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Corny posted:Man for how public the Israelis are, I bet the Saudis are screaming on an order of magnitude much greater than the Israelis behind closed doors. No doubt trying to get the Pakistanis to deliver those nuclear bombs quicker now. "gently caress the delivery systems, just get the nukes here, we'll rig up some Chinese stuff because the Russians don't like us for Syria."
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Nov 24, 2013 04:11
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I wonder if the final common ground between the US and Iran was the realization of exactly how much this would piss off the Saudis.
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Nov 24, 2013 04:21
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ALL-PRO SEXMAN posted:I wonder if the final common ground between the US and Iran was the realization of exactly how much this would piss off the Saudis. Wouldn't surprise me. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has made the opinion of the Saudis very clear, and the US very clearly doesn't care. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-22/iran-is-playing-obama-says-savvy-saudi-prince.html
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Nov 24, 2013 04:33
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Apologies if it's been answered before or if it's not the place to ask but I feel like I'm missing something basic here. If I understand correctly you only need to enrich uranium to about 3-5% for it to work as reactor fuel and yet Iran has enriched to up to 20% while claiming that they have no weapons program. So what's the use of enriching above 5% if you don't plan on making a bomb?
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Nov 24, 2013 11:28
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quote:A grim-faced Netanyahu, who had strongly opposed any easing of economic sanctions against Iran – in a rift with Israel's main ally, the United States – told his cabinet his government would not be bound by the Geneva deal. 
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Nov 24, 2013 11:34
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Senjuro posted:Apologies if it's been answered before or if it's not the place to ask but I feel like I'm missing something basic here. If I understand correctly you only need to enrich uranium to about 3-5% for it to work as reactor fuel and yet Iran has enriched to up to 20% while claiming that they have no weapons program. So what's the use of enriching above 5% if you don't plan on making a bomb? They can use 20% enriched uranium in their research reactor we helped them build (or their new one in Arak which will probably be operational next year) to produce isotopes for medical and industrial uses, though they could also produce plutonium with it.
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Nov 24, 2013 11:37
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eSports Chaebol posted:They can use 20% enriched uranium in their research reactor we helped them build (or their new one in Arak which will probably be operational next year) to produce isotopes for medical and industrial uses, though they could also produce plutonium with it. I see. So is there a certain percent that one can confidently say that anything above it has no other use expect for weapons?
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Nov 24, 2013 11:48
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Senjuro posted:Apologies if it's been answered before or if it's not the place to ask but I feel like I'm missing something basic here. If I understand correctly you only need to enrich uranium to about 3-5% for it to work as reactor fuel and yet Iran has enriched to up to 20% while claiming that they have no weapons program. So what's the use of enriching above 5% if you don't plan on making a bomb? As well as medical and research purposes, the more highly enriched the uranium is, the more compact reactor fuel can be. Fast neutron reactors (which use >20%) offer the possibility of closing the fuel cycle by breeding your own plutonium (though that's hella difficult), and naval reactors use 50-90% because space is at a premium.
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Nov 24, 2013 11:56
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Senjuro posted:I see. So is there a certain percent that one can confidently say that anything above it has no other use expect for weapons? There are research reactors that used highly-enriched uranium, though this is really unpopular now for non-proliferation reasons, and I think most of them have been converted to use low-enriched uranium. In theory you could make a really lovely A-bomb with just 20% enriched uranium, but in reality it's more like 80%.
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Nov 24, 2013 12:22
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Can/should someone make a new thread about this? It seems like a big enough deal, right?
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Nov 24, 2013 13:30
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About Iran? Yes, please.
