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July 21, 2010

Home Renovations DIY

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Colin Jones @ 6:03 am

It seems that there has been a drop in consumer trust in the building and construction industry of late. This may be because of the scams shown on television or the bribery and corruption endemic in the corporate sector, but it is almost certainly the same motivation why so many are now doing home improvements by themselves.

And why shouldn’t they? A little knowledge of the technical aspects together with with an eye for creativity is often enough to complete the home improvement on your own.

Why are people turning to do-it-yourself home improvements?

There are many people trying to pass themselves off as construction workers, although they do not have a lot of experience in construction or home maintenance and they are literally are out there right now practising, learning their trades on homes like yours and mine across the country.

As a result, homeowners are finding that the jobs are not being finished to their liking. At times they are even pre-paying for services that do not get done or were not part of the arrangement.

You do not have to trust and pay someone to enhance your home. Why not have a go yourself?

You can augment your home?s existing concrete surfaces using acid stains, acrylic paints, epoxy paints, and scoring techniques.

If you are tired of looking at drab gray concrete, there are some easy projects if you are sincere about having a go at home improvement DIY, you can easily give your patio, driveway or garage a revitalizing new look.

Attractive concrete work costs about double that of standard concrete, which is why many people cannot afford it.

However, there are inexpensive methods to beautify concrete after it has cured, without having to pay skilled tradesmen.

Acid-based concrete stains are becoming more and more popular for coloring concrete surfaces. They chemically react with the cement to generate permanent color with a variegated or mottled appearance like that of marble. This results in a natural, stylish looking surface.

Water-based concrete stains are an alternative to acid stains but are much more user friendly because they are so much less dangerous. These stains do not chemically react with the concrete; they are absorbed into the porous surface and act like a dye. The big benefit of water based stains is the wide array of colors available.

If you want to venture beyond the basic staining of your concrete, think about using some scoring techniques to create patterns on the surface.

You could make your concrete look like a tiled floor for instance. It is just up to your imagination. A mini angle grinder with a 4 inch grinding wheel is the ideal tool for this.

The key thing to remember when scoring is to trace out the pattern on the concrete first and ensure you are happy with the way it looks because scoring is irreversible.

Epoxy paints make an excellent coating for garage floors and cellar floors. Many industrial floors have epoxy coatings because of their hardiness and resilience to chemical spills as well as their appearance.

In recent years, however, it has become very popular for residential use with the availability of an growing number of different colors. This is not a complicated job, but the key to successful application is surface preparation.

Epoxy paints have also become available in a water based form making it safe for the DIY’er and perfect for indoor jobs. They cost a little more than stains. For a 400 square foot area, you’ll spend about $200 for the materials required for this project.

So, you see? You do not have to spend big money to improve your home. You have the ability to do it yourself. With a few instructions and a little bit of work, anyone can turn dull concrete into a work of art of their own.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on several subjects, but is currently involved with Flowtron Bug Zapper devices. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Indoor Bug Zapper

July 17, 2010

Human Monitored Home And Business Alarms

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 4:41 am

Many Americans are just starting to realize that advanced security measures are not only for the very rich. You just cannot get too much security for yourself and your family or your employees. The problems in society are getting worse too, not better. The current recession is hitting hard and splitting society even more into the have and have-nots, the working and the not-working.

However, these days burglars do not seek out the very wealthy, because they have all the protection that money can buy. The people most likely to be robbed and burgled are the working middle classes. They get robbed when they are at work and the kids are at school or when they are sleeping in their beds.

This is why it is essential to have the best automated security you can afford taking care of your home and family twenty-four hours a day. But it is not only your home, your business and workers deserve security as well. How many gun-toting lunatics have shot their colleagues dead in the last few years?

Not many firms can afford security personnel but you could get the next best thing, which is electronically monitored surveillance. There are various types of system available and most are flexible enough to be adaptable to any building. You could then monitor the system yourself during working hours by having a screen in the office or your home and send the signal to a security firm at other times of the day, at weekends and at night.

