Sunday, February 16, 2014


News Clips For The Day


NY Officials: Virtual Currency Invites Real Crime – ABC
NEW YORK February 16, 2014 (AP)
By TOM HAYS Associated Press

The account information given by a new customer at Liberty Reserve read like a not-so-clever prank: Joe Bogus, 123 Fake Main Street, Completely Made Up City, N.Y.
But at the multibillion-dollar virtual banking operation, it didn't matter. Mr. Bogus — in reality, an undercover federal agent — was free to begin transferring funds, no questions asked.

Authorities say the recent investigations of Liberty Reserve and the hidden website Silk Road, a vast black-market bazaar for narcotics and other contraband, demonstrate how the anonymity inherent in the use of virtual currency is attracting a legion of flesh-and-blood criminals.

"The perpetrators feel they can more easily conceal their activity, their identities and their proceeds," Deputy U.S. Attorney Richard Zabel said at a hearing last month held by the New York State Department for Financial Services.

Hard cash carries the burden of needing to be physically smuggled and hand-delivered, Zabel said. By contrast, in the Silk Road case, "users were able to purchase drugs from drug dealers located anywhere in the world, essentially with a push of a button," he said.

At the same hearing, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. urged state regulators to put tighter controls on digital currency exchanges to tame "a digital Wild West."

New York's chief financial regulator, Benjamin Lawsky, said in a speech last week that he's considering new rules requiring businesses to obtain a Bitlicense if they use the new currencies and comply with know-your-customer guidelines to prevent money laundering activities.

The dialogue comes at a time when Bitcoins and other virtual currencies have been gaining the backing of legitimate investors and mainstream businesses. Last month, Overstock.com became the first major retailer to accept digital money. An online florist, Bloomnation, also began accepting Bitcoins in time for Valentine's Day.
Users exchange cash for digital money using online exchanges, then store it in a wallet program in their computer. The program can transfer payments directly to a merchant who accepts the currency or to private parties anywhere in the world, eliminating transaction fees and the need to provide bank or credit card information.
Some Bitcoin advocates say they welcome limited regulation but claim the negative publicity brought by criminal prosecutions is misleading. In the past year, there are signs that the virtual currency phenomenon has moved beyond the early days when it was an oddity embraced by a small cadre of libertarians and computer geeks and later by criminals during its "vice phase," said Fred Wilson, a partner in a Manhattan venture capital firm.

"The vice phase is in the rearview mirror," Wilson said. "Are people still doing bad things with Bitcoin? Sure. Is the majority of the Bitcoin activity vice? Not a chance."

The Liberty Reserve case had no shortage of vice. Prosecutors estimated that over roughly seven years, the Costa Rica-based operation processed 55 million illicit transactions worldwide for 1 million users and laundered $6 billion in proceeds for credit card thieves, child pornographers, drug traffickers and other criminals.



Liberty Reserve
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Liberty Reserve SA
Type
Sociedad Anónima
Foundation date
Costa Rica (2006)
Dissolved
May 2013 (2013-05)
Headquarters
Costa Rica
Services
digital currency transfer
Launched
2001 (?)
Current status
Inactive (taken offline by regulators)

Liberty Reserve was a Costa Rica-based centralized digital currency service that billed itself as the "oldest, safest and most popular payment processor ... serving millions all around a world".[1] The site had over one million users when it was shut down by the United States government. Prosecutors argued that due to lax security, alleged criminal activity largely went undetected, which ultimately led to them seizing the service.[2]

In May 2013, Liberty Reserve was shut down by United States federal prosecutors under the Patriot Act after an investigation by authorities across 17 countries. The United States charged founder Arthur Budovsky and six others with money laundering and operating an unlicensed financial transaction company. Liberty Reserve is alleged to have been used to launder more than $6 billion in criminal proceeds during its history.[3]

Background
Based in San José Costa Rica, Liberty Reserve was a centralized digital currency service that allowed users to register and transfer money to other users with only a name, e-mail address, and birth date.[1] No efforts were made by the site to verify identities of its users, making it an attractive payment processor to scam artists.[3] Deposits could be made through third-parties using a credit card or bankwire, among other deposit options.[1][2] Liberty Reserve did not directly process deposits or withdrawals.[2] Deposited funds were then "converted" into Liberty Reserve Dollars or Liberty Reserve Euros, which were tied to the value of the US dollar and the euro respectively, or to ounces of gold.[1][4] No limits were placed on transaction sizes.[5] The service made money by charging a small fee, about 1%, on each transfer.[1] Transactions were "100% irrevocable".[5] Liberty Reserve also offered shopping cart functionality and other merchant services.[5]

