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Connect Your Learning Platform to Your CRM with Jack Arturo's WP Fusion
December 29, 2016 May 11, 2018 / Episodes / By Chris Badgett
In today's LMScast Chris Badgett of codeBOX discusses how to connect your learning platform to your CRM with Jack Arturo's WP Fusion. You'll also learn about the benefits of doing business as a micro, multinational, digital nomad.
Jack Arturo has been a web developer for five years. He created WP Fusion when he saw a need to simplify the process of interconnecting WordPress to CRMs and other marketing automation tools for his clients. Jack's WP Fusion works with LifterLMS to send your user data to your CRM. That includes contact information and tags that you can use to enhance your user's experience with your courses, services, and other products.
Unlike most competitors, WP Fusion is an open source solution that you purchase one time, and it's yours. The only recurring cost is for support and updates at three pricing levels based on your usage and needs, but there's no commitment for that. It's also more optimized, lightweight, scalable, and user-intuitive than most.
Basically when a user creates an account, WP Fusion can apply various tags that prompt your system tools – the CRM, the LMS, the shopping cart, automated emails, and forms – to take integrated actions. It also bridges a lot of WordPress plugins in innovative ways and provides extensive reporting capabilities. Plus it's possible to dynamically add on new capabilities like special coupons and software integrations.
Jack's vision is to help systems become more standardized. Being part of the digital nomad community gives him access to an organic network where people are working together on advancing technologies, tools, and methods, like optimizing existing PHP using JavaScript and REST APIs to integrate more tools and resources together. These non-hierarchical transient groups are opening up the way global business is done, solving the problems of the future, and keeping up with the rate of change through relationships and mobility.
We're living in interesting times. The economy is changing, as is the way we work, and that rate of change is accelerating. If you're willing to learn and evolve with it, you'll be doing business in a more exciting and scalable way than has ever been possible before.
Chris: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of LMScast. My name is Chris Badgett, and today I'm joined by Jack Arturo, creator of WP Fusion, and we're going to get into what that does and how it can help you as an online course creator or digital entrepreneur. And we're also going to talk a little bit about the digital nomad lifestyle. Jack, thanks for coming on the show.
Jack: Yeah, thank you.
Chris: Where are you? Where are you coming at us from today.
Jack: I'm in Lima, Peru. It's finally summer here. We've got the inverse weather of the Northern Hemisphere. Pretty great today. I'm liking it right now. In about three months when it gets foggy again I think I'm going to head up to Europe as it starts to get warmer, but we can talk about the nomadic part of my life at the end of the call. Yeah, it's a nice place to be. There's actually a lot of people working in tech here. I've got a few friends from Canada who do major, like from scratch systems for airlines and banks and stuff like that because you can get a very talented angular JS or PHP developer down here for much cheaper than you could in the states. Believe it or not there's actually kind of a cool programmer community down here. Yeah, it's a cool place to be.
Chris: That's awesome. That's awesome. Jack is the creator of WP Fusion. I first came across Jack at LifterLMS because we created a learning management software that makes it easy to create online courses, but a lot of times people want to get those contacts and get some data over to a CRM. We have a MailChimp integration, we have a ConvertKit integration, but there's so many different ones out there, like for example there's Infusion Soft, there's Drip, there's Active Campaign, which we actually use ourselves and love as our personal favorite CRM of choice, and then there's also Ontraport, and what jack was able to do at WP Fusion is made it so that you could connect your LifterLMS Users and send that data over to those CRMs.
In the past we've used some kind of hacky systems where we do these Zapiers and things like that, but when I came across your product at WP Fusion, I was just blown away by how clear the thinking was and how it's really, what it does to connect WordPress to different services and things. It was really just amazing and I think you really nailed it on the market need there.
Jack: Thanks, yeah. Sorry, go ahead.
Chris: Just tell us, like where did this whole idea for WP Fusion come from?
Jack: I've been a web developer about five years, and doing a lot of client sites. They get more and more complex and started doing a lot of API work, and I ended up doing a lot of sales sites where we'd be using Infused Woo, we'd be using the Gravity Forms Infusionsoft add-on and then we'd be writing a ton of custom code connecting advanced custom fields over to Fusion Soft and every single time it was reinventing the wheel, and also you might need four different plugins to connect the stuff you need on our site to this one system. You're doing a lot of duplication there and you don't know how well they're going to be supported or maintained, and so what it originally started as, was we needed a system to connect User Pro to Infusionsoft which was just impossible at the time, just to have a new user register and make a contact record. There's nobody that can do that.
There's nothing out there. I was like, "All right, well well start with that," and then somebody's like, "Well, if you do user pro can you do Ultimate Member." Yeah, okay. "Could you throw in a little bit to make LearnDash apply tags when this happens?" From the beginning, we started thinking like there's a lot of different CRM solutions out there, and depending on the size of the business and how comfortable you are, and what you're looking for there's no perfect one, but they all basically revolve around, you've got a contact, and that's got some data, you know, some fields that are information, and then you're segmenting your contacts with tags. If you just boil it down to that, you can pretty much do anything you want in your CRMs. There's some other systems out there similar to ours that are more like all-in-one membership systems where you set up membership levels and restrictions and that sort of thing. We wanted to keep it really simple.
Basically once you connect your WordPress site to whichever CRM using data diffusion, all of your WordPress contacts get mashed up with CRM contacts, and there's a link, and the tags flow back and forth between them. If a WordPress user gets a tag applied by enrolling in a Lifter course, then that tag goes up to the CRM. Instead of trying to create … a heavy overblown interface in WordPress, now you've got all the power of something like Active Campaign, where you can say, "If this customer used a coupon to enroll in the course before September, and then he finished the course two weeks later, and referred a friend, send him another coupon." Active Campaign's all ready built that. They've put millions into that. I think we've come up with a very lightweight, elegant solution for letting you just take that WordPress data and hook it into the awesome power of those marketing automation tools.
Chris: That's awesome. It's like a really focused Zapier is one way I think about it. How are you different from Zapier?
Jack: Well Zapier just kills me. I actually use it a little bit myself. If I was rich I would use it for everything because it's fun connecting stuff together. Basically, my whole career has been on WordPress and I'm a big open source person. I think code should be free to, not, I mean, WP Fusion is free. When you purchase it you're purchasing support and updates, and I really believe its important for customers to be able to see what they're buying, to understand the effort and qualities we put into it, and there's no commitment. You don't have to pay us every month or we cut you off. Like you know, with Infusionsoft or something like that.
Those guys aren't trying to be WordPress, so that's fine, but if you're going to run it on WordPress, I think that you should stick to the principles of WordPress. Zapier is awesome, but if I was going to automate my life the way I would like to with Zapier, then I'm going to end up paying hundreds of dollars a month. I wish I had thought of that first, I wouldn't be here right now. Also, we had a lot of benefits too because Zapier is … It's not really, fully tied into anything. You can do some tricks to get it to notice when WooCommerce makes an order. It's kind of sitting between two systems and it's watching one and then going, "Oh, hey something happened." And letting the other one know. Whereas we're a lot more optimized, lightweight, and I think user-intuitive, because when you create your LifterLMS course, you can say, "When the user begins the course, apply these tags. When the user clicks the complete button, apply these tags." It's just done in one go. There's, I don't think even Zapier does Lifter, do they?
Chris: They don't.
Jack: Yeah.
Jack: A lot of things you just couldn't. We're able to actually hook into your code, and where your code says, "This guy just completed a course." Then WP Fusion's like, "Okay, that happened. Let's let Infusion Soft know." It's just more integrated, and I think more streamlined system, and easier to understand too for other people who want to build on top of it later.
Chris: That's awesome. Well tell us a little bit about WuCommerce as an example. A lot of people who are listening to this, some of them don't start with courses. They may all ready have products or services that they're selling with WuCommerce, and then they want to add courses later. We have a WuCommerce integration for that, but if you're using WuCommerce as your store, how does that work in terms of connecting to the CRMs?
Jack: Yeah. We actually, we didn't really think of this at the beginning, but because all of our integrations are tied together through these tags, so for example our WuCommerce subscriptions integration. You can apply a tag when the subscription begins, but you can also have it removed if the subscription fails to pay, or expires, or whatever. With our Lifter integration you can enroll somebody in a course based on a tag. Right there without any extra work you can just say, "Apply my cool course tag." As soon as WuCommerce applies that tag through their diffusion, the user gets enrolled in the Lifter course. If the subscription expires, the user is removed.
Also, because the tags are getting sent to your Crm as well you can send that automated email a week before or something like that. "Your payment is a week overdue, click here to update it." That kind of thing. There's a lot, like we have Gravity Forms integration so you can submit a form like a survey and then apply a tag at the end of the survey saying, "Survey completed." Then have a page on your site with a special coupon that only shows if you completed the survey. With some creativity, it's not only a connection between WordPress and the CRM, but it even can bridge a lot of these different WordPress plugins, and make them interact in ways that maybe the original authors didn't think of. Some fun possibilities there, yeah.
Chris: That's really cool. The next question I'm going to ask you is about your pricing and the addons. I'm in the exact same boat, where we have single site or more money for a five site license. We have all these addons, and even though I know in my head how everything works and what the offer is and you can get this package, or you can get this package. Sometimes people need a little bit of education around what the addons are, what they do, or what in general are they. How does the pricing work, how does the licensing work.
Jack: Sure yeah.
Chris: Can you walk me through, it looks like you have the three pricing levels, you have personal, plus, and professional. With plus and professional you get four pro addons, and then in your addons there you've got Abandoned Cart Tracking, E-Commerce Tracking, Media Tools, Birthday Tools. Help the first time person who's never heard of you before understand your pricing and the offer there.
Jack: Sure, basically the price … We just started off with personal and professional. I wanted to keep it really simple. I'm a big fan of easy digit downloads and Affiliate WP, and I think their model works well, so I just copied what they did. You pay, it's no automatic or recurring billing. At the end of the year you'll get an email. If you wish to renew your licence you get a 30% discount and then you continue to have free support and automatic updates. Obviously we recommend you to renew because WordPress updates, WuCommerce updates, something might break, and if you have an active licence you're guaranteed to get the fixes right away. It's free software. Once you buy it you own it, and we can't cut it off or anything like that. We had a ton of people about six months ago saying, "Well I really would like it, but you don't do what Infuse Do does, which is sending e-commerce data."
I started thinking about what I really wanted to focus on is users, tracking users, segmenting users, and contacts. If we start to add in, and especially since we were expanding as new CRMs, Infusionsoft has a very complex and very different e-commerce system. Active Campaign has a interesting one, but quite different, and the other CRMs don't really have one. We started thinking about, well we don't want to include this massive feature if three quarters of our customers aren't going to use it, and it's going to take a while to develop. So that's what we launched with the e-commerce add-on. With our basic plugin, if you purchase, if a customer purchases in WuCommerce, the tag gets applied, the contact record gets created, but your sales data is still being run in WuCommerce, and that's how I do it myself.
I think WuCommerce does a great job of reporting and that kind of stuff. Some people in enterprise situations they need to get all those sales also into Infusion Soft so they can assign sales reps and that kind of thing. With or e-commerce addon it actually creates the products in Infusion Soft based on the WuCommerce products. It creates an order record. It applies the products ordered, and then it logs the order to the customer's record. You can use Infusion Soft's reporting tools. The other addons grew out of that. It was things that customers asked for.
Chris: Like cart abandonment.
Jack: Yeah, cart abandon tracking. It's something that if it's running it will slow down your checkout a little bit, because of course we have to notice when they start checking out, and then we have to do something else when they start checking out. Even if it only adds two thirds of a second to somebody's checkout, I wouldn't want to push that on all our customers if only a small subset of them are going to use it. Yeah, and it basically, the way WP Fusion without the addons works, if you're running Gravity Forms, our Gravity Forms options show up. If you're not running Gravity Forms that whole part of the plug-in is just not there.
You can really be running, it's really very fast and lightweight. It depends on how many things you're integrating with, and anything that's not directly fitting into that spider's web of plug-ins and then back out to CRMs, we decided to do as addons. We get to do experimental things too. The birthday coupons was a customer who just really wanted to try that out, and we're like, "Oh, yeah sure why not." There's only a few people using it, but it's kind of cool. It's out there if you like it.
Chris: What's the media tools?
Jack: Media tools was fun actually. I don't think anybody else is really doing this. For example, if you have a, you could have a video in one of your lessons, like an uploaded video, either in an MP4 or a Vimeo video, and when you click on the video we add some new options there that say, "Apply tag when the user begins watching the video. When they reach a certain time-code, and when they reach the end of the video." For example, with our course progression, you have your own built-in one, but say, for example, you wanted to use tags to manage course progression, you could say the user has to begin watching the video and make it at least two thirds of the way through, or else when he clicks on the next course it's going to send them back to there to finish the video.
Chris: That's very cool.
Jack: Yeah, even outside of you learning. I'm doing another big site right now where we're doing a huge training platform for a large company, and employees get bonuses by watching replays of their training seminars in video form.
Chris: Oh that's really cool, incentivized, but there's a way to actually track that, that's cool.
Jack: Yeah, and they don't know we're tracking it.
Chris: It's a surprise.
Jack: It's kind of a mystery thing, yeah. It's like they get awards and bonuses for being the most engaged and I don't remember what the business terminology is for all that stuff. We can see which employees are actually watching the replays after they attend the seminar. At the end of the month, because we have all the tags there, we can see if this group of employees has watched five of them they get this, if this group has watched two they get this, and if this guy didn't watch any maybe we'll send him an email, and we'll also get a task for a supervisor to follow up and be like, "Get on the ball there." I don't get too much into the marketing automation side of it, just because it's so overwhelming, but I've seen some amazing stuff done by people who know what they're doing in that area.
Chris: That's really awesome. For us, we use Active Campaign as our main CRM. For LifterLMS, which is a software product, the number one thing that where people are before they buy LifterLMS is our demo course. I'm going to be setting up WP Fusion on there to get our users into Active Campaign. I have it set up in a really hacky way through Zapier, but now that you're on the scene I can't wait to play with it in detail and try some of these more advanced, messing around with the add-ons and stuff.
Jack: Yeah, I get a kick out of pitching in and helping you out with that. We could do a little like, when the video button gets clicked we could have a bubble pop up and say, "Tag applied." Something you know?
Chris: Okay, yeah.
Jack: A little interactivity just to get them a sense of where the data is flowing out. That kind of stuff, whatever. I like playing with that kind of stuff.
Chris: That's really cool.
Jack: Let me know, that'll be fun.
Chris: Yeah, I'm super excited to go deeper with WP Fusion. You're just hitting such a big need for people and doing it in an intuitive way.
Jack: Yeah, I'm glad we found you guys too, because I've done so many LearnDash sites over the years, and it works, but I train clients on it, and it's like you have to explain in all this course progression, and then the points and the quizzes. The quiz is kind of a different plugin that got shoved in their later, and from a developer standpoint it's not much fun, and like I was saying to you, I got this Brazilian TV show that we're setting up a big Lifter site on, and I showed it to them. Even just the fact that it's a little more colorful or something like that. They're like, "Yeah, okay we get this, so this is price, right? We put our stuff in here?" I was like, "Yeah, that's pretty much it, and I've got a little custom field here for your video, and oh, you're good to go." I've been made a convert for sure. It's finally nice to see an alternative.
Chris: That's awesome. I appreciate that. Thanks for saying that. Well let's close it out and just talk about something that's near and dear to both of us, and the listener, perhaps, which is the whole digital nomad thing. I just got off of seven months on the road with my family living out of a travel trailer, visiting national parks in the US, but also running my business from the road. I was just down in Mexico for a conference with some other WordPress business folks, who do similar things. Just because you have that freedom to be location independent it doesn't mean you always are living out of a backpack on a plane and in a hotel. It sounds like you've been in Peru, or Lima for a bit. You move around, but it's not like you're traveling every single day. Tell us about your digital nomadism.
Jack: Yeah, I'm easing into it. I've been freelancing on and off. I haven't really had a real job so I've been doing websites probably since I was like 15 …they weren't very good back then. Yeah, but still I work part time as a contractor with real companies, you know you have that security and that kind of thing. Probably four years ago my wife and I were like, you know, we just want to go somewhere for six months. Before we just get sucked into people who never leave this town again, and at least try that. We love where we were, but we wanted to at least see something completely different. It was almost literally a dart on a board. It landed on Peru, and ended up here, and actually kind of hated it the first three months, but we realized I wasn't making quite as much money, but I had my laptop. I was helping a woman publish her e-book and do print on demand stuff, and it all pretty much worked. She thought it was cool that I was traveling.
I thought clients would be like, you know wanting me in the boardroom. I talked to her every morning, and she'd be asking, "Where'd you go yesterday? What'd you see over the weekend? How was Machu Picchu?" It almost made the, in becoming less professional made everybody have more fun, which I was surprised at. Then, it kind of grew from there. I'm now, like, my skills and rates are going nuts, so I tend to take on clients who are doing interesting projects. Like I was saying earlier I've now started to get involved with these sort of digital nomad groups. I was surprised that they have these kind of co-labs, or co-working houses.
It's kind of like a hacker house, but a little more classy. Yeah, you can live like on a beach in Bali. It's like 140-200 bucks a month. Private rooms, very clean, and with say 60 other designers, developers, marketers. There's a chef there that caters everything. Free surfing lessons, yoga classes, a pool in the middle, very nice, and then they're in a shared office space. A lot of people I've met who are doing this say it's actually better than being in a fixed environment, because you might roll in and meet somebody with a great app idea, as rare as those are, but maybe stuff just clicks over a drink. Then great things happen.
I've met a few people on this cruise I took. A nomad cruise, we took from Cartegena to Lisbon, and they were just sitting … We had like a hack-a-thon to develop four prototype businesses in 48 hours. They were kind of silly, but I was amazed at what a group of strangers who are all kind of independently minded and just willing to get out of their comfort zones could come up with on a boat with a lot of alcohol and laptops and 48 hours. We had a, what was Michael's, about phoning your mom? One guy had a, he created a app within a day that on your mother's birthday it would start yelling at you, "Phone your mother! Phone your mother!"
Chris: That's good, I could use that actually.
Jack: Yeah, you could see, even a 99 cents sale. I got really inspired by that, and I started thinking maybe next year I might, I like having an apartment, but it might almost be fun to do four weeks here, four weeks there, and soak in some ideas and meet some people with mentalities and different cultures and backgrounds and stuff like that. I'm a real programmer type guy and if I could meet a great marketer, who knows what would happen, or designer. It's an exciting new frontier. A lot of people don't really understand it. Some governments are actually … I heard that the-
Chris: No, like how do you tax that? Is that what you're-
Jack: Yeah, well and actually the other great thing is as long as I spent less than 30 days a year in the states I get a huge tax deduction.
Chris: Are you supposed to do Peruvian taxes or something?
Jack: No, because my bank accounts are all in the states, but if I don't reside there for any more than 30 days you get a foreign-earned income tax deduction.
Chris: Then digital products are, I don't know. I'm going to go off my expertise and I don't know it's kind of confusing.
Jack: Exactly, so I have customers in 160 countries. That actually makes that a lot easier. Even I have nomad friends in Europe now who are relocating their businesses to Estonia. Talk about Estonia you can get your, they will make you a electronic resident of Estonia over the internet and create your bank account, your business licence, and you get this, I've even seen some super fancy bio-metric card you just hold up to your computer and it certifies you for doing your banking activity.
Chris: Okay.
Jack: They want entrepreneurs and creative types to come to Estonia, establish their residency and business there, and the tax rates are super low. I think it's Malaysia now that's just started offering seven year visas for entrepreneur types, if you want to come there and do that kind of co-working thing or something and you like it and you want to stay for a few years they're fine with that. You can't work legally, but they're realizing a lot of people are working for European and North American companies and spending that money in the local currency. It's kind of cool to see some countries are starting to make allowances for that, or being more welcome to people like that. It's a cool, evolving scene. It's an interesting time to be in it for sure.
Chris: Yeah, Dan Andrews from the Tropical MBA Podcast, he calls that the rise of the micro-multinational.
Chris: I don't know if he's, he was going to write a book about it. Dan if you're listening I'm of just what happened with the book. Yeah, so interesting times, and when we work in this space, whether you're a software creator, a marketer, you're an expert and you're creating digital products like online courses or e-books or whatever, it may feel like the party's over, but in reality I think this is just the beginning. The economy is changing rapidly, more and more people are coming online, there's parts of the world that are just now coming online. They're skipping the whole desktop thing and going straight to mobile. It's a really exciting time, and the tools have never been more powerful.
Jack: With the web technologies now too, especially because we're moving towards so many open APIs and stuff like that, it's no longer, "I'm an Oracle guy and you're a Microsoft guy." It's like there may be ten of us with odd little web services sitting at one of these co-working retreats, but if we've all got the same REST API, we can just make those work together in ways, or even let our customers blend our tiny components however they like. I guess that's what we're trying to do with WP Fusion in a way, is like for every plugin we give you a little bit of power, and then you can do what you like with it, and I think that that's, yeah I think that's a … I don't want to get too philosophical. But you could go into small, good systems that all talk to each other in effective ways, that would be a good future to move into.
Chris: That's awesome. Well, let me ask you a question related to that for the non-technical person out there …
Jack: I get a little technical sometimes, yeah.
Chris: No, it's okay, but we hear about it in the WordPress community, or whatever, about the rest API, and moving all to JavaScript. What does that mean for the layman? How does that open up the opportunity?
Jack: I've got to actually start studying again. That stuff's confusing. It is exciting because, I mean, PHP is actually, PHP is the language WordPress is written in, and it's an old system. It's been optimized a lot, but you can't really change the groundwork there. You get some limitations like when you go on Facebook, you never really reload a page. Your notifications slide in, and everything slides in, so that's your JavaScript layer. Facebook is still built on PHP. PHP's doing the like, it's figuring out who your friends are and what pictures you want to see. On top of that, they have pretty shiny layer that makes it cool and hip. What WordPress is doing right now is it's not getting rid of that powerful under-layer, but it's just opening it up so that if you want to sit your shiny, pretty layer on top of it you can. I've seen some interesting stuff done with it.
Like you theoretically, when all these things come together you could build a Facebook copy on top of WordPress and have it run just as well. That's, I think, where they're really focused. Also where we're moving into mobile applications and things like that your website could behave just like an app. No real reloading, everything available all the time. I don't fully understand it and it scares me a little bit, but I do think it's the right direction. It's also, well, in layman terms, when you click on a page in a WordPress site, the whole page gets thrown away, and the server churns up and figures out what the next one's going to be, and then it gives it to you. The way things are moving now with these new technologies is if you like your friends photo, just the like button changes. Instead of rebuilding all the stuff, so we're saving on electricity, we're saving on data storage space, and it makes it more modular and easier to understand, and easy to stand upon later too. Efficiency, yeah.
Chris: That's awesome.
Jack: Yeah, it's exciting and terrifying for me.
Chris: Yeah well I mean the rate of change is accelerating. That's one of the reasons why I think, like you mentioned in the digital nomad community, when you're in these networks of other people, in the future, going forward having good relationships and not trying to do it solo, or just having a network is going to become even more important to solve the problems of the future and to keep up with the rate of change, and all that sort of thing.
Jack: Yeah, and I like that because it's not … I grew up thinking you have to be a businessman, wear a suit, and go to official meetings and contracts and stuff, but you could meet a guy who's a really good interface designer when it comes to pet websites, or something like that, and have a good time. Two years later you happen to get a, I don't know, government contract for a animal rescue. You're like, "Hey, yeah, how are you doing man?" There's this cool, like organic network of we all have our interests and our focus and our strengths. It's more organic.
There's no, "I'm the boss, this is the project, you guys do it." It's more like, "I've got an opportunity, but I can't do it on my own and I know some people. I'll bring together a team, make it happen, and the team disperses." I think even that's more efficient in a way too, because you've got interested people doing what they want to do instead of a rigid hierarchy of people being told what to do.
Chris: Absolutely, and if you haven't read the book-
Jack: I like the future, I'm optimistic about the future all the time.
Chris: If you're listen to this, and you haven't read the book Rework yet, go ahead and check that out. It's a good book about remote teams.
Chris: Well, last question, what is the future for WP Fusion? Like where are you going? What's your strategy? What can people expect down the road?
Jack: I'm not really sure. We've gotten to the point now where it works really well. I got really into making it faster a couple of months ago, and just … Well I won't even begin to talk about that. It was complicated and I'm happy with the way that it turned out. Now really, it's just somebody will email and say, "I'm interested in this." Somebody emailed this morning and said, "I'd like to buy it, but I need it to work with MemberPress." So we did MemberPress. Because of the way it's written we could add a thousand integrations and the download size would be a little bit bigger, but it doesn't affect your site performance at all. Eventually I'd hope, I'm even talking to some other businesses right now. I'm hoping that this might become a standardized framework for communicating with these CRMs, because the CRM industry is expanding.
Chris: They're all different. There's no standard, right?
Jack: Yeah, there's no real standard, but what you want for the most part is pretty much the same. WordPress has just made an announcement. They want to get 51% market share of all new websites in the next ten years or something like that.
Chris: They're currently at like 27% or something.
Jack: Yeah, so it's ambitious, but they've got a dedicated team called the 51 Team.
Chris: Okay, sounds like WordPress.
Jack: WordPress, I think they could do it, is pushing in that direction. CRM is market, or like total sales, and that kind of thing year over year is growing 20-25%. I think they're great. When I first saw Infusion Soft I was like, "Why would you need this?" Now that I see how, if you're running a huge business you can't have a one-on-one relationship necessarily with a customer, but if you don't let a customer feel taken care of you lose them. By creating these rules and automations, you can make sure that you get notified exactly right before that customer needs you. You can still have that close, personal relationship, but not be driven insane by it.
I think with WordPress growing, and CRMs growing, one day if we could become a standardized framework so that there doesn't have to be this fragmented ecosystem of different people trying to connect different things in different ways. If you created a new CRM and wanted to connect everything that we work with to it, you could easily do that as a separate plug-in just interface with ours. If somebody creates a new plug-in that we don't want to support, but they want to connect to our CRMs they can just attach that in there. Maybe one day it would become kind of a hub that just standardizes. Like what we were saying with rest APIs for example how now services that couldn't talk before can now talk. Maybe just be like a baby version of that for WordPress. For just getting data out of the website and into the marketing system.
Chris: That's really cool. Well, Jack Arturo, ladies and gentlemen. WP Fusion. You can find him out more at WPFusionPlugin.com.
Jack: Check it out.
Chris: Check it out, and thank you for coming on the show.
Jack: Yeah, thank you so much. It's been a great time talking to you.


