Today's New Reason To Believe Archives

November 2004

Today’s New Reason To Believe - Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Constancy of the Fine Structure Constant

  • A team of German and Russian astronomers confirmed both cosmic design and the veracity of Scripture when they measured the limit of possible variability in the value of the fine structure constant. The team used a nearly three-year laboratory study of a certain transition frequency of the element ytterbium-171 to establish that the fine structure constant varies by more no more than two parts per quadrillion per year. This measurement is by far the lowest limit on possible variability of the fine structure constant and complements measurements made several months ago based on quasar spectral lines. Those measurements showed that during the past twelve billion years, the fine structure constant has varied by less than two parts per ten trillion per year. Both measurements confirm that the value of the fine structure constant, which must be exquisitely fine-tuned for physical life to be possible, indeed was built into the physics of the cosmos from the beginning. The results thus verify what’s stated in Jeremiah 33:25-that the laws governing the heavens are fixed.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Monday, November 29, 2004
Early Predatory Activity

  • Paleontologists have challenged significant components of both the naturalistic and the young-earth creationist models for life’s history on earth. They found evidence that creatures called crinoids, living 400 million years ago, were able to regenerate their tentacle-like arms in response to large-body-sized predators. This evidence suggests that large carnivores existed long before Adam lived and committed the first act of rebellion against God. The same evidence shows that optimal large-animal predator-prey relationships date back at least 400 million years. This date leaves less than 140 million years for such animals and their ecological relationships to "evolve" from microorganisms and microorganism colonies, a severe challenge for any naturalistic evolutionary model. From a biblical perspective, such early large-animal predator-prey relationships demonstrate the extent to which and the duration over which God created and re-created an enormous diversity of large animals, thus maximizing biodeposit resources that would one day benefit human beings.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Sunday, November 28, 2004
Model-Independent Cosmic Expansion Measure

Today’s New Reason To Believe - Saturday, November 27, 2004
Polarization of the Cosmic Background Radiation

  • Astronomers further bolstered the case for the biblical creation model by confirming that the cosmic background radiation (left over from the big bang) manifests significant polarization. Measurements performed over a two-year period with the Cosmic Background Imager confirmed these findings from the WMAP study: 1) the dominant constituents of the universe are dark energy and exotic dark matter, 2) the geometry of the universe is either flat or very nearly flat, and 3) the matter distribution in the universe is consistent with inflationary big bang creation models. This discovery strengthens the evidence for the biblically described features of the universe; namely, a transcendent beginning for space, time, matter, and energy, continuous expansion from the creation event, and the constancy of physical laws throughout cosmic time.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Friday, November 26, 2004
Solar Diameter Test for Creation Models

  • New measurements by astronomers provide more evidence for the exceptional design of the Sun for the sake of human life. At the same time, this data supports RTB’s creation model and contradicts the young-earth model. Specifically, research shows that the sun’s luminosity does indeed derive from nuclear fusion, not from gravitational collapse, which would be evidenced by a shrinking solar diameter. A new set of measurements has yielded "the most accurate direct constraint on possible solar radius variations on timescales from minutes to years." These measurements show that the diameter is remarkably stable indeed. Any changes in the solar radius trend line must be smaller than a miniscule 14.5 milliarcseconds per year. This limit is too small to accommodate the young-earth model but it does fit well with old-earth models. (The team also showed that the solar radius varies by less than 7 milliarcseconds over the course of the 11-year sunspot cycle.) The Sun is an exceptionally stable star, and it is currently in the most stable part of its nuclear burning history.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Thursday, November 25, 2004
Galactic Buildup Time for Metals

  • A team of European and American astronomers uncovered a new design feature for our Milky Way Galaxy. Their observations of nearby dwarf spheroidal galaxies demonstrated that such galaxies build up metals much more slowly than does the Milky Way Galaxy. This conclusion implies that the Milky Way Galaxy is virtually unique in its capacity to support advanced life. In most galaxies, star formation shuts down too quickly to build up the necessary metals for advanced life. For the remaining galaxies, the buildup of metals either takes too long or such buildup results in galactic instabilities that would make the existence of advanced life impossible. In those rare galaxies that do build up all the necessary metals for advanced life, the timing of that buildup must be carefully fine-tuned. Such fine-tuning strongly suggests a supernatural Designer.
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    • Journey Toward Creation 2nd ed., by Hugh Ross (DVD or VHS)

