Where Did Aspirin Come From?

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Got a headache? Read this article and give thanks.

Aspirin’s history is a lengthy one, from its discovery in the fifth century BC, to its use as a bartering tool in World War I, to its newly discovered benefits and uses.

A person could get a headache thinking about all of the detours aspirin has taken on the road to becoming today’s common, inexpensive, cure-all medication.

Aspirin’s roots are deep, and reach back to Hippocrates himself, the Greek father of modern medicine, who held the recipe for a pain reliever and fever reducer made from the bark and leaves of the willow tree. The key the Greek father of modern medicine held from sometime between 460 and 377 BC, was buried with him, and was not rediscovered until 1758 by an English clergyman.

Scientists, now aware of the pain relieving properties of willow bark, struggled to strip it down to the exact ingredient responsible for its powers, and finally did so in the 1820s. They narrowed their search to salicin, an early form of the family of drugs named salicylates, of which aspirin is a member.

Severe stomach upset from the salicylic acid extracted willow bark posed a problem for scientists. They attempted to remedy this side effect by combining the acid with sodium to neutralize the acid, but it failed to reduce the belly aching.

A French chemist, Charles Frederic Gerhardt put an end to the dilemma in 1853, by adding acetyl chloride to the sodium salicylate mixture. He published the results of his findings, but did not pursue his creation past this point, even though it upset the stomach less than the currently available compound. Mr. Gerhardt saw no future in the time-consuming preparation of his recipe, which he felt did not improve much upon the original medicine. His decision left people grabbing their guts, and stomaching the old standby, sodium salicylate.

Salvation came in 1897, in the person of an eager, young Felix Hoffman, who sought, and found, a drug to help relieve the painful symptoms of his father’s arthritis. This driven chemist, an employee of the Bayer Company, found and dusted off Gerhardt’s old publication, mixed a batch of the recipe, and discovered that it actually worked.

Hoffman used his connection with his employer to pitch his idea, and Bayer reluctantly agreed to produce the medicine they named Aspirin. They invented the name Aspirin by combining the initials A from acetyl chloride, the SPIR from the plant they extracted the salicylic acid from, Spirae ulmaria, and the IN, because it was the common ending for medications at that time. Bayer launched Aspirin in powder form and as a tablet in 1915. Aspirin was an instant success.

Aspirin’s success ended up costing the Bayer Company a great deal of money, when the U.S., England, France, and Russia forced it to surrender the trademark to them, as part of Germany’s war reparations at the close of World War I. Bayer gave up the trademark in 1919, as part of the Treaty of Versailles, which explains why the aspirin, stripped of its trademark, is now written in the lower case.

Today, aspirin holds the title of being the most widely used drug, one that is no longer solely used as a pain reliever and as a fever reducer. Physicians have shown aspirin to be effective in combating arthritis pain, in reducing the risk of heart disease, of death following a heart attack, of cancer, if taken two times weekly, and of developing preeclampsia during pregnancy. It is doubtful that aspirin will ever again be lost to the annals of history.

Did you know?

Bayer also held, and had to give up, its trademark to heroin at the end of World War I?

Neither!

Twelve midnight A.M. and twelve midnight P.M., or 00:00 A.M. and 00:00 P.M., mean nothing at all. They are simply the midpoints that divide the day into two equal halves.

Each and every day begins exactly at midnight, and each A.M. begins precisely thereafter. Similarly, each P.M. begins immediately after noon. No meaning can be assigned to 12:00 A.M. (00:00 A.M.), or to 12:00 P.M. (00:00 P.M.). They are merely reference points meant to simplify timetables for us.

Along the same line, the Universal Day, established by the International Convention in 1884 in Washington, D.C., U.S.A., operates according to World Time, or Universal Time at Greenwich, England. The logic regarding Midnight and Noon also applies to Greenwich Mean Time, commonly referred to as GMT or Zulu time; Midnight and Noon represent markers, or “page breaks” in the day and in the night, and may be represented by 00:00 o’clock.

Greenwich, England also holds the distinction of being at the point of zero longitude, where East meets West. The 1884 international agreement also recognized this line of zero degrees longitude as the prime meridian, a point from which all points on the earth’s surface are measured.

