81Ravens, a Web3 game studio behind the free-to-play 3v3 arena shooter Paravox, said it has raised $4.5 million in funding.
Digital Hearts Holdings and Gree Ventures led the funding for the Web3 game company. The funding will support the continued development and marketing of Paravox, which will launch on the Solana blockchain. The deal shows there is still life behind Web3 games targeting hardcore gamers.
81Ravens is a Singapore game development company founded in 2020. As a team of experienced game developers, publishers, and league organizers in Japan and Southeast Asia, 81Ravens is working on Paravox, which features a blend of movement, skill mastery, and tactical precision.
Paravox is currently in global open alpha testing and has gained some traction, with over 100,000 downloads on the Epic Games Store following its Private Alpha launch in Japan and Southeast Asia. Currently, the title has over 100,000 registered accounts, which is respectable for a Web3 game.
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In addition to the funding round, 81Ravens has selected to deploy on the Solana blockchain. With fast, scalable infrastructure, low friction and extremely low transaction costs, Solana argues it is good for games as it enables real-time gameplay and smooth on-chain integrations.
“81Ravens aims to revolutionize the esports ecosystem by creating a platform that fairly distributes incentives to all contributors, from viewers to competitors and third-party creators,” said Shimpei Yoshimura, CEO of 81Ravens, in a statement. “Our goal is to expand the esports market to 10 trillion yen ($65 billion) by addressing the current imbalance between publishers and communities. While we may appear to be a game studio, our true identity as a platform is our unique insight, enabling us to connect all aspects of esports through tokens and accurately measure each title’s market size.”
This year, Paravox hosted the Paravox Global Rapid Tournament (PGRT), its first esports event, which featured a prize pool of 100 million yen ($652,000) and attracted over half a million viewers, with 23 esports teams participating.
“As an independent game developer and Esports venture, we believe 81Ravens can bring a breath of fresh air to the game industry with this very unique and exciting 3vs3 shooter Paravox and its blockchain business model. Digital Hearts supports 81Ravens’ challenges with all our might,” said Digital Hearts Holding CEO Toshiya Tsukushi, in a statement.
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Pro teams from Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe, and Latin America such as Loud, Zeta Division and Blacklist International have partnered with Paravox. PCI, the second major esports tournament, is planned to take place in December, with Loud among the participants.
“Since meeting 81Ravens, I have eagerly anticipated their growth,” said Gree Ventures CEO Shintaro Aikawa, in a statement. “Having known Shimpei since he was in high school, I am delighted to see this milestone achieved. 81Ravens possesses unique strengths, including strong reach to influencers, cost-effective and rapid game development, and an essential approach to GameFi. I am confident they will continue to make a significant impact on the global market. With their entry into the Solana ecosystem, I look forward to seeing them further integrate games and blockchain technology, delivering a next-generation entertainment experience.”
The game is currently being enhanced and improved in preparation for its Steam release, scheduled for the end of 2024.
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OpenAI updated its Realtime API today, which is currently in beta. This update adds new voices for speech-to-speech applications to its platform and cuts costs associated with caching prompts.
Beta users of the Realtime API will now have five new voices they can use to build their applications. OpenAI showcased three of the new voices, Ash, Verse and the British-sounding Ballad, in a post on X.
Two Realtime API updates:
– You can now build speech-to-speech experiences with five new voices—which are much more expressive and steerable. ???
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– We’re lowering the price by using prompt caching. Cached text inputs are discounted 50% and cached audio inputs are discounted… pic.twitter.com/jLzZDBrR7l— OpenAI Developers (@OpenAIDevs) October 30, 2024
The company said in its API documentation that the native speech-to-speech feature “skip[s] an intermediate text format means low latency and nuanced output,” while the voices are easier to steer and more expressive than its previous voices.
However, OpenAI warns it cannot offer client-side authentication for the API now as it’s still in beta. It also said that there may be issues with processing real-time audio.
“Network conditions heavily affect real-time audio, and delivering audio reliably from a client to a server at scale is challenging when network conditions are unpredictable,” the company shared.
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OpenAI’s history with AI-powered speech and voices has been controversial. In March, it released Voice Engine, a voice cloning platform to rival ElevenLabs, but it limited access to only a few researchers. In May, after the company demoed its GPT-4o and Voice Mode, it paused using one of the voices, Sky, after the actress Scarlett Johansson spoke out about its similarity to her voice.