Today’s New Reason To Believe - Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Early Major Predator Activity

  • Paleontologists challenged significant components of both the young-earth creationist and naturalistic evolutionist models. They found evidence that creatures living 400 million years ago called crinoids were regenerating their tentacle-like arms in response to large-body-sized predators. This evidence establishes that large carnivores existed long before Adam’s first sin, which contradicts a major doctrine of young-earth creationism (namely, that there was no animal predation until after humanity’s fall into sin). The same evidence shows that optimal large-animal predator-prey relationships date back at least 400 million years. This date leaves less than 140 million years for such animals and the ecological relationships to "evolve" from microorganisms and microorganism colonies, a severe challenge for any naturalistic evolutionary model. From a biblical perspective, such early large-animal predator-prey relationships demonstrate the extent and duration over which God was creating and re-creating an enormous diversity of large animals so as to maximize the biodeposit resources for future human beings.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Human and Chimpanzee Genetic Differences

  • Many people consider the 99% "genetic similarity" between humans and chimpanzees as evidence for evolution. This report demonstrates that while a high degree of genetic similarity exists, the way in which these genes are used (gene expression) differs in human and chimpanzee brains. Therefore, a high degree of genetic similarity doesn’t necessarily mean that humans and chimpanzees are closely related organisms. It appears that the Creator may have used the same raw materials (genes) to construct both humans and chimpanzees, but employed these materials in such a way to generate radically different organisms.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Monday, November 22, 2004
Resolving the Small-Scale Crisis

  • A large team of American and European astronomers discovered a new galaxy that helps resolve a minor crisis for the simplest (and biblically and observationally most consistent) cosmic creation model. That model, the hierarchical-cold-dark-matter big bang creation model, states that most of the universe’s mass is comprised of exotic particles moving at slow velocities and that most of the universe’s galaxies formed from the merger of smaller galaxies, which formed from the merger of star clusters. The model predicts abundant substructure for both galaxy clusters and for individual galaxies. While the predicted substructure is beautifully confirmed in observations of galaxy clusters, astronomers had lacked the observational tools to observe the predicted number of low luminosity dwarf galaxies orbiting around large galaxies. The team exploited a new tool, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), to break through the observational barrier. They announced the discovery of Andromeda IX, a dwarf spheroidal galaxy orbiting the Andromeda Galaxy. Andromeda IX is by far the faintest known galaxy and its size and luminosity match what the hierarchical-cold-dark-matter model predicts. This discovery, plus SDSS’s potential to discover other similar tiny faint galaxies, is demonstrating the increasing consistency and success of biblical cosmic creation models.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Sunday, November 21, 2004
Molecular Fine-Tuning

  • One defining feature of all cells’ chemistry is the fine-tuning required for biomolecules to effectively carry out life’s necessary operations. Another new study illustrates this concept. Researchers show that a precise spatial orientation of the substrate and a specific identity of a single amino acid (either glycine or alanine) in the active site combine to play a critical role in determining the outcome of biochemical reactions catalyzed by enzymes known as lipoxygenases. Fine-tuning is one hallmark of well-designed man-made devices. Similarly, the fine-tuning displayed in biochemical systems signifies that life originated from the Creator’s hand.
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    • "Fine-Tuning of Aquaporin Membrane," Creation Update (6-04-2002)
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Saturday, November 20, 2004
Abiogenic Methane

  • A new discovery has refuted the astrobiologists’ mantra that "where there is methane there must be life." A prevalent assumption in astrobiology research is that only living or once-living organisms can produce significant amounts of methane on small rocky bodies like Earth, Mars, or Europa (one of Jupiter’s moons). Thus, the discovery of a large amount of methane on a rocky planet or moon, according to this prevalent assumption, would be proof for the existence of life on such a body and evidence that life could arise naturally. A team of geochemists simulated the physical and chemical conditions of Earth’s upper mantle in a lab experiment. They demonstrated that when iron oxide, calcite, and water in the upper mantle are subjected to the pressure and temperature conditions known to exist in the upper mantle, methane is generated. Therefore, any body containing a mantle like Earth’s can be expected to produce methane independent of any past or present biology. Thus, the discovery of methane on a planet like Mars would not prove that life had existed there or that life can originate independent of miraculous intervention.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Friday, November 19, 2004
Adult Stem Cells Offer Hope

