text:
Episode 4—Which Russia hack? Part 1
Featured guests include:
Damon McCoy
Damon is an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at New York University's Tandon School of Engineering.
Website: http://damonmccoy.com/
Dennis Dayman
Dennis is chief privacy and security officer at Return Path. He has more than 20 years of experience combating spam, security/privacy issues and data governance issues.
Twitter: @ddayman
Amy Knight
Amy Knight is a historian of the Soviet Union and Russia. She has been described by The New York Times as "the West's foremost scholar" of the KGB. Her most recent book is "Orders to Kill: The Putin Regime and Political Murder."
Twitter: @aknight613
Michael R. Isikoff
Isikoff is an American investigative journalist who is currently the Chief Investigative Correspondent at Yahoo News.
Twitter: @Isikoff
Andrei Soldatov
Andrei is a Russian investigative journalist and co-author of "The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia's Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries."
Twitter: @andreisoldatov
Breach Episode 4 - Transcript
The greatest evil is not done now in those sordid dens of crime that Dickens loved to paint. It is not even done in concentration camps and labor camps, but it is conceived and ordered, moved seconded, carried and minuted in clear, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars, and cut fingernails, and smooth shaven cheeks.
So these cyber threats are a challenge to our national security.
We saw a Russian intrusion in our network.
I don't think anybody knows it was Russia. She's saying Russia, Russia, Russia, but I don't- Maybe it was.
The defendants include two officers of the Russian Federal Security Service.
The Russians did interfere and meddle in our election.
FSB officers protected, directed, facilitated, and paid criminal hackers to collect information through computer intrusions in the United States and elsewhere.
Russian hackers were the ones that hacked the DNC.
They worked with co-conspirators.
They did it on the explicit order of President Putin.
Would you expect a breach? I assume the answer to that's no, or you would have been doing something more?
The objective behind all this was both to advantage Trump and to undermine our democracy and the broader liberal international order.
We've learned so much in terms of the propaganda campaign, the disinformation the stuff on Twitter and Facebook.
Sadly, the question that millions of Americans are now asking is 'what in the world do we do?'
And it's one of the great paradoxes of our time: that the very technologies that empower us to do great good can also be used to undermine us.
The 45th President of the United States of America, Donald J Trump.
This is Breach, a podcast investigating history's most notorious data breaches, brought to you by Carbonite, how businesses protect their data.
I'm Alia Tavakolian, and I'm in this time-travelling DeLorean with cybersecurity journalist Bob Sullivan. He's the cyber Doc Brown to my Marty McFly. We're here in part four. If you haven't already listened to episodes one through three, how did you get here? Find your nearest exit, turn around, and go back to episode one. Don't worry, we'll wait.
In this final episode of Breach, we're going to examine the far-reaching consequences of the Yahoo data breach. They're not black-and-white. Let's start by zooming out for a minute and review what we know for sure about the Yahoo hacks so far. Here's what I know at least: and that is there were two hacks at Yahoo, one in 2013 that was 3 billion done by we don't know who, and then one in 2014 by these four people who were indicted.
So, we have an indictment with four people, two alleged FSB agents, one freelance hacker in Russia, and then one freelance hacker who was a Kazakh but was living in Canada at the time. That's what we know about the Yahoo hacks at the moment, yeah. And we know also that the Russian hack involved this deep dive into people's email accounts.
Oh, and we also know that it wasn't like a one time breach, it was a recurring relationship with this database that these hackers accessed.
They had several years to scan what they wanted, yeah.
But when we say Russia hack, you probably don't think of Yahoo. You probably think of:
The headline reads Russian government hackers penetrated DNC.
So, what do we know about the DNC hacks?
The DNC hack is still out there, and as of this moment as we're having this podcast discussion, there's been no formal charges about that. But what we know is that some actor who has been linked to Russia tricked his way into John Podesta's email, the DNC helping run Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. They stole a bunch of his emails. They tricked him with a simple phishing email. And then whoever stole those emails passed them along to Wikileaks and then dribbled the emails out in the most embarrassing way, to harm the Hillary Clinton campaign. And it's up for grabs and always will be how much impact those emails had, but what's clear is that somebody illegally broke into the DNC servers, and then illegally leaked those emails with the intention of hurting the Hillary Clinton campaign. And most folks think that the hacker group that is responsible for it is tied to Russia.
I remember hearing that John Podesta received a phishing email, and that that was sort of the beginning the tiny beginning of this.
I've seen it. Because that very phishing email is actually on Wikileaks. So, we can- you can see the email that John Podesta fell for, if you like.
Subject line: someone has your password 'Hi John, someone just used your password and tried to sign into your Google account email@example.com.'
And then it says click here to login and fix the problem. And of course all that did was redirect him to a server that was controlled by the hackers, and then he had given them his credentials.
So I mean this is a prime example of a phishing email. Can I tell you something else I notice about this? The whole email address reads 'email@example.com.' There's no googlemail.com, it's gmail.com.
That and many other things about it should have disrupted him. But you know as we've said over and over again, I'm sure he was on a blackberry, at a moment of weakness, and it takes you know two and a half seconds to fall for this. It takes two and half seconds to potentially change the outcome of a presidential election.
That's the more famous Russia hack. So, when we say Russia indictment, you also probably don't think of Yahoo anymore. You probably think of-
I just saw it. Holy shit.
So, it's February 16th, we're sitting in the studio, and I get a notification on my phone.
Yeah, I got a push notification.
And then our producer Jan got a notification, and then Stephen our associate producer got a notification, and then Bob got a notification.
Holy shit.
Did you just get this push notification?
I've literally read two sentences of the of the story.
And it was all because of-
Wait what okay can you just tell me the headline?
Special Counsel investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election has charged 13 Russian nationals and three Russian organizations with illegally using social media platforms to sow political discord, including actions that supported the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump, and disparaged his opponent, Hillary Clinton. So Bob Mueller says that the Russians sided with Trump.
In the indictment, Mueller charged that some of the Russians posing as Americans communicated with unwitting individuals associated with Trump's 2016 campaign, to seek to coordinate political activities. This is crazy. Can we- can we just like talk about that indictment for a second, because I feel like it's relevant.
I think we have to.
So, it's actually pretty specific and pretty narrow. There are lots of different ways that people think the Russians meddled in the US election. One of them was this propaganda campaign on social media, where they manipulated Facebook and Twitter and the way that ads are served and they played into conspiracy theories. And as a result, colored people's social media experience, which as we know is basically how many people experience the world and specifically news now. It's an open question whether it directly impacted the election, I think we'll never know. But what we do know, is that there was this essentially a factory, where they were spending one and half million dollars a month, just churning out inflammatory comments, doing everything they could to stir the pot in American politics. And that worked.
I mean that's the thing right, like you said you know we don't know, we'll never really know if it impacted the election, but the bottom line is they wanted it to impact the election.
Well and also the Russians are smart enough, that I think they would've stopped spending a million and a half dollars a month, if it wasn't working.
For me, it feels like all of this Russia cyber hacking is happening at once, simultaneously, which leaves me with a burning question. We know now that Russia hacked the DNC and the 2016 election. We know as part of hacking the election, Russia made thousands of fake Facebook ads. And we know that a few years before all of this, around 2014, Russia had access to 500 million Yahoo emails, which would include civilians, journalists, public officials, etc. Can we get out the red yarn Bob, like can we connect the alleged Russian Yahoo hack to the alleged Russian DNC hack and election interference? Can we do that?
If this were a movie, the last scene of the movie would be one person was behind all of these things, all these allegations that seem to involve Russian hackers. That's tempting to do, but extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and we don't have that evidence.
Okay but I have a real-life scene, that would fit great in a movie, that might change your mind. It's the very first hint that the DNC might've been hacked, and it starts with Alexandra Chalupa.
She is a consultant for the DNC, and she started doing opposition research into Paul Manafort's connection to pro-Russian political leaders in Ukraine. And then all of a sudden she gets this alert that her personal email had been hacked. Her personal email was a Yahoo account.
It it's really interesting.
Interesting, true?
No. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Go-ahead, like make your Chalupa case.
I mean my Chalupa case is that if Russians are hacking Yahoo to gather intelligence on Americans to undermine democracy, let's just say that is what they're doing with Yahoo right, then it would make sense that they would hack into the Yahoo account of a consultant for the DNC, as another way in to undermine democracy. It's really kinda funny that the Yahoo! News investigative journalist is the one that reported this. So she receives the alert, right, when logging into her Yahoo email account, like-
Oh wait, this isn't a- This isn't a Yahoo author who did the story, this is Michael Isikoff who did this story. And anything, literally anything Michael writes is correct. So, I mean no he's like, that's-
You have not said that about anyone.
It's a short list.
I'm Michael Isikoff, the Chief Investigator Correspondent for Yahoo! News, and the co-author of the new book Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump. One of the early stories I did on the Russian attack on the election, was about a woman named Ali Chalupa who had been working at the DNC as a consultant. She's a Ukrainian American, and got quite energized when she learned that Paul Manafort joined the Trump campaign, because Manafort of course had been working for years for the Yanukovych government in Kiev, the pro-Russian political party aligned with Vladimir Putin. And the idea that somebody who was a consultant to the allies of Vladimir Putin would now be working for the Trump campaign, was a very big deal to Ali Chalupa, and she began trying to get the DNC to pay attention to this. And then right in the middle of this, and this is the Spring of 2016, she gets a pop-up message from Yahoo security, saying that her email has been targeted by state-sponsored hackers.
So, while Ali Chalupa's Yahoo account was definitely hacked, we don't know that it was connected to our specific Yahoo breach.
But I did verify from Yahoo security that this was a real message and that it was a serious matter, what happened to Ali Chalupa.
I can't help but think looking back, are you afraid somebody was looking at your Yahoo emails?
Well, I had a Yahoo corporate email, and that was a question I asked right from the get go 'did the did the Russian hackers who got in also get into our corporate emails?' and I never got an answer to that question.
But as for my my tidy red string tying the DNC hack to the Yahoo hack via Ali Chalupa's Yahoo account.
There are other plausible explanations, beginning with the fact that we now know that Yahoo was essentially a hacker's playground this whole time.
So, there's no reason to believe these alleged Russian hacks are even under the same Russian mandate.
I think we we run a great risk in thinking about Russian hackers as like a room full of people in Moscow, when in fact we're talking about thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people. And it would be- imagine the situation in reverse. Some American hackers hack a Chinese social media site and suddenly China says all Americans have hacked us. So, there certainly are some pieces that lead you to say this needs some serious investigation. The most persuasive one for me, which we've hinted at already, is the fact that Alexsey Belan's name appears both on the indictment, where the US alleges that Russians hacked Yahoo, and on the list of sanctions imposed by Pres. Obama in December 2016, in retaliation for in general election hacking. The fact that Alexsey Belan is on both of those documents, suggests to me that somebody in the state department has connected those two things.
So, maybe it's not Alexandra Chalupa that is our connection between the DNC hack and the Yahoo hack. You're saying it's Belan.
I think Belan is the clearest piece of evidence we have that somebody has connected these dots. But again to be as specific as we can, when the state department issued these sanctions, immediately after the election, the US sanctioned nine entities and two individuals. The two individuals stand out. One of them is a Evgeniy Bogachev, who is perhaps the world's most famous internet bank robber, and the other one is Belan. And the paragraph says specifically the Department of the Treasury is designating two Russian individuals, Bogachev and Belan, under a pre-existing portion of the executive order, for using cyber enabled means to cause misappropriation of funds and personal identifying information. So this is an unsatisfying connection, because that specifically says they committed ID theft and banking fraud. If they wanted to, they could have said 'and potentially meddling also in the election.' However, I think it can't be ignored that this happened at- its its retaliation for the election. So, to me this is statecraft, shot across the bow, we think we know what you're up to kind of thing. But again, you know Belan hasn't been indicted in any formal way, or as far as we know even alleged by the US Government to have been involved in attacking our elections. So, we have to avoid the sort of urge to homogeneity and our natural urge to make sense out of pieces of information that don't necessarily make sense and put them into one frame and our desire for a Hollywood ending. We may not get that satisfying Hollywood ending here.
