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<channel>
	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Ben Cohen</title>
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		<title>Why &#8216;Diversity&#8217; Means Quotas</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ben-cohen/why-diversity-means-quotas/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=why-diversity-means-quotas</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ben-cohen/why-diversity-means-quotas/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Aug 2014 04:03:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ben Cohen]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Diversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Poor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[quota]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Race]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sonia Sotomayor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[White]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=239667</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The truth about racial preferences in higher education. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/diversity.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-239669" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/diversity-442x350.jpg" alt="diversity" width="327" height="259" /></a>Earlier this year, Sonia Sotomayor appeared on ABC’s the week to plug her new book, <em>My Beloved World</em>. ABC reporter George Stephanopoulos declared that the Supreme Court Justice “knows that affirmative action made a difference in her life, and believes it’s still necessary.”</p>
<p>Stephanopoulos continued,</p>
<blockquote><p>“There’s been a lot of scholarly work that says it’s not the best way to insure diversity in schools, and maybe if you focus on where people live, and how much money they make, you can get the same results, in a way that is less fractious.”</p></blockquote>
<p>To which the Justice responded,</p>
<blockquote><p>“…the problem with that answer is that it doesn’t work….it’s not that I don’t believe that it doesn’t work, it’s that the statistics show it doesn’t work.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Sotomayor, as you may recall, read a lengthy dissent in Schuette v. Coalition, the case which determined that states may ban racial preferences in higher education – a conclusion Sotomayor vehemently disagreed with.</p>
<p>Unmentioned in this discussion were the words &#8220;quotas&#8221; or &#8220;Bakke.&#8221; After being twice rejected by UC Davis medical school, Allen Bakke sued. His suit alleged that UC Davis’s two tiered admissions process, for whites and non-whites, violated his rights under both the fourteenth amendment and the civil rights act.</p>
<p>UC Davis medical school had two separate admissions programs: a regular program, and a special program intended to help disadvantaged students. Applicants to the special program would compete against each other, and would not be compared to regular applicants.  Importantly, the special program accepted applicants with college GPA’s below 2.5.</p>
<p>Ostensibly intended for the disadvantaged of all races, the special program had never accepted a white applicant, although many had applied. Also, racial minorities composed a majority of the committee members who determined admission to the special program. UC Davis also denied that the special admissions program operated as a quota; the Supreme Court disagreed.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court found UC Davis’s admissions scheme to be unconstitutional, and ordered UC Davis to admit Allen Bakke to medical school. The court’s ruling explicitly stated that both quotas and two-tiered systems were unconstitutional &#8212; something confirmed by future Supreme Court rulings.</p>
<p>The court did allow an exception to this general prohibition on the use of race or ethnicity. Colleges could consider race as a factor, if they used it in the same manner as they did other factors. Colleges could not reserve spots for different ethnic or racial groups, but they could consider the value that a student from an under-represented group would bring. This would be the fig leaf that allowed colleges to pursue their racial and ethnic balancing schemes.</p>
<p>At the 2013 University of Michigan “Future of Campus Diversity Symposium,” the fig leaf came right off. Attorney Mark Rosenbaum – fresh from convincing the Sixth Circuit court of appeals that Michigan’s ban on racial preferences violated the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment – delivered the <i>second </i>keynote address.<i> </i></p>
<p>After telling his audience that “diversity is about how one lives a life,” and “is about respecting the dignity of every single person,” he got down to brass tacks. Bans on racial and gender preferences in higher education had reduced the enrollment numbers of some ethnic and racial groups. According to Rosenbaum, Michigan’s ban on racial preferences in admissions caused African American freshman enrollment to decline from 8.1% to 5.2% at the University of Michigan. “In a state where the number of African American’s are between fifteen and twenty percent,” Rosenbaum informed his audience.</p>
<p>And this isn’t just talk. Thomas Espenshade and Alexandria Radcliffe studied admissions preferences at both public and private institutions. Although they wouldn’t characterize it this way, their data clearly shows that both public and private institutions employ admissions preferences for the purpose of balancing their racial and ethnic demographics.</p>
<p>When comparing similar applicants to highly selective private schools, being black instead of white is worth the equivalent of 310 extra SAT points, being Hispanic instead of “non-Hispanic white” is worth the equivalent of 130 SAT points, and being Asian instead of white costs you the equivalent of 140 SAT points.</p>
<p>At public institutions, being Hispanic instead of non-Hispanic white doesn’t help your odds much, the equivalent of .3 ACT points. But at these same institutions, being black instead of white increases your odds of acceptance by the equivalent 3.8 ACT points, and being Asian instead of white decreases the odds of acceptance by the equivalent of 3.4 ACT points.</p>
<p>These statistics can only be explained as deliberate efforts at demographic balancing.</p>
<p>The numbers become even more disturbing when one considers social class. At public institutions, socio-economic factors play little role in admissions, but the same cannot be said for private ones. Non-white applicants from lower class backgrounds enjoy considerable class-based affirmative action; not so for whites. Whites are the only group where lower class applicants have less chance at being admitted than middle class applicants; in this case, the numbers are 8% and 28% respectively. For comparisons sake, 81% of lower class, and 50% of middle class, black applicants are accepted.</p>
