Facebook 4Q results surpass estimates, stock falls

NEW YORK (AP) ? Facebook delivered fourth-quarter results above Wall Street's expectations on Wednesday and sought to show that it has finally transformed into a "mobile company" after rising to dominance as a Web-based social network.

But its stock dropped in after-hours trading as investors placed more significance on the company's growing expenses rather than on its increasing user base and higher advertising revenue.

"Everything was slightly better than expected," said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter. "I don't see anything here that would make me want to sell the stock."

Nonetheless, Facebook's stock fell $1.11, or 3.6 percent, to $30.13 in after-hours trading following the earnings report.

Facebook Inc. grew its revenue and increased the percentage of it that comes from mobile advertising ? a closely watched figure. But expenses also grew sharply. The company also said 2013 will be a year of "significant investments" and hiring as it focuses on long-term growth rather than short-term profits.

The world's largest social media company earned $64 million, or 3 cents per share, in the October-December period. That's down 79 percent from $302 million, or 14 cents per share, a year earlier when it was still a privately held company.

Revenue rose 40 percent to $1.59 billion from $1.13 billion, surpassing analysts' expectations of $1.51 billion.

Advertising revenue grew 41 percent to $1.33 billion, increasing at a faster clip than in the third quarter, when it climbed 36 percent to $1.09 billion.

Excluding special items, mainly related to stock compensation expenses, Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook earned 17 cents per share in the latest quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet expected lower adjusted earnings of 15 cents per share.

"There were no major red flags," said Raymond James analyst Aaron Kessler. "I think expectations may have even been just a little bit higher" than analyst estimates indicated, which may be another reason for the stock price drop.

Facebook's biggest challenge lies in mobile devices. Most Facebook users access it using a mobile phone or tablet computer, yet the 9-year-old company only started showing mobile ads about 9 months ago. Investors have been worried that Facebook isn't taking advantage of its growing mobile user base since before the company's initial public offering in May. Analysts said Wednesday's results show that it is on the right track.

Facebook said it generated 23 percent, or $306 million, of advertising revenue from mobile. That's up from 14 percent or $153 million in the third quarter, the first time it disclosed such information.

Facebook views the mobile space as its biggest opportunity, a point CEO Mark Zuckerberg sought to drive home during Facebook's conference call with analysts.

"It allows us to reach more people, we have more engagement from the people we reach and I think we will be able to make more money for each minute people spend with us on ... mobile devices," he said.

The inroads Facebook made in mobile advertising in the final half of last year impressed Bruno del Ama, CEO of Global X Funds, which owns about 50,000 shares of the company's stock. "We have been surprised about how aggressive they have been," he said.

Facebook has been trying to squeeze in more mobile adverting without alienating users who are more interested in conversing with their friends than being subjected to a marketing blitz. The company appears to be striking the right balance so far, based on the number of people still regularly using the mobile apps, said Kessler of Raymond James.

While Facebook's accelerated revenue growth is a positive sign, there's still a feeling that the company could be doing even more to mine revenue from its mobile audience, Kessler said. He expected Facebook's mobile ad revenue to rise to 25 percent of the company's ad sales or about $350 million in the fourth quarter.

Facebook's monthly user base grew 25 percent from a year earlier to 1.06 billion accounts. About 680 million of them access Facebook using a mobile device each month. The company also said that the number of mobile users who access the site every day surpassed daily users on the Web for the first time in the fourth quarter.

As of the stock market's close on Wednesday, Facebook's stock was up 60 percent since the company's third-quarter earnings report came out in October. But it still hasn't hit its initial public offering price of $38.

The May 18 IPO was by far the biggest one for an Internet company since Google's in 2004, but the excitement quickly deflated. With Wall Street now clamoring for even more mobile ad growth, Facebook's toughest task will be to increase the number of ads on the social network without alienating users.

Pachter suspects that investors may be worried Facebook's expenses are starting to outstrip its revenue growth. That was the case in the fourth quarter when the company's costs, excluding employee stock compensation, soared 67 percent from the previous year to $849 million, mainly due to hiring and infrastructure costs such as data centers and servers. And Facebook promises to keep on spending.

David Ebersman, Facebook's chief financial officer, said Facebook expects total expenses, excluding stock compensation costs, to grow by about 50 percent in 2013. In 2012, these costs amounted to $2.83 billion, an increase of 63 percent from 2011.

The company ended the year with 4,600 employees, a 44 percent increase from the end of 2011.

__

AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke contributed to this story from San Francisco.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/facebook-4q-results-surpass-estimates-stock-falls-003210741--finance.html

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Water & Waste - Mexico - World Bank considers US$50mn loan for Mexican sustainable farming program

By Rebecca Conan - Wednesday, January 30, 2013

The World Bank plans to provide additional financing of US$50mn for a Mexican national sustainable rural development program that includes works to promote sustainable waste...

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This news article is one of hundreds published daily by Business News Americas about the commodities, markets, movements, companies, projects, economics and politics integral to the development of Latin America. Including news and insight from South America, Central America and the Caribbean, BNamericas includes Water & Waste insight and forecasts for business opportunities in Mexico. The business development service focuses on major projects, active companies, such as World Bank; and business and sales contacts, providing networking opportunities with leading executives throughout Latin America.

Source: http://member.bnamericas.com/news/waterandwaste/world-bank-considers-us50mn-loan-for-mexican-sustainable-farming-program

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Exclusive: Time Warner kicks off possible sale of NY headquarters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc is considering selling its New York headquarters and has asked real estate brokers to evaluate the building's value, in a move that could see it relinquish one of the last vestiges of its disastrous merger with America Online, two sources said.

One source said on Wednesday that the company could still hang on to its portion of the Time Warner Center, a complex that Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes once called an "indulgence."

The industry sources did not want to be named because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

The company's headquarters is part of the larger Time Warner Center, which the company now known as AREA Property Partners and Related Cos finished in 2004.

