Tuesday, August 09, 2022

Serena Williams To Retire From Tennis!

Serena Williams will retire from professional tennis.

One of the world's greatest tennis players is retiring.

Serena Williams wrote in Vogue that after she plays the U.S. Open, she will retire from the game. The 40-year old is an all-time great. Serena will walk away from the sport with 23 Grand Slam titles – the most in the Open Era and second most all-time behind Margaret Court. She will get one more chance to tie the court’s record. She lost in the first round of Wimbledon earlier in the summer.

"I’ve been reluctant to admit to myself or anyone else that I have to move on from playing tennis. Alexis, my husband, and I have hardly talked about it; it’s like a taboo topic," Williams wrote in Vogue.

"I can’t even have this conversation with my mom and dad. It’s like it’s not real until you say it out loud. It comes up, I get an uncomfortable lump in my throat, and I start to cry. The only person I’ve really gone there with is my therapist! One thing I’m not going to do is sugarcoat this. I know that a lot of people are excited about and look forward to retiring, and I really wish I felt that way.

Williams admitted in the essay that there was no "happiness" in making the announcement, but she was ready for "what’s next."

"There is no happiness in this topic for me," she wrote. "I know it’s not the usual thing to say, but I feel a great deal of pain. It’s the hardest thing that I could ever imagine. I hate it. I hate that I have to be at this crossroads. I keep saying to myself, I wish it could be easy for me, but it’s not. I’m torn: I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next."

Of the record, Williams wrote she’d be "lying" if she didn’t say she wanted to get to court’s record.

"I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that record. Obviously I do. But day to day, I’m really not thinking about her. If I’m in a grand slam final, then yes, I am thinking about that record. Maybe I thought about it too much, and that didn’t help. The way I see it, I should have had 30-plus grand slams," she added.

But she wrote that after all the things she went through in and after childbirth, she would choose building her family over building her tennis resume.

Williams sought the advice of Tiger Woods, who has tried to play through the back end of his career in the middle of recovering from a severe leg injury. She said Woods told her, "Serena, what if you just gave it two weeks? You don’t have to commit to anything. You just go out on the court every day for two weeks and give it your all and see what happens,"

Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian with daughter Alexis Ohanian, Jr.

Williams wrote she gave it a month before picking up a racket again and eventually made it back to Wimbledon.

"Unfortunately I wasn’t ready to win Wimbledon this year. And I don’t know if I will be ready to win New York. But I’m going to try," Williams wrote. "And the lead-up tournaments will be fun. I know there’s a fan fantasy that I might have tied Margaret that day in London, then maybe beat her record in New York, and then at the trophy ceremony say, ‘See ya!’ I get that. It’s a good fantasy. But I’m not looking for some ceremonial, final on-court moment. I’m terrible at goodbyes, the world’s worst. But please know that I am more grateful for you than I can ever express in words. You have carried me to so many wins and so many trophies. I’m going to miss that version of me, that girl who played tennis. And I’m going to miss you."

The U.S. Open is set to begin on Aug. 29 and end on Sept. 11.

Williams was born in 1981, in Saginaw, Michigan to Oracene Price and Richard Williams. She is the youngest of Price's five daughters: half-sisters Yetunde, Lyndrea, and Isha Price, and full older sister Venus. She also has at least seven paternal half-siblings. When the children were young, the family moved to Compton, California, where she started playing tennis at age four.

Along with her older sister Venus, Serena Williams was coached by her parents. Turning professional in 1995, she won her first major singles title at the 1999 US Open. From the 2002 French Open to the 2003 Australian Open, she was dominant, winning all four major singles titles (each time over Venus in the final) to achieve a non-calendar year Grand Slam and the career Grand Slam, known as the "Serena Slam". The next few years saw her claim two more singles majors, but suffer from injury and decline in form. Beginning in 2007, however, she gradually returned to form despite continued injuries, retaking the world No. 1 singles ranking. Beginning at the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, Williams returned to dominance, claiming Olympic gold and becoming the first tennis player to achieve a Career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles. She won eight out of thirteen singles majors, including all four in a row from 2014–15 to achieve a second "Serena Slam". At the 2017 Australian Open, she won her 23rd major singles title, surpassing Steffi Graf's Open Era record. She then took a break from professional tennis after becoming pregnant, and has reached four major finals since returning to play.

