Hi, my name is Pratik and today I will be presenting our work on efficient and round optimal of previous transfer and commitment scheme with adaptive security. This is a joint work with my supervisor Ran Kaneti from Boston University and Xia Wang from Northwestern University. Today we will talk about secure competition. We consider the two-party setting for simplicity. There are two parties who have the private inputs X and Y. They want to jointly compute a function F on their inputs. To do so, they run a protocol Pi on their inputs and outputs the protocol output. The protocol should satisfy two properties. Mainly it should be correct. That is the function output should be same as the protocol output and the protocol should be secure. That is the protocol should not leak anything about the private inputs besides whatever it is computable from the output. The works of Yao, GMW, Beaver, Mikali and Rockaway presented the first few protocols for secure competition. Since then, secure competition has found numerous applications in privacy preserving machine learning, blockchains and many more. The initial protocols for secure competition were secure only against static corruptions. They provided security when the parties were corrupt at the beginning of the protocol. In this domain, there has been quite a lot of progress. This can be seen from the graph where the works of Yao, GMW and BMR were theoretical feasibility results. But these were later improved to obtain efficient FPC by the work of Lindel et al, Nielsen et al and Lindel River. Then they have been further improved to obtain practically efficient secure competition protocols and they have found applications in blockchains, privacy preserving machine learning and many other stuff. But adversaries in real life are adaptive. That is, they can corrupt the parties during or after the protocol. The first adaptively secure protocol was constructed by Kaneti, Lindel, Ostrowski and Sahai, following the GMW paradigm. In recent years, the works of Ben Mooda and Boyn Ben Mooda et al and Cohen et al obtained round optimal protocols. However, these protocols are theoretical results. In fact, it is really difficult to construct efficient protocols that are secured against adaptive corruptions. Since this is the strongest notion of security, in this work, we try to reduce the efficiency gap for adaptively secure protocols by improving the asymptotic complexity of adaptively secure protocols. We hope that this is a step forward towards improving the practical efficiency of adaptively secure protocols. Economic computation protocols require MPC primitives like Oblivious Transfer, Commitment Scheme, Zero Knowledge and many more. Some main steps towards building efficient MPC protocols involve building efficient MPC primitives. Also, the primitives need to be round optimal so that the underlying MPC protocol is round optimal. But it's really hard to obtain both round optimality and efficiency. This brings us to the question. Can we obtain efficient round optimal primitives? In this work, we address it in the prompt positive. We construct Commitment Scheme and Oblivious Transfer protocols which round optimal provide a better asymptomatic complexity compared to the state-of-the-art protocols and some of them are also secured in the strongest security model, that is, they are secured against adaptive corruptions. Before presenting our results, I would like to recall the security model. Our protocols are proven secure in the real and ideal world model. We consider a real world execution of the protocol where one of the parties is initially corrupt. He runs the protocol with the honest party. Let us denote his input, output randomness and protocol transcript as his view. This is the real world view of the protocol, as you can see. This view should not leak any information about the honest party's input. That is, view a real should not leak anything about y. So how do we capture this? This is captured by considering an ideal world execution of the protocol where the adversary interacts with an external party called the simulator. So the simulator acts on behalf of the honest parties and he has access to the honest party only through the ideal functionality. The simulator has to extract the corrupt party's input from the left-hand side of the left-hand side protocol, that is, the ideal world execution of pi and invoke the functionality with the extracted input x to obtain the correct output, fx, y. Now based on this output, he can simulate the rest of the protocol. Clearly, the simulator does not have any information about the honest party's input besides the protocol output. Similarly, we can denote the ideal world view of the adversary here. We say that the protocol is secure if there exists a probabilistically polynomial time simulator, that is, there exists a PPT simulator S, such that for all PPT adversaries A, the two views, that is, the real world and an ideal world view of the adversary are indistinguishable. We can also consider adaptive corruptions where all the parties are initially honest. The parties can get adaptively corrupted during or after the protocol execution. If a party gets adaptively corrupted, then the simulator has to provide the simulated view of the honest party in the ideal world. The simulated view should be indistinguishable from the real view even though it was constructed without the knowledge of the party's input. Thus, the simulator has to equivocate the simulated view to guarantee adaptive security. This is non-trivial to achieve and it is the strongest security model in MPC. Our work focuses on improving the efficiency of adaptively secure commitment and oblivious transfer. Now we will present our contributions. Our protocols are proven secure in the universal composability model of Kennedy so that the primitives can be seamlessly composed in larger protocols. All our protocols are based on decisional differential assumption. Now, finally, based on DDH, we obtain the following results in the UC model. We obtain the first adaptively secure non-interactive string commitment, previous non-interactive commitment schemes where bit commitments and the required common reference string whereas our scheme works in the common random string model. We will denote the common random string as CRS. Secondly, we obtain multiple results in the oblivious transfer literature in the CRS model and in the random oracle model. We consider an OT protocol where the receiver can get adaptively corrupted and the center can get statically corrupted such an OT protocol is called receiver adaptively secure OT. Such an OT is useful in constructing adaptively secure zero-knowledge protocols. In this regard, we obtain the first receiver adaptively secure OT which has constant exponentiation over it. In fact, our receiver adaptively secure OT requires only nine exponentiations and this is better than the state-of-the-art static OT protocols which require 11 exponentiations in the CRS model. Next, we obtain the first adaptively secure bit OT which requires constant number of exponentiations in the CRS model. Previous protocols required at least kappa square exponentiation where kappa is the security parameter. We also obtain results which are of practical interest. In the CRS model, we obtain the most efficient static OT with eight exponentiations. We also obtain the most efficient static OT in the global random oracle model. It requires only five exponentiations per OT. Finally, we combine our adaptively secure commitment scheme and adaptively secure OT to obtain a two-round adaptively secure MPC protocol in the CRS model that is the common random string model and this is round optimal. Moreover, we show that the size of the CRS depends only on the security parameter and not on the number of participating parties. We can have a short CRS where the CRS size depends only on kappa square independent of the number of parties participating in the MPC protocol. So, we will first describe the ideas behind our commitment scheme and then we will use them to construct our adaptively secure OT protocol. We will briefly recall what is a commitment scheme. A non-interactive commitment scheme consists of a commit phase and a decommit phase. In the commit phase, the committer commits to his input M as a commitment C. In the decommit phase, the committer sends his commitment randomness as the opening. Here, the randomness is alpha. The verifier accepts if the commitment can be reconstructed from M and the opening randomness alpha. The commitment should satisfy hiding that is a corrupt verifier should not derive any information of a message from the commitment. It should also satisfy binding that is a committer should not be able to open a commitment of a message M to a different message M prime. In addition, we require two more properties for the commitment scheme to satisfy use of security. It should satisfy the property of extraction where the message committed inside a commitment can be extracted when the committer is corrupt and the simulator can perform this extraction given the trapdoor of the setup string. Also, it should satisfy equivocation when the verifier is corrupt and the committer is honest. It means that a simulator should be able to commit to a junk message inside a commitment and later open to any valid message given the trapdoor of the setup string. Now, we will compare our commitment scheme with state-of-the-art and apricot secure commitment schemes. There are interactive string commitments in the literature like Damgard Nielsen 02, Damgard Groth 03. So, these commitments commit to a kappa bit message using order of kappa bits that is their string commitments. In the non-interactive commitment literature, the situation is different. All the protocols like Kennedy-Fischlin, Kennedy, Lendl, Ostrovsky-Sahai, Abdel-Lahetal, all of these protocols are bit commitments. That is, they commit to a single bit using order of kappa bits. So, we obtain the first string commitment which commits to polylock kappa bits using order of kappa bits. So, this reduces the efficiency gap between non-interactive and apricot secure commitments and interactive and apricot secure commitments. Moreover, all the other protocols are in the common reference string model whereas we are in the common random string model which is strictly weaker than the common reference string model. So, I would like to point out that our protocol is inspired from the statically secured dual mode commitment scheme of Lendl 15. Before going to our protocol, we will start explaining the dual mode commitment scheme of Lendl. In the scheme, there is a CRS which consists of four random group elements. The committer has an input bit m. He commits to m using randomness alpha. So, he computes capital B is g to the power alpha t to the power m and capital H is small h to the power alpha f to the power m. So, the commitment is capital B and capital H. For decommitting to m, the committer simply sends m and alpha. The verifier outputs 1 if the commitment can be reconstructed from m and alpha lc outputs 0. Lendl showed that the commitment is perfectly binding if the CRS is a non-DG stoople. That is if gh tnf is a non-DG stoople. In such a case, the committer's bit can be extracted using the discrete log of h which is a trapezoid of the CRS. Lendl also showed that the commitment is perfectly hiding if the CRS is a DG stoople. A simulator can commit to a junk message inside b and h and