Another Quick Dish–this one can be Vegetarian!
I always have the ingredients for this easy Italian Pasta dish on hand for those busy days when I just don't want to cook, but I want to eat! This dinner takes only about 30 minutes, including the salad shown!
Add the garlic, anchovy paste, and red pepper flakes, and stir occasionally until fragrant. This only takes about 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, chop the basil, and check the pasta to see if it is done. When it is al dente, drain. You can toss the pasta into the sauce if you would like. Or serve the pasta and sauce separately.
Make the salad–this takes only about 5 minutes!
Stir the basil into the pasta sauce, and pass shredded parmesan cheese, if you'd like. Everything is ready!
We like to have some Lassen's Baked Rosemary Bread with balsamic vinegar and olive oil on the side.
Seriously! It's dinner in about a half hour!
This is a perfect meal for a busy summer day when you don't want to heat up the kitchen!
Chop the onion. I used a medium-sized Spanish Onion.
And then mince the garlic–if you don't have one, invest in a garlic press. So much easier than mincing by hand! I used four cloves.
Here's a technique that helps me avoid one of the most annoying tasks when I cook–peeling tomatoes. I learned this technique way back when I helped my mom bottle tomatoes every summer.
First, bring a large pot of water to boil. Then wash your tomatoes (I used about 3 lbs of Roma tomatoes.
Drop the washed tomatoes carefully into the boiling water.
The water will stop boiling, but that's ok. Some of the tomatoes will float to the top, so push them back down with a spoon so they stay in the water. After about a minute, scoop up one of the tomatoes and prick the skin with a sharp knife. If the skin splits open, they are ready.
Scoop the tomatoes out into a strainer. Put them under running water to cool and stop them from cooking further.
Core and peel the tomatoes. The skins will slip right off!
Then chop the tomatoes and set aside.
Heat about 2 TBSP olive oil in a large pan, then add the onions and garlic and sautee over medium heat until soft and translucent.
Stir and bring to a slow simmer. Season to taste with salt, and if desired, pepper (I never use pepper in this recipe, but some people really love it!) If you are using the thin pasta–angel hair or capellini–put it in the water now.
When it has come to an easy simmer, add chopped fresh basil and stir. Check the pasta to see if it is tender, and when it is, drain the pasta.
Now dinner is ready to serve!
This is a great main dish for a light supper, or even a side dish if you'd like to have some grilled chicken or fish. If you'd like serve with shredded parmesan cheese. Lately we have been enjoying the Lassen's brand Rosemary Sourdough Bread when we eat Italian, too. Tonight I'll make some sauteed Italian Squash, and we'll have a great meal!