<p>Elite private institutions, all of which receive federal and state money, offer class-based admissions preferences to every group except one: whites. While offering financial aid and admissions preferences to low-income people of other races, these institutions treat poor white kids as an unwanted financial burden. Imagine the outrage if government benefits granted to everyone else were denied to any other group aside for whites. In his Bakke opinion, Justice Powell specifically cited the denial of surplus food stuffs to African Americans as an example of unequal treatment.</p>
<p>When we debate race-conscious admissions, we have to debate such programs as they exist, not as we would like them to be. When a college administrator says that it is unacceptable for the proportion of under-represented groups to fall below a certain threshold, for all intents and purposes, he is calling for a quota. To those who support these programs, do you support quotas?</p>
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		<title>Leftist Infomercials for Gun Control</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/ben-cohen/leftist-infomercials-for-gun-control/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=leftist-infomercials-for-gun-control</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/ben-cohen/leftist-infomercials-for-gun-control/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 26 Dec 2012 04:35:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ben Cohen]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ban]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[facts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gun Control]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hysteria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Left]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=170912</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When hysteria cancels reason. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/ben-cohen/leftist-infomercials-for-gun-control/info/" rel="attachment wp-att-170914"><img class=" wp-image-170914 alignleft" title="info" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/info-450x248.jpg" alt="" width="221" height="122" /></a>Much like the shooting of Trayvon Martin, the recent tragedy in Newtown brought out the worst in <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/frontpagemag-com/another-thought-criminal-banished-by-the-daily-kos/">liberals</a>. CNN, ostensibly a news network, became a 24-hour infomercial for gun control. Democrats demanded we pass new gun control as soon as possible, our president insisted that we have to do something and we can’t sit on our hands just because the problem is<a href="http://blogs.suntimes.com/politics/2012/12/video_president_obamas_speech_at_newtown_conn_prayer_vigil.html"> complicated</a>. Of course the president and Democrats have one thing in mind: gun control, specifically a new and improved assault weapons <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec12/feinstein_12-17.html">ban</a>. Before we rush to change the law in order to please the drama queens in the media, we ought to look at the facts.</p>
<p>The first question we should ask ourselves is: do assault rifles and high capacity magazines represent a public safety problem? Do they increase the number of people killed each year? In 2004, the assault weapons ban <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assault_Weapons_Ban">expired</a>, since then the number of people killed each year in homicides decreased <a href="http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm">by 1,536</a> (from 2004 to 2011). In that same time period the population increased by roughly <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States">twenty million</a>, and the AR-15 became America’s best-selling <a href="http://www.nrapublications.org/index.php/12717/the-ar-15-and-the-second-amendment-no-respect/">firearm</a><strong>.</strong> The increased availability of high capacity magazines and firearms has not increased the rate of murder, according to the data. Furthermore, assault rifles are not commonly used in the commission of crimes. In 2005 only three percent of all homicides were committed with rifles, including <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20100412084914/http:/www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_07.html">assault rifles</a>. Prior to the 1994 assault weapons ban studies repeatedly demonstrated that assault weapons, a much broader category including many handguns, were comparatively uncommon in <a href="http://gunowners.org/fs9403.htm">crime</a>.</p>
<p>When considering what to do about mass shootings, we first need to consider the scope of the problem. Mass shootings, while tragic, make up a tiny portion of our overall homicide rate. According to Mother Jones, there have been 62 mass shootings since <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mass-shootings-map">1981</a>. By my rough calculations in that same time period about 600,000 people were <a href="http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm">murdered</a>. To make a direct comparison: in the last year for which we have complete data, 14,612 people died of <a href="http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm">homicide</a>, of those 21 died in mass shootings. More relevant than how a new assault weapons ban will impact mass shootings is how it will impact everyday crime and the overall murder rate, and the statistics clearly demonstrate that it will not lower it.</p>
<p><strong></strong>Finally, some commentators have embarrassed themselves by engaging in fact free speculation about mental illness, while presenting no evidence that tighter civil commitment laws would have stopped these tragedies. Just as it makes no sense to make mass shootings the driving concern behind gun laws, it makes no sense to make them the major consideration behind civil commitment laws. Mentally ill mass shooters represent a tiny portion of people with mental illness. It would be insane to change the way we treat millions of people based on the actions of probably less than a hundred.</p>
