Feel free to enjoy and use all the articles you find here. They belong to all who find them useful for their living. That is the only price to pay! Use in your living, is the only reason for this blog. And if you want to, you can buy my book “Perceptual Intelligence” from Authorhouse.com or buy it as an ebook at Authorhouse or other online booksellers. tom
THEORY AND CONTROL
Once upon a time, a long, long, time ago, there were a group of people who closely observed the nature of our physical world, and lo and behold, they made theories of how things worked at this basic level. They were, at times hailed, and at times almost stoned because of the predictions of their theories. Chief among these was Copernicus and Galileo and Di Vinci, whose theories have for the most part been proven out and now stand as fact. These theories helped us control the physical world we live in. And it also was the beginning of the illusion of “theory leads to control”.
Enough of my history lesson. So what is the point and why is that an illusion? Early on in our human time, we did observe mostly the physical world (people like Lao tsu, Socrates, Buddha, etc observed the non-physical living and we still struggle with those observations) and by doing that we created the math, physics, geometry, and all the other physical sciences. And that was good. Because those early “theories” were proven to be repeatable and demonstrated over and over, we found that these theories had a predictive nature. We LOVED predictability, for that gave us the feeling of being in control. And we really, really LOVE CONTROL. Nothing like taking the mystery out of at least some of this complex thing called life.
So, some of these humans decided that if we can make a good enough theory beyond the physical level, then we can hold ourselves up as experts and we can muster the power to CONTROL based on our theories. What a great coup that would be. Problem was, as soon as we moved beyond the simple physical level of living, the dynamics got so complex and the degree of flux and change became so great, that the theories could only ‘approximate” any kind of prediction. Over time, they found that the further they got from the simple physical, the more and more the theories did not hold water. But, this lack of proof did not stop these intrepid “maker uppers of theory”, they pushed on and declared that their theories were correct and accurate, even if they had no “scientific proof” of that. It did not matter since once they were able to convince enough of the population that the “theory” was correct, they would believe it and buy into it, without any proof.
And so was born our modern times. Now we have the majority of all the human race, who sincerely believe in various theories that can not and will never be proven. Not that that is all bad. Good theories do help some people focus their observations in certain ways to see if it gives them insight to how the human and natural world works. But for the most part, these various theories give people a false illusion of certainty and turn them into true believers of whatever the theory proposes. Getting lost here?? Ok, an example.
Economics is one of the best theoretical fields of study. (Government, philosophy, social studies, psychology, and others are also good) I like economics because I once pretended to study it. There are many, many theories of economics and none of them are provable. So why is that, aren’t they a bunch of intelligent scientists doing this work? Yes, and no. Ok, I do not want to bash any economists here, so I will just go to the next part. We can not prove any economic theory because……build tension here…..there has never been an economic situation like the one we have right now. As a matter of fact, there are no two economies alike anywhere on the globe or anywhere in history. It is always a one time event. We really do not comprehend all the factors causing it and all the factors that may alter it. So we guess! And that is not all bad, but it is not a controlled thing. So get over the A causes B mentality.
That is where we all get a little crazy. We want our experts to know and control. We want them to make decisions that work like gravity. Do this and you get that. It does not, not, not, not, work that way. Break out of the illusion of the physical world and you will see this for yourself. And that is not a theory. Tlane 1/26/12
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LIVING BY PRINCIPLES
This recent primary elections have raised a lot of speculation about, “who really lives by their principles”. One guy claims to be more pure and the next guy points out how he or she is not pure. They all rant about how their principles are the right ones and that the other guy is a hypocrite. How do you see all that? Do you know how I see all that? Have you been reading my posts?
Living by principles is a great example of an unconscious world. Living by principles means that I do not experience the world directly as it is, but I look at the world thru the distortion of my principles that colors my judgment of everything I observe. (I think the admonition of “judge not, lest you be judged” fits here) We, as a society, seem to want to hold up people who live by principle, as somehow more holy and better citizens. I would say that all people live by their principles, it is just that some do not declare them so strongly, or do not even know what they are.
