Cloverfield monster up close

Did you see Cloverfield and wonder, how the fuck does that thing actually move? I mean yes the monster is fast, and you can tell its got legs, and a lot of mouth and a big asss body, but even though I personally felt pretty satisfield by the end of the film, that I had actually seen enough of the monster, thats still a ways off from having a firm grasp on a full picture...

Well here's your chance now. The online Hasbro toy shop has a number of pictures of their $99 Cloverfield monster toy for your viewing pleasure. Although I'm not sure why the heck the toy is all white grey color when throughout most of the film it seems more brown grey. Regardless, you still get that final full body shot you've been looking for.

In case for some reason you still haven't seen the film, and don't want to be spoiled. Not that I think its in theaters anymore, I won't actually post the picture here. But please CLICK HERE to check out the pics, and of course if you so desire: purchase.

In case you don't want to look, but would like to know, the figure features:

• - 70 points of articulation and incredible life-like detail
• - Authentic sound
• - 14” tall
• - 10 parasites
• - Two interchangeable heads
• - Statue of Liberty head accessory
• - Special Cloverfield collector’s edition packaging

I think it looks pretty sweet... too bad it's so pricey.
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A final Cloverfield update... for now

It seems despite my strange and slightly hesitant enthusiastic endorsement of Cloverfield it looks like the masses have spoken. This film is a hit. Unqualified success. A monster movie smack dab 'on the map' as it were. ComingSoon reports that Cloverfield earned a whopping $46 million in it's four day opening weekend, shattering the previous MLK holiday weekend record set by Blak Hawk Down of $33 mil, and ultimately went on to score the biggest opening in January ever. And Paramount is thrilled lauding Cloverfield, and specifically its viral marketing campaign, as Vice Chairman Rob Moore said "this movie defines what we want to do at Paramount." High praise, but considering these are the kind of numbers any studio would be proud of in the summertime, it's well earned.

And what of the future? Are we going to get more Cloverfield? A sequel perhaps? I mean, I know the movie just came out, but I have to think they're considering it in light of its success. I'm sorry I can't find the interview now, but I know I read somewhere J.J. Abrams or director Matt Reeves saying how they'd kicked a few ideas around during post production, but nothing has been set in stone yet. If I remember correctly they were talking more about what it would be like to film the same attack, and tell the same story from another group of characters perspectives. Anyhow, I'm sure Paramount will be on top of that as soon as humanly possible.

One thing I didn't mention in my review is that if you do go and see Cloverfield there is one little easter egg sitting right at the end of the credits. So if you are going, I encourage you to stay until the very end. For me though I went and saw the easter egg and was still confused. So if like me you wanted to understand that treat better, just click on this link to reveal the BIG SPOILER. I encourage you not to look if you haven't seen the film yet though.

As a well timed license, probably with the dvd release, Hasbro has listed on their toyshop webpage that they will be offering what sound like a fantastic Cloverfield movie monster toy featuring a huge 70 points of articulation. The 14" tall toy will also come with some great accessories like the Statue of Liberty head, and should be available around the beginning of October. Just in time for Christmas, which is maybe a good thing as the one downside to the toy is the hefty pricetag of $99... anyone up for a group gift?

My final note on Cloverfield, is regarding the Slusho video contest. I have to suspect that I did NOT in fact win one of the top 5 spots, as no one has called me and the contest winners should've been notified by this past Friday. The Slusho website has been updated to say that the winners have been chosen and we should await their appearance online soon. The only odd thing about the whole shenanigan is that no one has stepped forward to tell the waiting throngs of fans that they have won. Or at least no one has said anything on the two best fan sites I visit, cloverfieldclues.com, and cloverfieldnews.com. That seems odd to me. Anyhow, I'm sure they would've told me if I won, so I'm going to assume I didn't :( I did however have a good time making my Very Slusho Xmas video, and have to admit that currently sitting on 2,359 Youtube views isn't such a bad place to be.