  • Even though embryonic stem cell research tentatively holds promise to effectively treat several horrible debilitating diseases and injuries, many people are troubled by it, since this research involves the destruction of human embryos. A significant breakthrough in adult stem cell research may provide an alternative. Researchers report that adult stem cells from the pancreas can generate insulin-producing cells and also can transform into nerve cells. These cells would be suitable to treat both diabetes and diseased and damaged brain tissue. Since adult stem cells are not derived from embryos and do not involve the destruction of a human life, scientific advance may provide the way out of the ethical dilemma created by emerging biotechnologies.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Thursday, November 18, 2004
Density Constraints from Galaxy Cluster X-Rays

Today’s New Reason To Believe - Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Life’s Molecular Machinery

  • A watch requires a watchmaker. On this basis it logically follows that life requires a Creator. Biochemists have discovered that many biochemical systems function as molecular-level machines. One is the DNA injection machinery of the bacteriophage T4 virus. This study adds new insight into the mechanical operation of this motor. When the virus attaches to the surface of its bacterial host, the base plate of the viral tail undergoes a structural change that contracts the tail sheath and forces the tail into the bacterial cell wall. Once it has penetrated the cell wall, the viral DNA is injected into the host cell and the infectious cycle begins. The elegant design and machine-like behavior of the T4 bacteriophage tail indicates that this, and other biomolecular machines, are the work of a divine "Motor Maker."
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Solar Luminosity Stability

  • Several new astronomical studies show more evidence for design in demonstrating that the sun has an exceptionally benign luminosity stability for the specific benefit ofhuman civilization. Astronomers have known for some time that the sun undergoes a regular 11-year sunspot cycle which yields a peak-to-peak luminosity variation of just 0.08 percent-too small and too regular to significantly influence climate. In one new study a search was made for multidecadal variations in the sun’s luminosity. None were found. In a second new study 18 stars that closely match the sun in age, mass, and elemental abundances were carefully monitored for luminosity variations. No evidence for luminosity variations greater than 0.05 percent was found. All these studies confirm that the sun manifests exceptional luminosity stability when compared with other stars or when the sun in its present solar age is compared to other solar ages. Thus, the sun’s physical characteristics appear to be no accident, nor does the timing of humanity’s creation.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Monday, November 15, 2004
Sudden Increase in Dolphin Brain Size

  • Dolphins possess a degree of encephalization (brain-size-to-body-mass ratio) that is second only to humans. From an evolutionary perspective, the expectation is that dolphin brain size (recorded in the fossil record) should increase in a gradual fashion, through time. This recent study indicates otherwise. Measurements on 36 toothed whale fossils (which belong to the same order as dolphins) reveal that brain size increased in two sudden bursts at about 35 million and 15 million years ago. After each episode of explosive brain growth, stasis (no change) follows. While this pattern (explosive appearance followed by stasis) contradicts evolutionary expectations, it’s exactly as predicted if a Creator intervened in life’s history to bring about biological innovation.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Sunday, November 14, 2004
Cope’s Rule and Carnivore Extinction

  • Evolutionary biologists in California have strengthened the evidence for creation while finding yet another contradiction in the evolutionary model. They showed that for large-body-sized wild dogs, natural selection (survival of the fittest) strongly favors bigger compared to smaller dogs. However, the subsequent evolution toward larger body sizes forces the particular dog species to specialize on progressively larger prey animals. Since large prey animals are fewer in number and much more subject to catastrophic population declines and even extinctions, dog species that are increasingly dependent upon them become increasingly vulnerable to extinction. In the words of the research team, "[natural] selection for attributes that promoted individual success resulted in progressive evolutionary failure of their clades" [or taxonic groups of species].
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Saturday, November 13, 2004

  • Experience teaches that intelligible messages-information-come from intelligent sources. And, since a living cell’s biochemical machinery (proteins, DNA, RNA, and oligosaccharides) is information-based, this arrangement indicates that life stems from an Intelligent Designer. A new report affirms this conclusion. Researchers describe the use of DNA as a "barcode" to demonstrate that the skipper butterfly found in Costa Rica is not a single species, but rather consists of 10 independent species. The use of DNA as a barcode highlights the fact that DNA truly is an information storage molecule. Such elegant information-rich biochemical systems of the cell point to the source of life’s information¾the Creator described in the Bible.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Friday, November 12, 2004
Species Coextinctions