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The reasons we laugh, including “contagious” laughter, may be products of evolution.

Natural laughter is a two-part, spontaneous, response to humor, that has physiological, psychological, and physical benefits.

Most agree that we laugh when we find something to be humorous, yet different reasons exist for what we find to be humorous. Additionally, different things are humorous to us at different stages of life.

Laughter, a physiological response to humor, can be broken down into two parts.

The first is a set of gestures, and the second is the production of sound. The brain forces to conduct both responses simultaneously. From a physiological standpoint, a “sensor” in the brain responds to laughter by triggering other neural circuits in the brain, which, in turn, generate more laughter.

Oddly enough, laughter is an orderly response, and almost occurs “spontaneously” during pauses at the end of phrases, earning it the name the punctuation effect. Human beings are the only species capable of laughter, and the average adult does so approximately 17 times per day.

Good health is one of the many benefits of laughter. Laughter reduces our stress levels by reducing the level of stress hormones, and also helps us cope with serious illnesses.

Physiologically, laughter promotes healing, by lowering the blood pressure, and by increasing the vascular blood flow and the oxygenation of the blood.

Physical fitness stemming from laughter is a benefit known to few. Scientists estimate that laughing 100 times is equivalent to a 10-minute workout on a rowing machine, or to 15 minutes on a stationary exercise bike. The mere act of laughing exercises the diaphragm, as well as the abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles.

Another benefit of laughter is that it improves our over-all mental health. Pent up negative emotions, such as anger, fear, and sadness, can cause biochemical changes in our bodies that can produce a harmful effect.

Laughter provides a harmless outlet for these negative emotions, and provides a coping mechanism for dealing with difficult or stressful situations. 

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The quest for ways to ignite a fire began about 1.5 million years ago, when the caveman discovered that he could start a fire by rubbing two sticks together, and ended with the successful invention of the non-toxic matches we use today.

Today, approximately 500 billion matches are used each year and about 200 billion of these come from matchbooks.

In 1669, an alchemist, one who mistakenly believes that he can change base metals into gold, mixed up a batch of something which was, surprisingly, not gold, but a substance he named phosphorous. Since his recipe did not produce the gold he desired, he tossed it onto the heap of history.

Next was Robert Boyle, an English physicist, after whom Boyle’s Law was named. He cleverly coated a piece of paper with phosphorous and, armed with a splinter of sulfur-coated wood, bravely bulled the wood through the paper, which burst into flames.

Much later, in 1826, John Walker stumbled upon a chemical concoction that produced fire. After stirring together a mixture of chemicals, which did not contain phosphorous, John removed the stick he used, only to find a dried lump at its end. When he scraped the stick against the floor to rid it of the lump, the stick ignited. His mixture of antimony sulfide, potassium chlorate, gum, and starch could produce fire. In his rush to demonstrate his discovery to others, John bypassed the patent office.

In no time, a person at one of John’s demonstrations, Samuel Jones, spotted an overlooked, golden opportunity, and patented the invention under his name. Mr. Jones produced matches he named Lucifers, which produced phenomenal sales. The widespread availability of the matches actually led to a significant increase in smoking.

The dark side to Lucifers was their ungodly odor, and the fireworks display they gave when ignited. In fact, Lucifers carried a warning label stating that they, not the cigarettes they lit, were dangerous to one’s health!

In the 1830s, Charles Sauria, a French chemist, decided to improve upon the existing formula by adding white phosphorous to do away with the stench of the matches. What Mr. Sauria did not know, was that white phosphorous was lethal to those who came into contact with it.

Unknowingly, he created a deadly monster by adding the white phosphorous. The phosphorous was responsible for a nearly epidemic disease known as “phossy jaw,” match factory workers developed poisoned bones, and children who sucked on the matches developed infant skeletal deformities. Even the amount of white phosphorous contained in one pack of matches could kill a person, and actually did, through numerous suicides and murders.

Finally, by 1910, the general public’s awareness of the dangers of the white phosphorous in these matches led to a worldwide campaign to ban them. Thankfully, Diamond Match Company obtained an U.S. patent for the first nonpoisonous match, which used the harmless chemical sesquisulfide of phosphorous in place of the deadly white phosphorous.

