Thursday, October 14, 2010

Corpus Christi coming soon on theater ... in hell

Excerpt from a hoax email


Subject: Going beyond disrespect…The movie "Corpus Christi” is due to be released this June to August. A disgusting film set to appear in America later this year depicts Jesus and his disciples as homosexuals! As a play, this has already been in theaters for a while. It's called "Corpus Christi” which means "The Body of Christ." It's revolting mockery of our Lord. But we can make a difference. That 's why I am sending this e-mail or BBM to you. If you do send this around, we just might be able to prevent this film from showing in all over the world . Let's stand for what we believe in and stop the mockery of Jesus Christ our Savior. Where do we stand as Christians?At the risk of a bit of inconvenience, I'm forwarding this to all I think would appreciate it, too. Please help us prevent such offenses against our Lord. There is no petition to sign, any time limit, or minimum number of people to send this to... It will take you less than 2 minutes! If you are not interested and do not have the 2 minutes it will take to do this, please don't complain when God does not have time for you because He is far busier than we are. Hey, it's worth a shot! Apparently, some regions in Europe have already banned the film. All we need is a lot of prayer and a lot of e-mails. JUST GET THE WORD OUT and Jesus loves u


Well, okay, this is fun, especially when you have nothing to do at office. But at the moment I was busy, so I could only conduct a brief research and use a little logic. First of all, these kind of email is 90% hoax, so you shouldn't bother. Second, it makes no differences whatsoever if it was true or false, film is film, faith is faith. Third, as far as I know, there's no such thing as banning movie through forwarding SMS message, off course Vatican could request to stop movie or whatever they like just like some idiotic organization guys in Indonesia who falsely advertising the movies they hate the most, but most of the time it does not have nothing to do with forwarding SMS. Wake up and get real, just send SMS and get whatever you want? What happened to hard work and common sense and freedom of expression, especially in USA and Europe - where the hoax took place? Fourth, even Vatican didn't bother with the booming da vinci code, why they should bother with anything less booming that that? Corpus Christi has no book no movie no new york best seller whatsoever. It's a minor drop in the ocean of hoax and misleading information about catholic and religion in general. But, enough of the logic, lets get to the fact.


The story of corpus christi is real. It was on play in 1997 (or 1998) in new york. It was not a movie, it was a theater play. this is how it goes according to wikipedia;
Corpus Christi, a modern day retelling of the story of Jesus' birth, ministry, and death in which both he and his disciples are portrayed as homosexual. In fact, the play was initially cancelled because of death threats from extremist religious groups against the board members of the Manhattan Theatre Club which was to produce the play. However, several other playwrights such as Tony Kushner threatened to withdraw their plays if Corpus Christi was not produced, and the board finally relented. When the play opened, the theatre was besieged by almost 2000 protesters, furious at what they considered blasphemy. When Corpus Christi opened in London, a British Muslim group called the Defenders of the Messenger Jesus even went so far as to issue a fatwa sentencing McNally to death.[4] On January 19, 2008, Robert Forsyth, Anglican bishop of South Sydney condemned "Corpus Christi" (which opened for February's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, a play depicting Judas seducing Jesus): "It is deliberately, not innocently, offensive and they're obviously having a laugh about it." The play also showed Jesus administrating a marriage between two male apostles. Director Leigh Rowney accepted that it would offend some Christians and said: "I wanted this play in the hands of a Christian person like myself to give it dignity but still open it up to answering questions about Christianity as a faith system."[5]


The controversial producer was Terrence McNally.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrence_McNally
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Christi_%28play%29


There's no intention to make it a movie, that hoax has been in circulation since year 2000 and it is very stupid to postpone a production of a movie for 10 years and still expecting to ban it through SMS. All of these only proved that there are more stupid Christians than the smart ones. Maybe Jesus Christ in heaven is slapping His forehead when He received this hoax (again) "Now, I'm a gay, what next? cannibal? prostitute?" and sadly this message is forwarded by His most faithful (but stupid) disciples.
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Microwaved water kills plant hoax

Excerpt from Indonesian Hoax Email
Subject: air di microwave (bahaya penggunaan oven microwave)
AIR DI MICROWAVE
Lihat apa yang terjadi terhadap tanaman dan bayangkan apa yang akan terjadi
dalam tubuh Anda !

Di bawah ini ada proyek ilmiah yang membagi air bersih ke dalam dua bagian.
Bagian pertama direbus dengan panci di atas kompor, dan kedua direbus dengan
oven microwave.

Setelah didinginkan, air tersebut digunakan untuk menyiram dua tanaman yang
sejenis untuk melihat apakah ada perbedaan pertumbuhannya antara yang disiram
dengan air rebus biasa dan air rebus dengan oven microwave.

Tujuannya untuk melihat apakah susunan energi dari air akan berbahaya jika
dimasukkan ke dalam oven microwave. Sebagai hasilnya, perbedaannya benar-benar mengejutkan.

SATU MINGGU, DAHAN YANG DIPOTONG
Walaupun kedua dahan masih hidup, namun yang diberi air microwave menjadi layu
dan tidak sehat, sementara yang mempergunakan air rebus tetap segar dan sehat.

HARI PERTAMA

HARI KETIGA

HARI KE LIMA

HARI KE TUJUH

HARI KE SEMBILAN
The email containing story of microwaved water experiment kill a plant slowly, is it true? I try to search it in the internet, and I must say, I found no evidence that the story and the photograph is hoax. In other words, it was real. Scared of house microwave now? What about throwing it away before you got cancer? No way!
Why not? Because although it is real, not necessarily means it is true. In other words, it is really the result of the experiment, but it is not true that microwaved water kills plant or dangerous for the living organism whatsoever. How is this possible?


