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The Society for the Advancement of Social Studies - Tuesday, June 4

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On Tuesday, June 4, head up to Public Assembly in Williamsburg to see our pals at The Society for the Advancement of Social Studies' June show. It's free, you'll learn a ton of history (this month's topic is archrivals) and there are always delicious themed drink specials. 

The details:

What: SASS Presents: Archrivals of History 
Where: Public Assembly, back room, 70 North 6th Street in Williamsburg
When: Tuesday, June 4, doors at 7pm
RSVP!


Upcoming History Classes at the Brainery

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We wanted to spotlight a few upcoming classes, for all you lovers of history in NYC and beyond. Click the links to read more and register. 

William Niblo's Pleasure Garden

At the corner of Prince and Broadway, stretching almost the entire block stood Niblo's Garden. From 1828 until 1894 this temple to genteel entertainment ruled the block in its many incarnations, as an outdoor pleasure garden, saloon, a concert hall, and opera house and more.

Thursday, June 20, 6:30pm

Times Square Before Disney: Glamour, Sleaze, and Cinema

In typical New York fashion, the sordid elements of old Times Square coexisted with glamorous film and stage premieres throughout the 20th century, when movies dominated Broadway and future movie stars débuted in the area’s legitimate theaters.

Tuesday, July 2, 6:30pm

Red Scares and Blacklists: Hollywood vs. Political Dissent

As Cold War tensions between the United States and Soviet Union heated up in 1947, movie studio moguls and politicos imagined “reds” and “pinkos” in every reel of film. As a result, hundreds of film artists – from radical leftists to liberal Democrats – were denied employment, and even threatened with prison terms, as anti-communist hysteria rocked the nation.

Thursday, July 24, 6:30pm

All classes take place at our location in Prospect Heights, 190 Underhill Ave. 

 

 

Backyard Before & After

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The backyard's coming along! Keep an eye out for a BBQ as soon as the grass grows in a bit more, and thanks to the Awesome Foundation for the grant to help fix things up. 

Before: 

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And after:

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It's (Almost) Mulberry Season

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A few years back, I lived near a prolific mulberry tree along the Prospect Expressway, and ever since, I've been a bit obsessed with picking them, mostly because I love the idea of getting berries for free. (Take that, $8/quart Greenmarket strawberries!)

But free doesn't mean anything if the food doesn't taste any good, and lucky us, mulberries taste really, really good. And as long as you don't mind investing some time, turning your skin purple, and eating a little New York City dirt, they're lots and lots for the taking.

And the best part is, it's just about to be mulberry season. 

A little background:

Despite my excitement, there aren't all that many mulberry trees around New York today, which makes finding a good one all the more satisfying. According to the Parks Department, just 1,200 of New York City's 600,000 street trees are mulberries.

Those that are here are hardy, and young trees are noted for being able to grow 10 feet in a year. They're resistant to pollution, drought, and don't mind the crappy soil they're often planted in, which of course makes them perfect New York City trees. 

Eating mulberries:

The most annoying thing about mulberries is the stem. They've got long ones, and after you've spent an hour in the sun picking the fruit itself, the last thing you want to do is pick off a million little stems. Luckily, they're totally edible, so it's really just an aesthetic problem. And, though it goes without saying, you should wash them thoroughly before eating. 

Some people find mulberries to be a little watery, though I've always found the ripe ones to be really sweet and delicious. Fair warning if you end up not liking them! 

The absolute best thing is just eat them off the tree, but the next best thing is to mix them into some homemade ice cream. So let's do that. 

Am I going to be poisoned?

Of course, use your best judgement when it comes to eating foraged food in New York City; there's all kind of gross stuff out there. But as for the berry itself, you're fine! That said, if you're going around picking single berries, ie things that look more like blueberries rather than aggregate fruits like raspberries and mulberries, be really, really sure you know what you're looking at. 

Mulberry Frozen Yogurt

3 cups plain Greek yogurt (2%!)
1/4 - 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup mulberries

Freeze in whatever ice cream machine you have hanging around, then, about five minutes before the batch is done, throw in 1 cup of mulberries.

Adding the berries at the end of the process keeps them from freezing rock hard and gives them just enough time to stain the ice cream purple. Since they're super sweet when they're ripe, you don't need to add much sugar to the mix. 

Where and when to get them:

If you're up for the adventure, walk around and look for the purple stains on the pavement, usually starting sometime in early June. In 2013, the berries are definitely later than usual, but some years you're picking by Memorial Day. 

