2011-08-30
Vae Viator18
6,000 Ways to do it wrong!♪
A: I would prefer not to answer that question directly. Rather, let’s let the work speak for itself. In its usual oblique approach to problems, the dysfunctional agency fails to address the problem by causing buses to run on a determinate schedule, instead they waste precious resources on cutesy, off-the-mark ideas like allowing people to message them in order to find out when the next bus will arrive at their stop. It is part of the LACMTA’s having no resistance to becoming enamoured with technology and seeing it as the answer to everything, even when most of the time it is not. Even when technology might be of some use it usualy becomes horribly distorted in their hands.
Think about it, years have gone by and the access control “system” at the rail and subway stations isn’t a system and doesn’t control access. The TAP card project has been warped into some kind of debit card scheme while the majority of transit riders don’t have cards and in the cases where they do the access control system, ummmm, doesn’t control access (vide supra).
This new solution* approach which substitutes information for bus service, demands installing “things” at the 6,000 bus Metro stops or however many remain after the agency’s aggressive cutting.
“Things” like the signage at a Hawthorne BL stop, pictured above. I won’t even attempt to guess at the actual cost of this project, but just to make a system-wide installation I estimate that $300,000 would be in the ball park. They may cite a lower figure by factoring out the gasoline required to cover all the stops and/or financial manipulations which could well make even Enron appear to be “Honest John”.
Of course the $300,000 does NOT include all the computer hardware and software and telephony expenses, one-time and ongoing. These costs and the additional staff cost money even if it appears on the books as current expense, not capital investment.
Leaving aside whether waiting people will feel better knowing that the next bus is thirty minutes away or hoping that it will show up in five minutes; let’s simply analyze the above photo.
That no one involved in this
The sign itself is made of relatively thick aluminum and although not extremely sharp, it will cut someone who comes in contact with it. The base of the sign is about four and a half feet high (135 cm) and the top of the sign is just about five feet (150 cm) AGL (above ground level).
Just the right height to strike a child in the top of the head or an adult like mi abuelita in the face.
So when the law suits start coming in, and I really hope they don’t, please, remember you read the warning here first. The anti-Midas curse has struck the LACMTA again!
The sign indicates the assigned number for this stop but it is missing a digit due either to bad construction or vandalism.
Then below, you can see another, less lethal, version of the signage. The instructions for use on this one don’t match the expensive brochure on usage either, what? You’re surprised?
5,998 Ways to do it wrong remain!♪
I went to the NextBus website a found that it required more parameters than were provided for by the simple texting method outlined on the lethal/nonlethal signs and the expensive, coated paper brochure; which brochure (When’s) led one to believe that this [magnificent] concept was developed by the politicians of the LACMTA; well, anyway, it didn’t mention NextBus J In fact they go so far as to rename their service “NEXTRIP” to obscure the true identity of the service which su Topo has traced and identified above.
Just as the “Rapid Bus” service is really just plain old “limited service” and any “rapidity” is derived by bypassing passengers this attempt by the LAVMTA to “sell” itself as a proactive organization by jumping on the smartphone bandwagon is simply a matter of using its marketing department in an attempt to convince us that knowing approximately how late (read behind schedule) a bus is somehow makes it acceptable; and this “knowledge/information” will be translated by the public as improved service. You Mole would insert a laugh track here, but it is NOT funny; it is just another of the seemingly infinite examples of “Taxation without Transportation” and frankly, just another way to waste our tax money.
Below you can see a sample NextBus screen. It is interesting to use the system while sipping a nice cup of coffee at my desk as opposed to standing in the hot sun wondering how late I will be for the must-attend meeting.
Fun to use at your desk but maybe not in real life♪.
I am sorry but su Topo reads this as the 10 minutes we quoted you 2 minutes ago has turned into 20; but you won’t know that because you are not constantly checking –you were playing “Angry Birds”.
Now, in the case of a transportation center, or an intersection with lots of bus stops, it appears that they will give you a dump of all the buses which stop nearby. That should keep you busy trying to figure out what is what until your bus actually arrives.
