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Old September 11, 2002, 06:37   #31
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I was in my home, having a nap in my bed when I heard from the radio that a plane had crashed in New York to a skyscraper. This was before the second plane, IIRC. I went upstairs to tell my mother and then turned on the television.

What spooks me is that I was sleeping because I was recovering from a strange seizure I had had the same day at school - I had a terrible headache, and more importantly, I had vommited.

Now, I rarely ever throw up. The next time this happened is actually today, a bit past midnight local time.

So I hope nothing happens, because that would mean that I'm a precog or something.
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Old September 11, 2002, 06:48   #32
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Night, September 10, 2001. I went to bed earlyish and slept like a log. It had been a normal spring day in Melbourne and I was looking forward to another normal spring day in the morning.

7:00 AM, September 11, 2001. My mother entered my room to wake me up for class, as is the pattern in my house. But something was different; there was something in her tone, something more urgent when she told me to get up.

I stumbled out of bed and into the kitchen. Before I was even fully awake, my mother said to me, "Someone hijacked four planes, and crashed two of them into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon. The World Trade Center fell down, there's nothing left."

It's not the most pleasant way to wake up. I hurried into the living room where Fox News was on, showing footage of the planes slamming into the towers. I was numb. I wandered about the house in a daze. I almost got in an accident driving to school. My math lecturer never turned up to class, which was just as well seeing as I was in no mood to hear about complex numbers.

Instead I sat on the grass with a couple of friends, facing up to the unfaceable. I almost could not believe that it was real, that the sun shone on Australia while half a world away chaos was being visited on my home city.
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Old September 11, 2002, 07:13   #33
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I was actually doing homework when a friend came and told me. I asked him like 6 different times if he was joking until I saw it on the TV.

Of course the reason I was doing homework was I had duty the next day. The worst duty day. Ever.
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Old September 11, 2002, 07:40   #34
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I was in College, when the course tutor came in and said something big was happening. Someone had crashed a plane into one of the world trade towers. It was only the second day of college so it was a half day. I rushed home and put News 24 on. Shortly after the second plane hit.
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Old September 11, 2002, 07:49   #35
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I think I've got everyone beat for sheer surrealism of the initial news. I was grocery shopping in a giant store here that also sells electronics (this would be 4-5 pm in Turkey, which is 9-10 am EST). Upon entering the store, the first thing I'm greeted with is a wall of televisions, all of them tuned live to the events in NYC, all of them in Turkish. Most of the stores shoppers have gathered in front of the Wall and are talking excitedly in hushed tones -- and I can't understand anything! The images are riviting, but there's no telling if I'm looking at an accident, an attack, or what.

I grab my groceries and rush home, where I find my daughter crouched in front of our newly-purchased TV, tuned to CNN-Turk; she's turned the sound all the way up in the hopes of hearing the English original text underneath the Turkish over-dub. My wife is also there, but our satellite system was just installed a few days earlier and I'm the only one who knows anything about it. I find the BBC and spend the next 7 hours watching TV non-stop, as various tv-less neighbors come and go and my wife frantically e-mails back and forth with her sister in Manhattan.
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Old September 11, 2002, 08:09   #36
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I was at my parents' house, lying hungover in bed, when my mum came in and told me a plane had crashed into a building in New York. I got up, turned on BBC World, and watched the second plane hit.
I sat in front of the TV and Internet for more or less the rest of that dreadful day.
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Old September 11, 2002, 08:14   #37
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I was at home. When I saw the first plane hit I thought thius could be a freak accident. When the second hit I was almost sure it was deliberate.

Then I waited for more? because noone really knew what was going on, how well this thing was organizzed, what would follow (if anything).

At a certain point at that day I was taken by surpise by a distinct feeling (which I was sure it was true at that time) that the US is no longer in this world. Meaning that its presence had for a split second there withdrawn to itself.

I felt that my region was less safer and I believed that if *anyone* wanted to take advantage of the situation and start a mayhem in these troubled parts now would be the time. Fortunately noone did.


