“Gangnam Style” becomes the first YouTube video to reach one billion views


Publish date:
Year
2012
Month Day
December 21

On December 21, 2012, the music video for “Gangnam Style,” a song by the Korean rapper Psy, becomes the first YouTube video to garner one billion views. The video’s global popularity is a case study in the power and unpredictability of viral internet content.

Psy had been well-known in Korea for a decade, earning awards and acclaim as well as a reputation for controversy. Though Korean pop music, or K-pop, was increasingly popular outside of South Korea, Psy was not an international star until “Gangnam Style.” Released on July 15, 2012 as the lead single to his album Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1, the video would make him a global sensation.

“Gangnam Style” is a send-up of “posers and wannabes” Psy observed in Seoul’s fashionable Gangnam District. Though the lyrics are humorous, it was the video that made the song a sensation beyond Korea. Psy and others perform the “invisible horse” dance, in which the singer pretends to ride a horse and occasionally toss a lasso, in a variety of locations including a stable, a bus, a tennis court and other locales around Seoul. The iconic dance, the memorable chorus of “Hey sexy lady!” and the general over-the-top nature of the video caught the attention of a global audience.

The likes of T-Pain, Britney Spears and Katy Perry noticed the video and drew attention to it on social media. By the end of August, it was garnering over 3 million YouTube views a day, and in December it reached its unprecedented 1 billionth view.

Like other viral videos, “Gangnam Style” inspired countless parodies, reaction videos, and flash mobs. Athletes, television personalities and even politicians—U.S. Representative John Lewis recorded a video of himself doing the dance, and then-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron reportedly performed it along with future PM Boris Johnson at a conference—joined in the viral craze. Though no longer the most-watched video on YouTube, “Gangnam Style” was an inescapable cultural phenomenon, serving as an introduction to K-pop for millions around the world and as a lasting example of internet virality.

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Former Liberian president Charles Taylor found guilty of war crimes

Year
2012
Month Day
April 26

On April 26, 2012, former Liberian president Charles Taylor is found guilty of abetting horrific war crimes, including rape and mutilation in Sierra Leone.

His conviction was the first for war crimes by a former head of state in an international court since the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders after World War II. Taylor was found guilty of aiding and abetting a notoriously brutal rebel force who murdered, raped, forced sexual slavery, built a child army and mined diamonds to pay for guns.

Taylor’s road to war crimes started after he escaped a U.S. jail, where he was waiting to be extradited for embezzlement. Taylor made it from his jail cell to Libya, where he started the militia group National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL). With his newly formed militia, he overthrew the regime of Samuel Doe in 1989. The upheaval plunged the country into a 14-year bloody civil war. By the end, 200,000 were killed in the fighting and more than half of the population became refugees.

After a peace deal was made to end the civil war, Taylor was elected Liberia’s president until he was forced out in 2003. During his reign, Taylor is said to have meddled in another civil war raging in Sierra Leone. Witnesses said he sold guns to, and arranged attacks for, rebel groups in exchange for blood diamonds. However, Taylor wasn’t just aiding a rebellion. He was also perpetuating horrific brutality. Over 50,000 were killed, and thousands more were mutilated in the more than a decade long civil war. The rebels were known to amputate limbs, rape women, enslave survivors of their attacks and force boys into child armies.

Taylor denied the accusations, but once put on trial in 2006, 115 witnesses, including victims of rape and mutilation, testified against him. Radio and telephone intercepts used in the case also revealed direct communication between him and the rebels.

Taylor is serving out his 50-year sentence in a prison in the United Kingdom.

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Sandy Hook school shooting


Updated:
Original:
Year
2012
Month Day
December 14

On December 14, 2012, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Adam Lanza kills 20 first graders and six school employees before turning a gun on himself. Earlier that day, he killed his mother at the home they shared.

The Sandy Hook shooting was, at the time, the second-deadliest mass shooting in the United States after the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech, in which a gunman killed 32 students and teachers before committing suicide.