First we should see the "original message" of this chain email.  I cant confirm the origin of the the mail precisely, but there's a high probability it comes from this website
(the picture is the same)
We can see that this "proyek ilmiah" or scientific project is indeed "very scientific" (performed by a young student for a science fair, very "scientific") This is why, although the founding is very intriguing, we don't see it on NATURE magazine or TIME, leave alone SCIENCE. Because the experiment lacks what most scientist expect: REPETITION.
If someone else conduct the exact same experiment as conducted by this little girl, there's a high probability that the result will not be the same. Why is this? Scientist (particularly experimental scientist, or maybe statistics) have a method of making sure the experiment is repeatable, unbiased, objective and TRUE. The most common methods are;
1. Large number of samples, and usually randomized. In contrary, the so called science project has only 1 sample for microwaved water and 1 sample for boiled water; if something happened to the microwaved water-plant, it could be because of anything, for example, the plant got infected by fungus or something else, or maybe had a genetic alteration which eventually killed it)
2. Ensure objectiveness, usually done by what scientist called "double blinding", means that the observer and the experimenter should not know which water is microwaved and which water is boiled. This is done to omit what we know as "experimenter effect" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer-expectancy_effect according to psychology (Rendy can confirm this) this phenomenon is very natural. In the experiment of the little girl, we could see that there are rooms for biases and subjectivity. The little girl expect something to happen to the plant with microwaved water - that's what she wanted to show in the science fair, anyway. And this - consciously or subconsciously - can develop a different treatment for both of the plant (rough handling,  too much water, etc.)
3. Controlled treatment, which is ensuring that everything else, except the tested variable, is the same for every subject. For example, if we're about to test between microwaved water vs boiled water; both water should come from the same source, purified (water should contain only H2O, or at least, same elements), and both should be heated in the same place (for example Erlenmeyer flask). This experiment lacks of controlled treatment. For example, the boiled water is boiled in a pan on a stove. Most pan are from metal, so we could expect that that she was using metal pan. But metal are not allowed inside microwave, so we can safely assume that she's using something else. What if, for example, she used PET bottle (coca cola plastic bottle, evian). Some research shows that microwave heated PET bottle are more likely to contaminate the water with unhealthy material (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20309737 - this is a scientific journal which is most probably true). If the girl was using this water, it could be that the material from PET is what killed the plant, and not the microwave itself. (this one is true, don't heat your PET bottle inside microwave, folks - your kidneys are going to pay the price)
All the defects on the experiment suggest that it is most probably not true that microwaved water will kill plants. I find it quite difficult to find a nice experiment on the scientific journal about this matter. The professors and doctors seems to conduct a more serious problem than microwaved water over plant. But in youtube, you could find that there's many many people oppose the idea of microwaved water kills plants.
This is only 4 samples, and there's some more if you really look in youtube. Although none of these experiments are really objective, but most of them are better than the chain email we saw earlier. And since that there's a lot of them, the sample size grow larger than the single microwave fact we saw earlier. Most of them say that MICROWAVED WATER DOESN'T KILL THE PLANT!
Is that the truth? I tried to find some other scientific data on the internet. And although "microwave oven" does not really attract so many scientist, but I managed to find some experiments using microwave oven in the 19th century.
This is the closest to water
scientific journal: heating IV fluid on microwave
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4005001
This experiment try to find out if the microwaved IV fluid (the fluid which is used for infusion) has some alteration on its mineral content (IV fluid only consisted of water and some phisiologic mineral (and sometimes sugar)). The result is no alteration. The experiment using IV fluid on its plastic bag. They didn't check any material leeching from the plastic bag, just the mineral. But the plastic for IV fluid should be stable on exposure to microwave. So scientist believe that microwaved IV fluid is most probably safe for infusion. Well, I'd say they will say the same for water.
So.... the conclusion is...
although the experiment is probably real, the result does not necessarily true. microwaved water is safe to drink, and will not kill any plant you watered with (although it is also stupid to microwave water to water plant if you're not conducting any experiment) SO this email is.... well...not a hoax (at least the upper half) but not true. what about the lower half? The lower half is most filled with hoax and "expert opinion" which is from unqualified people and mostly baseless. If it is truly based on a certain scientific paper, those paper are harder to find than needle on haystack. The four most famous person writing the article saying microwave oven is hazardous are Hans Hertel, William Kopp, Joseph Mercola, and Simon Best. All these "scientific information" about microwave are already exist from late 1980 (Hertel - saying that eating microwaved food might cause cancer), Kopp continue in 1996 saying that sovyet union research proofs that microwave is hazardous, most probably these 2 men are real, but their "study" and "paper from russia" never found, and never been reviewed by experts (meanwhile rumors has it that William Kopp changes his name several times in an attempt  to run away from the microwave oven company tried to to kill him - sounds schizo enough? Meanwhile Hertel conduct his experiment with 7 vegetarians in an hotel, eating full diet of microwaved food, but the exact procedure never published, and most scientist didn't give a damn). Joseph Mercola is the one who wrote 10 reason why you should throw away your microwave, his website is www.mercola.com meanwhile Simon Best just add something about cancer and microwave. All of them does not have a solid base on their claim on microwave (Solid means scientific experiment which is published in journal and peer-reviewed) - BTW, Joseph Mercola oppose many many things, microwave is one, and the other is vaccine. Too many vaccine for infant, he said. Off course most of the normal doctor will oppose to what he said.

Saya bertahun-tahun sudah mengetahui masalah microwave ini, bukan terhadap
radiasi yang ditakutkan banyak orang; tetapi bagaimana gelombang microwave bisa
merusak DNA makanan sehingga tubuh tidak bisa mengenalinya. Sehingga tubuh akan
membungkusnya dengan sel lemak untuk melindungi dirinya dari makanan mati itu
atau menyingkirkannya dengan cepat.
Now.. this is interesting. From all the sample I collected in the internet, actually this indonesian mail is the only one claiming this thing. Most probably an indonesian "expert" found out about that plant and want to share his "brilliant" mind with the world. Unfortunately, from the medical view, this is a very far from brilliant and very close to idiotic. Judging from the statement that he/she has know this problem for years, I could only predict that his/her mind could have been disturbed for a quite long time too. He/she made the following claim:
1. Microwave destroy DNA
2. Body does not recognize altered DNA
3. Body will engulfed it with fat to protect itself from the dead food
Well the truth is (most of them will not use scientific journal, because of most of them are too elementary);
1. Microwave most probably does not destroy DNA (the frequency used in microwave is about 2500 MHz, while the frequency needed to make disturb (not destroy) DNA and make cancer, like UV ray is from 750,000,000 MHz to 30,000,000,000 Mhz. The energy is higher when the frequency is higher, as seen in here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_Violet). Microwave is very weak, it cannot alter DNA, but it can be absorbed by water and water vapor, making its molecules move very quickly and generate heat.
2. Your body will most probably digest the DNA before absorbing it. DNA and other nucleic acid will be broken down by acid and other digestion enzyme before taken up as pentose sugar, phosphate ion, and free bases. Eventhough you ate cancerous DNA, the DNA will still be destroyed and digested, because it is still consisted from the same material. Very strong radiation can broke down or alter DNA chain, but cannot change its material. Changing the material requires enough energy to trigger nuclear reaction, just like the one you see on the center of the sun.
3. If your body meets some "unknown substance" most probably your immune system will attack that foreign matter. The immunity system in your body exist for that specific purpose. If the your body got poisoned because you eat something wrong, most probably you will get severe diarrhea. Engulfing with fat is a illogical way to dispose a substance from the body.