Let the work speak for itself
In a below-the-radar effort which would catch the CIA off-guard, they have begun selling Day Passes on buses again. Your Mole helped four tourists from Parma, Italy buy them aboard a 720 Line bus. During the purchase the tourists were urged on by a extremely vocal rider at the back of the bus whose complaints went on for way too long. Welcome to Los Angeles.
<<Tolérer une loi injuste est un crime.>>
Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794)
[Toleration of an unjust law is a crime.]
The Mole reads the papers and other things, obviating the necessity of your doing so.
An Argonaut article (Walker) discusses how “a regional transportation committee” voted to ask the Los Angeles City Council to postpone voting on a street furniture [read bus bench & etc.] advertising contract. This Mole would suggest that the final contract include a 1:1 ratio of PSAs (Public Service Advertisements, e.g., the dangers of smoking and texting while driving/walking) to product/service advertisements. They seemed more intent on obtaining a share of the revenue.
“Es fácil” says a brochure from the LACMTA; which glossy, expensive brochure encourages us to add cash value to our TAP cards. Su Topo says: “Fat chance!”
But you might ask yourself: “Do I like the way they run the local transportation ‘system’?” If you do then you may want to give them some of your cash. I don’t really know, but I doubt that if your card is lost or stolen, you will receive any more than the unused days of the pass portion. But please, ask the LACMTA and get the answer in writing. By the way, good luck on getting an answer J .
The racks on the buses are always FULL of the expensive, glossy output of the LACMTA “Marketing Department”? Is that like “Military Intelligence”? Truthfully, they shame me into reading this stuff, I am pretty sure I am part of a tiny cohort that does. The one which today I force out of its tightly stuffed compartment (Which is really strange because lots of buses seem to be out of schedules for the line which they are “headsigned” to drive) is titled “More Service on the Metro Silver Line" (More). The “Silver Line”?? –it’s a bus folks!, which you Mole feels is lightly loaded on a route that is already over served, will now run more frequently. Your Mole translates this as: the same few people will now have more options which means that they will have more empty seats from which to chose and the LACMTA’s cost for their ride will increase.
The Los Angeles Times best transportation reporter (Bloomekatz) writes about a group which is attempting to have the Federal Transit Administration investigate the policies of the LACNTA. Su Topo says “Do it!”
BUT, please ensure that we don’t try to have a bus only system, properly planned rail has a place and we need a transportation SYSTEM: rational, professionally managed, linked and efficient with functioning access control and importantly an oversight of plans, operations and expenditures that is free of political influence. Factor out the politics and one is half way to success. The group is free to quote me on anything here, with attribution, of course.
BUT, please ensure that we don’t try to have a bus only system, properly planned rail has a place and we need a transportation SYSTEM: rational, professionally managed, linked and efficient with functioning access control and importantly an oversight of plans, operations and expenditures that is free of political influence. Factor out the politics and one is half way to success. The group is free to quote me on anything here, with attribution, of course.
The Sunday Arts section of the New York Times features an excellent piece(Pareles) about a young Méxicana named Ximena Sariñana. She can sing in both Español and English. Here she is enunciating something very important about being truly bilingüe. “Languages open a window to seeing the world wider or clearer, in a different light,” “It adds another color to your spectrum, and it makes things more complete because you see them from two different perspectives.” The lady is beautiful and brainy!
Ear to the Rail
¿Musica? Parallel universes? Let’s listen to “Vidas Paraleles” by Ms Sariñana who is referenced just above. Click the link below
to hear it, thanks to our friends at Grooveshark; Thank you very much, grooveshark.com!
Cosmology
Here is an excerpt from Brian Greene’s The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene. Copyright © 2011 by Brian Greene with a Thank You! To Discover Magazine. Please see: http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jun/03-our-universe-may-be-a-giant-hologram
“Since the information required to describe physical phenomena within any given region of space can be fully encoded by data on a surface that surrounds the region, then there’s reason to think that the surface is where the fundamental physical processes actually happen. Our familiar three-dimensional reality, these bold thinkers suggest, would then be likened to a holographic projection of those distant two-dimensional physical processes. If this line of reasoning is correct, then there are physical processes taking place on some distant surface that, much as a puppeteer pulls strings, are fully linked to the processes taking place in my fingers, arms, and brain as I type these words at my desk. Our experiences here and that distant reality there would form the most interlocked of parallel worlds. Phenomena in the two—I’ll call them Holographic Parallel Universes—would be so fully joined that their respective evolutions would be as connected as me and my shadow.”