Even though I was thousands of kilometers away from NYC and the tragedy I still felt a need to call my family and see that everyone is OK and how they were doing.
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Old September 11, 2002, 08:18   #38
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I had just submitted a long running job at work, and decided to kill a few minutes at Apolyton while it ran.

I saw the thread in the OT, and figured it was an onion article or a euro troll. I tried to check out the news sites and couldn't connect. It took a while before I could believe it was true.

Apolyton was my primary source of information for the first hour. I was glad that there was a place like apolyton to share the emotions with on that day. Everyone at work was stunned.

Despite claims of "flash Memory", that's my story, and I'm sticking with it.

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Old September 11, 2002, 08:27   #39
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I was at work. When the first plane crashed, I was talking to some co-workers and then one of our colleagues came in and said: turn on the TV, something is happening in New York.

When we turned the TV on, they were showing images from the first plane crashing and we all stood there, silently, watching it and trying to understand what was happening. Then we saw the second plane coming and I remember that one of my co-workers said: "oh my god" in a disheartening tone of voice.

We did not work any more on that day. The internet was down, I smoked more cigarrettes than usual during the rest of the day.
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Old September 11, 2002, 08:36   #40
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Old September 11, 2002, 08:42   #41
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I just got home from school, turned on the computer (as usual), started ICQ. As soon as I got online, a friend of mine told me that two planes has hit WTC, and they believed it was OBL's work. I haven't heard that name before, so I thought he was just making some joke, and included some random name. It just sounded to unrealistic... He told me to turn on the tv, to see it myself... I was a little sceptical, but as I turned on the tv, I was schocked (If I'm not mistaking, the Pentagon just got hit, a few minutes later)... I went back to the computer, and told some other friend about it, and then I left the computer for quite a while, to see the news... Later, I went to McD with the friend who told me about it, and we kept talking about it...
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Old September 11, 2002, 08:47   #42
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Right where I am now -- at work, on the computer. With an office full of users, there's always some surfing going on. An email blast titled "Tragedy - THIS IS REAL" (or similar) went out shortly after the first tower was hit. Went to CNN.com and also tuned in local news radio. I heard much of it live. Possible flash memory -- it was 8:17 in Chicago when I found out.

Sat in stunned disbelief as I listened and surfed the news outlets. Someone put together an antenna rig so we could get live TV and a bunch of us just... watched.

Most chilling memories --

1. Seeing the 2nd tower get hit. That's when it became clear that this was a malicious atrocity, that true evil was at work in our world.

2. Talking to one of our engineers (I work at an audio electronics manufacturer), hearing him say "you know both those towers are coming down" and briefly stating why it was so. Then, literally a couple minutes later, watching it happen, live on TV.

I get shivers as I type this last bit...
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Old September 11, 2002, 08:57   #43
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It was over a month since I found out about my ex-boyfriend's suicide, and only a little over a week since I have been back home from Ecuador.

I was still in grief over my ex-boyfriend's suicide, readjusting being back home in the states after living in Ecuador for three months, getting used to living on campus after moving out of the apartment my ex and I lived in, and finally had recovered from a combo of diahrea, vomitting, headache, and strep throat on Sept. 11.

That morning, I was eating breakfast in the cafeteria and there are four mounted televisions in our cafeteria. A professor turned the channel to CNN, and there I was, watching the news about the first plane crash into one of the towers, but I had no real reaction at that time--maybe just shock.

Never saw the crashes themselves live, but days later, would watch a recording of the crashes themselves.

That was a day that all the people in the area of Ground Zero had their race hidden -- they were all grey, covered in ash/dust.
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Old September 11, 2002, 09:11   #44
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Right here, where I first got The News.
Markos and Dan were good enough to let outrage and grief be expressed in their forums.


