Nokia Wooed, Won by Westchest-a…Moving to White Plains, then to Harrison

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WPCNR WESTCHESTER COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From Westchester County Department of Communications (Edited). April 5, 1004: After months of courting Nokia with personalized site tours, financial incentives, and a coordinated team of resources, Westchester County is pleased that its efforts have paid off. The wireless mobile mogul will locate in White Plains  July 1 while  it expends $14 Million on renovating 102 Corporate Park Drive in Harrison for an occupation date of July 1, where it will house up to 300 employees, with 200 of them to be recruited from Westchester.  Stamford is the loser in the Nokia stakes.

            “We couldn’t be more pleased that Nokia chose Westchester as the place to expand its global operations and set up another corporate office in the U.S. The company definitely made the right decision,” said County Executive Andy Spano. “The new offices will also bring in more jobs and boost our tax base through the hiring and locating of new employees.”


 


The Westchester Wooing of Nokia — $1.1 Million in Exemptions from sales and use taxes over 7 years.


 


Spano said The Office of Economic Development helped the company find a site and the Westchester County Industrial Development Agency offered financial incentives by approving approximately $1.1 million in exemptions from sales and use taxes over seven years.


The process started last summer after the Office of Economic Development received an anonymous e-mail from “a European company interested in Westchester.” After a few more e-mails and then phone calls from a VP in Finland, the county’s Office of Economic Development met up with company representatives. They arranged a visit and hosted a tour of Westchester, showing the types of housing and retail amenities available, as well as available properties over 50,000 square feet.


The representatives then met personally with Spano, CIO Norm Jacknis and Salvatore J. Carrera, head of Economic Development, to learn more about the benefits of Westchester. The office gave another Nokia executive an even more extensive tour, and provided information on schools and the various municipalities.


            When Nokia expressed interest in IDA benefits, the Office of Economic Development pulled together “Team Westchester,” a group of economic development organizations which offer business resources, financial assistance and related services and incentives. The team works as an integrated unit and puts together a package of benefits in response to a company’s requests.


Additional benefits offered to Nokia include the assistance of the county’s One Stop Employment Center, a transportation assistance program that helps commuters, and public utility benefits, all of which they can make use of as the project progresses.

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Nancy Kerrigan’s Special a Westchester Production

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The Big House recently completed post-production on “Nancy Kerrigan’s Colors of Winter,”a two-hour figure skating special set to air on Cablevision’s VOOM high-definition satellite network. The show was shot in HDCAM on location in Vail, Colorado.
Rick Gentile of 24 Productions produced the show for sports marketing agency PS/Stargames. The show features performances by Olympic silver medallists Nancy Kerrigan and Elvis Stojko, recent Men’s Single World Champion Evgeni Plushenko, and Pairs World Champions Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin.

The Big House’s Rob Weir handled the editing chores, putting together 21 individual performances from over 30 hours of source material. Amy Stewart designed and created the entire graphic package for the show. The show was mixed in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround by George Meyer at Howard Schwartz Recording, and the final HD master was created at Rainbow Network Communications on Long Island.

The Big House Group – Ossining, NY
www.bighousetv.com, 914-944-4011

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Rodney Voices Support for Regents Tests. Notes Fallacies of Math A Critics.

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WPCNR GUEST EDITORIAL. By Jonathan S. Rodney.  April 5, 2004: On October 15, 2003, Jonathan Rodney was one of the few persons to testify to the Assembly Committee on Education on high stakes testing in New York City.  Mr. Rodney is a 1992 Graduate of White Plains High School, possesses a Bachelor of Science in Physics from SUNY, Binghamton, and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Boston University. He is employed as an Optical Engineer in the Semiconductor Industry.


 


Here he makes his passionate case for continuation and improvement of Regents tests. His remarks center on a Regents panel report criticizing the Math A test of last June, criticized for being too difficult, off the curriculum and confusing. He exposes those fallacies in his written testimony filed with the committee. With the Math A Regents coming up again in June, it raises the issue of whether Math A will now be too simple a test:



My comments will focus on the June Math A Regents, with general implications.