Ok, lets slow down and explore this, or are you in a rant based on your principles? When I say that everyone works from their principles, what I mean is that every conditioned human being has a set of ideas/values/beliefs that we can call principles, that they use to make sense of the world. If a person sees the world as a hostile place, out to harm them, as uncaring and self centered, and bias toward them, then they will “act on those principles” without ever acknowledging them, but certainly expressing them in their actions. We love to imagine that “principles” are some high flying exemplary notions of life, when the simple fact is that they are simply the way we have been conditioned to view the world. It is our “right way” to live.
It always scares me a bit when someone says, “I always live by my principles” because that means that no matter what the world may show them, they are fixed in their response. That means that they are more interested in forcing the world to conform to their principles, than to make the world a little better from where it is starting. It is layering on of principle over actual life. By the way, some of the most awful people history has known, worked from principle. (Hitler, Stalin, etc) Of course, the “principled people” would just say that they had the wrong principles. They can not see that any principle that blocks clear seeing of the world, is the wrong principle.
I know that I am up against an overwhelming population that truly believes in this principle thing. Both on the right and the left. I know that I can tend to piss off both sides who sincerely believe that their principles are the right ones. And I can see how they all can not see that “principles” are the problem, not which ones you happen to choose to live by. Live in the present and you will see what I am pointing to. Or live in your principles and be frustrated and angry with all those others who violate your principles. Tlane 1/24/12
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THE DILEMMA OF DOING
There are times that I reflect on how much I “do’ in this world to make it a better place and often I feel like I am not doing enough. You know, like helping in a soup kitchen, cheering shut ins, collecting names for a petition on some cause, or even working for an election of someone. Ok, that last one, really does not cross my mind, but the others do. We constantly see and hear about people “doing” all kinds of things to make this world a little better. And I think I did that for years in making the workplace a better place. But, now, I do not get engaged much. And I wonder…
This is a real dilemma for anyone wanting this world to be different. But, how do we do that? Where do we engage? What comes back to me, was a little event way back in my early Cummins days. I was working with some managers in the main production plant, and, at times, there was some tension around what I was trying to do and what they worried/worked/attended to on an everyday basis. They were constant “firefighters” who busied themselves on what was broken, what was stopped, what was a customer screaming about, etc. They lived a life of reaction to the current crisis. I did not and would not help with that.
It was pretty amazing that they let me spend time with them, since I did little to help them with these monumental and momentary problems. Usually, when these big problems came up, they would just politely put me off until a lull in the action. Then they would tolerate my suggestions that the game had to change, but really, they did not have a clue how we could do that. And this is the heart of the matter.
When you participate in the “fixing” of the game as it is, you essentially perpetrate the game. You make an untenable system last longer than it needs to. It should be left to die and be replaced with a more advanced system. To “help” in the game as it is currently played, gives people the false idea that this system can be made to work in the long term. It can’t and it won’t. So, that is my manufacturing connection. So be it with the world in general. It is all holographic.
The vast majority of people in this world are trying to make the game we have, work. Trying to make countries work, religions work, economies work, individualism work, and all sorts of other mechanisms that separate humans from each other. We try to feed the hungry when we have a system that fails that task. So we try to prop that failed system up, by not letting people die of starvation. And when they don’t, we pat ourselves on the back and reward our self for “saving the poor”. Just like the guys in the factory, who would break out the bottle, and reward themselves for getting a “glitch” in the system remedied and get the latest shipment out the door. Aren’t we great, we made the lousy system work, in spite of itself.
Now, I know this can sound harsh to those who believe in the “system”, but this is what we do. We go to war and kill people so we can preserve a system of separation and sincerely believe we have done the right thing. We constantly “fix” the problems created by an un-unified system, and give out Nobel Peace prizes for those who achieved this. We have built in ways to reward those who maintain a lousy system, which keeps alive that desire to “do things” that help the world. And what we do, is help the world continue on in an untenable way. Just like the guys in the factory. Tlane 1/18/12
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BEYOND RIGHT AND WRONG
A good friend sent me a “Ted talk” video from a woman named Shultz who did a fascinating talk on our fear of being wrong. My take on it, was that she was pointing out how we all are trained to fear being wrong and that fear keeps us from exploring and expanding our understanding of things. I think she is pretty accurate in that. She points out how we feel we are on “solid ground” when we are right and how good that feels to us. Then that moment comes of “realizing” that we are wrong. Yuck! The video is worth the look, but lets go beyond that.
