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January 15, 2021 | A Tale of Planetary Resurrection in a Triple-Star System With a Skewed Configuration
NASA-Qatar OASIS Project Aims to Find Buried Water in Earth's Deserts
TOPICS:DesertJPLNASAWater
By Jet Propulsion Laboratory September 24, 2020
Deserts like the Sahara harbor fresh water aquifers that can be affected by Earth's changing climate. The OASIS study project seeks to a establish a mission that would find and examine those aquifers. Credit: NASA
Researchers will design a mission to learn about underground aquifers in areas such as the Sahara and how climate change will affect them in the future.
Earth's driest ecosystems are a study in extremes: They can be blazingly hot stretches of sand like the Sahara Desert or shatteringly cold expanses of ice such as those in Greenland and Antarctica. These arid regions receive very little annual precipitation, and the effects of climate change in these ecosystems are poorly understood. A joint effort between NASA and the Qatar Foundation aims to address that — and, in the process, help communities that are being impacted by those changes.
Researchers with the Orbiting Arid Subsurfaces and Ice Sheet Sounder (OASIS) study project are designing a satellite mission to probe the sand dunes and ice sheets of some of Earth's driest places with radar technology similar to that used by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The project's primary goal would be to discover and monitor underground sources of fresh water called aquifers. Many aquifers in the deserts of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, among others, are being rapidly depleted to support the needs of local communities.
At the same time, aquifers in coastal regions are being threatened by sea level rise caused by the melting of ice sheets in places like Greenland. If the saltwater from rising seas contaminates the fresh water in aquifers, it would affect not only drinking water but also regional agriculture and food security. A secondary goal of the project is to gain a better understanding of how melting ice sheets contribute to rising seas.
The OASIS project seeks to study fresh water aquifers in the desert as well as ice sheets in places like Greenland. This illustration shows what a satellite with a proposed radar instrument for the mission could look like. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Under a reimbursable Space Act Agreement with NASA and the Qatar Foundation (QF) for Science, Education & Community Development — represented by Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) and the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) at HBKU — NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and QEERI will jointly formulate a mission concept study for Qatar's prospective OASIS mission.
Searching the Desert
The project seeks to put a satellite in Earth orbit to map the distribution of shallow aquifers beneath the desert's surface in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Scientists plan to use the satellite's radar instrument to study how those aquifers originated and how groundwater moves beneath the deserts through a complex system of subsurface fractures that spread out like a spiderweb between aquifers. Data collected in the process would help with aquifer management.
"The scientific community is excited about this mission. OASIS would be the first spaceborne radar specifically designed to detect directly subsurface water on Earth," said James Graf, director for Earth Science and Technology at JPL in Southern California.
Project researchers also intend to study the topography of the land under ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica to determine such properties as ice sheet thickness and the pathways by which ice flows to the ocean. This information could feed into models of current and future ice sheet responses to climate change, which would help researchers better understand ice sheet contributions to sea level rise.
"Warm and cold deserts are responding to climatic changes by expanding and shrinking, respectively," said Essam Heggy, the OASIS principal investigator and chief scientist and research program director of the Earth Science Program at QEERI. "Studying the forces driving these transformations will give us insight into the evolution of deserts on Earth."
In a decadal survey identifying Earth science areas of focus between 2017 and 2027, the National Academies of Sciences noted that gaining a better understanding of these arid regions was one of several priorities.
"The 2017 National Academies Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space identified a need to understand aquifer dynamics and ice sheet contributions to sea level rise. The OASIS study project will explore a promising complementary observing approach that can contribute to our understanding about these two areas of Earth science research," said Gerald Bawden, NASA program scientist for the OASIS project.
Signal Return
Led by Artur Chmielewski, the OASIS study project manager at JPL, and Heggy, the project's team will design a spaceborne mission that uses radar technology similar to that developed for MRO to explore beneath the Martian surface. The instrument under consideration for the OASIS project, a 50 megahertz sounding radar, is expected to see through up to 1.8 miles (3 kilometers) of ice and nearly 330 feet (100 meters) of sand.
The radar signal is sensitive to changes in the electrical properties beneath Earth's surface caused by rocks, sediments, waterlogged soils, ice, pools of water, and the like. Some of these substances absorb more of the signal than others. Researchers look at how much of the signal bounces back to the instrument, as well as how long the signal takes to return, in order to develop a picture of what a particular area looks like beneath the surface.
In a 2011 proof-of-concept mission, researchers flew a helicopter over two well-known freshwater aquifers beneath Kuwait's deserts to ensure a radar sounding instrument could detect them. They conducted several similar flights over other deserts in Oman and Morocco. The OASIS study project will expand the scope of those initial efforts for a more global picture.
"Water security is becoming a global issue for an increasing number of countries around the globe and beyond the so-called arid regions," said Marc Vermeersch, the executive director of the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute. "This project is pioneering the research in this field by providing Qatar — and the whole scientific community — an innovative tool that will bring key responses in the field, support the decision-making process in terms of water resources, and help identify pathways to secure access to water for populations. I am particularly glad and proud QEERI is teaming up with NASA for the sake of a better world, and for the advancement of science."
Researchers and engineers on the OASIS study project will spend the next two years formulating the mission concept.
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A Tale of Planetary Resurrection in a Triple-Star System With a Skewed Configuration


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About the RSP
Michael J. McVicar
Michael J. McVicar is Assistant Professor of Religion at Florida State University. He researches the relationship between religion and politics in twentieth-century U.S. history, with a specific focus on the emergence of the American conservative movement in the post-World War II era. Since receiving his PhD from the Ohio State University in 2010 he has taught courses on contemporary evangelicalism, theory and method in religious studies, and gender and sexuality in religion. He has recently published Christian Reconstruction: R. J. Rushdoony and American Religious Conservatism.
McVicar's current research focuses on the interaction between religion, domestic intelligence gathering by non-governmental organizations, and the development of political and social conservatism in twentieth century American culture. The project explores how religious pressure groups in the U.S. assembled massive archives of information about a range of perceived threats to the American political and social system.
Contributions by Michael J. McVicar
Christian Reconstruction
Rousas John Rushdoony might be one of the most important Christian theologians you've never heard of. In this interview, Professor Michael McVicar discusses Rushdoony and Christian Reconstruction. McVicar gained unprecedented access to Rushdoony's personal files, ...
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Regenerative Design Institute at Commonweal Garden
Culinary Magic
Ecology of Leadership
Art of Vitality
Regenerative Herbalism
Music as Medicine in our Planet-Time
What is Permaculture?
Starhawk
Starhawk is one of the most respected voices in modern earth-based spirituality. She is also well-known as a global justice activist and organizer, whose work and writings have inspired many to action. She is the author or coauthor of twelve books, including The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, long considered the essential text for the Neo-Pagan movement, and the now-classic ecotopian novel The Fifth Sacred Thing. Starhawk's newest book is The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups, published November 2011, from New Society Publishers.
Her works have been translated into Spanish, French, German, Danish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Greek, Japanese, and Burmese. The Spiral Dance has been continuously in-print for thirty years and revised twice; in 1999 Harper San Francisco published the Twentieth Anniversary Edition. Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority, and Mystery won the Media Alliance Meritorious Achievement Award for nonfiction in 1988. Starhawk's first novel, The Fifth Sacred Thing, won the Lambda award for best Gay and Lesbian Science Fiction in 1994.
Starhawk is perhaps best known as an articulate pioneer in the revival of earth-based spirituality and Goddess religion. She is a cofounder of Reclaiming, an activist branch of modern Pagan religion, and continues to work closely with the Reclaiming community. Her archives are maintained at the Graduate Theological Union library in Berkeley, California.
She is a panelist for the Newsweek/Washington Post website on religion, "On Faith," and also contributes to Beliefnet and ZNet, as well as maintaining her own blog, "Dirt Worship." You can also find her on Facebook.
She holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from U.C.L.A. In 1973, as a graduate student in Film at U.C.L.A, Starhawk won the prestigous Samuel Goldwyn Creative Writing Award. She received an M.A. in psychology with a concentration in feminist therapy from Antioch University West in 1982. She has taught in several Bay Area colleges and universities, including John F. Kennedy University, Antioch West, the Institute of Culture and Creation Spirituality at Holy Names College, and Wisdom University. She is presently adjunct faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Starhawk travels internationally teaching magic, the tools of ritual, and the skills of activism. She lives part-time San Francisco, in a collective house with her partner and friends, and part-time in a little hut in the woods in western Sonoma County, California, where she practices permaculture in her extensive gardens, and writes.
Regenerative Design Institute


Inventory of streetlights in the unincorporated areas of Alameda County. Data is from 2011 and earlier.
HUD Housing Inventory 2007 HUD (Federal Office of Housing and Urban Development) is updated every seven years. Next update is 2014.


