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The last time I tackled a Top Ten Tuesday topic, it was 'Most Memorable Mothers in Literature'. So this week I'm looking at the most memorable fathers in literature: the good, the bad, and the ugly. (This was technically supposed to be last week's TTT topic. My bad.) Continue reading
Tag Archives: Terry Pratchett
The Classics Book Tag (AKA Oh My God I Can't Believe I Still Haven't Read All These Books Please Don't Judge Me)
Jillian tagged me for the Classics Book Tag – thanks, Jillian! So, let's get on with it. Also, please enjoy this completely unrelated but extremely pretty stock photo I've included, mostly because I've pretty much tapped out Unsplash's supply of book-related stock images.
1. An over-hyped classic you really didn't like?
Le Mort d'Arthur. It's basically 400+ pages of dudes in chain main slicing one another's bodily appendages off as if they were made of butter. Pass. Continue reading
Top Ten Recommended Reads
Reading preferences are an extremely personal thing. And while a lot of us are pretty sure we know what we like, sometimes a book recommendation can take you utterly by surprise. This week's Top Ten Tuesday is all about books that you never would have read if someone (or even something) hadn't recommended them to you. I'm going to count not just personal recommendations from family and friends here, but also recommendations from other authors, TV, and of course the good old internet (because I spend way too much of my time browsing through Goodreads these days). Continue reading
Top Ten Memorable Villains
This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic is brought to you courtesy of BiffCo, International Genetics Incorporated, and SPECTRE. We also tried to get Virtucon Industries to give us a mention in their next ransom demand, but their fee was a little pricey: ONE MILLION DOLLARS.
Top Ten Memorable Villains
1. Rebecca and Mrs Danvers, from Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier – In Du Maurier's creepy Gothic novel, Rebecca is the faceless deceased wife of the hero, Max de Winter. Although she never appears in the novel (or the film) she's creepy because she feels so present, despite having died years before. Continue reading
Top Ten Books I Feel Differently About As Time Passes
With hundreds of new titles published every week, re-reading books may seem like a bit of a foolish endeavour these days. But re-reading books – ones you loved, hated, or were simply puzzled by – can be an excellent exercise, one that helps you to better understand a text. Or, sometimes, even better understand yourself, as I'm afraid the following list may very well reveal. The Broke and the Bookish's Top Ten Tuesday theme this week is 'Books I Feel Differently About Now That Time Has Passed', and I've come up with a list of books that I have re-read either once or many times, with different emotions every time. Continue reading
Top Ten Books That Have Made Me Laugh
I'll admit, I'm cheating a little this week – instead of following The Broke and the Bookish's Top Ten Tuesday prompt this week, I've decided to make a small modification. This is mostly because I think humour is hugely subjective. It's also because I've been told on multiple occasions that I have a simply dreadful sense of humour, so I feel it's only fair that I not impose that on others. So instead of sharing 'Ten Books That Will Make You Laugh', I've decided to list the books that have made me laugh (or, at least, think 'hey, that's pretty funny'). Warning: the following may contain incredibly childish jokes, simply dreadful puns, and even a little toilet humour. You've been warned. Continue reading
My Top Ten Non-Romantic Loves in Fiction
This week's Top Ten Tuesday is all about Valentine's Day, but since I've always been a bit of a cynic about a commercial holiday which demands that lovers be nice to each other for one day (thus allowing them to be perfectly horrible to each other for the next three hundred and sixty-four days in the year), I've decided to make this Top Ten Tuesday list all about my favourite examples of non-romantic love in fiction. The following relationships are not without their struggles and complications, but I think they all show that non-romantic love can be just as messy, affectionate – and ultimately uplifting – as romantic love.
My Top Ten Non-Romantic Loves in Fiction
Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I'd Like To See As Movies
I'm a big fan of a decent book-to-film adaptation, so this week's Top Ten Tuesday, run by The Broke and the Bookish, seems like the perfect topic. I know it's technically Wednesday, but I loved this prompt so much that I just couldn't resist….
Top Ten Books I'd Like To See As Movies
1. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis: The first few Narnia films did a pretty good job of translating the novels to the big screen. I know there's been talk about The Silver Chair, and supposedly it comes out next year, but so far there doesn't seem to be much information out there about it. I'd love to see this book on film, though. It's a great story and actually one of my favourites in the Narnia series. Continue reading
Rest in Peace, Terry Pratchett
Rest in peace, Sir Terry Pratchett. Much like a sunflower, you brought smiles to the faces of millions.
Top Ten Authors Whose Books I Own
It's no secret that I own a lot of books. My tiny Ikea bookshelf is crammed, and on most shelves the books are stacked in two rows, one in front of the other. And since this week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt from The Broke and the Bookish asks which author's books appear on our shelves the most, I thought I'd do a little bit of a bookshelf review. One bookshelf-clutter-related accident later, I gave up on trying to catalogue every book I own, and set out with bandaged finger to find the authors who stood out to me the most.
Top Ten Authors Whose Books I Own
(This episode of Top Ten Tuesday is brought to you by the Society For The Prevention Of Bookshelf-Related Accidents. Remember, kids: clutter can kill. Always rearrange your bookshelves with a buddy.) Continue reading