The short answer is to take them from one of the trees on this map. I'll be updating it as I find new trees, but if you know if others, send them along to jen@brooklynbrainery.com and I'll add them to the list.


View Fruit Trees in Brooklyn in a larger map

As for which berries to pick, make sure they're dark purple and ready to fall off the tree. Try them; they should be soft and sweet, melty almost. When you pull the berry, it really shouldn't taken any effort to loosen it from the tree. Also make sure the berry has lost most of its shininess and is more of a matte color (thanks to Daryl from Indiana for the tip!).

One thing though: some mulberries aren't purple at all, but white, or a reddish color. I actually prefer the flavor of the white ones (pictured above), and just remember, no matter what color the berries are, only pick the ones that release from the tree really easily. 

The berries themselves, when super ripe, are very delicate, which is also probably the reason you've never seen them for sale commercially. 

And with that, go forth and eat mulberries!  

The Movable Bridges of New York City

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The first time I got stuck at the 9th Street bridge in Gowanus, I couldn't quite believe it. Stopping traffic in New York City to let one boat pass? It seemed really quaint, but over the years I've gotten stuck there many times, mostly in the afternoons, and it's always kind of nice: a reminder of just how tied we (still) are to the water here. 

Since then, I've wondered how many bridges are left like this in the city, thinking there weren't more than a handful. Turns out there are still thirty movable bridges in New York, scattered around the boroughs and operated by different authorities. 

A few facts

Twenty six of the bridges are for motor vehicles; twenty five of which are operated by the Department of Transportation, and they have a great list with lots of history on their website. Three others are rail bridges operated by the MTA or Amtrak. And one's even a pedestrian-only bridge (the Wards Island Bridge.) The waterway with the most movable bridges? The Harlem River with eight. 

I was also struck by the variety of types of movable bridges in use —"drawbridge" is a misnomer for any of NYC's movable bridges, as we don't actually have any — but there are all sorts of other mechanisms in use, handily illustrated by Wikipedia with the animated gifs below. 

Bascule

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Vertical lift

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Swing

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Retractile

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gifs courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moveable_bridge#Visual_index_of_moving_bridges

The retractable bridge is my favorite of these, mostly because New York has two of the four remaining retractable bridges in operation in the whole country (the Carroll Street Bridge in Brooklyn and Borden Avenue Bridge in Queens). On the map, bridges are color-coded by these types.  

New York City's Movable Bridges: The List

Park Avenue Railroad Bridge 
Type: Swing
Source

Amtrak Pelham Bay Bridge 
Type: Bascule
Source

Spuyten Duyvil Bridge
Type: Swing
Operated by Amtrak
Opened approximately 1,000 times/year
Source

RFK Bridge - Harlem River Lift Span
Type: Vertical lift
Operated by the MTA
Source

Unionport Bridge
Type: Bascule
Total Cost: $5.4 million
Opened: Oct. 27, 1953
Source

Pelham Bridge
Type: Bascule
Total Cost: $605,274
Opened: Oct. 15, 1908
Busiest of all city-owned drawbridges
Source

Hutchinson River Parkway Bridge
Type: Bascule
Total Cost: $1.3 million
Opened: Oct. 11, 1941
Source

Eastern Boulevard Bridge
Type: Bascule
Total Cost: $2.8 million
Opened: Oct. 27, 1953
Source

Hunters Point Avenue Bridge
Type: Bascule
Total Cost: $108,985
Opened: Dec. 14, 1910
Source

Borden Avenue Bridge over Dutch Kills
Type: Retractile
Total Cost: $191,612
Opened: May 5, 1908
The Borden Avenue Bridge, along with the Carroll Street Bridge in Brooklyn, is one of the four remaining retractile bridges in the nation.
Source

Metropolitan Avenue Bridge over English Kills
Type: Bascule
Total Cost: $634,634
Opened: March 27, 1933
Source

Grand Street Bridge over the East Branch of Newtown Creek
Type: Swing
Total Cost: $205,671
Opened: February 3, 1903
Source

Greenpoint Avenue Bridge over Newtown Creek
Type: Bascule
Total Cost: $1.9 million
Opened: December 3, 1929
Source

Pulaski Bridge over Newtown Creek
Type: Bascule
Total Cost: $11.2 million (reconstructed in 1994 at a cost of approximately $40 million) 
Opened: Sep. 10, 1954
Source

Broadway Bridge over the Harlem River
Type: Vertical Lift
Total Cost: $13.4 million
Opened: July 1. 1962
Three tracks of the IRT subway are carried on its upper deck
Source