Breaking News: On March 22, The Daily Beast reported that it has been revealed that Guccifer 2.0, the lone hacker who took credit for providing Wikileaks with stolen emails from the DNC, was a Russian intelligence officer, working for the GRU. So, maybe no Hollywood ending, but...
We're gonna take a quick break, so I can go figure out some metaphors that are as good or better than Bob's. I wanna be a metaphorist, like a florist, but like a metaphorist. Is that real? Don't give me that look Bob.
So, we got hacked and it freaked out our entire team.
Do you think were were breached?
It's been a constant worry of mine since we started this project. I think it's very much a possibility.
We decided we should probably do something other than write emails to the hackers who were probably in our inboxes, like maybe being a little more thorough with our backup system.
Hi, Megan. How are you?
Good. How are you?
I'm fine.
So, I called up Megan Wittenberger from Carbonite.
I'm Megan Wittenberger. I'm the Senior Marketing Manager at Carbonite.
I explained our situation and all of the fears that were now plaguing us daily.
I think that you've accidentally walked into a very precarious situation, unfortunately.
Precarious indeed. In fact, the folks at Carbonite felt so bad that we got hacked while working on their show, that they gave us a year of free service. Thanks, Carbonite. And Megan was super helpful. She gave us some tips on how to manage our backups, the 3-2-1 method. She made it sound easy.
So, one thing you can do is, there's a thing that we in the data protection business call the 3-2-1 rule, and it's a set of best practices for managing your data. So, if you want I can run it down for you.
Yes, Megan. Yes I would. We need help.
So the first one is keep at least three copies of your data, the original and at least two backups. Next, is you want to keep the backups on two different storage sites, like a server, or Google Drive, or the cloud. And finally, you need to keep at least one copy of your data off-site. If you have multiple backups in the same location and something happens to it, it'll be like you never had a backup at all. So, this is when the cloud comes in handy, because you can tap into a provider's global infrastructure, even if you have a smaller business.
So, thanks Megan. And thanks to Carbonite. They really live up to that tagline of helping businesses protect their data. Yeah yeah, branded podcast, we know. But in this case, we couldn't be more grateful to them.
They were unusually loud in their intervention. It's almost as if they didn't care that we knew.
They'll be back in 2020. They may be back in 2018. And one of the lessons they may draw from this is that they were successful, because they introduced chaos and division and discord, and sowed doubt about the nature of this amazing country of ours and our democratic process.
Maybe we can't connect Yahoo hacks directly to DNC hacks. Maybe we won't know their specific intent behind each of these hacks and how they're connected. But I'm wondering if we can connect these hacks to a larger Russian playbook. Do their continued significant malicious cyber enabled activities have a purpose? What's the playbook here for hacks? I mean how how does Yahoo fit into Russia's long-term cyber hacking playbook? I mean, we don't wanna just like make guesses and speculate or hypothesize, we really want to make educated guesses. So we reached out to a bunch of experts, and we read them the super specific list of names, and they really didn't have much to say about it. They really couldn't make sense of it better than we could. However, they did help us contextualize the Yahoo hacks against Russia's long-term playbook, and I thought that was really helpful.
One chapter in the playbook is blatant spying, letting us know they're here.
But I think it's an extension of what we've been seeing in the past, in perhaps even Cold War times right, of kind of espionage and spies and gathering intelligence.
That's Damon McCoy. He teaches computer science at NYU's Tandon School of Engineering, and focuses on, among other things, the economics of cybercrime.
But instead of kind of doing it face-to-face like we used to, now everything is online. And so now they're just simply moving their operations online. And in the case of the Russians, it feels like they're not so worried about attribution. And so they're kind of willing to do these kinds of large operations where there's- there's a high likelihood that they're gonna get caught, like in Yahoo. But they they almost feel emboldened at this point to say 'yeah we're we're spies we're gonna spy.'
I mean, do you agree with what he just said, with the fact that Russians like aren't concerned about attribution.
The Mueller indictment taught us a bunch of things, but one of the things that it taught us without saying it, is that the Russians clearly wanted to be caught. There are so many ways they could have done that out of view, but they did it in plain sight. They had ads for jobs they- they've allowed people who work there to talk to journalists, so-
They could have been sneakier.
Much sneakier. So much sneakier that it's obvious they wanted to be caught.
So even if Russia didn't actually impact our election, they want us to think that they can.
That is exactly the point of all this. We forget because Donald Trump won the election, but all the talk before he won the election was how he thought the results would be illegitimate if he didn't win. We didn't have to cross that bridge, but you know imagine an alternate universe, where instead we spent the last year talking about whether or not Hillary Clinton's win was legitimate, because all of the breadcrumbs had been left there, like the the alibi was set already. So, yes, this is kind of an ingenious strategy where Russia either wins or it wins.
Another approach in Russia's cyber playbook is to gather basic intelligence, to disperse among a bunch of different agencies.
And this might be not one operation, but many operations.
That's our Russian journalist, Andrei Soldatov.
So, the usual way in this case is to say 'look we have access to this particular data,' and then to share this information with departments of the government. And then they can define some intelligence request, like 'wow all of a sudden this particular ministry or this particular department maybe said we need access or we need information about this particular guy.' And then to channel this request for all these- well intermediaries.
And in this case, Andrei goes on to say, the guys running the operation wouldn't know why they were accessing particular information for different accounts.
It could be much more decentralized.
So Dokuchaev or Sushchin sends out I don't know a memo to the FSB 'Hey, we got Yahoo, you need to peek into anyone's accounts?' And then there's some spreadsheet, a Google spreadsheet that they're all sharing. Cool, so this department wants intel on a swiss Bitcoin firm they're interested in, then this department needs dirt on this one guy they're spying on in another country, like just a generalized wealth of information, a search engine, by which to unlock accounts as they need them. Is that like is that what Andrei's sort of talking about, and is that like a real thing?
Sure, without the Google Docs.
The shared spreadsheet.
Yeah yeah, but it's it certainly is not unlike, and I don't mean to pick on the credit bureaus here, but the credit bureaus have this pile of data about Americans. And different kinds of companies show up and say 'hey we'd like to know whether this person is qualified to buy a car, hey we'd like to know if this person is moving, hey this person owes us a debt any chance they've gotten a raise recently?' So, people get to peek at different kinds of data. And what we know from the criminal underground is that - I'm sure that Russia did this with the Yahoo data - but lots of folks have done this, I've seen these databases, where they they are pulling stolen information from various sources, and they merge it altogether, so they have these detailed dossiers on all kinds of people.
And they're probably more interested in kind of high profile figures that have email accounts at Yahoo. So, this is probably the exception to the rule, where they will try and extract value out of that more sensitive personal information. So you can find who's having an affair with who, you can find very sensitive information that could potentially lead to blackmail and compromise of very high profile people. When you're in the intelligence community, this is a classic way right to then collect more and more intelligence on more and more people.
Well, my reaction when you go through this list of names, is there probably were several purposes for singling out these people.
That's Amy Knight. She's a Russian geopolitical experts, who's written six books and over 30 scholarly papers on the topic.
First of all, just the simple process of gathering secret information. You know, the FSB and the SVR, the Foreign Intelligence Service, they're- they are not necessarily terribly discriminating. And some of them probably are still have a little bit of the former KGB mindset, which is 'well anything that's that's secret we can get it's gonna mean something.' But I think that particularly with the banking people, people who know about finance and so forth, I would imagine that blackmail would be something in the back of the minds of of the people who use this information. And not just blackmail because of financial malfeasance, but also personal issues. So if you could find somebody who was fairly high up in a bank or in a financial organization, for example, and you could hone in on some of their personal secrets that they wouldn't want people to know, that's always a very very good way of moving in to influence them.
So, basic blackmail is part of Russia's playbook. This feels pretty straightforward, when you look through the list of targets named in the Yahoo indictment. Russian journalist and investigative reporter working for Kommersant Daily, Minister of Economic Development from a border country, his wife, employees of US cloud computing company, CEO of metals industry holding company.
And you just never know what will be useful in the future. That's at least half the story here, I suspect all of these things occurred.
But you know, another thing that I kind of notice when I'm thinking about blackmail in relation to the Yahoo hack, is when you look at the list of characters whose accounts were compromised, you get a lot of 'and their spouse and his wife.' And that to me feels like prime blackmail material, right?
Sure, it's also you're casting a net to someone who very well may not be as tight-lipped as the professional. I mean-
Right, they're talking to someone they lo- someone they're close to, a personal connection.
Yeah, and your your husband or your wife, who is not the intel officer, hopefully they live by the same strict never write anything down standards, but they're more likely to be loose-lipped. And so that's a really obvious target.
Yeah yeah, 'you staying late at work tonight working on that project on XYZ?' They're, like- they'll say it.
Right. 'honey don't say that.' It's too late.
Delete the email, like that helped. LOL.
Well, I think Russia's cyber hacking playbook is similar to its playbook for other operations, as I mentioned active measures. Which means efforts to influence the political processes in democratic countries, countries that Russia feels threatened by, or would like to control. If you listen carefully to what Pres. Putin and his colleagues, particularly those in the security services say about the West, and if you listen to what they portray as their goals and so forth, it becomes very very clear that the mindset of the Kremlin right now is very similar to the mindset of the Politburo and the Kremlin in the Soviet period. These people feel like they are encircled, they are threatened, the whole internet is hugely threatening to people who are actually presiding over totalitarian governments, which I'd say Russia is. So, they they view the internet both as a threat and as an opportunity.
The open society that the US tries really hard to live in, is being used against us right now, as a hacking tool.
Can you tell me what you mean by open society?
We can say whatever we want. We thrive on conversation, and comment, and the First Amendment. And people misuse the phrase First Amendment all the time, but it's because we all agree at this incredibly fundamental level that voices shouldn't be suppressed. Of all kinds, even voices we disagree with. And when you don't live by that rule, all of this is a lot easier.
It's a lot easier for Russia to conduct a propaganda attack on the US, than vice versa.
Yeah, sowing seeds of doubt is easy when no voices will be squelched, because we also don't know to squelch the voice of Russia.
Yeah, I mean if we had the great firewall of China over our internet, this would not be an issue, right. So, I think what the real tragedy here is that democracy's greatest strength is right now being tested and being used against us.
Another page out of Russia's playbook, is affecting the economy.
There's been some things happening right now in the underground. There's been some activity, some threats, some things that have been got people kind of going 'ooh, okay this is getting really serious.'
That's Dennis Dayman, my cybersecurity spirit guide from our first episode.