Speech-to-speech AI would ideally let enterprises build more real-time responses using a voice. Suppose a customer calls a company’s customer service platform. In that case, the speech-to-speech capability can take the person’s voice, understand what they are asking, and respond using an AI-generated voice with lower latency. Speech-to-speech also lets users generate voice-overs, with a user speaking their lines, but the voice output is not theirs. One platform that offers this is Replica and, of course, ElevenLabs.
OpenAI released the Realtime API this month during its Dev Day. The API aims to speed up the building of voice assistants.
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Lowering costs
Using speech-to-speech features, though, could get expensive.
When Realtime API launched, the pricing structure was at $0.06 per minute of audio input and $0.24 per audio output, which is not cheap. However, the company plans to lower real-time API prices with prompt caching.
Cached text inputs will drop by 50%, and cached audio inputs will be discounted by 80%.
OpenAI also announced Prompt Caching during Dev Day and would keep frequently requested contexts and prompts in the model’s memory. This will drop the number of tokens it needs to create to generate responses. Lowering input prices, could encourage more interested developers to connect to the API.
China spacecraft launches in mission to space station
A Chinese spacecraft with a three-person crew, including the country’s first female space engineer, has docked after a journey of more than six hours.
The crew will use the homegrown space station as a base for six months to conduct experiments and carry out spacewalks as Beijing gathers experience and intelligence for its eventual mission to put someone on the Moon by 2030.
Beijing declared the launch of Shenzhou 19 a “complete success” – it is one of 100 launches China has planned in a record year of space exploration as it tries to outdo its rival, the United States.
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The BBC was given rare access to the Jiuquan Satellite launch centre in Gansu and we were just over a kilometre away when the spacecraft blasted off.
Flames shot out of the rocket launcher as it took to the skies, lighting up the Gobi Desert with a deafening roar.
Hundreds of people lined the streets, waving and cheering the names of the taikonauts, China’s word for astronauts, as they were sent off.
At the Tiangong space station, the Shenzhou 19 crew met with three other astronauts who are manning the Shenzhou 18 and will return to Earth on 4 November.
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Just two years ago, President Xi Jinping declared that “to explore the vast cosmos, develop the space industry and build China into a space power is our eternal dream”.
But some in Washington see the country’s ambition and fast-paced progress as a real threat.
Earlier this year, Nasa chief Bill Nelson said the US and China were “in effect, in a race” to return to the Moon, where he fears Beijing wants to stake territorial claims.
He told legislators that he believed their civilian space programme was also a military programme.
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‘Dreams that spark glory’
However, in Dongfeng Space City, a town built to support the launch site, China’s space programme is celebrated.
Every street light is adorned with the national flag.
Cartoon-like astronaut figurines and sculptures sit in the centre of children’s parks and plastic rockets are a centrepiece on most traffic roundabouts.
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A huge poster with Xi Jinping on one side and a photo of the Shenzhou spacecraft on the other greets you as you drive into the main compound.
Hundreds have gathered in the dark after midnight to wave flags and brightly coloured lights as the Taikonauts make their last few steps on Earth before heading to the launch site.
The brass band strikes up Ode to the Motherland as young children, kept up late for the occasion, their cheeks adorned with the Chinese flag, all shout in full song.
This is a moment of national pride.
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The pilot of this mission, Cai Xuzhe, is a veteran but he’s travelling with a new generation of Chinese-trained taikonauts born in 1990 – including China’s first female space engineer, Wang Haoze.
“Their youthful energy has made me feel younger and even more confident,” he told the gathered media ahead of take-off.
“Inspired by dreams that spark glory, and by glory that ignites new dreams, we assure the party and the people that we will stay true to our mission, with our hearts and minds fully devoted. We will strive to achieve new accomplishments in China’s crewed space programme.”
Standing to his left, beaming, is Song Lingdong.
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He recalls watching one of China’s first space station missions as a 13-year-old with “excitement and awe”. He chose to become a pilot in the hope that this is how he could serve his country.
All three convey their deep sense of national pride, and state media has emphasised that this will be its “youngest crew” to date.
