BBC report

Firstly, we shouldn’t be too down hearted about our elimination from Europe. To be honest I feel it might have been a hindrance to domestic success this season. Of course, I am as disappointed as the next man that we are not going to be playing European footy beyond Xmas.

We were extremely unlucky and as luck would have it, it wasn’t Caldwell’s fault that he bounced the ball into his own net.

I guess that’s football.

Our esteemed chancellor of the exchequer, Alistair Darling, is going to announce his pre-budget report today and the pundits have it that he’s going to reduce VAT from 17.5% to 15% in an effort to encourage us to spend. He’s got his head in the clouds if he thinks that’s going to get us spending. For a start, shops, in my experience, will not pass on the tax drop to the customers, or at least they will not pass it all on. But that’s the by and by. What’s really getting my goat is the way it’s now become something bad or shameful about seeking to tax the rich. The Tories are saying that Labour wants to tax the rich as if that in itself is reason enough not to vote Labour. Surely it should be the other way around.

Apparently, those of us who earn more than £150,000p.a. will have their tax raised from 40% to 45%. Frankly, I don’t see anything wrong with taxing anything over 100 grand, 55% and anything over 150 grand, 65%.  On top of that, I’d tax anything over 300,000p.a., 80%.

With regard to VAT, I would drop it completely for home fuel and make sure it’s passed on to punters. I’m told that he intends raising the threshold for basic tax which stands to reason really. There is absolutely no reason for anyone who earns less than £25,000 to pay any more for this country’s economy. In fact, they should pay less. It’s the ones who benefited from the boom years who should bear the brunt of the bust years. It’s really that simple. If someone earns more than £150 grand they are not going to miss anything they earn above that. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that anything over 50 grand a year is surplus to requirements and should be liable to huge taxation. But I suppose that’s something to be ashamed of. :roll:

Well it’s all over the web now and the best of it is that it was one of their own that leaked it. Griffin is apparently blaming it on the BNP rebels who left this time last year and it appears, at first glance, that the last entry was indeed September 2007. That would add some weight to the claim but it should be remembered there is nothing to stop anyone leaking it and removing entries after September 2007 so it proves nothing.

The whole thing makes me laugh. Even when I’m walking up the street I catch myself smiling broadly as I think about the possible ramifications.

Here it is for you to download. I’m going to publish all the members located in Scotland and Ireland once I’ve had a look through them all.

There will be a lot of unhappy people on that list and I’d say some of them will have grounds to sue the arse off the BNP.

e.g

Mr

Reynolds

Bright

7 Highgate Road

Sileby

Loughborough

Leicestershire

LE12 7PN

01509 815346

Will not be renewing 07 (unhappy with short 1st year of membership)

He’s not even a member any more but the BNP are effectively chucking his name around the WWW.

And then there’s…

Mr

Ronnie

Carroll

12A Osborne Gardens

Beltings

Herne Bay

Kent

CT6 6SH

01277 740654

ronniecarroll@tiscali.co.uk

Will not be renewing 07 (unhappy re. short 1st year of membership)

And this bloke never even wanted to join them in the first place…

Mr

Barry

Stedman

62 Scarborough Drive

Leigh-on-Sea

Essex

SS9 3EE

barry@stedmans.org

12/7/07: Sharon and Scot Stedman (issued no’s 27373/27372 on 9th July), deleted from database. (Permission not given for embership.)

Media worker (Sky TV), background in PR/advertising. Pleased to offer advice

You couldn’t make it up and there are loads like that.

This Saturday 22nd November 2008

Live Streaming White Rat TV.

Enjoy…

2pm Sunday 17th November.

White Rat TV — Will work on the mac as well as PC. Double click the player screen for Full Screen mode.

Enjoy.

Live stream — Ustream – good for mac as well as PC.

And — another ustresam

Those two should work fine. They are working right now and they are supposed to be showing the game.

Alternatively, TV ants is streaming it. If you have TV ants installed then just copy and paste this — tvants://tvants.ppnba.com/tvants/?k=562faf4ab86d094b70cb778cb4f6352e — … into your browser. If you don’t have TV ants then there’s no point obviously. ;)

I’ll add other as and when I find them. If anyone else out there is streaming it or knows where it is n=being streamed than please leave a comment with the link. Cheers.

