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Short Stuff: All About Porcelain · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and there's
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Chuck and it's just us. But it's short Stuff and Chuck.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: This is the last episode of twenty twenty five.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: That's right, and that's it.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: That's all I had to say about that.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: All right, Well, let's talk porcelain, because porcelain isn't something
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: I really knew much about until I.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Did this research.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: And porcelain, as it turns out, you might know this
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: you might not, is a type of ceramic. It's a
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: subset of ceramics. What they are both made of clay,
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  Speaker 3: and they're both kiln fired, but porcelain clay has a
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: much higher density and it's fired longer and at higher temperatures,
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: and fussy, is much more durable, has very high performance characteristics,
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: and it's you know, porcelain is that super hard mixing
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: bowl that you got from your grandmother that like you
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: can't break, you can break them, but just super hardy,
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: super dense, non porous clay like material.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess I haven't had much experience with porcelain
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  Speaker 1: because I always thought of it as very delicate and
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: highly breakable, but apparently that's not true. And once I
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: thought about it a little bit. It's like, actually, I
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: have lifetime experience with porcelain in the form of a toilet,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: but I hadn't really thought about that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, toilets. Yeah, they don't break.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Try it, you can't do it. So there's three things
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: that show up in any kind of porcelain, and it's
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: all natural. That's one of the big attractions of porcelain too.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: It's clay, quartz, and feldspar, which is a kind of
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: rocket that can form from all sorts of different stuff.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: And there's all sorts of other stuff you can throw in.
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  Speaker 1: But depending on the kind of porcelain that you come
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: up with, it's basically dependent on the materials you use,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: the raw materials, and then how high a temperature and
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: how long you fire it for in the kiln. Those
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: are the big variables that produce different kinds of porcelain.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: But probably the most common material that's used is called kalin,
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  Speaker 1: which is a kind of clay that's almost white. And
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  Speaker 1: this is like the big money porcelain clay.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's usually going to be like that mixing
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  Speaker 3: bowl like tableware is usually that kalin, very very fine
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  Speaker 3: particle size. It's super durable, like we were talking about,
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  Speaker 3: and not permeable by any liquid.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Just try it again.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: And you know, when we're talking firing temperatures, we'll get
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: to a couple of different kinds of porcelain, but it
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: can go up to twenty three hundred degrees fahrenheit about
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: twelve sixty celsius. And it kind of just depends on
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: the what you're making it for, like is it a
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: toilet or is it a mixing bowl or is it
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  Speaker 3: fine China.
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  Speaker 1: And one other thing about porcelain too that I hadn't
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: realized is that some kinds of it are translucent. And
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I was like, wait, that means kind of see through,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: and I looked up pictures of it, and yes, you
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  Speaker 1: can hold porcelain up to a light, like in your hand,
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  Speaker 1: and you can see the silhouette of your hand on
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: the other side of it.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Did you know that, Yeah, because I've worked with porcelain
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: tile where you can do that a lot of time.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: Flortyle can be porcelain. But this all originated in China
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  Speaker 3: about two thousand years ago during the Tang dynasty. But
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  Speaker 3: it wasn't like the porcelain we know. It was basically like, hey,
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: we put out our fire, and they discovered this really hard, unbroken,
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: solid pieces of stuff, and that was just rudimentary porcelain.
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  Speaker 3: Later in the Yuan dynasty, it's about seven hundred, eight
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: hundred years later, is when they really developed the porcelains.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: We know it the porcelain that Marco Polo found and
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  Speaker 3: brought back to Europe, and they were just went wild
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  Speaker 3: for this stuff.