Bayangkan bagaimana ibu-ibu memanaskan susu di dalam oven yang "aman" ini. Well, I must say... FDA actually disapprove of heating baby milk inside the bottle inside this microwave oven http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/122/Supplement_2/S85
But that is because 1. The bottle is usually from plastic and not always "microwave safe" but mostly its because: 2. bottled milk may be very hot inside while the bottle itself may appear cool.
Bagaimana dengan para suster di Canada yang menghangatkan darah untuk transfusi
pasien dan secara tidak sengaja justru membunuhnya saat darah menjadi mati. This is the case of Norma Levitt in Oklahoma (1991). Oklahoma is in USA, mind you. This case is real http://wyomcases.courts.state.wy.us/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?citeID=4387
(I didn't read all the long court record, but there's summary on another page http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/3142/ ) So in the end, Norma Levitt died because of blood clotting, not because of microwaved blood. BUT, there's research suggest that packed red blood cell shouldn't be microwaved to heat it up, because it could cause "local overheating" which would cause hemolysis (the red blood cell pop up). Blood plasma is still can be heated using microwave. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4025986
Tapi pembuat oven microwave selalu berkata peralatan ini aman. Tidak mengapa,
tetap gunakan peralatan itu. Tanya dokter anda dan saya yakin mereka akan
berkata aman juga. Tetapi buktinya ada di foto tanaman yang sekarat di atas.
Ingatlah, Anda juga makhluk hidup. Jaga diri Anda.
Sure! Ask the right person for the right answer and Ask the wrong person for the wrong answer. For microwaves fact "right" answer, avoid technician, physicist, scientist, and for health fact "right" answer, avoid asking doctors. Instead, get some real answer from a little girl who conduct science project for a science fair. That will give you the closest thing to the truth! nice huh?

FORENSIC RESEARCH DOCUMENT
Prepared By: William P. Kopp
A. R. E. C. Research Operations
TO61-7R10/10-77F05
RELEASE PRIORITY: CLASS I ROO1a
* * * * * * * 

SEPULUH ALASAN MEMBUANG OVEN MICROWAVE ANDA


Dari kesimpulan penelitian medis para ilmuwan dari Swiss, Russia dan Jerman,
kita tidak bisa lagi mengabaikan oven microwave tetap ada di dapur kita.
Berdasarkan riset ini, kami akan simpulkan artikelnya sebagai berikut :

1. Mengkonsumsi makanan yang diproses di oven microwave secara terus menerus
mengakibatkan kerusakan otak jangka panjang sampai permanen karena "kebocoran"
impuls elektrik di dalam otak (depolarisasi atau demagnetisasi jaringan otak)

2. Tubuh manusia tidak dapat melakukan metabolisme (menguraikan) produk yang
tidak dikenal di dalam makanan hasil mocrowave.

3. Produksi hormon pria dan wanita akan berhenti dan/atau berubah jika terus
menerus mengkonsumsi makanan yang dipanaskan dengan oven mocrowave.

4. Efek dari makanan yang diolah dengan microwave bersifat residual/menumpuk
(jangka lama, permanen) di dalam tubuh manusia.

5. Mineral, vitamin dan nutrisi dari semua makanan yang di-microwave akan
berkurang atau berubah sehingga tubuh manusia hanya memeperoleh sedikit bagian
bahkan tidak memperoleh manfaat, atau tubuh manusia menyerap gabungan yang sudah
mengalami perubahan sehingga tidak dapat diolah.

6. Mineral di sayuran berubah menjadi radikal bebas kanker saat dimasak di oven
microwave.

7. Makanan yang diolah dengan microwave mengakibatkan pertumbuhan kanker (tumor)
lambung dan pencernaan. Ini bisa menjelaskan mengenai peningkatan pesat dari
rasio penderita kanker usus besar di Amerika.

8. Mengkonsumsi makanan olahan microwave dalam jangka panjang menyebabkan sel
kanker meningkat di dalam darah manusia.

9. Memakan secara terus menerus masakan olahan microwave menyebabkan penurunan
sistem imun dari kelenjar limpa dan perubahan serum darah.

10. mengkonsumsi makanan microwave menyebabkan hilang daya ingat, konsentrasi,
ketidakstabilan emosi dan penurunan kecerdasan.

Apakah Anda sudah membuang oven microwave Anda?

Setelah anda membuang oven microwave, anda bisa mempergunakan oven toaster (yang
mempergunakan filamen pemanas) sebagai gantinya. Oven itu berkerja baik dan
kecepatannya hampir sama.