then he can open it correctly to any message given the trapezoid of the CRS. That is the discrete log of t. The two modes are indistinguishable due to the DDH assumption. So, in this work of Lendl, the mode of the commitment is programmed by programming the CRS. That is if the CRS is a non-DG stoople, then it's in the perfectly binding mode. And if it is in the DDH stoople, then the commitment is in the perfectly hiding mode. So, we will try to reduce this problem. We build our commitment scheme where the mode of the commitment can be set during the protocol execution. Instead of putting F in the CRS, we ask the committer to sample and F and send it along with the commitment as a commitment parameter. When the committer is corrupt, we are ensured from the DDH assumption that the commitment is in the extractable mode. That is the tupel G, H, T and F is a non-DD stoople. The simulator can extract M using the discrete log of H by invoking the extractor of Lendl's commitment. When the verify is corrupt, the simulator acts on behalf of the committer. Given the discrete log of T, he can compute F such that the tupel is a DD stoople. This yields the commitment in the equivocal mode and guarantees adaptive security for a committer since he can always produce a valid randomness for any message. Finally, the honestly generated tupel is indistinguishable from the simulated tupel due to the DDH assumption. So, this completes our adaptive security commitment scheme. We also observed that M does not need to be a bit. M can be chosen from a distribution of polylog kappa bits, yielding a string commitment. We cannot extend M to go for kappa bits because our extractor runs polynomial in the message space and so we have to restrict M to polylog kappa bits. Now, we will discuss the primitive of Oblivious Transfer. Oblivious Transfer is a two-party primitive. There is a receiver who has an input choice with B and there is a sender who has two messages M0 and M1. By performing the OT functionality, the receiver obtains the message of his choice that is MB.  We need two more properties for security in the UC model. Mainly, a corrupt receiver's input can be extracted by a simulator and a corrupt sender's input can be extracted by a simulator. We also require that security hold against adaptive corruptions of parties. We consider three types of adaptive corruption. The first one is receiver adaptive corruption, where the receiver can get adaptively corrupted and the sender can be statically corrupted. A stronger version is semi-adaptive corruption where only one party gets statically corrupted and the other party gets adaptively corrupted. Finally, we consider the strongest corruption model where both parties can get adaptively corrupted, which is full adaptive security. So, we will present our UC OT results in this slide and we will compare with other two round OT protocols. All the two round OT protocols have DDH based instantiations and we compare with their DDH variants. Some of them have instantiations from other assumptions. We will discuss them as well. So, firstly, we consider practically efficient results in the random oracle model. So, first we consider the programmable random oracle. In this setting, the state of the artwork by Masini and Rindal construct an OT protocol from DDH assumption. It computes six exponentiation. They have an optimized variant from a non-standard variant of DDH called interactive DDH. So, interactive DDH is not known to be reducible to standard DDH. The computation cost of this optimized variant is similar to the computation cost of our protocol, but we achieve it from standard DDH assumption. So, you can see that they are optimized variant and our version required five exponentiation. Next, we consider the observable random oracle model. So, we obtain the first two round OT protocol, which requires constant number of exponentiation on an amortized scale. Specifically, we required five exponentiation per OT and two NISICS proofs in total, which can be used for multiple OT protocols. The state of the artwork by Kennedy, Jane and Scafuro requires kappa number of exponentiation per OT. Next, we will discuss our results in the common random string model and compare it with other protocols which are in the common reference string model. So, there are no other protocols in the common random string model. The state of the art static OT protocol by Piker, Vacuant and Arthur and Waters requires 11 exponentiation per OT and they have instantiation from LWA and quadratic residuality, but we improve the exponentiation cost to 8 under DDH assumption. We can also add adaptive security for the receiver on top of our static OT protocol and it requires only one extra exponentiation. That is, we can obtain a receiver adaptive OT from nine exponentiation. Meanwhile, the other works by Gurg, Miao, Srinivasan and Benamudha, Lin, Polychronidau and Venkita Subramaniam, they require at least kappa number of exponentiation for each receiver adaptive OT. Finally, we obtain the first adaptively secure bit OT where each OT requires constant number of exponentiation and constant number of NC operations. The NC operations can be performed using the work of Chai et al based on DDH. The only two round adaptive secure bit OT by Benamudha et al requires kappa square exponentiation. Thus, we obtain the first adaptively secure OT with constant number of exponentiation. I would like to point out that the work by Benamudha et al was the first two round adaptive secure bit OT. Now we will discuss our OT constructions in the CRS model. We will first build our receiver adaptive OT, but the receiver's OT message is a commitment to its bit. We will add a sender algorithm to get our receiver adaptive OT. Receiver has input bit B and he commits to B using randomness alpha. He sends the commitment B and H as the OT first message. Sender encrypts her messages M0 and M1 using the commitment. She encrypts in such a way that the receiver can decrypt MB if the receiver has committed to bit B in the commitment. She performs this by constructing encryptions of M0 using randomness R0 and S0. Similarly, she encrypts M1 using randomness R1 and S1. And now the receiver obtains Z0, C0, Z1, C1 and he decrypts MB using randomness alpha. Now if the sender is statically corrupt, then B remains hidden in the commitment due to the hiding property of the commitment. A corrupt sender's input can be extracted by a simulator given the trapdoor of the CRS. Recall that the commitment simulator possesses randomness to open the commitment to both bit values 0 and 1. The commitment simulator can be invoked to decrypt both M0 and M1 using the opening randomness. Please refer to our paper for more details about the extraction process. Next, we turn our attention towards static corruption of the receiver. In such a case, the receiver's input bit can be extracted since the commitment is extractable. It can be observed that the other message which is M1-B remains hidden due to the pad T to the power RB. In fact, the other ciphertext looks pseudo-random to a corrupt receiver due to the digit assumption. So this completes our static security proof. I would refer to our paper for more details. Now if the receiver gets corrupted post execution, then we need to address adaptive security for a receiver. In such a case, the receiver's OT message which is a commitment to his input bit B needs to be equivocated. Recall that this can be performed by invoking the adaptive simulator of the commitment scheme. So this provides us with adaptive security. By optimizing our previous protocol, we can obtain a static OT with eight exponentiation and the receiver adaptive OT with nine exponentiation. We can further optimize our protocol if we consider the random oracle model where the CRS is generated by the receiver by invoking the random oracle on a random seed. In such a setting, we can reduce the number of exponentiation cost to five by using the sender's randomness for different OT executions. Next, we try to obtain a semi-adaptive OT by considering bit inputs for the sender in the previous construction. Recall a semi-adaptive OT is an OT where one of the party gets statically corrupted and the other party gets adaptively corrupted. The previous construction already achieved security when the receiver is adaptively corrupted and the sender is statically corrupted. However, it fails to achieve security against adaptive corruption of sender. This is because the simulator cannot equivocate the ciphertext C0 and C1 without knowing the discrete log of M0 and M1. We address this problem by considering sender's inputs to be bits instead of group elements. If the sender's input is M0, then he samples random ciphertext Z0 and C0, LC encrypts 1 in Z0 and C0. The same protocol is performed for M1. The receiver outputs 1 if Mb is 1, LC outputs 0. We know that Z1-b and C1-b are C2 random due to the redish assumption and this will allow us to achieve semi-adaptive security when the receiver is statically corrupt and the sender gets corrupted post-indicution. If sender is initially honest and receiver is corrupt, then the simulator extracts b and invokes a OT to obtain Mb. He constructs Zb, Cb honestly, but he always encrypts 1 in Z1-b and C1-b. If the sender gets corrupted later after execution of the protocol completes and M1-b turns out to be 1, then the simulator will give out the randomness used for constructing the ciphertext Z1-b and C1-b. So this is identical to the real-world execution of the protocol. If M1-b turns out to be 0, then the simulator claims that Z1-b and C1-b was randomly sampled. So equivocation in this case is successful due to the DDH assumption. Now we can obtain full adaptive security by considering the BLPV transformation which transforms any semi-adaptive OT to adaptive OT using augmented NC. This completes our results related to oblivious transfer. I would refer to a paper for the complete adaptive bit OT protocol. We can also reduce the size of the CRS such that it can be reused by multiple parties for different OT or commitment protocols. We can consider a single master CRS consisting of two kappa plus two group elements. These are random group elements. We assume that every sub-session has a unique kappa bit sub-session ID called SSID. Based on the bits of the SSID, the parties will generate the local CRS for the sub-session. Recall that the local CRS of the sub-session requires GH and a T. So let me denote the T for the sub-session SSID as TSSID. Suppose SSID is all 0 string, then TSSID is generated by multiplying all the U values corresponding to bit 0 of SSID. We show in our paper that the local CRS consisting of GH and TSSID can be used to perform the OT and commitment protocols in sub-session SSID. And the CTH assumption ensures that an adversary cannot compute the trapdoor of the local CRS GH, TSSID. Finally, I would like to conclude my talk by saying that we have more results in the paper. We obtain a two round adaptive security MPC protocol in the short CRS model. We also show that the first message, which is the receiver's message, of a two round receiver adaptive security OT is an adaptive security commitment scheme. Finally, I would like to say that our work improves the efficiency of round optimal UCOTs and make them practical under standard assumptions like DDH. It would be interesting to see if the efficiency can be further improved. Thank you. And this is our full version paper. And here are the references.


