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Meet the most enigmatic personalities as they descend onto the campus to share some snippets of their lives. People like Javed Akhtar, Gregory David Roberts, Mark Tully, Pran have graced Mood Indigo for an intimate rendezvous with their fans.
Coming Mood I be prepared to be swept off your feet even while on the streets, with some of the most mind boggling street performers and street acts.
When the day dawns and the stars hold their breath,its time for the silent murmurings of the night to give way to a new melody with PRONITES at Mood Indigo.Witness your idols taking the center stage, pumping 50,000W of music in your head.
All your adolescent life you have been in awe of the likes of Bond and Sherlock, glued to your seats as you follow them in their every adventure, stepping in their shoes in your wildest day-dreams. Now is your turn as Mood Indigo gives you the chance to transcend the gap between you and them. Stop shaking your head in disbelief. The old, clichéd treasure hunt has metamorphosized into a highly evolved and dynamic battle of wit and logic. The basics are same: search for clues, piece the puzzle together and nab the culprit. However, the expectations and stakes are higher; you are up against a shrewd and cunning plotter baying for the blood of innocent preys. Summon all your noetic faculties to locate the hidden trail and crack the mystery before it is too late. Elementary, my dear…..
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Samarth Mohan |
Himesh Joshi |
Serial killers are a tough nut to crack. They think in complicated ways and are usually mentally ill. It is very difficult to ascertain their next move or justify their erratic behaviour. They have the capability to single mindedly pursue their gory intentions and are never burdened by conscience or guilt. Their cold bloodedness makes them most dangerous. One way to try and understand them is to study cases involving serial killers and trying to look for similarities with the case at hand. These cases give you a good insight into their thought process and motivations. So here are a few real life case studies for the uninitiated -
The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer who stalked parts of Northern California from December 1968 through October 1969. Through a series of cryptic letters he sent to the press and others, he disclosed his insanity which motivated the killings, offered clues to future murder plots and adopted the name Zodiac. He took responsibility for murdering as many as 37 people, but police investigators confirmed that seven people were attacked by the Zodiac of which five died.
On Friday, August 1, 1969, the first known Zodiac letter was received by three newspapers. The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle and Vallejo Times-Herald each received an almost identical letter written by a person who took credit for the attacks on the four teens. He also gave details about the murders and included one-third of a mysterious cipher in each letter. The self-proclaimed killer demanded that the three letters be published on the front page of each newspaper by that Friday afternoon or he would go on a rampage and randomly kill a dozen people over the weekend. The letters were signed with a crossed-circle symbol. The letters were published and efforts to untangle the messages in the ciphers began by authorities and citizens.
The Police investigators later stated publicly that they had doubts as to the authenticity of the letters in an attempt to get the killer to contact them again. The plan worked and another letter arrived which went:
Dear Editor This is the Zodiac speaking...
It was the first time the killer used the name Zodiac. In the letter the Zodiac included information which proved he was present during the murders and a message that his identity was hidden inside the ciphers.
A high school teacher and his wife cracked the 408-symbol cipher. The last 18 letters could not be decoded. The message read:
I LIKE KILLING PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS SO MUCH FUN IT IS MORE FUN THAN KILLING WILD GAME IN THE FORREST BECAUSE MAN IS THE MOST DANGEROUE ANAMAL OF ALL TO KILL SOMETHING GIVES ME THE MOST THRILLING EXPERENCE IT IS EVEN BETTER THAN GETTING YOUR ROCKS OFF WITH A GIRL THE BEST PART OF IT IS THAE WHEN I DIE I WILL BE REBORN IN PARADICE AND THEI HAVE KILLED WILL BECOME MY SLAVES I WILL NOT GIVE YOU MY NAME BECAUSE YOU WILL TRY TO SLOI DOWN OR ATOP MY COLLECTIOG OF SLAVES FOR MY AFTERLIFE EBEORIETEMETHHPITI.
The fact that the code did not contain the killer's identity was a disappointment to the police, however some believe the letters can be rearranged (and three more letters added) to spell "Robert Emmet the Hippie."
More Murders came thereafter
Three youngsters in witnessed another event from a second floor window,contacted the police and described the shooter as white male, 25 to 30 years old, stocky build and a crew cut. The police somehow got to know that it was done by the Zodiac.