I wear an electronic bracelet that keeps track of all the calories I burn. It even beeps to remind me when I sit still for too long.
An app on my smartphone keeps track of the calories I consume. In theory, I should be able to keep my calories-in lower than my calories-out.
We were in Berlin recently and were very impressed – but somewhat confused – by the extensive public transportation system. The solution? A digital mapping app on my smartphone. We could get from anywhere to anywhere quickly and easily (and drink beer along the way).
My smartphone also controls my new digital hearing aids. Among other things, I can program my earbuds to a given location, like a conference room. Whenever I return to that conference room, my smartphone senses where I am and sets the parameters automatically. In some cases, I can hear better than my colleagues with "normal" hearing.
All of the devices I use today are external. If I live for another 20 years or so, I'm sure that some of the devices will be implanted in my body.
Digical is a blend of the physical and the digital. I think of it as adding digital extensions to humans (or other animals). But Bain & Company actually coined the term (in a recent white paper) and they think of it as business, not biology.
In Bain's usage, digical refers to the merger of a company's physical and online operations. When e-commerce took off back in the 90s, some wild-eyed analysts predicted that it would spell the end of brick-and-mortar stores. As Bain (and many others) have pointed out, nothing could be farther from the truth.
As we all know (but sometimes forget) humans are social animals. We like to be around other people. We generally thrive in society and wither in isolation. (It's why tall buildings make you crazy). For this very reason, Bain suggests that the future of retailing will be the digical world. Retailers will increasingly merge physical stores and online operations into "omnichannel" solutions.
Other industries – especially entertainment and technology – will go digical quickly. Even industries like construction, which might not seem like digical leaders, are getting digital tools to dig better holes and build smarter buildings. Smart tractors use GPS and a databank of seed information to help farmers plant smarter, conserve resources, and increase yields.
…build a cohesive culture – The Bain authors never actually use Peter Drucker's famous quote – Culture eats strategy for breakfast – but they certainly imply it. To become digical leaders, focus on culture first.
I like the term digical; I hope it becomes the word of the year in 2014. Bain has a very clear definition and useful advice for businesses. Personally, I'd like to see the definition expanded to include biology as well as business. After all, we're all going digical.
(Digical is a sales mark of Bain and Company).


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Q: Differences between the convex discrete maximization and minimization problems? Would you tell me some main distinctions between the convex discrete minimization and maximization optimization problems?
In the case of the feasible are bounded then we only need to transform one to another (by multiple -1) and solve only one of them. However, in other cases, we can not do that. Which problem is usually more difficult and why?

A: For continuous problems, minimizing a convex function on a convex domain is considered an easy problem, because there is only ever one local minimum, and a local minimum is the global minimum.  Finding that minimum (when it exists) can be done by local search methods.
On the other hand, maximizing a convex function on a convex domain is a hard problem, because there may be very many local maxima, and local properties give essentially no clue about whether you are close to the global maximum.
But adding discreteness (say, requiring variables to be integers) can make an easy continuous problem into a very hard problem.
If the continuous version of a problem is easy to solve, that can be helpful in e.g. a branch-and-bound algorithm, where you can use the optimal value of the continuous version (with some variables fixed) as a bound on the optimal value of the discrete problem, as well as using a rounding procedure on the optimal solution of the continuous version to get good solutions of the discrete problem.  Of course that isn't helpful if the continuous version
is hard to solve.

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The Contemporary Market Risk Minefield
Instead of the obligatory "Outlook 2022," this is the backdrop for any number of possible annual outlooks. And, it ain't pretty...
By Paul Rowady|2022-01-31T01:03:28-05:00January 30th, 2022|For Subscribers|
Outlook 2021: The Drunk-on-Impunity Mania Arrives
"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by avoiding it today."Abraham Lincoln With protestors storming the U.S. Capital - some of which breaching the outer doors and freely strolling the U.S. Senate floor - as surreal and unprecedented backdrop, I sit down to organize a sketch of Alphacution's outlook for the year ahead, starting with a very wide lens: The U.S. economy - much like the rest of the other "developed world" economies - is naturally weaker than the meticulously curated employment and productivity numbers suggest. Technology adoption (from workflow automation to social media distraction), growing debt burdens, ossified resource allocation practices, cross-region labor arbitrage, deteriorating infrastructure, and other factors all converge to deteriorate "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" for a growing portion of the population. The COVID pandemic of 2020 - and however long it remains disruptive throughout 2021 as vaccines are being rolled out - acts as an accelerant of many of these factors. Ours is a deteriorating version of capitalism. Symptoms emblematic of the stage [...]
By Paul Rowady|2021-01-06T23:36:37-05:00January 6th, 2021|Open|
Peak6 Investments and the Baking Soda Index
"For every action in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction." - Sir Isaac Newton The performance - or, health - of complex systems is difficult to measure. Typically, you need deviations from norms across numerous sensors - the analytics - converging to signal whether a complex system is functioning properly or not. Add the inevitability of change, and the task becomes exponentially more challenging as continuity of measurement over time decays... And then, there's the stuff that's difficult to measure, if it's measured at all. The intangibles. The slippage factors that don't come into play until they do. Like, a global pandemic - or when a frustrated segment of the population spills out into the streets in cities - big and small - across the landscape... The indicators most commonly used to signal the health of our complex markets may no longer serve their stated purposes. For instance, does the VIX still measure fear? Aside from today's notable spike, the equity markets appeared to have returned to normal volatility [...]
By Paul Rowady|2020-08-17T07:14:01-04:00June 12th, 2020|For Subscribers|
Going Hyperbolic: Fed Battles Volatility, Everything Else…
"The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy." - Albert Camus "Captain Jack will get you high tonight And take you to your special island Captain Jack will get you by tonight Just a little push, and you'll be smilin'." - Billy Joel This one has a long fuse, but you might enjoy the customary overallocation of pictures as we get into it: In a March 22nd note entitled "The Great Leverage Unwind" published by Guggenheim Investments, Global CIO Scott Minerd estimates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic like this: "...we would need to see about $4.5 trillion of quantitative easing (QE) before everything was resolved. This is in addition to emergency lending through the discount window, dealer repo operations, central bank liquidity swaps, and the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, Primary Dealer Credit Facility, and Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility. That would take the Fed's balance sheet to at least $9 trillion, or about 40 percent of last [...]
By Paul Rowady|2020-10-05T21:35:19-04:00April 16th, 2020|Open|
Hacking the Matrix: A New Era in Risk Perception
"Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance." - Daniel Kahneman Chances are, "global pandemic" wasn't in your bag of quantamental factors; at least not by any name other than slippage. But now that that cat is out of that bag - and, rightly or wrongly, the wheels of a response strategy have largely been set in motion - the least we should do against a backdrop of historically significant uncertainty (aka - risk) is widen our lens as to the new spectrum of future market contagions that have suddenly become more probable... Of particular note, keep your eye on a little thing that isn't widely discussed in polite society: the Fed's balance sheet. As of April 1, the chart below illustrates over a century of total assets for the US Federal Reserve system - ironically, since around the time of the last global pandemic (in 1918). What you are seeing there at the recent end of [...]
By Paul Rowady|2020-10-14T22:20:45-04:00April 8th, 2020|Open|


considering our 3 trips (yes, 3 separate trips!) to the Emergency Room last summer!
1) Surgical glue put on my nose (long story I do not wish to tell).
2) Stitches in my daughter's leg (she fell on an old nail that was sticking out of a beach log).
You wouldn't believe the hospital bills...or the questions they asked us!
daily from playing on the beach!
Take a look at the shenanigans that happened on the beach yesterday!
Jacob built a castle with a moat.
'Awesome' Dad decided to attack the lone king and his castle!
Hopefully that wound won't require an ER visit!
So, as I was saying... I finally made our own first aid kit.
No more running through the house trying to locate the tweezers when someone has a sliver.
No more rummaging through the 'catch-all' drawer trying to find the Band-Aids or the Neosporin.
First, I bought a small, insulated lunch bag at Michaels.
It is easy to carry with a handle and has a velcro closure, so nothing will fall out.
Plus, it came in the perfect 'first aid' bright red color!
And did you notice it was on clearance?!
and I think I might add some antibacterial wipes and a small pack of tissues, too.
And of course, I labeled the bag with white vinyl letters that I cut with my Cricut.
If you follow my blog...you may remember I've been on a little labeling kick lately.
That's it. Pretty simple project.
my family has had no need to use it! I wonder how long this will last?
Here's to a summer with no trips to the ER!
Looks awesome, I will bookmark this!
P.S. I am having a giveaway on my blog, I hope you will check it out and enter to win!
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog and commenting on my bookmark Have a great summer!
What a great idea. We can never find things when we need them.
We don't have a beach to go but we sure do spend a lot of time in the car! Something like this would be great! Saw you over at Tatertots and Jello!
I have one in the car & one in the bag I carry with me when I have the kids out for the door. A first aid kit is needed for us with a child with neurological issues. She falls a lot.
I've been needing to make one since we have had a very busy summer since memorial day. May I make one suggestion. Craft sticks! We used them all the time for jammed fingers when I was little. With a couple and some gauze and tape, or even toilet paper and tape, you have a quick splint!