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  Speaker 1: They did, and the market for porcelain opened up pretty
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: quickly because trade routes were open thanks to Marco Polo.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: But the Europeans could not figure out how their Chinese
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: friends were making this stuff. So all of the porcelain
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  Speaker 1: coming into Europe was foreign mate made in China. And
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: that's why a lot of porcelain tablewhear is called China
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  Speaker 1: because it was kind of like the like Champagne is
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  Speaker 1: the sparkling wine. China was to porcelain right, and it
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  Speaker 1: took them quite a couple hundred years, I think before
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  Speaker 1: they finally cracked the code. And it was an alchemist
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  Speaker 1: who figured out how to make porcelain by basically reverse
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  Speaker 1: engineering a piece that he had from China.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, a German alchemist, Johann Friedrich Brutgue, and he figured
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: it out. This was in I guess the eighteenth century
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: and by the latter half of the eighteenth century. In
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  Speaker 3: the seventeen seventies they found that Cowlin clay in Cornwall, England,
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  Speaker 3: and so the Brits were like, we can start making
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  Speaker 3: this stuff. Finally we've got we got the good stuff
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  Speaker 3: right here in Cornwall.
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  Speaker 1: Is it Cowlin like Shaolin?
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  Speaker 2: I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: I like how you said it, Wow, how'd you say
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  Speaker 1: it Kalin like Kalin or Calin?
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  Speaker 2: I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: So Yeah, the Britz are like, great, we can put
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: all this together thanks to Booker and Cornwall and start
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  Speaker 1: making our own porcelain. And I'm not quite sure. I
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  Speaker 1: get the impression that China made it its porcelain one
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  Speaker 1: of two ways, and the way that they mostly made
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  Speaker 1: their porcelain was through hard paste, and that the other
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  Speaker 1: one is soft paste. And it has to do with
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  Speaker 1: the density of the raw materials you're using, and then
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: how high a temperature you fire it at and for
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: how long. Like I was talking about before, these are
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  Speaker 1: basically the two types, two main categories of porcelain.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think you're right.
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  Speaker 3: I think the Europeans use that soft paste a little
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  Speaker 3: more so it's a little more prone to chipping. It's
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  Speaker 3: a little grainier, just not as hearty overall. And then
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: you got a glaze of stuff after you fire it.
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  Speaker 3: But the glazing I thought, you know, because I didn't
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: know anything about this stuff, I thought the glazing might
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: be kind of the final key to make it in
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  Speaker 3: permeable to liquids. Me too, but really has nothing to
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  Speaker 3: do with it. It's all right, impermeable. The glazing is
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: just decorative.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's impermeable because it vitrifies, so like the the
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  Speaker 1: glass glass like materials become glass in it, so it's
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: like kind of glassy. Really good porcelain is. So I say, Chuck,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: we take a little break and come back and talk
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: some more about porcelain. What do you think. Let's do it, Chuck.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: I'd like to share something that I learned in our
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Dolls episode that I didn't have a chance to fit in,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: but now I do, because it seems like all of
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: our episodes are now interlocking for some reason. But unglazed
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  Speaker 1: porcelain is called.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Bisc bisk okay, it like b I s q u.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: E, exactly like a tomato, shrimp, lobster, lobster. That's the
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: money one, sure.
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  Speaker 2: Although a lot of times that stuff's lang astino.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: You know, I didn't know that.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, if you go to like a really
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: high price seafood restaurant, it'll be real lobster.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: But that lango is a pretty good sub.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Is that a rock lobster langostina?
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: No, it's I think it's just like a little tiny
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: a little tiny guy like. I mean, it looks like
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: lobster meat, but it's they're little, you know, it's like
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  Speaker 3: a shrimp size.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, okay, yeah, I've seen those before.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: I've never seen a langostina though, now that you mentioned,
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: I've never looked that up.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: I think I see what the creature looks like.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, i'd like to see that too. I've only seen
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: it dead. I think that's what grabs everyone's face is
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: in Beetle Juice and during the Calypso scene.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: All right, Well, I mentioned earlier before they break about
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: porcelain tile. It's very hearty tile for a flooring or
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: the wall, but if you're cutting porcelain tile, you're probably
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: gonna need a tile saw. We talked about wet saals
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: before they're wet because they are moving at such high
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: speeds and drawing so much heat that the water cools
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  Speaker 3: off that blade. And there's a couple of ways you
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  Speaker 3: can actually form that tile. If it's up to like
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  Speaker 3: four feet by four feet, you basically have a special mold.
