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The times we're in are bad. Climate change is looming; fascism is on the rise; income inequality is getting worse; rents are going up; drought, famine, antibiotic-resistant diseases, artificial intelligence...the roster of apocalypses has gotten crowded. More and more, people are wrestling with the conclusion that the road we're on right now leads only to ruin. If we're going to save ourselves, and save each other, things need to change in big ways, and fast.
Enter True to the Earth: Pagan Political Theology, a new book which offers a bold solution to the troubles we're in: a return to high-pagan ways of seeing the world and our place within it. The book's author—a neopagan and practicing ceremonial magician (think summoning demons with a magic circle and the Order of the Golden Dawn, not Penn and Teller)—is quick to point out that the high paganism he advocates for is not Wiccanism or the paganism of a particular place at a particular time. Rather, he points to a number of what he calls "high pagan societies" and how their shared insights might give us the tools we need to remake the world and avert (more) catastrophe.
On a rainy day in Brooklyn, I sat down with the author, Kadmus, to talk about him, high paganism, magic, and his new book.
You wrote this book under a pseudonym. What prompted that?
I've had some people assume "oh are you worried you'll get into trouble cause you're criticizing capitalism" or something like that, and that's not the motivation at all. The motivation is actually that I'm a professional academic in philosophy and the world of philosophy can be surprisingly dogmatic and surprisingly closed. I don't have these statistics exactly right, but I wouldn't be surprised if 80% of contemporary philosophers are naturalists. In other words, they're committed to the idea that science has a monopoly on truth, and most questions worth asking can be answered by science. So if I was known in the world of philosophy as being a ceremonial magician, as being a committed pagan, there would have been consequences to my professional career that I wasn't ready at the time to deal with.
Did your practice as a ceremonial magician or as a pagan affect or influence this book?
I think so. There's a few aspects to this. One is I am very much a practicing ceremonial magician, and by and large the tradition of ceremonial magic tends to have, especially these days, an experimental aspect to it. What this means is that throughout my own life and my own career, I've worked with spirits and gods from many different cultures, from many different traditions. And I think that this made me already very open to seeing that there are shared insights throughout pagan cultures globally.
Not that they're all the same—radically different; important differences—but when you really look at the orality of those societies, you see that there are shared metaphysical commitments.
And I think I was more open to that because, within my own life, I had already worked with spirits from several different cultures, from several different historical time periods. So I think that this informs the pluralistic approach of the book.
Another part of it is that I'm not writing this purely as an academic or intellectual endeavor. I am to the best of my ability living this worldview, to the best of my ability living within it, and a lot of the spirits I talk about and the gods and goddess are ones who I have very close relationships with.
Do you feel as though any of these spirits and gods had a say in this book?
Yes. I found, just as a matter of fact (not that this was planned), that a lot of the Interludes were inspired by, suggested by, directed by different spirits and divinities that I was working with.
What I would want to avoid saying is that anything in here would count as something like revelation. This isn't dictated by them. But there's support. There was support and encouragement and suggested insights.
I say early on in the book that I'm very skeptical—and I think we should be—of claims to authority via revelation. And that's not because revelation doesn't exist, I'm not saying that those things aren't there, but I don't care who's revealing stuff to you. I have to come at it from where I am, and engage with it critically.
And I think that this comes from a more pagan view VS a monotheistic view—I'm not one for the acceptance of authority, especially on questions that we can think about, based on claiming divine dictate or something like this. Even if a god or goddess speaks to me, I'm going to critically engage with what they say. There's not a spirit out there that I would accept what they say unquestioningly.
The gods are personalities, they have agency. And they're up to stuff. They're up to different stuff and they disagree. They've got agendas. Just like dealing with a group of people you have to think about what folks are up to and what parts of it seem to fit with what seems meaningful and of value to you.
I was watching Rosemary's Baby for the first time last night, and it made me think about your book because there's that scene where Rosemary is doing all this research on witchcraft, and she gets to a point where she demands that her husband take off his shirt to see if he has a witch's spot. And there's this sense that if you're a witch, you absolutely have to have one, that to be a witch you have to believe some particular thing. Which is something I think your book is against.
Yeah, so, there is a difference between offering alternative ultimate truths like this is some new ultimate truth that someone should adopt VS entering the view from which you can see that there is no ultimate truth, there's a plurality of truths that are fundamental to the universe, and it's an ever-growing, ever-differing and changing collection of truths. This second position is the one offered by the book.
This pagan way of looking at the world is one you ascribe in the book to "high paganism." And when you say, "high paganism," you're talking about something specific. What is that as opposed to paganism in general? Like, Plato is not a part of this.
There's a period everywhere on the planet, in every culture, that was oral, before there was writing. Writing causes some really fundamental changes in the way we think, in the way that we view reality, in the way that we experience reality, right down to the bedrock of our experience. What I began to realize was that what seemed to be truly pagan cultures, what seemed to be most committed to these ideas of pluralism and plurality of truth in reality itself, were all oral societies, were all pre-writing.
So, high paganism is a period in any culture when the culture is oral, and that orality contributes to certain ways of seeing the world that I understood to be high pagan.
What are some of the biggest differences in how a high pagan society sees the world compared to a literate society?
The most basic difference is that oral societies are concrete and action-based, whereas in literate societies what writing allows us to do is have abstract nouns. You can talk about "goodness" all of a sudden as if it were a thing, rather than talking about how it's good to act or what's an example of good events in life.
We can give abstract definitions of a triangle and say that two sides of a right triangle have a relation to the other side and blah blah blah….If you were to do that in an oral society it would have to be a story. It would have to be some sort of story about the behavior of the sides or the triangle, so the one side stands firm and courageous and faces the other side in a certain way. It would have to be concrete. It would have to be about action.
This gets at something I really liked about this book—that one of the ways that high paganism can respond to and alleviate a certain amount of the alienation people feel in the current circumstances is with the way that high paganism understands how a body or a thing is defined.
The high pagan understanding as I'm defining it tends to be relational. So a thing is what it is based on what it does, and the relationships it has with other things, and its context in the world around it. So rather than defining something in terms of, say, the base matter it's made out of, or the purpose for which it is designed—designed either by an ultimate creator or designed by us or designed by nature—you instead understand it in terms of the way it behaves and the relationships it has with other things.
A late-pagan thinker already is usually committed to what I call a monotheist metaphysics. Aristotle, who's what I call a late-pagan thinker, thinks the entire universe is unified, that everything has a purpose that is internal to that thing, and if you want to understand what a thing is you understand its purpose. We look at a fruit tree, and Aristotle is going to say What is the function of a fruit tree? What does a fruit tree do that is unique to a fruit tree? And it's make fruit. So, a good fruit tree is going to make good fruit, a bad fruit tree is going to fail at making fruit, and that's the ultimate essence of a fruit tree.