The news was updated on January 8, 2019.
Cizhong Church was built by French missionaries in 1867. Today after more than one hundred years, it still shines with the light of civilization, attracting people's attention.
Cizhong Church is located in Cizhong Village of Yanmen Township of Deqin County. Uniquely combining with natural landscape, the church has mountain on its back and is decorated with farmhouses in front. In spring and autumn, flowers bloom and fruits are ripe in the mountains around the church. When midsummer comes, it is breezy and refreshing in the valley.
Over one hundred years, Cizhong Church has retained its original architectural pattern. Built in the shape of a cross, it is sitting west to east. The church has an arched stone porch with three bell towers on its top. Climbing onto the tower and looking around, you can get a full view of the village, fields in the Lancang River valley and the surrounding natural scenery.
As Cilinongbu, a staff member of Deqin County Cultural Relics Management Subdivision, explained, Cizhong Church is in brick-and-stone structure with Chinese and Western styles. Its overall style shows a typical Western arch style. The upper part of the bell tower is a Chinese four-cornered and cusp pavilion, and its decoration has distinct Catholic characteristics. The walls and ceilings are also painted with exquisite patterns of Han, Tibetan and Bai ethnic styles. "So the church is an ingenious combination of Western and Chinese architecture styles," Culinongbu said.


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2019 Speaker Bios P-Q
Programs & Events Speakers: A-C D-F G-I J-L M-O P-Q R-T U-Z
Sr. Rose Pacatte
Sr Rose Pacatte, FSP, D.Min., is a Catholic Pauline sister and the founding director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies (www.bemediamindful.org) in Culver City, CA. She is a media literacy education specialist and the award-winning author and co-author of books on scripture and film, film guides, media literacy education in faith formation, and biographies on actor Martin Sheen and pop artist Corita Kent. Since 2003 Rose has the film columnist for St. Anthony Messenger and the film and media contributor to the National Catholic Reporter since 2009.
Donald Petrie
Donald is probably best known for the hit comedies How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey for Paramount Pictures, and Miss Congeniality starring Sandra Bullock, for Warner Bros., not to mention the holiday hit Grumpy Old Men starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau and Ann-Margret.
Most recently Petrie has crossed back to television directing episodes of the Chuck Lorre/Netflix series The Kominski Method starring Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin, and multiple episodes of the Dick Wolf Chicago series Chicago Med, Chicago PD and Chicago Justice which he also executive produced.
Donald directed this year's romantic comedy Little Italy for E One starring Emma Roberts and Hayden Christensen. Other feature credits include the Fox Searchlight comedy My Life In Ruins starring Nia Vardalos as a guide of the ancient Greek ruins leading the most outrageous bus tour group ever. Richard Dreyfuss heads up an international cast. The quirky comedy Just My Luck, starring Lindsay Lohan and Chris Pine, the political satire-romantic comedy Welcome To Mooseport, with Ray Romano and Gene Hackman, the gender-bender comedy The Associate starring Whoopi Goldberg, Disney's My Favorite Martian with Jeff Daniels and Christopher Lloyd – and the Orion Picture The Favor, starring Harley Kozak, Elizabeth McGovern, Bill Pullman and Brad Pitt.
Petrie began his entertainment career as an actor, appearing in many TV episodes. In 1979, Donald decided to shift his focus to directing when he was accepted as a Fellow at the American Film Institute. While there, he made a short film, The Expert that caught the eye of Steven Spielberg, who asked Donald to direct an episode of Amazing Stories. That episode, entitled "Mister Magic", starring Sid Caesar, began Petrie's professional directing career. Donald then began a busy period directing episodes of MacGyver, The Equalizer and the landmark Steven Bochco series L.A. Law. A controversial episode he directed for the latter entitled "The Venus Butterfly" brought Petrie both Directors Guild and Emmy nominations.
Those episodic successes prompted Samuel Goldwyn Jr. to offer Donald the chance to direct his first feature, Mystic Pizza. Both a critical and box office success, and still today a cult favorite, Mystic Pizza starred Annabeth Gish, Lili Taylor, Vincent D'Onofrio and provided Julia Roberts with her first breakthrough role. (It also gave a young Matt Damon his first onscreen appearance.)
Donald has also been a proud and active member of the Directors Guild of America. Following in his father Daniel's footsteps, Donald has served as a National Board Member, a Western Directors Council Member, and past Chairman of the Directors Guild Foundation.
Dr. Patrice Poujol
Patrice is an EnTech research expert and a film practitioner. He has 8-year experience in the financial sector and movie finance and 12-year experience as a creative consultant and producer in the movie industry. In 2018, he obtained the first PhD worldwide on the integration of blockchain technology in Creative Media (CityU Hong Kong) through an academic exchange with UCLA and a participation in the MEFTI programme organised by MIT. Patrice is a member of the Hong Kong Internet Governance Forum (HKIGF) and EnTech public policy postdoctoral research fellow at the centre for Applied Computing and Interactive Media (ACIM – CityU). His book "Online Film Production in China Using Blockchain and Smart Contracts" was published by Springer in March 2019. Patrice is the founder and CEO of Lumière (芦明) which has recently exclusively partnered with Finfabrik to create a series of film finance tools aimed to facilitate access to film funding for independent producers, to increase transparency for all the film industry professionals, and to reduce investment risk for film financiers. Their first tokenised film 'Papicha' was selected by the Cannes film festival and it is Algeria's nomination for Best International Feature Film for the Oscars.
Christian Parkes
Christian's first job in film was in 1986 at 13 years of age at Stan's Video in Birmingham, England. After studying Film, he moved to the US and began a 20-year career in marketing that has seen him build a $2.6BN business for Nike, lead global campaigns for Levis, and market a 20-week NYT bestseller. Prior to leading Marketing at NEON he was the CMO at Alamo Drafthouse. He has won Clio's, Golden Pencil's, Golden Trailer's, and has been named one of Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business. Based in LA, his favorite film is JAWS.
Marko Post
Marko Post is a manager at Winter-Post, the leading VFX and post-production house, the winner of the prestigious Lumiere Award for their 3D animated opera "Lisa Limone and Maroc Orange, a Rapid Love Story" (2013). Marko oversees post-production projects for Winter-Post and has worked on numerous VFX heavy movies, TV shows and commercials. Winter-Post is behind the post-production and VFX for large number of movies and TV series including "All the Sins", "Iron Sky", "Big Game" and feature "Truth and Justice", which has been selected for the best international feature film category at the 2020 Oscars.
Katie Pryor
Bienvenue à Baton Rouge, Louisiana's capital city. Just over an hour drive from the New Orleans airport, Baton Rouge qualifies for the extra 5% base credit and offers a variety of locations, the state's largest purpose-built studio, and a film-friendly city. Film Baton Rouge offers free permitting, location scouting assistance, community and city liaison services, and assistance in securing competitive accommodation rates. With a background in marketing, political consulting, and film, Katie Pryor started as Executive Director of Film Baton Rouge in April 2017. Katie is an active member of The Association of Film Commissioners International, an adjunct professor at LSU, and always ready to recommend the best food in Baton Rouge.


BlackRock, Inc. (BLK) Holdings Reduced by Amundi Pioneer Asset Management Inc.
Amundi Pioneer Asset Management Inc. decreased its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 6.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 220,272 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 14,587 shares during the period. Amundi Pioneer Asset Management Inc. owned 0.14% of BlackRock worth $86,528,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital World Investors raised its stake in BlackRock by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 8,353,670 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $3,937,335,000 after acquiring an additional 148,805 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in BlackRock by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,666,574 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $654,663,000 after acquiring an additional 14,587 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in BlackRock by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,443,990 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $566,150,000 after acquiring an additional 60,941 shares during the period. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group raised its stake in BlackRock by 51,763.3% during the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 1,084,461 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $2,300,000 after acquiring an additional 1,082,370 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $477,939,000. Institutional investors own 81.79% of the company's stock.
In related news, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 5,133 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $443.00, for a total value of $2,273,919.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Laurence Fink sold 44,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $412.75, for a total transaction of $18,161,000.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 138,650 shares of company stock valued at $57,774,089. 1.75% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
BLK stock opened at $430.36 on Friday. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $360.79 and a fifty-two week high of $558.17. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.41.
BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 16th. The asset manager reported $6.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $6.35 by ($0.27). BlackRock had a net margin of 30.32% and a return on equity of 13.51%. The business had revenue of $3.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.47 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $6.24 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 26.28 earnings per share for the current year.
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were issued a $3.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. This is a positive change from BlackRock's previous quarterly dividend of $3.13. This represents a $13.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.07%. BlackRock's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.02%.
A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on BLK shares. Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of BlackRock from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 8th. Deutsche Bank lowered shares of BlackRock from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and cut their price objective for the company from $444.00 to $405.00 in a report on Thursday, January 10th. Bank of America reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $498.00 price objective (up from $490.00) on shares of BlackRock in a report on Friday, March 8th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "hold" rating and set a $427.00 price objective on shares of BlackRock in a report on Wednesday, January 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Co reaffirmed a "hold" rating and set a $425.00 price objective (up from $410.00) on shares of BlackRock in a report on Wednesday, January 16th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. BlackRock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $498.49.
ILLEGAL ACTIVITY NOTICE: This piece was first reported by Dispatch Tribunal and is the property of of Dispatch Tribunal. If you are viewing this piece on another publication, it was stolen and reposted in violation of U.S. and international copyright legislation. The correct version of this piece can be viewed at https://www.dispatchtribunal.com/2019/03/22/blackrock-inc-blk-holdings-reduced-by-amundi-pioneer-asset-management-inc.html.
Taubman Centers, Inc. (TCO) Stake Increased by American International Group Inc.