I will probably be back with more on Cloverfield one day, but for now I'm done. That is, until the sequel...
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Cloverfield review

After all the hype, and all the crazed Slusho fueled nights it's finally here. Cloverfield has landed, and Bad Robot has delivered on exactly what it promised us the first time we saw that head fly down the street so many months ago. A pretty kickass monster movie, with amazing effects, a few good jolts, and the unforgiving pulverizing destruction of downtown Manhattan.

Cloverfield delivers a great honest to god edge of your seat action film. The shocks are riddled throughout, and I was legitimately worried when I saw some of the things I won't spoil by talking about here. Maybe most immediate on everyone who has seen the film yet's mind though, is yes the monster itself is unbelievably awesome and destructive and you get lots of great and grisly views of it. This film never pretends to be something its not. It gives you just enough character investment and emotional story to string together what I consider a suitably plausible plotline where our heroes feel its necessary to travel directly into the path of mayhem, and then it lets loose with the extremely fucked up consequences of that decision.

I don't want to feel like I have to defend this film, but I do think that other people might have a decidedly different reaction to it than me. My advice, don't go into Cloverfield expecting it to be a weighty drama, don't expect always super logical situations, characters, or motivations. The biggest complaints I've heard from people who see this movie are that it wasn't this or it wasn't that, it didn't meet their lofty expectations, but let's try to look at what it is because I honestly don't think this film needs any more than it has.

Think of the technical work done here. It's amazing the effort that obviously went into making this film. The effects on the whole are SO good, you honestly don't even realize your not watching the real city in ruins, until of course you run across the literally one or two scenes that are obvious set pieces. But those are totally forgivable, because everything else seems to be the real deal and it's the fact of the work, planning, and execution I know must've gone into of the hundreds of other shots that I barely had time to absorb, that were so real I just innately believed them, that this film deserves huge accolades. The camera work, which while not as bad as Blair Witch, might make some viewers a bit nauseous (try sitting a bit further back), is overall great and extremely organic feeling. As is most of the acting; at least in their expression of terror and determination. Yes, I understand how incredulous the story is, but other than some clunky dialogue here and there, especially at the beginning, and a few extremely convenient camera angles, this film feels totally real. And that is a feat that should not be undervalued.

Overall I really enjoyed this film. It was immensely satisfying to finally see it after all of my ponderous film-stalking, and thankfully it did not disappoint. For me, Cloverfield managed to be exactly what I was expecting, and hoping for. Does it make my list of top films ever? no probably not... But if I were to rank it among the various giant monster movies I've seen, I would easily put it up alongside Gojira, and Kong, as one of the best, and it's certainly the best monster film of recent years.

If you do get a chance I'd highly recommend checking out Cloverfield. For me it was really a cool film that was well worth the wait. If you can go in expecting a fun ride, with a lot of monstrous action, and just let the craziness take over I think you'll enjoy yourself a lot too.
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Tagruato - Chaui Station

Cloverfield is coming...

Slusho parent company Tagruato has had an incident at their Chaui drilling station.

According to their official press release "There has been an altercation at the Chaui Station. Although details are limited at present time, be assured that Tagruato is taking every measure necessary to ensure the safety and well being of all staff and crew. Specialty teams have been deployed, and are working aggressively to restore harmony at the site.

The cause of the problem is currently being investigated, although it is suspected that an eco-terror cell is responsible for the disturbance.

We have top investigators on our side. Everything will be resolved shortly, and all problems will be fixed. If you have any questions, please contact us at +81-3-5403-6318 for further instructions."

Altercado Tagruato alemán
Uploaded by UrulokiBlog

or in Italian, or in Spanish...

1-18-08.
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A Very Slusho Xmas

Well here it is everyone. I told you I'd do it and I finally have, just in time for the holidays, check out my official entry into the Slusho Happy Commercial Contest of Joy! Check it out here below, or go to the YouTube page and feel free to either rate or comment on the ad.