So critical was Diamond Match Company’s discovery to public health, that U.S. President Taft made a public plea to the Company voluntarily to surrender their patent rights to the invention. Despite the enormous moneymaking potential of the patent, Diamond Match Company granted President Taft’s request on January 28, 1911. Congress followed suit by passing a law that raised the tax on white phosphorous matches to a level so high that their production soon ceased.

Discussion of the match would be incomplete without mention of the matchbook. John Pusey, in 1892, invented something he named the matchbook. He had the right idea, but had it backwards, as he placed the striking surface for the match on the inside of the book of 50 matches, so when one match was struck, the remaining 49 also ignited!

Once again, Diamond Match Company intervened and saved the day, by purchasing the patent to the matchbook, by moving the striking surface to the outside of the cover where it belonged, and by marketing the revamped match as the “safety match.”

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The igloo, a temporary winter hunting shelter to the Alaskan Eskimo does, in fact, melt inside, but not to a great extent.

The snowflakes falling outside of the igloo, in the harsh Alaskan winter, quickly melt when they land on its roof, and provide a replacement layer of insulation for the igloo. The ongoing freezing and re-freezing of the igloo, hardens it, and transforms the blocks of snow the Eskimos used in the construction process into a solid, icy, domed refuge. The igloo can now withstand the weight of a massive polar bear, should one happen along and have the urge to play “king of the mountain.”

The initial freezing and re-freezing of the igloo takes place at end of the igloo’s construction. First, the men must dig a trench into a fresh snow- drift, and, using their knives, cut blocks of snow from it that are specifically shaped to face inward when fully laid out. They then lay the blocks on their edges to form a circle, cutting them to size as they go, so that the end result will be a narrowing spiral. They cap the igloo by dropping a keystone, or block with edges cut wider above than below, into the remaining gap in the roof, and “grout” the gaps between blocks of snow with additional snow.

The men then call in the resident expert, the Eskimo woman, to put the finishing touches on the igloo. Armed with her whale blubber lamp, she enters the structure, lights her lamp to the highest possible setting, beats a hasty retreat, and seals the entrance with a block of ice. Inside the igloo, the snow on the roof begins to melt but, because of its domed design, the water melts down the sides of the igloo, and soaks the blocks of snow. When the blocks are almost completely saturated with water, the Eskimo woman returns, douses her blubber lamp, and allows the frigid outside air to rush in, transforming the fragile snow structure into one of hard, solid ice.

The igloo is now prepared for its temporary tenants, whose body heat, combined with the warmth of one to two blubber lamps, maintain its interior at approximately 55°F. Not until the winter ends, and the exterior temperature rises, does the igloo begin to melt. Hopefully, the Eskimos will be long gone by then, as the igloo will collapse…dome-first!

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One can bank on the fact that most coins derive from Latin words, and are named after people, places, or things.

Even the word coin, translates from the Latin “cuneus,” meaning wedge, and was thusly named because early coins ressembled the wedges the dies used to coin coins. Our cent, from the Latin “centum,” meaning one hundred, our dime, from the Latin “decimus,” meaning tenth, and the French franc, from the Latin “Franconium Rex,” meaning King of the Franks, are all examples of the naming of money, the root of all evil, which translates from the Latin word “mona,” meaning to warn!

On to a more weighty manner in which people named coins, that being physical weight. The English pound, translates from the Latin “pondo,” meaning pound, or, to get more heavily into detail, from the Latin “libra pondo,” meaning a pound of weight. This method of naming coins weighed heavily in naming of the Spanish peso and of the Italian lira.

A sense of fairness dictates that some coins bear the names of the metals of which they are composed. Thus, our nickel is made of nickel. Location, not Latin, sometimes figures prominently into the naming of sum (oops!), some coins. Our very own dollar, not always in paper form, originally hailed from the silver mines of Bohemia, where Bohemians extracted silver for the coins, and minted them in the town of Joachimsthal. Realizing that the coin they termed the Joachimsthaler, short of lacking in creativity, was rather lengthy, our Bohemian friends lost the head of the name, and kept the tail, with the end result being the thaler. The thaler eventually lost its lisp, and became our dollar.

