William Baldwin
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William Baldwin, an actor with a taste for original and eclectic roles, currently can be seen in Adrift in Manhattan, Plumm Summer, Park, America Fork and Feel, all scheduled for release in 2007. With Donald Sutherland and Jill Clayburgh, he stars in Dirty Sexy Money, an ABC TV series. With Chazz Palminteri as his partner, he will write, produce and star in Guard Hill, a new television series. Among William’s past films are The Squid & The Whale, One Eyed King, Sliver, Backdraft, Internal Affairs, and Born on the Fourth of July.
William recently relocated to the west coast with his wife Chyna Phillips and their three children, where he also is engaged in an ardent spiritual exploration.
www.williambaldwin.net/
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Dr. Edgar Cahn |
Dr. Edgar Cahn, the author of No More Throw Away People and Our Brother’s Keeper, is the creator of Time Dollars, an economic strategy developed to create community and address social issues. It is being implemented in 36 states and Sweden, Japan, and Canada.
A pioneer in civil rights, Dr. Cahn lists speechwriter for Bobby Kennedy, co-founder of Legal Services, and co-founded Antioch Law School among his many contributions. A Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Law, Professor Cahn has been a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Human Rights.
www.timebanks.org/founder.htm
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Dr. Ronald Colman
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Dr. Ronald Colman is founder and Executive Director of GPI Atlantic, a non-profit research group that is constructing a pilot project on wellbeing for the Canadian government in Nova Scotia. He is also the editor of a national magazine Reality Check: The Canadian Review of Well-being.
Dr. Colman taught for 20 years at the university level and was a researcher and speechwriter at the United Nations. He has researched and written many reports on indicators of population health, community wellbeing, natural resource health, and environmental quality for the Genuine Progress Index. As a leading authority on happiness indices, Dr. Colman advises governments and communities on indicator work, and regularly speaks on the subject to government, university and community groups.
www.gpiatlantic.org
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Ulla Darni
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Ulla Darni, artist and healer, has beautiful reverse painting chandeliers gracing galleries around the globe. Her pieces are collected by museums, Royalty and celebrity collectors including Sir Anthony Hopkins, Larry Hagman, Cher, and film producer Dino de Laurentis. The Peace Portal, a 9 foot sculpture that is a collaboration between Ulla and her husband Lawry Swidler, appears in the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia. In her painting Ulla steps aside and allows spirit to step in, which is apparent in the very powerful effects they have on the viewer. In her healing work, Ulla combines her understanding of The Abraham Method, YuenMethod, and Pearl’s Star Frequency with her own magical realizations into a profound teaching about co-creating.
www.ulladarni.com
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Krishna Das
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Krishna Das, a devotee and appointed temple priest of Neen Karoli Baba, shares his heart through his music and chanting at ecstatic gatherings throughout the world. He has taught with Ram Dass and sung for many saints and yogis here and in India.
A repository of ancient Indian wisdom, Krishna Das also learned Buddhist meditation practices from Anagarika Munindra and S.N. Goenka and has been initiated into Tibetan Buddhist practices from lamas from various lineages. In Maharaji-ji’s temple, Krishna Das devoted himself to worship of the Goddess.
He has produced numerous recordings; his CDs include Live . . .on Earth, Pilgrim Heart, One Track Heart, and Breath of the Heart.
www.krishnadas.com
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Shulamit Elson |
International Kabbalist teacher Shulamit Elson is the creator of Sound Prayer™, a powerful spiritual technology for the 21st century that uses the vibration of ancient sacred vocal sounds to bring inner peace, joy and spiritual awakening. Shulamit has shared these universal Sound Prayers in places as diverse as the US Capitol Rotunda, Sri Auribindo's Auroville community in India, and with AIDs patients in Mexico City.