Part of the reason why Trump is in office to be honest, and sort of the other things that's going on, is well Russia is affecting the economy and affecting how things are happening on purpose, because they need help. They want, their market to change. I think because for them, having that information allows them to to change the world in a sense. It allows them to dictate where where certain things could be going if they had early information. You know Russia has had a very interesting time in terms of their economy, where oil and gas prices are, how food you know comes in and out for them. It's a very hard nation sometimes some places to live in. And I think by having this ability to push things around a little bit, in the way that they want, is helping them. Like you know getting better prices on food, getting better prices on gas, things for you know for citizens, and then getting the upper arm if you will on other sorts of things in the marketplace, how things are being priced out, what the the price of the dollar is. If they want to invest in other markets. I mean having the ability to say 'you know what I'm gonna invest in this currency, and I'm gonna invest on it, because I'm going to short that currency,' and then having the ability to then influence the market by putting false stories out there. Or in some cases there's been a lot of talk about whether Trump is a part of that plan. By putting Trump in, is the way that he is acting, and the way that he hasn't really gone after you know Russia and Putin, you know is that a part of that plan? Potentially. But having a leader that they know is a little bit off, actually is helpful, because it causes disruption in other markets too. So, yeah having a lot of access to information, if you know how to play the game, you can really control a lot of things.
If you want to hit Americans where it hurts, hit 'em in the markets, right? I mean, we've already seen some incredibly successful hacks, that involve the simplest of manipulations of the stock market, which is the most fragile of hackable systems. And we have you know protections in place. And I can tell you that a lot more has been invested in protecting the stock market, than invested in say protecting Yahoo email or in protecting our elections.
Because it's everybody's money?
Because there's something to really lose, yeah yeah, and you invest money when you're gonna lose money. You don't invest money in democracy, because that's sort of a vague idea. So those accounts are safer, but-
But not unpenetrable.
Absolutely not. Next in the playbook, is this idea of moving war online. So these hacks as a way of training and getting ahead of the curve on cyber war. So, one of the phrases we haven't said yet in this podcast is 'asymmetrical warfare.' It's a really important concept.
Talk me through it.
So, war in the past meant like you put men on this side, men on this side, if you had more men or bigger guns you won. That meant being the largest power in the world gave you an advantage. Asymmetrical warfare, is a situation where one party has a dominant position at least in some form. The other party fights in any way to augment their power. So, flying planes into a building is an example of asymmetrical warfare. In the digital world, one of the important components of asymmetrical warfare, is that the bigger party is actually more vulnerable, because it's bigger; there are more targets. So, in the digital world this is the very uncomfortable position that the United States finds itself in. The country that relies the most on technology, stands to lose the most if technology is disrupted. So, if somebody figures out how to knock the power out in the eastern seaboard, that would be crushing to the US economy; it would not be so crushing in a place where there is power outages all the time. Because we rely so much on mobile phones, if somebody knocked off our mobile phone network, the 911 system, there are all of these ways. We rely so much on technology. And the more that we make our lives dependent on it, the more fragile we are, the more fragile we are to an asymmetrical warfare kind of attack. So this is why this is such a smart play by Russia, or any of our adversaries. Actually I- I've spoken with NATO experts over this, the agreement that if any one of the NATO members are attacked, we all have to defend each other. You know what happens in a cyber attack? Do we have to rush to the aid of Germany if Germany is cyber attacked? And then the real dividing line that people talk about is, when does a digital war become a shooting war? So if somebody knocks out the power grid in the US, would the US retaliate with a physical attack to that?
Right. Oh my God, Bob. I feel like I'm just like melting into the floor. I feel so awful. I'm good. I'm good. Move on, I'm good.
So, people have been waiting for some big event like a cyber Pearl Harbor, a cyber 9/11, as a signal that the cyber war has actually begun, cyber World War III, or whatever you want to call it. I think it's pretty clear that the war has already begun, and it's begun quietly, it's begun on the dark web, and it's begun in an invisible way to most of us. We won't know for years, maybe decades, maybe even longer.
This is what's so complicated about the Yahoo hacks, in the context of a larger Russian cyber playbook. It's interesting to speculate, to draw connections. But whatever Russia is doing, it's happening live, right now, as we speak. We're releasing this podcast in March 2018, who knows what will come to light, that blows even the Yahoo hack out of the water? Right now, we can only see the metaphorical screens right in front of us, watching each Russian cyber attack as it happens. FYI, headline from our very own Nicole Perlroth, dated March 15: 'Cyberattacks Put Russian Fingers on the Switch at Power Plants, US Says.' We may not have the big picture for decades, but at least we're starting to pay attention.
The warnings that the US Government was getting as early as 2014, about what the Russians were up to-
Michael Isikoff again.
The US government had a secret source inside the Kremlin, who was giving pretty explicit warnings about the information warfare plans that the Russians were mounting. It's a reflection of Putin's worldview, where he sees the US as his main adversary. And he knows he can't have a military confrontation with the United States, but he has other ways of poking at us, and I think the information warfare playbook was was front and center. Gen. Gerasimov, who was the chief of staff of the Russian military, had written this piece in 2013, in an obscure military journal, about how the nature of warfare was evolving, and it was now evolving into areas of information warfare, of where the most important battlefronts wouldn't be with tanks and physical armies, but in the cyber sphere. And it was a pretty explicit game plan that was being laid out, and wasn't fully appreciated by the US government. The US intelligence community saw it in Ukraine, they saw it elsewhere in certain places of eastern Europe, but this is a classic case of the dots not being connected.
It's not as if cyber attacks are new for the United States.
After all, we'd had cyber espionage before. They attacked the State Department computers, they attacked the White House computers. These were very big deals in the world of cyber security, of government cybersecurity, but the government never went public with it.
If you look back at the timeline-
Remember, the Russians got into the computer networks of the US Central Command, they attacked the State Department computers, they attacked the White House computers, but the government never went public with it. They never called out the Russians, because that was sort of the thinking at the time: 'we'll handle this quietly, we don't want to escalate it.' There were people, even during the 2014 attack on the White House, that were suggesting this called for a response.
And even earlier-
I mean, it was known that there'd been a hack of the Obama and the McCain campaigns, but the US Government had never publicly attributed it to the Chinese, because that's the way things were done back then.
But this hands-off approach stopped working towards the end of the Obama era.
There was a substantial uptick in the tempo of foreign state-sponsored cyber attacks on the US, and the traditional cybersecurity methods and techniques that were being used by the Government just weren't working.
Because it stopped being simple espionage, when Russia began using cyber attacks to influence the American electorate, by dumping the DNC hack emails days before the Democratic National Convention.
That was the first big shot across the bow, that told everybody this wasn't just standard cyber espionage.
So how do the Yahoo hacks fit into this timeline of escalating attacks?
I mean, as you do point out though, I think the remarkable thing is this public call out, as far as I know the first time FSB agents have been indicted by the US Government for computer hacking. So, that that must mean, like what does that mean?
Well, you know it's it's at least a form of public attribution, it's calling them out. We don't get access to these people, they're not going to be extradited, there actually isn't even an extradition treaty between Russia and the United States. So, the prospect that we're going to get hold of these people, and and and try them in a US courtroom, and imprison them if they're found guilty, is highly highly unlikely, but it's a marker. Look, Robert Mueller, the Special Counsel, just indicted 13 people from the Internet Research Agency, the troll farm in St. Petersburg. There's no expectation that those people are gonna get turned over by the Russians, but it's a it's a way of drawing down a line, and saying 'we view this, what you did as a criminal act.' Now we are still waiting for the indictment of those who perpetrated the DNC hack, or the Podesta email hack. So are we going to indict Vladimir Putin? Will he be an unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment of the perpetrators of the DNC hack? It is interesting that in the Yahoo indictment, it says in addition to the FSB officers who are indicted by name, this was a conspiracy with others known and unknown to the grand jury. And one of those known, was a senior official in charge of Center 18, at the FSB.
That indictment, much like the Yahoo hack indictment, is full of painstaking detail. Bang, here we have a fact, here is amazing detail of the kind of lengths that Russia will go to, in an organized way, that comes very very close to Vladimir Putin's doorstep, that they are involved in manipulating our election, that they have this incredible technology capability that that is refined, and it's professionalized.
I mean, your mind wanders to how useful would it be, if you were trying to commit these larger nationstate hacks, to have access to every Yahoo email ever.
Oh, I mean- it would be an enormous intelligence trove.
It's not unheard of for a country like Russia to gather intelligence, to read our emails, to whatever, right? What is unheard of, is them weaponizing that information, that intelligence. And now we have proof that that's what has happened.
You know, I think you can imagine in your head a meter that suggests you know when does the cold war start to become hot. And when you start using words like 'well they weaponized the digital world to interfere with our election,' well that's a cold war that's getting warm, and that's the seriousness of this issue. I am less afraid of this digital cold war starting a shooting war, than I am afraid that we will lose it, without a single shot being fired.
We'll lose it, because it's happening under our noses, and we're not taking it seriously.
We just can't be bothered to pay attention to it, nor can we be bothered to examine the issues deeply enough to understand what's really happening to us.
If the point of an indictment isn't to actually prosecute the bad guys, but rather to send a message, raise a flag, then one day, when we're looking back at Russia's cyber playbook throughout the 2010s, the Yahoo hack indictment may be remembered as the first instance the US Government says on paper, publicly, 'Russian government, FSB, Center 18, this is not okay. This is no longer standard spying. This is a cyber war.'
So, what's the fallout for the Yahoo indictment back in Russia? What are the consequences for the Yahoo hackers, the FSB, for other tech giants? And who makes amends for us, for me, the consumer? This was supposed to be our final episode, but this thing keeps getting bigger and bigger, so we're making this a two-part finale. Next up, we're going to reckon with the aftermath of the Yahoo breach, what we can demand for our data, and Bob will take us back to kindergarten. That's next time, on our final-final episode of Breach.
Breach is a branded podcast, brought to you by Carbonite, in partnership with Midroll and Spoke Media. You can find transcripts and show notes at carbonite.com/breach. If cybersecurity reporting was basketball, Bob Sullivan would be Michael Jordan. If cybersecurity reporting was Hollywood, Bob would be Michael B. Jordan. Our show is produced by Alia Tavakolian - that's me - and Janielle Kastner, with associate producers Stephen Gardner and Carson McCain. When Bob and I are in the studio, we're recorded by Jared O'Connell. Our show is mixed and sound designed by Mark Moncrieff. The songs you hear come from APM music. Our executive producers are Alex DiPalma and Keith Reynolds, who is eternally grateful he has never had a Facebook account
Sorry, again-
I take all, any and all cocktail party invitations
ALIA and BOB laughing throughout
The great, I just got-
I'm a ball of laughs.
I got a fir- Bob Sullivan, a ball of laughs.
One of my other problems -I have a lot of cocktail party problems- so-
We can have cocktails later.
Clearly I am hinting.
When one thinks of the words "Russia hack," the Yahoo data breach is probably not what immediately comes to mind. Instead you probably conjure thoughts of the alleged Russia hack of the Democratic National Committee and the alleged Russian conspiracy to infiltrate social media sites and sew political discord in the months leading up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
But are all three of those crimes connected? There is certainly circumstantial evidence supporting the idea that they are connected. For example, Alexsey Belan, one of the Russian nationals named in the Yahoo data breach indictment, was also listed when President Obama announced sanctions against Russia for election meddling.
In this episode of Breach, we attempt to connect the dots between the Yahoo security breach, the DNC hack and efforts to undermine the U.S. presidential election on social media. And while we didn't find evidence of a direct link, it's clear that all three can be connected to the larger Russian cybersecurity playbook.
All Episodes
- Episode 0—A new investigative podcast: Breach - Breach podcast - Trailer
- Episode 1—Caution: Falling rocks - Breach podcast - Episode 1
- Episode 2—Goodbye from Yahoo! - Breach podcast - Episode 2
- Episode 3—Good morning, dark web - Breach podcast - Episode 3
- Episode 4—Which Russia hack? Part 1 - Breach podcast - Episode 4A
- Episode 5—Which Russia hack? Part 2 - Breach podcast - Episode 4B
- Breach—Election special - Breach podcast - Special episode
- Season 2 - Coming March 4 - Breach season 2 trailer
- Equifax Data Breach: The Motherlode - Breach podcast - S2 Episode 1
- Equifax Data Breach: The Product - Breach podcast - S2 Episode 2
- Equifax Data Breach: What Went Wrong - Breach podcast - S2 Episode 3
- Equifax Data Breach: The Response - Breach podcast - S2 Episode 4
- Equifax Data Breach: Justice? - Breach podcast - S2 Episode 5
- Equifax Data Breach: Is Privacy Dead - Breach podcast - S2 Episode 6