Williams has also won 14 major women's doubles titles, all with her sister Venus, and the pair are unbeaten in Grand Slam doubles finals. This includes a non-calendar year Grand Slam between the 2009 Wimbledon Championships and the 2010 French Open, which granted the sisters the doubles world No. 1 ranking. She has won four Olympic gold medals, three in women's doubles — an all-time joint record shared with her sister. She has also won two major mixed doubles titles, both in 1998.

Serena and Venus are two of the greatest tennis players of all-time.

Williams is widely considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. The arrival of the Williams sisters has been credited with ushering in a new era of power and athleticism on the women's professional tennis tour. Serena holds the most combined major titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles among active players, with 39: 23 in singles, 14 in women's doubles, and two in mixed doubles. She is joint-third on the all-time list and second in the Open Era for total major titles. She is the most recent woman to simultaneously hold all four major singles titles (2002–03 and 2014–15), and the most recent woman to win the Surface Slam (major titles on hard, clay and grass courts in the same calendar year), doing so in 2015. She is also, with Venus, the most recent player to have simultaneously held all four major women's doubles titles (2009–10).

Williams was the world's highest paid woman athlete in 2016, earning almost $29 million. She repeated this feat in 2017 when she was the only woman on Forbes' list of the 100 highest-paid athletes, with $27 million in prize money and endorsements. She has won the Laureus Sportswoman of the Year award four times (2003, 2010, 2016, 2018), and in December 2015 was named Sportsperson of the Year by Sports Illustrated magazine. In 2021, she was ranked 28th on Forbes' World's Highest-Paid Athletes list. She is the highest-earning woman athlete of all time.

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Not Looking Good!

Graphic image of Anne Heche emerging from a gurney.

Be warned the video is graphic.

When Anne Heche crashed her vehicle into a house in Los Angeles, she was severely burned. The Los Angeles Fire Department was covering her in a burn blanket. As she was placed on a gurney, Heche emerged from it trying to escape.

Again, the video is graphic.

The 53-year old entertainer was driving her vehicle and it crashed into a garage. She left the scene of the accident and sped through a neighborhood before the crash.

The vehicle hit a home and the vehicle caught on fire. From witness reports, Heche was still in the vehicle trying to drive it.

Earlier junk food media reports stated she was in stable condition. I surely didn't believe that. My earlier post stated she is in dire straits. When I said it, I meant that she is expected to pass away at any given time.

Preparing for the end.

Well the AP has reported that she is in a coma in extreme critical condition. That means if they declare her brain dead, she has passed away from the burn injuries.

Heche “has a significant pulmonary injury requiring mechanical ventilation and burns that require surgical intervention. She is in a coma and has not regained consciousness since shortly after the accident,” her spokesperson said in a statement to the press.

Monday’s description of her condition is worse than previously reported. A friend and podcast partner of Heche’s, Heather Duffy Boylston, told The Associated Press on Saturday that the actor was in stable condition following the fiery incident.

While everyone was talking Heche, there was a fatal accident in South Los Angeles.

Six people were killed when a nurse under the influence crashed her vehicle into three vehicles and a gas station setting off a fire. The suspect is facing murder charges and vehicular homicide. The charges carry LIFE in the iron college if convicted.

The crash involved six to seven vehicles, three of which caught on fire, and took place at the busy intersection of South La Brea Avenue and Slauson Avenue in the Windsor Hills area.

A pregnant woman and her unborn fetus, an infant child, and two other adults were killed in the crash and the fire that ensued. 

Officials believe that a Mercedes-Benz traveling at a high rate of speed ran a red light and started the crash.

LAPD investigators.