I did realize that if I didn't do laundry today, I would have a problem tomorrow, so I got directions from Joy and headed to the nearest lavarie to wash my clothes. The lavarie was in a beat area of the 1st arrondissement, so once I put my clothes in the washer, I headed to a little cafe to have a coffee, croissant, and do some people watching in the market. It was a lovely way to kill some time while my laundry spun and did its thing. I watched families headed to each of the different markets – little ones on scooters, push bikes and in strollers, all joining in the market experience. About the time I thought my clothes should be ready for the dryer, I headed back to the lavarie, and caught up on my blog while they dried.
Once all my clothes right were clean, dry and folded, I headed back to Joy's so that I could drop them off and begin my journey for the day.
My first stop was the port by the Eiffel Tower, where I boarded the river cruise on the Seine. The weather was fabulous, and the views were great! A very enjoyable way to spend the afternoon.
After the cruise I explored the Qua Bray gardens, then headed to the Montparnasse tower for some fabulous views of Paris at sunset.
After enjoying the view (and some Champagne) – I decided a late dinner might be a good plan, so I found an open cafe, and took a chance. I had a lovely dinner of escargots and sea bass. It was yummy – and I had the added bonus of a bit of a show, as the owner had to kick out a very drunk lady, who at one point tried to come and sit with me. It was amusing – especially once she was gone. The owner was very apologetic – he was obviously mortified.
After my lovely (and very late) dinner, I headed back to Joy's to prepare for the next day.
So glad you were able to slow down a bit and visit a neighborhood while the laundry was whizzing! Scrumptious dinner!
A lovely late dinner and a floor show in Paris! Very nice and amusing!
I've had escargot before and liked them… My thoughts are anything with enough butter and garlic can be yummy!
Next Next post: Day 25 ~ Sunday at the Orsay and a lazy evening!