Many countries used their word for crown, for example, crown, sovereign, krone, krun, krone, corona (not the beer), to demonstrate that some crown authority initially granted permission to mint them. Other countries named coins in honor of their heros, such as the Panamanian balboa, after the explorer Balboa, the Venezuelan bolivar, after one of it’s national heros, and the Peruvian sol, also not a beer, but the Spanish word for sun, after this ancient Incan object of worship.

Teflon, the non-stick coating used on pots and pans, holds the title in the Guiness Book of World Records as being the slipperiest substance on earth.

Scientifically speaking, Teflon will not chemically bond to anything, but can be forced mechanically into small nooks and crannies. This slippery substance adheres to their surfaces once manufacturers sandblast them to roughen them, apply a primer, and embed the Teflon into the primer.

DuPont scientist, Dr. Roy Plunkett, accidentally created the recipe for Teflon in 1938, while attempting to produce a better coolant gas than the one currently on the market. In doing so, he toyed with different combinations of gases and, either accidentally or intentionally, left one batch of gasses in a container overnight. Upon arrival at work the following morning, he found that the gasses in the container had “vaporized,” and in their stead, found a slippery, waxy solid, which remained intact when exposed to corrosive chemicals which normally eat through things with which they come into contact.

The substance Dr. Plunkett discovered in the container that day was tetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a solid version of fluorocarbons, or freon. For pronunciation’s sake, the doctor shortened the name for the substance to Teflon, but even the abbreviated name failed to nudge DuPont into production of the product.

In fact, DuPont waited until 1948, ten years after Teflon’s discovery, before beginning its production for commercial applications.

As DuPont dragged its heels in launching Teflon, a Parisian named Marc Gregoire learned of it, and successfully applied it to his fishing tackle to prevent the line from tangling. At his wife’s urging, he managed to apply Teflon to her pots and pans, and within several years, this entrepreneur sold in excess of one million Tefal (his name for Teflon) coated pots and pans.

The concept of Teflon coated pots and pans did not stick in America. When UPI reporter Thomas Hardie encountered one of these coated pans, when visiting a friend who had just returned from Paris, he saw a niche in the American market for the slick pots and pans, and immediately contacted Marc Gregoire in Paris. Hardie pitched these pots and pans to every major U.S. manufacturer of cooking utensils to no avail. His next move in his quest for a buyer was to import 3,000 of the pots and pans, with the goal of selling them to all major department stores. Once again, he hit a roadblock until, finally, he convinced a buyer at Macy’s Herald Square to take 200 pans off of his hands. All sold within two days, despite a major snowstorm.

Hardie had finally arrived, and could not keep up with the demand for his product. While building a manufacturing plant to produce the product, other manufacturers of pots and pans took advantage of Hardie’s moment of silence on the scene, seized the opportunity, and manufactured their own coated pots and pans.

Today, the use of Teflon coating is firmly embedded in America, and extends beyond pots and pans to include bakeware and other kitchen utensils. Hardie’s initiative and staying power paid off handsomely.

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Congress authorized the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to be constructed in the Constitution Gardens of Washington, D.C., on July 1, 1980.

That fall a contest, open to United States citizens over eighteen, was announced to find a design for the memorial. A jury of eight anonymous artists voted on the 1,421 entries submitted. The winner was, then twenty-one year old college student, Maya Ying Lin of Ohio.

Ground was formally broken on March 26, 1982, with the life-sized sculpture of the servicemen, designed by Frederick Hart, being installed in the fall of 1984. Once it had been completed, President Ronald Regan formally accepted the memorial on behalf of the nation on November 11, 1984.

In 1979, when the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund Inc. decided to petition for a memorial, they set out four criteria: the monument had to be reflective and contemplative, it had to blend with its surrounding, it had to contain the names of all those who died or were missing, and finally it could make no political statement about the war.