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Designing the Firefox Performance Monitor (2): Monitoring Add-ons and Webpages
November 6, 2015 § Leave a comment
In part 1, we discussed the design of time measurement within the Firefox Performance Monitor. Despite the intuition, the Performance Monitor had neither the same set of objectives as the Gecko Profiler, nor the same set of constraints, and we ended up picking a design that was not a sampling profiler. In particular, instead of capturing performance data on stacks, the Monitor captures performance data on Groups, a notion that we have not discussed yet. In this part, we will focus on bridging the gap between our low-level instrumentation and actual add-ons and webpages, as may be seen by the user.
Designing the Firefox Performance Stats Monitor, part 1: Measuring time without killing battery or performance
October 27, 2015 § Leave a comment
For a few versions, Firefox Nightly has been monitoring the performance of add-ons, thanks to the Performance Stats API. While we are waiting for the greenlight to let it graduate to Firefox Aurora, as well as investigating a few lingering false-positives, and while v2 is approaching steadily, it is time for a brain dump on this toolbox and its design.
The initial objective of this monitor is to be able to flag both add-ons and webpages that cause noticeable slowdowns, so as to let users disable/close whatever is making their use of Firefox miserable. We also envision more advanced uses that could let us find out if features of webpages cause slowdowns on specific OS/hardware combinations.
Detecting slow add-ons
May 6, 2015 § 13 Comments
When it is at its best, Firefox is fast. Really, really fast. When things start slowing down, though, using Firefox is much less fun. So, one of main objectives of the developers of Firefox is making sure that Firefox is and remains as smooth and responsive as humanly possible. There is, however, one thing that can slow down Firefox, and that remains out of the control of the developers: add-ons. Good add-ons are extraordinary, but small coding errors – or sometimes necessary hacks – can quickly drive the performance of Firefox into the ground.
So, how can an add-on developer (or add-on reviewer) find out whether her add-on is fast? Sadly, not much. Testing certainly helps, and the Profiler is invaluable to help pinpoint a slowdown once it has been noticed, but what about the performance of add-ons in everyday use? What about the experience of users?
To solve this issue, we decided to work on a set of tools to help add-on developers and reviewers find out the performance of their add-ons. Oh, and also to let users find out quickly if an add-on is slowing down their everyday experience.
On recent Nightly builds of Firefox, you may now open about:performance to get an overview of the performance cost of add-ons and webpages :
The main resources we monitor are :
- jank, which measures how much the add-on impacts the responsiveness of Firefox. For 60fps performance, jank should always remain ≤ 4. If an add-on regularly causes jank to increase past 6, you should be worried.
- CPOW aka blocking cross-process communications, which measures how much the add-on is causing Firefox to freeze waiting for a process to respond. Anything above 0 is bad.
Note that the design of this page is far from stable. I realise it's not very user-friendly at the moment, so don't hesitate to file bugs to help us improve it. Also note that, when running with e10s, the page doesn't display all the useful information. We are working on it.
add-on Telemetry
Add-on developers and reviewers can now find information on the performance of their add-ons on a dedicated dashboard.
These are real-world performance data, as extracted from user's computers. The two histograms available for the time being are:
- MISBEHAVING_ADDONS_JANK_LEVEL, which measures the jank, as detailed above;
- MISBEHAVING_ADDONS_CPOW_TIME_MS, which measure the amount of time spent in CPOW, as detailed above.
If you are an add-on developer, you should monitor regularly the performance of your add-on on this page. If you notice suspicious values, you should try and find out what causes these performance issues. Don't hesitate and reach out to us, we will try and help you.
Slow add-on Notification
Add-on developers and reviewers, as well as end-users, are now informed when an add-on causes either jank or CPOW performance issues:
Note that this feature is not ready to ride the trains, and we do not have a specific idea of when it will be made available for users of Aurora/DeveloperEdition. This is partly because the UX is not good enough yet, partly because the thresholds will certainly change, and partly because we want to give add-on developers time to fix any issue before the users see a dialog that suggest that an add-on should be uninstalled.
Performance Stats API
By the way, we have an API for accessing performance stats. Very imaginatively, it's called PerformanceStats.jsm [link]. While this API will still change during the coming weeks you can start playing with it if you are interested. Some add-ons may be able to throttle their performance use based on this data. Also, I hope that, in time, someone will be able to write a version of about:performance much nicer than mine 🙂
Challenges and work ahead
For the moment, we are in the process of stabilizing the API, its implementation and its performance. In parallel, we are working on making the UX of about:performance more useful. Once both are done, we are going to proceed with adding more measurements, making the code more e10s-friendly and measuring the performance of webpages.
If you are an add-on developer and if you feel that your add-on is tagged as slow by error, or if you have great ideas on how to make this data useful, feel free to ping me, preferably on IRC. You can find me on irc.mozilla.org, channel #developers, where I am Yoric.
What David Did During Q3
September 30, 2014 § 6 Comments
September is ending, and with it Q3 of 2014. It's time for a brief report, so here is what happened during the summer.
Session Restore
After ~18 months working on Session Restore, I am progressively switching away from that topic. Most of the main performance issues that we set out to solve have been solved already, we have considerably improved safety, cleaned up lots of the code, and added plenty of measurements.
During this quarter, I have been working on various attempts to optimize both loading speed and saving speed. Unfortunately, both ongoing works were delayed by external factors and postponed to a yet undetermined date. I have also been hard at work on trying to pin down performance regressions (which turned out to be external to Session Restore) and safety bugs (which were eventually found and fixed by Tim Taubert).
In the next quarter, I plan to work on Session Restore only in a support role, for the purpose of reviewing and mentoring.
Also, a rant The work on Session Restore has relied heavily on collaboration between the Perf team and the FxTeam. Unfortunately, the resources were not always available to make this collaboration work. I imagine that the FxTeam is spread too thin onto too many tasks, with too many fires to fight. Regardless, the symptom I experienced is that during the course of this work, both low-priority, high-priority and safety-critical patches have been left to rot without reviews, despite my repeated requests, for 6, 8 or 10 weeks, much to the dismay of everyone involved. This means man·months of work thrown to /dev/null, along with quarterly objectives, morale, opportunities, contributors and good ideas.
I will try and blog about this, eventually. But please, in the future, everyone: remember that in the long run, the priority of getting reviews done (or explaining that you're not going to) is a quite higher than the priority of writing code.
Async Tooling
Many improvements to Async Tooling landed during Q3. We now have the PromiseWorker, which simplifies considerably the work of interacting between the main thread and workers, for both Firefox and add-on developers. I hear that the first add-on to make use of this new feature is currently being developed. New features, bugfixes and optimizations landed for OS.File. We have also landed the ability to watch for changes in a directory (under Windows only, for the time being).
Sadly, my work on interactions between Promise and the Test Suite is currently blocked until the DevTools team manages to get all the uncaught asynchronous errors under control. It's hard work, and I can understand that it is not a high priority for them, so in Q4, I will try to find a way to land my work and activate it only for a subset of the mochitest suites.
I have recently joined the newly restarted effort to improve the performance of Places, the subsystem that handles our bookmarks, history, etc. For the moment, I am still getting warmed up, but I expect that most of my work during Q4 will be related to Places.
Most of my effort during Q3 was spent improving the Shutdown of Firefox. Where we already had support for shutting down asynchronously JavaScript services/consumers, we now also have support for native services and consumers. Also, I am in the process of landing Telemetry that will let us find out the duration of the various stages of shutdown, an information that we could not access until now.
As it turns out, we had many crashes during asynchronous shutdown, a few of them safety-critical. At the time, we did not have the necessary tools to determine to prioritize our efforts or to find out whether our patches had effectively fixed bugs, so I built a dashboard to extract and display the relevant information on such crashes. This proved a wise investment, as we spent plenty of time fighting AsyncShutdown-related fires using this dashboard.
In addition to the "clean shutdown" mechanism provided by AsyncShutdown, we also now have the Shutdown Terminator. This is a watchdog subsystem, launched during shutdown, and it ensures that, no matter what, Firefox always eventually shuts down. I am waiting for data from our Crash Scene Investigators to tell us how often we need this watchdog in practice.
I lost track of how many code contributors I interacted with during the quarter, but that represents hundreds of e-mails, as well as countless hours on IRC and Bugzilla, and a few hours on ask.mozilla.org. This year's mozEdu teaching is also looking good.
We also launched FirefoxOS in France, with big success. I found myself in a supermarket, presenting the ZTE Open C and the activities of Mozilla to the crowds, and this was a pleasing experience.
For Q4, expect more mozEdu, more mentoring, and more sleepless hours helping contributors debug their patches 🙂
Souhaitez-vous aider le renard à accélérer ?
July 2, 2014 § Leave a comment
Je reçois régulièrement des propositions de volontaires qui souhaiteraient contribuer à Firefox. Habituellement, je les guide vers Bugs Ahoy – si vous ne connaissez pas Bugs Ahoy, foncez le voir, ce moteur de recherche dédié aux tâches accessibles aux débutants est fabuleux. Aujourd'hui, changement de programme : si vous souhaitez contribuer à Firefox, et plus précisément si vous souhaitez contribuer à améliorer les performances de Firefox, voici quelques manières de participer à l'effort de l'équipe Performance.
Session Restore
Session Restore est le composant de Firefox chargé de sauvegarder l'état du navigateur en permanence pour permettre de récupérer d'un crash du navigateur, du système ou du matériel ou d'un redémarrage intempestif sans perdre de données. Je suis en train de réécrire certaines parties de Session Restore pour améliorer sa réactivité (en le rendant parallèle) et sa contribution au temps de démarrage.
Pour vous lancer, quelques bugs d'introduction, e-mentorés par moi :
- https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1030765
- https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1031298
- https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1029471
Tous ces bugs sont en JavaScript.
File I/O
OS.File est le composant de Firefox qui permet à JavaScript d'accéder au disque à haute performance. Je suis en train de réécrire certaines parties de OS.File pour le rendre plus extensible et pour améliorer la réactivité de certaines fonctions critiques. Quelques bugs d'introduction, e-mentorés par moi :
- https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1023685 (en JS)
- https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=999748 (en C++)
- https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=850636 (en JS)
- https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=986145 (en JS)
Q2 2014 Report
July 1, 2014 § Leave a comment
Q2 2014 was a difficult quarter at Mozilla, with all the agitation around Brendan Eich, Australis, Media Extensions, etc. Still, I have the feeling that we managed to get a lot done despite the intense pressure. Here is a quick highlight of my main accomplishments for Q2 2014.
Session Restore
A considerable amount of my time was spent working on Session Restore. The main objective is to decrease the jank caused by Session Restore taking snapshots of the session and to decrease the time Session Restore takes to restore the state of Firefox. Much of the activity this quarter dealt with measuring performance, so as to best optimize it and improving safety.
Reworking Session Restore backups
With Firefox 33, the backups of Session Restore state have been completely redesigned. The new system should prove orders of magnitude safer, in addition to now being fully transparent.
Next steps We are still lacking measurements to confirm that this is as successful as the mathematics suggest. If you are interested, there is a mentored bug open.
Talos tests and Telemetry on Session Restore startup
Optimizing startup is difficult, and generally impossible if you do not know what to optimize. With Firefox 32 and 33, we have new benchmarks and real world measurements to help us determine immediately the influence of patches on Session Restore startup.
Next steps Using these benchmarks to experiment with possible optimizations. This is in progress.
Cleaning up Session Restore file
One of our objectives is to decrease the size of the Session Restore file, to reduce the amount of I/O (hence battery use and hardware wear and tear) and memory usage. As a first step, we have introduced a mechanism that progressively removes from the "Undo Close" feature tabs and windows that have been closed at least 2 weeks ago. Interestingly, Telemetry indicates that this clean-up has no effect on the size of the Session Restore file. Experiments run later during the quarter, using the Talos tests, also strongly suggest that the data that we could clean up and that we do not clean up yet have essentially no influence on startup duration.
Next steps I believe that this strategy will therefore not be pursued during the next quarters.
Preserving compatibility with Tor Browser
While refactoring Session Restore, we have hit a number of obstacles in the form of add-ons using private or semi-private APIs that we wished to remove. We have managed to work along with add-on authors and, as far as I know, we have not broken any add-on yet. In particular, we have maintained compatibility with the Tor Browser, which is a heavily customized distribution of Firefox targeted towards privacy.
Next steps Providing a clean API for add-ons. This will require discussing with add-on authors to find out what they need.
Async tooling
I am in charge of the Async Project, which is all about giving front-end and add-on developers tools to develop asynchronous code that does not jank. As usual, this involved plenty of activity in a number of different directions.
Auto-closing Sqlite.jsm databases (mentoring Michael Brennan)
Sqlite.jsm databases can now be closed automatically during garbage-collection. On user's computers, this will increase safety, as failing to close a database causes shutdown-time assertion failures. However, to use resources effectively, pragmatism dictates that databaes should be closed manually, so failing to close a database in the Mozilla codebase will still cause test failures.
Reworking OS.File shutdown
On devices with little memory (typically Firefox Phones), one of the techniques used to save memory is to shutdown the OS.File worker as early as possible, re-launching it later if necessary. As it turns out, the task is more complicated than it seems, due to possibilities of race conditions. Unfortunately, this means that in some extreme cases, Firefox OS applications could lock down and fail to shutdown properly without being killed by the OS. This is now fixed. Somewhere along the way, this helped us to make the PromiseWorker used by OS.File more resilient to low-level errors.
Next steps Making the PromiseWorker usable by other modules than OS.File, including testing and add-ons.
OS.File for Android and Firefox OS
OS.File was initially designed for desktop devices. Now that it is used in a number of places on mobile devices, I have mercilessly hunted down all compatibility issues between OS.File and our two mobile platforms. Compatibility tests are now activated on all platforms and should avoid any regression.
AsyncShutdown Barrier mechanism
The shutdown process of Firefox has always been a dark and scary place, full of unspecified dependencies. As a result, any refactoring or addition a new dependency could break many things in new and interesting ways. I have introduced the AsyncShutdown Barrier mechanism that lets us specify clear, explicit and extensible dependencies, handles ordering of shutdowns, as well as error reporting if a dependency is unmet. This Barrier is now used by Sqlite.jsm, OS.File, Firefox Health Report, Session Restore, Page Thumbnails and fixes a number of major issues.
Next steps Porting AsyncShutdown Barrier to allow native components to register with it.
Fixing Firefox 30 shutdown freezes (with Tim Taubert)
Many users of Firefox 30 encountered issues that caused Firefox to freeze during shutdown. We found out that the issue was caused was triggered by Page Thumbnails and caused by a bug in ChromeWorkers, which did not handle an error case gracefully. I applied AsyncShutdown Barrier to ensure that Page Thumbnails always completed without triggering the error case, while Tim Taubert ensured that the Chrome Workers handled the error robustly.
Making Firefox Health Report shutdown more robust
While porting Firefox Health Report to AsyncShutdown, we encountered an elusive bug that manifested itself by causing rare shutdown crashes. After months of experimenting, instrumenting and attempting to fix the issue, we eventually traced it back to a more serious bug in shutdown, which apparently does not always send the proper notifications. Using the AsyncShutdown Barrier, we managed to work around the issue and make FHR's shutdown both more robust and better instrumented in case of crash. This later helped us locate another issue that prevents a proper shutdown when some databases have been corrupted.
Next steps Fix the upstream shutdown bug, make our shutdown more resilient in case of database corruption.
Async testing
The other aspect of writing asynchronous code is making sure that developers can debug it. Now that we have hit a critical mass of developers writing async code, it was high time to help them work with it.
Rewriting Task stack traces to be meaningful
Now that we know how to handle uncaught errors, the main remaining weaknesses of Promise-based and Task-based code is that their stack traces lose much information. Since Firefox 33, Task-based stack traces are now transparently rewritten into something developer-redable. Somewhere along the way, I have also patched xpcshell and mochitests to ensure that they take advantage of this rewriting. Experience shows that this is very useful and that the runtime cost is negligible.
Next steps Evaluate the runtime cost of doing the same thing for Promise-based code.
Making xpcshell tests fail in case of uncaught promise error
Uncaught promise errors were treated by the test suites as warnings, TBPL did not report them, and they remained consequantly more often than not ignored (or even unseen) by the developers. I have reworked the xpcshell test harness to consider all uncaught promise errors as oranges and fixed all offenders.
Next steps Doing the same for mochitests. Code is ready, but a few offenders remain.
Dealing with political feedback around the nomination and departure of Brendan Eich
Along with many others, I made my best to engage people who voiced their negative feedback either at the nomination or at the departure of Brendan Eich. Unfortunately, this took time and efforts, but I believe that staying in touch with our users is part of what makes the difference between Mozilla and other browser vendors.
Working with new contributors
I estimate that I have worked with ~30 potential new contributors during the quarter. Many have unfortunately decided to postpone or abandon their efforts towards contributing, but a few have stayed, to work either with me or with other teams. At the moment, I am following 5 promising contributors. In particular, I am quite happy to welcome Dexter (who is working on a very sophisticated patch to let code watch for file modifications) and Kushagra (who has landed several test suite bugs).
Next steps More of it!
Working with universities
A group of École Centrale de Lyon successfully completed an online tool to help grassroot projects find volunteers. It was nice mentoring them.
I was invited to deliver a presentation on performance at Zedge, in Trondheim, Norway. That was fun 🙂
Next steps Publish the slides.
And now?
Let's get started with Q3!
Recent changes to OS.File
April 8, 2014 § 5 Comments
A quick post to summarize some of the recent improvements to OS.File.
To write a string, you can now pass the string directly to
OS.File.writeAtomic(path, "Here is a string", { encoding: "utf-8"})
Similarly, you can now read strings from
OS.File.read(path, { encoding: "utf-8" } ); // Resolves to a string.
Doing this is at least as fast as calling
TextDecoder yourself (see below).
Native implementation
OS.File.read has been reimplemented in C++. The main consequence is that this function can now be used safely during startup, without having to wait for the underlying OS.File ChromeWorker to start. Also, decoding (see above) is performed off the main thread, which makes it much faster.
According to my benchmarks, using
OS.File.read to read strings is about 2-5x faster than
NetUtil.asyncFetch on large files and doesn't block the main thread for more than 5ms, while
asyncFetch performs string decoding on the main thread. Also, it doesn't perform any main thread I/O by opposition to
When using
writeAtomic, it is now possible to request existing files to be backed up almost atomically. In many cases, this is a good strategy to ensure that data is safely written to disk, without having to use a flush, which would be expensive for the whole system.
yield OS.File.writeAtomic(path, data, { tmpPath: path + ".tmp", backupTo: path + ".backup} } );
writeAtomic and
read both now support an implementation of lz4 compression
yield OS.File.writeAtomic(path, data, { compression: "lz4"}); yield OS.File.read(path, { compression: "lz4"});
Note that this format will not be understood by any command-line tool. It is somewhat proprietary. Also note that (de)compression is performed on the ChromeWorker thread for the time being, so it doesn't benefit from the native reimplementation mentioned above.
Creating directories recursively
let dir = OS.Path.join(OS.Constants.Path.profileDir, "a", "b", "c", "d"); yield OS.File.makeDir(dir, { from: OS.Constants.Path.profileDir });