Shulamit is the author of the highly acclaimed book Kabbalah of Prayer ~ Sacred Sounds and the Soul's Journey and her recent CDs include Beyond Words ~ Sacred Sounds of the Tree of Life and Vibration ~ Shulamit and the Drepung Gomang Buddhist Monks.
www.kabballah.com
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Shaykha Fariha al Jerrahi
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Shaykha Fariha al Jerrahi is the master for Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order dervishes, a collective within the 400 year old Halveti- Jerrahi Tariqat. Shayka Fariha received direct transmission from Turkish Sufi Sheikh Muzafir and is successor to Sheikh Nur (aka Lex Hixon). A true spiritual teacher, she leads a Sufi Masjid in Manhattan and carries the teachings to her groups of Sufi’s throughout the world. Her gatherings and presence offer a portal of bliss for all who participate with their hearts, regardless of religious affiliation.
Shaykha Fariha is also a co-author with Sheikh Nur of 101 Diamonds from the Oral Tradition of the Glorious Messenger Muhammad, a meditation on the sayings of the prophet gathered by the mystic Ibn al Arabi.
www.nurashkijerrahi.org
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Ashok Gangadean
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Ashok Gangadean is a Professor of Philosophy at Haverford College where for the past four decades he has focused on tapping into and clarifying the common ground between cultural, religious and ideological worlds. Author of Meditative Reason: Toward Universal Grammar and Between Worlds: The Emergence of Global Reason, Dr. Gangadean demonstrates that there is a fundamental Logos or Universal Grammar underlying all cultures, religions, philosophies and ideologies.
He is Co-Convenor of World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality, Co-Chair of the World Wisdom Council, and host of the Emmy Nominated "Philly Live: Your International Connection" on WYBE TV Public Television which recently evolved into the prize winning “Global Lens."
www.awakeningmind.org
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Gwen Hallsmith |
Gwen Hallsmith has traveled around the world, from the former Soviet Union to South Africa, learning from different traditions and working with people to create sustainable communities that improve our lives on all levels, including spiritually. She guides us to meet our needs without depriving future generations of the ability to meet their needs.
Gwen, author of The Key to Sustainable Cities, is the executive director of Global Community Initiative, the director of city planning in Montpelier, Vermont, and a pastor.
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Hazel Henderson
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Hazel Henderson, an evolutionary economist and futurist, is the author of several books including Building a Win - Win World, Beyond Globalization, and Planetary Citizenship. Ms. Henderson created the economic category of Love Economy, the unpaid products and services done largely by woman, valued at $16 trillion of the GNP, on which the rest of the economy functions.
At the University of California she held the Horace Albright Chair in conservation and was Regent’s Lecturer. Hazel Henderson also has served on publication boards, such as Futures Research Quarterly and The Environment Magazine. She was advisor to the National Science Foundation. She is now a television producer and a traveling lecturer and panelist.
www.hazelhenderson.com
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Bernard Lietaer |
Visionary economist Bernard Lietaer is the author of The Future of Money and Of Human Wealth. While having a foot in the traditional banking system - - he implemented the convergence mechanism to the Euro, and served as President of Belgium’s Electronic Payment System, Bernard offers a challenging critique of this system’s impact on humanity. He promotes the idea that individuals and communities can better support wellbeing by creating complementary or local currencies that circulate parallel with national currencies.
Bernard currently teaches business and economics at Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
www.lietaer.com/home/detailedbio.html
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Reverend Kim Magwire |
Reverend Kim Magwire, a graduate in Divinity Studies from Vanderbilt University, is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. She is the pastor at the Church of the Good Shepherd, a progressive and affirming congregation located in Carbondale, Illinois.
Reverend Magwire’s inquiry into common truth of all religions has taken her to numerous world destinations, from Ramana Maharshi’s serene cave in India to the Apostle Paul’s historic church at Ephesus. She realizes happiness as the bliss stemming from her being, and finds this happiness simply radiates like sunshine.
www.goodshepherd-ucc.org
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Saleem |
Saleem is the founder and director of Living in Truth, a school for realizing non-dual wisdom and unconditional happiness in ordinary life.
He offers retreats, programs and private sessions to individuals, therapists, and educators who are called to realize true freedom in their life and work.
Immediately following a deep realization of the ever-present truth of One Self, which was ignited through meetings with his teacher Gangaji, his body began to experience severe and disabling fatigue and pain that would persist for many years. For Saleem, the pain and limitations of this mysterious condition have been a potent and effective teacher to clarify and deepen the realization of what is unconditionally free and fulfilled.
www.livingintruth.com
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David Sancious
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David Sancious is a master pianist, guitarist, composer and producer, who began his musical career as a member of Bruce Springsteens E Street Band. In 1974 he formed the group Tone and recorded several albums of original compositions.
