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  • Centauri Dreams notes a strange corridor of ice beneath the surface of Titan, a possible legacy of an active cryovolcanic past.

  • D-Brief notes one study suggesting that, properly designed, air conditioners could convert carbon dioxide in the air into carbon fuels.

  • Dead Things reports on the discovery of an unusual human skull three hundred thousand years old in China, at Hualongdong in the southeast.

  • Gizmodo notes the identification of a jawbone 160 thousand years old, found in Tibet, with the Denisovans. That neatly explains why the Denisovans were adapted to Tibet-like environments.

  • JSTOR Daily examines Ruth Page, a ballerina who integrated dance with poetry.

  • Language Hat shares a critique of a John McWhorter comment about kidspeak.

  • Victor Mair at Language Log shares a well-researched video on the Mongolian language of Genghis Khan.

  • Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how Donald Trump, in his defiance of investigative findings, is worse than Richard Nixon.

  • James Butler at the LRB Blog writes about the bombing of London gay bar Admiral Duncan two decades ago, relating it movingly to wider alt-right movements and to his own early coming out.

  • Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen notes a recent review article making the case for open borders, disproving many of the claims made by opponents.

  • Paul Mason at the NYR Daily explains why the critique by Hannah Arendt of totalitarianism and fascism can fall short, not least in explaining our times.

  • Corey S. Powell at Out There explains how, and why, the Moon is starting to get serious attention as a place for long-term settlement, even.

  • Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog explores the fund that she had in helping design a set of scientifically-accurate building blocks inspired by the worlds of our solar system.

  • Drew Rowsome reports on the new restaging of the classic queer drama Lilies at Buddies in Bad Times by Walter Borden, this one with a new racially sensitive casting.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers the massive boom of diversity at the time of the Cambrian Explosion.

  • Towleroad features the remarkable front cover of the new issue of Time, featuring Pete Buttigieg together with his husband Chasten.

  • Window on Eurasia considers if the new Russian policy of handing out passports to residents of the Donbas republics is related to a policy of trying to bolster the population of Russia, whether fictively or actually.

  • Arnold Zwicky considers the various flowers of May Day.

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  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the decline of the Free Tibet movement from a recent 1990s apogee.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the extent to which lynching in the United States is broadly dispersed throughout the country, is not only a method of African-American suppression.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money takes a look at Beto O'Rourke as a Democratic nominee for the American presidency.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money takes issue, rightfully, with the Islamophobic criticism of Ilham Omar by even her supposed allies.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the people who recently died in Bangladesh at one end of a global supply chain, and asks about our responsibility at the other end.

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  • Is the culture of the Canadian navy that much of an obstacle to the retention of personnel? Global News reports.

  • That Chemi Lhamo, a Tibetan-Canadian student who was elected student president of the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus, has come under attacks coordinated through Chinese social media on account of her heritage is disturbing. CBC reports.

  • A successful Nova Scotia chocolatier founded by Syrian refugees is set to take on new refugee hires. The National Post reports.

  • Pankaj Mishra writing at The New York Times is, perhaps unkind but not wrong, in suggesting that the bad habits of Britain's imperial elites are finally rebounding on Britain in this mismanaged Brexit.

  • Andrew Gallagher writes at Slugger O'Toole about the impossibility of Ireland ever having good boundaries through any imaginable partition.

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  • blogTO took a look at the history of Little Tibet, the stretch of Parkdale home to one of the biggest Tibetan communities outside of Asia.

  • Extensive electrical issues with 650 Parliament, the property manager claims, will keep that huge tower's inhabitants from their homes for months. Global News reports.

  • Urban Toronto notes how the new Downsview Park will make its densifying neighbourhood that much more attractive.

  • John Lorinc at Spacing considers the contributions, and possible threats, posed by fringe candidates in this year's mayoral election in Toronto.

  • Samantha Beattie at the Toronto Star reports on what some of the candidates who have dropped out of the race following the halving in the number of Toronto's wards are doing now.

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  • Reddit's unresolvedmysteries highlights a historical conundrum: Who were these hundreds of people from all over Asia who died in a remote district of the Indian Himalayas centuries ago?

  • Smithsonian Magazine notes why 18th century Europeans prized even wildly inaccurate maps and images of colonial cities in the Americas.

  • J.M. Opal's argument at The Conversation that the United States, dominated by a rigid oligarchy, is as unreformable as 18th century Britain is depressing.

  • The suggestion of Dan Malleck at The Conversation, looking back at the Ontario pre-Prohibition history of unregulated alcohol sales, that the Ford deregulation of marijuana sales might be short-sighted, seems plausible.