  • An international team of ecologists has uncovered another serious challenge to the evolutionary model. The team examined the dependency of so-called non-endangered species upon species that are listed as in grave danger of rapid extinction. They concluded that the extinction of several species of wasps, butterflies, and primates that are on the endangered species list will lead to the subsequent extinction of 6300 affiliate species. This study shows that extinction events are both more devastating and more frequent than what researchers had previously presumed. Consequently, evolutionists are even harder pressed than they were before to explain the speciation events that inevitably followed extinctions previous to the advent of humanity. Such extinction and speciation data, however, are precisely predicted by a biblical creation model positing a God who supernaturally creates diverse life forms for six creation periods and ceases from such creation (i.e., rests) during a subsequent seventh period.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Thursday, November 11, 2004

  • This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for work that has contributed important understanding about the molecular basis of diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s. The researchers also unwittingly uncovered evidence that the cell’s chemical systems must be the product of an Intelligent Designer. Well-designed systems include quality control checkpoints at critical junctures to ensure efficient production of high quality products. Many biochemical operations inside the cell employ such quality control procedures, and hence, appear to be designed. In the early 1980s, Irwin Rose, Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko identified an important quality control pathway that the cell uses to destroy proteins that are improperly made or that become damaged after their production. The removal of defective and damaged proteins by this elegant pathway-a signature of design-is critical for cell survival. As biochemists continue to characterize the cell’s chemical systems, the evidence for design mounts, and with it evidence that life is the product of a Creator.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Gifts from the Core

  • Geophysicists have discovered more evidence for the amazing design of Earth’s interior for the benefit of human civilization. They found additional evidence that Hawaiian lava flows contain an iron excess that must have come from the liquid outer core of the earth. (The earth is divided into four main layers: the inner core, outer core, mantle, and crust.) Apparently, Earth’s interior is so exquisitely designed that limited chemical exchange occurs at the liquid core/deep mantle boundary. Then, deep mantle plumes cause material at the boundary to upwell to crustal hot spots where volcanoes spew out a broad flow of iron-rich lava upon Earth’s surface. In places like Hawaii such lava flows quickly cool and decompose to form some of the richest farmlands on the planet.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Tuesday, November 9, 2004

  • Yet again, engineers turn to the elegant designs found in nature to inspire new technology. In this case, researchers have developed "smart" clothing that can adapt to changing temperatures by letting more air through the clothing when it’s hot and letting less air through the fabric when it’s cold. The inspiration for this new type of fabric came from pine cones, which employ a similar mechanism. Does it make sense to conclude that the designs found in nature stem from random, undirected processes when they are far superior to what man can accomplish?
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Monday, November 8, 2004
Gas Transport Across Biological Membranes

  • Using a technique that allowed for unprecedented resolution (1.35 Angstroms, that is, just slightly larger than an individual hydrogen atom) biochemists uncovered evidence for supernatural design that had previously been hidden from view. For the first time they determined the structure of a membrane pore in a cell that governs the transport of gas into the cell. The particular pore they characterized regulates the flow of ammonia gas. The pore mimics a venturi tube in that it is wide at both the outside and inside portions of the membrane and narrowest in the middle of the membrane. The tube is lined with specialized proteins that first recruit charged ammonia molecules from outside the cell, bind them to the insides of the channel, chemically neutralize them, and then send them to the interior of the cell at the just right rate for the cell’s protein synthesis needs. The design and organization of the cell’s gas transport pores clearly testifies of a supernatural, superintelligent Creator.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Sunday, November 7, 2004

  • A watch requires a watchmaker. On this basis it logically follows that life requires a Creator. Biochemists have discovered that many molecules inside the cell function as molecular-level machines. In fact, some display an eerie resemblance to man-made machines. Two are the pilus retraction protein, PilT, and the pilus elongation protein, PilF. These molecular motors help to form a powerful molecular machine that elongates and retracts the bacterial pilus, a fiber-like complex that connects bacteria to surfaces and other cells. Pili play a role in virulence, motility (movement), and DNA transfer between bacterial cells. This study adds new insight into the mechanical operation of these motor proteins. It now appears that pilus retraction is reversed by a force-dependent switch that "stamps" or "punches in" pilus elongation. This elegant design and stark resemblance to man-made motors indicates that these biomolecular machines must be the work of a divine "Motor Maker."
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Saturday, November 6, 2004
Confirming Exotic Dark Matter