Shortly after 9:30 a.m., 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot through a plate-glass window next to Sandy Hook’s locked front entrance in order to gain access to the school. Hearing the noise, the school principal and school psychologist went to investigate and were shot and killed by Lanza, who was armed with a semiautomatic rifle, two semiautomatic pistols and multiple rounds of ammunition. Lanza also shot and wounded two other Sandy Hook staff members.

He then entered two first-grade classrooms, where he gunned down two teachers and 15 students in one room and two teachers and five students in the other room. The children Lanza murdered, 12 girls and 8 boys, were 6 and 7 years old. Twelve first-graders from the two classrooms survived.

When Lanza heard the police closing in on him, he killed himself in a classroom at approximately 9:40 a.m.

Police soon learned that sometime earlier that morning, before arriving at Sandy Hook, Lanza had shot and killed his 52-year-old mother at their home. She owned the weapons her son used in his deadly rampage.

Investigators determined that Lanza, who had attended Sandy Hook as a boy, acted alone in planning and carrying out the attack, but they were unable to find a motive for his actions or discover why he had targeted Sandy Hook.

In November 2013, the Connecticut State’s Attorney released a report noting that Lanza had “significant mental health issues that affected his ability to live a normal life and to interact with others.” However, mental-health professionals who had worked with him “did not see anything that would have predicted his future behavior,” according to the report.

In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting, President Barack Obama called for new gun-safety measures; however, his primary legislative goal, expanded background checks for gun buyers, was blocked by the U.S. Senate.

The community of Newtown, which has some 27,000 residents and is located about 45 miles southwest of Connecticut’s capital, Hartford, eventually decided to tear down Sandy Hook Elementary School. It was razed in the fall of 2013; a new school was built on the same site.

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Typhoon “Pablo” kills over 1,000 people in the Philippines

On December 4, 2012, Bopha, a Category 5 typhoon nicknamed “Pablo,” struck the Philippines. Rushing flood waters destroyed entire villages and killed over one thousand people, in what was the strongest typhoon ever to strike the Southeast Asian islands.

“Entire families may have been washed away,” said the interior secretary, Mar Roxas.

The hardest hit areas, the Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental provinces, the heavy rainfall triggered landslides and floods. Floods destroyed farming and mining towns all along the coast, flattening banana plantations and completely destroying some citizens’ livelihoods. Some towns were left completely decimated—muddy heaps of collapsed houses. CNN reported that the iron roofs of some buildings were swept away by the 175 mph winds like “flying machetes.” Over 200,000 people were stranded after the storm, unable to get anywhere due to the landslides and rising waters.

When the storm first showed up on radars in late November, it wasn’t expected to develop, but on Nov. 30 it quickly picked up strength and speed. Once the government realized the threat posed by the storm, officials scrambled to evacuate people from the most dangerous areas, but residents were hard to convince. About 20 typhoons and storms lash the northern and central Philippines each year, but they rarely ever hit the southern region. Warnings to evacuate were not taken seriously. Even the more than 170,000 Filipinos who did heeded the warnings to flee weren’t safe.

“The floods and strong winds battered not just the riverbanks but also places where residents where supposed to be safe,” said Arturo “Arthur” Uy, governor of Compostela Valley, the worst-hit area, said

The death toll started in the hundreds and climbed as days passed and missing people went unfound. The day after the storm, rain started to fall again, triggering panic and fear of another day of flash floods. The fear, as well as the effects of the storm, would continue for years. Hundreds were left in poverty. Before the nation could even recover, it had to suffer through an even stronger typhoon in 2013—Typhoon Haiyan. It took years to rebuild from all the damage. The Department of Social Welfare and Development were still building new homes for victims in 2015.

The damage had such long lasting effects on the region, that the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration decommissioned the name “Pablo” from its list of names for storms and typhoons.

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Aurora shooting leaves 12 dead, 70 wounded

Year
2012
Month Day
July 20

On July 20, 2012, gunman James Holmes started a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, a Denver suburb, killing 12 people—the youngest a 6-year-old girl—and injuring at least 70 others.