When I heard that Celtic FC were going to don poppies for the Motherwell match at Celtic park last Saturday, I felt literally nauseous. I actually did feel like I was going to vomit. I would liken it the feeling in my stomach I get when I’ve been told a close friend or family member has died suddenly. I didn’t want to believe it. I hoped it was just a sick joke or that someone had got their wires crossed. Seemingly Poppy Scotland contacted the SPL and asked that all the clubs wear poppies for the remembrance weekend. Of course the SPL need no prompting to glorify imperialism and help in the army’s recruitment drive. And now of course, with our current warmongering misogynist chairman in place, it’s inevitable that Celtic would go along with this farce. I would have thought that someone upstairs at Celtic would have voiced concerns though. Maybe suggested sporting white poppies for example. But no, it was not to be. Everyone at Celtic Park it seems, are spineless or are out and out pro-imperialist. What happened to leaving your politics at the door Mr Reid???

So it was left to the few decent fans left, who go to Celtic Park, to voice their disapproval by walking out after 10 mins. They had leafleted around the stadium before the match so that people would know what it was about. Considering that we only had a week to get the protest organised, I think it went extremely well. Well done to the green brigade and tál fanzine, as well as those who joined the protest.

The News of the Screws reported the incident in their usual hysterical fashion and predictably missed the point by a mile.

By James Mulholland, 08/11/2008

HARDCORE Celtic fans were jeered by their fellow supporters yesterday — after refusing to honour the nation’s war dead.

Around 60 anti-poppy protesters walked out of Parkhead 10 minutes into the clash with Motherwell.

But their views weren’t shared by the majority of the Celtic support — who honoured our fallen heroes with a minute’s APPLAUSE before kick-off and BOOED the protesters as they filed out.

The departing fans were joined outside by around 140 others to stage a noisy demo, singing rebel songs and waving the Irish flag.

Their movements were closely monitored by watching Strathclyde Police officers.

The angry fans were demonstrating at the club’s decision to play with a poppy sewn onto their hooped shirts. They claim the red flower is a symbol of British Army brutality in Northern Ireland.

But last night ordinary fans branded those who took part in the 45-minute demo as ignorant — and pointed out that ex-players and fans fought bravely in both world wars.

Celtic follower John Ballantyne said it was “a privilege” to wear his poppy when he attended the game with wheelchair-bound family friend Alexander Tavendale, 15.

John, 49, of Blantyre, Lanarkshire, said: “For goodness sake, we’ve got former players who have won medals fighting for their country. My son is serving in the Army right now. I don’t see why there should be any protest.

“These people fight for our country. It is a privilege to wear the poppy.”

Fan websites urged supporters with Republican leanings to gather at the Cairde na h’Eireann — Gaelic for ‘Friends of Ireland’ — shop in the Gallowgate at 1pm.

Applaud

At the stadium, they handed leaflets to supporters explaining their reasons behind the walkout. It said: “In recent times many of our supporters in Ireland have suffered directly at the hands of the British Army, an army whose soldiers we are expected to applaud and commemorate today.

“This is an insult to our supporters in Ireland and to all of the many thousands with Irish heritage and ancestry that follow the club. Our protest is not aimed at individuals who wear the poppy, it is against the idea Celtic as an institution should be backing British imperialism in any way.”

Shortly before kick-off, the names of Celtic players who had died in the two wars were flashed up on giant screens.

But 10 minutes after the game started, around 60 fans were seen leaving the ground to attend the demo at Parkhead’s front door.

The fans accused Celtic chairman and ex-Defence Secretary John Reid of being a war criminal and called for him to be sacked for “betraying” the Celts’ Irish heritage.

And they belted out foul-mouthed versions of pro-IRA songs.

Protest organiser Stephen McAleese said: “We don’t mean any disrespect to those who have died in the two world wars — my grandfather was in the Army during World War II.

“But the SPL and Celtic PLC have politicised this issue by making the wearing of the poppy compulsory.

“When John Reid took office, he told us to leave our politics at the front door. He would do well to follow his own advice.”

Last night, after Celtic’s 2-0 win, ordinary fans condemned the demo.

Motherwell supporter Matthew Canning, 50, hit out: “I can’t believe people are protesting about the wearing of the poppy.”