Get a better understanding of the famed Maasai culture by spending half a day with a Maasai named Lamnyaki near the village of Msitu wa Tembo. The tour begins at Lamnyaki's house, where you be welcomed by his family and presented with a warm cup of tea made with goat's milk. Accompanied by one of our guides/translators, you will start on your hike around the base of the Blue Mountains.
On this hike you will pass many different plants that the Maasai use for medicinal purposes and Lamnyaki will explain and demonstrate how they work. You will also have the opportunity to ask him any questions about the Maasai culture. Moreover, you will see numerous Baobab trees and may even pass by herds of goats and cattle. Another highlight of this tour is the unforgettable and majestic view you will get of Mt. Kilimanjaro, as long as it is a clear day.
We recommend doing this trip in the morning, as it can get very hot in the afternoon!


Daniel P. Lynch has been engaged in litigation and trial work on behalf of defendants for more than 35 years. He has represented insured and self-insured clients in product and premises liability and general negligence matters, along with healthcare providers, attorneys and accountants in professional negligence claims. He has appeared in federal and state courts throughout Pennsylvania and, by special admission, in New Jersey and Delaware. His experience in construction and related fields includes a substantial number of trials involving elevators and escalators, ladders and scaffolds and construction equipment.
He serves as a pro tem judge in the court-mandated settlement program in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and is a certified mediator in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Lynch received his B.A. degree from DeSales University in 1971 and his J.D. degree from Villanova University School of Law in 1975.


When I began homeschooling my 7 children in 1990, I knew I wanted to use phonics to teach reading and spelling, but I was overwhelmed by the myriad programs available. After learning about SWR and participating in a seminar with Wanda Sanseri, I knew my search was over, and I never looked back!
My husband and I later became part of a group to start a Classical Christian School where I trained teachers in this excellent program. Since that time I have been tutoring students and instructing teachers to use SWR. In my opinion, this vital information forms the basis for all education, and I am thrilled to share it with you!
Tracey currently does not have any seminars scheduled.


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Iconic Pure Fishing fly brand expands in UK
Mel Bagnall August 26, 2021
Pure Fishing has reorganised and expanded its UK location. The office team, previously at Alnwick in the north-east of England, has been relocated to nearby Cramlington, while Hardy's, the company's flagship fly brand, has opened The Hardy Store & Museum in its birthplace.
Hardy, which celebrates its 150th anniversary next year, has also invested in a purpose-built location for its manufacturing team, also in Alnwick. The new office site is close to the existing Hardy distribution centre in Cramlington and it is hoped the location will attract talented recruits for future growth.
The Hardy Store & Museum is situated in Bondgate, not far from where Hardy had its salmon flies tied, up to the 1960s. It will showcase Hardy products down the years.
Hardy has been in Alnwick since William Hardy set up shop as a gunsmith in 1872. The company began selling fishing tackle two years later.
John Henderson (pictured above, second left with museum staff), UK Manufacturing and Commercial Director and an Alnwick native, has been with Hardy for 25 years. He told the Northumberland Gazette: "I am immensely proud to be part of this fantastic brand, whose heritage and roots remain in the town. Our owners and global leaders are clear that Hardy is an extremely important and valuable part of our business.
"Pure Fishing CEO Harlan Kent is a passionate fly angler and Hardy fan. He has been extremely supportive of our ambitious plans for the brand."
Picture: Northumberland Gazette
Simms creates new role to reflect growth in participation
Richard Griffiths leaves Shimano after 15 years for Solar Tackle
Incoming German government hails achievements of anglers
Sébile offers investment opportunity in A Band of Anglers
Private equity group acquires FINS Fishing