As you can probably tell the happy Christmas spirit (along with the delicious taste of Mikan-Banana flavored Slusho) inspired this contest entry. I hope you all like it. Although I don't think the Slusho company will be letting the judging open to the public, I do think they will post the entries online. To find the contest page from the Slusho site, just click on the "Contest" bubble (farthest right one).

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The entry period for the contest ends on the 4th, and the winners will be picked within 2 weeks of that. Cloverfield as we all know comes out on 1-18-08. The top five chosen entries will win Slusho skinned Alienware laptops. Pretty sweet, I know. Anyhow, I hope you like my entry, and wish me luck on the contest.

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Thanks to Erica, and Caryn for help with filming, and of course to Bernard for his technical support throughout.

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Slusho zoom!!!

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5 Minutes of Cloverfield

Seriously, check this out! Cool new Cloverfield footage and a weird little widgit thingy. Oh and a contest to boot. Not that it's the kind of contest I could hope to win, but wow, Still very sweet. Check out the footage now :)
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Slusho! the commercial!!!!!!1!!

It's the advertisement you've all been waiting for! Straight from Slusho.jp here is the official commercial for Slusho! the super happy fun drink for all!!!



You can't drink just six!

And with this ad comes a fantastic new contest! That's right I said contest! Create your very own Slusho commercial and submit it to the Slusho team who will pick 5 winner to receive brand new Slusho skinned Alienware laptops! I definitely think I should enter. this is even better than the Spider-Man contest I entered; and I got to the semi finals for that. The official rules can be found on the Slusho contest page. Check it out, but don't even think that you'll beat me ;)

Slusho Zoooooooooom!!!

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Cloverfield revealed?

Ok, so I don't want to outright show this picture, because even though its 'apparently' only concept art it fully reveals what some are claiming is an early production sketch of the creature starring in Cloverfield. If you're interested CLICK HERE to check it out...

Personally I think that looks pretty damn cool. The thing probably doesn't really look like that, but hey, its a neat design regardless. Don't forget there is a fleeting glimpse of a part of the monster seen in the new trailer.

The Official Cloverfield Website has been updated a bit. Here's the newly listed synopsis:

"Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives."

As always I recommend Cloverfield Clues for all you Cloverfield News. And I'll leave you with this shot from last weeks Heroes where they had some genius cross-promotion and featured Kristen Bell sipping on a cool refreshing Slusho. mmmmmm good...

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New Cloverfield trailer!

Check it out everyone. Not great quality I know, and it might be gone by morning but check out this video of the new Cloverfield trailer. Very sweet.

This is the trailer that will be attached to Beowulf this weekend. so after watching this, doesn't it look like the movie really might be called Cloverfield? That's sure what it seems. Oh JJ you're such a tease. Here's some reaction to the new trailer.

In other news, if you've been following the Jamie and Teddy stuff, here is a link to the newly released video #4. Notice the shiny blue present still sitting on her nightstand. December 5th is the big day for that. And finally, the Bold Futura site is live... or at least it was. wtf?! one sec... hmm, I'm too tired to look this stuff up now, but go nuts over at the Unfiction Forums if you feel like it. Let me know if you learn anything in the comments.

Oh and someone commented today on an old Cloverfield post I'd done here with info on their new Cloverfield Forums at Slusho.ca. Check it out if you can, seems like some dedicated well meaning Canadian Cloverfield fans. Maybe I'll get a chance to post there sometime. Later


UPDATE - hey all, I've just re-embedded a better quality version of the trailer off of YouTube. But for the best quality, head over to Apple.com where they've got glorious high rez versions available. Also since I last posted the above a week ago the official Cloverfield poster has been revealed. Check it out :)

Check out a bigger better version of that over at ComingSoon.net. And for more... theres a lot. check out Cloverfeild Clues. later gators.

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Colverfield tidbit

Just a quick note, but because its Cloverfield I thought it warranted a post. According to Comingsoon.net we will get a brand new trailer and the final official title to Colverfield in front of Beowulf, opening on November 16th. So that's very good news indeed.