  • George Dvorsky at Gizmodo shares the latest evidence that pre-contact Easter Island did not undergo a great violent collapse, with no signs of a major conflict.

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  • Architectuul has an extended long interview with architect Dragoljub Bakić, talking about the innovative architecture of Tito's Yugoslavia and his experiences abroad.

  • Centauri Dreams remarks on how the new maps of Pluto can evoke the worlds of Ray Bradbury.

  • The Crux answers an interesting question: What, exactly, is a blazar?

  • D-Brief links to a study suggesting that conditions on Ross 128 b, the second-nearest potentially habitable planet, are potentially (very broadly) Earth-like.

  • Dangerous Minds shows how John Mellencamp was, in the 1970s, once a glam rocker.

  • The Finger Post shares photos from a recent visit to Naypyidaw, the very new capital of Myanmar.

  • Gizmodo explains how the detection of an energetic neutrino led to the detection of a distant blazar, marking yet another step forward for multi-messenger astronomy.

  • JSTOR Daily reports on the now-overlooked writer of supernatural fiction Vernon Lee.

  • Language Log makes an argument that acquiring fluency in Chinese language, including Chinese writing, is difficult, so difficult perhaps as to displace other cultures. Thoughts?

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money suggests that the decline of the neo-liberal world order is needed. My main concern is that neo-liberalism may well be the least bad of the potential world orders out there.

  • Lingua Franca takes a look at how Hindi and Urdu, technically separate languages, actually form two poles of a Hindustani language continuum.

  • The Map Room Blog links to a unique map of the London Underground that shows the elevation of each station.

  • Rocky Planet notes that the continuing eruption of Kilauea is going to permanently shape the lives of the people of the Big Island of Hawai'i.

  • Window on Eurasia notes that the Buddhists of Kalmykia want the Russian government to permit a visit by the Dalai Lama to their republic.

  • Writing at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative, Livio Di Matteo notes that the Trump demand NATO governments spend 4% of their GDP on defense would involve unprecedented levels of spending in Canada.

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  • Suggestions that the family of Canadian hero Terry Fox have Métis ancestry and can claim Métis identity are, among other things, timely. The Globe and Mail reports.

  • National Observer notes the growing foothold of First Nations businesses in Canadian cities.

  • Identity is becoming complex in an increasingly multiethnic and intermixed Canada. The Globe and Mail reports.

  • Québec companies are turning to some of the incoming wave of asylum seekers from the United States in the search for workers. CBC reports.

  • The Toronto Star profiles two Tibetan-Canadians who are fulfilling their childhood dreams by heading off to be educated as dentists.

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  • CBC notes that major First Nations languages in Canada like Cree and Ojibwe may soon be supported by translators in the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa.

  • Julian Brave NoiseCat at VICE argues against an imagining of wilderness that imagines territories without indigenous peoples. Such too readily can enable abuse of the natural world.

  • Bloomberg notes how the Spanish authorities in Catalonia have overriden local governments and populations by transferring dispute art objects to a different Spanish region. This won't end well.

  • Transitions Online notes how traditionally strong Czech support for Tibet and Tibetan exiles has been fading in recent years, with China becoming a bigger player.li
  • Paul Wells at MacLean's takes a look at what might be the latest round of the language debate in Montréal. How important are greetings? (I think, for the record, they might be more important than Wells argues.)

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  • Naomi Klein argues that this summer, of wildfires and disasters, marks an environmental turning point.

  • National Geographic shares stunning video of defrosting Tibetan soil flowing.

  • This dumping of illegally harvested lobsters as garbage on land in Nova Scotia is a terrible waste. CBC reports.

  • Can we limit urban flooding only if we force landowners to contribute to the costs of stormwater infrastructure? MacLean's makes the case.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how data mining of stellar surveys led to the discovery of a new star type, the BLAP.

  • The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly tells about her enjoyable recent stay at Fire Island.

  • Centauri Dreams notes the latest maneuvers of asteroid probe OSIRIS-REx.

  • The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper considering oxygen in exoplanet atmospheres as a biomarker.

  • Joe. My. God. notes how racist Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio is upset at being called a racist.

  • Language Log notes how China censored images of the Tibetan-language tattoo of MMA fighter Dan Hardy.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how deportees to Mexico are beset by that country's crime syndicates.

  • Marginal Revolution links to a paper considering how many sellers a market needs to be competitive.

  • The New APPS Blog considers the racism of Donald Trump in the light of Agamben's concept of the homo sacer.

  • Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw considers the issue of monuments in Australia in the context of Aborigines' sufferings by the subjects memorialized.

  • The Planetary Society Blog shows the Jupiter approach videos taken by the Voyager probes.

  • Towleroad explains why Diana, with her embrace of (among other things) fashion and AIDS victims, is a gay icon.

  • Arnold Zwicky notes the official registration in Scotland of a tartan for LGBT people.

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  • In The Globe and Mail, Marcus Gee looks at how the new high-rise CityPlace district, on the waterfront, is becoming a neighbourhood.

  • Steve Munro celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Spadina streetcar, here and here.

  • Justin Ling at Vice reports on the new disappearances of queer men in Toronto that have left the community on edge.

  • At the Toronto Star, Ben Spurr notes that the bike route at Bathurst and Adelaide, overcrowded, is going to be improved.

  • Aeryn Pfaff describes at Torontoist the historic and continuing important of Hanlan's beach for the queer community of Toronto.

  • Tenzin Nawang Tekan describes the importance of the mono for Tibetans and Tibetan-Canadians, starting in Parkdale.

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  • The New York Times' Michael Wilson tells the sad story of how a woman murdered in Harlem was only identified 47 years later.

  • In NOW Toronto, Gelek Badheytsang writes about the complexities surrounding the visit of the 17th Karmapa to Tibetan-heavy Parkdale.

  • Novak Jankovic writes in MacLean's that there are real declines in the Toronto real estate market, but not enough to set a trend.

  • The Toronto Star's Jackie Hong reports that protecting Bluffer's Park from the waves of Lake Ontario could also wreck an east-end surfing haunt.

  • The National Post reports on how the Ontario NDP claims, probably correctly, that the Wynne Liberals are stealing their ideas. Good for them, I say.

  • Universe Today's Matt Williams notes a study reporting that life on Mars' surface is a much greater risk factor for cancer than previously thought.

  • Seth Miller argues that efficient electric cars will push Big Oil through the trauma of Big Coal in the 2020s.

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  • Centauri Dreams looks at the SPECULOOS red dwarf observation program.

  • The Crux examines VX nerve agent, the chemical apparently used to assassinate the half-brother of North Korea's ruler.

  • Dangerous Minds shares photos of the inhabitants of the Tokyo night, like gangsters and prostitutes and drag queens.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money examines Donald Trump's tepid and belated denunciation of anti-Semitism.

  • Language Log looks at the story of the Wenzhounese, a Chinese group notable for its diaspora in Italy.

  • The LRB Blog looks at the by-elections in the British ridings of Stoke and Copeland and notes the problems of labour.

  • The Map Room Blog shares a post-Brexit map of the European Union with an independent Scotland.

  • Marginal Revolution reports that a border tax would be a poor idea for the United States and Mexico.

  • The NYRB Daily looks at the art of the medieval Tibetan kingdom of Guge.

  • Otto Pohl notes the 73rd anniversary of Stalin's deportation of the Chechens and the Ingush.

  • Supernova Condensate points out that Venus is actually the most Earth-like planet we know of. Why do we not explore it more?

  • Towleroad notes Depeche Mode's denunciation of the alt-right and Richard Spencer.

  • Whatever's John Scalzi considers the question of feeling empathy for horrible people.

  • Window on Eurasia notes the thousands of Russian citizens involved with ISIS and examines the militarization of Kaliningrad.

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The Toronto Star's Ben Spurr notes upset among Toronto's Tibetan-Canadian community at the ads from the China National Tourist Office encouraging visitors to come to "Tibet, China". I myself did see one of these ads, and was not impressed at the heavy-handedness.

Tibet, China


Members of Toronto’s Tibetan community are demanding an apology from the TTC after the agency refused to remove subway ads that critics say are racist propaganda sanctioned by the Chinese government.

“These ads basically portray Tibetans as backwards, as undeveloped and dirty,” said Sonam Chokey, national director of Students for a Free Tibet Canada. “Basically they are trying to legitimize the colonization of Tibet.”

The TTC says the agency had no choice but to run the ads because they’re not in contravention of any law or of the transit agency’s advertising policies.

The posters, which have been on the transit system since Nov. 28, depict two images of Tibet. One is colourless, and shows a clutch of ragged tents and faceless figures in a barren valley, while the other is in colour and shows a modern city in the same mountain setting. The accompanying caption is “Old Culture, New Tibet.”

The posters direct readers to the internet address for the China National Tourist Office.
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At Transitions Online, Martin Ehl writes about how central European disinterest in the Dalai Lama maps onto an increasingly pragmatic pursuit of Chinese investment.

