GPS Declassified
From Smart Bombs to Smartphones
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Narrated by:
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Douglas R. Pratt
About this listen
GPS Declassified examines the development of GPS from its secret, cold war military roots to its emergence as a worldwide consumer industry. Drawing on previously unexplored documents, the authors examine how military rivalries influenced the creation of GPS and shaped public perceptions about its origin. Since the United States’ first program to launch a satellite in the late 1950s, the nation has pursued dual paths into space - one military and secret, the other scientific and public. Among the many commercial spin-offs this approach has produced, GPS arguably boasts the greatest impact on our daily lives.
Told by a son of a Navy insider - whose work helped lay the foundations for the system - and a science and technology journalist, the story chronicles the research and technological advances required for the development of GPS. The authors peek behind the scenes at pivotal events in GPS history. They note how the technology moved from the laboratory to the battlefield to the dashboard and the smartphone, and they raise the specter of how this technology and its surrounding industry affect public policy. Insights into how the system works and how it fits into a long history of advances in navigation tie into discussions of the myriad applications for GPS.
Published by University of Nebraska Press.
"A carefully researched, well written, fast-paced, and thoroughly enjoyable book." - Space Review
"As an introduction to GPS, its history, uses, issues and concerns GPS Declassified can't be beat." - New York Journal of Books
"Expertly weaves the story of GPS development and its ever-expanding use." - Choice
©2013 Richard D. Easton and Eric F. Frazier (P)2017 Redwood AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
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- The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military
- By: Avis Lang, Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Courtney B. Vance, Neil deGrasse Tyson - introduction
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,975
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,698
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,688
In this fascinating foray into the centuries-old relationship between science and military power, acclaimed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and writer-researcher Avis Lang examine how the methods and tools of astrophysics have been enlisted in the service of war. "The overlap is strong, and the knowledge flows in both directions," say the authors, because astrophysicists and military planners care about many of the same things: multi-spectral detection, ranging, tracking, imaging, high ground, nuclear fusion, and access to space. Tyson and Lang call it a "curiously complicit" alliance.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Inspiring, educational, patriotic.
- By Kevin on 09-17-18
By: Avis Lang, and others
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Rocket Billionaires
- Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race
- By: Tim Fernholz
- Narrated by: Erin Moon
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 204
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 171
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 171
For the larger-than-life personalities now staking their fortunes on the development of rocket ships, the new race to explore space could be a dead end, a lucrative opportunity - or the key to humanity's salvation. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos take center stage in this fast-paced narrative as they attempt to disrupt the space economy, feed their own egos, and maybe even save the world.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Interesting book; hard to listen to
- By K. Thai on 04-12-18
By: Tim Fernholz
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Our Robots, Ourselves
- Robotics and the Myth of Autonomy
- By: David A. Mindell
- Narrated by: David Chandler
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 53
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4 out of 5 stars 40
In Our Robots, Ourselves, David Mindell offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the cutting edge of robotics today, debunking commonly held myths and exploring the rapidly changing relationships between humans and machines. Drawing on firsthand experience, extensive interviews, and the latest research from MIT and elsewhere, Mindell takes us to extreme environments-high atmosphere, deep ocean, and outer space - to reveal where the most advanced robotics already exist.
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5 out of 5 stars
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MUST READ
- By ryan salcido on 10-01-16
By: David A. Mindell
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The Imagineers of War
- The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency That Changed the World
- By: Sharon Weinberger
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 16 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 123
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 108
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Story4 out of 5 stars 107
The definitive history of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon agency that has quietly shaped war and technology for nearly 60 years. Founded in 1958 in response to the launch of Sputnik, the agency's original mission was to create "the unimagined weapons of the future". Over the decades, DARPA has been responsible for countless inventions and technologies that extend well beyond military technology.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Blandly written story about DARPA politics
- By Syed on 04-18-17
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Burning the Sky
- Operation Argus and the Untold Story of the Cold War Nuclear Tests in Outer Space
- By: Mark Wolverton
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 400
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 348
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 345
After the Soviet Union proved to the United States that it possessed an operational intercontinental ballistic missile with the launch of Sputnik in October 1957, the world watched anxiously as the two superpowers engaged in a game of nuclear one-upmanship. Amid this rising tension, eccentric physicist Nicholas Christofilos brought forth an outlandish, albeit ingenious, idea to defend the US from a Soviet attack: detonating nuclear warheads in space to create an artificial radiation belt that would fry incoming ICBMs. Known as Operation Argus, this plan is the most secret and riskiest experiment in history, and classified details of these nuclear tests have been long obscured.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Extraordinary interesting history
- By Magnus Almgren on 10-23-20
By: Mark Wolverton
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The Department of Mad Scientists
- Inside DARPA, the Path-Breaking Government Agency You've Never Heard Of
- By: Michael Belfiore
- Narrated by: Michael Belfiore
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 170
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 90
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Story4 out of 5 stars 92
The first-ever inside look at DARPA - the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - the maverick and controversial group whose futuristic work has had amazing civilian and military applications, from the Internet to GPS to driverless cars
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2 out of 5 stars
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meh
- By Patrick on 12-22-09
By: Michael Belfiore
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The Pentagon's Brain
- An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency
- By: Annie Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,995
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,655
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,643
Discover the definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, in this Pulitzer Prize finalist from the author of the New York Times best seller Area 51. No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history about the organization, New York Times best-selling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain".