subset: commoncrawl


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Innovative Art Project to Restore Seaforth's Historic Round House Exhibition Hall
In June of 1900, the Seaforth Agricultural Society acquired an acre of land from Mr. Ed Coleman—and on it, by 1902, had built an unusual structure.
The Seaforth Round House, as it's known, is one of very few unique two-storey octagonal buildings remaining in Rural Ontario, with its many windows, double staircase, and exhibition gallery. Each year since 1902, the Round House has welcomed exhibitors as part of the town's Fall Fair—and preserving this important historical asset is front and centre of a special fundraising project being undertaken by the Municipality of Huron East.
Paul Carroll ~ Artist, Historian & Author ~ Goderich Ontario
Art Unhinged will involve talented artists turning old used doors into art. Local artisans will work their magic to convert discarded doors into things of beauty—the ultimate recycling project. Fortuitously, the artwork will be completed in time to be part of county-wide Doors Open Huron planned for September 13 and 14, 2014. With the theme "Re-Imagine Huron–Step Into Our Stories," the Doors Open event will showcase Art Unhinged pieces at various of its sites, after which the one-of-a-kind art will be on display throughout Huron East.
Linda Leslie – Artist "Art aRound Town" ~ Exeter Ontario
The redecorated and re-purposed Art Unhinged doors will be auctioned at the Collectibles, Crafts, Gifts & Toy Show & Sale, sponsored by the Seaforth Agricultural Society on November 29th and 30th in the Agri-plex and Seaforth & District Community Centre. Net proceeds from the sale will go toward future restoration of the Round House.
June Laliberté ~ Artist & Entrepreneur ~ Clinton Ontario
Agriculture has always been and still is an integral part of the County of Huron. Preserving an important piece of this history in the form of the Round House is not only fitting, but essential to recognizing those who settled and developed Huron County and those who work the land and tend the livestock to this day.
Linda Bolinger (Vogels) ~ Artist & Painter ~ Seaforth Ontario
For further information contact Jan Hawley, Economic Development Officer Municipality of Huron East E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Office: 519.527.0160
Listen to the story.
Other participating artists include……
Autumn Ducharme ~ Artist, "Art aRound Town" & Student ~ Exeter Ontario
Whitney South ~ Artist, Photographer & News Reporter ~ Seaforth Ontario
Susann Ferris-Jones ~ Artist, "Art aRound Town" & Illustrator ~ Exeter Ontario
…..and many more! Watch for these beautiful pieces of art on your travels throughout Seaforth.


