Grad school’s getting busier so we’ll be on slow mode for a while now. You probably already noticed the lack of updates on the main site and that will spill over here for about a month, but if something amazing pops up I might make a quick announcement here.
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We got giant bugs out of nowhere eating people, which is always a good thing!
Our hero, Cooper, awakes to find himself nauseous, weak and covered in webbing, hanging from the ceiling of an office where, just minutes ago, he started his new job. As he struggles out of his slimy prison he comes face to face with his opponent - a grotesque, powerful and very angry bug. All 3 ft of it.
And so begins a hideous, nail-biting, comedic, all-action adventure to find a safe haven while constantly outwitting an infestation of monstrous proportions. As Cooper embarks on his journey, he befriends a ragtag group of survivors including Sara, a feisty attractive female. Although the situation is dire, Cooper can’t help himself from trying to solve his dating problem while trying to save his life.
Will they make it to safety before they are picked off one by one? And what other surprises are in store for our group of unlikely heroes?
About the director
Kyle Rankin has been writing and directing for fifteen years.
Two independant features and four award-winning shorts led to the opportunity to co-direct Miramax’s THE BATTLE OF SHAKER HEIGHTS through PROJECT GREENLIGHT 2.
He has, most recently, created the internet-based series HELLHOLES.
Thanks to Avery for the scoop
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Giant Frog Jumps Continents, May Have Eaten Baby Dinosaurs
ScienceDaily (Feb. 19, 2008) — A giant frog fossil from Madagascar dubbed Beelzebufo or ‘the frog from Hell’ has been identified by scientists from UCL (University College London) and Stony Brook University, New York. The discovery of the 70 million year-old fossil frog, of a kind once thought unique to South America, lends weight to a new theory that Madagascar, India and South America were linked until late in the Age of Dinosaurs.
The new frog resembles living Horned toads (ceratophryines or ‘pac-man frogs’) in having a squat body, huge head and wide mouth. With a body length (not counting the legs) of up to 40 cm — longer than a rugby ball - and a weight of around four kilos (10 pounds), it is more than twice the size of its largest living relatives.
The fossil, published in the journal PNAS, enters the Malagasy history books alongside meat-eating dinosaurs, plant-eating crocodiles and giant snakes, all very different from the present day animals of Madagascar.
Professor Susan Evans of the UCL Department of Cell & Developmental Biology says: “This frog, a relative of today’s Horned toads, would have been the size of a slightly squashed beach-ball, with short legs and a big mouth. If it shared the aggressive temperament and ’sit-and-wait’ ambush tactics of living Horned toads, it would have been a formidable predator on small animals. Its diet would most likely have consisted of insects and small vertebrates like lizards, but it’s not impossible that Beelzebufo might even have munched on hatchling or juvenile dinosaurs.
“Madagascar has a mainly endemic frog fauna whose history has generated intense debate, fueled by recent phylogenetic studies and the near absence of a fossil record. Our discovery of a frog strikingly different from today’s Madagascan frogs, and akin to the Horned toads previously considered endemic to South America, lends weight to the controversial paleobiogeographical model suggesting that Madagascar, the Indian subcontinent and South America were linked well into the Late Cretaceous. It also suggests that the initial spread of such beasts began earlier than that proposed by recent estimates.”
Beelzebufo ampinga vs. the largest known living Malagasy frog, Mantydactylus ampinga. Guess which one would be dinner?
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All of this is in light of the fact this is probably a giant extortion attempt. This Kira or whoever he is (or they are) has worse pictures, movies, and who knows what else. And we may never know if he gets what he is asking for. But I do not believe the flood of photos will stop. I think more will surface, but we won’t get a big batch appearing all at once. This will be a slow trickle until the incompetent police force or the corrupt EEG executives force Kira to release a large batch just to make them look like the chumps they are one more time.
The photos so far are totally not located at : http://www.phimhongkong.com/edison_chen_sex_scandal_gillian_chung_bobo_chan_cecilia_cheung_.htm
not at all!