Now, I wonder if you are thinking that I am saying she is wrong. I am not at all, but building on her premise to make a similar, but different point. You see, I see that our fear of being wrong is one step behind our desire to be right. They go together you see. We all want to be right and fear being wrong and we do not know how to get out of that little dance. As a matter of fact, I would propose that we do not even know that we are in the dance, and we do not wish to get out of it. We want to be right and we fear being wrong. And, I am neither right nor wrong about that. So what am I saying?
Can I write something that can neither be right nor wrong? Most of us think that is just impossible, since all of the intellectual meanderings of this world must fall into this right/wrong paradigm or at least in the middle of being a little bit right and little bit wrong. What I am saying, is that there is a whole other place. Neither right nor wrong nor in the middle. This should hurt your thinking mind about now.
So here is the dilemma, all thought is an either/or deal, and when someone presents something that is not that, it does not register. To see beyond that right/wrong world is to go beyond thought. In the world beyond thought, there is no right and wrong or good and evil or yes and no. ( I was going to reference Neitzche, but I won’t) And of course, most will immediately say that there is no world beyond thought. Is that where you went? If you did, I would ask you, in a most serious tone, “do you think that the world you live in is only here because you thought it”?
The big question always is, is there a world beyond the thought about one. I was listening to an interview with some astrophysicists, and they were talking about how the universe is expanding. A listener asked a good question about “where was it expanding to”? The very intelligent expert tried to answer in what I thought was weak explanation of a balloon expanding and how things are moving apart. You see, this expert can not conceive of a world beyond conception. Now that is a great paradox!!
We all are stuck in our conceived world of right and wrong, good and evil, and expanding universes. I wish I could “conceptually” tell you that life is not a thought. Aah, another paradox arises. Tlane 1/16/12
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MORE BELIEVING IN THIS WORLD
I just read an article about Tim Tebow, the Bronco’s quarterback who prays openly after every score. He is raising some issues with lots of people. Some very much on his side and others belittling his overt show of his evangelical background. Such is the world of believing. It is one of the main sources of conflict and division between people. Even if you “believe” in the “oneness” of humankind. What a paradox that is. Believing is dividing, even if it is to unite.
So, where do you come down on this “Tebow” thing? Do you think it is a good thing, a neutral thing, or a bad thing? Or do you take a position and really just react to those who are different than you? Come on, think about how you react to public displays of conviction. OK, I quit, it does not really matter does it.
I really do not care if this guy makes a dramatic display of his religion, at least it is better than making a dramatic display by killing lots of people who are not of your religion. That has been our historic way of demonstrating our faith by many religions.
We are at a time where we can tune into so many personal displays of so many various beliefs, that it will enhance the separation we have and just confound that problem, or it will show us that all this display of our “believing” is somehow not what being human is all about. I think we are on the cusp of this issue, aided by the internet and mass communication in its many forms. We have the opportunity to see beyond the separation of the worded world, and begin to see the common process of believing. Of buying into a set of rules, principles, ideologies, and all the other “isms” that have separated our humanity for centuries.
Do you care about your God? By that, I mean, do you really want to live in the harmony of that God? Or do you want to be “right” about your God? Do you want everyone else to believe in your God? Do you want your God to be right? To be the most powerful and in control? Are you afraid to just live and be with god? Not the capital “G” god, but the god that is all of us, in the moment and not fearing those who are different.
I know that strong “belief” gives strength, so they say. But have you ever asked why there is a weakness to begin with. Why do we need “strength” by way of our strong belief. Are we afraid to show up as a human being? Why do we need some outside strength? If our god is within, then just show up godly. It is your nature, or don’t you believe in God? Do you see the constant paradox of all this? Sometimes I think I am running out of ways to describe this, and then the world again hands me more stuff. tlane
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WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IN?