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If you're looking to make money using the internet, you've probably come across a variety of options, including freelance work, affiliate marketing, taking surveys, and numerous others.
Amazon's affiliate program, Amazon Associates, can be a very lucrative option. For some people, it's enough to retire on. For others, it's a great supplemental income.
If you've heard about the Amazon Associates program but don't know a lot about it or where to begin, we can help.
We're going to break down everything you need to get started.
Why Choose Amazon Associates?
There are a lot of options on the internet for monetizing your website, so why pick Amazon Associates? It's true that Amazon's affiliate program is not a perfect system, and we'll later discuss the drawbacks of this program. However, it can be a highly lucrative choice for a number of reasons.
1. Amazon.com Is Fantastic at Converting Sales
Amazon.com is really good at what they do. According to a 2015 study by Millward Brown Digital, Amazon converts 13% of their site's visitors into sales.
That's unheard of on the internet where the average rate for online shoppers is around 3%. That alone is incredible, but the same study showed that Amazon.com converts 74% of visits made by Amazon Prime Members. That's great news since Amazon currently has over 100 million Prime Members.
2. It Doesn't Matter What Your Readers Buy
Another great perk of the Amazon affiliate program is that it really doesn't matter what your readers buy. If you promote a specific item and your visitors follow your link, they can fill their cart with 100 other items, and you'll gain a commission on every one of them. They don't even have to buy the item you promoted!
3. Huge Inventory
Amazon has an incredible inventory which means that you have a lot of products to choose from. Depending on your niche, Amazon will provide you with tons of material for product reviews. Their large inventory also means that you can probably find products in every niche.
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Amazon does not have a minimum website visitor requirement in order to become an affiliate, which is great if you're just starting out. There's no proving ground. All that's required is an accepted application and you can begin promoting products on your site.
5. No Upfront Investment
When you choose to use an affiliate program, your commitment is very low.
You're not in charge of inventory, shipping, customer service, or anything else that goes along with running an online business.
Since Amazon is a very successful business with a long track record of good customer service, you can rest easy knowing that your site visitors are going to be treated well. If a product ends up being defective, or if they decide that they don't like it, Amazon will help them sort it all out.
Drawbacks of Amazon Associates
Amazon Associates isn't for everyone, and there are certainly some drawbacks to the system. The things listed below are not disqualifiers, but they are worth knowing before you open an account with them.
1. Amazon Associates Offers Low Commission Rates
Compared to other affiliate programs, Amazon's commission rates can be quite low. They offer a flat rate fee for products. Previously, Amazon Associates would pay higher rates to people who sold more inventory. However, today everyone receives the same rates.
Some niches come out better than others, such as a 10% commission rate on "Amazon Fashion Women." Others, like gaming, can only expect to get a 1% commission on video games.
While this certainly isn't the most appealing part of the Amazon affiliate program, if you're able to make a lot of sales, those low commission rates can really add up. Some alternative affiliate programs may offer higher commission rates, but your probability of selling may be much much lower compared to Amazon's very high conversion rates.
2. Affiliate Links are Temporary
Amazon refers to their links as "Special Links." They're links that are coded with your specific affiliate information so you can get credit for the purchases people make after clicking the link on your site.
The Special Links only last for 24 hours after someone clicks on them. Since we've already discussed how good Amazon is at converting sales, this isn't the end of the world. However, if there's an item that someone wants to think about for a few days, you won't be getting a commission unless they re-click your link.
3. You Might Get Banned
Before you begin with Amazon Associates, it's very important to read and understand their policies. Their terms of use are pretty hefty, and at times difficult to comprehend. For this reason, there are times when people get banned from Amazon's program without even knowing they had broken the rules.
The rules are also subject to change, so it's imperative to recheck their terms in case something has been updated that you may not be in compliance with.
There's a good chance that if you break a rule unintentionally that you will be given a warning first. Still, it's important to do your best to keep up with the policies to avoid a potential ban.
How to Set Up Your Amazon Affiliate Website
If you sifted through the pros and cons of the Amazon affiliate program, and you decided you want to move forward, you probably want to know what to do next. Follow these steps to get started.
Begin with an Idea
First, you'll need to first come up with an idea for your website. Ideally, this will be a niche that you really want to pursue. Spend some time brainstorming this because it's a crucial step in the process.
Your website will need to be interesting and popular enough to attract a lot of traffic. Without frequent visitors to your site, you won't be able to convert many sales.
In addition to picking a topic that other people are interested in, you should pick one that gets you excited to wake up in the morning. Something that will be fun! You'll be writing about this subject for as long as you run your website, so you'll want to pick something that you like and know a lot about.
You'll also want to pick a subject that can convert well to sales. Some things naturally easier to market. Also, keep in mind that Amazon Associates pays higher commission rates for certain niches.
Do a Keyword Search
You may be wondering how you can tell if the niche your interested in will be profitable. One of the ways to find out is to do a keyword search. A keyword search allows you to find out what is popular on search engines. If very few people are searching for your topic, it's probably not going to be one that makes very much money.
Seed Keywords
First, you'll want to find "seed keywords" for your niche. In other words, you'll be look for overarching keywords related to your niche to find products that you could potentially promote. As an example, let's say you're thinking about opening a niche website about running.
For this exercise, we went to Google and typed in, "Women's Trail Running Shoe Amazon" to see what would come up as potential items for our website. We'd like to see what a search comes up with, and what Amazon has to offer.
Our search yielded this result:
In the Google search results, you can see the rating for the product, how many reviews there are, and a short beginning description.
If you click on the links you can get more information on the products, and an idea of the price point that you are looking at. This is a picture of some of the top trending women's trail shoes available on Amazon. You can see that most of them have a fair amount of customer reviews, and the prices range from about $40 to $150.
You can also take this opportunity to see what people are already saying about the products you're interested in. Customer reviews on Amazon are usually a really good starting place to see if a product is worth testing, and if people like it.
Google Keyword Search
Once you have a set of seed keywords, it's a good idea to do a Google keyword search. This lets you know if people are actually searching for the products you're interested in promoting.
Go to Google's keyword planner to begin researching the keywords you're interested in. You will need to sign up for a Google account if you do not already have one.
When you put in your keywords, Google will give you related words and the search volume of each word.
In addition to the products you found in your Google search, you can look up other words related to running. Think of things that you think future readers might be interested in. For example, you may look up the words "ultra running", "trail running", or even put in the word "running" to see what might come up.
This first example is a search result for the keywords "trail running," "ultrarunning," and "running." As you can see, the results show a LOT of searches in these areas. Trail running shoes alone get 10-100 thousand searches a month on Google.
This next search included the keywords, "Vasque trail running shoe" and "Merrell trail running shoe." The results for Merrell are especially promising. If you'd like to change the results you can adjust filters and the way the keywords are ranked. For instance, you can click on the "competition" category to adjust it to show you "low" or "high" in increasing or descending order.
Check out the Competition
This is another time to use Google. Use the search bar to look for the products you found your search for seed keywords. For example, we looked up the words "Merrell Women's Trail Crusher."
This time, instead of looking for the product on Amazon, you'll be looking for people who have reviewed this shoe on their websites.
If there are tons and tons of reviews on this product already, you may find that your site will get lost in the ocean of websites. Read through the competitor sites and ask yourself what they're doing well, and what you would do to improve on their idea. How can you make yourself stand out? What can you do differently?
Check Backlinks
Another thing you can do is find out how successful the competitor websites are. How much traffic are they getting? To find out if their website is considered an authoritative source, it's a good idea to find out how many "backlinks" they are getting. Backlinks happen when an external website links to another website. When sites get backlinks, it means that other websites believe that they have something worth sharing.
To find out how many backlinks a competitor website is receiving, you can copy their URL and drop it into a backlink checker. There are a lot of backlink checkers available, but a few that are popular are Ahrefs, Serpstat, and Majestic.
In addition to checking out the competition, you can use backlinks checkers to see how well your own website is doing. It can be a great tool to see if your site is growing in popularity.
Check Google Trends
Google Trends is a tool that you can use to see if the popularity of your niche is on the way out. It's important to find out if your niche is a quick fad. Quick fads might work if you jump on the bandwagon right away and understand that your website will be a shooting star. In general, though, it's better to pick a niche that has long-lasting potential.
To begin, go to Google Trends. Type in the term or topic that you're interested in, and hit "enter" on your keyboard.
For our tail running shoe example, Google Trends yielded this result:
You can see that the topic has peaks and valleys, but it has been maintaining the same basic volume of searches for a year. You don't see a sharp rise and a sharp fall that never rises again.
You can also expand your search to show a longer period of time like we did here. Using this graph you can see that there has been a recent search increase for this phrase in the past year.
If you'd like to work on targeting a specific market, Google also lets you see where the greatest searches are coming from. In the above search, we had the filter set to searches in the United States, but you can change that to specific countries, or worldwide.
Google Trends broke down our search by region in the United States and created a map showing where the largest concentration of searches originated from.
Choose a Domain Name
Once you've decided that your niche is promising and you want to move forward, you'll need to choose a domain name. A domain name is the address that people will use to get to your website.
Choosing a domain name is an important step in the process of creating a website. It's the name that you will carry for the length of your website.
Here are some quick tips for choosing a domain name:
- Pick a name that's easy to pronounce.
- Try not to use irregular spellings or hyphens. You want something that's easy to search for and remember.
- Keep it short.
- Never used trademarked names. Amazon, for instance, has very strict trademark rules. Their legal team will contact you if you use their name in any way.
- Use keywords that relate to your niche so your domain name will show up in search engines.
- After deciding on a name you like, make sure that you register it quickly before someone else takes it.
- If you're having a difficult time choosing a name, you can use a domain name generator to help come up with a name.
Once you've decided on a domain name you will need to register it. Some popular places to register your domain name are, NameCheap, HostGator, Bluehost, or GoDaddy.
Pick a Web Host