<p>Rational debate about civil commitment and gun laws is one thing; media-driven hysteria is another. The politicians, and the media, pushing for a new assault weapons ban prefer hysteria to reason. That’s why they talk about passing something now, while the tragedy is fresh in the public’s mind. Even if you agree with gun control in principal (as some conservatives do), you should want a discussion driven by reason and laws shaped by facts.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Inconvenient Truths About The Trayvon Martin Shooting</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/ben-cohen/inconvenient-truths-about-the-trayvon-martin-shooting/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=inconvenient-truths-about-the-trayvon-martin-shooting</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 24 May 2012 04:29:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ben Cohen]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[charges]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[evidence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[George Zimmerman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[self defense]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shooting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trayvon Martin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=132942</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What the new evidence reveals. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/george2.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-132945" title="george2" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/george2.jpg" alt="" width="244" height="183" /></a>A large quantity of information about the Trayvon Martin case was recently made <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/93960335/Documents#fullscreen" target="_blank">public</a>.</p>
<p>This new information constitutes only a small portion of the massive collection of information turned over by the prosecution as part of <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/05/17/document-dump-george-zimmerman-discovery-file/" target="_blank">discovery</a>.  Upon reading through the 183 pages of documents, it becomes apparent that George Zimmerman should have never been charged with second degree murder, as I have maintained since the <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/26/1077961/-Stop-the-lynch-mob" target="_blank">beginning</a> of the controversy at the <em>Daily Kos</em>.</p>
<p>From the onset, media have selectively reported the facts to create a fantasy narrative where George Zimmerman stalked and shot a helpless unarmed <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skNKVjSxQys" target="_blank">teenager</a>. The media ignored the mountain of evidence that suggests that Trayvon Martin was on top of George Zimmerman beating him when he was shot, and that Zimmerman acted out of fear of death or serious injury. The media instead focused on the speculative testimony of Mary Cutcher and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skNKVjSxQys" target="_blank">Selma Mora Lamilla</a> over an actual eyewitness account from a man identified by the press as “<a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/witness_supports_self_defense_story_hJ7s3EBd9LtYlZaE41WzFP" target="_blank">John</a>.” That the rest of the evidence strongly supported “John’s” version of events made the false narrative crafted by the media even more outrageous. When Police Chief Bill Lee released a statement saying that Zimmerman had claimed self-defense and that the evidence <a href="http://www.sanfordfl.gov/investigation/docs/Zimmerman_Martin_shooting.pdf" target="_blank">supported him</a>, the media <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q00HRkSDJX4&amp;feature=relmfu" target="_blank">attacked Lee</a>. Now that the evidence has come out, we see that it weighs on the side of Police Chief Lee and against the people who attacked him.</p>
<p>George Zimmerman had a broken nose, two black eyes, and lacerations on the <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimmerman-medical-report-sheds-light-injuries-trayvon/story?id=16353532#.T7WCVcU_wk4" target="_blank">back of his head</a>. Trayvon Martin, in contrast, had no injuries aside from the gunshot wound and a small abrasion on his <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/93960335/Documents#fullscreen" target="_blank">knuckles</a>. Responding officers and paramedics witnessed George Zimmerman’s<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/93960335/Documents#fullscreen" target="_blank"> injuries</a> and medical records <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimmerman-medical-report-sheds-light-injuries-trayvon/story?id=16353532#.T7WCVcU_wk4" target="_blank">confirm them</a>. An eyewitness stated that a man matching George’s description was being pummeled while screaming for help. The lead investigator, who wanted to charge Zimmerman with manslaughter, determined that the voice screaming for help was George Zimmerman’s.</p>
<p>All of this evidence does weigh on the side of George Zimmerman’s version of events, as leaked to the <a href="http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-03-26/news/os-trayvon-martin-zimmerman-account-20120326_1_miami-schools-punch-unarmed-black-teenager" target="_blank">Orlando Sentinel</a>. In light of these developments, I thought I would review the basic questions of the case:</p>
<p><strong>Did George Zimmerman follow Trayvon Martin after he was advised it was unnecessary?</strong></p>
<p>This is unclear from the evidence. However, Dale Gilbreath, an investigator for the state, testified that none of the evidence contradicted George Zimmerman’s claim that he had stopped following Martin and was returning to his vehicle when Martin <a href="http://www.cfnews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2012/4/19/george_zimmerman_mot.html" target="_blank">confronted him</a>. The lead investigator, Christopher Serino, does not specifically state that Zimmerman followed Martin after he was advised <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/93960335/Documents#fullscreen" target="_blank">not to</a>.</p>
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		<title>The Arrest of George Zimmerman: Justice or Politics?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/ben-cohen/the-arrest-of-george-zimmerman-justice-or-politics/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-arrest-of-george-zimmerman-justice-or-politics</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Apr 2012 04:30:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ben Cohen]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Arrest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dershowitz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prosecutor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trayvon Martin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[zimmerman]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=129075</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What substance does the prosecutor's affidavit of "probable cause" actually contain?