The Aurora shooting took place shortly after the start of a crowded midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises, which opened across the United States that day. It was the deadliest mass shooting in Colorado since the 1999 Columbine shooting, in which 12 high school students and a teacher were murdered.

The massacre in Aurora began when 24-year-old James Holmes entered theater 9 at the Century 16 multiplex through a parking lot exit door and threw gas canisters into the theater. He was dressed in a gas mask and black combat gear, leading some audience members to initially think he was performing a stunt for the film, a Batman sequel eagerly anticipated by fans.

Instead, Holmes opened fire at the audience, shooting people at random. Police quickly arrived on the scene, and Holmes was apprehended behind the movie theater; he put up no resistance.

Not long after, law enforcement agents evacuated buildings near Holmes’ Aurora apartment after he told them he had booby-trapped his home with explosive devices. When Holmes made his first appearance in court, on July 23, his hair was dyed neon orange and he seemed dazed and devoid of emotion.

Investigators learned that in the months leading up to the Aurora movie theater shooting, Holmes had acquired weapons from Colorado gun shops and ordered thousands of rounds of ammunition online. A native of San Diego, he had enrolled in a Ph.D. neuroscience program at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora in 2011 but dropped out in June 2012 after failing an important exam.

Court documents later revealed that a month before the Aurora shooting, a University of Colorado psychiatrist who had treated Holmes reported to campus police that he could be a danger to the public and had threatened her.

Holmes, who has offered no motive for the shooting spree, eventually was charged with 166 counts of murder, attempted murder and weapons charges. In May 2013, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. In a 2015 trial, Holmes was sentenced to 12 consecutive life sentences without parole.

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Florida teen Trayvon Martin is shot and killed


On February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin, an African American teen walking home from a trip to a convenience store, is fatally shot by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer patrolling the townhouse community of the Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman later claimed to have shot the unarmed 17-year-old out of self-defense during a physical altercation. After police initially opted not to arrest Zimmerman, whose father is white and mother is Hispanic, the case sparked protests and ignited national debates about racial profiling and self-defense laws. Zimmerman later was charged with second-degree murder; following a high-profile trial that riveted America, he was acquitted of the charges against him.

On February 26, Martin, a Miami high school student, was in Sanford visiting his father. Dressed in a hooded sweatshirt, the teen was on his way back to the home of his father’s fiancée, after buying a bag of Skittles and a bottle of juice, when he was spotted by Zimmerman, a 28-year-old insurance-fraud investigator who was captain of the neighborhood patrol at the Retreat at Twin Lakes, which recently had experienced a series of break-ins and burglaries. Zimmerman called the non-emergency line of the Sanford police to report that Martin looked suspicious then ignored a police dispatcher’s advice not to follow the young man. Moments later, gunfire rang out. When officers arrived, Martin was dead at the scene. Zimmerman, who had a bloody nose and cuts on the back of his head, was questioned then released. There were no eyewitnesses to the shooting, and police chose not to arrest Zimmerman, who claimed to have acted in self-defense.

After Martin’s parents raised concerns about the police investigation into the death of their son, who had no criminal record, the case gained national attention. Protest rallies were held in cities nationwide, including New York City, where on March 21 hundreds of people gathered for the Million Hoodie March and demanded justice for Martin, who many believed Zimmerman had profiled as suspicious and threatening simply because the teen was black. Two days later, President Barack Obama said of the shooting: “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon.” In addition to raising a national debate about race relations, the shooting drew attention to Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law, which allows people to use lethal force if they fear for their safety and does not require them to retreat from a dangerous situation, even when it’s possible to do so.

On April 11, 2012, following weeks of demonstrations, a special prosecutor appointed by Florida’s governor charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder. He pleaded not guilty and the case went to trial in June 2013. In court, the prosecution portrayed Zimmerman as a wannabe cop who had profiled Martin as a criminal, chased him down and fought him. Prosecutors also tried to poke holes in Zimmerman’s self-defense claim by pointing to inconsistencies in his statements to the police. Defense attorneys for Zimmerman, who did not take the stand, contended he only shot Martin after the teen attacked him. On July 13, after deliberating for 16 hours over two days, a jury of six women found Zimmerman not guilty.