Time Warner's 1.1 million square-foot (102,193 square-meter) headquarters could command a price tag of more than $1 billion.

"If they decide to sell that vacant block you get pricing approaching or surpassing $1,000 a square foot," said Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics, a real estate research firm.

The developers began building the complex in Manhattan's Columbus Circle neighborhood soon after the media company announced its plan to combine with America Online in 2000. The development was originally to be known as the AOL Time Warner Center, but "AOL" was dropped by the time it opened in 2004.

The company's headquarters are in the south tower, which is topped with residential condominiums. The other tower houses condominiums and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. They are connected by an upscale shopping mall.

RANGE OF OPTIONS

All totaled, Time Warner owns or occupies space in 15 buildings in the New York metropolitan area, including 10 in Manhattan. The $47 billion media giant owns the Warner Brothers movie studio, cable news channel CNN, premium TV service HBO, Turner Broadcasting and Time Inc.

Many media companies in New York have been on the move or plan to do so within the next couple of years. The most notable is Conde Nast, which plans to consolidate its operations and move to One World Trade Center in 2014.

Other companies have sold the real estate they own to raise cash. On January 17, Japan's Sony Corp, which has a major U.S. film and TV studio, said it would sell its U.S. headquarters building in New York City for $1.1 billion, the highest price paid for a single U.S. office building in two years.

Time Warner has been evaluating its real estate needs for at least a year and hopes to finalize a plan by the end of 2013, a source said.

The company is considering a wide range of options, including hanging on to the headquarters, selling the space and leasing it back, moving more employees into the headquarters and closing other New York offices, or moving out entirely, the source said.

The amount the headquarters would fetch would depend on what Time Warner decides to do, Real Capital's Fasulo said.

"There's a difference in value in sale-leaseback or whether they just vacate the property," he said.

If Time Warner intends to lease it back, then the value would be linked to rent and the length of lease that Time Warner is willing to commit to, Fasulo said.

The conglomerate has been making changes to some of its most high profile divisions in recent weeks.

It is currently overhauling ratings-starved news channel CNN under new leadership. On Wednesday, Time Inc, the magazine unit of Time Warner, said it was cutting about 500 jobs, about 6 percent of its total staff.

(Reporting by Ilaina Jonas and Liana Baker in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Steve Orlofsky and Phil Berlowitz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-time-warner-kicks-off-possible-sale-ny-011726538--finance.html

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PRISMA PI Gabriele Honecker is a German representative in European string theory network

Public release date: 29-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Gabriele Honecker
gabriele.honecker@uni-mainz.de
49-613-139-22897
Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz

Promotion of networking and international cooperation of European world experts in string theory

Junior Professor Dr. Gabriele Honecker of the Institute of Physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) takes an active role in the newly established European COST Action "The String Theory Universe." The European framework program COST European Cooperation in Science and Research fosters networking and cooperation among its member countries and involves the large majority of European world experts in String Theory. Honecker, who is also a Principal Investigator at the PRISMA (Precision Physics, Fundamental Interactions and Structure of Matter) Cluster of Excellence at Mainz University, will represent Germany in the COST Management Committee together with her colleague PD Dr. Johanna Erdmenger from the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich.

Although String Theory has been around for more than forty years, it has never been so important for physical reality as it is now, also due to its novel outstanding applications to different areas of Physics and Mathematics. While the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva narrows down the experimental limits on supersymmetric particles and satellite missions such as WMAP and PLANCK probe the very early universe, the COST Action aims at creating a strong European network focused on fundamental forefront research exploring the role played by String Theory in Particle Physics, Cosmology, and Condensed Matter Physics.

The large majority of European world experts in String Theory will be involved in this Action. This will ensure a top-quality research output, achieved through an intense exchange of expertise, intra-European collaboration, and co-organization of scientific activities. The Action will ensure fair gender representation and simultaneously adopt specific measures for promoting the involvement of women scientists at all levels. It will also foster the active participation of junior excellent scientists. The outcome of the Action is expected to have a positive impact on both science and society at a European level, in line with the strategic priorities of COST.

###

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[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 29-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Gabriele Honecker
gabriele.honecker@uni-mainz.de
49-613-139-22897
Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz

Promotion of networking and international cooperation of European world experts in string theory

Junior Professor Dr. Gabriele Honecker of the Institute of Physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) takes an active role in the newly established European COST Action "The String Theory Universe." The European framework program COST European Cooperation in Science and Research fosters networking and cooperation among its member countries and involves the large majority of European world experts in String Theory. Honecker, who is also a Principal Investigator at the PRISMA (Precision Physics, Fundamental Interactions and Structure of Matter) Cluster of Excellence at Mainz University, will represent Germany in the COST Management Committee together with her colleague PD Dr. Johanna Erdmenger from the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich.

Although String Theory has been around for more than forty years, it has never been so important for physical reality as it is now, also due to its novel outstanding applications to different areas of Physics and Mathematics. While the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva narrows down the experimental limits on supersymmetric particles and satellite missions such as WMAP and PLANCK probe the very early universe, the COST Action aims at creating a strong European network focused on fundamental forefront research exploring the role played by String Theory in Particle Physics, Cosmology, and Condensed Matter Physics.

The large majority of European world experts in String Theory will be involved in this Action. This will ensure a top-quality research output, achieved through an intense exchange of expertise, intra-European collaboration, and co-organization of scientific activities. The Action will ensure fair gender representation and simultaneously adopt specific measures for promoting the involvement of women scientists at all levels. It will also foster the active participation of junior excellent scientists. The outcome of the Action is expected to have a positive impact on both science and society at a European level, in line with the strategic priorities of COST.

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/jgum-ppg012913.php

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Students at Pa. school must ask for toilet paper

MAHANOY CITY, Pa. (AP) ? An eastern Pennsylvania high school says vandalism forced it to create a policy in which toilet paper has been taken out of the boys' bathrooms.