Interesting and different!
Dr. Greene, who is an excellent communicator, has been a presenter on PBS and you can see him interviewed at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/video/video-a-look-at-the-universe-with-brian-greene/
And read about his current work and background at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/physics/fac-bios/Greene/faculty.html
The Mole Rides Again, so you don’t have to listen to a word-for-word recitation of someone’s boring text message!
(All times are expressed in the 24 hour system.)
2011-08-01 @ 13:30: I wait on the Imperial platform and a young woman approaches me to ask about transbordo to a Long Beach bus. I suggest purchasing a Muni Transfer from the machine at Del Amo where she wants to catch the L.B. bus. I ride the lead Blue Line car to Long Beach and want to read. But someone is shouting (is there any other way to talk?) into his cell. I move to the second car. A man is singing (shouting?) a rap song into his cell. I move again. 2011-08-03 LAXCBC @ 19:00: A man works his way through a trash container, “mining” cans and bottles; he finds one, partially full of some liquid and, thankfully, dumps it into the gutter.
It has been a very long day, now exactly thirteen hours since I left home. I have attended an all day technical seminar and still have an 18 minute wait and a bus ride before I am home again.
Another man approaches the recently “mined” trash can but he is out of luck.
As sunset nears, Los Angeles turns into a country town with respect to bus service.
A young woman wheels her bike to a Torrance Transit bus but is refused entry at the door apparently the 2 second rule applied here, i.e., the door had been closed for two seconds when the young woman arrived. Torrance Transit has a few rude drivers too.
2011-08-07 LAXCBC 15:50: A man, who appears as if he should know better, finishes his bag of chips and drops the bag in place. This place is filthy with spills that remain uncleaned for YEARS and litter everywhere.
2011-08-09 waiting on Santa Monica BL and Sepulveda @ 13:30 : I have been waiting for a Santa Monica bound 704 Line bus. Two number 4 Line buses and a 704 Line terminate across the street. I wait some more. I notice that the “promise” of a 704 every 15 minutes has disappeared from the bus stop “flag” pole. Another 704 Line bus terminates at the south west corner of this intersection. It would be great if BBB accepted Metro Passes but they don’t. I am not inclined to subsidize BBB because of the LACMTA’s poor service. Another day in L.A. and another day of living with “Taxation Without Transportation”. At last, a 704 shows up its crowdedness an indication of its lateness.
I ride a 232 Line bus. A woman across the aisle has a giant bag with a picture f Elvis stenciled on it. She combs her hair and removes the hairs from her comb and drops them on the floor. Oh ye of little manners.
These 232 Line buses, contracted by MV Transit, seem to be driven by hearing challenged drivers. They all keep their dispatch radios cranked up to the max!
2011-08-13 aboard a 740 Line bus @ 10:30: La Taupe is headed for South Bay Center after transferring from an east bound 125 Line bus down Rosecrans. The MVT driver was very helpful to a passenger who, like many, knew the numerical address of her destination but not the nearest major cross-street. This driver even called dispatch for help and got it too. This is a first for your Mole who has never seen this act of kindness performed by a Metro driver.
2011-08-16 I ride a late-running 232 Line bus which goes through a ten (10) minute driver change at El Segundo Plaza which makes us even later. Something about efficiency?
2011-08-21: I’m home and take the Lot C shuttle as far as a stop near the Depot so that I can help an associate load some equipment into his car. He offers me a ride but I thank him but since he is headed in another direction, I walk to the LAXCBC. On the way I pass a sign which reads: “Do not feed the birds as they pose a hazard to aircraft.” That makes sense, but several time each week I see people at the LAXCBC feeding the birds, not far off the approach to LAX either. Just another case of no security at the LAXCBC: provision of security would keep people from walking in the active lanes of the center and the incursion of civilian cars but, ostrich like with its head, err, in the sand, the LACMTA misses the point.