a fiery horse for the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a heart of high old silver, the lone ranger. The rich grazing land of Texas brought wealth and prosperity to many of the early settlers in the western United States. But before the days of the open range passed, there were many bitter fights between the men who raised cattle and those who raised sheep. The masqueride of the plains did his best to settle the disputes without bloodshed. It was he, more than any other man who brought law and order to the frontier, and the memory of his deeds will remain as long as the memory of the early west itself. And I'll return with us to those thrilling days of yesteryear. From all of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver, the lone ranger rides again. Maggie McGee, a young widow, was the leader of the sheepherders in the district surrounding Cripple Creek. The cattleman resented her prosperity and had tried to drive her out of the territory without success. One day, Pete Dexter made a final effort to buy her out. Well, I ain't going to put that in your pipe and smoke it. Oh, wait a minute, Maggie. Wait, nothing. I don't like your face, your style, your way of doing business, or anything about your Pete Dexter.  You don't have to like me, Ted Redd and Maggie. You like cash, though, don't you? No. What? What good cash? Can't eat it. Smell it or use it to keep a house warm. All cash is good first. It's a spend for things a body can use. Well, all right, then. I don't like cash, and I like the things that cash will buy. For the love of Pete Maggie, stop being such a cantankerous fire-eater so a man could talk sense to you. Thank me. It's the company. Now, make yourself scarce, Dexter.  This country ain't big enough for the two of us. No. You don't hear me complaining. You shouldn't. Your pesky sheep can get grazing in water, all right, but they spoil the country for cows. Cows won't even drink from the stream down below your place, just because you're sheep drinking in it.  Look, Maggie, one of us has got to go. Then go.  Me and the common don't aim to go. I've given you warnings before. Mm-hmm. I tried a plenty of underhanded schemes to get rid of me. Now, listen to me. But you got fooled every time. Boy, you... Save your breath, Dexter. You've been making threats for as long as I can remember. And declare I'd think there was something wrong if I didn't hear you spouting threats every couple of weeks. This is the last time, Maggie, McGee. I'm telling you point-blank here or now that you sell out to the cattlemen and Valmous or buy a thunder wheel move you. Mm-hmm. Sure thing. You'd better heed what I said. Oh, sure. Sure, Pete. Now, will you get before I stick the dove on you? You got to hear what price will pay for your land. You sell out the rest of the sheep and we'll do the same. Don't care what the price is. It ain't enough. It's fair, Maggie. I ain't selling. Now, I reckon I've stood about all of your company I can stand. Come on, Brownie. Sick of him. You're all right. All right. Get down now. Look at his guns. Right down, fella. There. That's a good fella. I do declare Brownie Pete Dexter the biggest fool I ever heard of. It's a nerve of him thinking I'd take his threats serious and sell out. Good, Brownie. Is that you again, Dexter? It's me. How are you? Wow. Oh. Good morning, Lame. Hi there, Brownie. What's the idea of you making so much noise? Dexter was just here. I had to let the dog in to chase the pesky rat. Dexter? Oh, that's bad. What's bad about it? I don't take him serious. I know, Maggie. You never did before, but... But what? Well, them cowmen are sure up again at these days. Why so? Water. That's their hard luck. Springs have gone dry. And about the only water is what comes through the creek. Very. And the cows won't touch water after sheep have used it. Yes, so. He's raised his cows to be so fussy that it's his tough luck. Oh, you know better than to say anything of that sort, Maggie. It ain't only Dexter. It's all the cattlemen downstream. Mm-hmm. How's your own sheep, Lame? I'm doing the first rate, but I'm a fear to Dexter and his crowd. I ain't. Well, you would be if you got to town at all. There's a sinful lot of talking going on. There ain't no telling how far the common will go to get us out in this country. How'd the rest of the sheep hurt its feel? They're downright worried. We've all been working hard to fix a good strong fence between our section and the Dexter line. The open range they're complaining about. Yeah, but they're figuring on taking over all our ranches, taking our houses and barns and everything. They wouldn't go that far would they? I'm a feared so. It's a case of them taking downright desperate measures or losing all their stock on account of water. That's their own problem. The law says these places belong to us and by Juniper Lamber hanging on to them. That ain't all, Maggie. Wait till you hear the rest. Well? The Kalman are bringing in professional gunslingers. They are? Yes, sir. And paying five dollars a day free cartridges and a bounty on every sheep herder they get when the war starts. They can't. Well, they sure as thunder are. Gosh, Lame, I can't believe it. I know Pete's done a lot of talking in these days, but I'm a feared that this time he means business. Bringing in gunslingers. They ain't handing out five dollars a day just to bluff, Maggie.  But the law... Maggie, the law gets sort of hard to see in the times. Them cattlemen have the sheriff on their side and like there's not the U.S. Marshal as well. Don't go on it, Lynn. There may be a real range war before this is done with. Won't be much of a war, Maggie. You know how many sheepmen they are. Doggone few. The cowmen have ten to our one to start with. And with the fighters they're bringing in. Then you said there was talking in town. Yes, so. Well, that theme talking has really got me worried. Stay here and get shot down or clear out. Gosh, there just ain't much to choose. The Lone Ranger and his faithful Indian companion, Tonto, were riding toward Cripple Creek. As long as we're near here, Tonto, let's stop over at Maggie McGee's place and see how she's made out since the last time we saw her. Not good. I wonder how permanent the peace we made a year ago has been. We not know yet. The town's just ahead and we haven't very much further beyond that to go. We go see Dexter, Maggie, woman. They'll call on Maggie. I don't think Pete Dexter and the cattlemen would be very glad to see us. Oh, then not remember you. Don't you think so, Tonto? No. Then not see much last time. I guess that's right. We acted the last time without showing ourselves to the Dexter men, except for a couple of minutes. Hey there, Father. Oh, there's more scouts. Glad to see you. Ain't you kind of foolish wearing your mask to come here? Why are you glad to see me? Sure, it's the more the merrier. You reckon the news that Dexter's hind gunmen has spread through the hull of the Badlands, ain't it? Has it? I heard it and I was sure deep in the Badlands. The team of oxen couldn't have dragged me out if I hadn't been told for sure that the sheriff saw her closing his eyes till the sheep and cow war settled. I see. You mean with Maggie, woman? Yeah. Them dreaded sheepherders, they gotta be moved. What have they ever done to you? Nothing. Then why do you dislike them? That's easy to tell. Dexter in the commoner paid me five a day to line up with them. For five bucks and bullets I can sure hate the other side a plenty. Has the range war started yet? Nah, but it'll start most anytime now. What are the plans?  That's why they'd assume not be too active in the shooting. Maybe the US Marshal might get the full notion of holding court for murder or something. I see. But if weans from the Badlands do the shooting and get our pay in high tail back to where we come from, the law can just hunt us as long as it pleases. Whatever happens, Dexter can blame it on us. And he's really serious about wiping out the sheepmen.  There should be plenty of grazing for both. Ain't grazing, it's water. The sheep are upstream, you see. Oh yes. Cow's won't touch the water and the springs have gone dry. Where are we supposed to meet? Dexter's place. By the way? We can get there. Soon as all the boys are ready, they'll move into the sheep section and order everyone out. Burn down the houses if they don't move out and start the shooting. Me, I hope they don't move. I'd sure as thunder like to unlimber my guns, son. How many men from the Badlands are on hand? Ten, twelve were so. Is that engine riding with you? Yes. Dexter figures to hire about a score, man. There'll be plenty. And five dollars a day and bullets. Now you just ride straight on. Then when you get to the Cripple Creek, follow it upstream and you'll see Dexter's. This is the first big ranch you come to. Oh well. Further upstream is Maggie McGee's place. There's the headquarters of the sheep people. The rest of them are scattered around her place close by. Oh well, come on, tunnel. Get him up, scoundrel. Come on, soldier. I tried to give her a warning but she wouldn't take it. I'll stick the dog on me instead. We'll fix her and hold tribe, Dexter. We sure will. Now remember, boys. All my regular hands and them a barton and grant will ride along with you. We sure have a sizeable band of men. There'll be about 50 all told. The sheep men won't have a chance. Our regular men could handle it but I've got to have some professional gun-toters to take the blame for the shootings. None of you gents can object to one or two more notches in the butt of your shooting iron. How soon do we start? Maybe tomorrow night. The sooner the better. Do you want folks another chance to sell out? No. Then why wait? Sure, let's start tonight, Dexter. What's the sense of waiting? I expect a couple more men to join up with us. I'll wait till tomorrow and give them the chance to get here. Where's our bunk? On the grass or inside? All you extra men can sleep in a stable if you don't like the sky for a roof. I don't expect the war will last long. Sure. There's long ways to come for a couple of days' pay. I'll guarantee you a week's pay anyhow. That's fair, isn't it? Suits me. I'll reckon so. I come for the fun of it more than the money. No more, and then we'll break up till tomorrow, sundown. We all leave here and ride to Maggie McGee's first.  