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Nov 24, 2013 13:31
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Yara Sabri, a Syrian actress has been using her Facebook page to disseminate information about regime detainees. Here are some of the posts: 1 Please spread: There is a person known as Abu Aldeeb, real name unknown from Ma'arat alNumaan who has been detained for 25 years in Military Branch 215. Accused of being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. No other information because he's been in solitary confinement. Please disseminate so that someone who recognizes the name can know he is still alive. 2 Please spread: Faten Abdulrahman from Douma a PhD in Nuclear Physics She was in the Air Force Mukhabarat Branch but was transferred to Military Branch 215, she was in solitary confinement for 60 days. She was injected with syringes, nobody knows what they are but they caused constant bleeding. She was taken to the branch behind the Officer's Club. Last seen two months ago in Military Branch 215. Please help us spread this information. 3 Please spread: From someone recently released: The Guys were in the National Security Branch in Kafar Souseh last seen 3/6/2013: Muhannad Soufani Economics student, resident of Kudsayah accused of humanitarian relief.. Taken from his job at a bookstore he also works as a teacher at an institute. Abdulrahman alBoushi Economics student resident of Barzeh taken while doing an exam at university Accused of trying to blow up the Faculty of Economics, he has admitted to doing so on camera while under threat. Last time I saw him he had a serious chest injury as a result of a foot strike and he had to be transferred to hospital after a while. Khalid alKurdi Economics student specializing in management, has a kidney disease and in constant need of water but is not receiving adequate quantities (a cup a day) Please help us spread this Thank you 4 #ohfreedom Bashar Sirri Nakrour Arrested by the Blue Ifrits (a Syrian saying, in this case it refers to the Mukhabarat) 5 months ago as he was leaving a regime sponsored National Reconciliation Council meeting of which he is a member in Homs Since then we haven't heard anything of him Guys.. Whoever was inside [prison, arrested by the Mukhabarat] and has been safely released please tell us if you know anything about him.. Thank You
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Nov 24, 2013 15:44
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Senjuro posted:I see. So is there a certain percent that one can confidently say that anything above it has no other use expect for weapons? No, there's no level of enrichment that has no use except for weapons. Different levels of enrichment allow different neutron flux and all that fun stuff, so it's all about what you're trying to do with it. When we originally built the Tehran Research Reactor for generating medical and industrial radioisotopes, it ran on pure 100% enriched (weapons-grade) uranium. They rebuilt it to run on 20% low-enriched uranium. 20% is still LEU, but more than 20% is generally considered weapons-grade where the primary use is weapons. quote:After the 1979 revolution, Iran was no longer able to procure replacement fuel from the United States or Europe. In 1987, the AEOI paid Argentina’s Applied Research Institute (INVAP) $5.5 million to convert the reactor’s fuel from 93 percent enriched uranium to slightly less than 20 percent enriched uranium, just below the cutoff for highly enriched uranium (HEU). (A timeline of the fuel requirements for the Tehran Research Reactor can be found here: Argentine Low-Enriched Uranium at the Tehran Research Reactor) The reactor has been operating with LEU fuel since 1993. Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 16:16 on Nov 24, 2013 |
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Nov 24, 2013 16:14
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This is an interesting article on Russian "contractors" (basically a Russian Blackwater) operating in Syria and utterly failing. http://spioenkop.blogspot.gr/2013/11/russian-contractors-in-syria_16.html
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Nov 24, 2013 17:34
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Charliegrs posted:This is an interesting article on Russian "contractors" (basically a Russian Blackwater) operating in Syria and utterly failing. The Interpreter has more information on that St. Petersburg Sends Contractors to Syria The Last Battle of the “Slavonic Corps”
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Nov 24, 2013 17:50
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It's at least really clear now why Obama was doing everything he could not to bomb Syria. So much for Russia's amazing diplomatic skills.
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Nov 24, 2013 18:18
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That read really bizarre. But hey, hiring a bunch of mercenaries seems pretty cheap  (Well, bottom of the barrel...)
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Nov 24, 2013 21:29
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Brown Moses posted:The Interpreter has more information on that There's some quality photo editing on that second article. I'm sure that one dude's face didn't really need to be blurred like the others.
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Nov 24, 2013 22:09
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eSports Chaebol posted:They can use 20% enriched uranium in their research reactor we helped them build (or their new one in Arak which will probably be operational next year) to produce isotopes for medical and industrial uses, though they could also produce plutonium with it. Plutonium-239 is created in any reactor fueled by uranium (except for a hypothetical reactor that uses incredibly high enrichments, as it wouldn't have any uranium-238 to convert into plutonium-239). The process of removing plutonium-239 from fuel waste is identical regardless of what level of enrichment is used. However, different reactors are better or worse at this for various reasons. Some reactor designs are a real hassle to remove fuel from, while CANDUs can have fuel removed during operation but eat up a lot of the plutonium by nature of their design. You can also manufacture plutonium-239 using a reactor that uses any type of fuel by using it to irradiate depleted uranium with thermalized neutrons. The reactor would have to be designed with a channel that the depleted uranium can be inserted into, though, you can't just do it with any random reactor. This method is more likely to produce very good quality weapons material because if it's done right you don't have to deal with the issues mentioned above as well as having to remove all sorts of crap like fission products and unused uranium-235 from it, just the unused uranium-238. So it's very hard to tell whether someone is making weapons-grade plutonium just by looking at what enrichment of fuel they're using. It could be that the new reactor is very small, or is just poo poo and can't maintain a reaction with lower enrichments. BattleMaster fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Nov 24, 2013 |
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Nov 24, 2013 22:23
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Pimpmust posted:That read really bizarre. But hey, hiring a bunch of mercenaries seems pretty cheap They did the same thing during the Chechen wars, and the mercenaries were the only ones Chechen fighters had to worry about. Russian soldiers were piss drunk and lazy as a whole. Some of the mercenaries would fight on even missing appendages. The understanding I got from an interview with some Chechens was that it was far more rewarding to kill a mercenary and take his head than it was to kill a soldier. Speaking of which, I bet there is a line of buses stacked up at the Chechen border headed to Syria right about now.