Penggunaan transmisi microwave buatan untuk pengontrolan psikologi bawah sadar
(subliminal), sebagai "cuci otak", juga telah dibuktikan. Kami memperoleh
salinan dokumen riset Rusia tahun 1970 dan hasilnya ditulis oleh Drs. Luriadan
Perov menyebutkan kebenaran percobaan klinis di bagian ini.
Like I said before, this article is not supported with solid evidence. The expert saying this "fact" is also opposing the usage of vaccine.
Meanwhile, although I only provide 5, my statement are backed up with evidence:
5 reasons to keep your microwave
1. it kills bacteria in food effectively
scientific journal: microwave to kill microorganism in sausage
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19799673
2. it kills parasites larvae
scientific journal: microwave to kill parasites larva
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16212097
3. it does not alter the protein structure of meat
scientific journal: microwaved meat failed to release certain proteins
4. a certain way of cooking with microwave reduce carcinogens
Grilling or frying meat and poultry can create heterocyclic amines, which may cause cancer. When a scientist and his colleagues briefly microwaved meats and drained off the juices before grilling, most of the precursors of those potential carcinogens were lost along with the juices. Food Chem. Toxicol. 32: 897, 1994 (scientific journal)
5. microwave is more energy efficient (but require further research) from conventional oven
The interesting fact about microwaves:
1. Microwave is used as one option to treat polluted water
scientific journal: microwave for waste treatment
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20623403
2. Microwave is not a very children-friendly appliances, and has the potential to harm children through burns injuries
scientific journal: opening a microwave oven can be harmful for children
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18829804
scientific journal: microwaved instant soup can cause burn injury
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16819351
3. Microwave if can cause ablation to living tissue (Probably used in treating cancer, the term is MWA)
scientific journal: microwave ablation on pig's kidney
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20073552
(this last fact means that you shouldnt apply microwave to your body tissue - maybe this is the background behind the psychology experiment of brainwashing we could see written by Luria and Perov (although I can't find that scientific paper anywhere), but this is clearly contrary with the other context of the email, since in this experiment the microwave is directed directly to the body tissue, not to the food)
That's all about microwave,
like usual, everything you see in the internet is true,
especially in the chain email.
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Midbrain activation or mythbrain activation?

Excerpt from email to Aldy Wirawan:
Hello, as your older, wiser and handsomer brother, I know deep in your tiny mind, you're afraid of this big world and all the mumbo-jumbos of this unfriendly environment. Sometimes you get this scary story about some superhuman strength, just like the midbrain activation and ability with seeing while blindfolded. Scary and fascinating world at the same time, huh? Surprisingly, this method has been there for some time, started in russia, growing to japan, australia, and perfected in malaysia, and some internet video in fact really shows the training method and the music used. I tried the method, and it WORKED! i blindfolded myself with a tie and YES, I CAN READ BLINDFOLDED. please read the "most" complete and objective article about this phenomenon which I could find below. So the key is to be open minded and to be diligent and curious to learn. Let's discuss about it later.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Magic in Mind, or a Mirage?


During the wake for a distant relative a few weeks ago, those in attendance were treated to a mesmerizing spectacle of sorts, courtesy of my wife’s 8-year-old niece.


At the insistence of her proud father, Felicia repeatedly showcased an apparent ability to read. Blindfolded. With her eyes covered by the hands of curious aunts and uncles, Felicia “read” leaflets, newspaper clippings and the serial numbers off random banknotes.


Always the skeptic, I handed Felicia an English-language biography of an American rock band that I was reading. She ran her hands over the page, “smelled” it and slowly “read” the first page without hesitation.


Hearing a blindfolded kid rattle off song titles such as “My Valuable Hunting Knife” and “Man Called Aerodynamics” made me take a second look and reconsider the seemingly bizarre demonstration as more than a mere parlor trick.


Felicia, along with her 12-year old sister, Fanny, is just one of many children who are part of a new trend often referred to as “midbrain activation,” a method of teaching that claims to enhance the link between the two sides of a child’s brain and develop cognitive abilities that may be considered at the very least extraordinary, and by most people impossible.


So what’s going on here? With parents incessantly showcasing their children’s apparent newfound abilities to friends and relatives, rapid word of mouth has been the most effective marketing tool for schools promoting methods to achieve them, such as the Genius Mind Consultancy, which has been in Malaysia for about five years and started opening centers in Indonesia last September.


Guiro, the father of a 9-year-old boy enrolled at a GMC center, said: “My wife and her friends were constantly talking about it and bragging about how some of their children now had supernatural powers. Of course I was intrigued.”


What schools such as GMC offer is a one-and-a-half-day session where the child’s “middle brain” will be “activated.” They only accept children aged 5 to 15.


After the sessions, depending on the talent of each child, they will purportedly come home with newfound skills, mostly consisting of the ability to perform routine tasks without using their sense of sight. GMC specifically discusses blindfold reading.


This supposed skill, also known as the Bronnikov method after a Russian who popularized a version of it, has the scientific-minded up in arms; they point out that it is biologically impossible, that it is explicable by “peeking” — because it is always demonstrated with blindfolds and with the reading material directly in front of the subject, there is scope for cheating — and that there is no evidence of it working under rigorously controlled conditions.


That doesn’t seem to have quelled the hype, and session-leaders are keen to stress a less controversial issue, that of enhancing standard cognitive skills in children.


According to Ovi, the process is about “normalizing” the brain. “When we are born, all parts of our brain, including the middle area, work in balance. But as we grow up, we tend to rely on only one part of the brain,” she said.


This is the explanation that schools like GMC give for only taking kids up to 15 years old. Anyone older, they believe, is already dependent on only one side of the brain. “We build the bridge between the left and right brain,” Ovi said.


The learning part of the training consists of rehearsing physical gestures said to rely on midbrain activity, such as simultaneously working the right and left hands with different movements.


For instance, rubbing the right hand on the right thigh while the left hand is pounding on the left thigh — all the while rapidly alternating the movements between the two hands.


Ovi, who has been accepted by GMC as a practitioner for the Kemang Pratama area in South Jakarta, explains that the two days of sessions are far different from typical classroom lessons. Much of the time is spent watching humorous videos, such as cartoons or gag shows.


“It’s to get the children in the right frame of mind,” Ovi said, adding that children who are in a happy state of mind will be more conducive to learning “midbrain” skills.


Nirmala Dewi, who owns a GMC-licensed school in Bekasi, says that the learning portion also consists of listening to “music” consisting of random sounds — “Like helicopter noises,” Nirmala said — and ends with a classical movement  “to calm the children’s nerves.”


After a few days, she claims, most of the children will have their midbrain area activated. They will have skills, which, apart from reading blindfolded, include riding a bike and maneuvering through obstacles and even — serious skeptics should perhaps blindfold themselves at this point — “something akin to prediction.”