If you're using WordPress to begin your site you will need to set up a web host for your site. For those who are unfamiliar with the process, a web host gives you your place on the internet.
Think of your domain name like your street address, and your web host as the actual place where you house your text, images, and videos. In order for people to view your site's content, the actual content has to be stored somewhere. Web hosting facilities store and transmit your information so others can view it.
Quick Tips for Choosing a Web Host:
- Think about how much bandwidth your business is going to require. If you're a small business you will require significantly less bandwidth than another company.
- Consider your platform. If you're using WordPress as your platform, you'll want to find a hosting system that supports WordPress. Thankfully, many web hosting options support it.
- Identify your budget. If you're just beginning, you'll likely have a smaller budget and you will be searching for a more budget-friendly web hosting service.
- Find out what kind of customer service your web hosting provides. If your readers are having trouble accessing your site due to technical difficulties, you'll want to be able to contact your host provider.
- Use reliable web hosting services. You don't want to use a web hosting service that has poor reliability and is often crashing. Look for hosting companies that have good uptime scores.
There are quite a few web hosting companies to choose from, but some popular ones are, HostGator, Bluehost, and SiteGround.
Get a WordPress Account
WordPress is not the only platform that you can use for setting up an Amazon affiliate store, but it is a good choice. It's easy to use and free, so your upfront costs and time will be limited.
WordPress.org vs WordPress.com
To get a WordPress account go to WordPress.org. It's important that you go to WordPress.org, instead of WordPress.com, because these are two separate platforms.
WordPress.com is a website builder, but it will not allow you to use HTML and plugins. Plugins are very helpful for creating an online store, and WordPress.com does not give an option for an online store.
Install WordPress
Depending on the web host that you've selected, you can easily install WordPress directly on to your new web hosting server. Many web hosting providers provide a one-click installation option that guides you through the steps to install WordPress.
Once WordPress has been installed on your web hosting server, you can begin working on your blog.
Sign up for Amazon's Affiliate Program
In order to become an Amazon Associate, you'll need to sign up for the Amazon affiliate program. Before signing up, you'll need to read through the Associates Program Operating Agreement and the Associates Program Policies. Make sure that you are well acquainted with their policies so you don't risk getting banned or audited by Amazon.
Once you've decided that you can agree to Amazon Associate's terms, you'll need to complete an application. At this time you will need to have established your website so Amazon Associates can review it.
After your application is submitted, Amazon Associates will need to make sure that your site complies with their standards. There are some restrictions which will cause your site to be rejected. For example, they do not accept sites that promote or contain sexually explicit materials. They will also deny websites that promote violence or illegal activity.
If you're planning on creating a website that is directed towards children under the age of 13, your site will also be rejected. They include this rule so they can be in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
How to Choose Products
If you have been accepted into the Amazon Associates program, you can begin promoting their products on your website.
Earlier we used Google Keywords and Google Trends to help select a niche and to begin searching for products to promote on our niche website. In addition to those tools, there are some other things to consider when choosing products.
High End or Low End?
Basically, there are three schools of thought when it comes to choosing products. There are those who say to only choose high-end products to promote. Then there are those who choose to promote less expensive items. Lastly, there are those who choose to promote both – and all the ranges in between.
Why Choose High End Products?
The reason people like to sell high-end products through the Amazon affiliates program is due to their low commission rates. They argue that it will take a lot of sales to create a revenue when you're only getting a small return.
However, if you sell a high ticket item, you might actually start making money. For the sake of argument, let's say you sell an item for $1000. Depending on your niche, you could make between $10-$100 on one sale.
If you're selling a $10 item, your return will be between 10 cents and $1. You'd have to sell quite a few $10 items to create the same revenue.
Why Choose Small Items?
Some people like to focus on smaller or cheaper items. But why?
While you certainly make a higher commission rate on big ticket items, it's MUCH easier to sell a cheap item. Let's say you're averaging 1,000 visitors to your site every day. It's far more likely that a higher percentage of your visitors will be willing to spend $10 than they will to spend $1000.
Over time, those small ticket items can add up to create a higher revenue.
Why Choose Both?
In reality, it's probably best to choose items at every price value. When you're fortunate enough to sell a high ticket item, you'll make a much higher revenue at one clip.
In the meantime, you'll be able to add up sales of smaller purchases that are more likely to be impulse purchases.
Keep in mind that whether people purchase the specific items you're promoting or not, if they make a purchase, you still get a commission. Remember also that Amazon is great at converting sales. So whether you get people in for small or large items, there's a good chance that you'll make some sort of commission once they click your affiliate link.
How to Know if Your Products Will Sell?
You'll want to make sure that you're choosing items that are actually in demand. At this point, you have a pretty good idea of what people are searching for on Google. What you need to ask next is, are they actually making purchases?
First, as stated earlier in this article, you can see how many reviews there are on Amazon's products. If there are very few reviews on a product, there's a good chance the item is not very popular. Also, if the product is getting very poor reviews, it's a good idea not to choose that item to promote.
In addition to these options, you can also use a tool called JungleScout.
JungleScout is widely known with people who use Amazon's FBA program, but it can help people with Amazon affiliate sites as well. While you may not need the biggest package available through JungleScout, it can be helpful to get their Chrome Extension.
Basically, the Chrome Extension allows you to see the estimated sales and revenue of a set of products. It also lets you see how each product ranks compared to other products in its category, the number of reviews it receives, and its average ranking. All this can be seen in a moment and doesn't require a lot of extra work on your part.
If the product you're trying to promote isn't selling at all on Amazon, there's not a very good chance that your site is going to generate sales. You'll want to pick items that already receive a healthy amount of sales on Amazon.
Add a WooCommerce Plugin
As mentioned before, one of the wonderful features offered on WordPress.org is the ability to use plugins. Plugins are pieces of software that allow you to extend features or functionality to your WordPress website.
WooCommerce is a helpful plugin for your Amazon affiliate website. It allows you to make a storefront featuring the Amazon affiliate products that you want to promote.
Once you've installed the WooCommerce plugin to your WordPress website, it will prompt you to set up your store. Fill out the required information and then you can start adding products.
When you add products to your store it's very important that you select "External/Affiliate Product" instead of regular products. It should be clear that you're promoting someone else's products, and not your own.
WooCommerce will ask you for a URL to put in for the product you're putting in your store. To get this, go to your Amazon Associate dashboard. Search for a product that you'd like to use and then select the "get link" button that Amazon Associates provides. Once they give you a URL with your affiliate link, use this URL to plug into your WooCommerce page.
WooCommerce gives you the option of selecting a button for people to press to link to Amazon. You can choose different types, but the original options are "shop now" or "buy now." If your readers press that button, they will be taken to that product page on Amazon.
Below the button, you'll see the picture of the product that you're promoting. You'll have some options for how you'd like the image to appear. Once you're satisfied, you can move on to the item description.
Once you've put in your description, hit the "Publish" button, and your item will become live.
Create Great Content
Most people who run an Amazon affiliate website don't stop after creating a storefront. If you want people to visit your site, you'll need to offer them something of value. In other words, why would they visit your site when you're only listing items they can already see on Amazon?
In addition to creating a virtual store that people can look through, you should create compelling content that makes people want to visit your site. Without content, your site doesn't have as much to offer, and likely won't attract as many visitors.
Some content that you create may have very little to do with selling products directly. You want to establish yourself as an authority in your niche, so you'll want to provide content that people can use in their daily lives.
For our pretend running website, you might include articles on great running trails, or tips and tricks for running greater distances. You'll also want to include articles that include your Amazon affiliate links.
Below is a list of types blog posts you can use that can help generate sales. Remember when you're including your affiliate link that it's usually helpful to include your link in your blog post at the beginning and the end to increase the likelihood of being clicked.
Single Product Review
A single product review is usually the most popular type of review. In this type of blog post, you will take a single product and give an in-depth look at it.
To use our running website example, you could do a long review on Merrell's "Women's Trail Crusher Trail Runner."
Your product review can be positive or negative, or in most cases, it will be both. While you probably won't make a lot of money from a negative review, it will show your readers that you're honest and that you're not just trying to make a sale. You want your readers to trust you. If they think you're willing to stretch the truth to make a sale, you will quickly lose readership.
Roundups of Best Products
Roundups of products is another popular blog type. For this type of post, you will likely want to look at three to five products that are in a similar category. We could use our earlier search of trail running shoes to create this blog post.
You'll want to list each product's pros and cons, and a fairly in-depth review of each.
Listicles are a good way to show a lot of products quickly. This is good for a person who wants to see a quick list of available products before they narrow it down to a smaller category.
It's a good idea with Listicles to link to longer reviews for those who want more information than the quick list can provide.
Product Comparison – This vs That
Product comparisons are a good follow up to listicles. Once a person narrows down their search to a couple products, they often get stuck deciding.
A product comparison helps them decide which one works best for them. For this type of post, your job is to explain the benefits of each. If you're discussing trail running shoes, you may want to explain why one shoe works better for a particular type of trail. Maybe one works better for longer distances. Perhaps one is waterproof, and the other isn't.
Once a person reads a thorough comparison of two similar products, they will usually feel a lot more confident in making their final selection.
How-to's and problem-solving articles are great platforms for making sales. Many how-to articles include specific items that people need to accomplish a task. If they trust your authority, they will also trust your recommendation for products that will help them do or make something.
Problem-solving is a great tutorial type that helps people resolve their pain points. Our running blog might include an article that talks about reducing the risk of shin splints. Your article might be "6 Ways to Avoid Shin Splints." One or two of those solutions might include products that Amazon sells.
Final Word
Amazon Associates can be a very helpful affiliate program for those who are willing to put in the work. There are many great examples of people who have put in the effort and reaped the rewards of the affiliate program.