An intensive manhunt was immediately launched, but somehow there was a mistake made as to the killers race and the police were searching for a black male. The mistake was never reported. It was later determined from another Zodiac letter that police drove by him who was just blocks from the shooting. The police did not consider him a suspect due to his race. He also indicated his next target which would be school children.
Some months later,the Zodiac sent a letter to the Chronicle which included a 13-character cipher, a diagram of a bomb he planned to use to blow up a school bus, and a statement that he was not responsible for the February 18, 1970, bombing of a police station in San Francisco. He ended the letter with a score "=10, SFPD=0".
This was interpreted by authorities as a count of how many people (10) the Zodiac had murdered.
A card was sent to the Chronicle with the words, "I hope you enjoy yourselves when I have my BLAST" along with the cross-circle symbol. On the back of the card the writer threatened to use his bus bomb if the Chronicle failed to publish the April 20 letter he sent detailing his plans to blow up a school bus. He also requested that people begin wearing Zodiac buttons.
The letter continued...
Another letter was received which included was a Phillips 66 map of the Bay area. A clock-like face was drawn around Mount Diablo with a zero at the top, the number three on the right side, six on the bottom and a nine of the left side. Next to the zero he wrote,
"is to be set to Mag.N".
The map and the cipher were supposed to give the location of a bomb he buried that was set to go off the following fall.
This letter was signed "=12. SFPD=0".
"PS. The Mount Diablo Code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians."
In 1981, Zodiac researcher Gareth Penn figured out that when placing a radian angle over the map, it pointed to two locations where Zodiac attacks took place.
At some other abduction followed by murder the authorities were able to find at the scene a size 10 heel-print, a Timex watch with a torn seven-inch wristband displaying the time 12:23, fingerprints and a palm print, skin tissue underneath the victim's fingernails and hair and blood in her hands.
Six months after the murder of Bates three nearly identical letters were received . The letters all contained more postage than was necessary and two of the letters were signed with a symbol which looked like the letter Z next to the number three. The Zodiac letters sent in the 1970s all contained excessive postage, symbol-type signatures and the threat that more murders would follow.
The letter read:
BATES HAD
TO DIE
THERE WILL
BE MORE
The Police suspected that Zodiac was only claiming the murder and had not commited it.
March 17, 1971
A letter was sent to the Los Angeles Times because as the writer put it, "they don't bury me on the back pages."
In the letter the Zodiac gave the police credit for making the Bates connection, but added that the police were still only finding the "easy ones" and that there were plenty more "out there." The letter included the score, "SFPD-0 (crossed-circle)-17+."
This was the only letter ever sent to the Los Angeles Times and the only one postmarked outside of San Francisco.
March 22, 1971
Chronicle reporter Paul Avery received a postcard thought to be from the Zodiac in which he took credit for the case of a missing nurse, Donna Lass, from the Sahara Hotel and Casino.
Lass was never seen again after treating her last patient at 1:40 a.m. on September 6, 1970. The following day her uniform and shoes, marked with dirt, were discovered in a paper bag in her office. Two calls were made, one to her employer and one to her landlord, by an unidentified caller who said Lass had a family emergency and had left town.
The postcard that Avery received included a collage made up of lettering cut from newspapers and magazines and contained a picture of an ad of the condominium complex known as Forest Pines. The words
"Sierra Club", "Sought Victim 12", "peek through the pines", "pass Lake Tahoe areas, "round in the snow"
hinted at the location of where Lass' body could be found. A search in the area turned up only a pair of sunglasses.
Some believe the postcard was a forgery, perhaps the attempt of the real killer to make the authorities believe Lass was a Zodiac victim. However certain similarities such as the misspelling of Paul Avery's name ("Averly") and the use of a hole-punch had both become traits found in letters known to be from the Zodiac.
Although it did not appear that kidnapping was a pattern of the Zodiac, but rather spontaneous random murders, if in fact he was responsible for Johns' abduction then possibly Donna Lass could also be a victim of the Zodiac.
The mystery surrounding the case of Donna Lass was never solved, nor was her body ever located.