Willis Avenue Bridge
Type: Swing
Original bridge opened in 1901, at the same location of a 17th Century ferry.
Source

West 207th Street/University Heights Bridge over the Harlem River
Type: Swing
Total Cost: $1.2 million
Opened: Jan. 8, 1908
Source

Macombs Dam Bridge over the Harlem River
Type: Swing
Total Cost: $1.8 million
Opened: May 1, 1895
Oldest swing-type bridge in its original form in NYC.
Source

145th Street Bridge over the Harlem River
Type: Swing
Total Cost: $2.7 million
Opened: Aug. 24, 1905, reconstructed in 2007
Source

Madison Avenue Bridge over the Harlem River
Type: Swing
Total Cost: $2.1 million
Opened: July 18, 1910
Source

Third Avenue Bridge over the Harlem River
Type: Swing
Total Cost: $4 million 
Opened: August 1, 1898, reconstructed in 2004
Source

Wards Island Bridge
Type: Vertical Lift
Total Cost: $2.2 million
Opened: Oct. 11, 1941
Only movable pedestrian-only bridge in NYC
Source

Mill Basin Bridge
Type: Bascule
Total Cost: $1.4 million
Opened: Jun. 29, 1940
Source
This bridge is soon to become a fixed bridge.

Roosevelt Island Bridge
Type: Vertical Lift
Total Cost: $6.5 million
Opened: May 18, 1955, Only means of vehicular access to Roosevelt Island.
Source

Hamilton Avenue & the Gowanus Canal
Type: Bascule
Total Cost: $1.9 million
Opened: August 27, 1942, reconstructed in 2008-09
Source

3rd Street & the Gowanus Canal
Type: Bascule
Total Cost: $188,397
Opened: Mar. 31, 1905
Source

Union Street & the Gowanus Canal
Type: Bascule
Total Cost: $85,206.85
Opened: March 4, 1905
Source

Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge
Type: Vertical lift
Year built: 1937
Operated by the MTA
Source

Carroll Street & the Gowanus Canal
Type: Retractile
Total Cost: $36,742
Opened: 1889
Source

9th Street & the Gowanus Canal
Type: Vertical Lift
Total Cost: $35 million
Opened: September 1, 1999
Source

If I've left any off the list, please let me know! I've been piecing together the info from a bunch of different sources so it's always a possibility. 

Gift Certificate Giveaway! - CLOSED!

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**Congrats to Kerry (one of our email entrants) for winning! We promise to do another one soon!**

To celebrate 7,000 Twitter followers we're giving away a $75 gift certificate to the Brainery. All you have to do is comment below by Friday, June 28 at 12pm EDT, and we'll select the winner at random and let you know via email/facebook. You have to be 18, and live in the US, btw. 

If you hate FB but still want to participate, just shoot us an email at contest@brooklynbrainery.com

Boring legalese rules? We've got them right here.

The Society for the Advancement of Social Studies - Tuesday, July 2

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Our pals at the Society for the Advancement of Social Studies are back on Tuesday to discuss a different historical topic that you probably knew at one point but don’t remember anymore, plus themed drink specials. Up this month: NOT American Revolutions.

Everything goes down on Tuesday, July 2 in the back room at Public Assembly in Williamsburg (70 North 6th Street). Doors at 7, talks shortly thereafter, 21+. 

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Don't get us wrong, we love the Declaration of Independence and fireworks and hot dogs as much as the next guy, but this year we thought it might be nice to pay homage to some of the other revolutions that ended up having a huge impact on life as we know it.

Thus, we will be discussing:

- The French Revolutionary Calendar
- The Cultural Revolution in China
- The Tyrannicides in Athens

This is gonna be an awesome show, so give in to your FOMO and come out!

Summer School at the Brooklyn Museum!


You Can Visit Governors Island During the Week!

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I love Governors Island but never seem to make it over during the weekend, so I was super excited to learn that the National Parks Service offers public visits during the week. Did everyone already know about this? I definitely didn't but now feel the need to tell everyone

There's a variety of tours programs offered, from a history of artillery on the island to a tour of the interior of Castle Williams, all for free, and they include ferry service from Manhattan. You won't get to wander around the island by yourself afterward but they look like a terrific way to get an in-depth view of the island's history without having to worry about the weekend crowds. Tickets for all the programs are given out an hour in advance, so just be sure to arrive early to get one. 

You can find all the details over on the National Parks Service site: http://www.nps.gov/gois/planyourvisit/2013-weekday-programming-schedule.htm

Coming up at the Brainery: July 20-27

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Coming up soon! 

