The Peak Of The Oil Wars - 12

Russia is rerouteing gas to Turkey

Of course the Epigovernment has not accomplished its goal for fossil fuel wars, i.e. has not reached the peak of the oil wars yet (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch - 2).

But, like those persistent climbers who climbed the face of El Capitan's Dawn Wall recently, they are working hard and getting closer.

In the previous post of this series we discussed the Black Sea oil episode which the Russians won, only to prompt a storm of sanctions, including the manipulation of the global oil market,

Manipulation that targeted Russia and U.S. fracking companies, fracking companies that have no counter attack except to bitch, moan, and shut down because their costs exceed the barrel price of oil in most cases.

Russia can do more than bitch, moan, and shut down ... well except they have implemented a shut down mechanism that will "incidentally" shut off gas to six European nations:

"Russia plans to shift all its natural gas flows crossing Ukraine to a route via Turkey, a surprise move that the European Union’s energy chief said would hurt its reputation as a supplier.

The decision makes no economic sense, Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission’s vice president for energy union, told reporters today after talks with Russian government officials and the head of gas exporter, OAO Gazprom (GAZP), in Moscow.

Gazprom, the world’s biggest natural gas supplier, plans to send 63 billion cubic meters through a proposed link under the Black Sea to Turkey, fully replacing shipments via Ukraine, Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller said during the discussions. About 40 percent of Russia’s gas exports to Europe and Turkey travel through Ukraine’s Soviet-era network." - Bloomberg

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"Russia has said it will stop EU gas transit via Ukraine and do it via Turkey instead in the second shock announcement on energy in as many months.

It said on Wednesday (14 January) that the EU should build new infrastructure to link up with a future Russia-Turkey pipeline or lose access to supplies.

Gazprom head Alexei Miller issued the ultimatum during a visit to Russia by EU energy commissioner Maros Sefcovic, who said he was "very surprised" by the statement." - EU Observer

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"Russia cut gas exports to Europe by 60 per cent today, plunging the continent into an energy crisis 'within hours' as a dispute with Ukraine escalated.

This morning, gas companies in Ukraine said that Russia had completely cut off their supply.

Six countries reported a complete shut-off of Russian gas shipped via Ukraine today, in a sharp escalation of a struggle over energy that threatens Europe as winter sets in.

Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia and Turkey all reported a halt in gas shipments from Russia through Ukraine.

Croatia said it was temporarily reducing supplies to industrial customers while Bulgaria said it had enough gas for only 'for a few days' and was in a 'crisis situation'." - Daily Mail

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"In the last few hours Russia has announced two key strategic decisions that show they are not going to stand idly by while their economy and way of life are destroyed by Western forces.

First, presumably in response to stiff sanctions leveled by the United States and the European Union after the annexation of Crimea last year, Russia has cut off 60% of Europe’s gas supplies right in the middle of winter. This has caused an almost immediate crisis in six European nations that have seen a complete cut-off to their supplies – Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia and Turkey – with more to follow. According to reports via Zero Hedge, the effect has been almost instantaneous.

Without Russia residents across Europe have no way of staying warm." - Putin Strikes Back

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"Vladimir Putin has been silent lately. But if anyone thought he had been shamed into defeat or marginalized, then think again.

In the last few hours Russia has announced two key strategic decisions that show they are not going to stand idly by while their economy and way of life are destroyed by Western forces.

First, presumably in response to stiff sanctions leveled by the United States and the European Union after the annexation of Crimea last year, Russia has cut off 60% of Europe’s gas supplies right in the middle of winter. This has caused an almost immediate crisis in six European nations that have seen a complete cut-off to their supplies – Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia and Turkey – with more to follow. According to reports via Zero Hedge, the effect has been almost instantaneous.

Without Russia residents across Europe have no way of staying warm." - SHTFplan

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"EU Parliament Calls Russia Potential Threat to EU

BRUSSELS — The EU parliament on Thursday condemned Russia as a "potential threat to the European Union itself" even as the EU foreign policy chief sought to resume dialogue with Moscow to help end the conflict in Ukraine.

The legislature backed a resolution with a show of hands that called for a continuation of the sanctions against Moscow even beyond March, when the first measures will be up for review." - AP NY Times

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"Russia pulls out of the petrodollar

In addition to cutting off natural gas supplies to Europe, Russia has also "just pulled itself out of the petrodollar," reports Zero Hedge.

The story quotes Bloomberg.com stating that Russia "may unseal its $88 billion Reserve Fund and convert some of its foreign-currency holdings into ruble."