The message is clear: this is a new generation of space travellers and an investment in the country’s future.
China has already selected its next group of astronauts and they will train for potential lunar missions as well as to crew the space station.
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“I am determined not to let down the trust placed in me,” says Mr Song. “I will strive to make our country’s name shine once again in space.”
China’s name has been “shining brightly” a lot lately when it comes to headlines about its space programme.
Earlier this year, the country achieved a historic first by retrieving rock and soil samples from the far side of the Moon.
In 2021, China safely landed a spacecraft on Mars and released its Zhurong rover – becoming just the second nation to do so.
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China also has a fleet of satellites in space and has plans for many more.
In August it launched the first 18 of what it hopes will eventually be a constellation of 14,000 satellites providing broadband internet coverage from space, which it hopes will one day rival SpaceX’s Starlink.
Elon Musk, Starlink’s chief executive, admitted on his own platform X that China’s space programme is far more advanced than people realise.
But others in the US are voicing even greater concerns, as they fear this technology can be weaponised.
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The head of US Space Command, General Stephen Whiting, told a space symposium in April that China and Russia were both investing heavily in space at a “breath-taking speed”.
He claimed that since 2018, China has tripled the amount of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites it has in orbit, building a “kill web over the Pacific Ocean to find, fix, track and target United States and allied military capabilities”.
The new space race
China’s space exploration is a “collective mission for humanity”, says Li Yingliang, director of the general technology bureau of China’s Manned Space Agency, dismissing US concerns as “unnecessary”.
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“I don’t think this should be called a competition… China has long upheld the notion of peaceful use of space in its manned space programme. In the future, we will further develop international co-operation in various aspects of manned space technology, all based on sharing and collaboration,” he adds.
But the new space race is no longer about getting to the Moon. It’s about who will control its resources.
The Moon contains minerals, including rare earths, metals like iron and titanium – and helium too, which is used in everything from superconductors to medical equipment.
Estimates for the value of all this vary wildly, from billions to quadrillions. So it’s easy to see why some see the Moon as a place to make lots of money. However, it’s also important to note that this would be a very long-term investment – and the tech needed to extract and return these lunar resources is some way off, writes the BBC’s science editor Rebecca Morelle.
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Chinese experts at the launch centre were keen to point out the benefits of Beijing’s space station experiments.
“We study bones, muscles, nerve cells, and the effects of microgravity on them. Through this research, we’ve discovered that osteoporosis on Earth is actually similar to bone loss in space. If we can uncover unique patterns in space, we might be able to develop special medications to counteract bone loss and muscle atrophy,” said Zhang Wei, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
“Many of these experimental results can be applied on Earth.”
China is, at times, trying to downplay its advances.
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At the launch of a roadmap for its space ambitions, which include building a research station on the Moon, returning samples of Venus’s atmosphere to Earth and launching more than 30 space missions by the middle of this century, Ding Chibiao from the Chinese Academy of Sciences said the country did not have a great number of achievements “compared to developed nations”.
And even here at the launch centre, they admit to “significant challenges” as they try to land a crew on the Moon.
“The technology is complex, there’s a tight schedule, and there are a lot of challenges,” said Lin Xiqiang, spokesperson for the China Manned Space Agency.
“We’ll keep up the spirit of ‘two bombs and one star’. We will maintain our self-confidence and commitment to self-improvement, keep working together and keep pushing forward. We’ll make the Chinese people’s dream of landing on the Moon a reality in the near future.”
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That’s perhaps why President Xi appears to be prioritising the country’s space programme even as the economy is in a slow decline.
And even though they are bringing along international press to witness their progress – there are key restrictions.
We were kept in a hotel three hours from the launch site and transported back and forth by bus, a total journey of 12 hours, rather than being left on site for a few hours.
A simple trip to a friendly local restaurant was carefully guarded by a line of security personnel.
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We also noticed a large sign in town holds a stern warning: “It’s a crime to leak secrets. It’s an honour to keep secrets. You’ll be jailed if you leak secrets. You’ll be happy if you keep secrets. You’ll be shot if you sell secrets.”
China is taking no chances with its new technology, as its rivalry with the United States is no longer just here on Earth.
The world’s two most powerful countries could soon be staking territorial claims well beyond this planet.
