text:
Wisconsin is a prime battleground state in this year's presidential election.
Republicans hope the pick of native son Paul Ryan as their vice presidential nominee will bolster their chances to turn the state red in November. Wisconsin hasn't voted for a Republican for president since 1984. Barack Obama won the state by a blowout 14 points in 2008. And a run of Wisconsin polls this week shows him widening his lead over Mitt Romney.
So what do Wisconsin voters have to say about their choices — and their mood?
Economic Strain
If politics is really a big circus — forgive the metaphor — then why not start talking to voters at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wis., home to the Ringling brothers?
Stephen Freese, the executive director, says he's a Romney supporter. He thinks Romney's business background will help jump-start the stalled economy.
The summer drought has really hurt here, Freese says. With gas prices up, attendance is down at Circus World — and those who do come are cautious.
"We see them spending much more time buying the necessities than the extras," says Freese, "so the gift shop isn't as busy as the restaurant, because they just aren't able to purchase everything they used to do on a credit card. They know they ultimately have to pay for it, and they're concerned about the stability of their job."
Baraboo is in Sauk County in south-central Wisconsin, which voted for Obama by a 22-point margin. But then it flipped, going for Republican Scott Walker for governor in 2010 and voting against his recall this year.
Stretching For Health Insurance
In downtown Baraboo, the Wednesday morning farmers market is in full swing. Small stands are filled with squash and sunflowers, potatoes and pickles.
Maury Gurgel farms near Reedsburg, Wis. His big issue? Health insurance. He says the cost to cover him and his wife is punishing.
"I'm a little older, and we're spending every bit of our savings to buy health insurance. It's taken a toll on our business, too. I can't afford to hire people if I have to spend $1,000 a month on health care premiums," he says. "We're going to be going without [insurance] pretty soon, probably. ... We've had to spend all of our retirement savings just to keep it going."
Gurgel says what he'd really like to see is a single-payer system, like Canada's.
Over and over in Baraboo, I hear people talk about health care — how good insurance is out of their reach.
Mary Keeser, who is shopping at the farmers market, is a nurse and an Obama supporter.
"Let's have the same health care that the senators and legislature has," she says. "If they want to make it equal, let's do that. I mean, we'll have excellent health care. But people that have insurance don't understand people that don't have insurance, you know. And I see it on a daily basis."
Political Wounds
Keeser says Obama "walked into a mess."
"You can't solve that in four years," she adds. "And I think given, you know, a few more years, things will straighten out a bit. But I think it's going to take maybe a generation to straighten out the mess the Republicans got us in."
Heidi Accola runs a 1-acre organic farm with her husband. She's a solid Democrat, an Obama backer. He's a staunch Republican who will vote for Romney, she says.
"We try not to talk politics because it gets so heated," she says with a laugh. "We have very opposing political views, so we really just try not to go there."
In Wisconsin, emotions are still extremely raw after the bitter fight over public unions and the unsuccessful vote to recall Walker.
A few tables down, Deb Kozlowski-Brylla is setting out beautiful strawberries. She is sick of politics. She says the bruising recall battle didn't help.
"This will probably be the first year I will not vote," she says. "Because I am really disappointed in the parties — both parties, all parties. I think political parties are ruining the United States. We ... no longer stand for what you believe in; we stand for a party. And I don't believe that. So I'm not going to vote for anybody."
Another sign of that sharp divide over the recall election: We spot a car with a bumper sticker that says, "Recall Santa! I didn't get what I wanted!" It belongs to Bob Greenwood, who's in the Viking Village market, having coffee with his buddies.
"I think that President Obama is doing a terrible job on the economy," he says. "Romney, I think, is not my first choice, but I'm going to vote for him. I would rather have seen [former Arkansas Gov.] Mike Huckabee, to be honest with you, but Romney will be my vote."
His friend Harold Heiser, a Vietnam veteran, chimes in with what's on his mind: "I think we should quit giving weapons to other countries, because they turn around and fight against us. I mean, they're burning our flag. When's it going to stop? There ain't enough love in this world."
When it comes to his choices for November, Heiser says Romney's "got a lot of good things." As for Obama: "He said change. I haven't seen any change. The only change is more unemployment and more debt."
In The 'Mulligrubs'
We end our day in Baraboo outside Blain's Farm & Fleet — a megastore selling farm equipment, hunting gear, a lot of everything.
Rick Sherman is heading to his bright yellow pickup. He's a Republican and 98 percent behind Romney, he says. He finds some truth in Romney's message about too much entitlement. As a paramedic, he says he sees people taking advantage of the system.
"Nothing [is] as frustrating as going in and a lady's got three or four or five kids, and she's pregnant with another one. You want to say: Do you realize how you get pregnant? And she's like, 'Well, you know, I get BadgerCare and Medicare for all my kids, and the more I have, I get more money for it,' " he says. "And then you go to the old people's house, where Grandma and Grandpa are going, 'OK, which med do I take? Which one do I skimp on because I don't have money for it?' "
Then, paving contractor Chris Butler waves us over to talk. He says he sees a down mood, and wonders whether politics is to blame.
"Walking around the store in there, nobody's smiling. Nobody seems to be happy," he says. "Maybe that's why everybody's so in the mulligrubs, frowning. I don't know, maybe everybody's got politics on the mind."
Mulligrubs? "That's something my uncle always said: 'Don't be in the mulligrubs.' I really don't know what the mulligrubs are, but I don't think it's good," Butler says.
For the record, the Dictionary of American Regional English describes the "mulligrubs" as "a condition of despondency or ill temper; a vague or imaginary unwellness."
In my conversations in Baraboo, Wis., I didn't find any of those elusive undecided voters. And I didn't talk with anybody brimming with passion about their candidate, either.
Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.


text:
perldebtut - Perl debugging tutorial
A (very) lightweight introduction in the use of the perl debugger, and a pointer to existing, deeper sources of information on the subject of debugging perl programs.
There's an extraordinary number of people out there who don't appear to know anything about using the perl debugger, though they use the language every day. This is for them.
First of all, there's a few things you can do to make your life a lot more straightforward when it comes to debugging perl programs, without using the debugger at all. To demonstrate, here's a simple script, named "hello", with a problem:
$var1 = 'Hello World'; # always wanted to do that :-)
$var2 = "$varl\n";
print $var2;
While this compiles and runs happily, it probably won't do what's expected, namely it doesn't print "Hello World\n" at all; It will on the other hand do exactly what it was told to do, computers being a bit that way inclined. That is, it will print out a newline character, and you'll get what looks like a blank line. It looks like there's 2 variables when (because of the typo) there's really 3:
$var1 = 'Hello World';
$varl = undef;
$var2 = "\n";
To catch this kind of problem, we can force each variable to be declared before use by pulling in the strict module, by putting 'use strict;' after the first line of the script.
Now when you run it, perl complains about the 3 undeclared variables and we get four error messages because one variable is referenced twice:
Global symbol "$var1" requires explicit package name at ./t1 line 4.
Global symbol "$var2" requires explicit package name at ./t1 line 5.
Global symbol "$varl" requires explicit package name at ./t1 line 5.
Global symbol "$var2" requires explicit package name at ./t1 line 7.
Execution of ./hello aborted due to compilation errors.
Luvverly! and to fix this we declare all variables explicitly and now our script looks like this:
use strict;
my $var1 = 'Hello World';
my $varl = undef;
my $var2 = "$varl\n";
print $var2;
We then do (always a good idea) a syntax check before we try to run it again:
> perl -c hello
hello syntax OK
And now when we run it, we get "\n" still, but at least we know why. Just getting this script to compile has exposed the '$varl' (with the letter 'l') variable, and simply changing $varl to $var1 solves the problem.
Ok, but how about when you want to really see your data, what's in that dynamic variable, just before using it?
use strict;
my $key = 'welcome';
my %data = (
'this' => qw(that),
'tom' => qw(and jerry),
'welcome' => q(Hello World),
'zip' => q(welcome),
my @data = keys %data;
print "$data{$key}\n";
Looks OK, after it's been through the syntax check (perl -c scriptname), we run it and all we get is a blank line again! Hmmmm.
One common debugging approach here, would be to liberally sprinkle a few print statements, to add a check just before we print out our data, and another just after:
print "All OK\n" if grep($key, keys %data);
print "$data{$key}\n";
print "done: '$data{$key}'\n";
And try again:
> perl data
All OK
done: ''
After much staring at the same piece of code and not seeing the wood for the trees for some time, we get a cup of coffee and try another approach. That is, we bring in the cavalry by giving perl the '-d' switch on the command line:
> perl -d data
Default die handler restored.
Loading DB routines from perl5db.pl version 1.07
Editor support available.
Enter h or `h h' for help, or `man perldebug' for more help.
main::(./data:4): my $key = 'welcome';
Now, what we've done here is to launch the built-in perl debugger on our script. It's stopped at the first line of executable code and is waiting for input.
Before we go any further, you'll want to know how to quit the debugger: use just the letter 'q', not the words 'quit' or 'exit':
DB<1> q
That's it, you're back on home turf again.