A high pagan view of a fruit tree is going to look instead at all the other connections and relationships. Obviously we care about fruit trees partially because they make fruit. They're important to the animals they feed with the fruit as well. But there's all kinds of other relationships that tie in there, and some of those are going to be cultural relationships—the role of the fruit tree in a society that isn't just about providing fruit but is instead about its mythic history, for example. Or something like the other relationships: the squirrel that lives in it, the shade that it gives, and so on and so forth.
All of these relationships are going to be branching, and growing, and altering over time. So the nature of that fruit tree is going to be increasingly complex, increasingly pluralistic. The same can be said about us. We are the relationships we find ourselves within and tend. We are what we do in the world and how the world responds to us.
Do you feel that this sort of reductive purpose-driven or substance-driven view of the nature of things is widely applied to human beings right now?
Yeah absolutely! One way that we see this is that thinking that everything has an essence that pins down its purpose and is therefore the basis from which we can judge its goodness or badness shows up in society and shows up in our political approaches to society. That there is the right way to formulate a society, to structure it, the right political form; there is the right answer to how our society should be organized—we just have to figure that out and force anyone who disagrees into that structure in one way or another. This is the history of 20th-century politics and a lot else. This attempt for the "pure society" where you have some pre-set idea of what the purity is, what the purpose is, what the appropriate structure is, and you have to in some way destroy or heal or re-educate or fit in anything that doesn't fit that perfect pure society.
Because the bottom line is that once you know (or once you think you know) what a thing's nature is, then you come up with a very simple view. And the view is that anything that is closest to that nature is good, and anything outside of it is bad. You have to oppose this badness. So diversity itself, pluralism itself, becomes a mark of impurity or disorder or chaos
Whereas high paganism embraces this diversity.
Embraces it both as fundamental to reality—it's always going to be there, you're never going to be able to do away with it—but also embraces it as the source of the most important things in life.
For example, I talk a lot about the idea of council, and the Akan civilization talks about wisdom as something that can't reside in any one person's head. So if you want to be wise, you can't do it, only a collective can. And the more diverse that collective is, the more pluralistic that grasp of reality, the wiser that council, that collection of viewpoints, is.
So, it's both an unavoidable aspect of reality—it's pluralistic, it's irreducibly pluralistic—and it's also the source of strength, of fertility, of growth, and of wisdom.
And this even goes to the level of the gods. You do an Interlude about the Greek Magical Papyri, and one of the points you make is that multiple gods from multiple cultures are brought up in a non-hierarchical framework.
Yeah, there are some exceptions, but by and large what's striking about the Papyri is this wild multiplicity of gods from totally different cultures and traditions all thrown in together without some overarching system that would organize them in terms of importance and power and who rules who.
And this is actually an aspect of high pagan culture. We're used to monotheistic religions that are hostile to alternative views. But it is a huge part of archaic or high pagan cultures, this curiosity, and even greed, for new gods and new traditions and new practices. So it's both an openness to them, but it's also a hunger for them. Someone comes through Athens and says hey there's this weird tradition I picked up somewhere in Persia and they're willing to give it a try. They're willing to see what things look like from within that tradition.
Kwasi Wiredu, who's an amazing philosopher who deals a lot with African philosophy and African culture, talks about the fact that the Akan society had what he calls an empirical or experimental attitude towards gods and spirits and religious practice, where if something is working, if you go to it for help—or if you go to it for healing, or for wisdom, or whatever you're going to it for—and it's useful for you, then it ends up increasing in value, and importance, and increasing in attention.
On the other hand when those things fail, you begin to withdraw from them. So it's not in line with the way that faith is thought about in a monotheistic context, where whether God "fails you" or not, you owe absolute obedience and devotion, and if it seems like you're being failed, if it seems like your prayer hasn't been answered, it's a test, it's a test of your obedience and devotion.
In a pagan culture it's not seen that way. The idea is that look, if these gods aren't alive in my life, if these spirits aren't alive in my life, if these practices aren't meaningful in my life, if they're not doing something for me, if they're not intimately involved in the meaning of my world—I don't owe them anything. There's a sense that that idea of devotion to something that is precisely refusing to be present is a fool's game.
So, in this high pagan culture, the gods are very present. You describe how there can be a god of rivers generally, and there can be a god who is a particular river, the river itself rather than, say, a magic god-person floating above the river.
And this isn't an absolute distinction, gods aren't going to fall into the one category or the other constantly. But very often our modern perspective on pagan gods that are identified as gods of mountains, or the goddess of a river, or Gaia who is goddess of Earth, is that they are somehow the spirit of that thing: there's the Earth and then there's a conscious, intelligent spirit that is separate but maybe inhabits that thing.
Gaia is clearly identified by the high pagan Greeks as the Earth. When you dig in the Earth, you're digging in the body of Gaia. She is described as "broad-bosomed" meaning the mountains and the hills. And this isn't symbolic. Oral societies are not symbolic, they do not use symbolism, they are concrete and literal. So when Gaia is the Earth, she is the Earth, a living entity with a body that is the Earth.
We see a great example of this in the Iliad. There's a scene where Achilles fights the river Scamander. And it's not that some spirit steps out of the river, some, like, divine representative of the river. No, it's the river! The waves are crashing on him as if a horde were attacking him and he is struggling in the river. The river itself is the god and the god is the river.
The gods were embodied, and many of them were directly understood to be the thing that was identified as divine. So, the Earth is divine, it is a goddess, it's a living body—that is what Gaia is.
Then you get distinctions. Poseidon is a god of the ocean. It's probably wrong to say he is the ocean. If you think about an engagement with Poseidon, it's usually going to be something like a fairly anthropomorphic manifestation of the ocean, which is how a lot of neopagans think about all the gods, missing the fact that that works for some, but it doesn't work for all.
Speaking of neo-paganism, because this ties in a bit to the political moment, there has been in recent years a connection between neopaganism and far-right politics, especially fascism. The Nazis used Norse sigils in their iconography, there's the Soldiers of Odin, a far-right group that also uses Norse mythology…
You see this in Greece, too, a lot of far-right movements that identify with a return to Greek pagan religion.
...But your depiction and conception of high paganism, and the sort of high paganism you advocate, would seem to be an antidote to this, or at the very least certainly not part of this.
I would hope so! Part of what motivated the book was trying to get clear in my own mind about the full extent of the mistake you make when you think that to be engaged with the old Norse gods you have to fit into some sort of racial profile or nationalistic commitments.
