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Archive for October, 2012

Taking Care Of Your Swimming Pool, Being Able To Enjoy Your Swimming Pool Year Round

The beauty and relaxation provided by a swimming pool is nothing short of spectacular.  On a hot day, a pool can be a blessing.  On the other hand, a swimming pool can also be a headache if it isn’t cared for properly.  Swimming pools require a lot of maintenance, including time and money.  No matter what type of pool you have, you’ll need to perform regular maintenance on it.

By owning a swimming pool, you assume the task of keeping your pool clean and safe for yourself and anyone who swims in it.  Maintaining your pool doesn’t have to be a hard task or consume a lot of time, if you know what you are doing.  If you follow the advice of a professional and perform regular maintenance on your pool, you’ll keep it healthy year round.

To put it bluntly, you should check on your chemical balance from time to time, and make sure that the water is safe for swimming.  You’ll need to ensure that you keep debris out of your pool, and that the water remains healthy.  If you filter your water on a frequent basis, you can keep the chemicals moving about and keep the water safe for swimming.

The weather outside and how often you use your pool will greatly contribute to the condition of your water.  If you don’t have your chemicals balanced properly, the sun can quickly turn your water to a green, musty color.  If you live in an area that is known for hot weather, you’ll need to make sure that you keep your chemicals properly balanced at all times.

A swimming pool will naturally attract leaves, insects, dust, hair, and other forms of debris.  No matter what you do about it, you can never prevent things from getting in your water.  If you don’t clean your pool on a regular basis, the pollutants that get in the water can lead to bacteria and algae, which will quickly destroy your water.  If you sanitize and clean your pool on a regular basis, you’ll help to keep it clean and free from bacteria and algae buildup.

If you don’t have the time to clean your pool yourself, you can always leave it to a professional.  Professional pool cleaners don’t come cheap, although they will clean your water and your pool, and ensure that your chemicals are properly balanced.  You can schedule a time for a cleaner to do his job, normally once a week or so.  Once you have started using a professional, you may find his services great and never want to go back to cleaning your pool yourself.  With the help of a  professional – you can rest assured that your pool will stay clean year round.

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Swimming Pool Tips

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Only In America – Very Sad, Why Companies Today Are Outsourcing Their Jobs to Foreign Countries

Outsourcing is the latest buzzword in the business world today. Because of outsourcing, companies today are becoming more competitive and more efficient in doing their businesses. So, what is it about outsourcing that it is so hot in today’s business world?

First of all, you need to know about outsourcing before rushing in to call other companies and outsource your business process. Outsourcing is a method that a company does by hiring other companies to do the other company’s business process or at least part of the business process in order to save a lot of money and allow the company to concentrate its resources to more important matters.

This is why outsourcing is so popular in the business world today. With outsourcing, you will now able to save your company from spending a lot of money and at the same time, make your company concentrate on more important matters.

Usually, companies outsource their business process to other companies that accepts outsourced jobs in foreign countries. Companies today prefer outsourcing in developing countries, such as Mexico, Philippines, China and India because of the relatively cheap labor in these countries offer.

For example, if your company needs a help desk department in order for your clients reach your company to get their questions answered regarding the products and services they purchased from you, your company will spend a lot of money in creating this department. You will need to purchase computers, get it on a network, purchase help desk software and also hire additional employees to act as help desk representatives. Not only that, you will also devote a significantly large office space in order to accommodate the help desk department. Also, the employees you hire will be asking you for a high salary with full company benefits as a full-time employee.

Now that you see how costly it is to create and maintain a help desk department, you should consider outsourcing it to save a lot of money and at the same time, save office space that you can later use for more important company matters.

Outsourcing to foreign countries that has call centers will enable you to cut on operational costs. They will charge you for their services but it will be significantly lower than maintaining your own in-house help desk.

You have to realize how much money you can save if you outsource.

Another vital factor is that your company will be able to divide the business process and let your company concentrate on more important matters, such as marketing, looking for new clients and other money-making ventures that your company should prioritize.