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Bartolo Colon
The trade deadline is fast approaching, and the A's may be buying (gasp)
By Bay Area Duck Guy
The July 31st Major League Baseball trade deadline is fast approaching, and, for the first time in a long time, the A's are in a position to get a player to help them win now rather than a package of players for later.
Say what you will about the hot streak the A's are on, but it's a fact that there are believers on this team, in the front office, and in the stands. So, rather than A's fans nervously waiting to see if the next star is heading out of Oakland, A's fans can now anxiously wait to see if the A's brass will bring in someone to help the team now.
What do the A's have to deal?
As usual, the A's have quite a few pitchers that could be potential trade targets. After what the A's rookie pitchers did to the Yankees, it's not surprising that teams would be interested in acquiring some of them. But if Oakland is not comfortable with its returning pitchers (Brett Anderson, Dallas Braden, and Brandon McCarthy), then it's likely none of the current big leaguers will be dealt. Although, when those three guys do come back, someone will lose out on a starting role. Whether that will happen now or later is up to Billy Beane and the rest of the A's front office.
Down on the farm, Oakland has pretty good stock. The Baseball America top ten prospects for Oakland includes five pitchers, four outfielders, and one catcher (Derek Norris). Two of the pitchers are already contributing in the majors (Jarrod Parker and Tommy Milone), but the others are still pitching in the minors.
Grant Green
When it comes down to picking out prospects other teams will want, it really depends on the scouting director. But if a big trade is going to happen, it's highly likely the A's would have to include a top-level pitcher like Brad Peacock or A.J. Cole.
On the offensive side, Grant Green probably has the most value. Green is an interesting case. He began his career as a shortstop and moved to the outfield recently. He's probably the best all-around player in the system, but Michael Choice is right there with him. Either way, these two guys have potential to do well in the future for the A's, so Oakland should not trade them lightly.
In the long run, it would be better for Oakland to deal pitching to get a player because their depth is far greater at pitcher than it is anywhere else.
What do the A's need?
The most glaring needs for Oakland are at shortstop and first base.
Cliff Pennington hitting the disabled list hurts. He's not a killer hitter himself, but Eric Sogard and Brandon Hicks are not near as strong on defense and are not great hitters themselves. An upgrade here would certainly help the offense.
Brandon Moss has played a first, but he is not strong defensively at all as a converted outfielder. His bat is average (.248. 11 HR), but Chris Carter could be the answer at first.
In 13 games so far, Carter is hitting .297 with five home runs. He's not much stronger at first, but he has always been a powerful hitter in the minors. If this is the year Carter puts it together, a first baseman may not be as big of a need in Oakland as it was a few months ago.
Who will they go after?
Justin Upton is well out of reach for the A's, and probably wouldn't be a good idea anyway due to the already crowded outfield and obvious financial restraints. But the A's are in the realistic hunt for Chase Headley and were in talks for Hanley Ramirez until the Dodgers picked him up last night.
The asking price for Headley is high, and the A's are not willing to part with a lot of high-end prospects. However, the Padres and A's have done business before (seemingly every season, actually). But the A's seem to be content with Brandon Inge right now. Headley would be for future years as well as this season, were the A's to make a deal for him.
Stephen Drew is another possibility as the Diamondbacks are starting to rebuild. He is just coming off the disabled list, so his production is in question. But, if healthy, he could provide a bat at shortstop and be around for years to come, which is appealing to the franchise (and its fans) for obvious reasons.
What's going to happen?
When all is said and done, it's unlikely the A's will be able to secure a big bat.
Even with all the pitching in the organization, teams are going to want top-end prospects for players like Headley. There are other teams out there that appear to be more desperate, according to my perusing of MLB Trade Rumors, who are likely to offer a better package than the A's.
As it turns out, the A's turned down a deal that would have the Marlins eat half of Ramirez's contract, and the A's would only give up a couple minor leaguers. But the A's did not make the deal due to concerns about Ramirez's hand injury, so the Dodgers were able to swoop in.
Nonetheless, a player like Drew could be a real possibility, but it's unclear how much help a bat like his would really provide.
And, if you believe in this sort of thing, the A's players and coaches have been adamant about how great their clubhouse chemistry is. If that is what's driving this team right now, maybe it would be better to leave it unchanged.
Related Items:A.J. Cole, Brad Peacock, Brandon McCarthy, Brett Anderson, Chase Headley, Cliff Pennington, Dallas Braden, Grant Green, Hanley Ramirez, Michael Choice, MLB, Oakland Athletics, trade deadline, zzzfeatured
Bay Area sports year in review: 2016 was a massive tease
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"The Story of The Empire Strikes Back" was an audio LP following the adventures of Luke Skywalker during TESB. Now this recording has been visualized using movie scenes and images. Spectacular!
"The Story of Star Wars " was an audio LP following the adventures of Luke Skywalker during ANH. Now this recording has been visualized using movie scenes and images. Spectacular!


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Red Badger Team Sep 7, 2018 11:27:56 AM
London tech, Google Chrome hits ten and design thinking backlash
September is here, and the back to school feeling is in the air. So get your notepad ready, your glasses on, and check out what we've been studying this past week.
Number 1 - Hometown glory
London, where Red Badger lives and thrives, has been named as Europe's leading technology cluster, according to a report by real estate advisor CBRE. Despite a lot of competition, London came out on top with over 70,000 people employed in the tech sector. Read more about the report at Bdaily.
Number 2 - Talk the talk
The Hawaiian language has been fighting for survival since the last Hawaiian queen was overthrown in 1896, after which the language was banned. Since the ban was overturned in the 70s, groups have been trying to reintroduce the language and revive this dying tongue. Enter technology. Drops, a language learning app, is now the first multi-language app to offer Hawaiian lessons. Learn more about the app and language over at Fast Company.
Number 3 - No scroll September
It's no scroll September, and although an impossible task for most, after months of hearing about Facebook's privacy scandals and data mishaps, it seems that many have ditched scrolling on its app. A survey featured in this article from The Verge found that 42% of people reported taking a break from Facebook for 'several weeks or more' while 25% said they've deleted the app altogether.
Number 4 - Google Chrome hits a decade
Google Chrome is ten. Does that make you feel old? There are loads of articles to read on the subject from best extensions to ways it changed the web. We can't help a bit of nostalgia, and this article from The Verge reminds us why it was innovative and gives you a look at the old logo.
Number 5 - Design thinking doom?
Design thinking has become the phrase du jour in business and digital worlds, with article after article highlighting its virtues. This week, however, Harvard Business Review has sided with the growing number of critics, arguing that design thinking maintains the status quo and upholds an old way of working. Take a gander and decide for yourself just how radical design thinking is.
Red Badger Team


© Golnaran, original artwork, photography, sculpture, installation, 2015.
"Long notes of the notions", © Golnaran, #golnaran, original artwork, photography, sculpture, installation, 30x30x30 cm, 2015.
The handmade half portrait/nest for this installation, is about 30x30x30 cm, with natural sticks and branches.
I mean amphibology – if I can tell it in English correctly – in the title, of course; but you can read about "long notes" in music on Wikipedia.
I love birds and "nest" has been always as a great symbol of a very gentle family/house full of happy and playful children for me.
I am so happy to have journeyed into your lovely blog, too. Your work is great. I am looking forward to reading more intensively.