Fire the debugger up again on your script and we'll look at the help menu. There's a couple of ways of calling help: a simple 'h' will get the summary help list, '|h' (pipe-h) will pipe the help through your pager (which is (probably 'more' or 'less'), and finally, 'h h' (h-space-h) will give you the entire help screen. Here is the summary page:
List/search source lines: Control script execution:
l [ln|sub] List source code T Stack trace
- or . List previous/current line s [expr] Single step
[in expr]
v [line] View around line n [expr] Next, steps over
f filename View source in file <CR/Enter> Repeat last n or s
/pattern/ ?patt? Search forw/backw r Return from
M Show module versions c [ln|sub] Continue until
Debugger controls: L List break/watch/
o [...] Set debugger options t [expr] Toggle trace
[trace expr]
<[<]|{[{]|>[>] [cmd] Do pre/post-prompt b [ln|event|sub] [cnd] Set
! [N|pat] Redo a previous command B ln|* Delete a/all
H [-num] Display last num commands a [ln] cmd Do cmd before line
= [a val] Define/list an alias A ln|* Delete a/all
h [db_cmd] Get help on command w expr Add a watch
h h Complete help page W expr|* Delete a/all watch
|[|]db_cmd Send output to pager ![!] syscmd Run cmd in a
q or ^D Quit R Attempt a restart
Data Examination: expr Execute perl code, also see: s,n,t expr
x|m expr Evals expr in list context, dumps the result or lists
p expr Print expression (uses script's current package).
S [[!]pat] List subroutine names [not] matching pattern
V [Pk [Vars]] List Variables in Package. Vars can be ~pattern or
X [Vars] Same as "V current_package [Vars]".
y [n [Vars]] List lexicals in higher scope <n>. Vars same as V.
For more help, type h cmd_letter, or run man perldebug for all docs.
More confusing options than you can shake a big stick at! It's not as bad as it looks and it's very useful to know more about all of it, and fun too!
There's a couple of useful ones to know about straight away. You wouldn't think we're using any libraries at all at the moment, but 'M' will show which modules are currently loaded, and their version number, while 'm' will show the methods, and 'S' shows all subroutines (by pattern) as shown below. 'V' and 'X' show variables in the program by package scope and can be constrained by pattern.
DB<2>S str
Using 'X' and cousins requires you not to use the type identifiers ($@%), just the 'name':
DM<3>X ~err
FileHandle(stderr) => fileno(2)
Remember we're in our tiny program with a problem, we should have a look at where we are, and what our data looks like. First of all let's view some code at our present position (the first line of code in this case), via 'v':
DB<4> v
1 #!/usr/bin/perl
2: use strict;
4==> my $key = 'welcome';
5: my %data = (
6 'this' => qw(that),
7 'tom' => qw(and jerry),
8 'welcome' => q(Hello World),
9 'zip' => q(welcome),
10 );
At line number 4 is a helpful pointer, that tells you where you are now. To see more code, type 'v' again:
DB<4> v
8 'welcome' => q(Hello World),
9 'zip' => q(welcome),
10 );
11: my @data = keys %data;
12: print "All OK\n" if grep($key, keys %data);
13: print "$data{$key}\n";
14: print "done: '$data{$key}'\n";
15: exit;
And if you wanted to list line 5 again, type 'l 5', (note the space):
DB<4> l 5
5: my %data = (
In this case, there's not much to see, but of course normally there's pages of stuff to wade through, and 'l' can be very useful. To reset your view to the line we're about to execute, type a lone period '.':
main::(./data_a:4): my $key = 'welcome';
The line shown is the one that is about to be executed next, it hasn't happened yet. So while we can print a variable with the letter 'p', at this point all we'd get is an empty (undefined) value back. What we need to do is to step through the next executable statement with an 's':
DB<6> s
main::(./data_a:5): my %data = (
main::(./data_a:6): 'this' => qw(that),
main::(./data_a:7): 'tom' => qw(and jerry),
main::(./data_a:8): 'welcome' => q(Hello World),
main::(./data_a:9): 'zip' => q(welcome),
main::(./data_a:10): );
Now we can have a look at that first ($key) variable:
DB<7> p $key
line 13 is where the action is, so let's continue down to there via the letter 'c', which by the way, inserts a 'one-time-only' breakpoint at the given line or sub routine:
DB<8> c 13
All OK
main::(./data_a:13): print "$data{$key}\n";
We've gone past our check (where 'All OK' was printed) and have stopped just before the meat of our task. We could try to print out a couple of variables to see what is happening:
DB<9> p $data{$key}
Not much in there, lets have a look at our hash:
DB<10> p %data
Hello Worldziptomandwelcomejerrywelcomethisthat
DB<11> p keys %data
Hello Worldtomwelcomejerrythis
Well, this isn't very easy to read, and using the helpful manual (h h), the 'x' command looks promising:
DB<12> x %data
0 'Hello World'
1 'zip'
2 'tom'
3 'and'
4 'welcome'
5 undef
6 'jerry'
7 'welcome'
8 'this'
9 'that'
That's not much help, a couple of welcomes in there, but no indication of which are keys, and which are values, it's just a listed array dump and, in this case, not particularly helpful. The trick here, is to use a reference to the data structure:
DB<13> x \%data
0 HASH(0x8194bc4)
'Hello World' => 'zip'
'jerry' => 'welcome'
'this' => 'that'
'tom' => 'and'
'welcome' => undef
The reference is truly dumped and we can finally see what we're dealing with. Our quoting was perfectly valid but wrong for our purposes, with 'and jerry' being treated as 2 separate words rather than a phrase, thus throwing the evenly paired hash structure out of alignment.
The '-w' switch would have told us about this, had we used it at the start, and saved us a lot of trouble:
> perl -w data
Odd number of elements in hash assignment at ./data line 5.
We fix our quoting: 'tom' => q(and jerry), and run it again, this time we get our expected output:
> perl -w data
Hello World
While we're here, take a closer look at the 'x' command, it's really useful and will merrily dump out nested references, complete objects, partial objects - just about whatever you throw at it:
Let's make a quick object and x-plode it, first we'll start the debugger: it wants some form of input from STDIN, so we give it something non-committal, a zero:
> perl -de 0
Default die handler restored.
Loading DB routines from perl5db.pl version 1.07
Editor support available.
Enter h or `h h' for help, or `man perldebug' for more help.
main::(-e:1): 0
Now build an on-the-fly object over a couple of lines (note the backslash):
DB<1> $obj = bless({'unique_id'=>'123', 'attr'=> \
cont: {'col' => 'black', 'things' => [qw(this that etc)]}}, 'MY_class')
And let's have a look at it:
DB<2> x $obj
0 MY_class=HASH(0x828ad98)
'attr' => HASH(0x828ad68)
'col' => 'black'
'things' => ARRAY(0x828abb8)
0 'this'
1 'that'
2 'etc'
'unique_id' => 123
Useful, huh? You can eval nearly anything in there, and experiment with bits of code or regexes until the cows come home:
DB<3> @data = qw(this that the other atheism leather theory scythe)
DB<4> p 'saw -> '.($cnt += map { print "\t:\t$_\n" } grep(/the/, sort @data))
saw -> 6
If you want to see the command History, type an 'H':
4: p 'saw -> '.($cnt += map { print "\t:\t$_\n" } grep(/the/, sort @data))
3: @data = qw(this that the other atheism leather theory scythe)
2: x $obj
1: $obj = bless({'unique_id'=>'123', 'attr'=>
{'col' => 'black', 'things' => [qw(this that etc)]}}, 'MY_class')
And if you want to repeat any previous command, use the exclamation: '!':
p 'saw -> '.($cnt += map { print "$_\n" } grep(/the/, sort @data))
saw -> 12
For more on references see perlref and perlreftut
Here's a simple program which converts between Celsius and Fahrenheit, it too has a problem:
use v5.36;
my $arg = $ARGV[0] || '-c20';
if ($arg =~ /^\-(c|f)((\-|\+)*\d+(\.\d+)*)$/) {
my ($deg, $num) = ($1, $2);
my ($in, $out) = ($num, $num);
if ($deg eq 'c') {
$deg = 'f';
$out = &c2f($num);
} else {
$deg = 'c';
$out = &f2c($num);
$out = sprintf('%0.2f', $out);
$out =~ s/^((\-|\+)*\d+)\.0+$/$1/;
print "$out $deg\n";
} else {
print "Usage: $0 -[c|f] num\n";
sub f2c {
my $f = shift;
my $c = 5 * $f - 32 / 9;
return $c;
sub c2f {
my $c = shift;
my $f = 9 * $c / 5 + 32;
return $f;
For some reason, the Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion fails to return the expected output. This is what it does:
> temp -c0.72
33.30 f
> temp -f33.3
162.94 c
Not very consistent! We'll set a breakpoint in the code manually and run it under the debugger to see what's going on. A breakpoint is a flag, to which the debugger will run without interruption, when it reaches the breakpoint, it will stop execution and offer a prompt for further interaction. In normal use, these debugger commands are completely ignored, and they are safe - if a little messy, to leave in production code.
my ($in, $out) = ($num, $num);
$DB::single=2; # insert at line 9!
if ($deg eq 'c')
> perl -d temp -f33.3
Default die handler restored.
Loading DB routines from perl5db.pl version 1.07
Editor support available.
Enter h or `h h' for help, or `man perldebug' for more help.
main::(temp:4): my $arg = $ARGV[0] || '-c100';
We'll simply continue down to our pre-set breakpoint with a 'c':
DB<1> c
main::(temp:10): if ($deg eq 'c') {
Followed by a view command to see where we are:
DB<1> v
7: my ($deg, $num) = ($1, $2);
8: my ($in, $out) = ($num, $num);
9: $DB::single=2;
10==> if ($deg eq 'c') {
11: $deg = 'f';
12: $out = &c2f($num);
13 } else {
14: $deg = 'c';
15: $out = &f2c($num);
16 }
And a print to show what values we're currently using:
DB<1> p $deg, $num
We can put another break point on any line beginning with a colon, we'll use line 17 as that's just as we come out of the subroutine, and we'd like to pause there later on:
DB<2> b 17
There's no feedback from this, but you can see what breakpoints are set by using the list 'L' command:
17: print "$out $deg\n";
break if (1)
Note that to delete a breakpoint you use 'B'.