Boys at Mahanoy Area High School now must go to the school office to request toilet paper and sign it out. Principal Thomas Smith says that's helped solve a major problem of intentionally clogging toilets that's been going on for two years.

Smith says boys must sign out the toilet paper and then sign it back in. But the Republican-Herald of Pottsville reports (http://bit.ly/X3shAR ) some parents are protesting the policy.

Parent Karen Yedsena says some students are too embarrassed to go to the office to get toilet paper and are going home sick instead. School officials say they aren't aware of any such problems.

___

Information from: Pottsville Republican and Herald, http://www.republicanherald.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2013-01-28-Toilet%20Paper%20By%20Request/id-45913fbd7ae748afa4a777867cc115e2

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Mindy McCready denies shooting boyfriend

By Randee Dawn, TODAY contributor

The past few years haven't been easy for Mindy McCready; the country singer has dealt with drug addiction and jail, plus a protracted custody battle over her son with Billy McKnight. But Jan. 13, the day her boyfriend David Wilson died of a gunshot wound, was likely her lowest point in recent memory, as she told NBC's Andrea Canning on TODAY Tuesday.

"I have never gone through anything this painful," she said in an interview at her home in Little Rock, Ark. "He didn't just touch my heart, he touched my soul. He was my soulmate."

Wilson, a 34-year-old record producer, was initially rushed to the hospital earlier in January after suffering reportedly self-inflicted gunshot wound that did not immediately kill him. McCready was with him after the shooting. "I just started screaming, calling 911," she said. "I lay down next to him and just just pleaded with him not to die."

"He was responding," she added, saying he was only making "sounds," not words.

The investigation as to the cause of death remains open, and there are no suspects in the case (including McCready), Cleburne County Sheriff's Department said. Tests that will determine whether it was suicide or murder are due back in a few weeks.

But there remain lingering questions. McCready denied that Wilson, the father of her other son Zane, was having an affair, and explained that the bullet wasn't found until the next day because "it was in the dog's mouth."?

And when asked directly whether she shot Wilson, she was adamant: "Oh, my God, no. He was my life. We were each others' life."

Related content:

More in TODAY Entertainment:

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/01/29/16752127-mindy-mccready-denies-shooting-boyfriend-he-was-my-soulmate?lite

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Thick smog hits Beijing; dozens of flights canceled

The pollution levels in China's capital have gotten so bad that sometimes airline pilots lose visibility, and there has been a surge in respiratory illnesses. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

By Louise Watt, The Associated Press

Thick, off-the-scale smog shrouded eastern China for the second time in about two weeks Tuesday, forcing airlines to cancel flights because of poor visibility and prompting Beijing to temporarily shut factories and curtail fleets of government cars.

The capital was a colorless scene. Street lamps and the outlines of buildings receded into a white haze as pedestrians donned face masks to guard against the caustic air. The flight cancellations stranded passengers during the first week of the country's peak, six-week period for travel surrounding the Chinese New Year on Feb. 10.

---

The U.S. Embassy reported an hourly peak level of PM2.5 ? tiny particulate matter that can penetrate deep into the lungs ? at 526 micrograms per cubic meter, or "beyond index," and more than 20 times higher than World Health Organization safety levels over a 24-hour period.

Liu Peng, an employee at a financial institution in Beijing, said he will keep his newborn baby indoors.

Ng Han Guan/AP

A man wears a mask as he walks through the thick haze on Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Jan. 29.

"It's really bad for your health, obviously," Liu said. "I bike to work every day and always wear a mask. The pollution in recent years is probably due to the increase in private cars and government cars."

Visibility was less than 100 yards in some areas of eastern China, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. More than 100 flights were canceled in the eastern city of Zhengzhou, 33 in Beijing, 20 in Qingdao and 13 in Jinan.

Petar Kujundzic/Reuters

Cars drive along a street on a hazy day in Beijing on Jan. 29.

Every year, China's transport system bursts at the seams as tens of millions of people travel for the Lunar New Year holiday, in the world's largest seasonal migration of people.

Ren Haiqiang, a bank worker in his early 30s, said he had booked tickets to fly out of Beijing on Thursday to visit family in the coastal city of Dalian, but now worried about flight cancellations.

"Traveling over the holiday is already a huge hassle, along with all the gift-giving and family visits. We thought flying would be the best way to avoid the crush, but if the weather continues like this we'll be in real trouble," Ren said as he waited in line at a bakery in downtown Beijing.

Beijing's city government ordered 103 heavily polluting factories to suspend production and told government departments and state-owned enterprises to reduce their use of cars by a third, Xinhua said. The measures last until Thursday.

Beijing's official readings for PM2.5 were lower than the embassy's ? 433 micrograms per cubic meter at one point in the afternoon? but even that level is considered "severe" and prompted the city government to advise residents to stay indoors as much as possible. The government said that because there was no wind, the smog probably would not dissipate quickly.

Patients seeking treatment for respiratory ailments rose by about 30 percent over the past month at the Jiangong Hospital in downtown Beijing, Emergency Department chief Cui Qifeng said.

"People tend to catch colds or suffer from lung infections during the days with heavily polluted air," he said.

Air pollution has long been a problem in Beijing, but the country has been more open about releasing statistics on PM2.5 ? considered a more accurate reflection of air quality than other pollutants ? only since early last year. The city hit its highest readings on Jan. 12, when U.S. Embassy readings of PM2.5 reached as high as 886 micrograms per cubic meter.

Celebrity real estate developer Pan Shiyi, who has previously pushed for cities to publish more detailed air quality data and who is a delegate to Beijing's legislature, called Tuesday morning for a "Clean Air Act." By late afternoon, his online poll had received more than 29,000 votes, with 99 percent in favor.

On Monday, Wang Anshun was elected Beijing's mayor after telling lawmakers the municipal government should make more efforts to fight air pollution, according to Xinhua.