Hear that, Tonto? Tonto, hear that. That dog of hers starts yapping. Shoot the critter. Shoot the critter anyhow. It's a show we ain't fooled. Tonto, listen carefully when I tell you what to do. Tonto, listen. Shoot right then and there and set the house afire. Then move on to the next place. There we... And two gun lamps and scar jacks and Squid Olson, Dan Decker. Tonto, member, outlaw name. Come on back to our horses. You'll get that message through, won't you, Tonto? Me do that. I'm going to ride for Maggie McGee and have a talk with her tonight. You ride hard and tell the US Marshal what I told you. Can't you do that? All right. Ready then, Tonto? Get him up, Scout. Come on. The curtain falls on the first act of our throwing Lone Ranger drama. Before the next exciting scenes, please permit us to pause for just a few moments. Now to continue our story. After he learned that the cattlemen were hiring outlaws to fight the sheep herders, the Lone Ranger sent Tonto for the Marshal and then rode to Maggie McGee's ranch. The fact that you just happened along, mister, sure proves to me that there's real trouble afoot. Just like Lem here told me. I think Dexter and his men will go a lot further than they did the last time. Just what I says, mister. Ain't that so, Maggie? I hate to say so, Lem, but she was right. Why, Dad, Radham, they're bringing in outlaws from all sides. There'll be about 20 gunmen here. More than enough to wipe us out. And the regular bodies from the cowmen's ranch will be with them. Close to 50 men, ain't it? Yes. That settles it. It don't settle nothing, Lem. This thing can't be settled till it's gone in a fair and square way and shooting us up won't do it. Well, for me, Maggie, I don't hang her to stay here and be shot up. Quit her. A man can't be condemned as a quitter for thinking his own hide is worth more than a pack of sheep. There's principle involved. Ain't that so, mister? That's exactly it, Maggie. Property rights for citizens are being established these days. The things that are done now will be the foundation for the ways things will be done for the generations to come. Well, the generations to come can do what they want. I ain't anxious to get planted premature for Lem. Perhaps you won't need to be Lem. Huh? You'll get the sheepmen together and follow a plan.  Ain't the mask man showed us the way out once before? Now, let's listen to his skin. That's all I ask of you. Well, I can't stand to lose nothing by listening. But that don't say I'll take to it. You will, dog, go on your skinny neck or I'll take care of you before them gunmen get around to doing it. They plan to strike tomorrow night. How do you know? I was mistaken for one of the outlaws. Instead of going to the meeting, I listened outside and came here before going to Dexter. You were going to Dexter? For a while. Now, here's what you will have to do tomorrow night. The following day at sundown, the outlaws went to Dexter for their orders. Now, boys, the best way to do it will be to go out in sections. Who's first? They may be sure to get in on it. You'll all have the chance to get in on the fun and don't get over anxious. Remember, you're not to shoot or set any fires unless you have to. No. You've got to get that through your head. I don't want murder unless there ain't no other way out. I got an idea that when Maggie sees she can't bluff us no longer, she'll give in. If she does, she's to have the chance to leave this section. Yeah. This is going to be a no-good-rains war. I ain't anxious to have murder. But there ain't no other way. That's what it'll have to be. I'm glad you said that, Dexter. You're glad. Yes. Hey, just who are you, anyhow?  And let every one of you know that I was in on this affair? No, Dexter. If you want my guns, you take the mask, too. Wonder who he is? I know, but he's got brains. We should have kept our names out in this, too. Are we ready to start? Sure. No man right on the head. Go through the strip, close to the creek, right upstream and wait outside of Maggie's place. Me and the others will follow along. Wait. Well, are you sure you're going to follow? Me and I said so. We don't want to do all the dirty work and have you turn us over to the law instead of having to pay us. He's a fire-thinking crater, ain't he? Remember, Dexter, if you don't come along, we'll come back. You've got to be in this as deep as we are, and we'll be sure you won't squeal on us. We'll be along. Well, well, come on then, then. There, come out, Claude. Good. In din, you'll get plenty of rewards for this. No, me not want reward. Every one of those killers is wanted by the law. This will be the biggest roundup of crooks this section has ever known. You'll not shoot mass, friend. Don't worry, Tonto. I savvy that he's with them only to make sure they come this way. Stand ready, boys. Come on, silverware! All right. Close in. You're surrounded.  It's the law. God, every one of you buy thunder. This is a night to go down in history. You're double-crossing. I've been waiting for you a long time, lefty. Now jail won't hold us. It ain't gonna need to hold you long, scar. Just long enough to find you guilty of enough to hang you. Man, get square with you. I've been dexter double-crossed. Come on. Heard to pack him to town, boy. Hey, get that last man, too. He's one of us.  Get him! You gotta take him, too! Now ain't that too bad. He got clean away. But the rest of you won't get away. Boys, I'm afraid them blame fools started shooting without giving them folks a chance. Well, if they done that, dexter, then I won't pay my share. Me neither. Well, there ain't but one thing we can do is to keep running on and on until we find out the truth. I ain't seen no fire started up yet. Remember them outlaws are looting the builders before firing them. They were sure enough gunplay. Well, it wore long, but it was sharp. There's Maggie's, please. Yeah, light it up, too. Wonder where all the boys are at. I don't see no houses around nowhere. This is dog-con mysterious. Rain up here. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Just keep natural. You and a couple others come inside the house with me. The rest of the boys look around outside. Yeah. Ken, while you're looking, see if you can't spot some dead sheep. Oh, my goodness. Pete, maybe I've got the situation doped out. Well? It don't seem possible that they've all cleared out just as they were supposed to, but I'll bet that's what's been done. Maggie, you in there? Knock on the door again. You here? Maggie McGee. The house is sure enough empty. Empty and light it up. Every lamp a going full blast. Look around. Them killers must have got their orders mixed and driven them off before we got here. Maybe she's dead in the next room. I'll have a look. Gosh, I hope she ain't. I hope she's here to open the door and find out. Go on, Pete. Open it. I done a heap of talking, but gosh, I'd hate to see Maggie dead. She wasn't a bad sort. Maybe we went too far, Pete.  Look inside. She ain't here. Her kit bag was always in that stand in the corner. Let's go on. Her dresser is cleaned right off. And what extra clothes she had are gone from them hoof. Hey, there's a note propped up again in the picture. Let me see that. What's it say? Grant. Grant, she's cleared out. She has. She's done just what we wanted her to do. Cleared out complete and took her clothes and personal things along with her. She says I can hand this house and welcome to it. Well, I'll be. But I can hand the land and use this part of the crippled creek for cows. Oh, poor Maggie. You guys, she must have felt mighty bad, but then we couldn't do nothing else, Pete. I reckon not. Hey, Pete, we looked around out there. Well, find anything? The rain's all cleared off. Ain't a sheep inside. What about the other houses? They're all vacated. Every sheepin' around is cleared out. Pete, it's a victory. Why, gosh, all fish hooks. This thing has worked out even better than we dared to hope. If anyone would have told me this would happen, I'd have said they was plumbed local. Dexter. Oh, there's one of them in. Where's all the rest? The law has them. The law? Not the sheriff. No, the United States Marshal found out that a lot of wanted men were here. He set a trap and captured them. Are you the only one who got away? Yes, I'm the only one. Grant, this is the best evening I ever seen. Now we don't even have to pay their men. So you're the... Hold on, hold on, mister. You'll get paid all right. Maybe you sent the Marshal to get them. No, no, I swear I didn't. Every one of those men think you did. Well, then they'll think the same of me. What else can they think? If any one of them ever gets out of jail, he'll come to square accounts. By murder. That's the only way those men know to square accounts. Pete, there ain't but one thing to do. I'm not a killer. You needn't worry about me, Dexter. But you'd better make certain none of those other men get out of jail. Hey, what... What did he say? The Marshal will expect you and the sheriff to give them all the help you can to hang those killers. But you? What about you? I came here to tell you that this house and all the other houses are yours. Maggie and Lemon, all the rest, heard it all the sheep today and moved them away from here. Good. I'll pay you off then. I don't want your money. Hey, there's a buck for it coming. Who's bringing that? Who? Whatever. That's Maggie McGee's forces. Maggie herself.   I've got plenty to say.  