A Royal British Legion spokeswoman said: “We asked for the support of all 12 SPL clubs and we are happy that they obliged. We have nothing to say about the boycott.”

A Celtic spokesman added: “The tribute inside the stadium was impeccably observed. The demonstration isn’t worthy of comment.”

See it’s not about the 1st or 2nd world wars. It’s not about dead soldiers. it’s about being part of the army’s arsenal of weaponry. It’s about being used to help recruit for the British Army. That’s what poppy day is all about now. As evidenced by the blanket advertising they have been showing on the telly. Not in my fucking name. If it was about dead soldiers then a minutes silence or the now fashionable applause would have sufficed and that would have been that. We could then have went to the game a wee bit late and missed it so as not to offend the news of the screws or those morons who booed us. I thought we had made it clear in the leaflets, if anyone had cared to read them before making up their tiny little minds about it.

PROTEST AGAINST BRITISH IMPERIALISM

WALK OUT OF STADIUM ON 10 MINUTE MARK

CONTINUE PROTEST – MEET AT WALFRID STATUE

The SPL has decided that all Scottish Premier League clubs should support the Poppy Scotland Appeal. Celtic PLC without proper reference even to its own board, supporters groups or employees has decided to comply with the SPL’s recommendation and has produced a special strip embroidered with a red poppy to be worn by all players in today’s match against Motherwell.

For Celtic to support such an enterprise is extremely insensitive to the huge fan base that the club has in Ireland. In recent times many of our supporters in Ireland have suffered directly at the hands of the British Army, an army whose soldiers we are expected to applaud and commemorate today.

This is an insult to our supporters in Ireland and to all of the many thousands with Irish heritage and ancestry that follow the club. How can the Celtic PLC board expect our supporters to lend support to an army that has plundered and murdered many of our own people?

Bloody Sunday, The Ballymurphy Massacre, the murders of Aiden McAnespie and Peter McBride – these are just a few of the atrocities committed by British troops in Ireland.

This is not about the fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers who were conscripted to fight in two world wars. This poppy day is about the British Army in the here and now – and is being given extra impetus this year because of the falling recruitment figures as a result of its involvement in unpopular conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Our protest is not aimed at individuals who wear the poppy, it is against the idea that Celtic as an institution should be backing British imperialism in any way shape or form.

We believe that the poppy appeal has long passed its original aims to commemorate the fallen conscripts of two world wars and has now become a focal point to rally support for the modern professional volunteer soldiers of the British Army and its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An honourable compromise could have been reached if the club had opted to wear the White Poppy which symbolises peace and opposition to all wars, but it seems that other political agendas are now at work in our club.

The Celtic Chairman John Reid is fond of telling us to “leave your politics at the door” yet this former minister in the British war cabinet continues to bring his own British imperialist and unionist politics into our club. Dr Reid should follow his own advice.

It is a disgraceful turnaround in the history of our club that we should even consider endorsing a celebration of the British Army. Celtic was founded by Irishmen who opposed British military involvement in Ireland and whose lives were devoted to this club, the Irish community in Scotland and the struggle to free their homeland from British rule.

It’s time to reclaim our club from those who would prefer to wrap it in the Union Jack rather than the Irish Tricolour.

Printed & Published by Celts Against Imperialism
Supported by Cairde Na hEireann, TAL Fanzine, Green Brigade

I think that says it all really. So to those neanderthals who booed, hang your heads in shame.

Live Stream — http://wrtvx.blogspot.com/

That there link is working fine as of now.

Published Date: 17 October 2008
By Staff reporter

An appeal has been made to open up a network of secret passages under Derry’s historic walls.

The fabled tunnels are said to have been used by Irish Chieftain, Owen Roe O’Neill to negotiate with the Parliamentarians during the `forgotten’ siege of Derry in 1649.

Now, centuries after the passages were sealed, there have been calls to open them up as a major tourism draw to the city.

Former Navy Commander Peter Campbell, of The Honourable The Irish Society – who can trace his family history to the architect of Derry’s walls in the 1620s (Peter Benson) – has appealed for the passages to be promoted as part of the city’s rich heritage.

“What I do think is we ought to open them up because everyone loves a secret passage. I think it would be terrific have it opened up – it would have great tourist potential.”