 


Mr. Chairman, prior to enrolling at SUNY, I attended another college where I once took a math course which was incompetently taught. As it turned out, the professor was as bad at testing as he was at teaching, and I received a grade of A-, even though I had no idea what was going on. The passing grades allowed me to deceive myself for a time, and not face the fact that I was lost. Eventually, I realized, my grade not withstanding, I did not know the material, and would have to retake the course with another professor if I were to have any chance of continuing in math or science. Many students, of course, did not want to retake the class. They were simply glad to survive a nightmare, and since, they had good grades to show for it, why rock the boat? Of course, they had to find other majors.


 


Mr. Chairman, I am absolutely convinced that the greatest danger to kids’ progress is not unfairly difficult tests, but absurdly easy ones that lull us into a false sense of security. I am here to defend the June (2003) exam. It is a beautiful and valuable measure of our kids’ ability, and by all appearances I may be the only person in the state willing to say so.


 


When the Math A panel issued its August (2003) interim report, it claimed to identify several defective items on the test, as well as test construction defects. These defects were offered as proof that the tests were flawed. They were certainly taken as proof by the public, by teachers, by this committee. We should look carefully at those claims.


 


Too Wordy? Inability to Read at H.S. Level the Problem.


 


Allegedly, when students reached the midpoint of the exam, they encountered several unusually difficult problems in a row. These problems were too wordy, and induced excessive frustration, causing kids to “give up.”


 


Consider, for instance, question 27:


 


Tina’s preschool has a set of cardboard building blocks, each of which measures 9 inches by 9 inches by 4 inches.


 


Question 26: Seth has one less than twice the number of compact discs Jason has.”


 


Mr. Chairman, whatever hand-waving arguments the panel may have used about wordiness, the sad truth is that these problems are at a fifth-grade reading level.


 


Tina’s preschool has blocks.  Our kids can’t handle that.


 


Regents Makes Poor Excuses


 


Some of the criticisms are comical. Dr. Brosnan claims it is unfair to ask students how many tickets to a school dance must be sold before it breaks even, because “break even” is an “economics term.” The drawing of a straw in a box is deemed defective because it fails to say, “not drawn to scale,” even though the labeling is crystal-clear, the box is three-sided dimensional (so students could not have used a ruler anyway), and the front face of the box is drawn to scale.


 


To give some idea of how ridiculously easy this (Math A) exam was, question 21 involved a stem and leaf plot. Now, I had never seen a stem and leaf plot. They were not in the curriculum when I was in school. But I could still solve the problem easily. Why? Because the test provided the answer key in the question.


It is possible for someone who had never seen a stem and leaf plot to get that question right. That’s the kid of low level of difficulty we’re talking about: Someone who had never taken the course could get that question right. This is not a hard exam.


 


Array of Questions Criticism Dismissed.


 


In finding number 1 of the panel’s final report, the panel expresses bewilderment at the different array of questions used over the years to test Key Idea 5, which calls on students to use measurement to “provide a major link between the abstractions of mathematics and the real world.” What the panel does not seem to grasp is that the cases cited in the table they provide are all the same problem.


The goal is not to test a specific computational skill. It’s to test whether, given a real-world problem, students can figure out what the appropriate computational procedure is. Key Idea 5, and Performance Standard 5A, say so.


 


That’s a great and bitter irony here. For years opponents of testing have claimed that state tests emphasize rote problem solving. Too much drill; too little real life application. But by insisting that all of the test questions emulate performance assessment examples in teacher guies, it is the critics of the Math A exam who will ensure that the test becomes a test of rote computation. Of course the questions differ wildly. That is the point: to find out whether students can take sundry life experiences and recognize them as manifestations of formulas they learned in the classroom.