If you adopt this kind of system, you will be placing your home or office in the top echelon of secured properties and professional burglars will realize it and stay away from you and yours. Most people resent the monitoring fees, but the system falls down, if no-one is watching the image relayed by the cameras. You could try to reduce this cost by monitoring the images yourself for part of the day and relaying the image to professionals when you are unavailable. You could also ask your insurance company for a discount and ask your accountant to put the expense down against your taxes.

The good thing about a monitored system is that you know that help is at hand twenty-four hours every day. You may be living alone or prone to fits or a heart attack. You could get almost instant help in these instances by pressing the panic alarm. These panic buttons can be placed at the front and back door, in every room in the house or you could have a radio button on a necklace around your neck. These systems are quite common and are used by many care centres for the elderly or the infirm.

You will probably have to do some arithmetic to work out whether you need or can afford a monitored home security system, but there is no doubt that it is the most secure system available. However, not all home security monitoring companies are the same, so it is worth checking up with friends or with the companies’ governing body or even the local council to see if they have a good reputation.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with home security systems comparison. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

July 11, 2010

Losing Belly Fat By Dieting

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 5:08 am

The method of getting rid of the unsightly and potentially dangerous fat deposit around the waist cannot be undertaken seriously without a satisfactory belly fat diet, because the process has to start with a good diet, if it is going to work. You must have the right mental approach too, but it is not enough on its own.

You need to analyze your eating habits carefully, identify the good and bad foods that assist or impede the weight loss process and eliminate the bad ones. There are many options of belly fat diets available online and most of them stress the importance of sticking to a low-calorie routine.

Everyone knows these days that wholemeal, unprocessed or brown grains, seeds, certain vegetables, fruits, lean meat and fish should be the main ingredients of any diet and it is the same for a belly fat diet too. Another useful approach to use against that stubborn layer of fat around the waist is the use of good fats or oils in your cooking and the best examples here are olive oil, soy and flax oil as well as monounsaturated fats from avocado pears and seeds. Nutrients like these control the appetite, meaning that they reduce the pangs of hunger by producing a feeling of satiety.

One advantage of a belly fat diet is that it creates excellent benefits for the whole digestive system, which means that constipation and bloating will be eliminated, thereby permitting your body to purge itself of toxins. Toxins can also be flushed away more easily if you drink plenty of water, fruit juice and green tea for instance.

Furthermore, a good night’s sleep of approximately eight hour’s sleep, together with moderate physical exercise will encourage the effectiveness of any belly fat diet that you may choose.

Some of the belly fat diets offer suggestions for different breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks, so that the dieter does not have to count calories – a sort of pick-n-mix approach. But it is far better to find lists of foodstuffs with portion sizes and their calorie count, so that you have enough flexibility to enjoy a wider variety of food.

It is not important for this article, which line of attack you want to take: high fibre, low carbohydrate, high protein, vegetarian, or fruit only, it is always a good idea for you be conscious of what you are putting on your table, because this will enable you to make a clearer identification of what works and what does not work for the loss of belly fat in your own individual case.

The chief objective of any belly fat diet is to burn more calories than you consume. If you do not accomplish this, no positive results will appear even after all the dietary changes you have implemented.

Whether you decide to go for calorie control or you would rather continue with a slightly adjusted form of your normal diet combined with more physical exercise, it is up to you, but you have to make certain that you avoid any dangers and excesses of any kind and try to take a central-course approach to weight loss, so that you might enjoy your accomplishments in a fit condition.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with losing weight quickly. If you have an interest in losing weight, too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

The Importance Of Home Security

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 4:02 am

People have always tried to protect themselves and their families, just like most animals do. In very early days, cavemen protected their caves by setting fires outside the opening to discourage interlopers and wild animals. Later on, man learned how to augment his security by training dogs to safeguard him and his family. Later still, houses and then doors were invented; bars and locks arrived soon after that.