Some three years later the Zodiac sent the Chronicle a letter describing the movie The Exorcist as "the best saterical comidy that I have ever seen." It also included a part of a verse from "The Mikado," a hieroglyph-type drawing and a threat that the letter had to be published or he would "do something nasty." His signature score changed to read "Me-37 SFPD-0".
Even some Police officers were found faking Zodiac letters for their own sake and such incidents are some examples of the many bizarre twists the Zodiac investigation has taken over the years. More than 2,500 suspects have been investigated without anyone ever being charged. Detectives continue to receive telephone calls weekly with tips, theories and speculation.
Although the case remains open in some jurisdictions, the San Francisco Police Department has designated it unsolved and inactive.
The Stoneman was a name given by the popular English language print media of Calcutta to an alleged serial killer who menaced the streets of that city in 1989.
The Stoneman was credited with thirteen murders over six months (the first in June 1989), but it was never established whether the crimes were the handiwork of one person or a group of individuals. The Calcutta police also failed to resolve whether any of the crimes was committed as a copycat murder. To date, no one has been sentenced for these crimes, making this one of the greatest unsolved mysteries plaguing modern metropolitan Indian police forces.
The first hint of a serial-killer who was targeting homeless rag pickers and beggars in India came from Mumbai. Starting in 1985, and lasting well over two years, a series of twelve murders were committed in the Sion and King's Circle locality of the city. The criminal or criminals' modus operandi was simple: first he or she would find an unsuspecting victim sleeping alone in a desolate area. The victim's head was crushed with a single stone weighing as much as 30 kg. In most cases, the victims' identities could not be ascertained since they slept alone and did not have relatives or associates who could identify them. Compounded to this was the fact that the victims were people of very simple means and the individual crimes were not high profile. It was only after the sixth murder that the Mumbai police began to see a pattern in the crimes.
A stroke of luck seemed to come the police's way when a homeless waiter survived a brutal attack and managed to escape being bludgeoned to death. However, in the dimly lit area of Sion where he was sleeping, he had not been able to get a good look at his assailant, and what seemed like a big break came to naught.
Shortly afterwards, in 1987, a rag picker was hacked to death in the adjoining suburb of Matunga. Even though the police and the media were quick to label this the handiwork of the same person, no evidence to link this crime with the others was ever found.
As mysteriously as the killings had started, by the middle of 1987, they stopped.
Whether or not the Mumbai killings were linked to the Calcutta "Stoneman" killings has never been confirmed. However, the uncanny similarity in the instrument, choice of victims, execution, and the time of the attacks, suggests someone familiar with the Mumbai episodes, if not the same killer.
The first victim in Calcutta died from injuries to the head in June 1989. Twelve more would die in the next six months as panic gripped the city. All of the murdered were homeless pavement-dwellers who slept alone in dimly lit areas of the city.
Because the murderer killed victims by dropping a heavy stone or concrete slab, the police guessed that the assailant was probably a tall, well-built male. However, in the complete absence of any eyewitness or survivor, no clear-cut leads were available.
Massive deployments of police in various parts of the city at night were resorted to, and numerous arrests were made. After a spell of arrests in which a handful of "suspicious persons" were rounded up for questioning, the killings stopped. However, since there was no incriminating evidence, no "smoking gun" so to speak, all those summarily arrested had to be released. One of those temporarily summoned was not mentally fit to be questioned, but the media and police were quick to note that the killings had ceased.
To date, the crimes remain unsolved.
Elizabeth Ann Short (July 29, 1924 - January 15, 1947) was an American woman who was the victim of a gruesome and much-publicized murder. Nicknamed the Black Dahlia, Short was found severely mutilated, with her body severed, on January 15, 1947 in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California. The murder, which remains unsolved till date, has presented one of the greatest challenges to LAPD Investigators.
Born to Cleo Short and Phoebe May Sawyer, Elizabeth Ann Short was the third of five girls. She was born in Hyde Park, Massachusetts. Elizabeth Short was raised in Medford, by her mother. Troubled by asthma and bronchitis, she was sent to Florida at 16 for the winter, and spent the next three years living there during the cold months and in Medford the rest of the year, while working as a waitress. She was 5'5" and 115 pounds, with bad teeth, light blue eyes and brown hair. In early 1943, she got a job at one of the post exchanges at Camp Cooke. She then moved to Santa Barbara, where she was arrested on September 23, 1943 for underage drinking and was sent back to Medford by juvenile authorities. In the few years that followed, she lived in Florida, with occasional trips back to Massachusetts, earning money mostly as a waitress.