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Got sent this info from a reader named Avery(thanks!) An upcoming independent monster film called Serpent Lake due out in summer 2009. It’s about a monster like the Loch Ness one that comes around every 30 years to eat lots of tasty humans. It’s fun seeing more of these Loch Ness style films popping around, first Beyond Loch Ness on SciFi Channel and now this. It’s a good time to be a fan of lake monsters eating people. Hopefully Joel Trujillo will deliver the goods and we get a fun ride! Check out the preview video at the bottom of the plot synopsis from the production site:
Every 30 years, in the summer there is a mysterious unidentified creature claimed to inhabit Astaire’s freshwater lake in Minnesota.
Along with Loch Ness monster Nessie and Lake Champlain’s Champ, this monster is one of the best-known mysteries of crypto zoology. Most scientists and other experts find current evidence supporting the creature’s existence unpersuasive and regard the occasional sightings as hoaxes or misidentification of known creatures or natural phenomena. Minnesotans believe in this legend, even though their theories may vary. The creature thought to be a plesiosaur being the most popular of these theories. But unlike Loch Ness or Lake Champlain, there is no canal linking Serpent Lake to the sea raising the question,” Where does this creature come from? And during this time some people in or around the lake come up missing.
Serpent Lake Update
Big Dog INC., JFT Productions and writer director Joel Trujillo are giving fans a sneak peak to Serpent Lake the upcoming film for the summer of 2009.
Teaser clip:
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Godzilla returned to the big screen in 2007. What, you didn’t know? Neither did I, because no one bothered to tell anyone! Actually, Godzilla had a two minute cameo in a dream sequence in a film called Always 2 (not a sequel to the Mel Gibson movie about frozen pilots) In the cameo, Godzilla is 100% CGI. Want to see what he looks like? Here he is:
Review of the film Always 2: Electric Boogaloo
Special bonus:
We all remember the American Godzilla CGI Travesty. But imagine GINO if he wasn’t such a travesty! Thanks to the blog at Jabootu.net, we can see what the original design was!
“1149. Pre-production maquette of Godzilla. (TriStar, 1998) Based on input from the original powers that be, the look was to be a traditional, Toho-style Godzilla - to be easily and immediately recognizable by the viewing audience. Jan de Bont was originally slated to helm the latest production starring this legend among film legends. A production delay and re-shuffling of staff lead to a different direction in the look of the title monster. This was the Stan Winston Studio revisitation of the iconic screen character, long before Matthew Broderick or Roland Emmerich became involved in the final version of the movie that was shot. Measures 43 in. tall x 63 in. long (head to tail). $12,000 - $18,000â€
They threw it all away and crapped all over the American audience. Then they had the audacity to blame us for the mess. Suck it, Emmerich!
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Korea’s first animated feature film was Robot Taekwon V, released in 1976. In America, it was known as Voltar the Invincible.
Plot stolen from wikipedia:
Dr. Kaff (or Dr. Cops; 카프 박사 in Korean), an evil scientist bent on world domination, creates an army of giant robots to kidnap world-class athletes and conquer the world. To fight off this attack, Dr. Kim creates Robot Taekwon V. Kim Hoon, the taekwon-do champion eldest son of Dr Kim, pilots Robot Taekwon V either mechanically or through his physical power by merging his taekwon-do movements with the robot. Comic relief is provided by Kim Hoon’s younger brother, elementary school student Kim Cheol. He has fashioned himself as “Tin-Can Robot Cheol” by cutting eyeholes in a tea kettle and wearing it on his head. Kim Hoon’s girlfriend, Yoon Yeong-hee, is a pilot and taekwon-do practitioner. She can also operate Robot Taekwon V with buttons and levers, and pilots Kim Hoon in and out of the robot.
Basically, creator Kim Cheong-gi took the Japanese Mazinger Z, and modified it into a Korean-nationalistic giant robot epic. Sequels were spawned, and money was made. But nothing has happened for a while, until now. A live action Robot Taekwon V is going to be released in 2009. It will be directed by Won Shin-yeon and some effects tests have shown up online.
Looks pretty impressive. I wonder if the will keep the camera angles used there, as it makes it look like another found footage film with the human-held camera impression.