The design Maya Ying Lin came up with did all those things. On the polished black granite of the monument are the 58,209 names of those who died during the war, listed in order from the first casualty to the last. Included in this number are the names of the 1,150 people who were not confirmed dead and were listed as missing and unaccounted for at the end of the war.

Those confirmed dead have a diamond placed by their name on the wall. Those who were reported missing bear a cross next to their name. If they return alive, a circle is placed around the cross to symbolize life. If their remains are returned or their death is confirmed, a diamond is placed around the cross.

Visitors leave thousands of mementos and flowers at the memorial each year as a remembrance to those who are gone or missing. Every night members of the National Park Service collect the mementos left and deliver them to the Smithsonian Museum who displays them on a rotating basis in the National History Museum.

Did you know?

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Emoticons and E-mail Shorthand Smileys are tiny pictures made from ordinary ASCII characters that are meant to be looked at with the head tilted to the left.

Smileys came about when e-mail correspondents felt the need to convey emotional content such as sarcasm, laughter and other feelings as part of their messages.

Without smileys, simple statements could easily be misinterpreted:
You’re an idiot!

Sometime during 1981, Scott Fahlman, who is now a Principle Research Scientist in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, devised a scheme for encoding and conveying one’s feelings as small text “glyphs” to overcome this frustration.

Scott was the first to use smileys in electronic mail and in posts to BBS message boards and Internet newsgroups, as well as in personal e-mail.

The Emoticons
– Humor
(-: – Masking theatrical comments
:-T – Keeping a straight face (tight-lipped)
– Said with a smile
:-> – Alternate happy face
– Loud guffaw
:*) – Clowning around
– Licking lips
%-} – Silly
:/) – Not funny
:-” – Pursing lips
:-r – Bleahhh (sticking tongue out)
:-f – Smirks
:-p – Smirks
:-1 – Smirks
:-, – Smirks
– Disgusted
:-J – Tongue-in-cheek comments
:-! – Foot in mouth
:-$ – Put your money where your mouth is
– Talks too much
:-I – Chewing on bone
%&$%& – You know what that means…
– Shouting
:-y – Shouting
– Shouting
– Unhappy
:-c – Real unhappy
(:-& – Anger
(:^( – Broken nose
(:<) – Blabber mouth
?-( – Black eye
%-) – Broken glasses
:-b – Tongue stuck out
:-p – Left-handed tongue stuck out
> –-> –-(@ – A rose
||*( – Handshake offered
||*) – Handshake accepted
– Kiss kiss
o= – A burning candle to start a flame
~= – Flaming message
-= – A doused candle to end a flame
|-<> – Kissy face
[] – Hug
(-_-) – Secret smile
‘-) – Wink
– Say no more; nudge, nudge
:-* – Oops! (Covering mouth with hand)
:-# – Censored
:-8 – Talking out both sides of your mouth
>:> – Leer
:-X – Not saying a word
(:-… – Heart-breaking message…
– “Oh, noooooo!” (a la Mr. Bill)
#:-o – Same as previous
… –-… – S.O.S.
:-< – Forlorn
|-( – Late night messages
(:-$ – Ill
(:-( – Sad
%- – Hung over
:~/ – All mixed up
#-) – Another all-night partier
:-’| – With a cold
%+{ – Loser in a fight
( ) – You’re kidding!
<:-O – Eeek!
:-C – Unbelieving (jaw dropped)
*) – About to vomit