In addition to alleged criminals, the service was popular among currency brokers and multilevel marketing companies.[4] According to Forex Magnates, a specialized forex news service, Liberty Reserve was "the leading payment channel for traders in emerging and frontier markets."[4] Richard Weber, head of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service criminal investigation unit, declared, "If Al Capone were alive today, this is how he would be hiding his money".[2] At the time of its closure, Liberty Reserve had more than 1 million registered users, 200,000 of which were from the United States.[3] It was a member of the Global Digital Currency Association.[5]

Liberty employees were required to sign a confidentiality agreement to "maintain in strict confidentiality all information" about the company, including "administrative affairs, operations and financial details" for 15 years after leaving the company.[6] Additionally they were required to notify management if issued a warrant to reveal such information.[4]

From 2002-06, United States businessmen Arthur Budovsky and Vladimir Kats ran a digital currency exchange service known as GoldAge.[4] In July 2006, the duo were indicted[by whom?] on charges of operating an illegal financial business, a felony. They were sentenced to five years in prison in 2007, but the sentence was reduced to five years of probation.[4] Budovsky fled the country, settling in Costa Rica.[7] He subsequently became a naturalized citizen of Costa Rica when he married a Costa Rican woman in 2010, and renounced his American citizenship in 2012.[8][9]

Liberty Reserve was incorporated by Budovsky in Costa Rica in 2006.[2] A 2007 interview with Joul Lee, the company's marketing manager, claimed it was founded as a "a private currency exchange system for import/export businesses" and opened to the public in 2007.[5]

Criminal investigation and charges[edit]
Costa Rican authorities became aware of Liberty Reserve in 2009 and informed the business it needed a license to operate as a money transmitting business.[6] In 2011, Liberty Reserve was denied a business license in Costa Rica, according to state prosecutor José Pablo González, due to lack of transparency about how the business was funded. The business formally disbanded at that time, but company founder Arthur Budovsky continued to operate the business by funneling it through five other Costa Rican businesses, according to authorities.[1] A criminal investigation was launched March 7, 2011 following "suspicious" bank activity.[6] Later in 2011, the United States authorities asked Costa Rica to begin investigating Budovsky's business dealings.[4] According to Bernardita Marín, associate director of the Costa Rican Drug Institute, Costa Rica seized funds from Liberty Reserve on three occasions from 2011 to 2013.[6]

In 2011, Liberty Reserve was linked to (unrelated) attempts to sell thousands of stolen Australian bank account numbers and British bank cards.[10][11] In 2012, a group of hackers attempted to blackmail anti-virus software company Symantec into transferring $50,000 into a Liberty Reserve account.[12]

The Liberty Reserve website was taken offline on May 24 and replaced with a notice saying the domain had been "seized by the United States Global Illicit Financial Team."[1][16] In Costa Rica, a court order was issued to seize the "financial products and services" of Budovsky, Maxim Chukharev, and the six apparent shell companies.[

The indictment, unsealed on May 28, charges the seven principal employees, as well as Liberty Reserve itself, with money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, and seeks $25 million in damages.[3] The charges were leveled using a provision of the Patriot Act, since Liberty Reserve was not an American company.[2] The accused could face up to 30 years in prison.[2]

A commentary in Forbes regarding Liberty Reserve's shutdown speculated that other virtual currency reserves, such as Bitcoin, could be similarly targeted.[19]




The Internet is full of shifty characters going under the cover of anonymity and offering great deals of some kind or another. I was using my email address as a contact in this blog until I saw that there were more than a few spammers writing me on my email account. Lots of them wanted me to transfer funds from a Nigerian bank, etc. and help them out with some kind of problem they had. Luckily, my spam setting caught most of them, and every now and then I go through the collection of spam emails and delete them.