Nirmala gives the example of the child of Aditya Herpavi, the host of the Indonesian version of the game show “Deal or No Deal,” who enrolled in a GMC class. “The child was watching an episode on TV with his mother and asked her, ‘Mom, do you know how much money is in daddy’s pocket? I do,’ ” Nirmala said, referring to the portion of the game show where the host withholds a varying sum of money in his pocket. “The child said Rp 9 million [$990], which turned out to be correct, and then said the next amount, which was also true.”


Nirmala gave another example involving a child telling his mother to close her car door as she was putting shopping bags into the trunk because “a motorcycle will be passing” and would hit the door if it were open. The mother closed the door in the nick of time to avoid the motorcycle.


GMC, however, does not officially promise that children will develop any types of predictive skills.


What it does promise, through the so-called activation of the middle brain, is heightened perceptive awareness, hence the “reading” without actually seeing.


Ovi is quick to point out that the crowd-drawing skills are not the end goal, but just a showcase of the children’s increased perceptive awareness.


She recalls the story of a 5-year-old obsessed with Rubik’s cube, who would take four to five minutes to solve the puzzle before enrolling at a GMC. “His parents told me that now it only takes him a minute,” Ovi said. It was not clear how much time the child had had to learn the cube’s routine moves and practise getting his time down.


According to her, the end goal is to have a child who is more perceptive of his or her surroundings. “A child who is hyperactive will become calmer and more compassionate toward others,” she added, citing some behavioral examples and saying that “the real proof is in the drastic increase in the academic achievements of the students in school.”


So far, the results appear to have been mixed. Julia, mother of 7-year-old Joe, said she enrolled her son in GMC hoping it would improve his academic performance. “We have not yet seen any significant improvement in Joe,” she said.


Benny, whose two daughters also enrolled in a GMC session, says that while he has seen a change in his daughters’ attitudes — they are calmer and wittier — their academic skills are the same.


Nirmala says she understands how some parents may be skeptical. She was one of them, especially with regard to the methods used.


“My friend told me about GMC and I was hesitant at first. But since the parents are allowed to see the lessons firsthand, I saw that there was nothing involving hypnotism, the mystical or anything that was dubious,” she said.


Ovi explains the whole process as “mapping” of the brain, where the process of “regulating the brain” transpires.


But what do the children actually “see” when they close their eyes or “smell” when they sniff an object?


Fanny, 12, says that she is “able to see something, but it’s hard to explain.”


Felicia, a little weary of people asking her about her skills, says that she “feels” something when she reads blindfolded, but “cannot explain it.” She assures me that she is not peeking in any way.


Wina, Felicia’s mother, says that her daughter experienced nosebleeds during the “activation” process. “I found out about her nosebleed when I came to pick her up from class. She was sitting alone in a separate room from the other students. When she saw me, she said that she wanted to go home,” Wina said.


It turns out that Felicia’s nosebleed, which lasted on and off for a few days, began during a “speed reading” session. “She was also throwing up for a few days following the ‘activation,’ ” Wina said.


She added that she was also skeptical at first and asked her daughters if they were taking a peek when they started to show off their newfound skills. No, they said.


Whatever the case may be, there’s no denying the current hype. It doesn’t hurt that GMC has held a string of high-profile publicity events.


“We had an event a few months ago” Ovi said. “More than 500 students rode their bicycles blindfolded through the Thamrin area [which was closed for the event]. And more than 600 participated in a blindfold-drawing competition.”


Whatever your view, the idea of 1,000 blindfolded kids doing tricks is a work of marketing genius, at least.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like I said before, this technique have existed in russia and japan. Russia technique takes 1 year,  Japan takes 3 months to learn it, but the new Malaysian technique takes only 2 days training.
Well, I found MY OWN TECHNIQUE, it'll take only 1 hour including reading the article above, so its about 30 minutes left more to go. keep on reading.
From the article above, we can see something really pick on curiousity;
1. this technique is taught only to children 5-12 AND the parents are not allowed to see it
2. the midbrain can act like radar, which can sense things under the nose (curious huh, since mesencephalon is actually closer to the back of the head)
    (from http://otaktengah.com/ - but dont read it now)
3. the children sometimes smell at the article to read it
4. the children "can see everything" but "not clear" or "can't explain it"
5. despite all the wonderful things mid brain can do (predict the future, increase IQ) they can only demonstrate the reading blindfolded skill
Well, all of these can be answered if we followed the root of the technique in russia. It is called the bronnikov technique http://www.bronnikovmethod.com/ (warning! don't read it, or you will surpass your 1 hour training time)
you can see in here that bronnikov use meditation and everything else to activate this so called "inner power". His son demonstrate his power below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWHcyWKGbAU&feature=related (warning; watch this as the last video if you still have enough time! I dont want to exceed my 1 hour training time)
now, please, look at this video. this is part of the training
now, please look at this video only if you still have time from the 1 hour I promised you.
I'm pretty sure now you can read blindfolded too. please imagine red banana before doing so, just in case you fail to read it the normal way.
well, if you still have time, please enjoy the remaining video, and also enjoy the article I made below.
We sceptics has one simplest strongest rule. it is called the Occam Razor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ockham_razor
the basic principle of the rule is we shouldn't make more assumption than what we should
or in other word,
the simpler the explanation, the better.
in this case, we should choose, which is the simpler explanation;
1. children can see blindfolded through activation of some dormant brain part which, after thousand years of human evolution,
has just been found now (and right after the invention for left and right brain, yeah right), can be activated by listening to music,
meditating and paying around 6 million rupiah, and off course also imagining red banana. Found by a .....rather civillian, not scientist,
never published in scientific journal, and can be applied only to children. It will makes you predict the future! read things with your nose!
(but all the teachers somehow choose a rather difficult way of life to teach the children and ask money from their parents then to buy lottery and be a winner of millions dollar)
2. they're all lying to get your money
while the answer to this question is obvious, (IT IS OBVIOUSLY NUMBER 2, scientifically speaking!),
we can continue to explore how these things correlate,
why the children would "smell" the paper, why they "can see" but "not clear" or "can't explain it",
and why the so-called teacher in this method say that the power naturally occurs just right below nose.
Now the puzzle started to fall in to places.
They cheat!
And... why the children does not tell their parent about this technique?
why do they keep silent about their little trick?
The answer is in the age.
This is exactly why the company only train children from 5 to 12.
I'm not sure if I get this right, but Rendy might be able to help me,
I can only conclude that children at this age is when they're most susceptible to their social environment.
If the so-called teacher ask them politely (please dont tell anyone, or we gone bankrupt),
or persuasively (if you tell anyone, you will lose your pride, your parent will be sad),
or coercively (tell anyone and i'll break your neck and eat your kidneys)
or even brutally (shinnneeeeeeeeeeeee........!!! chop chop chop!)
we can be pretty sure that those poor-poor children will follow whatever they're asked to do.
The so-called teacher might simply don't ask the children and just "expect" them to "see" something - children at this age might be eager to make the person who is kind to them happy,
or maybe, when their friends really successfull at "reading blindfolded" they're forced to conform and to compete by doing something they normally dont do.....they cheat,
especially when the so-called teachers said "maybe you can try putting it under the nose first... THAT IS WHERE THE POWER OF MIDBRAIN IS THE STRONGEST!"
I believe the phenomena is called "social conformation" which can be clearly explained by Rendy.
Social conformation is a scary things if it is to be exploited, and I'm pretty sure that it is the key to all this midbrain thingie.
it's certainly not good for social health.
here, for the final video, try too look something from http://midbrainactivation.net/
LOOK REALLY CLOSELY TO THE CHILD
see how he fix his blindfold (by lifting it up a litte bit before he started to read)
see how he "smell" the cards
see how he would do just like you when you're trying to read something UNDER YOUR NOSE
MID BRAIN is more to a MYTH BRAIN. There's nothing like reading blindfolded or predicting the future by imagining red banana.
Maybe in the future we will be able to do those things, but when we come to that, we will do it by SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY,
definitely not by CHEATING.
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Have you heard that vitamin C and prawn is not dangerous?