Part of what I really try to stress is precisely the way in which purity, and the politics of purity, play such a key role in these fascist reinterpretations of paganism, and how foreign that would have been, how utterly opposed to the main insights of a pagan culture. The Norse gods were not pure, that were a mixing of various sorts, children of giants and so on and so forth. We also see the background of the Norse gods in the Æsir and the Vanir, who are two different families of gods. And there's debates about which one is foreign, but it's clear that at some point in time one of them was foreign and the other wasn't. And the relationship between them wasn't one of conquest and dominance, even though some people try to interpret it that way. It ends up being a compromise with exchanges of family, and this gives rise to some of the most distinct powers of the Norse gods.
So, my point is that the cultures that gave rise to these religions were not themselves committed to racial purity, they weren't committed to nationalistic purity. But also that the theology within these religions is opposed to these concepts of purity, to these concepts of firm boundaries between peoples to begin with….or between anything. The type of purities that obsess fascism wouldn't have made any sense to high pagan cultures.
How else do you see the lessons of high paganism being applied in a contemporary context? How could someone apply these in their own life, maybe in a way that is anti-fascist, anti-capitalist, or anti-prejudice?
There's a few things to say here. We can see that there are certain things that are very difficult for us to think and to experience and to see in the world that other cultures and other time periods could think and see much more easily. In and of itself that doesn't convince us that we should adopt it, but it does allow us to begin to see the failures and the limitations of our own ways of seeing the world and the cost of them. So often nowadays what you find is that people want to use the very principles and very ways of seeing the world that got us into problems in the first place, that have led to disaster—they want to use those same ways of seeing the world to solve the problem. And it's not going to work.
For example, with global warming, very often the dream is that it's just some new technological order we need, some new collection of inventions. And it's not to say that those things might not be helpful. But what got us into this problem in the first place was seeing the world as an object for use, as a source of raw material, and if the answer is well we just have to manage our raw material better, you're gonna fail. Seeing that we're already making that assumption requires seeing that there's another way to see the world.
This is just an argument for why the history matters, because it gives us access to different ways of understanding reality. Which might be better, might be worse. I argue that there are some specific ways that it's better, and there are some limits and failures as well, so it has to be a critical endeavor.
What's the most direct way to apply this? There are a few things I can say.
One is that if you're seeing the world in a pluralistic way, then you have to give up on the idea that what you think or what you understand is sufficient for solving any problem. And the same thing applies to this book. This book is insufficient for addressing the problem and for developing a full grasp of what a truly pagan worldview would be. It's part of the process; it's insufficient by itself.
And I see this in my students all the time. I'll have someone who's very deeply religious, and who's also committed to freedom of religion and freedom of speech, and it's a good thing, but when you dig into what their thinking is, their thinking is Look, I know I'm right, I'm committed entirely to the fact that I am right, and I'm giving other people the chance to realize that they're wrong. Freedom of opinion and freedom of religion is a chance for everyone else to come to see that I'm right.
Now, there's a fundamental failure there. If you're going to gather folks together to try to solve a problem, and each of them thinks they're right, and is open to debate and discussion with the sole aim of getting everyone else to realize that they're right, you're not going to come up with a solution. And you're not going to be able to progress in that conversation.
On the other hand, what I think pagan cultures teach us is that there's a radically different view when you admit from the start, and everyone does just as part of the framework, that every single one of the views present, every single one of the grasps of reality present, is incomplete. And that we need each other and we need an increased complex grasp on the situation to address it.
So an immediate, concrete, in-our-daily-life way to approach this is by accepting the limitations of our own position and accepting the vital necessity of the truths of others, the insight they have into reality.
You make this really interesting point in the book that there is this connection between divinity and what happens when you lie, whether or not your lies can become reality. Which is interesting, especially in the current climate where you have basically competing realities at play in the mainstream media.
That's actually my favorite Interlude. There's a whole Interlude about truth and lie and the role of lying and deception within a pagan worldview. And you see many examples of this, but when you lie to a god, if you do it well, it's not always that you're tricking the god—you're able to, in some cases, trick divinities—but if you can lie to a god or a goddess and get them to accept the lie, that becomes a reality. At that point it's no longer you lying, it's making a change.
A great example of this is Hermes and the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. Hermes just lies nonstop, and Zeus knows immediately he's lying, and is really pleased and smiles to see how well Hermes is lying. And what that story ends up being about is that Hermes creates a space for himself on Olympus through telling these lies, and engaging in theft, and it makes space for him. And he ends up being a god.
We see this with Loki too, right, where you have someone who is not a god but essentially lies his way in.
Yeah. Another example that I love is the transformation that occurs of the Furies into the Eumenides. The Furies were these ancient goddesses that were very dangerous and their job was to enforce the oldest laws of the gods. And part of these laws were things like you don't kill family members. So if you kill your mother or father, it's the Furies that get to punish you.
And all this leads to this climax where the Furies are trying to punish someone, and Athena and Apollo do not agree that the person should be punished (this is all in the Oresteia). And the way that peace is brought about is that the people of Athens start calling the Furies the "Eumenides," which means the ones who bless, it's the good-minded ones, and the good-spirited ones, and the ones who bring blessings and all of this. And these aren't blessing spirits.
It's like when someone is being barked at by a big dog and they say, "Nice doggie!"
Yeah, exactly. And it works!
The official mythology is that the Eumenides are the Eumenides in Athens, that they are friendly to Athens. And they bless marriages and they bless new births, and there's all of this new meaning that comes with their new title. And it comes from lying to them, saying oh, you're beautiful, you're a force of blessing. And they accept the lie and become a force of blessing.
And one of the good things about this book is that there is a kind of despairing fatalism afoot these days—climate change seems inevitable, our politics don't seem representative and aren't terribly effective anymore—and one of the things that the book brings up is that you have access to all these tools: the lie that becomes reality, the fact that you can stand up to a god, you can fight that river and win.
Right, and we see these examples throughout cultures: times where the gods are defeated. Times where you can side with one god VS another. Rebellion is absolutely always a choice. And this is an important thing that we get from paganism—rebellion is always an option. There's no value in absolute obedience.
In monotheism, rebellion is always foolish because the only source of existence is the one god. So there's this sense in which there can be no victory against that force, so you simply have to obey, there's no choice. This trickles down into politics, even in our contemporary world.
That's not the pagan worldview. There, there are many sources of power. The sources of power rise and fall, and shift and change. So, if you're in a tight spot, rebellion against the gods, some of the gods VS others, is always an option.
And that tied in with the idea of change becomes really important, because there's this sense of fatalism. This comes from all different areas. Part of it you can see in certain types of Marxism, too, the idea that there's a deterministic nature to history, things are going in a certain direction, and even if they change that change was determined by the structure of the universe, or something like this.