text:
Barry A. Franklin, PhD
Barry A. Franklin, PhD, director of Preventive Cardiology/Cardiac Rehabilitation at Beaumont Health in Royal Oak, Michigan. He is past president of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation and the American College of Sports Medicine, as well as a former editor in chief of Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention. Dr. Franklin has written or edited more than 700 scientific publications, including 26 books. In 2015, he was listed by Thomson Reuters as among the World's Most Influential Scientific Minds.
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What Arun Jaitley's Defence of Demonetisation Conveniently Ignores
The Wire breaks down the finance minister's statement and examines the changes in goalposts, the obfuscations and what the 2016 note-ban actually achieved.
Illustration: The Wire
Noor Mohammad
New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday mounted a defence of the Narendra Modi government's decision to ban Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes two years ago, quoting bullish digital transactions and tax-related data.
A closer look at Jaitley's arguments shows that the truth is more nuanced and, in some cases, quite ambiguous due to a lack of data.
The Wire breaks it down and examines the changes in goalposts, the obfuscations and what the 2016 note-ban actually achieved.
The finance minister starts his blogpost by explaining that demonetisation was merely one step in a "chain of important decisions taken by the government to formalise the economy".
The Government first targeted the black money outside India. Asset holders were asked to bring this money back on payment of penal tax. Those who failed to do so are being prosecuted under the Black Money Act. Details of all accounts and assets abroad which have reached the Government, resulted in action against the violators.
The first thing to note is that Jaitley cites no numbers or data: how many asset holders were asked to bring back black money from abroad through the payment of a penal tax? How many people who failed to do so were prosecuted under the Black Money Act? Every now and then, a media report comes out on the subject but offers no evidence. Put simply, we don't know and Jaitley offers nothing new on this front.
Also read: Time to Own Up to Damage Done by Note Ban, Says Opposition As Govt Calls Move a Success
The only publicly available data so far we have on prosecution in tax evasion and black money is that there were 2,226 prosecution complaints filed in FY 2017-18 (upto the end of November 2017) when compared to 784 for the corresponding period in the preceding year. With no data on the quantum of evaded tax, this doesn't appear impressive.
Secondly, during the first two years of the Modi government, tax treaties with a number of countries (most importantly Mauritius and Singapore) were furiously worked out and signed. These tax agreements were offered up as proof of the Centre's commitment to fight black money.
While both treaties were useful, it did not stop the practice of round-tripping, and just plugged one leaky hole. As The Wire has reported, the Netherlands is quickly becoming the new "Mauritius route", with over 80% of the investment flows that came from Netherlands in 2017 being 'routed' and not 'direct'.
The Modi government's attempt at cracking down on Switzerland also is only delayed action: while India will get access to Swiss account data from 2019, as whistleblower Rudolf Elmer told The Wire, by that time, the biggest fish would have moved onwards to other tax-evasion havens like Hong Kong.
Cash, cash and cash
At another point, Jaitley offers up one statistic while talking about the cash that came back after demonetisation:
Demonetisation compelled holders of cash to deposit the same in the banks. The enormity of cash deposited and identified with the owner resulted in suspected 17.42 lakh account holders from whom the response has been received online through non-invasive method. The violators faced punitive actions.
Again here, the wording is confusing. Apparently 17.42 lakh account holders were "suspected" as a result of the cash they deposited and asked to give a response. The violators then faced "punitive action" – but how many out of 17.42 lakh account holders weren't able to explain the cash they deposited? And what was the quantum of black money detected? Jaitley offers no specific data. What he leaves out is the poor performance of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) programme, which was launched to unearth black money.
Under the PMGKY scheme, those people whose deposits did not match their income were given a chance to come clean by March 31, 2017 and convert the black money into white by paying penal taxes. The scheme, however, wasn't a success as just Rs 2,300 crore was collected by the income-tax department as penal tax under the amnesty scheme.
Formalisation of savings
Jaitley also touches on the benefits of higher bank deposits and formalisation of financial savings:
Larger deposits in banks improved lending capacity for the banks. A lot of this money was diverted to the Mutual Funds for further investments. It became a part of the formal system.
While this is true, the finance minister leaves out other contributing factors as well as a few other important developments that were a consequence of demonetisation-induced formalisation. Firstly, while the mutual fund industry received a handsome bump in the months after demonetisation, in recent times it has benefited greatly from people being put off small savings schemes.
Also read: Two Years after Demonetisation, the Nightmare Continues for India's Informal Economy
Secondly, it's clear that Indians are now keeping more cash reserves at home than they did before the note-ban decision. And despite this, the household savings rate has fallen. An India Ratings report noted that the savings rate of the household sector plummeted 153 basis points on a year-on-year basis in FY'17 as a result of demonetisation and GST.
Digital future
On how demonetisation pushed India forward on the online payments front, Jaitley writes:
The Unified Payment Interface (UPI) was launched in 2016 involving real time payments between two sets of mobile holders. Its transactions have grown from Rs. 0.5 billion in October, 2016 to Rs. 598 billion in September, 2018. The Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) is an App developed by NPCI for quick payment transactions using UPI. It is currently used by 1.25 Crore people. The value of BHIM transactions has gone up from Rs. 0.02 billion in September, 2016 to Rs. 70.6 billion in September, 2018. The share of BHIM transactions in overall UPI transactions is at about 48% in June, 2017.
The finance minister is largely correct on this: UPI, launched as late as it was, is a demonetisation bright-spot, although its rapid growth slowed a few months after the note-ban and has looked a little shaky after various cash-back schemes were withdrawn by the Centre.
It's also unclear how well India's retailers and merchants are taking to this payment option: the great majority of UPI transactions are still person-to-person, indicating that they may have replaced more onerous and formal net banking channels.
Also read: Despite the Spin, Demonetisation Simply Wasn't Worth the Time or Effort
What Jaitley leaves out is that demonetisation didn't erase the love that Indians have for cash. Before demonetisation, India's currency-to-GDP ratio was a little over 12%. After November 2016, it fell to a little over 6% and has since then risen back to 11.3% of GDP, with no signs of stopping.
While government-affiliated economists point to the fact that currency-in-circulation (CIC) must be viewed differently – namely what would it be if demonetisation hadn't happened – it's also clear that a new permanently lower equilibrium has not been found and that the rate of CIC growth has not been stunted as a result of the note-ban.
Higher revenue argument
Finally, Jaitley re-traces a defence that India's income-tax department has consistently tried to make over the last two years; that the formalisation that came about as a result of demonetisation has led to more people paying taxes.
The finance minister writes:
The impact of Demonetisation has been felt on collection of personal income tax. Its collections were higher in Financial Year 2018-19 (till 31-10-2018) compared to the previous year by 20.2%. Even in the corporate tax the collections are 19.5% higher. From two years prior to Demonetisation, direct tax collections have increased 6.6% and 9% respectively. In the next two years, post-demonetisation, the increase by 14.6% (part of the year before impact of Demonetisation in 2016-17) and an increase of 18% in the year 2017-18.
Similarly, in the year 2017-18, the tax returns filed reached 6.86 crore, an increase of 25% over the previous year. This year, as on 31-10-2018, already 5.99 crore returns have been filed which is an increase of 54.33% compared to the previous year till this date. The new filers added this year are 86.35 lakh.
In May, 2014, when the present Government was elected the total number of the filers of income tax returns was 3.8 crore. In the first four years of this Government, it has increased to 6.86 crore. By the time the first five years of this Government are over, we will be close to doubling the assessee base.
While true, the numbers need to be viewed in the appropriate context. While India's direct tax collections are up, the country's direct tax-GDP ratio has not seen a significant rise, as The Wire has pointed out, with the highest ratio in recent times being seen in 2006-2007 (6.3%).
Since demonetisation, the Centre has also regularly reported the increase in number of new tax filers. What it leaves out, as many have noted, is that a good bunch of these new I-T return filers are people with very little taxable income, leading to very little increases in revenue for the government.
Also read: Modi's Minimum Raj: Jaitley Forwarded Anonymous Note to Flag Key Matter to PMO
Lastly, as Mahesh Vyas, head of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has noted, there's no glory to be obtained in a quest for a generally higher tax-to-GDP ratio.
Economic Survey 2016-17 had argued that after controlling for the level of economic development, India neither under-taxes nor under-spends. So, there is no argument in favour of raising the tax-to-GDP ratio… Since the GST accounts for most of the indirect taxes and almost a third of all taxes in 2018-19, its eventual decline should see the tax-GDP ratio fall in due course," Vyas wrote earlier this year.
The Wire has fact-checked several statements made by Arun Jaitley before. Read them here:
Fact Check on Jaitley the Fact-Checker Paints Unflattering Picture of Economy
Fact Check: Demonetisation's Effect on Increase in Direct Taxes and Income Tax Base
Jaitley's '15 Questions' Only Reinforce the Murky Nature of Modi's Rafale Deal
Tall Claims on Demonetisation's Success Carry Over Into Jaitley's Budget 2018 Speech


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Wabash Brewing is a small craft brewery that focuses on fusing art with science to make truly great beers. When trying to figure out what to call our brewery we turned to a name that is integral to the state of Indiana. The Wabash River is the largest river in the state and has roots in much of its history.