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Jennifer Lopez goes matchy-matchy from head-to-toe in a snakeskin print ensemble, as she attended the American Idol 14th season Photo Call in Brooklyn.
The actress-singer showed off her toned pins in an eye-catching blue mini dress by Dsquared2 from the Fall 2014 Collection, along with a pair of matching high-heels. Jennifer teamed her look with a blue snakeskin handbag while accessorizing with a black studded cuff and some various sparkly jewelry.
The mother-of-two wore her hair in a voluminous half up-do, and completed the overall look with soft smokey eye make-up.


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iaso™ is a science and technology company that spans the entire continuum of medical cannabis applications to promote wellness, cures, and remedies
Plant Reproduction
Tissue Culture and Genetic Research Lab
Precision Cultivation
Controlled environmental Agriculture
Hydrodynamic Extracton
Hydrodynamic Extraction System
Drug Delivery
Delivery Devices (late 2018)
iaso develops and commercializes innovative and proprietary cannabis-related technologies and products
iaso operates sophisticated plant genetic and tissue culture laboratories
iaso owns a vertically integrated licensed facility to test and showcase innovations
iaso partners with leading companies across the canna- bis ecosystems
Leadership Team
iaso has an accomplished and experienced leadership and management team in place, along with a world class board of scientific PhD advisors from the USA, India, Israel, and Sri Lanka which allows us to execute our business plans with a global vision.
César Cordero-Krüger
Founder and CEO
César is a 25 year seasoned entrepreneur and consultant assisting companies with mergers & acquisitions, management consulting, and business brokerage. Prior to founding iaso, for over 25 years Cesar was a successful consultant and developer for The Walgreen Co., assisting them in aggressive expansion into Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands through the development and replication of their changing business model. He personally directed the site selection and development efforts of the successful expansion of over 60 Walgreen's new stores in the Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands markets. César was also co-founder of Business Venture Group, an advisory firm assisting companies in business brokerage, mergers & acquisitions, and management consulting. He has also presented seminars on company acquisition for the SBA Administration, Hewitt Associates, Enron Co., and Shell Company. Earlier in his career, Cesar was a professor at the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras campus as teaching Statistics and Operations Management.
César has a master's degree from the University of Puerto Rico in Management Systems Engineering.
Dr. Dimuth Siritunga, PhD,
Chief Science Officer
Dr Siritunga is a professor of Plant Genetics at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). He obtained his B.S. in Biology from Hobart College (NY), M.S. in Agronomy and PhD in Plant Biology from the Ohio State University. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at OSU he joined the faculty of UPR in 2004 and since then has managed a well-funded research program incorporating laboratory-based research with field-based components. His lab at UPR consists of approximately 8-12 personnel. His research projects have received funding from the National Science Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USDA, Rockefeller Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical institute and private entities. As an author of more than 30 peer reviewed articles in the field of plant molecular biology, Dr.. Siritunga has published in both scientific research and academic educational strategies. At UPR, he has also implemented research-oriented laboratory modules in genetics that continue to impact 650+ minority undergraduates per year. With 20+ years of experience in plant molecular biology and plant tissue culture he has broad experience in working with various plant species including important crops such as cassava, cowpea and sweet potato. Prof. Siritunga is an expert in conducting confined field trials with transgenic plants having conducted 40+ trials since 2007 adhering to all USDA regulations.
Scientific Advisory Board
Ken Hughes, Ph.D.
Dr. Hughes was Chemistry and Biochemistry professor at Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a business & technical specialist with broad experience translating complex chemical & biological technologies into Industrial, Consumer & Military commercial products, & building businesses around these products & technologies. He has served as principal investigator on programs supported by DOD, EPA, NSF and USDA. He is developing technologies strategic to the Cannabis Industry, including organic fertilizer production using vermiculture, environmental controls focused on HVAC and air quality. He has numerous patents granted or pending, with others in development related to indoor agriculture. Dr. Hughes received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Purdue University.
John MacKay, Ph.D.
Dr. MacKay earned a B.A. in Chemistry from St. Lawrence University, and Ph.D. from University of Vermont, in Inorganic Chemistry focused on the synthesis of cancer fighting compounds. After teaching at Davidson College, Lyndon State College and University of Vermont, Dr. McKay joined Waters Corporation in 1983 and retired in 2017. His career included many roles in innovative product development. He is widely recognized as scientific expert in sub and supercritical fluid extraction and chromatography in the botanical space, and works to bring synergy from what were seen as disparate technologies together to optimize workflow. Dr. MacKay currently works with with botanical companies to help maximize their total operations based on Six Sigma principles and practices.
Prem Mathi-Maran, Ph.D
Dr. Maran completed his Masters degree in Biology, Master of Philosophy in Toxicology and Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry, and is due to get his Doctor of Science in Phytochemistry. He has 18 years of experience in the phytochemicals Industry and is an expert in deriving the process for herbal extraction system, phytochemicals extraction system, nutraceuticals extraction system, natural food color extraction system, and fruits and vegetable processing system. He has developed and commercialized new patent pending processes. Dr.Prem is the Associate Editor in the Journal of Phytochemistry and Pharmacology.
Inbar Maymon-Pomeranchik, Ph.D.
Dr. Maymon-Pomeranchik is a Scientist and Biotech expert, specializing in Life Science, Biotech, Ag-tech and a particular expertise in global medical cannabis industry. She has more than 15 years of experience in molecular & genetic research at the academy and as an R&D researcher and project leader in the Biotech industry in startup technology corporates. Due to Dr Maymon-Pomeranchik's vast knowledge, she often speaks at global conferences, sharing her knowledge and exposing investors to insights, various opportunities and key industry topics. As an investment consultant, she has been responsible for scientific DD and achieved a major goal by introducing & contributing to the closing of investments in promising companies.


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A federal grand jury in the District of Nebraska has returned two indictments charging four individuals in connection with the operation of various "spas" in Omaha. According to the indictments, all four individuals were involved in operating spas under various names at different locations in Omaha, all of which were alleged fronts for prostitution. The indictments allege that the individuals conducted an interstate prostitution operation by using various facilities of interstate commerce to run their businesses and, in so doing, attracted clients from both Nebraska and other states.
William R. Knox is alleged during certain time periods to have operated a spa business himself or through managers. Knox is alleged during other time periods to have entered business sublease or purchase arrangements with others, under which the sublessor or purchaser paid Knox a weekly fee in exchange for the opportunity to operate the ongoing spa business on the premises.
Tammy L. Schuck is alleged to have operated a spa business under a sublease with Knox and to have thereafter opened and operated two other spas. Tabatha N. Ashburn is alleged to have managed and operated the spas. Christopher J. Tierney is alleged to have provided computer and electronic services for the spas, including setting up a website and creating a computerized record keeping system.
Knox's indictment charges him with inducement of another to travel in interstate commerce with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct (18 U.S.C. § 2422), use of facilities in interstate commerce in aid of racketeering enterprises (18 U.S.C. § 1952), money laundering, and conspiracy. The others indicted are facing similar charges.
Under 18 U.S.C. § 2422, a person can be charged with knowingly coercing or inducing others to travel across state lines in order to engage in prostitution or other illicit sexual acts. This enables the U.S. government to charge an individual with a federal crime without actually identifying those who were coerced or induced. Further, if there is any type of business linked to criminal acts, it can be construed as racketeering. Racketeering and money laundering typically go hand in hand, and as with any business, the paper trail may give away the illicit activity.
The author of this blog is Erich Ferrari, an attorney specializing in Federal Criminal Defense matters. If you have any questions please contact him at 202-280-6370 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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One of the biggest mistakes a company can make when it comes to their accounts receivable is not implementing a credit policy. Establishing a credit policy that everyone must follow ensures that you will not be conducting business with a company with a reputation of never paying on time – or never paying at all. However, a lot of small businesses struggle with where to start when establishing a credit policy in QuickBooks, so we've highlighted all the important tips for creating a credit policy.
Tag Archives: Accounts Receivable for QuickBooks
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How to Manage Accounts Receivable in QuickBooks
In a perfect world, you would never have to invoice a customer and would simply receive cash from the moment they ordered your product. However, business simply does not work like that. Especially in B2B business, it is rare to find a company that is working strictly on point of sale payment, most are giving customers credit and allowing them to pay later. This is where managing accounts receivable in QuickBooks becomes crucial because "paying later" doesn't mean next year or when they feel like it. You need that payment from your customers in a reasonable time. If you manage them right, you can get paid as quickly as possible.
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5 Tips for Managing Quickbooks Accounts Receivable
Although QuickBooks may do a fantastic job at managing your businesses accounting needs, it may not be making your life any easier with accounts receivable. The software isn't made to streamline or automate the accounts receivable process, so sometimes it takes a little extra work. Usually accounts receivable issues stem from poor management, which can be solved with these 4 QuickBooks accounts receivable tips.
Why QuickBooks Accounts Receivable is Failing You
It is pretty clear once you have outgrown a system, but for some reason we have a difficult time expanding our technology. We try to hold onto it as along as possible, even when, in the end, it's hurting our business. You wouldn't try to walk around in shoes a size too small everyday if you had outgrown them, so why not do the same with your QuickBooks accounts receivable. QuickBooks is great for managing financials, but it simply doesn't achieve what you need for your accounts receivable. Luckily, you don't have to toss QuickBooks just to automate your accounts receivable, but simply add an accounts receivable application.
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Improving QuickBooks Collections Strategy
QuickBooks makes accounting a lot easier in businesses but collecting on unpaid invoices tends to be difficult no matter what. There is only so much QuickBooks collections can do before it is on you to contact customers and demand payment. Improving your collections strategy can improve your cash flow and, ultimately, help you grow your business. There a few ways that you can change your strategy in QuickBooks collections.
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Adoption of the Anytime Collect App for Faster QuickBooks Invoice Collection Continues to Grow
(Chardon, OH) August 13, 2015- e2b teknologies, developers of Anytime Collect accounts receivable management software, today announced that the adoption of the new Anytime Collect QuickBooks App continues to gain traction among the QuickBooks user community.
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How To Reduce Bad Debt in QuickBooks & Avoid Write Offs
When you write off bad debt in QuickBooks that means you've tried everything to get paid but for some reason you've given up and you're accepting the fact that you're not going to collect the full amount owed to your company. This can happen for many reasons, but no matter the cause, it can have a huge impact on your business, so it's in your best interest to keep bad debt write offs to a minimum. This of course is easier said than done; in order to reduce the frequency of writing off bad debt in QuickBooks, you need to understand the impact it's having on your business, recognize the warning signs of impending write-offs, have a plan to manage them, and have the tools and strategies in place to put your plans in motion. It's a big job, but this blog can help you get started.
Fire Protection Company Extinguishes Late Invoices With Automated Accounts Receivable for QuickBooks
January 15, 2015, Chardon, OH- e2b teknologies, publishers of Anytime Collect accounts receivable management software, today announced a new customer. The new customer, a provider of fire suppression systems, technology, and services chose Anytime Collect to improve accounts receivable for QuickBooks and replace inefficient manual processes.
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Multi-Company Conglomerate Integrates Accounts Receivable Management Software for QuickBooks
Chardon, Ohio, March 27, 2014-Today e2b teknologies, publisher of Anytime Collect accounts receivable management software, announced a multi-company conglomerate located in the Caribbean has chosen Anytime Collect for integration with their QuickBooks accounting software to be used in multiple companies throughout the corporation. Continue reading