Eric Clapton, Santana, Sting, Seal, Natalie Merchant and Yousou Ndour are among the luminaries with whom he has recorded and produced.
An encounter with the writings of Eckhard Tolle opened David to the deepest understanding of happiness, and he muses on the way in which this informs and is expressed in his music.
www.davidsancious.com
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Stuart Schwartz
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Stuart Schwartz is a teacher of Advaita in the lineage of Ramana Maharshi and Robert Adams. Stuart holds traditional formal satsangs and retreats internationally, yet also meets small groups in varied settings such as restaurants and hiking trails. In addition, Stuart offers private sessions to individuals who wish to awaken now. Using the tool of self inquiry Stuart helps devotees uncover the distorted core beliefs that obscure the truth of who they are. With Brother Wayne Teasdale, Stuart is a Friend and Founding Counselor of InterSpiritual Dialogue, a group with the goal to actively serve in the evolution of human consciousness and global transformation through InterSpiritual Dialogue and action. The Great Undoing, Stuart's new book is now available at Amazon.com.
www.satsangwithstuart.com
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Penelope Smith
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Penelope Smith is the founding pioneer of interspecies telepathic communication, a field whose name she originated. Having communicated telepathically with animals throughout her life, Penelope feels that the sacred connection made through telepathic communication with other species is essential for human wholeness and happiness.
Penelope is the author of Animal Talk , and she offers numerous courses recorded on CD and DVD. Species Link is her quarterly journal. For our documentary, Penelope will communicate with other species to discover the source of happiness for some nonhuman friends with whom we share the planet .
www.animaltalk.net
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Robert Thurman |
Robert Thurman, America’s first Buddhist monk, was ordained in 1982 by the Dalai Lama. Wearing many hats, he now teaches Indo-Tibet Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religion at Columbia University, presides as President of Tibet House in NYC and Menla Retreat Center in Phoenicia, NY, translates Tibetan and Sanskrit philosophical writings, and is author of numerous books and articles. In 1997 Time Magazine included Bob among the 25 most influential Americans, describing him as a “larger than life scholar-activist.”
In his book Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness, he posits that America is poised to realize the Buddha’s vision of individualism and cultural harmony, the happiness guaranteed by our founders.
www.bobthurman.com
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Sander Tideman
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Sander Tideman combines his experience in law, banking and organizational development with his study and practice in Eastern and Western spiritual traditions to bring human values to the world of business and economics for lasting value and true happiness.
Sander is co-founder and chairman of Spirit in Business, a global network organization fostering the integration of human values in business and economics. He also leads Insight Partners, an international consultancy firm specialized in leadership for building sustainable organizations. He serves on the board of the Netherlands Commission on Sustainable Development and International Co-operation (NCDO) and the Bridge Fund, an NGO dedicated to development on the Tibetan plateau.
www.spiritinbusiness.org
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Dr. Maurice “Buzzy” Tischler
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Dr. Maurice “Buzzy” Tischler, founder of Tischler Dental in Woodstock, New York, has taught at New York University College of Dentistry, and he is a life member of both the ADA and OKU Dental Honorary Society.
After years with a conventional practice, Dr. Tischler began to tie in a patient’s over-all health to their dental condition. He became certified in acupuncture and studied homeopathy extensively to support his patient’s healing. Dr. Tischler reveals how the transformation to this new paradigm of healing changed him into a happy man.
www.tischlerdental.com
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Solane’ Verraine
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Solane’ Verraine, a psycho-therapist who was burned out and discouraged with the therapeutic milieu, found the way to true and lasting healing through teachers Gangaji and Eli Jaxon-Bear. Her meeting with Gangaji revealed the vast silence and love that are always present, and Eli introduced her to the Sacred Enneagram, a wisdom tool for uncovering unconscious and habituated patterns. From Eli she also learned Leela Therapy, a method that allows one to immediately see the truth of Self and unravel egoic tendencies.
