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Q: Terminology: output of a regression model as input to another regression model I have a question about terminology. I've constructed a multiple linear regression model for a variable X. This model is in turn used to estimate values of X that are used as input when constructing another multiple linear regression for a variable Y. Is there a term for this sort of approach?

A: It sounds a bit like Two Stage Least Squares from instrumental variable econometrics. This is done when you have simultaneity, measurement error in X, or an omitted variable that is correlated with X in your Y regression. However, there are some stringent conditions that X has to to satisfy for the approach to be appropriate.


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Rangers Legends
Blueshirts by the Numbers: Number 21 - Sergei Zubov
By Nick Montemagno Sep 10, 2010, 7:00am EDT
Share All sharing options for: Blueshirts by the Numbers: Number 21 - Sergei Zubov
Sergei Zubov, known as one of the best offensive defensemen of his time, will forever be in the hearts
of Ranger fans for being a big part of New York's run to the Stanley Cup in 1994. Zubov spent three seasons with the Blueshirts in which he recorded 30 goals, 126 assists, 156 points and 61 penalty minutes. Even though the Moscow, Russia native spent the majority of his career with the Dallas Stars, Madison Square Garden was the birthplace of his tremendous offensive abilities as a blue-liner in the National Hockey League. Because of this, Blueshirt Banter has elected to crown Zubov as the best Ranger to wear the number 21.
The Rangers drafted Zubov in the fifth round of the 1990 NHL Entry Draft after watching him play with the infamous Red Army over in Russia. You can consider Zubov a sleeper pick in the fifth round since he later established himself as one of the top Russian-born defensemen at the time. The Rangers jumped all over the opportunity and it was not a decision they would regret.
Sergei had his best season in 1993-94 by far, putting up 89 points in 78 games. He later added 19 points during the Rangers' Playoff Campaign that led to the Cup. In fact, Zubov, along with Sergei Nemchinov and Alexei Kovalev, became the first Russian to have his name on Lord Stanley's Mug. Most of Zubov's points came on the powerplay, where he was a true quarterback.
The Rangers ended up trading Zubov (and Petr Nedved) to the Pittsburgh Penguins in August of 1995 for Ulf Samuelsson and Hall of Famer Luc Robitaille. He went on to play one season in Pittsburgh and 12 in Dallas. Last summer, despite the Rangers again showing interest in him, he decided to make the jump to the KHL where he is currently playing now.
Also worth mentioning, in 1992 Zubov won a Gold Medal in the Olympic Games playing with the Unified Team and also picked up a second Stanley Cup ring in 1999 with the Stars.
Honorable Mentions at 21: Pete Stemkowski, Camille Henry

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Welcome to Heads & Tales – Edinburgh's hidden gem. Using the best spirits, beers, soft drinks and wines that we can find; along with local, seasonal, fresh products – quality is of utmost importance to us so come and experiment with gin in Edinburgh's West End. Nestled within Rutland Place we are waiting to be discovered. Whether it's a night out with friends, an intimate date or that after work rant, Heads & Tales is the perfect confidante!
We are a unique venue; a perfect mix of relaxed yet fun, cosy yet open, oh, did we mention the two Edinburgh Gin stills? Flora and Caledonia – come down and introduce yourself to them. A warm welcome awaits in keeping with Scottish hospitality and tradition. Our 'tenders are passionate, knowledgeable and like nothing more than "talking shop" and assisting you in choosing a drink from our extensive menu or making a bespoke concoction to suit your tastes.
Heads & Tales is the home of Edinburgh Gin who have installed two stills, 1 column and 1 pot still within the bar, named Flora & Caledonia. This gives our guests a rare opportunity to see gin distilling while they relax over a cocktail or two. Sharing this fantastic space with Edinburgh Gin and their new distillery (supported by Heriot Watt University) , allows our team of top bartenders the opportunity to share knowledge, try new recipes and a mixture of old and new styles of gin. Come down to Heads & Tales to see the teams at work.
Our bartenders are reknowned for their skill in cocktail creation & celebration! They have spent many hours working tirelessly to produce a drinks list celebrating the gods of Juniper and a few others in a supporting category. Our cocktails are a mixture of classic, contemporary and innovative – something for everyone.
For those who do not fancy a mixed drink, we have a wide array of beers, wines, spirits and premium softs. Many of our drinks feature Heads & Tales' very own infusions and syrups – made by our 'tenders with the freshest, local ingredients we can find. Our method is simple: Take the best ingredients, add the time & love of our bartenders, shake well and pour.
We don't just have your thirst covered; we also serve a fresh and flavourful selection of dim sum dishes to complement our drinks selection. In-keeping with our values, everything is produced locally and freshly prepared every day.
If you have that special occasion that requires a little seclusion, we have three booths available to reserve in advance of your arrival. These booths are both intimate and comfortable and will accommodate eight to twelve people.
We would like to welcome the weary and the already converted gin folks of the world to the Heads & Tales gin masterclasses! Taking you through the ages and stages and giving you an educational experience on gin. Taste and enjoy traditional gins and ones with flare and learn how to have them best served!
Our masterclasses are available Tuesday – Sunday at 5pm, 6pm and 7pm and you must book in advance!
Read about the delicious GIY cocktails and fantastic nibbles that Colours and Carousels enjoyed in a warm and cosy environment!
"Oh Taste's" high hopes of Heads & Tales were met with 'quality of utmost importance' and delicious cocktails and joyous light bites! Read about their visit here.


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Q: Good lightweight library for HTTP POST/GET for C? I'm planning of creating a Last.FM scrobbler plugin for a music player in Windows. Last.FM submissions API relays on HTTP/1.1 GET and POST.
I've never done Internet oriented programming and I've still to know about the HTTP protocol but I'd like to start playing around with it sending and getting some data. I've looked at the Winsock interface but I don't know if it would be better to use any easier thing.
Do anyone of you know how could I do it? What could I use?
If so, could you point me to a tutorial too?
If it's a library it would be good that I can link statically to it, I would want to supply only the DLL of the plugin.

A: libghttp is pretty lightweight.
Im unsure if it will compile cleanly on win32 though.

A: Windows comes with WinHttp, which does support GET and POST.

A: LibCurl is one of the most widely used and most portable.