Do you ever just ask that simple question? What do you really believe in? And what does it mean to you, to “believe in” something? To believe is to “assume as factual” and to hold that idea as a construct to make sense of the world around you. People all over the world, “believe in” all kinds of things, Gods, economic systems, political systems, cultural rules, social rules, personal rules, historic lore, folklore, current social norms, authorities of many ilks, and so much more. All this has grown out of some sort of desire for knowledge and control. So, what do you believe in?
I remember a conversation with my mother many, many years ago, where we were discussing my newly found seeing of the world in a direct fashion. She struggled with my awkward descriptions, but was getting my point. Eventually, in an exasperated tone, she said, “you have to believe in something” and I just looked at her and said, “why is that?”. She could not answer, since it had never occurred to her, in her lifetime, to ask why we “had to believe” in something. So, do you think we have to believe in something? And, if so, why is that?
As I see it, all humans are conditioned to “believe” in whatever culture, society, religion, etc that they are born into. We do this to make sure our children “fit in” to the world they were born into and not become outcasts. But, what is behind this? I know most of us never, ever ask that question, but just accept that this is the way I was brought up. This is what I was told and how I was brought into the grown up world around me. And it does not matter a bit, what that world was, because the process is always the same. And what process is that, I would hope you ask?
It is always a process of control. For eons, humans have conceived some way that the world is (sometimes flat, sometimes with Devils, sometimes with Gods of everything, and on it goes), and once that notion gains a foothold, the way the folks in charge retain their power over others, is to acculturate all the young people into this belief system. This conditioning process lets them maintain a system and structure of control based on a “belief system” instead of physical dominance. And why is that important, you may ask? Because to dominate by physical force is very hard and very time and money consuming. It is much easier and more efficient to just condition people to “buy in” to the beliefs that get them to support their control voluntarily.
So what do you believe in? What conditioning do you buy into that gets you to voluntarily support the current illusion of the day? Do you ever ask why you believe what ever it is that you believe, or are you past that point and terrified of showing up without belief. Guess what, the world is still here, even if you do not “believe in anything”. Actual life is not dependent on whether you believe in it or not. The sun will shine, spring will come, you will get hungry, sleepy, and go on with your life. In a state of non-belief, you will just see the world as it is, with no defending, no justification, no judgment, and no reason to believe. And it is quite beautiful, just as it is. Tlane 1/10/12
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TALKING TO OURSELF
I would imagine that most of you out there think that I am writing to you. Not “you” in particular (although some reactions would seem that way) but the collective “you”. You think that I am writing messages that you need or desire or maybe like to hear. Or don’t like to hear, but still, the message is that I am writing to you. I am not. I am writing to myself. It is how it always works.
This is a follow up to the choice paper I recently did, where I pointed out that you are always doing what you want to do, and now I am saying that you are always “talking/writing to your self’. But you can only see this if you slow your mind down and watch the process. Just like in the choice paper. Hope that I at least have your curiosity.
When we talk/write to someone else, which is our clear intention, we can only do that partially. If you observe closely when you do that, you will see that you make up some message in your head, based on your meanings, based on your choice of words, based on whatever logical or emotional context, and based on some historical context with the other. That is all your construction, and it always makes some kind of sense to you. So you put your choice of words out there (like this) and we always somewhat assume, that the other will somehow place the same meaning and intention and context on what we have transmitted. Rarely happens that way.
For it to happen exactly, would mean that you and the other share the same meaning making mechanism, the same contextual understanding, and the same overall intention of the message. In other words, they would have to be you. Hmmm, I doubt that that happens very often, if at all.
And when we are spoken to, the same thing happens in reverse. They have some kind of intention, with their context and their meaning making and choice of words to express that. So they say something into the air. You hear that, not as they mean it, but as you interpret it, based on your meaning making with those words, your context, and your understanding of their intention and any other meaning based on your relationship with that other. It is just how it works. If you do not agree, then just slow down your mental processes and observe. You will be amazed that we ever convey anything to another.
Of course, when we are talking about very simple things like, “hand me a beer” or “shut up and let me watch the game” or “pick up your clothes”, then the context, meaning and intention are pretty clear. But, move beyond that level of simply physical action and all this will come into play. This is why so many problems, that some people say “you just need to talk about it” have pretty dismal outcomes. It is not that easy to convey what we mean when we are mostly talking to our self. But, if both parties understand this, then the process slows and we explore the various meanings, contexts, and intentions.