The key feature in outsourcing your jobs to foreign countries that charge less is very obvious. With outsourcing, you will be able to save on company expenditures and at the same time, make your company competitive once again in the business world.

However, you should always remember that you should make sure that the company you will be outsourcing your company’s job in should produce a high quality product. In call centers, you should look for a company that employs people who speaks fluent American English with little or no hint that they are from foreign countries and speaks English only as their second language.

So, if you think that you need your company to be more efficient, competitive and save a lot of money, you should consider outsourcing your company’s jobs or part of your company’s job in foreign countries.

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Interesting

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Protecting Your Online Domain Name From Being Stolen, Beware of the Cyber Squatters

Your domain name could be stolen or given up to the evil entity known as the Cyber squatters whose main mission is to steal your web identity and this is how they do it. They could register YourDomainName.org, and do the same thing with YourDomainName.biz, therefore contacting you and try to sell you those names at advanced prices. If that doesn’t work, then the following events could happen.

They will allow your competitor to get a domain that sounds like yours, and allow him to cause confusion or try to steal your hard-earned traffic, business and clients.

Take these steps right now to halt the cyber squatters.

Have people go through you for authorization: Go through your domain name registrar and fill in a form that locks in authorized entities of your claim of other domain names. You can buy these names and keep them under your roof.  It will provide you information to include, such as contact information, who should be contacted if someone wants to register your domain, the character string you are claiming (this must be an EXACT match), description of your current products/services, when you began using that domain name. 

You have a small window to accomplish filling out an authorized entry form. Check with your domain registrar for time frame windows in filling out an authorized entry form Failure to enter a claim during a certain time frame means the registering entities will not check to see if there is an equivalent .com, .net or .org name. They will not check the IP Claim Service database. Meaning, you could lose your .info or net-version of your domain name.

Don’t let cyber squatters shake you down and ruin what you have built up on the net. Get the rights and the authorization to similar or like names to your main domain name!

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Social Net / Computers

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Protecting Yourself While Sunbathing: A Relaxing Backyard Activity

Each year, millions of men and women head to their local tanning salons. While indoor tanning is a great way to get a tan, it is not the only way. It seems as if many tanners have forgotten what they have, right in their own backyard. If you are a tanner, especially one that spends a fairly large amount of money on indoor tanning, you are encouraged to consider backyard tanning.  Backyard tanning has an unlimited number of benefits, many of which you many find useful and money-saving.

Before you can begin to understand the benefits of backyard sunbathing, it is important to keep one thing in mind. Tanning is not necessarily considered a safe activity.  Tanning, especially in large amounts, has been known to create a number of different health problems.  One of those problems is a potentially deadly one, skin cancer. While many forms of skin cancer are treatable, there are others that are not. Before making the decision to head outside, it is advised that you give this serious sunbathing risk some thought. After careful examination, you may decide that the risks are not worth the short-term results.

While most individuals are familiar with skin cancer, there is another health concern that many are largely unaware of. In addition to skin cancer, sunbathing can also cause premature aging of the skin. For many tanners, this makes them look older than they really are, not in a good way either. What is deceiving about tanning is that you will look great in the moment, but skin damage will accumulate overtime. This means that although your skin may not show signs of aging now, it could in a few years.

After you have examined the above mentioned risks, such as premature aging of the skin and skin cancer, you should then decide whether or not tanning is right for you.  If you feel that it is, you may want to head out to your own backyard, instead of visiting your local tanning salon. As previously mentioned, there are literally an unlimited number of benefits to tanning in your own backyard.  Just a few of those benefits many include free tanning and a relaxed environment. 

The main reason why tanning in your own backyard is cheaper than tanning salons is because the sun is free. As long as you have a clear space in your backyard, you should be able to soak up some of the sun’s rays.  Doing so will not cost you any money at all; however, visiting your local tanning salon will. The amount of money it will cost to go tanning indoors will all depend on the tanning salon that you visit. Despite these different fees, many tanning salons charge around ten dollars a week. That means that a years worth of tanning could exceed five hundred dollars. With backyard tanning, you could put that money to better use.