A: This is an old thread but in case this helps anyone else:
Use libCurl http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/c/simplepost.html
This is the easiest way I've found of doing a quick http post or get

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


If you are planning to build or design a website, it is essential that you understand Search Engine Optimization as well and understand the basic rules of SEO friendly web design and development. This helps you create a website that is SEO friendly and absolutely enjoys a higher ranking on search engines, leading to increased traffic. Let's take a look at some of these rules.
It is important for the code used in the development of your website to be well structured, making it easier for search engines to read its contents. Clean, well-written code also reduces the loading time of the website. Take this into account when designing the website and incorporated it in even the smallest details like font size, color, and style, etc.
One of the many SEO friendly web design and development secrets involves creating a website with an easily navigable link structure. A streamlined structure will not only make it easier for search engines to read and rank you, but it will also increase the user-friendliness of your site, thereby attracting more organic traffic.
The URL structure of a website plays a very important role in determining its rank on search engines. The URL of a site should be SEO friendly, in the sense it should be structured in such a way that search engines (and people) know what the page / site is about by scanning the URL. Avoid adding too many categories within a URL and separate words using hyphens. Make sure the keywords used in the URL are those found through the website as well. On top of this, create a URL that is easily readable in order to make it easier for users to remember it the next time they want to visit your site.
The page title is one of the most important components of a website and tend to be the first thing to stick around in the user's memory long after he / she has visited your site. Here, it is vital that you choose a page title that is not only catchy and memorable but also simple and easily relatable to the contents on your site. Do not confuse the page title with the headings. While there may be multiple headings within a page, there can only be one page title for each website.
A lot of website designers are using content management systems to manage and promote their content better. As one among the many SEO and Internet marketing solutions provided by experts in the field, a content management system can be an asset to your website and help you reach out to thousands if not millions via your content. When choosing a content management system for your site, ensure you choose an SEO friendly one like WordPress for best results.
Relevant and interesting content is what draws organic traffic to a website, not keywords. You will need to ensure that the content of your website is unique, creative and relatable. Make use of keyword optimization techniques to insert keywords at strategic locations where they work best. Mediocre or poor content with keywords simply stuffed into it will not work.
Search engines can be very harsh on websites that have duplicate content. Duplicate content is one of those SEO issues that can lead to your website rankings being penalized by Google. As such, another essential SEO friendly web design and development rule is to ensure that your website does not contain any form of duplicate content whatsoever.
In addition to relevant content, the use of relevant images in your website content can make the content more interesting. However, you can not add just any image on your website. The images you choose to upload onto the site need to be optimized in such a way that they are easily identified by search engines. Use small images with good resolution and relevant image names as well as keywords in order to make them more SEO friendly.
With almost every other individual owning a mobile phone and using the same to browse the internet, it is essential for websites to feature a mobile-friendly design. This translates to a website that can easily open on computer screens as well as mobile phones without any loss of content. Here, follow one of the most advocated SEO and Internet marketing solutions provided by experts and optimize your website design for both desktop and mobile use.
Social media integration has become the number one way to drive more organic traffic to your website. Promoting your website and its contents on social media sites can help you connect with your target audience better. Better yet, it can help the common audience find you easily, so paving the way for more website hits and a higher ranking on Google's search engine.
Most website designers tend to ignore this step when creating a website. An essential part of SEO friendly web design and development involves redirecting users from within your site as well as users outside your site to relevant pages. 301 Redirect is one such feature that allows you to redirect approximately 90% of the content of a page to the URL.
How do you know how to improve it if you can not measure it first? What we are referring to here is the amount of traffic generated by your website; a parameter that is hard to measure unless you have Google Analytics to help you out. Setting up Google analytics on your website will help you find out how much traffic it is generating based on which you can choose to make improvements to the existing site design and make it more user-friendly.
Artículo anteriorWhat Is Live Video Streaming?


Each month, a theme is selected and posted on our website. You, the writer, tell us a true story with that theme as your story's inspiration. Stories may be written or extemporaneous, but must be true. Each speaker has 5 minutes, and 7 writers will be drawn to present at each Word – Live Lit & True Tales.


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iNACOL is a nonprofit organization with the mission to drive the transformation of education systems and accelerate the advancement of breakthrough policies and practices to ensure high-quality learning for all.
iNACOL is the leading advocate for transforming learning.
We leverage the power of personalized, competency-based learning models to accelerate the shift to student-centered learning.
Personalized learning opens student pathways, optimizes instruction, and encourages student voice and choice in their education. Data-rich personal learning plans inform student-centered instruction and progression upon mastery.
Competencies are defined by explicit learning objectives that empower students. Students receive timely, differentiated support, and they advance by demonstrating evidence with meaningful assessments via mastery, not seat time.
iNACOL drives the transformation of education systems and accelerates the advancement of breakthrough policies and practices to ensure high-quality learning for all.
Through research, knowledge sharing, and advocacy, iNACOL catalyzes the awareness of the vision of next generation learning models. New learning models have the potential to dramatically improve student outcomes by providing high-quality, scalable education opportunities. These models optimize and personalize education, ultimately improving access and equity for all students.
View Our New Learning Models
iNACOL transforms the policy landscape to promote better policies and practices to advance powerful, personalized, learner-centered experiences. iNACOL conducts research, assesses policy barriers, provides recommendations, writes model language, issues briefs, and develops advocacy plans to support new learning models and remove barriers to educational innovation.
View the Center for Policy Advocacy
iNACOL convenes and engages diverse educators through field-building and knowledge-sharing best practices. As the hub for student-centered, personalized learning, iNACOL promotes collegial knowledge sharing and advocates for education systems transformation. Our members serve as a hub of education innovators on the leading edge of education transformation.
iNACOL publishes National Quality Standards for courses, schools and programs. The field needs updated quality standards and criteria for program design and evaluation, educator preparation, course reviews, and new models for staffing and funding to ensure adequacy and quality. iNACOL Standards provide the field with a quality framework to ensure that only high-quality learning opportunities are available to all students.
View Our National Quality Standards
iNACOL researches and shares promising practices shaping the future of K-12 personalized, competency-based, education. By working collaboratively with practitioners and experts, iNACOL publishes reports to advance powerful, personalized, learner-centered experiences.
View Our Resources
View over 200 Reports and Webinars
We support the largest active community of innovative practitioners transforming the future of learning.