Now we'll continue down into our subroutine, this time rather than by line number, we'll use the subroutine name, followed by the now familiar 'v':
DB<3> c f2c
main::f2c(temp:30): my $f = shift;
DB<4> v
24: exit;
26 sub f2c {
27==> my $f = shift;
28: my $c = 5 * $f - 32 / 9;
29: return $c;
30 }
32 sub c2f {
33: my $c = shift;
Note that if there was a subroutine call between us and line 29, and we wanted to single-step through it, we could use the 's' command, and to step over it we would use 'n' which would execute the sub, but not descend into it for inspection. In this case though, we simply continue down to line 29:
DB<4> c 29
main::f2c(temp:29): return $c;
And have a look at the return value:
DB<5> p $c
This is not the right answer at all, but the sum looks correct. I wonder if it's anything to do with operator precedence? We'll try a couple of other possibilities with our sum:
DB<6> p (5 * $f - 32 / 9)
DB<7> p 5 * $f - (32 / 9)
DB<8> p (5 * $f) - 32 / 9
DB<9> p 5 * ($f - 32) / 9
:-) that's more like it! Ok, now we can set our return variable and we'll return out of the sub with an 'r':
DB<10> $c = 5 * ($f - 32) / 9
DB<11> r
scalar context return from main::f2c: 0.722222222222221
Looks good, let's just continue off the end of the script:
DB<12> c
0.72 c
Debugged program terminated. Use q to quit or R to restart,
use O inhibit_exit to avoid stopping after program termination,
h q, h R or h O to get additional info.
A quick fix to the offending line (insert the missing parentheses) in the actual program and we're finished.
Actions, watch variables, stack traces etc.: on the TODO list.
Ever wanted to know what a regex looked like? You'll need perl compiled with the DEBUGGING flag for this one:
> perl -Dr -e '/^pe(a)*rl$/i'
Compiling REx `^pe(a)*rl$'
size 17 first at 2
rarest char
at 0
2: EXACTF <pe>(4)
8: EXACTF <a>(0)
14: EXACTF <rl>(16)
floating `'$ at 4..2147483647 (checking floating) stclass
`EXACTF <pe>' anchored(BOL) minlen 4
Omitting $` $& $' support.
Freeing REx: `^pe(a)*rl$'
Did you really want to know? :-) For more gory details on getting regular expressions to work, have a look at perlre, perlretut, and to decode the mysterious labels (BOL and CURLYN, etc. above), see perldebguts.
To get all the output from your error log, and not miss any messages via helpful operating system buffering, insert a line like this, at the start of your script:
To watch the tail of a dynamically growing logfile, (from the command line):
tail -f $error_log
Wrapping all die calls in a handler routine can be useful to see how, and from where, they're being called, perlvar has more information:
BEGIN { $SIG{__DIE__} = sub { require Carp; Carp::confess(@_) } }
Various useful techniques for the redirection of STDOUT and STDERR filehandles are explained in perlopentut and perlfaq8.
Just a quick hint here for all those CGI programmers who can't figure out how on earth to get past that 'waiting for input' prompt, when running their CGI script from the command-line, try something like this:
> perl -d my_cgi.pl -nodebug
Of course CGI and perlfaq9 will tell you more.
The command line interface is tightly integrated with an emacs extension and there's a vi interface too.
You don't have to do this all on the command line, though, there are a few GUI options out there. The nice thing about these is you can wave a mouse over a variable and a dump of its data will appear in an appropriate window, or in a popup balloon, no more tiresome typing of 'x $varname' :-)
In particular have a hunt around for the following:
ptkdb perlTK based wrapper for the built-in debugger
ddd data display debugger
PerlDevKit and PerlBuilder are NT specific
NB. (more info on these and others would be appreciated).
We've seen how to encourage good coding practices with use strict and -w. We can run the perl debugger perl -d scriptname to inspect your data from within the perl debugger with the p and x commands. You can walk through your code, set breakpoints with b and step through that code with s or n, continue with c and return from a sub with r. Fairly intuitive stuff when you get down to it.
There is of course lots more to find out about, this has just scratched the surface. The best way to learn more is to use perldoc to find out more about the language, to read the on-line help (perldebug is probably the next place to go), and of course, experiment.
perldebug, perldebguts, perl5db.pl, perldiag, perlrun
Richard Foley <firstname.lastname@example.com> Copyright (c) 2000
Various people have made helpful suggestions and contributions, in particular:
Ronald J Kimball <email@example.com>
Hugo van der Sanden <email@example.com>
Peter Scott <firstname.lastname@example.com>

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Green Stone In Pizarra E 1008 Ramen Bowl
- Get Extra 5% off on prepaid orders.
This product is not eligible for return. Read T&C.
- Color: Green,Brown
- Material Composition: Stone
- Net Qty: 1 pc
- Product Dimension: 8.75"
- Brand: Nivana
Shipping within India | Delivery within 7-10 business days
Shipping Internationally | Delivery within 12-14 business days. In some cases custom clearance might take longer. Duties & Taxes are additional (can be upto 30% or more of order value) and need to be paid to the shipping company at the time of delivery.
For more information visit our Shipping & Payment Policy.
Manufacturer Name: BAP Creations Pvt. Ltd.
Manufacturer Address: BAP Creations Pvt. Ltd.
A-81, Sector-5, Noida (U.P.) - 201301, India
Country Of Origin: India
Phone : +91 8826261982
Email Address: email@example.com


text:
Are you looking to lose weight to improve your appearance, your health, or even both? If you are, you may be looking for advice. The good news is that there are a number of tips that you can use to help you successfully lose weight and hopefully achieve your weight loss goal.
When it comes to losing weight, the best thing that you can do is eat healthy. Eating healthy involves watching the foods that you eat, not necessarily how much food you eat. Of course, you may want to restrict the amount of foods that you eat, when on a diet, but it is more important to focus on the foods that you do eat. For instance, if you were to eat fruit instead of chips, you could have more fruit snacks with your meals than you would be able to if you were just to eat junk food.
Since eating healthy is an important component of losing weight, you may be wondering how you can go about doing so. One of the first things that you should do is find and familiarize yourself with healthy meals. You can do this by way of standard internet search or by buying a collection of healthy eating recipe books. To reduce the boredom often associated with healthy eating, especially if you are not use to it, it is important that you "spice," up your foods and try to not eat the same meals over and over again each week.
In connection with healthy eating, regular exercise is also important to weight loss. If you are looking to lose weight, you should start an exercise plan for yourself. Exercise is important as it burns off calories. When you burn calories, the amount of calories that your body absorbs decreases. This is, essentially, what makes it possible for you to lose weight. If you haven't been exercising regularly in the past, it is important that you take it slow. Exercise is a great way to lose weight, but you do not want to overdo it, especially at first.
If you don't currently have an exercise plan or program in place, you may be wondering more about what you can do. One of the many ways that you can go about finding exercises or workouts to do is by buying a collection of fitness magazines. Many fitness magazines have detailed exercises outlined in them, often accompanied by pictures. You may also be able to find free instructional workout videos or exercise moves online. As a reminder, it is important to start out slow or at least start with exercises that would be easy for you to.
Eating healthy and regular exercise are both important components of losing weight, but there are additional tips that you can use to help you lose weight. One of those tips involves finding a workout partner or a workout buddy. This is a person who can exercise with you, whether your exercise involves visiting a local gym or just going for a walk at a local shopping center. Having a workout partner may help to keep you motivated and it may help to keep exercising and losing weight fun and exciting for you.
Another way that you can go about successfully achieving your weight loss goal is by "spicing," up your exercises. As previously mentioned, you can use the internet or fitness magazines to find workouts for you to do at home. To help reduce the boredom often associated with exercising you will want to change up your exercises, often on a daily basis. For instance, one day you may want to use a treadmill, the next day you may want to lift weights, and the next day you may want to do an exercise DVD, and so forth.
You should also consider making exercise and healthy eating logs or journals for yourself. These items can be used to track your progress. If you have a good week, like one where you completed all of your exercises, you may want to think about rewarding yourself. Your reward doesn't have to include food; it can be something as simple as a sticker or treating yourself to a movie. Journals and logs have been known to help many individuals looking to lose weight and it may be able to do the same for you.