Last week, he announced plans to remove 180,000 older vehicles from the city's roads and promote government cars and heating systems that use clean energy.

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/29/16756407-thick-smog-hits-beijing-dozens-of-flights-canceled?lite

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Write With Spike

Hey Y?all,

My friend Amy Friedman?who wrote a terrific essay that appeared in Stricken, an anthology about grief that I co-edited-- has a new memoir out. Desperado?s Wife, about the time in her life when she was married to a man in prison for murder. You can get the book by visiting AmyFriedman.net, Pages A Bookstore in Manhattan Beach, California and on Amazon. Watch her website for an airdate announcement for her interview with Katie Couric. Below, Amy answers questions about her life and her book. SG: Hi Amy. Great to be back in touch. Will you start out by giving us a little background re: your writing career? AF: I began writing short stories when I was a teenager, inspired at first by a desire to give voice to a grandmother who had stopped speaking and whose story I wanted to know. And then I never stopped, though throughout my teens and 20s and into my 30s I was a devout fiction writer. I received my MFA in creative writing from City College of New York, worked for years as an editor and writer, and in 1985 moved to Kingston, Ontario, Canada where I happened upon a newspaper that was, at the time, a literary wonder. The Kingston Whig Standard had a beautiful Saturday magazine. I sent off a couple stories to the editor who invited me in for a talk and offered me a weekly column. That column is what turned me into a personal essayist and memoirist. Over the eight years I wrote Hard Lines, that column, I also published two memoirs and hundreds of stories and essays. I also began writing Tell Me a Story for The Whig, a newspaper feature of adaptations of myths, legends, folk and fairytales and within a year I was under contract with Universal Press Syndicate?to syndicate the column internationally. Twenty years later, I?m still writing that weekly column. I also teach personal essay and memoir in Los Angeles where I moved in 2002. SG: Your new book, Desperado's Wife, is a memoir about a time in your life when you met a prisoner who was behind bars for murder, married him, and what ensued. I'm guessing a question you are often asked is, "What were you thinking?" or "How could you marry a murderer?" Is that right? Will you give me a little laundry list of FAQs you get hit with and a couple of answers you perhaps have memorized by now? AF: Why is definitely the question, and it?s often followed by an eye roll or two. And quickly followed by the question: Did you ever get to sleep together? And how did you get past the fact that he had killed someone, were you afraid? The shortest answer is you have to read the book, which of course leads me to your next question?why I decided to write it. So I?ll take those two together. Will and I were married for 7 years, 5-1/2 of which he was in prison (I met him during his 7^th year inside); when he was paroled (and yes, even those who have been sentenced to murder receive parole?though less and less in the States), and the last 18 months of our marriage we lived together, but the marriage disintegrated when our strongest bond?the fight we were waging together to win his parole?was gone. He also did not cope well with the world when he was first released?he fell apart emotionally and that put a strain on our relationship?a strain that finally broke us apart. ?But he did not fall apart in the way most people imagine released prisoners do. The general image of a ?murderer? is someone who does nothing else?who moves through the world seeking to kill. When I was an official visitor (I first visited prison as a columnist so that I could learn about prison), and during the years Will and I were married, I came to know dozens of men serving time for murder. It?s important to understand that each of these people were individuals, each one with a story?bar fights gone awry, drug rivalries, accidents, drunk driving. Most of the stories involved drugs and/or alcohol. I did not meet any serial killers (though it is the women who marry psychopaths and serial killers that seems to me to inspire psychologists to write books about ?those prisoners wives.?) But Will and I fell in love the way people do outside?at first I was drawn to him because he was intelligent and when I asked him questions about prison, he was the person who gave me the answers that made most sense. For instance, the very first thing he told me was that if I wanted to understand prison, I ought to talk to prisoners? families because they understand prison and never did anything to hurt anyone. And so I began to talk to families. I also continued to talk to Will (and many other prisoners, guards and administrators) until one day a prison official told me I was welcome to continue visiting, that I was welcome to write stories about prison for the paper, but that I was NOT permitted to talk to one inmate. That inmate was Will. I was na?ve enough to think that the official had just given me valuable information?had told me that it was Will who was telling me the truth about prison. I ignored his instruction and continued talking to Will, at which point prison officials wrote a letter to my editor letting him know the prison was expelling me, refusing to allow me in. My editor who had always been my staunch supporter did not support me in my effort to fight for the right to keep visiting. The prison I later learned (by accessing their letter through the Privacy Commission Act) had accused me of inappropriate behavior (which was untrue)?I argued with my editor: This was, I said, Canada, a free country; prison officials could not decide who could and who could not investigate what went on behind those walls, who a writer could or could not talk to. Alas, at just that point in time the paper had been purchased by a large corporate syndicate and my editor, worried about his own job, turned his back on me. I?m rebellious by nature, and that literally pushed me into Will?s arms because once I was forbidden to visit prison, the only way I could continue going in was to sign on as a personal visitor. And I did. And soon after that, Will?s mother and children invited me to join them in what were known as Private Family Visits (colloquially conjugal or trailer visits). I applied to do so, but the warden (whom I had interviewed many times and knew well and with whom I had always gotten along) refused my request. He told us we could have a trailer visit in a year?if we ?behaved.? Will asked me to marry him?if we were married, the prison could not refuse us the visit. By that time I was so angry and alienated from those around me who were judging without knowledge and turning their backs on me, and I was so attracted to and engaged by and in love with Will, I quickly agreed. Again, that?s the snapshot. What followed were years of great difficulty because overnight after I married Will, I became, in the eyes of the prison system and of many outside, just as suspicious and subject to invasion of privacy as were all prisoners. All prisoners? wives, children, parents, sisters and brothers and friends suffer the humiliation of things like strip searches and long waiting lines and hostility and job loss and every other imaginable indignation. Indeed, the publisher canceled my column, friends turned their backs, for a while so did my family, a board of directors on which I had long served kicked me off its board, and I wound up in combat against prejudice and misunderstanding?the sort that I think inspires those eye rolls, and the question. That?s not to say I don?t understand why or how people ask, but one of the reasons I knew I had to write the book was to continue what I started out to do when I first visited prison?long before I met Will. That was to paint a picture of the world that is prison, to try to better understand and then describe in writing what happens to those impacted by prison, to write about what it is like trying to have a have a relationship against the odds. When the relationship collapsed, I collapsed for about a year. I knew I would have to write about it to find my way back to making sense of the story, of all the specifics of what happened. ? There?s another important piece to the book and that is that Desperado?s Wife is actually two love stories?the love story between me and Will, but maybe more important, the love story between his daughters and me. They were 14 and 8 when we met, and I helped to raise them for most of those years. And they are still two of the most important loves of my life. One of the reasons I wanted to write the book was to help to lift the mantle of shame from them, a mantle that is the result of others? lack of understanding and prejudice against anyone who loves a prisoner.