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Is the Cheapest BMW a Good Buy?
BMW makes aspirational cars – and they come at a price that not everybody is willing to or able to afford. And while we all know "that person" who simply wants to buy a BMW…
Steven Paul / December 30, 2022
BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe 216i Debuts With 3-Cylinder Gasoline Engine
BMW is expanding the 2 Series Gran Coupe line with the addition of an entry-level 216i model in Singapore. Joining the more potent 218i and M235i, the newcomer uses the same three-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine…
Adrian Padeanu / May 10, 2022
BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe Sport Launched In Indonesia, Built Locally
BMW only sells the 1 Series Sedan in select markets, thus making the 2 Series Gran Coupe its more popular entry-level sedan. The latter has now arrived in Indonesia where the launch edition carries the…
Adrian / February 23, 2022
Mercedes A-Class Exiting US Means Less Competition For BMW 2 GC
With the rise of crossovers, cars are less and less on a customer's radar when shopping for a new vehicle. Strangely, Mercedes decided to launch an A-Class Sedan to join the mechanically identical CLA with…
BMW 220i Black Shadow launched in India as fancy Gran Coupe
by Adrian / Date: November 16, 2021
2023 Acura Integra Prototype revealed as BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe rival
When BMW unveiled the 2 Series Gran Coupe a little over two years ago, its main adversary was the Mercedes-AMG CLA 35. The situation is changing because there's a new kid on the block as…
Adrian / November 12, 2021
You can create your own Individual color for BMW 1 Series and BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe
Starting today, the BMW Leipzig plant will offer Individual paint jobs for its customers. To celebrate this occasion, a lineup of BMW 1 Series and BMW 2 Series Gran Coupes rolled off the production line…
Horatiu Boeriu / August 19, 2021
Video: BMW 228i Gran Coupe drag races Abarth 124 Spider
We've been getting used to seeing drag races with supercars for a while now. Normally, these races feature performance cars with at least 300 horsepower under the hood and that's not exactly fair. If you…
Gabriel Nica / July 13, 2021
BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe render based on the 2-door coupe
The current BMW 2 Series lineup is one of the weirder lineups in BMW's portfolio. In fact, it might be the weirdest model lineup in BMW's history, as it's the first in which the two-door…
Nico DeMattia / July 9, 2021
"Black Widow" to feature the BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe and X3
BMW gets back into the realm of product placement with the latest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. On July 9, Marvel Studio will release the "Black Widow" thriller which will feature at the front…
Horatiu Boeriu / July 8, 2021
Video: BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe meets Black Widow in new promo clip
This year started on the right foot for BMW's marketing team, as the Bavarian brand signed a deal with Marvel for some of its upcoming movies. This deal is about to start paying dividends since…
Gabriel Nica / June 22, 2021
Only BMW X1 Models with New Head Unit Will Get iDrive 9
Podcast #70: "This is my ideal BMW garage"
by Horatiu Boeriu / Date: August 31, 2022
Podcast Ep 65: "E92 M3 is a fascinating car for most BMW enthusiasts"
by Nico DeMattia / Date: August 1, 2022
BMWBLOG Podcast Ep. 69: We Discuss the BMW M2 and Goodwood Festival of Speed
by Nico DeMattia / Date: July 28, 2022


Converting lexical items into tokens simplifies later processing by reducing the input to a few standard kinds of tokens: reserved words, identifiers, numbers, operators, strings, delimiters. The tokens serve as the terminal symbols of the parser grammar.
data type: a numeric code indicating integer, real, etc.
value of the token (identifier name, number value, numeric code indicating which operator).


Pardon me as I geek out about the content conference and share some of the deep dives that I'll be thinking and reading more about in the days to come. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, please send a comment and ask a question!
This was for me an important lesson in acceptance and inquiry. Accept the process. It is necessary. And stay open to what you might find.


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New Girl Season 3 Episode 9
Jess must occupy Schmidt while Cece goes on a date with Coach; Nick and Winston search for Ferguson.
Serie: New Girl
Episode Title: Longest Night Ever
Based on a true story, Scorpion is a high-octane drama about eccentric genius Walter O'Brien and his team of brilliant misfits who comprise the last line of defense against complex,…
Eps1306
MoviesJoy Review: One of the best in it's category, ever released. It is my favorite TV series because parts felt very similar to my life experience. It's really hard to…
A disparate group of outcasts and dreamers battle to escape their pasts while navigating the brutal frontier hardships, competing interests, and tangled loyalties at the crossroads of civilization: the New…
The lives of the Roy family as they contemplate their future once their aging father begins to step back from the media and entertainment conglomerate they control. MoviesJoy Review: Really…
The trials and tribulations of the very large, colorful and imperfect Braverman family. MoviesJoy Review: Amazing TV show from 2010. It is my favorite drama TV show because parts felt…
Love, treachery, sin, redemption, difficult decisions and surprising twists are the basis of dramatic story in the series "Stolen Life", which being played out against the backdrop of extreme life…
Don't Forget Me
Nao Kitazawa's life is good. She is busy working as a doctor at a women's clinic, and will be getting married in a month to Yuichi Ihara, an older doctor…
The Utopia Experiments is a legendary graphic novel shrouded in mystery. When a group of strangers find themselves in possession of an original manuscript, their lives suddenly and brutally implode….
Lyra is an orphan who lives in a parallel universe in which science, theology and magic are entwined. Lyra's search for a kidnapped friend uncovers a sinister plot involving stolen…
A crime she committed in her youthful past sends Piper Chapman to a women's prison, where she trades her comfortable New York life for one of unexpected camaraderie and conflict…
A missing child causes four families to help each other for answers. What they could not imagine is that this mystery would be connected to innumerable other secrets of the…
Obstetrician/gynecologist Mindy Lahiri tries to balance her personal and professional life, surrounded by quirky co-workers in a small medical practice in New York City. MoviesJoy Review: The Mindy Project –…


when it comes to protection from nature's elements!
This means that an inspection can be well worth the time and investment.
When choosing a new roof, aesthetics are important, yet just as important are the material costs, weight, and installation requirements.


Beaulieu Lux Haus Quarter Round - .75" x .75" x 94"
Description - Add the finishing touch to your room with Lux Haus Quarter Round. Available in several colors, this 94" long molding is perfect for a variety of attractive floor to wall transitions.
Recommended Uses – For use with vinyl floor products and specifically designed with Lux Haus in mind.


Manja Thiry (1973) will join Eneco on 1 February in the position of Director Business Development. In her previous job at district heating network company Ennatuurlijk, she was responsible for the operations of the district heating company as well as the business development of the district heating networks in the province of North Brabant.
At Eneco she will focus in particular on accelerating the improvement of sustainability in city districts in the Netherlands, in cooperation with stakeholders such as housing corporations, municipalities and citizens' initiatives. Thiry says: "Finding common interests is the most important link in the energy transition, far more than attention for technology and financial aspects."
Positions that she held prior to Ennatuurlijk include director real estate and procurement at Pon Holdings and Nike Europe respectively. Thiry holds a degree in technical engineering and management from the University of Twente.


Chicago: "Say Brother; Reflections on a Dream," WGBH Media Library & Archives, accessed April 23, 2019, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_4E8FF005F3EB402AB41FB37485B2BEA1.
MLA: "Say Brother; Reflections on a Dream." WGBH Media Library & Archives. Web. April 23, 2019. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_4E8FF005F3EB402AB41FB37485B2BEA1>.


The campaign has been a success, says Dollar, and its effectiveness has inclined him to expand his educational efforts to the youngest members of Malagasy society, most of whom receive fewer than five years of formal education.
"You can take care of the younger and future generations forever by providing enough education to get them out of subsistence agriculture and hunting for bush meat," says Dollar.
From his personal funds and donations from a few ardent supporters, Dollar finances the educations of eight children–most of them from the village of Ambodimanga (literal translation: at the base of the mango tree) on the island's northwestern coast.
"We identify the kids with exceptional promise and send them to school," he says. "We fund room, board, tuition, tutoring–everything they need." The full cost per pupil is less than $1,000 a year.
"As long as they stay in school–all the way to graduate school if they want–I'll find the money to support them," Dollar says.
Since he began funding the students in 2002, only one has dropped out. Dollar's beneficence has but one catch: His wards must commit to working in some sector of the environment, whether as park rangers, ecotourism guides, or assistants on one of his research projects.
Though trained as a scientist, Dollar is, by equal measure, a humanist, who laments Madagascar's lack of even the most basic amenities.