And what paganism as I understand it is committed to is the idea that the structure of the universe constantly changes. It's been changing since whatever the start might be and it will go on changing, which means that no matter how determined something seems, the rule of reality is unexpected, unpredictable alteration. Which means that no matter how grim things be, tomorrow might be a world of difference.
Cooper Wilhelm is an occultist, researcher, and poet in NYC. He is the author of three books of poetry, including DUMBHEART/STUPIDFACE (Siren Songs/2017). More at CooperWilhelm.com and on twitter @CooperWilhelm
Kadmus is a published academic with a Ph.D. in philosophy teaching at the college level. He is also a practicing ceremonial magician with a long standing relationship to the ancient Celtic deities.


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Friday, April 1, 2011
FFWD: Quinoa, Fruit, and Nut Salad
16 comments:
- AnonymousApril 1, 2011 at 9:57 PM
Your dish turned out great! My quinoa also had a different smell while steaming, like boiled peanuts. Great post!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousApril 2, 2011 at 12:41 AM
I tried to add a comment earlier but it seems I did something wrong?ReplyDelete
Quinoa is so nutritious and easy to cook I find myself making it all the time! I too used cilantro in this recipe. However I don't think I'll be making this again.
That's what I enjoy so much about FFwD is that I am fixing and eat food that I would never have made on my own. Your salad looks wonderful and I am so glad that you liked it!ReplyDelete
I agree about the salad dressing! I had a jar of ground ginger that hasn't been used since pumpkin pie season that will finally be getting more action.ReplyDelete
Your finished dish looks wonderful. Both Tricia and I foundReplyDelete
the recipe simple to make, and although we had different opinions
about it, it was fun to try. Good job on the photos.
I have to let you know that I also made your "Cream Cheese Heath Bar" Brownies last week !!! I saw them when I left a FF comment and HAD to try it. My family loved them and we even shared with Nana and Grandpa, who enjoyed them as well. Yum !!ReplyDelete
MMmmmm...your plated salad looks lovely! I wish I had tried it with a little dab of Greek yogurt.ReplyDelete
Oh, those cherries & apricots look great (they would never last long enough to make it into anything in my house).ReplyDelete
Hey - if this is how horses eat, sign me up :-)
Ryan, Your salad looks really lovely! We really enjoyed this dish…I thought the dressing was a bit bland so I added a touch of cinnamon! Kicked it up a notch!ReplyDelete
Doesn't it feel good to make something that you only had in restaurants and love it? Quinoa is versatile and adjusts well to other ingredients. All you have to do now is continue experimenting, knowing that you like it:) Great job!ReplyDelete
This is such a lovely salad. I have some quinoa in my cupboard begging to become this!ReplyDelete
You did a wonderful job of plating this salad. You've made something quite homely nice to look at. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...MaryReplyDelete
I never thought to put dried fruits into quinoa. Wonderful idea.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousApril 5, 2011 at 7:48 PM
I havent tried this one yet and I think I must try.You are one of my choices for the Stylish Blogger Award.Pls drop by at my blog for details.ThanksReplyDelete
- AnonymousApril 6, 2011 at 3:16 PM
I love your first photo. We really liked this salad, too, and I'm also keeping the dressing in mind for other salads.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousApril 6, 2011 at 4:56 PM
I'm sure I called quinoa a grain on my blog. I never would have guessed it's a seed. Thanks for teaching me something new. And I agree - this would make a great potluck dish for a shower or other event.ReplyDelete

subset: commoncrawl


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It's no secret that year over year, media budgets are being shifted online. A recent study predicted that online ad spend in the GCC is expected to grow by 20% in 2017 which is largely due to the ever-increasing internet penetration in the region. With the masses online and planning and tracking technology available, it won't be long until online advertising surpasses traditional media, like TV and magazines, in the near future.
Unfortunately, "going digital" is easier said than done. Throughout my career, I've come across several strategic and tactical mistakes that could potentially cost brands millions; in this article I will cover 4 of them:
- Not setting clear objectives
I can't emphasize this point enough; knowing and understanding your campaign's goals is crucial for success; vague goals will result in mismanaged budgets and potentially overspending making it nearly impossible to get a ROI.Objective setting is the foundation of a successful campaign. Once the objectives are clear, it will help you segment your target audience, decide which advertising platforms or websites to use, how to allocate the budget, and metrics to measure success. For instance, if your objective is to increase mobile application downloads, then CPI (Cost per Installation) should be the metric used to defining success, but clicks, CPM, and CTR should also be taken into consideration in order to better understand the ad funnel.If you're looking to build brand awareness, then you need to measure the success by traffic to your website, search volume, social engagement, earned reach etc.
- Advertising on the wrong platform/website.
When reading my favorite sports news websites, I'm quite saddened to see ads for products like baby shampoo. Not leveraging or understanding a website's core audience will almost always result in weak ad performance.Using the wrong websites and platforms is a bigger issue than one would imagine.Not only does it mean the digital marketer doesn't understand the online ecosystem, it means they do not understand their target audience and ideal consumers' behavior.Channel selection and prioritization starts with analyzing and segmenting the target audience. From there their behavior is analyzed; this can include which types of websites they frequent, the social media platforms they are active on, and even which devices they prefer to use.Once this is understood then an optimized media plan can be pieced together. Advertising on the correct platforms and websites is the perfect start to a successful campaign.
- A/B Testing is your best friend
Not testing digital ads is one of the biggest rookie mistakes digital marketers make. Not testing is the equivalent of playing a game of roulette; by going "all in" on one ad instead of testing a few different ad options which would have a higher probability of "winning".A/B testing is the act of experimenting and running multiple variations of an ad. Variations can include running different images, different text, different CTA's, different languages, etc. ; so in theory one can make a dozen different ads out of a single ad. Once you run the ads, you check to see which combination has the highest conversion and this will give you an indication of your optimal ad.A/B testing will not only yield better results, it will save you money. A/B testing works best with campaign that have significant budgets and have a long duration; this allows you to kick off with a test campaign as well as to constantly test along the way.
- Missing Call To Action
"Dubai Car Rental?"
"كمبيوت – وكلاء لينوفو في الأردن"These are some real ad titles that I've come across recently; the major issue with them is they do not ask people to perform any action. Adding a CTA like "Subscribe Now" not only yield results, it instructs the consumer on the next stages of the purchasing process. Creating captions is an art form (just ask any copywriter) but can be straight forward. Keeping your calls to action clear and concise are necessary because consumers tend to prefer straightforward ads.
Stay tuned to part deux of my blog and I'd love to hear your success stories or even failures you've come across. Please be kind and share and don't forget to leave me a comment in the comment section below!