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More than four years after The New York Times published a series of news stories that justified a US invasion of Iraq that has left 3,649 American soldiers dead and 29,950 wounded, the newspaper's editorial board has called for an end to the Iraq war.
The editorial says, "President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have used demagoguery and fear to quell Americans' demands for an end to this war. They say withdrawing will create bloodshed and chaos and encourage terrorists. Actually, all of that has already happened - the result of this unnecessary invasion and the incompetent management of this war. It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit."
In a related article Frank Rich writes that President Bush commuted Scotter Libby's prison sentence because Libby knew too much about the lies told to sell the war in Iraq and that "... cowardice, the character trait so evident in his furtive handling of the Libby commutation, is as important to understanding Mr. Bush's cratered presidency as incompetence, cronyism and hubris."
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Libby commuted because he knew too much! NY Times call for withdrawal!
Posted by Michael Rosen at 9:24 AM
Labels: Bush, cowardice, cronyism, incompetence, iraq, Scotter Libby
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on (one's) (own) terms(redirected from on my terms)
on (one's) (own) terms
In the manner or timeframe that one prefers. He went out on his own terms, retiring at the top of his game after only 10 seasons. Don't just accept this job because it would make your parents happy—you need to act on your own terms for once.
on terms
1. Equal in score; having the same number of points. Despite the home team vastly outperforming their rival, the two remained on terms at the halftime break.
2. Partnered or having an affinity with someone. The stranger was suspected by the superstitious townsfolk of being on terms with the devil.


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When Keala from Keala Jarvis Photography set out to photograph today's soft and artistic bohemian bridal inspiration, she wanted to create a free spirited woodland vibe that would showcase one bride with different looks to give you a few alluring ways to do bohemian. With overflowing beauty, that is what she most certainly accomplished!
By using different floral arrangements created by Debbie Achter of Abandoned Fields Flowers, combined with exquisite makeup by Vivian Johnson MUA and a lovely vintage bridal gown from Maeberry Vintage, this team was able to create a simple, yet oh-so gorgeous shoot as a fantastic source for anyone looking to put together their own soft and artistic bohemian bridal look.
Photographer: Keala Jarvis Photography // Floral Designer: Abandoned Fields | Debbie Achter – firstname.lastname@example.com // Dress Store: Maeberry Vintage // Makeup Artist: Vivian Johnson MUA // Submitted via Two Bright Lights
Thanks for stopping by!


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Treatments for cancer have improved dramatically over recent decades, yet too many people still succumb to this horrible disease.
One of the major challenges for improving treatment is that every patient's cancer is different to every other patient's cancer. Moreover, cancers that return or spread are not exactly the same as the first cancer that was removed by a surgeon.
Cancers change and evolve over time. Patients with "common" cancers benefit from knowledge gained by research into the diagnosis and management of that disease, which helps doctors guide their treatment. But those patients who are unlucky to suffer a "rare" cancer can be confronted with no clear treatment options.
Even people with "common" cancers can be administered "standard" treatments that fail.
Read more in the Newcastle Herald.


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Color(s): Black
A.L.C. Paltrow Top in Black 96% cotton 3% nylon 1% elastan. Made in China. Dry clean only. ALC-WS234. 7CSWT00221. About the designer: After several years of making Hollywood look good, stylist-turned-designer Andrea Lieberman launched her namesake line in 2008. Lieberman graduated from the Parsons School of Design and spent time in Paris and Africa before opening her own shop in New York. Soon after, she found herself styling celebrities and music icons like Gwen Stefani and Jennifer Lopez. In addition to celebrity styling and designing her own collection, Lieberman also regularly consults on several jewelry and apparel lines. Her look mixes a variety of cultural influences, approachable textures, and modern references.


text: I use the monetary version of the neoclassical growth model developed by Aruoba, Waller and Wright (2008) to study the properties of the model when there is exogenous growth. I first consider the planner's problem, then the equilibrium outcome in a monetary economy. I do so by first using proportional bargaining to determine the terms of trade and then consider competitive price taking. I obtain closed form solutions for the balanced growth path of all variables in all cases. I then derive closed form solutions for the transition paths under the assumption of full depreciation and, in the monetary economy, a non-stationary interest rate policy.


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Rate This Movie SYNOPSIS: Fixing mannequins by day and killing women by night, Frank Zito fights his insanity and urge to kill when he meets a young, attractive photographer (Anne) who hires him to provide faceless mannequins for her next exhibit. The closer they become the further into madness Frank slips as he must decide between falling in love with …Read More »
Tag Archives: William Lustig
Film Review: Maniac (1980)
Rate This Movie SYNOPSIS: Although his mother mistreated him and is now dead, Frank (Joe Spinell), a photographer by day, misses her. In a grotesque act of reminiscence, he kills young women at night and puts their scalps on mannequins masquerading around his New York apartment. He befriends a fellow photographer, but soon his day and night lives begin to …Read More »
Film Review: Maniac Cop 2 (1990)
Rate This MovieSYNOPSIS: A supernatural, maniac killer cop teams up with a Times Square serial killer. REVIEW: Sequels should be looked at as movies in their own right – just in case the first was missed and how they function as follow ups to the original. With horror/thrillers there are countless examples of sequels missing the freshness of the first …Read More »
Book Review: Hidden Horror – Editor Aaron Christensen
Movie reference books are a horror fan's gold. Most every horror fan fills their book shelves with tome after tome of gems about Hammer Films, Universal Monsters, Vampire Films, Zombie Movies. There are books on every topic, sub-genre and fan favorite out there. HIDDEN HORROR edited by author Dr. AC is an excellent, entertaining, intimate addition to the monster movie …Read More »
Podcast: The Official HorrorNews.Net Podcast – Eps 08
It's all about Maniac: Joe Spinell versus Elisha Wood as co-hosts Doc Rotten, Dave Dreher, Santos (The Black Saint) Ellin Jr., Thomas Mariani and Vixen discuss the William Lustig 1980 classic and the fascinating new remake from Franck Khalfoun. Then Dave Dreher surprises the entire cast by introducing special effects legend Tom Savini as special guest host to discuss secrets and stories behind …Read More »


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Companies announced for iF Platform
Stopgap are really excited to announce the final companies and artists who have been chosen to perform as part of the iF Platform at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2015
The iF Platform (Integrated Fringe) is a unique opportunity for companies and artists producing work with disabled and non disabled artists. It will showcase the best integrated work from the UK at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 23 – 30 August 2015 to coincide with the British Council Showcase.
Joining Stopgap performing Artificial Things in Edinburgh next year will be:
Jo Bannon - Alba
Alba is about paleness, blending in and standing out. Combining elements of contemporary opera, blinding light, choral sound, proximity, invisibility and movement to create a visual poem that explores the multiple narratives we inherit, construct and acquire in relation to our own identity.
Alba explores the stories we tell of ourselves and the stories told about us. The myths we inherit and the ones we embody, the identities we cannot shake off and so instead perform.
Marc Brew Company – For Now I Am
An intimate, new dance solo Stripped back - for the first time since his car accident in 1997 - Brew will create a work that engages directly with his body as it is now - investigating and exposing his changed form. Exploring themes of what it is to be broken, reborn, purified, to reconcile being in the world in an entirely new way, to build a dialogue with a body transformed. Brew confronts his most essential aspects, in this distilled form.
Rowan James – Until I speak
Rowan James is a hip-hop and punk inspired performance poet. This is a show about labels, self identity and perception with a focus on spoken word with the aid of beat boxer to bring the content and lyricism to life. Focusing on the lack of aspirations within society around learning difficulties and disabilities. It considers how we as society judge an individual's worth and how society's views and behaviour can impact an individual, self belief and identity. The show aims to question how we as a society can acknowledge the inspirational qualities of people with learning difficulties and disabilities.
Tourette's Hero – Backstage in Biscuit Land
Jess Thom has Tourette's Syndrome, a neurological condition that makes her say 'biscuit' 16,000 times a day. Frank, funny and fearless; combining storytelling, comedy and puppetry. With the promise that no two shows are ever the same, it offers an intimate, life-enhancing glimpse into Jess's unique perspective on life laughter and lamp-posts and tells a powerful story about the nature of theatre itself.
The iF platform is part of a Strategic Touring partnership led by Stopgap Dance Company and The Point. Supported by Embrace Arts, University of Bedfordshire and Zinc Arts. Its aim is to raise the profile of Integrated work.