 


Brosnan Backs off Claims of Defects in Final Report. (Unreported)


 


But there is something else very peculiar about the final report, something I haven’t heard anyone in the media point out. The final report backs away from the claims in the interim report. This is remarkable. Except for the content standard imbalance (in the Math A test), the final report does not make any specific allegations of defects in specific problems on the test. None. The interium report contains a laundry list of bugs. Except for the content standard imbalance, they have vanished in the final report. The final report is concerned about long-term anchoring problems, vagueness in curriculum, staffing issues at State Education Department, etc. But even the findings of problems in test development – and there are some good ones – have nothing to do with the June 2003 test being defective, compared to, say, the January test. Nothing. Dr. Brosnan backed off his claims of defects.


 


Now, normally one should consider only the final version of the report. People put all sorts of things into drafts; they should be held accountable only for the final conclusions. The problem here is that it was the claims of defective questions in the interim report that provided the justification for raising test scores in the first place.


 


Bait-and-Switch


 


The Brosnan panel pulled an elaborate bait-and-switch. They made a provisional claim that they found defects in the June 2003 Math A test questions. Therefore, the scores had to be raised. The school year having begun, they’ve come out with another report that doesn’t identify defects compared to previous exams. Yet no seems to be suggesting restoring the original scores.


 


Pythagorean Theorem basic. Should not be reason for a “throw-out.”


 


Now, it’s true that this test (June 2003 Math A) had three tests on the Pythagorean Theorem, and none on trigonometry. The problem is that the Pythagorean Theorem is much more basic than trigonometry. It’s sixth grade


Math. People who claim that the test was unfair because it focused on the Pythagorean Theorem rather than trigonometry make complete fools of themselves. It is not possible for a student to understand trigonometry better than the Pythagorean Theorem, because the Pythagorean Theorem is the foundation of trigonometry.


 


Indeed, if a student performs better at trigonometry problems than problems involving just the Pythagorean Theorem, that is evidence that the student has mastered nothing more than rote test-taking techniques. In other words, the Regents Exam has done exactly what it was supposed to do: Expose kids who don’t know what they’re doing.


 


Outrageous Quackery


 


The panel’s impressive-sounding credentials notwithstanding, their complaint smacks of quackery. Make no mistake: The omission of trigonometry questions was a defect in the test. But it does not affect the fact that students who could fail this test as is have not learned enough math to merit high school diplomas.


 


The fact that our students don’t know the Pythagorean Theorem should terrify everyone in this room. But instead of investigating this lack of knowledge, you’re investigating why the kids were asked about it too many times. It is outrageous.


 


Tidying Up


 


The final report did note that the June exam was more linguistically complex than previous tests. But unlike the interim report, the final report did not show that this was due to anything wrong  in the June test, as opposed to something being wrong in the previous tests. Tina’s preschool has a set of cardboard building blocks. If this is really harder than previous exams, then it tells us that the previous exams were too easy, and too many kids were getting high school diplomas who did not earn them.


 


There were ambiguous problems on the test. Problem 14, for examable, is inexcusable. But the passing threshold was so lenient that it was not possible for students with a grasp of the key ideas, armed with calculators, to fail this test. It’s not possible.


 


Don’t Be Cowed by High Stakes Opponents.


 


I urge the committee not to be cowed by the perverse and corrupt phrase, “high stakes test.” In a system, even with portfolios, the smallest thing can make the difference between passing and not passing. Students who fail can retake the test. Driver’s license tests are high stakes, too. Does anyone propose abolishing them?


 


Achievement Tests Tell Us Important Things.


 


This test is telling us something important. It is telling us that we are producing students who cannot count, who do not understand probability, who cannot interpret or construct graphs, who cannot find the volume of a box, or the length of a straw, who cannot, when faced with a practical problem, figure out which algebraic approach to use.


 


During those few days in June when people were feeling really scared, that meant the test was doing exactly what it was supposed to do. The test was a sign that we’re graduating uneducated kids. We should feel scared.