This original book features 35 genuine ancient Roman recipes inspired by the works of Apicius, the cook of Emperor Tiberius. In order to make them feasible by today's cooks, the author tried all of them. The proportions and cooking times have been added whenever they were not indicated by Apicius.
Each recipe is displayed on a double-page. On one side is the illustrated recipe, and on the other side a frame with interesting information on various aspects of Roman daily life. Photographs of ancient objects and mosaics immerse the reader into a past that turns out to be much closer to us than we thought.


Siri, the virtual assistant that Apple launched alongside the iPhone 4S, and Google Now, the assistant embedded in most new Android phones, are rapidly being outpaced by Microsoft's assistant, which is available on smartphones, tablets, and PCs. This may not seem like a radical difference, but it does mean that Cortana is well-placed to dominate in an area that Microsoft thrives in - the enterprise.
Cortana, it would seem, is about to get a lot more useful thanks to bots, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Microsoft is formalising this by launching the Cortana Intelligence Suite, which is made up of two parts: Microsoft Cognitive Services, a set of APIs that let computers understand humans in more natural terms, and the Microsoft Bot Framework, which lets developers and companies create and manage bots more easily.
All of these software services are built on the back of Azure, Microsoft's cloud platform, and work alongside Office, Windows, and every other piece of software that Microsoft currently makes.
This is important as it means that businesses who have already bought into Microsoft services can quickly and easily harness Cortana and bots, increasing their productivity in the process. For Microsoft, this is a big win on every single level.
But the applications for this software don't end there. One of the demos that Microsoft showed focused on a blind software engineer who works for the company in London. Thanks to Cortana, artificial intelligence, and a specially made pair of glasses, he can 'see' things as the computer identifies them and describes them. The accompanying video was moving and, for Microsoft, a good way to show how its technology can really change people's lives.
Google has touted its artificial intelligence smarts in relation to Google Now and, in some ways, it is an impressive technology that can track and predict what the user will be doing. Siri, in iOS 9, also picked up some deeper learning capabilities. But neither rivals Cortana and the aggressiveness with which Microsoft is constantly updating the assistant to deal with new tasks.
This obviously has big applications in the consumer world, but the enterprise world is where Microsoft can really hammer this home. No other company - not Amazon, not Google, not Oracle, not Box - has the level of data, the virtual assistant, or the operating system to do what Microsoft is doing and this is why Cortana is such a key part of Microsoft's long-term appeal with businesses.
Windows 10 is now on 270 million PCs and businesses are taking to the operating system at an unprecedented rate, according to Microsoft, which means the data set from which all of the intelligent services can draw will only grow bigger and bigger over time making them more and more useful.
One of the goals that Microsoft outlined at Build was to enable users to interact with their computers using natural language. This is achieved by collecting vast amounts of natural language data which is then processed, broken down, and learnt from. Microsoft now has this data and is using it to improve Cortana and its other services.
For the first time in a very long time, Microsoft is leading in a way that Apple, Google, and almost every other big technology firm simply cannot do, and it is this which will firmly cement Redmond's place as the war over who gets the most users, the cleverest software, and ultimately the biggest share of the profits continues.