However, until a few decades ago in the west, people lived in extended large families. A family could consist of six-to-ten children and the mother and the grandmother would often live there too. This made home security systems extraneous from the early 18th Century to the 1930’s, which were fairly peaceful times. After the Second World War, families were not so large and new families got their own house away from their parents.

Nowadays, both parents are likely to be working and the children are almost certainly at school. This means that many houses are left unoccupied during the day, making them easy plunder for burglars. In fact, the number of household burglaries has risen by almost 10% in the last five years according to American government figures. Furthermore, according to a survey, forty percent of home burglaries were carried out due to inappropriate locks and doors.

ANSI (American National Standard Institute) produced a standard for deadbolt locks for exterior doors which is very difficult to beat. If you are worried about your exterior doors, you should seek these ANSI deadbolts out, but be careful, there are many copies. However, regardless of the kind of lock, the quality of the door is just as crucial. Its thickness and composition can also be a deterrent. After all, why put an expensive deadbolt on a door made of cardboard?

There are about 14,000,000 home burglaries every year in the United States and many of them are preventable. The first stage that you should achieve in home security is well-built doors and sturdy locks. Deadbolts on exit doors is a good idea.

Once you have completed that, get some exterior security lighting that reacts to either motion or body heat. The former type are microwave and the latter passive infra red sensors. These sensors will also contain a daylight sensor so that they will only become active at night. The sensors will also save you money by activating the powerful halogen floodlights only when someone enters the scope of the sensor’s beam.

Once you have done that, you ought to think about a home security alarm system. This should include contact sensors on all exterior doors and windows, vibration sensors on all widows to alarm you in case of breakage and PIR or microwave motion sensors in the corridors and hallways.

Then, if you want to go even further in your home security system, you can fit surveillance cameras on each exterior wall of the house and maybe one in the interior too. You do not have to take all these precautionary measures at once, if you are short of cash, but they should be taken in that sequence.

Owen Jones, the author of this writer, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with home security systems comparison. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

Automated Home Security

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 3:47 am

These days people are becoming more concerned about their home security, chiefly because of the increasing crime rate. Even homes that have an older security system should be checked to see whether their security system is out of date or acceptable.

It is not so much that an older system may stop working, but technology advances very quickly and your sensors may not be the best variety or even the variety that suit your home the best.

The kind of security system that you should be using can change as the constituent members of your family changes. For example, if you have just had a baby, you could hook up a surveillance camera to the bedroom or put a motion sensor pointing along side a toddler’s bed so that you know if he or she gets up out of bed.

There are many varieties of security systems, including wired, wireless, monitored and Internet. The Internet wireless system is or at least can be fully automated.

That means that you can control it through the hand set or any online device like a laptop or desktop computer. This means that you can check up on your home from your office or when you are away on holiday.

If surveillance cameras are part of your home security system, then you will be able to see and check up on your home on your computer monitor from anywhere in the world. If you connect sensors to some table lamps around your house, you will even be able to turn lights on and off to make it look as if you are at home when you are in fact hundreds of miles away. Put the TV on such a sensor and you can even switch that on and off as well.

If you put a surveillance camera in your children’s bedrooms and the living room, you could check up on the baby sitter or your business cash register on your WAP enabled mobile phone or PDA. This type of automated can be fitted by a competent DIYer, but is intended to be installed by professionals.

This type of automated system is very reassuring. Visualize being able to check up on your home, children or business by watching live video footage on any computer or Internet phone anywhere in the world!

An automated security system is not cheap, but is worth the peace of mind that it brings. You could get near total automated home or business security by the end of next week. Pay for it over time, if you have too, but they are not as costly as you may imagine

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with home security systems comparison. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

July 8, 2010

Saint Croix Of The US Virgin Islands

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 4:11 am

Saint Croix is the biggest of the US Virgin Islands although the capital city, Charlotte Amelie, is located on St Thomas. Saint Croix itself has two towns Frederiksted (pop. 830) and Christiansted (pop. 3,000). The name of the island comes from the earlier Spanish name given by Christopher Columbus in 1493 – Santa Cruz or ‘Holy Cross’. As Santa Cruz, Saint Croix gets a lot of mention in swashbuckling stories of pirates and buccaneers sailing on the Spanish Main.