 


The Test told the truth


 


And, how is it that, prior to the test, teachers were giving passing grades to students who couldn’t find the volume of a box? For many kids, the June (2003) Regents was the first time anyone had told them they didn’t know what they were doing. Their teachers had deceived them as to their ability. The test told them the truth.


 


That makes the test the best friend those kids have ever had in school. The raising of test scores can’t be undone. But other challenges will arise. I urge the committee to stand firm on the Regents exams. Protect them from their critics. These exams are the best friends some kids have ever had.


 


Don’t take them away from them.


 


Testimony of Jonathan Rodney, October, 2003.

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WPCNR PHOTOGRAPH OF THE DAY

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WPCNR ROVING PHOTOGRAPHER. April 5, 2004: Today’s Photograph of the Day is of an accident waiting to happen: the most dangerous pedestrian crossing in the city, with no safety zoned cross walks, and no cross walk at the Renaissance Plaza corner across Main Street. Pedestrians crossing to Starbucks or enjoying Renaissance Fountain have fun dodging right turns from Court, speeders down Main and parking lot exiters from the Municipal parking lot. It’s downright dangerous. Push those baby strollers fast, ladies.



MIG ALLEY  By The White Plains Roving Photographer

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White Plains is Legal April 14. Oyster Bar Style Arrives with Legal Seafoods

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WPCNR Main Street Journal. By John F. Bailey. April 4, 2004: Circle the date, matey, Legal Seafoods will have its charter voyage April 14, sailing from Mamaroneck Avenue at the City Center. The warm cherrywood interiors of the new Legal Seafoods vessel being outfitted at City Center, beckoned in passersby on Mamaroneck Avenue Saturday afternoon. One couple came in pleading for chowder, as training of staff was underway inside for the swank, macho-furnished, new shrine to seafood in White Plains – which when it opens will be the only seafood restaurant in the city.



DOCKING APRIL 14: The awnings and chrome and the leaping Cod on Mamaroneck Avenue, already adding life to the City Center. Photo by WPCNR News.



When Legal Seafoods opens for dinner 5 P.M. on April 14, at City Center it will become at once the best seafood restaurant in the County, with more selection, more atmosphere and better prices without the sauce-mad superficiality and limp-finned sea dishes so typical of seafood in the county.


 


A hostess and a corporate executive conducting training exercises yesterday told WPCNR that the shrine to seafood will open April 14 for dinner at 5 P.M, with 7-days a week, full service beginning April 15 for lunch. They will be open Monday through Thursday 11 A.M. to 10 P.M., Fridays and Saturdays, 11 to 11, and Sundays, 12 to 9.



IN THE WHEELHOUSE:  White Plains Legal Seafoods will serve 230 persons at one time. It has a great cherrywood interior complete with a long bar on the left, a circular  glass-enclosed “Wheelhouse,” pictured above sitting area just inside the entrance where “Captains of Development” will hold court, and is lined with steely chrome furnishes, blue and white plates on the walls, and cozy booths. Though it was quiet when WPCNR visited yesterday, you could almost hear the clash of blue plates that will be a trade mark of this place when it opens, and the aroma of butter, steamed clams, and searing choice filets. Photo by WPCNR News


 


I remember seafood was once a lusty, slambang experience down at Louie’s across from the Fulton Fish Market,  on City Island, harborside in The Lobster House in Norwalk, or down on Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, or at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Terminal.  


 


Over the last fifty years, the fruits of the sea have been corrupted by gourmet sauces, small portions, decorative “presentation,” served on huge plates, with all sorts of wimpy dressings, capers, almonds, greens, products of the elitist nouvelle cuisine – anything but what belongs on a side of fish — anything but  the taste of seafood. These enhancements simply distract the seafood enthusiast from the natural manly flavor of bluefish, striped bass, cod, lobster, scrod, swordfish and tuna.