You thought you'd get the best of me, huh? Maggie, you've paid out of here. You're not going right, I did. Leave that buckboard and come on in here, Lim. I'm coming, Maggie. Where did you go? Now, you listen. For a change, I'll do some of the talking and this will be the last time I'll have anything to say to you and your partners. You wanted our place here. Well, yeah, Maggie. It was just the water. Well, you got it. You rid away from your own homes to come and take ours. We moved up bag and baggage. We took our sheep and circled north to leave these places for you. Yeah? Then after you and your ugly-faced partners left your houses, we just moved in. Yeah. You're what? Moved in? What about my wife and kids?  We told them they was moving. You can't... Dexter, I've took your house. It's better than this one, but it should be. You got water here, or you didn't have before. You better move your stock tomorrow. We'll move it for you. You can't get away with this. Why not? You can't live in two houses at the same time, can you? It's a fair exchange, Dexter. You can straighten out the matter of deeds later on. But you and us can't use the same creek with... Why? We're going to, and you're living here. All your clothes and things are on that buck ward outside, Dexter. Fact is, you're moved. Dexter, your cows wouldn't touch the Cripple Creek water after the sheep used it. No. But if your cows use it here, upstream from the sheep, both cows and sheep will get all the water they need. Why, dog-granted, Dexter? The mass man's right. Why, uh... By thunder, he is right. It's as simple as that. The trouble is, Pete, when you get all headed up, you get me-med. And then we're both two dog-gone-hard-headed to sit down and talk sane and work things out around a meeting. You can both live here from now on. And there should be a real end to the feud you've been having. Maggie, as far as I'm concerned, the deal goes. Me too. And me. It's better. If I don't, there'll be a first-class jailbreak, and about a score of two gunmen will be hankering for your hide. Guys, Maggie, without range troubles to talk over, I won't have no reason to be calling at your house frequent. Your new house, I mean. I'll sure miss seeing you. You can stay around as much as you please, then. It takes to lie.    The story you have just heard is a copyrighted feature of the Lone Ranger Incorporated.


to my channel, so it feels so good to be home. We had been away for about two weeks. We went to Pennsylvania. My husband had some work to do there. And if you're new around here, we live in North Carolina. So we are just kind of recouping from being gone for so long and just getting back in the swing of things. I actually already tackled quite a few loads of laundry and it's ready to be put away. And today I'm just gonna do a general cleanup just to get kind of back on track. Tomorrow I'm thinking I'm gonna do an entire house clean and go through the whole house and clean it really well. But today I'm more just wanting to pick up vacuum, you know, that kind of thing. And so yeah, this is just going to be some extreme cleaning motivation. I hope it gets you guys up and going and let's get started. If you guys don't follow me on Instagram then maybe you don't know what our last week has been like and maybe why you haven't seen very many videos from me. So we went ahead and came home from Pennsylvania. We were initially planning to be there only a few days. Ended up being more like a little over a week just with related to my husband's work. And then we went ahead, left to come home and about halfway home, we live about eight hours from Pennsylvania. Our car completely gave out and it was such a terrible timing. We were heading home on Saturday morning. So where we pulled off to the side of the highway there was an exit and we were able to get off to safety. But the garage that was there couldn't see us until Monday morning. So we had to get a hotel and just kind of wait out the weekend until they could fix our vehicle. We looked at renting a vehicle but it just didn't make enough sense to have to go back and get it then a few days later. It was just better off for us to sit tight and wait until it was ready. So Monday morning ruled around and they could not get the parts that they needed for the car until Tuesday. So we ended up staying three nights in a hotel in really the middle of nowhere. Thank goodness I could get in to cart.  So all in all we ended up being away from home for two weeks. It was so unplanned and even the day that we left we just kind of made a spur of the moment decision and left. So it was just crazy.  And since I didn't really have time to clean before we left, everything was just a little out of place. We cleaned a little before we left but nothing crazy and I'm really looking forward to tomorrow and actually like cleaning, deep cleaning a little bit in the house. But until then I just needed to get everything just straightened and things put away, toys picked up, that kind of thing. I have to say that our girls were such troopers. If you're new here, they're two, three and four and they did such a great job staying in a hotel room. There was really nothing we could do. There was no way to get out and about and obviously the pool wasn't open at the hotel so it just was crazy. We've never had anything like that happen before. If you've had anything like that happen let me know in the comments because it's just so unexpected and I guess that's what you have to think about when you're traveling. Starting in the kitchen, I got my kitchen Norwex cloth. I cleaned with Norwex and it does remove 99% of bacteria. I'll leave a link to a video below where I did a test under blue light and compared it to a household cleaner that we all know and use and it's amazing the results and it's really mind-blowing. It even was for me to do the test. So I'll let that below and you can check it out. Someone asked me recently in a video if I use my Norwex kitchen cloths to wash my dishes and yes I do. I use them alone because you can use them alone to wash your dishes and get them sanitized but I recently got an order and I really love their dish soap as well which is compatible with their cloths and is perfectly safe to use with their cloths. So what I was doing here is I got some lemon oil out and I was removing the residue behind the labels on these bottles. I use them to make a drink that I like to make and it's just really nice to be able to recycle and reuse bottles and these can be used over and over. They have a really great seal in them and citrus oils do an awesome job at getting rid of sticky stuff. So even if you have orange oil or something like that it does as good of a job. I've used that before as well and I did mix it with some of the dish soap. I just thought it would do a better job combining the two. So like I mentioned, I got a Norwex order recently and I tried out their dishwasher soap. You guys know I like to make my own dishwasher tabs but it's not always the ideal situation for everybody. So I thought I would try their dishwasher soap since it is a clean and natural dishwashing detergent and it works so well. I was like extremely impressed. So if you're looking for a really great clean detergent for your dishwasher that will leave your dishes sparkling and clear, this is definitely the ticket. While I was in Pennsylvania I did a little bit of shopping and then I also shopped my mom's house. My mom loves to buy decor just as much as I do and we often trade things. There's times I've given her stuff that's in my house and so usually whenever I'm there I like shop her basement or her attic and just check out what she has that's extra that she's not using right now and we trade and do that kind of thing. I kind of love it. It's one of those things that I will always remember that my mom and I did and it just means a lot to me. All right, so I went into my laundry room because things were just crazy. I get in a bad habit of throwing stuff up in these bins and just getting it all really mixed up. So I wanted to go through it and divide the things out that I wanted in each bin and fold some of my claws and just kind of get it all straightened up. So here is where I hang up my claws and my Norwex things. So just a little reminder that whenever you're done using a Norwex cloth you do wanna hang it up so that the silver that is embedded in the cloth can go to work eating away at the bacteria that's left in the cloth. This is my dusting mitt and I finally get to tell you guys since I'm home and my Norwex order came but I am giving away three dusting mitts this month. Last month I gave away a mop to one of my subscribers and she lives in Tennessee, which was super exciting but this month I'm gonna have three people that will get a free dusting mitt. All you gotta do is place an order within the month and your name will be put in to win one of these and if you've never seen me use one basically they use static electricity so you can rub it up against your clothes and dust away and they are amazing. Dust really clings to them and they do a better job than Swiffer in my opinion but my favorite thing to use them for is to actually make them wet and just go in circular motions over my screens. I don't even have to remove my screen. I literally just open up the window and go across it in circular motions with that mitt and it those little fibers reach through the screen and they clean the inside and the outside and it does an amazing job. I will warn you, your mitt will look super dirty and definitely need to be cleaned when you're done but it is one of the most awesome tools that I have found for cleaning screens. I'm taking a little break and I actually just showed this stuff on my Instagram account and I know not everybody has Instagram or not everybody follows me so I thought I would just show you. This is a few things that I picked up at Big Lots while I was in Pennsylvania. This guy right here was $15. I can't link any of this stuff because Big Lots you can't shop online like you need to go in store but they always have the best deals. So this is a fake plant. This little thing was so cute and it says powered by plants and