The populace before the Europeans arrived was Arawak and Carib and they had probably been there since about 5000 BC. After 1493 the population of the Caribbean became embroiled in a 100 years war with the Spanish and the kind of people living on the island changed forever.

Saint Croix has been owned and therefore predominantly occupied by the Spanish, The British, the French, the Dutch, the Maltese and the Danish all of whom had slaves and plantations

The slaves were manumitted in 1848, but many decided to remain on Saint Croix. Descendants of slaves still live on the island. The total populace of the island is now about 60,000.

English is the official language and is the most commonly spoken, although there is also some Spanish, French Creole and Virgin islands Creole, better known as Crucian, which is spoken by most inhabitants in informal situations.

This Hispanic segment of the Crucian populace is mostly of Puerto Rican lineage. The US bought Vieques from Puerto Rico during the Second World War and evicted its inhabitants. Many moved to St Croix because of its similarity to Vieques. These people have integrated well, but also kept a few of their old customs. They usually speak a mixture of Spanish and Crucian English in a distinctive form of Spanglish.

Continental Americans make up about 13% of the inhabitants and mostly live on the eastern side of St Croix. Arab Palestinians are also a sizeable minority owning most of the petrol stations and supermarkets on St Croix. Other modern immigrants have moved from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the Philippines.

There has been some tension between immigrants and those calling themselves ‘real Crucians’, but it has largely disappeared due to intermarriage. There have been attempts to define a ‘real Crucian’.

The issue seems to have been sorted out when in 2009, the proposed U.S. Virgin Islands Constitution voted by the Fifth Constitutional Convention laid down three definitions of U.S. Virgin Islanders: “Ancestral Native Virgin Islander”, who have ancestral ties (and their descendants); “Native Virgin Islander”, who were born on the island (and their descendants); and “Virgin Islander”, who are any United States citizen who has lived in the region for five years.

Christianity, in the guise of Protestantism is the main religion, although the Hispanic community is Roman Catholic. There are also small groups of Jews and followers of Rastafari, Islam.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with St Croix Virgin Islands. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

June 21, 2010

Choosing Perfume For Yourself

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 3:24 am

Most people use of one kind or another, whether its function is to mask potential body odour or just for fun. When I say ‘fun’, I mean ‘pleasure’ or to be a magnet for admirers, whether you intend to do anything about them or not. There are literally thousands of scents to pick from and they are priced from cheap to exorbitantly expensive. So, when there are so many choices, how do you know which ones are right for you?

There are a few rules of thumb that you can use as guiding principles to help you choose which scent is appropriate for you. Firstly, you will have to know a little about the basic varieties of scent on hand, before you can find out which brand of perfume will suit you the best.

So, you can start by taking a look at the ingredients on the box. From these ingredients you can determine what type of fragrance is in the bottle. The basic types of scent are: light musk, natural fragrance, loud heady scent, floral scent, warm fragrance, bright cheerful scent and a few others.

You could get a small note book and make notes when you trial perfumes in various department stores. Perhaps you will find musk too overpowering for you or perhaps you do not want to smell like a garden flower. It is all very individual and personal. No one can say that you are right or wrong.

One’s body chemistry plays a huge part in why a scent will smell lovely on your friend, but not so good on you. It is just a fact, that you cannot go by what smells good on someone else.

Scents that are manufactured from natural substances such as flowers, herbs or spices and even fruit tend to smell warm and soft. Examples of this type or fragrance are gardenia and lily of the valley. Musk, however, may be made to produce a light bouquet that lingers softly around you, but it can be strong and heady too.