text: Loading Content... Share a Link to this Sermon The link has been copied to your clipboard; paste it anywhere you would like to share it. Close - Browse Series - ------------- View Series Archives View All Sermons ------------- With All Boldness And Without Hindrance The Resurrection And The Life Blessing Without Blending In Abide In Me What Child Is This? Think About His Grace That's Brought Us Through God Loves Your Enemies The Sufferings Of Christ And The Glories To Follow Dignity Of Life Child of Promise Gather Delivered Lift Your Eyes His Name Shall Be Called Take Heart Making Disciples ONE Good News of Great Joy for All People Man of Sorrows Created Advent 2020 Walk With the Wise Summer Psalms s-Crown Him the Sacrificial King Crown Him the Sacrificial King s-Walking by Faith in Times of Trouble Walking by Faith in Times of Trouble One Another Fulfilled s-Seeing Everything Through a New Lens Seeing Everything Through a New Lens Guest Speaker Called to Order in a Disordered World Ascended Revealed Glorified Joy In The Faith Take Up Your Sword Born Pray Like This God Meant it For Good Praying Together Because He Lives In Christ Alone Nothing is Impossible with God Sola Fide A Faithful God For A Fallen People In The Shadow Of The Rock Summer is For Salvation Love's Redeeming Work To Present Everyone Mature In Christ In the Beginning Messiah Defending the Fatherless Standing Firm in the True Grace of God, Part 2 Habits of Grace Standing Firm in the True Grace of God, Part 1 We Have Seen His Glory Pathway of the Passion Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room The King and the Cross Heart of Worship Sound Faith Everything Written About Me The Gospel That Is Looking to Jesus The Word Made Flesh Demo Series God Makes a Way Nothing Is Impossible With God Dark/Light Teach Us To Pray Why Jesus Came Glory to the Righteous One - Browse Speakers - *La Mirada Don Allen Doug Axe Narcis Brasov Kenny Clark Tim Coulombe Ed Curtis Adam Day Kip Dochterman Andy Draycott Darin Earley Dr. Paul Felix Alan Gomes La Gracia Randall Gruendyke Neal Hardin Walt Harrah Jerrel J. Haugen Joe Henderson Moyer Hubbard Doug Huffman Junior Jamreonvit Daniel Jansson Anthony Kidd Tom Kimber Aaron Kleist Rob Lister Josh Moody Eric Murrell Jason Oakes Timothy Pinkham Rob Price Jackson Randall John Rinehart Ric Rodeheaver Scott Rosenkranz Scott Rosenkranz Fred Sanders Bobby Scott Reading Service Dave Talley Erik Thoennes Jason Tresser Eric Twisselmann Ralph Wagenet James Yim - Browse Topics - *La Mirada Advent Conference Demonstration Dignity Of Life Easter Good Friday Holy Week La Gracia Missions Orphan Care Reading Service - Browse Books - Genesis Deuteronomy 1 Chronicles Psalms Proverbs Isaiah Daniel Jonah Matthew Mark Luke John Acts Romans 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians 1 Thessalonians 2 Timothy Titus Hebrews James 1 Peter 2 Peter 1 John Erik Thoennes - May 11, 2014 Another Helper: The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit Watch Related Topics: *La Mirada | More Sermons from Erik Thoennes From Series: "Sound Faith" 2014 Facebook Tweet Link Share Link Send Email More Sermons from Erik Thoennes... January 17, 2010 Regarding the Deeds of the Lord Erik Thoennes Watch January 31, 2010 Who's In Charge Here? Erik Thoennes Watch March 14, 2010 Joy to the World Erik Thoennes Watch April 4, 2010 Alive to Serve Erik Thoennes Watch April 11, 2010 Our God Reigns Erik Thoennes Watch May 30, 2010 Finding Fresh Joy in God Erik Thoennes Watch October 3, 2010 Behold My Servant Erik Thoennes Watch October 10, 2010 Living in Light of Our Divine Destiny Erik Thoennes Watch October 17, 2010 Remember, Return & Sing Erik Thoennes Watch December 5, 2010 He Came to Divide Households Erik Thoennes Watch Displaying 1-10 of 1611 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 …17More » Powered by Series Engine


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Hundreds of Wentworth residents have signed a local petition calling for stronger action on climate change. Their petition was presented to the Member for Wentworth with 69 signatures from across the local community.
The petition calls on our elected representatives to support stronger action on climate change, with a particular focus on protecting the most vulnerable communities.
The action taken by the residents of Wentworth are part of the largest multi-electorate climate petition in Australia's history. The Wentworth petition is one of many 'Community Climate Petitions' raised simultaneously in almost 100 federal electorates across Australia. These electorate-based, 'pen and paper' petitions have been driven by people of diverse faiths including Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews and Brahma Kumaris.
The petitions call for deeper and more urgent reductions to Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, a faster transition to a clean energy economy and more assistance for more vulnerable nations grappling with the impacts of climate change.
The Australia-wide Community Climate Petitions are supported by a coalition of faith-based organisations including the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change, Caritas Australia, Catholic Earthcare, Common Grace, Edmund Rice Centre, Pacific Calling Partnership, TEAR Australia and the Uniting Church in Australia.


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Three decades after giving the world The Number of the Beast, Iron Maiden is poised to release its latest work — and it's a beer. That's the latest from the Metal Injection website, whose "Bands and Booze" section makes it uniquely qualified to present such news.
The band collaborated with Robinsons, an English brewery with roots in the 19th century, to create what lead singer Bruce Dickinson calls "our special secret-squirrel recipe for Trooper Ale." Robinsons is also well-known for making ales such as Old Tom and Unicorn.
"As a fan of traditional English cask beer, I thought this could actually be something really exciting," Dickinson says in a video announcing the beer's pending release. "We could actually develop a proper, real, long-term beer."
By that, he seems to mean that the beer will be more than a limited-edition release. Dickinson says that when they were trying to figure out what to put on the beer's label, it seemed natural to use the title of the Maiden song "The Trooper."
"Music and beer are great treats for the senses in their own right," the brewery's Oliver Robinson says, "but the combination is very powerful."
The beer, described as having citrus notes and a blend of Cascade, Bobec, and Goldings hops, doesn't sport an amped-up alcohol percentage. Its website currently lists it at 4.7 percent alcohol by volume.
That prompted a commenter at Metal Injection to observe the alcohol level should be much higher — leading another reader, Colin James Salt, to respond that the proper strength would be "6.66%."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Danica Patrick and her husband are divorcing after seven years of marriage.
Patrick announced the split with Paul Hospenthal on her Facebook page Tuesday.
"I am sad to inform my fans that after seven years, Paul and I have decided amicably end our marriage," she said. "This isn't easy for either of us, but mutually it has come to this. He has been an important person and friend in my life and that's how we will remain moving forward."
Hospenthal is a physical therapist who met Patrick while treating her for a non-racing injury. The two were married in 2005, and he is 17 years older than the 30-year-old driver.
Patrick just completed her first full season in NASCAR, running the full Nationwide schedule and 10 Sprint Cup Series races after leaving IndyCar.
Earlier this month, Patrick had her best finish in nine Cup starts this season, finishing 24th at Texas and running every lap for the first time. Tony Gibson was Ryan Newman's crew chief for Stewart-Haas Racing, but is moving to Patrick's team next season. They got a head start with her final two races this season and she finished 10th in Nationwide points, becoming the highest-finishing female driver in the history of NASCAR's three national series. The previous record was held by Sara Christian, who finished 13th in 1949 in the Cup series.
On Monday night, Patrick won the Nationwide Series' most popular driver award, which is voted on by fans, and she remains one of the most recognizable drivers in auto racing. Patrick challenged for the Indy 500 win as a rookie, becoming the first woman to lead laps while finishing fourth. She was a career-best third in 2009.
There was speculation that her appeal with advertisers had waned, but earlier this month Go Daddy said Patrick will again appear in the website domain provider's commercials during the Super Bowl next year. Patrick and Go Daddy first teamed up when the company became an associate sponsor for her IndyCar in 2007. Go Daddy became the primary IndyCar sponsor in 2010, along with a partial NASCAR schedule, and followed her for the full Nationwide Series and limited Sprint Cup schedules this year.
Go Daddy has committed to sponsor the Cup schedule next season, when Patrick moves up to NASCAR's top level on a full-time basis.


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Brett Lee predicts the top 3 bowlers, the bowler with the most dot balls and the best spinners.
Brett Lee predicts top 3 bowlers | IPL 2021
Brett Lee predicts the top 3 bowlers, the bowler with the most dot balls and the best spinners.
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Understanding the SaaS business model
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is a billing and delivery model for software that is so superior to the traditional method for selling software licenses that it restructures businesses around itself. This has led SaaS businesses to have a distinct body of practice. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs discover this body of practice the hard way, by making mistakes that have been made before, rather than by spending their mistake budget on newer, better mistakes.
This shouldn't include you, so we'll take you through a whirlwind tour of the state of play of SaaS businesses. You should gain a better understanding of the SaaS business model, be able to anticipate whether to sell your product on a low-touch or high-touch model, and (if you're already operating a SaaS business) be able to evaluate its health and start improving it.
If you are a software entrepreneur, and you do not sell mobile applications (which have a separate billing model, imposed by the platforms' app stores), you should thoroughly understand the business of SaaS. This will let you make better decisions for your product (and company), allow you to see business-threatening problems months or years in advance of them being obvious, and help you in communicating with investors.
Why is SaaS taking over the world?
Customers love SaaS because it "just works." There is typically nothing to install to access it. Hardware failures and operational errors, which are extraordinarily common among machines that are not maintained by professionals, do not result in meaningful data loss. SaaS companies achieve availability numbers (for example, percent of time where the software is accessible and operating correctly) that materially improve upon the numbers achievable by almost every IT department (and every individual, full stop).
SaaS also generally appears less expensive than software sold on other billing models, which matters for users who are not sure which software they should adopt over the long term, for example, or who have only a short-term need for the software.
Developers love SaaS principally because of the delivery model, not the billing model.
Most SaaS is developed continuously and run on the company's infrastructure. (There are significant exceptions in SaaS in the enterprise, but the overwhelming majority of business-to-consumer [B2C] and business-to-business [B2B] SaaS sold outside the enterprise is accessed over the internet from servers maintained by the software company.)
Software companies historically have not controlled the environments their code executes in. This is historically a major source of both development friction and customer support cases. All software deployed on customers' hardware suffers from differences in configurations of systems, interactions with other installed software, and operator error. This has to be both accounted for in development and dealt with as a customer service issue. Companies that sell their software on both SaaS and installable models frequently see 10+ times more support requests per customer from customers who install the software locally.
Businesses and investors love SaaS because the economics of SaaS are impossibly attractive relative to selling software licenses. Revenue from SaaS is generally recurring and predictable; this makes cash flows in SaaS businesses impressively predictable, which allows businesses to plan against them and (via investors) trade future cash flows for money in the status quo. This allows them to (generously) fund present growth. This has made SaaS companies into some of the fastest-growing software companies in history.