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An Argument for the Case Act
November 4, 2021 August 2, 2019 by PG
This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant
CASE = Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act
From Medium:
I got an email from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, whose work I admire and mostly support. In the email the EFF asked its supporters to call their representatives and tell them not to support the CASE act.
Roughly, the CASE act would lay out a new way for copyright holders to seek payment when their work is infringed by establishing a small-claims-court-like board inside the US Copyright office. Damages would be limited to US$15,000 for each infringed work and a total of $30,000 per claim. The law is meant to protect infringers from much larger monetary claims and to give the infringed a way to obtain compensation without having to mount a prohibitively expensive lawsuit.
My work pays for my family's shelter, food and education and for my ability to keep writing music. The CASE act would give me a simple, inexpensive way forward when someone in the US steals my work and refuses to engage with me to execute a license to use my copyrights.
The EFF says that the CASE act will spawn an industry of copyright trolls who will file frivolous claims in order to make money off innocent people. Does the threat of copyright trolling justify limiting my ability to obtain compensation when my work is stolen? As I hear it, the argument is that giving corporations the ability to collect damages from individual infringers who aren't doing harm is so great an evil that we cannot craft legislation that would allow individuals to bring valid claims against corporate infringers who are doing real harm.
Let me tell you some of my experience as an artist who earns a living from their work and whose work is often infringed/appropriated/stolen by entities who include it in their commercial projects without permission or compensation and sometimes even try to pass it off as their own. My work is supposedly protected by copyright law but when such an infringement occurs I have little recourse beyond sending a stern letter or attempting to shame them on social media. I would like to explain why, from my perspective, the CASE act sounds like a good idea.
When I say "stealing" I am not talking about the hobbyist who puts my music in their climbing video. I am not talking about the young dancer who posts a video of her routine to one of my songs. I am not talking about the gamer who posts videos of their gaming sessions with my music as soundtrack. I am not talking about the wedding photographer who has my music as the soundtrack to their photography slideshow. I am not talking about my work used in a meme. In fact, I am not talking about most of the 22,000 third-party videos on Youtube with my music in the background. I don't see any of that as stealing, I see it as a compliment. It says to me "I love your work and I love it enough that I did my own work to it and here it is for the world to see".
While legally most of these uses of my songs and recordings are technically infringing, I do not view these uses of my music as problematic and I do not block upload of such videos to YouTube.
Every now and then I will stumble on a usage that I find offensive, like a homemade anti-abortion video. I've gone through the take-down process and written to the creator of a video asking them to remove my music. It's offensive to my moral rights as an artist, which are unprotected in the US, but because the usage does infringe my master and synchronization rights, I can have it taken down. I haven't been tested on this thankfully, but I would not bring suit against an individual unless they blatantly refused to remove my music.
So, what is the "stealing" that I would use the CASE act for?
– Stealing is when someone writes asking to use my work, doesn't accept the fee my licensing agent quotes them and uses it anyway.
– Stealing is when my work is knowingly used inside another work and my work is passed off as someone else's.
– Stealing is using my work in something, charging for it and not crediting me in the hope I won't find out.
Financial losses aside, I find these last two kinds of thefts emotionally devastating. When I learn of a funded production that used my music as an integral part and didn't credit me, I feel such incredible sadness. I feel bereft, like something I care deeply about was taken from me. I feel taken advantage of. My first response is often tears. An infringement, particularly one from a creative production — artists stealing from other artists — is profoundly shattering.
Link to the rest at Medium
Here's a link to the proposed legislation (It's not a law yet and may or may not become one in the future)
Although PG suspects some will misuse the CASE Act (just as some misuse a variety of other laws), as a general proposition, he thinks it's a good idea.
For small-time infringers, an official document arriving from a government agency will, in many cases, prompt cessation of infringement, a little like a super takedown notice with teeth. Hopefully, the experience will also deter future copyright infringement by such individuals.
Since participation in proceedings under the CASE Act process is voluntary (a copyright owner can elect the CASE route instead of filing suit in federal court and the recipient of a notice that a CASE complaint has been filed can remove the matter to federal court), it's not mandatory. As a practical matter, removing a matter that begins as a CASE complaint will require the hiring of an attorney by each side, however, so this may present an opportunity to settle the dispute.
As with any dispute resolution forum, crazy people will sometimes file CASE complaints against sane people who have committed no wrong. Judges and Hearing Officers generally have more experience than they would wish with crazy people, however, and PG would be surprised if summary dismissal of a CASE complaint brought by a crazy person would not be relatively easy to achieve.
Filing a prompt registration of the author's copyright to a creative work is always a good idea (and probably does not require an attorney), but if CASE becomes a law, sending a copy of the author's registered copyright to the book that allegedly infringes the work of another will likely be another way to resolve CASE complaints filed in bad faith.
Indeed, if a CASE complaint is filed in bad faith, the filing of a CASE counterclaim by the true author against the bad faith filer may serve as a deterrent against future bad behavior.
Is CASE likely to help an individual author whose work has been misappropriated by a large publisher, motion picture studio, etc.?
PG suspects not. Such large organizations have ready access to counsel who will be competent in copyright litigation in federal court and will be quite likely to cause the CASE complaint to be removed to federal court.
Again, CASE isn't a law and may never become the law. Those supporting CASE have tried and failed to get the legislation passed before. If CASE does become the law, the resulting law may be much different than the current bill PG linked to above and which provides the basis for PG's commentary.
And finally, although PG is an attorney, he doesn't provide legal advice in TPV blog posts. Those requiring legal advice will need to retain an attorney to provide such advice for them.
Categories Copyright/Intellectual Property, Legal Stuff
The #OwnVoices Conundrum
6 thoughts on "An Argument for the Case Act"
PG, I read the Senate version you published earlier. It is an Article I court. The SCOTUS has a tradition of hostility to Article I courts; for example, the years of fighting Congress over the establishment of bankruptcy courts.
As advertised,
1) the rules are arcane, which is to say, the rules do not follow the rules of federal procedure;
2) there is no jury; and
3) a finding of ownership is not admissible in federal court nor in other proceedings in the small claims court! So why bother?
It took years for Congress to beat out a bankruptcy court system that the SCOTUS did not reject. Why not follow that road? Establish copyright courts in every federal district with an automatic referent to the copyright court. Give the Federal Circuit exclusive appellate jurisdiction. And make a copyright court's findings count for something.
Terrence OBrien
Does the threat of copyright trolling justify limiting my ability to obtain compensation when my work is stolen?
No. But we are justified in examining any specific bill before Congress to determine likely outcomes, positive and negative effects, and net social benefit/loss. Doesn't matter if it deals with music or widgets.
The problem with this law is that there's no strong deterrent against those filing false claims.
The DCMA sounded like a great idea, until the big players hired bots to send takedowns to anything and everything that might possibly be. Which they could do because there was no penalty for a false DCMA demand, and there still isn't …
If they're going to bother writing a law I just wish they'd cover all the bases and not leave rather blatant loopholes all through the dang thing.
Authorship Rights
Anonymous writes "The problem with this law is that there's no strong deterrent against those filing false claims."
Defendants, who are being pursued by plaintiff trolls, are reserved the legal right to OPT-OUT from CASE proceedings.
In addition, the CASE Act will discourage bad faith claims, counterclaims and defenses, and other abuses by granting the Copyright Claims Board the authority to not only dismiss frivolous claims, but also to:
1) Award attorneys' fees of up to $5,000, or more in extraordinary circumstances;
2) Prohibit the bad faith actor from filing a case for one year; and
3) Dismiss all pending cases filed by the bad faith actor.
In addition, the CASE allows the Copyright Office to issue regulations preventing any one person or entity from bringing a certain number of cases in a year. There is no such restriction on the number of cases that can be filed in federal court.
Writing Observer
The thing that bothers me about the OP is that he wants to assert ownership for commercial uses – but also for uses by anyone he doesn't like. He is quite willing to abandon his claim for things that he does like.
Sorry, but such behavior, to my mind, should be stopped cold. You either assert your ownership in all cases of which you become aware – or you have effectively surrendered it.
(Now, there is nothing wrong with asserting ownership – and then negotiating a licensing fee of $0.00 for uses that he approves of, and refusing a license to uses that he does not want made of his work. That would be entirely proper.)
I disagree, personally I don't mind if people use my music in whatever way they like, but I would certainly consider asking people with strongly anti-Christian views to remove my music from their videos, or videos with explicit language or sexual content.
Besides, it's not practical to sue everyone who uses my music inappropriately, and since I own it, I should be able to decide when and who I'd like to sue if at all.


text:
import { AfterContentInit, ChangeDetectionStrategy, Component, EventEmitter, HostBinding, Output } from '@angular/core';

/**
 * Emits an event when the content is ready
 */
@Component({
  selector: 'content-monitor',
  templateUrl: 'content-monitor.component.html',
  changeDetection: ChangeDetectionStrategy.OnPush,
})
export class ContentMonitorComponent implements AfterContentInit {

  @HostBinding('style.display') styleDisplay = 'flex';
  @HostBinding('style.flexDirection') styleDirection = 'column';
  @HostBinding('style.width') styleWidth = '100%';

  @Output() ready = new EventEmitter<boolean>();