In this way, the October visit of the Dalai Lama – who was the main star of the 20th edition of the Forum 2000 conference, founded by late President Vaclav Havel – was also a test of Havel’s legacy in the former Czechoslovakia. That humanitarian approach is today confined to almost hidden corners of the local political scene, only revived from time to time by small groups, usually consisting of NGO activists, and lately by Kiska. In mainstream politics, it gets almost completely forgotten.

Lastly, the episode illustrates in broader strokes the emerging relationship between Central Europe and China. For the last couple of years, China has crafted its policy toward Europe, and the weak and often Eurosceptic Central European governments have seemed an ideal gateway for Chinese money and political influence. China could thereby reach the wider European Union, which, due to the refugee crisis and Brexit, looks weaker than ever in the last 20 years.

The job, however, isn’t easy for Chinese diplomats in Prague, Bratislava, or Warsaw (the Dalai Lama also briefly visited Wroclaw, without meeting any government official there). They have to exert maximum effort, show off their supposed powers to influence investment, and gain leverage over local politicians. But the real work in leaning on the locals is done by the businessmen who have cultivated business and political ties in China as relations have warmed. That’s not so tough when the United States, a traditional ally, seems so far off, the EU looks to be in disarray, and Russia plays old, familiar Soviet power games.
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  • Beyond the Beyond notes that electronic newspapers just don't work.

  • blogTO notes that the Eaton Centre's HMV is closing.

  • Crooked Timber notes that it will be shifting to moderated commenting.

  • D-Brief notes a new sharp image of Eta Carinae.

  • Dead Things notes that some monkeys are apparently making stone tools.

  • Joe. My. God. shares Le Tigre's new pro-Clinton song, "I'm With Her".

  • The LRB Blog is critical of Britain's hostility towards refugee children.

  • The Map Room Blog links to a new historical atlas of Tibet.

  • The NYRB Daily examines Assange's reasons for using Wikileaks to help Trump.

  • The Planetary Society Blog notes that New Horizons target 2007 OR10 has a moon.

  • The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes the reasons for Ecuador's clamping down on Assange.

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  • Bloomberg notes a report of Egypt's discovery of the wreckage of the crashed EgyptAir jet, reports on the visit of a IMF team to Mozambique, and looks at Vietnam's success in capturing Southeast Asian trade with the European Union.

  • Bloomberg View notes that Donald Trump's candidacy can mean bad things for the Republican Party.

  • CBC looks at how a top export from Tibet is a parasitic fungus, and looks at controversy over a CSIS evaluation of diaspora communities and terrorism.

  • MacLean's looks at the wife of the Orlando shooting.

  • The National Post notes the retraction of an ASEAN statement about maritime borders with China.

  • Open Democracy carries an ill-judged radical Brexiteer's statement. All I can say is that socialism in one country is not likely, certainly not with the Tories in charge.

  • The Toronto Star notes the fears of tax authorities that Conrad Black might abscond without paying his taxes.

  • Universe Today notes the discovery, in a Swedish quarry, of a type of meteorite no longer present in the solar system.

  • Wired reports on the second LIGO discovery and notes the import of The Onion in times of trouble.

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Writing at Torontoist, Rignam Wangkhang celebrates the successful unionization of some Tibetan-Canadian workers at the Ontario Food Terminals, on its own terms and as a sign of hope for workers more generally.

Working at produce wholesaler Fresh Taste, situated away from the public eye on the Gardiner Expressway, Thupten Nyendak faced racism, discrimination, and unequal pay. Routinely told by management to “go back to his country” and that he “was stupid,” Nyendak, the eventual union steward, had had enough. He could no longer accept that his co-workers, some of whom had worked 19 years at the Ontario Food Terminal, were stuck making $14.50 an hour, while other unionized workers at the Terminal were being paid $20.

In November 2015, the first Toronto Tibetan union was born.

Months of seeking fair treatment and wages at the bargaining table eventually amounted to nothing. The only option was to strike. The initial number of strikers quickly ballooned into an entire community standing in solidarity. Almost every labour union in the area, concerned community members, politicians, and a large swath of Tibetans all supported the movement.

After 11 days of relentless, resolute picketing, an agreeable contract was reached. It was a huge victory: the first ever collective action by Tibetan immigrant workers in Toronto was successful.

Fourteen produce pickers of Fresh Taste ratified their first union contract earlier this month. Through this movement, other newcomer and marginalized workers have come to believe that they too have the power to seek fair wages and dignity.
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The Ontario Food Terminal, Toronto's main produce distribution centre, was the subject of two articles coming up on my Feedly RSS feed recently.