This is further explained by Mac Slavo at SHTFplan.com who explains, "What we are seeing are the strategic moves that will eventually catalyze the next great war. And make no mistake, this is exactly what's in store for the world should these escalations continue." - Natural News

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CONTRA [update]:

"The reports from the UK Daily Mail and from Zero Hedge that Russia has cut off natural gas deliveries to six European countries must be incorrect. These sources are credible and well-informed, but such a cut-off would have instantly produced political and financial turmoil of which there is no sign. Therefore, unless there is a news blackout, Russia’s action has been misunderstood.

We know something real has happened. Otherwise, EU energy official Maros Sefcovic would not be expressing such consternation. Although I am without any definite information, I believe I know what the real story is. Russia, tired of Ukraine’s theft of the natural gas that passes through the country on its way to delivery to Europe, has made a decision to route the gas to Turkey, thus bypassing Ukraine.

The Russian energy minister has confirmed this decision and added that if European countries wish to avail themselves of this gas supply, they must put in place the infrastructure or pipeline to bring the gas into their countries.

In other words, there is a potential for a cutoff in the future, but no cutoff at the present." - Paul Craig Roberts (emphasis added)

As you can read in those quotes, there are different takes on the Russian action, from ramifications for business all the way to ramifications for war.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

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Canned Heat, "On the Road Again"

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New Climate Catastrophe Policy: Triage - 11

Sea level rise "floats" all boats

Back in 2009, when I started this series with the first post, it was done in the vain hope that government would take note as others did (e.g. Green Economy Post).

And I hoped the government would do something constructive and even Earth shaking.

The series has lots of posts now (New Climate Catastrophe Policy: Triage, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10), but as MOMCOM makes war globally and habitually, America's focus on repairing or preparing itself is declining:

Here are some staggering statistics: Since 2006, state and local real investment in highways and streets has fallen by 22%. Their spending on

Sea level rise divides America

sewer systems, in real terms, is also down by 22%. And real investment by state and local governments in water systems has fallen by a stunning 34% (chart below).

Meanwhile, over the same period, private real investment by telecommunications and broadcasting companies is up by 13%, according to statistics from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Why, then, does President Obama want to load yet another spending burden–muni broadband–on localities that are already stretched too thin to cover their existing obligations?

(Marginal Revolution). The answer or reason is that they are addicted to propaganda expansion, and further, they must have misread reality, misunderestimated it, or the Epigovernment forbade any action on it (Agnotology: The Surge - 14).

Triage is still the basic government response to the approaching catastrophe problem, yes, the best response they can "think" of to date.

That is because they are confused by "You Are Here" psychology, and they also suffer from chronic failure to heed "Choose Your Trances Carefully."

Thus, the following information is, like lost airliners on crude approach toward the mainstream presstitute corps landing zone (inbox), lost in space.

The problem is that they literally can not or will not believe or receive it in any meaningful manner:

Paul Beckwith, a climatology and meteorology professor at the University of Ottawa, Canada, is an engineer and physicist who researches abrupt climate change in both the present day and in the paleoclimatology records of the deep past.

"It is my view that our climate system is in early stages of abrupt climate change that, unchecked, will lead to a temperature rise of 5 to 6 degrees Celsius [9 to 10.8 degrees Fahrenheit] within a decade or two," Beckwith told me. "Obviously, such a large change in the climate system will have unprecedented effects on the health and well-being of every plant and animal on our planet [yes, Gomer, that includes human beings]."

(Truthout, emphasis added). Triage is evolving or morphing into the spectre of both Epigovernment and government officials hiding out a la the movie 2012, but leaving the rest of us to the elements:

The movie "2012" is utterly unscientific, in terms of the science of the Sun and the Earth, however, it is quite accurate in terms of political science.

In that movie, the elites of the plutocracy (the 1%) saved themselves while letting the hoi polloi (99%) die off en masse.

Have you read about all the "undisclosed locations", "hardened sites", and "bunkers deep inside mountains", where the elites will go when trouble arises?

(New Climate Catastrophe Policy: Triage - 5). We have missed all of those surreptitious machinations somehow, while our parental transference psychology was somehow morphing into Stockholm Syndrome.

Meanwhile, the year 2014 was the hottest on record globally in the past 135 years:

The year 2014 was the warmest year across global land and ocean surfaces since records began in 1880. The annually-averaged temperature was 0.69°C (1.24°F) above the 20th century average of 13.9°C (57.0°F), easily breaking the previous records of 2005 and 2010 by 0.04°C (0.07°F). This also marks the 38th consecutive year (since 1977) that the yearly global temperature was above average. Including 2014, 9 of the 10 warmest years in the 135-year period of record have occurred in the 21st century. 1998 currently ranks as the fourth warmest year on record.