You may find that you like a perfume, but that it is just too overwhelming for you. If that is the situation, you may be able to get it in Eau de Cologne or Toilet Water, which are weaker in concentration. Other than that, you could use less or dab it on the underneath of your clothing where it might not be subject to so much body heat and so will not disperse quite so quickly.

If you go about selecting the right perfume for yourself methodically, it could take quite some time to come across something that is ‘Essence De You’, but it is well worth it. What is a year, when you can wear the for forty years? This is why I suggested getting a little note pad to put in your bag before doing the rounds of the free trial counters in the department stores.

The salesgirls won’t mind, they will be pleased to show off their knowledge and be delighted that someone is taking a real interest in their merchandise. Then, once you have one, you could start all over again, if you enjoyed finding the first , but next time you will have a notebook full of suggestions.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with men’s perfume. If you have an interest in romantic gifts, please go over to our website now at Romantic Gifts: Ideas

June 20, 2010

How To Invest In Gold

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 5:12 am

A very diversified investment portfolio has a small space for a position in gold. Some people think that investing in gold means holding gold coins, usually South African Kruger Rands, which are one troy ounce in weight. Other speculators purchase gold futures on the commodity exchange.

However, futures contracts are extremely precarious because you are betting that the price of gold will rise or fall in the future. The contract itself takes a fairly small up front payment, but you will have to put up guarantees called margin to take care of daily changes in cost.

The reason investors are attracted to gold at the moment is because often in the past, when the stock market is down, the gold market is up. Weakness in the dollar frequently brings a surge in the price of gold too.

Another route to investing in gold is through stocks and precious metal funds, which can be bought through a stock broker. However, you will need to select your adviser very cautiously, because this field of investing takes highly expert expertise.

The subsequent suggestions are meant as examples only as you will want up-to-the-minute information, if you are considering investing in stocks, shares and funds. One of the names that will crop up in any investigation is Agnico-Eagle Mines, which trades on the NYSE and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker AEM. They have 30+ year history in the mining of gold and In that time, they have produced 4,000,000+ ounces of gold.

Gold has made massive profits for investors in gold since the late 1970’s. However, the secret to making money from gold is knowledge of the different resistance points in the price and the evaluation of the worldwide market for the use of gold. It is used principally in jewellery and electronics and some other kinds of manufacturing.

The biggest markets for gold jewellery is India and other Eastern countries. China’s new-found prosperity is also having an effect on the markets, although manufacturing is still of prime importance there.

You will have to have a good stockbroker or consultant, because the gold market is so complex. If you are investing in gold as a hedge against a vulnerable dollar, you are taking huge risks and you will have to to look for any strengthening in the dollar like a hawk. A fairly shrewd tactic is to set yourself reasonable goals. For instance, are you content with a 10% profit or are you going to hang out for a 25% gain?

Gold can be affected by seasonal events. Check out when people in India get married. It is seasonal and around Christmas time. Then St. Valentine’s Day is a realistic influence too, but you or your adviser will have to examine the trends and the graphs.

You can get into gold mining stocks for fairly small money, but it is not the cost of the share certificate that is important, it is the yield on those shares. Be on your guard with small mining companies, because the expenses of exploration are ruinous. Likewise, profits on hitting a big seam would be wonderful for a small company.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with Clogau Welsh gold. If you have an interest in wedding rings too, please go to our website now at White Gold Claddagh Ring

June 19, 2010

Home Theater Set-Up And First Rate Speakers

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 4:28 am

Home theaters are very popular in the West now for many reasons, but partly due to the recession. However, I predict that after the recession is over, home theaters will take off like a rocket. In my estimation, this is because, the slump has forced people to examine their spending, which usually means cutting back. Going out, eating out and movies are all in the front line of these cuts. However, the slump is upsetting and people have to get some enjoyment from somewhere.

In the medium to long term, it is cheaper to put together a home theater for a family than take them to a real movie theater every week. Taking a family of four to the movies costs $50-$100, whereas a modest home theater might cost $1,000. It does not take long to recoup those costs. And it saves you the bother of travelling there and back, the noise and cell phones during the film and high prices for candy and snacks.