E-mail Shorthand2U2 – To You, Too AAMOF – As A Matter Of Fact
AFAIK – As Far As I Know
AFAIC – As Far As I’m Concerned
AFAICT – As Far As I Can Tell
AFK – Away From Keyboard
ASAP – As Soon As Possible
BAK – Back At Keyboard
BBL – Be Back Later
BITMT – But In The Meantime
BOT – Back On Topic
BRB – Be Right Back
BTW – By the way
C4N – Ciao For Now
CRS – Can’t Remember “Stuff”
CU – See You
CUL(8R) – See You Later
CWOT – Complete Waste Of Time
CYA – See Ya
DIY – Do It Yourself
EOD – End Of Discussion
EZ – Easy
F2F – Face To Face
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
FBOW – For Better Or Worse
FOAF – Friend Of A Friend
FOCL – Falling Off Chair Laughing
FWIW – For What It’s Worth
FYA – For Your Amusement
FYI – For Your Information
/ga – Go Ahead
GAL – Get A Life
GBTW – Get Back To Work
GFC – Going For Coffee
GFETE – Grinning From Ear To Ear
GMTA – Great minds think alike
GR&D – Grinning, Running & Ducking
GTG – Got To Go
GTGTTBR – Got To Go To The Bathroom
GTRM – Going To Read Mail
HAND – Have A Nice Day
HHOK – Ha Ha Only Kidding
HTH – Hope This Helps
IAC – In Any Case
IAE – In Any Event
IC – I See
IDGI – I Don’t Get It
IMCO – In My Considered Opinion
IMHO – In my humble opinion
IMNSHO – in My Not So Humble Opinion
IMO – In My Opinion
IMPE – In My Personal Experience
IMVHO – In My Very Humble Opinion
IOW – In Other Words
IRL – In Real Life
ISP – Internet Service Provider
IYKWIM – If You Know What I Mean
JIC – Just In Case
J/K – Just kidding
KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid
L8TR – Later
LD – Later dude
LOL – Laughing Out Loud
LTNS – Long Time No See
MorF – Male or Female, or person who asks that question
MTCW – My Two Cents Worth
NRN – No Reply Necessary
ONNA – Oh No, Not Again!
OTOH – On The Other Hand
OTTOMH – Off the top of my head
OIC – Oh I See
OTF – On The Floor
OLL – Online Love
PLS – Please
PU – That Stinks!
REHI – Hello Again (re-Hi!)
ROFL – Rolling On Floor Laughing
ROTF – Rolling On The Floor
ROTFL – Rolling On The Floor Laughing
RSN – Real Soon Now
RTDox – Read The Documentation/Directions
RTFM – Read The Frickin’ Manual
RUOK – Are You OK?
SNAFU – Situation Normal; All Fouled Up
SO – Significant Other
SOL – Smiling Out Loud (or Sh*t Out of Luck)
TANSTAAFL – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
TAFN – That’s All For Now
TEOTWAWKI – The End Of The World As We Know It
THX – Thanks
TIA – Thanks In Advance
TLK2UL8R – Talk to you later
TMK – To My Knowledge
TOS – Terms Of Service
TPTB – The Powers That Be
TSWC – Tell Someone Who Cares
TTBOMK – To The Best Of My Knowledge
TTFN – Ta-Ta For Now
TTYL(8R) – Talk To You Later
TWIMC – To Whom It May Concern
Txs – Thanks
URL – Web Page Address
w/b – Welcome Back
w/o – Without
WRT – With Regard To
WTG – Way To Go
WU? – What’s Up?
WWW – World Wide Web
WYSIWYG – What You See Is What You Get
Y2K – Year 2000
YGIAGAM – Your Guess Is As Good As Mine
YGWYPF – You Get What You Pay For
YMMV – Your Mileage May Vary
ZZZ – Sleeping

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A phenomenon named phosphorescence is responsible for the light most Glow-in-the-Dark items emit.

Phosphorescence occurs when light absorbed by an object is slowly released and can be observed even after the light is removed. If not tampered with, the light the object emits is dim, and is always pale blue in color.

Chemists had a bright idea to spark interest in this phenomenon and to make it visually stimulating. They discovered that when they mixed fluorescent dye with the phosphorescent material, the object emitted a glowing, brighter green, or sometimes red, light.

The reason for this transformation is that fluorescent compounds absorb the light and rapidly emit it, giving the compounds a glowing appearance. This phenomenon occurs only in the constant presence of the original light source.

The phosphorescent material absorbs the light, and slowly emits a pale blue light, that in turn is absorbed by fluorescent dye. The light now emitted is green or red light, depending on the type of dye used.

The most commonly used phosphorescent material used is zinc sulfide mixed with copper, and the green fluorescent dye most likely is sodium fluorescein. The most likely source or red fluorescent dye is rhodamine. Paired together, the phosphorescent material and the fluorescent material produce a ghostly, glowing green or red light, and hours of enjoyment for young and for old alike.

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