In Florida, Elizabeth met Major Matthew M. Gordon Jr., who was part of the 2nd Air Commandos. She said he proposed her in a letter while he was in India during "China Burma India" theater of operations. She accepted his proposal but he died in a plane crash before returning to U.S. She later embellished this story, saying that they were married and had a child who died. Although, his family subsequently denied any connection after Short's murder.
Elizabeth Short returned to Southern California in July 1946 to see an old boyfriend she met in Florida during the war, Lt. Gordon Fickling, who was stationed in Long Beach. For the six months prior to her death, she remained in Southern California, mainly in the Los Angeles area. During this time, she lived in several hotels, apartment buildings, rooming houses, and private homes, never staying anywhere for more than a few weeks.
She mysteriously went missing during the week before her death from Jan 9 - Jan 15.Her body was found on January 15, 1947, in a vacant lot in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, severely mutilated, cut in half, and drained of blood. Her face was slashed from the corners of her mouth toward her ears, and she was posed with her hands over her head and her elbows bent at right angles.
For years, the LAPD followed every lead and questioned everyone who knew Elizabeth Short. Police looked at everyone who was even remotely connected to her. Hundreds of people were considered suspects and thousands were interviewed by police. A number of people, none of whom knew Short in life, contacted police and the newspapers, claiming to have seen her during her so-called "missing week" between the time of her disappearance January 9 and the time her body was found on January 15. Police and district attorney investigators ruled out each of these alleged sightings, sometimes identifying other women that witnesses had mistaken for Short. Sensational and sometimes inaccurate press coverage, as well as the nature of the crime, focused intense public attention on the case.
Many books claim that Short lived in or visited Los Angeles at various times in the mid-1940s; these claims have never been substantiated, and are refuted by the findings of law enforcement officers who investigated the case. A document in the Los Angeles County district attorney's files titled "Movements of Elizabeth Short "Prior to June 1, 1946 states that Short was in Florida and Massachusetts from September 1943 through the early months of 1946, and gives a detailed account of her living and working arrangements during this period.
Recently LAPD Detective Brian Carr and LA Times reporter Larry Harnisch believe that they may have stumbled upon a new lead in the Black Dahlia investigation. A marriage document had revealed the address of a surgeon named Dr Walter Bayley. His daughter was a friend of Short's sister. He being a gifted surgeon could have easily enacted the heinous crime. He was suffering from a degenerative brain disease, which might have made him prone to violence.
Though Bayley is a potential suspect, police are also relying on DNA evidence. Carr believes that a letter believed to have been sent by the killer contains trace DNA evidence in the form of the killer's saliva used to close the envelope. But the envelope has gone missing.
For over 50 years, the puzzling circumstances surrounding Elizabeth Short's brutal death have intrigued and mystified the citizens of Los Angeles and beyond. Now, a new generation of detectives with new leads and technology are hopeful that The Black Dahlia case will soon be solved.
It's an everyday problem that many of us face, you need to check a surface for fingerprints, but you don't have a duster kit....
Fingerprints which cannot be seen clearly by the naked eye are called latent fingerprints. Although the word latent means hidden or invisible, in modern usage for forensic science the term latent prints means any chance or accidental impression left by friction ridge skin on a surface, regardless of whether it is visible or invisible at the time of deposition. They are usually a result of perspiration by the skin of the fingers. Latent prints may exhibit only a small portion of the surface of the finger and may be smudged, distorted, or both, depending on how they were deposited.Lifting such fingerprints clearly and without distortion requires advanced skills as well as luck. However you may give it a try using the following procedure:
An important tool in lifting latent fingerprints is the Magna Brush. It consists of a magnet which is helpful in lifting magnetic powder. This brush is so effective because it has no bristles and hence it reduces the chance of damage to the finger print or loss of detail. An added advantage is that the same powder can be used over and over again.
To develope latent prints yourself, follow these steps -
How to Decipher a Secret Code
Found a lengthy note in class that looks like jibberish? It just might be a secret code!