SaaS sales models
There are, broadly speaking, two ways to sell SaaS. The selling model dictates almost everything else about the SaaS company and the product, to a degree that is shocking to first-time entrepreneurs. One of the classic mistakes in SaaS, which can take years to correct, is a mismatch between a product or market and the selected model to sell it on.
You will find that the sales model for SaaS defines much more about a product (and company) than other distinctions, like whether a company sells to customers (B2C) or businesses (B2B), whether it is bootstrapped or riding the VC rocket ship trajectory, or what technology stack it is built on.
Low-touch SaaS sales
Some products sell themselves.
Low-touch SaaS is designed for the majority of customers to purchase it without sustained one-on-one interaction with a human being. The primary sales channels are the software's website, email marketing, and (very frequently) a free trial for the software, with the trial being aggressively optimized to be very, very low-friction to start, onboard, and successfully make sustained use of the SaaS.
Low-touch products sometimes involve sales teams, but they're frequently structured as so-called "Customer Success" teams, which are less focused on convincing people to buy the software and more on ensuring that users of the free trial successfully onboard and convert to paying users by the end of their trials.
Customer support in low-touch products is generally handled primarily in scalable fashions, by optimizing the product to avoid incidents that would require human intervention, by creating educational resources that scale across the customer base, and by using humans as a last resort. That said, many low-touch companies have excellent customer support teams. The economics of SaaS depend on the long-term satisfaction of customers, so even a product that expects only one ticket (a countable discrete interaction with a customer) every 20 customer-months might invest comparatively heavily in their customer support team.
Low-touch SaaS is generally sold on a month-to-month subscription with price points clustering around $10 for B2C applications and in the $20 to $500 range for B2B. This corresponds to an average contract value (ACV) of approximately $100 to $5K. The term ACV isn't commonly even used by low-touch SaaS businesses, which typically describe themselves by their monthly price points, but it is important to do comparisons to high-touch SaaS applications.
If you asked a low-touch SaaS entrepreneur for their most important metric, they would say MRR—monthly recurring revenue.
Basecamp is the paradigmatic example of a low-touch SaaS business. Atlassian (which makes Jira, Trello, Confluence, and several other products) is possibly the publicly traded company with the most success with the model.
High-touch SaaS sales
Some customers need some help in deciding how or whether to adopt certain products.
High-touch SaaS is designed around there being a human-intensive process to convince businesses to adopt the software, successfully operationalize it, and continue using it.
The beating heart of the organization is almost always the sales teams, which are often broken down into specialized roles: sales development representatives (SDRs), who find prospects for the software, account executives (AEs), who own the sales process against particular customers, and account managers (AMs), who are responsible for the happiness and continued performance of an individualized portfolio of accounts.
The sales team is typically supported by marketing, whose primary job is generating a sufficient pipeline of qualified leads for the sales team to evaluate and close.
There are many truly excellent products sold on the high-touch model, but to a first approximation, engineering and product are generally considered less important in high-touch SaaS businesses than the sales engine is.
The organization of customer support is highly variable across high-touch SaaS companies; a commonality is that it is generally expected to be heavily utilized. The number of tickets per account per period is expected to be orders of magnitude higher than it is in low-touch SaaS.
Note that while, in principle, one can make high-touch sales to consumers (for example, insurance has historically been sold primarily through commissioned agents), in SaaS, the overwhelming majority of high-touch businesses sell to businesses (B2B). Within B2B, there is a wide range of expected customer profiles, ACVs (defined variously as average contract value or annual contract value), and deal complexity.
On the low end, SaaS sold to small and midsize businesses (SMBs) on a high-touch model generally has an ACV of $6K to $15K, though this can range higher. The exact definition of an SMB varies heavily depending on who you ask; operationally, it is "any business with sufficient sophistication to successfully adopt software that costs $10,000," which probably excludes your local flower shop but includes a dental practice with two partners and four employees.
The high end is usually called "the enterprise" and targets extremely large businesses or governments. True enterprise deals start in the six figures; there is no ceiling.
If you asked a high-touch SaaS entrepreneur for their most important metric, they would say ARR—annually recurring revenue. (This is essentially all of the non-churned revenue of the company minus certain nonrecurring items, such as one-time setup fees, consulting services, and similar costs. Since the economics of SaaS are attractive because of growth over time, one-off revenue, particularly comparatively low-margin one-off revenue, is not maximally interesting to entrepreneurs or investors.)
Salesforce is the paradigmatic example of a high-touch SaaS business, and they literally wrote the book on the model. Small high-touch SaaS businesses exist in multitudes, though they're less visible than low-touch SaaS businesses, principally because visibility is a customer acquisition strategy in low-touch SaaS and not always optimal in high-touch SaaS. For example, there are many small SaaS businesses that quietly make six or seven figures a year selling services to a tightly defined vertical.
Hybrid sales approaches
There exist companies that successfully run a low-touch and high-touch business with functionally the same product. They are exceedingly rare relative to SaaS businesses. The most common result of attempting both models simultaneously is that only one of the models receives any traction, and (because these models weave themselves into all operations of the company) it typically strangles the other.
A more common form of hybridization is adopting certain elements of the other sales model. For example, many low-touch SaaS businesses have customer success teams that, if you squint at them, look almost like inside sales. High-touch companies typically borrow fewer tactics than low-touch companies; the most common one is having a product that the company does not (materially) sell, which they distribute in a low-touch fashion for the purpose of lead generation for the product the company actually sells.
The fundamental equation of SaaS
The SaaS model fundamentally works by financializing software: Instead of selling software as a product with a sticker price, it sells the software as if it were a financial instrument, with a probabilistically forecastable cash flow.
There are more sophisticated ways to model a SaaS business, but the no-MBA-required version just makes a few simplifying assumptions (like ignoring the time value of money) and uses high-school math. If you only learn one thing about SaaS, learn this equation; it is the Rosetta Stone to understanding all material facts about a SaaS business.
The core insight is really simple: one's revenue, over the long term, is the number of customers times the average lifetime revenue per customer.
The number of customers you get is a product of two factors: acquisition (how effective you are at attracting the attention of prospects in low-touch SaaS or identifying and getting in front of them in high-touch SaaS) times your conversion rate (the percent of prospects you convert into paying customers).
The average lifetime revenue per customer (often called lifetime value [LTV]) is the product of how much they pay you for a particular period (such as one month) and how many periods they continue using your service.
The average revenue per user (ARPU) is simply the average revenue for an account over any particular period.
The churn is the percent of customers over a given period who do not continue paying for services. For example, if you have 200 customers paying you in January and only 190 of those pay you in February, the churn would be 5%.
The customer lifetime value can, with a few simplifying assumptions, be calculated as the sum of an infinite geometric series; this works out to simply taking the inverse of churn. A product that loses 5% of its customers per month has an expected customer lifetime of 20 months; if it charges each customer $30 a month, it has an expected lifetime revenue of $600 per new customer signed up.
Implications of the SaaS business model
Improvements to a SaaS business are multiplicatively effective.
A 10% improvement to customer acquisition (via e.g., better marketing) and a 10% improvement to conversion rate (via e.g., product improvements or more effective sales techniques) sum to a 21% improvement (1.1 * 1.1), not a 20% improvement.
Improvements to a SaaS business are incredibly leveraged.
Because the margins in SaaS are so high, the long-term valuation of a SaaS business is effectively tied to some multiple of its long-term revenue growth. Thus, a 1% improvement in conversion rates doesn't simply mean a 1% increase in revenue next month or even over the long term… it implies a 1% increase in enterprise value of the company.
Price is the easiest lever to improve a SaaS business.
Acquisition, conversion, and churn often require major cross-functional efforts to improve. Updating your pricing model typically requires replacing a small number with a bigger one. (There exists enough nuance here that we wrote a guide to pricing SaaS.)
SaaS businesses eventually asymptote.
Given fixed acquisition, conversion, and churn, there will be a point at which one's business hits a revenue plateau. This is predictable in advance: The number of customers at the plateau is equal to acquisition times conversion divided by churn rate.
A SaaS business that loses ability to improve acquisition, conversion, or churn will, with almost mathematical certainty, stop growing. A SaaS business that stops growing before it can cover fixed costs (like salaries for the engineering team, for instance) dies ignominiously, even if they did everything right.
SaaS businesses can be capital-intensive to grow.
SaaS businesses have large front-loaded costs to grow, particularly when growing aggressively; marketing and sales dominate the marginal cost per customer and, often, the total expenditures of the company. The marketing and sales costs attributable to a particular customer occur very early in that customer's lifecycle; the revenue to eventually pay for those costs comes later.
This means that a SaaS company optimizing for revenue growth will almost always spend more money in a given period than they collect from customers. The money spent has to come from somewhere. Many SaaS companies choose to fund the growth via selling equity in the company to investors. SaaS companies are particularly attractive to investors because the model is very well understood: Create a product, achieve some measure of product-market fit, spend a lot of money on marketing and sales according to a relatively repeatable playbook, and eventually sell one's stake in the business to someone else (the public markets, an acquirer, or another investor looking for a de-risked business with good growth potential).
Margins, to a first approximation, don't matter.
Most businesses care quite a bit about their cost of goods sold (COGS), the cost to satisfy a marginal customer.
While some platform businesses (like AWS) have material COGS, at the typical SaaS company, the primary source of value is the software, and it can be replicated at an extremely low COGS. SaaS companies frequently spend less than 5~10% of their marginal revenue per customer on delivering the underlying service.
This allows SaaS entrepreneurs to almost ignore every factor of their unit economics except customer acquisition cost (CAC—the marginal spending on marketing and sales per customer added). If they're growing quickly, the company can ignore every expense that doesn't scale directly with the number of customers (i.e., engineering costs, general and administrative expenses, etc.), on the assumption that growth at a sensible CAC will outrun anything on the expenses side of the ledger.