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I work with floating spheres all the time, they are useful for storing tools and doing repair work on large robots, as well as feeding dangerous mutated pets. Who doesn’t like spheres? Just some sphere-hating fools, that’s who! Fools! Spheres are the future of the world. They have no corners, thus no wasted space and dust accumulation! It is the perfect containment system. Thanks to their flying mobility, they are the perfect attack platform, as they have no forward or reverse. It is 360 degrees of death in all directions! MuHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Floating Robotic Spheres: From the Millennium Falcon to the ISS
Bill Christensen
Technovelgy.com Fri Jun 9, 9:01 AM ET
In 1999, MIT engineering Professor David Miller showed Star Wars on the first day of class. During the scene where Luke Skywalker practices his light saber against a seeker remote, Miller stood up and said “I want you to build me some of those.”
On May 19, 2006 from 10:30am-1:30pm CST Miller’s dream (not to mention that of George Lucas and about a zillion Star Wars fans, including me) became at least partly reality. The SPHERES mini-satellite, a tiny (eight-inch diameter) remote-controlled device, flew in the
International Space Station (ISS). SPHERES stands for Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites. Flight Engineer Jeff Williams “piloted” the SPHERES unit in three dimensions for the first time around the pressurized Destiny module.According to
NASA, the demonstration tested the basics of formation flight and autonomous docking that should be useful in future multiple spacecraft formation flying. The long-range plan for SPHERES is to test flying in formation with a set of mini-satellites.The first test flight consisted of a series of 10-15 pre-planned maneuvers lasting up to 10 minutes each. Once the appropriate software was loaded on the controlling laptop, the satellite began a set of pre-programmed maneuvers to test attitude control, station keeping, re-targeting, collision avoidance and fuel balancing. The mini-satellite is manuevered using compressed carbon dioxide gas thrusters.
Although the SPHERES mini-satellites are not equipped with blasters or lasers, the SPHERES device is designed to be a testbed for trying out experimental software to control clusters of satellites; it should be easy to add them.
The next step in the official testing is to tuck additional SPHERES units onto shuttle flights to test formation flying. The second satellite is scheduled to launch to the station on STS-121 in July 2006. The third will be launched on STS-116.
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The biggest news out of Hong Kong this past week is Edison Chen and his fantastic porn collection. It seems that Edison Chen likes to take photos of the women he’s banging, and as they are mostly high profile Hong Kong actresses, singers, and performers, that makes him have one heck of a private collection. Now, Edison Chen took his computer in to get repaired on day, and lo and behold suddenly hundreds of the photos were copies and are now popping up on the internet. Major starlets in a country where most serious performers don’t get naked. We’re talking potentially ruined careers, ruined relationships, and a major drama bomb of Hiroshima proportions mushroom clouding over the entire Hong Kong entertainment industry. And that means it is a whole lot of fun to see the drama unfolding!
Originally the photos were declared fakes. This was when I first heard of them, and thought it was just some non-issue where some celeb porn faker got in trouble in China. Then people got arrested, and more people got arrested. This got my interest up again, because why are so many people being arrested for fake porn? But it turns out the photos aren’t fake, and people getting arrested had real photos on their hard drive. The Chinese police declared they got everyone, then suddenly a poster named Kira put up more photos of Gillian! The police look like idiots, and Kira declares he’s not afraid of them because he’s not even in Hong Kong. So it looks like we’ll be getting more porn soon. Props to Kira, and Ha-HAH to the HK Police. If the police are so concerned with pornography, why aren’t they going after Edison himself? Obviously this is just a bunch of hypocritical bull that will end up with a bunch of random people thrown in jail while Edison gets his current girlfriend to suck him off some more making more photos. Such is the state of China today.
Who are the actresses? Currently, Twins performer Gillian Chung is the biggest name on there, and has a stunning 53 photos out so far (with promises of a 32 minute video to come by releaser Kira) Gillian Chung’s squeaky-clean image is in jeopardy and there has been no real response from her camp. There are rumors of an attempted suicide, but they are just rumors and her manager has been stated that she has the flu right now. Maybe it’s the same thing as the “exhaustion” Hollywood celebs get all the time. Gillian can be seen in Protoge de la Rose Noire on TarsTarkas.NET. She was previously the victim of a photo scandal where someone took secret camera shots of her changing in a dressing room. Here, both her and Edison enjoy gobbling down on each other’s privates.