?SG: Has writing it been healing?

AF: Yes, but also painful. The book took ten years to write?because it started out filled with the fury I felt towards those who had turned their backs and full of the despair the divorce left me feeling. After several drafts of writing with an agenda of sorts (to prove prisoners wives are no different from other women who love someone), I realized I had to give up trying to prove anything. I decided to try to write the book as a novel from the point of view of a prisoner?s child?that way readers wouldn?t come to the book with a built-in question (how could you love him?) because everyone understands a child?s love for a parent (no matter how flawed that parent is). And after another three years of working on the novel, I finished it and a good friend and colleague read it and looked me in the eye and said, ?You do realize you have to write this as a memoir.? At first I wanted to punch him, but I knew he was right. I went back to the drawing board, back to beginning as if I were walking into prison for the first time, open and ready to learn what there was to learn, to find what there was to find. The journey led me to a deep understanding of how this story happened, to my realization that ever since childhood I?d longed to know what prison does to human beings in large measure because I am the daughter of a man who was a Jewish prisoner of War in World War II and granddaughter of a man who was a prisoner of War in Siberia in World War I. That is how I know that prison seeps deep under the skin not only of those who are imprisoned but of their loved ones, and future generations. SG: Where is your ex-husband-- does he know about the book? AF: He was released from prison in 1999, and he has remained out, living and working in Canada. There is no animosity between us, and though I haven?t consulted with him about the book. We did have a conversation a few years ago when an excerpt of the book was published in the NewYork Times Modern Love column,?and he found out about it and read it. I was worried?that?s why I hadn?t told him about it. I thought he would object to my telling this story. But in fact he called me and told me he fully supported me in anything I wrote, that he knew me to be a person of integrity, and he was confident that my writing would always reflect that integrity. SG: This is probably one of those stupid questions, since I know we should take life on a case-by-case basis, but if I told you that I was going to marry a prisoner, would you counsel me one way or the other, for/against? AF: Not stupid at all, but the answer has two parts. The first is yes, I would. In fact, a friend of mine has a daughter who is engaged to a man in prison, and I?ve been talking to her for months, trying to convince her to wait until he is released to marry him. But the counsel does not come in the form of ?he?s a loser, why would you do that?? or ?you?re throwing your life away.? Rather it?s that the life of a prisoner?s spouse is full of suspicion and hostility and loneliness and a kind of poverty of the soul. Part two: I know that my counsel and anyone else?s is likely useless. People in love do what they feel they need to do, what they must do. Love is powerful medicine, and I don?t think there?s a verbal antidote, and if you?re anything like me, if I counsel you for or against, you?ll rebel against my counsel. SG: What was your publishing process-- agent, NY publisher, etc? Or more DIY? Whichever it was, will you tell us the pitfalls and rewards you encountered? AF:?Ah publishing! For the last 10 years, ever since I moved back to the States, it?s been more or less the bane of my existence. I have an agent (my second in the last ten years), and both have loved the book and sent it out far and wide. The rejections have come mostly in this form: This is a fascinating story and beautifully written but it would not interest enough people. One editor even wrote, ?But there aren?t enough prisoners? wives to make this saleable.? But my agent convinced me she could keep at it. In the meantime, a producer at the Katie Couric show came to me?she?d read my piece in the New York Times and another excerpt in Salon and a third in your book, Stricken: 5,000 Stages of Grief, and she wanted me to appear on Katie to tell my story and feature the book, and I decided I would not appear on the show without a book. So I went the self-publishing route. The reward is I have a book between covers, the pitfall?because the book is self-published it is ineligible for all kinds of reviews and awards for which I wish it were eligible and the cost, of course?in terms of money and time invested in doing everything on my own?hiring my own editors, copyeditors, designers, and so on, and working with no publicist or machine behind me. But I?ve reached out for reviews and so far these have been more positive than I could have dreamed?most people have told me that once they picked up the book they couldn?t put it down?and I think it?s opened some eyes, and hearts. That?s my hope. And of course it would be nice to make back the investment ? And meantime my agent has the self-published version out for consideration too. We shall see. SG: How's the marketing going? My experience is that it's pretty tough out there to get noticed. On the other hand, I really am pleased that, as a self-publisher this time around-- I got to write exactly what I wanted. But the marketing can be a bit exhausting. Agreed? AF:?Absolutely agreed. I?ve gone this route before with a series of CD Audiobooks I?ve produced from Tell Me a Story, and when I put those out into the world, I developed a schedule which was this: For three years, each day I wrote one letter to someone?to librarians, to reviewers, to bloggers, to schools, to churches, to women?s groups. And now, six years since the release of the first CD, I do nothing and the CDs continue to sell?not gangbusters but it?s always amazing to me, and I sell at least one CD or story each day to someone somewhere. I thought to do that with this book, but in some ways I?d prefer now to put that energy into writing the next book. That?s why people like you, and interviews like this, are blessings. I?m scheduled to do a radio interview with KPFK (Experience Talks) in early February. But you?re absolutely right. Making this book be and say precisely what I wanted it to be and say is, ultimately, what matters. And that it exists has left me with the energy to begin to put prison behind me. SG: Working on another big project now?? AF: Slowly, slowly bringing myself back into an old novel I first wrote when I was in graduate school, and ?I have another book recently completed that?s coming out in September. This is with St. Martin?s Press, it?s a co-authored memoir with Anne Willan. In other words, I?m the ?ghost? (I?ve ghosted several books, though for this one I have an author credit). Anne is a well-known cooking teacher and author of 30 books who had a famous cooking school in Paris, and the book?s called One Souffle at a Time, and I love her and the story and the book?and it couldn?t be more different from Desperado?s Wife. Her story is one of travel, adventure, food, life in a chateau in Burgundy?very little darkness, lots of light, and Anne?s amazing recipes, too. SG: What else would you like to tell me? AF: Without you and Stricken, I don?t know that I would have ever finished Desperado?s Wife. The writing and the efforts to entice editors was such a slog until the day your co-author, Katherine Tanney, called to tell me you and she had submitted my excerpt to Dan Jones at Modern Love and that he wanted to run a portion of my piece. That opportunity seriously turned everything around for me, first because at the time so many editors were telling me no one cared about the story of a prisoner?s wife, and then because Dan cared so deeply, and afterwards because the feedback was oceanic, and 95% was positive. So I honestly feel that without you and Katherine on my side, I might not have made the long trek to publication.