A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Environment Agency’s Built Heritage department, which has guardianship of the walls, confirmed that there were many reports of “siege tunnels”.

However, she explained that many are in “private ownership and in variable condition”, making it “difficult” to open them to the public.

However, the NIEA is currently looking at making one tunnel more publicly accessible – the Sally-port which runs through the walls in the area of St. Columb’s Cathedral.

“NIEA and Derry City Council have recently been giving consideration as to how this important part of the history of the walls can be made more accessible for the public and would hope to address this issue in the near future.”

The full article contains 271 words and appears in Journal Friday DER Edition newspaper.

I reckon it would be quite interesting for visitors to the City to see these tunnels, or at least as much as physically possible, in the same way the underground carverns and tunnels are open to the public in Edinburgh. As far as ownership is concerned that hasn’t stopped government agencies taking over or buying the land or property and there is legislation in place to faciltate that.

It really comes down to money. I don’t think that money, or lack of it, should prevent at least some sizeable amounts of these important historical passageways from being available as a tourist attraction. I also think that the money could be recuperated over time and may, with good management, become a good investment.

I suspect the NIEA just can’t be arsed.

BBC Link

Sarah “I can see Russia from here” Palin is not only a daft bimbo but it seems she’s a vindictive little cow as well.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is guilty of abuse of power, according to a probe by the state legislature.

Mrs Palin was accused of sacking a senior state official, Walter Monegan, in connection with a family feud.

She allegedly fired him for refusing to sack a state trooper who was in a bitter custody battle with her sister…

The reelers at the republican campaign aren’t any brighter either. They are telling us that the investigation is politically motivated.

“The following document will prove Walt Monegan’s dismissal was a result of his insubordination and budgetary clashes with Governor Palin and her administrators,” campaign officials wrote. “Trooper Wooten is a separate issue.”

The 21-page report suggests that the allegations against Mrs Palin stem from a conspiracy planned by a former campaign opponent of hers, Andrew Halcro, and Mr Wooten.

“It is tragic that a false story hatched by a blogger over drinks with Trooper Wooten led the legislature to allocate over $100,000 of public money to be spent in what has become a politically-driven investigation,” it concludes.

There’s a brace of problems there though that will make their efforts unravel; 1. The investigation is no longer an investigation. It’s a verdict from the state legislature. 2. The investigation started before she was picked as a running mate…

The investigation into the affair began before Mr McCain selected Mrs Palin as his running mate in August.

This might well be the “October Scandal” that apparently hits US election campaigns that severely dent the front runner’s campaign or finish off the chasing campaign’s quest for the white house.

:lol:

Blinking charlie! McCain could surely not have picked a worse running mate. You’d think he was actually trying to lose the election. I’m almost feeling sorry for the old geezer. He’s far from being the worst Republican candidate there’s ever been.

Way back in in late January I proclaimed Barack Obama as the next the president of the US of A. The thing that clinched it for me was when Ted Kennedy endorsed his nomination. A Nomination that the Clinton camp was desperately hoping for. He was doing alright without the endorsement in my opinion but that clinched it so I went on record and said that he would be in the white house within the year.

Events since have only strengthened my position. I believe that Obama will be better for the world as a whole and better for Americans.

Having just heard Palin going on about relationships with other countries I thought to myself, maybe if she left her own country for a spell she could comment.

What a fucking bimbo.

Baraks endorsement by me and Ted

Baraks endorsement by me and Ted

Celtic Quick News Match report BBC Match Report

Well what can I say. Sheer fucking brilliant and it would be disrespectful to Hamilton to say the opposition wasn’t up to much. The fact is we scored 4 goals that the huns would be raving about. Lets see how they get on at St Mirren. Remember them? That’s the team rangers tried to avoid playing because the state of the art bigot-dome was “waterlogged” :D

Things are beginning to come together at just the right time, never mind our European woes, we’ve been through tougher times than this in the Euro tournaments and came out alright. Lets just concentrate on one game at a time and things will sort themselves out.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986233/

This film, directed by Steve McQueen, took me by total surprise. I found it disturbing and compelling in equal measure. There is little meaningful dialogue until Bobby and a Priest, who in my mind represented many of the different Catholic clergy that happened to visit Bobby during the protest, had a lengthy debate about what Bobby was about to do. The rights and wrongs and even the morality which Bobby rightly scoffed.