Get Published: The 800 Word Essay

From op-eds, to personal essays, to the New York Times' Modern Love column, the modern essay is the best way to get your stories out into mainstream media. 

Sunday, July 21, 10am

Dessert Drinks: Bubble Tea & Friends 

Whether you call it bubble tea, pearl milk tea, boba, or any of a million other names, there's one thing we can all agree on: putting weird gelatinous spheres in your drink is an oddly great idea. 

Tuesday, July 23, 6:30pm

Red Scares and Blacklists: Hollywood vs. Political Dissent 

As Cold War tensions between the United States and Soviet Union heated up in 1947, movie studio moguls and politicos imagined “reds” and “pinkos” in every reel of film. 

Wednesday, July 24, 6:30pm

Chili Powder: A History

From traditional spices to national chili cook-offs, we'll discover how the distribution of commercialized chili powder affected our eating habits and how it fits into our national pantry.

Thursday, July 25, 6:30pm

Experience Design for Everyone

We'll spend a fast and furious day taking you through some of the core concepts of cross-channel experience design, past digital wireframing tools and into empathy with your user base. We'll give you tools to think and draw on your feet and pitch your concepts with ease and impact. 

Saturday, July 27, 10am

All classes are 18+. View our cancellation policy

The Masters of Social Gastronomy Do Cocktails

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Each month, Sarah and Soma of the Brooklyn Brainery take on a curious food topic and break down the history, science, and stories behind it. Up this month: cocktails

The cocktail is credited as one of America's greatest inventions. But where did it come from, and how did it evolve into the endless combinations we find today? Sarah will examine the dawn of the cocktail and trace the origins of some of our country's most beloved imbibements. You'll walk away with a new appreciation for the drinks that got your ancestors drunk.  

Soma will tackle our modern-day obsession with the cocktail. Rules will be broken and assumptions shattered: water vs whiskey, shaken vs stirred, and the One True Way to craft a martini! Find out how egg whites got from your breakfast plate to your highball glass, and whether baseball sized ice cubes make your drinks a sure home run.

PLUS! Everything you've ever wanted to know about the humble straw.
 
All the details:
Monday, July 29
The Brooklyn Kitchen, 100 Frost Street
Doors at 6:30
$5, includes 2 beer tickets
Pay at the door, or get tickets online 

 

Introducing The NYC Makery Pop-up!

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From August 5-16, the latest NYC Makery pop-up Makerspace will take place at the Brainery, and we're pretty psyched.

If you haven't had the chance to participate in one of their workshops, the NYC Makery is "part shop & part workshop. A movable and temporary venue where youth and adults are encouraged to be curious, to tinker, to experiment, and to make with technology." We couldn't be more excited to host such an awesome organization. 

Workshops are aimed at both kids and adults, and you'll find detailed age recommendations on each  event's page

Registration for their first week of workshops is now open; personally, I'm eyeing the Soldering Electronics Boot Camp and Programming LED Displays

All the details:
The NYC Makery
190 Underhill Avenue (our space in Prospect Heights!)
August 5-16
Follow the Makery on Facebook for updates.

Event Heads Up: Tangra Summer on August 25

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Every so often, an event comes along that makes me really, really happy to live in New York. This summer, that event is Tangra Summer, a pop-up feast hosted by Diana Kuan and Chitra Agrawal at the Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum on August 25th. 

Both Diana and Chitra teach for us and are completely awesome, and the concept for the dinner—"the food pays tribute to Tangra, a Calcutta neighborhood that is home to generations of Hakka Chinese and a cuisine that is a perfect mix of Chinese food traditions and Indian ingredients" sounds pretty irresistible. Plus there's the setting: the oldest house in New York City, and lots of locally grown veggies. 

More links! 
Tickets + details
Diana's blogs: Appetite for China and Brooklyn Atlas
Chitra's blog: The ABCD's of Cooking
Bonus! Here's an interview with Diana, hosted by Chitra on BlogTalkRadio. 

 

Really Cool Thing: Brooklyn Brewery Small Batch Tours

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Sometimes, it seems like all the best things in NYC happen during the workday. But since it's summer, here's hoping you can skip out of the office a bit early and head over to one of Brooklyn Brewery's Small Batch Tours, which take place every Monday-Thursday at 5pm. 

For $8, you get a small, in-depth tour of the brewery, tastings of four beers, and a glass to take home (plus way more). It jumped out at me as one of those great-deals-you-never-really-know-about, and you can find all the details and sign up over on their site: http://brooklynbrewery.com/visit/visiting-the-brooklyn-brewery

Floral Design Classes this Week!