coffee. It's supposed to look like a little flower pot and then this guy right here I actually got at a greenhouse and I got the pot at Big Lots but I got this little, it's some kind of a palm I think and as I was setting this stuff on the counter I remembered that I actually took some clips from when we went to the greenhouse so I'm gonna go ahead and insert those here. Come the stars, come to shine when it's dark from so far away show us where we are What makes the sun go to sleep every night and what's it dreaming of? I wonder when the sky sometimes hides behind the clouds maybe it's just like me, a little bit scared of heights Why does the rain always keep on pouring down when it's gray outside? It makes me wonder until winter comes Great, so we had the best time at the greenhouse and I definitely want to go to some of the greenhouses here in our area but moving on with some of this other stuff so I grabbed some letters because I'm going to be doing a refresh on Cori and I's room and I'm gonna be doing some shelving so I just wanted some things to put on the shelves and then these here I get asked about all the time I've got them in different places of my house and I've actually picked them up in different places when I see them somewhere and they're a good price I grab them because they're my favorite type of bin to organize with just because of the handle so right now Big Lots has got these I actually got six of them, three of them are up here I just wanted something different to organize our lids so I've got like the sippy cup water bottle lids for the girls this is like all of our tumbler coffee mug kind of lids and then this is for like rings and lids for ball jars but they're just so convenient to pull in and out I love that you can see what's in them so these up here I'm gonna organize something here in just a second but I've also found them at Walmart and it's kind of been hit and miss because I've looked for them again at Walmart and then they're not there so definitely keep your eye out but check out Big Lots and you will find some really great finds right now okay I'm gonna do a little organizing up here disregard all of this I am making water kefir if you guys don't know what that is it's like a fermented drink and it's really fizzy and delicious and once I perfect some recipes I probably will share some with you but that is what this whole thing is down here so if you guys remember a few weeks ago I actually did some organizing in my kitchen and this spot right here this is fine for the baking stuff up here but these two right here they just are first of all not enough room for all of our spices and they're just a little inconvenient and I think that this type of a pullout going on up here will be so much better and will suit our needs a little bit better with the spices all right so I made a little deal with myself whenever I set up this coffee bar I put these two bins in the shelf there to hold my coffee cups and I decided that whenever I am full and running over with coffee cups then I'm gonna make myself declutter and only have that much space for coffee cups so I just pulled out a few that I didn't want anymore and I put my new one in there then I went ahead and filled up my little reusable K cups this decaf is awesome it is made with Swiss water processing if you guys know anything about decaf coffee it's usually processed to be decaffeinated with chemicals but Swiss water processing actually does it naturally without chemicals and this is also an organic coffee I will try to remember to link it below as well as the reusable K cups I know a lot of you have purchased them and said that they've really worked well for you and I know for myself they save me a lot of money thank you guys so much for watching if you're new here don't forget to hit that subscribe button I hope that this video motivated you and I'll see you guys in my next video


Hi, I'm Rusty Komori and this is Beyond the Lines. We are broadcasting live from the beautiful Think Tech Hawaii TV studio in the Pioneer Plaza in downtown Honolulu. This show is based on my book also titled Beyond the Lines and it's about leadership, creating a superior culture of excellence and finding greatness. Today's special guest is an amazing woman and a two-time Olympic volleyball silver medalist for Team USA. She is Lindsay Berg and today we are going beyond volleyball. Hey Lindsay, great having you here. Thanks for having me Rusty. I remember you at Punahou years and years ago playing tennis and you were ranked in the top five in the state of Hawaii. Yeah, a lot of people don't know that about me but as much as I played volleyball in between maybe 10 to 14 years old, I played just as much tennis. I loved it. I enjoyed it. My mom played tennis. My grandmother played tennis. My auntie played tennis. So as much as I went to the Aloha Airlines championship in the Big Island, I loved tennis. I still do. And that sport was just as much as a part of my growing up as volleyball was up until about 14 and 15 years old. And how was your experience at Punahou school? Well Punahou is great. I'm so thankful for my parents being able to send me there. Yeah. And sometimes it's not your choice as a child, you know, so you just have to have that confidence that your parents are going to put you in the right spot. Yeah. And they definitely did. Punahou prepared me for everything after high school. Sports were amazing. Academics were amazing. You played basketball as well. I did. So once I stopped tennis in school, starting in the intermediate, I played both volleyball and basketball up until junior year. I took it back to the tennis court. My coach that I had signed a letter of commitment to in Minnesota preferred that I did not play my senior year of basketball in case my knees were getting bad, injuries, so I tried out for varsity tennis. They were very nice. So let me on the team and let me play doubles. I think I was like third or second doubles. All I could do was serve. I hit almost every ball out. Proven ballings, what I did, and no, but it was a great way to end my career at Punahou. And Punahou just provided so much for me. And then you ended up going on a full scholarship to University of Minnesota. Yeah. How was your experience there? I cried. Everyone asked, how did you end up from Hawaii to Minnesota? And a lot of times I'm like, I really don't know. But the real story is I had a very interesting recruiting process. I did get recruited by the other big schools on the West Coast. But I didn't want to leave my high school team if we had a game. So it was very hard for me to go on recruiting trips. So I kept, I wouldn't commit. I was like, I'm not going to your school if I don't see the campus. So these schools were crossing me off my list. I was, okay, we're going to take the next person. And my dad was like, will you please go to Minnesota and take a, take a visit? And I was like, where is Minnesota? I know it's cold. So my dad had actually coached my keyboard at University of Santa Barbara. And they were friends. And he had just built a great program at Illinois and recently was going to go to Minnesota to build this program. I took a trip. I wanted to be a part of something special, growth. And I just kind of like threw in the towel and was like, okay, can you get me in business school? I was like, yes, I need a jacket. All right. I was there in the fall. It wasn't too cold. So I committed there. But I have to say the freshman year was rough in weather wise, culture wise. We were bad. I'm like, I'm better than this. And but I stuck it through. Yeah. No. And then you were back right now on your trip. Because you got inducted into Punahol's Hall of Fame. I did. I was, thank you. I was surrounded by some greats as well. Super special to have a high school that is so much tradition in sports and academics. Yeah. So you have that honor. Yeah. And it was great. My whole family came. My sister surprised me with my niece, obviously my grandma is one of my biggest support. And she's still here. Yeah. Came and kicked it with us. It was amazing. And I had everyone, my friends that I went and played with in Punahol. It was really special. Yeah. A few weeks ago, I had Coach Dave Shoji on my show. Yeah. And he had high praises for your dad, Dennis, because your dad is such an amazing volleyball coach. Yes. In person. Yeah. And your family. Tell me about your family. Yeah. Obviously we started volleyball because of my dad. Yeah. He went to UCSB. He coached at UCSB and that's he coached Dave and made his way to the islands to play some beach volleyball where he met my mom. And he started us playing. I mean, he was on the Albuquerque courts playing. He played national. So he was 50-55.  