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Nari Shakti: Women Power
Middlebury field hockey coaches and alums high-five a group of young players before a scrimmage in Ranchi.
When the U.S. Department of State was looking for a field hockey delegation to lead a sports envoy program in Jharkhand, India, there was an overwhelming need in the region for strong female role models. Through a serendipitous connection from Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Baishakhi Taylor, Middlebury field hockey head coach Katharine DeLorenzo jumped at the opportunity.
"Their greatest advocates need to be themselves," she said in an interview following the trip, drawing attention to the Middlebury delegation's role in building relationships through the program and fostering female empowerment.
From Saturday, Nov. 24 through Sunday, Dec. 2, 2018, DeLorenzo, assistant coaches Rachel Palumbo and Lauren Schweppe '18 and field hockey alums Lauren Greer '13, Alyssa DiMaio '15, Anna Kenyon '16 and Audrey Quirk '18 led a week-long field hockey residential program in Ranchi, the capital of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Working with the U.S. State Department, the Indian consulate and the India-based anti-trafficking NGO Shakti Vahini, the East India Field Hockey Project coached 106 women aged 14 to 17 from tribal regions who were at high risk for human trafficking. Considering the hardships the young women endure throughout their lives in an impoverished and sexist society, Palumbo said that field hockey was their only true outlet; the young women would often play with sticks or other materials they could find. "I almost hesitate to say that we taught field hockey," she said. "They're tireless."
Members of the East India Field Hockey Project pose for a picture during the week-long program.
Throughout daily workshops, drills, scrimmages, seminar groups and time spent off the field, the delegation focused on giving the young women tools and skills they could take with them beyond the camp and pass on to their peers. "We wanted to show them that their dreams were valid and something they can attain," Schweppe said. Making a positive impact on their lives was a priority for DeLorenzo. "Those dreams were going to sit there and stay dreams until we kept this going," she said.
Coming into the program, the coaches realized that their goals for the young women were more than teaching them the skills of the game; the program also focused on creating an expanded vision for themselves of their own future. One of the strategies was to reiterate that the young women could rise up in the societal ranks. "They absolutely matter, and they don't hear that enough," Palumbo said.
Shakti Vahini was an integral part of the planning and execution of the program, selecting individuals with the highest social standing — ones the rest of the tribe would look up to — and providing interpreters to assist the Middlebury group. Another goal of the trip was to raise awareness for human trafficking, which is at the core of Shakti Vahini's mission statement. The organization strives for a "just, free and equitable society" through its various public advocacy campaigns and programs.
"Nari Shakti," or "women power," was a phrase the Middlebury coaches used often throughout the program. Reiterating these two words (often as a chant before beginning an activity) was a key strategy to ensure that every girl feels cared for, loved and empowered, since many of the young women did not have parents or siblings to rely on. "Everyone matters. They matter. I don't think they've ever said those words in their life," Palumbo said.
Through the drills and lessons on the field, the coaches employed strategies similar to coaching Middlebury athletes back in Vermont. "We definitely took the Middlebury way," Schweppe said. The young women's backgrounds in field hockey took the form of mostly unstructured games, as many of them have never had any formal training. "It definitely taught us the value of simplicity. We've been a team that has embraced that pretty well," DeLorenzo added.
Field hockey head coach Katharine DeLorenzo embraces a young athlete.
For DeLorenzo, her first trip to Asia enabled her and the other coaches to try to change the worldview of the athletes they coached. "These young women can develop a different perspective on how they fit into the world," she said, as tribal traditions often influenced the young women's future goals. Out of 106 young women in the program, only one said she aspired to be an engineer; the rest believed they would grow up to be policewomen (a powerful position for women in the region) or professional hockey players. Palumbo said that despite the cultural differences and language barrier, field hockey united the coaches and players. "As soon as the whistle blew, I [was] comfortable and they were comfortable too," she said.
Following the program, the Middlebury delegation went to watch the Hockey World Cup in Bhubaneswar, the capital of the Indian state of Odisha. In a Middlebury team dinner back on campus following the trip, the coaches showed their athletes the high level of competition present over the eight games they watched. "They cover the field," Palumbo said.
The Middlebury delegation hopes to continue this sports diplomacy program, and its contacts on the ground in India have started to continue connections with the young women from the camp this year. One of DeLorenzo's highlights of the program was "witnessing such a throng of people in urban India working on behalf of these young women's betterment. This was a drop-everything; no one was focused on anything else for seven days," she said.
"These girls have dreams in their hearts," Palumbo said, referring to a conversation with one of the Indian facilitators of the program. "There's so much that needs to be done."
The Middlebury delegation poses with young women participating in the program.


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News / National / Guevarra urges BuCor, BJMP to find ways to secure vaccines for prisoners
Guevarra urges BuCor, BJMP to find ways to secure vaccines for prisoners
Published August 30, 2021, 11:30 AM
by Jeffrey Damicog
Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra (2)
Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra on Monday, Aug. 30, urged officials of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) to find ways to secure vaccines for their inmates.
Guevarra aired the appeal after the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) raised the need to get have more persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
He said that prison facilities nationwide have relied on the local government units (LGUs) in getting PDLs vaccinated and, because of this, "BUCOR and BJMP authorities are duty-bound to make proper coordination with local health officers in the places where jails and prisons are located."
"If the LGUs concerned cannot provide enough for them, then the BuCor and the BJMP should seek their own independent sources," he said.
"In the end, it's only more vaccine supplies that can address all these competing demands" because "LGU officials naturally tend to prioritize their own constituents."
He reminded that "PDLs are human beings entitled to humane treatment too, particularly those aging and suffering from comorbidities."
"For sure PDLs who are aging and suffering from co-morbidities are covered by existing priorities," he noted.
He pointed out that the "DOJ has batted for their inclusion in priority 4 if only for the reason that their space limitation makes them more vulnerable to community transmission of the disease."
"We hope that with the arrival of more vaccines in the coming days, sufficient quantities could be set aside for PDLs at risk," he added.


Last week, I delved a bit deeper into the first step by having you practice a visualization technique, just to get your feet a bit wet. The goal was to show you how to begin to create your own reality, no matter what is going on around you.
This week, let's talk a bit about the second step, "Feel the feeling and do it anyway". Physically move your body in the direction of the new thing. For this step, we need to understand a bit more about that little section in your brain called the amygdala. The amygdala is a powerful processor of memories and emotions, and is a huge driving force behind creating motivation. It takes various inputs from your sights, smells, tastes, sounds, and memories, and integrates this information into a clear message based on your previous experiences, then generates an emotional response. This emotional response is often fear, guilt or anxiety, designed to prevent you from moving forward in order to keep you "safe" from real or imagined danger.
If you are to have the new and novel experiences you desire, you have to push past this initial feeling. The more often you are able to push back on this initial resistance, the more you are exercising your "change muscle".
So get in the ring. Take that job. Start that project. Join the team. Make that phone call. Your emotions will object—expect them to—but move forward. What you are doing is giving your amygdala new inputs. With repetition, these new inputs override that fear and anxiety, as the activity becomes more and more familiar.
Of course you don't "feel like it" yet. You don't yet know how it feels! But soon you will, and it will be amazing. You'll look back, laugh, and wonder what you were so afraid of.
I'd like to end this week's post with one of my favorite clips. I found this 3 minute clip last summer at a very pivotal point in my life. It's actor Idris Elba sharing his perspective on overcoming fear.
See you next week for step 3!


Cracking game today. First half we played well but couldn't make the breakthrough - finally Rueban burst through and got us in front 0-1. Half time.
Second half and I asked the boys to press further up the pitch and keep possession like we have been working on in training.
This had the desired effect and as Danny Moore got the second after s quick press and finish. 0-2. That put our tails up and we went for the win. Rueban scoring 3 in quick succession making it 0-5. Daniel G then scored a great goal top corner to make it 0-6. And then added his second for 0-7. Rueban scoring hard and low from the right to make it 0-8 and his personal tally to 5!
Daniel G completed his hatrick making it 0-9. And Frankie scored his first our tenth 0-10.
Great performances from Eoin, Alex, Stephen and Brandon who looked really solid and provided lots of chances for the forward players.
MOM: Rueban and Daniel G both getting hatricks and Rueban getting 5 Goals.