The suspect, 37, who they said was driving the speeding Mercedes-Benz that smashed through traffic at the intersection of La Brea and Slauson avenues. The suspect is currently in the hospital and is cooperating with California Highway Patrol investigators, sources said.

The news of her arrest came as the medical examiner released the name of the pregnant woman who died, Asherey Ryan, 23.

Ryan, her boyfriend, their 1-year old son, her unborn fetus and three others were killed.

The suspect originally from Houston, allegedly under the influence tried to commit suicide and wanted to take others with her. 

Suspect held without a get out free card.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office released the following statement Friday afternoon:

"My heart goes out to the families that lost loved ones in the horrific car collision that occurred yesterday in Windsor Hills. This incredible tragedy has sent shockwaves throughout Los Angeles and the loss of so many precious lives will have a lasting impact on those that are closest to them.Our office is in close contact with the lead law enforcement agency investigating. A prosecutor has already been assigned and will be working with law enforcement throughout the weekend. We will provide updates as more information becomes available. The case could be presented to us as early as Monday."

The suspect is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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Monday, August 08, 2022

Olivia Newton-John Passed Away!

Olivia Newton-John passed away from breast cancer.

Australian-American actress, singer, model Olivia Newton-John passed away at the age of 73.

Her family confirmed that she had passed away from breast cancer. The singer made her biggest pop success when she and John Travolta were starring in the 1970s movie Grease.

"Dame Olivia Newton-John passed away peacefully at her ranch in Southern California this morning surround by family and friends. We ask that everyone please respect the family's privacy during this very difficult time," said John Easterling. He wrote on her official social media page that confirmed the entertainer's passing. "Olivia has been a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer."

The entertainer revealed in 2018 that she was being treated for cancer at the base of her spine. It was her third cancer diagnosis. 

Born in Cambridge, England in 1948, Olivia moved at the age of five to Melbourne, Victoria in Australia, Olivia won a singing contest and began learning the tricks of the trade in her teen years.

She had started appearing on weekly pop music programs in Australia.

From 1973-83, Newton-John was among the world’s most popular entertainers. She had 14 top 10 singles just in the U.S., won four Grammys, starred with John Travolta in “Grease” and with Gene Kelly in “Xanadu.” The fast-stepping Travolta-Newton-John duet, “You’re the One That I Want,” was one of the era’s biggest songs and has sold more than 15 million copies.

“My dearest Olivia, you made all of our lives so much better,” Travolta wrote in an online post. “Your impact was incredible. I love you so much. We will see you down the road and we will all be together again. Yours from the moment I saw you and forever! Your Danny, your John!”

“Physical,” the bouncy, R-rated smash released in 1981, was No. 1 for 10 weeks and was named Billboard’s song of the year despite being banned by some radio stations. An aerobics-friendly promotional clip, filmed in the early years of MTV, won a Grammy for best video.

Both musically and image-wise, she reinvented herself during those years. The blonde, ever-smiling Newton-John initially favored mild pop-country songs such as “Please Mr. Please” and “Have You Never Been Mellow” and soft-breathing ballads like “I Honestly Love You,” which in 1975 won Grammys for best female pop vocal and record of the year. But she picked up the tempo in “Grease,” especially after Sandy ditched her white sweaters and blouses for waist-high, black leather pants. “Physical” even made Newton-John blush as she told her would-be lover “There’s nothing left to talk about/Unless it’s horizontally” and finally called out “Let’s get animal! Animal!”

“I recorded it and then suddenly thought, ‘Goodness, maybe I’ve gone too far!’” she told Entertainment Weekly in 2017, recalling how the song had been suggested by manager Roger Davies. “I called Roger and said, ‘We’ve got to pull this song!’ He said, ‘It’s too late. It’s already gone to radio and it’s running up the charts.’ I was horrified!”

Fans flooded social media to mourn her death. “Farewell with love to the legend who will forever be my first crush,” wrote actor Daniel Dae Kim. Added Tracie Thoms: “Olivia Newton-John is an icon. We will miss her dearly.” Gabrielle Union said she and her sister watched “Xanadu” “more times than I could count.”