Hopefully, (if I have conveyed this clearly) you are hitting your head and saying “wow, that is the problem we have”. It is a function of each of us being conditioned with all kinds of meanings to words, intentions, assumptions, contexts, and other ways we make sense to our self, but seldom to another. Even when you think that was really clear, you will always be surprised, at least a little bit, by how much you missed when you think you are talking/writing to another and realize that I am just talking to myself. Tlane 1/3/12 happy new year
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MY GREATEST PUZZLE
Sometimes, when I just sit back and ponder all this stuff I write, I just wonder if I am simply adding to the puzzle of this life. I mean all this is very simple and I have said it a thousand times and my puzzle is why it is so difficult for most to see this. Lets begin at the beginning. Your beginning.
You come into this world and you are this little aware being, looking around and just pretty amazed at all this goings on in the world in front of you. Now and then, you get hungry and then get tired and then poop, or in some mix of that order. You have no future and no past, just this moment to moment experience. It is grand, but of course, you do not have that word or any other word to describe this. You just have “this”.
Then as you get a little bigger and more exposed to this world around you, you begin to have “big people” ( of course you only experience them as being able to move you about) starting to make sounds to you. They point to themselves and say “momma” and they do that over and over again until you kind of get their game, and you repeat “momma” and they just jump and laugh and hug you. Boy, that works to get a big reaction.
And on and on it goes, pointing or holding something up and making a sound until you can make the similar sound and each time they are just delighted. Their joy is contagious, so you try even harder. Then one day, you make the connection between the word “water” and that stuff you drink when you feel thirst. And THEY GIVE YOU WATER! What connection for you. You make certain sounds and you get that thing you need. Wow! What a way to control the big people. Every time you make a certain sound that is connected to one of those things, you delight them and get it. It is a good game.
This keeps building to more and more things. Each and every day you are given a “word” that stands between you and the actual object. And if you remember and can make the sound of that “word” you please the big people. And slowly but surely, the words get between you and all those actual objects, but if you say the word, you sometimes can make the object appear. Ah, this is very powerful thing I have here. So, more and more of those “words’ are incorporated into your little mind and more and distance is placed between you and those objects. And that includes your own little being. Now I am “tommy” and not a simple little being. And on it goes.
As you learn more and more words, the actual world begins to slowly recede and pretty soon you are seeing the “word” before you really look at the thing. Since the big people all adore this “worded” world, it pleases you to learn more and more until one day you no longer look at anything directly, but only as the worded version.
Off to school, where this is put into high gear and we then spend much of the rest of our life painting a worded world in between our eyes and the actual un-worded world in front of us. By the time we are in our teens, there are so many words describing so many things/feelings/desires/needs/and self images that we now permanently live in our abstract and named world that exists only in our head.
And then, we learn that there are lots of “smart” people who have created endless philosophies, religions, values, paradigms, etc and they are held up as the best of the best. No one simply looks directly at the world anymore, we only look at our worded images of the world. We are true believers of the belief. We are no longer human beings, we are conditioned machines, spouting the many names/ideas we have of the world and no longer able to just see it.
And that my friends is my puzzle. Why is it hard to see through this illusion of the named. You know you can not drink the word “water”. Don’t you? You know that rose by any other name is still a rose. Don’t you? Can you pause for just a second and notice that all your ideas are not real, except in the world of ideas. You are not an idea, you are an actual human. Can you be with that? Tlane 12/28/11
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DOING WHAT WE DO
We are always doing exactly what we want to do. We can not help it, it is in the way we work. When I used to put this out in my business workshops, there were always many in the group who would just roll their eyes and groan. “No way“, they would say. Immediate examples came to their mind, and they wanted to throw them out to me. But, I would slow them down and present this following model to help them understand this.
I would draw a 4X4 box on a flip chart, and on the top, I would write, “things I do, and things I do not do”. Along the side, I would write, “things I want to do and things I do not want to do”. So this was a little matrix of all the things we do in life. Things I do and want to do, things I want to do and do not, things I do and do not want to do, and things I do not do and do not want to do. I called that last little box the “guilt box” because there were obviously endless things I do not do and do not want to do and do not care about, but these were the things that we feel guilty about. It is the “guilt” box. So, then I would have them fill in each box with examples from their life. You can write this down and do it right now if you wish.