The first, Torontoist's "How the Ontario Food Terminal Works", written by Conrad Smyth with photos by Robert Ewart, takes a look at the bargaining that goes on here as buyers contend with sellers.

The OFT runs two distinct operations: a farmers’ market, where exclusively local growers hock their produce, and a warehouse market offering imported fruits and vegetables from around the world. Only legally registered businesses can buy and must pay a nominal fee for use of the facility. Sellers are charged rent by the OFT, with famers’ market access wide open and available by the day, and warehouse market tenants locked into long-term leases currently holding a robust zero per cent vacancy rate.

Prices at the OFT are informally set to a daily price list made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; they fluctuate based on customer demand and vendor supply, with factors as seemingly innocuous as a Loblaws’ flyer promotion depleting inventory levels and pushing up the going wholesale rate. Each vendor issues a single weekly invoice for all purchasing activity, with payment due to the OFT. Once received, the money is doled out accordingly, allowing sales floor deals to be struck in quick succession without concern for the cumbersome exchange of physical cash.

[Bondi Produce]does the bulk of its business with grocery stores and restaurants—the former favouring a sharp cost and commanding a lower per-case purchasing price in exchange for a much higher sales volume, and the latter emphasizing quality and paying a higher per-case price due to the comparatively small size of their orders. Exact numbers are kept close to the chest, though gross margins tends to blend out at about 15 per cent, depending on what is being bought and sold—a $17 purchase is resold for $20, generating $3 of gross profit, and putting the volume necessary to run a financially sustainable business into mind-boggling focus.


The second, NOW Toronto's "Tibetan immigrants fight for fair wages and dignity at the Ontario Food Terminal", written by Gelek Badheytsang, takes a look at an ongoing labour dispute. Apparently many of the workers at the Ontario Food Terminal are of Tibetan background, residents of the heavily Tibetan neighbourhood of Parkdale just east of the Terminal on the Queensway. Apparently working conditions--something touched on obliquely by Smyth's article--are not the best.

Stop and consider the salad in your sandwich, the berry in your smoothie or the saag in your paneer. If you didn’t grow that piece of leafy green yourself, or buy it directly from a farmer at your local farmer’s market, chances are it would’ve been handled by a line of workers employed at the Ontario Food Terminal.

Until recently, Thupten Nyendak could’ve been one of them. He worked full-time for Fresh Taste Produce, one of the distribution companies (called “warehouse tenants”) at the Ontario Food Terminal. Since April 21, Nyendak and 13 of his colleagues have been on strike, protesting low wages, lack of job benefits and workplace harassment. They have been bargaining for a first contract since November.

[. . .]

Before they joined the Teamsters back in October, Nyendak says Fresh Taste workers who complained about being shortchanged on hours worked or requested a pay raise would be told by management "to walk. There are many other Tibetans like you outside, they’d tell us," says Nyendak.

Because he was one of the more vocal employees, Nyendak says he tolerated less of this kind of treatment, letting management know whenever they crossed the line. His confident personality is one of the reasons his colleagues appointed him union steward.

Then there is Zaheed Shamshadeen. Originally from Guyana, he is one of the three non-Tibetans among striking workers at Fresh Taste. He has been an employee at Fresh Taste for 18 years, starting at $12 an hour. He has been earning $14.50 an hour for the last eight years.

“They treat me like shit,” says Shamshadeen, who is reluctant to speak at first. Nyendak encourages him. “Zaheed, tell them how they bully you.”

“They call me names,” Shamshadeen says. He looks downcast.
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  • Bad Astronomy reports on the discovery of a repeating fast radio burst.

  • blogTO lists the five most exciting neighbourhoods in Toronto, my Dupont Street rating there.

  • Centauri Dreams studies the ecology of space colony agriculture.

  • Crooked Timber notes the contrast between progress on climate change internationally and bizarre rhetoric in the United States.

  • Discover's Inkfish reports on a study suggesting scenic environments do keep people healthy.

  • Language Log notes difficulties with accessing Tibetan-medium education in China.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the authoritarian mindset.

  • Marginal Revolution wonders why labour mobility in India is so low.

  • Steve Munro looks at the TTC's policy on fares.

  • The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes yet another issue with the Nicaragua Canal.

  • Towleroad notes Hillary Clinton's apology for praising the record of the Reagans on HIV/AIDS.

  • The Volokh Conspiracy notes an American custody order preventing a mother from talking about religion or her sexual orientation to her children.

  • Arnold Zwicky notes some prominent children's graphic novels.

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