Latest / Journey to the Fringe / Fringey Mini: Tiny People, Big Mushroom Energy

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Fringey Mini: Tiny People, Big Mushroom Energy · Journey to the Fringe

• 0:00
  Okay, Chelsea, no pick this time around. I think
• 0:02
  this is interesting enough. I don't think we're
• 0:04
  going to get through the whole article, but I'll
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  leave a link for anybody who's curious about
• 0:07
  this. This comes from the BBC on January 22nd,
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  2026, written by Rachel Neuer. Article title,
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  they saw them on their dishes when eating. The
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  mushroom making people hallucinate dozens of
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  tiny humans. Oh, who did they see on their plate?
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  The mushrooms are the little people. They see
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  little people, I think. I don't know. Let's learn
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  together. Only recently described by science,
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  the mysterious mushrooms are found in different
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  parts of the world, but they give people the
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  same exact visions. Every year, doctors at the
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  hospital in the Yunnan province of China brace
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  themselves for an influx of people with an unusual
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  complaint. The patients come in with a strikingly
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  odd symptom, visions of pint -sized elf -like
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  figures marching under doors, crawling up walls,
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  and clinging to furniture. Oh, that's cool. The
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  hospital treats hundreds of these cases every
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  year. All share a common culprit, Lanmaua asiatica,
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  a type of mushroom that forms symbiotic relationships
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  with pine trees in nearby forests and is a local
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  popular food. known for its savory umami -packed
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  flavor. In Yunnan, this mushroom is sold in markets.
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  It appears on restaurant menus and is served
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  at home during peak mushroom season between June
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  and August. One must be careful to cook it thoroughly,
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  though, otherwise hallucinations will set in.
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  Quote, at a mushroom hot pot restaurant there,
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  the server set a timer for 15 minutes and warned
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  us, don't eat it until the timer goes off or
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  you might see little people. End quote, says
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  Colin Domnauer, a doctoral candidate in biology
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  at the University of Utah and the Natural History
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  Museum of Utah, who is studying this mushroom.
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  Quote. It seems like very common knowledge in
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  the culture there, end quote. But outside of
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  Yunnan and a couple of other places, the strange
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  mushroom is largely an enigma. Quote, there are
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  many accounts of the existence of this psychedelic
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  mushroom and many people who looked for it, but
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  they never found the species, end quote, says
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  Giuliani Forci, mycologist and the founder and
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  executive director of the Fungi Foundation, a
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  non -profit group dedicated to discovering, documenting,
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  and conserving fungi. domnauer is on a quest
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  to solve the decades -old mysteries about this
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  fungi species and identify the unknown compound
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  responsible for its unusually similar hallucinations
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  as well as what it can potentially teach us about
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  the human brain domnauer first heard of this
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  mushroom as an undergraduate from his mycology
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  professor quote sounded so bizarre that there
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  could be a mushroom out there causing fairy tale
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  -like visions reported across cultures and time
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  end quote domnauer says quote i was perplexed
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  and driven by curiosity to find out more, end
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  quote. The academic literature provided a few
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  breadcrumbs. In a 1991 paper, two researchers
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  of the Chinese Academy of Sciences described
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  cases of people in Yunnan province who had eaten
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  a certain mushroom and experienced Lilliputian
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  hallucinations. The psychiatric term for the
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  perception of tiny human animals or fantasy figures.
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  It is so named after the small people who inhabit
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  the fictional Lilliput Islands in the novel Gulliver's
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  Travels. The patients saw these figures, quote,
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  moving about everywhere, end quote, the researcher
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  wrote. Usually there were more than 10 tiny beings
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  on the scene, quote. They saw them on their clothes
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  when they were dressing and saw them on their
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  dishes when eating, end quote, the researcher
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  added. The visions, quote, were even more vivid
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  when their eyes were closed, end quote. already
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  in the 60s gordon watson and roger hame the american
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  author and french botanist who brought the existence
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  of psilocybin mushrooms to the attention of the
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  western audiences came across something similar
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  in papua new guinea They were searching for a
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  mushroom that a team of missionaries who visited
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  30 years earlier had said caused the locals to,
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  quote, go insane, end quote, a condition that
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  anthropologists later dubbed mushroom madness.