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Pam Benoit, Ph.D., was named senior vice president of Academic Affairs and provost at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in May 2017. Her first day at UAB will be July 1, 2017.
Benoit joins UAB from Ohio University, where she served as executive vice president and provost for eight years.
As chief academic officer of Ohio University, Benoit led many significant initiatives, including: the conversion from quarters to semesters in 2012; development and implementation of the OHIO Guarantee, an innovative tuition and fee model through which Ohio University is helping students budget for the cost of a college education, in 2014; and creation of the nationally recognized Innovation Strategy Investment Program in 2016.
She was instrumental in transformative growth for the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine into Cleveland in 2015, where the university now partners with one of the most respected institutions in medicine, the Cleveland Clinic, to bolster the university into the forefront of medical education in Ohio and beyond.
Benoit held many leadership positions at the University of Missouri, where she chaired the Department of Communications in the College of Arts and Sciences, and served as associate and assistant dean of the Graduate School before being named executive vice president and provost at Ohio University. She received her master's degree in communication from Central Michigan University and her Ph.D. in communication from Wayne State University. Early in her career, she served on the faculty of Bowling Green State University and the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she also held a position in the Department of Communications.
Benoit has written or co-written a number of books, chapters, articles and reports for her research interests that include narratives, communication theory, interpersonal persuasion and argumentation, and leadership.


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COP21 Update – Sunday, November 29
UNANIMA International is fortunate to have representatives attending the 2015 Climate Change Conference in Paris (known as COP21). We will be posting daily updates here on our website. For more information on the Conference, see: http://www.cop21paris.org/
NGOs were encouraged to get their official UN entry badges today to avoid the crowds tomorrow, when the largest group of heads of state ever to assemble under one roof—ever—are expected to assemble under one roof. Over 40,000 people will assemble in the official "blue zone," including over 20,000 government representatives and staff, and over 10,000 NGOs. This is an unprecedented attendance of over 40,000. There has never been a ratio of 1 NGO to 2 government representatives before.
We were told that while we are reaching for the stars, we must keep our feet on the ground, regarding security—which is why all events that do not have a secure point of entry had to be cancelled, including the long-awaited Climate March. Instead, those who brought shoes to march are donating them to an organization who will give them to the poor, and thousands of people in Paris formed a human chain along the proposed route. The UN and organizers are looking for other ways to help civil society express itself instead of the events planned for outside the "safe zones."
UN officials praised Parisian and French leaders for their courage in going on with the conference, and the UN head of security explained that the best way to have a safe conference was to have no surprises—they are urging civil society to register any special demonstrations with the UN Secretariat.


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124 | Japan, Month in Review (October 2018)
Novelist Max von Schuler-Kobayashi and AI School Creator Matt Bigelow discuss and expand upon:
Japanese "Journalist" Junpei Yasuda return to Japan from the Middle East;
South Korea and North Korea Border: Is it a United Decision?;
Japan's Government sweetening up to China's AI?;
Fish Market Closing: Are they Maguro?;
And Hot Air Balloons???;
for this month's JAPAN, MONTH IN REVIEW, OCTOBER 2018!
Max's Blog: http://tokyomaxtalks.blogspot.com
MBF Podast Official Websites: https://mattybfiles.podbean.com / http://www.matthewpmbigelow.com/matty-blog /
RSS Feeds: http://www.matthewpmbigelow.com/matty-blog?format=rss
This podcast was hosted, produced, edited, written, engineered, and subdued by Matt Bigelow
#JunpeiYasuda #SouthKorea #NorthKorea #UnitedKorea #JapanChina #AI #Tsukiji #HotAirBalloon


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309 Springfield AveSummit, NJ 07901
Picture Perfect historic colonial set in an ideal location in the
center of town close to all schools & NYC transportation, this
exquisite 4 square home overlooks the glistening canal. Hop on your
kayak and enjoy tranquil Mountain Lake in minutes. This gem will
capture your heart upon entry. Featuring gleaming hardwood floors
throughout, unique architectural features and stunning chestnut trim
work, the warmth of the Craftsman design will envelope you. From the
elegant LR w/ woodburning frpl. to the fabulous kitchen/FR and
luxurious master suite w/ private covered balcony featuring lake and
canal views, this charmer has it all! The 2006 renovation/addition
was completed with all high end amenities and quality finishes
resulting in a superb design, efficient floor plan as well as plenty
of historic charm. Just move in… you have arrived!
Click on a thumbnail to enlarge the image.
*Rates last updated 11/19/19. Information displayed is accurate as of the date of the latest update and is subject to change without notice. Loan pricing can only be locked through a home mortgage consultant. Other restrictions may apply. The Rate/APR and other terms may vary from those displayed based on the creditworthiness of the borrower, the type of dwelling, whether the borrower is self-employed, the location of the property and other factors. Please contact a lender in your area to determine what rates you qualify for.
**Rates calculated from national averages. To determine rates in your area please contact your local lender.
Mary is committed to servicing her clients with honesty, integrity and hard work; while also being dedicated to providing outstanding service every step of the way through the buying and selling process. Mary's exceptional service consistently results in satisfied customers and continued business relationships.
With over eighteen years of experience, Mary has become an expert in market conditions and how to best capitalize on those conditions to benefit her clients. Mary utilizes her market and area expertise combined with a high tech marketing approach (including a website for every listing) that allows for maximum exposure to service her listings.
As a Certified Home Staging Specialist, Mary is able to assist sellers on how to prepare their homes for market with confidence and ease. As a Luxury Home Marketing Specialist, Mary is well versed in the luxury market. Buyers are an integral part of Mary's business as well. A resident of Mountain Lakes for 30+ years, Mary's area expertise allows her to aid buyers in making informed decisions.
Mary is a top agent in Mountain Lakes, Boonton Twp and Boonton in real estate sold according to the Garden State MLS since 2012.
Mary truly loves selling real estate and enjoys the relationships that develop. She takes a lot of pride in enabling families to make good choices.
If you have a brokerage relationship with another agency, this is not intended as a solicitation. All information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Equal Opportunity Housing Provider. Each office is independently owned & operated.
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That's the question I'm asked every time I tell someone where I'm interning this summer. It's also one of the first questions Lee and Kelsey asked me during my interview.
Honestly, I probably wasn't able to accurately express my enthusiasm during the interview (thankfully Lee still hired me), but as I've worked here during the past few weeks I've been able to flesh out my answer. But in order to understand why I chose Thread, you probably should know a little about my background first.
A little about me.