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Today James talks to Anthony Gucciardi of NaturalSociety.com about a pair of recent articles. The first, "4 Ways to Actually Make Your New Year's Resolution Work," outlines why our resolutions often fail, and how to make sure they work. The second, "Anthony Gucciardi Donates 20,000 Meals to US Food Banks," challenges other alt media producers, as well as the general public, to start changing the world for the better through giving. Will James take up the challenge?
The EyeOpener Report- Changing the World for the Better Through Giving
January 28, 2015 1 Comment|
It all starts with you and your health!
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Stop the Madness
I once shot and killed a man.
It was in the late '80s, during a women's gun safety program called "Lady Beware," offered by local law enforcement officers. While the course included training as to how to clean, hold and fire our weapons, the most impactful part of the program was the series of situations through which we were paced, armed with our unloaded weapons.
The first setting was described as our home's backyard shed. The training officer shined a light on an individual standing in the dark room, with his back turned to us.
"You hear a noise in your backyard, step outside and this is what you see. Go."
I held up my gun, and ask the subject who he was and what he was doing.
He turned around, pulled his gun and shot me.
Just like that, I was "dead."
The officer advised me that when he had shined the light on the subject, he had aimed it directly toward the gun tucked in the waist of the would-be burglar's pants. But I hadn't seen it.
And so, a bit shaken by what would have been a fatal error in judgment, I followed him to the next scenario.
The scene was an isolated street setting, late at night. I came upon a rather large man, dressed in somewhat tattered clothing. As he moved closer and closer into my personal space, he was nonresponsive to my inquiries as to what he wanted.
Then he reached for something in his pocket.
My heart began beating faster and my body surged with adrenaline as I envisioned that he was reaching for a gun. Without even thinking, with my gun in hand, I pulled the trigger.
And just like that, he was "dead."
The officer advised me that I had just shot a deaf, mute man, a gentle giant, who was reaching for his paper and pen so he could communicate with me. He was unarmed.
I made a decision, in a split second, driven in part by intuition and in part by primal fear. It was a combination that led to the death of an innocent man.
There's a lot to be said for the lessons learned in those training sessions.
Every day in America, decisions are made in an instant that can shatter lives forever. Often times, they're not driven by malice or hatred. They're driven by fear.
I will never know what it's like to be black in a nation in which, despite numerous claims to the contrary, there remains an undercurrent of bigotry. We see it in small towns and large cities, in the workforce, in neighborhoods, in the community at large. Despite claims of tolerance and acceptance, just watch and you'll notice the telltale signs. You'll see a white woman discretely pull her purse a little closer to her chest as she is about to pass a black man on the street. It's quite evident when a group of black teens are judiciously scrutinized as they enter and wander through a store. And it's not uncommon for a black driver in a predominantly white neighborhood to draw undue attention.
Every day, countless black mothers and fathers send their children off to school, or out to play in their neighborhoods, secretly praying that today will not be the day that their children are placed in harm's way.
They teach their children how to respond in the event they find themselves in volatile situations–lessons they are expected to carry into their adulthood. Sadly, especially in many impoverished neighborhoods, with neither the consent nor knowledge of parents, guns have become an accepted and expected part of daily life, with an ever-growing "kill or be killed" mentality. This isn't living. It's existing on the edge.
Meanwhile, every time law enforcement officers prepare for their shifts, their spouses quietly worry if today will be the day that something goes horribly wrong.
They wonder if it will be the last time they see their loved ones, if it will be the day that their children will lose their father or mother to senseless and unnecessary violence. It's a somber reality that has escalated with the countless killings, senseless acts of violence, and the broadening perceptions of those who judge the behaviors and professions of all law enforcement officers based on the actions of few.
It's a disturbing irony that for those who are sworn to protect and serve, there has never been a time during which it has been less safe to be a law enforcement officer.
And that's not acceptable.
Because here's the thing: just as the blacks are often scared when approached by the law enforcement officers, the officers are equally scared.
They're not supposed to be. The officers are trained to remain calm, to think before reacting, to disarm situations with the power of persuasion.
They're tough. They're brave. They're heroic.
But yes, they're scared.
Because every time they approach a subject, they don't know what to expect. Is a hand reaching for a wallet going to return with a gun? Is a response to a brawl going to turn into a barrage of bullets?
As humans, we all share the same fears. Fear of the unknown. Fear of what could happen if we react too quickly. Or not quickly enough.
We are a nation dying of fear. One. Person. At. A. Time.
And it's got to stop.
But how?
We must dispel the notions that many blacks are out to kill cops, and many cops are out to kill blacks, which unintentionally are becoming self-perpetuating perceptions and prophecies.
I believe that the overwhelming majority of law enforcement officers are good people with good intentions, who wake up each morning, head to work, and do their best to protect and serve. It's a noble, honorable profession.
And I believe that the vast majority of the black community includes good people with good intentions, who wake up each morning, head to school or to work, and do their best to live decent lives with their families.
But it's unfortunate that even with good people, bad things can happen.
The decisions one must make in a millisecond, in a moment of fear, do not define who that person is or what he or she believes. But in less than the time it takes to blink one's eyes, lives will change.
Black lives matter.
Blue lives matter.
Their families' lives matter.
They're not mutually exclusive choices.
But the bottom line is that when law enforcement officers respond to a situation, they're doing their jobs. And regardless of one's race or age or socioeconomic status, regardless of their innocence or guilt, when individuals are being asked by officers to raise their hands, to sit, to kneel, it's imperative that they comply. In that moment, the officers are just as apprehensive as the individuals being addressed. And all it takes is one split-second bad decision by any of those involved to turn what could be an appropriate resolution into a deadly situation.
Nobody wants that.
It's time to stop the madness.
Topics including racial tension, hate crimes and environmental issues will be among the topics addressed by artists in the "Stop the Madness: Artists Voices. Critical Conversations." exhibit premiering in the CECA Gallery in Cutting Edge Theater, November 18 to December 23, 2106. Presented by the East St. Tammany Cultural Economy Coalition.
The artist statements regarding their works are available for download here: Stop the Madness artists' statements.


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Multicultural Student Services (MSS) is committed to inclusive excellence to enhance equity, diversity and inclusivity.
We strengthen university enrollment by supporting the retention and graduation of African American, American Indian, Asian and Latino students.
• Academic Support
• Career Support
• Financial Support
• Intercultural Development
• Leadership Development
• Multicultural Recruitment
• Stoutward Bound Learning and Living Community
• SWAG (Students With A Goal) Living Community
Learn more about our Services!


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Scottsdale Medical Technologies was created in May 2003 and has successfully grown to include a full staff; including, several network/technical support personnel, sales consultants, trainers for new product implementation and ongoing support.
We strive to be your local business partner, to help enhance the way physicians typically deliver care by integrating clinical, financial and administrative data, and workflow.
We have helped several hundred local practices successfully interface new products with various existing hardware and software or they have migrated to a fully integrated product. We offer state-of-the-art, HIPAA compliant product filled with unique features and functionality. We offer a cost effective approach to help physicians grow their practices and/or clinics and increase revenue and greatly improve patient care.
Our Mission Statement is Delivering the Promise of Connected Healthcare.
What does this mean? Implementation of a fully integrated system that incorporates your workflow, is customizable, and allows your staff to provide patient care with ease of operation.


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Advisory Board Member Profile 2017
Edward Coates
Supremia International
Supply Chain Director
Areas of Expertise
Customer-Focused Innovation; Principles of Customer Relationship Building; Customer Experience Analytics
Mr. Coates has the unique background of working in supply chain and manufacturing for the past 14 years while holding both a Masters and Bachelors in Industrial Design. He is currently the Supply Chain Director for Supremia International, one of the leading organizations supplying gift with purchase items for the largest sprits and cosmetic companies. Mr. Coates aligned his work experience with his MBA in 2012. He also earned his Master of Business Innovation from the Chicago Institute of Technology where he mentored under Six Sigma Master Black Belt and world renowned innovation author Praveen Gupta. Along with his current job, Mr. Coates has taught Business Innovation and Creativity in the MBA program for Lebanon Valley College and has a small consulting company that focuses on Google Analytics to help drive revenue streams for companies. He believes that innovation is a repeatable process that when taught, anyone can create an "A-ha!" moment. Mr. Coates has three children; AJ(12), Olivia(10), and Trevor(10). He enjoys spending time serving in his fellowship and giving back to the community.