Olivia will be best known for her role as Sandy in the film Grease.

She had a few hits after “Physical,” but her career declined and Newton-John became more likely to make news because of her private life. In 1992, as she was preparing a concert tour, her father died and she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her marriage to actor Matt Lattanzi, with whom she had a daughter, actor-singer Chloe Lattanzi, broke up in 1995 and a years-long relationship with cameraman Patrick McDermott ended mysteriously. McDermott went missing during a 2005 fishing trip in California and his fate remained unknown years later. Numerous reports alleged that he was living in Mexico, with a new girlfriend.

“He was lost at sea, and nobody really knows what happened,” Newton-John told Australia’s “60 Minutes” in 2016. “It’s human to wonder. But you know, those are the things in life you have to accept and let go. Because whenever you go through difficult times, there’s always those concerns.”

Newton-John’s recent albums included “Stronger Than Before”; a holiday collaboration with Travolta, “This Christmas,” and the autobiographical “Gaia: One Woman’s Journey,” inspired by her battle with cancer and by the loss of her father.

Dionne Warwick, who featured Newton-John on her 2006 album “My Friends and Me,” wrote online that “another angelic voice has been added to the Heavenly Choir.” And Lea Salonga wrote: “Rest In Peace, Olivia Newton-John. Hers was one of the voices of my childhood.”

Newton-John married John Easterling, founder of the Amazon Herb Company, in 2008. She was involved in numerous charitable causes, serving as goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme and as national spokeswoman for the Children’s Health Environmental Coalition. She also founded the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne, Australia.

Newton-John was the daughter of German literature professor Brin Newton-John and Irene Born, whose father was Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born. The Newton-Johns moved to Australia when Olivia was 5, but she returned to England in her teens and lived with her mother after her parents broke up. She had early dreams of becoming a veterinarian but was winning singing contests in high school and before age 20 had toured army bases and clubs and recorded her first single, “Till You Say You’ll Be Mine.” In 1971, she covered Bob Dylan’s “If Not for You” and began a close partnership with a friend from Australia, John Farrar, who produced the song and later wrote “You’re the One That I Want,” “Magic” and several other hits for her.

She had loved country music, especially the records of “Tennessee” Ernie Ford, since childhood, but her early success didn’t impress critics or some fellow musicians. A Village Voice review likened her to a geisha who “makes her voice smaller than it really is just to please men.” When Newton-John beat out Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn for the Country Music Association’s top artist of 1973, Tammy Wynette helped found the Association of Country Entertainers, a club designed to exclude Newton-John and other crossover performers.

But Newton-John had a show business admirer who with her became one of movies’ most unforgettable teams. Travolta had starred in the stage version of “Grease” and for the planned film thought Newton-John would be the “ultimate” Sandy, the nice girl who gets tough in the final act and gets her man.

“I worried that at 29 I was too old to play a high school girl,” Newton-John, who insisted on taking a screen test before accepting the part, told The Telegraph in 2017. “Everything about making the film was fun, but if I had to pick a favorite moment, it was the transformation from what I call Sandy 1 to Sandy 2. I got to play a different character and wear different clothes, and when I put on that tight black outfit to sing ‘You’re the One That I Want,’ I got a very different reaction from the guys on the set.”

She is survived by her husband; daughter Chloe Lattanzi; sister Sarah Newton-John; brother Toby Newton-John; and several nieces and nephews.

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Feds Knocked On Washed Up 45's Door!

The FBI came to Trump's crib.

The party of "law and order" wants to dismantle the Federal Bureau of Investigation because it does it job to enforce a warrant in a possible criminal act.

No one is above the law. 

So I don't get why the noise is so angry that the FBI conducted a raid on the 45th President of the United States?

They have a job to do. 

The FBI had searched the Florida home of former president Donald J. Trump, who I refer to as Washed Up 45.