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  Unbeknownst to them, what they encountered actually
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  sounds strikingly similar to the current reports
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  from China. They collected specimens of the suspected
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  species and sent them back to Albert Hoffman,
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  the Swiss chemist who discovered LSD for testing.
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  but Hoffman failed to identify any molecules
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  of interest. The team concluded that the stories
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  they heard from the field must have been cultural
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  tales rather than having any pharmacological
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  basis, and no further research was done. It was
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  not until 2015 that researchers finally formally
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  described and named L. asiatica, this mushroom,
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  still without much detail about its psychoactive
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  properties. so domnauer's first goal has been
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  to pin down the species true identity in 2023
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  he traveled to unan during the peak summertime
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  mushroom season he surveyed the province's sprawling
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  fungi markets and asked sellers which of these
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  mushrooms make you see little people he purchased
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  the ones that the giggling venters pointed to
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  and then brought the specimens back to the laboratory
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  to sequence their genomes This confirmed the
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  mushroom with identity. He says, in research
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  he is preparing for publication, chemical extracts
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  from the lab specimens produce behavioral changes
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  in mice similar to those reported in humans.
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  After being administered the mushroom, how would
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  they know that the mice are seeing little people?
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  That's true. And do they see them as little to
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  mice or the same size as them? They would be
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  such small. people what would mice see though
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  or would they see tiny mice or would it be little
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  mice how do they know they oh man so many questions
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  yeah after being administered the mushroom extracts
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  the mice experienced a period of hyperactivity
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  followed by a long stupor where the rodents did
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  not move much oh my god domnauer also visited
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  the philippines where he had rumors of a mushroom
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  causing similar symptoms as those from the historical
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  records from china and papua new guinea The specimens
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  he collected there looked slightly different
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  from the Chinese ones. They were smaller and
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  light pink compared to the larger red or Chinese
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  mushrooms, he says. But his genetic testing revealed
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  that they were indeed the same species. That's
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  probably far enough for what we're going to be,
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  the point we're looking at the story for. Yeah,
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  I think this stuff is so interesting. And I know
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  we potentially, it's on our idea list for future
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  episodes, is machine elves. The question of like,
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  does a forest make a sound in the woods if there's
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  no one around to hear it? Like, are there actually
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  little people running around that we can't see
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  without these mushrooms? That's my question.
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  They may scientifically prove that it's not,
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  but that's my question that I have. Is it just
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  opening your brain up to be able to see these?
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  And do I need to be worried about the little
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  people that are currently running around where
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  I'm recording? Yeah. Well, they don't seem to
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  do anything, even if you can see them. My question
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  would be kind of on the opposite end of it is,
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  is there a like historical mushroom or fungi
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  that existed in, let's say the, the, uk way back
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  in the day where the fairy stories come from
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  exactly and it very well could and that doesn't
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  mean that they don't exist in my head because
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  this might just be opening a realm where we see
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  that they're you know holding reality together
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  is what i'd like to think of it it might be it
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  also might just be that it's opening up a part
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  of your brain that um is generally not like connected
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  to your eyes so you're actually seeing hallucinations
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  of very specific things that open up like i don't
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  know maybe something in your head where it only
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  stores like ideas of little people for some reason
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  that was my other point it's so strange that
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  it specifically makes everybody hallucinate the
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  same thing and i guess you can tie it in with
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  um the machine elves as well and the mantis beings
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  a lot of people witness mantis beings when they're
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  like um on a mind altering hallucinatory. It's
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  weird how like a lot of drugs have very specific
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  hallucinations attached to them. super weird
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  which is also pretty intriguing and i know that
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  there is someone that did the electric kool -aid
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  acid test i think is what it was i've never read
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  it it's always been on my list i wonder if they
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  look at something anyhow this is more something
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  for the future episode we may get to eventually
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  i'd hope to yeah it's so interesting but you
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  guys got 48 hours do drugs and see what you hallucinate
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  and tell us yeah do it but don't tell anybody
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  we told you to do that yeah If they ask, you
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  came up with that idea yourself. Exactly. Don't
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  tell anyone. Anyhow, bye. Bye.