2011-08-22 LAXCBC @ 8:20: A man has his possessions, about a dozen items, spread out on the sidewalk between Bays 9 and 10. He does kind of a “robot” dance and mumbles something incoherent. This situation and the many variants of it speak volumes about the complete lack of security here. My one word description of this guy? ¡Loco!
I board a CCMBL Rapid 6. The driver of this bus, #92, is excellent!
Smooth, no jerking and all on a street known for its potholes, Sepulveda BL. But, all good things come to an end as I no sooner open my book and a nearby woman starts one of a series of LOUD cell phone conversations. “I’m not goin’ down that road”, “I called you at 8:15 what did you do?” Followed by a word-for-word reading of a text message that some guy sent to her.
Wilshire BL and La Cienega is an excellent point from which to see how little the LACMTA cares about your safety and time. The bus stops are split across Wilshire BL: the northbound 105 stops on the southeast corner of the intersection and the southbound 105 stops on the northwest corner. The northbound 705 “Rapid” stops on the northeast corner of the intersection and the southbound 705 “Rapid” stops on the southwest corner. This arrangement practically guarantees that, if you can ride either bus, you will be positioned at the wrong bus stop. When you see that you need to change corners in order to catch a bus you face a hazardous trip across the always busy Wilshire BL. Your mole thinks that this is definitely an irrational arrangement, bordering on, how shall I phrase it, ummm, stupid? But unlike a flexible organization once the LACMTA makes a decision it is set in concrete.
Dedicated to the Dulcinea of my dreams
‘Ask what thou wilt, Sancho my son," returned Don Quixote, "for I will satisfy thee and answer all thou requirest. As to what thou sayest, that these who accompany us yonder are the curate and the barber, our neighbours and acquaintances, it is very possible that they may seem to be those same persons; but that they are so in reality and in fact, believe it not on any account; what thou art to believe and think is that, if they look like them, as thou sayest, it must be that those who have enchanted me have taken this shape and likeness; for it is easy for enchanters to take any form they please, and they may have taken those of our friends in order to make thee think as thou dost, and lead thee into a labyrinth of fancies from which thou wilt find no escape though thou hadst the cord of Theseus; and they may also have done it to make me uncertain in my mind, and unable to conjecture whence this evil comes to me; for if on the one hand thou dost tell me that the barber and curate of our village are here in company with us, and on the other I find myself shut up in a cage, and know in my heart that no power on earth that was not supernatural would have been able to shut me in, what wouldst thou have me say or think, but that my enchantment is of a sort that transcends all I have ever read of in all the histories that deal with knights-errant that have been enchanted? So thou mayest set thy mind at rest as to the idea that they are what thou sayest, for they are as much so as I am a Turk. But touching thy desire to ask me something, say on, and I will answer thee, though thou shouldst ask questions from this till to-morrow morning."
"May Our Lady be good to me!" said Sancho, lifting up his voice; "and is it possible that your worship is so thick of skull and so short of brains that you cannot see that what I say is the simple truth, and that malice has more to do with your imprisonment and misfortune than enchantment?
But as it is so, I will prove plainly to you that you are not enchanted. Now tell me, so may God deliver you from this affliction, and so may you find yourself when you least expect it in the arms of my lady Dulcinea-"
"Leave off conjuring me," said Don Quixote, "and ask what thou wouldst know; I have already told thee I will answer with all possible precision."
"That is what I want," said Sancho; "and what I would know, and have you tell me, without adding or leaving out anything, but telling the whole truth as one expects it to be told, and as it is told, by all who profess arms, as your worship professes them, under the title of knights-errant-"
"I tell thee I will not lie in any particular," said Don Quixote; "finish thy question; for in truth thou weariest me with all these asseverations, requirements, and precautions, Sancho."
"Well, I rely on the goodness and truth of my master," said Sancho; "and so, because it bears upon what we are talking about, I would ask, speaking with all reverence, whether since your worship has been shut up and, as you think, enchanted in this cage, you have felt any desire or inclination to go anywhere, as the saying is?"