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Nov 24, 2013 22:55
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Brown Moses posted:It's at least really clear now why Obama was doing everything he could not to bomb Syria. So much for Russia's amazing diplomatic skills. Sorry if I'm being dumb, if so feel free to make fun of me, but I don't follow. I see Russian totally-not-mercenaries being sent to ostensibly defend regime resources. Through a combination of fuckups on their part and getting comically dicked by the regime (I like the part where they were promised tanks and BMPs but got poo poo that wouldn't even go, so they had to move out in guntrucks) they accomplish basically gently caress-all, and then as icing get captured by opposition forces. Is the takeaway that Obama was letting Russia throw money in a hole, that Obama didn't want to blow up Russian operatives, that Obama was waiting for this to blow up in Russia's face, or what?
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Nov 25, 2013 00:11
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S.T.C.A. posted:There's some quality photo editing on that second article. I'm sure that one dude's face didn't really need to be blurred like the others. Not only that, they blurred it in the body but left it clear in the header Blue Footed Booby posted:Sorry if I'm being dumb, if so feel free to make fun of me, but I don't follow. Yeah, I also don't see how this connects to Obama. They got the dicking over of the century for sure. I bet it'll make a good movie, A Bridge Too Far: 2013.
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Nov 25, 2013 00:23
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Blue Footed Booby posted:Sorry if I'm being dumb, if so feel free to make fun of me, but I don't follow. I see Russian totally-not-mercenaries being sent to ostensibly defend regime resources. Through a combination of fuckups on their part and getting comically dicked by the regime (I like the part where they were promised tanks and BMPs but got poo poo that wouldn't even go, so they had to move out in guntrucks) they accomplish basically gently caress-all, and then as icing get captured by opposition forces. Is the takeaway that Obama was letting Russia throw money in a hole, that Obama didn't want to blow up Russian operatives, that Obama was waiting for this to blow up in Russia's face, or what? Russia and the US came to a deal over the regimes chemical weapons stockpile, and based on the circumstances, a lot of the stories were saying that Kerry got worked over and that Russia derailed the US military industrial complex, etc etc. Like they were good guys and proponents of peace who stopped the violence. Of course, they've been funding the regimes weapons, and this whole PMC nonsense all along, so those stories were really stupid. That's what he was getting at I think. Edit: Also that Russia probably would have been a little bit more upset in the event of an American intervention if their guys were on the ground. Volkerball fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Nov 25, 2013 |
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Nov 25, 2013 00:28
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I'm thinking what Brown Moses said was that Obama was holding off bombing Syria because he didn't want to antagonize the Iranians, who already feel threatened by losing Syria to the Sunni alliance of Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Obama needed something to make the agreement go down smoother. It has nothing to do with Russian mercenaries.
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Nov 25, 2013 00:29
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > The Middle East: How did you take BM's not 100% clear post?
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Nov 25, 2013 01:44
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It is pretty clear that the Iranians are the ones who bought off the U.S. Iran gave a better deal to the states in in order to prevent imperialist intervention!
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Nov 25, 2013 04:08
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Bassem Youssef is negotiating with Deutsche-Welle in regards to hosting al-Bernameg on their arabic channel.
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Nov 25, 2013 04:18
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quote:Libya army in Benghazi clashes with Ansar al-Sharia I'm also seeing reports that the military has warned any militias attempting to travel to Benghazi to help Ansar al-Sharia will be bombed.