Except for WalMart, Barnes and Noble, Amazon or other equally well-known web sites I will not buy or even click on them to investigate many sites, because some of them transmit viruses. There is nothing like faceless anonymity to encourage crime. That's one of the main problems that city dwellers have in regard to crime. In large cities, people aren't members of a smaller community who know each other any more, and the mugger or handbag snatcher will probably get away without being detected. There will very likely be no one who will bear witness to the crime, either, as they don't consider it to be “their problem.” For myself, I will continue to do my business almost exclusively in brick and mortar stores with my debit/credit card or cash. I want to examine the goods I am buying, and I need to get out of the four walls of my apartment for some fresh air.




Archeologists Race to Uncover Civil War Prison – ABC
COLUMBIA, S.C. February 16, 2014 (AP)
By SUSANNE M. SCHAFER Associated Press

Racing against time, South Carolina archeologists are digging to uncover the remnants of a Civil War-era prisoner-of-war camp before the site in downtown Columbia is cleared to make room for a mixed-use development.

The researchers have been given four months to excavate a small portion of the 165-acre grounds of the former South Carolina State Hospital to find the remnants of what was once known as "Camp Asylum." Conditions at the camp, which held 1,500 Union Army officers during the winter of 1864-65, were so dire that soldiers dug and lived in holes in the ground, which provided shelter against the cold.

The site was sold to a developer for $15 million last summer, amid hopes it becomes an urban campus of shops and apartments and possibly a minor league baseball field.
Chief archaeologist Chester DePratter said researchers are digging through soil to locate the holes — the largest being 7 feet long, 6 feet wide and 3 feet deep — as well as whatever possessions the officers may have left behind.

"Almost everybody lived in holes, although the Confederacy did try to procure tents along the way, as they could obtain them," said DePratter, a research archaeologist with the University of South Carolina's Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology.
DePratter said he's been able to track down about 40 diaries written by camp survivors, telling tales of suffering and survival, as well as dozens of letters written by the prisoners about their experiences. He said they came from states across the North, and from many different military units.

"It's hard to imagine. They all talk about their clothing being threadbare, many of them had no shoes. They shared the blankets they had, three or four together spoon fashion and put a blanket over them" to stay warm, DePratter said. "They wrote about how every prisoner in the camp would walk about at night to keep from freezing to death."

Amazingly, only one officer died there.
Officers were useful for prisoner exchanges, so they were shuttled from site to site as the war progressed. The enlisted men were sent to the notorious prison at Andersonville, Ga., where 12,000 Union soldiers died of illness and privation. The officers, however, were held in Richmond, Va., then Macon, Ga., before being sent to Savannah and Charleston, S.C.

After a yellow fever outbreak in Charleston, they were brought to Columbia, where they were put in an open field dubbed "Camp Sorghum" on the western side of the Congaree River across from Columbia. But when hundreds started escaping into the surrounding countryside, they were shifted to the mental hospital's grounds, which are surrounded by a 10-foot brick wall.

As the researchers dig and sift the reddish earth, they uncover buttons, combs, remnants of clothing and utensils presumably used by the prisoners. One hole contained crudely made bricks the prisoners fashioned by hand, which they stacked to offer protection from the wind and rain.

The developer has given DePratter $25,000, which has been matched by the city, to start his dig. He's been able to raise another $17,000.

DePratter is hoping to raise additional funds to pay for ground-penetrating radar to avoid the utility pipes that crisscross the site. He has until the end of April to dig out as much as he can. Everything the crew finds is going to be held for preservation and study through the archaeology institute, he said.




When I hear of things like this, prisoners who had no real shelter from the winter air and summer lightning storms, I am both sorrowful and admiring of the raw courage and determination those people had. The troops of George Washington's revolutionary army had conditions similar, I understand. I have never had to endure cold and hunger, and I hope I don't ever have to. I need to read about tough conditions sometimes so I don't get too used to my life of basic ease. If I begin to think there is no God, I find myself wanting there to be one so I can express my gratitude. I am so glad that the horror which the Civil War was, finally came to an end and citizens of the South could go back to their farms and start to produce a living again.

The North really didn't have it as hard, because the war didn't take place on their land for the most part. My Grandmother was born in 1889, and she said that she used to be able to pick up buttons from soldiers uniforms off the ground on their land. The war is history to me, but it was very real to her. The south is still behind the north in many ways, largely because of the complete destruction of the life they had before the war, and they have had a harder road to travel to recover from it.