One of the many reasons why indoor tanning beds are popular is because they are convenient.  Many individuals schedule a tanning session after work or during one of their breaks.  Although tanning can be considered convenient, in a way, it is also inconvenient. Not only will you have to drive to the tanning salon, pay to tan, but you will also have to wait your turn. Backyard tanning can be done at just about any time and you don’t have to worry about unnecessary travel.

Backyard tanning is also popular because, in many ways, it is relaxing. In many tanning salons, tanners are allowed to bring in headphones, but that is it.  With backyard tanning you do not have to cram yourself into a small machine. Instead, you are free to move around. While tanning you could not only listen to music, but read a book, do your homework, work on additional projects, go for a swim, or even play outdoor sports.  You can almost always achieve a tan, whether you are lying down or up moving around.

While backyard tanning has it benefits, these benefits may not be right for you.  You can still continue to visit your local tanning salon, but you may also want to combine it with backyard sunbathing. Tanning salon appointments may still be needed, but you may not need to make them as often.

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Backyard Activities

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Where To Start On The pH Miracle Diet, pH Miracle Diet Cooking Tips

Adopting the pH miracle diet way of life means changing your approach to eating and cooking. Many people make the transition easily, but for others the pH miracle diet makes them enter the foreign territory of fresh vegetables and vegetarian protein sources. 

There is an endless supply of alkalizing recipes in the pH miracle diet books and online. You will never be out of meal ideas if you take the time to look for new recipes each week. Although at first the meals and methods may be unfamiliar, they will become second nature with practice. 

Many people who start out on the pH miracle diet way of eating do not know where to start. Their diets used to consist primarily of packaged foods, meats and other acid forming choices. While its okay to eat these foods occasionally, the vast majority of their recipes and meal choices are now a thing of the past. 

This may seem overwhelming at first, but really you only need to find 10 recipes that you like and can make well. That’s really all that most families and individuals use. If you rotate only two or three dinner recipes, you are going to get burnt out on the program really fast. Try a few new recipes each week and build your “portfolio” of alkalizing meals until you have 10 meals that you and your family love to eat. 

Look over the list of alkalizing foods, and take note of which foods that you and your family already enjoy. Then try to find more recipes that incorporate those tastes and textures. This will be much easier and enjoyable for your family to adapt to if you start off with foods they already like, than all of a sudden introducing tofu, kale and dandelion root. 

One of the first recipes you should try is an alkalizing broth. There are many variations but basically the broth is made from alkalizing vegetables and distilled water. The broth has a lot of necessary minerals and can help restore pH balance to your body. It promotes internal cleansing of all of the tissues and organs of the body. This broth can be used as a basis for more complex soups, or it can be served as a first course before any meal. 

Many fans of the pH miracle diet rely on juices to help cleanse their bodies of excess acidity. There are many popular juice recipes and they would be a good addition to your new way of eating. The juices can be consumed as a quick breakfast or a snack sometime throughout the day. Most can be made in a blender, so you don’t need a fancy juicer. 

If you have children at home, you may be worried about finding recipes that they will love. There are many children’s vegetarian cookbooks that can be adapted for the alkaline diet by substituting certain vegetables. A lot of tasty fruits like apples, raspberries and strawberries are on the alkaline list. Sweet potatoes, which are a favorite of many children once they try them, are highly alkalizing foods and are good for the winter months. In the summer time, celery and other fresh veggies are a great snack and can be dipped in homemade hummus or a dip made from mayonnaise and lemon juice. 

With a little practice and research, making alkalizing meals will become second nature to you and your family.

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Healthy Dieting Tips

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Windows, Doors, Weaknesses Around Your Home To Evaluate, Home Security Advice

When the topic of home security springs to mind, most people seem to think of burglar alarms and little to nothing else.  Alarms can be a great way to protect your home, although they are only a small part of what makes up an effective home security system.  Burglar alarms are a key to protecting your home – although there are other things you’ll need as well.