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Nov 25, 2013 09:23
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quote:The United Nations has said it has brokered an agreement for Syrian government and opposition negotiators to meet for talks in January, the first such meeting since the start of the country's 32-month-old war. Sounds like there might be something encouraging about this, but doubtless, the Islamic Front and the Syrian Islamic Front aren't going to be held to any terms drawn up by negotations between the regime and the SNC.
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Nov 25, 2013 13:47
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Brown Moses posted:I'm also seeing reports that the military has warned any militias attempting to travel to Benghazi to help Ansar al-Sharia will be bombed. So that's what that report in the news today was about : At least seven dead, military governor of Benghazi orders mobilization.
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Nov 25, 2013 13:49
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Volkerball posted:Sounds like there might be something encouraging about this, but doubtless, the Islamic Front and the Syrian Islamic Front aren't going to be held to any terms drawn up by negotations between the regime and the SNC. How about we actually form up a SomethingAwful.com delegation and go there as well? We're just about as relevant to Syria as the SNC, at this point.
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Nov 25, 2013 14:00
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Muffiner posted:How about we actually form up a SomethingAwful.com delegation and go there as well? If you consider BM you're probably right, actually.
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Nov 25, 2013 14:06
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Muffiner posted:How about we actually form up a SomethingAwful.com delegation and go there as well? We have one, but all the seats are filled up with redditors for some reason. 
Volkerball fucked around with this message at 14:11 on Nov 25, 2013 |
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Nov 25, 2013 14:08
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Well, it's time to add two more journalists to the list of those kidnapped in Syria. This time it's two Swedish journalists that were kidnapped on Saturday, according to Swedish media and their relatives. No info on what group, or which side, that carried out the kidnapping. It's all over Swedish media at the moment - the first time Syria has been on the headlines for months, pretty much. Google translated source here: http://translate.google.com/transla...rien%2F&act=url Edit: Some more info from various Swedish media states that they were headed out of the country but disappeared close to the Lebanese border. Both are veterans in their field, and have been previously been awarded for their coverage of the Syrian conflict. gimpfarfar fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Nov 25, 2013 |
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Nov 25, 2013 17:56
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The battle to watch right now is that developing in Kalamoon. Over the last few days, the regime has overrun Qara after bombarding it with FROG missiles. Four members of Hezbullah were killed in the orchards around Deirateiyah, and Nabk has downed a Mig that according to local media was bombarding the area with barrels, which is peculiar. This morning the regime conducted 20 air raids on the town, and fighting is expected to intensify after people evacuate for Damascus and other 'safe' towns. Expect the whole area to blow up in anticipation of Geneva 2, as both sides try and consolidate their power. I expect the big battles to happen in Yabroud and Rankous, as they are where the opposition holds very defendable positions.
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Nov 26, 2013 09:21
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Video of the week, a bunch of young kids in Damascus narrowly escape being killed by an explosion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OKIJ6h9-Kc Via @troublejee Residents of Ghouta slaughter a lion from a local zoo for food Very  and  ISIS cuts the heads off three Hezbollah fighters in Eastern Ghouta - Pro-Hezbollah Facebook pages are talking like these are genuine Hezbollah fighters.
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Nov 26, 2013 10:23
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A very good piece from OSIMINT looking at the late-Summer offensive in Damascus, using footage from ANNA News as a source of intelligence, great analysis http://osimint.com/2013/11/24/assads-late-summer-damascus-counter-offensive/
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Nov 26, 2013 15:31
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No news on the kindapped Swedish Journalists other that nobody seems to have any clue what's happened. Around 60 other journalists have disappeared and 110 been killed, making it the most dangerous place to be a journalist according to Reporters without borders.
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Nov 26, 2013 16:00
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Nothing more on those journalists, although in my experience the release of information is pretty controlled. There's actually been kidnapped journalists who haven't been reported on because it might endanger them and other journalists, so you don't always hear about every kidnapping. I know at least one major news organisation had their entire team kidnapped and released, and it was never reported to the public. The excellent New Yorker video about my work tracking the munitions used in the August 21st Sarin attack is now on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eklJbS4Iv7I
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Nov 27, 2013 15:57
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Seems ISIS rolled into Atareb near Aleppo, captured members of the opposition group Ghuraba al-Sham, who have been repeatedly accused of being looters and even working for Assad, and executed them, including their leader Hasan Jazra (who they hung upside down), before throwing the bodies on a pile of trash.
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Nov 27, 2013 23:19
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