Solane’, whose awakening stabilized only after periods of intense paranoia and homelessness, now travels around the country to share her experience and offer guidance to hundreds of people who wish to live from essence.
www.truthofthesoul.com
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Dr. Alan Wallace
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Dr. Alan Wallace, founder of the Santa Barbara Institute of Consciousness Studies, is intimate with both contemplative practice and scientific training. Ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk by the Dalai Lama, he went on to earn an undergraduate degree in physics and the philosophy of science at Amherst College and a doctorate in religious studies at Stanford.
Dr. Wallace, a lecturer, scholar, and one of the most prolific writers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, continually explores ways to integrate the wisdom of Buddhist practice with Western science to advance the study of mind and consciousness. His book Genuine Happiness is a practical guide to raising consciousness.
www.alanwallace.org
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Woodstock Our Town : We are a group of Woodstock residents who have come together to consider the issues of how we as a community communicate amongst ourselves and with the people in town government. By promoting efforts for community members to discuss issues that concern Woodstock, we hope to encourage more community participation and a revitalized sense that we are all responsible for the quality of life in our town.
read about more Woodstock Our Town
woodstockourtown.org
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Dr. Vernon Woolf
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Dr. Vernon Woolf, Founder and Director of the International Academy of Holodynamics, is teaching millions of people in his Unfolding Potential programs how to use the hidden dimensions of consciousness to solve the most complex challenges on the planet. His Unfolding Potential Seminars, which began in the United States, have now expanded world wide.
An experienced trainer, seminar leader, scientist, therapist, author, and entrepreneur. Dr. Woolf’s specialty is improving relationships and building high performance teams through the holistic study of situational dynamics. In 1997, Dr. Woolf received the Academy of Natural Science's award in Russia for "Outstanding Contribution to Science and Society." Among his books are The Wellness Manifesto and Dance of Life.
www.holodynamics.com
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Dr. Kam Yuen
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Dr. Kam Yuen is the founder of YuenMethod, a healing method that merges ancient Shaolin practice with quantum physics that has the capacity to heal in the moment. A Doctor of Chiropractics, he has healed over 300,000 patients in his career, and has over 25,000 students practicing YuenMethod healing. He is the author of Instant Pain Elimination and Instant Rejuvenation. A renown martial artist, he was the advisor and stunt coordinator of the Kung Fu television series, and David Carridine based his character on Kam.
An environmentalist and entrepreneur, Dr. Yuen is owner and CEO of Omstar D1280X, a leading industry in fuel reformulation. Omstar is the only fuel reformulation tested and passed by the California Air Resource Board (A Government Agency) to show promise of fuel economy and environmental improvement.
www.yuenmethod.com
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Creative Team
Sirriya Din | David Tapper | Jim Sofranko | Shelley Smothers | Dave Paprocki
Sirriya Din
Director & Producer
“If in life each of us is given a mystery to unfold, my task is to help unravel the secret of happiness. Happiness ... Or Everyone is Waking Up is my offering from this undertaking.
Subject to spontaneous eruptions of pure bliss since childhood, I felt compelled to uncover the precipitating conditions of this exquisite happiness in order to ensure its perpetual presence. And this aspiration for happiness was not for me alone, for it was evident that with everyone immersed in this bliss, the world would be transformed.
Determined to grasp happiness, I plunged into relationships, rebellion, compliance, sex, intoxicants, achievements, social and political activism, psychological systems and spiritual paths: paradoxically, all these attempts to gain happiness resulted in suffering for myself and others.
Finally, waving the white flag of surrender to the Cosmos, I gave up. No more striving for happiness. And in that moment information was seemingly downloaded into my consciousness, and I was handed the realization that in the willingness to open to all experience, one falls through layers of mind and emotion until ultimately arriving at the ground of being or pure consciousness. There we find our true nature is unconditional happiness and bliss.
With deep pleasure, I join with the remarkable interviewees of Happiness ... Or Everyone is Waking Up in sharing this secret with others and inviting them to ride the waves in a sea change of consciousness that is sweeping the world. This happiness is the revolution for which we have been waiting: gentle and without ideology, it begins with ending the war inside ourselves.”