I major in Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainability at The Ohio State University, which is a mouthful, I know. I usually just tell people I major in sustainability and business (since that's technically my specialization within the major). EEDS, as it's known around campus, is a relatively new interdisciplinary major at Ohio State that incorporates the human dimension while attempting to sustainably solve world problems. More specifically, I study how businesses are incorporating sustainability into every aspect of their operations.
I'm also involved in a few awesome student organizations on campus. On basketball gamedays at Ohio State, you can see me leading the Men's Basketball Student Section, the Buckeye NutHouse.
However, I'm also involved an amazing organization called BuckeyeThon, which hosts a Dance Marathon every year with all the proceeds benefiting children at Nationwide Children's Hospital (for all the Penn Staters out there, this is our version of THON). Through BuckeyeThon, I've developed a passion for philanthropy and have seen firsthand the benefits of "paying it forward."
The Search.
While I am passionate about all the things I'm involved in outside of the classroom, I was having trouble finding an internship that I could be equally passionate about. I had ideas about the type of work I might like to do, but not a lot of direction on how to get there.
But I did know one thing. I didn't want to work at a company where I would be waiting for the clock to hit 5:00 every day. I wanted to work for a mission-driven company where I could use the passions I had found at Ohio State.
Enter, Thread.
Ten minutes on their website and reading their impact report was all I needed to buy in. What immediately caught my eye was that Thread is a registered B Corp driven by a triple bottom line philosophy, both of which I had become interested in throughout the course of my studies. Thread is also committed to developing their company in the city that I know and love – Pittsburgh. Furthermore, I found it refreshing that Thread tracks the impact of their products, from Ground to GoodTM, in an industry that is notoriously murky in its ability to provide that kind of information.
After doing some more digging, it became abundantly clear that Thread is a team that not only has a passion for philanthropy and sustainability, but also firmly believes in the work they are doing.
I wanted to work at Thread for one simple reason; I believe in Thread and in the people who run it with every fiber (ha, get it?) of my being.
This belief didn't just stem from casual interest. Everything about Thread's mission resonated with me; they're solving a major world problem in a sustainable fashion while bettering the lives of others. Thread's mission jives with everything that I've studied and experienced at school. It was only natural that I get on board.
And once the rest of the world catches wind of what's going on here in East Liberty, I have a strong suspicion that they'll take notice too.
I'll be writing more about my experience throughout the summer, so stay tuned…


text: Apr 23, 2018 Author Games And Software change, climate, evolution, mexico, schooling, science, wavered New Mexico Wavered On Evolution And Climate Change In Science Schooling Schooling science is intently associated to pedagogy, which is the method of educating. Since 2013 we've invested £forty five million in science-related skilled growth on the Nationwide STEM Learning Centre We have additionally worked with companions to develop Teaching Science , a website to help science lecturers establish areas for his or her personal growth, discover tailor-made support and observe their progress. The UK-Russia 12 months of Science and Education programme consists of the presentation of the primary movie shot only using drones, 'Within the Robotic Skies' , which can be shown throughout the framework of the Best Film Competition in the 'Oktyabr' cinema. More and more there's a call for major lecturers with specialist expertise who can support schools to enhance kids's learning in science and arithmetic via the usage of partaking and inventive learning and teaching strategies. We'll also encourage and help major faculties to provide a minimal of two hours science instructing each week. The Division of Expertise and Science Education is to play its oversight perform and likewise have interaction in monitoring the sustainability of the undertaking in the States. In Primary training you will take Discipline studies in a range of areas to enrich instructing in the primary years. Inside the framework of the UK-Russia Year of Science and Schooling it is going to be embellished with quotes of well-known British scientists and illustrations of their key achievements. Commentary of science instruction in colleges, design of useful resource unit and lesson plans, supervised pupil teaching in classroom or laboratory. Instructing strategies, strategies, methods and rules particular to the areas of arithmetic and science. You will examine schooling idea and apply which can equip you with teaching aptitudes and expertise on which you'll construct a sound philosophy and method to teaching. Implementation of assorted technological tools in secondary school science and mathematics training.


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Boy appears before magistrates (Staple Hill)Posted on Monday 26th October 2009 at 11:10 pm by SH (Editor)
A 13-year-old boy has appeared before Northavon Magistrates to face a charge of assault with intent to rob and another of possession of an offensive weapon.
The case follows an incident in which a 14-year-old boy reported an attempted robbery in Page Road, Staple Hill on Sunday October 18 2009.
A second boy arrested in connection with the incident has been released without charge.
Neighbourhood Sergeant Paul Bolton-Jones said: "South Gloucestershire is a safe place to live. However parents should try to make sure they know where their children will be going, when and with whom."
Source: Avon and Somerset Police
Last 5 posts in Police
- Avon and Somerset's 'Best on the Beat' competition is back! - April 18th, 2015
- Appeal for information about a man approaching schoolchildren - December 12th, 2014
- Public forum on local policing to be held in Yate - November 6th, 2014
- Police launch consultation on restructuring plan - October 13th, 2013
- Commissioner consults on police component of council tax - October 2nd, 2013


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In the summer of 1976 Doucet was asked to sing the national anthems at the new Canada Cup tournament. He was familiar with the American and of course Canadian anthems, but needed to learn the songs of the four European countries.Read the entire article...
He contacted the Department of External Affairs and they easily got him the lyrics for Sweden, Finland and Czechoslovakia, but there was a problem with the Soviet Union anthem - there were no words!
It seems the original words in The Hymn Of The Soviet Union were quietly dropped after 1956 because of all the references to dictator Josef Stalin. Doucet was advised to "hum the anthem very loudly."
That didn't sit too well with the proud singer. Somehow he unearthed a copy of the Stalinist lyrics. Since he could not spead or read Russian, he handed it to the Russian department at the University of Montreal, and asked them to "fix them up."
Before the Soviet Union-Czechslovakia game at the Canada Cup, Doucet showed Soviet team officials the rewritten lyrics. They had no objections, and Doucet sang the all new Hymn of the Soviet Union. With the game being broadcasted back home, the Russian fans must have been shocked to hear the new anthem.
In 1977 the Soviet Parliament adopted the new lyrics.
Apr 22, 2010
How Roger Doucet wrote the Soviet National Anthem
All about the Atlanta Braves video scoreboard production
I am the Production Manager of BravesVision, which provides in-house video production for the Atlanta Braves. My primary responsibility is to create content for and produce the `show' that fans see on the high definition video board at Turner Field in Atlanta.
Our work isn't broadcast; everything that we produce is displayed in-house only. But we have a game day crew of about 30 people, and run our show much like what you would see in a production truck or studio.