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Le Prince de Hombourg, Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, Cour d'honneur du Palais des papes, 2014 © Christophe Raynaud de Lage
Artistic Project
Founded in 1947 by Jean Vilar, the Festival d'Avignon is one of the most important contemporary performing arts events in the world. Every year in July, Avignon becomes a city-theater, transforming its architectural heritage into various majestic and surprising performance venues, welcoming tens of thousands of theater-lovers of all ages. The Festival manages to bring together a popular audience and cutting-edge international creation. Avignon is also a state of mind: the city is an open-air forum where festival-goers discuss the shows and share their experiences as spectators. For a month, everyone can have access to a contemporary and living culture.
The programme includes shows, but also readings, exhibitions, films, and debates, which are so many gateways into the worlds of the artists and intellectuals invited to the Festival. Every evening, there is at least one show première, making Avignon a place of true creation and adventure for artists and spectators alike.
"To provide theatre, and collective art, with something other than indoors spaces; to reconcile architecture and dramatic poetry." – Jean Vilar
The Festival's directors are appointed by the board, and have to be formally approved by the Mayor of Avignon and the French Minister of Culture. Since Jean Vilar, the artistic director has been entirely free to draw his or her programme up. This independence from any interference has always been guaranteed, regardless of the political context.
Current direction 2014-2021 : Olivier Py and Paul Rondin
The author, director and actor, Olivier Py was born in 1965. After studying at the National Superior School of Theatre Arts and Techniques (Ensatt), he entered the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art Paris in 1987, while studying theology. His first play, Oranges and Nails, was created by Didier Lafaye in 1988. In the same year, Olivier Py founded his own company. Olivier Py is faithful to the Festival d'Avignon, where his work has been seen many times, notably in 1995, when he made a mark on the Festival by performing The Servant, an endless story, a twenty-four hour cycle, or in 2006, on the occasion of the closing of the 60th Festival d'Avignon, when he staged a tribute to Jean Vilar, The Vilar Enigma in the Cour d'honneur du Palais des papes. In 1998, Olivier Py was appointed as the director of the Orleans National Drama Centre. Then from 2007 to 2011, he was at the head of the French national Odeon-Theatre of Europe. Olivier Py has been entrusted with the management of the Festival d'Avignon starting with the 2014 edition. A position he is helding since September 2013.
Born in 1971, Paul Rondin initially studied literature before going on to train in the performing arts. In addition to his vocational training, he completed a course in Arts and Cultural Management and Political Science. From 1994 to 1996 he was Manager of the theatre department of the DRAC (Regional Direction of Cultural Affairs) of the Ile de France region at the Ministry of Culture, then Project Officer at AFAA (French Association of Artistic Action) at the Foreign Office. In 2000 he became Administrator of the National Drama Centre in Orléans, under the direction of Olivier Py, until 2007. During that period, he also committed himself and lent his support to the International Parliament of Writers / International Cities of Refuge Network. In 2007, he joined Olivier Py at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe becoming Secretary General until the autumn of 2012. After a preview of the Avignon Festival, he became the Managing Director from the 1st September 2013 onwards. In 2018, he served a second term of office at the Festival Management. In 2014, he co-founded the French Tech Culture, got involved in several symposiums on cultural politics and the digital/cultural rapport, both in France and further afield. He initiated « Encounters Research and Creation » with Catherine Courtet (National Research Agency).
Every edition of the Festival:
offers about 50 shows from France and abroad, for a total of about 300 performances and over 400 events, including panels, debates, and screenings. 80% of the shows are original creations or are having their French premiere at the Festival.
also includes the Workshops of Thought, which brings together researchers, philosophers, and activists; encounters with the artists of the Festival; readings of texts written specifically for the Festival; film screenings; and exhibitions, all of which turn the Festival into a celebration of thought and discovery. There are about one hundred such events as part of 14 programmes, and most of them are free.
transforms more than 20 locations, most of them historical and outdoors, into scenic venues, very diverse in terms of both architecture and maximum occupancy (from 50 to 2,000 seats).
issues about 110,000 tickets for paid shows and welcomes about 30,000 spectators to its free events such as debates, panels, readings, etc. Roughly 38% of its audience comes from Avignon and its area, 28% from Ile-de-France, 23% from other French regions, and 11% from abroad. In recent years, the Festival has had an average attendance rate of over 90%.
welcomes more than 600 French and foreign journalists, who write more than 2,000 articles about the Festival. A number of television and radio broadcasts are also recorded live. All major print media send correspondents to the Festival, which is also covered by about 50 photographers.
12% of festivalgoers are professionals of the performing arts (programme directors, producers, communication and public relations teams), and 20% are there for professional reasons (companies, journalists, etc.). They come to discover shows, work on future productions, and organise panels about the performing arts and cultural policies. A true professional forum, the Festival and the Institut supérieur des techniques du spectacle also organise debates and panels to present new points of view and research axis. It is a unique moment in European cultural life. 10,000 copies of the guide for performing arts professionals are also printed every year, providing more details about those events.
prints 80,000 copies of the programmes and 12,000 copies of the guide of the young spectator each year. In 2019, the Festival reduced its paper consumption by 2 tonnes
the Festival's website, available in both French and English, receives more than 4 million page views a year. A mobile application was launched in 2019, replacing the spectator's guide. 140,000 people follow one or more of the Festival's 4 social media accounts, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
has a budget of 14 million euros for 2019 (excluding benefits in kind from the City and the Agglomeration), whose expenses are distributed as follows: 70% for programming, producing and co-producing, and cultural activities; 30% for the technical facilities and operating of the Festival's various performance venues and for upkeep (including that of La FabricA). 60% of its resources come from public subsidies (49% from the French government, 20% from the City of Avignon including benefits in kind, 13% from the Communauté d'Agglomération du Grand Avignon including benefits in kind, 9% from the Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, 9% from the Département de Vaucluse), and 31% from its own revenue (ticket sales, sponsors, non-commercial partnerships, specific partnerships, show sales, etc.).
has established long-term relationships with sponsors, first and foremost the Fondation Crédit Coopératif. The Festival has set up a circle of partner companies bringing together about fifteen small and medium-sized businesses as well as a circle of individual sponsors.
generates economic benefits for the region's culture and tourism industry estimated to about 100,000 million euros.
Concurrently with the Festival d'Avignon, the Off welcomes more than 1,000 companies performing on their own initiative and with their own funding in a hundred different venues.
Contact the Festival d'Avignon
festival@festival-avignon.com
www.festival-avignon.com
L'Essentiel 2019 (in French) pdf - 5.5 Mo


In the glass or on the stove top, sweet vermouth is a necessary ingredient.
eponymous in "Sweet Vermouth Chicken"
and perfect in Portuguese pork and clams.
Developed by Jean-Sebastien Robicquet (Ciroc, G-Vine) and produced in Charente from a base of white wines, Pineau des Charentes (a Vin de Liqueur; fresh grape juice and must blended with very young Cognac) and a slew of botanicals (12-28) from angelica to quinine bark, La Quininye (pronounced: quin-tea-knee) was named for Louis XIV's chief gardener and herb master.


text:
Q: JSON Format is off The keys and values are separated in the Json object that I get from an api call. I have tried finding a solution It looks like the following:
{
  "range": "'1'!A1:AM243",
  "majorDimension": "ROWS",
  "values":
    [
      "DeptID",
      "DeptDescr",
      "VP Area",
      "VP Descr",
      "HR Category",
      "Employee Relations1",
      "ER1Title",
      "ER1Phone",
      "ER1Email",
      "Employee Relations2",
      "ER2Title",
      "ER2Phone",
      "ER2Email",
      "Compensation1",
      "Comp1Title",
      "Comp1Phone",
      "Comp1Email",
      "Compensation2",
      "Comp2Title",
      "Comp2Phone",
      "Comp2Email",
      "Employment1",
      "E1Title",
      "E1Phone",
      "E1Email",
      "Employment2",
      "E2Title",
      "E2Phone",
      "E2Email",
      "Employee Pay Services1",
      "EPS1Title",
      "EPS1Phone",
      "EPS1Email",
      "Employee Pay Services2",
      "EPS2Title",
      "EPS2Phone",
      "EPS2Email"
    ],
    [
      "20734",
      "Academic Success Centers",
      "VES",
      "VP Enroll Mgmt & Student Aff",
      "Administrative",
      "Brian Schmidt",
      "  Employee Relations Consultant",
      "(928)523-6139",
      "Brian.Schmidt@nau.edu",
      "Marcia Warden",
      "Assistant Director, Employee Relations",
      "(928)523-9624",
      "Marcia.Warden@nau.edu",
      "Nicole Christian",
      "Employment & Compensation Analyst",
      "(928)523-6127",
      " Nicole.Christian@nau.edu",
      "Cathy Speirs",
      "Associate Director",
      "(928)523-6136",
      "Cathy.Speirs@nau.edu",
      "Nicole Christian",
      "Employment & Compensation Analyst",
      "(928)523-6127",
      " Nicole.Christian@nau.edu",
      "Cathy Speirs",
      "Associate Director",
      "(928)523-6136",
      "Cathy.Speirs@nau.edu",
      "Katherine Kurpierz",
      "Payroll Specialist",
      "(928)523-6129",
      "Katherine.Kurpierz@nau.edu",
      "Cheryl Brothers",
      "Assistant Director - HR Payroll Services",
      "(928)523-6085",
      "Cheryl.Brothers@nau.edu"
    ], etc.

But I need it to look like:
[
 {
   "DeptID": 20734,
   "DeptDescr": "Academic Success Centers",
   "VP Area": "VES",
   "VP Descr": "VP Enroll Mgmt & Student Aff",
   "HR Category": "Administrative",
   "Employee Relations1": "Brian Schmidt",
   "Employee Relations2": "Marcia Warden",
   "Compensation1": "Nicole Christian",
   "Compensation2": "Cathy Speirs",
   "Employment1": "Nicole Christian",
   "Employment3": "Cathy Speirs",
"Employee Pay Services1": "Katherine Kurpierz",
   "Employee Pay Services2": "Cheryl Brothers"
 },etc

I am trying to use the data to populate a drop down using javascript and ajax. Any help is really appreciated.