And we were always at the Albuquerque beach courts and he taught me everything at the end of the day. He was not always my coach for the team that I was on, but he was always my coach and I mean, that's who I look up to in the volleyball world. It's not another coach that I've had, not necessarily a player that I looked up to is he was my person. So Lindsay, what did you learn from your dad? What are some principles that you learned through the years from him? He was a big old school fundamental guy of technique, of it being very simple. This is all it takes and then obviously repetition. It's hard sometimes when I go and try to coach a little kid because I learned so long ago that I forget sometimes how to break it down and I call my sister because she's the coach. And I was like, how do I break this down? What I do because I've done it so long, but I just, there was no pressure. Never put pressure on us. So I didn't feel it enough. And he kept it fun? Kept it fun. I loved to play. He wanted to play with us. I think it did help that he wasn't always my actual coach on the teams. Sometimes he was, sometimes he wasn't, but he wasn't my varsity coach and this and that. So I always had him to come back to, though, even if I wasn't with him as a coach on the actual team. He was always there with me. And I learned everything from him. And then Dave coached me a little bit, learned from Dave and Charlie Wade. They were big in my club years before I went to college and I just had a lot of good volleyball people around me. Yeah. Well, that's why you became one of the best in the world. Yeah. After graduating University of Minnesota, what did you do after that? So I graduated a little early and fortunately enough, there was one year that they decided to do a professional volleyball league because for most people don't know a lot. There isn't a professional indoor league in the United States. So there was a father of a girl that played at Penn State. He decided to fund this league. He wanted his daughter to have a chance to continue to play. And there are four teams. One ended up being in Minnesota, so of course they wanted the University of Minnesota, one of the stars to be on that team. And I played in that league until about May. We won upset the daughter of the founders team, which was amazing. I got to play with another one of my University of Minnesota teammates, Nicole Brana. She was an Olympian on the beach as well, Wiz Bachman. A lot of great people and that was kind of my into professional, led into my professional career. So after that, how did your, I mean, how did the Olympic situation come about? Yeah. So his name is Kevin Hambly. He was my assistant coach on the Minnesota Chill, the one professional season. And he was also the assistant coach for the national slash Olympic team, as you can call it. And he actually talked the head coach into giving me a tryout because he saw what I could do with that professional team. My dad and I packed up my car in Minneapolis, drove to Colorado Springs. And this was a paid tryout as in I had to pay my way to try out. Yes. And they would reimburse me after my two weeks if I made it past the two weeks. Dad and I packed up. Dad drove with me, got there probably the hardest two weeks of my life, but I made it through. I got the mileage reimbursement. And then slowly but surely, I continued to just beat out the other setters that I was in competition with, then I got the chance and I was like, I'm going to take advantage of this chance. Yeah. You seized that opportunity. Yeah.  They brought me back.   What did you learn from your Olympic experience? Well, first of all, I can't even believe that ended up being my life. I do remember one time in high school or even younger, I had one friend that was like, you're going to be on the Olympic team. Really? I'm like, what are you talking about? I just want to play. Let's go jump server. Let's go to the beach. I was like, thanks, Rava, but hey, I have so many stories and I've been through so many ups and downs that all the downs actually turned into more important lessons and experiences when I was in the down of something that seemed to be so great, say, to the outside world. I can't even say there's one thing. I think perseverance, though. You hear about being an Olympian and it's almost like, oh, they're an Olympian, but the life is not very glamorous. The amount of hours that we put in, a lot of sports in the Olympic world don't get paid. We're fortunate that we do have an opportunity to go overseas and make a living in a professional league. But when we were in Colorado Springs, there were wrestlers that had to be in the top three of their weight class to even have a place to live. And that was a dorm room. They weren't getting paid for winning. So a lot of people do not understand that a lot of the Olympic sports don't get paid and that this is their job, this is what they want to do. And they continue to do it, even though sometimes they can't eat some of the stories. So perseverance, obviously. And I just became a better leader and a better person and passion. Okay, now, I mean, it's so rare for people to just become an Olympian, let alone win a medal, let alone win two medals. Now, you also walked in the opening ceremony at the Olympics. How was that experience for you? I have goosebumps right now. It's something, obviously I never experienced before, but even the second time and the third time, it felt like I did not experience that before. It's crazy. How I looked at it, though, is that I'm walking in this track or in the stadium with so many people that have the same passion, goals, heart from all different countries, all different walks of life, but the sport. Sport is what brought us all together. I would not have ever seen this person from a country of Africa or a big country in Europe. Maybe never even met them or seen them before, but sport brought us together and we were all there to compete for our country with heart, with passion, desire. And that was the most special thing to me as I walked through, is just seeing so many people that had so much in common from such different walks of life. And we were talking earlier before coming on about how you guys would actually donate stuff to other athletes. It's super interesting, as being Americans, we are given a lot. We have a lot of opportunity, a lot of freedom. We have sponsors for our volleyball team, but there were times that we would be at a tournament and anything we had extra or say we wore shoes just for one tournament, we would give them either to the Cuban team or other teams that just didn't have as much support or the money that they made, they didn't get to have. So they didn't have shoes and stuff? No, they had their sponsors, but they didn't get as much stuff as we got, so anything and you know, but they were our friends and they would sell us things and we'd help bring them things and you got, we played them so much, these different teams that were in our region, you become friends with them even though you're competing, but the competition is just when you're on the court, there's no reason people that you have so much in common with to share your life with each other and it's something really special that you really can't get anywhere and that's what sport does for people. Yeah, Lindsey, how was your the Olympic volleyball team culture like, you know, when you guys won the silver in 08 and 2012, how was the culture like on the team? We were a team. We really, we really grinded for each other. The culture was a little different in my first Olympics. We had the best players in the world, let me tell you, the best players, but sometimes when it got rough, we scattered away from each other rather than bringing each other together and uplifting each other. I think the best teams win when you are consistently uplifting each other and making each other better, no matter rough day, good day, not everyone's going to be perfect all the time and as a leader of what I, how I kept myself on the court, even though not the most physical, I can't jump. I am not that fast, but I was smart and anticipated, but what kept me on the court in some of the most elite opportunities was making people around you better. And in a team setting, that's what you have to do to for a team to succeed. And so definitely Beijing and London, we were a better team. The personnel was different. We had some bats, some new, but I do believe we uplifted each other more so than my first Olympics to make each other better. I love these insights from you, Lindsay. We're going to take a quick break. And then when we come back, we're going to continue going beyond volleyball with you. Awesome. You're watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii with my special guest, two-time Olympic silver medalist, Lindsay Berg. We will be back in 60 seconds. Hello, I'm Dave Stevens, host of the Cyber Underground. And this is where we discuss everything that relates to computers.  So come join us every week here on ThinkTechHawaii.com, 1pm on Friday afternoons, and then you can go see all our episodes on YouTube. Just look up the Cyber Underground on YouTube. All our shows will show up and please follow us. We're always giving you current, relevant information to protect you. Keeping you safe. Aloha. Hey, Stan, the energy man here on Think Tech, Hawaii. And they won't let me do political commentary. So I'm stuck doing energy stuff, but I really like energy stuff. So I'm going to keep on doing it. So join me every Friday on Stan Energy Man at lunchtime at noon on my lunch hour. We're going to talk about everything, energy, especially if it begins with the word hydrogen, we're going to definitely be talking about it. We'll talk about how we can make Hawaii cleaner, how we can make the world a better place, just basically save the planet. Even Miss America can't even talk about stuff like that anymore. We got it nailed down here. So we'll see you on Friday at noon with Stan Energy Man. Welcome back to Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. My special guest today was the captain and two-time Olympic volleyball silver medalist for Team USA. She is Lindsay Berg, and today we are going beyond volleyball. Lindsay, you were the team captain in 2008 and 2012 when you guys won the silver medal. How was it being in that leadership role for you? Well, fortunately, in 2008, my co-captain was Robin Amos Santos. And I can't thank her enough for guiding me through this whole Olympic process as we played in two together. And she led the way as when I was growing up. Also, I saw her playing for UH. So she's been a big part of my career and a great person to look up to. But I took that being a captain very seriously. I got to a point where I knew my skill level was kind of what my skill level was going to be. So how can I enhance my whole game in another way that wasn't going to be physical of how I sat, how I jumped, can I serve better, this type of thing? So I took it very seriously is how can I be the best teammate I can be and the best leader I can be? Everyone says in the game sometimes you can treat everyone the same. Well, women, it's not true. Let me tell you, we all wish that we could speak the same way to every woman and everyone will react in the same way, but it's not true. And so I took pride in, I played games a little bit. My teammates didn't really know. But how do I get the most out of rest of you as my teammate? Can I just say something really specific or bark something really quick and you're not going to take it personal and you're going to do it? The other person, maybe I have to, you know, blame it a little bit on myself, which I'm okay with as a captain, take some responsibility. But then maybe also say, but if you do this, it might help us both. So let's both do this. So I practiced, I practiced my communication. I practiced my body language of what worked for my teammates. Like, I don't, I want this person to be the best they can be next to me. So how can I bring that out of them? So I really took it seriously. I worked on it. I worked on having the best relationship I could with my coaches at that point in time. The coaches at that it's a relationship. We're professionals at that. It can be a partnership, I believe. So the coach can't play. So how can I bring what he or she has onto the court and use that to help the team as well? So I'd love to be in a captain. I was okay with that pressure. I was okay taking responsibility sometimes for things that might have not been my fault. That was also my position as a setter. Often we do that as well. Just, I got it my fault. So I loved it. I love to be in a captain and what I learned.  