  ngAfterContentInit() {
    this.ready.emit(true);
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
"No Rights Which the White Man was Bound to Respect": The Dred Scott Decision
by Martin Magnusson, Editor-at-Large
This month marks the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court's infamous Dred Scott v. Sanford case, in which an African American slave sued for his freedom. Dred Scott's argument was that because he had been brought into free territories, he could not be returned to the bonds of slavery. Over the course of eleven years, his case was litigated several times over and eventually wound its way into the United States Supreme Court.
On March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger Taney issued what is widely regarded as the worst Supreme Court opinion ever. He noted that the question before the Court was whether African Americans are citizens of the United States and thus able to file suit in federal court. His analysis of that issue is couched in abjectly racist language:
[African Americans] had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it.
The response to this opinion was immediate. Rather than settle the issue of slavery, it simply inflamed public opinion and divided the country further. Frederick Douglass assailed Chief Justice Taney's opinion, noting that the rights of African Americans derive not from any judicial pronouncement, but from natural law:
We are now told, in tones of lofty exultation, that the day is lost all lost and that we might as well give up the struggle. The highest authority has spoken. The voice of the Supreme Court has gone out over the troubled waves of the National Conscience, saying peace, be still . . . The Supreme Court of the United States is not the only power in this world. It is very great, but the Supreme Court of the Almighty is greater.
This understanding of Dred Scott has now become almost universal. During his recent confirmation hearings, Chief Justice John Roberts was asked about the Dred Scott decision. He characterized it as a deplorable act of judicial fiat, claiming that it is
[P]erhaps the most egregious example of judicial activism in our history . . . in which the court went far beyond what was necessary to decide the case. And really I think historians would say that the Supreme Court tried to put itself in the position of resolving the dispute about the extension of slavery and resolving it in a particular way that it thought was best for the nation. And we saw what disastrous consequences flowed from that.
Chief Justice Roberts seems to define judicial activism as the Court's officious resolution of an ongoing national debate. It is certainly easy to decry the Dred Scott decision, which is uniformly reviled, as judicial activism. If the Court had concluded that freed slaves were entitled to full national citizenship, though, would it be as easy to characterize that conclusion as judicial activism? In a recent episode of C-SPAN's America and the Courts, Professor Mark Graber expressed his sentiment on that issue, noting that "judicial activism is when the court makes rulings that I do not like . . . I think we would all be better off if we skipped the words the 'judicial activism' from our vocabulary."
The Dred Scott decision is remembered as dividing the nation, precipitating the Civil War and ultimately being overturned by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. 150 years later, one might ask what the legacy of the Dred Scott decision is. Perhaps its legacy is seen most starkly in the war on terror. In a recent SSRN paper, Professors Jack Balkin and Sanford Levinson suggests that Chief Justice Taney's analysis of who is a entitled to the rights of citizenship is eerily evocative of ongoing debates over who is entitled to constitutional protections:
We get closer to understanding Taney's logic when we think about the obligations we owe to suspected enemies of the state, and, in particular, how we should conduct what the Bush Administration terms the "global war on terror." Surely the most dramatic example involves the Administration's assertions of authority in a famous Office of Legal Counsel . . . memo to engage in torture—or "cruel, inhuman, and degrading" methods of interrogation—on those persons the President deems, often by fiat, potential enemies of the country. Torture, almost by definition, requires treating another person as if he or she has no rights that the interrogator is "bound to respect."
On MLK Day, Let Us Pledge to Courageously Meet the Problems of Today
Congress Legislated Under the Thirteenth Amendment Long Ago to Address Slavery's Harms. It Should Do So Again.
Abortion Access for Low-Income People is at Stake in the Amy Coney Barrett Nomination


They may be rivals, but more than 40 advertising agencies in the Twin Cities joined together on Wednesday to provide a fitting, full-page tribute to the late Pat Fallon.
Fallon, a legend of the industry who cofounded what became The Fallon Agency in the early 1980s, died Friday at the age of 70 following a stroke.
">placed in the Star Tribune, paying tribute to the pioneering ad man with the message "We Are Fallon."
AdWeek reports the idea was spearheaded by Doug DeGrood of Minneapolis agency GdB, who formerly served under Fallon and penned the lines at the bottom of the ad.
"While any other day we might be business adversaries," it read, "today we the members of the Twin Cities advertising community are united in expressing our gratitude to a man who literally changed the face of Minneapolis advertising. And on whose shoulders countless individuals have built their careers."
The company made its name leading campaigns for automotive companies including BMW and Porsche, with its current crop of clients including Arby's, Under Armour and VH1, the newspaper notes.
After being named ad agency of the year by Advertising Age magazine in 1983, AdAge reports it also won the "Comeback of the Year" award in 2014 after being successful in seven out of 10 pitches.


text:
December 15, 2018 Crimson Tazvinzwa
Theresa May's approval rating is the highest since she became Prime Minister, new poll finds, but more than half of voters disapprove of the way she's handling Brexit
Around 47 per cent see the PM as someone who is brave and sticks to principles
That's according to an Opinium Research survey involving 2,016 UK adults
Comes after a tough political week in which she faced a vote of no confidence
JAMES WOOD FOR MAILONLINE|AIWA! NO!|May's approval rating is the highest since she became Prime Minister despite a tough week in office, a new poll has found.
Nearly half of electors, 47 per cent, view the Prime Minister as someone who is brave and sticks to her principles, an Opinium Research survey found.
It comes after a tough political week in which she faced a vote of no confidence in her leadership and was reportedly called nebulous by Jean-Claude Junker, president of the European Commission.
The survey also found that more than half of voters, 53 per cent, disapprove of the way the PM has handled Brexit, compared to 28 per cent who approve. She is pictured here arriving for a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels on Friday
Although the sound was switched off, TV cameras caught Mrs May and Mr Juncker exchanging what looked to be heated words on Friday for at least a minute
However, more than half of voters, 53 per cent, disapprove of the way the PM has handled Brexit, compared to 28 per cent who approve.
In a bruising week for Mrs May, the PM drew fire for pulling a crunch Commons vote on her Brexit plans, survived a confidence motion bid to oust her among Tory MPs, and was largely rebuffed at an EU summit in Brussels.
Mrs May said she had decided to pull the vote because she would have lost if it had gone ahead on Tuesday night.
But just the day after she faced a vote of no confidence in her leadership after Sir Graham Brady, chair of the powerful Tory 1922 committee, secured the 48 letters from MPs needed to trigger the process.
There were cheers as 1922 committee chairman Graham Brady announced the result in the Commons on Wednesday
Theresa May put a brave face on her situation on Wednesday as she reacted to the outcome of the Tory no-confidence ballot
Prime Minister Theresa May.
Jean-Claude Junker
president of the European Commission
Previous Nations inch towards climate deal at marathon UN summit in Poland
Next Theresa May's closest allies are 'preparing for a second referendum'


Cedar-Quince Rust (Gymnosporangium calivpes). In this phase of its life cycle, horn-like structures are maturing on the fruit of a Hawthorn (Crataegus) tree, dropping a bright-orange mass of spores, or aeciospores. This is a problematic plant pathogen that parasitizes a variety of trees, and involves a complex life cycle between junipers (most often Eastern Red Cedars), and plants in the Rose family (most often hawthorn, crabapple, and quince trees). The alternating host plants are necessary for survival of this fungus. Dawes Arboretum, Newark, Ohio, USA.