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1995 BMW M3 Lightweight
By Carter May 7, 2017 May 8, 2017 BMW
For some time, critics have claimed that the E36 chassis was just too prolific and not special enough to be considered by collectors. They weren't built well enough, they didn't have the pedigree of the E30 or the power of the E46, and since you could buy one on your local Craigslist for $5,000 (less, sometimes!), why the hell would you pay a premium for one?
It's been about a year and a half since we last looked at a M3 Lightweight. The ask was $90,000 on a model with below 30,000 miles, and it was no surprise that for many that ask was far too strong, though I suggested opportunities like that weren't going to come along every day. In that time, we've seen some big numbers start to roll in for special E36 variants, like the $65,000 Canadian Edition M3. But all expectations on the E36 market, and especially those on the Lightweight model, were thrown out the window this past March when a lower mile, all original example came up for auction at Amelia Island.
The price? After hot bidding and when the hammer finally fell, it hit $145,750. I was astounded, even though for years I'd been claiming these cars would increase in value in the not too distant future. What does that number mean for the rest of the run?
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1995 BMW M3 Lightweight on eBay
Model: M3 Lightweight
Engine: 3.0 liter inline-6
Price: $74,990 Buy It Now
1995 BMW E36 M3 Lightweight (LTW / CSL) Fresh Engine Rebuild/Numbers Matching Complete Original LTW Package Kit Installed 2nd to Last M3 LTW Built 65,500 Original Miles Less than 500-Miles on Full Engine Rebuild Alpine White III (0300) on Black Hurricane Cloth (0638) 5-speed Manual Southern California Car since 2003 Clean and Clear California Title BMWCCA Member Owned Not very often does a low-production, race-bred, homologated collectible come along at a price under 6-figures. With approximately 120 produced for the world and only 70-85 coming to the U.S., it is no wonder these cars are becoming so sought after among collectors and enthusiasts. History of the Lightweight: The 1995 M3 Lightweight (BMW NA model code 9520) was produced between August of 1995 and October of 1995. This street-legal model eliminated several comfort and convenience items for weight reduction purposes (approximately 200 lbs lighter) and included aluminum doors. The M3 lightweight came with several performance upgrades based on the European M3 GT homologation series for worldwide GT racing. The U.S. models were homologated for the IMSA/Firehawk series and because of strict D.O.T. laws; they had to be sold with all the "go-fast" parts in the trunk. This particular example is the 2nd to last LTW ever built. Unfortunately, many of these cars went to pro race teams or club racers and very few unmolested examples remain. Estimates of remaining stock LTWs are around 2-dozen. Differences from a stock M3: Rear axle ratio of 3:23 Aluminum doors GT front spoiler with adjustable wind splitter and aero underbody panel Solid upper strut bar brace Underside X-brace Special sports suspension settings Trunk lid spoiler with removable risers BMW sports seats, cloth only Special interior materials and colors Forged magnesium alloy wheels Reduced sound and noise insulation Thinner carpet and no hood pad Alpine white with diagonal Motorsports flag decals Carbon fiber interior trim BMW Motorsport International logo integrated into doorsills, glove box, and body No radio No center console valet Trunk lid tool kit deleted No air-conditioning No sunroof Rare vinyl rear parcel shelf (pre-production part for a handful of examples) As was the case with many M3 CSL/LTWs, this example was initially delivered to BMWNA's racing arm PTG (Performance Technology Group) headed up by Tom Milner. PTG prepared the LTW kit for the trunk and performed any customization the dealer requested before being delivered. This example was built in October of 1995 and sold new on May 15th, 1996. It's the 2nd to last LTW built by BMW. The first owner kept this LTW for a little over 2-years/28k-miles before selling it to the 2nd owner. This owner was the oldest BMWCCA driving school instructor in America at the time. He was a long time enthusiast who was fanatical about proper service. He carefully studied all the issues that E36 M3s potentially could have and set out to rectify them. We have copies of his services as well as notes. The car was never raced and mostly used to show as well as give students rides at local school events. He kept the car for about 5-years before selling it to the current owner on June 19th, 2003 with about 42k-miles. The current owner is a long time BMW enthusiast as well. He continued to use the car for DE (driver education) events and weekend fun driving. Highlights of services performed by the 2nd owner include (most parts purchased from Turner Motorsports): Dinan lightweight clutch and flywheel Adjustable aluminum camber plates Adjustable/larger front sway bar Larger rear sway bar Solid aluminum rear shock tower mounts Stainless steel brake lines Metal impeller water pump Aluminum thermostat cover European M3 Oil Cooler Oil temp, oil pressure, and voltmeter gauges Highlights of current owner services include Replace all struts, shocks, springs, and mounts (KW coilover kit) Replace lower rear trailing arm bushings/ball joints Ground Control rear lower control arms Replace motor mounts Replace power steering hoses Rebuild brake calipers Reinforce rear sway bar, front subframe, rear shock tower, and upper front strut Replace lower front control arms with aluminum factory ones Remove dealer installed A/C system Installed finned differential cover Upgraded fuel pump Replaced driver side axle New shifter and all bushings Replaced SRS control unit New airbox At the end of 2016 (less than 500-miles ago), this LTW had a full motor rebuild. The work was performed by Mino Iorgoveanu of Achilles Motorsports. Mino started his career in the 70's as a mechanic for factory Renault and Fiat rally teams. He moved to the U.S. in the 80's and has been building BMW motors ever since. Domestically, he is responsible for building some of the fastest and most winning BMW race team engines. Highlights of the engine work include: Valve job New pistons and cylinders All new gaskets/seals New valve guides, rod bolts, and rod/main bearings Resurface head Clean, bore, and hone original block Polish crank New fuel injectors New fan, shround, and fan clutch Replace most hoses New coils/plugs Replaced exhaust manifolds muffler midpipe Well over $10,000 was just invested in the engine rebuild. We just had Bullet Performance, one of SoCal's top independent BMW service centers, perform a complete inspection. They found the car to be in very good condition with no signs of abuse. They performed the following services: Replaced power steering pump and hoses New throttle position switch Replaced shifter, bushings, and all associated parts Replaced Axle In total, $2,000 was just spent with Bullet making sure the car was ready to go to market. I'm a huge fan of these BWM LTW's. I've been fortunate to own two of them (yes, kicking myself for selling them a while ago) as well as helping my friends sell another 10 of them. The challenge I've had with these cars is that if they are too perfect and the miles are too low, what can you do with them? You certainly can't drive them on fun weekend canyon runs, where they are a blast. You simply detail them and putt to your local Cars and Coffee event. What I love about this one is it is still very original, but can be enjoyed for some fun/guilt-free driving. The paint looks great with minimal signs of use. The hood has been repainted as well as the right front fender being cleared coated. The rest of the paint is original and verified with a paint meter. All the metal panels are original including the aluminum doors and have their proper VIN stickers. The Motorsport wheels are wearing tires with at least 75% tread life remaining. The brake pads and rotors are new all the way around. There is clear bra on the front bumper as well as some older road chips. The interior is in equally nice condition. The rare seats are in great shape with minimal signs of wear and no tears. The dash is perfect with no cracks or warping. The headliner, door panels, and carpet all look fresh. All the gauges work properly along with the lights. The pixels on the trip computer are also going out (very common part to fail…good condition used units are easily available at less than $100). Furthermore, this example has the extremely rare pre-production textured polymer rear parcel shelf panel. Only some of the very early examples had this part. We have consulted with several LTW/CSL experts and they believe that since this was one of the last units built, they just used this part since they still had it in inventory. This part is truly unobtainium.
Auto Kennel once again does a great job documenting what's special about each car, and also disclosing what's occurred to each example. This one isn't perfectly original and has undergone quite a few modifications, yet it keeps the original appeal of the no-frills package in tact. Miles are reasonable and, as the seller states, not so low that you're going to worry about each time you turn the key. Condition appears to be very good throughout.
What made the Amelia Island car so appealing was that it was, effectively, one of the few completely original examples left. As I said in the last post, I remember when these cars were launched well, and just in my little circle of BMW HPDE instructor friends, several examples turned up at the track at every event, and few remained stock. While there weren't a lot of these cars to begin with, even since new several people assumed they'd be collectable and so today it's not impossible to find them. In fact, Enthusiast Auto Group currently has no less than three on offer. Compared to those models, this one is a little more modified but also cheaper than all three, despite mileage in the middle of the group. The closest in condition and mileage, once again like that 2015 post, is $10,000 more than this one.
A year and a half ago, it felt like $90,000 was as high as the M3 market could go. Now we're a full 50% past that. Would it be outrageous to claim that $150,000 is the ceiling? While it's hard to conceptualize one eclipsing $200,000 in a short period, in 2015 I would have said the same thing about $100,000. In this market, who knows where the top is, and when the bubble may finally burst.
Tagged Alpine White III, BMW, BMW Individual, BMW Motorsports, e36, m3, M3 Lightweight, Motorsport GmbH, S50.
« High mileage 1992 Mercedes-Benz 500E project
1987 Mercedes-Benz 560SEL with 28k miles »
This is a car for people who drool over postage stamps. If you want bang for the buck, buy a Japanese spec M3 in Vancouver for $11,000 Canadian. They offload in the port all the time. If you want a Killer E36, ditch the agrarian 3.0 and go LSx via a Vorshlag kit. Really, there is not much special about a lightweight except exclusivity and a stripe.
Paul Kramer
Thanks Carter for sharing our LTW (selling on consignment for very good friends of ours).
There are so many cars like these that some people may have a hard time justifying performance vs. price. Another example is the 911 RS America. These cars have a 100% markup++ over their stock 964 C2 brothers. And, all the RS Americas are are base model C2s used to sell cars. No race homolagation history, no special go fast parts that were unique…nope. Just stripped out C2s. And, they were low production but still made 700+ of them.
I think for the LTW, it is really reliving a period in BMW North America Motorsport history. Rarely did German manufacturers build something for us to series race here. Yes, part of driving/owning one of these is that sense of occasion when you drive one. That may not be for everyone, but it will be for someone.
Personally, I would have to part with some of my toys to justify owning this and I'm not ready to do so. However, if that was not the case, hell yea I would would buy it. In 1995, I was just out of college and this was my unicorn. I want to own and drive that nostalgia. I think to some sense we all want that.
Great job keeping us updated on interesting German offerings. Love your emails daily.
PS If anyone ever wants to call me to discuss the LTWs, please do not hesitate to do so. I sincerely love these cars and can rant on and on…714-335-4911 😉
I don't get the appeal of these "wing and sticker" specials, and probably never will (although I wish I bought one 10 years ago when they were $25k). A lightweight M3 with the neutered 240 hp US engine does not do it for me. As Paul mentions they are similar to the 964 RS America, but at least Porsche sold those for less than a regular C2 when they were new.
"What the wise do in the beginning, fools do in the end." ~ Warren Buffet
The wise know that the e30 is the alpha and the omega; fools think the e36 has merit of it's own.
But he isn't wearing anything at all!" ~ a Child
It's not even possible to chronicle the things I would do with $150k before buying an e36 lightweight. Surely we'll be running low on greater fools any day now…