SaaS businesses take a while to grow.
While tales of so-called "hockey stick growth" curves are common in the press, the representative experience of SaaS companies is that they take a very long time dialing in the product, marketing approaches, and sales approaches before things start to work very well. This has been referred to, memorably, as the Long, Slow SaaS Ramp of Death.
Growth expectations vary widely in the SaaS industry.
Bootstrapped SaaS businesses often take 18 months before they're profitable enough to be competitive with reasonable wages for the founding team. After achieving that point, bootstrapped businesses have a wide range of acceptable outcomes for growth rates; 10~20% year-over-year growth rates in revenue can produce very, very happy outcomes for all concerned.
Funded SaaS businesses are designed to trade cash for growth, which means they're designed to lose a lot of money up front while perfecting their model; almost no funded SaaS business has ever failed at that goal.
After they perfect their SaaS revenue model, they scale it, which generally results in losing more money, faster. That this is a successful outcome for the business is counterintuitive to many observers of the software industry. If the business can continue growing, there is no size of accumulated deficit that it cannot eventually repay. If growth does not happen, the business fails.
There exist many lower-stress businesses in life than SaaS companies being managed for aggressive growth; it's likened to riding a rocket ship, where you burn fuel aggressively to achieve acceleration and, by the way, if anything goes wrong you explode.
The rule of thumb for growth rate expectations at a successful SaaS company being managed for aggressive growth is 3, 3, 2, 2, 2: starting from a material baseline (e.g., over $1 million in annual recurring revenue [ARR]), the business needs to triple annual revenues for two consecutive years and then double them for three consecutive years. A funded SaaS business that consistently grows by 20% per year early in its life is likely a failure in the eyes of its investors.
Benchmarks to know
One of the most popular questions for SaaS founders is "Are my numbers any good?"
This is surprisingly difficult to answer because of the differences across industries, business models, stages of a company, and goals of founders. In general though, experienced SaaS entrepreneurs have a few rules of thumb.
Low-touch SaaS benchmarks
Conversion rate:
Most low-touch SaaS solutions use a free trial, with the sign-up either requiring minimal information or a credit card that will be billed if the user doesn't cancel the trial. This decision dominates the character of the free trial: users who sign in to a relatively low-friction trial may not be very serious about evaluating the software and need to affirmatively decide to purchase the software later, while users who provide a credit card number generally have done more up-front research and are, essentially, committing to pay unless they affirmatively declare they are dissatisfied with the product.
This results in cosmically different conversion rates:
Conversion rates of low-touch SaaS trials with credit card not required:
- Substantially below 1%: generally evidence of poor product-market fit
- ~1%: roughly the baseline for competent execution
- 2%+: extremely good
Conversion rates of low-touch SaaS trials with credit card required:
- Substantially below 40%: generally evidence of poor product-market fit
- 40%: roughly the baseline for competent execution
- 60%: doing well
In general, requiring a credit card up front will, on net, increase the number of new paying customers you get (it increases the trial-to-paying-customer conversion rate by more than it decreases the number of trials started). This factor reverses as a company improves its customer relationships and gets increasingly sophisticated about activating free trial users (ensuring they make meaningful use of the software), typically via better in-product experiences, lifecycle email, and customer success teams.
Conversion rate (to trials):
You should measure your conversion rate between unique page views and trials started, but it isn't the most actionable metric in your company, and it is difficult to give a good guideline for your expectations driven from this number.
Conversion rate to the trial is incredibly sensitive to whether you are attracting high-quality visitors or not. Counterintuitively, companies that are better at marketing have lower conversion rates than companies that are worse at it.
The companies with better marketing attract many more prospects, including typically a larger percentage and absolute number of prospects who are not a good fit for the offering. Companies that are worse at marketing are only discovered by the cognoscenti of their markets, who tend to be disproportionately good customers; they're so dissatisfied with the status quo that they're actively searching for solutions, often intensely, and they're willing to use a no-name company if it is possibly better than their current situation. The rest of the market might not be actively looking for a solution right now, might be satisfied with going with well-known players or only those who show up prominently on Google, and might not be incentivized to take on vendor risk of dealing with a newer provider.
Customer churn rates:
In low-touch SaaS, most customers are on month-to-month contracts, and churn rates are quoted monthly. (Selling annual accounts is certainly a good idea, too, both for the up-front cash collected and because they have lower churn rates. When reporting churn, though, typically the impact of them is blended in to produce a monthly number.)
- 2%: a very sticky SaaS product, with strong product-market fit and substantial investments in reducing involuntary churn
- 5%: roughly where you expect to start
- 7%: evidence of either low-hanging fruit for preventing voluntary churn or selling to a difficult market
- 10%+: evidence of very poor product-market fit and an existential threat to the company
Some markets structurally have higher churn than others: Selling to "pro-sumers" or informal businesses such as freelancers exposes oneself to their high rate of exiting the business, which materially impacts churn rates. More established businesses fail far less frequently and have far less need to optimize their cash flows to the last $50.
Since higher price points preferentially select for better customers, increasing prices is even more effective than entrepreneurs expect: Increasing prices by 25% can result in "accidentally" decreasing churn by 20%, simply by changing the mix of customers who buy the product. This factor leads many, many low-touch SaaS businesses to march "upmarket" over time.
High-touch SaaS benchmarks
High-touch SaaS businesses generally have much, much more heterogeneity with regards to both how they measure their conversion rates (largely due to differences in how they define an "opportunity") and in their realized conversion rates given similar definitions, due to differences in their industry, sales process, and so forth.
Churn rates, though, are closely clustered: Roughly 10% annualized churn is reasonable for companies in their early years, and 7% is an excellent churn rate. Note that mediocre high-touch SaaS businesses have materially lower churn rates than even the best low-touch SaaS businesses, structurally.
High-touch businesses often measure so-called "logo" churn (one business counts as one logo, regardless of how many units at that business use one's software, how many seats they use, what they are paying, etc.) and revenue churn. This is less important in low-touch SaaS, as those churn rates tend to be quite similar.
Because high-touch SaaS businesses typically price their offerings such that they can increase the amount of revenue over the lifetime of a customer, by selling more seats or by offering additional products, etc., many of them track net revenue churn, which is the difference in revenue per cohort per year. The gold standard for a high-touch SaaS business is negative net revenue churn: The impact of upgrades, increases in contract size on a year-to-year basis, and cross-selling to existing customers exceeds the revenue impact of customers deciding to terminate (or reduce) their use of the software. (Virtually no low-touch SaaS business achieves net negative churn; their churn rates are too high to outrun.)
Product/market fit
SaaS isn't just about the metrics. The hardest thing to put a number on early in the lifetime of a SaaS company is called product/market fit, a term coined by Marc Andreessen, which informally means "Have you found a group of people who love the thing you have built for them?"
Products that don't have product/market fit yet are plagued by relatively low conversion rates and high churn rates. Products that achieve product/market fit often accelerate their growth rates materially, have much higher conversion rates, and are generally more pleasant to work on.
Serial SaaS entrepreneurs often struggle to describe product/market fit other than to say "If you have it, you will know that you have it, and if you have any doubt whether you have it, you do not." It's the difference between every sales conversation being you pushing a boulder up a hill and the customer practically pulling your hand off to get your software.
Many SaaS business models with product/market fit did not launch with it; it sometimes takes months or years of iterating to get there. The most important theme while iterating is to talk to many, many more customers than feels natural. Low-touch SaaS entrepreneurs can make an excuse to attempt to speak with literally every person who signs up for a free trial; the economics of this are unsustainable at the price point but running a SaaS company without product/market fit is also unsustainable, so it's entirely justified by how much you learn.
Achieving product/market fit isn't just a matter of listening to feature requests and building those features. It is also listening closely to the commonalities of your best customers and leaning in on them. This can result in changes to the marketing, messaging, and design of the SaaS product to more closely target the needs of the best customers.
Who are the "best" customers? Generally speaking, they're the segments (by industry, size, user profile, or similar) where you have high conversion rates, low churn rates, and (almost always) relatively higher ACV. By far the most common change in emphasis of low-touch SaaS businesses is to launch with a product that serves a wide spectrum of users at a wide spectrum of sophistication, and then double down on one or two niches for their most sophisticated users.
Stripe Atlas is going to be publishing future guides on finding product/market fit, incorporating a business, interviewing users, and optimizing every facet of your online business. If you'd like to hear about them, please give us your email address. If you have any thoughts about what other guides would be useful to your online business, please write us at: firstname.lastname@example.com
This guide is not intended to and does not constitute legal or tax advice, recommendations, mediation, or counseling under any circumstance. This guide and your use thereof does not create an attorney-client relationship with Stripe, Orrick, or PwC. The guide solely represents the thoughts of the author and is neither endorsed by nor does it necessarily reflect Orrick's belief. Orrick does not warrant or guarantee the accurateness, completeness, adequacy, or currency of the information in the guide. You should seek the advice of a competent attorney or accountant licensed to practice in your jurisdiction for advice on your particular problem.


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.: 50% Polyester 50% Cotton
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Air Jordan 1 Mid 'Smoke Grey Anthracite" - 9.5 M is backordered and will ship as soon as it is back in stock.