Cecilia Cheung is an actress/singer who is married to Nicholas Tse and recently had a child with him (she is seen on TarsTarkas.NET in The Promise. The photos with her were taken before all that. And it’s nice to know if you ever date her you need a weedwacker! I’m just saying. What is also weird is she looks drunk/drugged out of her gourd on many of the pictures, so possibly Edison Chen might get in trouble over that (but not if he keeps hiding in Canada)
The other big on that has photos out is Bobo Chan, who is some sort of TV presenter I’ve barely heard of. Bobo Chan was to get married soon, but not anymore! It’s probably not a good idea to marry someone named Bobo anyway.
There are also three unidentified women, who could be anyone at this point but there are some theories that they might be famous as well. The HK press is having a field day, and have also identified women who have been in relationships with Chen as well that may have photos released soon: Maggie Q (Mission Impossible 3, Naked Weapon) Elva Hsiao, Jolin Tsai, Niki Chow, Rain Li and Rosanne Wong Yuen-Kwun.
Quick photo count:
Gillian Chung (53 photos)
Bobo Chan (47 photos)
Cecilia Cheung (11 photos)
The three unidentified women are said to resemble:
Rachel Ngan (10 photos)
Mandy Chen Yu-Ju (41 photos)
Candice Chan Si-Wai (48 photos)
Some other photos said to resemble Japanese AV star Yu Chiu
Edison Chen has released an apology video. But if you look at the apology, it is not really an apology and just blames the computer guy, Edison takes no responsibility for being so careless with the revealing photos.
Still, if you don’t want your wang or cooze flashed all over the internet, don’t take naked pictures! Especially if you are a celebrity and this could hurt your career. I have a feeling this will be like the Hoang Thuy Linh scandal in Vietnam where actress Hoang Thuy Linh’s career was basically destroyed by a sex tape but the guy who made the tape will get away with no cultural repercussions. (four people who copied and uploaded the tape were arrested)
The outrage isn’t the fact that people are having sex, it is the fact that the country can’t deal with it. Both China and India are crazily conservative on that aspect, despite the fact that they have like 3 billion people total and they didn’t all get here by storks. Still, I bet Edison’s career is back on track a lot quicker than any of the ladies.
I can tell you that 210 of the pictures are not at http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MHH0AHSL
No they are not.
UPDATE: More photos of Gillian, Cecilia, and Bobo were released over the weekend, but the video of Gillian that was promised is a no-show. Photos of Vincy (Edison’s current girlfriend) also appeared of her in the shower. As she is 17, it is probably not a good idea to be showing the photos if you live in the USA (as age of consent in HK is 16, Edison won’t be arrested for that.) Also, word is a movie of Edison and Maggie Q appeared on a Chinese forum and it was shut down immediately. No word on if it is true as of this time.
Current theory on Kira is he is actually two or three people who attempted to blackmail Edison, Edison ticked them off, and now they are releasing sets of photos in an attempt to strongarm money off of him to stop. We’ll see what happens as the case continues to develop.
UPDATE 2: Gillian had a press conference today, but no new picture/movie releases. Rumors a rife that Kira is dead or caught by HK police. There is no conformation on any of this and it’s probably all rumors. If anything else shows up I’ll keep you posted. Gillian said
‘The scandal has been a great deal of hurt for me and the people around me. I admit I was naive and foolish in the past but I am already a grown-up now. I would like to thank my manager, company, family and friends for their support. I’m sorry for the trouble that it has caused to the society. I will work even harder and bravely face up to my life in future. I also thank the media for their concern and fans for their unwavering support.’
Yeah. Whatever. Young and naive multiple times with multiple costumes.
UPDATE 3: It looks like a Maggie Q picture has dropped as HK police arrest suspect number 9 in this case. This picture is rather disappointing:
UPDATE 4: Kira remains silent, rumors of his death/being paid off abound, and more fake Maggie Q items show up online. Here is a posting translated that gives an example of the rumors going around:
Latest News!