 


This insidious emasculation of seafood movement began when some chef seared tuna for the first time, and tuna cooked rare, and has gradually declined to the point where the taste of real seafood has been corrupted into a shadow of its former flavor.


 


On April 14, fruits of the sea fans, this changes when Legal Seafoods opens up in the White Plains downtown.


 


Having patronized the Legal Seafoods in Boston, I can tell you that fish is on its way back. The portions in Legal Seafoods are  huge slashes of filets, the atmosphere slam-dash, the décor salty, and even though you may be miles inland, you can smell the salt air and almost swear the sway of the trawler tied up at the dock just outside the restaurant. When this opens, it will be the only restaurant other than City Limits with genuine atmosphere in White Plains.


 


The hostess we met gave WPCNR a take-out menu which will feature take out to die for: Cioppino, Steamers, Steamed Mussels, Calamari, it has to be seen to be believed.


 


So watch for it, and bon voyage.


 

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White Plains Photograph of the Day

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WPCNR ROVING PHOTOGRAPHER. April 4, 2004: Today’s photograph brings back an American icon: the Brooklyn Milk Shake. It comes to you through a time warp on Court Street in White Plains, Brooklyn’s Famous Subs & Pizza. The moment you walk through its portals you are in a different place a time, a state of mind and place, that lives once more. It’s 1955, where the Dodgers still play on Bedford Avenue and Sullivan Place, hamburgers sizzle on an open grill night and day, 45s spin on the jukebox, and the ice cream is so good, even the owner helps herself once in awhile.



“Shake It Up!” By the White Plains Roving Photographer

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White Plains Law Firm Hailed as Pro Bono Champ.

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. March 30, 2004: The Pro Bono Partnership has named Susan Corcoran of the law firm Jackson Lewis LLP the 2003 Volunteer of the Year.  A partner in the firm’s White Plains office, Susan has been honored for her outstanding commitment to providing free employment law related services to several of the Partnership’s clients – community based non-profit organizations in Westchester and Fairfield Counties, many of whom serve the needs of children.  Susan also serves as a resource to the Partnership’s legal staff on a broad range of employment-related issues. 

 


Says Mo Segall, the Partnership’s Deputy Director for New York and Connecticut, “Susan is terrific.  We wish we had more volunteers just like her.”  Pat Vaccaro, Managing Partner of the White Plains office of Jackson Lewis, commented, “At Jackson Lewis we believe in giving back to the communities in which we live and do business and we take very seriously our relationship with the Pro Bono Partnership.  We applaud the Partnership’s choice of Susan as its Volunteer of the Year.  She is an outstanding attorney and person with a keen sense of civic and community responsibility.”


 


Established in 1958, Jackson Lewis is one of the largest firms in the country dedicated to representing management exclusively in employment law and related litigation.  With 360 attorneys in 20 offices nationwide, the firm is knowledgeable about national issues and sensitive to the nuances of regional business environments.


The firm’s White Plains, New York office, with 45 professionals, is reputed to be the largest labor and employment law firm between New York City and the Canadian border.  The firm devotes a significant portion of its practice to management education and preventive programs.  This approach helps limit exposure to lawsuits, administrative charges, grievances and related costs.


For more information about our firm, visit www.jacksonlewis.com.

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WPCNR PHOTOGRAPH OF THE DAY

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WPCNR ROVING PHOTOGRAPHER. April 3, 2004: Today’s photo is of the transformed Eastview School fields, under going Mother Nature’s grooming, awaiting their new grass seed to flourish. The fields were created by the Department of Public Works and will be home to the White Plains High School Middle School softball and baseball teams.



RENAISSANCE OF A DIAMOND. By the White Plains Roving Photographer.


 

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Bar Building Designated Historical Site by N.Y.; Cappelli to Demolish Nook

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WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. April 3, 2004: In a news release issued Friday, the New York State Office of Parks and Historical Preservation officially designated the Bar Building an historic site, which requires the owner of the Bar Building to “keep up the building,” as part of  the responsibility of the designation. It could not be determined at press time whether the owner of the Bar Building was required to make improvements in the building. The owner of the building, Anthony Longhitano, according to the White Plains Historical Society, has applied within the last week and a half to have it nationally designated as an historical site as well.