So if the code you have at hand is a simple substitution cipher that follows a pattern, you can use the following steps. Remember these steps are applicable when symbols allotted to a letter follow a certain logic and are not arbitrary symbols. For example if A is 2, B is 3 and so on...
Now the real problem starts when the code you have uses arbitrary symbols to substitute letters of the alphabet and there is no apparent pattern in them. However you can still break such codes with a little persistence -
GOOD LUCK!
So with all this information and resources the detective inside you must have awakened. For sure, it's roaring to go and try out some real investigation. So here are a few short mysteries for you to pit your wit against.
Bahadur, the security guard, drew his gun and headed down a shadowy corridor full of plastic cobwebs, fake blood, and recorded screams. It was Bahadur's worst nightmare, a real-life killer on the loose in "Bakshi's Haunted House". He knew that at least one person was dead and the killer was loose in the open.
Someone, somewhere turned off the sound system and switched on the emergency lights. Bahadur tried the door on the left. Locked. Then the one on the right. Unlocked. He pushed the door but found something resisting him. He tried harder and this time he was successful. But his happiness turned sour as soon as he saw the blood stained body.
An hour later, the news flashed around. A total of two attacks and one murder. Rohit Agrawal, a 22-year-old employee, had been killed by an ax. Pooja Bakshi had been luckier. She, too, was bleeding from an ax attack. But when Bahadur pushed her off the door, she was still alive.
"It could've been worse," Sub-inspector Akshay Singh thought. "There were just a few employees in the haunted house. The attacker wasn't seen coming into the building--or leaving, for that matter. But he was seen." Akshay checked his notepad. "Medium height, in a ghost costume and a full-head rubber mask. We found the costume, the mask, and the ax not far from the second attack scene. The lab matched the blood samples. Rohit's blood and Pooja's blood."
Akshay decided to interview Pooja, who was now resting in the hospital. She sat up and spoke with effort. "We were just opening up. Rohit and Varun were changing into their costumes. While I was turning on the sound system and the mood lights, I heard Varun shouting--something about a crazy person with an ax. A few seconds later, this thing came around the corner. I knew right away.
"I don't know why I ran into the dungeon room. There's no other exit. This maniac pushed open the door and started swinging. I fell to the floor, then I must've passed out. I guess he thought I was dead, 'cause the next thing I know, the security guard was waking me up. Was anyone else hurt?"Pooja hadn't yet been told about her boyfriend's death.
Varun seemed more concerned about Pooja, but since he was the only live witness of Rohit's murder, Akshay made him describe the entire situation. He begun: "I was changing into my ghoul costume when I heard something. I went into the next room and there was Rohit, fighting off this guy in one of our ghost costumes and an old mask. The guy was swinging this ax, and Rohit was trying to fight back. I tried to jump in, but the guy got in one last swing, then ran off down the hall. I shouted out a warning to the others, then went to help Rohit. He was bleeding so much."
Parul Verma, like the others, was in her early 20s. "I was in the locker room downstairs, changing into my witch's uniform. I guess I heard some screaming, but I thought it was the tape. I didn't realize anything was wrong until I came upstairs."
Inspector Akshay nodded and then changed the subject, "I hear Pooja and Rohit are engaged."
"Engaged? She wishes." Parul's laugh died in her throat. "I shouldn't be mean. Rohit and I were together for years, ever since middle school. Things were getting a little stale and too serious, all at the same time. Rohit said we should see other people for a while, just to get it out of our systems. That's all Pooja was, a little experiment. He told her that. He was coming back to me."
This was the third different story Akshay had heard. According to Pooja, they were happy, and Rohit had already proposed. According to Varun, Pooja cried on his shoulder all the time. She was sick of Rohit and ready to leave. And now Parul's variation on the old, familiar theme.
Akshay met Mr. Bakshi, the owner of the haunted house. He wasn't present when the tragedy took place, but far more observant than the rest.
"That ghost costume came from a storage closet. And the ax..."
"Was the stairwell fire ax."-helped Akshay.
Bakshi sighed. "It doesn't look like an outsider, does it?"
Inspector Akshay agreed. It was an inside job, all right. And he had a good idea which insider it was.
Whom does Akshay suspect?
Pooja Bakshi
What clue points to the killer?
Pooja's "unconscious" body was too close to the door to allow the killer to exit.