-Brand New
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USAStandard: 2-4 Business DaysExpress: 2-3 Business DaysOvernight: 1 Business DayCANADAStandard: 4-10 Business DaysExpress via UPS: 2-4 Business DaysINTERNATIONALStandard via UPS: 4 - 10 Business days
*** COVID -19 RESPONSE ***We have implemented strict protocols to protect our team and customers, specifically informed by guidance as provided by the CDC. Your orders will be safely packed and shipped.Our goal is to provide a smooth shopping experience, Ice Out NY ships orders every business day, Monday through Friday. That means your purchase will be in the mail within two business day after the payment is confirmed.Tracking & InsuranceAfter you place your order, we will get ready and ship your package in 48 hours. You'll receive tracking information via SMS text and/or e-mail. All shipments are insured. Please allow 4-8 weeks for the production of your custom orders. Your custom pendants need time to craft and test; you'll see it's worth waiting for when you receive it. We will send you an email as soon as your purchase is completed. After the packaging, we will ship it with the shipping option you chose at the checkout.
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Occasion Card with matching envelope
$ 5.50
They are the perfect choice for many different occasions. Printed on a beautiful stock, they feature Felix's watercolor drawings, his handwritten font, and witty sayings that are positively charming.
Front: Happy birthday
Inside: blank
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Single Card - packaged in a cellophane sleeve
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"On June 23, I will have the opportunity to test myself again with a
great athlete, and show more of my abilities. There will be a great show
of skill and courage." - Hugo "Wolverine" Viana
If you mention the name Hugo Viana to a sports fan in Brazil, the first vision that comes to mind may be of the Portuguese soccer player. Change it around a little bit to Hugo "Wolverine," and the reaction will be quite different, as the instant image will rightfully be of the Ultimate Fighter Brazil competitor with the mutton chops familiar to the Marvel Comics superhero.
And to think, it was all a matter of chance and some creative shaving for the 29-year old.
"I always liked to shave more or less in the same style known of Wolverine," said Viana through translator Julia Menezes. "So, one day during a Muay Thai event, the announcer introduced me as Hugo the "Wolverine" from Muay Thai. I won that fight, and from then on people started greeting and calling me by Wolverine. I liked the idea, and soon after at my MMA debut my friends and coaches encouraged me to continue shaving my beard the same way for the fights."
So far, this good luck charm has worked, well, like a charm, as Viana won all five of his pre-TUF bouts before going 2-0 on the show with wins over Alexandre Ramos and Marcos Vinicius. A loss in the semifinals to Rony "Jason" Mariano via decision halted his streak, but he will be back in action this Saturday night to fight in front of his countrymen in Brazil against castmate John Teixeira.
"It is an honor to fight in my home country, and it is an ever greater inspiration to have such an enthusiastic group of fans," said Viana, a native of Sao Paulo who now fights out of Salvador, Bahia. "However, I am also looking forward to fighting in other countries and hope to get the same vibe from other people."
It's a success story shared by many of the fighters on the first Brazilian edition of the popular reality series, but unlike some of his peers, Viana didn't need fighting to survive or take him out of a bad situation. Sure, he was a martial artist since the age of 12, competing first in Taekwondo, but he also has a degree in Physical Therapy, a way out of a different sort. So it's not surprising that there were a few raised eyebrows from family members when he told them he was going to pursue a pro fighting career.
"In the beginning, it was a bit difficult because some people doubted I had talent for martial arts," said Viana, who counts Royce and Rickson Gracie, as well as Anderson Silva and Minotauro Nogueira as the fighters who have influenced him the most. "In fact, they did not think I could even survive a fight. Most people thought it was a waste of my talents as a therapist, and some told me I should devote my time to studying."
Viana followed his heart though, turning pro in 2010 with a decision win over Marcelo Santos. Four more wins led up to his appearance on TUF, where he quickly became one of the most popular members of the cast.
"I definitely could feel the love from my fans, friends and family," he said. "My Facebook page (www.facebook.com/hugo.viana.wolverine) is full of congratulatory messages and I continue to receive words of encouragement in all media networks. I feel grateful, and encouraged to become an even better man."
He's certainly become a better fighter, a fringe benefit for all competitors who were sequestered from the outside world during the weeks of taping. "The experience in the house made me a better professional fighter," he said. "TUF is an incredible opportunity that allows one to grow as a fighter."
A member of Vitor Belfort's team, Viana also had the opportunity to work with the man who still trains him today, Luiz Dorea, the coach of UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos.
"Training with such a great coach is an honor for me," he said of Dorea. "His broad knowledge and experience always keep me prepared during my struggles and the pressure time during the fights."
There will be pressure this weekend, of that there is no doubt. But at the same time, those who emerge from TUF do have an advantage over most debutants that haven't had to go through what they did to get to this point. For Viana, being away from home was tough, but the reward made it worth it.
"I missed my family and friends a lot during the program," he said. "The more time passed, the harder it got, but the goal and the dream of being among the best gave me strength to continue on the journey."
On Saturday, "Wolverine" begins his UFC journey, one he expects will last for only one fight at 145 pounds before he drops to bantamweight, but in the meantime, he plans on making an impression on everyone watching.
"I believe I changed a lot as a fighter," he said. "Today I have more confidence, and I know my potential. I had never fought on any main card before and I had never fought with leading-edge fighters such as those I faced at TUF. Thus, with such experience, I can discover more about martial arts in the Octagon. On June 23, I will have the opportunity to test myself again with a great athlete, and show more of my abilities. There will be a great show of skill and courage."


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Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
A break-in at an Australian thrift store had police stumped. There was a hole in the ceiling and smashed merchandise. Nothing was missing. Not a burglar, possibly a prankster on a rampage. The next day, staff spotted the intruder still in the store. It was a giant python, 19 feet long, 37 pounds, the head the size of a small dog. The local newspaper reported police chose not to handcuff the culprit, quote, "for logistical reasons."
It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Can I Benefit from an A-B Trust?
Married couples have several ways to potentially avoid any estate tax liability when they leave assets to each other.
Because of the unlimited marital deduction, no estate taxes are due when one spouse dies and leaves his or her assets to the survivor (as long as the surviving spouse is a U.S. citizen). However, this may merely postpone taxes that would be due until the death of the second spouse. Federal estate taxes would be owed on the portion of the estate that exceeds the applicable estate tax exclusion. The latest major piece of tax legislation is the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was signed into law on December 22, 2017. This Act doubled the federal estate tax exclusion (indexed annually for inflation). The 2024 federal estate tax exclusion is $13.61 million (up from $12.92 million in 2023). In 2026, the exclusion is scheduled to revert to its pre-2018 level.
One basic method to help maximize the exclusion for both spouses has been an A-B trust (also known as a marital and bypass trust), which preserves the estate tax exclusion of the first spouse to die and also enables the last-surviving spouse to utilize the exclusion — essentially doubling the amount excluded from the estate tax.
However, with enactment of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, some couples may no longer need an A-B trust to help maximize the estate tax exclusion for both spouses. But before you make a decision about the use of a bypass trust, there are a number of issues to consider.
First, a little background on the changes in the estate tax as a result of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. The law permanently extended the higher applicable exclusion amount ($5 million, indexed for inflation after 2011) and raised the federal estate tax rate to 40 percent from 35 percent. The increased threshold alone eliminates many people from being subject to the federal estate tax. The act also made permanent "portability" of the exclusion to the surviving spouse, which allows surviving spouses to use their spouse's unused exclusion plus their own, enabling a couple to exclude up to $27.22 million from federal estate taxes in 2024 (up from $25.84 million 2023).
However, many states have their own estate or inheritance taxes (Maryland has both), and most currently do not have portability provisions. This means that when married couples leave all their assets to their spouses, the surviving spouse will be able to use only his or her state estate tax exclusion. A trust may preserve a married couple's state estate tax exclusion. Additional considerations favoring a trust are the ability to shelter appreciation of assets placed in the trust, to protect assets from creditors, and to benefit children from a previous marriage.
How an A-B Trust Works
Using a living trust with an A-B provision (aka A-B or marital and bypass trust), you ensure that both you and your spouse can take advantage of the exclusion — once upon the death of the first spouse to die and then again upon the death of the second spouse.
When the first spouse dies, two separate trusts are created. The assets of the surviving spouse are transferred to the A trust, and an amount up to the estate tax exclusion of the deceased spouse's assets is transferred to the B trust. This then creates two taxable trusts, each of which is entitled to use the exclusion.
The B trust is subject to estate taxes. However, because of the applicable exclusion, no taxes will be owed. The surviving spouse maintains control of the assets in the A trust and receives income from the B trust. Then, upon the death of the second spouse, only the A trust is subject to federal estate taxes because the B trust was taxed at the first death. After the death of the surviving spouse, the B trust can continue for the benefit of the grantors' family, often the children. The trust assets can be divided into separate equal trusts for the benefit of the grantors' children, who will receive net income; and then, at some specified age, they will receive the principal.
There are many considerations involved with A-B trusts, including upfront costs and administrative fees. As the use of trusts involves a complex web of tax rules and regulations, you should consider the counsel of an experienced estate planning professional and your legal and tax professionals before implementing such strategies. However, the A-B trust can be an effective way to help reduce estate taxes and preserve family assets.
The information in this newsletter is not intended as tax, legal, investment, or retirement advice or recommendations, and it may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any federal tax penalties. You are encouraged to seek guidance from an independent tax or legal professional. The content is derived from sources believed to be accurate. Neither the information presented nor any opinion expressed constitutes a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security. This material was written and prepared by Broadridge Advisor Solutions. © 2024 Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.


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No. 2 Duke rallies past No. 4 Ohio State
JOEDY McCREARY
The Associated Press
| Thursday, November 29, 2012, 10:05 a.m.
DURHAM, N.C. — Once the shots started falling for Duke freshman Rasheed Sulaimon, it wasn't long before another top-five opponent went down, too.
Sulaimon scored all 17 of his points in the second half of the second-ranked Blue Devils' 73-68 come-from-behind victory over No. 4 Ohio State on Wednesday night.