And this: That 95% of prisoners get out of prison eventually, and families of prisoners are the single best hope that that release will end up being positive and nurturing. And as Will told me on the first day we met, prisoners? families understand prison, and they never did anything wrong. Before I was a prisoner?s wife, I thought all those women (wives, moms, daughters, sisters) standing at the bus stop outside the prison waiting to go home were probably smuggling drugs or knives. Ninety-nine percent of them not only aren?t smuggling knives and guns and drugs, they?re only trying to hold tight to their love, despite the burden of sorrows.

Source: http://writewithspike.blogspot.com/2013/01/normal.html

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5 tips for cancer screenings that could save your life

Sometime during 2012, U.S. Latinos crossed a disappointing threshold; cancer surpassed heart disease to become the leading cause of death.? According to an American cancer society report,? one in every two Latino men and one of three Latino women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, with one in five Latino men and one in six Latino women dying from the disease. ?In total, 112,800 Latinos will be diagnosed with cancer this year, and 33,200 will die from some form of cancer.

The most common causes of cancer in Latino men are those of the prostate followed by colorectal, lung and leukemia.? In women, breast, colon, rectal, lung and thyroid are the most frequently reported. However, in men, lung and colorectal, liver and prostate cancer are the most common causes of death, whereas in women, breast, lung, colon/rectal, pancreas and ovarian cancer are the most common. The painful truth is that many of these cancer deaths could be prevented.? Detection and removal of early cancer lesions in the breast, colorectal, cervix, oral cavity and skin, as well as vaccinations against cancer causing viruses (human papilloma virus causes cervical cancer in women) are likely to lead to successful cancer treatment.

Are there differences between cancers in Latinos versus non Latinos???????

Not all the news is bad regarding Latino cancer.? Overall, the number of new cases and death rates are lower among Latinos than among non-Latinos. Yet Latinos are likely to be diagnosed with a more advanced stage of cancer than a non-Latino which directly points to a lack of early screening.? Sadly, we Latinos have not completely embraced life saving cancer screening and do not seek medical checkups when symptoms occur which often means it is too late.

Why such low levels of cancer screening in Latinos??

The most common reason for poor screening pertains to healthcare barriers, such as lack of health insurance.? Unfortunately, Latinos have a lower rate of access and use of all preventative services such as cancer screening.? In addition, Latinos may not have benefited from educational awareness and outreach campaigns that led to improved screening practices in non Latinos.? Studies show that effective communication strategies and presence of social support may improve participation in screening examinations.? It is essential that we continue to promote and highlight early cancer detection as an effective way for improving cancer screening participation overall.

In addition to a yearly medical checkup which should include periodic screening for various cancers depending upon age and gender, here are some important tips for cancer screening that could save your life for some of the more commonly-occurring cancers:

1. ?Breast cancer: Yearly mammograms are recommended starting at the age of 40.? Clinical breast exams should be part of a periodic health exam every three years for women in their 20s and 30s and every year for women 40 years and older.
2. Colon/ rectal cancer:? Beginning at age 50, men and women should begin screening with either colonoscopy every 10 years or flexible sigmoidoscopy every five years, barium enema every five years or CT colonography every five years.? You also need to have an annual stool blood and immunochemical tests with high-test sensitivity for cancer DNA.
3. ?Prostate cancer: Healthcare providers should discuss the benefits of early prostate cancer detection including rectal exams and PSA blood tests ? a specific marker for prostate cancer.? African-American men and men with a strong family history of one or more first-degree relatives diagnosed with prostate cancer at an early age should have a discussion with their healthcare provider beginning at the age of 45.
4. ?Uterine-cervical cancer: Screening should begin within three years after a woman begins having sex but no later than 20 years of age.? Screening should be done every year with a regular Pap test or every two years with other types of specific tests.? At age 30, women who have had three normal test results in a row may get screened every two to three years.
5. ?Uterine-Endometrium cancer: ??The American Cancer Society recommends at the time of menopause all women should be informed about the risks and symptoms of endometrial cancer and encouraged to report any unexpected bleeding or spotting to their physician.? Screening for endometrial cancer with endometrial biopsy beginning at age 35 should be offered to women with or at risk for hereditary colon cancer otherwise known as Lynch syndrome ? a condition associated with multiple cancer types.

It is essential that everyone be aware of cancer risks so that once and for all we should not have the dubious distinction of having cancer as the top killer of Latinos in the U.S.