Excerpt from Indonesian hoax email:
Dear friends,

Cerita di bawah ini mohon kasih tahu kepada semua teman/orang yang anda sayangi, Peristiwa ini terjadi di Menado, ada seorang wanita meninggal mendadak dengan lima panca indera keluar darah, setelah diselidiki ternyata wanita ini meninggal bukan karena bunuh diri atau dibunuh, melainkan karena ketidaktahuan tentang racun akibat makanan. Wanita ini ada kebiasaan minum Vit C tiap hari. Ini tidak masalah. Masalahnya, malam itu wanita ini kebanyakan makan udang. Sebenarnya cuma makan udang saja juga tidak masalah, karena orang rumahnya juga banyak makan udang malam itu dan tak ada yang meninggal..  Tetapi, karena udang mengandung Arsenic Pentoxide (As2O5), dan berhubung habis makan udang wanita itu minum Vit C, terjadilah reaksi kimia di dalam perut yang membuat As2O5 berubah menjadi Arsenic Trioxide (As2O3) yang sangat beracun. Ini mengakibatkan hati, jantung, ginjal, pembuluh darah rusak, usus keluar darah, pembuluh darah melebar hingga wanita itu
 meninggal mengenaskan dengan kelima panca indera keluar darah. Jadi hati-hati, habis banyak makan udang jangan minum Vit C pada saat yang bersamaan.
Objection;
The mail presented here is fake. This post will show some contradictions within that evidence!
 First of all, lets take a look at this mail. This mail believed to go into internet circumstances at May 2001. The story is in Taiwan. (http://www.hayag.com/forum/d?23bb236fcea94e8d8890d72787072bb3)
YOU MAY POISON YOURSELF ACCIDENTALLY
 In Taiwan, a woman suddenly died unexpectedly with  signs of bleeding from her ears, nose, mouth & eyes. After a preliminary autopsy it was diagnosed death due to  arsenic poisoning death. Where did the arsenic come from?  The police launched an in-depth and extensive  investigation. A medical school professor was invited to come to solve the case. The professor carefully looked at the  contents from the  deceased's stomach, in less than half an hour, the mystery was solved. The professor said:'The deceased did not commit suicide and neither was she murdered, she died of
accidental death due to ignorance!'   Everyone was puzzled, why accidental death? The arsenic is
of the U.S.  military for carrying rice seedlings H Gao.  The professor said: 'The arsenic is produced in the stomach of the deceased.' The deceased used to take 'Vitamin C' everyday, which in itself is not a problem. The problem was that she ate a large portion of shrimp/prawn during dinner. Eating shrimp/prawn is not the problem that's why nothing happened to her family ever though they took the  same shrimp/prawn. However at the same time the deceased also took 'vitamin C', that is where the problem is!
    Researchers at the University  of Chicago  in  the United States , found through experiments, food such as soft-shell shrimp/prawn contains a much higher  concentration of - five potassium arsenic compounds.    Such fresh food by itself has no toxic effects on the  human  body. However, in taking 'vitamin C',  due to the chemical reaction, the original non-toxic -  five potassium arsenic (As anhydride, also known as arsenic  oxide, the chemical formula for As205) changed to a three  potassium toxic arsenic (ADB arsenic anhydride), also known  as arsenic trioxide, a chemical formula (As203), which is  commonly known as arsenic to the public!    Arsenic poisoning have magma role and can cause paralysis  to the small blood vessels, "mercapto Jimei"??,  inhibits the activity of the liver and fat necrosis change  Hepatic Lobules Centre, heart, liver, kidney, intestine  congestion, epithelial cell necrosis,  telangiectasia. Therefore, a person who dies of arsenic  poisoning will shows signs of bleeding from the ears, nose,  mouth & eyes.    Therefore; as a precautionary measure, DO NOT not take  shrimp/prawn when  taking 'vitamin C'.  
 And then, take a look at this mail we get as evidence.
Dear friends,