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Old September 11, 2002, 09:11   #45
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I was at home, and I saw TV while eating something. At first there was a text message during the normal TV programme, it said a plane crashed into the WTC - and I thought: Oh, probably one of those little private planes - Cessna or something like that. I never could imagine that they in fact mean a big airliner.

Then they stopped the normal programme, and started to report from NYC - and I saw the second plane hitting the other tower. I had still two or three hours left before had to go to work, I was paralyzed, staring at the TV screen all the time.

At work it was the same, we all heared radio news all the time - more and more cruel details...
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Old September 11, 2002, 09:22   #46
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I was in psycology class. We were discussing the inherent violence of men (no sh!t.) My teacher's husband (my math teacher) came in and made very vague comments, to which we dug into him. He told us about an accident at the WTC. Someone later came in and told us a second had crashed. Towards the end of the class, the principal came on and told us about the two WTC plans as well as the one at the Pentagon.

I left class, saw mLeonard in the hall, and we just looked at each other.
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Old September 11, 2002, 09:28   #47
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I was sleeping because I was sick, when my friend stormed at my house. It was strange, I had the tv on and I didn't wake up when it happened. So my friend woke me up and asked me if I knew what had happened. I answered yes and started watching it. I don't know, maybe I was dreaming of it because I had my tv on and heard it in some subconscious level, I don't know. It was unreal to watch it. The day before I was checking out the FBI's most wanted list, Osama being the number one. First time I ever checked that list. Strange. The first thing on my mind was 'Damn, Osama made it big this time'.. I was waiting for numbers in casulties, and I heard a figure of 40 000 first. Then 20 000. It was pretty unreal.
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Old September 11, 2002, 09:28   #48
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I was sitting in the commons at my collage. I was waiting for my 1pm class (parking is a b!tch, so if you want a spot you need to get there by 7:45am). One of the senors turned the tv on and there was a fireball on. I thought it was some other car chase in LA (if anyone out there has a strong memory, a day or two before 9/11, a truck who's tires ripped off was running around LA, and I thought they were replaying it).

Then I saw it live, the plane crash right into the second one.

IT took about 10 minutes for people to catch on.

Of course the school broke out into verbal violence... it was people like me who wanted to nuke who ever did this and those who think we should sit and talk to them... of course those people were arabs... go figure.

Now we have to take manditory "Tolorence" corses... which are a PC joke.
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Old September 11, 2002, 09:28   #49
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I was at the office. I went up to get another cup of coffee, and across from our coffee machines is a media center showing feeds from all the different TV networks. (typical for an advertising agency).

I knew something was wrong when all the networks were showing live scenes from New York. Since it was still early, not many people were in the office yet. As time passed, more and more people started gathering to watch the horror... We tried calling our New York Office, but couldn't get through. People were crying and hugging each other. We watched in horror as the plane hit the second tower.

When the second tower fell, we were given instructions to clear the building. The John Hancock Center (the second largest building in Chicago) is across the street from our building. So like most businesses in Chicago that day, we closed down and sent our people home.
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Old September 11, 2002, 09:38   #50
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Rockefeller Center.

It was a perfect morning... the sky so blue, and everything seemed haloed.

I was in a meeting, and one of the guys that worked for me rushed in to tell us that a plane had hit the WTC.

We were evacuated... about 10 of us us trooped up to my apartment, and spend the day watching CNN, and using cellphones and email to make sure everyone was OK.

Later on, we tried to go back to the office, to pick up some critical material... the city was surreal.
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Old September 11, 2002, 09:40   #51
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Quote:
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I remember it.
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Old September 11, 2002, 09:43   #52
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I'd just got home from an exam.

I saw it on the news and thought it was an article about some volcano eruption (all the dust and smoke blowing everywhere). When I saw it say New York I thought "uh-oh".

I watched the news until the towers collapsed, needless to say I wished they would've stayed up. In addition to saving the lives of those still in the building, it would have meant a lot in psychological terms.
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Old September 11, 2002, 09:46   #53
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I had just finished my 8:00 class and went back to the dorms to visit my girlfriend at the time, when she said "you better come have a look at this"

So I came in and she told me about how the first plane hit, and how shortly after the second plane had hit live. I stayed there and watched for a little bit, backpack still on, standing.....