In November 2013, the city of Sanford announced new rules forbidding volunteers in its neighborhood watch program from carrying guns and pursuing suspects.

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Oscar Pistorius becomes the first amputee runner to compete at the Olympics

Year
2012
Month Day
August 04

On August 4, 2012 in London, Oscar Pistorius of South Africa becomes the first amputee to compete at the Olympics by running in an opening heat of the men’s 400-meter. Pistorius finished second out of five runners and advanced to the semifinals, where he finished eighth out of eight runners. His image would drastically change early the next year when the star athlete was arrested for the murder of his girlfriend. He was found guilty in 2014. 

Pistorius was born on November 22, 1986, without the fibula (a bone between the calf and ankle) in either of his legs. When he was 11 months old, the Johannesburg native’s legs were amputated below the knees. (Doctors had advised his parents it would be easier to have the procedure done before Pistorius learned to walk.) Growing up, he used prosthetic legs and participated in numerous sports. After injuring his knee playing rugby in high school, he started running track as a form of rehabilitation.

In 2004 Pistorius competed at the Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece, where he won a gold medal in the 200-meter, with a record-setting time of 21.97 seconds. He also won bronze in the 100-meter. Pistorius soon began competing in meets against able-bodied athletes. However, in January 2008, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAFF), track and field’s governing organization, banned him from able-bodied competitions because it believed Pistorius’ blades, known as “Flex-Foot Cheetahs,” gave him an unfair advantage. The IAFF, which had conducted scientific tests with Pistorius, claimed his blades enabled him to use less energy than able-bodied athletes while covering the same distance, and therefore run faster. Pistorius appealed the IAFF’s ruling, and in May 2008 the Court of Arbitration struck down the IAFF’s decision and the ban was lifted.

Later that same year, at the Paralympics in Beijing, China, Pistorius won gold in the 100-, 200- and 400- meter events, and set a world record of 47.49 seconds in the 400-meter. Over the next few years, he continued to compete against able-bodied athletes. In 2011 he was part of the South African squad that won a silver medal in the 4×400-meter relay at the World Championships in Athletics in South Korea, and in June 2012 he clinched silver in the individual 400-meter at the African Athletics Championships in Benin. The following month, Pistorius was selected to compete for his homeland in the individual 400-meter and 4×400 relay at the Olympics Games in London.

Pistorius began his history-making appearance at the Olympics on August 4, 2012, by taking second place in his five-man preliminary heat in the 400-meter, with a time of 45.44 seconds. At the semifinals the next day, Pistorius finished in last place, with a time of 46.54 seconds, and failed to advance to the finals. On August 9, he was supposed to run the third leg of the 4×400 relay, but his teammate collided with a runner from Kenya before he was able to hand off the baton to Pistorius, and the South Africans did not finish the race. After filing a protest, South Africa was allowed to compete in the finals the next day; the team, anchored by Pistorius, finished in eighth place. At the London Paralympics in September, Pistorius won gold medals with record-setting times in the 400-meter and the 4×100 relay, along with a silver medal in the 200-meter.

Then, on February 14, 2013, Pistorius was arrested for the murder of his girlfriend, 29-year-old Reeva Steenkamp, whom he admitted to fatally shooting at his Pretoria, South Africa, home earlier that day. Pistorius claimed he mistook Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, for an intruder. He was charged with premeditated murder, to which he pleaded not guilty when his case went to trial in March 2014, amidst intense media coverage. That September, Pistorius was found guilty of culpable homicide, the equivalent of manslaughter, but cleared of the more serious charge of murder. In October 2014, the 27-year-old former Olympian was sentenced to five years in prison.