The centerpiece of our show is our high definition video board: a Mitsubishi Diamond Vision. It's huge. At roughly 80 feet wide by 72 feet tall, it's one of the biggest HD video boards in the world.
As they watch the game, fans are surrounded by video, graphics, animations, and statistics, instead of just seeing it on the screen.
Another big difference between our show and a broadcast show is that during game action, we don't actually show any action. Our video board is right above the batter's eye , in the area behind center field where there are no seats or anything else that might distract the batter when he's looking at the pitcher.
So when a batter steps up to the plate, we only have still images and stats on the board.
In between batters we show replays, crowd shots, live action, and elements to pump up the crowd.
After a big play we continue the momentum with crowd prompts to keep the fans fired up and shoot off fireworks after home runs. Arguably, one of the coolest parts of my job is pushing the little red fireworks button.
BravesVision consists of a small full-time staff but a much bigger game day staff. On the full time side there is myself, an audio designer, two engineers and an editor.
On the part time/freelance side we have all of the positions you would find in most broadcasts: director/ technical director, graphics op, font coordinator, replay op, two playback server ops, eight cameras (4 hard, 1 wireless, and 3 robotic), one A2, 3 audio assists, a video shader, and a utility player.
In addition, we have several positions unique to a stadium or arena production: a PA announcer, LED/ fascia board operator, matrix operator, a statistician, and a scorer.
Read the entire article...
Apr 21, 2010
All about Vancouver's green men
They also have their own page on the Vancouver Canucks website.
Marian Hossa plays the hockey organ in Chicago
It's a tv ad for radio coverage of the Blackhawks.
(Source: Stimulant)
New York Times on hockey goal songs
Some teams had their own goal songs. In 1976, the Hartford Whalers adopted a catchy theme, "Brass Bonanza," which a team official found in a record library. "Brass Bonanza" was used as a goal song to add to the atmosphere — and wound up annoying opponents.Read the entire article...
During the 1994-95 lockout, the Rangers, whom the team spokesman Brendan McIntyre said were looking for a unique song, and not one heard on the radio, turned it up a notch by commissioning "Slapshot," or "The Rangers Goal Song," a tune of conquest and triumph that remains the gold standard. (Unfortunately for the Rangers, who failed to qualify for the playoffs, "Slapshot" will not be played at Madison Square Garden again until next season.)
Some teams were more creative than others, and the songs tended to be hard rock. Three years ago, the Philadelphia Flyers had a local punk-rock group, the Boils, record several songs. One of them, "The Orange and the Black," became the team's victory song. It was played Sunday after the Flyers beat the Rangers to make the playoffs.
Anthony Gioia, the Flyers' game-presentation director, said, "The intended effect was to expose our fans to a song in which they can identify with the team, recognize immediately and energize."
The Caps, who used to punctuate goals with only a siren, had the same idea. Segal said that songs entered in the contest could not be about any particular player, including Ovechkin, or any particular season. The Capitals wanted to start a tradition.
The team and its fans, who voted on the station's Web site, found what they were looking for in "Rock the Red," written and performed by Sandbox Kings, an indie rock group from Arlington, Va. Capitals fans, many of whom wear red shirts to games at Verizon Center, participate by yelling "Hey!" and "Rock the Red."
Last season, the Islanders tried six or seven other goal songs, none of which seemed to catch on, probably because the team hardly scored and had the worst record in the league.
Beach said: "People were resistant to change. The team was losing, and at the end of the day, it just didn't jell."
Late last season and early this season, the Islanders played an edited version of "Burn It to the Ground" by Nickelback. It was better, Beach said, but not a keeper.
So the Islanders began hunting for another goal song. Ten were narrowed to five in a poll of team executives, then to three that were put up for a vote on the team's Web site. "Bro Hymn," a hard rock song by Pennywise also used by the Anaheim Ducks, was selected. Islanders fans liked it.
"Sometimes, it's not different taking the same approach to a hockey game as to being a D.J. at a wedding," Beach said.
But some standards stick. When the St. Louis Blues score, the organist still belts out the time-tested "When the Blues Go Marching In," to the tune of "When the Saints Go Marching In." The Los Angeles Kings have played a cut of Randy Newman's "I Love L.A." since 1989.
Apr 16, 2010
Pre-game ceremony: Daniel Alfredsson's 1000th game
Worth watching too is the pre-game tribute video that kicked off the ceremony, and also this great collection of congrats messages from Alfie's Swedish teammates.
Last game at the Igloo
Apr 15, 2010
Redskins sell off their old scoreboard for charity
The Presidential First Pitch
Last Tuesday, President Barack Obama threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Washington Nationals home opener against the Philadelphia Phillies. It wasn't pretty. Obama's pitch was high and outside, which juxtaposes nicely with the too-low toss that was the first presidential opening day pitch, made 100 years ago today.*
On April 14, 1910, President William Taft, an avid sports fan, went to see the Washington play their home opener against, coincidentally, Philadelphia (back then, however, the teams were the Senators and the Athletics). A few members of his administration came along, including military aide Archibald Butt. Just before the game started, umpire Billy Evans walked over to Taft's seat on the first base line, unprompted, and handed him a new baseball. He asked the president to throw the ball from the stands to Senators pitcher Walter Johnson at home plate to officially start the American League season. Taft rose, turned and threw a right-handed pitch low and inside. Contemporary accounts say the throw had little grace or style, but Johnson caught it and the crowd went nuts. Washington beat Philadelphia 3-0 and Taft later autographed the ball for the team.
Taft threw out the first pitch of the 1911 season, too, but the budding tradition experienced some growing pains in the following years. Taft skipped the 1912 home opener when his close friend Butt went down with the Titanic —on the return trip from a vacation Taft had urged him to take. The United States occupation of Veracruz kept Woodrow Wilson from throwing the first pitch of 1914, and he missed four more home openers because of World War I (1917 and 1918), the Paris Peace Conference (1919) and a stroke (1920).
Even with the shaky start, the president's ceremonial pitch became cemented as a part of baseball tradition. Read more...
Apr 4, 2010
Link round-up, April edition
- ESPN/ True Hoop: About those dancers
"In most of regular life these days, outside of Las Vegas, half-naked gyrating women are considered inappropriate. Paying young women to act out that brand of 14-year-old heterosexual male fantasy, and generally sexualizing things to that degree, is too stark a slap to the face of sexual equality to be tolerated. After all, one of the most important lessons of the last century was that women aren't subservient sex objects, right... But is there any denying that one of the major lessons one could take from watching an NBA dance team is that women are just precisely that?"
- Officials tweaking Cowboys Stadium for smoother second year
Changes include new stadium tours, an art tour, improvements to the actual scoring part of the scoreboard, and better wireless internet.