I eventually went to my 11:00 class, at which point all classes were cancelled so I came home and continued to watch the television, both in the Trabant University Centre halfway between classes and my dorm, and then at home. Such a crowd formed in the TUC to watch this...it was incredible...everyone sort of oozed through the place at a slow speed, staying with one television until it was out of sight, and eventually jumping to the next television as they made their way through the building.

That's when I heard about the plane in Washington and the one in Pennsylvania and became worried for my own family, at least, until I knew where in PA the plane was headed.

I remember thinking the whole time that OBL was somehow behind it...and I said some pretty awful things regarding what we should do to him...

Then around 7 PM (?) I remember watching arial footage from Kabul, the attacks by the Northern Alliance...and that's when I realized just how large a conflict this could turn into, and hoped that our leaders would make the right choices.
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Old September 11, 2002, 09:56   #54
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I was right where I am now, 8 blocks south of the WTC site. I was coming up from the cafeteria, and one of my co-workers told me a plane had crashed into the WTC. And I said "No it didn't, I was just there 10 minutes ago and it was fine!" So we went to the other side of our building and looked out, and the first tower was topped off in smoke. But until the 2nd tower was hit, I wasn't even concerned, with all the smoke I couldn't see how big the hole was.
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Old September 11, 2002, 10:00   #55
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I left for school at 8:00 in the morning - forty-five minutes before the world went to hell. Part of me knew something, *something* was wrong, because traffic seemed to be at a complete and total standstill that morning - buses took extra long to come, moved at a snail's pace - and I didn't get to school until just before class was scheduled to begin (when I normally arrive an hour beforehand).

When I got to the classroom, it was almost entirely empty. The few that were in there said everyone else - including the instructor - were upstairs watching the fire. "What fire?" I thought to myself, and I headed to the (cue ominous music) thirteenth floor, the highest point in the building, to find out what the hell was going on.

When I got up there, everyone was standing around looking out from the windowed promenande. Off in the distance, the towers were smoking like chimneys. My first thought was how surreal it was; how much like a plot in a disaster movie this was. But it quickly proved to be real... not one minute after I arrived upstairs, the South Tower crumpled to the ground.

There were audible gasps and exclamations around the room, and at that point, most people left and went back downstairs. I stayed upstairs (knowing there was no way class was going to go on) and that's when the gravity of the situation began to sink in: This is real. There are real people dying over there. Some group of heartless bastards has cruelly attacked us.

I didn't care who was responsible at the time - all I wanted to do was get home and be with my family. My father was in South Dakota on a business trip and was scheduled to fly home the next day - he ended up having to wait until Friday and drive half the way. I called my mom at work, and (not surprisingly) she was already sprinting over to get me.

I head outside, and find her on the sidewalk - she'd been running up and down the block looking for me for fifteen minutes. We head back to the car, only to find (cue ominous music again) that it won't start - dead battery. We end up waiting two hours for a tow truck guy to come and jump-start the car so we can get home. My brother and sister were safe in school until the afternoon, and my sister was kept largely oblivious to the situation. I don't think I ever hugged them harder when they came home that afternoon.

Here's the thing, folks: Treasure the day, not because of the bad memories that come with it, but use it to give thanks for everything that you have in your life, and I mean *everything* - especially the little things that you take for granted. It can all be taken away from you in a heartbeat...

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Old September 11, 2002, 10:08   #56
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I was on my way to work, listening to the Tony Bruno show on Fox Sports Radio. At the time, the big sports story was the possibility of Michael Jordan's return to the NBA and Tony and his sidekick Andrew Siciliano was hamming it up about MJ. Then, Tony says...

"Amazingly CNN broke from it's wall-to-wall Michael Jordan coverage to show us pictures of a building on fire."