The former president confirmed that his Mar-a-Lago estate had a search executed on Monday. The Republicans and far right are going bananas over it. Also the "do something" left, those who criticize President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Democrats in general are eerily quiet about the feds knocking on the former president's door.

The former president was at his Bedminster Golf Course in New Jersey when the word got out that the FBI had did a search of the property.

The former president is under federal watch for removal of official presidential records from the White House to his Florida resort.

The folks on the far right are now livid over it. And the outrage is spread across social media, Fox, Newsmax, OANN, Real America's Voice and Breitbart. 

Pivots to Hunter Biden, Hillary Clinton, Steele dossier, IRS, Uranium One, Fast & Furious, Benghazi, Whitewater and every other "scandal" the far right can muster.

There is an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House to his Florida residence, people familiar with the matter said Monday, a move that represents a dramatic and unprecedented escalation of law enforcement scrutiny of the former president.

Washed Up 45, disclosing the search in a lengthy statement, asserted that agents had opened up a safe at his home and described their work as an “unannounced raid” that he likened to “prosecutorial misconduct.”

The FBI conducted a search and seizure of records.

The search intensifies the months-long probe into how classified documents ended up in more than a dozen boxes located at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year. It occurs amid a separate grand jury investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and adds to the potential legal peril for the former president as he lays the groundwork for another run.

Here is the reaction from the noise.

Familiar battle lines, forged during a a four-year presidency shadowed by FBI and congressional investigations, quickly took shape again Monday night. Washed Up 45 and his allies sought to cast the search as a weaponization of the criminal justice system and a Democratic-driven effort to keep him from winning another term in 2024 — even though the Biden White House said it had no prior knowledge of it, and the current FBI director, Christopher Wray, was appointed by the former president five years ago and served as a high-ranking official in a Republican-led Justice Department.

“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Washed Up 45 wrote. “Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before.”

“After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,” Washed Up 45 said in his statement.

Justice Department spokesperson Dena Iverson declined to comment on the search, including about whether Attorney General Merrick Garland had personally authorized it.

Feverant supporters show up for the former president.

Washed Up 45 did not elaborate on the basis for the search, but the Justice Department has been investigating the potential mishandling of classified information after the National Archives and Records Administration said it had retrieved from Mar-a-Lago 15 boxes of records containing classified information earlier this year. The National Archives said the former president should have turned over that material upon leaving office, and it asked the Justice Department to investigate.

There are multiple federal laws governing the handling of classified records and sensitive government documents, including statutes that make it a crime to remove such material and retain it at an unauthorized location. Though a search warrant does not suggest that criminal charges are near or even expected, federal officials looking to obtain one must first demonstrate to a judge that they have probable cause that a crime occurred.

Two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said the search happened earlier Monday and was related to the records probe. Agents were also looking to see if Washed Up 45 had additional presidential records or any classified documents at the estate.

Washed Up 45 has previously maintained that presidential records were turned over “in an ordinary and routine process.” His son Doofus said on Fox on Monday night that he had spent the day with his father and that the search happened because “the National Archives wanted to corroborate whether or not Donald Trump had any documents in his possession.”

Asked how the documents ended up at Mar-a-Lago, Doofus said the boxes were among items that got moved out of the White House during “six hours” on Inauguration Day, as the Bidens prepared to move into the building.

“My father always kept press clippings,” Doofus said. “He had boxes, when he moved out of the White House.”

The former president emerged from Trump Tower in New York City shortly before 8 p.m. and waved to bystanders before being driven away in an SUV.

In his first public remarks since news of the search surfaced, the former president made no mention of it during a tele-town hall on behalf of Karen Levy, the Connecticut Republican he has endorsed in Tuesday’s U.S. Senate primary to pick a general election opponent against Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal. Washed Up 45 gave his public backing to Levy late last week, calling her on Monday the best pick “to replace Connecticut’s joke of a senator.”

But in a social media post Monday night, he was much more unguarded, calling the search a “weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024.”