The debate was a relief from the disturbing aspects of the film prior to and after the discussion and gave some insight into what drives a man to starve himself to death as a last recourse to protest. The debate itself was an interesting one and well worth viewing the film for it alone. We are left in no doubt that Bobby intended to see his fast to the ultimate end in the face of British intransigence.

The film steers clear of political events going on outside the H-Blocks and even the negotiations going on in the camp. Aside from subtle hints at milestones in the protest. I had to watch it twice in case I missed any.

It leaves you in a state of shock at the shear brutality of the regime the blanketmen had to endure and believe me, it wasn’t poetic licence.  It also shows the powder keg atmosphere in the Blocks and the pressure some of the staff were under, though it also shows the the inhumanity some men are capable of under that kind of pressure and indeed how some can take great delight in inflicting pain and suffering on their fellow human beings, without any kind of presssure at all.

The acting was excellent and all in all, a briliantly made film and a must see. Even for the faint hearted.

Take yer pick from this lot. some will work for others and not for you and vice versa…

http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=19768&part=sports

Keep checking the page as it updates quite often.

I’m using sopcast… sop://broker.sopcast.com:3912/51813 just coppy and past that in your sopcast address bar

it works for me but I’m going to watch it on STV

Mon the Hoops!!!!

Highlights. BBC match report Celtic Quick News Report

I never seen the full match and was forced to listen to it. Even that was interrupted so I can only really comment on the result and the Goals.

As I said in my previous entry, I was a bit worried about this fixture but it seems that the obvious faults with the side have been addressed… For the time being anyway.

Missing yet another penalty was not a good sign and the penalty we did score was not a penalty in my opinion. Not that Nakamura dived. He didn’t, I think he just stumbled under legitimate pressure from the defender. Samaras showed how a penalty should be taken, passing it firmly into the net. The keeper went the right way but he had hit it with controlled conviction, giving the keeper no chance.

Samaras is really blossoming now into a fantastic player. I’ll admit that I wasn’t sure about him but he’s really worked hard recently and that goal was something special.

Maloney’s reaction to his penalty miss was a good sign that he’s not going to let his head go down. On the other hand, Caldwell’s blundering when he went for the ball with both hands up was not a good sign. It looked like he had a fair game before that.

All in all, it was a decent result and we can relax a bit now and try and play some football in the League Cup tie tomorrow night against Livingstone. It’s at Celtic park on a Tuesday night, so a chance for us to play some decent football. There were definate signs of it at Kilmarnock, so hopefuly it will continue and we can string two decent performances together…

Match Report and Strachan’s media Conference

What the fuck is wrong with Celtic? No disrespect to Aalborg but Celtic should really have dealt easily with this team. Yes I know there are no easy games in Europe but come on tae fuck. That performance was a joke last night and there’s no use pointing fingers at any one player or even the manager. Everyone at the Club from the Chairman right through the team, manager and coaching staff should take their share of the blame. That includes the fans that didn’t show up, that normally show up, for the “big” games. £40 a pop for a ticket to watch that shite is beyond the beyond and there’s no wonder some fans didn’t show up but still, you’d think some of us would have been able to fill those seats. Celtic lacked something last night and they were unusually nervous on the ball. Far too many mistakes and a lack of composure in the final third. Too many passengers in the team. We simply can’t afford less that 100% commitment in a Euro match no matter the opposition. Bruce Rioch had the measure of WGS tactically and I could go on…

The only people connected to the club that deserve any sympathy, after last nights result and performance, are the fans that showed up and the lads and lassies that serve grub at the rip off counter.

Barry Robson’s penalty miss had all the elements of what was wrong with the team last night. Nervous but underestimating the task in hand at the same time. What made Barry think that he could just whack the ball down the middle again, hoping that the keeper hadn’t watched his last three penalty kicks? Even a dog would learn how to save one of his penalties. The keeper could have went for a pie and left a cardboard cut out and he would have saved the damn thing. And the ref probably wouldn’t have noticed the swap, judging by his observation/concentration abilities, displayed later on in second half, when he sent the wrong player off for a professional foul. The linesmen weren’t any better either, as demonstrated by chalking off Scott Brown’s perfectly good goal for off-side.