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Big Clean: Couns Jacky Smith and Ray Wootten join volunteers.
The 'Big Clean' has cleared around 113 tonnes of litter and weeds from across South Kesteven's streets in its first month of operations, says the district council.
Countless roads in Grantham have now been cleared, cut and cleansed to transform their appearance and remove items from public pavements, alleyways and paths. 'Grot spots', fly-tipping, graffiti, broken bins and road signs are also being scrubbed and cleared.
Big Clean: Swingbridge Road, Grantham, is spruced up.
The mountain of weeds and cuttings are not going to waste. Thanks to the support of Mid UK Recycling, the team has been able to transport the green waste to their depot in Market Deeping to be turned back into fertiliser.
South Kesteven District Council cabinet member for the environment Councillor Dr Peter Moseley, said: "The volume of litter and weeds we are clearing and ripping up highlights the sheer size of this project.
Couns Jacky Smith and Ray Wootten have been among those to view the scale of the project as they joined teams in action in their Grantham wards.
To report a 'grot spot' or join the campaign, visit www.southkesteven.gov.uk/skbigclean or call 01476 406066.


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UNDERSTANDING REASONABILITY OF "REASONABLE DOUBT"
Indian Criminal Jurisprudence relies heavily on Common Law. As per common law, there are three cardinal principles of Criminal Jurisprudence-
1. Presumption of Innocence of the accused
2. Prosecution should prove guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt and
3. The burden of proof on prosecution never shifts.
As far as the level of proof is concerned, it is an accepted principle asserted through various judgments that the prosecution has to prove the guilt of the accused beyond 'reasonable doubt'. In other words, if there is even the slightest doubt in the mind of the judge, the accused can get acquitted. This is because of the first principle discussed above i.e., Accused is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. However, this doubt has to be 'reasonable'. This was established after the Supreme court in the case of Yogesh Singh v. Mahabeer Singh1 made an observation that- Burden of proof of the Prosecution is to establish its case beyond all reasonable doubts and not ALL doubts. However, the main question lies in the fact that the word 'Reasonable' is not defined in statutes.
THE MYSTERY OF 'REASONABLE DOUBT'
The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 which is the legislation which lays down standards and rules of Proof of guilt and Burden of proof does not define the word 'Reasonable'. As a result, the interpretation of 'reasonable' is left at the discretion of the court. This opens a whole new level of questions which can lead to potential unpredictability as far as the conviction of the accused is concerned. Of course, each case has its own facts and circumstances. But what is more concerning is that this directly points to the psychology, ethics, rationality etc. of the Judge/ bench adjudicating the matter. What is reasonable for one, may not be reasonable for the other. There is no fixed standard. It is possible that two similar cases with similar facts and circumstances may run parallelly before two different judges and have different outcomes solely because both the judges have different degrees of reasonability.
Under these circumstances following questions are raised-
Is there any way for the prosecution to know whether it has been able to prove its point beyond such 'reasonable' doubt?
What is the benchmark which has to be crossed in proving facts/evidence to guarantee conviction?
The third cardinal principle mentioned above works brilliantly here. The Supreme court of India, in the case of Abdulla Mohammed v. The State2, explained the difference between Burden and Onus of proof. It was held that Burden of proof lies upon the person who has to prove a fact and it never shifts, but the Onus of proof shifts. Such shifting of proof is a continuous process in evaluation of evidence. So basically, the burden lies on the Prosecution but the accused is called upon to prove his case if he claims/ takes a defense that the case falls under an exception. Then the onus is on the accused and it is considered as discharged if the accused person succeeds in proving the preponderance of probability in his favour and he need not prove his stand beyond reasonable doubt. So, it is clear that standards of proof are different for both sides in a criminal case.
Due to this, there is a mystery created around the words 'Reasonable doubt' which gives off an impression that, the prosecution has to constantly be on its toes to ensure that the evidence presented against the accused has surpassed the degree of reasonability of that particular judge who is adjudicating the case but the prosecution has no way of knowing whether such degree of reasonability is surpassed or not.
However, the reality is quite different from this view.
LEGISLATIVE PROVISIONS
It is true that the Evidence Act does not define the terms 'Reasonable' or 'reasonable doubt'. But what it does define are the following terms- 'Proved', 'Disproved' and 'Not Proved'.
Section 3 of the Evidence Act defines Proved as- "A fact is said to be proved when, after considering the matters before it, the Court; either believes it to exist, or considers its existence so probable that a prudent man ought, under the circumstances of the particular case, to act upon the supposition that it exists."
Disproved as- "A fact is said to be disproved when, after considering the matters before it, the Court either believes that it does not exist, or considers its non-existence so probable that a prudent man ought, under the circumstances of the particular case, to act upon the supposition that it does not exist."
Whereas, facts which neither form part of 'Proved' or 'Disproved' become 'Not Proved'.
In other words- a fact is considered as 'Proved' when there is an absolute certainty of its existence. It is considered as 'Disproved' when there is an absolute certainty of its non-existence.
The statute does not set a standard of proof required for either Civil or Criminal cases differently. It is the Judicial precedents that have set the standards of proof. However, at least theoretically, no precedent can outreach the Statute. Hence, though it is a common knowledge that the criminal cases have to be proved 'beyond reasonable doubt', what it really means is- in criminal cases, there has to be absolute certainty about the guilt of the accused before awarding punishments because, liberty of the accused is at stake, unlike civil cases where the absolute liberty of the person is not threatened.
JUDICIAL INTERPRETATIONS OF THE WORD 'REASONABLE DOUBT'- A STUDY OF CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE
A judge decides the matter only on the touchstone of probability. The judge is neither an eyewitness nor he is connected to the case in any way. Hence, the litmus test for deciding the fact as 'proved', 'disproved', or 'not proved' is the degree of probability.
Considering the liberty of the accused is at stake here, the court always insists for a higher degree of proof to be absolutely sure that an innocent person is not punished. This has been insisted by Lord Denning in the case of Bater v. Bater3. He enunciated that different standards for different types of cases are "more of a matter of words". The only underlying principle is- higher degree of proof is required for more serious matters. Criminal matters are more serious in nature as compared to Civil matters due to what is at stake or what the accused will potentially lose. In short, the gravity of the matter is decided based on what the consequences will be and not based on whether the matter is civil in nature or criminal in nature. To corroborate this, Lord Denning gave an example of Negligence v. Fraud. According to him, even though both, negligence as well as fraud, can be civil matters, in a case of fraud, the court will ask for a higher degree of proof than in a case of negligence. Hence, rather than going for actual words of 'beyond reasonable doubt', the thing to be focused on is the degree of proof required which is of higher degree in the case of criminal cases.
As mentioned earlier, there are two points of absolute certainty about existence or non-existence of a particular fact. But since, Judge is not directly involved in the case in any way, these points are never achieved and the satisfaction of the court lies in between these two extreme points. As a result, the doubt always lingers because absolute certainty, for all practical purposes, is a myth or a fiction. This can be understood from the decision of Ashok Debbarama v. State of Tripura4, where the Supreme court elaborated on the concept of 'Residual Doubt' which refers to the doubt that lingers in the minds of jurors who are convinced about accused's guilt but are not absolutely certain about it. This kind of doubt is generally considered while awarding the highest punishment i.e., Death sentence to the accused.
However, the courts insist that, case has to be proved only beyond 'reasonable' doubts and not all doubts for securing conviction of the accused5. Supreme court in the case of Krishnan & Anr. v. State6 had held that doubt would be reasonable if it is free from any zest of abstract speculation or overly emotional response because the Law has no favorites other than The Truth. It was also said that, 'reasonable doubt' is based on reason and common sense and is not merely a possible or imaginary doubt.
PRINCIPLE OF REASONABILITY
Now that it is clear that the Judiciary bases 'reasonable doubt' on the parameters of 'common sense' and 'reason', we have to understand whose common sense of reason is applied here as both these terms are subjective in nature. Section 3 of Evidence Act clearly mentions the term 'Prudent man'. Thus, it is clear that the scale or standard of reasonability of a 'Prudent Man' is applied here.
However, there is an inherent philosophical difficulty in defining 'Reasonability'. But, an attempt is made to equate it with the conduct of a 'reasonable' or 'prudent' person. Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, in his books 'The critique of practical reason' explains the concept of 'reason'. He reasons that 'reason' must give a way to sensibility. This sensibility armed with logic and natural talent could be argued as characteristics of a 'prudent' man that he might employ for understanding standard of proof. Thus, a judge is expected to possess and employ these characteristics to determine whether the proof is 'beyond reasonable doubt' or not.
From above, it is clear that a sincere effort has been made by Judiciary, from time to time, to provide as much clarity on the topic of 'reasonable doubt'. But, the reality lies in the fact that nothing and no precedent can go beyond the statute. Rather than going into the reasonability of the expression 'reasonable doubt', the standard that should be kept in mind is- going as near to that point of certainty about the existence of fact as possible because, the only thing matters that while proving the guilt of the accused is the higher degree of proof than one would expect in other cases.
1. (2017) 11 SCC 195
2. 1980 SCR (1) 604
3. (1950) 2 All ER 458
4. (2014) 4 SCC 747
5. Yogesh Singh v. Mahabeer Singh, (2017) 11 SCC 195
6. (2003) 7 SCC 56
Case laws-
2. Abdulla Mohammed Pagarkar v. State (Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu), 1980 SCR (1) 604
3. Bater v. Bater, (1950) 2 All ER 458
4. Ashok Debbarma v. State of Tripura, (2014) 4 SCC 747
5. Krishnan & Anr. V. State, (2003) 7 SCC 56
Legislations-
1. The Indian Evidence Act, 1872
Articles/ Blogs/ Books-
1. Immanuel Kant, "The critique of Practical reason" (1788) (Ebook hosted on gutenberg.org published on August 7, 2002) <https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5683/5683-h/5683-h.htm> accessed on 08 July 2022
2. M. Piravi Perumal, "beyond Reasonable Doubt" (Lawyersclubindia,13 March 2009), < https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/articles/BEYOND-REASONABLE-DOUBT-880.asp#comments> accessed 08 July 2022
"Three principles of Criminal Jurisprudence", (Articlesonlaw, 25 April 2015), < https://articlesonlaw.in/three-principles-of-criminal-jurisprudence/> accessed 06 July 2022
This article is written by Utkarsha Deshpande of Kishinchand Chellaram Law College, Mumbai.
REASONABLE DOUBT