"I do not understand 'going anywhere,'" said Don Quixote; "explain
thyself more clearly, Sancho, if thou wouldst have me give an answer to the point."
"Is it possible," said Sancho, "that your worship does not understand 'going anywhere'? Why, the schoolboys know that from the time they were babes. Well then, you must know I mean have you had any desire to do what cannot be avoided?"
"Ah! now I understand thee, Sancho," said Don Quixote; "yes, often, and even this minute; get me out of this strait, or all will not go right.’
Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616) Don Quixote (1605), excerpted from Chapter XLVIII.
Fare Box Score Box and related Lists of Shame
I.D. Numbers of buses with Out of Order Fare Boxes: xxxx;Note: No or few entries above do not necessarily mean all fare boxes are in operation.
I.D.Numbers of Distracted Drivers: xxxxx (x);
None included here, but observations of a minor nature may be included in the main posting;
Codes: (i) Extended conversation(s) with passenger(s) or (ii) cell phone call(s). Frequently, details can be found in the text above, (ii*) cell phone call(s) which are aggravated by some other action, (iii) Self-distracted. Codes (ii*) and (iii) will ALWAYS be explained in the posting.
I.D. Numbers of Buses Defaced by WhoIs stickers: xxxx;
~UR or +UR = (+UR) whois sticker and the ugly residue left after passengers partly remove the sticker. (~UR) = Only the ugly residue left after passengers almost completely remove the sticker. +L = an old (legacy) sticker black letters on a plain white background –these are the original form of defacement.
* Another reason for displaying the operator's ID on the internal display and the headsign.
ID numbers of Buses whose Head and Tailsigns disagree: 5194 42/344;
Format is Bus number followed by Headsign number/Tailsign number.
ID numbers of Buses without Braille signs: XXXX;
METRO drivers Basic Technical Skills Report
The format is Driver number F[{Y/-n/+n} C[{Y/N}]. Meaning of F if Y the driver stopped with the Bus stop “flag pole” somewhere between the bus front door frame. A negative number, e.g., -3 is the approximate distance in metres (think yards dear readers) between the nearest bus door vertical frame member and the flag pole signifying that the bus stopped short of the flag. A positive number, e.g., +3 (metres) is the approximate distance between the nearest bus door vertical frame member and the flag pole signifying that the bus stopped past the flag. The value for C[{Y/N}], “Y” tells us that the driver stopped within an easy step from the curb to the bus, “N” means it was NOT an easy step from the curb to the bus. It is this Mole's belief that an average experienced good driver should be able to control his bus so as to position in near the curb and with the flag pole slightly to the front of the bus.
28317 F[Y] C[-1] a long step from the curb!; 70623 F[+5], C[Y]; N.B. distances are in metres, think yards.
nnnnn* = Contract Driver
I.D. numbers of drivers who are almost guaranteed to give you a Rough and Jerky (R & J) ride. CCMBL #51 – first time I noted a non-Metro driver here!;
I.D. numbers of drivers who will give you a potentially life-threatening ride. XXXXX(-); XXXXX(-);
Codes: S = not wearing seat belts; J = bad judgment (unsafe driving practices).
La Taupe's Abréviations
ADADO = Automatic Destination Announcement (on) Door Opening. This feature is installed on many buses and operates on extremely few. Another “money down the toilet” LACMTA investment. La Taupe that this is intended for the visually impaired because people who can see can read the “head signs”.
ASAS = Automatic Stop Announcement System the GPS (Global Positioning System) driven mechanism for generating audio for the upcoming stops. N.B. Because of the low power (read weak) processors used in the on-board stops may be too close to identify stops separately. This is known as a granularity problem. Then too, if the driver operates the bus at speed above the speed limit you will find the system “back announcing” stops which you have already passed. I find that this will NOT keep some drivers from complaining “that you didn’t signal (ring) in time. They don’t understand their relationship to the system and how, by driving faster than the GPS computer, they can bias it.
BBB = Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus
CC or CCMBL = Culver City (Municipal) Bus (Lines)
CCTC = Culver City Transportation Center this is the place formerly known as FHMTC = the Fox Hills Mall Transportation Center (Sepulveda & Slauson)
FFE = Full Fare Equivalent (presently $1.50)
LAXCBC = the LAX City Bus Center.