A: The object your API returns is not a valid JSON. Was that API made by you or can you get that fixed somehow?
There are 2 things you could do to make it work
-One is change it to return exactly what you want;
-Two is to fix what it returns so that it is a valid JSON;
Going for what is wrong with the file you initially posted, let's remove the contents of the arrays so it's easier to spot the problem:
Your original data looks roughly like this:
{ "range": "'1'!A1:AM243",
  "majorDimension": "ROWS",
  "values": [],[]
}

To be valid you would need it to look like this:
{ "range": "'1'!A1:AM243",
  "majorDimension": "ROWS",
  "values": {
    "keys": [],
    "data": [],
  }
}

Notice that I wrapped the two arrays of "values" with { } because it has to be an object if you want it to contain two arrays in it.
Then I gave each array a key with which you can call them. With that you'd be able to get what you want from your "values", so that for each item in the "keys" array you have something in that "data" array.
Hope this helps.

A: Well let's have a look;
Suppose this is a short version of the response data you got:
var res = `
{
    "range": "'1'!A1:AM243",
    "majorDimension": "ROWS",
    "values": [
        "DeptID",
        "DeptDescr",
        "VP Area"
    ],
    [
        "20734",
        "Academic Success Centers",
        "VES"
    ],
    [
        "345543",
        "Academic Fails Centers",
        "OK"
    ]
}
`;

As we can see by the first data, looks like a dump from a spreadsheet of sorts, and someone maybe scripted a way to export this data in a JSON-ish way. The values "Array" are the rows of this "spreadsheet".
We will clean it up, and get only the chunks that looks like ["value", "another value", "etc"]
// clean tabs and returns
res = res.replace(/\t/g, '').replace(/\n/g, '');
// get the array-ish chunks
rows = res.match(/\[(((["'])(?:(?=(\\?))\4.)*?\3),*)+\]/gm)

now let's make them real arrays:
var data = rows.map(function (row) {
  return JSON.parse(row);
});

Now we have an array of arrays of strings. that means, an array of "rows" that contains the values of the "cells". The first one looks like the header row (the one with the names of the fields)
Lets make objects using each row of data except the first one. The first will serve us as the keys (we match the position (index) of the value from rows[n] from the value on rows[0] to get a key-value pair)
// Here we will define an object to store data
var data_object = { values: [] };

// for each row except the first
for(var i = 1; i < data.length; i++) {
  var my_data = {};
  //for each element of this row
  for(var j = 0; j < data[i].length; j++) {
    my_data[data[0][j]] = data[i][j];
  }
  data_object.values.push(my_data);
}

We have our object, let's suppose you need it in JSON format now:
var json_data = JSON.stringify(data_object);
// let's look what we have here
console.log('json_data:', json_data);

We will look at something like this as a result:
json_data: {"values":[{"DeptID":"20734","DeptDescr":"Academic Success Centers","VP Area":"VES"},{"DeptID":"345543","DeptDescr":"Academic Fails Centers","VP Area":"OK"}]}

NOW A WARNING:
This is what you DON'T want to do if you can fix the API you are getting this data from first. If any inconsistency appears, things will break. and in this example i'm not managing any edge case or exception, neither checking boundaries of arrays or wrapping things in try-catch blocks.


text:
Grand Mufti of Jerusalem: Jewish Temples Never Stood on Temple Mount
Lea Speyer
Home » Grand Mufti of Jerusalem: Jewish Temples Never Stood on Temple Mount
Benjamin Netanyahu History Jerusalem Jewish World Jordan Mahmoud Abbas Radical Islam Temple Mount Terrorism
The grand mufti of Jerusalem declared on Sunday that the Jewish Temples never sat atop the Temple Mount and that the holy site has been the location of a mosque "since the creation of the world."
Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, the Muslim cleric in charge of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, told Israel's Channel 2 in an Arabic interview that the Temple Mount was really a mosque "3,000 years ago, and 30,000 years ago," dating all the way back to the beginning of the world.
"This is the Al-Aqsa Mosque that Adam, peace be upon him, or during his time, the angels built," Hussein explained, speaking of the 8th century mosque built by Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan.
The most holy site in all of Judaism and the third most holy in Islam, the Temple Mount has become a source of tension and cause for terrorism by the Palestinians against Israel.
Appointed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in 2006, Hussein has openly endorsed suicide bombings against Israel and is known for ignoring both textual and archaeological evidence, from Muslim and non-Muslim sources, proving Jewish connections to the holy site.
The mufti's denial of any religious and historic Jewish connections to the Temple Mount are the latest in a string of Palestinian incitement against Israel. Palestinian officials have claimed Israel is attempting to change the status quo on the Temple Mount, in which non-Muslim prayer is banned.
Over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed Israel's commitment to the status quo. On Saturday, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced that Israel and Jordan have agreed on new Temple Mount security measures, including 24-hour surveillance cameras.


There was only one award for animation at the WGA Awards this weekend, and it followed the odds and went to The Simpsons.
The beloved and long-running Fox animated series earned four out of six nominations in the TV animation category, with the other two nominees going to episodes of another Fox series, Bob's Burgers.
In the end, the episode "Brick Like Me," written by Brian Kelley, took home the gold in the ceremony, which was held Saturday night in a bi-coastal ceremony originating from the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles and the Edison Ballroom in New York.


text:
Webmagazine of generalist news of the moment!
All-New Levels of Human-Caused Devastation in Myanmar
Things are getting out of hand in the nation of Myanmar. This is despite the strict warning of the United Nations representative on the need for the Military administration to allow protesters to protest without harsh reactions from security forces.
Alarming Death Toll
For one, the true number of casualties caught up in the Myanmar situation is more than what is given by sources such as Amnesty International, the UN statistical reports, and many other sources.
But even at that, the reported number of deaths and other casualties of the crackdown between the protesters and security agents is alarming.
For instance, Sunday saw an all-new high in the number of dead people. This is because no less than 38 individuals lost their lives as the security agents opened fire against protesters.
But despite the odds against them, many of these protesters are not willing to back down. Many of them are unshaken in their decision to demand a return to civilian rule and the release of detained civilian administrators.
Sources claim that no less than 126 individuals have lost their lives as a result of the various incidence of crackdowns between the security forces and protesters.
The Big Lie and Irony
The most outrageous statement has been made by the military administrators who claim the security agents are using minimal force in handling the crisis.
In light of this and many more issues triggered by the coup and political assumption of the military, key UN spokespersons inferred that the military leaders in Myanmar do not belong where they are. He stressed that these people are inhumane and belong behind bars.
Additionally, various quarters such as the British Prime Minister, The United States president, the United Nations, and a host of other quarters have been very critical about the actions of the military administrators in Myanmar.
All of them are stressing the need for a return to civilian rule in Myanmar. This is something that the military says it will do in 12 months.
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Copyright © 2022 Webmagazine of generalist news of the moment!. All rights reserved.