I don't like the racist politics that still persists here, but I have empathy for southerners. I understand their anger. Still, people can't live on anger – it only causes more destruction. Also, it wasn't the black people's fault. After all, the South started the war and brought the black people here from Africa in the first place, very much against their will. Our culture's wounds are healing, especially in the last twenty-five or so years, though. I just hope we can continue to get past the discord between black and white. I find myself liking many blacks, as I have gotten to know them personally. I think that's what we have to do – step over the line and shake hands.





California Goodwill Employee Finds $10K in Cash – ABC



Goodwill employee Lakeisha Williams was sorting through some donated books at a Stockton, Calif., collection site when she noticed an unexpected donation.
“There was an envelope full of cash,” Williams told ABC News’ Sacramento affiliate KXTV.

The envelope had $10,500 in it in $100 bills. Williams joked that she briefly thought about pocketing the cash but knew she had to do the right thing.
 
Lakeisha Williams found an envelope full of cash among some donated books. 
“My concern was somebody was out that money, and I would have liked for them to get it back,” she said.

She handed the cash over to a manager about a month ago, and the money had still not been claimed.

Goodwill Industries of San Joaquin Valley President David Miller said that it had not gone unnoticed that Williams “kindly and correctly” returned the money.
“What we did is we take the money … and put it into a holding account, and we wait usually a pretty good amount of time to see if somebody comes forward and identifies themselves and says they made a donation and a mistake,” Miller told ABCNews.com today.

Authorities were contacted in case anyone reported money missing, and the money will be held in the bank account for “no less than 120 days,” he said.
“If nothing happens at that point …  and all indicators are that nobody is claiming the money, at that point in time we put it into our normal donation stream revenue for our agency,” Miller said. “We have a policy to reward our employees for their honesty and integrity. …”

The amount of money rewarded to the employee is up to Miller, but he said it would likely be in the range of 10 percent in this instance. This means Williams could be about $1,000 richer if no one comes forward to claim the missing money in the next three months.




This is a good story. I like to see people do the right thing with no requirement of a reward. It's also a good thing for Goodwill Industries, if no one claims the money. Goodwill and the Salvation Army are two of the oldest and most helpful charities that you can give money to. They both help people who are at their wits end, with shelter, a job, food, and hope. The Goodwill Industries has a job hunting branch which provides computers, telephones and ads listings, and they will also take the applicant to one of their stores and buy them some interview clothing if they need it. They also directly hire them to sell in their thrift stores or do clerical work. The Salvation Army wants the people they help to go to their religious organization, but other than that they are merely helpful in all kinds of ways, and it is a standard Christian organization. I do give money to both of them from time to time. It makes me feel better.





Prison Gardens Grow New Lives for Inmates – ABC
ABC News’ Bill Ritter

From Enfield, Conn., to New York City and the San Francisco Bay, lush gardens filled with ripe fruits, vegetables and flowers are growing in unexpected places — prison yards.

Prisons use them to rehabilitate inmates and to teach them basic landscaping skills that they can use to get jobs. All of the prisoners involved in each garden’s program are eligible for release.

Bernard, 46, who’s been in trouble with the law about 10 times in the last 30 years, now helps in the gardening efforts at the Willard Cybulski Correctional Institution in Enfield, Conn.

“I get a sense of peace and a sense of serenity being that I’m in a hostile environment at times and then coming out here to pick these vegetables. It brings calmness to me,” Bernard said.

For the last three years, all 18 state prisons in Connecticut have had garden programs. None cost taxpayers money.

Last year, Connecticut prisons produced more than 35,000 pounds of produce –  saving taxpayers $20,000 a year by putting produce back into the prison system. Additional food is donated to charities.

Related: The Problem With Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Tent City
“We give 25 percent of what we pick back to the community and that’s the most fulfilling thing, that I’m helping someone, because in my life I have taken in trouble so, to me, it’s almost like paying back a debt to be able to pick something and be able to give back to others,” Bernard said.

“We believe that everybody has a heart and everybody has a chance for transformation,” said Beth Waitkus, the director of the Insight Garden Program that started 10 years ago at San Quentin prison. “What happens with gardening is … they reconnect to themselves. They reconnect to their feelings. They reconnect to each other as a community, a small community in the prison, and they really reconnect to nature. And, I think that offers a huge opportunity for transformation when we reconnect to ourselves and to the natural world.”