OK, maybe people at the moment are buying cheap packages of home theaters, but one of the first things they will change when they get a bit of money again will be the speakers, I bet. Evidently, you need a good quality, large screen, but after that, it is the sound and the barrier to good sound is usually poor speakers.

The most important factor in the design of your home theater is the dimensions of your room. If the room is small, you will not require so many speakers. Perhaps three speakers will be enough, if the room is small. However, if you only need three speakers and a sub-woofer, get good ones.

If you have a bigger room however, the basic three home theater speakers may not be enough. You may need to put up to six speakers and a sub-woofer around the room. The position of these speakers is up to you and can depend on the shape or and size of the room anyway, but typical layouts are:

3.1 system: one speaker to the left of the screen, one to the right and one underneath it. You can put the sub-woofer on top of the central speaker or at the back of the room. Try it and see.

5.1 system: as 3.1, but with two speakers at the back of the room too.

6.1 system: as 5.1, but with another speaker between the rear speakers, as in the front.

7.1 system: as 6.1, but with two speakers central rear, slightly away from each other. You can move the existing rear speakers a little to the sides too.

This set-up requires a lot of wires as you can envisage. Now, you could staple the wires to the skirting board, but you should only do that after you are dead sure that you have the speakers in the right positions. Or you could hang the speakers on the walls. However, although that sounds good for music, it does not always sound all right for a movie.

The best option is wireless speakers. Wireless speakers can be moved around to suit the number of people watching the film or moved out for cleaning or redecorating purposes. You do not want to bash your nice, new, expensive speakers with the vacuum cleaner, do you?

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with wireless home theater systems. If you are interested in a Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site now.

June 10, 2010

Finding Adults Only All Inclusive Resorts

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 7:43 am

There are a few possibilities when talking about going to an adults only all-inclusive resort. Most all-inclusive resorts were intended for families with young children, however there are an increasing quantity of adult only all-inclusive resorts.

However, there are also adult only and family nude all-inclusive resorts, especially in Europe and Australia. If you are searching for a nude adult only all-inclusive resort for your vacation, you will probably have to go abroad to places like Greece, Italy, the old Yugoslavia area or Australia.

Most people in the USA, the UK and northern Europe would find sharing a nudist beach with children awkward in these ultra-PC days, but nudist beaches for adults only can be good fun. It is best not to be shy, however some people find it helps to visit a nudist beach alone while others feel more at ease in the company of adult friends. Couples often find adult only nudist beaches exotic, erotic and romantic.

Finding adults only all-inclusive resorts is not difficult with the power of a search engine and the Internet at hand. However, if you want to try nudist adults only all inclusive resorts in the USA, it could be tricky. This is because nudity is a contentious topic in the USA.

If, however ‘by adult only’, you only mean to imply over twenty-one year olds only, then you will have a lot more success. There are hundreds of non-nudist adults only all-inclusive resorts, hotels and cruises around the United States, Hawaii, the US Virgin Islands and everywhere else in the Caribbean.

Adult only all-inclusive cruises are very popular. Cruising is not especially suited to children. There is not enough room and they can get into severe danger or even drop overboard unnoticed until it is too late. Adult only all-inclusive resorts are excellent, if you like staying in a chalet or cabin.

In between these two limits of fine living on the all-inclusive vacations front are the all-inclusive hotels. Plenty of hotels, but far fewer resorts, do put age restrictions on who can reside there. The Club style holidays are good examples; ‘Club 18-30′ is well-known, but not all of its venues are all-inclusive.

If you are still thinking about nude adult only all-inclusive resorts, you might find it simpler to unearth a selection of topless beaches. These are two a penny in Europe and elsewhere, but in the united States and the some of the Caribbean, you may be able to join a private beach that allows this style of costume.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with St Croix Virgin Islands. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

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