Believe it or not, the windows are actually the key to home security.  Homes that have poor constructed windows tend to get broken into a lot more than homes with secure and sturdy windows.  When you are dealing with your windows, you should make sure that you have tough glass and locks that fit to the windows.  When you are away from home, you should always make sure that your windows are locked.  Even though some windows may be hard to reach, you should always lock them.  Burglars make a living out of stealing – and they will normally find a way in if they see the opening.

Along with the windows, doors are also known to be a weakness of security around the home.  Doors should always be strong and sturdy, complete with tough locks that aren’t easy to force open.  If you have a spare key, you should be careful where you leave it.  Losing your keys can also make you a target, especially if you have anything on your key ring that reveals your home address.

To better protect their homes, most people choose to invest in a home surveillance system.  These systems are great for monitoring the home, as they can record video and keep it stored for you to view later.  If you travel a lot, a home surveillance system can be an ideal way to keep a check on your home while you’re away.

Guard dogs are also common with home security as well.  A guard dog can protect your home from burglars, thieves, and other types of trouble.  Guard dogs can be very handy to have around, as most dogs are more than capable of scaring away trouble with their bark.  The only downside to guard dogs is the fact that you’ll need to train them and ensure that they always have food and water.

Last, but certainly not least are burglar alarms.  Burglar alarms can be effective to an extent, although they are primarily good for scaring thieves away.  If you put an alarm in a visible location from the outside of the home, most burglars won’t even attempt to enter your home.  Even though burglar alarms are great for scaring off thieves – you’ll still need to have other areas of your home safe and secure as well to get the most of your home security.

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Home Security

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Fun For The Holiday’s, Vacation Time Or Anytime, Skiing In Scotland

Scotland may be the home of golf, but its also a great place for skiing enthusiasts.  With numerous world-class resorts, and such a depth of history and culture, Scotland is a great place to visit on your vacation, regardless of your interests and hobbies.  When you think of Scotland, you might think of kilts, and rural mountaintops and sheep, but if you actually get to know the place, you’ll find it is both beautiful, with its bustling, classy cities, ensuring you’re going to have an enjoyable vacation wherever you go in the country. 

One of the most famous Scottish ski resorts is Aviemore.  A classy, traditional ski resort, Aviemore is located within the Scottish Highlands, and is the ski resort of choice for many across the world.  Loved for its friendly atmosphere and great skiing, Aviemore is more than well equipped to give you a great time.  It’s bars and restaurants are simply first class, offering wholesome food and drink to keep you well refreshed.  Additionally, it’s holiday village feeling enhances its friendly, relaxed ambience, and makes you feel a million miles from home whilst still comfortable. 

Alternatively, there are some more ski resorts in the Scottish Highlands which are particularly good value for money.  It is important to watch out, though, given that some resorts cater for the top end of the market, and you could end up paying a lot more than you bargained for.  As long as you do your homework before you leave, you should fin the resort that is perfect to cater for your needs, and your wallet. 

One thing to watch out for before you arrive in Scotland is to change your currency into Sterling Pounds.  Your best option is to go to your local travel agents, or your local currency conversion centre before setting off.  That way, you will be sure of exactly what you are getting for your money.  It is a good idea to be wary of the commission, and the exchange rate you are being offered, and it can sometimes be quite tricky to get your head around the numbers.  Make sure you work everything out before hand, and shop around so that you don’t get ripped off. 

For excellent deals on Scotland, why not go online?  Additionally, there you will find a great deal of information on what to do in Scotland, and information on the depth and variety of Ski Resorts.  If you choose not to go to a ski resort, but rather a city, and you want to cram in some top quality, affordable skiing during your trip, you are also in luck.  There are loads of dry ski slopes in and around the cities, like at Polmont for example, which is located midway between Glasgow and Edinburgh, which is ideal for some quick and cheap skiing.  Additionally, there are several indoor artificial snow ski slopes which you can visit.  These innovative inventions are used to help train national level skiers, and are also open to the public at certain times, so why not pop along during your visit? 