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One minute you're designing and on top of the world, the next you're suffering from the imposter syndrome. Your team is pushing back on you. You are feeling indecisive. You aren't sure what to do.
Needless to say, product design is an area rife with land mines, and it can be a stressful, nail-biting nightmare. Fear not, I have curated 3 pieces of wisdom to help you navigate these choppy waters. Here, I dole out my best how-to-be-a-kick-ass-designer advice to help you become a better UX Designer.Read More
Do you work at a company where the culture is all about infighting and politics? Are your talented co-workers and employees flocking from the company?Read More

subset: commoncrawl


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Queenstown's Top Campground
Creeksyde Holiday Park is located so you can walk to Central Queenstown easily. it is a dramatic spot to enjoy on its own with great owners and staff.
Take a person who has been involved for years in environmental protection coupled with a plumber husband who has an artistic vision of his trade materials and odd pieces of machinery........ then take a piece of Queenstown real estate and develop a holiday park……… what do you have?
The world's first environmentally certified holiday park that not only has fabulous giant trees and bush right in the middle of Queenstown but a park full of exciting metal sculptures worth strolling around the place and discovering.
Most of the sculptures are serving a functional purpose such as the wishing well fountain or the washer/dryer house while others are there for artistic value. None of them are disappointing to the eye all done in a very whimsical fashion. If you are lucky to meet the plumber turned artist,Tonnie Spykerbosch, you will see the twinkle in his eye and the smile on his face. Erna just sent me a photo of a new barbecue he had installed. Have to see it to get the full effect.
As far as the environmental aspect Erna has worked long and hard to see her patch of turf has always been well taken care of from a personal concept long before it became fashionable. Just imagine a holiday park in the middle of Queenstown, to begin with, and then having it named as an environmentally certified park - the first in the world! Quite an amazing accomplishment but not unusual for the two people involved who have dedicated all their energy to make this spot a place one wants to stay at when visiting Queenstown especially those of us with camper vans and mobile homes.
They also have created a lot of startling accommodations as far as their paint and exterior designs are concerned and all impeccably taken care of. A large and hard working pleasant staff make sure all is clean and tidy and your stay is pleasant and enjoyable.
If you ever have been here you know how hard it is to get around the streets and find a parking place. Staying at Creeksyde it is but a short and pleasant walk to the centre of the downtown area.
They have put as much attention into their buildings, accommodations, ablution blocks as the rest keeping an eye to detail and making sure you will be impressed with the quality of it all. The sites are mostly shaded by large giant trees and are all weather surfaced.
You can take advantage of some of the barbecue complexes in the park plus there is also the spa and sauna that serves well especially if you happened to take advantage of some of Queenstown's adventure thrills such as the luge….
Twenty years ago Tonnie and Erna were told they were crazy when then began the camp and particularly to maintain the trees and bush as they have. It looks to me as they have the last laugh. It is one of the most enjoyable parks we visit in our travels and even more so when we can be in Queenstown. Staying at Creeksyde allows us to come back from downtown to the camp and enjoy the peace and quiet of the place. An oasis in the middle of chaos as we call it.
They have made it easy to enjoy all the time you are here. Just make sure you book ahead. Lots of travellers stop by and it fills early being as Queenstown is the top destination for all visitors to the South Island.