(NASA, see also NOAA). The "party-of-stupid" (Gov. Jindal R-LA) has this to say about it:

Once upon a time the Earth was flat, causing the stars and planets to orbit around it, because it was also the center of the universe.

Weather on the flat Earth was stable, in that, it was always either winter, summer, fall, or spring at the same time on the vast flatness.

Then the Earth was changed into a globe by librul scientists.

So, all those planets went into orbit around stars like our Sun, and now even the stars are no longer orbiting the Earth.

Additionally, ever since the Earth became no longer flat, instead becoming a globe orbiting the Sun, there has been both summer and winter at the same time on Earth.

For example, now as we speak “it” has been threating to become 122 deg. F. (50 deg. C) in Australia, while “it” is super cold at the very same time in the flat lands in the U.S. Midwest.

(The Damaged Global Climate System). Tongue in cheek ... but also true ... "Comedy is truth, only faster." - Gilda Radner.

Stay aware, or become, enlightened about how this happened.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

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A 1958 video which shows we went into the catastrophe with our "eyes wide open."

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The Epigovernment's "life after people":

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The Ignoratti Preacher Says: "The Ice Age Cometh"

Scientist (red circle)& melt-river, Greenland

"See," say the ill-informed children of the preachers of the Oil-Qaeda mindset, "a cold ice age is approaching."

I am talking about those who look at the photo to the left and see only ice.

Conveniently they miss the raging river rapids of melt-water on top of the Greenland Ice Sheet, because they have special glasses on, furnished to them by Oil-Qaeda, which somehow makes them oblivious to the fact that the ice is doomed to become part of the ever growing melt-water rivers.

Which flow to the rising seas (Sea Level Rise Making Floods Routine for Coastal Cities).

It is like another strange psychological state of mind when people are truly freezing to death, but actually think they are warming up, so they take off their clothes and freeze to death (Phases Of An Empire Freezing To Death - 2).

Never mind that we are well into a global warming ice-melt-rage which shows up distinctly in Greenland:

Meltwater runoff from the Greenland ice sheet is a key contributor to global sea level rise and is expected to increase in the future, but it has received little observational study. We used satellite and in situ

This is not the Amazon River drainage system

technologies to assess surface drainage conditions on the southwestern ablation surface after an extreme 2012 melting event. We conclude that the ice sheet surface is efficiently drained under optimal conditions, that digital elevation models alone cannot fully describe supra-glacial drainage and its connection to subglacial systems, and that predicting outflow from climate models alone, without recognition of subglacial processes, may overestimate true meltwater release from the ice sheet.

(Greenland Ice Melt - PDF, cf. JPL, Boingboing, emphasis added). Do those "the ice man cometh" truthers have any problem with the ice-melt river system on top of the

NOAA data 2014: Click to enlarge

Greenland ice cap, or that 2014 is likely the warmest year, globally, on record?

That "the Greenland ice sheet is a key contributor to global sea level rise and is expected to increase [in rates of melt] in the future", or that 2014 is the warmest year on record (Guardian) would seem to me to need some attention from them (Agnotology: The Surge).

Since I do not understand their psychotic denial, which leads them to lie to other people and to fight changes that would decrease green house gas emissions generated by burning fossil fuels, I have to urge them to commit themselves to an asylum for repairs (MOMCOM's Mass Suicide & Murder Pact - 5).

In some additional studies done recently, high methane levels are being looked at in various U.S. locations, e.g. Four Corners and California (Methane over LA, Four Corners).

It was already known that, in Arctic regions, methane releases are a concern for abrupt increased heating of the globe, since it is a stronger green house gas than CO² is (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch - 3).

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Let's be brave and publish the cartoon:

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On The Origin of Genieology - 2

Magic words: teleology

In the first post of this series I discussed the myths about human genetics that are still perpetuated by an unaware science media.

Today I want to zero in on one of the more detailed reasons why the myths persist.

I mean the usage of "magic words" on the part of science writers and/or scientists plagued with the teleology bug.

Those who have not disciplined themselves into a solid nomenclature.

More on that later in this post, after we consider a very recent scientific paper.

That recent scientific paper confirms, in part, a line of reasoning that was set forth in a hypothesis presented in the Dredd Blog series: On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.