Other Republicans echoed that message. GOP National Committee Chair Karen McDaniel denouncing the search as “outrageous” and said it was a reason for voters to turn out in November.

Washed Up 45's doofus son complains to Fox about the FBI raid.

Florida Gov. Karen DeSantis, a Republican who is considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate, said in a statement on Twitter that it was “an escalation in the weaponization” of U.S. government agencies. Karen McCarthy, the QAnon Leader, said in a tweet that the Justice Department “has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization” and said that if Republicans win control of the U.S. House, they will investigate the department.

That Washed Up 45 would become entangled in a probe into the handling of classified information is all the more striking given how he tried during the 2016 presidential election to exploit an FBI investigation into his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, over whether she mishandled classified information via a private email server she used as secretary of state. Then-FBI Director James Comey concluded that Clinton had sent and received classified information but the FBI did not recommend criminal charges because it determined that Clinton had not intended to break the law.

Washed Up 45 lambasted that decision and then stepped up his criticism of the FBI as agents began investigating whether his campaign had colluded with Russia to tip the 2016 election. He fired Comey during that probe, and though he appointed Wray months later, he repeatedly criticized him too as president.

Thomas Schwartz, a Vanderbilt University history professor who studies and writes about the presidency, said there is no precedent for a former president facing an FBI raid -- even going back to Watergate. President Richard Nixon wasn’t allowed to take tapes or other materials from the White House when he resigned in 1974, Schwartz noted, and many of his papers remained in Washington for years before being transferred to his presidential library in California.

“This is different and it is a sign of how unique the Trump period was,” said Schwartz, author of “Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography.” “How his behavior was so unusual.”

The probe is hardly the only legal headache confronting Washed Up 45. A separate investigation related to efforts by Washed Up 45 and his allies to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election — which led to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol — has also been intensifying in Washington. Several former White House officials have received grand jury subpoenas.

And a district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, is investigating whether the former president and his close associates sought to interfere in that state’s election, which was won by Democrat Joe Biden.

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Washed Up 45 Had Stefanik Flushed!

Allegedly Washed Up 45 flushed documents.

Folks are fuming at Maggie Haberman for releasing a book detailing illegal activity from Washed Up 45 instead of reporting it to federal authorities.

The former president denies ever flushing documents in the toilet. Somehow, Haberman had obtained photos of a White House toilet with paper in the bowl.

On the paper were the names of two of the former president's closest allies.

Rep. Karen Stefanik (R-NY), the goofy upstate New York lawmaker who ousted Rep. Karen Cheney (R-WY) from leadership.

Rep. Karen Rogers (R-AL), a white nationalist from Anniston who constantly votes against civil rights.

The paper would clog up toilets and staffers constantly reminded him to not do it because it violates the federal records act. Under law, anything used or written by a president must kept in preservation for the National Archives.

Haberman released a pair of photos to corroborate reporting in her forthcoming book that White House staffers regularly found ripped-up printed paper clogging a toilet in the presidential residence during former president’s administration.

The photos, shared with Axios on Monday, reportedly show small pieces of paper in a toilet in the White House and another from an overseas trip.

“That Mr. Trump was discarding documents this way was not widely known within the West Wing, but some aides were aware of the habit, which he engaged in repeatedly,” Haberman told the outlet.

Haberman releases dirt on former president.

Reports of Washed Up 45-era White House officials attempting to flush documents down toilets first surfaced in February, as reported in Haberman’s forthcoming book.

“You have to be pretty desperate to sell books if pictures of paper in a toilet bowl is part of your promotional plan,” a spokesperson for Washed Up 45 told Axios. “We know … there’s enough people willing to fabricate stories like this in order to impress the media class — a media class who is willing to run with anything, as long as it anti-Trump.”

The National Archives confirmed in January that some of the documents it received from the Washed Up 45 administration had been ripped up and taped back together.

Haberman has covered the former president for years, dating back to his time as a real estate mogul in New York City. Her new book on on the former president’s life debuts in October.

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