"I let my teammates down in the beginning, not playing as well as I could be, and (coach Mike Krzyzewski) really got on me at halftime," Sulaimon said. "I just love these guys and wanted to go out there and respond."
Mason Plumlee had 21 points and a career-high-tying 17 rebounds, and Ryan Kelly added 15 points and hit 3-pointers on consecutive trips downcourt early during the 20-7 run that put the Blue Devils (7-0) ahead to stay and sent them to their third win over a top-five team this month.
Deshaun Thomas scored 16 points for Ohio State (4-1), while Aaron Craft and Lenzelle Smith Jr. had 11 apiece. The Buckeyes were held to 33.8 percent shooting.
"If you had told me we were going to shoot 34 percent, I would have said we got ran out of the gym tonight," Buckeyes coach Thad Matta said.
Shannon Scott pulled the Buckeyes within 66-64 with a free throw with 28.9 seconds left but had a critical turnover on the next trip down, and Quinn Cook sealed it by hitting six free throws in the final 27.3 seconds.
"We just didn't do a good job of staying together, and they started going on a run," Craft said. "We couldn't weather it."
Cook finished with 12 points for Duke, which shot 58 percent in the second half — Sulaimon was 7 of 10 in the final 20 minutes — to remain unbeaten at home in the made-for-TV ACC-Big Ten Challenge and preserve its school-record winning streak at home against nonconference opponents.
The Blue Devils — who beat then-No. 3 Kentucky in Atlanta and then-No. 2 Louisville in the Bahamas — won their 97th straight against non-ACC visitors to Cameron Indoor Stadium.
But for much of the way, nothing came easy for them. They were outrebounded 40-37, couldn't get anything going on the offensive glass, struggled to keep up with Ohio State's quick ball movement and couldn't find their touch.
"When you play the schedule that we've played, this is not Xbox or fantasy stuff where these guys are healthy" all the time, Krzyzewski said. "He just played three games (in the Battle 4 Atlantis), get back Sunday afternoon and go out and play these guys on Wednesday — that's an effort. That's a hell of an effort, and for a freshman, he got knocked back, and at halftime, I thought he responded … and gave us a verve."
Not to mention a spark, by hitting the first in a series of three straight 3-pointers that turned the game.
Sulaimon buried one from the key to pull the Blue Devils within 51-50 with about 6 minutes left. Kelly then hit 3s on consecutive trips down the court, including one in Amir Williams' face that put Duke ahead to stay, 56-53 — its first lead since the 14-minute mark of the first half.
"Once he hit those 3s, it was like, 'Yes, we're here,'" Sulaimon said. "Once we got that lead, we weren't going to give it up."
Plumlee followed up Cook's missed layup with a dunk that made it 58-54 with 4 minutes left and sent the rowdy Cameron crowd into ear-splitting madness. Sulaimon capped the run with a fast-break dunk that put Duke up 66-58 with just over a minute to play.
Meanwhile, the Buckeyes could do little right down the stretch. With Cook in his face much of the game, Craft finished 3 of 15 from the field. His jumper with just over 3 minutes left was Ohio State's last field goal until Evan Ravenel's dunk with 3 seconds left.
"They just stopped guarding me towards the end, going under ball screens and things," Craft said. "Just couldn't knock down shots. Sometimes, that happens."
Yet after Cook's first two late free throws, Ohio State had a chance to make it a one-possession game again, but Scott dribbled off his foot with 20 seconds left.
This old building was rocking at levels usually reserved for the annual visit from North Carolina — although the Buckeyes certainly did their best to hush the place early.
Duke trudged through a decidedly un-Duke-like opening half in which the Blue Devils went 10 minutes between field goals, missed 13 of their final 16 shots, didn't get their first offensive rebound until there were nearly 4 minutes left and were fortunate to only be down 31-23 at halftime.
The Buckeyes generated plenty of open looks by whipping the ball around the perimeter, and when they missed, they gave themselves plenty of second chances by playing with markedly more physicality than Duke could muster.
Williams' free throw with 1:13 left put Ohio State up 31-21 — Duke's first double-digit deficit at home this season.
Duke erased its rare 10-point deficit early in the second half with an 11-4 run.
Boise St. 83,
No. 11 Creighton 70
OMAHA, Neb. — Derrick Marks scored a career-high 35 points, including 18 straight in the second half, and Boise State upset No. 11 Creighton.
The Broncos (5-1), who played No. 13 Michigan State within four points on the road last week, beat a ranked opponent for the first time in four seasons and on the road for the first time since March 2005.
Creighton (6-1) hadn't lost a regular-season November home game since 1989.
Anthony Drmic had 17 points and Jeff Elorriaga added 12 for the Broncos.
Doug McDermott led Creighton with 21 points and Grant Gibbs added 17.
Boise State led 39-33 after shooting 64 percent from the field the first half. The Broncos made seven straight 3-pointers and were 9-of-13 from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes, with Elorriaga making 4 of 5.
Creighton got within five points in the last 3 minutes, but Drmic scored twice and Marks made four free throws to seal the Broncos' first win over a ranked opponent since they beat Utah State in February 2009.
Miami 67,
No. 13 Michigan St. 59
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Senior Trey McKinney Jones scored a career-high 18 points and the Miami Hurricanes beat No. 13 Michigan State 67-59 on Wednesday night.
McKinney Jones went 5-for-7 from 3-point range, including a basket that capped a 14-2 run to start the second half that put them ahead 41-33.
The lead grew to 57-45, and the Hurricanes went 8 for 8 from the free throw line over the final 2:11 to seal the victory.
Miami (4-1) held the ball in the final seconds to run out the clock, and students then stormed the court, hoisting at least one player and the team mascot onto their shoulders and chanting, "ACC." The game was part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
The Spartans (5-2) lost for the first time since the season opener against Connecticut.


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Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;
3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great asalvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
5 For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
6 But one in a certain place testified, saying, bWhat is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?
7 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands:
8 Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.
9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
10 cFor it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation dperfect through sufferings.
11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause ehe is not ashamed to call them brethren,
12 Saying, fI will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.
13 And again, hI will put my trust in him. And again, gBehold I and the children which God hath given me.
14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; ithat through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
15 And deliver them who jthrough fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him kto be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
18 lFor in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.
Hebrews 3


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Carpet Cleaning Lebanon, OR
Your home is your place of pride and many of you will have carpet somewhere in the house that pretty much draws people's eyes in any room. There is nothing worse when you walk in to a beautiful home in Lebanon and you notice stains on the carpet. It instantly draws all eyes to that staining and it can bring the beauty of your home down straight away in the eyes of guests and yourself. If you have notice stains on your carpet it could be time to call in a carpet cleaning company who really knows what they are doing. Sometimes it can be as simple as having just one carpet shampoo treatment and other times it might need a few treatments. But most carpet cleaning companies can remove any stains and it will instantly make the carpet look like new again.
Here at Powered by the People we have an ensemble of the best carpet cleaners in Lebanon. Through doing the research for you and making sure these companies are well reviewed we have placed the best in the business to be found through this site. Past clients in Lebanon who have found Carpet cleaning companies through us have given us feedback about their overall experience dealing with these companies so we know they are good and we continue to always check and monitor them.
Its one thing to spill red wine on the floor but it's another thing to not clean it properly to the point where it stains. Dinner party accidents happen and you sometimes have guests that make mistakes and while you don't want to make them feel bad. You tend to just clean it quickly to not worry your guests. That wine or whatever drinks are dropped will carry on staining the carpet while the dinner party is ongoing. Next day you wake up to discover a stain and it looks like you might need a new carpet. Well we think, not! Most of the time it can be removed and we have our website here for you to find the best carpet cleaning teams in Lebanon to complete the task and save the day.
So don't threat when your carpets start to look slightly worn and dirty, call Powered by the People and we will have a qualified and well respected carpet cleaning company call you back ASAP. And if you have any additional questions our staff right here will be happy to answer them for you.


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memories falling
Artist: Sean Mahan
Title: memories falling
Medium: acrylic on panel
Framed size: 28 x 35 cm
Price: $1375 AUD (outside of Australia approx. $850 USD)
We happily offer lay-by on all original artworks and prints, with a 50% deposit. Contact us to set up a lay-by. Please note that the product will not be marked as sold until we have received your payment, and will therefore be available for others to purchase until it has been secured.
Prices are in Australian dollars. Click here for an up-to-date currency conversion. AUD prices include GST that is removed for customers outside Australia.
This artwork can be shipped internationally. Please contact us for a shipping quote.
Click here to see other products by: Sean Mahan


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Nitrofurantoin is used for treating and preventing urinary tract infections caused by certain bacteria. Nitrofurantoin is an antibiotic for specific use in the urinary tract. It works by killing sensitive bacteria.
Use Nitrofurantoin as directed by your doctor.
- Take Nitrofurantoin by mouth with food.
- Do not take an antacid that has magnesium trisilicate in it while you are taking Nitrofurantoin. Check with your pharmacist if you are unsure which antacids have magnesium trisilicate in them.
- Drinking extra fluids while you are taking Nitrofurantoin is recommended.
- To clear up your infection completely, take Nitrofurantoin for the full course of treatment. Keep taking it even if you feel better in a few days.
- If you miss a dose of Nitrofurantoin, take it as soon as possible. If it is almost time for your next dose, skip the missed dose and go back to your regular dosing schedule. Do not take 2 doses at once.
Ask your health care provider any questions you may have about how to use Nitrofurantoin.
Store Nitrofurantoin at room temperature, between 59 and 86 degrees F (15 and 30 degrees C). Store away from heat, moisture, and light. Do not store in the bathroom. Keep Nitrofurantoin out of the reach of children and away from pets.