A day after the first post in this series was published here on Dredd Blog, a paper came out in the Journal of Theoretical Biology, authored by Dr. Meredith Root-Bernstein:

"When organic chemists anthropomorphize molecules, they say that molecules “want to be in their lowest energy conformation”. This means that when they have energy molecules can move into different conformations, but they have a resting position that they come back to."

(The Selfish Ribosome,[hmmm ... why did they 'lose' it?] cf. Wayback Machine, and here], emphasis added). The author's use of "anthropomorphize" is a misnomer or perhaps a mistranslation:

anthropomorphize: to ascribe human form or attributes to (a ... material object ...)

(Dictionary, emphasis added). There is a proper term that has arisen for describing, more exactly, those instances when science writers and/or scientists improperly use magic words:

My interpretation of that statement is that Dr. Penrose thinks that evolutionary biologists utilize too much teleological language, and other observers agree with Penrose:

Since at least the 17th century (and mostly because of Newton), natural scientists have stopped using formal or final causes to explain natural phenomena ... except in biology. This was first pointed out by Colin Pittendrigh (Pittendrigh, C. S. Behavior and Evolution) (ed. by A. Rose and G. G. Simpson), Yale University Press, 1958), who coined the term "teleonomy" to refer to the kind of teleological phenomena observed in biological processes.

(Teleological Explanations in Biology, emphasis added). The piece "Teleological Notions in Biology" adds further insight.

This teleological factor lingers in the literature even after many years have passed since "the modern synthesis":

The modern evolutionary synthesis is a 20th-century union of ideas from several biological specialties which provides a widely accepted account of evolution. It is also referred to as the new synthesis, the modern synthesis, the evolutionary synthesis, millennium synthesis and the neo-Darwinian synthesis.

The synthesis, produced between 1936 and 1947, reflects the consensus about how evolution proceeds. The previous development of population genetics, between 1918 and 1932, was a stimulus, as it showed that Mendelian genetics was consistent with natural selection and gradual evolution. The synthesis is still, to a large extent, the current paradigm in evolutionary biology.

The modern synthesis solved difficulties and confusions caused by the specialisation and poor communication between biologists in the early years of the 20th century.

(Wikipedia, emphasis added). That has led me to zero in on 1) teleology, 2) the modern synthesis, and 3) the issue of the impact of quantum mechanical concepts on evolutionary biology.

(The Uncertain Gene - 2, emphasis in original). Teleology concerns word genies and the word magic in scientific writing and/or thinking that has caused mountains of problems.

Neither genes, molecules, nor atoms want or feel, including a feeling of selfishness, because they have no self, they are abiotic molecular machines, i.e., they are not selves which are alive.

That now having been said, let's move on to the paper which has a lot of interesting merit to it:

We suggest that a ribosome-like entity was one of the key intermediaries between prebiotic and cellular evolution. Ribosomes are prerequisites to all cellular life, ubiquitously conserved, with genetic roots that pre-date LUCA, and therefore entities that had to evolve prior to cellular life itself (Mushegian, 2008; Wang et al., 2009; Fox, 2010). While the ribosome may not be capable of the broad metabolic processes that characterize cellular life, the ribosome is a self-organizing complex composed of both polynucleotides and proteins that could link RNA-world to compositional replication concepts in the origins of life. Moreover, ribosomes carry out some of the most fundamental processes characteristic of living systems, including a coordinated series of chemical reactions capable of translating genetic information into functional proteins. What ribosomes are not thought to do is to carry genetic information, and in particular the genetic information required to encode their own structures and functions. But what if ribosomal RNA (rRNA), which is generally considered to be simply a structural component of ribosomes, actually represents a primitive genome encoding the genetic information needed to direct ribosomal replication, translation and self-organization?

(Journal of Theoretical Biology, 367, (2015), pp. 130–158, at p. 131). This is the same idea I talked about in a post last year:

Today, we take a first glance into the evolution of the ribosome, which is a sophisticated molecular machine that makes and/or assembles other molecular machines, such as RNA and/or DNA, and the like (Wikipedia).

The ribosome has also been called a molecular factory that perhaps can be envisioned metaphorically by the photo to the left.

In this hypothetical look at the evolution of the ribosome (perhaps we should call its earliest manifestations a "robosome"), let's first remember one principle we talked about yesterday, which is that evolution in general is said to proceed from simple to complex.

So, let's boil this down and apply it to molecular machine evolution with this basic principle: all parts of a machine must actually exist before the complete machine itself can actually be made to exist (i.e. assembled).