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Amish convicted in beard-cutting attacks

Year
2012
Month Day
September 20

16 members of a dissident Amish group in Ohio are convicted of federal hate crimes and conspiracy for forcibly cutting the beards and hair of fellow Amish with whom they had religious differences. The government classified the ruthless attacks as hate crimes because beards and long hair have important religious symbolism to the Amish, who are known for their pacifism, plain style of dress and refusal to use many forms of modern technology.

The men and women convicted in the attacks belonged to a group of about 18 families who lived on an 800-acre farm owned by their leader, Samuel Mullet Sr., near Bergholz, Ohio, 100 miles southeast of Cleveland. Mullet, an Amish bishop and father of 18, masterminded the 2011 attacks against fellow Amish whom he viewed as enemies of his ultraconservative splinter sect. The five separate assaults involved nine people and spread fear through Amish communities in Ohio, home to an Amish population of roughly 60,000. The perpetrators—sometimes wielding shears meant for horse manes—restrained victims and in some cases hurt those who came to their aid. Afterwards, the attackers took photographs in order to further humiliate the injured parties.

The Amish typically resolve disputes on their own, without involving law enforcement; however, several beard cutting victims reported the attacks to police out of concern that Mullet was operating a cult. Mullet (who did not participate directly in the attacks) and a group of his followers were arrested in late 2011, and their case went to trial in late August 2012. It was the first case in Ohio that applied a landmark 2009 federal law—the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act—which gave the government increased powers to prosecute crimes motivated by bigotry.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Mullet believed he was above the law and kept tight control over his followers with a kind of cult-like domination. Among other things, he censored their mail and imposed punishments on adults such as paddling and confinement in chicken coops. The prosecution also presented witness testimony that Mullet had pressured married female followers to have sex with him under the guise of marital counseling. Defense lawyers, who called no witnesses, did not dispute that the beard and hair cuttings took place. However, they said the acts were simple assaults that did not meet the definition of hate crimes because they were based on personal feuds rather than religious motives. The defense also contended that the shearings were performed out of compassion in order to convince the recipients to return to a stricter Amish lifestyle.

On September 20, 2012, the 66-year-old Mullet was convicted along with three of his sons, one of his daughters and 11 other followers. On February 8, 2013, a federal judge in Cleveland sentenced Mullet to 15 years in prison. His co-defendants received sentences ranging from one to seven years behind bars.

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Killer in Norway massacre is sentenced

Year
2012
Month Day
August 24

On August 24, 2012, the man who killed 77 people in a July 22, 2011, bombing and shooting attack in Norway is sentenced to 21 years in prison, the maximum allowed under Norwegian law. Anders Behring Breivik, a 33-year-old right-wing extremist with anti-Muslim views, carried out attacks in Oslo, the nation’s capital, and at a youth camp on the nearby island of Utoya because he wanted to call attention to what he referred to as the “Islamic colonization” of Europe and inspire an uprising against it. The attacks were the deadliest the nation of 5 million residents had experienced since World War II.

The massacre began around 3:25 p.m. when Breivik detonated a van packed with explosives outside government offices in central Oslo, leaving eight people dead and more than 200 others injured. Approximately two hours later, Breivik, dressed as a police officer, arrived on Utoya Island, about 25 miles northwest of Oslo, at a summer camp for hundreds of teenagers organized by Norway’s governing Labour Party (whose liberal immigration policies Breivik opposed). There, he methodically shot and killed 69 people, many of them teens. Some of Breivik’s victims were trying to swim to safety when he gunned them down. More than an hour after the shooting rampage began, law enforcement officers arrived and Breivik surrendered.

Authorities later discovered that shortly before the deadly twin attacks Breivik had posted a 1,500-page manifesto online railing against multiculturalism and Islam, which he considered dangers to Europe. It also was learned that Breivik, who was raised in a middle-class Norwegian family, spent at least several years preparing for the attacks, setting up an agricultural business so he could buy chemicals to build explosives, among other activities.