In her pursuit of happiness, Sirriya delved deeply into psychology and became a therapist. She has a masters degree in Jungian and Archetypal Psychology, studied Process Work with Arnold Mindell, and completed Leela Therapy Training with Eli Jaxon-Bear and colleagues. Sirriya is also certified as a teacher and practitioner in YuenMethod Chinese Healing, Reiki, and Authentic Movement. She practices privately in Woodstock and on phone with clients around the country. Formerly a film editor, she learned editing from Larry Moyers on the feature film Thieves, was assistant editor on the feature film The Children, and worked on commercials and shorts at First Edition Editing in NYC, Sirriya also was executive director of Media Network, a nonprofit organization that catalogued social issue documentaries and acted as a sponsor for documentary filmmakers.
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David A. Tapper
Creative Consultant
From prime time entertainment to major fund raising films, DAVID A. TAPPER has established himself as a producer of a broad spectrum of distinguished film and video productions. His cameras have captured war-torn Northern Ireland, the color and laughter of the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus, and the drama under the microscope of a cancer research laboratory. His productions have scored commercial and artistic successes, winning Emmy citations and two Peabody Awards, in addition to prizes at major film festivals here and abroad.
For a list of David’s productions and awards, click here
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Jim Sofranko
Director of Photography
Jim Sofranko is a freelance director of photography and a twenty-year veteran of the New York film and video community. A graduate of NYU Film School, Jim has shot film and video, documentary and dramatic segments, for HBO, MSNBC, the Food Network and Court TV.
He has also shot dozens of national television commercials for clients including GM, Clinique, ESPN, NFL, Amazon.com, Kraft and General Foods. His location work as a DP and, previously as a gaffer, has taken him to Ghana, China, Poland, Alaska, Mexico, St. John USVI, and Iceland.
In 1998-2001, Jim directed and produced three seasons of live-action segments for the HBO children’s show "A Little Curious".
In 2004, Jim shot the documentary "All you Need Is Art" with Abrahami/Netz Productions of Amsterdam for European TV and in 2005 directed photography on the interactive film, "The Onyx Project", directed by Larry Atlas and starring David Straithern.
Currently in production is "Ansar and the American Dream", Jim’s debut as a documentary director/producer.
Jim lives near Woodstock, New York with his wife and two daughters.
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Shelley Smothers
Assistant to Producer and
Production Manager
“New to the filmmaking, I see this project as a labor of love and a path that continues to unfold true happiness. Six years ago I began investigating whether happiness is a fleeting feeling experienced now and again or possibly something deeper that is not contingent upon external forces. In my deep desire for truth I experienced a vast unfolding. With tender and radical guidance from beautiful teachers in my life, true happiness was intimately met. In gratitude and joy, I offer myself to this project and its invitation to happiness.”
As a counselor and healer in private practice since 2003, Shelley Smothers uses a range of skills from energetic healing to experiential processing to support her clients in unfolding their own happiness and potential. From a love of dance, Shelley facilitates individual movement exploration and movement workshops. She dances with “Cabaret Decadance” a performance group in her hometown of Carbondale Illinois. She also danced at the Kennedy Center as part of the Smithsonian Institute’s “Arts in Celebration”. Inspired by whole foods and her love of cooking, she is now writing a cookbook based on whole foods and the senses.
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Dave Paprocki
Media and Research
Dave’s professional life consists of work in educational and international development fields, often combining the two. His work experiences range from organizing multimillion-dollar media campaigns in Rwanda for the United Nations to grass roots efforts throughout the United States. Extensive travel and work in fifty nations in south America, Asia, Europe and Africa has imbued Dave with a great understanding about how individuals and cultures try to achieve happiness and which innovative solutions truly support universal happiness.
In two radio programs Dave hosted, wrote and produced for Southern Exposure radio and big Muddy New Radio, WDBX in Southern Illinois, he covered global and national events through interviews with policy makers, government and UN officials, activists, academics, authors and other influential or interesting people.
He co-wrote, filmed and produced a short film about a Sufi Sheihk returning to Bangladesh to celebrate the passing of his master. The film explores the Bengali response to death and the role of Sufism in Bengali culture.
Dave also conceptualized, wrote, and published The Purchasing Guide to Sustainable Living. A guide bringing business owners, producers, and consumers together to support a sustainable future in Southern Illinois.
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