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4 out of 5 stars
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Scientia Est Potentia/Knowledge is Power
- By Cynthia on 10-08-15
By: Annie Jacobsen
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Eyes in the Sky
- The Secret Rise of Gorgon Stare and How It Will Watch Us All
- By: Arthur Holland Michel
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 87
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
Eyes in the Sky is the authoritative account of how the Pentagon secretly developed a godlike surveillance system for monitoring America's enemies overseas, and how it is now being used to watch us in our own backyards. Whereas a regular aerial camera can only capture a small patch of ground at any given time, this system - and its most powerful iteration, Gorgon Stare - allow operators to track thousands of moving targets at once, both forwards and backwards in time, across whole city-sized areas.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent Read! I learned a lot!
- By Donald Hill on 03-11-20
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The Puzzle Palace
- Inside the National Security Agency, America's Most Secret Intelligence Organization
- By: James Bamford
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 20 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 74
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 64
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Story4 out of 5 stars 64
In this remarkable tour de force of investigative reporting, James Bamford exposes the inner workings of America's largest, most secretive, and arguably most intrusive intelligence agency. The NSA has long eluded public scrutiny, but The Puzzle Palace penetrates its vast network of power and unmasks the people who control it, often with shocking disregard for the law.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great NSA genesis - but watch the publication date
- By E. M. on 12-05-18
By: James Bamford
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Code Warriors
- NSA's Codebreakers and the Secret Intelligence War Against the Soviet Union
- By: Stephen Budiansky
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 200
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 180
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Story4 out of 5 stars 179
The National Security Agency was born out of the legendary codebreaking programs of World War II that cracked the famed Enigma machine and other German and Japanese codes, thereby turning the tide of Allied victory. In the postwar years, as the United States developed a new enemy in the Soviet Union, our intelligence community found itself targeting not soldiers on the battlefield, but suspected spies, foreign leaders, and even American citizens.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Did Vladimir Putin Steal the American Election?
- By Cynthia on 12-01-16
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Countdown to Zero Day
- Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon
- By: Kim Zetter
- Narrated by: Joe Ochman
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,364
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,059
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,055
The virus now known as Stuxnet was unlike any other piece of malware built before: Rather than simply hijacking targeted computers or stealing information from them, it proved that a piece of code could escape the digital realm and wreak actual, physical destruction—in this case, on an Iranian nuclear facility.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazingly detailed, sober and above all, damning
- By Greg on 11-22-14
By: Kim Zetter
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Stealth
- The Secret Contest to Invent Invisible Aircraft
- By: Peter Westwick
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 123
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 109
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 109
On a moonless night in January 1991, a dozen US aircraft appeared in the skies over Baghdad. To the Iraqi air defenses, the planes seemed to come from nowhere. Each aircraft was more than 60 feet in length and with a wingspan of 40 feet, yet its radar footprint was the size of a ball bearing. Here was the first extensive combat application of Stealth technology. And it was devastating.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good Overview of the original development
- By Amazon Customer on 08-01-22
By: Peter Westwick
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Spycraft
- The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs from Communism to Al-Qaeda
- By: Robert Wallace, Henry Robert Schelsinger
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 19 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,072
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 675
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Story4 out of 5 stars 680
Now, in the first book ever written about this ultrasecretive department, the former director of OTS teams up with an internationally renowned intelligence historian to give listeners an unprecedented look at the devices and operations deemed "inappropriate for public disclosure" by the CIA just two years ago.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Unique, informative history of the CIA
- By Richard on 07-29-08
By: Robert Wallace, and others
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Team of Teams
- New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World
- By: General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman, and others
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6,369
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,522
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5,504
The retired four-star general and and best-selling author of My Share of the Task shares a powerful new leadership model. Former General Stanley McChrystal held a key position for much of the War on Terror, as head of the Joint Special Operations Command. In Iraq, he found that despite the vastly superior resources, manpower, and training of the US Military, Al Qaeda had an advantage because of its structure as a loose network of small, independent cells. To defeat such an agile enemy, JSOC had to change its focus from efficiency to adaptability.
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5 out of 5 stars
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excellent book, very informative.
- By J.J. Gardona on 08-24-15
By: General Stanley McChrystal, and others
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Skunk Works
- A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed
- By: Ben R. Rich, Leo Janos
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10,195
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8,940
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 8,922
From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, the never-before-told story behind America's high-stakes quest to dominate the skies. Skunk Works is the true story of America's most secret and successful aerospace operation. As recounted by Ben Rich, the operation's brilliant boss for nearly two decades, the chronicle of Lockheed's legendary Skunk Works is a drama of Cold War confrontations and Gulf War air combat, of extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement against fantastic odds.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Ben Rich's life story...but not in that order
- By Allstar on 11-05-16
By: Ben R. Rich, and others
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Insiders Reveal Secret Space Programs & Extraterrestrial Alliances
- By: Michael E. Salla
- Narrated by: Jerry Lord
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 496
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 426
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 423
Classified space programs have been an integral part of a complex jigsaw puzzle concerning UFOs, extraterrestrial life, ancient civilizations and advanced aerospace technologies, which have long defied any coherent understanding. Now finally, we have something to put all the pieces together with the disclosures of secret space program whistleblower, Corey Goode. A detailed investigation of Goode’s and other insider testimonies reveals the big picture of a parallel world of secret space programs and extraterrestrial alliances.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A waste of time
- By Roland Vellanoweth on 03-09-19
By: Michael E. Salla
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Kill Chain
- The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins
- By: Andrew Cockburn
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 174
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 147
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Story4 out of 5 stars 142
This essential, pause-resister narrative on the history of drone warfare by the acclaimed author of Rumsfeld explores how this practice emerged, who made it happen, and the real consequences of targeted killing.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Introduction
- By Batman on 03-24-15
By: Andrew Cockburn