  • Evidence for the biblical cosmic creation model has been strengthened as skepticism expressed by atheist astronomers and young-earth creationists about the existence of exotic dark matter has once again been put to rest. Results from the Lenses Structure and Dynamics Survey established that five galaxies located several billion light years away possess massive and extended dark matter halos. This discovery complements earlier observations establishing the existence of such halos for nearby galaxies. Consequently, doubts that exotic dark matter plays a significant role in the dynamics of the universe are unwarranted, as are doubts about the extreme fine-tuning (evidence for supernatural design) of the exotic dark matter density needed for the existence of physical life. Thus, the big bang creation model has successfully passed another test.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Friday, November 5, 2004

  • RTB’s creation model predicts life’s sudden appearance early in Earth’s history. Evolutionary models, on the other hand, require a long percolation time before life can emerge via natural processes. Prior to about 3.8 billion years ago, life would have been impossible on Earth, since the planet’s conditions were "hellish" and unsuitable for life. This study uncovers new fossil, geochemical, and geological field evidence for life’s early appearance on Earth. The data indicates that anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria were present on Earth at 3.416 billion years ago. Such rapid appearance of complex metabolic forms of life so rapidly after the Earth became suitable for life defies a naturalistic explanation. However, this fact finds ready explanation if a Creator supernaturally intervened to make the first life forms on Earth.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Thursday, November 4, 2004
Placing Constraints on Cosmic Speculations

  • Astronomers bolstered the case for the biblical cosmic creation model by developing a new tool for placing constraints on cosmic origins speculations. Some people have attempted to lower the apparent evidence for supernatural cosmic design and to possibly avoid a transcendent cosmic beginning (beginning of matter, energy, space, and time within finite time) by appealing to either exotic quantum gravity theories or extra dimensions of the spacetime continuum, or both. Such appeals predict significant time variations in certain constants of physics (e.g. the velocity of light or the gravitational constant) and/or non-trivial modifications of general relativity (specifically, violations of the Lorentz invariance). Now, two different teams of astronomers have demonstrated that a search for time delays in gamma ray burst light curves as a function of energy can powerfully constrain these kinds of cosmic speculations. The constraints achieved so far are impressive. A systematic study of many more gamma-ray burst events will offer even greater constraints. This study, like many others, shows that the more scientists learn about the universe the more evidence they uncover for the biblical cosmic creation model.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Wednesday, November 3, 2004

  • One defining feature of the cell’s chemistry is the fine-tuning required for biomolecules to effectively carry out life’s necessary operations. A recent study illustrates this concept. In it, the authors show how the strategic placement of amino acid residues is critical for the water transport properties of aquaporin (a cell membrane water channel). Fine-tuning is one hallmark of well-designed man-made devices. Similarly, therefore, the fine-tuning characteristic of biochemical systems signifies that life originated from the Creator’s hand.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Tuesday, November 2, 2004
Design of El Nino Events

  • Marine biologists discovered another way that El Nino events in the Pacific Ocean are optimally designed to maximize the biomass and biodiversity of Earth. Using high-resolution satellite images of ocean color and surface winds in combination with data from ocean samples, they determined that El Nino events play a large role in distributing chlorophyll throughout the central North Pacific Ocean. Such decadal-scale variation in the geographical distribution of chlorophyll concentrations ensures a large biomass and wide diversity for as large a portion of the Pacific Ocean as possible. Thus, El Nino events are optimally designed to enhance the biomass and biodiversity of not only continental land masses but also the oceans. Such design is testimony for a supernatural, superintelligent Creator.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe - Monday, November 1, 2004

  • One of the most remarkable discoveries in paleontology is the rapid and early appearance of life on Earth. The first life forms were single-cell microbes. Even though Earth’s first life was morphologically simple, it displayed metabolic complexity. For example, geochemical deposits suggest that methanotrophic bacteria were present on early Earth. This study provides insight into the extensive complexity of methanotrophic microbes. These researchers sequenced the genome of a methanotrophic bacterium and discovered that approximately 3100 genes make up its genome. The abrupt appearance of complex metabolic forms of life so rapidly after the Earth became suitable for life defies a naturalistic explanation. However, this fact finds ready explanation if a Creator supernaturally intervened to make the first life forms on Earth.
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