There's not much happening on the ARG / rumor front, although feel free to marvel at the splash page for Bold Futura, at boldfutura.jp, the full site is coming soon. Bold Futura is a subsidiary company of the Tagruato Corporation, and you can read all about that here.

for all your 1-18-08 news, I recommend Cloverfield Clues :)

UPDATE - CHUD has posted a spoiler filled description of the upcoming trailer. It sounds great! really REALLY cool. And there is a piece of a scene described in the trailer description that matches an AICN post from a while ago that describes more of that full scene. The big news if these descriptions are correct, is that the film will feature both a large size monster, and smaller ones as well. Also that the smaller ones may have the capacity to bite people and make them sick. Monster zombies or vampires maybe? That's probably too cheesy. :) Ok, well we do know that it's for sure a real survival story, as opposed to an Independence Day 'kill em all and reclaim our world' sort of thing. We'll know for sure once it comes out in a few weeks.

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More Cloverfield updates

So if you've been keeping up on our favorite mystery monster movie Cloverfield / 1-18-08 / Slusho / Overnight you'll see that there has been some interesting bits of activity lately.

Especially the recent discovery of the Tagruato Corporation which can be conveniently found at tagruato.jp. It was found through a series of clues relating back to a new picture (and recipe) on 1-18-08.com. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but now if you go to 1-18-08.com and grab the edge of a picture then shake the mouse, the photos will flip over, some of them revealing more clues written on the back. Go check it out yourself. Oh, and while there wait for 6 minutes to hear the monster roar! Or just check out a good recap of the whole discovery story and the highlights of what the Tagruato page offers to expand this ever growing mystery at Cloverfield Clues. It's by far my favorite Cloverfield blog :)

Anyhow, in a nutshell Tagruato, "Exploring Our World, Ensuring Your Future", is the parent company of among other things, Slusho. Their other subsidiaries include the Yoshida Medical Research, a "genetic research firm specializing in deep sea bioprospecting".... possibly finding the secret nectar special ingredient mentioned on the Slusho.jp history page? Sounds like it could be... They allso own Bold Fortura, a contract engineering firm, who build machines with the unique ability to withstand extreme pressure and temperature... like say maybe the bottom of the ocean... hmm. And finlly we come to ParafFUN Wax Distributers; which besides making crayons is good for such things as preparing specimens for histology (the microscopic study of diseased tissue), propelling your hybrid rocket motors, testing samples in infrared spectroscopy, and moderating neutrons... hmmm, okay. Of course the main business of Tagruato is their Deep Sea Drilling operations. They have 14, $1 billion dollar deep sea oil drilling rigs, the newest of which, the Chuai station, just so happens to be located off the NE coast of America. very portentous. There's more of course and a number of clues to follow up on (check out their Headlines section). I recommend you investigate Tagruato for yourself.

Since I know I haven't been super diligent on updating you guys on the Cloverfield front I've missed mentioning a few other things here. Like how if you've examined the renovated Slusho.jp, you'll see all sorts of interesting new things. Including links to a store where you can buy the very same shirt I missed at comic con and got from eBay, the Happy Talk section where words of Slusho wisdom are dispensed, updates to the history and downloads pages, and of course the Slusho robot flavor combination game. It must be played to be believed.

For a complete list of Slusho.jp updates check out the awesome Cloverfield Clues blog.

Finally there's been one MORE official site related to the film to pop up, jamieandteddy.com is a blog from one of Rob's friends. (Rob is the main guy from the trailer, the one going to Japan.) Anyhow, people on the net have managed to find the MySpace pages of Rob's buddies, which eventually led them somehow to Jamie and Teddy. I haven't really investigated it myself because the page is password protected. But apparently there are currently two video blogs posted there, and they seem to be messages to a friend who is traveling. Is it Rob? Is Jamie Rob's girlfriend? I should probably investigate this a bit more, but there really is a lot of stuff to try to keep up on people ;) You can check out Jamie's first video here and then the newest video here, which was just released today, and also see Cloverfield Clues' analysis here. Expect something more on December 9th...