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My family was visiting our cousins from a couple towns over. An urban area, it was jammed with families from all walks of life. After several minutes of playing some dopey game with the neighbor kids, I couldn�t wait to dash inside to tell one of my parents of an epiphany I had just received.
He was rarely more profound than that.
As a child in Stratford, Connecticut during the 1960�s, I didn�t have much contact with anyone who was different than I. In fact, it wasn�t until I left Catholic School that I even knew anyone who wasn�t a member �of the Holy Mother Church� (at least that�s what the nuns called it).
If you haven�t figured it out by now, I�m speaking of anyone who wasn�t white.
It wasn�t until I joined the Navy that I learned that �different� wasn�t a bad thing. My shipmates came from all races, creeds, and strata of society. Paradoxically, they were no different than I.
Except those guys from New Jersey.
I came to view them as sailors, as Americans, as friends. And, I was always aghast if anyone looked down on them just because they didn�t fit their Norman Rockwell version of what an American should look like.
I very vividly remember when one of my most valued technicians transferred. As we shook hands, I don�t remember how this came up, I said to him, �Oh, you�re black?� Obviously, I knew he was black-I�m not blind. But, it didn�t matter to me. We were losing an outstanding individual, not an outstanding black individual.
When I ask them how that would be any different than �their friend,� they sheepishly admit that it doesn�t.
But, I�ll give the older folks a pass. That�s probably part of their culture. As long as their culture doesn�t include separate water fountains or lynchings (no pun intended), I guess I�m okay with it as long as they don't talk like that around me or my kids.
Where I get aggravated, however, is when people who should know better continue to place labels on our countrymen. They may think they�re being oh-so-enlightened, but they�re in reality perpetuating differences.
Recently, �Saturday Night Live� trumpeted their �first black female castmember since 2007.� Great. So what? Why identify her as the first �black female� at all? By labeling her as such, they continue to point out the differences.
Even more recently, that insufferable blowhard, Chris Matthews, proudly thumped himself on the back by saying he forgot Barack Obama was black for an hour. Then, he went on to endlessly blab on and on about our first African-American president.
First of all, Obama is half-white (as if that makes a difference). Second, when I can refer to myself as �European-American,� I�ll start saying �African-American.� I know, they�re not really black. And, unless we�re all Irishmen who live in caves, we�re not really white, either. The distinction is just flat-out dumb.
My point here-trust me, I have a point-as long as we keep referring to the first black, Asian, Hispanic, Indian (I will not say Native-American...that�s also ridiculous), or redneck, we will keep pigeonholing people in the continuing balkanization of our country.
NOTE: I realize some of you may say that George W. Bush has that already covered.
Some of my best friends are colored people.
Whether they�re colored white, black, brown, yellow, red, or anything in between.


The National Construction Safety Officer (NCSOTM) or the provincial/territorial equivalent status verifies that a person has met the training, practical application, years of experience and written performance measurement standards as set out by the members of the Canadian Federation of Construction Safety Associations.
Participating members of the CFCSA will recognize the right of each jurisdiction to set their own standards over and above the agreed upon minimum requirements and will accept the standard set by the respective host construction safety association.
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This clip from Marvel's Thor: The Dark World puts its spotlight on the villain... Christopher Eccleston as Malekith the villainous leader of the Dark Elves.
Loki was the evildoer in Thor and The Avengers films, now this Malekith has brought brothers Loki and Thor back together to fight a new threat against Asgard, and the entire universe.
Thor: The Dark World hits theaters in just a couple of weeks… November 8!


Today is Shrove Tuesday. It is also called Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras and Pancake Day. People around the world are celebrating the day simply by enjoying food and flavours. Lots of pancakes are being made today and at Winerist we are embracing the tradition!
The usual pancakes made with flour, eggs, milk or buttermilk probably come to mind first. There are different varieties, both sweet and savoury. One you may or may not have heard of however is a hoecake.
What are hoecakes? They are cornmeal pancakes. The name comes from how they were prepared long ago in the Southern United States. Cotton field hands would cook them on the blade of a hoe over a fire. The type of hoe used then had a wider blade than one you would find today.
Hoecakes can be served for breakfast, as a snack, or as a replacement for bread. This recipe is savory with a spicy kick from jalapenos. Bacon adds a nice saltiness. You can eat them with syrup if you like a sweet/hot combination. Pair them with bubbles aka Champagne or Sparkling, Riesling, or Pinot Noir.
Are you ready to celebrate the day? Make some Bacon Jalapeno Hoecakes and enjoy a taste of the South. Have fun and raise a glass to the wonderful people in your life. Cheers!
In a large cast iron skillet or frying pan, cook the bacon until crispy. Transfer the cooked bacon to a paper towel lined plate and cool to room temperature. Crumble the bacon once it is cooled.
In the same skillet over medium heat, sauté the chopped jalapenos in the bacon grease until slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the jalapenos from the skillet. Pour the bacon grease into a measuring cup. Add enough oil to make ¼ cup. Allow oil to cool to room temperature.
In a large bowl, add the cornmeal, flour, and sugar. Whisk to combine.
In a medium bowl, add the buttermilk, water, bacon grease/oil, and eggs. Whisk to combine.
Add the wet mixture to the cornmeal mixture. Whisk or stir until combined. Add the crumbled bacon and jalapenos and stir to combine.
In the same skillet, heat a thin layer of oil over medium heat. Drop the batter using a spoon into the heated oil, about 2 tablespoons of batter for each hoecake. You will need to do this in batches, about 3 or 4 hoecakes per batch.
Fry each hoecake until the edges are brown and a few bubbles appear on top. Use a spatula to flip the hoecakes and then brown the other side. Transfer cooked hoecakes to a paper towel lined plate. Serve immediately warm or at room temperature.
Renee is a self-proclaimed Domestic Goddess from the South of the USA who loves to eat, drink, and dig in the dirt. When not cooking, baking, sipping wine, and gardening, she is blogging about her adventures on Magnolia Days. Her goal is to taste the world with wines and foods from all countries. She believes a balanced diet comes from the moderation, enjoyment of all foods, and willingness to try new things.
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