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  Speaker 3: But anything bigger than that and you're compacting it like
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  Speaker 3: just pressing layers and layers of ceramic powder until you
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: get your desired size.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, with a big old machine. Right.
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: So there's a few reasons that people prize porcelain. For one,
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  Speaker 1: it can be really really valuable, as we'll see. But also,
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  Speaker 1: like I said, it's an all natural material, like a
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  Speaker 1: lot of the glazed colors that they use in glazing
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: are like cobalt, iron oxide copper, like the raw materials
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  Speaker 1: are things like clay and feldspar. It's really easy to clean,
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  Speaker 1: as you know with a toilet, very resistant wolden bacterial growth.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: As you know with the toilet, it's water resistant, you know,
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  Speaker 1: like a toilet is. It's good for foot traffic like
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  Speaker 1: a toilet, and it doesn't emit harmful substances like a toilet.
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  Speaker 1: It can also be recycled, but that is a real
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  Speaker 1: niche I guess method or technique, like you can't just
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  Speaker 1: throw porcelain into your single stream recycling can Yeah, you
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  Speaker 1: have to go seek out somebody who recycles it. But
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  Speaker 1: the very fact that it's recyclable gives it kind of
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  Speaker 1: promise for the future as we get better and better
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  Speaker 1: creating a circular economy.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: That's right, you mentioned how valuable it can be. The
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: world auction record for Chinese porcelain was set about, I
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: don't know in twenty fourteen when the Mayan Tang chicken
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  Speaker 3: cup was sold for thirty six million dollars. And you
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: know why is anything valuable is because there's not many
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  Speaker 3: of them. It was crafted between fourteen sixty five and
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: eighty seven, when porcelain was just peaking at its quality,
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  Speaker 3: but they were producing the lowest amount, so it's just
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  Speaker 3: super rare. So that's why it fetched thirty six million.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Yes, And that also points something out about porcelain too,
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  Speaker 1: is if you take good care of it, it's so
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: durable it can last thousands of years, so at least
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: a thousand years as far as we know. And there's
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: like people are into porcelain, like collecting tableware or vases
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: or things like that, and so there's like a whole
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: world out there available to you to get into born
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: bone porcelain, hard paste, soft paste, well basically those kind
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  Speaker 1: And if this thing floated your boat at all, I
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: think good luck with your new hobby.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah for sure. I mean you said bone porcelain.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: If you've ever heard bone china, that was something that
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: English did, and that's actual bone. They I think when
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: they were sort of first searching out how to make
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: this stuff, they before they cracked the code, they would
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: use like eggshell and stuff like that to no avail,
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: and finally they landed on actual human bone ground down
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: obviously a very strong thing.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: Bone ash would be not from humans, apparently from.
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: Farm animals, and it would really strengthen that stuff. And
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: bone china you don't have to fire is how you
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: can fire at lower temps.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: It's just not as strong.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: There is no way that in the history of bone china,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: no psycho has made it with human bones.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good point. Are you enjoying your coffee exactly?
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Oh man, Chuck made me giggle. I mean, short stuff
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: is out.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: Hey wait a minute, can we say goodbye for the year?
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Oh wait, yeah, yes, thank you, Chuck, I say we
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: do that too.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Goodbye.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: No, in all seriousness, and we want to thank everyone
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: for another great year. Somehow here in your seventeen we're
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: enjoying things as much or more than we ever have,
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: which is hard to believe and pretty wonderful for us.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: And you know, big thanks to Dave and Ben and
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: Jerry of course, and everyone who contributes his writers, you know,
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: Julia and Anna and.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Olivia, Olivia and Dave and Kyle.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: I think that's everybody right now, right it is. Yeah,
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: we can thank the grabster for the old days.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Even there you go, he comes up and selects sometimes
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: to Doney.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: So I just want to say thanks for everyone for
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: keeping us employed and what's for me, the greatest job
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: in the world means.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: A lot, agreed. I second, Chuck, and yeah, thank you everybody.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Thanks for another great year, and we'll see you next
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: year for another great year. And now with short stuff out, Yeah,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: short stuff is out.
• 12:40
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• 12:43
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• 12:48
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