Whether you are building a model car or a model airplane, or even real ones, you must first have all the parts before you can assemble those parts into a complete vehicle.

The factory in the photo at the top of this post could not assemble a complete entity, in this case an automobile, if any part was missing or did not yet exist.

That is the hypothetical model I am following to articulate how the "robosome" / ribosome must have incrementally evolved part by part, piece by piece, and simple to complex (some viruses still have molecular motors that help with genetic work -- see this).

(On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses - 4). Either molecular machines evolved or they did not.

Likewise, either cells evolved from those molecular machines or they did not.

So, let's not be afraid to discuss abiotic evolution, without teleology or teleonomy, because abiotic evolution is the big picture (Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 27).

And, let's not make up magic words with which to construct magic ideas about "selfish" entities that cannot be selfish, because they have no self to be selfish with.

They are merely abiotic molecular machines which evolved into more complex biotic entities, or they didn't.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

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Dylan and Donovan ... ("let's get together and I'll turn you on to some things ...")

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The Life and Death of Bright Things - 2

Up on the tight wire

In the first post of this series we considered the life and death of stars.

Oddly enough, it is in their penultimate event when stars like our Sun attain their full size and scope.

However, it is during our Sun's last main event when it becomes smallest, yet most enduring and life supporting (On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses - 6).

If only nations and societies could emulate that sequence of events of the main sequence stars.

If only they could be that "shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere" at their end, but alas, history presents another main sequence of events for social systems:

“Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against

Up on the tight wire

degeneracy, yet experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, ....whence it becomes expedient for promoting the publick happiness that those persons, whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue, should be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens, and that they should be called to that charge without regard to wealth, birth or accidental condition of circumstance.”- Thomas Jefferson
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"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown." - A Study of History,  by Arnold J. Toynbee

(emphasis added). Main sequence societies, unlike main sequence stars, may shine bright during their early existence, but unlike main sequence stars societies go dark when entering their final phase.

IMO, for one thing, this is because the abiotic realm is unlike the biotic realm where lethal mutations take place, i.e., where governments are overcome with toxins of power.

How would we tell if our society was entering the dark and leaving the proverbial light?

Here is one witness:

In my long nomadic life, I’ve had the good fortune to live, work, or travel in all but a handful of countries on this planet. I’ve been to both poles and a great

The peak of sanity

many places in between, and nosy as I am, I’ve talked with people all along the way. I still remember a time when to be an American was to be envied. The country where I grew up after World War II seemed to be respected and admired around the world for way too many reasons to go into here.

That’s changed, of course. Even after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, I still met people -- in the Middle East, no less -- willing to withhold judgment on the U.S. Many thought that the Supreme Court’s installation of George W. Bush as president was a blunder American voters would correct in the election of 2004. His return to office truly spelled the end of America as the world had known it. Bush had started a war, opposed by the entire world, because he wanted to and he could. A majority of Americans supported him. And that was when all the uncomfortable questions really began.

In the early fall of 2014, I traveled from my home in Oslo, Norway, through much of Eastern and Central Europe. Everywhere I went in those two months, moments after locals realized I was an American the questions started and, polite as they usually were, most of them had a single underlying theme: Have Americans gone over the edge? Are you crazy? Please explain.

Then recently, I traveled back to the “homeland.” It struck me there that most Americans have no idea just how strange we now seem to much of the world. In my experience, foreign observers are far better informed about us than the

The peak of sanity

average American is about them. This is partly because the “news” in the American media is so parochial and so limited in its views both of how we act and how other countries think -- even countries with which we were recently, are currently, or threaten soon to be at war. America’s belligerence alone, not to mention its financial acrobatics, compels the rest of the world to keep close track of us. Who knows, after all, what conflict the Americans may drag you into next, as target or reluctant ally?

So wherever we expatriates settle on the planet, we find someone who wants to talk about the latest American events, large and small: another country bombed in the name of our “national security,” another peaceful protest march attacked by our increasingly militarized police, another diatribe against “big government” by yet another wannabe candidate who hopes to head that very government in Washington. Such news leaves foreign audiences puzzled and full of trepidation.

(Tomgram: Is This Country Crazy?, emphasis added). Did you notice that the U.S. was not prominently on display at yesterday's "3.7 million person march" in Paris?

Further reading on the reality of mass madness: (Etiology of Social Dementia, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; Choose Your Trances Carefully; Phases Of An Empire Freezing To Death - 2, A Decline Of The American Republic - 4).

The previous post in this series is here.

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It's All Over Now Baby Blue, by Bob Dylan

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