]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/zimmerman.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-129090" title="zimmerman" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/zimmerman.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="428" /></a>Most people have responded to Angela Corey’s decision to charge George Zimmerman with second degree murder in one of two ways: they have applauded her or they have cautioned people to wait for the trial &#8212; in which we will hear all the facts. Very few people have accused Angela Corey of filing these charges for political reasons, despite her affidavit of probable cause not demonstrating probable cause, or indicating any new evidence that her predecessor didn’t <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/harvard-prof-alan-dershowitz-zimmerman-arrest-affidavit-irresponsible-and-unethical/">have</a>. Indeed nothing new has become public that would indicate significant new evidence since March 13, when the Sanford police concluded their <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-trayvon-martin-shooting-state-attorney-20120313,0,6200217.story">investigation</a>.</p>
<p>Prior to removing himself from the case, the District Attorney, Norm Wolfinger, disagreed with the lead investigator who wanted to bring <a href="http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/trayvon-martins-family-seeks-investigation-of-state-attorneys-actions/article2388763/?service=mobile">charges</a>. Wolfinger had agreed to put the evidence before a grand jury and allow them to decide whether to bring <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/20/fla-grand-jury-investigate-shooting-unarmed-black-/">charges</a>. The new prosecutor, who was appointed after public protests and major media attention, decided to forgo a grand jury and present a judge with an affidavit of probable cause. Assuming no significant new evidence has been uncovered (and we have no reason to believe it has), then either Corey is right or Wolfinger was right, but not both.</p>
<p>The major reason why one would not charge George Zimmerman with a crime is that, as Sanford police chief Bill Lee <a href="http://www.sanfordfl.gov/investigation/docs/Zimmerman_Martin_shooting.pdf">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>“<em>When the Sanford Police Department arrived at the scene of the incident, Mr. Zimmerman provided a statement claiming he acted in self defense which at the time was supported by physical evidence and testimony.” </em></p></blockquote>
<p><em></em>In fact one of these eyewitnesses has come forward and spoken with the <a href="http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/state/witness-martin-attacked-zimmerman-03232012">media</a>. He related seeing a man wearing red lying on the ground screaming for help while another man was beating him. He ran to call police, and when he looked outside again the guy on top was lying dead in the grass from a gunshot wound.</p>
<p>One of the few documents that has been released to the public (now taken down) was the partial initial police report; this document contains the statement of Officer Timothy Smith, the first person to arrive at the scene. He states that George Zimmerman had blood on his nose and back of his head, along with grass on his <a href="http://www.wagist.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Twin-Lakes-Shooting-Initial-Report.pdf">back</a>. While the media has raised a hue and cry over grainy security cam footage, we have the sworn statement of the first officer to arrive at the scene.</p>
<p>As Alan Dershowitz and others have pointed out the prosecutor&#8217;s affidavit of probable cause doesn’t contain either probable cause to charge Zimmerman with second degree murder, or any indication of new evidence. Manslaughter consists of an act which is neither reasonable nor justifiable and results in another person’s death; all murders could also be considered <a href="http://www.richardhornsby.com/crimes/homicide/manslaughter.html">manslaughters</a>. First degree murder involves deliberately killing another person as part of a preplanned plot or <a href="http://www.richardhornsby.com/crimes/homicide/first-degree-murder.html">scheme</a>. Second degree murder <a href="http://www.richardhornsby.com/crimes/homicide/second-degree-murder.html">involves</a> killing another person without premeditation, “by an act imminently dangerous to another and evincing a depraved mind showing no regard for human life.”</p>
<p>The prosecutor’s affidavit of probable cause doesn’t contain a description of anything remotely resembling that, nor do any facts available to the public point in that direction. The prosecutor claims (in the affidavit) that Zimmerman followed and confronted Martin, something happened, and Zimmerman shot <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/89120165/Zimmerman-Probable-Cause-Document-2">Martin</a>. The sole piece of evidence she presents to back up her claim is the statement of Trayvon Martin’s mother that the voice heard in the background of a 9-11 call is Trayvon’s.</p>
<p>As Alan Dershowitz correctly pointed out, and another lawyer has told me, the right to self defense is never forfeited. As long as George Zimmerman reasonably feared death or serious injury, and lethal force was his only available escape, then he is protected under the traditional rules of self defense. And given the presence of at least one eyewitness who saw George Zimmerman pinned to the ground and screaming for help, Zimmerman has a basis for that claim. Nothing in the affidavit contradicts George’s claim to self-defense.</p>
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