I overheard more than a couple of people last night saying that it wasn’t a complete disaster and that we didn’t need to win. Well I beg to differ. If they [Aalborg] pick up any more away points in this group then I will eat my hat. That means that we have basically given a 2 point start to both Man U and Villareal. It’s completely nullified the potential bonus that they drew with each other last night. We should be sitting two points clear at the top of the group. Our only chance is that we simply must go to Denmark and win. That’s something we’ve not been able to do ever, in I’ve lost count of how many attempts, since the Champions League was spawned by the European cup.

It’s not our only problem either, we go to Kilmarnock on Sunday facing the very real possibilty of dropping points due to a “Euro Hangover” and if people don’t believe me about the affect it can have on us, they need only look at our domestic results after playing in Europe in the past. Together with Killie’s 100% home record and our 75% away record, it spells trouble. The way killie are playing right now, they could probably have beaten Aalborg last night and I’m not being disrespectful to Aalborg.

Well that’s all I can be arsed saying on the matter. The postmortems will conducted on the various Celtic fora.

Link to BBC Panorama

Should be interesting…

Firstly, I would like to offer sincere condolences and heartfelt compassion to the victims and their families and friends. And lets not, as republicans, shrug it off as the RUC’s fault for deliberately ignoring reliable intelligence that it was going to happen that day. Yes they knew but that’s not the point, the RUC and British Special branch have been deliberately ignoring warnings for years. The point is, that members of the RIRA left a massive bomb in a car in Omagh Town Centre. I town were both traditions in the six counties lived side by side without the trouble seen elsewhere. That’s the bottom line. And republicans have to accept that if the bomb had not been planted then it wouldn’t have gone off.

There is an argument that the 40 minute warning was adequate and I would have to agree. But did they give proper instructions as to where should be cleared? I haven’t heard the tape of the call and don’t even know if there is any. If the warning was ambiguous then the fault lies again with the RIRA.

That’s the unpalatable truth.

The RUC too are not without blame. They knew it was going to happen and they did nothing about it. An RUC chief (I didn’t catch his name or see him because I was in the kitchen when he was talking) was on the beeb today saying that the bombing and massive death toll turned people away from the “terrorists”. Call me cynical but it seems then that the RUC had most to gain from that bomb going off.

It turned republican against republican. In Armagh republicans were openly fighting each other in the car park of a pub some time after. Bernadette Sands was said to have broken down in tears upon hearing the news and she, the wife of Micheal McKevvit, leader of the 32CSM. Republicans were in shock. I know I was and condemned it unequivocally.

In typical Irish tradition the family members are having two ceremonies to remember the victims because of the wording on the memorial. BBC LInk I think that’s very sad but I can’t blame relatives and friends feeling strongly about it.

BBC Video

All I have left to say on the subject is that I am glad that this kind of thing will not happen again in Ireland.

James Barker (12)

Fernando Blasco Baselga (12)

Geraldine Breslin (43)

Deborah Anne Cartwright (20)

Gareth Conway (18)

Breda Devine (20 months)

Oran Doherty (8)

Aidan Gallagher (21)

Esther Gibson (36)

Mary Grimes (65)

Olive Hawkes (60)

Julia Hughes (21)

Brenda Logue (17)

Anne McCombe (45, 49?)

Brian McCrory (54)

Samantha McFarland (17)

Seán McGrath (61)

Sean McLaughlin (12)

Jolene Marlow (17)

Avril Monaghan (30) and two unborn twins

Maura Monaghan (18 months)

Alan Radford (16, 17?)

Rocio Abad Ramos (23, 24?)

Elizabeth (Libby) Rush (57)

Veda Short (46, 56?)

Philomena Skelton (39)

Frederick White (60)

Bryan White (26, 27?)

Lorraine Wilson (15)

RIP

Hunger Strike Commemoration Glasgow
Cairde Na H’eireann
Date of Procession Saturday 14 June 2008
Start Time of Outward Route 12:30 PM
Assembly Point Dunolly Street
Proposed Route Dunnolly St, Royston Rd, Castle St, High St, Saltmarket, Glasgow Green

Hunger Strike Flyer

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