Sunday morning had just become sunnier for Detective Das. The Village Chief Inspector informed him of a brutal murder at a far-off farm and welcomed his expertise. Arriving at the scene, the brutality of what had happened didnt seem obvious with only three civilians and another three civilian-protectors present there. The Inspector took Das immediately to the bloody spot. It was a large store room filled with dried cow dung and some fresh ones ready to mock the expensive shoe brands. Some prominent footsteps of a man having a shoe size of 13-14 lead to a body lying in the middle of a treasure of future's answer to energy crisis. The body was indeed of a human to a detective eye. The killer had shown no mercy with his tool, which seemed to be something sharp and deep. Looking by the scenario, an axe would have been the weapon but a beast could do wonders with his fingers. The amateur killer had used his weapon inefficiently to cause incomplete chops.
Das had now moved on to the the hosts of the feast. The Inspector had told him that it was the old man present there, who had called them on finding the body at around 5:30 a.m. and the other two happened to be his son and a loyal servant.
The wrinkled cheeks and the meek face of the old man had become lifeless. He was in a state of shock.Das asked him to give his account. Old man: "It was around 4:00 a.m. I had just got up and I heard some slow footsteps coming from the main door. I saw the shadow of a man of average bulit and height approacing towards me . Quickly, I grabbed my knife and went out to search. On finding nothing, I came back and explored inside and that was when I found the dead body of Ashutosh...."
Das:"Ashutosh. So you know our victim, I suppose?"
Old man:"Oh yes. The young lad had come all the way from Faridabad to buy our farm. He was a friend of my son, Yogesh. They used to get along very well but destiny has its own way."
Das:"Why did you want to sell this place?"
Old man:"Yogesh had graduated and wanted to settle in the city. So he thought it would be best for us if we disposed off our farm and deposited the money. Indeed, it would have been best for an old and weak man"
Yogesh, like his father was thin, average heighted, had similar facial features but more youthful. He was smelling badly of dung and was also shocked by the incident.
Yogesh:"After seeing the body, my father called me and I further instructed him to call the cops."
Das:"Why did you want to sell the farm?"
Yogesh:"Well, my father always wanted me to be a farmer and work hard for hard money. But, I was never good with the tools and he finally realized that I should recieve formal education in the city. Now, that I have completed my education, I wanted to sell the farm and settle in the city with him. How can I live in this village with no electricity and other facilities?"
Das:"But you seem to be getting along, by your scent."
Yogesh:"Thats just because I have been sleeping near the cows for the past few days."
Das, then finally moved on to a better and definitely bigger suspect-cum-witness. He learned that the 6 foot, 100 kgs serious faced Prasad had been a loyal servant to the farm for years and was drying the washed clothes when his master called him.
Prasad:"It is good that hes dead. That cunning dog wanted to buy our land. There had been great turmoil because of his presence. I hope that we find peace again."
Das:"What do you mean by turmoil?"
Prasad:"Well, ever since Yogesh baba returned with his friend, master had been unhappy. Firstly, because baba had not contributed a single drop of sweat to this land and here he was now, wanting to sell it off. Master always found baba incompetent because of his ways with the tools and his knowledge about farming. Even after the deal had come to a close, baba was unsatisfied with the price being offered and felt cheated. Now that shrewed basket of dung is dead, everything will return to normal."
After, looking around the farm for half an hour or so, Das met the Inspector and asked his view on the case.
Inspector:"I think the case is not that simple but still the major clue, the footprints lead to Prasad.
Das:"Well, you never know what you dont know. The murderer could also be someone not one of these chaps, who found the perfect opportunity for finishing his game. As for the footsteps, it could have been a hungry alien on an evening walk on this peaceful farm"
Das, who had been thinking for the entire afternoon had been alloted a room in a lodge close to the farm. After a lot of brain- ups, he went out in his balcony. The sun was setting in the horizon. Its dying light was falling on the main door of the house as if the light from this case was going out.
Das slept a sleepless night and called the Inspector the first thing the next morning.
"I know Whuzzdunnit........"
DO YOU?!!??!!
Here is a simple exercise for you. A number of pictures are going to follow and you simply have to identify if the picture is of a scientist or of a serial killer. Although, I must warn you, looks can be deceptive...
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