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text:
ZX Spectrum Vega
ZX Spectrum Vega Review
Damien McFerran | September 16, 2015 11:02 am BST
Gaming control interface
Allows ROM loading
Easy to setup and use
1000 games pre-loaded
No HD output
Build quality isn't fantastic
Doesn't have a full QWERTY keyboard
Review Price: £99.99
What is the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega?
The ZX Spectrum Vega is a miniaturized version of the famous home micro computer from the '80s which was successfully crowd-funded via Indiegogo and has the blessing of the creator of the original, Sir Clive Sinclair.
Unlike the rival Recreated ZX Spectrum from Elite – which, ironically, is launching at almost exactly the same time – the Vega isn't trying to replicate the classic Spectrum look and lacks a full QWERTY keyboard.
The system itself is actually a plug-and-play device, with the main unit connecting to your television via a composite cable which is wired into the back. It is powered by a USB connection and features a mircroSD card slot for loading up games. After you've gotten bored of the 1000 titles that come pre-loaded, of course.
Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega: Design
Compared to the Recreated ZX Spectrum, and the real thing, the Vega is looks tiny. That's largely intentional, because it's designed to be held like a traditional controller and even comes with a D-Pad and a selection of action buttons.
Trailing out of the back of the device in a rather unsightly fashion you'll find composite and USB connections, both of which mercifully have plenty of cable so you don't have to sit right in front of the TV. The machine is designed to run off the power from your TV's USB socket and there's no power supply in the box, so if you find that your TV isn't up to the task then you'll have to use your phone charger or something similar.
On the front edge of the unit there's a microSD card slot, as well as a small green power LED which tells you when the unit is turned on.
While the Vega undoubtedly possesses that trademark Spectrum look, the unit feels a bit light and cheap. There's clearly not a lot of tech packed inside it, and when gripped tightly the unit flexes more than it should.
The D-Pad also leaves a little to be desired. It's a single piece of plastic but each direction is separated by a sizeable gap which makes it tricky to hit diagonals – although to be fair this isn't a problem in most Spectrum titles, which only require up, down, left and right rather than full 8-way control.
On the right-hand side of the unit there are four buttons which are designed to imitate the Speccy's iconic rubber keys.
Below these you'll find four smaller buttons which are used for opening up special menus or switching between button layouts in-game.
All in all, the Vega doesn't feel like something which should set you back £100. Half of that would be a more realistic RRP. The design tickles the nostalgia bone sufficiently but placed alongside the Recreated ZX Spectrum – which, at first glance, could be mistaken for the real thing – the Vega's charms are markedly less striking.
See also: ZX Spectrum Vega – The story behind Speccy's (second) second coming
Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega: Features & Software
One advantage the Vega has over its rival the Recreated ZX Spectrum is the fact that it's a self-contained unit and doesn't require a smartphone or tablet to function. You just plug it into your TV, pick your game and play. The unit has a front-end menu system which allows you to scroll through the 1000 pre-loaded titles as well as pick ones you've downloaded from the web and placed on your microSD card.
Because the Vega lacks a full QWERTY keyboard, each pre-loaded game has been specially configured to make use of the machine's D-Pad and button control set-up, with different functions mapped to various physical inputs. On the original machine, directions and actions would have been tied to keys on the keyboard, but here everything has been simplified, more or less. That means playing action games is a lot more straightforward as movement is obviously controlled by the D-Pad, and there's usually only one or two action buttons to call upon.
The problems start when you load up one of the many text adventure titles available for the machine. These titles were built around the QWERTY keyboard, and in order to enjoy them fully you have to make use of the Vega's on-screen keyboard.
This pops up at the bottom and assigns letters to the four main buttons. You can cycle through selections of letters using the D-Pad, and once mastered, it's actually a pretty clever way of inputting text. It's nowhere near as intuitive as the real thing, of course.
See also: Best Games 2015
In-game, it's possible to pause the action and save your progress, which is something you wouldn't have been able to do on the original hardware. You can also exit the game and drop back to the main menu, which saves you having to manually reset the unit using the button located in the middle of the device. Both of these features would have come in very handy back in the days of the original Spectrum, which used cassette tapes – subject to massive loading times – to store its games.
The packaging proudly boasts that the Vega comes with 1000 games pre-loaded, and this gives it a sizable advantage over the Recreated ZX Spectrum, which only offers around 40 titles via its companion app, some of which require a small one-off payment to play.
Predictably, not all of the Vega's 1000 games are worth your time, but there are some pretty impressive inclusions, such as Knight Lore, Sabrewulf, Jetpac and Back to Skool. None of these are currently available for Elite's machine, although it should be noted that Chuckie Egg, Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy are all absent from the Vega's library, but are present on the Recreated ZX Spectrum. You can of course load them up on a microSD card, should you have the files.
See also: PS4 vs Xbox One
Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega: Performance
Like the Recreated ZX Spectrum, the Vega's performance is fantastic. Games run exactly how they should and are totally faithful to the original hardware. The big issue with this particular machine is that it only offers composite output, and if you're playing it on a modern flatscreen TV then that invariably means having to endure ill-defined and fuzzy graphics. There's no option to output a HD signal from the device and if your TV doesn't have composite sockets then you're going to have to find a SCART adapter, as there isn't one included in the box.
The Recreated ZX Spectrum on the other hand outputs a sharp signal to your smartphone or tablet's screen, and can also stream to Google's Chromecast for a true HD image on your TV. That's a big plus point for the rival system, although it could be argued that the less defined the image, the more authentic the experience is. After all, you were lucky if you were playing Spectrum games in colour back in the '80s, while 'high defintion' was the stuff of a madman's dreams.
Running the Vega through an old-fashioned CRT set is arguably the best way to play, but not everyone has one in their house.
See also: Best PC Games 2015
Should I buy the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega?
The Vega is certainly a more elegant way of playing Spectrum games than its direct rival, the Recreated ZX Spectrum. You don't need any additional hardware – outside of your TV, of course – and it comes with plenty of games to keep you busy. You can also load up more games at no additional cost, although this throws up the thorny issue of copyright ownership and piracy.
If you're used to using a standard joypad then the Vega's D-Pad and button control setup will also make it a attractive purchase.
However, balancing out these positive points are some serious drawbacks which really shouldn't be present in a device costing £100. Not offering HD output in this day and age is an odd choice, especially as most people will be playing this on a flatscreen television – the composite image quality is pretty dire. It's also a shame that you have to be constantly tethered to the TV set by the AV cable and power lead.
Finally, the build quality of the unit leaves a lot to be desired; it doesn't feel like something which should cost £100.
See also: PS4 vs PS3
In conclusion though, the good outweighs the bad by some margin. The Vega requires less fuss to get running than the Recreated ZX Spectrum and comes with weeks and weeks of potential entertainment thanks to its pre-loaded library of games. Being able to load up new titles means that no Spectrum game is out of reach. And that's something which cannot be said for Elite's unit, which offers no means of loading ROMs and is therefore totally reliant on licensing deals being drawn up with copyright owners and developers.
However, those craving a totally authentic rubber-keyed experience are probably going to be better off with the Recreated ZX Spectrum than the Vega; the irony being that a system which combined the best elements of both is perhaps what the hardcore fans really wanted.
Despite its high price tag the Vega feels a bit cheap and lacks HD output, but is saved by ease of use, a vast selection of games and the ability to load up more titles via microSD card.
The Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega is available from FunStock.co.uk.
Trusted Score