text:
95 Degrees in the Shade
By Patrick Wagner
Greenhouse of Flagstaff overcomes extreme growing conditions to establish one of the largest outdoor grows in Arizona
After a year of experimentation, Greenhouse of Flagstaff is ready to reap the benefits of having one of Arizona's largest legal, outdoor cannabis farms.
Originally started in 2013 as a dispensary and indoor grow, Greenhouse of Flagstaff recently expanded its cultivation operation with a 24-acre plot in the Verde Valley of central Arizona, including two acres of land dedicated to outdoor cultivation. Although the farm sits at approximately 3,200 feet above sea level, temperatures during the summer can easily soar past 110 degrees and permanently damage cannabis crops left out in the blazing heat.
While cannabis is well-known for being a light-hungry crop, the company's founders quickly discovered there was such a thing as an overabundance of sunshine.
"Even with the higher elevation, the intensity of the sun overly stressed the plants," says chief business officer Doug Daly, who co-founded Greenhouse of Flagstaff along with brothers Brandon and Ryan Hermansky. "It's much cooler temperatures than the high desert, but the sun is still so intense that you really need to shade it all."
So that's exactly what the company did.
With no cap on productions size in Arizona, Greenhouse of Flagstaff aims to expand its outdoor operations by 30% every year.
In 2017, Greenhouse of Flagstaff's first outdoor crop suffered heat damage, so the company installed a massive shade house at the beginning of 2018 to protect the plants by limiting the penetration of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR).
The shade house stands roughly 20 feet off the ground and covers nearly an acre of the outdoor grow. It mitigates the intense, high-elevation sunshine, while still allowing photosynthesis to occur.
"It kind of evolved through necessity," chief operating officer Brandon Hermansky explains. "At first, we did hoop houses, but it wasn't substantial enough."
The owners started researching solutions from outside the cannabis industry and discovered that many commercial farmers with similar weather challenges were using shade houses to protect their crops.
Under the company's first shade house, the protected crops began to flourish. The intense heat was successfully reduced, but Mother Nature had another surprise in store.
"A massive hail storm hit during the final weeks of flowering that could have wiped out the entire crop," Daly says. "The shade house we had in place actually caught most of the hail, but the structure was essentially destroyed."
The golf-ball-sized hail didn't rip though the mesh screen, but the cumulative weight bent the five-inch steel support beams. The crops were safe, but the shade house had to be rebuilt.
"We learned that we had to make it stronger, but that it was a good game plan," Brandon says.
Following the storm, Greenhouse of Flagstaff built its second shade house, reinforced with stronger steel beams and a thicker mesh screen that blocked out about 60% of the transmitted PAR. The retrofit cost the company roughly $125,000.
"When you compare that to what it would cost to build out a 50,000-square-foot, indoor cultivation facility, it's a bargain," Daly says.
Because Arizona producers are not limited to a certain size, Daly and the Hermansky brothers decided the best course of action would be to expand the shade house to supplement the year-round production of two 3,500-square-foot greenhouses and the original 3,000-square-foot indoor facility.
Several hoop houses inside the shade house allow the company to produce multiple outdoor crops a year.
"Putting all your eggs in a one-harvest-per-year basket is scary to say the least," Brandon says.
The founders of Greenhouse of Flagstaff (from left to right) Doug Daly, Brandon Hermansky and Ryan Hermansky, met in high school.
More than Mesh
Building an outdoor operation wasn't solely based on saving money. Environmental responsibility has been part of Greenhouse of Flagstaff's mission statement since the company's inception. As one of the state's first licensed operators, Daly and the Hermansky brothers knew sustainability would factor heavily into the success of Arizona's medical marijuana program.
Greenhouse of Flagstaff hired consultants to advise on the best ways to reduce its environmental footprint and incorporated cover crops and beneficial insects into the outdoor operation.
Daly says Arizona consumers are starting to look for organic standards in medical cannabis products, but not many growers in the area are making the effort to implement sustainable practices.
Canyon State
A worker trims colas at the company's greenhouse.
Unlike most other states, Arizona only issues licenses to dispense medical cannabis. Licensees can grow or process their own cannabis, or they can buy product from other license holders.
Greenhouse of Flagstaff currently has about 87,000 square feet of cultivation space and expects to harvest 3,500 pounds of flower this year. Brandon Hermansky says nearly two-thirds of the harvest will be sold to other medical marijuana dispensaries at a wholesale price between $900 and $2,000 per pound, depending on quality.
"We harvest at separate times, so we do market the flower as indoor, greenhouse and outdoor," he says. "If the outdoor flower we're about to harvest meets what we're expecting, we will be able to sell it at a slight discount to our indoor flower."
Daly says the remaining flower from this year's harvest will be used for the company's line of flower, oils and concentrates and its Pure line of edibles — assuming the state allows companies to keep producing extracts. A June 26 ruling by the Arizona Court of Appeals declared that cannabis extract does not fall under the protection of the state's Medical Marijuana Act. The decision sparked waves of confusion from the state's 130 licensed marijuana dispensaries on whether to pull product from shelves or continue sales as usual. Daly doubts the decision will affect the state market or the company's production, but as a former attorney, he is taking the threat seriously.
"For the time being, we will continue to only produce products in compliance with the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act," Daly says. "However, the decision is demonstrably inconsistent with prior opinions of the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court and we are confident it will be overturned on appeal."
Greenhouse of Flagstaff isn't solely an outdoor operation – the farm has two 3,500-square-foot greenhouses and a smaller indoor growing facility.
Greenhouse of Flagstaff plans to double its cultivation space every summer for at least the next three years. The expansion is predicated on Arizona's growing medical program and hopes that adult-use legalization will soon follow.
According to Daly, the patient population in Arizona has steadily grown 30% year-over-year for the past six years. The latest statistics from the Arizona Department of Health show nearly 170,000 patients enrolled in the state's medical program — although only 57,345 were renewal patients. Daly believes there will be a surge of new and returning patients as cannabis prices continue to fall.
"There have likely been between 400,000 and 500,000 unique patients (enrolled in the program), but the high cost of maintaining the card has deterred some patients from renewing," Daly says. "By bringing more value to patients we're starting to see those renewals increase."
Arizona voters nearly passed an adult-use measure during the 2016 election. The initiative failed by just over 67,000 votes, with 51.32% of the votes in opposition. Three proposed initiatives in 2018 to legalize adult-use cannabis failed to make the ballot.
Greenhouse of Flagstaff president Ryan Hermansky believes a ballot measure will pass in 2020 during the next presidential election when there is a higher turnout of younger voters.
"You can't be spinning your wheels during a mid-term," he says. "It's not the voter population we want."
Daly agrees, especially since the fears from opponents of the medical program have never materialized.
"I think the industry has shown how a program can be run responsibly and Arizona is ready for adult use," he says.


What if during the day, while we are away from the trailer, the power goes off?? We have 2 cats. I live in Florida. We will spend most of our time in Florida. Without the ac I suspect the trailer would reach deathly tempatures very quickly. My best idea are to leave a fan on.and maybe a pet camera.
I think there are thermostats that can text you if the temperature goes above a set point. I don't know if you can buy one that runs on an independent battery.
We all have that concern with our beloved pets. Maybe a temp warning system with a message to your smart phone would allow you to get back to the trailer in time.
I am not sure what conditions or scenarios you have in mind involving unreliable power.
Most campgrounds are on the grid - the same electric gird as nearby homes, businesses and apartments.
Now.... a few campgrounds may not always maintain their power plugins all that well, but you can judge easily how well maintained they are, and there are small meters to test before you plugin.
Perhaps if high heat is forecast, you may want to pull into a maintained newer campground.
An internet camera might ease your worries. Look for one that needs low band width (B&W, low resolution) because campground bandwidth is often limited.
I am not sure what nightmare scenario, I have in mind either. I guess, I am just in a major research and brainstorming phase. But, you are right .. Why would a decent campsite lose power for hours? Cause it wouldn't, right? Also, if the power gliched off quickly... the AS would kick back on? I have alway wanted a pet monitor camera, but doubt I could find the resources to run /stream it at many places.
this one would let you read the thermostat with your smartphone.
Your concerns are valid. If you leave pets unattended in an RV in extreme climates then a temperature monitor would bring peace of mind and help avoid catastrophe. Power outages occur, breakers trip, and all things mechanical will fail eventually. We are not pet owners but something to safeguard a travel mate seems appropriate from my perspective and can be purchased for minimal cost. Most systems require an internet connection, which is similar to the way security camera systems are able to transfer images to your phone or tablet.
I'm sure there are others here much more technology savvy than me who could shed some light on this subject for you.
Why would a decent campsite lose power for hours? Cause it wouldn't, right? Also, if the power gliched off quickly... the AS would kick back on?
For most campgrounds the odds of long term power failure are about the same as at home.
I guess what i had not thought about until your post was that the pets at home have quite a while before the house gets dangerously hot. The Airstream is going to heat up much faster.
Yes if the power goes off when the AC is running, the AC goes back on with the power.
I do not want to rain on your parade, just want to point out that if the power goes out, the fan won't run either.
With that out of the way, I share your concern about our dogs. That is why we currently don't take any of them. I have spoken to a friend of mine about this and since he has 2 dogs that travel with them he said they try not to be gone any longer than a couple of hours.
There are systems that will send an alert to your phone, but he doesn't know if they will adapt to a trailer.
We live in South Texas and yesterday it was 100*. Trailer was in full sun, door open, roof vent running, 2 fans running and it was 120* inside.
That concerns me. If you find a workable notification system, please pass it on.
First if you can't find a shady campsite... consider finding a different campground. Shade is your best defense against high temperatures.
Next - do you have the full awning package, USE the small awnings even when you leave the campground. The big one - watch the weather forecast before leaving it unattended.
Most importantly is that VENTILATION can help prevent overheating and you may already have everything you need. There's nothing like having fantastic fans with rain sensors and temperature sensors, preferably one that's bi-directional (the one farthest from the bathroom vent.) I have the extra Eddie Bauer manual vents, so with those I'd open the one close to the floor for air input. It's not hard to set the fan(s) to start running at 78 degrees, and the AC to operate at 74 degrees. If the power goes off, the fantastic fans will kick in when the temperature starts to rise substantially. If you have a bi-directional fan you can have one pulling air in, and the other exhausting it. (And you can get a kit from Fantastic to change an an existing one to BE bi-directional.) If both fans are exhaust only you could leave one open with the temp set as high as it will go, and that will act as an intake vent - or you can open the shower vent.
This is a bit wasteful because the A/C will have to work a little bit harder with the vents open, but as long as the fans aren't turning it won't be too bad. If the power goes off, the battery will keep the fans working for quite a while.
Of course you can always make friends with a neighbor who is a stay-at-home type. Have them call you if the power goes out.
Oh, and always make sure the pets have PLENTY of cold water. PUT a big bowl with ICE in it out. Cats and dogs will drink icy water, and the ice will keep the water temp down for a longer time.