“I’ve been in and out since I’ve been 15 and this is the first time I’ve done something like this. I can connect spiritually with something as simple as garden. … To me that was different,” said Rasheed, who has already served two years and has six years left on his term.

While Waitkus spends her time in San Quentin teaching inmates how to plant flowers, take care of soil and prune plants, she also keeps the connection strong once they leave prison. Nationally, the recidivism rate is more than 60 percent, according to the 2011 Annual Recidivism Report.

For garden prisoners at San Quentin, Waitkus said the return rate is less than 10 percent, and most other prison gardens report return rates in the single digits. In Connecticut, officials say not one of the garden graduates has returned.

“The garden program to me in San Quentin was really therapeutic because it breaks up the monotony of everyday life in prison and I also used to watch my mom garden, so it kind of brought me back to when I was a child, and it’s just a real calming effect in a real, not normal place,” said Kevin Williams who has been out of prison since 2012.
He now works for a group called Planting Justice, which gets jobs for released prisoners who have gone through the garden project at San Quentin.

“It feels great. And even when I was inside, people would ask me, ‘Kev, why do you seem so happy all the time?’ [It was] because you know, we’re blessed. We’ve got another chance to go home and get it right,” he said.

“What we’re trying to do here is to bring people together, find their inner gardener. If they’re successful and not committing crimes, we are indeed creating a safer, more humane society,” Waitkus said.




From the psychological therapy of being around growing plants to the fact that the graduates of the program are then helped to a job after they get out of prison, this is a wonderful program all the way around. There are also some programs for prisoners in which they train dogs or take care of livestock, and those prisoners have some similar successes when they get out. The key is, as Beth Waitkus said, the inmates “reconnect” with life and hope.

I wish more plans were out there for prisoners. Maybe some of the teenaged delinquents who end up in prison could be rehabilitated. Many of them have had negative, fearful, angry home lives and have become “hard cases,” and probably never had positive activities like this gardening in their lives. Instead they go to gangs to find support, and focus on acquiring expensive things or drugs. Those things don't produce a spiritual result. Hopefully they have some group therapy activities or something to help them. We need to improve our ideas about what a prison can do to rehabilitate people, and we would have fewer people recommitting crimes after they get out.



Kansas Reporter Loses Fingers and Toes to Deadly Meningitis – CBS
Feb. 14, 2014
By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES

One evening in his University of Kansas dorm room, Andy Marso was experiencing flu-like symptoms and hundreds of purple blotches on his arms and legs. A day later, he was unable to walk, slipping into a unconsciousness and being helicoptered to a hospital intensive care unit.

It was April of 2004 and Marso had bacterial meningitis, the fiercest form of the disease, which ravaged his body with sepsis and eventually led to the amputation of most of his fingers and the front half of both his feet.

He spent three weeks in a drug-induced coma, four months in the hospital, nine months in rehab and a year in a wheelchair, enduring painful burn treatments to try to save his limbs and skin grafts.

But today, at 32, he is a State House reporter with the Topeka Capital Journal, able to type 40 to 50 words a minute with his one remaining thumb and a nub on his other hand, and is meeting all the challenges that life has thrown at him.

"I can do 99 percent of what I used to do -- but it's completely different now," he told ABCNews.com. "I use two hands to grip bigger things, and I usually make it work. I don't remember what it is like to have 10 fingers, but it doesn't bother me. This is my new normal."

Marso writes about his battle with the disease, in his new book, "Worth the Pain, How Meningitis Nearly Killed Me -- Then Changed My Life for the Better."
The book, he said, had been "a dream my whole life and another reward this whole experience gave me."

Marso also wants to create awareness about available childhood vaccines that can prevent the disease in the first place.

Meningitis is an inflammatory condition of the meninges or membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. It can come on abruptly with headache, fever, a stiff neck and nausea, among other symptoms, and lead to death if treatment does not begin within 24 to 72 hours.

The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention report about 4,100 cases of bacterial meningitis annually, causing about 500 deaths.

Although most people with meningitis recover, it can cause serious complications, such as brain damage, hearing loss or learning disabilities.