Watch as we announce the winner of TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition – Startup Battlefield 200. After impressing the judges, the winner walks away with the Battlefield Cup and $100,000 equity-free.TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield 200 is the world’s preeminent startup competition with alumni like Vurb, Trello, Mint, Dropbox, Yammer, Tripit, Redbeacon, Qwiki, Getaround, and Soluto. Startup Battlefield 200 showcases the top 200 startups from around the globe, across multiple industries every year at TechCrunch Disrupt.
Human-caused climate change made the ten deadliest extreme weather events of the last 20 years more intense and more likely, according to new analysis.
The killer storms, heatwaves and floods affected Europe, Africa and Asia killing more than 570,000 people.
The new analysis highlights how scientists can now discern the fingerprint of climate change in complex weather events.
The study involved reanalysing data for some of the extreme weather events and was carried out by scientists from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group at Imperial College London.
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“This study should be an eye-opener for political leaders hanging on to fossil fuels that heat the planet and destroy lives”, said Dr Friederike Otto, co-founder and lead of WWA.
“If we keep burning oil, gas and coal, the suffering will continue,” she said.
The researchers focused on the 10 deadliest weather events registered in the International Disaster Database since 2004. That was when the first study was published linking a weather event – a heatwave in Europe – with our changing climate.
The deadliest event of the last two decades was a drought in Somalia in 2011 which is reckoned to have killed more than 250,000 people. The researchers found the low rainfall that drove the drought was made more likely and more extreme by climate change.
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The list includes the heatwave that hit France in 2015 killing more than 3,000 people, where researchers say high temperatures were made twice as likely because of climate change.
It also contains the European heatwaves of 2022, when 53,000 people died, and 2023, which led to 37,000 people losing their lives. The latter would have been impossible without climate change, the study finds.
It says the deadly tropical cyclones that hit Bangladesh in 2007, Myanmar in 2008 and the Philippines in 2013 were all made more likely and intense by climate change. That was also the case with the floods that hit India in 2013.
The researchers say the real death toll from these events is likely to be significantly higher than the figures they quote.
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That is because fatalities linked to heatwaves do not tend to be recorded as such in much of the world, especially in poorer nations which are most vulnerable.
The study was carried out before the storms in Spain left dozens dead this week.
The link between climate change and weather events is only possible because the two scientists who founded the WWA – Dr Otto and a Dutch climatologist called Geert Jan van Oldenborgh – pioneered a way to track global warming in catastrophic weather events.
They knew that weather records showed that extreme weather events were becoming more intense. What’s more, a huge body of peer-reviewed science explained how warming the atmosphere can intensify extreme weather. What was missing was the link between a single event to rising global temperatures.
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For years forecasters have been using atmospheric models to predict future weather patterns. Otto and Oldenborgh repurposed the models to run repeated simulations to work out how likely a weather event was in the current climate.
They also created parallel simulations which explored how likely the same event was in a world in which the industrial revolution had never happened. These computer models stripped out the effects of the billions of tonnes of CO2 that humans have pumped into the atmosphere.
The calculations meant they could compare how likely the same event was with and without the 1.2C of global warming that the world has already experienced since the industrial revolution.
“The massive death tolls we keep seeing in extreme weather shows we are not well prepared for 1.3°C of warming, let alone 1.5°C or 2°C”, said Roop Singh, of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre which supports the WWA.
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She said today’s study showed the need for all countries to build their resilience to climate change and warned: “With every fraction of a degree of warming, we will see more record-breaking events that push countries to the brink, no matter how prepared they are.”
Meta is “working with the public sector to adopt Llama across the US government,” according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The comment, made during his opening remarks for Meta’s Q3 earnings call on Wednesday, raises a lot of important questions: Exactly which parts of the government will use Meta’s AI models? What will the AI be used for? Will there be any kind of military-specific applications of Llama? Is Meta getting paid for any of this?
When I asked Meta to elaborate, spokesperson Faith Eischen told me via email that “we’ve partnered with the US State Department to see how Llama could help address different challenges — from expanding access to safe water and reliable electricity, to helping support small businesses.” She also said the company has “been in touch with the Department of Education to learn how Llama could help make the financial aid process more user friendly for students and are in discussions with others about how Llama could be utilized to benefit the government.”