Andrew: "Actually, I think that is the World Trade Center in NY. What happened? - there's a huge hole in the side of the building."

And they went on for just a little bit more as I pulled into work. Got out, went into the office and found that everybody else in the office knew. I then called my wife and told her to "Turn on CNN! A plane crashed into the WTC!" She did, just in time to see plane # 2 hit the second building.

We didn't stop work, btw.
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Old September 11, 2002, 10:11   #57
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I was working at home and checked the news and saw that a plane had crashed into the WTC. I assumed it was a small private plane that had lost control and crashed. I turned on my TV and watched the whole thing virtually from the start. I didnt make it to work.
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Old September 11, 2002, 10:14   #58
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I was at work. We had all decided to take a break and get some morning munchies. Someone who had just arrived at work said that a plane had crashed into the WTC. We all thought it was some accident.

An hour later or so, people were gathered around a TV watching the horror unfold.

People were calling family, speculating as to who the culprits were, etc.

I had thought that some real bad sh1t was going to go down when I heard that a plane had crashed in PA, near Pittsbugh (about 80 miles). I thought, sh1t, Pittsburgh isn't that big and if they're trying to hit it, then we're in some serious trouble.
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Old September 11, 2002, 10:15   #59
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Posts: 4,325
I had just come back from Calc2 lab at about 8:30 in the morning. I sat down at my computer and my mother messaged me on ICQ that a plane had hit the WTC. I tuned in about a minute before the second plane hit. I can remember seeing the debris and smoke fly and the camera readjusting to the opposite tower.

When that happened I said to my mother over ICQ something to the effect that this is not an accident anymore and that only one man could be to blame: OBL.

Later I almost **** myself when the first tower fell. I noticed all this white crumbly stuff falling off the building and was thinking something was not right. Then it fell and I shot out of my computer seat in disbelief. I can remember thinking oh my god, nobody could have survived that... the tower is gone!

I can clearly recall praying after the first tower that the second would remain standing, but alas, no.

At about 1 in the afternoon I went to GEO lab and we had a little moment of silence before talking about rock formations. Before class, I can remember everybody fixated on a single TV in the hallway tuned to CNN. Nobody ever watches these because they have useless university information. But that day, every person in the hall was silent, watching in an almost trance-like state. It was the Taliban leader claiming zero responsibility for the WTC attack, and I can remember thinking that the day before nobody would have cared who this guy was, but today, he could have been the biggest celebrity in all of the World the way people were watching him.

In my liberal propaganda class (also known as University Course 2001, some lame effective presentations class), we spent the day talking about what this meant for all of us and for the country. Many students talked about how they would gladly give up personal freedoms for a sense of security... I was mortified.

After dinner we were given little American flags to place hanging from our doors (the kind with the wooden stick). From that point on, I've had a flag on my room's door frame (well, aside from the summer, I put it back when I got back up here), and it's still flying there today, in remembrance.

That night most of my hall gathered in a common area to watch Bush's speech and then retire to our rooms. I can remember playing "Proud to be an American" for the first time in a long time that day. I certainly was proud.
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Old September 11, 2002, 10:17   #60
Alexander's Horse
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Local Date: November 1, 2010
Join Date: Dec 1969
Location: In a tunnel under the DMZ
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Quote:
Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Ironic in a way, but LTEC! and I were at home in Tijuana, and she first heard about it on ICQ from Alexander's Horse, so we turned on the TV to CNN, just before the second plane hit.
Oh yes - forgot that.

Actually Hydey and I were playing civ and Hydey told me on icq and then I told LTEC. This was about 10 pm 9/11 Australian time.

Hydey and I kept playing civ even after the third plane hit, which shows we are true addicts

My Aunty's funeral was the following day and my father was writing his remarks. He hardly looked up at the TV either. Life goes on and I don't think we could take it in anyway. I was mostly thinking about my Dad and the funeral. It was a sad day for the family already.

It was very weird being at a big cemetary the next day just as the reality of it all was sinking in.
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