I really use a lot of those skills and it's really helped me. Yeah. Well, I remember watching those Olympics and I was cheering for you through the TV and I'm like, come on, Lindsay. Now, you were also an assistant volleyball coach for the University of Hawaii for a season. And how was that experience for you? It was awesome. A lot of the volleyball world, my family, my sister knows that I don't necessarily want to be a coach. But this opportunity came up when Dave was ending his career, whether everyone knew that or not. There was a possibility that that could have been his last season, which it did end up being. Robin had just moved. I think it was back to Las Vegas or with her family. So they lost an assistant coach and I heard that through my dad, I kind of got thinking, I love being back here with my grandma. The Hawaii program is insane. Something I didn't get to experience as a player. Maybe I could experience this as a coach and be a part and give back to the state that meant so much to me. So we kind of juggled with it. Dave and I throwing it out there. Yes, I would do that, talked it over, had a couple more talks. And I ended up here for a season and it ended up being Dave's last season. It was awesome to be with him while I was an adult as well.  It was really special also with him having Kavika and Eric players. And we talk about all of this. It was really special to spend that season with him and be a part of the University of Hawaii program, which supports volleyball, like no other program out there. And it was, it was great. And if, you know, if I changed one life of the girls on the team, that's enough and hope I gave them some things to take away. Well, Coach Dave was just surrounded by all kinds of Olympians with you guys. Now, what Lindsay, what made Coach Dave so great? You know, when I was growing up, he expected a lot. And so when you're growing up, sometimes that's hard. Like you're not prepared for that. You could think it's mean. You could think it's too blunt. I can't do this. Like the amount of times he told me to get lower for defense and I physically can't get lower, I just feel like Dave, I can't do it in my head. I can't do this. But he knew where I had it in me. So that was his way of showing that respect and just high expectations of us as growing up and being good volleyball players. And he had that all through his career coaching at UH. Obviously I didn't play, but I heard he's pretty tough on his players. You know what I mean? And I see that, but it's all because he wants the best out of you. He wants, he has high expectations. He knows you can do it. And I think I caught him on the end of the coaching where he, you know, he had kids and he's got grandkids. And he was a little calmer when I got to coach with him. But at the end of the day, he cares. Yeah. So knowledgeable at the IQ. He's been playing his whole life as well. And he just really cares. And that's a great quality. Lindsay, I know you're working on my book, Beyond the Lines. And you definitely go beyond the lines. And that's why you are extremely successful. Now, part, there's a part in the book where I talk about welcoming adversity and looking forward to challenges. What was your biggest adversity in your life? Yeah, I joke these days that I'm comfortable being uncomfortable because I put myself through these situations, whether it's Hawaii to Minnesota or all of these uncomfortable. But I did go through a very difficult point in my volleyball career that I was always very doubted. Everyone thought I was fat. They thought I was fat, which meant they thought I was slow, which really, I got to the ball all the time. I had to deal with these comments, coaches, volleyball fans, a lot of bullying. And back then there was just like a little forum. But I saw the major bullying. My first Olympics, I read some stuff. And I just... Wow, as an Olympian. Yeah, I just broke down. Why is Lindsay Burke on this team? She's not an All-American. She's fat, she's slow, blah, blah, blah, which is fine because it has helped me so much to have these people doubt me and push me and understand it's OK to be me. I might be different than others. And so it was a struggle through my whole career, let me tell you. Even to the end, my third Olympics had people. Why is Lindsay Burke on the team? You know, but they helped me. So I'm very thankful for those people that doubted me because it pushed me. It also taught me how bad that felt for me. So I'd never want to make someone else feel that way. So through my coaching or through my motivating this and that, I choose how I speak, how I communicate. I don't want anyone to ever feel like how I felt. And so that was, it was a big struggle. It was hard. As my parents, I cried sensitive. I really care. I cared what people thought about me.  And you were an Olympian. Yeah, exactly. And I really feel bad right now with the social media world of the access of saying anything to someone you don't even know or feeling like you have to be this way because that person looks this way. So I really hope that my story can resonate with some people of just like, OK, I'm OK how I am. Yeah, I can still do what I want to do. Like this is me and own it, accept it, keep going. And you use it as motivation and positivity right there.  Yeah, I was not stopping.  I'm fast. No. Now, Lindsay, what what do you think the best coaches, the best leaders do? It's definitely all comes down to communication. There's a way to be hard on your player. There's there's a way to give a very thorough feedback to make them better rather than just yelling at them for doing something wrong. Still, the player might not know what to do to change that. You can be passionate. You can yell, but give like positive and constructive criticism of direction of how to change that and how that's going to make it better. I think communication is the number one thing in life and a lot in sports leadership, making each other better. And yeah, it makes things easier. I totally agree with you. I mean, there's communication is an art and you've got to. I mean, there's you have to find a way to press the right buttons to get your team and each individual to rise to the occasion. And you're not going to get it right every time. Yeah, like you're not. And but it's you test it out. You see what works one day you might have a bad day and it's OK to like take responsibility than the next day. Sorry, guys, I was too hard on you, maybe. But this is what I was looking for. And this is why I was hard on you. Yeah, we're not all perfect. We we lose it sometimes. I lose it all the time. But it's something that's really important. Lindsay, before we wrap up, I want to ask you one more thing. Let's go to flip side of this. Have you had a bad coach and what did they do? Yeah, like I explained what a good coach is. I think that is also a bad coach is is not explaining how can I be better? Just always a control and yelling. I don't think yelling is necessary. There's a way to be passionate without yelling. But it's not giving instruction to them be better. I think that would be considered a bad coach. Yeah, a coach is supposed to help you achieve your goals, help you get better, not just be a control figure. Yeah, and really have the best interests of the players and the team. Yeah. Yeah. Lindsay, I appreciate all your insights and taking time to be on the show today. It's awesome. Thank you. You are awesome. I know you for so many years and I feel so proud to just see you on this journey. And I know there's going to be like amazing, great things that's going to be in your future still. Yeah, excited. Thank you, Lindsay. Thank you. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii and a special thank you to my clothing sponsor, Ilani Incorporated. For more information, please visit my website, RustyKamori.com. And my book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and all Costco stores in Hawaii. I hope that Lindsay and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.


The remains of a five-year-old girl, Hanifa Abu Bakar, who was kidnapped last month, have been discovered. She was in a shallow grave at a private school premises in Kwanayangana, Tudum, Murtala Quarters, Nassaraluku government area of Kano State. The suspects had abducted Hanifa on December 2, 2021 and took her to a hideout. That's where they contacted her relatives and demanded a ransom of 6 million naira. Perhaps having realized that the victim recognized them, the suspect poisoned her to death, butchered her and buried her in a shallow grave.