WINNER! The Bar Building built in 1926 as it appears today. The Renaissance Plaza fountain was taking Spring Training. Photo by WPCNR News.



LOSER! The Corner Nook block will be demolished in May according to Louis Cappelli, to provide plaza space for the One City Place apartments. It has been known for three years the block was going to be demolished, the only question was when and by whom. Now we know.  Photo by WPCNR News


 


In another development, Louis Cappelli, the Super Developer, in a newsfeed to The Journal News said he would demolish the Corner Nook-bookstore-deli block next to City Place in May, giving The Corner Nook cafe the rest of April to vacate the premises. He also announced that he would help The Corner Nook with money to locate another location in the city.

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Check, Please: County Tax Bills Fan Out Over White Plains

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WPCNR FINANCIAL TIMES. By John F. Bailey. April 3, 2004: Residents of the city are opening up letters from The City of White Plains containing their Statement of County Taxes for 2004, and the true dollars-and-cents impact of the Westchester County property tax increase on White Plains is hitting home.


If you own a home in White Plains, your County Property Tax is going up 22.3 %. The County Tax bills are due at the end of the month.


The impact varies, of course, according to your assessment. But here is the impact on two homes.


One, situated in the quiet, in-demand Lower East Side of the Southend, assessed at $18,475 Taxable Valuable (a market value of about $600,000)  is being billed $1,849.49 in County taxes,  an increase of $404.41 over the 2003 county tax tab of $1,494.08.


Another home in the posh country-cozy Southend of town, assessed at $23,900 Taxable value, with a market value of approximately $700,000, is kicking in $2,455.97 in total county taxes, up a painful $523.18 from the $1,932.79 they paid in 2003.


School Tax Next in Line


Add to this, the proposed City School Tax Increase of 7.53%, translating into approximately $500, for homes of these values will add another financial layer of pain. Still to come is the tax increase the City of White Plains is expected to impose in its 2004-05 budget, that will be unveiled Wednesday to the Common Council. Of course, there is always the possibility the City of White Plains will attempt to meet the budget gap in another way besides tax increases.


The city budget gap is estimated by its Budget Director, Ann Reasoner to be $10 Million minimum, due to state mandates alone. That is  before salary increases, city-responsible operations of the city theatre, and increased budget demands of all city departments are figured in.


Sales Tax Increase Saves Republican Orange County.


There is the possibility the city may take a leaf from the Westchester County playbook and attempt to recoup part of its total mystery deficit (they have never put a total figure out as to how much total extra revenue they need to meet their expense baloon), by requesting another sales tax increase, as Orange County did last week and had the sales tax hike approved benevolently  by the State Legislature on Wednesday.


According to the MidHudson News website, Orange County’s County Executive Edward Diana, a Republican, in order to balance his budget, included $17 Million in his 2004 budget from an anticipated ¾% county sales tax increase. This increase was unanimously passed by the State Senate this week, and the Assembly passed it by 99-45. County Executive Diana said, according to the Mid-Hudson News, he would take a final vote on the tax Friday.


 


An Intriguing Solution


 


Were White Plains to take this sales tax fix route, Assemblyman Adam Bradley, or Assemblywoman Amy Paulin would possibly be asked to introduce the bill in the Assembly.


 


According to Westchester County Legislator, George Latimer, Orange County has increased property taxes by 22% and 12%, the last two years.



No matter how the city chooses to make up its deficit no matter how big, the financial impact of the county, school and city revenue demands are now becoming sobering reality for White Plains citizens.


A seasoned observer of tax rate minutiae, estimates a total tax increase for residents between the three taxing authorities of county, school district and city as approximately $2,000 on his residence alone, if the city chooses to increase taxes alone.


 


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