Kira received 7 million HK dollars, disappears forever.
Beijing, Feb 12, 2008The curtain has dropped: According to friends in HK, all the photos we have seen thus far were screen captures from videos. Gill’s photos were the first 10 minutes of the video, why? Because it was a used as a bargaining chip for extortion. Secondly, the audio of the video involves the reputation of many other big-name celebrities.
Gaoqing (who?) has over 1000 photos alone, and they were partially released last year. The first time Edison’s photo got released was the result of a hacker. This hacker has the most complete data. In order to protect himself from hackers and trojans, he transferred part of his data to his Apple computer. Apple does not run Windows, and most trojan are designed towards windows. The photos that were stolen during his computer repair is only a small part, and that is to the person we come to know as Kira. Photos of Vincy Yeung released on the 9th was unexpected from EEG Music. As we know, Edison’s photo all came in a set, and every women has a complete collection including the sexual parts. Usually they are released in few numbers first, then released in completion. So Vincy has a complete collection too.Kira’s upload on the 9th, 4:45 is the last upload from Kira. He had an agreement with EEG in the amount of 700 hk dollars. Why did Gill’s manager said Gill would appear on the 11th? Because they have came to an agreement with Kira. After the money is received he needs 24 hours to confirm payment, also time for him to flee. As a matter of fact, the photos he has have already been uploaded to various free servers in the United States and Europe. If the discussion does not fall into place or if anything were to happen to him, he has set automatic emails that would email the links to his trustworthy friends, so they can spread the files. The reason Gill appears in front of the media on the 11th, and the fact that she had a big smile on her face, was because she knew the ordeal has came to a rest.
What’s Kira’s gain for showing us the photos? What does he get by destroying the life of these celebrities? He is not a warrior of morals, he’s just a regular Hong Kong citizen. Money is his ultimate choice. So everyone, stop calling for him, he has disappears forever. From tomorrow, there’s a lot more entertainers going to entertain us, and the danger is over. It is disappointed for us, but we all know the reason behind Kira’s action.
Gossip
The photos actually were stolen a long time ago. At first Kira talked to Edison, asking for 5 million HK dollars, but was not agreed upon. Edison was afraid he won’t be able to get back all the photos. He looked for Yeung Shou Cheng (EEG’s president) to him on the matter. Eventually, Kira released some information to the media, the magazines last year briefly mentioned this matter. However because of EEG’s influential power, magazines were afraid to show the photos nor pay Kira. Through the of magazine’s editor, one of the three members from Kira’s group was found. He knew whether he surrender the photos or not, he was doomed. He did not say anything while being question, and was eventually killed. The other two then fled to Southeast Asia, and again try to distort EEG and Edison. Befor the matter gains public attention Edison already knew, because both parties could not agree on a price, this time Kira was asking more than 10 millions. Edison took a private car to Shenzhen, then to Macau, took a private plane from his dad’s friend to the United States, and look for Vincy Yeung to his cause. Yeung Shou Cheng thought he could handle the matter, but eventually it was still not solved. Kira has decided to raise the price, and released the photos the night when Edison fled HK. Since that day Kira has been raising his price every day. It is believed Kira is in Thailand and Indonesia, and Kira is a group of two, and the data has been uploaded to the United States.
Do not think you have seen the best of all, why hasn’t C10’s and Maggie Q’s photo being released? Because Kira hasn’t gotten the right price, or because of safety reason, there isn’t a safe way for him to get paid.
Right now, both parties are fighting. The involvement of HK police has propelled this tension to its maximum. If Kira is sure he couldn’t get his money, there’s gonna be a monster upload, but not all. The reason is because there’s heavy involvement from other celebrities, including HK, China and Taiwan. If Kira wants to live longer than Edison, he would have to have something to protect himself from.It is obvious what is going to happen to Edison, he’s going to die unnaturally.