OCTA = Orange County Transportation Authority.
Rapid Transit = does not compete for right of way, that is, it will not run at grade unless it has EXCLUSIVE DEDICATED USE of the right of way).
R & J = Rough and Jerky [ride].
TT = Torrance Transit.
T1 = the normal type of driver/staff.
T2 = is the non-stop talker type of driver/staff, on the phone or to passengers,
T3 = the uncommunicative type of driver/staff, sometimes surly.
WLATC = the West Los Angeles Transportation Center (Fairfax & Apple)
Su Topo’s Disclaimer and apologia
Your Mole always attempts to write an easy-on-the-eyes page using text input. Blogger.com however, has other ideas and will often not stay with a single font type or point size, produces extraneous spacing and etc. I wish I had time to debug the HTML which they produce, it is NOT the straight text which I pasted into the form, but I don’t. Therefore, I apologize on behalf of Blogger.com for the changes which they make, of which I do not approve. Sometimes, what I see, thankfully you don’t, is 24 point type –it is giant and other times they swallow my text, although it still seems to be there. In fairness to them, things seem better, although this is partly because I do understand which of their “features” do the most damage to me and consequently do not use them. Communicating these problems to them, for me, is something like having teeth extracted without the benefit of anesthetic, actually it is less fun than that. By their design, there is no simple e-mailing them with "Please look at my say, posting of 2009-06-28, it is weird!” I am hoping that one of their developers will some day read this, copy my code and improve their text to HTML engine. Until then, lo siento.
Mole’s Copyright Statement
All photographs and original written materials are copyrighted © 2007~2009 by LAmetroMole. ♪Clicking a photo will often* present you with an enlargement (sometimes successive clicks will further enlarge the photo). *This feature is dependent upon the Internet browser which you use and possibly other factors.
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This site contains or provides links to copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, sustainable development, environmental, community and worker health, public disclosure, corporate accountability, and etc. We have often included relatively brief quotes from articles and etc., sometimes in addition to a simple link, because we have found that links frequently go "bad" or change over time. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without fee or payment of any kind to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes and to those who access the site via any and all other channels. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Music or other recorded material on this site, or referred to by this site are copyrighted by their respective artists and are made available here for evaluation purposes only. Please support the artists you like by buying their commercial CDs, MP3s and downloads.
Your Mole’s Conflict of Interest Statement
This is to certify that I, the blogger who is known as the LAmetroMole, with respect to this blog, except as described below, am not now nor at any time during the past year have been, nor it my current intention to ever be:
1) A participant, directly or indirectly, in any arrangement, agreement, investment, or other activity with any vendor, supplier, or other party doing business with any of the entities about which I have written, which has resulted or could result in personal benefit to me.
2) A recipient, directly or indirectly, of any salary payments or loans or gifts of any kind or any free service or discounts or other fees from or on behalf of any person or organization engaged in any transaction with any of the entities about which I have written.
Any exceptions to 1 or 2 above are stated below with a full description of the transactions and of the interest, whether direct or indirect, which I have (or have had during the past year) in the persons or organizations having transactions with any of the entities about which I have written.
There are no exceptions.
Date: 2009-06-24 S/LametroMole
Works Cited
Bloomekatz, Ari. “L.A. transit activists rally for a federal probe” Los Angeles Times. Aug. 21, 2011: Web. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-stranded-20110821,0,2808704.story
Pareles, Jon.” Straddling the Border, Eccentrically”. New York Times. Jul 31, 2011:AR21. Print.
Walker, Gary. “Transportation committee asks for ‘hold’ on bus advertising contract”. The Argonaut. Aug. 11, 2011:8. Print.
“Es fácil” LACMTA. 11-1579JL©2011 LACMTA, Print.
“More Service on the Metro Silver Line”. LACMTA. 11-1636BD©2011 LACMTA, Print.
“When’s my next bus?” LACMTA. 11-0718MR©2011 LACMTA, Print.
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..This is ### 30 ### in Braille
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