented Bary in Florida, and in April he publicly cautioned that “Jamal Javanjee and Pamela Geller are not trusted or accurate sources of information on Rifqa Bary”. Geller’s blog carried information provided by Jivanjee in May, so it’s unlikely he means her – even though Geller and Robert Spencer are the members of “the Right Wing political movment” with whom he has been most closely associated.

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