Vincy’s 3 photos was a declaration of power to EEG, showing Kira has even better materials. This action forced EEG to come to the table, leaving the police behind. Bobo’s photos that were uploaded today were no longer of importance, since she was only a sacrifice in this whole matter. However, Vincy, C10 and Maggie Q, definitely will not be released today. Because this is Kira’s ultimate chip. And the most controversial material in Kira’s collection? I dare not say, because I don’t want to die before Edison does.
Trust my information and do not ask me where the information is from. Use your head to decide whether this is true.
UPDATE 5: Two photos of Rachel Ngan appeared on a message board (香港高登) today (Feb 14th). The post was quickly deleted and information turned over to the police. Rachel Ngan is an actress who is best known here for Gen-Y Cops. The poster posted under “牛腩3å·” and it is not known if he is Kira (or one of the suspected several Kira people) It is clear that this matter isn’t as dead as it appeared to be recently.
UPDATE 6: And Edison has resigned from the HK entertainment industry. No new photos in a while, maybe Kira got paid off? Hopefully more drama happens soon, this is too fun of a ride to be over! SexyPhotosGate Forever!
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But will they be able to create someone with seven fathers and one mother? The first step has been achieved, with the creation of a two mother, one father embryo. These embryos were not allowed to develop so the freak children that would be born do not exist yet. But soon we will have them to make fun of on the schoolyard! MuHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Actually, this whole story is presented as a big lie. It is NOT a three-parent embryo, it is a two parent embryo with mitochondria from a third woman. That doesn’t make her a mother in the slightest! It’s just more sensational journalism written by reporters who once took a biology class in 1974 but sure know how to write headlines that look like B-Movie plots. That may sell papers, but it makes America dumber. No wonder the Soviets are way ahead of us in the space race! The scientist in the news story even seems annoyed at how the reporter is getting it wrong. It all proves my theory that news reporters are the dumbest people on the planet. They are also the most influential (behind drunken slut celebrities.) Therefore, my new plan to take over the world is to breed dumber and dumber reporters who are under my control, and will brainwash the public into being complete idiots. I call my plan Fox News!
Embryos created with DNA from 3 people
By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer
LONDON - British scientists say they have created human embryos containing DNA from two women and a man in a procedure that researchers hope might be used one day to produce embryos free of inherited diseases.
Though the preliminary research has raised concerns about the possibility of genetically modified babies, the scientists say that the embryos are still only primarily the product of one man and one woman.
“We are not trying to alter genes, we’re just trying to swap a small proportion of the bad ones for some good ones,” said Patrick Chinnery, a professor of neurogenetics at Newcastle University involved in the research.
The research was presented at a scientific conference recently, but has not been peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal.
The process aims to create healthy embryos for couples to avoid passing on genes carrying diseases.
The genes being replaced are the mitochondria, a cell’s energy source, which are contained outside the nucleus in a normal female egg. Mistakes in the mitochondria’s genetic code can result in serious diseases like muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, strokes and mental retardation.
In their research, Chinnery and colleagues used normal embryos created from one man and one woman that had defective mitochondria in the woman’s egg. They then transplanted that embryo into an emptied egg donated from a second woman who had healthy mitochondria.
The research is being funded by the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, a British charity.
Only trace amounts of a person’s genes come from the mitochondria, and experts said it would be incorrect to say that the embryos have three parents.
“Most of the genes that make you who you are are inside the nucleus,” Chinnery said. “We’re not going anywhere near that.”
So far, 10 such embryos have been created, though they have not been allowed to develop for more than five days. Chinnery hoped that after further experiments in the next few years the process might be available to parents undergoing in-vitro fertilization.
“If successful, this research could give families who might otherwise have a bleak future a chance to avoid some very grave diseases,” said Francoise Shenfield, a fertility expert with the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. Shenfield was not connected to the Newcastle University research.
Similar experiments have been conducted in animals in Japan, and has already led to the birth of healthy mice who had their mitochondria genes corrected.
Shenfield said that further tests to assess the safety and efficacy of the process were necessary before it could be offered as a potential treatment.
A bill to allow the procedure to be regulated as a therapy for couples — once it is proven to work — is expected to be discussed in Britain’s House of Commons in March.
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