She added that there was “no payment involved” in these partnerships.
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There’s also the cozying up to the government that Meta’s AI rivals are doing. OpenAI and Anthropic recently said they would share their models with the US AI Safety Institute ahead of time for safety screening. Google’s on-and–off-again relationship as an AI vendor for the Pentagon is well documented. In a recent blog post, OpenAI said its models were being used by DARPA, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
While we wait to learn about Meta’s AI work with the government, Zuckerberg teased a bit more about the next Llama model on the Q3 earnings call. He said version four is training on “a cluster bigger than I’ve seen reported for anything else others are doing” and that he expects “new modalities,” “stronger reasoning,” and “much faster” performance when it debuts next year.
He acknowledged that Meta plans to continue spending more on AI in 2025, which is “maybe not want investors want to hear in the near term.” But he sees the upside as being worth it.
“I’m pretty amped about all the work we’re doing right now,” he said. “This may be the most dynamic moment I’ve seen in our industry, and I’m focused on making sure that we build some awesome things and make the most of the opportunities ahead.”
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As a business, Meta is still continuing to grow. The company reported revenue of $40.5 billion for Q3, a 19-percent increase from a year ago, and $17.3 billion in profit. And it claims that 3.29 billion people use at least one of its apps each day, an increase of 5 percent from a year ago.
Update, October 30th: Added more details from Meta spokesperson.
Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
Your Connections expert
Your Connections expert
Marc McLaren
NYT Connections today (game #508) – today’s words
Today’s NYT Connections words are…
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BAT
EGG
LOVE
WITCH
PUMPKIN
SPIDER
BLINK
JOB
DIABLO
FLUTTER
TREASURE
VIPER
SCAVENGER
MUSTANG
WINK
DARLING
NYT Connections today (game #508) – hint #1 – group hints
What are some clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?
Yellow: My sweetheart
Green: Or you could add shadow…
Blue: Fast drives
Purple: Blank [look for]
Need more clues?
We’re firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today’s NYT Connections puzzles…
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NYT Connections today (game #508) – hint #2 – group answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
YELLOW: TERMS OF ENDEARMENT
GREEN: THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR EYELIDS
BLUE: SPORTS CARS
PURPLE: ___ HUNT
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #508) – the answers
The answers to today’s Connections, game #508, are…
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YELLOW: TERMS OF ENDEARMENT DARLING, LOVE, PUMPKIN, TREASURE
GREEN: THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR EYELIDS BAT, BLINK, FLUTTER, WINK
BLUE: SPORTS CARS DIABLO, MUSTANG, SPIDER, VIPER
PURPLE: ___ HUNT EGG, JOB, SCAVENGER, WITCH
My rating: Easy
My score: 1 mistake
So here we are with our Halloween edition of Connections, complete with BAT, PUMPKIN, WITCH and SPIDER. Except it’s not really – because there’s no Halloween-themed group here today. Instead, PUMPKIN formed part of the easiest group with DARLING, LOVE and TREASURE to make TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, while BAT joined with BLINK, FLUTTER and WINK to form THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR EYELIDS (green).
Neither of these two were too tricky, but I actually solved blue first. This was SPORTS CARS, containing DIABLO, MUSTANG, SPIDER and VIPER, and though I’m no automotive expert I spotted it quickly, possibly because I am currently driving a Mustang Mach-E (on loan while my own car is in for repairs).
That meant I didn’t need to solve purple, although I did give it a try earlier on and would have got it if I’d needed to. My mistake was to place TREASURE there with EGG, SCAVENGER and JOB as ___HUNT, but obviously WITCH was the correct missing word.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, 30 October, game #507)
YELLOW: UPSWING BOOM, RISE, SPIKE, SURGE
GREEN: THINGS WITH WHEELS DOLLY, ROLLERBLADE, SKATEBOARD, WAGON
BLUE: KINDS OF TAPE DUCT, ELECTRICAL, GAFFER, PACKING
PURPLE: RETAIL CHAINS WITH A LETTER CHANGED BEST BOY, IDEA, KRONER, STABLES
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you don’t technically need to solve the final one, as you’ll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What’s more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.
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It’s a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.
It’s playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
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