Cerita di bawah ini mohon kasih tahu kepada semua teman/orang yang anda sayangi, Peristiwa ini terjadi di Menado, ada seorang wanita meninggal mendadak dengan lima panca indera keluar darah, setelah diselidiki ternyata wanita ini meninggal bukan karena bunuh diri atau dibunuh, melainkan karena ketidaktahuan tentang racun akibat makanan. Wanita ini ada kebiasaan minum Vit C tiap hari. Ini tidak masalah. Masalahnya, malam itu wanita ini kebanyakan makan udang. Sebenarnya cuma makan udang saja juga tidak masalah, karena orang rumahnya juga banyak makan udang malam itu dan tak ada yang meninggal..  Tetapi, karena udang mengandung Arsenic Pentoxide (As2O5), dan berhubung habis makan udang wanita itu minum Vit C, terjadilah reaksi kimia di dalam perut yang membuat As2O5 berubah menjadi Arsenic Trioxide (As2O3) yang sangat beracun. Ini mengakibatkan hati, jantung, ginjal, pembuluh darah rusak, usus keluar darah, pembuluh darah melebar hingga wanita itu
 meninggal mengenaskan dengan kelima panca indera keluar darah. Jadi hati-hati, habis banyak makan udang jangan minum Vit C pada saat yang bersamaan.
What we could se here is different case but written with the same word, especially this line
The deceased used to take 'Vitamin C' everyday, which in itself is not a problem. The problem was that she ate a large portion of shrimp/prawn during dinner. Eating shrimp/prawn is not the problem that's why nothing happened to her family ever though they took the  same shrimp/prawn.
Wanita ini ada kebiasaan minum Vit C tiap hari. Ini tidak masalah. Masalahnya, malam itu wanita ini kebanyakan makan udang. Sebenarnya cuma makan udang saja juga tidak masalah, karena orang rumahnya juga banyak makan udang malam itu dan tak ada yang meninggal.. 
Why there are 2 cases, one in Taiwan and one in Manado, both of them are told in the internet, by email, but the words used are the same? The answer is because; They're both the same and one is a translated version of the other
This is a case when an Indonesian (presumably stupid enough because he/she couldn't create an original story, but smart enough to fool some of us) try to make an convincing story by changing a hoax taiwanese case into another one hoax story in Indonesia with his own setting (manado). Just by this evidence, we could see that the case is a fake one. But one may pressume that the content inside is true, well, in this case, it is also fake.
Vitamin C are not only contained in Vitamin C pills. Even an elementary school children know that that vitamin C exist inside oranges, tomatoes, various vegetables and also fruits. Although you happened to never eat seafood with vitamin C pills, I am sure you once eat that seafood with Orange Juice or with Tomato Juice or with Salads or at least with Lemon Tea. If this case is true, there will be millions of life lost because of drinking vitamin C accidentaly with seafood. If this case is true, this will happens years before internet age and your momma will surely told you not to drink vitamin C with shrimp or any seafood when you're still in the playgroup!
That so-called arsenic poisoning
Is the thing with the arsenic is also true? Please check out this evidence!
Bioaccumulation and biotransformation of arsenic by freshwater organisms.
Accession number;99A0295459
Title;Bioaccumulation and biotransformation of arsenic by freshwater organisms.
Author;KUROIWA TAKAYOSHI(National Inst. Materials and Chemical Res.)   TAKATSU AKIKO(National Inst. Materials and Chemical Res.)   UCHIUMI AKIRA(National Inst. Materials and Chemical Res.)  
Journal Title;Biomed Res Trace Elem
Journal Code:L1046A
ISSN:0916-717X
VOL.9;NO.3;PAGE.261-262(1998)
Figure&Table&Reference;FIG.2
Pub. Country;Japan
Language;Japanese
Abstract;Bioaccumulation and biotransformation of arsenic compounds by freshwater organisms were investigated. Shrimp and prawn were exposed to four arsenic compounds. The prawn bioaccumulated arsenic compounds directly from aqueous phase and biotransformed them in part. Both methylation and demethylation of the arsenicals were observed in vivo. Highly methylated and less toxic arsenic compounds were more accumulated in shrimp, but these arsenic compounds were less accumulated in prawn. Bioaccumulation of and biotransformation of As(V) via three-step freshwater food chain(green algae, through herbivorous shrimp, to carnivorous killifish) were investigated. Total arsenic-accumulation via food in the food chain decreased by one order of magnitude or more and the relative concentration of methylated arsenic to the total arsenic accumulated increased successively with an elevation in the trophic level. Trimethylarsenic compound was the only methylated arsenic species in killlifish. When prawn were exposed to As(V), the accumulated arsenic in prawn was partly transformed to trimethyl arsenic compounds. Thus the compounds were identified by HPLC-ICP-MS. As the results, main chemical forms of the trimethyl arsenic compounds was found to be arsenobetaine. These results suggested freshwater organisms can transform toxic arsenic compounds into less toxic compounds. (author abst.)
This is the scientific evidence (check that journal, oh yeah, it's real!) about the arsenic in aquatic organism. It is said here that the most common arsenic compound was arsenobetaine. we could se here, that the molecule structure of that arsenic compound is not the As2O5 or As2O3 but a C5H11AsO2. And its not only contained in shrimp, it is also contained in aquatic organism like fish and clams. Check out this evidence; 
Arsenobetaine is an organoarsenic compound that is the main source of arsenic found in fish.[1]  It is the arsenic analogue of trimethylglycine, commonly known as betaine. The biochemistry and its biosynthesis are similar to the biosynthesis of choline  and betaine.Unlike several of the well known organoarsenic compounds, such as dimethylarsine and trimethylarsine, arsenobetaine is a common substance in the marine biological systems and in comparison is relatively non-toxic. It has been known since 1920 that marine fish contain organoarsenic compounds. In 1977 the structure of the main compound was discovered.
So aquatic organism truly can contain arsenic; are they deadly to eat?
If aquatic organism deadly to eat, there will be millions if not billions case of seafood poisoning and instant death! take a look at this evidence contradict with that statement.
Inorganic arsenic and its compounds, upon entering the food chain, are progressively metabolised to less toxic forms of arsenic through a process of methylation. For example, the mold Scopulariopsis brevicaulis produce significant amounts of trimethylarsine if inorganic arsenic is present.The organic compound arsenobetaine is found in some marine foods such as fish and algae, and also in mushrooms in larger concentrations. The average person's intake is about 10–50 µg/day. Values about 1000 µg are not unusual following consumption of fish or mushrooms. But there is little danger in eating fish because this arsenic compound is nearly non-toxic.
but if we consume so many seafood, just as the hoax email suggested, could it be deadly? as deadly as bringing instant death? Take a look at one more evidence!
The acute minimal lethal dose of arsenic in adults is estimated to be 70 to 200 mg or 1 mg/kg/day
Characterization of arsenic content in marine organisms from temperate, tropical, and polar environments
Authors: D. Fattorini a; A. Notti a;F. Regoli a
Affiliation:    a Istituto di Biologia e Genetica, Universitagrave Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy
DOI: 10.1080/02757540600917328
Publication Frequency: 6 issues per year
Published in: journal Chemistry and Ecology, Volume 22, Issue 5 October 2006 , pages 405 - 414
Subjects: Atmospheric Chemistry; Environmental & Ecological Toxicology; Environmental Chemistry; Geochemistry; Hydrology; Plant & Animal Ecology; Pollution; Soil Sciences;Abstract
Arsenic is a widely distributed element which occurs in several chemical forms in the marine environment. Inorganic arsenic mediates the most toxic effects and predominates in sea water and sediments, while organisms generally accumulate non-toxic organic forms to concentrations probably reflecting species-specific characteristics in arsenic metabolism. This work represents an additional contribution to our knowledge on natural levels and chemical speciation of arsenic in marine organisms; basal concentrations were characterized in several species (bivalves, crustaceans, and fishes) from different environments (polar, temperate, and tropical latitudes), and results revealed an elevated variability with values ranging from less than 5 to about 200 μg g-1. No significant effects were observed as a function of the geographical area, with the only exception of crustaceans always showing more elevated arsenic concentrations in Mediterranean species (about 45-110 μg g-1) compared with tropical species (lower than 30 μg g-1). Chemical speciation of arsenic was investigated in representative species from the three studied taxa; the predominance of organic forms confirmed the general tendency of marine organisms to bioaccumulate non-toxic arsenic compounds, probably resulting from a detoxification pathway.