Dr. Joseph Sirven is a first-generation Cuban-American. He is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology and was past Director of Education for Mayo Clinic Arizona. He is editor-in-chief of?epilepsy.com?and has served U.S. and global governmental agencies including the Institute of Medicine, NASA, FAA, NIH and CDC.

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Source: http://nbclatino.com/2013/01/28/5-tips-for-cancer-screenings-that-could-save-your-life/

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Oil rises to near $96 ahead of US data

BANGKOK (AP) ? The price of oil rose slightly Monday, a sign of investor confidence in the U.S. economy's recovery ahead of the release of data this week on jobs, home sales and the country's overall growth.

Benchmark oil for March delivery was up 8 cents to $95.96 per barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 7 cents to close at $95.88 on the Nymex on Friday after a report showed a cooling off in new U.S. home sales.

The U.S. government will release monthly durable goods figures later Monday, and the National Association of Realtors will report on pending home sales for December. Later in the week, reports on weekly jobless claims and employment data for January are due.

Analysts expect to see continuing signs of a sluggish recovery, even amid lowered expectations for fourth-quarter economic growth for 2012, to be released by the U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday.

"If 4Q growth comes in at the 1.5 percent we expect, it will have averaged 2 percent over the past four quarters ... Slow and steady is the name of the game," analysts at DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore said in a market commentary.

Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, fell 28 cents to $113 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

? Wholesale gasoline fell 0.8 cent to $2.882 per gallon.

? Natural gas fell 7.4 cents to $3.37 per 1,000 cubic feet.

? Heating oil fell 0.1 cent to $3.048 a gallon.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-28-Oil%20Prices/id-99257073cf9640f7bfa9b89585bf2fe1

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Inhabitat's Week in Green: asteroid mining, a Legoland hotel and the Amsterdam Light Festival

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.

Of all the technological breakthroughs we've witnessed in recent years, the emergence of 3D printing technology is one of the most exciting. This week saw a number of breakthroughs in the realm of 3D printing, beginning with Deep Space Industries' plans to develop space-based 3D printers that could produce satellites using materials mined from asteroids. Dutch design firm Universe Architecture announced plans to build the world's first 3D-printed house (which is shaped like a Mobius strip), and French sculptor Gael Langevin is currently developing a design for an open-source humanoid robot that you can make at home with a 3D printer. We learned about an inventive DIYer who figured out a way to hack an old inkjet printer and transform it into a bioprinter. And at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week on Monday, Iris van Herpen debuted the world's first 3D-printed flexible dresses.

In renewable energy news, this week Inhabitat sent a reporter to Masdar City, which was once billed as the world's first zero-carbon, zero-waste city, to report on some of the new energy-efficient developments there -- including Siemens' new LEED Platinum headquarters and the world's largest concentrated solar power plant. V3solar announced that its spinning cone-shaped photovoltaic cells could produce power at two-thirds the current cost of retail electricity, and a report issued by the World Wildlife Fund found that solar power could serve all the world's energy needs. Belgium announced plans to construct an artificial island to be used solely as storage for wind energy, and Duke Energy recently flipped the switch on what the company claims is the world's largest battery power storage system in West Texas.

In the world of green transportation, Toyota and BMW announced plans to create next-generation car batteries that will generate energy from thin air. At the World Future Energy Summit, students at Osaka Sangyo University rolled out a sporty new emissions-free fuel cell vehicle that's already licensed to drive on the roads in Japan. We also had a chance to check out the Zerotracer, a closed-cabin electric motorbike that recently traveled around the world in 80 days.

In green lighting news, artist Anne Militello recently unveiled her Light Cycles LED art installation, which transforms the 10-story atrium of the World Financial Center in New York City into an impressive glowing light show each night. And speaking of light installations, the entire city of Amsterdam has been aglow with light sculptures, LED decorations, fiery boat parades and huge projections for the Amsterdam Light Festival, which just concluded this week. In Oslo, Squidsoup recently unveiled a new installation featuring 8,064 floating LED lights strung from the ceiling of Galleri ROM. And in San Francisco, the Bay Bridge will soon be adorned with 25,000 individually programmed white LEDs to celebrate the suspension bridge's 75th year.

Lego fans will be excited to hear that North America's first Legoland hotel is set to open its doors in Carlsbad, Calif., in April. In other green architecture news, San Francisco-based firm William Duff Architects recently completed a home in Menlo Park that features a layout based on the Fibonacci sequence. Architecture students in Nantes drafted a proposal to create a floating "hydropolis" that would rest on the tide of Egypt's Nile River. And for a bit of eco eye candy, this week Inhabitat featured Virginia-based artist Eric Standley's mind-blowing paper sculptures, which look like ornate stained-glass windows.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/27/asteroid-mining-legoland-hotel-amsterdam-light-festival/

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Why game consoles may soon take over home theater | Digital Trends

It?s no secret that game consoles are good for much more than just gaming, but what you may not know is that game consoles are poised to become the centerpiece of home theaters. We take a look at how they got to this point, and what we can expect from them in the near future.

For veteran gamers who cut their teeth during the Atari days, much of what you?re about to read may seem like old news. But gaming is?beginning?to pop up on the radar for a whole new sector of the population, many of whom have never so much as picked up a controller. As a result, game consoles appear poised to completely take over a whole new sector of entertainment: home theater.

Today, we tend to think of console gaming as a mainstream convention, but in its early years it was pigeon-holed, stigmatized, and even relegated to the fringes of geek-dom. As a result, it became a sub-culture of sorts. Sure, it was ubiquitous among the 21 & under set, but adults who played games on a regular basis back then were far less common.

The gaming industry outgrew that awkward phase and expanded its audience throughout the 90?s , but analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan estimates that, in 2003, gaming?s audience still comprised about 90 percent young men. Eventually, however, demographics began to shift in earnest, and when they did,?it was largely due to a prescient business move from gaming?s most recognizable household name.