Really this film is shaping up pretty interestingly. I'm intrigued where Tagurato will lead us. If your looking to get really hardcore into following the developments on the ARG side of things, you should probably be reading the Unfiction forums. That's where a lot of the debate and investigation seems to be going on. For me I think I'll try to mostly stick to the blogs. I'm excited and interested to say the least, but is it dangerous to get myself too invested in the film? Are we going to have another SoaP situation here where the film, even if its good, can never live up to the hype? I hope not. Anyhow, I'll definitely stay tuned. I really can't stop now...

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Nice shirt

So as I've already mentioned a number of times, I missed the Thursday events from comic con. Well, now a little piece of Thursday is mine, care of Ebay :)

Probably my single biggest miss was the Paramount panel. I was hoping for some big Cloverfield news from JJ Abrams. Also he was going to talk about the new Star Trek movie he's making. Well while he did talk about Star Trek, and confirmed the casting of Zachary Quinto as Spock, he did not mention much at all about Cloverfield.

All he said is that the film is NOT called Monstrous as was being reported last week, and he unveiled the new poster for the film. There was no new footage, and no more information given. Oh I suppose hew did say that they had just finished production a few weeks ago and were moving into post. But really other than that, there was nothing.

So for fans interested in the film at least they got some consolation in the freebie giveaway t-shirt that Paramount had for them at the entrance to the conference hall. Free Slusho t-shirts for everyone in attendance! Now thats pretty cool. I mean I got free t-shirts, but do i really care about an Invasion t-shirt; no of course not.

So I have gone onto ebay and purchased myself a Slusho tee. I won the auction and for a mere $10.50 it has become mine!!! Check out the picture. Hooray for me!

Cloverfield poster

Check out this crazy awesome new poster for Cloverfield / 1-18-08 / Slusho. and no the film is NOT called Monsterous as was being rumored earlier this week. JJ has said that there will be no new trailer, and really no other info except this poster. He also has said that they are almost done filming so I hope that means we can get a bit more info eventually. Sadly though, we will have to keep speculating on what exactly the monster is... Very cool poster though.

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Catching up with Cloverfield

So there really has been an awful lot of internet buzz around Cloverfield, maybe too much to be honest. If you're just joining us, watch this trailer, then check out my post from a few days ago about Cloverfield. Basically its a new movie by JJ Abrams (Lost, Alias) that has set fandom ablaze with speculation.

I honestly try not to get too sucked into these things; but its tricky. There is so much interesting speculation surrounding this film I am very interested to see where its going. But let's just all try not to get burnt out on the film before it even opens.

Moriarty over at Aint it Cool News posted a good article today trying to contain a lot of the misinformation regarding the film. Also he wanted to note that AICN and he specifically had the real scoop on the film. Check out his post for more.

The Ethan Haas stuff that I mentioned before has all but been absolutely confirmed to have absolutely NOTHING to do with Cloverfield. Neither do other sites like Parasite.com (now taken down), Tossinggames.com or whoever else might be trying to cash in on the web speculation. The only confirmed sites regarding Cloverfield are 1-18-08.com and Slusho.jp And not to say there won't be, but from my vantage there does not seem to be any ARG elements to the marketing campaign; not yet at least. These are just interesting sites.

If you're interested in information analysis, like me but don't want to go hunting around the web, I might recommend you start by checking out this Youtube post that is fairly current and collects the info known so far. Additionally I'd recommend the excellent blogs Cloverfield News, and Cloverfield Clues who have just launched their first podcast, which is hosted by one of the guys from the Lost Community Podcast and gives a spot on round up of all the current Cloverfield information. And finally as always you know that the fan community will do a great job keeping the Cloverfield Wikipedia page as up to date as possible.

I don't want to say that fan analysis has gotten out of hand. And yes I understand that this is from the man behind the unending mystery of Lost, but analysing everything from imagined faces in the fire, to the magnets on the fridge... it just seems a bit much.

Personally I'm interested to see where everything is going. Viral and web based marketing have never been more important and this kind of promotion could really make fort some fantastic buzz. However as we saw with Snakes on a Plane that does not always translate to big numbers.