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Building confidence to manage research data. Validated RNRRS Output.
This is one of 280 summaries describing key outputs from the projects run by DFID's 10-year Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) programmes.
Summary for Project title: R8301: Archiving data from integrated pest and disease management projects within the Uganda Banana Research Programme and R8410: Increasing the Effectiveness of Research within NARO, Uganda.
Agricultural researchers in Uganda are now confident of their ability to manage data. Previously, although they had vast amounts of data it often wasn't organised properly. So, they couldn't use it effectively. Banana researchers checked and organised their data in a database. This means that they now have quality datasets that can be used fully, and have fewer problems with analysing data. Because they can extract findings quickly, they show decision makers that they can give prompt and reliable information and that investment in research is worthwhile. Good data management also helps managers apply best practices to data security and ownership. So, research is more useful and contributes more to improving the lives of the poor.
The CD has the following information for this output: Description, Validation, Current Situation, Current Promotion, Impacts On Poverty, Environmental Impact. Attached PDF (11 pp.) taken from the CD.
CPP49, New technologies, new processes, new policies: tried-and-tested and ready-to-use results from DFID-funded research, Research Into Use Programme, Aylesford, Kent, UK, ISBN 978-0-9552595-6-2, p 129.


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Enivisioning An Unforgettable Wedding
We want to help you envision a new way to have the wedding of your dreams.
It's your wedding day. It's likely the MOST important day of your life. You've chosen the ONE you're going to spend the rest of forever with. The one you're going to have a family with, go through the beautiful and the mundane with. So what do you REALLY want this day to be focused on? How do you want to feel, what do you want to look back on and remember?
We've found that most couples want to remember how they felt that day. They want to remember the joy, the love, the hope they shared between their new life partner and the family and friends who are with them on this new journey.
We know what it's like, planning a wedding day. It can be stressful, overwhelming and cause all kinds of anxiety. But SHOULD it? What if your plan was SIMPLE, but ELEGANT, CONNECTION focused, rather than detail focused? What if your wedding day was extravagantly full of love and connection, and simple elegance, rather than just being extravagant and full of stress?
What if we told you we could help you remove some big stressors from your day, and help you THINK DIFFERENTLY about the way you plan the wedding of your dreams? No, we're not wedding planners, but we've been there…many times. We've jointly photographed hundreds of weddings, and seen it over and over again…too often STRESS trumps the day.
This wedding was simple, ELEGANT, and beautifully FULL of CONNECTION. The extravagance was found in their their obvious love, between one another, and for their family. We were moved that day, inspired really. We had already begun this dream of shooting wedding's differently, but this wedding proved that not only is it possible, it's astoundingly unforgettable.


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The new school year begins with more affordable child care and better education funding for all ages — but challenges remain in the education sector
Sep 10, 2018
It's back-to-school season and this September, BC students of all ages are returning to schools facing a very different funding environment. That's because in its first year in power, BC's new provincial government made a major shift in direction in education policy, significantly increasing education investments for students of all ages. The largest and perhaps… View Article


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Despite commitments by the Government to preserve green belt land, it has been "seriously eroded", with an average of more than 1,100 hectares a year being developed between 1997 and 2003, the conservation charity said.
It said more than 45,000 homes - equivalent to a city the size of Bath - had been built on green belt since 1997.
The CPRE welcomed the move by the Government to create the New Forest National Park from existing green belt land and the refusal of damaging development proposals in the West Midlands.
But it warned that land designated to stop urban sprawl across England was under threat from developments including new homes, airport extensions, park-and-ride schemes and wind turbines.
Overall, green belt coverage has increased by more than 30,000 hectares since 1997 - if conversion of 47,300 hectares into the New Forest National Park is taken into account - and now accounts for 13% of land in England.
But the CPRE warns the policy is being weakened where it is most needed and most under pressure - at the edge of towns and cities.
The campaigners also accused Government planning inspectors of undermining protection of the green belt and suggesting it should not be treated as permanent.
Planning Minister Iain Wright said: "This analysis is flawed and one sided. The suggestion that the amount of green belt is falling overall is deeply misleading.
"What the CPRE fail to tell you is that since 1997 the overall amount of green belt has grown by 82,000 acres (33,000 hectares)."


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So there's these quick things I did over the weekend:
They look so happy to be alive.
Both of these were thrown together on Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro. It's a nifty little program for the Mac, iPad, and the iPhone. These were done on the iPad version.
Saturday night, I was over at Bryan's doing vile, unspeakable things and playing through the Mega Man Collection. He'd play to game over, swap, I'd play to game over, swap, etc. When he was playing, I started to sketch.
|Just a bundle of unbridled joy.
I've been messing around with a new digital painting technique in Photoshop, so as soon as I finished with the sketch, I immediately wanted to blow my crew off and go to my apartment where all my equipment is. (Computer, scanner, Wacom.) I'm a really good friend.
But I didn't because that would be incredibly rude and it was really cold outside. Then I remembered Bry had told me about the Sketchbook app and remembered there was an iPad version. So I bought it ($2.99). Now I had to figure out how to scan the sketch to the iPad so I could begin painting. It turns out the iPhone 4 camera can make for a pretty decent impromptu scanner. So I took a picture of the sketch, emailed it to myself, picked up the email on my iPad, imported the sketch to Sketchbook, and began painting.
That was a pretty boring story for you, but shit like that excites the hell out of me.
The Mega Man piece was done that night with my fingers, the way god intended. But since I don't like doing things god's way, I got an iPad stylus the next day and did the Mario piece while everyone else watched that football championship contest thing. There was no physical sketch for the Mario piece, it was done entirely in-program.
Both of these are pretty rough because I'm still figuring out the technique and the program, so I'm probably going to go back and try to redo these, but I'm really excited by the potential. Before, I could only work on a piece when I was at home, no one was over, and the rest of the world was asleep. But with the iPad, the app, and the stylus, I can work on my horrible, horrible images all the time.


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The Miserable Joys of Teaching Other Peoples' Children
When I was teaching, I kept an online journal but I was too chicken to actually publish any of it. What if parents found it? What if my principal found it? What if my mother found it?
But now I'm taking some time off from the classroom; I'm a recovering teacher, if you will – and I'm not afraid anymore. The posts are mostly in chronological order, I think.


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Antoinne Griezmann
I recommend Griezmann as a mid-term hold. Basically, buy him now and keep him until mid-january!
The hype for this player is going to be unbelievable, Man Utd enquired this summer and were close to wrapping up the deal, but Atletico Madrid were given a transfer ban.
Griezmann, being a loyal player, decided to stay with his current employers until they can replace him. He actively said this in a press conference. The fans know he's outgrown Atletico, he will be leaving on 'good terms' as he decided to stay with them.
Many clubs have actively praised Griezmann, with Real Madrid and Barcelona both stating it would be 'ideal' for him to fill the void left by Ronaldo or Messi, as they don't have too many years left.
Griezmann has age on his side. At 26, he is entering his peak years as a footballer.
Great Potential
Although he is 26, he hasn't yet shown the world fully what he is capable of. If he gets a move away from Atletico, he will be able to broadcast his abilities on the big screen.
Fits the Bill
Griezmann has started his own brand, which adds value as a footballer. He also has his own celebration etc, which the likes of Ronaldo, Messi, Pogba have. It sounds weird, but it's all part of brand identity.
Minimum Fee Release Clause
Low release clause of £90m, bargain in todays market.
Reasons to Buy Griezmann
I have withdrawn my profit recently, now playing with just short of £3,000.
I have pumped my money into Griezmann and Dybala as very long term holds.
They are both so young, due to be the next generation of best players with around 10 seasons of football in them. The value is phenomenal.
I initially put £1,000 into Griezmann, but recently I have added another £1,000 into this, with an average cost of £3.64, pic above shows 280 @ £3.56 a share.
Griezmann hit the £6 mark this summer, just before it was announced that he was staying put until January at least. This shows the players potential value, it's as big a move as Neymar to PSG.
Although it's not nailed on he will be signing for Man Utd, it's clear to see they are favourites to land his signature. If he ends up moving to Real Madrid or Barcelona, I think that will make his share price more valuable than if he moved to Man Utd.
Potential Reasons to Avoid
There are plenty of rumours out there, that he personally called Mourinho before deciding to stay at Atletico, agreeing 'mutually' that he would sign in January/End of Season.
There are other rumours that he wanted a Barcelona move, but their deadline day bid was rebuffed, as his release clause increased to £200m. It has since been reduced to £100m, which in today's market, is a bargain. It feels so crazy to say this!
With performance buzz now being doubled, i can see, and hope he rockets past the £6 mark once again. One thing is for sure, with Diego Costa having signed for Atletico Madrid now, the rumours are going to increase! It brings about a great potential for Transfer Trading!
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It's actually a pretty good way to guarantee yourself £30 profit straight off! Simply register, by clicking our banners on the site, deposit £40 and spend it, then fill out the cashback form & Voila! £30 Profit.
Note, It cannot be used with any other promotional offers.