- Carolina Hurricanes/RBC Center - change of plans for January 30th
Good communication with fans to help mitigate traffic and safety problems due to bad weather
- How You Doin'?
Comcast-Spectator rolls out a successful customer service program to all of its facilities.
Apr 2, 2010
Bob McCown says one anthem is plenty
Still, the answer isn't to afford equal treatment to the anthem of another country. The answer is to get rid of it altogether. I mean, what is the basis for playing "O Canada" in the U.S. anyway? Well, the answer is because one of the 30 teams in MLB is in Canada. Is that enough? Uh, no!
Doesn't it make more sense to respect the nationalities of the players involved? Sure it does, but if you go down that road the playing of the anthems would have to commence before noon for a one o'clock start.
No, the correct response is gettting rid of anthem-playing all together.
Look, I've heard the song. It's catchy. But every tune gets old after a while. I mean, do you still like "Hey Jude" as much as you did the first 500 times you heard it?
When I go to a mid-season sporting event, the playing of the anthem is a mind-numbing experience. I don't stand there quietly pondering the great freedoms we enjoy or the majesty of the Rocky Mountains. I don't get teary-eyed or weak-kneed. And the only lump in my throat is likely to be the pizza I bit into just before the music started to play.
I confess there are moments when it is possible to feel real emotion when "O Canada" begins, but never at a sporting event.
I realize that eliminating the anthem altogether isn't going to happen, though that would be my preference. But surely we never need to hear more than one anthem at any one time…anywhere…under any circumstance!


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Actually, seven years ago I thought I wanted to study Christian theology: (as I've mentioned before, I had a very religious upbringing). So, I started attending a theological college and ended up staying for almost four years. That was about how long it took me to figure out I didn't actually believe in most of traditional Christianity. I also began to doubt that there was (or even could be) any sound epistemic basis for believing in the authority of scripture.
During the years that followed, I very, very gradually came to believe that the scientific method provides a more certain means of acquiring knowledge than faith does. This was not an easy process: I became profoundly depressed, for example, when I realized I couldn't be certain whether there was an afterlife. (That might sound silly, but when you've believed since childhood that you will literally live forever, and then find out you might only get eighty or ninety years, it hits you pretty hard). But eventually I concluded that, as Cat Faber puts it in The Word of God, "humans wrote the bible; God wrote the world." And that if I wanted to search for truth, I'd do better to study the natural world than scripture. And as I spent more and more of my free time devouring science articles on Wikipedia, I fell absolutely in the love with the awesome, beautiful universe in which we live. And so, here I am today, about to start a four year degree with a major in astrophysics! Yay!!
|Astrophysics, dude.
Needless to say, I am deeply grateful to have changed my way of thinking!
[EDIT: Just to clarify the terminology for the rest of the world: in Canada, a university is an academic institution, whereas a college provides vocational training. They're not the same thing.]


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Paul Walker is in New Orleans fighting to keep his newborn daughter alive in the wake of a devastating hurricane. That's the premise of Walker's new suspense drama, Hours, which the The Fast and the Furious actor is currently filming in The Big Easy. Walker stars as Nolan, a man grieving with the recent passing of his wife while attempting to keep his premature newborn daughter alive after they are abandoned in a New Orleans hospital during landfall of Hurricane Katrina. Complicating matters are the rising floodwaters and frequent power outages that threaten to shut down his daughter's incubator. The project is one that hits close to Walker's heart; he's a father to a 13-year-old daughter. Subject matter aside, the reportedly long hours in front of the camera make this film one of Walker's toughest films yet. Hours also stars Genesis Rodriguez (Casa de mi Padre) and was written and directed by Eric Heisserer (The Thing). Hit the jump for much more on the project.
Speaking to the Washington Post, Walker, Heisserer and producer Peter Safran all spoke on the project. Regarding Walker's role as a concerned father, the actor said:
"This father is doing everything he can to just keep things going, keep electricity going, to keep this little baby going. My little girl means the whole world to me. I really want to believe that if I was placed in the same situation that I would rise above, that I would be able to see it through the end and do what it would take to make sure my baby came out on top."
And apparently he'll do a lot, as Safran commented on Walker's on-screen work as follows:
"Paul is literally in every scene. I love how this project challenges him."
While the hook of this film may be in part to featuring Hurricane Katrina, debut director Heisserer has a different view of it:
"It's about parenthood. As I was writing this screenplay, I could see every scene. There comes a point where you fall in love with a project so much you just can't let go of it."
Hours is expected to screen at Sundance next January with a release early in 2013.


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"I want the children to live normally with family and friends the way life's supposed to be!"-Perle
Perle is a young fairy that appears in the Sailor Moon super S movie. He is the film's tritagonist. It is unknown if this is actually true in the English dub, but he is the younger brother of Pupulan. He used to work for the main antagonist of the movie, Badiyanu, but found out soon it was for selfish intentions and ran away. His age is unknown but he looks like a twelve-year-old boy whom Rini became friends with after meeting him at a sweets store and later joins the Sailor Scouts after Rini is kidnapped and for the rest of the movie.
AppearancePerle has teal eyes and a slightly pale skin color with silver/white hair similar to helios' his clothing is white with several spiral trims possibly as a belt and bracelets in the later portion of the movie he is reveals to have multicolored wings.
His pipe can stop his oppenent's attacks with a special tune
His pipe can also reveal secrets as shown when he shows the antagonist's hidden castle.


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Scott works with adolescents, adults, couples, and families to provide a confidential and comforting environment to help people deal with difficult life issues. He provides hope filled support to empower individuals and families to heal, grow, and make positive changes in their lives.
Scott received his Bachelor's Degree in Health Education from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and his Master's Degree in Human Development Counseling from the University of Illinois Springfield. He has worked in a variety of clinical settings including: community mental health, schools, and child welfare. Scott is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the State of Missouri and a National Certified Counselor through the National Board of Certified Counselors.
Scott utilizes a variety of therapy techniques including person centered, cognitive behavioral, trauma informed, and goal oriented. He has over 20 years of dedicated experience helping individuals and families heal from anxiety, depression, ADHD, adjusting to life changes, relationship issues and many more difficulties. In addition, Scott specializes in treating emotional trauma caused from the effects of abuse, crime, or accidents. Family members can also seek support to deal with these difficult issues and how it affects the entire family.
Scott is an in-network providor for Humana, Cigna, and several Employe Assistance Programs. Scott is an out-of-network providor for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City. Please call your insurance providor if you have any questions about coverage.
Scott looks forward to meeting you with his authentic and empathetic style. Please call (816) 525 5333 ex. 1 or set up an appointment at www.cornerstonecounselors.com
Email Scott