If you check this evidence (oh yeah, that journal is also real) you could see that to get lethal dose of arsenic (suppose it could be transformed into arsenic, because in reality, we eat arsenobetaine, which is relatively non toxic) in tropical zone, you need to eat around 6.7 kilograms of prawn. That is crazy if not stupid!
There ends my journey to pursuit the perfect truth and deliver the correct verdict;
eat prawn with vitamin C is
NOT DANGEROUS!
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the closest truth about that plant in Rwanda

I've got an interesting mail today, sent by a vietnamese, translated for his foreigner folks. He might not know that he's spreading hoax, so he got good intentions, but it didn't keep me away from the pursuit of the real truth behind the story.
Dear all;
Please read below. The message is true. I almost lost my daughter who put a piece of the leaf of this plant in her mouth and her tongue swelled to the point of suffocation. This is one plant but there are others with the same characteristics of coloring. Those are also poisonous and we should get rid of them. Please watch out for our children. As we all leave our children home in the hands of the helpers, we should give them a safe environment where they can play.

"This plant that we have in our homes and offices is extremely dangerous!
This plant is common in Rwanda, in many offices and in homes. It is a deadly poison, mainly for the children. It can kill a kid in less than a minute and an adult in 15 minutes. It should be uprooted from gardens and taken out of offices. If touched, one should never touch ones eyes; it can cause partial or permanent blindness. Please alert your buddies.
The hoax mail, surprisingly, has a partial truth
after searching for a while, we could get the fact that actually the plant name is dieffenbachia. (How to get the plant name? easy, just put these keyword in google: dangerous, plant, rwanda)
Dieffenbachia
Dieffenbachia (pronounced /ˌdiːfɨnˈbækiə/)[1]  is a genus of tropical plants in the Family Araceae noted for their patterned leaves. Members of this genus are popular as houseplants because of their tolerance for shade. The name commemorates Ernst Dieffenbach, a German physician.
The cells of the Dieffenbachia plant contain needle-shaped calcium oxalate crystals  called raphides. If a leaf is chewed, these crystals can cause a temporary burning sensation and erythema. In rare cases, edema of tissues exposed to the plant have been reported. Mastication and ingestion generally result in only mild symptoms.[2]  With both children and pets, contact with dieffenbachia (typically from chewing) can cause a host of unpleasant symptoms, including oral irritation, excessive drooling, and localized swelling.[3]  However, these effects are rarely life-threatening. In most cases, symptoms are mild, and can be successfully treated with analgesic agents,[4]  antihistamines,[5]  or medical charcoal.[6]  Gastric evacuation or lavage is "seldom"[6]  indicated.[4]  Jennifer S. Boyle, MD, PharmD, and Christopher P Holstege, MD, note that, "In a large retrospective study of 188 patients with plant oxalate exposure, all cases were determined to be minor and all resolved with minor or no treatment." [4]  They also note that, "In patients with exposure to toxic plants, 70% are children younger than 5 years."[4]
So actually it has some toxin (true!) contained within its leaves. But according to those article in Wikipedia and Medscape, it is not really dangerous. The incidence is small and most of them does not life threatening. But further research in the scientific journals revealed some interesting cases:
about injury in the eye caused by allergic reaction in a chinese schoolboy who accidentaly got sap of the plant in his eye. He survived and his eyesight is back to normal, but it require a week to recover from a very severe allergy reaction, including redness and swelling.

Severe Gastro-Intestinal bleeding caused by suicide attempt by ingesting dieffenbachia leaves. The case was experienced by a 12 years old girl. She survived after severe symptoms (including bloody vomit and bloody faeces)  that appeared 5 weeks after ingestion. Interesting how it tooks so long time to express symptoms of toxicity from this plant
And this plant is popular in rwanda, just as in other nations and cities.
Conclusion:
The first paragraph of the mail contain plausible fact, the second paragraph contain (a very little) truth which was combined with hoax (extremely dangerous, will kill in 15 minutes, can cause blindness) I personally think the measure taken in the 2nd paragraph is extreme (uprooted from garden, taken out from office)  and does not really required. But just to be save, its better to avoid touching eyes after touching the plant, especially if you're exposed to the sap. I think this is apply for almost every plant, it is stupid to apply sap to your eye only to check whether it could cause reaction.
Final words: keep your plant at home, but dont try to eat it. Only zombies eat plants.
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