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So here are the newest ads. Hope you like!
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More to come tomorrow! Thanks for stopping by. 801-913-5111


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Customer Reviews
Batteries work great, Rage 3 is the best!
Use this gimbal with a Sony a72 and Canon 24-105. It has enough torque to work with the 105mm which is impressive. The batteries don't seem to last as long as I'd like. (Getting around 3 hours on a set with this setup.) The biggest disappointment is the software for tuning the gimbal. It won't work correctly on my Iphone SE. The factory tuning is not very smooth and needs some additional smoothing added via the app. Unfortunately I can't get the app to work! It crashes on my phone. Otherwise, I'd say it's a decent gimbal for the price.


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DND RELOCATION�- CFB Kingston, Ontario
As a retired military officer and a registered supplier for DND relocation services let me serve you and your family by providing outstanding professionalism, dedication and first class marketing to ensure that your move goes smoothly, quickly and with as little stress as possible.
For those posted out of CFB Kingston I hope that you have enjoyed your time here and I wish you all the best in your new posting. I have�relocation packages for most Canadian Forces Base locations – Please give me a call at 539-9511. I would appreciate the opportunity to show you my marketing plans and discuss listing your property.
Welcome to CFB Kingston, I hope that you will enjoy your time here in the gateway city to the famous Thousand Islands. I will courier a Kingston relocation package to your current address along with some current listings for your review. Please give me a call on my toll free number from anywhere in North America at 1-866-393-5762. I look forward to meeting you and assisting you in finding the perfect property for you to enjoy during your service time in Kingston.
For those in service overseas and who are coming to CFB Kingston send�an email to firstname.lastname@example.com with a courier delivery address and I will get a Kingston relocation package off to you the same day. Include as much information about the type of housing you will require and I will include some listings for you to review. I look forward to welcoming you back to Canada and to Kingston.


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Habitat for Humanity of Lafayette offers an ongoing "Home Repair" program. Most of the efforts and projects of this program are carried out in the context of the specific neighborhoods that Habitat has designated as its "Neighborhood Revitalization" communities.
Home Repairs include:
Small repairs (a leaky faucet, mailbox repair, fence repair, replace a faulty light fixture…);
Larger repairs (new front door, hedge removal, raised bed garden, new gutters…);
and Big repair projects (a new roof, plumbing, furnace, new sidewalk, new storage shed, new garage…).


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Basement Water Removal Parkertown NJ
Basement Water Removal Parkertown, NJ
Basement Water Removal Parkertown NJ, AllStates Cleaning & Restoration pride ourselves in outstanding services delivery to all our esteemed customers when it comes to Cleanup Flooded Basement in your house. mold water damage would get extremely overwhelming the aftermath at your house & business. In case your residence or business is threatened by water or mold damage as a consequence of flooding or leaks, we have very good news for you.
Parkertown NJ Cleanup Flooded Basement is at on call; 24 hour, 7 days per week. We provide a large selection of restoration services which are essential to extenuate structural damage on your property as an effect of flood damage and even basement water damage. Our team at Parkertown NJ 08087 responds to cleanup damages within one hour and as soon as get in touch with us. A few loss attributable to flood damage and water damage in the house include:
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Rain damage
Molds growth in your building
Wrecked dry wall
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Wet buildings after massive water damage promote rapid growth of microorganisms, mold and mildew, roaches and dust mites. These organisms aggravate allergies to susceptible people within your home. Extreme build up of mould inside your property also poses health issues for your family and individuals in the neighborhood. In the event you have asthma or allergies, there is a the potential of experiencing skin's surface rash, eye irritation, congestion and cough when you come in contact with mould. Another side effects attributable to mould exposure also have; a fever, dizziness, vomitus, ailing liver damage, fatigue, as well as abnormal nose bleeds.
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Basement Water Problem & Repair Video:
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►Tell us about you and your podcast
My name is Rafael Baptistella Luiz and I am a professor at Game Dev. As a hobbie I have been the RPG Next website Co-founder since 2015. Our work is to produce a podcast, games, and text about RPG for both people who love RPG and those who are new to it. Our podcast "RPG Next" is recorded in entirely in Portuguese.
►Why & how did you start this podcast?
I myself listen to a lot of podcasts. I like how you can listen as you do other things. In 2015 we started a podcast with our initial goal to spend more time playing RPGs. It took us months to release the first episode because I had to prepare and learn a lot before producing it.
►How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?
We currently release 3 times a week. Each episode takes about 3 to 10 hours of work during our free time. We fund this podcast by ourselves and we spend a lot of time doing all the jobs.
►What do you gain from podcasting?
We have some financing coming from Padrim.com.br/rpgnext, but most of that money is donated to social causes.
►How does your podcasting process look like?
First, we record using VoIP, then of course we need to edit. After that hard work, publishing comes around using the website and social media.
►How do you market your show?
The majority of the show is marketed via social media.
►What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?
Watch and listen to tutorials beforehand, but you don't have to go overboard. Start publishing as soon as you are ready to deliver unique content. Learn by doing and don't ever stop studying.
►Where can we learn more about you & your podcasts?
Updated: a year ago


text: $38 / mo. Billed Monthly. NO setup fee. (Funds go into Operating costs of Imarealflorist) Select this plan $456 $410.50 / yr. Billed Yearly. NO setup fee. (Funds go into Operating costs of Imarealflorist) Select this plan How to Become a Verified Real Florist Business? Flower businesses can only gain this verification if it meets the following: LOCAL HERO Lives and acts like a local business because it is. Will not on-forward more than 25% of all orders that come into the store. BESPOKE FLORISTRY Hand makes all of the orders that come in store. PROFESSIONAL FLORIST Is a registered florist with a valid ABN and registered business name that accepts electronic payments. ACCESSIBLE Has a website and email for potential clients to message. Imarealflorist Business Verification Membership Business Membership Includes: Added on IMA Florist Listing Shop review and ratings from Customers Business Mark as a Verified Florist Available Marketing resources Search Analytics Collaboration with Imareal.florist Branding (Events, etc..) Web Advertisement Access to Nicki & the Imarealflorist team for support Cancel your membership at end of month any time Thousands of Consumers are Looking for a REAL FLORISTS Like You We help you reach potential clients who are searching for flower professionals today! Sign-up for a FREE 30 Day Trial! Connect with us Search for your local REAL florist here! Search!


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By: Stephanie Musso
January 21-27, 2001: The Taba Summit
The Taba Summit was initiated by Bill Clinton. These talks between Israelis and Palestinians had the aim of bringing peace and an end to the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
January 28, 2004: Palestinian-Israeli Gaza conflict
Palestinian militants were said to have set off explosives near Gaza City which lead to an operation by the Israeli army. This fight resulted in the death of Palestinians.
January 29, 2004: Suicide Bombing in Jerusalem
Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and Hamas claimed responsibility for an attack by Ali Yusuf Jaara, who killed 11 people in a suicide bombing of a bus in Jerusalem.
January 29, 2007: Suicide Bombing in Eilat
Three people were killed after a suicide bombing in a bakery that was claimed by the Islamic Jihad and Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. The bomber was from the Gaza Strip and entered Israel through the Sinai border with Egypt.
This past week is an interesting week to look back at the history of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, but these are only a few examples of the tensions between Israeli Jews and Palestinians. This conflict has a long history of both violence and attempts at peace. Suicide bombings and altercations between Palestinians and Israeli troops are an all too common occurrence throughout the territory. Although outside governments and organizations have tried to bring peace, there have been many failed negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians such as the Taba Summit and the Olso Agreement.
The conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians goes back to the creation of the state of Israel as a Jewish homeland. In 1917, the Balfour Declaration named Palestine as a Jewish homeland, which started a migration of Jewish people to what was then referred to as Palestine. This migration was met by some opposition by Palestinians which intensified after a mass migration of Jewish peoples to Palestine during World War II. This mass migration and consequential displacement of Palestinians led to a Palestinian revolt from 1936 to 1939. Some Palestinians opposed the large number of Jewish people migrating to their land because they saw it as a threat to Palestinian culture. Although this was not the reason for the Jewish migration to the land, this sentiment still exists.
The conflict is much more complex than Palestinians seeing the Jewish people as a threat. There is a history of tension that worsened when the British left the territory and declared Israel a state. Up until 1948, Palestine was a British mandate. In 1947, the British began to decolonize the Middle East and during this time the UN Partition Plan created a land divide that was to be followed. The plan created an approximately 55/45 divide of the land between the Israelis and Palestinians once the British left. The division of land created an even deeper conflict leading to multiple wars between the Israelis and Palestinians as the land divide was made without Palestinian consent. During these wars, other Arab states often sided with and assisted the Palestinians because they did not recognize Israel as a state. Although the Palestinians had help, throughout a series of wars the Israelis were able to occupy even more territory.
The Palestinians now only control areas in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This is where terrorist groups such as Hamas formed (although Hamas now denounces terrorism). Terrorism continues to be a problem in Israel by terrorist organizations and individual jihadists which operate off the sentiments that started decades ago.
Today Israel illegally occupies more territory than UN Partition Plan originally called for and Palestinians have been displaced both internally and as refugees. However this is a two-sided conflict; even though the conflict has multiple facets and a long history, it is perpetuated further by the suicide bombers and daily fights that occur by both Israelis and Palestinians.
Stephanie Musso is currently an intern at the EastWest Institute.