Why not consider Scotland?  With so many excellent deals on skiing package tours at the moment, you’ll definitely be glad you did, and you are guaranteed to have an enjoyable, fun holiday in this picturesque, ski-enthusiast’s heaven.

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Season Time Is Coming Upon Us, All About Swimming Pool Heaters

To extend the swimming season after summer has come and gone, many people are turning to swimming pool heaters.  A heater is great to have, especially with colder days.  If you’ve thought about buying a heater for your swimming pool, there are probably a lot of things that you’ve found yourself wondering.

When using a pool heater, you can adjust the temperature of your pool water to virtually any level that you are comfortable with.  The recommended temperature for a pool is 78 degrees, although most people prefer to have their water just a bit warmer, around 80 degrees.  The choice is up to you, as you can’t really go wrong with either of the two.

During the year, the sun can only get your pool water so hot for a somewhat brief period of time.  When summer ends and things start to cool off, your heater can help you make swimming last longer.  If you live in the north, you can actually double your swimming season.  Those living in warmer climates, such as Arizona and California can actually triple the amount of swimming by using a heater with their pool.

Even though you may be using a swimming pool heater, you should still invest in a swimming pool cover as well.  A cover can help to protect against loss of heat from the pool, holding the heat of water inside the pool instead of letting it out.  The fact is, a good cover that has plenty of insulation can actually reduce the amount of heat loss you experience with your water.

There are a few different types of heaters available, although gas-fired heaters running off LP gas seem to be the most common.  Heaters such as this are easily the least expensive to buy, and also the cheapest to run over time.  Oil is another way to heat your pool, and it is common in areas that you are unable to buy gas-fired heaters.  Other pools choose to run off electricity.  Electricity is a great way to heat your pool, although it can easily be the most expensive to run and take the most amount of time to properly maintain.

Last but not least, there’s the solar pool heater.  Solar heaters may sound like the ideal way to heat a pool for some, simply because it uses the sun to heat, helping to save money.  Even though it may sound like the ideal way to heat a pool, it actually has quite a few disadvantages when you compare it to other types of heaters.  You’ll discover one flaw when you go to purchase one – you’ll see that they cost nearly half the amount of your swimming pool!

Even though solar-powered heaters sound the best, they truly aren’t.  To get the most out of a solar-powered heater you’ll need to have large electric pump, which can cost you quite a bit of money.  The pump delivers the water from your pool to the solar panels, which will in turn heat up the water.  Once you have finished setting up a solar-powered heater, you’ll have invested thousands in it – which makes it something you should really try to avoid.

In the world of swimming pool heaters, gas-fired heaters remain the best and most cost efficient ways to heat a swimming pool.  These heaters can be found locally, or on the Internet.  They won’t cost you a lot of money to purchase, and they are very user-friendly.  Even if you are new to pool heaters – you won’t have any trouble using your new gas fired pool heater.

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Swimming Pool Tips

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Enjoying Golf Overseas, Rosapenna Golf Links, A Century of Design and Perfection

Blessed with being able to be designed by four of the top names in the annals of Golf History, the Rosapenna Golf Links has achieved what many golf courses has dreamt of, beauty, great playability and near perfection. Many would say that if the heavens were to design a golf course, this would be it.

Being a century old, this “mature” golf course has been the discovery and the design of one of Ireland’s most famous golf architect, Old Tom Collins. Laid out in 1891, old Tom quickly shared his discovery to his fellow golfers and soon was flocked by great numbers of them to enjoy its serene beauty and its natural landscape that was perfect for a challenging links course.

Two of those that tested the land were two golfing greats which shared between them 11 British Open titles. They went to the Rosapenna Golf Links in the early 1900’s and added some depth to the bunkering and some length to the course but were wise to avoid with messing with the greens the great old Tom designed.

For the century that has passed, the old links still remains intact, a great honor to the three masters that have superbly provided the designs.  Many golfers come to this links expecting to share the glory and the magic that lies between each hole.