During Breivik’s 10-week trial in the spring of 2012, he admitted to carrying out the attacks but said his victims were complicit in their deaths because they supported multiculturalism and Muslim immigration, thereby putting Norway at risk, in his opinion. On August 24, 2012, Breivik was sentenced to 21 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed in Norway, which does not have the death penalty. However, his sentence can be extended as long as he is considered a threat to society. Prosecutors had argued Breivik was insane and should be sent to a psychiatric institution rather than prison, but the court ruled he was sane, a decision that pleased Breivik, who wanted his attacks to be viewed as a political statement rather than dismissed as the actions of a mentally ill person.

A week before Breivik was sentenced, Norway’s national police commissioner resigned after a damaging report issued by an independent commission concluded police should have responded faster to the attacks and could have done more to prevent them.

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Husband of missing Utah woman kills self and two young sons


Year
2012
Month Day
February 05

On February 5, 2012, 36-year-old Josh Powell, who had been in the public eye since police labeled him a person of interest in the 2009 disappearance of his 28-year-old wife, Susan, locks out a social worker then kills himself and his two sons, ages 5 and 7, by setting fire to his Graham, Washington, home.

Susan Cox Powell was last seen alive by someone other than her immediate family late on the afternoon of December 6, 2009, when a friend who had just eaten a meal of pancakes and eggs with the Powells left their West Valley City, Utah, home. The friend later told authorities Susan Powell felt tired after the meal, which was made by Josh, and lay down for a nap. After the Powells failed to drop off their sons Braden and Charlie at daycare the following morning, and did not show up at their jobs or answer their phones, relatives contacted police. Later that same day, Josh Powell and his sons, then ages 2 and 4, returned home. When questioned by police, Powell claimed he had left with the boys around 12:30 a.m. on December 7 for an overnight camping trip. Asked by authorities why he would take his young children camping on a freezing night, Powell said he wanted to test his new generator.

Law enforcement officials soon began treating the disappearance of Susan Powell, who friends and family said would never voluntarily walk out on her sons, as a criminal investigation. There were no signs of robbery, forced entry or struggle at the Powell home, but investigators found traces of Susan’s blood on a sofa. They also learned the Powells had been having marital and financial problems. In mid-December, Josh Powell, who had been less-than-cooperative with the investigation, according to police, was named a person of interest in his wife’s disappearance.

In early January 2010, Powell packed up his Utah home, and he and his sons moved in with his father, Steven, in Puyallup, Washington, where Josh and Susan had grown up. That same year, Josh Powell publicly speculated that his wife had run away with a Utah man who went missing around the same time she did, but police found no evidence to substantiate this theory. In September 2011, Steven Powell was arrested in Washington and charged with multiple counts of voyeurism and possession of child pornography. Soon after, a judge granted Susan Powell’s parents custody of Braden and Charlie.

On February 1, 2012, a Washington judge ordered Josh Powell to undergo a psychosexual evaluation, including a polygraph test, before he could regain custody of his boys. Around noon on February 5, a social worker brought Braden and Charlie to their father’s rental home in Graham, where he had been living following Steven Powell’s arrest, for a supervised visit. Powell let his sons into the house but blocked the social worker from entering. She called 911 and reported smelling gasoline and hearing the boys crying. Moments later, Powell ignited a massive blaze that killed him and his children. Later, it was discovered he had attacked the boys with a hatchet before starting the fire.

Authorities determined Powell had planned the murders in advance, giving away boxes of his children’s toys to Goodwill on the weekend of the tragedy and, minutes before setting his house ablaze, emailing his pastor and several family members with instructions about how to take care of some of his final business. None of the emails mentioned Susan Powell.

A lawyer for Susan’s parents said that before their deaths the Powell boys had begun telling their grandparents more of what they remembered about the night their mother disappeared. According to the Associated Press, the lawyer said: “The oldest boy talked about that they went camping and that Mommy was in the trunk. Mom and Dad got out of the car, and Mom disappeared.” Susan Powell has never been found and no arrests have ever been made in connection with her case.

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