Infants are at the higher risk for the disease than other age groups, according to the CDC, but college students living in dormitories and those who live in close quarters in the military are particularly vulnerable.

"There is a really high mortality rate," said Dr. Pritish K. Tosh, an infectious disease specialist at the Mayo Clinic. "Before the antibiotic era, in the 1900s, it was basically universally fatal."

Today, a series of vaccines are effective in preventing the disease among children and protecting adults from exposure.

"The hallmark of the infection is it moves very fast and aggressively," said Tosh, who did not treat Marso. "People feel fairly well, and then in a matter of a few hours, they could be starting to show signs of devastating illness."

Marso developed disseminated intravascular coagulation or DIC, the response to an "overwhelming" infection, according to Tosh. "The body shuts down its organs in response overwhelming infection."

Marso grew up in St. Cloud. Minn., and always wanted to be a journalist. At 18 he went off to college and worked on the newspaper but, he said, "I never really challenged myself."

"My life before was pretty average and very comfortable," he said. "I grew up in suburbia with two parents who were supportive and successful and went to Catholic school. I was fairly sheltered."

"I didn't have a lot of challenges in my life until this happened," said Marso. "Then, suddenly, I had to really face that fact that nothing would be as easy as it used to be."

The symptoms of meningitis developed "quite literally overnight," he said. "I had seen the information signs about meningitis on the dorm bulletin board, but I had never read a word. I had no concept of what it was."

In Marso's case, the bacteria got into his blood stream and the toxins released "essentially burned tiny holes in the blood vessels." In a cascade of events caused by DIC, the body tried to close off the holes, and as a result, entire blood vessels were shut down.

The rash was a result of "blood pooling out of the tissues," he said. His limbs were suffering and he had trouble breathing because of lack of blood flow.
By the time he reached the hospital, his parents were told his kidneys would fail and he might be on dialysis the rest of his life.

"It was a minor miracle that didn't happen," said Marso. "At this point I was unconscious, but my family went through a roller coaster wondering if I would survive."

It was touch and go for three weeks. When they tried taking him off the ventilator he developed pneumonia and was put back on for 10 days. "I had the vaguest memories of sedation," he said. "Being awake long enough to gasp for breath."

Marso's limbs became gangrenous because of the loss of blood flow. He endured "weeks and weeks" of painful burn treatment, slicing off dead tissue until it bled to try to save the limbs. Pain medications only had a limited effect.

"Those sessions in the tank room were really traumatic," he said. "I had nightmares for months."

Doctors were unable to save his rotting fingers and toes and they were ultimately amputated.

Marso's emotional recovery began when he was able to write about the experience. "I spent days in front of the computer," he said. "Afterward, the memories were not nearly as hurtful."

"People ask me when I give presentations and show them the photos, how I can talk about this so nonchalantly," said Marso. "Because I have gone through the black periods. I relived them and put them on paper and got them out of my system."
On the right hand he has a functional thumb, which is smaller than it used to be because of a damaged joint, and part of a ring and middle finger. Fortunately, he is right-handed. On his left hand, he has the nub of a thumb.

"I can hold a pencil and grip something small," he said. "I use my right hand to do most everything. If I've got a glass without a handle, I use two hands. But I have to tip my mouth like an infant."

Marso refuses to use prosthetics. "I tried it and it wasn't comfortable for me," he said. "It also covers up what is left of my left hand and I don't have any sensation."

His life is different, but Marso said in many ways it is better than before. For one, he is closer to his family. His parents and grandmother moved to Kansas from Minnesota for a year to help with his medical care. Marso's brother transferred to University of Kansas to be nearby.

"Everybody rallied," he said. "My friends totally supported me and visited my in the hospital in a daily basis. That is what I was living for."




I've always heard of meningitis and it was much feared when people would talk about it, but I had never heard a description of the symptoms before. This is really a horror story. Still, this man lived, and says that in many ways his life is better now. I do know how overcoming a really great hurdle can produce a grateful and positive viewpoint from then on. This story, though he went through so much, is a very heart warming story. One of the main things he gained was a closer and more loving relationship with his family, and I know from my own experience how important family is. I'd like to read his book, mentioned in this article. I'm sure it would be uplifting.