Sharing the glory with the old links is the new Sandy Hills links of the Rosapenna Golf Links. Another feather to its cap, this course was designed by another master, the famous Pat Ruddy.

Opened midway in 2003, this piece of land was sculptured by nature to be a golf course and not anything else. The original course avoided the sand dunes of the landscape preferring to just line out the bunker, the new links course by pat Ruddy went straight through them and is a course that will definitely challenge even the most seasoned golfer.

Measuring a wide 7,255 yards, this course was designed with championship tournaments considered greatly. Most of the holes in this course feature elevated greens and tees, with drives that go into the natural bowls on the dune floor. The fairways maybe narrow, but the landing areas are pretty wide.

The new course runs side by side with the old Morris links and offers a pleasant view of the scenery. This course has been awarded by Links magazine USA as one of the top ten courses that must be played in Ireland.

Relaxing areas after a game is courtesy of the newly opened golf pavilion. It offers a very modern changing room and a wide and roomy restaurant serving the best of what Ireland cuisine has to offer. There is also a lounge area, a billiards room, a conference room and a pro shop where a golfer can get everything he needs for his game.

State of the art practice facilities are also being offered by the Rosapenna Golf Links which include a wide turf teeing area, 2 putting greens, practice sand bunker and green, 6 covered bays and a lot more. The club pro also offers lessons on a variety of aspects of the game.

So when you do finally decide to hop on the plane and head off to Ireland, the Rosapenna Golf Links will be waiting for you to show you what Irish golfing is all about. 

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SW Florida Colleges, College Scholarship: Guide to Parents on Getting Financial Aid for their Children

Many believe that being a parent is the happiest moment in the life of a human being. Probably you still remember the excitement that you felt when your wife gave birth to your first child. There are times that you will not sleep because you want to take care of your child even in the midst of the evening. You want to ensure that he/she will sleep soundly through the night.

It is true that happiness comes with children in the family. However, such happiness could be achieved if you are responsible enough with your children. You need to provide all of their needs, starting from their infancy until the time that they are studying. Although it will really cost you a lot, you have the responsibility to your children, especially in giving them the education that they need.

If you have children who are now going to college, you have to think of their financial needs. Probably you still remember your own collegiate years and you are aware of the financial needs of an ordinary college student. However, the difference is that you are now the parent—you will now be the one to think of the different payments that you need to settle for your children’s college education, such as college application, scholastic assessment test expenditures, transcript of records, and others. Add to it the lodging and food allowance of your children if the college or university is far away from your own residence.

Thinking all of these college-related expenses could be overwhelming and bothering as well, especially if your salary is not enough to support such expenses and your family’s financial needs at the same time. But if you know how to get a college financial aid for your children, you will find out that everything will work out smoothly.

How you will start your search for the college financial aid for your children? Here are some tips that you can start with:

• When your children are still on their high school years, you should start searching for potential universities that offer college scholarships for deserving freshman students as well as financial aid programs funded by different organizations. You may start your search on the Internet to look for possible college financial aid options for your children. • Once you find a prospective university, visit their main office and inquire for any college scholarship or financial aid offers. • Always ask for the cut-off dates of filing and submission of college financial aid application forms. • Tell your children about the importance of a scholarship to their college education. Make them aware that they have plenty of options to consider as long as they have good high school scholastic records. In this way, you will be able to motivate them to study harder and make good grades, thus increasing your chances of a good financial aid. • You may also consider filing an application for financial aid programs funded by the Federal government. State-owned colleges and universities offer this kind of financial assistance to qualified and deserving students who want to pursue their college studies despite of financial difficulties.

You may submit the FAFSA (Free Application Form Student Aid) personally. • Make certain that you have completed all the FAFSA requirements (such as present statement of bank accounts, monthly income records, present mortgage information, and others) and understand the rights or special advantages before accepting the financial aid for your children. You may also check if the financial aid is renewable.

With different financial aid programs such as college scholarships and federal grants, you are assured of a bright future for your children despite of the financial difficulties that you are currently experiencing.

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Helpful Tips

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