Then I would demonstrate that those boxes outside the top left one, that was “doing what we want to do” were all illusions. I called them the “whine boxes”. To understand this, we must slow down our rapid mental processes and see how we actually work. Most protested immediately. I typically used paying taxes to first demonstrate how this works. No one “wants to” pay taxes, but most people “do” pay taxes.
If you slow down your mental process, you will see that at the moment of choosing to pay taxes, we make a choice of paying or suffering the consequences of not paying. We weigh this decision in a mostly unconscious way, and then we pay our taxes. What most of us do, is unconsciously make this choice, while listening to a part of our ego self that hates paying taxes. We ignore that part of us that does not want to be audited by the IRS. If you face your life in a moment to moment way, and slow down your thought processes, you will see this holds true for every decision you make or have ever made in your life.
Simply put, we are always doing exactly what we want to do. I used to use the old Jack Benny joke about this. It went something like this, “Jack was being held up by gun point by a mugger, who said “give me your money or your life”. Benny, the ever cheapskate, just stood there. The mugger persists and Benny says, “I’m thinking, I’m thinking”. Most of us laugh because our fast acting mind does not see this as a choice, but in actual fact it is. You can choose to die rather than give up your money.
Life is always and constantly a choice, and we make these based on how we have been conditioned in our life. To deny this is to live in illusion. To slow down our mental process to see the fact of this, is to become aware of how we actually work. And to see that without judgment, is become awake to your own life. You begin to understand how you work, rather than how you believe you are. You become responsible for your choices and maybe someday you will live in a state of “choiceless choice”. tlane 12.27/11
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IT IS EASY/HARD TO AWAKEN!
So, what would you prefer about all this awakening stuff? Would you like it easy? Would you like it hard? Seems like most serious people like it hard. I wonder why. The people who do not care, like it easy, and when “easy” does not come, they either make it hard or quit. What a dilemma we have. A friend linked me to a website I had not seen before and it was well written and hard. Lots of references to obscure Gods, practices, belief systems, spirituality, rituals, and lots of other stuff that just makes my mind spin. It is the world of “hard” to awaken.
And because it is so hard, by the reasoning of these writers, they must copyright all their works, since they have obviously worked hard to get where they are. This is where I always part company with these “seers” of enlightenment. A while back, I ran into another one of these and when I questioned his need to copyright, he said that “the work of an artist should be protected”. I understood that, but my response was only that “gee, I thought you were writing about awakening”. This may be the ultimate paradox.
If it were easy to awaken, many would have done it by now. Therefore, it must be hard to awaken. Hey, that is how the dualistic mind works. (I pause, since using that word ‘dualistic’ puts me a little into that ‘hard’ category) But it is what we do. By definition, if so few can make that leap, it must be hard, since we have lots of smart people running around here and they are not awake. (Sorry to those smart people who think they are) To protect your writings of awakening is a bigger paradox. Only the ego mind wants to protect something it believes it created. Awakening is not something any ego mind ever created, it is just the opposite. To protect any “worded” pointing to that is a contradiction in terms, To use the words of the ego world.
So, back to the point. It is easy to awaken because there is nothing you can do to make that happen. Any desire to achieve an “awakened or enlightened” state is purely ego talking. But, you can have an innocent desire to just understand what it is to be a human being. That work is not all that hard, except if you have some big conditioned ego states to overcome. Just begin to look at your life WITHOUT any desire to transcend it, but only to understand it. That opens the window for the possibility of awakening to come in.
And finally, I do not copyright any of my stuff. If you want to download hundreds of papers and make a book, go for it. Just remember there may be people asking you to explain it. No one who gets this would ever steal or charge for it. Jesus did not. Buddha did not. And that is because it is already in all of you. To pay someone else for what is in you is not possible. If you surrender to all those fears and you will discover the essence of you. And that is beyond judgment and beyond this worded world. Peace. Tlane 12/26/11
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