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Cloud computing services, championed by companies as diverse as Google, Salesforce and IBM, are generating big time revenues today with even rosier forecasts for future growth.
What's driving the interest in the cloud and where are the strongest areas of growth and experimentation? CIO Update reports on the latest research and forecast by Gartner and why the firm sees strong growth ahead for cloud services even though enterprise customers still have security concerns.
Gartner this week confirmed what the rest of the IT industry has known for years: the cloud is the next sure-fire growth market for hardware, software and services providers around the world.
In a report released this week, Gartner is now projecting worldwide cloud services revenue will soar to more than $68.3 billion this year, a 16.6 percent improvement from an already-robust 2009 and a harbinger of things to come.
Return to hosting news headlines
View Hosting News Archive


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Malta travel guide and tourism info for the curious traveller
So you're thinking of travelling to Malta and you're looking for a Malta holidays and travel guide to help you plan your trip? You've come to the right place!
How is this Malta travel guide different from all the others?
My mission is to go beyond what you'd get from a standard Malta travel guide and show you what you can expect, with insider info only the locals know about. Off the beaten path tips, a balanced view of what's worth doing and where the best place to stay is, etc. Can't find what you're looking for? Ask me a question. I'll skip past the basics about Malta (although they're definitely worth a read), and focus on the most important travel info you came here for. Behind all major topics you'll find on this page you can click through to more detailed articles on each.
Why visit Malta?
I can think of at least 10 reasons to visit Malta. The main ones are:
- The Maltese are generally very hospitable and the vast majority speak English well
- The weather is great: Over 3,000 hours of sunshine a year, an average daytime temperature of around 30 C during summer months and 15 C during winter months
- There are various types of beaches around if you're looking for a beach holiday
- Few countries in the world can offer visitors as much in terms of history and culture as Malta can, in so little space. If like exploring points of interest on your travels, you will not be bored. Guaranteed. Malta's capital of Valletta alone is a big treasure trove of things to discover.
Heading to Valletta? Get a copy of my guidebook!
Get the most out of your visit to Malta's capital city with my 159-page Valletta travel guide eBook, packed with local knowledge on:
- The best points of interest
- Exploring the city, including walking routes and itineraries
- Best places for food and drink
- Accommodation suggestions
- ...and more!
Get your copy and get ready to explore!
When to go
Deciding during what time of the year to travel to Malta can be tricky. July and August are the busiest months in terms of tourism and they're also the hottest months of the year. If your main priority is hanging out on the beach, enjoying the sunny weather, and not much else, you're good. If you want to explore Malta and enjoy some beach time as well, you're probably better off going in June or September.
Although the weather can be a little unpredictable, especially in September when the weather system is often affected by the long spell of heat and humidity in July/August. If beach holidays just aren't your thing, April/May is probably the best time to go. That way you get to enjoy the lovely spring weather and at the same time avoid the business of peak season. During the winter months, Malta is also a great winter escape.
The weather can be unpredictable in terms of cloudy/rainy weather but the sun is always around and gloomy weather rarely lasts. You'll be able to enjoy points of interest in relative peace and good quality hotels with favourable rates during that time of the year means there are plenty of opportunities to relax as well.
How to get there
The two most popular ways to get to Malta are:
- By air – Various European airlines fly to Malta from most major cities in Europe and you can easily get a reasonably-priced flight to Malta if you book in advance.
- By sea – Either on a cruise liner or taking a ferry. The most popular ferry route comes in from Pozzallo in Sicily (Italy)
Where to stay and best hotels
Where to stay in Malta really depends on what type of traveller you are and what you plan on doing during your visit. Whatever your plans are, travelling to different parts of the island doesn't take long at all, especially if you decide to hire a car. Public transport can be a little trickier, however, so it's still worth choosing your location carefully.
I offer some advice on doing that here: Where to stay in Malta.
Malta offers a good selection of hotels that suit different budgets and requirements, but not all are as good as advertised.
Here are my recommendations for the best hotels in Malta
Getting around
Driving yourself
You can hire a car from major touristic places like Sliema and Buġibba, Qawra and St. Paul's Bay, but also from the airport with internationally recognised car hire companies being represented. Driving in Malta can be tricky. It's one of the few countries in the world where people drive on the left-hand side. Although if you were to ask the Maltese where they drive, they'll tell you "In the shade". Which is funny but sometimes rather accurate.
Drivers tend to be temperamental and not particularly interested in abiding by the law of the road. That means you need to be focused and aware of your surroundings more so than anywhere else. Especially at junctions and roundabouts where "give away" is sometimes interpreted in a creative way (or simply ignored altogether), it's important to be cautious. Should you hire a car in Malta? If you're a confident, experienced driver, yes. If not, you might be better of using other modes of transport.
Public transport
The only mode of public transport are buses, which will take you to even the remotest parts of the islands but will take significantly longer to get you from A to B than when you drive yourself. Nevertheless, despite a rocky reform in recent years, public transport is reasonably reliable, comfortable and reasonably priced.
Taxis and mini buses
Several operators of taxis and minibuses (for transport of larger groups) are available in Malta and are reliable. More here: Getting around in Malta and Gozo.
Top 10 Things to do
- Explore Valletta, Malta's capital city and treasure trove of historical interest
- Wander through the streets of Mdina, the small medieval looking town surrounding by tall bastions and overlooking most of Malta from on top of a hill.
- Take the ferry up to Gozo, to explore that island, visiting the citadel in Victoria, going for a swim at Ramla l-Hamla and eating some super-fresh fish at Marsalforn.
- Visit Comino for a day, taking a cheap ferry in the morning from Sliema or Bugibba and spending a good part of the day enjoying the crystal clear water around the Blue Lagoon.
- If you're into fish, have lunch in Marsaxlokk. The place is known as THE place for fresh fish among the locals. Sundays are busiest but it rarely gets TOO busy and you might find a few interesting Maltese snacks and sweets at one of the market stalls.
- Spend a day at the beach at Mellieha Bay or Golden Bay and go paragliding or hire a jet ski.
- Take a boat tour around the Grand Harbour near Valletta
- Enjoy the nightlife in the open air at Gianpula Fields or Marrakesh on the outskirts of Rabat.
- Visit one of the megalithic temples, some of which are older than Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt
- Sample some Maltese wine and take a tour through one of Marsovin's (one of the major producers of Maltese wine) wine cellars.
Many more things to do here: 101+ Things to do in Malta and Gozo.
Also: 59 Points of interest, places to visit and attractions in Malta.
Top 10 Annual Events not to miss
A number of great annual events are organised around the Maltese islands and are well worth planning to attend during your holiday:
- February – Carnival celebrations in Valletta are something to behold. Teams of volunteers work tirelessly every year to create the coolest themed, most colourful floats you can imagine and parade through the city.
- April – Medieval Mdina takes you back into the past in the medieval-influenced setting of Mdina itself. Various re-enactments of knights in battle take place, there's a falconry display, music, a small market and food stalls, and more.
- April – The Malta Fireworks Festival. Fireworks are popular in Malta and several smaller factories around the island manufacture fireworks in support of the annual village feasts. Together with a few international pyrotechnic companies, some of the best local manufacturers stage a spectacle not to be missed, in different locations. There's usually a display in Valletta and on different nights in Bugibba and Marsaxlokk.
- July – Isle of MTV brings some of the biggest international musicians and acts to Malta for what's become one of the biggest parties of the year. Thousands flock to il-Fossos, the big square of Floriana, right outside Valletta, to enjoy MTV's event of the year. Various local clubs organise warm parties in the preceding days as well.
- July – The Malta Beer Festival is the perfect location to cool down after a hot summer's day enjoying a variety of local and international beers while enjoying some of the best musical performances from local artists. Held for around two weeks towards the end of July at Ta Qali (at the Malta National Park).
- September – The Victory Day Regatta sees teams from various localities take to the water in Grand Harbour and fight for the win in a traditional race that was held as early as 1822.
- September – The Malta Airshow brings together aviation displays and demonstrations from across the globe, from rescue helicopters to jets and bombers.
- October – Birgu Fest is an event that's gained popularity in recent years when thousands flock to wander through the candle-lit streets of Birgu (also known as Vittoriosa). Aside from the food and entertainment, the focus is on the historical significance of Birgu as the first home of the Knights of Malta, with several free tours taking you around points of interest.
- October – Notte Bianca. Valletta truly comes to life in a cultural celebration which includes visual art exhibitions, theatre performance, street musicians and dancers, while state palaces and museums open their doors for the evening.
- Last but not least, village feasts are held throughout the year in most localities around Malta and Gozo and are a great opportunity to get a taste and feel of something that lies at the core of Maltese culture: celebrating religion. Food, drink and fireworks but more importantly religious processions and a coming together of local families.
Restaurant recommendations
A couple of quick tips on where to eat:
- If you're looking to get a taste of Maltese food, try Dar il-Bniet in Dingli. Curious to try the local favourite of rabbit? The village of Mgarr is known for a few places that prepare a delicious fenkata (rabbit dinner), e.g. Tal-Ingliz and Sunny Bar, both right next to the parish church
- Not on too strict a budget? Da Pippo in Valletta and Giuseppi's in Mellieha are a few personal favourites with quality food at reasonable prices. Also, try the Xara Palace Trattoria while you're going around Mdina and Fratelli di Buffala if you're staying in Sliema.
- Looking for a quick bite? Cafe Jubilee in Valletta, Gzira and Victoria (Gozo) has a quirky/fun setup and offers good food at reasonable prices.
Looking for more recommendations? Check out my full my favourite restaurants in Malta.
Malta has several beaches around its ~250 km long coastline, some of which are sandy, others rocky. The water quality of the bathing water at most beaches is excellent and the island has multiple Blue Flag certified beaches, which indicate the presences of safety measures (including lifeguards), amenities and environmental protection, amongst other criteria. Without a doubt, the most popular beaches are Mellieha Bay (also referred to as Ghadira), Golden Bay and Ghajn Tuffieha. I put together my personal Top 10 beaches in Malta, together with a few beaches "off the beaten path".
Top tips for travelling to Malta
- If you expect to get to know Malta, the places popular among tourists may not necessarily give you that opportunity. Don't be afraid to step outside your comfort zone. Malta is a safe country to travel to and the Maltese are generally helpful. Ask your local contact (or receptionist) for some tips on good village feasts to visit, or maybe an event mostly locals would know of. It pays to explore in Malta.
- If you decide to take a taxi, always agree upon a fare beforehand and don't be afraid to shop around at taxi stands
- If you want to go swimming at a nearby beach outside of the high season (July-September), always be informed of the safety systems in place at the bigger beaches (flags). If there's no flag to indicate that the bathing water is safe for swimming, always check with the locals.