text:
Oil Reverse Higher in Overnight Trade
Oil futures and Brent crude reversed higher in overnight trade, lifted by reports the U.S. Navy destroyed an Iranian drone in the Persian Gulf.
French Towns Protest Migrant Plan
PIERREFEU, France (AP) -- French villagers are protesting the arrival of migrants who are being dispersed around the country as the government shuts down the slum-like camp in Calais that has become a flashpoint in Europe's migrant crisis.
Competing rallies were being held Saturday in Pierrefeu in southeast France.
The mayor led several hundred people protesting a government proposal to house migrants in an abandoned wing of a psychiatric hospital while they apply for asylum or study other options. Left-wing activists held their own, smaller rally to welcome the migrants.
Gendarmes stood watch but the morning gatherings were peaceful. The far-right National Front plans its own anti-migrant protest later in the day.
The National Front is urging mayors to resist the Calais relocation plan and is organizing or taking part in protests across the country this month. Resistance to immigration is central to the campaign platform of National Front leader Marine Le Pen in her bid for the French presidency next year.
National Front politicians were also at a protest Saturday in Forges-les-Bains south of Paris. About 200 people marched through town, past the farmers' market, school and town hall to protest the arrival of about 40 Afghan migrants relocated from Calais to an unused building in town.
President Francois Hollande has pledged to close the Calais camp before winter and relocate as many as 9,000 migrants living there to 164 sites around France while their cases are examined. The Calais camp has been an embarrassment to the French government and symbol of Europe's failure to find solutions to the migrant crisis.
Pierrefeu residents hostile to the migrants say they fear the newcomers will threaten their security, and worry about potential tensions with psychiatric patients.
"Even if we can understand the dismantling of Calais ... our small towns are not the solution for this dismantling. We are too small to host so many people," said Mayor Patrick Martinelli. The government is considering sending up to 60 migrants to this town of 6,000 for up to five months.
The pro-migrant residents called for solidarity.
"I am ashamed because we repress the poorest. They need us, the people who are coming from abroad, and are dying in the seas. We have everything here, we are a rich country, we have a rich village," said Pierrefeu resident Laure Paul.
In Forges-les-Bains, villagers largely say they are not hostile to the migrants themselves — they just don't want them in their towns. Posters at the march read "Not against migrants, but against the state" and "Plan imposed from above = mounting anger."


MCOB 6 Annex 1 1Distance home purchase plans: information to be provided to retail customers.
1This table belongs to MCOB 6.8.5 R.
all the contractual terms and conditions of the home purchase plan to which the offer document relates.
A firm is not required to provide this information if it has already done so, for example in an initial disclosure document, and that information remains accurate.


text:
Looking Back: Costly Reminder
Author(s): Angelo Verzoni. Published on March 15, 2022.
Costly Reminder
100 years later: A Chicago blaze underscores the fallacy of a 'fireproof building'
BY ANGELO VERZONI
When the citizens of Chicago rebuilt vast swaths of their city following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, they swapped wood for brick and other noncombustible materials. Newspapers at the time lauded this new wave of construction as "fireproof."
Fifty years later, the city was reminded of the sobering truth. On March 15, 1922, flames rapidly tore through over a dozen buildings alongside the south branch of the Chicago River, causing an estimated $2.3 in losses—over $38 million in today's money—and two deaths.
The Chicago Board of Underwriters published a report on the incident two months later. "There is no such thing as a fireproof building," the report concluded. "It is absurd to expect that a building which is built partly of fire resisting materials and partly of combustible materials and filled with combustible contents will not be materially injured both as to structure and contents when subjected to high temperatures."
The rapid fire spread was caused in part by industrial chemicals and waste present in almost all of the buildings involved in the fire. This included barrels of varnish and alcohol, wood and metal dust, gasoline, and other hazardous, combustible materials. "Floors were oil-soaked, premises were congested and heavily loaded, and there were many tenants using gasoline, making wood-working refuse, and having use for cleaning rags and waste," the report found. The authors also speculated that the fire may have been sparked by the spontaneous combustion of oil-soaked rags in one of the properties.
According to the University of Illinois Library, 80 percent of the entire Chicago Fire Department responded to the incident, fighting the fire for about four hours with 51 engine companies, six hook-and-ladder companies, seven squad companies, and two fireboats. As firefighters battled the flames, Chief Chicago Fire Marshal Thomas O'Connor reportedly remarked it was the worst blaze the city had seen since the citywide 1871 fire. One firefighter died at the scene while another, who was struck in the head by a falling piece of stone, died at the hospital later.
The Chicago Board of Underwriters included in its report several recommendations for the city to protect against future large-scale incidents in the wake of the March 1922 conflagration. The recommendations primarily focused on making exterior openings like doors and windows more fire-resistant to prevent building-to-building fire spread, as well as decluttering and compartmentalizing interior spaces to prevent fire spread within the same building. "The idea must be," the report said, "to bar out exposing fires and prevent lapping of interior fire from floor to floor."
ANGELO VERZONI is associate editor of NFPA Journal. Top photograph: Chicago Board of Underwriters


There have been many seperate recordings of Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, but seemingly none of Das Rheingold. The legendery recording of Sir Georg Solti is no exception.
While Solti's Götterdämmerung has been called "one of the greatest achievments of the grammophone" and "the best recording of anything", I personally prefer his reading of this opera.
The cast is even finer than the other operas in Solti's "Ring", with special attention given even to the small roles of Donner and Froh (with Eberhard Wächter and Waldemar Kmentt outshining all competitors). Here we find George London singing a superbly dramatic Wotan, and Gustav Neidlinger a finely calculating Alberich (though it is nothing like his achievment for Böhm 9 years later). The giants are also very fine, though Walter Kreppel's Fasolt is not the most sympathetic on CD.
Otherwise, Set Svanholm makes a fine Loge, more dramatic on this recording than he has sometimes been, and Claire Watson is an attractively urgent Freia. The chief vocal highlight is, however, the unique casting of Kirsten Flagstad in the role of Fricka. She delivers a weight and feeling that one would not have believed possible.
There is good to be said of the conducting, too. Solti could not have wound up with a better orchestra. The Vienna Philharmonic plays here with a dashing power in the strings, and the brass has an added soft totch.
Solti's conducting has been criticizied for being simply too dramatic, but this is only true if one has grown up on mono Knappetsbusch recordings (ha-ha).
Solti in fact conducts very well throughout the whole opera, but seems to be more in his element in scenes II and IV. As for the sound effects, they have never been bettered. John Culshaw's Decca team out do themselves, and Donner's hammerblow, the ascent to Niebelheim, and the thunder machines would be enough to make this recording immortal.
Both sound effects and quality come off better in the new remastered version of the recording. If you, however, are in the mood to get the remastered version, I say jump off the deep end, and buy it in a box set. Otherwise, purchase Das Rheingold alone, in its original form. There is a considerable price advantage, and less background noise, such as Solti stomping on the podium. The singers also sound more magnified at times.