When Nintendo launched?its Wii console in November of 2006,?it also launched a new marketing strategy. The company billed the new system and its games as tools for fitness, learning, and family fun, adopting an ?everyone?s a gamer? ethos and staking its new hardware on its success. Of course, the rest is history, as units flew off shelves and Nintendo enjoyed record sales, while stores?scrambled?to satisfy demand.

Once the dust had settled in 2011, The Entertainment Software Association?s Essential Facts report determined the average age of gamers to be 37. Pre-Wii, in 2005, the same report by the same?organization had that age at 30.

Nintendo?s?success?helped bring about a paradigm shift in gaming. Instead of courting hardcore fans and fighting a war of attrition over a smaller swath of the?population, gaming companies started looking at strategies that would bring new players into the fold. One obvious way to get the whole family on board was to enable them to do more than just play games with their consoles. What if dad could watch sports and little sis could check her Facebook page? The potential was endless.

Xbox had always made media content available for download, but streaming and social elements were missing. In November of 2008, the company added Netflix functionality, and followed that up with Facebook and Twitter in November of the next year. Suddenly, the console had a hook to draw in non-gamers, and enhanced TV became a part of the gaming world. But perhaps more importantly, home theater and gaming were blended together like never before.

Slow on the uptake

In case you haven?t noticed, the Xbox 360 is a fully functional OTT (over-the-top) set-top box, the PS3 is a Blu-ray player, and the Wii U provides a tablet-esque second-screen-enabled controller.

Casual gamers have been slow to realize their gaming hardware?s potential as a home-theater enhancement, perhaps because gaming consoles are still seen by many as devices designed for people who play games. To be fair, it would appear a perfectly valid characterization; after all, it?s baked right into their title. Consequently ? despite delivering Smart Hubs, media players, and second screen experiences that often outshine their specialist competition ? the consoles have gone largely unrecognized for their contributions to home theater.

Another important fact to consider is that modern consoles? GPU?s have historically out-muscled those implemented in Smart TVs. What?s more, console controllers are better-suited for navigating complex menus than most TV remotes, and they have an all-in-one appeal that other options lack ? and that?s just what?s available today.

Next-Gen

While it?s difficult to separate rumor and innuendo from leaks and facts at this point, it?s clear that next-generation consoles will be even more powerful and easier to integrate into your home theater system than their predecessors. So what else can we glean?

Multiple reports indicate that Microsoft will aim to bolster set-top options in its next go-around (Xbox 720), with some even indicating it may?choose to release two versions of the officially-unnamed console, one being a less expensive, dedicated set-top with scaled-back gaming functionality. If you want a safer bet though, look for Smart Glass to take center stage, just as it did at E3. The app provides a companion interface for second screen functionality and enhances more than just the gaming experience.

Also buzzing is the potential that Sony?s next machine ? code-named Orbis - could support 4K/UHD resolutions. If the reports are true, gaming may realize the next big thing in TV before TV does. Sony has bet everything but its shirt on the tech, so such a move would appear to make sense.

Lastly, there?s the possibility that the new round of consoles could be here sooner than later. Recent reports have indicated that reveals could be coming as early as March. If true, that would?put both Microsoft and Sony?s new consoles on track for holiday releases.

On the periphery

It?s not just the consoles, however, that are getting in on the action. Gaming peripherals are also making their way into the home theater conversation. Gaming headphones, like the PS3 PULSE wireless headset, can amplify and clarify in-game audio, sure, but you can also use them to tune into your TV, or listen to your MP3 player when you?re done berating your digital foes.

Kinect is another great example, and a potential game-changer for the home-theater industry. Gesture and voice control options come standard on the device and can be used to streamline the searching, selecting, and playing of entertainment, usually better than competing technologies built into Smart TVs. But recent developments provide even more intriguing possibilities.

At CES 2013, Microsoft unveiled video footage of its Illumiroom prototype, a smart-projection technology designed to drive gaming beyond the screen. Despite its stated intention, we can?t help but salivate over its potential to revolutionize home theater. There was a time that we were excited over ambient?back-lighting?and the prospect of 3D TV, but to think of an intelligent system that could project content outward and onto the objects around you is truly exciting.

A little bit of Hollywood

Brain teaser: What do Gary Oldman, Christina Ricci, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Plummer, Elijah Wood, Ice Cube, and Patrick Stewart have in common? If you said they all act you?re correct ? and a true master of the obvious. The answer we were looking for, however, is that?they?ve?all worked as voice actors on video games.

In effort to create more compelling?story-lines?and more enveloping entertainment experiences, the game industry has turned to Hollywood ? and not just for talent either.?

Cut-scenes are a convention in video games and ? whether you love them or loathe them ? they?ve become far more?detailed and far better executed in the tenure of current-gen consoles. It?s hard to pinpoint exactly when video games started taking their cinematic sequences more seriously, but improved graphics were definitely a factor in the movie-esque cut-scenes that are now all but commonplace.

Some studios, however, have taken it one step further. By constructing entire playable titles in the same cinematic vein, you end up with a product that could be called a chimera, forged from the parts of films and games alike. Take Rockstar?s ?L.A. Noire,? or Quantic Dream?s ?Heavy Rain.? Both games borrow liberally from Hollywood in their quests to creative compelling?narratives,?and in the process, further cement gaming?s crossover appeal.?

Nowadays, gaming and home theater are interwoven, and each drives the other forward. High resolution TVs unleash video games? graphical potential, while consoles with integrated Smart Hubs streamline home-theater content delivery; 3D displays provide players with an immersive experience, while game systems with built-in Blu-ray players save consumers money as they build their entertainment systems; we have movies about video games, video games that mimic movies, and a bevy of consumers who love both.

Gone are the days when gaming and home theater orbited one another like binary stars. The two have collided and the resultant exchange of matter means improved entertainment, for us all.

Source: http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/why-the-game-console-will-soon-take-over-your-home-theater/

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