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If you have a little black dress in your wardrobe, thank legendary designer Coco Chanel. Credited with creating the go-to black dress that any fashionable woman has in her closet, Chanel was a fiercely independent business mogul who revolutionized women's fashion. She created a new mold for women's apparel, often taking men's attire, like suits and hats, and transforming them into timeless pieces for women that are still admired more than a century later. The Chanel brand continues to generate $3 billion in product each year through its 300 stores.
The trailblazing fashion designer's brand is known worldwide, but what you probably didn't know is that she was unapologetically single until her death in 1971 at the age of 87. She spoke often about her life and relationships including the following quote:
"It's probably not just by chance that I'm alone. It would be very hard for a man to live with me, unless he's terribly strong. And if he's stronger than I, I'm the one who can't live with him. … I'm neither smart nor stupid, but I don't think I'm a run-of-the-mill person."-Coco Chanel
We salute Coco Chanel for her contribution to the fashion industry and for being a proud Single woman!


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I am fine, I'm not cold, I am not hungry. I have a job, I have clothes to wear, television to watch, music to listen to. I can still read on my iPad. My health is okay. I do not drink, I do not smoke, I do not use drugs or medications. I have two sons, both in their 20's who are living their lives. I love them and am proud of them.
So there you go, the bright side.
I am unhappy, unfulfilled and see no glimmer of hope on the horizon for anything to change. I am not going to harm myself and NEVER in my life have I harmed anyone else. To the contrary, I have been there for others and given all that I can. Many of those people have discarded me and moved on since I am no longer useful to them.
I don't record my thoughts to upset people. I am almost completely detached from everyone. My days are spent in solitude. I still have a voice and feel at my highest level ever in areas of intellect and creativity. I am sorry that my writings do not focus enough on acknowledging my many blessings. I am mindful and thankful of all of those things. If I was 76 and sitting contentedly in a rocking chair on a porch somewhere, so be it. But, I am 56, and didn't realize I would be forced into a life of disconnectivity, loneliness and irrelevance that I have been forced into. Pardon me for wishing I was a valid person still worthy of having a life.
Thank you for reading my words. Thank you for caring. Rest assured, I am fine and there is nothing that any one of you can do. The die is cast.


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Rolex Sky Dweller
In an unusual move, Rolex released a brand new watch family in 2012: the Sky-Dweller. The move was unusual because it is rare for Rolex to introduce new complications into the market. As it result, it was the most anticipated watch featured in the Baselworld fair in 2012.
The Sky-Dweller is totally unique in the Rolex line. It is the only model that sports an annual calendar as well as a GMT function to keep track of two timezones. This makes it one of the most complicated modern watches Rolex carries. Through a "Ring Command" (four-position setting) function on the bezel, the wearer turns the bezel to select the date, month, or time, and then turns the crown to actually set it. With a 42mm case size, the Sky-Dweller is one of the larger watches Rolex carries. Available in white, yellow or rose gold with either Oyster or leather bracelets, the Sky-Dweller is considered by many to be the most high-end Rolex model available.
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Wednesday, February 6
Posted 02/06/2019 09:07AM
- Attention all college bound Senior students: the Festival of Arts has scholarship opportunities available in film, performing arts, visual arts and writing. All senior students interested in learning more and wishing to apply, are invited to attend the Festival of Arts Scholarship Workshop in the LBHS Library tomorrow at 7:30am.
- Winter Formal is over, but there are demerits still to be served! Get rid of three demerits this Saturday from 7:30 to 10:30 am in Room 20.
- Tryouts for Boys Volleyball are this Friday, February 8th in the Dugger Gym from 3:30-5:00. Remember, on time is 10 minutes early!!
- All parents and students are invited to attend an open information session about the LBHS Dance Program on Wednesday, February 13th from 6:00-6:30pm in Room 77. Curious about dance? How to join? What class to join? Come meet the Director, Mrs. Fratzke, and get all of your questions answered!
- Congratulations CeCe Stewart and Jared Angus! They won the Winter Formal Proposal Contest!
- TODAY IS THE DAY! Hurry to the quad at Lunch today! 500 free T-shirts will be handed out! Sign a pledge to be Vape and smoke free and get your T shirt. We will all be wearing our T shirts this Friday when the TOW kids come to campus at lunch to sing I Won't Smoke No SIrree!! Don't miss out!
- Athletics:
- Boys Varsity Golf tryouts @ San Clemente Muni, release 12:00
- Boys Tennis vs. Beckman, JV away release 1:00 and Varsity at home release 2:00
- Girls Varsity Soccer at home vs. Brea Olinda @ 5PM


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Information to help prevent livestock theft and to help consumers protect themselves from identity theft, scams and deceptive business practices will be offered at this week's 63rd Annual 3i Show, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said today.
The attorney general's booth will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday, October 12, and Friday, October 13, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 14. The show is located at the Western State Bank Expo Center, 11333 U.S. Highway 283 in Dodge City.
More information on the attorney general's consumer protection efforts is available online at www.InYourCornerKansas.org or by calling the Consumer Protection Division at 1-800-432-2310.


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I've just had a weekend home alone while my wife and kids went to visit friends in the North East.
As usual I had a list of jobs to do and as usual I missed their company.
On the Saturday I made a concerted effort to finish everything. I tidied out our garage making a couple of trips to the tip. I chopped up some wood for kindling, I also changed all the beds and did all the washing, sorting out and putting away all the dry things from earlier in the week.
Jobs done, I treated myself to a curry and had an early night.
I didn't sleep well, I never do when I have the bed to myself, and I eventually got up at about 7am with a blistering headache.
I had promised myself that I'd go for a run in the early hours as part of my gradual easing-myself-into-getting-fit campaign, but the headache was going to scupper that one. I'd probably slept funny, judging my the pain in my neck muscles, but it felt like one of those dehydration headaches that you get when you're hung over. One that feels like your brain has shrivelled up like a prune.
I downed two ibuprofen, put the kettle on and ate a banana, thinking…
I was up early for a Sunday and I had time on my hands. If I couldn't go for a run, why not go for a brisk walk instead?
I'm lucky enough to live on the edge of town and there's countryside only a ten minute walk away.
So after I'd finished my cuppa, I put on my waterproof and I was out of the door.
Fab! Typically for a Sunday morning there was no traffic and no-one about, just a bloke jogging to start with.
It wasn't long before I found an old farm bridleway that I used to frequent when I was doing my masters degree and needed to escape, some eleven years before.
At one time I had walked every footpath in that area, but it was so long ago, I'd forgotten half of them existed. I had to remind myself that the vicious looking dog that used to live in one of the farms was most likely dead by now. Some of the eccentric architecture of some of the buildings came back to me like a nice surprise as well, like the un-nervingly tall but thin house standing on its own on a muddy lane or the old rickety house with the stone tile roof.
It was lovely, the sky was still starting to brighten and with my headache now gone. A fine rain dampened my hair. The smell of mud and leaves filled my nostrils. The birds were singing, and a cow stuck its head out of a barn and watched me as I went past.
I said "good morning" to a handful of dog owners. I even shared a laugh with the owner of a large black Labrador that had run, leaping and body-checking me – something that would have frightened me silly at one time.
After about an hour of walking in what had become a steady drizzle, it occurred to me that a strange, yet familiar feeling was engulfing me. Something I seriously haven't felt for perhaps years.
I was deliriously happy.
Half an hour later I returned home with a box of mushrooms from the local shop. I reckon I walked for about six miles. After cooking up brunch, I sat down, plate on lap, and opened up my Woody Allen box set. I watched Manhattan.
A while ago, I wrote on this blog about a sixteen mile walk I had once done in the snow, a few years before any big relapse and way before I was diagnosed. I wondered whether I'd ever repeat that, whether I'd ever just pull on my walking boots to hit the hills, pocketing an ordnance survey map on my way out of the door.
I'm not altogether sure I will, in terms of distance, but I have resolved, particularly as the days get longer, that if I can't get back to sleep post-4am, I may just have to cut my losses and make the most of the early hours.
I'm not saying that I'm unhappy, but there are stresses and strains in everyday life that can build up and drag you down, particularly when you have a chronic illness and perhaps can't manage everyday life in the same way that you used to.
I guess I've just resolved to take advantage of that me time while everyone else is buried beneath their duvets. Endorphins are the best drug and I fully intend to become addicted.