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We have a few spots left in each of this week's floral design classes with the awesome Carly Cylinder from Flour LA. You'll make awesome projects to take home along with the skills to keep arranging in the future.  

Project:Rustic Wooden Boxes - Wednesday, July 31, 8:30-10pm

Project: English Garden Boxes - Wednesday, July 31, 6:30-8pm


The Society for the Advancement of Social Studies - Battle of the Presidential Bad Asses

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On August 13, our pals at S.A.S.S, the montly free history lecture series, are hosting their second annual Battle of the Historic Bad Asses. You'll get the low down on each contestant: John Adams, Andrew Jackson, and Teddy Roosevelt, and then, at the end of the night, you'll get to decide who takes home the title. 

Very important note: S.A.S.S. is moving to a new location this month, Cameo Gallery at 93 North 6th Street in Williamsburg. 

RSVP on Facebook!

The Triumphant Return of Ice Cream Club

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Ice Cream Club aims to solve the number one problem facing people today: when you make ice cream at home, you end up with too much of one flavor. So we all get together to share tips and tricks and, mostly importantly, ice cream!

We ran ICC for a while a year or two ago, and decided it's time to bring it back. Come on over to the Brainery on August 10 from 11:30am-1:30pm for the first official ice cream club meeting of 2013. Admission's free if you're bringing ice cream and $5 if you just want to taste.

**RSVP here!** 

Making Maraschino Cherries

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I love the bright red cherries that you get at the grocery store for $2. I really, really love them.

But a few summers ago, I made some "real" maraschino cherries using the good stuff: Luxardo Maraschino liqueur, and was blown away by the results. These guys are absolutely nothing like the ones you grew up with: they're boozy, rich, and complex, instead of just sweet and syrupy like the grocery store version. 

The Key Ingredient

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Make sure you get this bottle! 

To make these, you need maraschino liqueur. It's a traditional Italian liqueur made from sour mascara cherries and their pits. You'll find it's not very sweet and a little bitter. 

The most famous brand, also considered the best tasting, is Luxardo, but it can be a bit tough to track down. In Manhattan, they sell it at Astor Place Wines & Spirits, and in Brooklyn I've always had luck at Heights Chateau on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn Heights. It'll run you about $28/bottle in the NYC area. 

Luxardo also makes a very expensive jar of maraschino cherries that you can buy at fancy grocery stores. I've spied them at Court Street Grocers, but haven't had the guts to pay the $20 to try them. 

The Recipe

I used a simplified recipe originally drawn from Serious Eats, and it's pretty easy even if you hate cooking. 

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This is why you buy a cherry pitter.

First, prep 1lb of cherries by washing and pitting them.

I don't have a cherry pitter, and I still haven't found a great workaround, but lately I've been using the handle a plastic fork to dig out the pit. It sometimes destroys the cherry but it usually gets the job done. Other geniuses on the internet suggest using a paper clip, smashing it like garlic, or just plain old using a knife. 

Once they're pitted, throw together in a pot:

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
squeeze lemon juice
some vanilla extract

When the syrup boils, throw in a the pitted cherries and cook for 5-7 minutes.

Finally, take them off the heat and add 1 cup of the Luxardo Maraschino (or any maraschino liqueur). Let them cool and store them in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. At this point, I also added a couple dashes of meyer lemon bitters, for no other reason than that I had them on hand and there was already some lemon juice in the recipe. 

 

Register for the Old Stone House's Pie Contest on August 24

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Our friends at the Old Stone House in Park Slope are hosting their first annual pie competition on August 24th. It's part of their "Revolutionary Fare" event, a night of food, crafts, and music commemorating the Battle of Brooklyn, and it should be a lot of fun. We'll be helping to judge the entries, and we can't wait to try your pie!

All the details:  
Pie Contest at the Old Stone House (336 3rd Street)
Saturday, August 24, 5-9pm
Register + get the contest rules.

Revolutionary Fare Party + Pie Contest - August 24!

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Our friends at the Old Stone House in Park Slope are hosting their first annual pie competition on August 24th. It's part of their "Revolutionary Fare" event, a night of food, crafts, and music commemorating the Battle of Brooklyn, and it should be a lot of fun. We'll be helping to judge the entries, and we can't wait to try your pie!

All the details:  
Pie Contest at the Old Stone House (336 3rd Street)
Saturday, August 24, 5-9pm
Register + get the contest rules.

Even if you're not a baker, come and party

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