So what do I think Cloverfield is about? Well I stick by my theory, it is definitely a creature film, and I'm still leaning towards it being a Cthulhu film. If not Cthulhu specifically, then i think it'll be a new made up squidlike tentacles monster. It is definitely NOT Godzilla, as Sony owns the rights to that and this is a Paramount film. But really other than that the possibilities are pretty boundless, and now that fans are separating fact from fiction (on at least some level) the main current debate regarding Cloverfield lies in what kind of monster is it... Guesses range from Mothra, to the Lost smoke monster, to Gamera, and even to Voltron, and of course my current favorite says that it's actually a Rampage movie!!!

Anywhichway, the speculation is shaping up pretty interestingly, and the BS is starting to fall away. Hopefully soon enough we'll get some more solid information. Rest assured kids, I will keep you posted :)

Have a good one people. Keep an eye out for monsters...

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Cloverfield trailer and the mystery

So where to even begin with this.... How about we just watch it and then discuss.



That was the trailer for the JJ Abrams produced top secret new sci fi film that is going under the code name Cloverfield. That is not the final name of the film. Paramount isn't breathing a word on this film and information is extremely limited. The trailer showed up, sans title in front of Transformers last week and proclaimed a release date of 1-18-08. While hard legit info is almost zilch there is a lot of fascinating speculation going on.

According to Wikipedia which is probably the only place a proper collection of the info can be found you'll see that Cloverfield (which might or might not also be entitled Slusho) is a film starring a bunch of young actors that I'm personally not familiar with who were hired onto the project without seeing scripts. The film which reportedly cost $30 million is widely suspected to be a post apocalyptic tale of mankind on the brink of survival. Although I think that info is derived from a bogus source so I wouldn't trust it.

From the look of the trailer it seems to me that the film is a monster movie along the lines of Godzilla. Check out the Official trailer page at Apple for better versions of the trailer. Or check here for an interesting YouTubers audio analysis.

While random tidbits of unconfirmed information have been circulating around the net building the buzz and I've no doubt delighting the Paramount viral marketing people, AICN seems to have one honestly legitimate scoop. In this article Harry claims to have received an email from JJ regarding the film. In that mail it is revealed that the only legit website regarding the film that has been found so far is at www.1-18-08.com.

Other sites such as www.ethanhaaswasright.com which looks to possibly be related to some kind of very intriguing viral marketing campaign and/or ARG for something are apprently not connected with the film... If you're interested in investigating Ethan Haas, here is a walkthrough I found on someone's blog. Also if you go to the Ethan Haas myspace page you might find some more clues that lead you to think the man has some connection to Lovecraft's Cthulhu, a topic I am thouroughly unprepared to broach at this point. But you can find good basic info on from this YouTuber. Perhaps as someone I knopw suggested it has something to do with an upcoming video game by Mind Storm Labs called Alpha Omega. Or perhaps as was suspected at first, it is in fact connected to Cloverfield and this is all an elaborate ruse...

Could these sites be right. or perhaps http://ethanhaaswaswrong.blogspot.com/ is the 'proper' view. Here's another smart blogger who is unraveling the mystery of Haas. This message was also recently found “In His House at R’lyeh Dead Cthulhu waits dreaming, yet He shall rise and His kingdom shall cover the Earth.” And what should we make of Slusho... this piece of the puzzle seems to definitely be linked to Cloverfield; and maybe even more of Lovecraft's work.

Ultimately what I'm saying is are we dealing with two adjacent viral marketing campaigns that have accidentally overlapped? or are we actually dealing with the possibility of J.J. Abrams making a Cthulhu movie?! both possibilities are interesting... and I don't suppose we'll know for now. But it sure is a whopper of an internet mystery.

My copious links should get you started if you're interested in searching out more truth. Personally I'll stand by for more official stuff. The net is ablaze with speculation on this film and its hard to discern what might be real from whats not.

So I, like Cthulhu wait.

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